I have so much for which to be grateful. Sometimes I am grumpy and impatient and take advantage of these things, but when I step back and look at it, my life is so good. I have a wonderful husband who loves me unconditionally and with much more patience than I often show. I have a sweet, happy, healthy daughter who brings me so much joy and a new babe on the way. I have a great family and wonderful friends with whom I am able to learn, laugh, grow and ultimately become a better person. I am happy, healthy, well-fed, warm in the winter, and cool in the summer. And certainly most foremost...I have Christ and my Catholic faith, without which there would be no purpose to my life whatsoever. Happy Thanksgiving, and thank you for checking in. May you also reap the Lord's abundance.
Here is the text from a favorite hymn of mine (which is actually set to Gustav Holst's "Jupiter" from The Planets...cool little fact). I think it is just a beautiful prayer of praise that reminds us of the eternal gratitude we owe our Savior.
O God beyond all praising, we worship You today
And sing the love amazing that songs cannot repay;
For we can only wonder at every gift You send,
At blessings without number and mercies without end:
We lift our hearts before You and wait upon Your Word,
We honor and adore You, our great and mighty Lord.
Then hear, O gracious Savior, accept the love we bring,
That we who know Your favor may serve You as our King;
And whether our tomorrows be filled with good or ill,
We'll triumph through our sorrows and rise to bless You still:
To marvel at Your beauty and glory in Your ways,
And make a joyful duty our sacrifice of praise.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Monday, November 23, 2009
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Puzzles
Gemma really enjoys puzzles lately. I am thankful for all the neat wooden ones that they make. I recently picked up an ABC's one on sale at Kohl's (she loves to sing and listen to the ABC's) and it has been a fun challenge for her. She still doesn't get too far on her own, but it's a great one for us to work on together, and now she asks for "ABCDEFG puzzle" quite often.
Here she is working on her shapes...she knows them pretty well, including the pompagon (pentagon...just can't bear to correct the pronunciation) and tie-zoid (trapezoid). Still working on colors...just when I think she's starting to get the whole color thing, well, then she proves me wrong. :-D She'll get there!
Here she is working on her shapes...she knows them pretty well, including the pompagon (pentagon...just can't bear to correct the pronunciation) and tie-zoid (trapezoid). Still working on colors...just when I think she's starting to get the whole color thing, well, then she proves me wrong. :-D She'll get there!
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
New jammies
You all know I'm a sucker for cute jammies. Well, we decided it was time to get Gemma some warmer jammies than the cotton long sleeve/pants combos she'd been wearing. I really like using natural fibers (vs. synthetic) for jammies, but it's CHOOOOLY out there, for heaven's sake. Anyways, we made a trip to the store yesterday, and I let Gemma help me pick them out. She was especially a fan of the monkey ones, and it was a bit of a task convincing her it was time to get dressed this morning!! She seemed to stay snuggly warm all night though. Check 'em out, they even have little monkey faces and ears on each of the footies. Sooooooo cute!!!!!!!!
Monday, November 16, 2009
Baby lotions
I think we have a new nightly tradition. Not only do I put "lotions" on Gemma after her bath, but she in turn puts lotions on baby, now. Such a sweetheart, she loves "mommy's baby" so much, it just melts my heart. I can't wait for her to meet this new precious little one when he or she makes their grand entrance. Hard to believe that's only 2-2 1/2 months away!!!
Friday, November 13, 2009
22 months
Why does my daughter always hold her foot when I take her picture? I think this is the third or fourth monthly pic where she is holding her foot. Weirdness.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Big girl room pics
Here are some pics of Gemma's big girl room. I'm so thrilled with what we ended up doing for the big window (it has a glass half-circle thing on top, and is west-facing, so it made it realllllly bright in there...the black-out drapes and valance are GREAT!) So here's a brief tour...
Window-treatment, with cross and guardian angel pic to the right and Noah's ark wall hanging from her godmother to the left.
Night table (eventually we'll put a lamp here, but we'll wait until she's old enough to understand how that works) and cool personalized "doodle-art" wall hanging that my cousin made for her. Was able to frame this at Hobby Lobby for under $10. WOOT!
Another view of the bed, her 18 month picture collage is above the headboard. You can also see the bedrail, which to this point doesn't even seem to be terribly necessary, she seems to do well at pretty much staying in the middle of the bed.
