A Very Thankful Thanksgiving

We hope you all enjoyed a great Thanksgiving this year with all the turkey, stuffing, potatoes, and cranberries you could want!

I've been thinking about all I'm thankful for this year. That's an easy one! I will forever be thankful for my beautiful girl, Gabriela, I was blessed to give birth to and who I have the wonderful opportunity to raise into a beautiful girl and young woman. I am thankful for the smile she wears when she wakes up in the morning and the one she wears even as we put her to bed at night. I am thankful for her easy laugh and her developing sense of humor.

I am also thankful for a wonderful husband who has been more supportive than I could ever imagined as we navigate this adventure as parents together. I am undoubtedly the luckiest woman around!

And finally, I am thankful for my family and friends. My thoughts today are especially with my dear friend Wendy who welcomed her first child, a son, into the world the day after Thanksgiving. He was a little early (almost 8 weeks) but was born a strapping 6 lbs., 1 oz. He's really doing very well and we're so pleased! Gaby is looking forward to having a new friend to play with - as soon as he develops the appropriate neck control!!!

It was our first Thanksgiving together as a family!



The one and only time she can wear this bib - I snapped this shot just before the food began to fly!



This photo was taken earlier in the day before we set the table. Gaby is growing so tall - she barely clears the table top!

A parting shot - here is a photo of the very first turkey I have ever prepared. It was beautiful and juicy! Thanks to the turkey-day hotline (aka, my mother) for consultative services!

Oops...Long Time, No Blog...

It's hard to believe so much time has passed since we last blogged. Mea culpa - life has been very full and busy and I failed to keep up! Gaby continues to grow and thrive - it's fun to see how with each day she learns new things and amazes us with how active she is becoming. She's crawling like a fiend these days - at first it was tentative and she wouldn't crawl off her play mat. But within a week of starting to crawl, she realized there was a world beyond her play mat and the rest is history! She's all over the place now - she loves to crawl into our bedroom and has recently discovered that the doors both open AND close. We keep a very close eye on her so she doesn't hurt herself but we try to let her to go where she wants. Auntie Gayle keeps reminding us we should be discouraging mobility but I think it's a lost cause!

So lot's of fun things to report on since our last post - it's been almost two months! I (Lisa) interviewed for, was offered, accepted, and started a new job in that period of time. I'm now the Director of Policy for The SCAN Foundation (http://www.thescanfoundation.org/). It was a tough decision to leave RAND after nine years but the opportunity was incredible. The Foundation's mission is to elevate awareness around long-term services and supports for older adults in the policy community and overall support the goal of improving the health and social supports for older adults. So you can imagine that there's been some major transitions in the Tsimanis household. I now commute down to Long Beach, which for those of you who aren't locals, is about a 15 mile drive from my house. Interestingly, because mine is a reverse-commute on the freeway, it takes me about the same amount of time to get to the Foundation as it used to for me to drive to RAND in Santa Monica, just five miles away on city streets!

We also flew to Chicago in October for our cousin Jon's wedding. Last year at the same time we visited, almost two months before Gaby was born, and enjoyed beautiful, mild fall weather. This time was a little different - the wedding was outside in 40 degree weather! I managed OK but I felt for the bride and bridesmaids with their sleeveless dresses! We had a great time and Gaby enjoyed getting spoiled by Aunt Judy and Uncle Steve. Aunt Judy even parted with one of her prized "Tickle-Me" Elmo's - Gaby got to take it home with her and still gets a kick out of it when it starts singing "Bird is the Word"!

This Halloween was Gaby's first - we had a lot of fun dressing her up. She had two costumes to choose from - an angel and a ladybug. She looked adorable in both. We ended up with the ladybug costume for trick-or-treating, which we did with Jeff, Isabella, Michael, and Lucas around their neighborhood. She even got a chance to go up with the kids to some houses and actually get some treats - of course, all the treats ended up in mommy's and daddy's bellies!

