Serrano/Gray Rockin New Year's Eve

We had a fun dinner at the Grays for New Year's Eve. Anna make a great baked chicken parmesan, we had chocolate ice cream cake, Gabby went down in her portacrib and Sofia played with OG & Sasha while we watched the Kings game (they won woo hoo!) We went home around 10:30, Sofia crashed HARD, she's never stayed up that late before. It was a very fun way to close out the year. Happy New Year everyone and we'll see you in 2012 for more blogging!!

Sofia, Potty Trainer & Rock Star

We have started focusing on potty training Sofia. In the past two days when we've been home she's worn "big girl underwear". She has had one accident. Ironically when she has had a pullup on (nap time, bedtime and going out) she has been dry and asked to go to the potty each time. So we know she knows what to do, we just gotta make the leap and go for it. Our friends recommended we just let her go naked at home because then she won't want to pee on herself :)
Here she is showing off her undies (I hope this isn't taboo for the internet, she just looked so cute and proud of herself!)


As for the other photos - well Nelson has this blonde wig he's borrowed to wear at parties, and Sofia found it and wanted to try it on. So here's our blonde rockstar "rockin' on" with Daddy.

Gabby, Little Sister who the Paparazzi Loves

Gabby has really started to get more mobile lately. She is not really crawling but scooting around and halfway pulling herself up on things. She loves to play in the playroom with Sofia - most often sucking on Sofia's toys and not her own :) Her new "pose" as you can see at the bottom is both arms up behind her head. I have no idea where she gets this. She has been babbling a lot more. Mama Dada mostly. The other day she repeating "moo" when we were playing with her cow puppet. We are trying to use baby signs with her to see if she will start communicating that way. She just smiles at us when we sign"milk" or "more". Sofia likes doing the signs too. Still only 2 teeth but her upper gums are crazy swollen so she could get several more all at once.

Cute pics from this week

#1 - we visited with my college roommate Aisha and her adorable girls Cammi and Norah (Natalie who is about a month older than Gabby, was sleeping) So great to see them!
#2 - My first ever venture out to a store with both girls - they loved riding in the cart!
#3 - Sofia loves Playdoh. Especially this ice cream maker set. It's a mess but she has so much fun.

Visiting the Wyetts Post-Xmas

Today we drove up to Nipomo to see Holli, James and the kids for Christmas. The kids had fun opening presents and playing with said presents. Gabby took a great nap, and after James left to go back to the police academy we had a nice dinner at Hometown Buffet (honestly not kidding, it was decent and a good price!) before making the drive home. It's a long drive for one day and Sofia is starting to get a little stir crazy in the car, so we may have to figure out what to do for future road trips (maybe get the kit that turns our iPad into a DVD player holstered to the back of the driver seat) But it's always great to see the Wyett kiddoes. Savanna looks so grown up and is wearing make-up. Ben & Brad are as energetic as ever and assaulted each other with their new Nerf guns. Emma's getting to big and walking around and talking adorably. Both my sister and James look awesome and skinny - Holli from her Beachbody workouts and James from the Academy. Makes me very excited to start our new workouts in January!

Christmas Dinner

We had a wonderful Christmas dinner at Dad & Sue's (with Bob & Mary too). Sofia asked right when we got there, Papa Steve where are my presents? LOL. She loved her new My Little Pony and she got a Tag Jr and books which we are setting up tonight on the computer. It's basically this little wand thing you point at the books and it reads it aloud. Helps with learning and recognizing words/letters. Super fun!
Gabby showed off her brief standing skills and scooted around the living room (not quite crawling because she can't seem to get that second leg around) but she still gets what she wants. She got a cool Octopus and snail that makes music and moves when you push it.
Sofia was playing with her toys and some of Grammy's and even was playing a game where you jump over the toys - she got some air as you can see from the photos.
We had a great Christmas! Looking forward to continuing the fun tomorrow with the Wyetts.

Christmas Morning

This was a great Christmas morning! It was the first time we got the experience of having a child who understands (kind of) the concept of Christmas (not in the religious sense but in the traditional) and has the anticipation of waking up to see if Santa left presents. Gabby was still happy but had no idea really what was going on :) They actually both slept until 7:30 which was nice, then we checked to see if Santa ate his cookies - yes he did - started baking our breakfast (my Grandma's famous breakfast casserole) while we opened presents.
Sofia got from Santa just what she asked him for - green playdoh and a Dora doll. She also got a Barbie from Gabby, and some art supplies, coloring books, and Dora CD player (it plays fake little plastic Dora CDs that play music that goes along with the books in the set), and Buzz & Woody figurines from us.
Gabby got a little bead activity center (you move the beads up and down) from Santa, a cell phone from Sofia, and a couple of different balls, a little purse with teether keys, a Sophie the Giraffe teething toy, and bath toys from us.
After breakfast (Gabby tried her new fave Baby Mum Mum rice crackers) we opened our stockings and Gabby impressed us all by standing unassisted for about 20 seconds. (video below - which is only about 3 seconds) Then we watched the Disney Holiday parade and daydreamed about visiting the new Disney resort on Hawaii, which is now our dream vacation for 2013!
Happy Holidays to everyone!!

Gabby standing:

I also found this video from about 2 weeks ago of her clapping to
Nelson singing Def Leppard which is super cute: