Hi

Hello everyone! We are still tied in the poll! Thanks to everyone who has voted. We have been very busy around here and I have a running nose and a headache, so I am going to go lay downstairs and hope to get some sleep...I am hoping to be able to upload pictures and stories from this last week sometime soon, but just wanted to let you know we are all alive and well, and well, maybe spending too much time playing with our new toys and not updating the blog! Hope you had a Merry Christmas!

No pictures, just words

There comes a point in your married life when you wonder, how did I get to this place, what is my husband thinking and even scarier wondering if somehow Christmas has caused your husband to turn into your Dad! Usually while I am at Church Eric and Gwen head to the stores, they often head to Target, Borders and/or Home Depot, b/c all these places are in one spot. We are down to 1 car since about Thurs, so, Eric and Gwen were kind enough to drive me to Church before heading out for their adventures at Target. Eric picks me up from Church and is SUPER excited...almost bursting at the seams. Come to find out he went down the Christmas aisle, which was having a 30% off sale and get 90ft of lights. Every year my Dad would come home with more lights from the after Christmas sale, to decorate the outside of the house, 'cause you know that some of strands won't work next year...and there is something else you can always decorate next year! So it appears sometime today Eric will be taking 90ft of lights outside to decorate the outside of the house. Now, I don't know if it was the idea of the sale, my Mom sending us one of Dad's outside timers or watching National Lampoon's Christmas last night that has inspired Eric, but maybe I will take some pictures later so you can see his handiwork.
We decorated Christmas cookies yesterday with the help of the Godfather, but I didn't get any pictures of that either, he put everything away before I take pictures, and I am not pulling all the cookies out. Suffice it to say, Gwen REALLY enjoyed the cookie process, she had no desire to decorate the cookies, she just enjoyed sitting in Eric or my lap and stealing cookies to eat. Let us just say she was hyped up, running back and forth between the kitchen and dining room, 'jumping' and acting all kinds of crazy! I don't know if words can describe her actions, but I know the 3 of us will think back about it and laugh!

I love RED!

I know that most kids love Red, I think that is why Gwen recognizes and loves 'Melmo' so much. She has never seen Elmo on the TV, but she has a Elmo book and she has that Sesame Street toy that has the singing Elmo. So I guess it is no surprise that when I pulled out this jacket she just wanted to wear it "RIGHT NOW". She walked right up to us and gave us the seams so we could button it up. She is a nut!



Unfortunately it was bedtime and we tried to take off all her clothes to get her into the bath, and she insisted that we put the jacket back on. And since Daddy is in charge of bath time, of course he put it back on!

So, you might wonder why we would post/take these pictures, well this jacket is at least 21 years old. Gwen is the 5th person in the family to wear it, I think. I think some of the other wears of said jacket would enjoy seeing Gwen in it. Unfortunately I didn't realize that the jacket is for 6 mons. It fits her pretty well, except for the sleeves.
So, I guess you have noticed that I have added tickers for the pregnancy and for Gwen's birthday. The ticker is off by a couple days I think but I don't have the energy to figure out why it is off. I think my weeks start on Mondays. Also our poll is a dead even heat for finding out the sex, so put your votes in now! Merry Christmas everyone!

Finally, in the Christmas spirit!

