15 months

I realize it's been a long time since my last post. I apologize. I usually blog during Gemma's naps, but now that she has gone to only 1 nap a day, I usually have to fit in most of my cleaning during that time.

Gemma had her 15 mo check up last week. She weighs 22.4 lbs, and is 30 inches tall . Good, average numbers all around. Her pediatrician is still amazed at her speaking abilities. He informed me that an "advanced" 15 month old is able to say 6 words. WHAT!? What does that make Gemma? A genius I suppose :) She's already putting 2-4 word sentences together.
Life is about to get crazy around here. We are starting potty training on Monday! I'm scared to death! I feel like I have no clue what to do or where to start. It seems a little early to me, but Gemma has been showing so many signs that she's ready so we're going to go ahead and give it a try.
We're also going to start the room switches. We are finishing off the "play room" in the basement and turning it into the guest bedroom, the current guest bedroom will become Gemma's "big girl" room, and the nursery will continue to be the nursery. The nursery won't need much done to it, but I do want it to be different so it's "new" for the baby. It's a little overwhelming to think of everything at once, but I'm excited. I love home projects like this.

Trying to get Gemma to make different faces.

Saying thanks to Aunt Pam for the super cute hat.

She likes to read outloud

Outside

It has been so nice to be able to go outside without freezing, making sure we don't slip on ice, or wondering if we'll be able to get back up the driveway. I can't even believe how wonderful this weather has been, especially for February. Gemma absolutely loves it. Unless she preoccupied with something else, she usually is at the door saying "outside" over and over again. Oddly enough, she doesn't really know what to do once she out there. She mostly just stands there talking to herself, or pointing things out to me (tree, bird, grass, sky...etc). I wonder when she's going to realize she can go and explore. Here are some pictures from the first warm day of the year.

When did she grow up?

So Gemma is starting to put little sentences together. It's pretty dang cute actually. When she's at the glass sliding door, she'll say "Max, Max, where are you?"...then a few days ago she put her winter hat on and said "go outside". Today however, she said something that made my heart skip a little. She had been in her crib for a good 20 minutes having room time, when I heard her yell "mommy" (sadly it's no longer bobby) several times. When I went in, she had a huge grin on her face, and she sweetly said, "mommy, poopy" as she pointed to her diaper. What?! Obviously, it wasn't her cuteness that got me all excited, it was the possibility of actually getting to potty train her early. I would be thrilled to have Gemma out of diapers before baby #2 arrives (I need to come up with something else besides baby #2...that sounds so impersonal). And if that's not enough, I came downstairs the other day and caught her playing with her little doll. He's actually a little Guatemalan doll David got from one of his trips, who she has appropriately named "boy". She was pushing him around in her little stroller, putting him in her bumbo, and wiping his nose with a cloth diaper. It seems like she just woke up one morning and decided she was a little girl...no longer a baby. Yes, it's sad to see her change so much, but as Papa says, "it's all good". It's always sad when she stops doing something cute, but it's always followed by some other cute thing. Besides, we get to do it all over again in September :)

This is how she wanted to sit to read Elmo.

Decided to just read it on her own.

Snowed out

It's been a pretty eventful (or maybe I should say uneventful) week. We headed over to Nana and Papas before the snow storm hit, and stayed there for 3.5 days due to not being able to get back into our house. For some reason, our street is the very last street in all of Columbia to get plowed...at least that's what it seems like. The storm hit Tuesday, and they didn't plow until Friday afternoon. Every other street is completely dry and clear!
We had fun over at Nana and Papa's house though. We ate lots of food, hung out with good friends, and Gemma set a new record...she slept in until 9:15 one morning! I can live with that...especially if she starts doing that on Saturday and Sunday mornings :)