Warm beautiful day at the park...  

Pretty lucky to be their mom :)

It's been over a month...

I've become a bad picture taker.  Already! What is it about taking fewer pictures with consecutive kids? I can't figure it out.  It doesn't seem like I'm that much more busy, but clearly something has changed.  Regardless, starting now, my camera is sitting on the counter at all times so I know I can quickly get to it when needed. I'm clearly also becoming a worse blogger.  Last year I averaged about 4 posts a month, now it's about 1 a month.

Here's a summary of our lives over the past month...

We had Makael's birthday party and dedication last month, and to confirm my earlier statement... I didn't take a single picture. How pathetic is that? Although I'm not too worried since Papa took a bunch (which I would love to to see by the way). I can't say for sure since I was busy most of the time, but I believe everyone had a good time. My dad did the dedication which was very sweet.  Not only did he have good stuff to say (as usual), but it's pretty special to see him dedicate his grand kids  Thanks dad! All in all it was a great day, and I'm so thankful to those of you that came to celebrate my little guy.  I learned two important things that day...Makael doesn't like cake, and there's a nation wide helium shortage...who knew?

Little guy in a big boat.

Makael has started saying a few words! About time huh? He has a handful of words now including caco (cracker), unk (milk), eth (yes), gaga (grandpa), and et which is his go-to word apparently since he uses it for several different things. Notice "mama" is not in his vocabulary yet. He's holding out on me. Anytime I ask him to say it, he either says "dada" or just shakes his head and laughs.  Even the words he does say, he only says "when he feels like it". Little stinker! His focus is clearly still on mobility. You should see the little monkey at the park! "What's that mom? You want me to climb up all those steps and come down that HUGE slide all by myself? Sure, no problem!". This month we had our first bloody lip, and by bloody I do mean gushing. And you'll never guess who is responsibly for my first call to poison control...yep. Fun stuff.

Gemma's focus continues to be on talking. I don't know where she finds the energy to talk as much as she does.  It doesn't matter if she's all alone or in a group of people...she's talking.  She loves using big words, and it doesn't matter to her if she knows what they mean or not. Her conversations are nothing short of hysterical.  Her latest word...dermatologist. She heard my mom and I talking about it a couple days ago, and has used it about 4 times since, completely out of context of course.   She has also started referring to Makael as "our baby". This morning she came into my bedroom and said, "mom, our baby just asked for a cracker".  Ha!

Have you ever noticed how kids effortlessly make friends wherever they go? Gemma is an absolute pro at it.  I'm actually fascinated by her when I watch her make friends with the other kids at the park, or the bagger at the grocery store, or the lady sitting next to us at starbucks, etc. I wish it was that easy for me to make friends.  I've also noticed that while kids will immediately become friends and start playing, the moms seldom even talk to each other.  How weird! So I've made the resolution to at least introduce myself to the mom of any kid Gemma makes friends with.  I might be making a ton of new friends in the near future.

I have a couple of videos I've been wanting to post, but for some reason our laptop is having issues loading them.  Until I figure that out, here's a couple of pictures :)

Sporting their new hats

D

This is what happens after the grocery store.