Journal: quick (hopefully) update

TODAY (started Wednesday afternoon, finished Thursday morning)

Out my window:  Sunny, windy, warmish.  It has been up and down, but now it seems we're having more nice days than cold.  The kids are currently all playing in the backyard.  LOVE!!!

Clothing myself in:  Capri sweats and a t-shirt.  I looked nicer earlier, but I don't think anyone really cares one way or another.

Around the house: I finished my last "big" spring cleaning chore (kitchen cabinets), so I am now "done".  But the first windows I cleaned are already looking dirty again.  Bleh.  This housework gig is never-ending.

 

The baby/toddler:  Cute.  Has been eating a ton lately, but still enjoys nursing plenty at night.  Come on kid!!  ;-)  He is the kissiest little fellow, he kisses me a million times a day.  He has such strong feelings about pretty much everything.  He loves his stuffed kitten so much, I decided to order a "spare".  Just in case....  He's been napping less (under an hour), bedtimes have been smoother, and he sleeps a bit later in the mornings.  It works.  OH sleep, once we get in the groove with something it seems another factor changes.  Such is life.

 

The kiddos:  Let's see.  Gemma has seemed to need less sleep lately, but she still goes to bed at the same time as Kolbe since they share a room.  The past week or so I've been going in and reading to her from a chapter book after Kolbe goes to sleep.  It has been so nice.  Cozy.  We just finished All of a Kind Family Downtown, and now we're reading More All of a Kind Family.  I also decided it's time for a chore chart for Gemma.  I found this one and customized it for her.  She has 2 chores a day (in addition to the regulars like making bed, feeding fish, tidying play areas, etc.)  So far so good.  She is really growing up lately, I am noticing so many things about her that are just so much more mature than even six months ago, namely she is beginning to show remorse for her actions (that is HUGE) and I am seeing a ton more empathy from her as well.  Oh my baby girl...

Kolbe is just Kolbe.  I enjoy him in such a different way when Gemma is away at school.  I'm so glad I get this time with him.  Still working on the speech.  Sometimes I worry about how he will be doing come kindergarten, but I suppose that is over a year away.  Still....  I thought about making a chart for him but then thought it may squelch his enthusiasm.  He loves to help with laundry and vacuum the kitchen, and he makes his own bed most days.  So for now we'll leave it at that.

In the kitchen: Black bean and Chicken Tostadas; Meatoaf with edamame and green beans; Meat and Veggie Lasagna with mixed veggies on the side; wraps; salmon patties and simple sides.  This past weekend we grilled some steaks and I steamed asparagus and made mashed potatoes and homemade white gravy.  It was mighty tasty.

Crafting: durrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Learning:  Thinking about Summer and what our days will entail.  I think I'll mainly focus on math facts, handwriting and reading with Gemma.  I figure she gets enough science going to the zoo and traipsing around the lake, trees, etc. around here.  Homework can be somewhat of a battle with her somedays, I think she is just "done" and thus has a bad attitude.  So we'll see how summer goes.  I also got her Kumon books on time and money.  Kolbe has some new speech exercises we've been working on.  The kids have been playing together, all three of them (!!!!!!), better and better as the time goes by, so I anticipate lots of basement and backyard play.  The other day they played...all three of them.  BY THEMSELVES.  In the BASEMENT (this is huge, since that's where the monsters and other scary things live).  For ONE AND A HALF HOURS.  It was amazing.  I had to document it here, and am thinking about writing it on a paper and taping it to my fridge so when I am in the midst of wanting to leave and never come back I remember they CAN do things like that!!

Reading: Still working my way through The Joy of the Gospel.  Trying to read the Passion narratives from The Better Part this week.  At least from Matthew for starters.  I'd like to read John as well.  I think his story of the Passion speaks to me the most, maybe for no other reason than I accompanied for the men's choir several years when they sung the Passion, and it was the Passion according to John, so whenever I read it these little snippets of song go dancing through my head.  Hmmm...  I also checked out Ten Days to a Less Defiant Child upon the recommendation of someone, in light of some of my struggles with Gemma.  I really, really hated the title, but still tried to have an open mind about the book.  I skimmed/read about the first half one afternoon while the kids were playing and it just wasn't for me.