What has taken me so long to get into the Christmas spirit? A combination of factors really, but I am finally there, ready for the holiday, ok not ready for the holiday at all. I still have Christmas cards to write, cookies to make/decorate, groceries to buy for Christmas day and presents to wrap and send! Ok, so maybe some of the presents won't get sent until after Christmas, but I am determined to get all the Christmas cards out! Yesterday the official Christmas spirit came upon me and I decided to get cooking, literally. I spent some time yesterday wondering why I wasn't so into the holiday. I figured it is 2 factors, maybe 3; this is the 1st year we will be staying home for Christmas, so I don't have some deadline looming over me, and in years past, so what if I didn't decorate for the holiday, we weren't going to be here anyway! I am also a lazy pregnant person, when Gwen goes down for her nap that gives me 2 hours, to do everything I need to do that doesn't mean keeping an eye out for her, which often means playing on the computer and vegging, along with a shower. The 3rd reason, is probably the one that factors in the most, the one I realized yesterday...my Dad. My Dad loved Christmas, I really think my Dad loved anything that involved decorating or made acting like a kid not seem so weird. I think Halloween was also a favorite for him, but that is for another day. So, was it the realization that at this time of the year more than ever you realize loved ones aren't here to celebrate with you, but that aside knowing that if I were to talk to my Father I would hear the disappointment that I hadn't gotten into the holiday spirit at least for Gwen or that I made a cookie yesterday that required making a peppermint candy first. The house never smelled so Christmas-y. So what did I do yesterday, that I continued on today...I made our favorite cookie. They are refrigerator cookies and today I cut them out, and then the godfather +1, maybe, will be coming over this weekend to help ice them. Today I realized that I have entirely too many Christmas cookie cutters, I have 20, seriously I am not kidding, I just counted! I also am terrible at rolling out the cookies, this is the first year I didn't have a mental breakdown because I actually used enough flour, but my cookies and cookie cutters are not the same size. The width thing is a problem I hope to work on over say the next 5 years. So, I have a lot of very brown cookies!
Here are some pictures of Gwen, one is at our Christmas party, wearing her Christmas dress that my girlfriend sent after I had Gwen's picture made...too bad, she would have been so cute in this dress for pictures!

We have been without a car for 2 days. This is a picture of Gwen playing in her carseat. She was so cute, she would sit in her carseat and bring over some books to read and sit in front of the tree and "read" her books! This is why she is getting a Gwen-sized chair from Grandmom and Grandpop!
I don't know why she has her mouth open like that, but she seems to be making more funny faces when I pull out the camera.

One more batch of pictures to post, not now though, time to wrap...I am on borrowed time here so I must get moving. But all my cookies are ready to be iced and my kitchen is a wreck! One thing at a time!

Melmo!!!!

So tonight we had dinner with Elmo, better known as "Melmo". Today randomly Gwen said "Melmo bo" I can only assume she meant Elmo book cause she was actually holding her Elmo book. I knew this was probably a bad idea because as many of you know that Gwen's bedtime is 7p, we are usually done with dinner by 6-6:15 and in bed by 7. This place was not far from our house, so we thought what the heck, a couple other Moms from the exercise group were going with their families, so what the heck. Well, our reservation was at 6, we didn't leave until 8:00, because we couldn't find the waitress to get the check. I HATE that! To me when people have kids you need to be on the ball and get the check out ASAP! Dude, it is hard enough to keep a kid from freaking out during dinner, much less when you are waiting for the check and there is nothing else to do. Anyhoo, the OTB (off the track betting) had closed down the betting and had the whole place done up for Christmas. We tried to get Gwen to say hello to the Grinch, or Elmo or Santa, but not so much!

I love this picture, this is Gwen's friend Katie and it seems that she is getting ready to give Gwen a hug after the traumatic Santa incident!
This is the end of the night after dinner as you can see, Gwen has pretty much lost it and just wants to nap on Daddy. She did enjoy the cookie though!!
We are all exhausted, I think Eric is still exhausted from his treks down to Alexandria. While the decorated the restaurant nicely, the place still recked of smoke. ICK! I thought all of MD was going smoke free restaurant wise, but I hear that it is Baltimore and not MD, I don't really know for sure since I don't really watch the news, all I can say is I hope they do go smoke free! Good night!

More backlogged pictures

These pictures are also from last week, while the pictures from this week are still in the camera. Yeah, at least I am finally posting pictures! This first one is testing pudding. I am still experimenting on what Gwen likes/dislikes. She won't go near yogurt, but I wonder if it is a texture thing or the smell.

She seems to like it, I don't know if why she stuck her tongue out at me, she's never done that before. She received this hammer and toolbox set and she just loved walking around about it.

I totally went Pebbles on Gwen. How cute is she? Too bad I didn't realize how cute it would be or I would have put it on the Christmas card.

I also added a poll to the left side of the screen. If you want to participate, all you have to do is click the answer you think and hit the vote button, even you technologically challenged should be able to participate, if you'd like. I have also added the Vitacco's website to my links if you would like to check out their site 'Family of 4'. As soon as Jenny reads my followup comment she will also be posting a link to our site; that way you family members don't have to remember both sites if you want to check up on the nieces' kids!

Pictures I should have uploaded before

As I have said before Gwen is starting to become more interactive with people that aren't Eric or myself. Last week the godfather came over to work on a project with Eric. One of the pictures is blurry, I apologize for that, it is becoming increasingly difficult to take pictures of a moving target!


