15 Months

I'm a week and a day late! On November 10th, Gemma was 15 months old. It seems like everyday she is doing something new now. Gemma is now:

-Practically running around the place! She loves to walk around, especially new places. The weekend before last we were at Paul's parent's house for a night, and I think all she did was walk around!

-Climbing up onto the couch in addition to the two chairs in our sitting room. She has learned to back down, so I'm not quite as nervous as when she was trying to dive head first off of the furniture!

-Saying 'hiya', 'bye bye', 'night night', 'car', 'daddy', 'mama', and 'more'. We also think she says a version of 'Sarah'- the main childcare provider in her room at creche and the name of one of the other little girls at creche.

-Putting clothes in the laundry hamper and garbage in the garbage can. Today she got a bit mixed up and promptly threw her hat and mittens in the garbage when we got back from a walk!

-Also putting the books we read before bed into the chair next to the one we sit in when reading. At first I would ask her to do it, then one night last week I came back into the sitting room from getting her dinner ready, and she had already put the books into the chair. We read certain ones, and she had picked the right ones!

-Loving Barney the dinosaur and Shrek. When she hasn't been feeling well with a cold, I let her watch a bit of them while we snuggle on the couch. She sat still and quiet for 40 minutes watching Shrek once! I hid the Barney DVD for awhile, but she found it yesterday and kept grunting at me with it and bouncing up and down until we watched it!

-Giving kisses with puckered lips now and continues to give great hugs. She's great at waving bye bye without being prompted as well.

-Still loving books. I think she spends more time with them than any toys she has. She's rediscovered a couple of box sets and loves taking the books out and putting them back in.

-Starting to cuddle and give hugs to her stuffed animals. Paul brought her a little Scottie Dog from Scotland a few weeks ago that she especially likes.

-Likes songs and dancing. A favourite is 'If You're Happy and You Know It'.

-Down to just one bottle a day at bedtime. She's still not great at taking milk out of a cup, but she loves yogurt and cheese, so we give her lots of these. Eating can be hit and miss. One day she'll eat something, the next day she'll spit out the same exact thing! Toddlers!

-Still a big, healthy girl. I haven't taken a weight or height lately, but her 18 month clothes are starting to get a little small! We'll be stocking up on 2 year clothes when we're in MN soon.

-Such a fun, sweet, happy little girl! Everyday her report from creche says 'Gemma was in great form today', meaning a great mood. We are so lucky to be the parents to such a wonderful little girl!

Some photos from the past month:































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Happy Halloween!

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Happy Birthday, Paul!

Today is Paul's birthday! We celebrated early and blew out the candles on the cake last night.




What a difference a year makes, although Paul is wearing the same sweater!


Wishing a very happy birthday to a wonderful husband and daddy!

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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