Watching:  Not a whole lot this week.  Here's a great commentary from Fr. Barron on the Cosmos series that my uncle (hello!) shared with me.  I believe there are 1-2 episodes left of the series??

Bringing me joy:  The graces and beautiful liturgies of Holy Week and the coming celebration of our Lord's Resurrection.  Gemma.  Gratitude.  Good books.  Spring weather.  Looking forward to an upcoming family reunion with relatives, some of whom I haven't seen in decades!!! 

Thinking about: Logistics for said reunion.  Confession.  My Faith.  Kolbe's skin issues. 

Pictures to share:  

I took some pics of the kids on our deck to update our frames in the hallway and my MIL's grandkids frame.  I thought they turned out pretty sweet.

 

And a few outtakes.  The kids have figured out the whole "making faces for pictures" game.  Oh joy.  I blame school, they hadn't figured this out up until now, haha.

Journal: Mother's Day

TODAY

Out my window:  Spring.  Finally.  Oh thank you Jesus.  And from the looks of the forecast, it should be summer by the end of the week.

Clothing myself in:  Skinny jeans (Maurices), pink tank and yellow top (Target), grey shrug (Old Navy...juniors dept., haha) and brown flats (Maurices). Actually presentable enough to post a pic for once.

Around the house: I'd like to do something with the toy corner in the living room but I don't know what.  Currently we have a milk-crate size basket of random toys and Clem's play cube.  Then our religion-type books and some library books are usually over on the fireplace.  And there is a basket of baby toys under one end table and books under another.  I'd really like to consolidate all this stuff in the "toy corner", but there's also a lamp and a vent there, so my options are really limited.  It's not a ton of stuff, I just feel it could be better organized (it's the OCD part in me that constantly has to be organizing something...I think it's a coping mechanism).  I'd like to do a nine-cube but there's just not enough space.  Maybe a modified version?  I saw some cool benches at Target too but the space is pretty small, so between that and the pesky vent (I could move the lamp) I just don't know...   Ideas??

 

The baby:  Ten months.  He is proficient at crawling now.  And pulling up.  And apparently climbing stairs.  And getting into things.  The other day he got into something Gemma had painted and before I knew it his face was blue (from the paint).  I'm not ready for this.  He's sooooooo cute though.  He really likes to say "dadada".  Every once in a while he will throw a "mama" in there, but mainly just "dada" and lots of other babbles.  Did I mention he is cute?  And that he eats dirt?  And paper?  Heaven help me.

 

The kiddos:  Gemma has been very trying lately.  Please say a prayer for her (and me).  She is always planning something, last Tuesday or Wednesday I believe Aaron was putting her to bed and she was totally stressing out on him saying, "it's almost Mother's Day and I have SO MUCH I still need to get done!!"  Silly girl.

Kolbe is just cute.  I love the way he talks and his silly little personality.  He is my funny little man.  Did you know he can touch his nose with his tongue?  We are still trying to get to the bottom of his food issues.  Last summer it dawned on us he had a sensitivity to artificial dye (gives him pretty bad eczema around his mouth) and we've cut that out (all except the occasional junk when we're out and about, ugh) but he still has some issues.  Recently we figured out that caramel color has been causing it (even though it is supposedly "natural") and he even flared up after a (very small!) bite of 100% Maple Syrup the other week.  How does that make sense?  I'm glad his only issues are the skin ones, but I'd still like to get to the bottom of this.  Not really wanting to attempt an elimination diet though.  

In the kitchen: Sushi for mother's day (thanks hubby) and pound cake.  Funny story on this (tangent alert).  I will preface by saying that my hubby is a great cook and very proficient in the kitchen.  So Aaron had picked up a bunch of strawberries and mentioned that it would be nice if I made a pound cake to go with them.  I really had intended to do this, but just hadn't gotten around to it so he decided to make me one for mothers day and found a recipe online.  The following conversation ensued:

Aaron: So we only have frozen butter.  Can I use frozen butter for this?

