Gemma wants to wish everyone a HAPPY HALLOWEEN!! She will likely be the world's only barking dragon (woof, woof, she says) teehee.
We had so much fun carving our jack-o-lantern last night together as a family. Gemma loved crawling around in the front lawn. She was fascinated by the grass, it was pretty cute. Sadly, "Jack" is no more. Some rotten kids smashed him all over our street. I was pretty sad, but I'm just glad Gemma is too young to understand. It would make me so sad to have to explain something like that to her. I guess it's kind of a "welcome to the world" though. Everything isn't always happy and good. And I know it's just a silly little $2 pumpkin from the grocery store, but to me it's a memory. It's something my husband and daughter and I did together, to make our porch festive for the holiday, and now we have an empty porch and I am a bit sad in my heart that some kids thought it was a good, or fun or whatever idea to take something like that from us, and smash it to smithereens. BooHOO. But, all in all, I am excited for this day. It's fun that it is Gemma's first Halloween, and I'm not going to let some misguided kids ruin it for us. So happy All Hallow's Eve to one and all!
So, I've been tagged by my friend Dannon, and now I have to do an entire post on five things that I would care not to admit to anyone, much less the general contingent of you out there who so faithfully frequent my little corner of the world. OH well, at least I get to choose two more of you to endure this. Teehee...here goes:1. I tend to be slightly, oh all right, a whole lot OCD. I over-analyze everything. I can't go to bed if there are dishes on the counter. I count the number of times I do things (IE, going up steps, brushes back and forth when brushing teeth, you get the idea). It bugs me if my house isn't picked up and clean at any given time. I live by my "To-Do" list. I am horrible at making decisions because I have to analyze the heck out of everything. I think I spent five minutes picking out a bunch of bananas at the grocery store yesterday. Whoooo, said enough on that one. Now that you all think I'm certifialby nuts, or at least certifiable, I have to move on to the next four...2. I would wear a sweatshirt and a pair of jeans every single day of the winter if I could and never anything nicer. I despise the cold weather, and hate it when I get cold and can't warm up. Sweatshirts are nice and warm and cuddly. I like them.3. My husband and I have eaten almost the entire 120-piece bag of Halloween candy we bought about a week-and-a-half ago. If you trick-or-treat at our house, looks like it's going to be "trick" this year. Yes. We are pigs.4. I still enjoy some of the books I read as a child/tween-ager. Given the chance, I honestly think I could read the entire Babysitters Club series, or Little House on the Prairie again...and enjoy them.5. On a more serious note, I am terribly judgmental. If I could get rid of one flaw, it would certainly be this one. I try, but I'm weak, and I fail. It makes me sad that I can't be more accepting and understanding of others. Of the five, this is certainly the one that I would like to work on and knock off this list. The others are what they are. :-DSooooooo, now you know. And, hmmmm, let's see...I shall tag Sarah B. and Erika H. Good luck!!
So, the hubby, the daughter and I took off Saturday afternoon for a (brief) weekend in southeast KS. What a fabulous time we had!! This was only the second time we've traveled with Gemma (the first was also to SEK back in April) and she did just great!! I was so proud of her, she took her naps, went to bed well, and was pleasant and sweet when she was awake. She was such a trooper with the time in the car on the way there/back (most of which she slept, as it was during afternoon naptime) plus the time we spent shuttling back and forth to various places down there.
We stayed with Aaron's great uncle Bill and his wife LoraJean. Aaron lived with Bill while he was at Pitt State (Bill was a bachelor then). Aaron did most of his cooking, plus just kept him company, as his first wife had died not too long before Aaron started college. The two of them have such a special relationship, I think it's really sweet.
Gemma had all kinds of fun. She got to visit the cows at uncle Bill's farm. Her ornery dad kept on saying, "Gemma, what do the cows say? Cows say neigh. Say 'neigh' for the cows, Gemma." What a goofball.
Here is a picture of Gemma and me and the back of Uncle Bill's house. It is a huge ranch built in the late 70's on several acres just outside of Pittsburg.
Here she is with Uncle Bill's puppy dog, Shad. This is one fat dog, let me tell you. Too much leftover fried-chicken, methinks.