Since the godfather came over Gwen has been playing with cars a rolling them around to Daddy, never to me, but to Eric she will. I don't know why. Gwen is a piece of work these days. I forgot to mention she now growls at us. I am still working on helping her work out her frustration when Mommy/Daddy tells her no. Apparently I need to let her win sometimes; I know this is just another way to say pick your battles, but Gwen is a good kid generally and we don't often do things that I can let her "win" at in my estimation.

Eric will be at a class in VA for the next 4 days. He says that it gets out at 4 and he could be home at 6...we can only hope. It all depends on traffic, something we are not used to depending on. He was up at 5am and was kind enough to wake up Gwen, accidentally of course, I obviously wasn't going to get her from her crib at 5 am, but she fell back to sleep at about 6:30, but by then I was already awake and so I got her up for class at 8am. Needless to say the poor child is exhausted, but she is so exhausted she isn't actually going to nap today...GREAT! I guess I should have put her down early, but you never know if that is going to work, sometimes that backfires also. UGH, children!

We have the tree up, Eric put up some lights and wants us to decorate, but I am not sure that is such a good idea this year. She already took one of the decorative balls and started throwing it on the ground like it was one of her balls she plays with.

A non Gwen post

Ok, so maybe I will mention the child, but I finally had the chance to download the pictures from the camera. My current problem is that I have to remember to bring the camera and the cords down to the basement to do a post...these things don't happen very often. Here are some pictures from the gingerbread house decorating extravaganza.



Oh and Eric and the pimp snowman...good thing that Gwen is too young to understand Daddy's adult humor!
Here are the 3D gingerbread figures that we never got to decorating. There are supposed to be more trees and a sled, but I guess there is a learning curve for the width of the cookie! Who knew they would get that big.

Destruction

I am going to see if this works, I am posting this after the first post, but I changed the post time to see if it will 'pre-post.' These are the pictures from the next day, before I actually got a picture of the house and its front yard. Gwen really enjoyed taking out Daddy's light post and using it like a machette, until she realized she could use her hands a lot better.

She actually popped one of the candies into her mouth and I realized destruction time was over. Anybody notice the AU lights I put up?

We finally put our tree up, Gwen doesn't care, we haven't put the decorations on yet, maybe tomorrow...we are pretty tired tonight, I am going to write some Christmas cards tonight...if you haven't received one from me yet, sorry! I am way behind. I am hoping to have all the cards out before Christmas!

17 months

Goodness, how crazy has it been here!? Ok, so not super crazy, but I had a hard time posting pictures last night and when I finally got the pictures to upload I didn't get a chance to post. Although the day/time stamp is going to say I did this yesterday.
So, what is new with Gwen this month, a whole lot I feel like. I think she is learning new stuff at a rapid pace. The little booger does like to not admit that she knows what is going on. The other day I caught her 'reading' her baby signs books and actually doing the signs for the pages that she was on. Not that she would do those signs when I have tried to get her to do them. Sometimes the signs are more what I like to call contextual, she uses the sign for open for open, out and off.
As far as speaking goes, she seems to have a preference for learning words that are more complicated. Like she won't try to say stuff like hot or red or blue, but when we say words like bubbles, purple, elbow...which sounds more like 'belbow', but she is trying. That was a pretty funny bath time, I kept telling her 'elbow' and making sure I enunciated the 'el' and she kept looking at me, kind of like yeah, that is what I am saying Mom, 'belbow, belbow, belbow!' I have heard rumor that many of the girls in our exercise group language skills really started after they turned 18 months. We'll see!
Gwen's eating I have decided not to focus on, if she tries something she tries it, if not, well then I take it back (because she hands it back to me if she doesn't want it). I am tired of this being an issue and I think I need less stress in my life, so stressing about her eating habits is not going to help anyone. She has tried some new stuff but her diet mostly consists of what she likes, fruit and 2 meats and whatever carb she can wrestle out of Daddy's hand. She doesn't really wrestle anything out of Eric's hand, he gives her whatever she wants! (As you can see in the previous pictures and the last pictures, she doesn't have bloody lips, just candy Daddy gave her that is red)
Gwen keeps us laughing most of the time, sometimes it seems like she actually is having a conversation with us, and sometimes even says 'Oh' with the correct intonation and everything. She definitely tries to exert her own authority, she grabs our hands and tries to push or pull us to wherever she wants to go. And, she is surprisingly strong...not that she could really man-handle us.
Gwen has become more affectionate to her toys-specifically some of her dog stuffed animals and walking toys. She gives them hugs and carries them around. She also is giving Eric and I more hugs, but she is still rather shy of strangers. She will warm up to some people, but not to everyone. She is also getting better at waving to people, she has always waved to people, but typically after they leave, sometimes, just sometimes she actually waves bye to people when they are leaving and they see her. What progress!

