Party Time

We went to a wonderful 1st birthday party on Saturday for our friend Atticus. It was really fun to have all the other kids her age there because she mostly plays with the bigger kids at school. Gemma loved the toys and food (everything was super yummy) and helping with the presents. (Which is funny because at her birthday, she didn't open many presents either; her older friends did most of the work and checked them out for her first). I stole the pictures from Heather's blog; our digital camera is having battery issues.

On another note, she always rides her cars backwards too. ??? Hers is especially funny because it has all these buttons and a piano on the 'dashboard' and so she sits on it backwards and bounces on the piano with her butt.

Haircut photos

Before...


After!

Tickle Tickle

Gemma said 'tickle tickle' last night! Ok, it was more of a 'tick-a tick-a' but it was accompanied by the tickiling motion up on my sternum. (That's where we tickle her, she's so giggly). Iwas holding her and she sort of rubs/squeeze and says ticka ticka and of course I act it all up and giggle and laugh and she was so pleased.

Another new thing is that she will bring stuff. You can give her something (like a Valentine's Day rose) and say, Go give this to daddy, and she will! Chris says he can even get her to pickup certain thins and bring them; like pick up the dolly, or the book and bring it and she will.

First Haircut

Chris and I have been talking about getting Gemma's haircut for about 2 months now. It is very sweet and a bit curly at the ends, but also stringy and scruffy. Honestly, she looked like a street urchin from Oliver, grinning but hair in her face and hanging over her ears. But anyway, our babysitter came over and said wow, her hair is long and Chris had the great idea to send them on a mission to get haircut. So they did! Unfortunatley no pictures or little lock of hair, but we'll take some tomorrow and save a clip fom the next haircut. She looks very sweet, still long at the back but the bangs are nicely trimmed and around her ears as well. Much less orphan-y.

Funny story; we were out shopping with friends after school and in the pharmacy, Gemma let out this huge fart. It was so loud and long, and well, adult sounding. We all giggled and looked around sheepishly, not wanting people to think it was us.

New Shoes

The cutest faces are made by Gemma. She puckers her lips, makes excited 0 shapes with her mouth, looks disdainfully, indignant, silly, and of course happy. She is constantly cracking people up.

She went to sleep on her own with the babysitter (Adrienne) last night, since I went to the airport to help Chris with his luggage. Her bedtime routine has become pretty consistent lately (another post) and I think that helped.

Funniest moment today; her new shoes. She wore her first hard soled runners today and when we put them on, well, we should of had a camera. At first she was just frozen, (like Anna, Baba's dog). The she was wiggling her butt and moving up and down, I think trying to see how to move her feet that were so firmly placed on the floor. Then the first tentative steps. Think moonlanding without the bouncing. Very heavy, one foot in front of the other with long pauses between each step. Then she got into them and got around pretty well. At one point she realized that it was her who was making the stomping sound and she pounded extra loud for a few minutes, enjoying her own thump thump thumping.

She is glad to see Daddy, of course, and intrigued by the cast/crutches. She keeps trying to touch them.

Tomorrow is her first whole day with Daddy in 10 days! Go daddy go!

Day 8

Gemma and I are on day 8 of bachelorhood, and doing alright. I have to admit, I woke up this morning less than perky but she was really really good, and we had a nice day. She behaves in the day and sleeps through the night; what else can I ask for?

Everyday seems to bring new skills. Today I especially noticed how good her fine motor skills are getting. We've been playing with stickers lately, and usually I hand her one and she tries to stick it to the page, but its hard to get it the right way, or then she tries to push it down and it just gets stuck to her. (It doesn't help that they are those mall sized dot stickers) Today she got it! It was so precious. And last bath day, you know she was hauling around the huge shampoo and conditioner bottle? Well, she also had a brief pause to remove a hair from her skin. She just carefully pinched it between thumb and forefinger and got it. Tonight at a BBQ she was moving dominos all around. Take some dominos, put them in the cupboard, close the door. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. :)

First Big Girl bath

Gemma sat by herself in the big person bathtub today. Ok, if you've seen our bathtub you know its not a big person tub at all, really, but anyway, you now what I mean. We were bathing together, then I let some of the water out and she was so cute, sitting and playing, standing up and grabbing the big shampoo bottles. We get our shampoo and conditioner form Costco so the bottles are almost as big as she is, and she just had to pick it up, turn around, drop it. PIck it up again, put it on the edge. She dropped it over the side once on the floor, and was immensely satisfied with herself. Who knows what is going through their heads!

