Twin Day

No joke, this coordination of outfits was completely unplanned! Thanks, Baba, for the funky pants.

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!

SHE DID IT!

We didn't have the camera handy but today was the day our baby took her first steps. She's been walking with our help and getting more and more stable. Nevada was just saying how impressed she was that Gemma was walking while only holding on to one guide hand. Today she was standing up against her blocks and all of a sudden turned towards mommy and just went for it. Then I called her over and she left mommy and took about three steps in my direction. It was thrilling. I was so proud and she was so happy. Although her new found mobility makes me a bit busier and more worried I do feel this opens up a whole new world of play. I'm excited to go to the park and watch her walk around and explore. I'll try to capture some video of her new skill sometime in the next couple of days.

New Trick

I could probably write a post every two or three days with that title but today's new skill was particularly momentous. For a while now we've been able to set our living room up as a large playpen using furniture and these cubes made of foam tiles. It's worked great. She has her toys and a few little places to explore but she can't get in much trouble or danger. It's the place I put her when I need to do things around the house and can't watch her every move. She's been pushing the boundaries lately by trying to squeeze out small cracks in the wall of this makeshift playpen...she's succeeded a couple of times with brute force. But today she finally figured out how to climb. Nevada and I were in the dining half of the room chatting and having lunch when all of a sudden Nevada saw that Gemma was on top of one of the cubes. We took some pics and helped her off. This will add a whole new dimension to supervision in our house.

a birthday party!

Gemma was invited to her first birthday party last week. A friend from school's son turned one, and so we went over for a little get together. The total count for people was 3 babies, 3 toddlers, 3 school aged children, and then 8 parents. The mom had games planned for the younger kids, and prizes, and it was a nice afternoon. Note to self; 2 hours is PLENTY of time for a first birthday party!

Unrelated note; yes, you can put prunes into icecube trays. Even though they stay sort of mushy, they will hold their shape in freezer bags.

Baby Food

So I made my own baby food this week. And it was easy, and cheap, and fun too. (I love making stuff, and since I don't have so much time for crafts and stuff making baby food sort of fulfilled that need). My firned came over with her babe one night and it was great; one set of hands for baby watching and one for working. I had a pretty extensive menu planned, so it took me three nights but I think with more friends it could go faster. Here's what I made:
1) beef/potatoe/carrot: Brown some ground beef. Chop it up. Bake some potatoes. Scoop the middles out and chop.(Can you use the peel? Maybe.) Boil some carrots. Chop. Blend in the blender. Sppon into ice cube trays.
2) Chicken/brocolli/rice: Baked some chicken breasts, steamed the brocolli, cooked some brown rice. Chopped and blended. Scoop into trays. It looked like glue, and tasted very gritty. I think it was the rice that made it gross, so not sure if I'll do it again. Although Gemma eats it fine.
3) Apple/plum/nectarine: This one was yummy! Carve an x with a knife onto the side of nectarines and plums. Steam until tender. They are quite thick, so it takes a while to get the middle tender. Keep the water you cook them in. Then peel them, it sort of scrapes off with a knife. Messy job! Then I peeled and chopped some apples, and cooked them in the plum water. They turned a yummy purple color. Then I chopped it all up, blended it and ta da! Aplesauce stuff.
4) Heather brought prunes, and they are yum! (I love prunes!) Just put them in a bowl and cover with boiling hot water. Let sit until they puff up, then chop and blend. Keep the water for other griut stuff or making cereal or just as juice. NOTE: prunes don't freeze solid, so don't put them in ice cube trays. I just put them in a tupperware, and when I need some I just spoon some out.

What did I learn that I didn't already know? 1) Blending stuff takes lots of water. Otehrwise its too thick and the blender makes an awful sound. I always tried to use as little water as possible when cooking, but then I had none left for blending, so go ahead and use water. 2) You need to chop stuff up before you put it in the blender. They are not as strong as you think. Hmmm...that's it. It was REALLY easy to do, made tonnes of food, and was easily half the cost of baby food ehre (Its over a dollar a jar!!!)

Any good recipes I should try?

How do they do that?

There was a comment on how we did the underwater pictures; well, Andy has a plastic case for his digital camera. So he just puts inside and can use it like regular under the water. As far as getting Gemma under the water, we just blew lightly in her face and dunked. (Sheri taught us that; blowing on their face causes them to breath in and hold their breath for a second)

Meet the Teacher Night

Here is me and Gemma at meet the teacher night, and a pic of her and members of her after school club. (Check out the jelly sandals; Thanks Allie!)

Fun with Hats

This was soo funny! Chris would put the hat on her, and she would try to pull it off. But every time she'd grab the hat and yank, her head would go along with it, so she was just pulling her head around in different directions. She loved it too, she thought it was funny, maybe because we were killing ourselves! Chris put the video on his facebook, so go there to check it out.