Gemma's "tick-tock clock" above the closet...she's so proud of this and points it out almost every time we're in there. YAY for Target bargains. The wall-hooks I picked up at a consignment sale for dirt cheap (and they were brand-new in the package). And the Baby Bear poster is extra special. "Brown Bear", "Baby Bear", and "Polar Bear" are probably her favorite books ever, and this poster came with her "Baby Bear" book, given to her by the same cousin who made the doodle-art (THANKS LAURA!!!)
Dresser and mirror with her personalized birth announcement my sis made for her and Crucifix above door.
Since this whole big-girl room transition, she has really developed quite the sense of autonomy, I guess, for lack of anything better to call it. It really is remarkable to watch. She has started labeling things as "mine". Not in a selfish possessive manner, but just very matter-of-factly. "That's mine Walter" (her beloved stuffed giraffe), or "mine room" or "mine blankie". I think she's just realizing the idea of possessions and things that are our own and very special to us. She is still soooooo proud of her room, it is very sweet. My baby girl is indeed growing up, and I am very proud of her.
Window-treatment, with cross and guardian angel pic to the right and Noah's ark wall hanging from her godmother to the left.
Night table (eventually we'll put a lamp here, but we'll wait until she's old enough to understand how that works) and cool personalized "doodle-art" wall hanging that my cousin made for her. Was able to frame this at Hobby Lobby for under $10. WOOT!
Another view of the bed, her 18 month picture collage is above the headboard. You can also see the bedrail, which to this point doesn't even seem to be terribly necessary, she seems to do well at pretty much staying in the middle of the bed.
Gemma's "tick-tock clock" above the closet...she's so proud of this and points it out almost every time we're in there. YAY for Target bargains. The wall-hooks I picked up at a consignment sale for dirt cheap (and they were brand-new in the package). And the Baby Bear poster is extra special. "Brown Bear", "Baby Bear", and "Polar Bear" are probably her favorite books ever, and this poster came with her "Baby Bear" book, given to her by the same cousin who made the doodle-art (THANKS LAURA!!!)
Dresser and mirror with her personalized birth announcement my sis made for her and Crucifix above door.
Since this whole big-girl room transition, she has really developed quite the sense of autonomy, I guess, for lack of anything better to call it. It really is remarkable to watch. She has started labeling things as "mine". Not in a selfish possessive manner, but just very matter-of-factly. "That's mine Walter" (her beloved stuffed giraffe), or "mine room" or "mine blankie". I think she's just realizing the idea of possessions and things that are our own and very special to us. She is still soooooo proud of her room, it is very sweet. My baby girl is indeed growing up, and I am very proud of her.
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Ramblings of a sentimental mama
So it's been quite the week around here. Since Tuesday, Gemma has 1.) completely weaned herself; 2.) transitioned to her big-girl bed for night and naps, and 3.) shown a huge interest in the potty. Goodness gracious!!!
Let me start with the big-girl bed. In the past week or two, Gemma had started waking up during the night on a regular (not nightly, but fairly consistent) basis. She didn't want to nurse (hasn't done that during the night for months), wasn't hungry or thirsty, didn't want to rock (or if I rocked her to back to sleep she'd wake up as soon as I put her in her baby bed), all she wanted was "Gemma's bed". Which really wasn't a huge deal. She has a queen bed in her big girl room so one of us would just lay down with her, she'd go back to sleep, and we'd either move her back to the baby bed (which was marginally successful) or just sleep the rest of the night with her in the big bed. This worked, but as nice as her bed is (large, firm mattress), I just enjoy sleeping in my room with my husband. Don't get me wrong, I love those snuggly moments with her, but when it began becoming a regular thing it just got a bit, well, stressful. So what to do??? Then Monday night she would not rock to sleep (and she has never been one to just lay down and go to sleep in her baby bed), and after awhile she started very adamantly telling us she wanted Gemma's bed. Well, in we went and guess who fell asleep in no time?? No doubt. So Aaron and I talked, and even though we really hadn't intended to move her for some time (we were looking at probably March or April), we figured why hold her back, if she's ready to be a big girl then let her. So the next day I went out and got a bed rail for one side of the bed, a night-light, and we talked all day Tuesday about how we would go to bed in Gemma's big girl bed. She was very excited and proud about this. And bedtime went off without a hitch. We started out with books in the rocking chair, to which she said, after only one story, "down down plop," got down, picked up a pile of books, and marched into her big girl room, up onto the bed, and said, "read-it, mommy!" Okay then! It was a happy, pleasant, loving time for all involved and she slept well all night. I still wasn't sure what to do about naps, but the next day figured I may as well give it a go, and again she laid down beside me, went right to sleep, I left the room and she slept peacefully for the rest of her nap. And the rest, I guess, is history. She is just doing fantastically in her new room. We have now moved all her books, pictures on the wall, clothes, shoes and other things over, so the baby room looks like, well, an empty baby room waiting for a new little baby again. But now that the initial shock has worn off, I'm thinking this really was probably great timing. It will be nice to have her settled into the new routine of sleeping in her big-girl room well before baby's arrival. And she is just so happy with this new arrangement, that it can't help but make me happy, too!
