Gemma pulls up

Gemma discovered how much fun it is to pull herself up to standing this week. She just cackles with pleasure when she achieves the full stand....which usually results in her tumbling over. Which, usually gives me a heart attack.

She is just good enough to get herself pulled up, but has NO sense of balance, where her feet are or how much it will hurt if she bumps her head.

In the picture, I had put Gemma in the playpen and started reading a bedtime story to the big kids. A few minutes later, I looked up to see Gemma's beaming face. She was so proud of herself we took this quick picture...and then she tipped over....of course.

The kids!

The kids worked hard today at the wedding! William was the ring bearer, Amelia was the flower girl, and Gemma was cute! All three kids did an awesome job doing what they were supposed to do and looked adorable!

It's a nice day for a white wedding

Congratulations to Mike and Jenny on their wedding day! It will be fun to share a wedding anniversary with them as today is also our 11th (!) wedding anniversary!

Would you like to be an elf?

Just fill out an application!

Winter party madness!

We are a whirlwind of winter partyness around here! Tuesday, John stayed home from work so he could go eat pancakes with Amelia and Santa at the preschool.

Today it is my turn to go to the winter party at William's school! The party kicked off with a sing along and then some fun games.

Dear Santa

Dear Santa,
How is rodof? Can you pes git me a gold mine playm0b!l.

Love,
William

Santa!

Here are the kids visiting with Santa! William told Santa he would like a playm0b!l gold mine set, Amelia wants a Dora mermaid (awesome! She already has one) an Gemma wanted her 2 front teeth (again, awesome! She already has them!).

Cheese!

We took the kids to see Santa this week- see the snow? William could not be talked out of the Spider-Man shirt. Red is one of Santa's favorite colors after all!

Amelia admires Christmas tree

It's so beautiful mama!

From home

This is the picture text I received at work this week. Included was the message that our Gemma had crawled across the entire length of the house to get to this location. She was working so hard, she crawled out of her pants! Who needs baby toys?

Um..,what?

This should not be possible. No.

I know it doesn't look like it...

But this baby is mad at me. She is enjoying some exploring of finger foods. She has a few puffs (quick dissolve baby food) on her tray and she is very angry because she can't figure out how to put them in her mouth. If you look carefully, you will see she has a spoon in each hand. If she wants to put a puff in her mouth, she would have to put down a spoon. And she doesn't want to. So, she cries and cries. Just like a baby.

It's a good thing I took pity on her (after taking her picture) and helped her out!

Dinosaurs

Every week kindergarten is studying a new letter. They learn to write the letter and talk about the sounds it make, etc.

As part of William's homework every week, he has to come up with 5-10 words that begin with this letter and then draw a picture to illustrate (which is separate from the letter assignment featured here other times). As part of the directions, the teacher has asked parents to let students work on this independently. In particular, we aren't to help with spelling.

William sat at the kitchen table this last week, working on his letter 'P' homework page. It should be a simple task for him to come up with 10 words starting with 'P', but William has taken it to the next step by requiring himself (keep in mind this is not part of the actual assignment, this is something William is putting it upon himself) to have every single word be related to dinosaurs.

So, on this particular evening, William had come up with parasaurolophus and pachycephalosaurus. He was asking John for help with coming up with more dino names. John reminded William that William needed to try to come up with the words on his own.

Which is when Amelia piped up and said "how about pterodactyl?"

William and John looked at her with jaws dropped.

So, she helped them out by explaining to them "pterodactyl does start with P. It is just a silent P.".

So he did. See below. The assignment was then lovingly transported in his backpack TO school and crumpled up to come back home by the student himself.

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Conversations

Amelia: (chatters about preschool friends, snack time)...and soon we will have a party! Santa is coming and we are going to eat pancakes and salsa!

Mama: pancakes and salsa?

Amelia: yeah! Pancakes and salsa!

Mama: I think it is pancakes and sausage Amelia.

