Pictures

Giving Makinley a hug before heading out to swim.


Climbing into everything these days.


Believe it or not, she already likes to play dress up


I was actually taking a picture of our new car...the hug between father and daughter is just a bonus.


Playing with daddy's key chain collection with Zoey.


Yep, still cute as ever in hats. Most of my favorite pictures of her include hats.


She does this for pictures a lot now...she says "freeze!!" and throws her arms up.

Camera trouble

If you know me, you know I'm not the best at figuring things out on the computer. So I still haven't been able to figure out why my pictures stopped uploading properly. I have asked David to figure it out tonight...I've got a few cute ones I'll put up tomorrow if he can figure it out (which he probably will in about 2 minutes). So this is officially my first post without a picture or a video :(
Gemma seems to be hitting those terrible twos a little early, so the last couple of weeks have had their challenges. I've had to step up and actually be a parent...geez! It's funny though, there are days when I hope our next baby is different in some ways, (i.e. knows how to use an inside voice, has less of a stuborn streak), but other days I hope for another Gemma. She does the cutest things! She recently started saying "Hi mommy, I missed you" when I walk in to get her up in the morning. Doesn't get much cuter than that!
Last night was a little rough for me. I got maybe 3 hours of sleep. I was having a hard time falling asleep to begin with, but on top of that, David was jolting awake every 5 minutes...yes I timed it, and yes he does this quite often (mainly when he's stressed out). That went on until about 1:30 a.m. and then Gemma woke up for some reason. So I went and laid down with her, thinking I would get more sleep with her than with David...ha! At 3:30 I finally gave up and gave her a cup of milk. She was either hungry or thirsty, because she downed that glass and quickly fell asleep. The upside to all of that, is that I had lots of time to think...I'm fairly certain I know what I'm going to do in the nursery now hahaha. I have it all decorated in my head. In addition to that, we've also narrowed down our name list from about 20, down to about 5...Progress!!
I'll post pictures tomorrow...

Summer fun

Even with the terribly hot weather, the summer is flying by. It hit me the other day that if baby #2 gets here when Gemma did, than he or she will be here in under 8 weeks...woah!!! I'm not ready yet! I haven't even started on the nursery, and we definitely don't have any names picked out yet. At least there's not as much to do this time around.

Gemma is loving summer! There is nothing more fun to her than going to the pool. We will definitely be getting a pool membership next summer. Thankfully, even without a membership this summer, we've still been able to swim a LOT, and she gets more and more brave every time we go. She is no longer content to just sit and play in the shallow water...she wants to swim...or jump off the side...or float on her back...or practice kicking. Really, she's happy as long as she doing something that doesn't involve letting her parents relax. Ha! It's fun though, I was the exact same way as a kid. I HATED it when my dad wanted to lay out in the sun, I wanted him to be throwing me in the air, or racing me from one end of the pool to the other.

We were in Branson on vacation last weekend, and I only took about three pictures! I took the nice camera, so of course I didn't want to be taking it to the pool. I'll have to take a bunch of pictures in the next couple of months to make up for it :) Gemma had a total blast, was a total rock star the whole time, and got completely spoiled. The girl loves to shop!! She got several little things that kept her entertained during the trip. I think the most "interesting" thing she picked out was a spoon with a penguin attached to it, which she refers to as "Walka". It's hard to explain how she does it, but she tends to pick weird names for her favorite toys. She currently has "Walka" and "Okie". Thanks to uncle Jeff, she also learned a new word/phrase on vacation....."Oh Snap!"
Here's Gemma in her bed. I've tried and tried to get a picture of her sleeping but they just don't turn out well, and always wake her up. I guess this is the best I can do. It's also the only picture that uploaded from the ones of I've taken this month. I'll post the rest when I figure out what went wrong.

Big Girl Room

For those of you who don't have facebook, and haven't seen pictures of Gemma's new room...here they are. I've changed a couple of things since taking these pictures, but not much. She absolutely loves her room! The first couple of days, she ASKED to take a nap. I bought her a little ottoman with a lid, that serves as a night stand, and also stores all her stuffed animals. I think that, and her pink chair in the corner are her two favorite items. We put up rails on either side of the bed for naps and bedtime. We had one hand-me-down rail initially, but it wasn't working properly, so after two nights of her falling out of bed, we got another new one. So far so good!
She takes a bath almost every night these days because she gets so sweaty during the day. So our routine after her bath is drying her off in the bathroom, and then she runs naked to her room. She thinks this is sooo funny. The first couple of days after switching her room, she ran to her old room, and was confused as to why her door was shut. So I explained she needed to go to her new room. A week later, she is still doing the same thing, but now it's just a game to her.

