Seven Quick Takes: summer vacation!

1.  School wrapped up for the year after a short half-day on Thursday!!  The boys had dentist appointments that afternoon so Gemma and I went on a celebratory date.  We started with Eucharistic Adoration (I am soooo excited for her second grade year and the Sacraments that it brings), then off to eat ice cream at Braum's and she picked out a book about St. Teresa of Avila at our local Catholic bookstore.  We had such a nice time!!  Isn't she beautiful?  The first picture just captures her so well I think.

2.  That evening my hubby and I had a date (!!!!!!!!).  We went to Vespers at our Diocesan Cathedral and then spent the evening with the (around 70!!!!!!) seminarians of our diocese, various priests and about 300 people.  I am normally not much of a crowd person, in fact as we were walking in I was like, "Aaron!!!  We're going to have to talk!!! To people!!!!!!!"  But it was a positively wonderful evening catching up with people, some of whom we hadn't seen for years, and it made my heart swell with pride for the wonderful things that are happening in our diocese.  The number of seminarians (men studying for the priesthood) that we have here is astounding.  The Bishop even commented in his opening remarks that there isn't a Bishop in the world who wouldn't want to trade places with him. This morning there will be five young men ordained to the priesthood and last evening one to the diaconate.  God is good.  Sadly there is no pictorial evidence of our date.  OH well.

3.  We kicked the first morning of summer vacation off by turning our heater on, and it's running again this morning.  A little chilly for my tastes this time of year (I thought I was done with hoodies and sweats), but I won't complain.  It has been a gorgeous Spring in these parts!  And rain abounds, and looks like it will continue to abound for most of the holiday weekend.

  

4.  We signed up for the Summer Reading Program at the library yesterday...the kids had been looking forward to this for weeks now!!  They revamped the program a bit this year and I'm really happy with the changes.  The kids have to do four reading inspired activities (there is a list to choose from) and then read 20 twenty-minute reading sessions.  This is sooooooo much easier than having to write 120 titles x3 on papers that have room for 50 books.  Even with Gemma writing her own titles last year it was still so tedious.  This is going to be good.

5.  I printed out our "Summer Schedule" a couple weeks ago and hung it on the fridge so the kids (namely Gemma) could start looking at it and know what to expect each day.  It's not incredibly rigid...I am trying to keep waking/eating/sleeping times pretty consistent and see that prayers/breakfast/chores are the first thing to happen upon waking. Everything else is just divided into tasks that need to be accomplished between breakfast and lunch, and tasks/activities between lunch and dinner with lots of free time for play.  We have a few planned activities, mainly Bible School and swim lessons...just enough to keep us out of trouble but not crazy busy.  I have added a few more chores for the kids.  Gemma is getting to be a huge help around the house and out and about!  I was worried about taking three to the grocery store yesterday, but I think it was easier than shopping with just the boys...she helped load and unload stuff, kept an eye on Clement...  She is growing into such a fine young lady.  I am amazed at how she has changed over the past year.

6.  Yesterday evening our neighbors invited us over for homemade pizza.  We have the best neighbors.  Who knew when we bought this house eight years ago, that aside from the house and neighborhood/park/walking paths etc. suiting us so well, we would also end up with the nicest neighbors in the world. 

7.  I know I mentioned this on Facebook, but it bears mentioning again.  I just finished a beautiful book on prayer entitled Prayer Primer and it was a gem.  I have read several of Fr. Dubay's books recently, they are all fantastic.  One of my favorite parts in this book was the section on Family Prayer, specifically the way it explained teaching/encouraging meditation for young children.  I gleaned plenty of good information from it for myself as well, particularly on the subjects of meditative and contemplative prayer. Well worth the read, and it is a quick read, I think I finished it in six days.

Journal: Ten minutes

Going to see if I can get through this in ten minutes...
TODAY

Out my window:  It was h.o.t. today, after a very cool last week.  This weather.  Spring would be nice.  But I'll take this over the cold.  Currently the kids are in bed, Aaron is mowing, I'd rather be reading but thought I'd update.  Quickly.