Since Chris is with the camera there are no pictures (plus, I would have had to leave her unattended to go get the camera, which is of course a no no) so here is an old picture of baby Gemma with Daddy in the tub taken one year ago. She looks so different!

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40 minutes

It takes me 40 minutes to get ready to leave the house with Gemma.

By the time I get everything ready and am actually out of the house I am so frantic and agitated I don't even feel like seeing people.

Where are the mitts? Toques? Sweater? Shoes, Why is there only one shoe? Where is the other one? Where is the sippy cup with the good lid? It's dirty; must wash it. Refresh cheerio container. Food. Blanket. My wallet, cell phone, keys... Put the hat on. She takes it off. Put on shoes. Where are my shoes? Put them on. Uggg!!! I hate it!!! And I try to go easy on myself, leave plenty of time, not pressure myself to be on time, but I still feel so frazzled.

Anyway, enough about me, more about Gemma! Well, she loved web chatting with Daddy this morning.

And, uh... hmm. Once again, it is too late and my brain is mushy. Must sleep, I'll try to blog in the morning.

Gemma Pollock

Art by Gemma. I left her bowl of unfinished broccoli chicken too close to the edge of the table and she got it. Enjoy the art process that ensued.

Daddy's Helper

This is called Daddy's helper because Daddy is the laundry guy at our house.

This fits in with her obsession with carrying things around the house.

First, open the closet.

Take out item of clothing. Put it in the hamper of clean clothes waiting to be put away.

Take item out of hamper, put it in the dirty clothes pile.

Put something from dirty clothes pile into the closet.



Repeat many times. She also like to open a drawer and pull everything out (time for drawer clips). We often find her clothes laying all over the house because she picks them up and wanders around with them

Mommy's Helper Part 2

Wiping things.

She will get the rag and wipe her toys, the table, her high chair if she's sitting in it. Anything. She even went into the bathroom and we discovered she has a new talent; lifting the toilet seat. I walked in and she had her hand and rag down inside the toilet just about to give it a good scrub. (I think I caught her before she got to it).

Mommy's Helper part 1

So Gemma is into helping lately. Now that she can tip toe and reach onto things nothing is safe.

Part 1 features Gemma helping me reorganize my hair clips and jewlery.

Summary

Wow, so long. Sorry everyone! It has been a super busy week, and I've been putting all my extra time on a guess book for another friend and wow. Having a baby is certainly not good for my productivity. But that's ok, because she is only a baby once. I am too aware of the fact that she will one day grow up.

Here is a summary of the week's accomplishments:
-Officially weaned. I nursed a few times this week but I think it's all done.
-Lots of babbling, a few more real words but nothing consistent. Up sometimes, chss (for cheese). She gets super into storytelling, and she'll make all the right facial expressions for a story and tell it to you very intently. It's so cute!
-Loves books! She'll grab a book and bring it over to me, sit on my lap and wait to be read to, I think she is starting to get that the things I say connect to the pictures on the page, and that the pictures on one page connect to the next page. Her favorites are Dino Gets a Bath, a really cute flap book with Dino hiding in all sorts of places. She smiles and acts surprised as we find Dino, and hits other one called Where's Noah? about Noah's ark. As you turn the pages another layer of the rainbow is revealed.
-Talent show judging. Gemma came with me afterschool to help judge the talent show. She loves when the kids sing and dance and play instruments.
-Didn't cry for babysitters! She had three babysitters this week and was pretty good. One new babysitter came over so I could go to a Women's care and share night, and she took Gemma for a walk. When they got home Gemma didn't want to get out of the stroller, so the sitter just set it in front of the TV and the two of them watched TV for the last little it.

