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.

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!