Me:  No.  It has to be softened.

Aaron: Melted?

Me: No, softened.  It's a balance.

Aaron: (puts butter in microwave and measures sugar in bowl).  So how many tablespoons are in a cup?
Me: [quick google search] sixteen.

Aaron: What order am I supposed to put all this stuff in (he had just jotted the ingredients and amounts down), maybe you should print the recipe.

Me: It's a cake hon.  Cream butter and sugar, add eggs, then flour and milk.  By the way, do you need me to get the mixer out for you and show you how to use it?

Aaron: Mixer? Why would I need a mixer? I have muscles!

Me: SERIOUSLY, Aaron?!!!

Aaron: Maybe you should just make the cake.

He was pretty proud of his mad manipulation skilz.  I was amused.  And I made the cake.  True story.

Sesame Chicken; Stuffed Green Peppers; family bday dinner; and Tuna Melts are on the menu this week.  Fresh brussel sprouts, asparagus and lots of fruit in the fridge to use as well.

Crafting: Mended a pair of Aaron's pants and a (brand new) bag from Target that had a rip in the seam.  Does that count?  Also helped the kids make these cute little handprint flowers for their godmamas and grandmamas for Mothers Day.  We wrote prayers on the fingers and turned them into spiritual bouquets.  They were really cute.

Learning: Nothing out of the usual.  I've been giving Gemma more worksheets (mainly math, science and just general kdg readiness stuff) and she really enjoys working on those.  She's getting better at writing with a pencil (vs. crayons) and is even using a correct grip more regularly!  Almost ready to start Letters and Numbers for Me (our next handwriting book).  I need to check if we have this video about Our Lady of Fatima on our DVR.  Thinking about and looking forward to things to do with Kolbe next year.  We are signed up for Bible school (Gemma) and swim lessons (Gemma and Kolbe) this summer, so that should give us some fun things to do. 

Reading: Finished Navigating the Interior Life (see my review HERE).  Still working through the Catechism daily (mostly) for the Year of Faith, and really enjoying it.  Trying to read from the Bible every day.  I am part-way through Beyond Baby Talk, which a friend loaned me.  It's good, but seems (at least so far) to deal with language more than speech, whereas Kolbe's issues are speech not language.  It's still interesting enough though.  Also reading a bit about Ignatian spirituality.  Any recommendations along that vein would be appreciated.

Watching:  Caught a couple episodes of Survivorman that we hadn't seen.  Debi, your boys would like this show.  Still enjoying new episodes of River Monsters each week during its season which I'm sure will end soon (it was really short last year).  Seriously?  How many more river monsters are really out there?  This show just can't go on forever.  Sadly.  Oh, and we also watched a show the other night on cults, it was on History (or H2, I can't remember) and it was really fascinating.    

Bringing me joy: My vocation. 

Thinking about: Mother's Day.  It has really evolved for me.  I'll just come right out and say my first few mother's days were plain miserable.  I cried and had some pretty amazing pity parties for myself, let me tell you.  I thought Mother's Day was supposed to be perfect?!! All about ME!!  But then I readjusted my expectations.  And probably grew up a little bit (it does happen).  Mother's Day is really just another day, contrary to what Hallmark would have you believe.  I mean, don't get me wrong, it is a beautiful day to recognize and celebrate the gift of woman and motherhood (I really like what our priest had to say about this in our bulletin this week); but when it's all said and done, maybe I should spend the day embracing my vocation rather than escaping it.  My kids will tell me happy mother's day a million times but they'll still act, how shall we say, like their usual selves as well. Gemma will melt down over a million random things and Kolbe will decide that he wants to buy a fishing pole instead of going to Mass and obsess and whine and cry about it for 45 minutes.  Clement will pull on my necklace and nurse through all the parts of Mass when I should be standing.  Aaron will make me a nice dinner, but I'll probably still have to clean up the kitchen.  We'll mix a batch of strawberry daiquiris but then we'll have to interrupt our drinking them to clean dog poop off Gemma's bare feet.  But you know what?  That's OK.  Motherhood - in all its "glory" - is my life. Sometimes it's important to just celebrate that.  By being grateful for and embracing the gift of my vocation, with all its blessings and difficulties too.  This year we had a lovely family walk, and a day with very few out-of-the-house obligations.  The kids threw fits and I cleaned up the kitchen (more than once) and the floor could use to be sweeped.  Swept.  Again.  BLAH!  Oh yeah, and I made my own cake.  But this is my life.  And I am content.  Happy.  God is good...all the time.