Clothing myself in:  Jammies.  It's after 8 people, that's what you get.

Around the house: We have a family of Baltimore Orioles that lives, I think, in our neighbor's backyard.  They love our deck.  They eat at our hummingbird feeder and knock on our windows (for real, it woke us up one morning).  Territorial much?  Makes for some fun bird-watching.  We've seen numerous hummingbirds already.  Don't think we've ever seen them this early. 

 

The baby/toddler:  He climbs.  Today I found him up on his changing table and asked Gemma why she had put him up there.  She hadn't.  I also watched him climb all the way UP the big slide at the park.  The big slide that, at before 2, our other kids were just starting to go DOWN.  I watched him do it the first time and he struggled at the top.  I stood by, but did not help him, hoping he would get frustrated and give up.  Nope, he figured it out and scaled it another 5-6 times quite quickly.  He keeps me on my toes.  He loves to yell "cheeeeeeese" when he sees a camera.  If I say, "one", he says "two".  And "ready, GO" is a favorite phrase.

 

The kiddos:   So much outdoor play.  Makes me happy.  Makes everyone happy.  They've been fishing a lot.  They can both get a fish off the hook and toss it back in the water on their own (we removed the barb from Kolbe's hook so he wouldn't injure anyone, himself included, too badly).  

Gemma's last day of school is Thursday.  Really looking forward to having her around more and the change in pace this will bring.  Apprehensive about lunches.  That is always a batty time of day for my kids.  So much food to prepare in a day, sometimes I feel like I barely finish one meal and it's time for another.

In the kitchen: Speaking of food...  I made a yummy seafood alfredo last week with homemade alfredo sauce.  It was pretty tasty.  We have found these bags of seafood at Kroger that have octopus, squid, mussels and a little bit of shrimp.  I used a bag of it and added about another half bag of straight shrimp and OH it was good.  Honey Chicken last night, leftovers/black bean quesadillas tonight.  Meatloaf and baked salmon coming up later in the week.  And some salads. 

Crafting: Sewing autograph pillows with the kindergarteners last week!  Lots of fun!!!

Learning:  Got a rough summer "learning" schedule made up for Gemma.  A few Kumon workbooks, math facts, reading (summer reading program starts this week!!), computer time and handwriting made the list.  Divvied stuff up with her so she just has 2-3 activities per day.  Still debating about doing stuff in mornings or afternoons.  Leaning towards morning.  Not sure whether to take a little break once school is out or just jump right in.  My kids like routine...

Reading:  Finishing up Unbroken.  It was really good, I learned a lot about WWII, at least the war on the Pacific Front anyways.  I'd say more, but I know one person who is planning on reading it and don't want to spoil anything.  Started All of a Kind Family Uptown with Gemma. tonight.  Kolbe asked me to get him some books about tornadoes and volcanoes from the library so I did, and we picked them up Saturday after swim.  The kids were sitting around the living room looking at them and he hollered in at me, "mommy, these books are AMAZING!"  Made my day.

Watching:  Some Royals MLB.  A couple episodes of Survivorman: Bigfoot.  Most compelling sasquatch evidence I've seen to date.  Nothing much else of note.

(I am already past ten minutes and hubby just came inside, I need to wrap this up.)

Bringing me joy: My family.

Thinking about: Some of the punky things I have done in the past.  If I did or said or posted something punky to you (directly or indirectly), I am sorry.  I don't know why I've been thinking about this lately, but I have.  My communication skills suck sometimes.  I'm getting better.   I hope.  ;-)  Anyways, communication -- and my ability to do so appropriately and in a Christ-like manner -- has been on my mind.  I am a work in progress. 

