Three Things

Hi Baby G,

Here are a few things I wanted to remember and jot down for you:

1. Last month I had to take you to the doctor because you had been a little sick (fever, coughing, etc.) (It turned out that you had croup. )While we were waiting for the doctor to see us, you kept on staring at the trash can in the exam room. You were a little nervous about it, but also intrigued. Finally, you started pointing at it as you turned to me and asked “Oscar?” It was so funny that you thought Oscar the Grouch lived in that trash can.

2. Lately, whenever we give you something to eat, you normally take a bite and then say real excitedly “It’s good!” It is really cute to see you so excited about what you are eating. You also like to pretend like you are cooking and then offer us some of the food you made. You say “Want some? It’s good.” You always turn your head to the side when you ask us. After we take a bite, you always say “Want some more?” Today you were pretending to make coffee for us to drink. I’m not sure what that says about our caffeine habit around here…

3. The other day your daddy rocked you to sleep. When he came out of your room, he told me how he was just looking at you sleeping and how you were the most beautiful thing he had every seen. It’s so amazing to see how much he loves you (and you love him) every day. I love the way you run to him in the morning or before bed and kiss him goodnight and tell him “Lub you! Bye bye, daddy! See you!”

He’s right though. You are the most beautiful thing we’ve ever seen. And the funniest. And the sweetest.

We love you so, so much.

Mommy

17 and 18 Months

Sweet baby G,

You are now 20 months old, but I’m just now finding time to document your 17th and 18th month.

• Size – At your 18 month appointment you weighed 22 pounds and were 32 1/2 inches tall. You were in the 48th percentile for weight and the 80th percentile for height. You continue to be pretty petite overall. You still wear some 6-12 month clothing and a lot of 12-18 month outfits even now at 20 months old.
• Communication – At your 18 month appointment, your doctor asked me how many words you can say. I told her I had lost count of all the words you knew and that you were speaking in sentences sometimes. She was very impressed and almost seemed amazed that you were using sentences. It is really funny to hear you say: “What are you doing?” or “I want to eat pasta.” You seem to understand anything we say to you. You are good at following directions.
• Other Cool Things You are Doing – At 17 months, you could count to ten on your own. You knew most or all of the words to so many songs. The other day, I noticed you were singing “Frere Jacques,” which I guess you learned at daycare. Can I tell you how amazing it is to hear you singing by yourself in French? For a while, you were singing “The Rainbow Connection” with me each night when I rocked you to sleep. (You said “connection” as “dedection.”)  You sing the “Clean Up” song when you are cleaning up your toys. Sometimes you scream it more than sing it. You’re very enthusiastic about cleaning. You have been trying to jump lately, and it is really funny. You say “dump!” and pretty much just squat and stand up again. You can name most of the characters from Sesame Street even though you only watch a few videos from it now and then. You like to name all of the teachers and other kids at school. There’s a little boy in your class named Christopher who you call “Bipper.” You are getting really good at using silverware. You feed yourself very well (although you sometimes revert to your hands).
• Eating – Recently, you’ve been eating a lot of strawberries and crackers. You also like carrots now. You still love pizza and pasta best of all foods, and you definitely have a sweet tooth. You ask for pancakes a lot too. I think you are starting to become a little more picky about what you want to eat…some days you love a certain food and then you refuse to eat the same foods the next day. You are still a really good eater overall though. At 18 months, all of your teeth were in except for your two-year molars. Memaw has commented several times that she has never seen a child get so many teeth so close together. I’m very happy that we are through with the majority of the teething process, but it appears that your two-year molars are coming in now.
• Interests/Personality – You still  love babies, books, and music.  You do this funny thing where you “read” with us…you basically repeat the words a half second behind us. You’ve been playing with your blocks a lot and you’ve been making some art with stickers and paper. Lately, you’ve been really obsessed with carrying a blanket around the house or in the car with you. You like to paint, and you love being outside. You love when the wind blows. We’ve been trying to go to the park on nice days, and you really like swinging and going down the slide. You love Finn and Zoe, but you have a particular affinity for Zoe.  You are obsessed with the car Gigi and Granddad have for you at their house. You are very independent and really don’t like when we try to help you with things. You have a really happy disposition. You are rarely upset…but you do have a stubborn streak. You really have a great sense of humor. You laugh a lot and you are constantly smiling.

We love you and have so much fun with you. It’s so amazing to see you discover new things each day and to see your reactions to the world. I find myself getting excited each weekday as 5 o’clock approaches because I get to see you and your daddy soon thereafter. I really enjoy our weekends together. Sometimes I am sad to see you getting older, but each month really is more fun than the last.

I’m so lucky to be your mommy. I’m even luckier that I get to share this joy with your daddy.

Mommy

Things I Want to Remember

1. The way you snort when you are laughing really hard.

2. The way it felt last week when you ran up and hugged my legs out of the blue of your own accord.

3. The way you say “hold you” when you want us to pick you up.

4. Your little voice singing all the time. Singing when you wake up. Singing in the car. Singing while you play.

5. The sweet way you sound and look when you wake up. You talk a little quieter. You are a little more affectionate. The way you immediately ask about Daddy, Finn and Zoe. You are always so happy.

6. How you say your name (“Nemna”) and pat yourself on the chest so proudly.

This last year and a half has gone by so fast. We’ve tried so hard to document everything, but I worry that I’m not capturing it all and that I’m forgetting some of the best parts.

xoxo

Mommy

G-Wok

Gemma,

For Halloween this year, you had the BEST COSTUME EVER. It was like all my dreams came true.

