So, what's new with Gemma?
About a month ago, she made the transition to walking full time. She does occasionally crawl, especially if she's trying to move quickly, but 99% of the time she's on her feet now. She even tries to run away when we "chase" her. She also still crawls up the stairs, but only because her legs are too short to walk. She will hold onto the railing at the top so that she can step up onto the top step, though!
She loves to walk around, especially when we are outside. "Down" has become one of her favorite words.
In the last few days, she has started wrapping her arms around me, grabbing the back of my shoulders and trying to pick me up to make me stand up. It is precious! When I do stand up, she looks so proud!
She loves to play games and mimic us. Jason plays a game where he rubs her feet together and says "warm 'em up", then tickles her legs (he did this with Kyran and Karyssa too). When he's done, she'll put her feet together and say "warmemup" and then make the noise he does when he tickles her.
In the store Monday, we were waiting in line and she said "hap, cap" while clapping her hands. That was her way of asking me to sing "If you're happy and you know it". When I start singing it, she immediately starts clapping her hands and gets a little confused about her face "showing it", so she'll usually start clapping her face too!
She loves to be chased, nibbled, and tickled. She asks for high fives (fi, while holding her hand out) and fist bumps (bi bump) while holding her fist out. She still loves to wave and say "hi" to everyone, and blows kisses a lot too (although she usually waits until we're away from the person to actually blow the kisses!). Almost every day when we go in to pick up the kids, she waves very excitedly at the music teacher, Mr. A. I think he might be a favorite of hers when she gets there!
She loves to be chased, nibbled, and tickled. She asks for high fives (fi, while holding her hand out) and fist bumps (bi bump) while holding her fist out. She still loves to wave and say "hi" to everyone, and blows kisses a lot too (although she usually waits until we're away from the person to actually blow the kisses!). Almost every day when we go in to pick up the kids, she waves very excitedly at the music teacher, Mr. A. I think he might be a favorite of hers when she gets there!
She loves to dance and says "dance" to get me to play music for her. She loves "Ride a Little Pony" and "Rock-a-Bye Baby".
Because the Wal-Mart carts are so noisy, one day, I started saying "chugga chugga choo choo" and she loved it. Now she'll bounce in her cart seat to let me know that she wants me to do that.
She has a baby doll that she loves, and she calls it Zemma (Gemma). She will kiss and hug the baby every time she holds her. This doll was actually the first doll that Karyssa ever owned, so it has seen its share of love (as you can tell)!
Gemma will eat ANYTHING! She's usually happy with one food until she sees the next food that comes out. She wants to try everything new and loves to eat what we're eating. She still does eat baby food in the morning sometimes too. Her favorite food is blueberries! For breakfast, she usually eats some cheerios, baby food (either fruits or veggies), and some blueberries. When daddy is home, she'll eat pancakes, waffles, eggs, and anything else that he'll make for her. Lunch is usually either a half of a PB&J or a piece of bread and American cheese, with some fruit. For dinner, she'll eat whatever we eat, and lots of it! She likes to drink milk, but doesn't usually drink a lot of it.
For the past three nights, she's gone to sleep without her paci. I think it is the younger child thing, and the fact that I love my sleep, but I've been hesitant to take it away from her while she's sleeping. She hasn't had it out of the bed or car since she was 6 months, and has only had it in bed since turning one. The first two mornings, she woke up at 6:00 crying, so we gave her the paci. This morning she slept until 7:30 and woke up happy. She still likes to nap with it. My goal is to have her completely weaned of it before she's 18 months, because that's when I'll take it away forever.
Her verbal skills are amazing! Since her 15-month check-up, she has continued to repeat words and use them in context. Here are some of the new words she's learned since then:
Grandma
Mouth
Foz
Meow
Hat (9/18)
Amen (9/20)
Bite (9/25)
Shoe (9/30)
Tie
Neigh
Apple
Up (10/5)
Gemma (10/8, dema, while pointing to herself)
Five (high five)
Down (10/14)
Drink
Buckle (10/21, she freaked out a man in the grocery store who thought she was only 6 months old!)
Cat
Outside (side)
Bump
Drink
Snack
Stairs (upstairs)
Honk (while honking her nose)
Warm 'em up (10/31, while playing game)
Rice (11/2)
Gemma (11/4, now she's actually saying her name, and every baby doll in the house is named Gemma!)
(Sorry it's so dark, but listen closely!)
She is putting full endings on many of these words, and has added endings to several previous words like mommy, daddy, bath, duck, and please. It is so amazing to see how quickly she is learning and processing everything! It is also nice to know what she wants. At the same age, Kyran and Karyssa had very few words, so it was frustrating when they couldn't verbalize what they wanted or needed.
She is also good at following directions and it is obvious that she comprehends even more than she can verbalize.
When she says eat, she usually does the sign for "more". Yesterday, I tried to teach her the sign for "eat" and instead of doing it to her own mouth, she stuck her hand in mine! I guess she wanted to do what I was doing!
She will usually hold up her finger and say "one" (it sounds more like nine) when asked how old she is. Sometimes when I ask her any question, she does the same thing.
She loves Bella, although as Bella gets older, her tolerance is not what it was with Kyran and Karyssa. Not that I worry that she'd ever hurt Gemma, she just usually gets up and moves when Gemma comes around.
She still loves to test limits, but she is learning them quickly. She has also been throwing temper tantrums, but when she does, I usually sit her on the floor and she stops crying very quickly.
One of her favorite things to do is watch videos on my iPhone. I really think she would watch them all day. When I put it away, I'm usually met with a pretty big temper tantrum.
Each morning, when I get her up, she gets so excited. Then she wraps her arms around me and lays her head on my shoulder. She'll alternate between patting and rubbing my arm, and will usually hug me for about a minute. I think that might be the best part of my day!
I still just watch her or hold her from time to time, so amazed that she is here and that she is mine. This sweet child brings so much happiness and joy to all of us!
Climbing girl!
Gamecock girl!
Outdoor girl!
Piggy girl!
Precious girl!
Destructive girl!
Sleepy girl!
Funny girl!
Cool girl!
Oh, these hugs!
She loves her big brother!
And wants to be just like her big sister!
My little angel!
She loves her twins!
She loves to play outside!
With her friend Nash
With her friend Knox
Curly, curly!
This is a 3-6 month sleeper. My tiny girl!
Waiting to pick up Kyran and Karyssa in the first pair of shoes that Karyssa ever wore!
Hug the baby! (and another curl!)
We started brushing her teeth a little more than a month ago. Just like her big brother and sister, she loves to suck the toothpaste off of the toothbrush!
At Carrie Lyn's first birthday party!
Amen!
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