Impulse

My darling husband has arrived home from CA! With him, sweetheart that he is he brought me fresh CA strawberries...yum! Unfortunately, I also purchased some strawberries yesterday, so I have strawberries tons of strawberries. This is no problem for me, but I might not finish them all, by myself. So, today I went to the store on the way home from SS and bought some Rhubarb, I mean if you have a ton of strawberries might as well make strawberry-rhubarb pie, although I just found a recipe for strawberry hand pies, we will probably have those also! YUM! But I degress, the reason to tell this tale is not about strawberries, it is about Gwen. We went to the store, and since I only had a couple of items to pick up I carried her. I put her down in the cheese section to browse the cheese, I mean you really need 2 hands for that. Gwen stood there a minute with me and we then proceded to the exit, it was then that Gwen noticed the display of balls. I have been thinking about getting Gwen a big ball she could play with, she loves them so much. So I let Gwen hang out and squeal at the balls. And then, right before my very eyes she pulled one of the balls out of the display and didn't want to let it go. Sat right on the floor with it in her lap, just as proud as could be, and hugged her ball and talked to it, nuzzled it with her face. Could I refuse her said ball?

As you can see, no I could not! Here is a video of her and the ball.

As you can see, her walking is much improved, as long as she isn't holding something too big for her to carry! Crazy child, I think she gets that from her Dad.

Happy Anniversary

Happy Anniversary sweetheart! Honey and I have now been married 4 years! Goodness time flies, soon, we will have a 1 yr old. I hope you have a safe flight back...I guess I will see you eventually.

Crazy video Tuesday

We have been apparently having issues with some of the videos uploaded, buzzing and not playing through, so I have reuploaded (is that a word?) the vids and added a few new ones.






I think they are all self-explanatory. Hope you enjoyed them!

More pictures

Gwen helping me with the ribbon before we went to the party. Now, I know that we have a lot of eating pictures on this website, but seriously, can they be any cuter/funnier.

I can't remember what it is we were eating, but she did seem to enjoy it.

Withdraw

I have finished re-reading all the Harry Potter books, now I am on FIRE to read the next book. I don't know what I am going to do with myself until the last book comes out, oh yeah, plan Gwen's Birthday party and take care of my family! But it does beg the question, what will my family do when the next book comes out, I will be out of commission.

So, here are some hopefully better pictures of Gwen in her carrier. This day we put on the rain cover, 'cause it looked like it might rain. I don't think that she cares for it all that much, she can't slap her Dad in the back through the rain cover!

Here are some pictures of Gwen after eating plum and stuff, I thought that I would try and get some pictures of her smiles!

These are more eating pictures from the same day, Gwen trying to (and succeeding I might add) to get some nectarine I had on the table.

She is so proud of herself!

test

I want to see if you can see this. This was on the front page of today's Frederick News Post. See anything interesting? Hope you have a great weekend. We will have pictures and videos to update. Gwen has really been walking pretty good. We went to a 1st birthday party today and everyone was amazed that Gwen was walking, seeing as the birthday girl is not walking. Oh well, the birthday girl can say quack quack and Gwen can't say that.

Hiccups

So I know that I just posted, but Gwen just woke up and she has the hiccups! Do you know how funny it is to hear the hiccups over the monitor...well, you probably don't but it is hilarious! Must run, she is hiccuping and doing her random yells/squeals, time to rescue the princess!

Chicken!

Miss Gwen loves the chicken, she would eat it everyday, every meal if I would let her, but alas I am a mean Mommy and I don't! Gwen really enjoys feeding herself, which makes meal time a challenge, I don't want to feed her the same stuff everyday, but yet making finger foods out of every meal is a challenge. Here are some pictures of Gwen with her beloved chicken...Eric thought it was funny so he took these pictures.

She did not care/really even notice that the chicken was on her face.

Gwen's latest present from Grandma. The thing is huge, the whole family can site in there.

The last 2 days Gwen has again agreed to take her morning naps, crazy kid. I have been told by some of my Mom friends that to get used to it she will flip-flop her naps for a while. GREAT! Oh, I almost forgot to post Gwen's short walking video!

Look at our big girl!

Frustrations

The challenge of Gwen continues! This weekend for some reason she woke up at 6ish and took 2 2 hr naps. I am not complaining about that. But now on Monday she has decided she wants a new schedule, she is refusing her first nap. Monday she hung out in her crib for an 1.5 and would not sleep, so we got her up feed her and then I decided at 2:30 to put her down and she slept, she was exhausted. Today I tried the first nap again she would not sleep, so after 2 hours I got her up and we ate lunch then I put her down for a nap at 2p. She is still asleep! It appears that she wants to do 1 nap a day. I couldn't be excited about that EXCEPT I already decided on a time and sent out invitations for Gwen's birthday party! AHHH! The new schedule will directly conflict with her party! Gwen, now I tell you that you are my sweet girl, but man can you be frustrating! I think I had more to say, but now Gwen has awoken, from her 2.5hr nap, I guess I better get her!

Happy Father's Day!

Ok, so I know that yesterday was Father's day and I didn't make a post about Gwen's father or wishing all the Fathers that read this website a Happy Father's day, so today I am a day late. (ok, so I know that there is only one Dad that reads this site, and that is Gwen's Dad!) Here is a 'blast from the past picture.' The first time Eric held Gwen!Here is a picture of Gwen and Eric at home.
I just think this picture is funny! This is one from Florida.