Under the Sea

Here is a smapling of picturs from our weekend retreat at Green Bay. We had a staff getaway at this incredible resort, with an indoor pool, two outdoor pools, on the beach, a spa, billards, arcade games...It was awesome! We had a buffet supper and breakfast the next day. The pool was the highlight though. It was so big and beautiful, with so many options. There was a current river you could float through, fountains, a little kiddie warm pool. Gemma had a blast and even got her face wet for the first time.

Tickle Time with Fangs Magee

The purpose of this tickle session was to get a good shot of the fangs. I have to hurry up and publish this post because she will not be fangs much longer, the middle front one popped out this week.

High Chair Yoga

...or maybe it's ballet. Or aerobics :)

First Word?

She is a chatty cathy, always with lots to say and lots of passion in her voice. I think I may have caught the first word. She was crawling around the music room and got under the shiny black piano. When she looked up and saw her reflection she said, "baby". She hasn't said it since, but it was so clear. Hard to tell if its for real or not. Other things she is close to saying is wa-wa (meaning water) and dada, and mum mum mum mum. She is also getting to be a good waver, waving hello to people and goodbye. Its funny because when she wants people to go, like when she's been held by others too much and she's back in my arm, she'll wave at them like, "My mommy's here now; buh bye!"

Into everything part II

So what do you do when you live in an apartment and have to eliminate the bottom 4 feet of storage space? The object I have the hardest time relocating is the toilet brush. I mean, who likes to keep their toilet brush up on a shelf at eye level?

The Gemma Fan Club

Everyday after school I go home, feed Gemma, and bring her back to school so I can get a bit more work done. There is always an entourage of kids waiting to play with her (no jokes, on Friday there eight kids in there all trying to play with her, carry her, walk with her, etc.) I am grateful for the help, they manage to keep her occupied for an hour or so and I can get a lot done. PLus Chris get an hour of alone time after his day of daddy-ing.



p.s. Brenda, good thing we kept that outfit. It is so cute, and fits her perfect now!

Are napkins a food group?

Into everything... I was standing two feet away from her, and I thought I had my eye on her as she was rummaging around the shelf in the kitchen. Well, I looked away for as second and when I looked back she had a handful of tissue with a huge bite out of it! It was hilarious to see the ripped off tissue coming from out of her mouth, and I would have liked to take a picture but I thought it was more important to get it out of her mouth before she swallowed any (or any more than she already had).

Ha, so funny I wrote that because looking back at our pictures, Chris DOES have pictures of her eating tissue! Hee hee.

Thanks for all the food advice! I appreciate it and have consulted back to it several times already.

Cherish!

What is it like being a mom? It means every day when I hold my baby girl, I pray that I would remember that moment forever.

Food

The solid food thing is going pretty good. It is probably the most complicated part of having a baby so far. (Maybe because I forgot to ask my peeps about what on earth to do, and so its the only part of parenthood I've done almost on my own.) I haven't done a tonne of reading, but one book I've been looking at is the Super Baby Food Book. It is huge and bright purple, and has lots of good information but a tad excessive for our style. She is a huge advocate of making your own everything, cereal and baby food and adding all sorts of funny things to it (healthy extras) like wheat germ, dried liver powder, brewers yeast and all sorts of other funny things that I wouldn't know how to find even if I lived in Canada. She is also a huge advocate of using ONLY organic produce. Other produce has pesticides on it and and pesticides kill living things. And then she goes on, "LET ME REPEAT THAT; PESTICIDES KILL LIVING THINGS". And so on... What has been helpful from it is that it is divided into month by month chapters so you you know what foods to add each month with lots of options and serving ideas. For example, things like shredded cheese. I wouldn't have thought of that, or shredded apple. Or making mashed potatoes into little balls for her to pick up but will mash in her mouth. I also tried cutting the mango into little spears, which she liked. They slide in and she mashes them up with her gums but if she accidently swallows they will just slide down like little noodles. So that's been good. Gemma really enjoys table food and so we are trying to give her what we can from our meals. Her favorite so far has been rotisserie chicken. Not the saucy outside, but little piece of the yummy white breast meat. She at that up. My question to you all is when to introduce wheat, and when to introduce dairy.

p.s. I just read some more of that book, trying to learn about meat, and she says that if we knew what she knew and read the books she read none of us would ever eat meat again. She has like three pages about meat and thats it.:)

Sleeping Beauty

I was doing dishes one night this week and every time I looked over at her, she was in a new position. I left her sitting on the floor, washed a bowl and looked over at her again; she was flat on the floor on her back. Wash another dish, look over, sitting up again. Look over again, standing against a chair. She is getting braver, too, and will crawl to other rooms in the house even if we are not there.

