Christmas, Family, Love

We had a beautiful Christmas. We went to 4:00 PM Christmas Eve Mass, which went really well, considering the fact that when Mass started we had been sitting in Church for as long as Mass normally lasts (it's quite crowded, hence we got there early so we didn't have to sit 3 1/2 miles from the altar). Gemma got a bit noisy around the homily, but other than that she was a real champ! I was proud of her.

She was very excited to open her present from Santa on Christmas morning. We filmed her when we went in to get her up and then she crawled out and saw her present. It was pretty cute. I got some great pics, I'll post a few of them below.

Pretty Gemma in her Christmas dress (a $5 pick-up from a consignment sale, I might add!!!)
Our family after Mass at St. Elizabeth's
Mommy and her baby girl
Playing with cousin Cooper
This was the wrapping paper from one of Aaron's aunt's presents...she seriously goes all out. The presents were wrapped like Mr. and Mrs. Claus. My bro and sis-in-law John and Alyssa are modeling the remnants of the packaging.
Reading her new book (Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear) with Daddy on Christmas morning
Opening a present...she was pretty good at it!
"Sisters"
Grandma and Grandpa with their grand-kiddos Ira and Gemma
Siblings...Drew, Mandy, Michelle and Monica
Ready to call it a day!
Putting Baby Jesus in the manger before going to bed on Christmas night
In her bed the morning after Christmas...she really likes her glow-seahorse that Santa brought her.
Christ the Savior is born...Merry Christmas to ALL!!

More pigtails, and the ultimate bed-head

Can you tell that I think my daughter just looks too stinkin' precious with her piggy-tails?!!
However, this recent spurt of hair-doing at our house does have it's drawbacks...such as hair like this when you wake up from your nap!

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do you see?

Recently, Gemma has had a huge affinity for reading. She just loves her books. And she just started doing the cutest thing. She'll crawl back to her bedroom and over to the book basket, and then she'll dig through it, sorting her books out on the floor, until she comes across "Brown Bear". She will then squeal, say "Brown Bear" (as best as she can) crawl over to me, hand me the book, and pull up on the chair beside me so I can pick her up. We read along happily until we get to the end, at which point she gets agitated so we read it again. And again. And sometimes again. The other night I listened to Aaron read it to her four times in a row. It is soooo precious, and I am just thrilled that my baby girl has such a love for books at this young age.

Here it is, I found it!
See, "Brown Bear"
Turning the pages for mommy
I see a yellow duck looking at me
And a blue horse...and a green frog. She loves tapping the book to the rhythm of the words, and pointing at the pictures.
We love story-time.

Pigtails

The weekend

I thought this picture was sweet!
We've had a nice weekend so far. Last night we had Aaron's secretary Marcia and her husband Bruce over for the "office Christmas party". It was nice, Aaron baked some salmon and we had lots of fancy side dishes and some good wine. Well, I had wine. Aaron and Bruce drank Guinness, and Marcia had, like, a tablespoon of wine mixed in with some Ginger-Ale. Oh well, I have this handy-dandy little deal that re-corks the bottles, so I'm sure I'll get to it in the near future...and in the meantime it will stay nice and fresh. Anyways, back to our evening... after dinner we played Phase 10 and called it a fairly early night (story of our life!) I enjoyed having it at our place because I was able to give Gemma a bath and put her to bed at the normal time, in her bed, etc. Oh and for the record, her nights have gotten tons better. And I think I've discovered the culprit to the rough nights earlier in the week: hunger. I had been trying to do more finger-foods with her, and I think she just wasn't getting enough. We're back to pureed stuff now and that's just fine!

Had a cold front blow through this morning and my what a change in the weather. Went from mid-fifties to lower-thirties in the matter of an hour. That hour just happened to be while we were at Mass, so I was really regretting not bringing any coats when we walked out into about a 40mph north wind. Brrrrrrrrr... The puppy dog was supposed to have a bath this AM, but that obviously didn't happen.

Oh, and I've got to talk about little miss Gemma and the Christmas tree. She's really done great with it all-in-all. At first I think it intimidated her and she didn't go near it. Then, there was this one ornament that she was constantly going for. Well, now she crawls up to the tree, sits in front of it, points and says "pretty", then shakes her head "no". It's pretty cute!!

