Baby Signs Update III

April 13, 2009 – 8:22 pm by jennie

Well, it’s been a while since I posted about Gilly’s signing. As with the spoken word, there are many more signs that he understands than that he himself uses. But here is a list of all the things that Gilly can sign in American Sign Language (ASL): dog, cat, ball, car, eat, milk, more, all done, shoes, hat, fan, light, flower and moon. He has a few that he’s tried out, but doesn’t consistently use yet, like the signs for bird, bear and play. He also has a few signs that he’s made up himself, for sun, giraffe and gorilla.

We’ve had many interesting and usually sweet moments, due to his signing. Tonight, in his bath, he was playing with an empty vitamin bottle. He filled it with water and then had me put the top on it. I was shaking it, and talking about the sound the water was making inside, and he kept making the sign for milk. At first I thought that he was telling me he wanted to get out and drink his before bed milk, but in the end it turned out that he was commenting on the fact that me shaking the water filled vitamin bottle was like me shaking his milk filled bottle. And he was right. :)

Beh-toe!

March 3, 2009 – 9:10 pm by jennie

We’ve been calling Gilly ‘Gilly’ on his blog, but as most of you know, he actually goes by ‘Beto’ in real life.  He goes by Beto for the time being because local pronunciation of Gilbert tends to be ‘Jilbert’, which drives Gilly’s mom crazy.  One nickname for Gilberto is ‘Gil’, but pronounced ‘hill’, which doesn’t really work for us English speakers either.  To get around all these pronunciation issues, we’ve settled upon Beto, which is a nickname for a number of -berto names…Alberto, Roberto, maybe Humberto…and, for us, Gilbert.  Some of our English speaking friends and family, though, have asked how to pronounce ‘Beto’, so here you go: just use the same ‘e’ sound as you use in the word ‘bed’, and stick a ‘toe’ on the end.  Easy peasy!

RAMPAGE!

March 2, 2009 – 9:06 pm by jennie

Gilly’s really gotten quite adept at maneuvering around the house on his little dump truck and I wanted to get some footage of his mad driving skills. What I got, well, I’ll let the video speak for itself. It’s a little slice of life with Gilly for all to enjoy! RAMPAGE!

 
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Beto’s Advertising Adventure

February 1, 2009 – 10:49 am by luke

A couple of weeks ago, when Beto and I went to his Friday morning early stimulation class, we were surprised to find the school director, a photographer, and a few other folk already in the classroom. They were all there to take a few shots of some of the kids for a new advertising brochure. We were the first to arrive to class, so Beto quickly become the target of the photographer’s attention. Beto, however, was less than a willing participant! Concerned by the numerous unusual faces and attention in the classroom, he vigorously avoided facing the camera. If, by chance, he was facing the camera, his face clearly betrayed his discomfort; not even his friend B1 the banana in pajamas could cheer him up! Finally, we started our normal class routine and Beto returned to his bubbly self, at which time the photographer was able to grab some nicer pictures of him. Beto managed to get himself into the brochure twice:

Front of brochure
Middle page from brochure
Detail of Beto on the front
Detail of Beto (and Daddy, and his friends Lucía y Constancia) from the middle page

You might notice that he’s still a little bit suspicious of what’s going on in his photo on the front page. A wade through the ball pit, however, makes everything better!

Australia Day

January 26, 2009 – 9:04 pm by jennie

We had a nice day out for Australia Day. Gilly had his normal morning nap routine, then we headed off to Ciudad Guzman, which is about an hours drive away from us. The central plaza and churches were beautiful and there were lots of good eats from the food stalls! We wandered around a bit and had a tasty lunch, then drove up to see the lake to the north of the town, before heading home on the non-toll road which meanders through the countryside. Gilly managed to stay awake all the way home, so when we got back we took him for a good walk to tucker him out before his dinner. On the way to the park we met a familiar face around our neighborhood, Bobby, the yellow labrador.  At the park, Gilly got in a lot of good walking practice.  Look at the little man go!  The Australian Kirby Lovells finished off the day with a bed time reading of Possum Magic.  Happy Australia Day!

 
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Hail to the Chief

January 20, 2009 – 9:03 pm by jennie

Gilbertlandia has been all abuzz with inauguration fever! Gilly donned his red, white and blue to watch the swearing in ceremony:

Inauguration Day

Later, he enjoyed some delicious apple pie in celebration of this historic day.

Celebratory pie eating!

Gilly’s very serious about pie eating, as you can see:

 
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So serious that he didn’t leave a smidgen of pie or ice cream for his dad to finish off for him! I think Gilly may very well become quite interested in politics, at least if there is pie involved!

The Beach

December 29, 2008 – 9:35 pm by jennie

Gilly got to go for his first big play at the beach last Saturday. He took his afternoon nap in the car as we drove to Playa Boca de Pascuales, outside of Tecoman. Once we arrived, it was time for his afternoon snack so we all had a bite at Las Hamacas restaurant. Then it was time to put on his Flippers gear (thanks, Nana!) and hit the beach! He loved, loved, loved playing in the waves, and was giggling the entire time. Now we’re thinking that once the young man outgrows his morning nap and has a bit more free time on his hands, we’ll go for a beach weekend. In the meantime, we can all enjoy this video of Gilly’s first encounter with the Pacific.

 
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Merry Christmas!

December 27, 2008 – 8:22 pm by jennie

All Gilly’s Christmas fun is captured in the Christmas 2008 gallery. Enjoy!

The Society Page

December 17, 2008 – 9:00 pm by jennie

Gilly in the society page

Here’s Gilly’s entry in the society page. This is a picture from one of the local newspapers of the Halloween party he attended at his school.

First Birthday!

December 6, 2008 – 7:17 pm by jennie

Although you wouldn’t know it from the deathly silence here on Gilly’s blog, he did manage to turn one year old! Yay Gilly! His birthday fell during a bit of a weird time here in Gilbertlandia, as his dad was suffering from that fun tropical disease dengue fever! We still managed to pull together the birthday essentials for the young man. He opened presents in the morning, then had cake time in the afternoon. Gilly’s favorite color at the moment is purple, so he had purple icing and a purple candle on his apple spice cake, with vanilla ice cream on the side. After he dug into his cake, he got to enjoy a video conference with his Gramps, Nana and Aunt Yvette in Australia. Then we got to sort out how to get all the cake and ice cream off of him, before bed time. Photos of the birthday related fun are now up in his gallery. Enjoy!