Today Miss Gwen woke up and has been squealing all day. She has been smiling at people and when she went to the WW meeting with me today she sat in the chair next to me and played with her toy and made Gwen noises. What are Gwen noises? Well, today they were just excited non-squealing noises, but just coos at her toys and just generally wanting people to know that she was talking. I would say she wasn't disruptive (thank goodness for the Mommy & Me meeting!) but she was just acting cute. This made me realize how different she is acting today from yesterday. When I tried to lay her down for her 11am nap, she was smiling, talking to me and just generally being sweet. I just thought she was being cute, trying to charm me into playing with her instead of taking her nap. Boy, was I wrong! She cooed and squealed in the crib for about an hour which then turned to crying. I realized then that she was in no mood to nap, so I got her up and played with her, 30 minutes later I tried again, it is now 3:30 and that was 3.5 hrs ago. I think she might already be converted to the 1 nap per day. It seems a little early for that, but that is way more convenient for me than a 2 a day nap, where we are chained to the house all day and only have 2 hour windows of outside time. I really would eventually like to make her bed time later so she can have more quality Daddy time, so we might go to a 2 nap thing again, but I am definitely more of a play it by ear kind of a Mom than a we must have a schedule, don't know if you noticed. :) Well, I hear some chatting upstairs, so I must go get the little one.
I am posting some pictures from yesterday's play session. I think it is fun to watch her get the toys out of this thing. She gets so determined and then bangs them and explores them. I guess one day she will learn how to put them back in the slots. I also posted another video.
Gwen has always been a good stander and very strong, this month as brought Gwen pulling herself up some. The other day as we were readying the bath she actually scooted herself forward off Eric's lap, we were both like, wait, um what are you doing. Gwen has really come to love standing holding on to something. She especially loves naked baby time right before the bath. The maybe 5 minutes I allow her to stand at the bath tub naked always bring big smiles. 
These past weeks have been cold. Today was the first day in a while that the temperature actually got above freezing. Since Gwen has been sick, I have been really bundling her almost to the point of overheating, I have to be fully dressed before I get her ready and in the car seat. We have purchased the next car seat she needs (since she is so large). Eric is chomping at the bit to put it in the car, but the beauty of the infant carrier is I can pull it out of the car and run like heck, into the store. 
Gwen still gets sad, and since she has had this cold she has gotten rather clingy when she hungry/tired. (I think this is one of the best pictures I have ever taken, I just picture this as her mug shot, yet it somehow also looks fake to me.)
Right now we are much happier sitting up than being on our belly, don't get me wrong, Gwen still likes being on her belly, but until she learns to crawl forward/not bat things away with her hands she gets very frustrated. When she is playing when she is sitting she often gets distracted by her toes, but really who doesn't get distracted by their toes?
For sometime she has been doing this thing with her hand like she is a princess and waves, you know kind of like a wrist twisting. She often does this with toys also while she is studying them. 
Eric and I are still amazed at the amount of people that stop us and tell us how cute Gwen is, for about a minute Eric wondered if we could enter her into a contest and make some money, but then he remembered who he married and that it is not likely that I would enter Gwen in a photo contest/beauty pageant and become a stage Mom. But I say, we couldn't be happier with our sweet baby girl and hope that her sweet disposition will continue up through the coming months/years.
So I guess all that is left to say is that the Grandmas were right, we ended up with a content baby, thank goodness. Stay tuned for the pictures of Gwen's first taste of avocado. I can't say whether she liked it or not, the jury is still out, but the pictures, hopefully will be priceless. 