Pictures to share:  

Poetry

I recently read Honey for a Child's Heart and really enjoyed it.  It gave me all kinds of wonderful tips and ideas when it comes to the use of the written word in our home.  One of the genres of children's literature of which this book spoke very highly was poetry.  We read a lot around here, but have never read much poetry aside from Nursery Rhymes.  I, for one, have never been a huge poetry fan.  I have very distinct memories of memorizing it in the first and second grade, and I always thought that was fun; and then there was Shakespeare in high school, and I didn't think that was quite as much fun.  ;-D  I do enjoy the poems of Jessica Powers occasionally, but for the most part a book of poems is not going to be the first or second thing I am inclined to pick up.  Even so, I know it's important to instill a love for - or at least an awareness and appreciation of - all types of literature in my children.  So I checked out When We Were Very Young by A.A. Milne from the library and have been pleasantly surprised at how well it has gone over.  I decided to pull it out at lunchtime and read a few selections each day.  Gemma really likes this (and I've even caught Kolbe signing "more" when I finish a peom), and she already has certain poems she will request to hear.  I even forgot one day and she went and got the book out of the drawer and brought it to me.  It's been a good tool to use as well...Gemma isn't always the best eater, and I've found myself saying, "take another bite and then we'll read another poem," and she happily acquiesces.  (YAY!)  I also purchased Eloise Wilkin's Poems to Read to the Very Young from Thriftbooks (THANKS DEBI!!!!!!) and this is just a lovely little book.  It is a board-book, so very sturdy, but much larger than most of the board books we own.  The illustrations are (of course) Wilkin at her very best...each one more pleasant to look at than the last.  Definitely a good buy for $3.95 shipped!  So all in all, the incorporation of poetry into our day has been an easy and positive one!!  I love it when things work out the way I picture they might in my head, because heaven knows for every one idea that works out splendidly, there were a dozen or so that fell flat on their face.  ;-D  What are some of your favorite poetry collections for children?

Summer reading program 2011

Gemma had a lot of fun with the summer reading program at our library.  We read so many new books and stumbled upon some great new-to-us authors as well!!  Gemma's grand-total was 93 books (most of which we probably read 3-5 times each).  Yay Gemma!!! Here she is at the library before she turned in her reading chart.  She got to put 93 puzzle pieces in a big jar, pick out a new book (she chose Over in the Meadow) and got a bagful of coupons for area restaurants and such.  This really was a nice motivator to get us reading more each day, I think we had kind of gotten into a rut but our interest in library books seems to be renewed!  Have I mentioned how much I like the library?!  Next summer I hope to do some of the other activities that the library offers, and we're looking forward to starting down the Alphabet Path at home this Fall.  I'm so glad my little girl shares my love for books.

Fourth of July 2010

We had a nice holiday, time together as a family and with both our families. Here are some photos of the day I wanted to share.

Gemma in the tutu I made for her at our Motherhood Group this week. I had an inkling she wouldn't be a huge fan.
But she humored us by putting it on, and even smiled (Aaron took these pics, maybe he bribed her with something)!
Daddy got Gemma some "poppers" and she thought they were pretty cool. She couldn't always get them to pop when she threw them, but Aaron showed her how to stomp on them and that was neat stuff.

After the first one daddy threw, not sure whether to be excited or scared...
Getting the hang of it!
Quite excited!!
And come bedtime, we were really glad we had done the poppers with her, because she heard all the fireworks going off from every which direction outside her bedroom window, and was perfectly content to lay in her bed and listen to "all the poppers" while she fell asleep. Never once was the least bit frightened. YAY Gemma girl!!!! I figured once she fell asleep she'd be all right, she sleeps very soundly and rarely wakes up during thunderstorms. But I thought bedtime might be a challenge and that one of us would need to lay in with her until she fell asleep. I was really proud of her for being so brave!

Taking time out to read "Little Bear" to her bubby-brother. So sweet!
Me and my kiddos!
I think I've mentioned before that my two sisters had babies 7 weeks prior to and 7 weeks after Kolbe. Here are the baby cousins all together at a little over seven, five-and-a-half and almost four months respectively.