Pictures to share: 

Wearing their "running hats"

 

Look what I can do!

Family.

Fun at Lowe's

What better way to spend the better part of a hot Saturday afternoon with the family than to go wander around Lowe's for an hour-and-a-half.  Besides having to yell across the aisle, "no Kolbe, you do NOT need a box-cutter," and Gemma almost running a complete stranger over while trying to push the cart without us realizing (for which she apologized), things did go fairly well.  I even have pictorial proof.  I was going to call it cheap entertainment, but then I looked at our receipt.  Oh well, it was a fun afternoon anyways.

CONEHEADS!

Sitting in a fun chair on the "quiet" aisle.  Yes, we were there long enough that we determined which were the busy aisles and which were the "quiet" ones.  We actually made a mental note of this for future reference.

Found a safer spot for Kolbe after Aaron nearly ran him over with the cart.

Clement was quite rambunctious as usual.

Gemma had fun with some keychain tape-measures she found while waiting on daddy to pick out a saw blade.  Kolbe resigned himself to sitting on a stack of tiles.  Safe choice, buddy-bear.

 And that's how we roll.  Happy end of summer, everyone!!

Kolbe's mealtime mohawk

Kolbe has always had a fascination with hair.  Maybe because for his first year + of life he didn't have any??  At any rate, when he was little tiny and I spent hours a day wearing him, he loved to play with my hair.  Now that he is a little older and he tries to do this when I rock him to sleep, I will admit, it gets a bit annoying (alright, it downright drives me up the wall, he's not as gentle as he used to be) so I have been discouraging the habit.  This has led to him messing with his own hair (now that he HAS hair), especially when he falls asleep.  And at dinnertime.  I'm not sure if this comes from the need to clean his hands, or if he just likes messing with his hair that much, but it has made for some quite interesting do's (or maybe "don't's" would be a better description) as you can see.

Ohhh Gemma...

I think I've used that title for at least one previous post.  My alternate title was "It's a boy"... but I didn't want to give anyone the wrong impression about the topic of this post. But you'll see why that was definitely a close second.  

Gemma loves to draw.  Her latest thing is making small pictures on these little card-stock cards I found at Tuesday Morning, folding them up, putting them in an envelope, writing someone's name (usually hers or Kolbe's or some relative or friend) on front and then putting them in the "mailbox" (a drawer in the living room or the top of the cedar chest in our room) and then gleefully "getting the mail" or delivering them to their intended recipient.  Usually I don't look at the pictures she draws, I just let her have at it.  I think I may start having to look over her pictures though, especially the ones she gives away.

The other night she brought me this one and very proudly said, "look mommy, it's a boy!"

Yep. It's definitely a boy.  Ooooohhhhhhhhh Gemma...  I asked her who it was for and she looked at me as if I were from Planet Idiot and said very matter-of-factly, "it's for a boy."  Of course.

Another Gemma funny...

A couple weeks ago I was brushing Gemma's teeth before showers and she let out quite the toot.  "Gemma!" I exclaimed, to which she replied, "mommy, I think that was my toot-brush."  I actually had to have her repeat herself, I really didn't think she was capable of making a joke like that, but alas "toot" brush it was.  Aaron and I were very, um, impressed with this fabulous display of potty humor at such a young age.  ;-D

Random funnies

So here is a post of some of the random funny things that happen in our crazy daily life.  For your enjoyment at our expense.