And here she is showing off her newfound crawling skills down the long hallway.
We went to Mass Saturday evening at Our Lady of Lourdes in Pittsburg and got to see our good friend Fr. David Marstall afterwards. And Gemma was so patient during Mass. His aunt and uncle like to get there about 1/2 hour before Mass starts. Nothing wrong with that, but an hour and a half is a looong time for a wee-little one to sit on mom or dad's lap, face the front and be quiet. She got restless after about 45 minutes, but really did well all in all. I only had to stand up and go to the back with her once.We had to skip Barto's Idle Hour (best fried chicken and polka dancing ever). It would have been too late, too loud, and too smokey for miss Gemma-goo. Oh well, such is life, I'm sure we'll make it back there someday. And we have lots of fun memeories of Saturday evenings spent there...eating fried chicken, having mixed drinks, and dancing with a bunch of people twice our age. Good times. We did order out from Chicken Annies, which is right down the road from Uncle Bill's, and that was quite the tasty treat. Can't go to SEK without eating fried chicken...I think that's some sort of law. Anyone who's had fried chicken from SEK knows it's something special. And if you haven't had it, I'd highly recommend it.Sunday lunch was also something I had been looking forward to since we decided to go down this weekend....the home-cooked turkey dinner at St. Michael's in Girard. We just happened to go down on this same weekend last year too, and just happened to go to the dinner, and holy cow...GOOD STUFF!! We're talking turkey, dressing, green beans, potatoes, gravy, sweet potatoes, cranberries and homemade pie. Full meal deal. It. Was. Awesome.
Gemma camped out in her umbrella stroller and just took it all in while Aaron and I were eating.
We stopped by his grandparents' farm in St. Paul briefly on the way back (see pic below of Hofer g-parents), and got home around 4PM yesterday. Aaron mowed the lawn and we ended the weekend with a family walk with the boisterous dog who was quite glad to see his family after 24 hours away. Good times.
Oh, and one last picture I have to post. When we were about to Andover, we noticed something very odd on the semi-trailer about 3 cars in front of us. We couldn't really figure out what exactly it was. It was blue and big and had some sort of tail sticking out of it. When we reached Andover and a stoplight, Aaron pulled up next to it and this is what we saw. It was pretty funny, I just had to take a picture. I guess they are amusement park rides. Still, it's not every day you see the four bears (yes, there were two sets of these) driving down the highway.
Gemma and her cousin Ira (my sis Michelle's little boy) have so much fun spending time together at grandma's with their mommies. Here are some pictures from a recent visit.Ira is showing Gemma how to work the toy cash register. He was so patient with her.You see, it goes like this.
And then you do this...
Good job, Gemma, you did it!
Gemma has had a whole new world open up to her now that she's crawling. So has Ira. He was playing with his toy computer, and Gemma kept crawling up to him, so he'd pick the computer up, move to another spot, plop down, and continue "checking his emails". This went on about three times, and he picked the little computer up, put it under his arm, walked up to me and said "ummm, Monica, do you think you could hold Gemma?" Soo funny. Like I said, whole new world for both of them.Bath time is always a fun activity they look forward to after dinner. Ira has even learned to sign bath, and gets so excited to tell Gemma it's time for a "bath".
Ira is such a sweet cousin to Gemma. Here he is saying good night before bedtime. "I love my cousin!"
Watch out world, sweet Gemma Grace has learned how to crawl!! Yesterday evening I took her back to our room, and set her down on the floor as I always do when I'm doing stuff back there, only this time she promptly turned around and crawled over and grabbed a shoe (her favorite toy). I hardly believed my eyes, so I had her do it again. And again. And then she crawled for daddy when he got home too, that time for a wet wash-cloth (another fave of late)! Here's a pic of her crawling before bed last night.
And with "the prize"!
So, momma is quite proud of her wee-little girl. She's so precious, she'll go a few "crawls", and then stop and kind of bang her hand on the ground as if she's saying "oh brother, now how do I do this?" Then she'll sit up, scrunch her face up and think about it a bit, and be off again. Sooo sweet. Thanks for checking in, it's fun updating about these exciting milestones.
