Amelia

So much has been going on here, I haven't told you some exciting news! Amelia is using the potty!

As expected, once she decided SHE wanted to do it, it was a done deal. The timing wasn't great for me- I have been working hard with her since January without success. Much to my disappointment, I decided to let it go until later this summer at the end of May.

Do you know what my girl did? The Thursday before John went back to work, she decided she was ready. We worked hard with her over the weekend and she did SO well! However, this presented a problem for me! John went back to work on Monday and left me with a newborn, a newly potty trained (also:stubborn) 3 year old, and a 5 year old with scheduled events to get to on time. I can now report that is was stressful and I do not reccomend potty training with a 2 week old in the house! This Mama needs her sleep to maximize her patience!

Giggles and a funny

1. Over the last two days, Gemma has started giggling just a little bit in response to our ridiculous attempts to get her to smile. It is a tiny, fleeting sound- but it's there!

2. Yesterday John took the kids to get an algae eating fish for our fish tank. When the kids and daddy came home, they were so excited to tell me about their trip to the pet store. William's reported

"We went to the store Mama and got an allergy eater!"

Sent from my iPhone

Houdini?

Gemma has always been a wiggler. Since she was inside, she is almost always in motion.

Several days ago, I put Gemma down going north south in her pack n play by our bed. In the morning, she was facing east/west. In her sleep,
She wriggled and wiggled her way around in her crib while sleeping until she was facing 90 degrees the other direction.

This morning found a new level of wiggliness. She was all swaddled up in the our most strait jacket like swaddler. Yet, she was able to wiggle both hands free AND an entire leg from a pretty deep pocket and a flawless swaddle! You can see from the picture how proud she is from the little smile she has on her face.

4 weeks old...what?

Gemma is 4 weeks old today...what? She is growing so fast! Everything seems a little bigger and stronger. Earlier this week I noticed that Gemma is either losing her hair or her head is growing so fast, her head cannot keep up.

She is also having more awake and alert times during the day. The night sleeping is coming along. Not quite where I want it to be, but hopefully soon. She is up once or twice a night most nights and generally goes back to sleep.

Not to worry, pictures were taken to document. Who know when I will get to downloading from the camera and uploading here. For the time being, you'll have to make do with a picture of our strong girl doing a push up, one of me taking pictures of my girl, and a picture of her beautiful AWAKE smile!

Baby push up!

Look at how strong I am!

More 4th of July

Here is daddy with his girls on the 4th of July!

2 years

Here is the dress I made for Amelia last year! It was HUGE on her then and is still a little big on her. Will we get another year out of it?

PS. No. She can't just hold still and smile, I guess.