Which brings us to weaning. Gemma had still been nursing at nap and bedtime which was fine with me. I don't know how much "mook" she was even getting, she didn't nurse for long, and I really think the main reason she was still nursing was because it was part of our routine. BECAUSE, since we've changed the routine up and go down for nap and bed in the big girl room, she hasn't mentioned it. At all. Ever. Makes me a little sad, I guess I would have liked a little more warning so I could mentally prepare myself, but heck that would have probably just made it harder. It is what it is. I had a really rough day on Tuesday with everything, (I think thanks in part, too, to pregnancy hormones), but I'm good with it now. Changes changes, such is life. My baby is growing up, there is no doubt about it.
Which brings us to the potty. She has been pooping consistently (1-3 times a day) in her potty chair for the past 2-3 months now, and very rarely poops in her diaper. She just tells me "poopy-potty" when she has to go, we walk back to her little potty, take diaper off, and she does her business. But she has never pottied. Until, you guessed it, Tuesday. She was very adamant after her nap that I not put her diaper back on, so I just hauled her potty chair out to the kitchen, let her go pantless, and worked on cooking dinner while she hung out, going back and forth between the potty and her little cabinet. She had been sitting for awhile on the potty when I heard "uh-oh potty, uh-oh potty," and lo and behold she had pottied a bunch right in her potty chair. It really caught her off guard, I think, and actually kind of scared her at first. So we had a big celebration and I told her how proud I was. She put some big-girl underpants on and wore them awhile, but had a little accident while she was eating her snack (no biggie!) so we put a diaper back on. But now after she poops she will sit on the potty chair for sometimes 15-20 minutes, saying in the most pleading voice, "make potties, make potties." Some days I even have to set the timer and tell her when the timer goes "beep, beep, beep" it's time to get off the potty. And she still doesn't want to leave! She wants so badly to potty, she just doesn't quite get the mechanics of it I guess. Often she will tell me right after she's gone in her diaper. So I don't want ot push the underpants thing too hard (a. since she doesn't quite understand, and b. because honestly if she starts wearing underpants I don't know how on earth she will wear any of her pants...those cloth diapers are what is keeping her pants up!!). Anyways, I guess I'll know when she's ready ready, but we are definitely making some big steps in that direction.
WHEW! That was a long post. If you made it all the way through, congratulations! You win the prize. I'll get back to you on what exactly that prize is... um, yeah.
Anyways, I'll close with a picture of little (err, big) Gemma-goo in her big-girl bed before going to sleep her first night. Doesn't she look proud?
Let me start with the big-girl bed. In the past week or two, Gemma had started waking up during the night on a regular (not nightly, but fairly consistent) basis. She didn't want to nurse (hasn't done that during the night for months), wasn't hungry or thirsty, didn't want to rock (or if I rocked her to back to sleep she'd wake up as soon as I put her in her baby bed), all she wanted was "Gemma's bed". Which really wasn't a huge deal. She has a queen bed in her big girl room so one of us would just lay down with her, she'd go back to sleep, and we'd either move her back to the baby bed (which was marginally successful) or just sleep the rest of the night with her in the big bed. This worked, but as nice as her bed is (large, firm mattress), I just enjoy sleeping in my room with my husband. Don't get me wrong, I love those snuggly moments with her, but when it began becoming a regular thing it just got a bit, well, stressful. So what to do??? Then Monday night she would not rock to sleep (and she has never been one to just lay down and go to sleep in her baby bed), and after awhile she started very adamantly telling us she wanted Gemma's bed. Well, in we went and guess who fell asleep in no time?? No doubt. So Aaron and I talked, and even though we really hadn't intended to move her for some time (we were looking at probably March or April), we figured why hold her back, if she's ready to be a big girl then let her. So the next day I went out and got a bed rail for one side of the bed, a night-light, and we talked all day Tuesday about how we would go to bed in Gemma's big girl bed. She was very excited and proud about this. And bedtime went off without a hitch. We started out with books in the rocking chair, to which she said, after only one story, "down down plop," got down, picked up a pile of books, and marched into her big girl room, up onto the bed, and said, "read-it, mommy!" Okay then! It was a happy, pleasant, loving time for all involved and she slept well all night. I still wasn't sure what to do about naps, but the next day figured I may as well give it a go, and again she laid down beside me, went right to sleep, I left the room and she slept peacefully for the rest of her nap. And the rest, I guess, is history. She is just doing fantastically in her new room. We have now moved all her books, pictures on the wall, clothes, shoes and other things over, so the baby room looks like, well, an empty baby room waiting for a new little baby again. But now that the initial shock has worn off, I'm thinking this really was probably great timing. It will be nice to have her settled into the new routine of sleeping in her big-girl room well before baby's arrival. And she is just so happy with this new arrangement, that it can't help but make me happy, too!