Gabriela just turned 11 months old - it's amazing how time flies! The photo at the top of this blog was taken on her 11-month birthday. Just one more month and she'll be one year old! We're planning a big party for her on December 12th. It will have a ladybug theme - I was inspired by her Halloween costume. In fact, we used a picture from Halloween for the invitation. I'll be sure to post lots of pictures from the big day. In the meantime, enjoy the pictures below, which document some of the fun activities we've been up to in the last couple months...

Here we are visiting Palos Verdes - we had wanted to pick different parts of Southern California to visit each month and take some day trips. Other trips and general business has made it difficult to do on a monthly basis but this was one of those trips. The picture above was taken on a trail overlooking the ocean near the site of the old Marine World. There's a museum there now and these lovely trails.

Here's Gaby and Alex at the Wayfarers Chapel - it's a small chapel made of glass among the redwood trees designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

We visited the Trump Golf Course, which has some public access trails as well on our trip to Palos Verdes.

Here are Alex and Gaby getting ready for our trip to Chicago - again, Gaby showed that she is a great traveler!

Alex and I had a visit with a pirate at the Field Museum in Chicago.


Here's Gaby and Alex in front of "Sue", the world's largest and most complete T. Rex! Truly amazing...
Ahhh...a girl after her daddy's heart - reading the New York Times in our hotel in Chicago.

Here's Gaby with the kids at Jon and Nicki's wedding in Chicago. They all looked so cute!

Here's Gaby in her beautiful dress - the shoes were a bit big and we finally had to ditch them. Grammy Michele made her the beautiful headband!

Here's daddy and daughter - So Cute!!!

And a close up of our beautiful girl...

Here's Gaby hanging out with us at Aunt Judy's and Uncle Steve's house the day after the wedding - we watched as the Angels won their game, clinching their spot in the division finals.

Just hanging out at home with daddy!

Here's Gaby with Aunt Dee Dee and her Great-Babushka on Babushka Anya's 86th birthday!

Here's Gaby getting ready for her first Halloween - I couldn't resist this adorable pumpkin t-shirt!

Here's our little ladybug - so cute!

And finally, our little angel - such a happy little girl!

And here's the best shot - this was taken on our first time seeing Gaby pull herself up to a standing position without our help. I was really taken by how well she did it. I also giggled a bit because she chose her hi-chair as the place to pull herself up as that's where she could troll for scraps! As if this child doesn't get enough nutrition!!!

On that note...until the next time we blog...xoxoxo

Our Growing Girl!

Hi all! It's been about a month - a busy month - since we last blogged. Gaby is 9.5 months old now!!! I know I say this all the time but boy, time sure does fly! We have an 8x10 of Gaby taken at 3 months old on the wall and I walk past it all the time and just cannot believe that Gaby was ever that small or that she is as big as she is now. Gaby is amused by the picture - not sure if she gets that it's her but whenever she sees it, she giggles a little.

Speaking of growth, Gaby had her 9 month check up today. Since her 6 month appointment, she's gained about 2 pounds and is now 22.5 pounds (95th percentile). She's also grown about 2 inches and is 28.25 inches (75th percentile). She was a real trooper as she got her first flu shot! Little does she know that next month is going to be double trouble - a flu booster shot and the H1N1 flu shot too!

A month ago Gaby was cutting her first teeth on the bottom and we are pretty certain that she is cutting her top teeth as we speak. She's been much more fussy that ususal the last few days and her sleep has definitely been different from normal. But even through all of this, she laughs, giggles, smiles, and is generally a happy little girl. Gaby really has developed a great sense of humor. She gets when things are not normal (e.g., me wearing a stuffed animal on my head) and thinks that's hilarious!

Here's Gaby just clownin' around on an evening dining out...

