Gemma: 9 months

Another month, another time you get to hear me say "Where did my little baby go?"  I was recently looking through some old photos of Gemma and I can't believe how much she has changed!  I used to see a little bit of me in her (mostly in the mouth/smile), but I only see Jeff in her these days.  She is the spitting image of her daddy.  She definitely has her mama's personality though.  Here's why:

-She loves to sing.  Whenever I sing the "If all the raindrops" song, she skips ahead to the "ah ah ah ah ah ah" part! Love it.

-She loves to dance. (Just to be clear here, I do not dance. HOWEVER, I have been known to dance around like a fool to make my baby smile.)  It's pretty darn cute now that she can stand on her own.

-She is learning baby sign.  She has mastered "fan" and "milk" along with "hi" and "bye," and we're working on "apple," "hot," "eat," " night-night" and "dog."  She also likes to clap.

-I know a lot of people might not believe this, but she is beginning to TALK. Yes, real words.  She says "mama" and "daddy" in context.  And, her cousin, Miles, taught her "cracker."  She calls almost all of her snacks a cracker. Cheerios, bread, an actual cracker, you name it. :)

-Has regressed in regard to her sleeping habits.  Ever since we went to Florida (which I think is a total coincidence) she has been up every 1-2 hours.  I'm exhausted.  Whenever I go into her room, she is standing up in her crib.  I curse the day she learned to stand! (Not really.)

-Gemma standing on her own for about 30 seconds at a time. 

-She finally learned how to crawl forward, and has been doing it for quite a while. I honestly probably didn't even know it, because she wants to be walked around the house constantly.

-Loves to take the stairs! When you hold onto her arms, she walks up the stairs, actually swinging her leg up to each step and pushing off.

-Loves to eat anything and everything. Especially loves meat. Yes, MEAT. Hamburger, chicken, ham.

-Our favorite game is to chase Harper around the house.  Harper is way too fast for us, but its a fun game anyway.  Gemma laughs and squeals, and I mostly just run out of breath. :)

-Has learned to jump on her bed already. I came in to get her up this morning, and she was so excited to see me, she started jumping while holding onto her crib railing.

-Is getting two more teeth. When these come through, that will be 10 for her!

As exhausting as this stage of her life has been, it has been so much fun to see the new things she is learning.  I love seeing her little personality coming out!

We had her 9 month well baby check up yesterday, and I was surprised that there are no shots! And to think that I was dreading the appointment all week for nothing. (Well, not nothing. We waited over an hour. Not fun when your baby has already missed her nap to stay up for the appointment.)  At any rate, her are Gemma's stats:

18 pounds 4 ounces (58%)
28 inches long/2 feet 4 inches (77%)

And for some reason, they didn't give me her head stats! Guess I'll have to call in for those, so I can keep the baby book up-to-date.

What would be a monthly update without a couple of photos?

Ha! Gemma didn't like the Santa at our late extended family Christmas in February.

Gemma on her very first Valentine's Day. Her dress was her gift. :)

project 52 | week 4: wash + project 52 | week 5: wooden

I am late again! But, I have a good excuse. Really I do. I was getting a card error with my camera and was unable to get my photos off.  I'm just thankful my hubby figured it out, and that I didn't lose all of my photos!  So without further ado....

week 4: wash

I had been thinking hard all week of a photo to take, and couldn't for the life of me think of a good subject.  So, I took a picture of something I look at every. single. day. Does anyone else ever feel like their dishes are never done?  Anyway. This photo is nothing great. I simply wanted to get it over with so that I could get my photo in on time. ha. Good plan! :)

week 5: wooden

This is one of my favorite toys of Gemma's. It's a Dwell Studio (LOVE their stuff!) wooden shape sorter with a blue whale, an orange rhino, a red elephant, a green giraffe, and a yellow bird. Gemma is a little young for it, but its a good toy for me to help her identify shapes, animal sounds, animal names, and colors.

I'll be posting week 6: yellow soon.  I know what my subject will be. I just haven't taken it yet. (I didn't want to keep taking photos until I knew that I would be able to get them off of the camera. I'm catching up, I promise!

Taste Test

As I've mentioned before, Gemma has been eating non-baby food solids for quite some time now.  She first discovered Plum Organics puffs at Christmas when she tried some of her cousin's.  They're not sugary and have a subtle flavor.  Gemma also likes Cheerios, so Jeff's parents decided to put them to the test.  See which she prefers in the videos below.

Plum Organics (these are strawberry and beet) wins!

project 52 | week 3: circle

If we're being technical, I guess this is a sphere. A sphere is a circle, but a circle cannot be a sphere, right? ha!  Please, no one check up on me!

Jeff's parents bought us 36 pounds of oranges. Yes, 36 pounds. Only because they bought some for themselves and thought they were the best oranges of their lives.  We gave some away, but are left with a ton.  They are not the prettiest oranges, and Jeff said if I were really paying attention to detail in my photo, I would have picked better looking ones.  (I looked! There were none!) Other than that small thing, he gave me kudos on my photo this time!  (He knows way more about photography than I do and tries to teach me, but we tend to butt heads.)