Which brings us to weaning. Gemma had still been nursing at nap and bedtime which was fine with me. I don't know how much "mook" she was even getting, she didn't nurse for long, and I really think the main reason she was still nursing was because it was part of our routine. BECAUSE, since we've changed the routine up and go down for nap and bed in the big girl room, she hasn't mentioned it. At all. Ever. Makes me a little sad, I guess I would have liked a little more warning so I could mentally prepare myself, but heck that would have probably just made it harder. It is what it is. I had a really rough day on Tuesday with everything, (I think thanks in part, too, to pregnancy hormones), but I'm good with it now. Changes changes, such is life. My baby is growing up, there is no doubt about it.
Which brings us to the potty. She has been pooping consistently (1-3 times a day) in her potty chair for the past 2-3 months now, and very rarely poops in her diaper. She just tells me "poopy-potty" when she has to go, we walk back to her little potty, take diaper off, and she does her business. But she has never pottied. Until, you guessed it, Tuesday. She was very adamant after her nap that I not put her diaper back on, so I just hauled her potty chair out to the kitchen, let her go pantless, and worked on cooking dinner while she hung out, going back and forth between the potty and her little cabinet. She had been sitting for awhile on the potty when I heard "uh-oh potty, uh-oh potty," and lo and behold she had pottied a bunch right in her potty chair. It really caught her off guard, I think, and actually kind of scared her at first. So we had a big celebration and I told her how proud I was. She put some big-girl underpants on and wore them awhile, but had a little accident while she was eating her snack (no biggie!) so we put a diaper back on. But now after she poops she will sit on the potty chair for sometimes 15-20 minutes, saying in the most pleading voice, "make potties, make potties." Some days I even have to set the timer and tell her when the timer goes "beep, beep, beep" it's time to get off the potty. And she still doesn't want to leave! She wants so badly to potty, she just doesn't quite get the mechanics of it I guess. Often she will tell me right after she's gone in her diaper. So I don't want ot push the underpants thing too hard (a. since she doesn't quite understand, and b. because honestly if she starts wearing underpants I don't know how on earth she will wear any of her pants...those cloth diapers are what is keeping her pants up!!). Anyways, I guess I'll know when she's ready ready, but we are definitely making some big steps in that direction.
WHEW! That was a long post. If you made it all the way through, congratulations! You win the prize. I'll get back to you on what exactly that prize is... um, yeah.
Anyways, I'll close with a picture of little (err, big) Gemma-goo in her big-girl bed before going to sleep her first night. Doesn't she look proud?
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
A diaper for baby...
...and not the baby about whom you may be thinking!! I decided as baby's arrival time gets closer, it might be neat to get some different items for Gemma to use with her "baby". She is such a sweet and loving little mommy, I just thought it would give her a sense of ownership and pride to be able to take care of her baby the same way I will take care of the new baby. First item on the list...baby's very own diaper! I just used some scrap material, simplified things a lot (I mean, really, did I need extra material on the inside for absorbancy?), and voile, it came together in no time. Gemma is very proud, and asks several times a day to "change baby's diaper". So sweet.
I am looking at getting her one of these slings for Christmas or her birthday, or just for a "baby is here" present. I thought they were just tooooooooo cool!
Monday, November 2, 2009
Halloween afternoon and evening
We had a great Halloween this year. I think I'm going to petition the government that Halloween always falls on the Saturday of daylight savings. Haha, not really, but that sure was convenient!
Aaron carved the pumpkin while Gemma napped, and she was quite impressed with him. In this picture she is actually doing a little dance around the front porch to show her excited feelings about "gack-a-lattern" as she calls him.