Her sleeping is getting better, only up once or twice at night which is good. Her bedtime is about 10:30, then she sleeps till 9:30 which is great for Chris, bad for me, but we'll try and negotiate that a bit this week. Speaking of sleeping, check these nap time photos out.

Monkey See, Monkey Do

This was taken our last day as Uncle Nate was sneaking us into RUH to try and catch the first glimpse at Baby Hickey. (Unfortunately she hadn't been born yet!) Maria made her entrance to the world as we waited in the airport. Congratulations Tom and Erin!

YA YA YA YA YA

Gemma spends a lot of time of her time saying these words really loud. Maybe she is going to be a preacher like her daddy! Sometimes she changes it up and it goes BA BA BA BA BA WA WA GA GA. She usually does it standing up at the footstool, waving one arm.

We've done pretty good in the falling department, none for a few days, until last night. Then she did a double; she fell backwards on her head but hit her chin first on the way down. Yikes!

No!

What a hard lesson to teach: No. Everytime we say it she looks up and grins, like its a game. I feel like to her, trying to figure out what is 'no' and what isn't is like those goofy party games, you know where you tell your name and what you're bringing to the it person and they tell you if you can or can't. (Does anyone know what I'm talking about??? The it person makes up some sort of rule before the game starts, for example, you must bring something that starts with the second letter of your name, so I could say 'My name is Nevada and I'm bringing bagels, and the it person would say I couldn't come, but if I said My name is Nevada and I am bringing eggs' I would be allowed... anyway, I digress) I guess the difference is we are more consistent; our rules don't change too often, but I feel like to her it is a very complicated system. What are some things on your NO list? We have (so far) remote controls and keys and most recently paper.

What is it with eating paper???? I am constantly squeezing her little cheeks to get paper out. I even found a sticker in there two days ago. I hate taking it away from her because she loves ot crumple it and tear it and shake it around, but as soon as you turn away, into the mouth it goes.

Baby Helmet

Number of days back in Taiwan: 4
Number of times Gemma has fallen backwards on her head on the hardwood: 3

These stats are from yesterday, which was also the first day she didn't fall backwards. Other injuries since we've been back? Well, she was standing at the coffee table, and saw something on the floor she wanted, so she bent forward and smoked her head on the edge. Ouch! The next one is sort of our fault. I was going to give her a bath the first night, and had her all undressed but alas, no hot water. So I set her down in her empty bathtub to play while I went to check out the water situation. She was playing happily but then decided to try and stand up. The tub tipped and now she has a bruise on her chin. Being a baby is very dangerous! I feel so bad for her, but yet don't want to limit her. Doh. I was relaying all this to our casheir and she told me about a thing she has for her baby. Should we go for it?

back at it!

Back in sunny green Taiwan! My committment this year is to blog more, so hold me to it.

Gemma was a great traveler, which was a huge relief for us. The worst flights are those little ones from askatoon to Calgary and then Calgary to Vancouver; the planes are so teeny there is no room for anything. She didn't fuss at all, slept most of the time. The few hours she was up we walked around the plane, met some other kids, and flirted with the stewardesses. We (mommy and Gemma) are both strugglig with jet lag this weekend, which sucks. You are so tired you can hardly function, but can't sleep. Yesterday we were up at 3am and had a big nap from 11-3, then today we were up from 4-5:30 then back to bed till 7:30. So not too bad. She actually just dozed off now so we'll see if I can convince my own body to rest.

She is getting TONNES of attention. We went swimming in the river yesterday and quite a crowd watching us. In the evening we went to a restaurant for dinner for Chris' birthday and the waitress tickled her eveyrtime she walked by. I think there are pictures of this and I will ty to post them soon.

Tomorrow is the first day back, so we are going to be working on our routine. These are the habits we need to break:
1) nursing her to sleep
2) crying when mommy leaves
3) sleeping the whole night in her own bed

We'll let you know how the first day goes!

Lots of New Pics

With the beautiful summer weather you can imagine why there has been a lack of posting but I just wanted to let you casual readers know that there are a ton of new pics on the Flickr. Just click the pic below and it'll take you there

The Farm

Gemma went to the farm last week! Chester as going to Chicago, Brenda was working, Dad was working, Sheri was working, so the babe and I took a road trip. The drive up was teh most beautiful of my life. We dropped Chris off at the airport at 5am and left from there. Everythign was so crisp and clear and green. There really is no place like Saskatchewan in the summer. Gemma slept the whole time (pheww!)