1. Gemma likes to floss.  Only she doesn't floss.  She sucks the mint flavoring off the floss and then chews it.  I also think she would eat an entire tube of (fluoride free) toothpaste if left to her own devices.  
2. Kolbe likes to play with the laundry.  The other day he put a pair of Aaron's underwear on his head and crawled across the room and into our buffet/side-server cabinet.  I felt badly for him but I couldn't help but laughing.  It was honestly very funny.
3. Gemma broke the baby gate trying to climb over it (don't worry, it was just gating the hallway, not the stairs).  She didn't think this was very funny when it happened (and neither did I), but she didn't get hurt, I was able to fix it and I think she learned a very valuable lesson (kind of like the time she ate soap), so now I can look back and chuckle.
4. Kolbe likes to throw things, and not just balls anymore.  Toys.  Big toys.  Books. Toy cars.  The step stool.  I mean, really child, do you have to throw everything you get your hands on?!  I'm seeing a future baseball player.  In the meantime...
5. Aaron recently shaved his beard.  (He has a beard during fall and winter and goes clean-shaven in the spring and summer.)  Later that same evening Gemma and I were taking a shower and I felt her moving her hands up and down on the bottoms of my legs.  "Gemma," I asked, "What are you doing?"  Her answer..."I'm shaving the beard on your legs, mommy." heh heh.  Oh dear.
6. We were driving to my sister Mandy's house and I decided to take a different route.  Observant Gemma noticed and asked why.  When I told her it was just because we were going a different way her reply was, "oh, are we going to a different aunt Mandy's?"  Her logic cracks me up.
7. The other day Kolbe had something blue in his mouth.  How on earth did he get ahold of an M&M? was my first thought.  Upon doing the finger swipe I pulled a blue bead out of his mouth.  From our children's Rosary he was playing with.  That happened to be missing another three beads besides the one in his mouth.  Not so child-friendly, methinks.
8. After her nap on Ash Wednesday, I caught Gemma furiously rubbing her forehead with a tissue.  I asked her what she was doing.  "Wiping my Lents off, mommy," was her reply.  

Never dull around here, that's for sure.  Some days it's easier to hold onto my sanity than others, but that's just how we roll.  Happy Tuesday, everyone!

Monthly update - Gemma and Kolbe

I thought I'd update a bit on the kids for the month and share their latest "couch pic" -- Gemma at 3 years 1 month and Kolbe at 13 months.

Gemma first.  As I mentioned a few posts ago, Gemma has been very into numbers lately.  She loves to count things and is starting to (marginally) be able to recognize her numbers.  She's very good at 2 and 3.   ;-D  It has been lots of fun learning with her, and  that's something I'm really looking forward to over these next few years especially. She really cracks me up, too, she says lots of funny things.  Some of her latest: "I need my privatesy (privacy)" when she's using the restroom.  She says "actually" quite often (gets it from me) and will sometimes call Kolbe "son", which I think is funny and sweet, because I know she's imitating what she hears me say.  She's doing better with manners, partially (I think) because Aaron and I have been really trying to do a good job at modeling them whether we're talking to each other or the children.  Sometimes I'll ask her to do something and she'll turn around and say to me, "how you ask nicely, mommy?"  She keeps me honest.  She is obsessed with being a cat, and often when asked her name by random strangers at the store will respond "cat".  Or "meow".  So silly.  She has enjoyed the snow although no snowmen this year.  She did make  some snow angels though and has continued to make them in the carpet in our basement, where she asks me to make them as well, then we have to stand up and "look" at them.  She also wants Max (our dog) to make a dog angel out in the yard.  So far he hasn't acquiesced.  I will certainly let you know if he does, though.  That would definitely be blog-worthy.  Gemma is a sweet little girl, I love her so much. More each and every day I think.  I am finding that the better I do at staying patient and loving with her no matter what, the calmer and more rational she stays.  Easier said than done, but we seem to be striking a pretty good balance of late.  That, and I think things just ebb and flow.  The time from 2 1/2 to 3 was rough for her and frustrating for me.  I had lots of opportunities to grow in grace and didn't always take advantage of them.  We seem to be out of the rut for the most part though.  We'll see what the next six months bring.

