Gemma's most recent favorite game to play with her daddy is called "night-night". It consists of getting on our bed, sitting up, saying, "naaaa-naaaaat," slamming her head down in a pillow as hard as possible, making snoring noises, and giggling uncontrollably. It's pretty funny, and she will do this for quite a long period of time!!
And couldn't resist adding these pics of her spaghetti dinner tonight. She really ate a lot, and enjoyed herself while doing so! The last three in this series, daddy is playing their other favorite game with her. He takes a straw and blows it at her, or in the arms of her shirt or wherever and she thinks it is absolutely hilarious!!!
I have been a bit negligent in the blogger world lately, mainly I think because I've been feeling kind of yucky. Some days a lot yucky. But it shall pass. Sometime. Hopefully soon, but it is what it is. And so totally worth it, in retrospect especially. Sometimes it's hard to see the forest for the trees. But we are all so excited for this new little one! Life is good.
I digress however... This post, as it was named, was supposed to be about my sweet Gemma-goo and what she's been up to of late. The girl is talking up a storm. Oh my goodness, non-stop. No idea where she gets it. HA! She will just sit and repeat one word over and over sometimes. Like she is now. In her highchair, with a washrag covering her face. Goofy to the max. And memories of some certain parents making the comment, "talking just to hear oneself talk" about a certain daughter of theirs. Not sure to whom they were referring but, well...Her latest is saying, "mommy (or baby, or whatever other item for which she is looking) aaaaayoooo (where are you)?" It's pretty cute. She has gone from signing "more" to signing "please" when she wants something. It's pretty sweet. Sometimes I have to remind her to "ask nicely" but she promptly aquiesces and it's so cute. And she's been saying "tays (thanks) mommy" for quite some time now, so she's doing pretty good in the manners department. She also loves to get a pillow, or get up on our bed with daddy, and pretend she's going night-night. She will bury her head in the pillow and say "nigh-niiiiiiight" and then make kind of a snoring/deep breathing sound. She would do this for hours I think.We got a kiddie-pool for the deck just today, and already enjoyed an afternoon of swi...errrr splashing around. I'm sure we'll wile away many hours in it in the HOT weeks to come, so I'll be sure to post pics soon. Well, the wee-one beckons, so off I go. Just thought I'd give a brief update. More later + pics. I promise!!CHEERS!
Gemma and her daddy on Father's Day. And her beloved "baby", of course!
We had a special announcement for our families this year on Father's Day...Gemma is going to be a big sister! We are so excited!!! Baby is due sometime mid-to-late January, I am 9-10 weeks along.
Did I mention that Gemma just absolutely loves her baby doll? It's so cute. Here she is giving baby "loves" the other morning before we left to go somewhere.
And here she is feeding baby. Peas and carrots (AKA a green and an orange Duplo block). She thought it was so cool to use the spoon, and as you can see she got verrrry into it. Check out that shoulder action!!
My happy, beautiful little girl...almost a year-and-a-half old!
Well, better late than never, right?! We took a trip to Kansas City last weekend for Aaron to attend a seminar, and were able to stay with his aunt and uncle, Rita and Matt. I was a little apprehensive about traveling with Gemma, namely since we haven't traveled much at all with her. Well, all my fears were allayed the morning after we arrived when I was quite sure we had a good, no, GREAT little traveler on our hands. The trip up didn't go quite how I expected. I had all these flowery visions of her dozing off peacefully not far down the road, sometime around 8PM. HA!!!! That little girl had to say, "hiiiiiii buuuuusssss" (everything bigger than a car is a bus, currently) to every truck, semi and camper we encountered. On the turnpike. Yeah. So, she finally fell asleep about 1/2 an hour out of KC when it got dark. Oh well!! Once we got there Aaron went in ahead of me and set up her bed and that little girl was so conked out I carried her in and put her down and didn't hear from her until the next morning. And thus went the rest of the weekend...she did a great job playing nicely with the few toys we brought along. She was an angel at Mass, ate well, napped well, slept well. I am so proud of my little girl!!! Here are some pics of the weekend.The little rockstar all ready to go, all decked-out in her jammies and daddy's sunglasses.
She thought it was so much fun playing in her car seat while waiting for daddy to load it in the truck. She probably sat here for 15-20 minutes. So silly!!
Reading her book after breakfast Saturday morning.
With cousin Isabelle.
