My first baby is so grown up!

It’s hard to believe that August 2007 was so long ago.

P.S. more preschool details to come!

June 28th was our 7th wedding anniversary!

We are so thankful for our marriage and how our little family has grown.

On the 27th, we got to go on a nice date (thanks, Mom & Dad for babysitting!)…

First, down to South Park (a neighborhood near Balboa Park) to hit up a restaurant recommended by Sunset Magazine…

The Station… we were totally diggin’ the atmosphere, design and of course the burgers! We’ll definitely go again.

We did a little window shopping (and I bought a cute second-hand shirt) and admired some of the neighborhood’s (mostly) craftsman-style (my fave) homes and beautiful yards.

We just had to grab some ice cream, too, over at the Daily Scoop on Juniper (also in the Sunset article). This neighborhood was worth the trip!

Then we hit Barnes and Noble for a little browsing (like the old days) and the theater an entertaining movie (Knight and Day).

It was a great way to celebrate!

{more photos}

He started laughing.

You may have to click over to view this video. It will be worth it, trust me.

Brody Laughing from Nicole Bennett on Vimeo.

that someone is smiling now?

I just read a cool post about doing a New Year’s Journal for your kids, and I love the idea. Since this blog is our family’s digital journal, I decided to do it here. Someday, I will print these out for Gigi and give them to her. I guess I’ll need to go back and add one for ’08 and ’07, too. Good thing she’s still young.

Gianna Brianne: 2009

Vitals

• Height: ~34 inches
• Weight: ~27 pounds

Places Visited {deep breath, this will be a long list!}

• Arizona (Spring Training) (March)
• Legoland, CA (March)
• Sacramento (Chase & Carly’s wedding) (March)
• Portland, OR (March/April)
• Bend, OR (April)
• Sebsastopol/Santa Rosa, CA (April)
• Camping in Carlsbad (April)
• Camping in Huntington Beach (April)
• Simi Valley, CA (Jordan & Jazmin’s wedding) (May)
• Ladoga, IN (the Leonards’ house) (May & June)
• Milwaukee, WI (May)
• Chicago, IL (May-June)
• Fair Oaks Farms, IN (June)
• Detroit, MI (June)
• Toronto, Canada (June)
• Niagara Falls (NY side) (June)
• Williamsport, Gettysburg, Philadelphia & Pittsburgh, PA (June)
• Washington, D.C (June)
• Alexandria, VA (June)
• New York & Poughkeepskie, NY (June)
• Cleveland & Cinncinatti, OH + a short drive to Kentuncky! (June)
• Camping in Carlsbad (November)
• + more baseball games at Petco Park, Dodger Stadium, and Angel stadium

Favorite Things

• Reading the Bible and “My Goodnight Book”
• Playing with friends
• Going to the beach or the playground
• “Swimming”
• Sydney and Lacy
• Cheering on sports teams
• color: Dodger Blue
• food: macaroni & cheese, “cuties” (oranges)

Things She’s Learned

• Numbers (she can count to 10)
• Colors (mostly, if you count her version of green being “it’s like philly ‘phanagit’ color“)
• A few Bible verses
• The letter A (recognition)
• Riding a scooter
• Pedaling a bike
• Singing the ABCs

Goals For 2010

• Potty Train
• Learn to swim
• Learn to recognize letters
• Learn more Bible verses
• Meet Manny

Other Special Memories:

• We started the adoption process, and Gigi can’t wait to get “our baby” as she says. She’s always asking questions about what “our baby” will be like.

In the last year, Gigi has matured a lot in her looks! Here’s a glance at how she has changed throughout the year.

Here’s to 2010!

So here I am in our new place- we’ve been here almost a month now- and I just love it! It’s small and cozy and in a great location. We’ve got amazing neighbors with a daughter Gigi’s age and a friendly doggie, too! We’ve had a great month with lots of local fun, including Gigi’s first pony ride at the Greek Festival and really enjoying our new place.

This month I also started attending a Bible study with a group of ladies from my church. It’s called Community Bible Study and we meet at a church in Carlsbad. The neat thing is that the program (CBS) is not affiliated with any particular church and we have women from 44 local churches in attendance. CBS has an amazing children’s program– it’s basically like a preschool class for Gigi once a week. She’s loving learning Bible verses and playing with her friends.

This week there was a luncheon for the classes so Gigi had to have a packed lunch for the first time! She was pretty excited about it. I had to capture this milestone and I think she looks so grown up (and funny) in these photos.

See all the photos from September here {I even did captions this time!}.

I feel like we reached a funny little milestone today when for the first time Gigi and I had a little conversation and I had to hold back laughing at what she said. I guess I’ve joined the ranks of those bloggers who can quote their kids for blog material, yes! (For great examples see here, here and here).

Me: (disciplining Gigi again for playing with the baby monitor under the bed) You need to look at mommy’s eyes and say you’re sorry for real.

Gigi: I’m sorry, mommy’s eyes.

Yesterday David and I celebrated 6 years of marriage! We actually went out on a date (Vigilucci’s and Transformers 2!) to celebrate on Friday night– dinner and a movie is such a treat nowadays. Yesterday we went the fair with Gigi which is always fun.

Here’s the anniversary gift I made him.

Our 6th Anniversary from Nicole Bennett on Vimeo.

FYI, the song is called “Breathe” by Angels & Airwaves.

The next photo album is from the first half of May and it includes the day we met up with my friend Chrissie and her family, which you can read about here. Her daughters are super cute!

It also includes Mother’s Day (which was spent with family and very nice- the photo above shows all the mothers {+ Gigi}- we had a yummy dinner, prepared for us by the dads while we went to the movies) and Alex and Angelina’s big move into a new, bigger place!

You can see the whole photo album here!

P.S. Something fun that Gigi learned to do this month is eating “cold cereal”- she loves eating cheerios and milk now like a big girl!

Here’s the photo album which includes includes more photos from Gigi’s actual Birthday, and from her super fun party at the beach. We spent the day at Oceanside Harbor and played in the sand and water with lots of family and friends. Thanks, everyone, for making her 2nd birthday so special!