Lastly, Gemma has a cold. Lots of snot, very stuffed. I got a decongestant and some cold medicine, tried the decongestant first, so we'll see how much difference it makes. She has slept for 12 hours straight (a first!) I keep checking on her and she has hardly moved, but is breathing nice and deep, so hopefully she feels better when she wakes up.

Thank You

Here are some pictures of Gemma wearing some of her gifts. The moccasins are real caribou hide moccasins and beaver fur, from Auntie Shirley and Uncle Greg in Yellowknife, the Baby Legs from Grandma Sheri (aren't they cute?) and the Esprit outfit from Allison. I have better pictures of her in that outfit but this one was so cute, the forced pose. LIke school pictures.







It is the end of the day and she did so much cute stuff, and I can't remember even one story. I need to tart blogging in the morning.

Jinx

Ok, I don't really beleive in jinxes or knocking on wood, but I am not sure how else to explain this. Murphy's law? Anyway, Gemma is sleeping through the night, most of the time. But I was too scared to say anything because I didn't want to jinx it. All last week I would whisper to myself 'She's sleeping through the night'... Well, on Friday I finally told some people, 'Gemma is sleeping through the night.' You can probably guess where this story is going.

At 2am on Friday night she woke up. Like completely up. Crying screaming when we tried to put her back to sleep. So I was letting her play in the living room and I laid down on the couch. At one point I must have dozed off, and Chris came out for a study break and noticed something on her face. She had found a whole bag of candy and chocolate, and had eaten through the wrappers. All around her mouth was a chocolaty ring, and she was grinning ear to ear. Stinker! After all that sugar it really isn't a surprise that she didn't fall asleep until 5am. We haven't had a night like that since she was a newborn.

Saturday night and last night were awesome again. Fingers crossed, knock on wood, throw some salt over my left shoulder, find a penny pick it up...

Games We Play

The Patting game...Walk around someone's back and lay on them. Then pat gently.

Also is the play in the empty bathtub game. She likes to splash the thin layer of water around.

ready at all times

Shelen's perfectly captured drool picture posted earlier this week reminded me that I hadn't put any up from our trip to the zoo back in December. We went with Audrey's sister, brother in law and nephew, who were in town from California. Andy took some super pictures of the animals, but my favorite was this one, of Gemma looking intently over the rail...with a perfect snot bubble. Just another reason why you need to keep your camera ready at all times!

New Favorites

Gemma's new favorite things to do:
1) Read a magazine. I got a Parents magazine for Christmas and she will sit with it and read it and flip the pages and turn it over for 30-40 minutes.
2) Pick up stuff. She'll pick up the blocks and put them in a pail Then take them out. Then pick them up. Then out. Same with her toy box, laundry hamper, garbage can. She also likes picking stuff up, carrying it to a new place in the house, and dropping it.
3) Squeezing through small spaces. For some reason she will try and sneak around in beween things she knows she can't fit. She pushes and squeezes and tries to force her way through. We don't have a lot of these sort of nooks, but for example between the chair and the coffee table.

I had a moment last week where I was like, "Who is this little girl?" She's grown and changed so much in the last three weeks its like a transformation; from baby to toddler. Her whole style of communicating, her movements, her facial expressions, her games. Its so amazing.

A game...

I think Gemma is on the mend, she ate a lot more today than yesterday so that is good. No solid poos yet, but also o runny ones since this morning so I hope that is good.

She loved the vacation. Don't think I need to say more about that. What a lucky baby :)

Now time for a little game: Go to the comments section and name 10 baby food flavors; GO!

(I need some inspiration for my next babyfood making party, and we only have like 5 flavors at our local grocery store; peach, applesauce, fruit medley, chicken and gravy, and vegetables and chicken. I know there has to be more ideas out there:)

Merry Christmas Gemma!

