New skills

Here's what she's been working on:

1) Pointing to what she wants or where she wants to go.
2) Waving hello and goodbye consistently
3) More 'words'. I'm sure she's saying Hi, yeah, this, and no. (or not...hard to say!)
4) Picking up teeny tiny bits of food and getting them into her mouth.

She is also spending more and more hours in her own bed at night; two days ago she didn't wake until 6am. But as always some days are better than others.

Baby Bowling

Don't let a sleeping baby throw off your game!

Ponderosa

I wish we had pictures because it was really cute. We went out for dinner last night, and Gemma was really good. Restaurants have become a little more difficult with a baby; staying in the high chair that long, etc. So Chris and I usually spend a lot of the time walking her around or playing with her outside while we wait for the food to come, then put her in the highchair and try to eat as quickly as possible. But last night was really relaxing and nice. We went to Ponderosa, sort of like Bonanza, and got her some food from the salad bar and she stayed happily in her chair the whole time. She had little bits if plain spagetti noodles and some steamed broccoli, and picking up the bits of food and feeding herself kept her totally entertained. Then she had some papaya, and for dessert; a waffle wedge. The waffle was especially funny because she wanted to hold it by herself, and since she is gtting the bite thing I let her. It was so cute watching her munch off bites of waffle. It was a nice relaxing dinner for all of us.

Baby Food making party round II is scheduled for Monday at 3:30. The menu? Papaya/chicken, beef/potatoe, and fruit medley. RSVP to Nevada :)

Gemma the Octopus

We went grocery shopping yesterday and Gemma's new reaching capabilities put our parenting skills to the test. Chris threw a triangle of brie into the cart, and Gemma somehow got it, and bit a piece out of the aluminum foil wrapper. Then when we were walking through the meat section, she reaches out to the side and literally grabs onto a raw fish from a huge bin... EWWW!

We are working on 'no'. And she is frustrated, understandably. See a cheerio on my high chair, eat it. See it on the table, eat it. Mommy gives it to me, eat it. Find it on the floor, DON'T eat it??? Toy truck goes in the mouth, OK. Remote control, not OK. Toy banana goes in the mouth, OK. Paper, not OK. How difficult to be a baby. She is getting better with some things, for example, paper. She doesn't put that in her mouth near as much. But other little things from the floor, yikes! Last week I pulled out a popcorn kernel, a pretzel, a recipet...She does look guilty when I catch her, so maybe she is learning.

New Video

There is a new video on Chris' facebook.

It's been such a crazy week, practicing afterschool for my TV thing, plus events every day after the afterschool practice. Poor Gemma has been drug all over the place and not spent an evening at home. This isn't so bad, she's pretty good about travelling, but its teh missing her early evening nap that is killing her. She usually naps around 5-5:30 for 40 minutes or so. Except not this week, so then all evening she is tired and clingy. Her current bed time is 9pm, which is great beacuse I have an hour of quiet time, and she sleeps in till 10 or so. (Which may make you think Chris is spoiled but he is often up doing his classwork/church work late at night. Those are his office hours) Anyway, she is getting better at sleeping on her own, she even wiggled out of my arms to be in her bed and went right to sleep on her own. I think she is getting that can choose to go to sleep when she feels tired. (In case you are wondering, we totally spoiled her and let her fall asleep in our arms form day 1. And now thats how she has to fall asleep; the books are true!) Which leads to another topic...

I always said I would never let my baby sleep with us. In fact, I used to make fun of those people. But now I do it. A) I am so tired, and when she gets up two or three times a night its so much easier to pick her up, bring her to bed and nurse her laying down B) She often doesn't need to nurse when she is in bed with us; you can pat her when she starts getting fussy and she goes back to sleep without a full wake up C) She is so darn cute and sweet, I love her little baby hands beside my face, and her little milky breath and her teeny body. I just lean my face close to her and bretah in her baby goodness. To our credit, she does go to sleep in her own bed, and sleeps there until 1 or 2. But after that middle of the night wake up, to bed with us she comes and there she stays until the morning.

Thats how we roll at the McKenzie house:)

Back from Break

We had the best vacation in Penghu! Gemma was a star, of course, she travelled well. Ahe also slept really well, I think from all the exercise. There are tonnes of nice pictures, go check them out on the flicker. Enjoy the teasers, but seriously, if you've never looked at our photos before thats ok, but these ones are great and you should take a look.

We got home Thursday and Friday Gemma had a fever. Saturday day she was good but then was hot again all night and Sunday morning, but then at night was ok again. We'll see how she is today and maybe take her to the doctor.

New Skill

whistle blowing!