Forget Me Nots

I have been so slack in posting these about Gemma. Everything seems so clear in my mind now, but when I go back to the posts about the kids at the same age, it's blurry and many things I had forgotten completely. Here is my attempt on catching up on some of the cute and amazing things she is doing now:

1. Gemma astounds people everywhere we go with her vocabulary and clarity of speaking. I had an idea when she was younger that she would be this way, but could not have anticipated that I would sometimes confuse her voice with 5-year-old Isabella's in terms of clarity, and that her memory would be quite so good for vocabulary and understanding of synonyms.

2. Because she is still so tiny (wearing 18 month clothes at almost 33 months), it's even more shocking when people hear her talk. I constantly am asked with a look of disbelief, "How old is she?" I remember getting the same thing with the other two, but they weren't quite as tiny and didn't speak quite as clearly.

3. She recognizes most of her letters and knows most of her letter sounds. The other day, she was looking at a book and I heard her say "J...j..." When I looked down, sure enough, she was pointing to a J. She's already trying to read! (Of course having big brother and sister read to her often has helped her form a passion for it!)

4. She has several books memorized, and when she doesn't remember what it actually says, she has a great time making up stories based on the pictures. She was looking at one of Kyran's books the other day, and asked, "Mommy, why does Kyran's book have no pictures?"

5. Her level of understanding is amazing, too. She understands what happens in movies and can often quote them out of the blue. She asks questions that are appropriate, and always wants to know "What's gonna happen next?"

6. We went to see my friend Jackie in Miss Nelson is Missing Saturday night, and she followed along with that well too. She asked things like, "Are they gonna find Miss Nelson?" "Why is she bad?" And, as usual, loved the songs.

7. She really loves music. She recognizes songs from movies before I do sometimes. She'll tell me "I like this song" or "I don't like this song" when we're listening to music in the car. She also often sings songs that she's only heard once, and knows a lot of the words.

8. She does not like sad movies, although she watches the ones that she knows have happy endings. Last week, we tried two new movies, and she wasn't a fan of either one:

Watching Hunchback of Notre Dame:
Gemma: "Mommy, did they take her baby?"
Me: "Yes, they did. That's bad isn't it?"
Gemma: "Yeah. Is she gonna get her baby back?"
Me: "I don't know."
Gemma: "Are they gonna take me?"
Me: "No way. I would never let anyone take you."
Gemma: "I don't like this movie. Let's watch a different one."

Watching Lion King:
Gemma: "Did Simba's dad died?"
Me: "Yes, he did, but this is just a pretend movie."
Gemma: "This is a bad movie. I want to watch something else."

9. She has lots of "favorites", and often tells me that something is her favorite song, movie, toy, etc.

10. One of her favorite expressions now is "I've never seen that before in my whole life!" I just love how everything is still so new to her!

11. She wants to be a princess and asks for "True Love's Kiss" a lot, especially before bed. If she doesn't want to give me a kiss during the day, I'll ask for true love's kiss and then she'll kiss me!

12. Monday morning, she asked when she would find her prince. I asked her who my prince was and at first she said Prince Charming, but then she said Daddy. Then, she asked Jason if he would be her prince. Of course, he said yes! Yesterday morning, when he took the kids to school, she asked, "Where did my Prince Daddy go?"

13. She has started giving the BEST hugs! She wraps her arms around our necks and squeezes so tightly. It really is such an amazing feeling, especially when she also lays her head on our shoulders. 

14. Sunday, she gave me one of those hugs and then pulled back and said (as she was pointing to each body part), "I love your eye. I love your other eye. I love your face. I love your neck. I love your toes. I love your shoulders. I like your ears. I like your hair." Oh, it was sooooo sweet!

15. She does love to play with my hair. She always runs to get the brush off of my bathroom counter, but I have to be careful because she has gotten it tangled up in my hair a couple of times. 

16. She usually wants her hair down, but sometimes lets me put in pigtails. The first time I did, it struck me how much she looked like Boo from Monster's Inc, so I showed her a picture of Boo and she said "That's me". We then watched Monster's Inc for the first time and she LOVED it!

17. Just yesterday morning, she said, "Mommy, my hair is curly!" She does have some spirals, but not as many as Karyssa did at the same length. I'm hoping maybe some of the curls will stay, even if it's not quite as curly as big sister's.

18. She loves Bella so much and always wants to hug her, pet her and "help" take her outside. We watched Lady and the Tramp for the first time and when Jim Dear and Darling started to ignore Lady, she went up and hugged Bella very tightly. 

19. Speaking of tightly, she is pretty good at using adjectives and adverbs correctly. She puts the -ly ending on when needed, and asks if we "slept well". Yes, she actually says slept. She does put -ed on the end of her past tense verbs, even if they don't need it, but we'll work on that later.

