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)

Flea Market

Our little girl is such a celebrity. Everytime we go out people stare and point, and poke their friends so they look too. She gets her picture taken, her hand held, and cheeks pinched. And to say this happens everytime is not an exageration; this happens EVERY single time we leave the house.

This weekend was the flea market; YAY! Gemma got a fisher price dollhouse, and a fisher price firetruck, a jolly jumper, clothes, books, a box full of those hard rubber animals (for 3 dollars!). Most of the stuff for her we put away until next year. I got some little stuffed toys for 1 NT each for her to gum up. Everything goes in her mouth and so I am trying to keep some her nicer toys, well, nice. After the flea market I did something that needed to be done ages ago; I went through all of the clothes and sorted them again. Brenda did it once for me when she was here, but Baby has grown so much since then, and I don't want to miss anything. We've got all Shelen's stuff washed and packed and ready to go home (Lil Bean, don't be early!), stuff for Mikala's mystery baby (if you are a girl, you are so lucky!), a bag to take home to wear during the summer, a bag of summer clothes for after Canadian summer back in Taiwan, and then a box of winter clothes. We've been given so much great stuff, its awesome.

Walker update!

Tonight in the walker she went about 15 feet; all the way across the room! Backwards, of course, but she's getting it :)

update

Not a lot to report here...

We had our four month cehckup a few weeks ago and all is well with our little girl. She is 6kg, which is small compared to some of her little friends but the doctor kept saying how healthy she was and what a good body weight, and that Chris and I did a good job. Its nice gettiing compliments about our baby!

I let the mosquito plug in thing in her room run out and the poor girl has 11 bites on her face. What a rotten mother! I must get refills today.

She is almost sitting up. We can prop her up and she'll hold the pose for a while but then leans over and falls. She really enjoys sitting in her walker. She can't make it move yet, which is ok with mommy and daddy for a while, but she loves to push the toys around the tray. Everything goes in her mouth; this morning she was sucking on the blanket during tummy time. Little weirdo!

Her favorite things? Chewing mommy's fingers, looking in the mirror, when mommy and daddy sing... Her favorite somg is 'mm mm went the little green frog one day.' We've also been reading lots of books. I got a whole stack from the library that was being discarded. Either they had been replaced with newer, prettier ones or they were just too old. Its good beacuse then I let her put her mouth on the page and touch and grab without worry of wrecking them. She is not into the soother anymore, but actually drank from the bottle yesterday. Chris had such a good week with her, she didn't cry barely at all.

We are working on a 9-9:30 bedtime, and it is actually working. She goes to sleep for 20 minutes, wakes up and I comfort her back to sleep, she sleeps till 12:30, then 4ish, then 6;30. Today she went from 4am till 8 so that was good. We're definetly taking a more lax approach to the whole baby routine thing; when shes hungry we feed her, and when shes tired she naps and she is forming a routine.

Sorry for the lack of posts... Just too busy.

Gemma's First Easter

I've added the Easter pics on Flickr...here are a few teasers.

So comfortable

A kindergartener was just loving Gemma's head the other day, stroking it and petting it. "It's so comfortable!" he said, and then added, "I wish my bed was made of it!"