Happy Halloween!

It is crazy picture Halloween! Gwen with the sewer of the costume, aka Aunt Ellen, and cousin Pete! (Taken last week in WI)

Gwen's party pictures. There were more children at the party, these pictures were taken at the end...we had several pumpkins. Eleven Moms in all, I think. The little girl next to Gwen, Abby is another birthday buddy, whenever I see her, I am amazed they were born on the same day, Gwen is so much bigger. Abby is long and lean, Gwen is solid!

Here are some pictures I took, trying to make our house look like a photo studio. This will probably work out better when she can stand or sit on her own. Enjoy our little stinker!

And the winner is...

Miss Gwen! She won the costume contest at our Mother's group. I didn't know there was a contest, but pictures of Gwen in her costume will be posted tomorrow. This picture was taken the yesterday, as you can see she loves getting zerberted.

Gwen has started holding things briefly.

Here is a picture of the 3 fingers in the mouth.

Our determined girl trying to get into stuff and put it in her mouth.

Who will I be like?

Everyone says that Gwen looks like Eric, but no comments on her personality, who will she be like in personality. The strong silent type or outspoken. When my Mom came to visit she said that much of what Gwen did, did not remind her of me. I was a content baby and I have been told so was Eric. But my Mom did mention that I liked to suck on my 2 fingers, I was not a thumb sucker. Well, now that Gwen has found her hands (she stares at them a lot!), she has become a finger sucker. Here is the proof. Sometimes she gets all 3 fingers in her mouth. She enjoys this hand sucking much more than a pacifier. Eric has commented that she grabs stuff and pulls it to her mouth, but only ever ends up sucking her hand, she doesn't quite get the object in her mouth.

More pictures

But no comments about the trip. Eric has to take the lap top to his study group. Here are some pictures with Aunt Rox and cousin Kristin.

We're back!

Here's some pictures. Gwen had a good time being seen, I believe. We were overstimulated, I believe, but that doesn't mean we didn't enjoy ourselves, right. I amazed how nice people can be when they see a struggling Mom lugging a car seat a baby and a diaper bag through an airport. Everyone wanted to help us, the woman next to me on the plane basically grabbed Gwen from me and said here let me hold her while you get settled. Uh, ok, but I am not particularly fond of strangers holding her, but it can make for an awkward plane ride. Gwen has become more vocal I think and she doesn't mind hanging with someone that is not Mommy (as long as we are not hungry or tired). I don't know what I am going to do next week...I am going to have to find somewhere to hang out so Gwen doesn't get too bored with just me. Here are some pictures to wet your apetite.
Gwen with our cousin Kelly and her daughter Lily. This was the only picture I could get before Gwen started crying because Lily was trying to push her out of Kelly's lap.

Gwen holding Lily's ball. She tried to eat it also, but she is getting better grasps on things now. I think we are beginning to learn how to use our hands.


The next 2 pictures are with Great-Grandpa. She actually sat in his lap a lot. Probably would have sat there longer if Aunt Roxann wouldn't have kept grabbing her away!

More reports on our travel later. We are going to spend some time with Eric now.

Friday!

Well, today is finally Friday. I have been working on getting Gwen to nap for 5 days now. She has been napping, but it requires a lot of help from Mommy! We are also working on being able to fall asleep without eating. That is hard work and slow going, but I am hoping to see a light at the end of the tunnel soon. It is hard to break a habit...as I say this with the sleeping baby in my arms. One day soon I hope to though. Besides that we have not accomplished much, I am sorry to say. I am so focused on getting Gwen to nap when she is tired everything else is been neglected. (Don't worry Moms, it hasn't affected dinner). I find that she is taking a 45 minute nap. Most of the time I can get up and do something during that 45 minutes, but she won't sleep longer, so I can't accomplish much.

Today we tried Stroller Strides, wouldn't you know it I showed up for lower body workout day. Gwen was pretty fussy, not terrible, but every time we stopped to do cardio she started to fuss, if she would have just fallen asleep she wouldn't have had such a terrible time!

These pictures are from Wed, I was being silly and Eric said Gwen looked pretty shocked, but at least she stopped crying so we could finish our conversation. She was ready to start the bedtime ritual, I believe.

