My one year old

Gwen's first birthday has officially passed.  Her party was great (more on that later) and she continues to grow from a baby into a "big girl". I have some catching up to do in documenting what she has been up to.  Check out her firsts, favorites and achievements.

My wonderful one year old Gwendolyn . . .

-still only has one freckle, which is on her left knee.  I noticed it for the first time a few months ago. I'll spare you on the picture since it just looks weird having a close up of her knee.

-dances whenever she hears music.

-runs really warm. She sweats almost every night and every time she has a car ride. This is totally opposite from Christina who will ask for a sweater when it is 80 degrees inside the house (90+ outside).

-loves remote controls (doesn't every baby?)

-started giving kisses in April, open mouthed of course.  She opens her mouth really big and sticks out her tongue.  She gets so excited to give kisses and will lean over to do it several times in a row.  She especially likes to give kisses to her sister and Christina thinks it is just hilarious that she opens her mouth.  Christina then opens her mouth too and it gets pretty gross, lol.

-was in the pool for the first time on 5/13.  I took her by myself to our neighborhood pool.  I don't have any pictures of her in the water (since I had to hold her), but I have a picture of her before we left the house.  This is also the first time she has worn a bathing suit.

-loves to climb (stairs, the bouncer, chairs, the fireplace, etc).  Her first time climbing the stairs was 5/13 and since then I constantly have to pull her off of them.  It was really cute seeing her climb the bouncer.  She climbs up to the top and stands there bouncing, while laughing her little head off.

-wore jeans for the first time and looked ADORABLE (5/14)

-gives high fives as of 5/18 and loves giving them.  Her first high five was to Daddy of course.

-plays with the doors on our entertainment center all of the time.  She likes to open and close them a.k.a. slam them shut over and over again.  She recently discovered the volume nob and likes to turn it all the way down and naturally it is while we are trying to watch something on TV or when CC is trying to watch Dora.  She also enjoys pulling every single video game, DVD and Blu-Ray off of the stands which often leaves us a messy living room to clean up.  Then again, we have a gazillion toys that are usually left out anyway.

-initiates peek-a-boo on her own.  Randomly I will see her peeking out from somewhere and then when I call her name, she starts giggling and ducks down again to hide.  It is very cute.

-went in the baby pool in our neighborhood for the first time on 5/21.  She really likes the water.

-went to the beach for the first time (Jersey Shore) on Memorial Day, 5/30.  She absolutely LOVED the sand and played in it the entire time we were there.  At first she wasn't loving the ocean (hated the wet sand), but then she started to enjoy it and laughed whenever she saw the waves. 

-went on her first amuzement park ride at Pt. Pleasant beach, NJ.  She went on those Elephants that go up and down while going around in a circle.  I would think that it would be a pretty scary first ride, but she loved it!  Christina wouldn't even go on it, she was too afraid.

-finally started sleeping all night in her own bed, in her own room (6/10).  She previously either slept in the pack-n-play in my room or in my bed.

-is an awesome awesome eater. She basically eats anything I give her and now that she has FIVE teeth, she can actually chew and eat almost anything. She got her fifth tooth (the third one on top) on 6/13.  She will eat pretty much any vegetable, meat or pasta that you give her and she does not have a sweet tooth - which is a huge relief! She is mostly eating table food now although occasionally I will still give her pureed food.

-usually doesn't eat paper anymore, lol.

-started playing with baby dolls and mothering them.  On 6/14 she picked up a baby wipe, crawled over to her baby doll, put the baby on her lap and then started cleaning the baby with the baby wipe.  It was the cutest thing!  She will also pick up baby dolls and rock them in her arms.

-continues to breastfeed (we will probably continue for at least a few more months), but she is also drinking a little cow's milk here and there.  She had cow's milk for the first time on 6/19.

-enjoys playing independently, but still doesn't want to be left in a room alone.  She is pretty good at entertaining herself.  She also loves to play with her sister as well as her friends at daycare.