So far this has been one of the easiest "transitions". I thought I would be sad to see her in a big girl bed, but I think it was just as exciting for me as it was for her. I loved decorating it, and then seeing her get so excited about it. She definitely looks so small in her bed when I go in to check on her and kiss her good night, but it's not sad.

I tried taking pictures of her actually in it, but I just managed to wake her up

Well, in case you don't know...we are taking a month break from potty training. I think I'm happier about this than she is. She's been showing more and more signs that she wants to do it, so I think it will be much easier when we try again (fingers crossed).

David has been in Guatemala this past week. It has actually gone by super fast because I've kept myself busy painting and setting up her new room. I'll post pictures as soon as it's fully finished. I've also made sure to plan lots of play dates for her, so we haven't been in the house much. It's been a fun week overall, but I'm usually exhausted by the time she's tucked in bed. We're excited for daddy to get home.

Baby #2 is doing great! I had an appointment yesterday and everything seemed to be going great. I'm beyond excited we've hit the 28 week mark. My appointments are now every two weeks instead of monthly, so expect more and more updates. I have a feeling the third trimester is going to go by quickly with everything we still have planned for the summer. Now that we are doing room switches, and making lists of things we need to get for the baby, I'm getting more and more excited. I'm even enjoying being pregnant...imagine that! We are still far from having a name, but I'm starting to feel the pressure of picking one. With how different this pregnancy seemed at the beginning, I was sure we were having a boy. Now I'm not so sure. Most people have "guessed" that I'm having a boy, but there have been a few to say girl too. I don't really have a preference. It would be great to have two girls close in age, especially since I already have season appropriate clothes, but I would LOVE to have a boy too. I don't think I'll be disappointed either way.

Potty training

I think the two hardest things I've had to deal with as a mother thus far are, 1. the beginning stages of nursing, and 2. potty training. We're on round two of trying to potty train, and I have to say, it's exhausting. I've heard that trying before two years old is too soon, but I wanted to give it a good go at it before the baby gets here. Plus, my niece Ariya is proof that it can be done. I'm pretty sure Gemma is perfectly capable of learning, I just don't know if I know what I'm doing well enough to teach her. Last Saturday was our first day, and it was pretty miserable. We both broke down in tears after Gemma peed on the floor and preceded to slip in it. We were a little more successful after her nap, which is what convinced me to even try it a second day. Day 2 and 3 seemed to go better, and then we hit day 4, which was basically a repeat of day 1. So frustrating! I decided to hold out and complete a whole week, and if I didn't see an improvement, I would just wait a few more months. Well, she got sick on day 5. Woke up running a fever and didn't want to do anything but be held or watch Dora. I still tried taking her to the potty when she woke up, and she went, but then refused her M&Ms for going. I decided to just give the poor girl a break and not worry about potty training for that day. Amazingly enough, she did fantastic. Even with her diaper on, she still told me when she had to go. Granted, she would tell me and then sit there watching Dora for 20 minutes, but she didn't have a single accident all day. The following day was just as great. Today (Friday) has been a little more challenging since she's feeling better and has lots of other things to distract her. All in all I think she's getting it. I'm not sure where she should be by now since I've never done this before, but I'm happy with the improvement. I'm so proud of her! We still haven't mastered going at home, so taking her to the bathroom when we are in public places is still not much of an option. Honestly I have no idea how to even begin doing that, but we'll continue to take it one day at a time. As long as she continues to improve, we're sticking with it. Keep us in your prayers :)

Doesn't she look like such a big girl?

Answers

From the last post, here is what she's actually trying to say:
beeza= zebra
diya= nana
biya= Dora
banna= banana
beja= Gemma
chewchews= fruit snacks
wing= swing
agua= water
bedgie= blankie
taytue= thank you...which has recently turned into sankyou

Of course she did it perfectly three times in a row and then decided she was distracted when the camera came out. I know for a fact she can count to ten in English and Spanish.

I think it's still too early to tell, but she's showing signs of being a lefty like her grandpa and auntie.

Showing off all her "tricks"