Next week's posts will also be light because Gwen and I will be in WI visiting my Grandpa. We will also have the good fortune to meet some of my Aunts, don't know about the Uncles, but I know the Aunts will be there. Hopefully we will be able to post some pictures of them, if they are not too camera shy. These flights will probably be more difficult, we will have to deal with 2 legs and layovers. The Detroit layover won't be a problem, but the Minneapolis one will be 3 hours! So, think about us Thurs.

Today's pictures

Yesterday sucked. Eric and I were so excited about the putting down the carpet I missed some of Gwen's sleeping cues. I suffered yesterday because if it. I could get nothing done because Gwen was so needy. I also spent about 2 hours outside bonding with the neighbor. I enjoyed talking to her, but Gwen had finally fallen asleep in the sling and I could have actually gotten some stuff done. But, it is good to get to know your neighbors, and have adult conversation.

Today started out much the same, but worse because it was raining pretty solid for a long time, so we didn't get outside until after 4. But, we did get outside and my attitude improved and I got these cute pictures of Gwen, entertaining herself in the excersaucer and reading about the new Jeeps with Daddy. While in the excersaucer she was actually moving those little ball things. I was making dinner and I turned around and she had actually moved the blue and red balls.

Last week's pictures

Here are some pictures of Miss Gwen. They are from last week, for some reason I didn't have a chance to post. Now that the exersaucer is clean I have started to put her in it. She tolerates it for short times, since she doesn't really use her hands well, she just gives the toys funny looks and I think she gets bored. Another picture of her in her bouncy seat. I missed the picture of her tying to pull those things up to her mouth, she still hasn't succeeded, I am sure that will happen soon enough.

We had a busy weekend this weekend. Eric had no homework, so we kept pretty busy. Went to another corn maze and Eric laid down carpet squares in the basement. It looks real nice. Makes the room look so much better! I also found a new book, 'the No Cry Sleep Solution'. It seems that Gwen's inability to take a nap is a common problem, but also if I don't nip this in the bud will be a problem for a long time. Apparently the first thing I have to learn is how to get her used to sleeping without falling asleep in my arms or after/while eating. I guess this is going to be as much of a learning experience for me as it is for her. UGH! Well, time to go change Gwen. Hopefully this coming week I will have some more frequent posts, but since I have to get her used to sleeping without Mommy as a comfort, this might be a slow week for posts!

Busy

So, things have been rather busy around here. We are re-adjusting to life as a SAHM. Now, if I could just get her to stop screaming! Ok, maybe she doesn't scream all the time, only when she needs a nap and she doesn't always scream, she just cries incessantly, it is a test of wills, who can last the longest. Gwen is currently winning, but I know I will eventually win it is just going to take some time. I will admit my bad habit of letting her sleep while eating are beginning to come back to haunt me. I didn't know that it would become such a problem. They say n the first 6 months you can't spoil a child, so what is going on here. I guess it wouldn't be such a problem if I had some faith in myself. In the beginning I doubted myself because you never truly know how much food the baby is getting. I had some doubts especially after that un-supportive Dr's visit. And, I was in such a state of depression I couldn't listen to her cry and sleeping while eating/in my arms made her stop crying. So, I did what I could to keep me sane, but it is working against me! Gwen, the little stinker, knows that I will pick her up. Previously I would let her cry for 10 minute, today we almost tripled that amount of time, still no napping. It started to be time for her to eat, so what did she do, fall asleep. So the question is let her sleep in my arms or put her down, she will just start crying immediately and I still won't get anything done. But, I got that shower in, made some phone calls & plane reservations!
Yesterday, we went to get pictures made. Unfortunately, we had a newbie. Took a long time, I only ended up with pictures in the Baptismal dress and none in any other dresses. Gwen was just not having any more of sitting in that chair or laying on her belly. They all are cute pictures, I guess it doesn't matter since we will be getting many more shots done in the future.
I don't think we have any Gwen advances since my last post. She is still working on sitting up and getting out of any confining spaces. We are certainly more diligent about making sure we remember to get the lap belts securely fastened! We still use our hands and she has turned pages in her books, but still don't know how purposeful it is. Gwen uses her hands more as mitts and grabs stuff but isn't always looking when she grabs at something. Wed I caught her with both hands on the little toys in the bouncy and trying to pull them to her mouth and her head up. Just a little more strength and she will be able to do it.
So, keep checking in for the battle of the wills. I know where she gets her stubbornness from, so this isn't going to be pretty! What do you think, a preview of what the teenage years will be like, replacing her current crying with Gwen yelling "You don't understand!" and a slamming bedroom door?

