Good morning

Gemma's morning hair is ALWAYS good for a little entertainment.

Gemma helps

For some reason, I had this rosy idea that it would be a heartwarming memory to roll out cinnamon roll dough with Gemma. We could listen to music, chat and I would help her roll. We would laugh and have a great time. I knew it would be a little messy, but sometimes making memories is messy!

I was not expecting the level of mess.

I changed her shirt twice and ultimately ended up putting her in the tub after she pulled up her pant leg to run the flour onto her legs and between her toes. She wasn't at all interested in the dough or what I was doing. The flour was the star attraction.

I spy

Sweet Amelia was sick this week (so was William, but he rebounded quicker). She missed 2 days of school due to headaches, stomach aches and a fever.

She spent quite a bit of time in her room for 2 equally important reasons:

1. If staying home from school is too "fun", then the children will frequently be too "sick" to go to school. If you are sick, you need rest. The best place to rest is your bed.

2. To prevent infecting everyone else, namely Gemma. Gemma has no sense of personal space and no sense of limiting exposure to germs. She regularly licks playground equipment and grocery cart (when she agrees to ride).

Amelia was very understanding about the whole thing and stayed in her room without much complaint. She didn't feel like reading, she did a lot of drifting in and out of sleep.

One time, I came to check on her and found her chatting away.

Mama: who are you talking to?
Amelia: oh! Hi mom! I'm just playing a game.
Mama: you are?
Amelia: yes. Big bird and I are playing a little game of "I spy" (gesturing toward her lamp).
Mama: you are? What a great idea!
Amelia: yes, we are. I am winning.

Good bye crib

It's a little bitter sweet, but here is Gemma sleeping in her big girl bed. She has been successfully sleeping in her big bed for about 2 weeks now.

For the last few months, we have had the bed made up and offered it to her for both bedtime and naptime. She would occasionally choose the bed, but more often picked her "yittle bed". I didn't have the heart to force the issue. There really wasn't any reason she needed to switch beds other than there wasn't much room in her bedroom with the crib and the bed set up.

A few weeks ago, Gemma wet through her diaper. I didn't have time to launder her sheets that day. Luckily, we have a back up mattress pad and sheet. However, the mattress pad has to air dry (hard hitting stuff here today). The next morning, her sheets were wet again. Two things happened as a result:

1. I switched Gemma to a higher caliber of overnight diapers because changing/washing tight fitting crib sheets is not my idea of a good time.

2. There wasn't any way the air dry only, heavy material of the mattress pad was ever going to be dry in time for nap time or bed time.

And so the change was forced. Due to laundry. I suppose I could have gone out to buy a third set of crib linens, but it would be hard to justify the expense so close to the end of our crib use.

Overall, it has gone pretty well. We had a few rough nights getting her to sleep in the beginning, but all is going well now.

Ice cream!

I was reading Gemma's book choice to her. It is a book about dinosaurs and at the bottom of every page, there is a question. At the bottom of the TRex page, the book asks what the reader thinks the TRex wants to eat for dinner. Clearly, the author is expecting a certain answer (the yellow dinosaur).

As I read this line to Gemma, she replied immediately and with enthusiasm "ICE CREAM!"

Apparently, this page is ripe for hilarity. At about this age, William responded with "Pancakes!". I attempted to locate an old post on the subject, but couldn't find it.

Adventures in Shopping with a 2 year old

This last week, I went to the store with Gemma.  This is a regular occurrence, but lately it has been a LOT more work.  Sometime in the last month, Gemma decided she wasn't going to willingly ride in the cart anymore.  For awhile, I got away with just sticking her in the cart anyway while she cried.  Then, I could distract her and obtain grocerries.  Not anymore.  Now, the minute I pull the cart out, she starts bucking and screaming and generally becoming a whirling dervish of activity.  She does not care if she falls or hits her head or if everyone in a 2 mile vicinity is staring at her.  She doesn't care one bit.  She just cares about not being buckled into the cart.   Getting her foot into the tiny opening on the cart is suddenly impossible.  Forcing her to stay sitting down requires a lot of strength and more hands than I possess.  Keeping her sitting down AND buckling her is next to impossible.

Occasionally, she can be talked into riding in the larger bottom section of the cart, but this isn't great because she doesn't like to sit down and I worry like CRAZY she is going to tip out and fracture her skull on the floor.  

I spend most shopping trips quickly glancing at the shelves while keeping a hand on her at all times and grabbing the stuff we need.  Or that I think we need.


Recently, I came home from the store with a tube of what I thought was hair gel.  After I got out of the shower, I squeezed a small amount into my hand, rubbed it around and started working it into my hair.  It was bubbly.  Really bubbly.  It was only then that I took the time to actually LOOK at the tube and discovered it was shampoo.  Not gel.  Whoops.  Back into the shower.


Anyway, back to this last week.


I took Amelia and Gemma to the craft store to look for a few things.  Amelia stayed right with me as usual.  This girl is like a shadow.  The biggest problem I have is occasionally stepping on her as she sometimes stands too close.  But, I always know where she is.

Gemma was not riding in the cart.  She was doing a moderately good job of staying with me.  This was largely due to the fact I had a package of Smarties in my coat pocket and would occasionally give her one.  If I went too long between Smarties, she would wander off to the nearest aisle with the largest selection of breakable items and start to dance.

After a short while, I had had enough looking and Gemma wrangling.  There were a few items in the cart and we headed to the check out line.  It was crowded, so we got in line.  Gemma stood squeezing all the different candies at her eye level while I tried to distract her as I unloaded the cart.

We had the following conversation:

Gemma: I pick dis one!
Mama: No.  Nope.  We aren't getting any candy today, Gemma.
Gemma: I nnnnnnnneeeeeeeeeeeed it!
Mama: Not today sweat pea.  We need to go home and have lunch.
Gemma: I need it. It for my burpday (birthday)!  Happy burpday, Demma! (Gemma)
Mama: It isn't your birthday!  Your birthday is a long way away!
Gemma: Ooooh. (sticks out lip).  Peas?  Peas, Mom?  For my burpday?
Mama: (trying to contain my laughing) No. I'm sorry, no.
Gemma: I share you! (I will share with you!)
Mama: (laughing out loud, no use trying to hide it) The answer is still no sweetie. ( which was much easier to do with Amelia watching me and reminding me that if Gemma got a treat, SHE would need a treat also.)


Shortly after the treat conversation, Gemma's interest wandered away from the candy.  I tried to see what she was looking at, but couldn't figure it out.  She suddenly bolted.  I left Amelia with the cart and took off after Gemma.  She is fast.  She turned around to see if I was following and then ran faster.  I turned around to see if Amelia was okay.  When I turned back, Gemma had pushed her way out the door.  They were just regular push/pull store doors that exited into a small lobby area.

The minute she got outside the door, she flopped herself down onto her stomach right in front of the door.  The door swung outward, so I was going to have to go further down to another set of doors to get to the stinker.  When I got a little closer, she put both hands under her chin and sweetly gazed up at my.  While laying on the floor in the entrance to the lobby.  I heard several titters behind me and turned to see we had a small audience.

"She is SO cute!" one woman commented.

I got out into the lobby and grabbed my naughty child and brought her back.  When we got back to our place, the cashier was still ringing up our purchases and Amelia was right where I left her.

Amelia's super special person

Amelia sure loves her cousin Abigail! She chose to do one of her writing assignments at school about her youngest cousin.

Note: we had to have a chat as Abigail has TWO sisters instead of one, but Amelia is doing a great job.