She was pretty fun this year, compared to last year when she slept all day. She sort of got the unwrapping thing, and really liked her toys. The best was the dolly; as soon as she opened it she hugged it, and patted it on the head and back. It was too cute. She also got a fire truck, and she figured out right away that if you put the little man in the driver's seat it plays a song. She got a doll house and some sweet socks from home (plus the bike helmet). AND Baba's package hasn't come yet so we can make Christmas last a little longer.

The rest of the pictures are already on the flicker (wow, we are on the ball with blogging and pictures)

We're off to the Philipinnes tonight. Pray for safety and fun and good weather.

Talk to you in 5 days.

Christmas Eve

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve with friends! Our Christmas package from Grandma Sheri and Grandpa Rod came, so we put more presents under the tree. One was sort of loosely wrapped and too roly poly to stay under the tree so we let Gemma go at it. This is just a teaser, I can see Chester was working on the flicker so there will be more pictures there soon.

New Friend

Hurray for Ryan and Allison! They have a new baby girl to join their family, Ayda Sharon Ruth. She is completely beautiful, and when I talked to Allison she was so energetic and calm...Not how I remember feeling after giving birth;) But I am a huge wimp. Anyway, check out the link here to see the pictures.

Stay Sleeping

One thing I love about having Gemma in bed with us in the morning is that she sleeps longer. She sometimes wakes too early but if we pretend we are sleeping she rolls around, pokes us in the face a bit, flops down on us, wiggles her bum around and eventually goes back to sleep. Today she was so funny, she woke up and was sitting us blabbing away, and then she started doing this thing with her tongue, darting it in and out of the side of her mouth really quickly, like a little frog. Then she would laugh.

She was conducting in her sleep. And talking a bit. :) Mommy's girl.

Injury

Our baby has a booboo. We were in the computer room and she pulled Chris' laptop down off the couch, and the corner landed right on her toe. I saved the laptop from hitting the ground (phewww) but the poor girl was just howling. It hit her toe beside the big toe on her right foot and the nail is pretty much lifted right off. It looks like it is going to fall off at any second. She didn't cry long, and is walking fine. We put shoes on her and went out tonight and she didn't complain at all. When we got home I washed her feet in a sink of warm water with antibacterial soap, trying to run the soapy water over the injury and pat it clean without actually touching it too much, or ripping the nail off. She was even examining it, touching it gingerly and then she lifted the nail a bit. It was so funny to watch her examine herself. Of course when she lifted the nail it hurt again and she cried a little more but mostly she is a trouper. I put a bandaid on it (putting bandaids on baby toes is very difficult) and put some snug clean socks on, and we'll see. My biggest worry is that the whole toenail will fall off and then never grow back. I am not joking when I said the WHOLE nail is hardly attached; What is she loses the whole thing? Where will the new one grow? Will it grow? Will it hurt until then?

You know, people talk about the empowering feelings of motherhood and the strength of women. For me, I feel the opposite. I feel being a mother has made me more weak and afraid then ever. From about 3 seconds into the first push during labor I remember thinking, This is impossible! There is no way this is going to work! And I still fight those feelings. No matter what I do, I can not protect her from all the bad things in this world. I can't keep her from falling down on her head as she learns to walk, pulling computers down onto her toes... Arm's reach is not close enough all the time. I can not keep her safe from everything. I can hardly stand the news, hearing about little babies being abandoned or kidnapped or raped and all sorts of awful things. What is she has autism, or some other disability? It was a miracle when she finally burst out of my womb, and I can honestly say that everyday I in awe thank God for letting us watch over this precious little angel. I am completely dependent. I worry that I won't be able to discipline her, even though I know she needs it and craves it, etc. Heck, I'll be honest and say I have no idea how we are going to even wean her in the next 2 weeks (which is our plan).

You could pray for strength for me to do what I know is right and as I battle my own self doubt.

Baby Einstein

I love these fresh out of the bath tousled hair pictures, like the old Albert Einstein posters. She needs a haircut!