So, without further ado, my ugly (but very tasty) oranges!

Gemma: 8 months

I know I say this every month, but it feels like I was just posting about Gemma's 7 month birthday.  The days are going by too fast! During the winter months, I suppose that's okay.

I lament to Jeff almost every day that Gemma isn't my little baby anymore. She is my BIG baby. I'm amazed by how quickly she learns these days.  She is so much fun and I'm really enjoying this stage of her life, but I do miss the days of when she was my little babe all nestled up in the bassinet in our bedroom.

Here are somethings Gemma is up to these days:

-Is on the go constantly. She does not crawl in the traditional sense, and I don't think she will.  She tries to stand all of the time instead.  She puts herself in the downward dog pose and moves her feet until she is where she wants to be and then plops herself into sitting position.

-Wants to walk around the house all the time (with our assistance).  Her go to spot is the front door where Harper's bells hang. (Harper is bell trained).

-New favorite song is "I'm a Little Teapot."  I have to admit I felt a bit like a square when my friends' kids are singing the latest songs on the radio, but oh well. So be it. I am a square. :)

-Is a little piggy.  She is eating almost anything that is safe for her.  She loves crackers, puffs, Cheerios, chicken, green beans, carrots, pear, apple, pretty much anything under the sun.

-All 8 of her teeth are fully through, and I'm pretty sure she's working on a 9th.

-Loves to brush her teeth.

-Loves other babies.  We started baby sign class at ECFE the other week, and when we arrived and she saw the other kids, she flapped her legs and arms and had a huge smile on her face.

-Still cries (and by cries, I mean wails) when she sees/hears my dad.  The only thing we can think of is that he is probably the loudest, most boisterous person she will ever be exposed to in her life. Maybe its his mustache? Not a clue...poor Grandpa.  He says it doesn't bother him, but I'm sure its getting to him. He says to her, "Be nice to grandpa.  When you're bigger, I'll take you to Daves (the local grocery store...for candy)!"

-Sleeping 4 hours a night still. Sometimes I'm in such a daze, I really don't know what I'm doing in the middle of the night.  One night last week, I got up because I heard Gemma crying.  When I got halfway to her room, she was calming down, so I went back to bed.  A little while later, Jeff said to me "does she need to eat?" I totally thought I had already gone in there, so I was waiting for Jeff to go get her and rock her! Poor kiddo.

-We moved her mattress down a notch now as she is pulling herself up on the bars.

Gemma's first yoga move: downward dog.  She needs to work on her technique a bit!

One of my favorites from our kiddo photo shoot with Christy.

project 52 | week 2: variety

So, here I am. Procrastinating again.  Well, not procrastinating, EXACTLY. I had a hectic week, and honestly? Variety is a difficult subject!  Every day, I would tell my husband, "I need to take my photo yet! What should I do? What should I do?" My initial though was to photograph my shoes.  Leopard print heels, grandma flats, sexy boots, rain boots. But, lining them all up in a creative way was just too much work for me this week.

My next thought was the variety of flecks and height in our carpet. BORING. And, then, it hit me when I went out to the mailbox yesterday.  I would photograph our wide array of magazine subscriptions. I rarely get the time to fully read through any of them, but I love having something to thumb through while I wind down in bed at night.  And there you have my photo.

 Jeff says my photo subject is boring, but when I prompted him for a better idea, he gave me nothing.  While this may not be the most creative take on the word variety, I'm proud of myself for submitting a photo anyway.  Maybe I will learn my lesson and push myself a little harder earlier in the week!  I figure my ideas and photography skills can only keep improving.  I can't wait to see where we'll all be halfway through the year and at the end!

Project 52

Marta, over at Something Good, came up with a photo challenge.  Take one photo a week for a year.  She will randomly generate a word for each week, and then you take a photo of your own spin on the word.  I saw last night that my friend, Christy, linked up and posted her photo; so, on a whim, I signed up, too.  Today is the last day to post the photo for the first week and I work best under pressure. (Just ask my college professors!)

This week's word is: necessity.  So far, photos are of technology, water, and light. (View the photos on the shared pinterest board here.) I, being the mother of a child who does not like to sleep more than 3-4 hours at a time during the night, immediately thought of coffee.  I live on coffee these days especially now that Gemma is on a routine that includes waking up every three hours AND being awake for the day at 6 a.m.

Wish me luck in making the commitment to take my photo every week!  I'm definitely an amateur when it comes to taking photos, so bear with me. My goal in participating in this challenge is to improve my photo taking skills and to push myself to think more creatively.  Oh, and p.s., I don't know Marta in real life, but I bet if you wanted to take the challenge and jump in even if you're late to the game, she would probably welcome you to the group!