-likes to scream at the top of her lungs when she is really happy.

-lays her head down on the floor when she gets upset.  Sometimes she closes her eyes too.  It is so ridiculously cute, I just want to eat her up.

-is between the 10th and 25th percentile for height and weight.  At one year old, she is 17 pounds and 6 ounces (ten pounds lighter than her sister).

-says "uh oh" all the time when something falls on the floor (or when she throws it on the floor).  Her teachers tell me that she also says "more" and "ball", but I haven't heard it for myself.  The last couple of days she has been saying "thank you" also.  At first I thought it was just a coincedence that she was saying it and saying it at the appropriate time.  But, since then she has said it several times.  It doesn't sound a whole lot like thank you, but that is definitely what she is trying to say and she seems to know what it means.  Crazy huh?

-loves shoes!  It starts so young!  Any chance she gets, she will go over to where we keep the shoes and just start playing with them.  She picks them up, turns them around, looks at them, throws them in the air and sometimes crawls off with them.

-took her first step! (6/25) and then she started officially walking only a few days later! (6/28).  She still spends most of her time crawling, but randomly she will just get up and start walking.  She can make it about 6-8 steps before she falls.

-likes to hold a crayon in her hand all day long when she is home. She will crawl around with it, play with her toys, nurse, whatever, just as long as she can hold onto that crayon.

-went on a ride by herself for the first time and LOVED it (6/26), in fact she cried when I had to take her off.

-loves bubbles (another must for all babies and young children, I think).

-was sick recently with a virus of some sort. She only had a fever, no other symptoms. Even with this virus, this makes Gwen a much healthier baby than Christina ever was. What a relief. No trips to the ER with this one, at least not yet (let's keep it that way!).

-gave her first closed mouth kiss on 6/30 although she mostly still sticks to the open mouth kisses. Yesterday she blew a kiss to Grandma and Granddad over Skype too (7/3), which was the first time she has done this.  I could tell she has been working on this one for a few days.  It is adorable how she will smooch her lips together and make the kissing sounds.

-is such a sweet and loving girl, loves to give and get kisses, loves to give and get cuddles.

-continues to love toys and really loves all of her birthday presents! She rarely gets anything that is just for her because we have sooooo much stuff already. I really didn't think she needed anything, but it was really nice to see how happy she was when she got her own toys.

-loves the bath and water in general.  She played with water outside the tub for the first time on 5/7.  She enjoyed putting her hands in the water and sucking her fingers or the water guns :-)

-loves Daddy's Ipad.

-has a space between her two front teeth which is pretty much the only noticeable difference between her at one year old and Christina at one year old.  I find the gigantic space to be very endearing although Nik is hoping it will go away.  I'm sure both kids will get braces anyway, so I doubt it matters.

-still has blue eyes.  I think CC's changed by one year old, so it is looking like Gwen's beautiful light blue eyes are going to stick.

-loves babies, real and doll.

-can ride her ride on toys by herself.  She can move backwardspushing with her feet, but not yet forwards.  She also likes to push when Christina is riding, or just push it around when no one is on it.

-cries when she wants more food.  It is a bad habit that I just can't seem to break!






-saw CC jumping and decided that she needed to learn how to do it. She then spent the next ten minutes practicing trying to jump (7/3). She did a great job and actually did jump a little.

-likes to be chased and tackled by her sister.  They rough house all over the living room floor, rolling around, pinning each other.  It is really funny and surprising that she wants to and can do all of this stuff considering she is so little.  Of course I have to watch them closely and almost always have to ask Christina to let go or back off.

-still puts her hands in the air whenever she wants me to pick her up. It is cute how she always has a smile from ear to ear.

-hates having her diaper or clothes changed. She always crys and tries to get away. There is always something more important than sitting still. The same goes for trying to do her hair lately.

-loves to blow raspberries and still loves to get them on her tummy.