We spent the Sunday of Labor Day weekend with our friends Dana and David Sieden and their son, Jackson (aka, Gaby's boyfriend). We had such a great time - we took the shuttle from Playa Vista to Marina del Rey for lunch and then we took the ferry bus around the Marina. It was the kid's first boat ride! Here's Gaby and me hanging out checking out the other boats on the water.

Gaby loves Dana and Jackson!

Here are the Daddies! A great shot of David, Jackson, Alex, and Gaby...

We have so few family shots - love this one!

Here are a set of shots we took on Gaby's 9 month birthday - you can see Gaby's "chompers" in this shot - just two tiny little teeth on the bottom!

Gaby loves to chew on her fingers...

Daddy and daughter play a little bit of "patty cake"! Check out those adorable shoes on her!!!

Oh - a happy girl!!!

What a beautiful smile!

Gaby has been getting closer and closer to crawling - thankfully we went through the house and got it baby-proofed this last week! Here she is in her crawling position - she gets on her hands and knees and then rocks back and forth until she's had enough and then she flattens herself on the floor and scoots backward. She's perfected the art of the backwards scoot - it's gotten her into some interesting tight spots! Gaby's becoming increasingly frustrated because her primary mode of locomotion (the backward scoot) only gets her further away from the things she wants in front of her so I think it's only a matter of time before she gets to moving forward!

Sometimes Gaby scoots herself under the furniture - (above) here she is stuck underneath our couch. It was funny...until it wasn't for her anymore!! Here she is (below) stuck underneath the pack n'play in our hotel in San Francisco.

Check out that tushy!!!

Alex, Gaby, and I took a long weekend and flew up to San Francisco last week. Gaby continues to prove she's a star traveler - we got her set up on the plane and she fell asleep even before the plane took off! We arrived at SFO and took BART into the city. We stayed at Embarcadero Center, right across the street from the Ferry Building. It was a fabulous location! We love San Francisco and especially love that we can get around with public transportation and on foot.

Below is a shot of Gaby I took on an early morning walk near the hotel. We are walking along the water and that's the Oakland Bay Bridge in the background. Gaby was fascinated by the big birds we saw as we walked.

We walked from the hotel along the wharf to Ghiradelli Square - it was the annual Chocolate Festival! I really believe Gaby is in her element in the large crowds - she loved just watching the people as they walked by. She is such a flirt and loves to ham it up around everyone!

We enjoyed brunch with our "Cousins by the Bay" - here's Gaby with Jody Quincy at Park Chow, the sister restaurant to the restaurant Jody works at in the East Bay. We also saw Walt, Sarah, and Allison. Molli and Lev also joined us - they just got engaged this last weekend!

Here's Alex and me hamming it up in front of a majic shop just outside the restaurant. We had a great walk through Golden Gate Park after our brunch!

We just celebrated Rosh Hashanah this last weekend. For those of you who celebrate, Alex, Gaby and I wish you a happy, healthy and sweet new year!

A Month of Gaby!

Hi all! It's been such a busy time for the Tsimanis family! Gaby is having a good time, growing, and learning lots of new things. Since we last wrote, Gaby has perfected the art of sitting - she was wobbly a month ago but is a major champ and can sit with the best of them now!

She continues to eat well, and has been exploring the finer aspects of avocado, butternut squash, apricots, peaches, nectarines, squash, mango, and zucchini. She's also developed a taste for Cheerios - when we first introduced them about a month ago, she didn't quite get the concept of a pincer grasp and many Cheerios hit the ground. But in a very short amount of time, she now feeds herself Cheerios like a pro! She really likes them a lot and gets very excited when we pull out the box. We also recently tried out tofu and yoghurt with Gaby in an effort to get her to eat more protein - she loves the yoghurt but perhaps the tofu is an acquired taste. We'll keep working at it. She sometimes teeths on frozen bagels and enjoyed some of my pancake this morning even!

What's really exciting is that Gaby has cut her first two teeth as of last Sunday (the 16th). She had a couple rough nights but has really tolerated it all remarkably well. She still doesn't like it if I try to get my fingers in there but you can actually see the teeth, even though they still have a long way to grow.