Oops!

The funniest thing happened yesterday...Ok, funny for me, not Gemma.

Gemma was standing in the bathroom at the opposite end of the faucet (If you've been a McKenzie blog follower for a long time, you'll have heard about Taiwan bathrooms; there is a shower and a faucet but no tub) So she was standing at that end, away from the water because I was going to run it to fill her little bathtub. Well, I turned the water on full force and the little knob on the faucet that switches it from tap to shower was UP so instead of water coming down out of the tap it came shooting out of the shower head and totally sprayed the fully clothed Gemma from head to toe. Poor thing was so surprised, but didn't cry or anything. And then I was laughing so hard she started laughing too. (reactions are so key with babies). What a brave little girl. I'm still laughing today.

Gemma at the Concert

What a cutie! Here she is hanging out, chillin' with some friends from school, and sleeping during the finale. It was the loudest part of the concert; all 120 kids singing carols along with the audience and she conked out. Babies!

Just like mom

For those of you that only read Nevada and Gemma's blogs I will repost this post from my blog:

When I took these pictures today I knew they had to be posted. We finally started decorating today and apparently it took a toll on my ladies. Gemma crashed in the afternoon and I kept mom up a little late tonight.




We were trying to get Gemma to pose with the bobble Jesus in the afternoon but she was having none of it. She just ket trying to bite the bottom of it. So when they got home tonight and she was fast asleep I decided to pose her with it. Then later on Nevada fell asleep so I posed her with it as well. So funny that all these pictures happened all in the same day.

The New Gemma

Gemma has entered a new phase... the tantrum phase. When she doesn't get what she wants, she screams and arches back, throws her head back... Yikes! She does this when someone picks her up she doesn't want to, or when she iswalking with a sharp pencil and I take it away. We have managed to be firm with her and not give in, so hopefully they decrease as she learns that she will not get her way if she does it.

A cute story; she has always been a dumpster diver, digging around in teh garbage whenever we look away. Well, since we've taken it away so many times and put things in it so much she has also changed her approach. Instead of taking things out of the garbage, she is putting things in. For example, yesterday Chris found the lid to a sippy cup and a toy fruit in his garbage can.

She is loving all her birthday toys, and learning how to push he buttons, etc. That's pretty cool.

More Birthday PIcs

Here are some of Andy's pictures:




OUr girl got some neat presents:
Little Tykes 3 in 1 sports centre. It has a baseball to hit around, a football to spin and a basetball net with a scoreboard that lights up
Disney baby princess ride on car. We are not huge princess advocates but this was the best one they had at Toys R US. The other ones looked opened already, and used. Plus this one had cool features.
A red bikini
toque and mitts, (that match the scarf you sent perfectly, Baba)
Activity cube, with blocks to put in and ittle knobs to move around a track
a remote control
a cell phone (This one was awesome, the girl who bought it for her was so excited, as soon as she came in she said"Come and open this present right now, Gemma is going to love it!!")
The cutest esprit outfit from Allison (you'll see pictures of that later)

and so much more...She is so spoiled! (and loved, I guess!)

Happy Birthday Baby Gemma!

We had a lot of fun at her party. It was exactly opposite of what the books reccomend inthat we had tonnes of people in our house. We had to move the coffee table out because there was no room. There were three babies and two older kids and lots of adults. People loved the cake and cupcakes, and she got some super presents; her friends and grandparents are too sweet.

Just a few pictures are posted (I need a hero cookie for my first cake!) but Chris has more up on the flicker. Also, Andy took soome pictures too, and when they are ready we'll tell you how to see them.

Update

Babyfood making party round 3... This month's menu includes spinich/beef(have you ever seen forest green food before? Yikes!), chicken/pea/asparagus (we kind of just made that one up), green beans, applesauce, and apple/pear. There were three sets of hands this time and so we got all of that made in 2 1/2 hours. And then ordered pizza :)

Gemma had her chicken pox vaccine yesterday, and only cried when they stuck her. Pheww! She was also weighted and measured; 8.3 kg and about 73 cm (so about 18 lbs, and 29 inches). She is right in the middle of her growth chart, even though she seems to be a light weight beside all the other babies she knows. That's what other parents say when they pick her up; "She's so light!"