I Will Rejoice

I took Gemma to the library for the first time about a month ago, and we checked out a nice handful of books. Our favorite was probably I Will Rejoice by Karma Wilson ill. by Amy June Bates, based upon Psalm 118. I think Catholics often get a bad rap (and often rightfully so) for their lack of knowledge when it comes to Scripture, and I think this is sad. I want my children to grow up with a love for their Church AND Sacred Scripture, for the two go hand in hand. I digress (I do that a lot). This was a very sweet and beautifully illustrated story about a day in the life of a little girl who always -- whether she was running about with her friend and playing with her teddy, eating lunch, napping or having some special time with daddy in the evening -- returned to the simple verse, "this is the day that the Lord has made, and I will rejoice and be glad in it," demonstrating very clearly, and much on a two-year-old's level of understanding, that we should rejoice always in the Lord as we go about our ordinary daily activities. What a wonderful lesson for young and old alike. Plus, the repetition throughout the story did a great job at teaching the memorization of this particular Scripture verse. I have a feeling we'll check this one out again, and it may even make its way to permanent residency on our bookshelf (meaning I intend to buy it at some point, not steal it from the library). Check it out if you have a chance (we just returned it), and may you REJOICE always!

Just some pics

So smiley! Some after bath-time pics.
Readin' stories to the babies!
Blue eyes.
Cheesy!
Nursing baby.
Gemma in her summer duds. Baby is never far from her side these days.

Reading

Gemma wanted to read Kolbe a story this morning. Probably one of the sweetest moments I've witnessed between the two of them.

Love these kiddos

Yep, I love 'em. SOOOOOO much. God is good and we are blest.

In other news, as you read a few posts ago, we moved Gemma's books to her closet. And it has been nice, she has actually started playing with her toys again. It seems since from the end of the pregnancy and Kolbe's newborn days all we've done is read books. And don't get me wrong...I love reading and I love that my daughter seems to be growing into quite the bookworm, but her toys had been severely neglected lately, and I DO like to see her playing creatively, too. At any rate, I think we've struck a good balance now with the way things are. Here she is with her latest favorite toy, her Build-N-Fun farm. She really likes the blocks and has been very creative with her building of late.
Back to the books though...the books are on the shelf in the closet, and then there is a basket in her room that I'm going to rotate "favorites" in and out of on a regular basis. It seems to be working well, as we've still had plenty of quality reading time. And speaking of books (boy, I just keep going off on tangents, don't I) I recently ordered a book called "You Can go to the Potty" for Gemma, and it came today. I am anxious to read it to her, I am hoping it might start making more of an impression on her, and encourage her to want to potty on the potty. She's getting sooooooo close. But okay, enough. I could ramble more, but later. That's all for now.

Nerdy closet post

So lots has been happening in Gemma's closet lately. FIRSTLY, we went through a bunch of our childhood books at my parents' the other day, and got to bring lots of them home for ourselves. I was really excited about this. But, it presented the problem (that had already begun) that we were running out of room in the book basket. Well, we have this bookshelf that was my parents' and then we inherited, and let me say it's served us lots of purposes in this house including holding piano books, internet/network items, sewing supplies, toys, and now BOOKS (novel idea, I know). We moved the shelf upstairs to Gemma's closet, and have all the books in there now. Well, the "big girl" books anyways. We'll probably use the book basket again when we get the board books out for Kolbe. :-D
Then, lately I've been thinking a lot about clothes for the kids this spring and summer. It's just that time of year. Well, consignment sales are coming up, and I wanted to take inventory of what all we had, and needed to make the decision whether we were going 2T or 3T this summer for Gemma. After debating and trying a few things on her, I decided 3T was a safe bet. Stuff is a bit big...but I would rather that than have her grow out of things half-way through summer and have to buy a bunch more. SOOOOOO, after picking a few VERY cute Garanimals things up at Walmart today, I went ahead and pulled out the tub of hand-me-downs we have generously been given and washed everything and hung (hanged?) it up in G's closet. It's a big closet, so there's still plenty of room for the winter stuff (boo...ready to be done with that!).