Gaby has also shown her skill in clapping - she even does it on command. We sing "If you're happy and you know it clap your hands" and when we pause to clap, she claps! She has just really started doing this in the last week. But the newest skill - just being demonstrated in the last couple days is that she is waving. She has started to wave when we say "hi" and "bye".

Gaby's day care was on vacation for almost two weeks from July 16th to the 28th. I took off some time at the front end and back end of that time. Alex took off the week in the middle to be Mr. Mom! He and Gaby enjoyed a play date with our friends David and Jackson Seiden and later in the week, we all spent a long weekend at the Newport Beach Marriott to celebrate our anniversary (the same hotel where we got married). We had a very relaxing time - Grandpa Arnie babysat so that Alex and I could enjoy a couple hours at the spa. We also had fun spending a day at the pool with the Lipsons.

Below are some pictures highlighting some of Gaby's fun activities over the last month.

This is Gaby's daycare provider ZuZu. We took this photo the day before ZuZu left for vacation to visit her family in Lebanon. She especially loved this orange dress on Gaby so we got her dressed up in it to take special photos for ZuZu.

I can't quite remember what it was that Gaby was eating - but she really enjoyed it!

We snapped this shot of Gaby wearing this gorgeous hat that was made especially for Gaby by our dear friend Melissa. It's a little too warm to wear it now but I think it will still fit her nicely when the weather cools off a bit in the fall.

Here's Gaby hanging out in Venice a few weeks ago.

This photo was taken at C&O Cucina in Venice. Babushka Maya, Aunt Galya and Alex's cousin Igal from Israel enjoyed a cuddle with Gaby.

Gaby spent a Sunday at the end of July with her buddy Jackson (Dana and David Seiden's son). It was a really hot day so our plans to enjoy some time outside didn't pan out but we had fun playing with Jackson's toys in the nice air conditioning!

The day after Gaby and I enjoyed a playdate with Jackson and Dana, Alex and Gaby had a playdate with David and Jackson! This was taken at The Grove at the same spot that a similar photo was taken when the kids were just a couple months old!

Here's Gaby's first foray on a slide - not sure what she really thought of it all - it happened so fast!

Here we are hanging out at the pool at the Newport Beach Marriott. Gaby wore these glasses for all of five seconds - long enough to take the photo. She wasn't a fan of the shades.

Here's Steve and DJ Lipson with Gaby and Alex floating around in the cool pool water.

Gaby really liked floating around in the pool!

On August 1st, Gaby had her first experience with a babysitter who was not a relative. Mom and Dad took Alex and I along with Jeff and Annie out for our anniversaries. Annie's niece and a friend of hers babysat for all the kids. I think I had a harder time with leaving Gaby than Gaby had being left. Before we left for dinner, we got Gaby fed and ready for bed. Michael helped to feed Gaby (as seen here). He really enjoys his role as big cousin!

Isabella also got a chance to feed Gaby - she did an awesome job!

Oh - poor Gaby! This was taken a couple weeks ago after returning home from a long and busy day at daycare. We had just finished dinner and before we could get Gaby cleaned up and ready for bed, she had fallen asleep!

Here's Gaby showing her sense of humor (or at least her mother's sense of humor)!

Ah...a rite of passage for any kid in LA. Here's Gaby at Dodger's Stadium for her first Dodger game yesterday (August 22nd). It was a miserably hot and humid day but she was a trooper!

We had really cool seats - almost directly behind home plate but up a little high. At least we were in the shade for the whole game!

We got Gaby dressed up in her Dodger blues special for the game. Would you believe that the couple that came and sat down right next to us had dressed their 11 month old daughter in the exact same outfit!?!?! Hey, at least the Dodgers won!!!!

So that's our story for now. Gaby says "hi" and looks forward to sharing more fun stories and adventures in the next blog entry!