We have found a food that Gemma absolutely fell in love with the first time she tried it...BANANAS! Everything else has taken a bit for her to warm up to, not this. She was opening her mouth like a baby-bird for more after the first few bites. And between breakfast and lunch today, she's eaten about 4/5's of a banana...that's in addition to her regular fare. And when I say regular, I mean REG U LAR. That girl eats the same thing each and every meal (except for breakfast when she has oatmeal). And I mix it all together, since it's easier that way...it's a little (??) combo of sweet potatoes, carrots, beef, chicken, peas and green beans. HEY, it's a casserole, right?! We've just started introducing the fruits within the past week. She's had pears, which were iffy, maybe a bit tart...prunes which she's done OK with, and now the bananas which she adores. I am guessing that maybe she'll like peaches, too. We'll give the bananas a few days to make sure there are no allergies with those, and then move on to something else. And, we had a breakthrough in the finger-food department yesterday: Gemma ate a cheerio. She picked it up, looked at it, and very deliberately placed it in her mouth. She gagged as if I were feeding her liver and onions, but by golly she swallowed it. Maybe there is hope after all. And all this speaking of food serves to remind me yet again that I need to get started on processing more stuff, as my stash in the freezer is getting low. It's tough during the days though, as the poor dear is not a fan of the sound the processor makes, so typically I have to wait until after bed or when daddy is home. I figured maybe I could make the stuff up this afternoon during naptime and then refrigerate it until later this evening. Instead I've been wasting time on the internet... Story of my life.
One last thing, my parents ran the Wichita Marathon yesterday. I was so proud of them!! It was my dad's fifth and my mom's first. We went down for the finish, and it was so exciting. It made me happy and sad all at the same time...made me miss it sooooo much. I know I'll get back into it someday. Gemma needs me now, and that's fine. She is my priority. Being down at the race did really make me realize how much I miss running though. But, point is, my parents both did fabulous and I was proud of both of them!! Here is a pic of them after the race, and one for posterity's sake of me, my dad, and Coach Kenton (whom, I might add, ran a sub three-hour yesterday YAY) from when we all three ran back in 2006.
We have definitely been enjoying the cool weather, although I must say I really do dread the thought of winter. Ohhhh, the cold days, shivering every time you step outside, continually having to crank the heat up indoors (errr, yeah, a bad habit of mine)... I tell you though, once you're cold, it's just hard to get warm. And then there's the snow and ice that can seem to coop one up indoors endlessly. Everything is blah and colorless. Ummm, OK, enough griping. Fall is gorgeous and I am thrilled with the beautiful weather, I suppose I'll just make the most of this winter and whatever weather it brings, and look forward eagerly to spring and the new life that brings as I always do! :-) At any rate, thanks for listening to me whine. So, with the pending cooler weather, my hubby has been on my case to get a stocking hat and some mittens for Gemma. Amongst all the things we have gotten for her, those items have not been included, so we made a little trip to Target the other afternoon. Little did I know the choices that would lie before me. Since Gemma likes going on walks with her buddy Max, we thought this selection seemed quite fitting...and it's especially cute as she knows how to say "woof", and says it quite often, especially when she sees or hears a dog!
It was so cool and rainy on Monday, that I decided to bake bread. Yes, it is true, although I am about the furthest thing from a domestic goddess when it comes to all things kitchen, I can bake bread. It's something my grandma taught me to do years ago, and I have many fond memories of spending time in her kitchen learning the ins and outs of mixing, kneading, letting it rise, punching it down (that was always the most fun), making rolls and loaves, etc. Soooo, it was with many fond thoughts of my dear grandma (who is now passed away) that I baked up a loaf and some rolls of wheat bread on that cool day.
The warm oven felt splendid, and I had a nice warm feeling in my heart thinking about the wondreful woman my grandma was. How I wish I could introduce her to my little girl, I know grandma would love her, and Gemma, likewise, would love her great-grandma. She was an amazing woman. She always had time for her grand-kiddos, her love for the Catholic faith was so evident in her daily life, and she just, well, she typified the word "grandma". She was amazing (I think I said that once already). I have a plentitude of fond memories of my grandma, and for these I am thankful. I pray Gemma has the opportunity to create many wonderful memories with her grandparents also.
