14 Months!

This isn't the best photo of Gemma and her lion, but it was the best one I could get this past Thursday, when Gemma turned 14 months old! She was tired after a day at creche, plus has a bit of a cold (again!), so we'll take what we can get! Gemma is becoming more of a toddler everyday. At 14 months, Gemma:

-Has taken her first steps on her own! It happened on September 26th when we were at Paul's parent's house in Louisburgh. Gran had gotten her a little plastic chair of her own, and she kept standing in front of it and lifting it up. One day she picked it up and took a few steps holding it up in the air. She didn't do any steps on her own again for about 2 weeks, but this past Thursday she took some in creche and again at home. Over the weekend she has been doing more steps more often. She loves walking holding hands and especially liked walking up and down the driveway at Paul's parent's house.

-Continues to love books! Most days she pulls all of them off of the shelf, looks at them herself, and brings them to us to read. She also likes looking at our books too and always seems to choose 'The Firm' by John Grisham off our shelves.

-Last weekend when I was reading to Gemma out of one of her nursery rhymes books, I started reading 'Row, Row, Row Your Boat'. Gemma grabbed my hands and started 'rowing'. She also clapped my hands when we got to 'Baa Baa Black Sheep'. I asked in creche, and they sing both of those rhymes there. Gemma loves them, and will start to 'row' or clap our hands when she wants us to sing them.

-Gemma has started to hide behind Paul and me if we're sitting down on the floor with her, an will peek around to find us. She also likes to climb on us from behind.

-She wants to help open doors and turn light switches off and on now. She is so tall that I don't think it will be that long until she can reach the door handles herself!

-On October 1st, I weighed Gemma at 28 pounds, 12 ounces. That's above the 95th percentile. We haven't been able to get her to stay still enough to measure her height, but over the weekend she was with our neighbour boy, who is about a year older than Gemma, and Gemma was about two inches taller! She is wearing 18 month and 18-24 month clothes.

-Gemma expanded her food horizons a bit while in Louisburgh with Paul's family- she tried and liked fish fingers and chicken curry. And, she continues to want everything we're eating! She won't drink milk out of her sippy cup yet, but we keep trying!

-She continues to enjoy creche and has started napping a bit longer there.

-Gemma may be getting close to transitioning to one nap per day, as that is all she does at creche, and sometimes at home she has taken a LONG time to finally fall asleep for her second nap and doesn't sleep that long.

-Overall Gemma is a very happy little girl, but she has started to have the occasional tantrum- mostly if she's tired or frustrated by something. She definitely has an independent streak!

-Gemma's hugs and kisses are the best! We love her so much and are so blessed to be her parents!

Photos from the past month:




Standing up!






Love my books!



Reading in my chair at Gran and Grandad's



Walking with Gran and Daddy



Playing the piano at Gran and Grandad's



Shocked by the ending of 'The Firm'!






Helping Mommy with her clothes



Walking back to the car with Daddy after lunch in the Tea Rooms in Lucan



More books!



And one of Mommy and Daddy at the wedding they went to on September 27th

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Afternoon at the park

It started off misty and dull this morning, but when Gemma got up from her afternoon nap, it was a beautiful, sunny autumn day. We took advantage of it by going to the park here in Louisburgh for the first time. It's right next to the cottages that I stayed in when I was here as a student with St. Scholastica.















Her favourite thing was the slide- especially trying to climb up it!

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First Real Shoes!

Today I bought Gemma her first 'real' shoes at the same shop in Westport where her daddy got his first shoes! The shop assistant was so nice, and we got this keepsake of the occasion. On the inside it lists Gemma's name, the size of the shoes, and the date.




All she wants to do is walk holding our hand/hands at the moment- I'd say it won't be too long before she takes some independent steps!

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13 Months!

This post is so late, it's nearly time to write the 14 month one! Since we don't have any more stickers for the months, I forgot to take a photo with Gemma and her lion. Hopefully I'll remember next month, although it's getting harder all the time to get her to stay still and pose! At 13 months, Gemma is doing something new almost every day and is so much fun! Here's a rundown of what she's been up to the past month!