Challenging week

I hate to be negative, but I have to say that this week has been very challenging.  Not only am I exhausted from the last few days, but I'm stressing out over the next couple of days.  First Gwen was sick, then CC was sick, and then another morning came and they both had a fever.  I couldn't go into work AT ALL this week.  And it isn't like it was a nice little vacation.  Being home with a sick kid or (shutter) two sick kids is like the exact opposite of a vacation.

This week has been filled with whiny kids, temper tantrums, multiple doctors appointments, fruitless efforts at trying to get work done while one or both kids try to get my attention, frustration over not being able to get the housework finished, exhaustion at the thought of trying to get everything done AND work on the party decorations for Saturday, and lets not forget stress related to the party in general.

This week I have been over worked, over tired and over stressed.  I feel like I'm being pulled in a million directions.  I want to take care of the girls and I want to work on the decorations for the party.  I don't want to do housework, but I know that it needs to be done.  I don't want to do work, but I need to get paid.  Multi tasking has always been my strong suit, so that helps, but now I can barely think straight just because of all the craziness this week.

I've also had a bit of bad luck this week.  Let's see . . . one of Gwen's hearing aids got lost; I lost my personal debit card and the debit card for our bills account along with our Costco card; an automatic payment for the IRS came out of our account even though we already paid them off with our last tax refund and that little IRS charge put us into over draft; and I discovered that we were out of pull ups just as I was about to dress CC for bed (she sleeps in pullups but wears underwear during the day).

So yeah, that is what my week has been like. How about you?

"I wanna go to New Jersey"

This is what I heard over and over again for days and weeks leading up to our trip to New Jersey, "I wanna go to New Jersey" and "We goin to New Jersey?".  We were going to visit family and friends and I wanted to get the girls excited about it.  We decided we were going to drive and with that meaning a minimum 14 hour car ride, that was a BIG deal and I wanted to start the girls off on the right foot.  Driving 14+ hours with two children under two . . . crazy, you say??  Yes, maybe.  But, airfare for four would break the bank and we hadn't been back to NJ since we moved almost a year ago.  So, a road trip was in our future one way or the other.

In no uncertain terms, the trip was awesome.  We successfully drove back and forth along the East Coast without losing a child or losing our minds.  The girls got to experience lots of new things, got to see lots of close family members, Nik and I got a couple of nights out, we got to visit a bunch of friends and we all had a nice vacation.  I was exhausted when I got home, but I guess I can still call it a vacation since we were away from home and didn't go into work (although I did have to put in a decent amount of hours in via my work laptop).

From driveway back to driveway, we spent 8 days away from home.  To give a detailed description of our entire trip would be way to tedious and probably boring for all of you following along.  So, I'll try to highlight some points of interest.

-Both girls got sick at some point.  This made it difficult (if not impossible) to visit all of the new babies that have been born recently.  We really wanted to see all of our friends, but in some cases it just didn't work out.  We couldn't risk getting the newborns sick.

-We took the girls to Six Flags and the Safari.  They loved it!!  Gwen really enjoyed watching all of the animals and went on a bunch of rides.

-Gwen stood up on her own for the first time, put her hands in the air and screamed in excitement!  Then when everyone went crazy getting all excited, she did it over and over again.  Unfortunately Mommy and Daddy were not around to witness it :-(

-I had my first trip to Belmar, NJ (totally over-due).  We went to Bar-A which is a really cool place.

-Thought we might go to A.C., but nope.  Next time though.

-My Step Dad who had just come home from the hospital after surgery was in great spirits.  He was able to participate in almost all of the fun filled activities during our visit and I don't think having my girls stay in the same house as him distracted him too much from getting his rest.  We were all really impressed with how well his recovery has been going.

-Went to the beach and boardwalk. Christina tolerates the sand now but still won't go anywhere near the ocean. Gwen loved everything and spent at least an hour playing in the sand.