And Kolbe, my big boy.  I really should probably get him weighed and measured and such so I can have some stats on him at relatively close to a year.  I'm guessing around 20lbs??  He's a healthy, happy, growing boy.  He eats mainly what we eat now which is super nice, makes things much easier on me.  He likes variety though and will let you know when he's tired of something by throwing it (quite far sometimes) on the floor and then waving bye-bye at it.  We're working on that.  He can sign "more" (a fist and an open hand for him, for whatever reason) and use it appropriately, so it's fun to see him beginning to communicate more.  We're working on please, thank you, and all done.  Gemma really gets a kick out of the signing too which is fun.  He says mama and dada, bath and ball.  His two favorite activities are taking a bath and going downstairs (that's where the toys are) and he gets very excited anytime someone says either of those words.  It's super-cute.  If you ask him at church where Jesus is he will look at and point to the crucifix.  He still sleeps with us from about midnight (give or take) on and is very snuggly.  His naps have been iffy, some days he naps for 2ish hours in his bed, other days he likes to nap on me.  It works.  He is almost exclusively down to one nap though, which has been working out pretty well.  Definitely frees up our mornings.  He can pull up quite handily on anything and everything and is starting to cruise along furniture.  Whole new world for him...for Gemma too.  She is running out of spots to put things out of his way!  ;-D


They are starting to really play together more which is just so sweet to sit back and watch.  Not all the time, but especially in the basement I'll catch them doing a puzzle or the shape ball or playing with their Fisher Price Little People together, sometimes Gemma will even toss her arm around his shoulder.  It's so sweet.  Don't think it's always like that though, there are still plenty of times she shoves him or yells at him, takes things from him or asks me to move him out of her way.  Definitely a typical sibling relationship.  ;-D


So that's where we are for the month.  I'll probably think of more as soon as I publish this (and maybe I'll come back in and add it) but those are the highlights. Thanks for checking in with us!!

Getting a picture in front of the tree

I would love to present to you a beautiful picture of my well-groomed children sitting primly in front of our beautifully decorated tree, smiling with the gleeful innocence and joy that only Christmas morning can bring. HA! If you're looking for that, look elsewhere folks. Instead of one, you get nine. And a good laugh I hope. Once I realized that "the" picture was not going to happen, I found the whole thing pretty amusing myself.
I think I like this one best.
From here on out, Gemma actually did pretty good (I may or may not have bribed her with chocolate). But Kolbe...no dice. Oh well.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Gemma around the house

I decided I needed to do a Gemma post, just to update on some of the things she's been up to. I will number them, because it helps my brain feel more organized that way. And heaven knows it's all about me. (haha, joking, for anyone who may be new around here and not used to me ;-D)