-Gemma is always on the move! She crawls, climbs, and cruises all day long. She can push her walker toy really fast now, and always wants to walk holding our two (and lately can do one) hands. She can stand without holding onto anything for longer and longer, and she thinks it's hilarious to just fall backwards if she knows I'm behind her to catch her. She can climb into both of our chairs in the sitting room now, then stands up onto the seat and tries to climb over the backs of the chairs. We have patio doors in the sitting room and two of the bedrooms that have ledges that are the perfect height for Gemma to sit on. She can now stand up from sitting on the ledges on her own. I'd say it won't be too long before she takes some steps on her own!

-Gemma LOVES books now. She usually pulls all of them off of the shelf everyday, looks at them over and over, and brings them to us to read over and over! If one of us is sitting on the floor with her, she'll climb up into our lap with a book to read. Paul and I are both big readers, so it's great to us!

-She continues to love putting things into other things and has begun to stack her cups and blocks too. Her other favourite toys are her stacking rings and her pop up animal toy.

-Gemma has been giving the best hugs- she squeezes our necks really tight and usually pats our shoulder/back with one hand too. In the past couple of weeks, she's been giving kisses when asked too- she comes at us with a wide open mouth! It's so cute!

-I think she knows what a dog says now- we have a book called 'Doggies', and whenever we finish it, she always says 'raow, raow, raow'. She continues to say 'mama', 'dada', 'nigh nigh', and 'up', but mostly imitating. We think 'da da' might also be her form of thank you, as she says it a lot when you give her something.

-She enjoys going to creche (daycare), and always holds out her arms to the staff to take her when I drop her off. She's still not napping the greatest there- never takes a morning nap and has only had two afternoon naps longer than an hour. One day this week she only slept 15 minutes! She seems to make up for it on the days that she's home though. We usually have to wake her around 7:45, then we have to wake her after she's been sleeping for two hours for her morning nap.

-Unfortunately Gemma has gotten some colds since starting creche and needed her first course of antibiotics to kick a chest infection.

-A new favourite food is toasted cheese sandwiches. She also wants anything that we are eating! She will stand up next to us with her mouth open whenever Paul or I are eating anything!

-We are formula free! I took things rather slow switching to milk since she had milk protein intolerance as a little baby and she was also starting creche around her first birthday. We've been on milk for over a week now with no problems. She's still taking it out of a bottle, but we're going to transition to a sippy cup when we're back from Louisburgh in a little over a week (more on that later).

-Gemma still has 6 teeth.

-Gemma has taken her first trip to Louisburgh without mommy and daddy this weekend! She went with Paul's mom, sister, and brother-in-law. Mayo plays in the All-Ireland Gaelic Football final on Sunday here in Dublin, so Paul and I will be going to the game. I'll head down to Louisburgh on Monday, then Paul will be down later in the week depending on work. We have a wedding down there on Friday and will all be heading back to Dublin on Sunday.

Even though it's nice to have a little break, sleep in, and have some time for just Paul and me, I'm missing Gemma like crazy! She is such a joy, we love her more than words can say. Here are photos from the past month:
















This breadstick can fit in my ear!






My finger fits in my nose, and it's hilarious!









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A New Yoga Pose?

Silly girl!

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1st Birthday Party

On Saturday we had a party with Paul's parents, sister and brother-in-law, and a few close friends to celebrate Gemma's first birthday. She had a great day being the centre of attention, and she handled it all really well since she isn't in big groups of people very often (not that 11 people is a big group!).

We had a ladybug theme and a barbecue. Marie got the cake made by someone she knows through work, and it matched the decorations perfectly! And it was tasty too!
















The party started with opening gifts. Gemma didn't quite get to pull the paper off of the gifts, but she liked looking at all of the new things.
















Gemma played with her new toys and everyone visited while Paul grilled up yummy burgers, sausages, and chicken. We then all ate way too much!










