Rainbow Birthday

Pumpkin's first birthday was about 10 weeks ago, so I figured it's high time I post something from the celebration. We just had a small gathering at our house, but I was pretty excited about decorating nonetheless. Once I found the invitation, I settled on a rainbow theme. Finding ideas for decorations was easy thanks to Pinterest and a few favorite blogs ...

Month-by-Month picture banner inspired by Kara's Party Ideas, via Pinterest.

Fringed number 1 inspired by Oh Happy Day.
(I made it on posterboard instead of taping to the wall.)

Streamers inspired by Oh Chickadee

Oreo Pop favors from Makoodle.

Pennants made from leftover paper from the photos at top, now serving as bedroom decor.

Since we were out of town for a few days the week before the birthday, I put the decorations up early, so it was fun to have the house look festive for a couple extra weeks. The most fun part, though, was watching Pumpkin dig into her cake. I can't believe how fast the first year went by!

Balloons!

Earlier this month, Pumpkin and I went with our friends Jason and Rebecca to see the Great Reno Balloon Race. This is one of my favorite Reno events, and even more fun now with a little one to enjoy. We got up at 4 a.m. to see the Glow Show and Dawn Patrol, but the mass ascension - where all the balloons fill and lift off at the same - is my favorite.

Darth is a crowd favorite.

In 2010 I rode in a balloon. 

Balloons in 2009.

Balloons in 2008.

Nine months!

Miss Pumpkin turned 9 months while we were in D.C.! (More on that soon.)

She is getting so big, crawling all over the place, pulling herself to standing and eating Cheerios! She is also definitely forming opinions about things, and doesn't like it when you take away, say, the dog's water bowl or Mama's tennis shoes. While she is mostly still babbling, it does seem like she has "Mama" figured out.

At her 9-month checkup she weighed 17 pounds, 3 ounces (25th percentile) and measured 28 inches (75th percentile) and her doctor suggested she may be a basketball player one day. 

We borrowed her buddy's age blocks while we were visiting. As you can see, it's getting hard to get her to sit still for a photo! We've had a lot of fun lately getting her to try new foods and activities. It's amazing how much she grows and learns so quickly!

Baby Shower

Our friends Erin and Sandor are baking up a little buddy for Pumpkin, so she and I were very excited to help with their baby shower.

We came straight from seeing the Easter Bunny, note that Pumpkin still has the egg in her hand ... she didn't let it go for four hours and even dunked it in the dogs' water bowl. (At four hours she discovered the balloons.)

I was excited to make the desserts - mini rice krispie "cupcakes" and yellow buttermilk cupcakes with vanilla frosting. I thought they turned out pretty cute (and yummy!) if I do say so myself ;-)

Erin and Sandor are always helping us out in one way or another and take good care of all their friends, so we know they are going to be terrific parents.

Sarah, Erin, me and Pumpkin

Me, Erin and Julie

We had a great time celebrating the soon-to-arrive baby girl and are looking forward to meeting her!

The Easter Bunny

Pumpkin and I hopped over to a local boutique the weekend before Easter to meet the Easter bunny. Pumpkin wasn't scared at all ... maybe because the bunny had a friendly face, or maybe because the bunny gave her a white, plastic Easter egg - it has been her favorite toy ever since.

First Saint Patrick's Day!

Pumpkin is maybe a quarter Irish, but on March 17 she claimed Irish 100 percent!

In all honesty, on Saint Patrick's Day she came down with the first significant fever she's had, so after a visit to urgent care, we spent a quiet weekend at home. She just had a little virus, and was over it in a couple days. But she didn't have much of an appetite, so she'll have to wait until next year to try the corned beef and cabbage.

Out

I've been out exactly four evenings since Pumpkin was born. Chris and I went to my office Christmas party, we went to an industry award party (Mad Men theme, which explains the candy cigarettes above) with my colleagues, I attended a magazine launch party and a journalism school event. I don't feel like I'm missing out. I spend enough time away from Pumpkin while I'm at work so I prefer to spend my evenings and weekends with her. So would you believe it, after weeks and weeks of her trying to crawl, and getting up on all fours, and then falling back on her tummy and doing the army crawl or the inchworm, the night before she turned eight months she finally figured it out. Up on all fours, knee forward, hand forward, knee forward, hand forward. She took a few "steps," fell down, did it again. And I saw it all ... on a video on Chris's phone when I returned home from a night out. Sigh.

Seven Months!

I'm a little behind in getting this posted, but our little Pumpkin is seven months!

She is clapping, scooting (so close to crawling!), she loves beets ... and just about everything else she's tried, she has two teeth, she says dadadadadadadadada and nananannanananannana (which I think is supposed to be mama, but I don't think she actually is directing either of these at either of us).
She loves her Scoop Dog, and she is sleeping through the night! Hoorah! She is so much fun and it's a joy watching her learn and grow.

Happy Valentine's Day!

with love,

Pumpkin & Scoop

The Mitten

A couple weeks ago, Team Gabel headed to Michigan for a wedding and Pumpkin's first (six) flight(s)! Chris's cousin Brad, who lives in our 'hood, was marrying Linda, who hails from Michigan, and so off we went!

Pumpkin was great on all of our flights. We changed planes in Oakland and thought we were flying straight to Detroit until the pilot informed us we would be stopping in Phoenix. This wasn't on our itinerary as it wasn't a plane change, but the even bigger surprise was that Rita was getting on the plane with us! It was fun to have Grandma on the flight to help keep Pumpkin entertained. We discovered the best toys are empty plastic cups and cardboard coffee cup sleeves.

This is maybe my favorite picture from the trip. Pumpkin enjoys looking at the mirror, but usually we have to hold her up on the sink - in the hotel, the mirror came all the way down to the floor - what fun!