Just wanted to update, Gemma had her nine-month well-baby appointment today. It went quite well, I like our doctor so very much. He is so thorough, and just great with little Gemma. Gemma was 17 lbs 12 oz. (25th %ile) and 29 inches (90th %ile). And, for the pleasant surprise, there are no shots at nine-months! YAY!!! She really has done well with all her vaccinations thus far, but it was just nice not to have to worry about it this go-around. And the doctor cleaned her waxy little ears, so that was nice. That girl had some wax in her ears, let me tell you!Well, I suppose I shall sign off now, and spend the rest of the evening hanging out with the hubby and watcing some baseball!
Enjoying life...that's certainly what we've been doing in this neck of the woods. Poor Aaron had a small bump in the road the other night...ate some bad chicken livers (thanks Dillons deli) and was quite violently ill overnight on Friday. Thank goodness it was short-lived, and he's back up to par for the most part now. And little Gemma-goo has turned nine-months old. Every 11th of the month it seems I reflect on how she has grown and changed over the past month. What I can't put my finger on, is, when exactly she became not a newborn/infant/teeny-tiny baby anymore. Sounds silly, I know, but all of a sudden, it hit me, just amazing how quickly they grow. I tell you, I love that wee little one so much, it's difficult for me to even comprehend. I could just gush. On and on and on. I will spare you here, but I will say it just awes and amazes me every time I think about this sweet innocent little soul, this tiny being, whom God has entrusted to Aaron's and my care. Wow. Wow.
OK, so here is the obligatory monthly sofa pic. I had to take it in her cloth diaper and a shirt because, well, I just think she looks so doggone cute in her little diapers. Can't see it too well in this pic, but none-the-less... If you'd like to see the "professional" ones, scroll down a bit, they're in my previous post.
I think I have talked a bit about our dog, Max. He is a 1 1/2 year old weimaraner. He is quite high-energy, but really he has mellowed an amazing amount since we got him. I am so glad that Gemma has a dog to grow up with, and let me tell you, those two are already buddies. Here's a pic of her getting a "kiss", and the next one I am quite proud of if I do say so myself, getting both dog and baby to look (and smile) for the camera. I think Max was moving, you can kind of see the motion-blur in the pic. But none-the-less, a pretty good one!
And I'll end with some family pics from today at DeGraffenreid's. Gemma's cousin Cooper is just eight days older than she. They were pretty cute together. Cooper can crawl all over and pull himself up, so Gemma was pretty fascinated watching him. And they had fun playing together too. And of course grandpa Ron always loves having both grand-kiddos on his lap.
Gemma and I took a nice walk around the lake before dinner this evening, we sat for awhile and watched the water and the ducks, and enjoyed playing some at the park. It was a good day. Gemma ate a humongous dinner, had a fun bath, and fell asleep in my arms as she always does. Life is good.
Not too much to say, but I just have to share some pictures from today. We have had a fabulous weekend so far! I decided to go to my parents' this AM, as my uncle is in town. We got there before anyone was up, so we got to surprise everyone (they didn't know we were coming)! Here's one of grandpa and grandpa with little missy-moo doing her movie-star impression.
Gemma had her breakfast and went down for her nap, and I had such a nice time visiting with my parents and uncle. After her nap my mom and I went to the Craft and Food Fair at St. Elizabeth's. We put Gemma in her umbrella stroller, and she was just soooo good. Didn't buy much of anything, but it was quite a fun time walking around and chatting with many different people. We ended up bringing some yummy bierocks back to their house for lunch, for which Daddy joined us.
After that daddy headed off to the gym, Gemma took her afternoon nap and my mom, brother-in-law and I played a game of Scrabble (which, AHEM, I won). After naptime we headed up to the gym to meet daddy and spent some fun time in the swimming pool. Gemma just had a blast (in case you can't tell by the pictures).
