You just never know

Quite crazy weather we've been having around here. The rain-gage on our deck shows 4 inches of sleet. Yep. Oh happy day. And more snow is currently falling. On the positive side of things, I guess it is some much needed moisture.

Oh well, it did give us one more chance for a fire in the fireplace, even though we'd already cleaned out all the ashes and remnants of fires past.
And one more opportunity to wear footie-jammies.
Oh, and on the "newsie" side of things, miss Gemma-goo took her first wobbly steps yesterday. Mommy and daddy are quite proud. At first she didn't realize what was going on, but later in the afternoon I think she really got that it was something big, and would stop mid-stride to clap for herself. Pretty cute, if I do say so myself. So congrats to precious Gemma for this newest accomplishment! Way to go, sweet baby (?) girl!!

Adventures in diaper making

I have been cloth-diapering Gemma since August, and I absolutely love it. I wish I had started when she was a newborn. The main diaper I use is called a contour. It's similar to a prefold (of which I also have a handful) but has much less bulk. And no more diaper pins, they make the coolest thing called a Snappi, and it works great! Instead of the old "plastic pants", I use a cover called Thirsties, which does a great job at holding in the leaks (and poo), and is very easy to put on and remove. I have a friend who makes some of her own diapers, and when I read a recent "how to" post on her blog, I figured, "why not give it a try?!" I've never been much for sewing. It's not that I don't want to, it's more of a patience thing, or lack-there-of. Those of you who know me would concur, for sure. I am one who learns by doing...by having someone sit right beside me and guide me through something. Very kinesthetic. So the thought of following a pattern and reading directions and then figuring out how to not break the sewing machine is always a bit daunting for me. But I've been trying to work on my patience level, and this seemed like just the challenge. And oh golly-goodness, this was downright EASY! And FUN!!! Who knew?! Even the elastic, which really had me worried at first, was so simple.

I had such fun picking out some cute flannels. I tried to stay pretty gender neutral when it came to prints, since we hope to have more wee-ones - God be willing!

I started by cutting out the different layers.
I won't bore you with a play by play of the rest (you can read the directions on Erin's blog, linked above, if you're interested) but like I said, it was so easy! I worked during naptime yesterday afternoon, and finished up this morning at my mom's. And I did it all by myself!! Yay for a confidence booster! I can't wait to make more. Here is a pic of the finished product.
Trying it on...it fit great!
Look at her sweet little tushie (yes, it does need a diaper-cover, but I couldn't resists snapping a shot of her cute lil' bottom all diapered up).
There are a few modifications I'll make next go-around (glad I only did one to start), but overall I'm so very pleased with how this turned out. Just wanted to share. Thanks for humoring me!

A tale of Gemma and her daddy

So, I want to take this post to brag on my hubby. He is such a doggone good (and patient I might add) guy. He is so wonderful with little Gemma. Lately, for whatever reason, she has been having trouble in that she wakes up an hour or so after bedtime, or has a tough time falling asleep in the first place, and it is wayyyyy tough to get her back to sleep. Or to stay asleep I should say. She will fall asleep easily in your arms, but then the minute we put her down in her crib she awakens. It has been frustrating me to no end, but my ever-patient husband just rolls with the punches. Well, she awoke around 9 last night, and he said, "I'll go." SIDE-NOTE: We recently took the bumper off her crib. It made me sad (yes, I'm a sentimental dork) when we put it away, and I know Gemma was even a bit taken aback as I was taking it down. She stood in her crib and said, "oh, bye," and waved (it has sweet farm animals on it to whom she likes to point and talk). I found some great farm-animal print at Hancock and made her a sweet pillow and blanket to take the bumper's place. Anyways, I am getting totally side-tracked now, so back to the matter at hand: crying baby at 9pm who does not sound like she is going to go back to sleep on her own. SOOOO Aaron goes in there and I finished doing some stuff in our room. I decided to peek in and thought it was odd that the glider wasn't rocking. Then I looked further, to find Gemma sleeping in a heap in her crib (I can see her from the door now that the bumper is gone), her seahorse playing and glowing softly, and my sweet, sweet hubby lying on the floor by her crib. Not 5 minutes later he was back out, and she was asleep, in her crib, without having to be picked up, set down, transfered, etc. Yes, you read that right, he did not pick her up!! Just helped her sit down, laid down on the floor beside her, and he said she laid down right away (now that the bumper is gone she can see him down there, and he could reach in and pat her back), started her seahorse, and went right back to sleep. YAY for Gemma and DOUBLE YAY for Daddy.