Hmmmmm, not a whole lot else going on. Getting ready to eat lunch, but I will cease from boring you with any more of the mundane. So, until next time... Later-gators!

Eleven months

Yep, that's right. My precious little girl is eleven months old today. One month from today she will be one year. It brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it...not because I'm sad, but because I'm just so amazed at this past year. Being a mom is the best ever. I won't gush too much, though, I'll save that for the "One Year" post, teehee. Here's the obligatory pic-o-the-day. Did this one in her jammies because I think she looks sweet in them.
In other news, the girl seems to do something new every day. Yesterday morning Aaron went in to get her up, and he hollered for me to come. This is what we found.
First time she had done that!!! She's not much for rolling over from her back, so we usually find her right where we left her. Well, unless she's been awake for awhile, in which case we find her with her little head all crammed up in the corner of the bed. "One baby, corner pocket", we say.

Last night was a verrrrry rough night...after a rather rough day (at least in the nap dept.) Not sure what is going on...I think it's either teething or gas but really am not sure. Poor girl. And I try so hard to be pateint, but doggone sometimes it's just frustrating. We both had "happy-nappies" this morning though, and that put a much brighter outlook on the day. We'll see how tonight goes, I'm not holding my breath. BUT, whatever will be will be. I have many blessings, and many things for which to be thankful. This is just one of those little bumps in the road, and in the big picture not a very big deal. Easier to believe at 2PM, though, than 2AM. Ahhh well, such is life.

On to something else, the Christmas letters/pics are finished and ready to mail so YAY for that. It was quite the undertaking. Shopping and wrapping is another story, but hey, it's only the 11th, right??? Yeah, there's always tomorrow.

Well, I think I'll wrap this up. Thanks for checking in.

Good St. Nick

Gemma had the opportunity to meet St. Nick this weekend at our parish pancake and sausage feed. She thought he was pretty interesting from afar. I won't waste words on what she thought of sitting on his lap, the picture speaks for itself.

Checking in

Hello! Just not a whole lot going on around here. Thought I'd update though, as it's been almost a week. Gemma has recently started pulling herself up on furniture. It's pretty cute, she looks so tall. She seems to be frustrated that she can't actually crawl up onto the furniture though, and she hasn't quite figured out how to sit back down on her own. Seems she figures something new out every day. As I've mentioned before, she's in the process of dropping her AM nap, and it's actually been working out quite well. However, the poor girl is wiped-OUT by lunch time. I've started moving her lunch up a bit earlier, too, since one day I went over to the counter to mash some banananas (yes, I know I misspelled that, that's how we spell it at our house) for her, and when I turned around this is what I saw. Pretty precious, but I prefer her to sleep in her bed, so off we went. Suffice it to say there weren't many banananas eaten at that lunch!
We tried something a little new for dinner Tuesday evening: squid and bacon pizza. Pizza is kind of our traditional Tuesday PM dinner...and we typically have more traditional toppings, but we both like squid (we fix it in stir-fry once in awhile), and thought it would be fun to try. Well, it was OK. I don't think we'll make it again. It was fair, Aaron just wasn't a huge fan overall, said it was too salty among other things (this coming from the world's UNpickiest eater), and my biggest issue was actually the bacon. The taste just seemed to overpower everything else. OH well, it was fun to try, and here's a picture to commemorate the event. Yep, that's a squid in my hand. Next time I think we'll leave the squid for stir-fry.
And here's a sweet pic of Gemma-goo after her bath last night. The towel is the one I made for her about a month ago. It was a fun and EASY little sewing project. And if I say it was easy, then that most definitely means it was easy. I'm not exactly known for my patience when it comes to little projects like that.
My latest project is getting our Christmas mailing together and out. Yeeeesh, methinks we know too many people. I'm not even going to say how many we're mailing out, I'll just tell you that I have 33 finished, and many many more to go. Well, TTFN folks. Have a great weekend!!