-Auntie Rachel painted Christina's toenails with "sprinkles". She had been looking forward to having her toe nails painted again and loves to show off her "sprinkles".

-I lost one of my contacts. An hour later, Gwen hands me something and wouldn't you know, it was my contact! She wasn't even in the room with me when I lost it.


-We got to go to Danah's (best friend fron high school) surprise 30th birthday! We had to leave early, but still had a great time.

-We got to visit CC's old daycare, her old teachers and her old friends . . . CC didn't remember a thing! Even though her picture is still up on the wall of the infant room, Christina said she didn't remember anything about the place. Her teacher of two years was very sad that CC didn't remember her. Ms. Shamo really loved her and was very very excited when we walked in the door. Christina was a little scared that some "stranger" wanted to hold and cuddle her. I wish Christina could remember, but either way, it was cool to visit.

-Christina became more attached to Auntie Mackenzie (13 yrs old) and Uncle Alex (10 yrs old). It was cute. She kept asking where they were when they weren't with us.

-We almost got to see one of Auntie Mackenzie's soft ball games. Too bad the other team didn't show up.


-We figured out that Christina is officially scared of everything:  the ocean (screaming, shaking, desperately reasoning with us to take her away from the unbearably awful ocean), buffalo (the first animal she saw at the Safari  . . . she screamed and literally JUMPED into the backseat of the car), "scary" rides at Six Flags (this consisted of the tea cups and basically anything that was not the train or merry go round).  These new additions can be added to her other fears such as:  tunnels (like when we drive under an over pass), parking garages, people dressed in elaborate costumes (like a mascot, mickey mouse, etc), plastic animal shaped floatation devices, and the vacume (only when someone else is using it).  She is no longer afraid of falling in the potty though, so that is good.

-Some of CC's catch phrases for the trip: 
  -"Let's talk about the animals, I want to talk about the animals"
  -After going to the bathroom "I did a two piece!"
  -"I'm drinking my beer" as she held a baby wipe up to her mouth
  -She came running over to me with her arms in the air and announced, "I put yogurt on my arms!" (Daddy's deodorant)
  -"I'm shaking my booty." Christina even got up from the table at Jenks, just so that she could dance to the band while everyone else ate.
  -Grabbed my Mom's face and said "Do you hear me??" LOL  I guess I do that to her and that is where she got it from.
  -"I'm mad at you!" and when we ask why . . "because you spilled my beer!"

Let's see, what else did we do . . .  .
Family BBQ's, trips to Dads and Niks parents, stayed at Moms, visited old office and saw coworkers, had lunch with a great friend who I use to have lunch with all of the time during the work week, Bayonne bar hopping with long time friends .  . .

Ok, ok, I'm done for now.  Pictures to follow at some point .  . .

Countdown to Gwen's First Birthday*

Gwen's first birthday is on Saturday.  I've been planning her party for a couple of months now.  As you may remember, we are doing an Alice in Wonderland theme.  I have put a lot of work into planning the party and making some of the decorations.  Take a sneak peak at what I have been up to:

I have lots of other ideas, but I'm not sure if I will get to them all.  I will make sure to take pictures the day of the party of course, but just in case I forget something, I'm trying to take pictures of everything as I make it.

Gwen has been sick for a few days, but luckily she is all better.  Now CC is sick, but I know she'll be just fine for the party.  3 more days until my baby is a year old!!!

And for a little fun, here are some memorable quotes from the original Alice in Wonderland (some I am incorporating into the party and some I am not). . .

"If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary-wise; what it is it wouldn't be, and what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?"

"Read the directions and directly you will be directed in the right direction."

"Curiouser and curiouser"

"Better read it first, for if one drinks much from a bottle marked "Poison", it's almost certain to disagree with one sooner or later."

"I'm afraid I can't explain myself, you see, because I'm not myself, you know."

"When I get home I shall write a book about this place... If I ever do get home."

"Of all the silly nonsense, this is the stupidest tea party I've ever been to in all my life."

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