A picture of Eric and Gwen last month, I think.
So, here are pictures from yesterday. Gwen and Eric posing with one of Eric's Father's day presents...they love it!

We had a good day yesterday, at least that is what Eric tells me. So, I guess it was a success.

These 2 pictures are from Friday. Gwen really likes being outside. Here are pictures of her banging on the screen door, trying to get me to let her outside.
Gwen has really started walking, for real. She walks more than she crawls. Today was the day that she really just started walking around. She looks so funny, I think unless you see a baby walking for really the first time you forget how funny/cute it is. With her hands held up and wobbly, so cute. Now the real fun begins!

So big!

Gwen is starting to exert her big girl status. She is starting to get into EVERYTHING and do big girl stuff, like walking. I guess, I should say that she is getting into more stuff, because as soon as this little tyke started moving at all she started to get into stuff. Now, she walks, if she has something in her hands or sees something across the room she often takes many stable steps forward. My freedom is so close to over it is hard to believe! Ok, my freedom has been over since I became pregnant, but I think that I like to dream that I still had some freedom!
Oh, Gwen now has started holding her sippy cup. She like to eat a little bit, take a drink, then throw the cup.

So now that we put Gwen down later in the evening she gets to play with me whilest I am cooking.

I decided to empty the dishwasher while Gwen was awake, why not I thought? Well you see why I probably shouldn't, Gwen is a crawler!

Seriously, she did that so quickly, I could not believe it. I couldn't even get the whole series because I was in shock and I just didn't realize how fast she could crawl up into my dishwasher!
These pictures were taken over the past 3 days. Such a big girl I can't believe it!

Happy Birthday, Grandpa!

Ok, so I have nothing to post about Grandpa today, he doesn't actually ever see the website, but Grandma does and I know that she will pass along the note!
I thought you would like to see the rest of the pictures of Gwen with the EMPTY cleaned wine bottle. She really thought it was cool, I don't know why, but she did. We have been very busy around here, T-1month to Gwen's birthday means I need to get my act organized, invitations made and addressed, menu and the other things that must be done. Plus, we gutted the 1/2 bath. It is not back in working order. I am also having issues with the insurance company and the bill for Gwen's birth. What a pain, some people are just not nice, you know and I am not actually talking about the insurance company! Oh well, another day in the life. Enjoy Gwen's pictures. I should have more coming up soon, I just haven't downloaded them yet, sorry!

Videos

Its a wacky video Wed. Ok, so I haven't had a chance to post the uploaded videos, so I thought that I would post them here so you can view them.
Here are 2 going up the stair videos


Here is Gwen chasing Daddy when he is trying to put up the baby gate...I think he was annoyed, not at Gwen, but at me, because I wasn't doing a fabulous job keeping her out of his hair. Sorry! I thought it was cute!

11 months

Oh my goodness, only 1 month until Gwen is a year old! Can you believe it? I certainly can not. So, what is new this month. A lot! Gwen has learned how to go up the stairs. She is very good at it, we haven't taught her to go down yet, I am having a problem with that, she just wants to walk down the steps and it breaks into a big to do and her crying, fun!

Gwen is starting to take steps without Eric and I acting like fools trying to get her to walk from one of us to other (as you saw in the earlier videos!) Sometimes she doesn't realize she is doing it. She also LOVES to have socks in her hands. You can see her thought process, is whatever she is looking at better or more exciting than the sock then she drops the sock. But, sometimes she decides that she was wrong and I have seen her go back and forth between the objects several times crawling back and forth, quite funny!

We decided to put up the final baby gate because I ran up the stairs to get something this weekend, Gwen saw me from across the room and got up 2 steps by the time I get back down. I tried to keep Gwen out of Eric's way while he was working, but she just kept crawling back to him, so cute!

Gwen's eating habits have improved greatly. Although I am wondering if she is really my child. I mean if she didn't have my body and my personality, her eating habits certainly don't suggest she belongs to me. Eric even mentioned it today. Gwen doesn't like dairy...how could she be my daughter? And, she likes broccoli? I mean really! She does try a lot more food and will eat most of the baby foods out there, not the purees but the little more chunky ones (as long as they are not mac & cheese-doesn't she know my people are from the dairy state?)
Here's a party photo for you! Gwen is celebrating the fact that we no longer have a running toilet and terrible vinyl in the 1/2 bath. Of course we don't have any new tile in there yet, but hopefully by next weekend.
Gwen is getting 2 more teeth on the top, that brings the total to 4 on the top 2 on the bottom.

So, on the sleeping front, we are still working on going to sleep on her own. Some days it is good, some days it is bad. But we will see how it goes.

Randomness

Since Eric is out of town, I thought I would publish some photos! HI! Anyhoo-here is Gwen and I before our walk in the rain. This is her 'new' stroller, that we got several weeks ago. She likes it, I think, since she hasn't told me any different!

This is from today. Gwen with her 'walker', she is pretty cute with this thing, she walks for a while and then stops and gestures with her hands and babbles and then continues walking, too cute!

Also from today, dinner, Gwen checking her pouch for food that she has dropped.

So, I have mentioned before how Gwen is known at the liquor store, well, know they know her name and comment on how much she has grown, one of them even holds Gwen when we go in. Does this mean we have a problem?