Other uses for couches

A sad day in our house, we had our first time out! :( Gwen does not listen very well and today she kept trying to pull stuff out of the recycle bin. I need her to actually follow directions so she doesn't run into street when I tell her STOP!
Onto the pictures at hand, my husband is obsessed with forts, seriously. I think on our first date he actually told me how good his couch (that he inherited from his parents and was using in his apartment, I had picked him up so it was a natural conversation piece). Eric, for a while, has been talking about how good our couch would be for making a fort. Sat night he made his first fort for Gwen. I know I should put these pictures in some kind of slide show, but I am quite lazy today. Mom, sorry about my posture, hard to sit on a couch with no cushions!

Sunday morning I came home from Church and found them in the fort again, Eric had apparently thought that he could perfect his fort by changing the pillows. So, it seems that if you leave Eric and Gwen alone in your house, beware of the fort builders!

In another note, I am often amazed at the amount of attention I now command with Gwen. Often, I see people smiling at her, trying to get a rise from her, or some sort of attention. I am often surprised by the type of people that try to get her attentions, not just Grandparents. Today we were walking to the grocery store and Gwen was pointing out a truck to me...she loves anything that makes noise, she is especially fond of the diesel trucks...back the the story. I noticed that this guy, a landscaper, pointed at Gwen today, from across the intersection.

Weekend in review

Another crazy weekend around here! AU won, again! Now the big game on Sat, my only problem with this is that we have a new girl in my exercise group from Baton Rouge, she doesn't know my affiliation yet! I'd invite her and her hubby over for the game, but I am not prepared to lose with others in the house, not to say I'd think we'd lose, but I am not able to take that chance. At this point, I think the girl is really nice, but I've never met her husband! She knows that I don't like LSU, but she hasn't asked who I cheer for! The girls in class who know me and my affiliation think it is funny...they just don't understand SEC football! But, I digress!
This weekend was another to write about, and not in a positive way. As usual, Eric and I are more tired from the weekend then when we started! Gwen decided Sat night not to sleep from 12-4am. Thanks kid! I kind of suspect that not eating enough on Sat was the culprit behind that little disaster. She did take a 3.5 hour nap on Sun, as did we all! And, she slept normally last night, so I hope it was just another eating hunger and not some sign of some other craziness, although she does get more shots next week and that always throws a wrench in our week! Sorry Mom! Today she ate Spaghettios, I don't know if she eat them tomorrow, but the side of the can says that it provides a full serving of veggies and grains, and we all know Gwen needs to eat more veggies! But, she seemed to enjoy Pumpkin Pie, are you ready for Thanksgiving?

Here, Gwen is getting ready for her big trip to Grandma & Grandpa next month, I was not privy to the reason why Gwen & Eric chose to travel this way, but I can only assume he wanted to practice for when she gets tired in the airport. I guess this is what Eric and Gwen think is a dog/cat carrier for the airport, a Gwen carrier.


Today Gwen and I went to Babies w/books, it has been a long time since we have gone to the library for this function, actually once she turned a year we quit going. The next group up at our library is very busy and apparently you have to get there 45 min early to get a seat, Mommy isn't into that, so we tried a different library this time. I don't know how Gwen felt about she was quite shy, we had a couple friends there today and we had to register for the end of the month (it is free!) I do know when the woman was reading the book Peak-a-Moo! and we got to the sheep Gwen said "Baa" (before the she was even prompted or anything, quite bizarre) my friend Katie looked at me and said, so Gwen likes the sheep, is that her favorite? I was kind of dumb founded Gwen hardly ever plays along when you ask her what sound an animal makes I always have to prompt her, so it was quite surprising when she say a sheep and said Baa! This just proves my theory that this child is way smarter than she wants us to know! This is going to lead to many fights when she is in school! Fortunately, I have 4 years to get this girl to bend to my will! Is any one else laughing, cause they know she'll never bend to my will!

Stay tuned for 'another use for that darn couch'.

15 months

So, I just realized today is the 10th! I must post on Gwen's monumental changes of the last couple months, I realize I did not do a 14 month milestone letter, we were out of town and didn't have internet connection. You must wonder how when I haven't posted in so long and now 2 posts in one day! Well, if you must know, I am competing with a friend of mine, no I am just kidding she has 3 kids, how does she have time to post? I just have a husband out of town and not a darn thing to watch on tv. Seriously, why is there nothing good on tv!? But, as usual, I digress. What is knew with Gwen this month you ask. I think ever so much. She has 2 more teeth now, that makes a total of 8 teeth, 2 molars in completely and 2 more molars pushing through.
This is a picture from when we went to Boyd's Bears taken with Eric's camera phone, which is why it isn't so clear.