Amelia: that's what I said! Pancakes and salsa!*

* so here is where I admit my kiddos are well versed in salsa, but have no idea what sausage is. Because we don't eat sausage. Not for any deeply personal/religious reasons. Neither John or I enjoy it, so we don't buy it. Simple.



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Tooth #4

Front left tooth

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Tooth #4

Tooth number 4 broke through last night, and for perhaps the first time John was the first to notice!

Gemma crawls!

6 Months Old!

Dear sweet Gemma is now 6 months old as of yesterday. I baked half of
a cake to celebrate her being half of a year old. It was adorable
until it fell apart and the frosting didn't stick. Oh well.

We are in full Christmas prep mode - which is crazy this year.
Thankfully there has been this gift of an extra week between
Thanksgiving and Christmas or there would be some serious crazy.

Here is what is going on in Ms Gemma Bean's world.

Gemma is wearing 9-12 month clothes and and a few 12-18 month clothes.
We finally used up the size 2 diapers and have happily moved into
3's. this hopefully means we will be using our cloth diapers more
often since I'm not trying to use up the too small 2's any more.

Gemma is all about moving. You'll see in the pictures below, she
doesn't hold still for long. It was a fight to get any pictures of her
at all. She is army crawling everywhere which means we have had to
take a hard look at what toys are laying around in order to keep her
safe. She is loving her new found freedom. She is also working very
hard on the hands and knees crawling piece. She is able to do it and
practices and every opportunity.

We now have 3 teeth with at least one more coming soon.

I don't know if it is the crawling, the teeth or something else all
together, but Gemma has not slept through the night in.....I can no
longer remember. Most recently, she has been waking twice a night.
Which would account for my tiredness, perhaps.

On the food front, we are eating solid food everyday in very small
amounts - maybe 1-2 tablespoons is what I start with in a bowl. I
would estimate roughly 25% of it makes it until her belly at this
point. So far, Gemma has had peaches, squash, oatmeal and carrots.
Carrots are the runaway favorite - she has enjoyed these a great deal.

Although Gemma is not as one track minded about eating, her favorite
activity is far and away being snuggled up with mama for a snack and a
cuddle. She strongly prefers to sleep snuggled up with me (we are not
encouraging this) and loves to nap with me. I have to say it is a lot
of work and a lot of fun to be this little ones favorite person.

Nickname: somehow this month Gemma bean has picked up a nickname. I
know I gave it to her, I just not entirely sure where I got it from.
It just sounds super cute together! (Try it, you'll see)

 

J is for....

Jam? Jelly? Juice? Jello?


No, according to William j is for jrassik.

(Jurassic)

The fleet is complete!

Here is this year's Christmas ornament! I started making ornaments 14 years ago when my first nephew was a baby. Look how many I make now! (Answer:14 this year)

Baby 3, tooth #3

Gemma's third tooth broke through today! Here's hoping for a little more sleep tonight!

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Uh oh!

We have some honest to goodness hands and knees crawling happening around here! I was hoping she would want to wait until after Christmas so I didn't have to worry about her ripping over the tree on herself. No such luck!

O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree

We finally have our tree up and decorated! As expected, we probably won't be able to put many ornaments down low and I'm going to have to gate off the tree before I can put presents under it. Despite the picture below, the kids are very excited about the tree and looking at each of the ornaments. Getting 3 kids to look at the camera is quite the challenge!

Poop

Sometimes you just need a bath.

Baby food!

In the last week, we have been slowly introducing Gemma to baby food!

I meant to start her out with butternut squash and I even had some the I made myself with a squash from our church community garden. However, when I defrosted the yellowy orange baby food, it turned out to be peaches. Oops. So, Gemma's first food was peaches.

She loved the attention at first and liked trying something new. However, she was not pleased that she was not allowed to control the spoon. It was certainly a challenge to get the food into her mouth with her arms waving around like a windmill. Short, yet destructive little windmills.