If you look real close at her last picture, you can see her nose, which is actually healing up nicely. Kind of just looks like a shadow now! Oh and the bottom 2 teeth have appeared, so now we only have the 2 top teeth and then no more teeth coming in until her next molars come in.

Busy weekend

Thanks for your patience as I go through cranky periods and happy periods. Since I am not usually a crazed emotional basketcase, pregnancy is tough on me. I don't seem to have any other symptoms, I guess now is the waiting game until I start feeling movements. I will be 15 weeks tomorrow, so those kicks will probably coming sometime sooner than later. Does anyone want to bet if this child will a crazed mover and shaker like Gwen? I remember laughing when they handed me the kick card, to record movements...I mean really I could get 10 kicks in less than 10 minutes, much less an hour. That kid was always moving, and still is.
The week before last we decided to dress up the kids and take them to get their pictures with Santa, I had decided not to take Gwen to see Santa this year. I have heard from several sources, people with kids Gwen's age, that unsuccessfully did the Santa thing, and since I have decided it is not worth my aggravation I am not going to do the Santa picture this year. The Santa picture is not really my thing. But, since I thought she might actually sit there if there was a group of kids there what the heck. Well, our fearless leader didn't make it to class that day and all of us with the kids Gwen's age were like, maybe next time. But we did snap a couple of pictures of Gwen and her friend who looked a bit like twins, well as much as they could! The little girl in this picture is 2-3 months older than Gwen and likes to touch other kids eyes, ears and nose, you know the drill, so in the last picture her Mom said put your hands on your knees, and she did!

Thought you'd like to see the finished floor project. Look, my appliances are back where they belong! Does anyone else think I need to now get new cabinets!?
This weekend we are getting into the Christmas spirit, people around us have been decorating for weeks, I decided not to decorate until the kitchen/dining room was back to normal and we had some time, i.e. the weekend! We haven't started decorating yet, but Eric did pull out all the decorations, so that must be a sign that he is ready to move! He is almost done with his mantel project that he has wanted to do since we purchased the house. I will likely take a picture of that when he is done! This last week and weekend I have been working on baking! YUM! I have a cookie exchange/contest, that I feel that I am going to win for my category, I made 2 batches of toffee and they are both yummy! I also decided that we are going to start the tradition of making a Gingerbread house, why I don't know, but it is something that Eric said he did as I kid, so I thought might be nice to incorporate something from his childhood into our new family traditions. Last year for Christmas I received a Gingerbread 3D cookie templates. As you can see I have made a sleigh, snowmen, reindeer and trees, (the picture is pre-baked cookies!) I also purchased a pre-made gingerbread house this year, I wanted to test the waters before I go all gung-ho this year. I told Eric that I think I would need some kind of cookie cutter or something to make a gingerbread house, he doesn't think so, but I should think that life would be a lot easier if I had some sort of pattern since the house kind of has to fit together. We'll see how it goes tonight, we have a lot of decorating to do! Maybe I will even post the whole Christmas scene when we get it done! I guess it depends on how the decorating goes!
I hope that everybody had a good weekend!

