Goat!

Gwen and I took a day trip yesterday to Sonoma to visit my Uncle Rich and his girlfriend Katja. They recently got a Mama goat and baby (he isn't even a month old). Gwen had such a good time and couldn't sit still inside for lunch, she kept saying "Goat! Goat!" It was a long drive (2 hrs) but totally doable. Gwen is a great traveler and I am so thankful to be able to do stuff like this with her.

What to Expect When You Are....

We are expecting New Baby September 20, 2010!
This past Thursday we had our first prenatal appointment and got to see the heartbeat fluttering on our New Baby, or little bean. S/he was hiding in the back corner of my uterus so the sonogram isn't that good, but you can make him/her out in the far left between the two crosses that the OB used to measure head to rump to determine how far along we are (8 weeks and 3 days which is exactly what I thought). The round moon like object above and to the right of little bean is the yoke sac. Spencer and Gwen were there for the first sonogram and Gwen was so amazing. She pointed to the screen of black and white gobbly-gook and said as clear as day, "Baby." It was so awesome. Baby is officially her first 2 syllable word. I am doing really well- just tired (really tired) and a little nauseous. Gwen is still breastfeeding but she has cut back a lot (which is kinda sad, but also a relief). I don't plan on weaning her, and we are not moving! We love our little house and look forward to the challenge of trying to fit our expanding family and all its gear in it.

Sleep Update

Gwen slept through the night last night for the first time since October! She did wake up at about 11pm to nurse (which was reasonable since she didn't nurse before bed since I was at class). Last night we decided we weren't going to use the monitor anymore- that if she needed anything she would let us know (we had been tending to her at the smallest peep, not wanting her to wake up too much, and thus extend the time and efforts to put her back to sleep). I woke up at 4am surprised that I was sleeping without Gwen attached to my boob, and to be honest, almost missing her. At 4:45am I was in and out of sleep and heard her saying "Meh. Meh. Meh." Her word for milk. She wasn't crying or screaming it out, it is the tone she uses to call me when she knows I am in the other room. I did turn the monitor to see if she was whimpering or crying softly...nothing. She said it a few more times, not as enthusiastically, and then she stopped and presumably went back to sleep without a fuss....ALL BY HERSELF! She, and thus everyone, woke up refreshed and rejuvenated at 7:30am. It was awesome! Hopefully this is not a onetime event.

16 months! (almost)

Gwen amazes us everyday. She is so active and purposeful with her play. She is like a little butterfly going from toy to toy, or book to book. Sometimes she seems a little frantic like there isn't enough time to look at everything, and other times she will explore intently for numerous minutes the same toy or book. We have many activities we do outside the house (she is just too exhausting to entertain and is so social, she needs to get out of the house). If we have a free morning or afternoon around the house she will get her shoes and her jacket, go to the front door and wave at me saying "Bye?" We then do a little walk down the street (sometimes in our pajamas) to satisfy her need to be out and about. She is definitely into accessories and over the course of the day we will change her shoes numerous times (lately she has been going back and forth between her pink boots and ladybug rain boots). She has favorite sweaters/jackets. Though she is starting to display a little bit of the "I want to be naked behavior"- which I think is just evidence of her inner turmoil of being a toddler. A few times she has demanded that her clothes be taken off (she tries to do it herself and freaks out if she doesn't get the help she needs). Stripped down to her diaper (or birthday suit if there is a bath in her future) she runs around the house screaming with joy at her bodies freedom. She is just amazing- a real little person with likes and dislikes, and she isn't afraid of anything (except the garbage truck).

Reminscing About Christmas

This was our first Christmas together as a family, and it was lovely. I took great joy in decorating our house and am going to see how long I can get away with keeping the decorations up. Gwen got all kinds of goodies for Christmas and seemed to enjoy the festivities. Some of her favorite gifts: her new silver shoes (pictured), the multicolored knit sweater her Auntie Angelique sent (pictured- seriously as soon as she unwrapped it she started carrying it around the house and trying to put it on), her 'baby' which she is lifting up to show in the picture of her and her Auntie B (the poor doll is moving so fast you can hardly see it!), and of course all the ribbons! I was amazed at Gwen and her new doll which came with a bottle- she actually tries to feed it the bottle and I wasn't expecting to see pretend play so soon. She now knows the sign for baby, orange, please, and hat. She has also been doing a lot of sensory exploration, like shaking her head back and forth, spinning around, putting her ears under the bath water so she can hear underwater, and looking at things upside down and from different angles (like in the picture of her on the stairs). She is just fascinated by everything. I can't wait for next Christmas when she 'gets it' a little bit more.

Gwen's First Year

Untitled from Arin Crumley on Vimeo.

Gwen Sleep Update

Gwen has graduated to being a one nap gal. I had been hoping that when we went to one nap she would go to bed earlier, and she does! She has an actual bedtime now (8pm-ish) and she wakes up around 8am-ish, with a nap 1pm-3pm. Now she is not a robot so does not stick to this exactly. Today she only took a 45 minute nap (AT&T repair man fixing internet prevented me from laying down with her to help finish her nap). And she does not actually sleep from 8pm-8am...she goes to sleep around 8pm, then wakes up usually before midnight, then goes back down and wakes up anywhere from 1:30am-4am and during this witching hour it takes about 45 minutes of me nursing and rocking her to get her to go back to sleep. More often than not I do not have the energy to do this and she ends up finishing the night in bed with us (where she nurses every 2 hours!). While we are happy so is going to bed earlier,we really wish she would sleep through the night! Part of it I think is still teething- she has all her teeth on her top right side of her mouth! And only needs 3 more teeth before she has all her baby teeth.