After several bites, Gemma decided she wasn't loving the peaches. The flavor was perhaps too strong? She made some very entertaining faces - which the other two kids enjoyed a great deal.

Since then, we have been slowly introducing her to other foods every few days. She has now had peaches, squash, and oatmeal!

Hi!

I was trying to do some shopping this week and I was very distracted by this adorable baby in the stroller....

Pretty girl hair!

Amelia has been very patient with me lately and let me try some new things with her hair. This is one of my favorites because it keeps the hair out of her face and makes it easier to comb through at bedtime! Bonus: it is adorable!

Dear Santa....

I know what I want for Christmas!

Gemma has been working so hard at scooting around and getting herself moving. Over thanksgiving, my brother in law had his iPad open on the floor. I have never seen my child move so fast! She made a beeline straight for the iPad. So cute... And a little taste of what is to come at our house very soon!

Once she reached the iPad, she was so delighted with herself. She giggled and then immediately gave it a taste test by licking the screen. Once she had that out of the way, she was very entertained by the lights and how every time she hit it with her hand, she color and lighting would change. Mostly because she was deleting emails ....

Folder!!!

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It's hard

....to be in the holiday spirit when it is 75 degrees out and everyone is wearing shorts.

So, I did the only possible thing: I put on my running shoes, went for a long run, did some Christmas work and then had some grilled chicken for dinner. With quinoa. Yum.

*not all that exciting, but I'm back at it once a week running. I enjoy it SO much. Hopefully by taking it slow this time I won't have the heel problems that sidelined me for so long a few years ago! I can hope!
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Amelia

Oh Amelia. Amelia has been a lot challenging lately. I overheard someone else calling their 3 year old a threenager. It fits. Anyhow, who she is not literally driving me crazy and pushing all my buttons at one time, she is a hoot. Four examples:

1. As she surveys my outfit selections for the day, "mom, when will I be old enough to pick out my own clothes?"

"I'd say 5 or 6 years old, why?"

(Heavy sigh)

"Just wondering."


2. On the scale in my bathroom while I'm (trying) dressing for work.

"Mom! I'm 34.5 pounders! I pounded it right here on the scale. How many pounders are you? Come here and we'll find out if you pound it like me!"

3. On discussing her ballet class:

"When I go to ballet class, I am called a ballet-er."

"No, sweetie. I think it is called a ballerina."

(Eye roll from the threenager)

"No Mom. In my ballet class, it is called a ballet-er."

4. On being scared:

When you opened my door, you freaked me. Don't do that mom!"

"Okay love, did that freak you out?"

(Sigh+eye roll= 13 is going to be a hard year with this girl).

"No mom. It didn't freak me out. It just freaked me."

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Christmas crafty!

The craftiness has started! Here are the advent calendars I am making for our family and a friend!

Eat cake!

Happy thanksgiving! We hope you ate some cake!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We are enjoying being surrounded by family for thanksgiving this year! Happy thanksgiving from our littlest turkey!

Thanksgiving on the brain

We are at the transportation museum today enjoying an easy family say before the craziness of next week unfolds. Complex travel plans involving an infant across three states and 17+ hours of car travel call for something a little more running, playing, family fun oriented (to be clear, there will be a lot -A LOT of fun next weekend, but it's going to be a lot of work too).

I can tell the thanksgiving thought are already starting to creep in because I thought because I thought the sign below said that the compartments below we're equipped with gravy outlets. That would be convenient though, wouldn't it?

I love kindergarten

It is so much fun to have William writing ! I find all kinds of notes all over the house. See below:

1. This is William's plans for building a treehouse with his daddy. He made the plans all by himself and was genuinely confused when John didn't understand/seem excited about the plans (hint:bad timing and not explanation, just 5 year old boy overexcited)

2). This might be my favorite school paper to date. The assignment was to write 2-3 sentences about thanksgiving or family or turkeys. Parents were not to help with spelling or writing, just guide the kiddos with expressing ideas. Apparently, the lesson of the day was about exclamation points! William uses one! A! Lot!