Thanksgiving weekend

We have had a wonderful weekend...we've had ample time to spend together as a family, and for that I am quite thankful. I'm big on the "quality time" when it comes to love languages, so I love weekends like this. Thursday we were able to get some great family pics in the morning, thanks to my sis Michelle. I am relieved to have a nice looking pic of the three of us to send in Christmas cards, so we've got that whole process begun now. We spent lunch at my parents', and the evening at Aaron's parents'. Here are some of our favorite pictures.
Friday I hit the stores early with my dad, sis Mandy and her hubby Damien. Fun times as usual. The main deal that I was excited to get was the Fisher Price "Little People" Nativity. They had a really good price on it at the local Christian bookstore...and then to my delight my dad surprised me and purchased not only it but also the add-on shepherd kit. Pretty special, I was totally thrilled. Gemma just loves it, it's on her dresser and we look at it often. And I think it's great that she can pick the different pieces up and we don't have to worry about them break. Cool stuff.
Our other black Friday deal we ordered online, and that was our camcorder. We could get the same price (incredibly discounted I might add) by ordering online Thanksgiving day from Circuit City.com. Well, the choice was either that, or get there at like 3 Friday AM, stand in line, fight the crowds, and hope they didn't run out. Gee, guess which one sounded more appealing. AND, it has already come. I've charged the battery, but that's as far as I've gotten. I am just not much one for reading directions and figuring things out. I very much learn by doing, not by reading. Oh well, I'm sure it can't be too hard. We decided to go with the hard-drive version, that way no matter what way the technology goes, we will have a format that can be converted (IE, DVD, blu-ray, whatever they think up next, etc.) Should be a pretty good deal I think.

We also put up our Christmas decorations, so it's feeling quite festive around here.
Saturday AM Gemma and I helped daddy at his office, which was quite fun. Gemma did really well, I was proud of her. She is in the process of dropping her AM nap, so that's been interesting. I think we've finally struck an OK balance, in that she takes about a 15-20 minutes cat-nap around 10:45, and then is good until she lays down for her afternoon nap around 12:30/1. She seems to be doing quite well with the transition, it was definitely time.

In other news, Max has made the move indoors (for nighttimes/really cold days that is)...and we have struck a grand compromise (YAY!) Last year, the dog-box was in our living room. It was, errrr, just lovely to look at all winter, and even better when he started shedding. SOOOO, this year, he is living in the spare room, and we're all happy. Aaron is glad that Max doesn't have to endure the cold (he is short-haired, I really would feel badly keeping him out, too), I have my living room back, and Gemma is just thrilled to be able to crawl back to the spare room and see Max whenever she pleases. We had him in all morning and she thought that was pretty cool.
Well, this is getting quite long, I'm going ot sign off for now. Take care, and Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Funnies

I have several funnies to share, the first being a priceless quote from my dear hubby last night. Let me set the stage...it was about midnight - we'd been in bed since around ten - and I awakened from a quite sound sleep to the sound of Gemma crying. Nothing funny about that, it's a quite regular occurrence around here. Here's where the story takes a twist. My right leg was asleep, and when I say asleep, I mean AH-SLEEP. From the tips of my toes all the way up through my thigh. "Honey," I said, "can you go get the baby, my leg is asleep and I don't think I can walk to get her." His reply..."uh, can't we hit the snooze button one more time?" . . . .Let me know when someone invents one of those...I'll be the first in line to buy it. :-)

And in the Gemma department...if you will remember, I believe a few posts back I mentioned getting her a "Fridge Farm". Well, she really likes it, but I'm not sure she understands its purpose. First, her favorite thing to do was to take the entire farm off of the fridge and bang it on the ground. For some reason this was quite gratifying. Well, I was back finishing getting ready this AM, and heard Aaron chuckling quite loudly from the kitchen. "You've gotta come see this," he said. So, I head out to the kitchen to find my precious little daughter pulling the little animal magnets off the fridge, placing them on the floor, and ever so deliberately sliding them under the fridge as fast and hard as she can. She was having a blast, it was like she thought it was the funnest game ever. She gave us this look like, "gee mom and dad, thank you for buying me this awesome toy, you guys are the best." Sheer glee in that girl's eyes as I went to retrieve the yard stick only to find there is an entire colony of dust bunnies living under our fridge. Ugh. Guess they'll fit right in with the "farm" theme. She's also been having fun lately shoving blocks and other similar items under our couches. Must be a developmental stage they go through??? At any rate, thought you'd enjoy some humor for the day. Until next time...