She has a new trick, too, but this one I really dislike. She can spit out food she doesn't like. So she squeezes it out of her lips, and then tries to grab it. Ewwww :)

Birthday on Wednesday, so excited!

Celery

Yummm...Celery is so good for me! I think I will eat the whole stalk!

Weaning

Starting to think about weaning. Not that I mind breastfeeding, she is down to early evening, bedtime, and once in the night. We've made the mistake the books all tell you not to make; I let her fall asleep while nursing, and so now it is just easy to whip it out in the middle of the night when she fusses. I also don't want to use bottles. Our dishwasher is a pretty old model, the NE-VADA 1979, and with Gemma eating solids that means an extra litte bowls a day, and spoons, and sippy cups...all I need is bottles to wash, too. BUT I guess she is going to be one year old and if I could figure out a way to get her off the breast I guess we could. I'm not really in a rush.

So I invite your advice (and not judgement please; I know everyone elses' baby but mine sleeps through the night. Oh, and before anyone gets upset about me doing dishes, I do it because Chris cooks and does laundry, and a variety of other household chores)

So funny

Two hilarious stories form Thursday...

At lunch time Nick and Ali (aka Nali) were over because Nck was watching basketball with Chris. We were eating subway around the coffee table, and we all had glasses of water. Gemma was of course hanging around and trying to get in on the action. Well, she reached across the table, grabbed a glass of water with two hands, and drank from it. She was like, "Hey, I can drink from a real cup, don't you know?" The second gulp she got a bunch of backwash in it, ewwww...The thrid sip, well, that was hilarious too because she totally missed her mouth and poured the rest of the glass down her chest. Hahaha.

Then Thursday night when I was talking to Mikala, Gemma was hanging out with Chris in the office when she toddled off. Chris came out to the living room looking for her, calling "Gemma..." but she wasn't out there. Then he hears the sound of baby playing in the bathroom. He turns around, peeks in, and there she is, in the dark bathroom, sitting in her bathtub. Her bottom half was soaking wet from the bottom bit of water that doesn't drain, and she was playing with her little bathbook. It was so funny.

Gemma's list of skills continue to grow....Climb on coffee table? Check. Drink water? Check. Bathe myself? Check.

Personality

Our baby gets more personality everyday. She is at such a neat stage where she is learning things really quickly, remembering old things and trying out tonnes of stuff.

Today Chris was playing with her Helen Keller style; he was touching her hand to his face and saying da-da..da-da, and then touching her face and saying Gemma...Gemma. After a few times, he put her hands on his face and she said it; da-da. Daddy is also working on 'kiss' and 'high five'.

Tonight was Gemma's first experience with toothpaste. We have a nurse that is working with our school system to be on call to ask health questions, etc, and I asked her this week about flouride drops for Gemma. (We drink bottled water, not tap water, and so there is no flouride in it) She said, after all her research and talking with doctors and dentists both in Taiwan and America that flouride drops or pills are very difficult to dose properly; too little and there is no point, too much can cause serious problems. What she recommends is brushing at least once a day with a smidge of toothpaste and then start flouride treatments at the dentist when she is 3. Anyway, Gemma and the toothpaste...It was so cute! She made this awful face, like "Mommy, take it out, yuck" and she never makes that face. I think it was a little too minty for her :) I will go buy her a more gentle kiddy flavor tomorrow.

Another little story; in the bath she likes when I put the soap on her hand. It started when she would first start playing with the bottle, and I would hold her hand flat, palm up and put a little on her hand and then rub them together to make the bubbles. Now she holds her hand out palm up all by herself, and waits for me to squirt the soap on. Then she tries to rub them together enough to make the bubbles. And I showed her how to rub the bubbles all over her tummy and arms...I gave her about 5 squirts of soap and she would have taken more. One thing about bath time is I can't make her look up to rinse the shampoo off. I try to dangle toys in front of her up high so she tilts her head back and then pour the water, but as soon as she feels it on her head she puts her chin down, and it all runs down her face. Maybe time for one of those foamy hat-ring things?