Update

I realize that it has been a while since I have really written about life with Gwen, seeing as I have 'retired' I guess it is about time I start writing about Miss No Nap! Here are a couple pictures of her from Mom's visit. Thought you would enjoy.





But, I digress, on to life with Miss Gwen. We still don't take naps, unless we are in the car, and I don't think I can rely on that. Gwen is really starting to pull herself up. She doesn't like to be confined and I tried to get a picture of her pulling her head up, but when she heard the camera turn on she looked over at me the stinker. But it is a cute picture so I posted it!

Her swing has 2 positions, one that is more laying back and one that is more sitting up. Eric and I moved it to the more sitting forward position and now she lifts her head all the time. I don't know if you can tell in this picture that she has her head raised.

This last picture is from Monday. I was typing and she was eating and she finished eating and she wanted to sit up. Bad me, wanted to finish the post before I got sidetracked and Eric snapped the picture.

The last 2 nights we were able to get her to sleep early which allowed me some time to get some stuff done around the house. It was wonderful. We have now cleaned the excersaucer so she can play in it. Pretty soon I know she will be able to play in that. She still leans when she sits but she is strong so I am sure we will be sitting and able to be in the excersaucer in no time. Gwen has also started some new noises, voice testings really, higher pitched than she does now, it is fun for me to listen and wonder what her talking voice will be like. Mom says she has such a danity girl voice; maybe it will stay that way.

Nearly New Kids Sale

This weekend I went to the Nearly New Kids Sale. They have this at one of the local fairgrounds and a ton of Moms sell their own stuff. I brought my friend who is having a baby in Dec. The first one I went to last May, I was much like my friend, super excited and overwhelmed. I giggled to myself as I overheard a Mom and her daughter saying 'wow, look at all this stuff, I am overwhelmed.' My goal was to find an excersaucer, umbrella stroller and some 3-6mon clothes. I racked up. I was so excited it eased the pain of my Mom leaving town. I was so excited I took a picture of all the stuff I got. All for under $80! I was so excited I took pictures of the clothes separately, (I was describing some of them to my Mom and I don't she understood, because I am not a very good describer) I probably could have gotten more stuff, but Reyna and I got tired. Pretty cool, a lot of fun and I am glad they only happen twice a year. I don't think I could survive more than that!

Laundry and pictures

Sometime during my Mom's visit, Miss Gwen discovered the laundry. Ok, to be fair, she had been crying and the husband was pulling his hair out, I mean at his wits end and for some reason sat with Gwen in front of the washer and dryer. She was mesmorized, distracted for long enough that we forgot she had been fussing and took pictures because it was so cute. Just know Miss Gwen, someday that will be your chore. We have a picture to prove that at one time you thought it was cool!

Last night Eric took a picture, I was reading to Miss Gwen before bed. It is a book about not wanting to go to sleep, I didn't realize how appropriate it was at the tim, because someone did not want to go to sleep last night!

I also took a picture of her unframed cross-stitch that I finished. Hopefully sometime soon I will be framing that so we can hang it in her room.

Corn maze

Last weekend we went to a corn maze with Uncle Bill & family. He had taken my Mom and Aunt Ellen for the weekend, we had to do an exchange! For some unexplanable reason, the husband loves corn mazes. We did one last year and since the mid-summer he has been wondering and asking, when will the mazes open. Since we had to do the exchange we chose this maze. Last year we did this maze. We enjoyed the maze we did last year much better. The one we did this year, we all agreed was too educational. You had to answer questions about the different topics to get the direction you were to head. Last year we just ran about looking for mailboxes with stamps containing the directions. Way more fun.

This maze did have the cool corn box. JJ & Sammy loved it and were burried in the corn. Seems like fun! I unfortunately ate some of a funnel cake. As you can see I forgot to cover sleeping Gwen and we had some powdered sugar issues!