Bathtime fun and other stuff

My little gal just loves her bath time. Recently we went ahead and just started using the entire tub instead of her little blow-up tub. She loves it, crawls around and splashes and just has a blast. Well, lately she has been doing a funny thing with her little rubber froggy. It must be just the right size for teething on, because she will stick it in her mouth at the beginning of the bath, and sometimes it will stay there for 10-15 minutes...I think she forgets about it. She just goes about her bathing business with this poor little frog's head in her mouth. It looks hilarious!
Also, I think we may have a little librarian in the family...the girl loves her books! Given the choice, I think she would play with them over her toys. She has recently started turning pages while we're reading bedtime stories, and that's pretty cute. These pictures are a little dark, I've been messing with my camera and I think I shut the flash off. SORRY!
Oh, and for the record, the Sams thing (see previous post) was a total come-on. Aaron and I and a rather impatient Gemma were there yesterday late-afternoon, and it was nuts. They would have, like, a small tray of really good samples and there would be super long line and they'd run out right away and most of the stands were empty and abandoned. I think they were just trying to get people in the store. Stinkers. I was really looking forward to havin' me some tasty samples. Oh well. Hope everyone is having a good weekend, thanks for checking in!

Consignment sale finds

Soooo, I was so thrilled to be able to make it to the Mulberry Bush Consignment Sale this Thursday morning, and let me tell you, it was so very worth it. If you have kiddos and don't shop consignment sales, I would highly recommend them. They're the next best thing to hand-me-downs! I didn't get many clothes for Gemma, but I struck gold with some toys. As you will see in the picture, we got a cute little plastic car thing, that converts into a push-behind walker, a soft-book called "Monkey See, Monkey Zoo", a little duckie crawler toy, and last but not least THE MUSICAL CATEPILLAR!!!!! My nephew has this toy and I've really been wanting to get it for Gemma. Every time, I mean every stinkin' time we go to Target I pick it up...and then put it back down...and then circle the aisle again. Seriously, it's priced $17 which really isn't all that bad, but none-the-less, I have yet to buy it. Well, thank goodness, because the one that you see pictured below is in brand new condition, all I had to do was replace the batteries, and I got it for ... drumroll please ... ... ... ... $4. YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So, as you can see by this post, I'm not sure who's more excited about her new toys, her or me. We both had fun playing with them last night, and she was quite taken by the duckie thing this morning while Aaron and I were getting ready. Fun times! The next upcoming sale is Just Between Friends and it's Feb. 12-14, so mark your calendars now.
In other news, Sams Club is having their "Taste of Sams Holiday Preview" this weekend, so if you are in the mood for some tasty free samples, stop on by. I've already been once, and I may go again. Yes, I am a loser and a sucker for free food prepared by someone else. What can I say?! I am really getting super excited for the Christmas/holiday season. I think more-so this year, probably due to the wee-one. I am finding it quite difficult to wait until Thursday (Thanksgiving) PM to start listening to Christmas music, but I will persevere. I had my dad copy Jim Brickman's "Peace" CD, and I think I will swap that in, instead of Gemma's lullabies for the duration of the season . It's nice and peaceful (no pun intended) and should make some fabulous Christmasy sleepy-time music.

Well, I think I'll sign off for now. I saw over on my email that my dad had sent me a link for the Black Friday ads, so I may have to check those out. Yes, I am one of those people. Have been for a number of years now. Once you start doing that, it's just hard to stop, and it's just so much fun...great way to kick-off the season!

Later, gators...