1. Playtime. She is getting really into independent play, and can keep herself entertained with minimal help from me all morning sometimes. Sometimes not (and that's fine too, we enjoy playing and reading together). But some days she just does great and that makes for good productive mornings for both of us. Her favorite thing is playing with her brown bear, bunny and baby. They do three things: eat, take naps and take baths. Time and time again. She uses a mixture of her things and my/Kolbe's things and it is just so cute to watch her little imagination at work. "Baby" seems to be at about the same developmental level as Kolbe currently. Funny. Here are some pictures of what she does. I just think it's so cute.
2. Drawing. She doesn't draw much, but once in awhile with either her magnadoodle or markers... or my pen. (which is apparently a super-cool thing to do. Now you know.) But she always draws the same thing. A bunch of circles with little dots in them. Every time. I am sure there is some deep psychological reason for why she does this, but I just think it's cute.
3. Eating. So she's never been terribly good at this, but that's nothing new. Some days are better than others. We roll with it. She seems to be maintaining/gaining weight and following a growth curve, and what she does eat is reasonably healthy so it works. Now that Koble is using the highchair she has decided that she likes to use it again sometimes too. As long as he doesn't need it at the time that's fine with me. I think she looks like a giant in it. And yes, for the record, she is dipping her quesadilla in ketchup. And the bib? All her request. Silly girl!
4. Beads. She built a "cage" for her fish. She loves these beads (they were mine as a child) and always uses them to build cages for things. Besides baby, et al, they are the other toy that typically comes out every day. I have taken a pretty minimalistic approach when it comes to toys, and I really like it that way (and the kids don't seem to mind either). It works.
5. Prayer time. She is very diligent about this and will even remind me when it's time for prayers, or just announce that it's prayer time and start getting our things out. I like that it is becoming habit. We finally got Kolbe his own Rosary (um, chew-toy) so he would quit trying to grab ours. She's done pretty well at letting him have it too, which kind of surprised me.
6. Helper. She continues to be a great help to me. I asked her to get diapers out of the dryer the other day and then kind of forgot about it. I stumbled over the laundry basket a few hours later to find that she had stacked them up in a neat little pile, all even and tidy. No idea where she gets it.
7. Singing/Music. No pics. Sorry! And no video either. I know, I know... Still in love with her Nursery Rhymes, but she has started doing this funny thing where instead of the regular words she will randomly substitute Kolbe's name. It is odd. But cute. We have split her music CD's into playtime and sleepytime music. "This Old Man" or "Mulberry Bush" screeching over and over on loop all night was just getting to be too much (for me, and I'm guessing for her too although she'd never admit it). She's doing fine with it though. Our favorite nighttime CD's are Sleep Sound in Jesus and Twila Paris' Lullabies. If you're looking for more good sleepy-time music, A Child's Gift of Lullabies and Jim Brickman's Hope have been other favorites at our house.

8. Little Bear. We have several of these books from when I was a child, and have checked out several more from the library. She really likes these books and stories a lot. The other night DH and I were searching for something on the DVR and saw "Little Bear" so we curiously checked it out (it was part of the free OnDemand that we apparently get) and it was indeed little bear. THE Little Bear. There were a handful of 25 minute episodes of Little Bear, each containing four short stories (just as the books do). We really don't do any regular TV with Gemma (besides her and her daddy watching random clips of "funnies" (America's Funniest Home Videos) together for 5-10 minutes some evenings). We've showed her a few of the Little Bear episodes though, and she definitely thought they were pretty neat (as in, they held her attention and she talked about them later). They are well done in my opinion, and I don't mind letting her watch them occasionally. It's nice to know that they are available on the DVR.

9. Library. We have been making weekly trips to the library for awhile now. The girl loves her some books and we have found the library to just be such a treasure. I love being able to search their catalog online and request specific books (for instance, we have lots of Autumn/pumpkin/apple themed books coming up soon). And she enjoys the diversity. Currently in our baskets/on our end-tables are anything Seuss, various Nursery Rhyme books and this sweet legend by Tomie dePaola. I recently requested a new book from Sophia entitled The Temperament God Gave You and I am really looking forward to it. It discusses the four personality types from a Catholic standpoint. My husband and I talk often about personalities. I think that if more people had a better understanding of their own and others' personalities, we'd all get along better. But I digress. And this is getting super long.

Thanks for hanging with us! Now you are current on all things GEMMA!