Next came the cake! Gemma has never really had cake before, so she made some awfully funny faces when she was tasting it and didn't eat too much. We got to Skype with Grandma Brenda, Auntie Margo, and Cousin Freya during the cake smash.













After being hosed down in the shower, a bit more visiting, and a bottle, it was bedtime for Gemma.



The rest of us enjoyed a few more beverages and chatting after Gemma went to bed. We had a wonderful day celebrating our little girl!

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1 Year!

My oh my, where has the past year gone? We celebrated Gemma's first birthday on Saturday (more on the party in the next post), and we had a wonderful day. Gemma has become such a funny, happy, active little girl; it's hard to imagine her as the tiny newborn she was. Her birthday really brought back all of those feelings the first time I heard her cries and saw her face in the operating room 12 months ago. Parenthood has been the most incredible, rewarding journey, even though some times have been quite challenging as well. I wouldn't trade it for the world. Gemma is a blessing that I give thanks for everyday. At 12 months, she:

-Continues to be very active- crawling, climbing, standing at furniture and grabbing everything in sight, and cruising along furniture. The other day she was able to crawl up into our rocking chair by herself. She also climbed into one of the ikea boxes that we store her toys in! She isn't walking yet, but in the past couple of weeks she's gotten very good at standing up to and walking with her v-tech walker by herself.

-Likes to make funny faces and has started to make an "o" with her mouth and say "oh" at the same time. Scrunching up her eyes and nose continues to be a favourite face as well!

-Says 'dada' and 'mama', but she hasn't actually called us by those names- it's mostly just babbling and imitating. When I take her upstairs to bed, I say 'night, night' , and she often says what I think sounds like 'nigh, nigh'. When I want her to stand up or climb up the stairs, I say 'up, up', and she imitates and says something similar to this as well.

-Has 6 teeth now- the top, front 4 and the bottom, front 2.

-Really likes to clap and play pat-a-cake. She now even takes my hands and claps them for me when she thinks I should clap!

-Continues to imitate a lot of what we do. Yesterday Paul was putting the cap of her sippy cup over her face early in the day, and she started doing it with me at dinner.

-Is going to daycare (called creche here) on the days I work (Wednesday-Friday), and has settled in really well there. The only small issue is that she doesn't nap much there. At home she takes two naps, usually at least an hour each. At creche she has only fallen asleep once for the morning nap, and her afternoon nap has only been 35-60 minutes. She just doesn't want to miss a thing!

-Has tolerated starting dairy really well and loves yogurt and cheese. At home we have a hard time getting her to eat any meat, but at creche she eats everything they give to her!

-Likes to put items into other items when playing. Her nesting/stacking cups are a favourite. She got a Fisher Price cookie jar for her birthday, and the past two days she has been constantly playing with it- taking the cookies out, then putting them back in again.

-Loves to play with socks and tries to put them on herself. She has also become quite good at knowing where most items of clothing belong- she'll often offer a leg when I'm putting her pants on her.

-Is enthralled by Barney the dinosaur. We don't let her watch tv or videos hardly at all, but one day Paul put on a Barney episode on the iPad to distract her while I was cutting her nails. She sat and watched it quietly while I cut her nails and for a long time after!

-Continues to be a healthy girl- by my calculations she weighs 26 pounds, 8 ounces. We haven't measured her height recently, but her 18 month pants are getting a little short!

-Is a happy, content little girl who usually entertains herself with her toys quite easily. She does let us know that she's not happy if we take something away or don't let her do something that she wants to do, but I think this is typical toddler behaviour! The upset never lasts very long.

Some photos from the past month:







She doesn't like getting her hair rinsed, so we got this for her- it works quite well!



On our way to Louisburgh



Sleeping during the heat wave!


















Paul and Gemma went to Louisburgh while I stayed in Dublin for a bachelorette party the first weekend in August. Gemma hasn't slept in the car with me in about 7 months. I got this picture on their way down! She slept on the way back too!

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