Here is a picture of the crib - sans the bumper - and the pillow I made. Isn't the print so cute? The blanket is the same (flannel) with a decorative stitch (a la my mom's machine) around the outside. I think it looks very sweet in place of the beloved bumper. Here's to more good beddy-by time!

Healthy...and not so healthy habits

I have been trying to be really good about brushing Gemma's teeth (all eight of them) lately. It's been tough, simply because it isn't yet a 'part of the routine' yet. But we're getting there. And she LOVES it!!! I snapped some pics last night of her brushing them all by herself. I'm not sure if she was really brushing or just sucking the toothpaste off (I got this all natural, flouride free, strawberry-banana stuff, and I'm thinking it must be pretty tasty). At any rate, she thinks it's great when I brush them, she just opens up her mouth and giggles, like I'm tickling her gums or something.
So that is the "healthy habits" portion of my post.

Here is the "not so healthy habits" portion. This was daddy's idea. Don't worry, the tray has since been scrubbed down with lots of hot soapy water. Gemma was quite tickled to have someone help clean up her leftovers...
I love the look on her face in the first one. "HOLY COW, GUYS!!!!! Did you notice that there is a dog eating my dinner?!"

Priceless

We have gone to the zoo the past two mornings, it has been GREAT!! Yesterday we went with my sis and her little guy, and today we went with daddy, YAY!!!!!!!!!!! I just think this picture of daddy and magoo looking at the hippos is priceless. Sooooo sweet, like father like daughter. I just had to share.
Gemma is certainly getting a bit big for the front-carrier, but she just loves it. I think she just likes being at eye-level like everyone else. Who could blame her? Much more personal than carting around in the stroller.
So yesterday we got to see the elephants working with the trainer, which was pretty cool. We visited the gorillas, to which Gemma said "woof, woof, lilla" about five times. It was so sweet, she is starting to understand and repeat so much! Most everything still barks, but she will answer "peep-peep" if you ask what the chicks say, and "neeeeee" if you ask what the horse says, and "baaaaa" for the sheep...most of the time. Or she will just stare at you as if you're from another planet. And then bark. My silly girl. :-D Today we heard the lion roar, visited the "monkey-type" animals, breezed thru the North America area, saw some sleepy brown bears, and a few various other things. It was a great morning. We're definitely lovin' spring over this way!

Dinner and a show

So here's a funny story/visual for you. I believe I have mentioned before that Gemma kind of has a love/hate relationship with pretty much every food out there. Well, lately we are finding at mealtime that if Aaron stands beside her high chair and sings in a high falsetto voice and dances around doing all sorts of goofy things, Gemma will eat quite well, no matter what I'm feeding her. Odd, I know. Such is parenthood I guess. Well, I hear the little munchkin awakening from her happy-nappy. Gotta run!!

Great day to feed the ducks

So the weather is getting nicer again, YAY!!!! We decided to venture out a bit before lunch this morning to feed the ducks around the lake.
As we were walking down the path we noticed some in a neighbor's yard, so I started tossing them bread, and they came a little closer.
Gemma was so excited to see them. "Ohhhhh, duck, duck!"
I was able to coax them down to the water.
I kept tossing the bread to them, showing Gemma just how it was done. She was fascinated. However, I guess she didn't quite put two and two together with the whole process. This is what she did with her bread for the duckies.
Oh well, I don't think they'll starve!

The good, the bad...