Here are some pics of the trip:






We have Gemma with her great grandparents (my Dad's mom and dad, Grandma and Grabdpa McKenzie)

The rest are of Cody, my cousin Kim's baby, and Gemma. And my cousin's husband Bob. Kim is my closest cousin. I was born in May, she was born in September. We got married in June, she got married in July, Cody was born last September and Gemma in November. So it is so cool that our kids will grow up to be friends!

In Canada!

Gemma is loving Canada so far. I don't think she misses home too much; wherever Chris and I are is home to her so that is good. She is a little distraced by the new surroundings, which makes nursing a little harder because she is always looking around. Nights have been half and half; so far half of them she's been fine, sleeping and eating just like usual, but the other half up every hour. She really does not like laying on her own anymore. This is a habit we worked on back in Taiwan, and she was pretty used to her crib and I think she understood that 'Ok, I'm in my crib, I guess I'm supposed to sleep now'. So now being in a different playpen is hard. Plus the 30 hours of sleeping with us on the plane. There are a lot of potential factors to weigh in a) She is teething, so maybe her tooth is bothering her, b) She just started solids (rice mum mums) so maybe the digestion is bugging her at night c) It's cold at night (we're trying to keep her bundled but safe) d) growth spurt? e) Too distracted in the day to eat enough so more feedings a night? Last night was bad, she was up at 12:30, 1:30, 2:30, 3:30, 4:30... and finally at 4:30 I handed her off to Chris. But after she came into our bed about 6 she slept until noon (with a few sleeping feedings in there) So maybe she is a little jet lagged. Who knows?

Gemma went to Chinese class on Monday to meet Ali and Adrienne's teacher. It was funny because they were sitting in Chinese when we went to the hospital to have her, and told the teacher, 'We have to leave our phones on, our friend is having a baby', and then the next week they cam back and reported that it was girl, etc. The teacher asked the baby's name, and they told her 'Gemma', and the teacher thought about it for a minute, and said, 'like Pyjemmas?' (get it; pyjamas) and so now one one Gemma's nicknames is Pyjemma.

We'll be home on Monday. Isn't that unreal?

First Tantrum?

Gemma was playing with a paper tag from a toy on Saturday. I usually let her play with paper until it starts disintigrating and then take it away, so when the tag was getting a little gooey I took it from her and she howled her displeasure! I think this was her first willful moment.

She is growing up in so many other ways, too. Like how she notices when people are paying attention to her and not. She flirts like crazy with her friends at chruch and is very cute and cuddly with new people. It's like she knows everyone is watching her. Also, she recognizes her name!

And what counts as the first word? She has been making her consonant sounds all weekend: "ga ga da da da da da da ba bowbow da da da". So do we get to count that as Dada, or does it have to be in context?

In two weeks from now we will be in the air, making our way across the ocean to see you all!

In Gemma news today, we have a runny nose and sneezy. I (mommy) have passed on my cold to my whole family. I am on the mend but beacause both Chris and Gemma are feeling yucky I took a sick day to stay home and be nurse. We made chicken soup and had a nice long nap. Gemma is down for nap #3 right now. She was up every hour last night,coughin and fevery. Poor thing!

Other than getting sick, she is doing very well. She sits up all alone (but we still don't trust her enough to leave her unattended). I put the boppy around her and then turned my back for a second and she did a face dive out of it. She wasn't hurt, just wants to get around I guess. She can turn from back to front no problem, but has only gone the other way a few times. On her tummy she can rotate all the way around. And lately she has been using her toes to lift her bum up into the air. Its all so cute.

The bumper pads are back up, she keeps getting her feet stuck in the bars :) Still not sleeping through the night...but one day I hope! Now at night she often rolls onto her side to fall asleep, or onto her tummy in the middle of the night.

See you guys soon!

Gemma can travel

We picked up Gemma's passport this morning. She can officially come to Canada with us this summer. We were trying to think of alternate plans: putting her in our suitcase, mailing her with FedEx, dressing her up as a dog and putting her in a kennel on the plane etc. (JUST KIDDING!) It's such a strange thing to me that she is an official Canadian without ever having been there. I'm sure she'll enjoy herself in our home and native land...rolling around on carpet and grass and meeting all her friends and family. 4 more weeks! See you soon!

Good days and bad days

As I laid Gemma down for her afternoon nap I thought of how good today has been. She slept in until 9, was pleasant with me as we went to the grocery store and Starbucks, played so nicely while I watched the Lakers and then visited so well with Andy. She has been a delight today. There are days that are tough as she cries and doesn't sleep regularily...and if I'm tired then they are extra tough. Tuesday was one of those days. I marvel though at her timing, she always gives me a good day when I need it. It's like she understands the relationship we have...I take care of her when she needs me and she takes care of me when I need it. Thanks for the great day Gemma! (If only she could've helped the Lakers win)