Shoes

So, there has been some debate between my siblings (namely my sis Michelle) and my mother and me over shoes. Shoes for wee-ones that is. You see, putting Gemma in shoes just seems pointless to me. I mean, seriously, she can't walk...she doesn't understand what they are...so come on, they're just one more thing to keep track of, right? Plus I know it's healthier for their feet just to go bare-foot/stocking-footed as long as possible. Well, now that winter has hit, apparently my mom and sis think this is quite goofy of me. Hey, at least I put her in socks!!!! At any rate, this picture is to prove that my daughter does indeed own shoes, and she actually wore them the other day!! Then I put them on her to got to Wal-Mart today and as I was getting her out of the car one fell of. Case in point. Never-the-less, here's your proof:
In other news, we had a great weekend. Aaron tackled and completed several house projects, so that was nice. As of tonight, we will again have a hand-towel rack in our master bathroom YAY!!! It's been down for almost a year. One of those things...there was just always something more important to do, and it wasn't as simple as just hanging the towel rack . The wall needed to be sanded, and painted, plus some other walls in the room needed a second coat of paint. So it was pretty involved...but there is light at the end of the tunnel. Lame, I know, that a towel rack is the highlight of my week, but, well, errrrr, moving on...

Gemma seems to be ready to kick her morning nap. We'll see how this goes, it's a big change, I just think it's time. Her eating is OK. We tried black beans today, and she ate several, with her own fingers, without being coaxed. Small successes. I also found these things called Baby Mum-Mum Rice Rusks, and she really seems to like them. So much that she shoved an entire huge chunk in her mouth at once and I had to fish it out and break it in small pieces so she wouldn't choke herself. Silly girl. Day by day, we'll figure this eating business out. :-)

Looking forward to shopping a new consignment sale this week. Typically they're just in the spring and fall...but this is a relatively new sale and they decided to hold a holiday one, so we'll see how it is. There are a few more clothing items I could use to pick up now that I have more an idea what size she'll be wearing for the rest of winter, and of course I'll be on the look out for some toys, as always. It's kind of a bummer having your oldest child's birthday within 3 weeks of Christmas. Any other kid it wouldn't matter because you'd already have all your toys from previous kiddos, but for the oldest...especially when they're so young and their developmental level changes from month to month when it comes to toy appropriateness. Oh well. I picked her up a "Fridge Farm" today (a magnetic farm set for the fridge that makes animal sounds) and that seems to be fun...for momma and Gemma!

Well, that's all for now I guess. Hope all you, my faithful readers out there, have a great week!

Sweetheart meme

Okay, so I've been tagged again, this time by my friend Patty. This one looked fun, I couldn't resist, and I'm always looking for something of interest about which to blog (I know my incessant ramblings about baby food, naps, and running errands probably get a bit, err, dull at times), so here goes:

Husband's Name: Aaron James

How long we've been married: 2 1/2 years

How long we dated: Hmmm, about a year-and-a-half. He had to win me over, he often tells me I was a tough nut to crack. I like to think that I'm just cautious and picky. ;-)

How old is he?: 29, about 11 months older than I.

Taller: Him, by just a few small inches. Enough that I'm good with it, I couldn't imagine being married to someone shorter than I. Is that bad?

Who can sing best?: He has a marvelous voice, but doesn't know much about reading music and whatnot. I've had more training, but I think my piano skills surpass my vocal skills.

Smarter?: Book smart, definitely him. Random knowledge smart, MOST definitely him. That boy remembers everything he hears. He is like a walking talking version of the History/Discovery/National Geographic Channel all wrapped up in one. He is very level-headed and certainly isn't lacking in the common-sense department either. I like to pride myself in the fact that I have better multi-tasking skills. That counts for something, right?

Laundry: Oh heavens, me me me. He is not allowed. I saw how he did laundry before we were married, and observed the fact that every piece of white clothing he owned was a dull greyish blue color. Nope, he doesn't touch the wash machine in our house. He says that if you do a job badly enough you won't be asked to do it again. Well, on this one that's quite fine with me.

Paying bills: Me, I'm much more computer savvy than he, and I have an analytical brain, so the budgeting and whatnot fascinates me. We both, however, have equal say in how our money is spent, and don't make purchases without consulting on it together.

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed?: Me. Why? Well, because.

Mows the lawn?: Him. He really enjoys it. I've offered, I used to mow at my parents', and I suppose if push came to shove I would, but it's just something that he prides himself in, and he does a mighty fine job at keeping the yard looking nice.

Cooks dinner: Both. He is a much better cook than I. Lots of times he gets home from work and cooks dinner while I am getting the wee-one to bed, and then we are able to eat together and chat about our respective days. What a guy! He probably does 2/3's of the cooking around here. We grill out a lot (as in, several times a week) and he enjoys cracking a beer and babysitting the grill.