The Triumphant Scaling of Mt. Coffeetable

We are pretty firm about not playing with the remote control, so whenever we happen to leave it at her level she darts for it. Well, Chris left her today for a moment to go to the bathroom, and when he came back into the living room she was kneeling on the coffee table, bouncing up and down, grinning ear to ear, waving the remote control over her head. What a little goofball:)

Your Chariot Awaits

Before she used to like being picked up just to for the sake of being picked up; for hugs, cuddles, etc. Now she she likes to be picked up as a mode of transportation. You lift her up and she doesn't even bother to nuzzle anymore, she just extends her arm and points: 'Take me there. What's over there? Let's leave this room and go to another." In the mornings she points to the door of her bedrooom wanting out, or she points to the top half of the fridge (where we keep most of the magnets).

She definitely rules the roost around here :)

A few stories...

It's so hard to remember stories to tell! Or else they seem so short and insignificant. Anyway, since I committed to be a faithful blogger, I hope these tidbits don't suck too bad.

1) I was at school photocopying something and wen we were done she walked right up to the guard (doorman) and reached up her little arms. So of course he picks her up, and she points to things around his office to check out, and he obliges, and then she notices the security camera monitor. It's just a computer monitor with the screen divided into quadrants, with four different video cameras outside the perimeter of the school. Well, she was looking so intently at the screen that I thought I would mess with her a bit. I walked out the front door and stood outside the school facing one of the cameras and waved and danced for her. I couldn't see her reaction, but when I went back in after a moment she gave me this amazed, incredulous look. She looked back at the monitor so I went and did it again, and again she was soo amazed. It was pretty cute.

2) She waves to random people now and it is also soo cute. When we are waiting at a red light on the bike she'll look at people stopped beside us and wave Most of the time they wave back. Or when people pass her on the street.

3) Today we were at 101, and in the ten minutes it takes to eat a food court lunch she had her picture taken 3 times. Andy had a great idea for a T-shirt; 'Photos; 100NT' and get it printed in Chinese. I would laugh super hard.

4) She had two big falls today:(. Once at church, she lost her balance as Andy was setting her down, and she tipped over onto her head. The second time was tonight, she was climbing in her toy box and flipped right over somehow and out of the box, banging her head on the footstool before it hit the floor. That one even drew a little blood on the inside of her bottom lip. Poor baby.

5) Chicken and papaya has not been a success. Unless everytime I try to feed it to her, she just isn't hungry. Her favorite foods are yogurt, chicken, and beef/potato.

Have a great Sunday!

New Toy

So Gemma is way into phones lately. She tries to climb up on the counter where the house phone is kept and pull on the cord, and she loves cell phones. We were messing around with her at Penghu, and while she was playng with a phone we'd call it so it would buzz and ring. (She didn't really get it but it was funny for us) So when we cleaned Chris' office last week we found an old cell phone and gave it to her. At first she would hold it up to her ear and really listen to see who was there, but I think now she gets that no one is talking to her. I do the pretend talk on the phone thing and say, "Oh Gemma, its for you," and hand it over and she listens for a second but then hands it back. It's like she's thinking, "Mommy, it's not working for me, you try it again!"

Walking

She took her official first steps a month ago, but since then hasn't been to eager to use this new form of transportation. Our house is so small that she can cruise almost every where she wants to go, there is no large expanse of space that has to cross. Or when there is a space she would stand there, then lower herself down and crawl. Yesterday though it was like she got it. Several times when she was standing there instead of lowering herself down and crawling she walked. It's like she believes in herself; Yes I can walk! She is still very slow and stiff, like an astronaut, but she did about a dozen little walking journies of 5 or 6 steps yesterday.