So happy that Aunt Rita had a little rocker, too!!!!
Silly girl waiting oh-so patiently, sitting in mommy's suitcase. She got in and then she couldn't get out without help!! The look on her face says it all.
Gemma with our gracious hostess, Aunt Rita.
Our good little traveler on the way home. Lately she loves sticking her fingers in her ears and then making noises while moving her fingers in and out. I think she must like how it changes the sound.
So that was our weekend. And as nice as it is to travel I tell you, there is certainly no place like home!!! Thanks, Aunt Rita, for making our stay so nice and comfortable.
I recently purchased my SEWING MACHINE!!!! I am so excited. It is a Singer, the same as the one my mom and sis have, so I am already familiar with how it works. I've already done a few projects including lining Gemma's "room-darkening" (yeah right) drapes with blackout material and making a little travel pillow for Gemma. Yes, by travel pillow I would be insinuating that we took a trip. We went to Kansas City last weekend for Aaron to attend a seminar. I will blog more about it later, but let me just say Gemma was the most amazing little traveler. I was so proud of her, and it makes me very at ease at the thought of traveling again. Not the we travel much at all, but none-the-less...But more on that later, back to the matter at hand, here is my little sewing corner in the spare-room in our basement. It is ideal to just be able to leave everything out and ready to go. I am quite excited about my new acquisition!!!
Okay, so I promised several you on Facebook that I'd post directions on how to make this. Credit for the pattern goes to Aaron's Aunt Lorrie. We worked on this project together when she was in town a couple weeks ago. You will need seersucker, fleece (white or a scrap color that won't show thru), and whatever embellishments (rick-rack, ribbon) that you like, and obviously matching thread and a sewing machine.
Cut out two pieces of seersucker and one piece of fleece 13" x 18" Sew whatever embellishments you like onto the front of one of the seersucker pieces. Mine has two pieces of rick-rack measured evenly apart. If you go over them twice about 1cm apart then it tacks both edges down better.
Sew the embellished seersucker onto the fleece, right side facing out.
Put your already sewn seersucker piece and your other piece of seersucker right-sides together and sew them together with a straight-stitch around the outside about 1-2cm in, leaving enough room at the top middle (short side) to flip it right-side out.
Trim the excess and clip your corners so it turns nicely. Turn right-side out.Fold the open part under/in and pin. Then zig-zag (or another fancy stitch) around the entire outside, being sure you catch the open part (if not you'll need to just go back with a straight stitch or something. The stitch around the outside helps it lay more flat, especially after being washed.And you are finished!!! Easy-peasy and makes a great gift. Happy sewing!
And couldn't resist adding these pics of her spaghetti dinner tonight. She really ate a lot, and enjoyed herself while doing so! The last three in this series, daddy is playing their other favorite game with her. He takes a straw and blows it at her, or in the arms of her shirt or wherever and she thinks it is absolutely hilarious!!!
Isn't she beautiful?!!
She was much braver the second day, I think because she was more used to it and the water was a lot warmer. I actually had to cool it down with the hose before we swam. She would stand in the middle of the pool and yell, "BOUNCE"! And then just plop down and laugh uncontrollably! She did this probably a hundred times. Seriously. Thank goodness she had a big 'ole cloth diaper on her bum, I think it gave her some much needed padding!!
We had a special announcement for our families this year on Father's Day...Gemma is going to be a big sister! We are so excited!!! Baby is due sometime mid-to-late January, I am 9-10 weeks along.
And here she is feeding baby. Peas and carrots (AKA a green and an orange Duplo block). She thought it was so cool to use the spoon, and as you can see she got verrrry into it. Check out that shoulder action!!
She thought it was so much fun playing in her car seat while waiting for daddy to load it in the truck. She probably sat here for 15-20 minutes. So silly!!
Reading her book after breakfast Saturday morning.
With cousin Isabelle.
So happy that Aunt Rita had a little rocker, too!!!!
Silly girl waiting oh-so patiently, sitting in mommy's suitcase. She got in and then she couldn't get out without help!! The look on her face says it all.
Gemma with our gracious hostess, Aunt Rita.
Our good little traveler on the way home. Lately she loves sticking her fingers in her ears and then making noises while moving her fingers in and out. I think she must like how it changes the sound.
So that was our weekend. And as nice as it is to travel I tell you, there is certainly no place like home!!! Thanks, Aunt Rita, for making our stay so nice and comfortable.