Well, we had a little over three weeks of nights that were ah-MA-zing with miss G. Twelve blissful hours of sleep (for her, not us) with typically one brief awakening. If she woke up any more she would easily resettle on her own. It was thrilling (yes, I'm a nerd). And then daylight savings and one-year molars happened, and, well, goodbye bliss. We have finally (I think) adjusted to the time change and are back to our regular times of doing things, but doggone her past two nights have been rough to say the least. During the day, when I think like a normal functioning human being, I'm able to be a bit more pragmatic about it and realize that things will, indeed (eventually) get better. She has proven that she CAN do it, when things are going well, but those stinkin' teeth. Grrrrrrrrrrrr... Aaron says he thinks the issue is that she has trouble falling into that deep sleep because she's uncomfortable. This causes her to be very restless and thus wake up very easily. If we pick her up, she immediately falls asleep in our arms, but the second we set her down she just gets so worked up. Poor gal. As I said, I'm a bit more clear-headed about it during daylight hours (Aaron says I turn into a different person when it gets dark...is that bad?) but boy these nights have been frustrating. We'll get there I suppose, and I'm thankful for the weeks of great nights we had, I guess if nothing else it showed me that it is indeed possible, and hopefully we'll be there again. Sometime. Soon??

Happy weekend and spring-break, everyone! Here's to some warmer weather.

Gemma is 14 months

Well, in case you haven't noticed, I always take a picture of Gemma on the 11th (the day she was born). My mom did this with my siblings and me, and it's so much fun to look back at the monthly pictures through the years, so I decided to do it with Gemma too. It is getting increasingly more difficult, as she becomes more mobile, to get her to stay put on the couch long enough to capture a decent picture. As you can see by the montage below, here's how the morning picture session went...

First, she thought it was tons of fun to get a bunch of momentum and bounce backwards off the back of the couch. While doing this she laughed incontrollably, it was soooo cute.
So after a bit of this, she decided she would take a dive forward. Thank goodness she didn't go too far (yes, she stayed put on the couch, barely)!
Then she kept tipping over, silly girl!
Then she became very fascinated with her shoes, and was doing this funny half-smile thing with her mouth.
I think I finally managed to get a couple good ones!
Happy 14 months, sweet Gemma-goo!

Cute story

With the time-change, we have been running about an hour behind around here with everything. Therefore, Aaron was gone for work before Gemma was up this morning. She woke up, and was a little surprised to see me come in her room (Aaron almost always gets her up). She was her sweet little self though. I talked to her for a bit and opened her curtains, then got her out of bed and started out to the living room. As we were walking down the hallway she says, "Daddy? Where's daddy? Nana?" It just amazes me what she can put together. Not only did she realize he wasn't around, but she was worried about who would be her "banana-buddy" (she and daddy always share a 'nana' while watching the weather). Such a sweetie. Mommy tried to fill the void, and she did eat some of the banana, but it just wasn't the same. :-D God bless daddy!

Gemma's shopping cart

One of my "finds" at this week's consignment sale was a little shopping cart for Gemma. I had just been reminiscing about the one I had as a child, and wondering if they still made toy shopping carts, and low and behold I stumble upon this one...for THREE DOLLARS!!!! It is so cute, and it is really tall (so matches up well with Gemma-goo), and it's very sturdy. She LOVES it, it's great for her to push around, plus she really likes putting things in and taking things out (that seems to be a favorite thing to do of hers lately...she is a great helper when it comes time to "clean-up".) Other than the cart, I found some more spring/summer clothes. Not a ton, but some cute/good stuff. In fact I had to pull out a pile of short-sleeve stuff and wash it up for her the other day with this warm weather we've been having. Yippee!! I think she looks quite sweet in her sunny-yellow shirt below.

Gemma's new jammies

Doesn't she look so grown-up?? Such a little sweetie.