Anyways, here are a few of my favorites. The first, these sundresses are just precious I think (I may even have to go back and get a few more). And we are really going to work on potty learning if she hasn't figured it out by summer (she's got the poop thing down, but still working slowly but surely on potty) , so I figure dresses will be ideal for that. And they're just cute.
And here are the shirts, which will be good with pants this spring, and then shorts this summer. The one in the front was my favorite!
And lastly, shoes!! We had a big issues with stinky feet last summer so I refuse to get anything with a canvas or cloth sole. These are sixes, which I am hoping will not be too small by summer, but at $3 I could not pass them up. I was tickled to find something that didn't have Disney Princesses, pokemon, or the like on them. She doesn't even know what any of that is, and I am just annoyed by clothes and shoes like that (weird, I know, but whatever). AND she can put them on by herself very easily, which is always a bonus.
So if you stuck around, thanks for bearing with my nerdiness. :-D And be forewarned, I may just nerd out about our new waffle-maker for my next post...

Growing and changing

This little boy-child grows and changes sooooo quickly. I swear, I do. NOT. remember Gemma growing quite so quickly at all. Really. GAH!!!!! It's all good though, just in an unbelievable sort of way. Pic one, Gemma was sharing her toy tractor with him. It is sweet and scary at the same time watching her share her toys. And by that I mean it was really sweet until she started driving the tractor across his face. Then it was a little scary. Pic two, chillin' with daddy. His wide-awake/alert times are getting longer each day...it's so much fun watching him just check it all out. And there is certainly more to check out around here than when Gemma was that age. Quite different for those second kiddos, that is one thing I know.
And that poor boy has probably heard "Hop on Pop", "Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb", and "Oh the Thinks you can Think" more times in his short little life than most people have in the past 10 years. Those are the "latest" at our house. I really am enjoying Gemma's new-found love of longer books though. It is so very nice to read something that takes longer than 30 seconds to get through. Especially enjoying Seuss (she and I both) if you couldn't tell...although man that stuff gets in your head worse than annoying songs. Whoa! I think we are going to need to start going to the library to broaden our repertoire without having to buy more books. Although I must say, books are something I never feel guilty about buying...especially for my kiddos!

Thanks for checking in. Have a great weekend!

Storytime

Last night Gemma wanted to read Kolbe a story. She had me help her pick it out, and then proceeded to take it over to him and "read" it. It was just precious. Hopefully he will share her love for books as he gets older. He may not have a choice...

Cozy

I was really worried - when we were spending so much time outdoors during the spring, summer and fall - that winter would be incredibly difficult. It hasn't been nearly as bad as I thought. In fact, we've found our indoor activities to be quite cozy. I have noticed bedtime (for Gemma) has become a bit more difficult, and I am wondering if that's due in part to not burning so much energy during the day, but alas it is what it is. Some of our favorite activities of late are:

Reading stories. Gemma is really getting into "big-girl books". And daddy and I both enjoy reading longer stories much more than the shorter board-books. It's win-win.
Changing baby's diaper. Hence the naked baby-doll in the photo above. Look at that sweet, patient daddy!
Really, Gemma loves any activity that involves her baby doll, and treats her much like a real little baby. She's quite the mother-hen, and I know she will be eager to help with the new baby when he or she arrives.

And of course, all the new Christmas toys have made for a great new playroom in our basement. And who doesn't like a bit of ketchup on their ice cream??!
Indoor life is good...but we will, as always, certainly be glad to see the spring.

God bless, and I hope 2009 has been wonderful for all of you. Best wishes in 2010!! I know that we have an exciting year in store at our house. I will, as always, keep you posted.

CHEERS!!!

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?

Cutest jammies ever

You may have noticed one of the tags (or labels) on my posts is "jammies". I have always thought Gemma looks particularly sweet in just about any jammies she wears. But these jammies, by far, are the cutest I believe that she has ever owned. I don't know what it is about them, but I just think they are totally and completely precious. See for yourself. You might want to click on the picture so you can get the full zoomed-in effect.
And while we're on the subject of bedtime, I must just make a record of something very, well, strange that Gemma does. "Goodnight Moon" is a book we read on an almost nightly (and sometimes during the day, too) basis. For months now, I mean like, well over half a year, when we read the first page ("In the great green room there was a telephone, and a red balloon, and a picture of...") she tries to grab the words on the page and then feeds them to me (or Aaron if he is reading to her). Every time. It is so odd. I have no idea why she started doing this. And she doesn't do it with any other book. Just this one. On the first page. Every. Time. We read it.