The story says: who will carve the turkey? Maybe a t-Rex! He will use his claws! And then has a picture below to demonstrate how the t-Rex will carve the turkey.

Gemma tries a puff video

Gemma scoots!

Gemma is a scooter!  So cute!  Although, I am fairly certain this new skill is largely responsible for the lack of sleep over the last week.  She has already improved the skill since the video was taken on Tuesday night.

Overheard

I was in the kitchen when I hear the following conversation from the living room:

William: that is a great game!
Amelia: yeah!
William: you push Gemma over and I'll catch her.
Amelia: ok!
Gemma: big belly laugh
William: she loved when I caught her. Lets her back up again and you can push her!

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Scoot, scoot

Gemma is officially army crawling around and making fast progress. This girl is determined to get around and check things out. I hopeful we will have a video for you in he next couple of days!

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Wait, what?

On the way home from the store yesterday, William dropped this bomb:

"Mom, I don't think I believe in Santa Claus anymore."

Wait. What? When did that happen? Who helped you come up with that one? Where did that come from?

Sadly, after he dropped that bomb, he moved on to the next topic and refused to discuss this one again.

I am not opposed to giving up on Mr Claus. I'm just a little sad that it's happening so soon. And, Gemma hasn't even had a chance to start believing...

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The current argument

At breakfast this morning:

William: no Amelia, those are called band AIDS.

Amelia: un uh. They are BAND aids.

William: band AIDS.

Amelia: BAND aids.

William: Mom! Tell Amelia is is BAND aids.

Mom: no. Just eat your breakfast.

Amelia: see William? I was right?

Mama: what?!!?!

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Gemma is 5 months old!

Gemma is 5 months old today! She has brought a lot of laughter and smiles to our house this month as her little personality emerges!

Gemma is growing up so fast! He still fits into a few 6-9 month clothes and we wear mostly 9-12 month. However she does have a handful of 12-18 month clothes that fit. Keeping up with what fits the three growing kids at our house is a full time job these days. The box of clothes Gemma has now outgrown is quite impressive.

I'm still squeezing her into our last bag of size 2 diapers - which means extra laundry this week. The too small diapers don't hold as we'll as I know the size threes will.

Gemma is getting very close to being fully mobile. She is able to scoot a little and with great effort. She can make forward progress, but it still requires a great deal of effort on her part. She easily spins herself around on her belly (all the better to spread spit up around the place) to reach different toys and fun things like papers left on the ground. Daily I look around with growing concern about her safety...and remind those big kids to pick up the pieces that are small enough to fit in the baby's mouth.

Gemma is loving sitting up and has become quite stable. She loves to look at books and play with toys in this position as well as keep her eye on what the big kids are up to.

Gemma loves chewing on everything in sight. We will be starting solids in about 4 weeks- she works hard any time we're holding her to get food into her mouth, it will be fun to see how she actually likes it.

Gemma loves books and stuffed animals- particularly anything that has a tag on it. Why? No idea. She will work and work to spin a toy around to find the tag to chew upon.

In general, Gemma is a very happy girl and rolls with the craziness if our day to day life. She is full if smiles and giggles for everyone as long as you give her some time to warm up. Catch her by surprise or hold her too soon and there will be tears aplenty. Nothing that a few minutes with her mama can't fix. We recently discovered she hates being alone while she is awake. Apparently, she is surrounded by people most if the time and when she is alone, she gets a little sad. She and I were home alone and I stepped into the laundry room. Gemma squawked and I peeked around the corner. I went back to switching clothes over and she squawked again and then started to cry. As long as I am in sight? We are all good!



And lastly, I might actually cry when this hat doesn't fit her anymore.

Hard to believe...

It's hard to believe how much a baby grows in just 5 short months!

Photo1 Gemma's birthday
Photo2 Gemma today - 5 months old!