I'm free

In more than one sense I am free these days. I am no longer nursing Gwen and it seemed to go better than expected. She doesn't seem to notice really, so I am pretty happy about that. She sometimes takes longer than usual to go to sleep i.e. yesterday's nap 2hrs, but that is really the exception and there are other factors that influenced yesterday, I think. We'll get to that later. This means I am now able to leave the house at anytime without freaking about being home to take care of Gwen.
I am also free of doing Jury duty for 3 years unless I get called up for the feds...which I suspect will happens, since most people I know have never had to do jury duty and this is my 3rd time! Damn that moving all the time.
So, let's talk about yesterday and today! Ugh, what a crazy 2 days. Yesterday as I mentioned it was snowing all day, still snow on the ground, don't know about the pictures, maybe I will get to those soon, but Gwen looked really funny in her snowsuit from Kaelyn, it is a 24 month model and although Gwen is in 18 month clothes and all 24 is still too big. I am not sure how she could move. But I digress, yesterday after lunch as I was emptying the last box for the pantry...yes folks we moved everything back into the kitchen!...Gwen was playing with this shopping cart that I received as a shower present when Eric and I got married, it is metal and small, so I should have probably known better, but apparently I didn't. Next thing I know she is screaming. It appears she tripped came down on the handle and got the bridge of her nose, it is swollen and black and blue and has a cut on it. Poor kid!
This morning we had Gwen's pictures for Christmas taken, I had schedule the appointment days ago, and I was debating whether or not I should just cancel, but then I spoke to my Mom and she suggested makeup! GENIUS! So, this morning for some reason Gwen is crying at 5:30am, I don't know why. After 30+ minutes I went in and checked on her, I don't know what was bothering her, I gave her some tylenol and a little bit of food and drink and read a book and put her back to in her crib and she slept until 8:30. Schools were closed this morning, which meant that we didn't have class this morning, so sleeping in was ok! We were outside getting the car ready so we could leave and Gwen feel a couple times on her butt, nothing new. So I put her in the car and she started crying. I thought it was because she was cold, so I drove off, well crying turned into screaming and she threw up. GREAT! So, I finally found a place to pull off, clean her up and got back on the road. Then I get onto the highway and the road is backed up, all the way...ugh this is not rush hour, 10:30 in the morning, so why are we backed up...rubbernecking. AHHH! So, I run into the store, I still had to buy the makeup and apply and I had left 30+ minutes early, it is a 15 minute drive and I think I ended up being 5 minutes late, which appeared to be ok since they seemed a little behind. I had time to apply the makeup and get her pictures done, even though she was difficult, she was not so fond of the flashing lights and was not really in the mood. Although I am not sure if any day would be a good day to get her pictures made.
So, maybe, just maybe I will be able to get some Christmas cards out before Christmas. I won't make any guarantees, 'cause lets face it anything can happen between now and then. I think Gwen and I are going to go out and play in the snow again. She really enjoyed watching the neighbor boy jump over the snow banks.
Seems that I am too tired and lazy to keep up Gwen's blog, I know that at least 2 people read it, but it doesn't appear anyone else has any interest. I am not saying that I am going to give it up, I am not sure that I am even saying that I am going to take a break, I just want to apologize to my 2 readers that look forward to the posts and pictures. Maybe I will get in a better mood about posting, you never know what tomorrow brings!

The best laid plans of mice and men

Jury duty, I hope to find out in about 15 minutes, is over for the next 3 years and that I fulfilled my obligation. It truly wasn't so bad. I got there at around 8:30 and left at 11:30ish. They called us up for a trial, but then it took us so long to get our act together they sent us back down, apparently they settled the case. I am glad that I could help! Easiest $20 I made!
We have our first snow fall and I really haven't had the chance to take Gwen out, but I hear her, so I am going to get her outside before it gets too dark to take pictures...I will continue this post later...maybe with pictures, we'll see! Eric won't be home this evening, so I am likely going to start making candy!

Jury duty

Tomorrow I have jury duty. UGH! If I was working that would be one thing, but Eric has to take a sick day and stay home with Gwen all day. Shall be interesting for sure! Things are still crazed in the kitchen, we actually have the grout laid, but we are waiting for it to cure. I am super behind on Christmas and everything else, hopefully I will get Christmas cards out this year, but goodness knows! Gwen might completely be weaned. I haven't nursed her in 2 days. I don't know if we will have a problem come when I am done with jury duty, but we are removing the rocking chair from the room so hopefully out of sight out of mind? Gwen also has the last of her teeth coming in, I mean the non-molars.
Last night I went to MNO with the ladies from my stroller group. None of the husbands really could understand what we were doing exactly. We went to the Painted Cone. Quite bizarre, a paint your own pottery, ice cream shop that you can BYOB and snacks! We had a good time. They had some cool stuff there to paint, but I am so not creative, at least I wasn't last night. So hopefully I will be back online soon.