And now you know.

What's Gemma up to?

I thought I would dedicate this post to my sweet Gemma-girl, and the "top ten" things she's been up to lately, so here goes!!
1. THE OUTDOORS. We crave these gorgeous Fall days we've been having, and try to make the most of outdoor activities including going to walky-Max (with daddy), play at the park (just about everyday), playing in the empty kiddie-pool in the driveway (yup, we did that, and she was entertained for well over 30 minutes), and even a trip to the zoo the other day that ended in an all-out meltdown when we had to leave the petting farm. I think I need to ask the zoo if we can have some sort of "fast-pass" that is cheaper and only gets us into the petting-farm part since that's the part she loves and prefers to ANYTHING else.
2. READING. As always. She loves her books, whether she's reading herself or being read to. Her lastest favorite is picking books out of her basket (either the one in her room or the one in the living room), and toting a handful back to her big-girl room where she lounges on the bed and reads them. It's pretty sweet, and this momma will never complain about too much reading going on :-)
3. FRIDGE FARM. We've had this for about a year, but the first several months her favorite thing to do was slide the animal pieces under the fridge. All kinds of fun. Now she really gets into putting the animals in and making matches (and non-matches) with them. It really is a cute toy, as toys that make noise go (not a huge fan of those in general, I usually take the batteries out before the make it into her hands). I'm thinking about getting her the fridge-phonics for Christmas.
4. HELPER. This girl loves to help. With anything and everything going on. Her lastest favorite is unloading the dishwasher. And she really is quite particular about it and does a great job! Here she is putting the silverware away. Yeah, I probably should have used the "sport" feature on my camera to better picture the action shot. She's pretty, uh, enthusiastic about putting it away. I usually have to "reorganize" a bit once she's finished.
5. BABY. Still loves her baby, babies actually. We now have Baby and Copple Baby (purple baby). Her latest fave is feeding her babies. I am soooooo excited to get her a kitchen set and all the accoutrements for Christmas!
6. BATHROOM. And all activities there-in. The girl loves having her teeth brushed, and would do it ten times a day if we let her. We use our electric spin-brush on her, and she seems to think that's pretty cool business. Still loves her baths, and has been doing a great job telling me when she has to "poopy-potty" (poop). She has been doing this for over a month now, and I even bought some training-pants. Just not sure she's ready. She gets the "poopy" part so well, but I'm just not sure she understands the whole potty thing yet. But I hate to miss out on the opportuinity if she is ready. Contemplating...

7. EATING. She really does well with this, which I never would have dreamed of saying six months ago. She's come such a long way. I think teething really made eating un-fun for her, and that was most of our issues. Anyways, several of her recent favorites are tias (tortillas prepared in any variety of ways, especially quesadillas), beans (pinto, black, kidney, refried, you name it, she LOVES them), green beans, bananas, chicken, oh heck, I could go on and on. She really does well with just about anything. We are definitely sad fresh fruit season is coming to an end. Here is a pic of her eating her bunny-roni today at lunch. I'm still not sure why she asked for the fork...
8. DADDY. Anything and everything to do with daddy. The two of them have a special bond and I love it!! We treasure the time he spends at home and miss him when he's at work.
9. BASEMENT. We've been playing in the basement more lately. It's our intended playroom, long term, just hasn't been terribly practical when I'm needing to do things upstairs. It's easier having the toys where I can watch her and cook, clean, whatever, at the same time. We've brought some of her toys downstairs though, and she does great playing while I'm sewing.

10. GEMMA'S MUSIC. She has really gotten into listening to her CD's in the car and at home. She gets stuck on "favorite" songs though, and it's all she wants to listen to. In the car it is "Happy Jesus, Happy Day" (Walk with Jesus Every Day), and at home it is "Mingo" (BINGO). She's also a huge fan of the ABC's, and can recite most all of the alphabet herself.

Well, that's all folks... If you made it this far, thanks for bearing with me. And I apologize, I think a few of the pics may have been repeats, but they fit. I could ramble further, but I'll refrain. Have a happy week!!