We've now put him down on the step and faced him looking in, and she loves to run to the front door and tell him hi. It will be a sad day when we rots enough that he needs tossed. I'm just glad he didn't get smashed like last year. Grrrr, stinkin' kids.
We started the afternoon around 4, heading over to grandparents' houses. Gemma got to try her first ever piece of candy. We decided to let her have one at each grandparents', and she was pretty non-commital really, she didn't even finish the one at Grandma and Grandpa D's. Didn't hurt my feelings...if it's up to me she won't get any more until NEXT Halloween. Anyways, so here are the pics...
Heading out...way too hot and impractical to wear her costume in the car, but lookin' good in her face paint, practicing her growl!
Trying her first ever piece of candy!
Heading up to the other grandparents'!
Not the best year for a hooded costume. She wasn't a huge fan.
Probably the best pic I got...a bit blurry but a very sweet smile on my little lion!
Trying one more candy.
We made it back to our place around 6:30 and trick-or-treated both of our neighbors. And honestly, that was enough for Gemma. She wasn't terribly enamored by the costume (although she did much better than I thought she would). Her favorite activity by FAR was passing out candy to the kids. We all three just sat on the front porch for about an hour and Gemma had SUCH a blast putting candy in the kids' bags. She did really well with the costumes, too. Got scared a few times by kids in masks, but all the kids and parents were so polite and even apologized (which I found sweet but totally unnecessary, I mean, really, you're supposed to dress up on Halloween!) And if anyone made it home with bite marks in their candy (yes, through the wrapper), blame the girl with lion pants and an orange shirt. Yeah. So goofy! She loved sitting there sorting through the big bowl of candy, and kept handing piles of it to Aaron and me, saying "three more, and three more..." No idea where she came up with that, but it was pretty cute. And here are the "front porch" pics I took.
My sweet little lion and me with "gack".
Taking her candy passing-out duties verrrrrry seriously!
So all in all a really great Halloween. She seems to be adjusting fairly well to the time-change, too. We started sliding her schedule a bit last week so it wouldn't be quite such a shock to the system, and that seems to have been fairly effective. We shall continue to see, however...
Thanks for checking in...Happy Halloween and HAPPY NOVEMBER!
Aaron carved the pumpkin while Gemma napped, and she was quite impressed with him. In this picture she is actually doing a little dance around the front porch to show her excited feelings about "gack-a-lattern" as she calls him.
We've now put him down on the step and faced him looking in, and she loves to run to the front door and tell him hi. It will be a sad day when we rots enough that he needs tossed. I'm just glad he didn't get smashed like last year. Grrrr, stinkin' kids.We started the afternoon around 4, heading over to grandparents' houses. Gemma got to try her first ever piece of candy. We decided to let her have one at each grandparents', and she was pretty non-commital really, she didn't even finish the one at Grandma and Grandpa D's. Didn't hurt my feelings...if it's up to me she won't get any more until NEXT Halloween. Anyways, so here are the pics...
Heading out...way too hot and impractical to wear her costume in the car, but lookin' good in her face paint, practicing her growl!
Trying her first ever piece of candy!
Heading up to the other grandparents'!
Not the best year for a hooded costume. She wasn't a huge fan.
Probably the best pic I got...a bit blurry but a very sweet smile on my little lion!
Trying one more candy.
We made it back to our place around 6:30 and trick-or-treated both of our neighbors. And honestly, that was enough for Gemma. She wasn't terribly enamored by the costume (although she did much better than I thought she would). Her favorite activity by FAR was passing out candy to the kids. We all three just sat on the front porch for about an hour and Gemma had SUCH a blast putting candy in the kids' bags. She did really well with the costumes, too. Got scared a few times by kids in masks, but all the kids and parents were so polite and even apologized (which I found sweet but totally unnecessary, I mean, really, you're supposed to dress up on Halloween!) And if anyone made it home with bite marks in their candy (yes, through the wrapper), blame the girl with lion pants and an orange shirt. Yeah. So goofy! She loved sitting there sorting through the big bowl of candy, and kept handing piles of it to Aaron and me, saying "three more, and three more..." No idea where she came up with that, but it was pretty cute. And here are the "front porch" pics I took.My sweet little lion and me with "gack".
Taking her candy passing-out duties verrrrrry seriously!
So all in all a really great Halloween. She seems to be adjusting fairly well to the time-change, too. We started sliding her schedule a bit last week so it wouldn't be quite such a shock to the system, and that seems to have been fairly effective. We shall continue to see, however...Thanks for checking in...Happy Halloween and HAPPY NOVEMBER!
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