I think most of Gwen's progress has been in the physical realm, yes she does have more 'words' now. I am pretty sure she added 'toe' to her vocabulary, but she can only say it while touching her big toe. I don't know why she has to touch her toes, but it is what she does.

She is starting to become more capable. She can listen and understand and choose whether or not she will do as you ask. Most of the time I can see her thinking about how she is not going to do as I request. She knows how the routine goes, she knows if I grab her shoes she needs to sit down so I can put them on and then she walks over to the baby gate and rather impatiently waits for me to open it for her she we can leave. Gwen knows how to use the gate, fortunately, she doesn't have dexterity to open the gate.

Gwen is also trying to lay down from a sitting position and then get back up from laying down. It is pretty funny to watch because of the look on her face of determination. Kid I don't know how long it is going to take for you to develop abs muscles, but this could cause problems when we are changing your diaper! She also wants to learn how to get up on the couch, that is not going well yet, but she is getting better about getting down. We just have to work on sitting on the couch, but I think I am going to have to talk with Daddy about that first!
She currently has an obsession with putting things in places, unusual things in unusual places. Recently she put a puzzle piece and remote for her mobile in Eric's camel back. She also collected several of Eric's shoes and put them in 'her' laundry basket. I could go on and on about weird things I find, which is why the balls are stuck in the following pictures. She also has a current obsession with taking puzzle pieces and putting them over the arm of one of our chairs and then retrieving it. Gwen is still a gibber jabber, sometimes she clearly repeats what you are saying, but it is random. She has so much to say, I have no idea what, but sometimes it is very important. She points at dogs, ducks and airplanes. She actually says dog and duck but no airplane.

We have started to wean, we have effectively cut the nursing down in half. She doesn't appear to care at this point, but I am still nursing before naptime and bedtime. I have tried to add milk to her diet, I have added chocolate and strawberry to her milk, she is trying it, she doesn't love it. Today I caught her shiver after she took a sip, but do you think in like 30 days, she might actually like the milk? I guess I should try for 8 days, and if she doesn't like it after 8 days she will probably never like to drink milk. I think it is the smell that initially bothers her, but with her limited food likes, it would be nice to figure out how to make food more to her liking. It is a pain to figure out what she wants to eat, what we do when we go out to dinner. She really still only eats fruit and garlic bread and the crust of bread, what kid eats the crust and doesn't like the rest of the bread!

Today Gwen and I went and get her blood drawn for lead and other things I was supposed to do after her 12 month appointment, oops! Hey, but I made it before her 15 month appointment. She charmed the pants off everyone we encountered. The poor kid was not happy about her blood being drawn. The lady at the front desk wanted to give her a lollipop, I said she had never had one, and she told me that it was just a lollipop and kind of treated me like I was crazy. Now, this is my first kid, but I remember when I was a girl scout leader, my girls where 7 yrs old and some of those Moms wouldn't let the girls eat hard candy. Who's the freak now!?

Barrettes

I just checked the website for my camera and they have sent it back to BB! Hopefully they did finally fix it, if not I think I will be placing some calls to someone that won't enjoy talking to me. That is one less call I have to make!
Gwen's hair is getting pretty long, don't get all excited, she is still missing hair in those 2 front areas that could make her look like she has a mullet. I don't know why most girls hair looks like that, but it does. Yesterday we tried a barrette to keep her hair out of her eyes, she didn't take it out all day.

Gwen likes to sit in a chair and read books, ok just paging through the books.

Update: just got a phone call that they have received my camera at the store and we can pick it up...that is bad news, I think, I think it means they still can't find a problem with it. CRAP!

New things

Gwen is starting to go back to child that we love. I am hopefully that she continues on this path, but as we all know, anything can cause regression to crazy baby behavior. I do know that she definitely need a nap. She appears to not want to nap when Daddy is at home or when she wants to punish me for leaving her all day with Daddy. When she doesn't take a nap then she is too tired at night and falls asleep during the night-time routine, which means she wakes up too early in the morning...that's my theory and I'm sticking to it!
Today, she woke up at about 7:30, and took a nap. She was perfectly charming. Today she found a carpet tack on the floor, now most people are freaking out about this because it is sharp and metal, but I didn't know what it was and she started "brushing" her hair with it, cause you know it had "teeth" like her comb. So cute. It is the funniest thing to see her do that.
Today she also started kissing Eric's picture on the fridge. She often goes up to his picture and starts touching it but today she actually made the smooch sound. The first time she's made the smooch sounds, so now I can really work on the blowing kisses thing! I tried to get pictures of it, but it I still don't have the new camera so these are the only pictures I have, but at least you are seeing some new pictures of Gwen.


Oh, did I mention that she removed the picture from the fridge and then continued to kiss it.