Had to take a moment to blog about our evening Monday, too. We ended up in Minor Emergency, Gemma having a temp of 105. Yes, you read that right. Strange thing is, by Tuesday morning she was fine again. Yes, again, you read right, and if you're thinking "man, deja-vous Monica, I could swear I read something very similar to this last week," you are absolutely right, sans the trip to the doctor. The only thing I can figure is it is some strange thing with her teething, as she is working on her 1yr molars. She had no symptoms at ME besides the fever and her ears were a bit red. The doctor was just wonderful, she was so sweet and gentle with Gemma, and treated me like she had all the time in the world to spend. I could go on and on...God is so good. She wrote a Rx for amoxicillan but said we could let it ride a few days before deciding whether to fill it or not and see how she does. They gave her Tylenol while we were there, and said to continue it every four hours. Well, when I went in her room at 10pm (four hours later) I delicately felt her forehead so as not to wake her, and she was cool as a cucumber. I kept up this pattern, checking her every hour to hour-and-a-half all night, and she never, ever spiked that fever again. Craziness!!!! She was a little rough around the edges yesterday morning, and tried to take a bite out of our living room floor yesterday afternoon (um, can you say 'my gums hurt'?) but daddy looked in her ears yesterday and they were all clear and she hasn't had a fever since. So we are still antibiotic free and only ended up having Tylenol once with all that. Who would think? Is there some kind of weird Monday-virus out there that I don't know about or what? This is just nuts! At any rate, I am very thankful to Jesus for taking such good care of my baby with such a high fever. That was scary, and you could just tell she was absolutely miserable, poor girl. But, as you can see by the picture above (taken before bed last night) she has made a 180 turn around. What is that line I use about those kiddos keepin' you guessing??? My, my!

Fun with daddy, and some great progress

Gemma and her daddy have several fun things they've been doing lately. First, Aaron has taken to throwing Gemma up in the air. Don't worry, he hardly lets her leave his hands, and we have a vaulted ceiling, so no risk of head bonks. And as you can see by the intent look on his face below, he is concentrating very hard on being careful. And Gemma just LOVES it, you should hear her squeal. I really need to just video it, because the still shots just don't do justice at conveying her sheer glee.
They also have a fun game they play with Gemma's goldfish. But first, let me give you some background info. We started giving her goldfish a few weeks ago, we get the whole-grain ones (cheese and roasted corn flavors), and she really seems to like them. I refer to them as “crackers” to her. The other day I was holding her in the kitchen and she kept reaching and saying "cackee, cackee". It took a minute to figure it out, but she was asking for a "cracker". Way to go, girl! Well, she and her daddy have this game where he takes a goldfish and puts it in one of his fists and then holds both closed fists in front of her and she has to choose which one. She loves it, and they’ll play for 10-15 minutes at a time. SOOOO, today she was sitting in her highchair while I was finishing fixing her lunch. I had given her some goldfish to keep her entertained while she waited. All of a sudden I hear “cackee, daddy, cackee, DADDY”, and she is holding up a goldfish as if to call Aaron to come play their game. It was soooo sweet.

I recently purchased some room-darkening drapery panels for Gemma's room, and they really seem to be making a difference at nap-time and in the morning before she gets up. They don't black the room out 100%, but they really do darken it a lot. Last week Aaron was able to install the decorative rod so we could put her farm-animal valance back up. I'm very happy with the results (both how it looks, and how they help).

And here’s the “great progress” part of the post. For the past week or so, Gemma’s nighttimes have really taken a turn for the better. She’s been awakening less frequently, and many times she will awaken and just make a bit of noise and then resettle herself and go back to sleep without help from mom or dad. Well, last night SHE DID IT!!!! For the first time EVER, she slept through the night. Went to bed at 7:45 PM, and woke up a little before 8 this morning. WaHOOOOO!!!!! I was so proud of her. I did hear her twice, once around 9:30p and again around 5:30a, but both times she quickly quieted and resettled, I never had to go in to help her or nurse her or anything. That’s my GIRL!!!! I certainly realize we still will have a ways to go with our nighttimes, but the progress over the past week to week-and-a-half just amazes me. God is good. Just wanted to share, I know I had a pretty whiny post here a few Thursdays ago, so wanted to be sure and pass on the good word. And here are a few pics after her "big night." Her look says it all, "Good grief! What's with the bright flash first thing in the morning?! Mom, seriously, enough with the documenting-every-moment-of-my-life-with-pictures business already!"

Such a sweet little Gemma-goo!