Who's the first to admit when they're wrong?: Gosh, this is a tough one. To be completely honest, that man is so doggone level-headed he really rarely is truly wrong about something. I, on the other hand, tend toward emotional whims at times and blurt things out or do things which I immediately regret. So, while I think we're both equally good at admitting we are wrong, I probably do it more out of necessity.

Who kissed first?: Even though I was, as he has said, a 'tough nut to crack', he kissed me first. It was very sweet and I certainly reciprocated. :-D

Who wears the pants?: Oh, it's probably mutual. I have much stronger feelings about many things, and as long as they're not too absurd he typically acquiesces for the simple reason that he really doesn't care. He has had to put his foot down a time or two, and in retrospect I completely see why. I can be a bit, how shall we say, irrational at times.

So, wow, that was fun! And now I get to tag three more...so if you're game I shall tag:
Dannon
Amber
Sarah

Have fun!

Ten months

Hard to believe that just two short months from today we'll be celebrating little Gemma-goo's first birthday. Where has the year gone?! I have two pictures to share this go around...the first is of her not wanting to get her picture taken, and the second one, I believe, is the one we'll put in the baby-book, teehee.
Poor girl had a rather rough night last night. She would wake up and just moan, not even cry, just moan and shove her blankie in her mouth. I think she is working on more teeth. The never-ending battle. The waking up part isn't atypical, but the moaning part is, hopefully tonight is better. I am happy to report though, that she has started sleeping later in the mornings. About a month ago we decided to start pushing her bedtime back a little later (she'd been going down around seven) in hopes of pushing her wake-up time a little later (she'd been getting up around six, some days before). It has worked splendidly for the most part. Had a little setback around daylight savings, but since then she's been doing much better. I really like it that way too, the evenings don't seem so rushed, and we're all able to get a bit more rest in the mornings. As things stand now, she's been going to bed between 7:30 and 8PM, and awakens anywhere from 6:30-7:15AM. It's great! I think before too long she may begin to transition out of her morning nap, or at least to a shorter morning nap. We'll see. She is such a great napper, sometimes I think she may nap too well and that's why she wakes up during the night. WHOOOO knows?! At any rate, I think I may start capping her AM nap at about 1 1/2 hours and see what that does to our days. And now I have prattled on entirely too long about something that is probably of about zero interest to most of you. My apologies! At any rate, hope you enjoyed the pics.

Crisp fall days

Gemma and I have spent the past couple Fridays taking care of my sweet nephew, Ira, while his mommy and daddy (Michelle and Andy) work on finishing their basement and doing some other house projects. He is such a good boy, he's really very pleasant to be around...and it is fun seeing what it will be like to have two little munchkins. And no, I'm not insinuating anything so don't start any rumors please. We, obviously, plan and hope to have more than just Gemma though...so it was fun spending a day with two littles.

The wind finally died down after afternoon naps, so we made it out to the park. Ira had been asking, oh, since he got to my house at about 9AM. I still thought it was pretty chilly, but it didn't seem to phase the kids. They had a great time.
After playing at the park, we came home and they munched on some Cheerios in the kitchen.
It was a fun day. It is cute watching the two of them interact. Gemma is quite entertained by Ira, and Ira, likewise, is quite entertained by her. Although I must say it's a whole new world for him now that she's crawling. He used to be able to sit her wherever he felt like, hand her whatever toy he wanted her to play with, and he was good to go. Not so much anymore. He's such a sweet little cousin though, he's learning quite nicely the art of sharing and taking turns.

And now it's Saturday morning and I'm sitting here wiling away time on the Internet while the wee-one naps. Story of my life!! I am working on some laundry, though, and I unloaded the dishwasher too, so the morning hasn't been an entire waste! We don't have a whole lot up this weekend, so that is nice. I do not enjoy being busy busy all the time. I know some people do, but it's just not my idea of fun. I think we're going to try to take the wee-little girl and the puppy-dog up to the park sometime this weekend and go on a walk. Other than that, I think Aaron has a few yard projects and we'll probably just hang out and enjoy the crisp fall weather. Looks like it could get much colder later in the week. Ughhhhh... Until later, take care, and as always thanks for checking in with us!