Here’s the thing…I think ewoks are about the cutest things ever (besides you and your daddy and Finn and Zoe, of course), so when I saw this costume when I was pregnant, I knew you were going to wear it regardless of whether you were a boy or a girl.

The good news is that you seem to like ewoks too. You often point them out around our house (yes, there are ewoks around our house…I’ll pay for your therapy later), and you say “ewok!” Actually, you say “we-wok!” but I’m not judging you. It’s pretty cute.

Somehow you coerced us into letting you have a Chewbacca toy from our collection, and you like to carry him around the house. Initially, you were calling him an ewok too, but now you know his name is Chewie.

Also, in an exciting turn of events, we noticed that Return of the Jedi was on tv the other day and it just happened to be the scene where the ewoks first show up. We pointed out Wickett to you and you seemed pretty excited. In the scene, Wickett grabs Leia’s hand, and they walk off together. I guess you decided you wanted to be an ewok too, because you wanted to hold our hands and walk around the house afterwards.

You are better than I ever hoped.

I love you, my little G-wok.

Mommy

15 and 16 Months

Gemma,

Here’s a rundown of what you’ve been up to over the last few months (even if you are quickly approaching 18 months as I write this!)

• Size – At your 15 month appointment you weighed 21 pounds and were 31 inches long. You were in the 48th percentile for weight and the 75th percentile for height. You are very petite and wear a lot of 6-12 month clothing still. Your feet are tiny. At 16 months, you were still wearing a size three or shoes that were sized for a 6-12 month old.
• Health – You had your first ear infection a little bit after your 15 month birthday. Your daddy and I were both really sad to see you feeling so badly. You were prescribed an antibiotic for the first time, but  you developed an allergic reaction to it and broke out in horrible hives. It was a pretty rough couple of weeks for you, but you bounced back pretty quickly and you didn’t seem to be too upset by the hives (even though they looked really painful).
• Communication – You are such a great talker. Here are a few of the new words you were saying at 15 and 16 months old: cheetah, hippo, peacock, broccoli (“bokly” or “bobbly”), tree, Caylee, Chelsea, Baby Ellie, Aunt Mo, Big Bird, Monster (for Cookie Monster), walk (when you don’t want to be carried), pizza, pasta, you’re welcome (although sometimes you get confused and say “thank you welcome”), ice cream, skunk, berry (for strawberry), watermelon, banana (this one comes out as “mena”),  purse, alright, knock knock (when you see a door), beep beep (when you see a car), monkey, ewok, shoes, and door. I can’t even list all the words you know. You constantly surprise us with new words. You seem to understand basically everything we say to you, which is both amazing and scary.
• Eating – Your current favorite food is pizza. You ask for it all the time. Sometimes it’s the first thing you ask for when you wake up! You’re still pretty crazy about pasta with pesto sauce and veggies. Lately you’ve been eating a lot of broccoli, strawberries, grapes, raisins, oranges, and cheese. You still love eggs, and you even eat them with spinach in them. For some reason, you don’t really like tortillas too much lately. You definitely have a sweet tooth. You love ice cream and cookies. Your canines have been breaking through for the last few months, so that has been affecting your eating habits some.
• Singing – You love music. You seem to catch on to songs really easily and you have your favorites. You do some really funny dances when you hear music, and you sing a lot. You’ve started singing lullabies with me at night when I’m getting you to sleep, which is pretty adorable (you know a lot of words to “Hush Little Baby”). You also are really good at the ABC song, “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” and “The Itsy Bitsy Spider.” You still sing your made up “Memaw-me” song a lot.
• Personality – You are so expressive! You make the best faces. You also like to do different voices. You have one voice that is low and growly like a monster. When I ask you if you are a monster, you use the voice. A few months ago you saw a commercial for The Hobbit and when you saw Gollum, you called him “baby!” Afterward you were walking around and using a voice that sounds like his. You seem to like to ham it up. If we laugh at something you do, you do it more.
• Other Cool Stuff/Interests -You’re really getting good at counting on your own. At 16 months, you could count to 5 easily on your own. You also are getting really good at doing puzzles by yourself. You still love to read and often pick up books and flip through them on your own. You are really friendly when we take you places. You wave at people and say “hi!” when we walk by them. You like to point out “babies” (which often includes little kids). You blow kisses often when we say goodbye and you sometimes say “see ya.” You like to shake hands and high five. You love, love, love your baby dolls. You are a good little mommy to them. You pat their backs and help them go “night night.”

I feel like I say this every month, but you continue to become more and more fun, which I didn’t think was possible. We love you, sweet girl.

Mommy

Three Things

Sweet G -

Here are a few funny/amazing things you’ve been doing lately.

1. Tonight I gave you half of an Oreo cookie, and I ate the other half. I guess you liked it because you tried to reach in my mouth and pull my half of the cookie back out. You were quite persistent. The other day your Memaw gave you a little bit of ice cream sandwich. She said that afterward you went into her kitchen and were trying to pull open the freezer (grunting with the effort) to get some more. I guess it’s safe to say you like chocolate.

2. You’ve been able to identify facial features for a while (you like to point out the eyes, nose, and mouth on your babies and stuffed animals), but tonight you really impressed us because you pointed to all of the following without hesitation: eyes, nose, mouth, tongue, ears, teeth, hair, feet, toes, belly, legs, head, knee, and hands.

3. You love to play telephone lately. You put your toy phones (or sometimes other toys) to your ear and say “hello? Gigi? Memaw?” The other day you decided to use both your phones at once…

You are hilarious.

Love,
Mommy