Whistle man

Gemma has really been enjoying Nursery Rhymes of late. She got this book from our dear neighbors when Kolbe was born, and has enjoyed it immensely (she has the whole thing memorized, in fact), and we've checked out a handful of others from the library that we've read many times over. When she was less than enthusiastic about taking her nap the other day (she very enthusiastically told me "I wake up!" after being in her room quietly without sleeping for about half-an-hour), I decided to pull this Wee Sing CD out of my bag of tricks. It is chock full of Nursery Rhymes (I used it when I taught, and we actually had the tape growing up and let me tell you, could my sister and I share some memories about it...), and sure enough she just loves it (and, for the record, she did end up falling asleep eventually)! Her current favorite rhymes are "Meow" (The Three Little Kittens) and "Whistle Man" (after begging for it for 10-15 minutes, it finally dawned on Aaron and I - at exactly the same time even - that she was talking about "This Old Man". We're still trying to figure out what Per Deem" is, so if you have any guesses...). Anyways, she has learned to hit the back button and will sit in her room during the day and listen to these songs over and over. And over. And over. And over. She does not tire of them. Well, come nap or bedtime, we will program the CD to repeat the song over and over (and over, et al, per her request) so she can basically just listen to it on loop. Problem is, the CD has a bit of narration in between rhymes, so before the song restarts, it goes through 10-15 seconds of this narrating. Well, Aaron was putting her to bed the other night, and she kept wanting him to get up and hit the repeat button, and he would gently remind her, "see Gemma, just give it a little bit and it will start back over on it's own." Well, smart as she is, this whole idea was apparently just a bit lost on her, because after he left her room - I kid you not - for the next HOUR, ever two-ish minutes when the song was over you would hear her scream out in anger, "NO, I want WHISTLE Man" and she would grunt and growl and scowl until - would you believe - the narration ended and her beloved song started over. And then she was fine. Each time. Every two minutes. For. An. Hour. The girl just didn't figure it out. Aaron and I were laughing sooooooo hard. Poor girl. I hated to get so much entertainment out of her 'misery', but doggone-it, it was so stinkin' funny. Hopefully you've found this as amusing as we did. Maybe you had to be there. But I wanted to be sure and get this down so I didn't forget. It was quite funny.

Oh straws

The obsession continues. Yep, we're up to a pile now. If we keep going at this rate she's going to be sitting amidst a nest of straws at some point methinks!! Ohhhhhhhh Gemma...

Around the house II

Apparently I already titled one post "around the house", thus you get "Around the house II" today. Not a whole lot of updates of which to speak, so pardon me if I ramble a bit. The kids are doing well, Gemma has been battling a bit of chronic-grumpiness lately (not all the time, but on and off). I think part of it may be those pesky two-year molars, part of it may be just plain being two, and I know a part of it is just me, trying to find my way as a parent. I often joke, now that we have Kolbe, that Gemma was/is my "practice kid". I know that sounds horrible, and I don't really mean it that way, but those of you with kids I think will understand from where I'm coming. I've learned so much in my 2 1/2 short years of parenthood, and I'm already finding things I'm doing differently with Kolbe simply due to trial and error the first time around. It's weird. I'm sure I'll still be finding my way ten years from now, but as long as I'm making positive progress... But back to Gemma, she has a very strong will (for which I'm thankful, but frustrated none-the-less) and at times I just don't always know the best way to deal with her. I'm learning and growing though, as is she, and as is our relationship (which I think is paramount when it comes to "discipline") so I guess we'll just keep on keepin' on. I could ramble more but I think I'll stop. My thoughts aren't feeling horribly organized at the moment, so I'll amble in a different direction for now.

On to some pictures. Did I mention she's obsessed with straws?
We are up to four at a time now. One for mommy, one for daddy, one for Kolbe, and of course one for herself. I'm usually able to salvage at least two each go around and put them back in the box for the next time around. She also is very particular about always having two ice cubes in her milk sippy. Even if she wakes up for a drink of milk in the middle of the night. I've learned to just drop a few cubes in before I bring it to her room...saves me time and saves her tears and frustration (which just aren't productive in the middle of the night). I think daddy started this "habit" and I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree when it comes to my daughter being a tad bit OCD like her mama. Oh well, you pick your battles. I'm not going to fight her over ice cubes at 3am. Although if you'd asked me a week or two ago... I constantly have to remind myself when it comes to parenting to look at things as biggies and smallies. Ice cubes are definitely a smallie. Have I mentioned I'm a work in progress?

Very fascinated with the snow-globe from their great grandma.
Gemma has shown a great liking for music boxes for a long time now, so this was a fun treat. We did put it up until Christmas time however.

She loves to get in Kolbe's crib with him. He, on the other hand (as you can see by his facial expression) is not always equally as excited. I can't imagine why...
Playing on their blankies shortly after getting up one morning, with the corners very carefully spread just so, of course.
The beloved blocks. This is one of the toys that makes its way out every day without fail. She's started getting very creative with them, too. It's fun hearing her talk about the things she is building.
Okay, that's all for now I suppose. Thanks for checking in with us!