20. She loves to dance, and sometimes it seems like she just can't help it. She will also shake her behind and tell us, "Shake your booty, Mommy!"

21. A couple of weeks ago, she was "reading" a bedtime story in her rocking chair and looked up at me, patted her shoulder and said, "Lay on my shoulder, Mommy, please?" Of course I did! I had to record it, because I had to remember that sweet little voice forever!

22. She is still wearing size three diapers and hasn't once gone in the potty. I'm not pushing it, because I'd rather not have to worry about getting her to the bathroom during either of the exciting trips we have planned soon. 

23. She loves to hide, which usually consists of getting under a blanket or behind a door or wall and giggling until she can't take it anymore and jumps out and says "boo"!

24. On Saturday and Sunday mornings, either Jason or I will go and get her from her crib and bring her into our room. The other one will hide under the blanket and she loves finding us! Then we'll snuggle and watch TV until it's time to get up. Sometimes the big kids join us too!

25. Her favorite shows are Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Minnie's Bowtique, Umizoomi, Bubble Guppies, Doc McStuffins, Sofia the First and Paw Patrol. She'll go on kicks where she only wants to watch one, until I make her watch something else. 

26. She does the same thing with movies, and is completely obsessed with Zootopia (I understand that one, I love it too!). She also wants to watch a lot of Big Hero 6, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, and Finding Dory.

27. When I cry, real or pretend, she pats my back and says, "It's ok, Mommy. Don't worry."

28. She sometimes talks in her sleep. Just like her daddy and sister.

29. She still doesn't sleep with a blanket, but she does have a small ladybug pillow and a few stuffed animals she sleeps with. Most of the time it is two giraffes (pujraffs) and her pink bear, but she does switch them up occasionally. 

30. She says pujraff for giraffe, and Kasyssa for Karyssa. She can say both correctly, but I'm still thinking it's cute. I was so adamant about Kyran and Karyssa pronouncing everything correctly, but since she does say so much right, I'm holding on to the cuteness for a little while longer. 

31. In January, Gemma woke up and told me she wanted to go downstairs and eat her cereal. I told her, "Ok, let me change your diaper and then we'll go downstairs and eat your cereal." She answered, "No, Mommy. You will not eat my cereal. I will eat my cereal!"

32. Jason has been travelling some for work, so I've been getting the kids breakfast ready. Two weeks ago, I accidentally put milk in her bowl and she did a great job of eating it with her spoon and not spilling it, so now she eats her cereal every morning with milk and a spoon.

33. She has all of her letter blends except "th". Her "sp" and "sn" were the last ones to come, but she now says spoon, snake, and every other word with those blends correctly. 

34. She needs a 12-month waist on her pants, but her legs are getting longer, so she needs 18-month in length. So, that means she either has high-waters or her pants are falling down. I tried putting a safety pin in her pants the other day, but she unfastened it and it was sticking her, so I can't do that anymore. 

35. Kyran used to dub his favorites of my friends as "aunt", and now Gemma does the same for the men in her life. "Uncle" Dave at church and "Uncle" Joe in the neighborhood. 

36. When the big kids were around 3 and would start to drive me crazy, I'd start singing Dr. Demento's They're Coming to Take Me Away, and they would start to laugh. Monday night, I started singing it and Gemma threw her arms around me and said, "I will keep you safe!" My sweet, protective girl!

37. Also in January, Gemma and I had this exchange:

Gemma: "Mommy, do you hear my voices?"

Me: "What voices?"

Gemma: "MY voices."

Me: "Where do you hear voices?"

Gemma: "In my ear." (sticks her finger in her ear and acting like she is pulling something out.) "Get out of there!"

38. She has started asking to pray, and usually says, "Dear God, thank you for my food. In your precious name I pray, amen."

39. Back in December, Gemma put five of her cheerios on her apple, and two fell off. She said, "Mommy, there was five." I said, "There were five and two fell off? How many are left?" She answered, "Three!"

40. She is starting to get some very red highlights in her hair. Since Jason's and my moms both had red hair, I pictured Gemma coming out with reddish hair. It was very dark at first, but has lightened some and the red is definitely coming out!

41. I had Keller the other day, and did not have his base, so I put him in Gemma's seat and put Gemma in Karyssa's seat. She loved sitting forward-facing for the first time, but we have no intention of turning her seat around any time soon!

42. Jason and I just look at each other sometimes and say, "That child." or "That girl." There are so many things to say about her, but often words fail us and we'll just look at her in disbelief. She is pure sunshine. She does have her moments of acting up, but she is usually very compliant and loves to show us how much she knows and how much she loves us!