The little charmer was pretty adorable (as she always is) in her little dress and bonnet for the rehearsal dinner. She met all kinds of new aunts, uncles and cousins over the weekend.

The wedding was in the evening and the ceremony and reception were beautiful. Here are the official new Mr. and Mrs!

Here we are with Alison and Rita at the wedding reception. We had lots of fun during our trip, and even found time to have some Middle Eastern food in Dearborn - a delicious excursion! It was really great to see the extended family and share in a beautiful wedding.

Buddies

Earlier this month, we enjoyed a visit from Jeremy and Andrea who came from D.C. for a late holiday visit with family and friends. We were pretty excited that they brought Pumpkin's little prom date with them - their new addition was born in September but is is quickly catching up to Pumpkin, he's such a cutie and very strong!

This is their first meeting, at Jeremy's mom's house.

The next morning, we hosted brunch at our house and Kat and Matt, college friends of Andrea who have now become friends of ours, joined with their little one, who is already 14 months!

The adults had a great time visiting and catching up, and the kiddos had fun getting to play together. We look forward to many more of these gatherings.

Five months!

Our little Pumpkin is five months already! She rolls tummy to back, back to tummy, and she just doesn't stop. She loves toys now and rolls to get to them. She puts everything in her mouth - toys, fingers, wrapping paper. She wants to pet Scoop now, but Scoop is a little unsure having caught a foot or two in the face on accident. She laughs and smiles all the time. She is such a joy!

Pumpkin meets Santa

Our office does a cool thing where Santa comes and meets all the kiddos and brings them gifts, so Pumpkin got to come and meet Santa for the first time during the first week of December. As luck would have it, Santa was also making an appearance at her daycare on the same evening, so she actually met Santa twice on the same day! She'd had a bit of a meltdown at my office Halloween party, so I wasn't quite sure to expect, but she handled it like a champ and was all smiles! After a nap, she was even happy to see Santa No. 2. I'm wondering how this reaction will evolve over the years ...

Four Months!

Since our little Pumpkin will be five months in a few days, I figured it was about time to post her four month picture! As you know, this was a big month as she laughed and rolled (back to tummy) for the first time. At her four-month doctor's appointment, she weighed in at 13 pounds, 10 oz. (50th percentile), measured 25 inches (75th percentile), and her head circumference was 15 3/4 inches (50th percentile). The doctor was pleased with her development, and impressed that she has already rolled and at how well she sits up (while being held) and holds up her head. I think this has been the fastest month since her arrival. I can't believe she's almost five months! Since hitting four months, she has had her first haircut (sort of, I trimmed her bangs), changed daycares, rolled tummy to back, and met Santa. We're so excited for her first Christmas!

Baby's big week

In the span of about a week, Pumpkin had her first Halloween, laughed for the first time and rolled over for the first time!

Here she is trying on her costume. What a cute elephant!

Trick-or-Treating at momma's office Halloween party.

My office party was on the Thursday before Halloween. Two days later, Pumpkin laughed - really laughed - for the first time. We were sitting on the porch swing in the backyard and Scoop started running all over the place and she was just cracking up. It was great. On Halloween Monday, there was more trick-or-treating, but only to two houses - our friends Chris and Carlie down the street and cousins Brad and Linda who recently moved into our 'hood. Then, on Wednesday Lila started rolling over! She first did it at daycare, but rolled again as soon as we got home. Check out video here. What a week!

Nursery additions

I never really wanted a theme for the baby's room, and I'm glad we didn't do one because I can now add things at random without worrying about whether or not they match the theme. Recently we added a couple "new" things that I think are fun ....

First, we took one of each color of paper lantern from our shower (after leaving them hanging over the back porch all summer) and hung them over the window. Pumpkin likes to look at them from her crib.


The next one was a little more work. I had seen on a blog one time an idea of buying used children's books and tearing out and framing some of the pages as decoration. I was going to go shopping at Goodwill for books, but then I remembered this favorite poem from when I was a kid.

I found the book used on Amazon for about $5. I then realized the poem was on three pages, so instead of tearing it out, I made color copies. (Which is nice, actually, because now the book is still intact.)


I bought frames on sale for $5 each at Michael's, and had mats cut in the color I wanted for about $10.


The entire project cost about $30 and I think it looks really cute, plus it has a personal touch. I like to read the poem to Pumpkin and show her the pictures.

Three months!

Pumpkin turned three months on Saturday! She is smiling (and drooling) all the time. She grabs at her toys. She rolled onto her side, once. She's starting to notice things more, like Scoop and the other babies at daycare, and recognizing our voices and turning when she hears us talk. She loves to be sung to. She likes Moon River and Close to You a lot, but sometimes her mama's song selections are quite the random mix of Patsy Cline, Janis Joplin, Elvis, Motown, show tunes, Britney Spears, Vanilla Ice and theme songs from '80s sitcoms. She doesn't quite laugh yet, but she'll smile and coo at the same time which seems like a laugh, and sometimes she times it so that you wonder if she understands what you just said. She loves the patio swing and I think we might have to move it inside for the winter. She goes to sleep facing east, and she wakes up facing south from wiggling so much. She is basically the best thing ever. It's so amazing watching her learn so much every day.

Winner, winner. Chicken dinner.

Many of you interested in the results of our baby pool probably went and checked, oh, about 10 weeks ago to find out that our cousin Kristy is the winner. Congratulations, Kristy! Finally this weekend I had a few extra minutes to make the prize. I decided to go with onesie and football cookies. I still need some practice with the icing, but they tasted pretty good! They're on their way to Illinios now - hope you enjoy them!

Pumpkin decided to dress on Sunday to match the cookies. Silly girl.