The week

It has been one of those weeks. I have been in no mood to take pictures of Gwen, as she has been whiny and at times unbearable. Sunday she refused to nap. Monday she napped, but she WHINED all day, all day. She slept in until 8:30 so we skipped our exercise group, the first time we have done that, you know except if she was sick or if we were out of town. Now, was she acting crazy because we skipped group, giving me the cold shoulder because I left her with Daddy all day or was she just having a bad day? Monday night she screamed for 2 hours! I know she was tired. Yesterday she refused to nap and then when I put her down at night she screamed and then fell asleep after 10 minutes. Kid, what is this about, don't you know that this is Mommy's birthday week and you are supposed to be nice to me? Today she went down without a hitch. STOP waking up before 7am, didn't you get the memo!?
Today she was cute and sweet and has been signing book to me all day. And, since the introduction of the crazy chicken that sings "if you're happy and you know it" she now stomps her feet, even tries it if she is sitting down. Now we can clap our hands and stomp our feet, now we just have to work on shouting hooray! So cute, this doesn't make up for the last couple of days, but we will see how the next couple of days go. Mommy might have stayed up too late since the FL-AU game, and needs some sleep! But truly, it seems only after 10 I get to really speak to my husband, and I have a lot to say!
Just for fun check out here if you want to see who I share a birthday with, I knew Kate Winslet and I were the same age, but I had no idea about Chester A. Arthur! (of course he and I are not the same age)
In other news, they still have my camera, I received a call this week saying that they still aren't having the problem I am having with the camera so I think they were going to send it back, and then I explained to the woman that I sent her the camera with a full battery, like she told me to, had the charged the battery, do they think it is my charger that is the problem? So, then she realized that maybe it is my camera that is eating the charge, if you leave a full battery in it o/n, so she was going to check that out. Seriously, what the heck, get it together!
Have a great weekend, if Gwen starts to act more like the sweet baby that she is, then I will start to make more pictures of her.

All I can say is...

WAR DAMN EAGLE!

It is particularly nice for the girl from FL to watch her team win in the swamp! Did you watch the game, what did you think? I bet it was a lot of fun to be there. Does anyone else wonder where this team has been all season? Ok, that's all I can say now, the baby is emptying her diaper bag and running around the house in her sleep clothes, I must go...Daddy didn't get her changed while I was at Church, but they had a great time yesterday and my daughter didn't even care when I came home. I don't know how to feel about that!

Shoe box

I think my daughter's love of shoes and boxes is captured with a shoe box! She loves to put stuff in it and carry it around and well, I think you might know how fun a box can be. In these series of pictures Gwen has put her keys into the shoe box and is trying to retrieve them, unsuccessfully...she hasn't quite figured out she can just turn the thing upside down and they will fall out.

In the following picture she is explaining something to me, I think that her keys are in there and she is trying to get them out! I am not as versed in Gwen babble as I should be!

Have a great weekend!

Super Pretzels

Gwen seems to have a new found love; I would say boxes, but that is too specific, Gwen is going through a phase where she seems to think that she should be able to sit in things, that most people wouldn't think to sit in...like this:
And, although we enjoy just sitting in boxes (and baskets, including laundry baskets) we also enjoy putting stuff in boxes and being carried or dragged around the room in baskets. Apparently Gwen is preparing for sledding! (I think Eric is pretty excited about going sledding with Gwen)

ok, so in this last picture she wants me to put the camera down and get her out, but sometimes Mommy prefers to get the picture and then get her out...a little figuring on her own won't kill her! So, if you are wondering what Gwen needs, apparently a box and a ball and she is set for days!

More box pictures tomorrow!

Happy Birthday Grandmom...

we hope that you have a wonderful day! Don't work too hard!

We miss you and we'll see you soon!

Our Weekend

We have had a very busy weekend, as usual. Eric as usual had a bee in his bonnet which meant for yet another weekend we had to trek up to outlets could he could get his latest 'must have' item! I am not saying this as a complaint, it is nice to get out and about, but it will help those of you who don't really know Eric to get a picture of what our life is like, you already know about most of my craziness. Eric's obsession of the weekend before last lead to the following pictures. Eric has decided besides training for a marathon to brew his own beer. Gwen decided that the box for said beer brewing box is good enough to play in! Who needs toys!



You can't really see her in this picture, unless you look real close you can see just the edge of the head, she enjoyed trying to sit in the box and then popping back up.

Gwen now has 1 more tooth in the bottom front on the left, I think the right will be popping through very soon. Over the weekend Gwen started saying "OH" to everything, this morning she started saying "Uh-oh" I think it is the cutest thing. When we say something to her like "Gwen you have your shoes on" she says "Oh". So cute. I think I probably have more to say, but Gwen has awoken since I started this post and although she is babbling and happy now, (practicing her chattering) we have errands to run, off to the store for us!