Gemma bean

Somewhere along the line in the last month Gemma has become a bean. Similar to a jelly bean, a Gemma bean is small and sweet. I don't know where it came from, but now I can't stop saying "Gemma bean, Josephine, I love you!"

Gemma is racing through milestones and I can't hardly keep up with both the online scrabble game I play with my mom and posting here what the bean is up to.

Before Christmas:
Pulled self up to knees
Crawled on all fours, left the army crawl behind for the bugger, better mode of transportation
Cheerios to mouth accuracy calculated to be precisely 9%
Started on baby purée foods, eating took along time. Getting her to open up was sometimes challenging and I felt like she just didn't quite get it.

2 days before we left for Christmas with the family, Gemma mastered the crawl to sitting move and from sitting to crawling became more graceful. ( previous method started from a sitting position and found catapulting herself forward which resulted in her face planting and then crawling)

Over Christmas, Gemma learned:
To pull herself to a full stand. Most pictures of her will now include at least 3 bumps/scrapes/bruises/injury to the head of some kind for at least the next 12 months.

Increases her Cheerios accuracy to 64%, and increased speed a great deal.

Waves hi using 1) a karate chop 2) open close motion of one hand. Both are accompanied by an adorable grin. If you wave and say hi back, she usually giggles like crazy. It's fun to communicate!

In the same vein, she also will mimic clapping if she sees one of us doing it.

Became more comfortable with purées and opens mouth like a baby bird

Tried a multitude of new foods, some of them on purpose: pears, peas, English muffin, Olive Garden breadsticks, pizza crust, ice cream, snicker doodle cookies, saltine crackers, and lots of wrapping paper. No wonder she quit sleeping through the night! Keep in mind, most foods she either got a tiny taste or extremely small quantities, but enough to give it a try. Overall, she appears to still prefer carrots over almost everything else.

Sent from my iPhone

The silent flush

We have been having a problem with a young boy in our house not flushing. Not to name names, but someone isn't
flushing.

(William coming out of the bathroom)

Dad: William, did you flush?
William: uh huh, yep
Dad: are you sure? I didn't hear anything. Can you go and check?
William: you didn't hear it because it was a silent flush. The kind you CAN'T hear.

(Lots of muffled giggles)

Dad: I think the silent flush might not be doing the job. Might want to check again.
William: oh man. Ok dad.

(Flushing)
Sent from my iPhone

Winter fun

Boys in hats and some snowboarding attempts. You can see the grass peeking through- not ideal conditions, but it was enough for us!

Winter fun!

There was snow in Minnesota this year at Christmas! It almost wasn't enough to play in, but we managed! Gemma made snow angels with her brother and sister before going back inside - too cold for baby!

Amelia and William enjoyed sledding, shoveling and a little snowboarding with the help of uncle Mike.

Baby's first Christmas!

Gemma and her cousin celebrated their first Christmas together this year! One of my favorite Christmas memories is playing for hours on end with my cousins at my grandparent's house (on both sides). Giving my own children the opportunity to play with their cousins during the holidays is one of the most exciting and important parts. One that I'm willing to drive 7+ hours across multiple states to make happen.

We loved The cousin play time this year- only wish we had more time with them!

Grandpa reads to 2 kids? Or 3?

Here is my dad, attempting to read a book to the kids. It's a little challenging with the baby grabbing the pages and trying to eat them and a very wiggly big kid bumping and wriggling behind you. And the third one? Sitting on his lap, encouraging/insisting grandpa keep reading. Even with a foot in his neck and a baby trying to rip the pages out of the book.

3 kids

For the last 6 months I feel like we have been juggling 2 kids and 1 baby. They eat separately, bathe separately, play separately and operate on different schedules. and then this happened: see picture.

When we got to my parents house, the big kids were playing on the fireplace. Gemma crawled over and pulled herself to their level like it was nothing. Suddenly, my perspective shifted. Soon we will have 3 kids - not this 2 kids, 1 baby business. She will want to be with them more than she will want to be with me soon. She will be doing the same things they are doing and fighting right along with them. It always blows my mind, but this baby is really her own little person - one who will stand on her own two feet sooner rather than later.