We got home and she ate a great dinner and went right to bed (after a short bath...figure she got her water fix at the pool, hehe!) As a sidenote, she has recently begun going to town on her greens. I had been having a tough time getting her to eat much green stuff at all (green beans/peas), and my sis mentioned it might be the texture that was bothering her, not the taste. So, I thawed out several cubes, put in a few teaspoons of rice cereal, and ran them through the pulverizer again. Wellll, that did the trick. They are a much creamier texture, and Gemma is doing great with them now. I am thrilled because this rounds her diet out nicely (she does fabulous with sweet potatoes and chicken). A pretty monotonous diet, but oh well, at least she's eating healthily, and she is still breastfeeding so she gets lots of nutrients from that. I think we will probably introduce some fruits here in the next several weeks, now that she is eating veggies and meat (well, chicken) quite well. Still not a huge fan of the beef, but we'll keep working on that. And hopefully she will decide she has half an interest in Cheerios. That one still has me bugged.
So, the weekend's only half over, and overall we have just had a fabulous time so far. Thanks for checking in with us.
It has been a nice week around here. Fairly uneventful, hence my lack of posting. I had to go on a stinking man-hunt to find a dress for the wee little girl's nine-month pictures, though. Good heavens! I absolutely refuse to spend much $$ on her clothes, it just seems ridiculous. We've been blessed by a very generous patient of my husband's and her (mint condition totally amazing completely fabulous) hand-me-downs, and I like to shop the local consignment sales. Other than that I really haven't bought Gemma many "new" outfits. Well, we're having pictures done, and I just figure if you're investing money in pictures, then your kiddo really should look nice. And I wanted a dress. Not asking too much I don't think. Well, nothing NOTHING I could find was working. We have a ton of cute frilly summer sun-dresses, but we're kind of past that season, and most of our fall clothes are just of the "every-day" pants variety. She seems to be kind of either in between sizes, or just proportioned in a way that everything fits funny, and so much of what I found was A-line, which doesn't work for sitting down pics. Well, finally today I ended up at Kohl's, and they had racks of cute dresses. I found a sweet corduroy one with polka dots in several shades of pink and brown. I am quite happy with it, and the little pair of pink ruffle socks to go along with. Not thrilled about the money I spent on something she will wear once or twice, but at least it is a dress we will be happy with in her pictures. And Aaron really liked it too, so all the better. Whew! Thanks for listening to my rant. I'm finished, I promise. So we will have it and a cute little pants outfit, plus her Halloween costume (which will be a surprise, unless you come to our house and then my husband can't contain himself and will show it to you) and between those three items I am hoping to get some good pictures. I am really excited now that I know what she is going to wear... she has changed a lot since her six-month photos so it will be fun to have some updated ones around the house and to give to people.The nice weather has led to many nice walks for our family. Here is one of Aaron and Gemma the other morning. I love the pretty sunrise lighting.
I tried to get one of him and her and the puppy dog, but do you know how hard it is to get a baby and a puppy dog to look at the camera at the same time?? Forget it!!Max is just so gentle with Gemma, and she absolutely loves him. I think someday they will be good playmates!
Well, that's all for now I suppose. Hope everyone has a fabulous weekend. Enjoy the amazing weather.
We had so much fun carving our jack-o-lantern last night together as a family. Gemma loved crawling around in the front lawn. She was fascinated by the grass, it was pretty cute. Sadly, "Jack" is no more. Some rotten kids smashed him all over our street. I was pretty sad, but I'm just glad Gemma is too young to understand. It would make me so sad to have to explain something like that to her. I guess it's kind of a "welcome to the world" though. Everything isn't always happy and good. And I know it's just a silly little $2 pumpkin from the grocery store, but to me it's a memory. It's something my husband and daughter and I did together, to make our porch festive for the holiday, and now we have an empty porch and I am a bit sad in my heart that some kids thought it was a good, or fun or whatever idea to take something like that from us, and smash it to smithereens. BooHOO. But, all in all, I am excited for this day. It's fun that it is Gemma's first Halloween, and I'm not going to let some misguided kids ruin it for us. So happy All Hallow's Eve to one and all!
