Close Encounters

Our Gemma has started to use her baby sign language.  It started about 3 weeks ago and it is incredible to be able to get a glimpse of real communication with her.  At first I didn't really believe it was happening.  Could she really be signing?  Were the aliens in 'Close Encounters' really communicating through music?  We thought it was a coincidence - it wasn't.  At first each time she did her 'more' sign I'd get a little misty-eyed with joy.  I was so proud and amazed!  Now she does it so much we are getting used it and having her tell us what she wants.  :)  

'More' is for sure her favorite sign right now.  She uses it not just for food too.  If she wants more toys for her bath, if she wants to play on the bed more, if she wants to see pictures/videos of herself again she does her 'more' sign.  It is fantastic.  She also now has under her belt:

* cat

* bath

* daddy

* sleep

I know she understands a lot more but she hasn't started doing the signs yet.  For example she understands when we sign 'eat', 'change (diaper)', 'book', 'shoes', 'all done', 'bird' but she doesn't sign them herself.  So Scott and I will keep on signing and see what eventually she decides to sign (or not - either way is fine).  It is just phenomenal that we can have little conversations with her before her language abilities are fully formed.  We are hoping it will help with her toddler tantrums just a little (we know they won't go away).  :)

1 Year Old

1 year ago today at 3:40pm, Gemma Maria Krotz was born!

It has been an amazing year of personal growth, sacrifice and happiness filled with tears and lots of laughter - I wouldn't change it for the world. But how has my life changed? How has it not changed? I didn't realize I could survive with such little sleep and be happy about it. :) I didn't realize my heart would ache with joy when she first smiled at me or when she reaches out for me. I didn't realize I would be so interested and proud of her poop. I didn't realize little baby toes and chubby rolls could be so kissable. I didn't realize my priorities were screwed up. I didn't realize I'd feel even more human, more woman. I didn't realize my love for Scott could grow even more intense. I didn't realize life could be so good. :)

So who is this little creature we call Gemma and who has rocked our world? To give you a better idea, her are a bunch of things that she currently likes:

* spinning around in circles (although slow she still gets dizzy)
* the 'boing' of a door stop
* books, in particle "the very hungry caterpillar" and "precious kitten" - bilingual
* pressing buttons on all our electronics - cell phones, remotes, keyboards, alarm clocks - anything that gives her audible and or visual feedback
* cherrios
* feeding mama & daddy cherrios
* her water bottle 'agua'
* chasing Blitzy (our cat - who has become a really good sport about it)
* playing 'pillow attack' - a game she made up where she throws herself on the pillows of our bed , grabs it close then falls back so the pillow is now on top of her attacking her. We put the pillow back only to start the process over and over again. This makes her laugh to no end.
* drumming - on herself and anything that can make a sound
* music - she actually is starting to dance
* dancing and singing with mama
* playing the piano
* playing 'peekaboo'
* yogurt
* chicken
* strawberries
* raspberries
* pears
* mandarin oranges
* peas and carrots
* her white bunny
* her green Winnie the Pooh blanket
* bubbles
* magnets - actually the key to the baby-proofed garbage/recycling. Because I'm lazy, I leave it on the cabinets sometimes (I know that defeats the purpose). But instead of getting into the garbage/recycling, she take the white little magnet-key and places it on the refrigerator then tries to take it off the refrigerator. The first time she discovered its strong magnetic capabilities she was in awe. :) Now she like to play 'magnet' and she's even worked out how to get that powerful magnet off the frig! LOL!

Dislikes (not many, she's generally a happy little person):
* getting her face wiped
* staying put on the changing table
* the feel of grass or sand under her feet
* sharp loud noise
* fake keyboards - she caught on really fast when she wasn't getting the visual/audible feedback was was accustomed to on the real keyboard

Nicknames:
* Gemmita
* Gemma-lou
* Gemma-wemma
* Gemma-jam
* Gemma bear (like gummy bear - thanks Tia Maria!)
* Gemmarie (thanks Tio G!)

Gemma's 1st party!

-Well, on Sept 4th Gemma will officially be 1 year old! :) :) :) :) So this past weekend we celebrated her birthday at Vic Chung's (Gumpa to Gemma) house.

Here we are just before we cut the cake. Gemma had the '1' candle and was already having a taste of the yummy strawberry and creme cake from Prolific Oven (same as the one from our wedding):She really looks like she's trying to blow out the candle! :)

My family from LA drove up and it was amazing to have them with us. I couldn't beleive it - every person in my immediate family (except my father, que en paz descanse, and Olivia) made it! Gemma had all her first cousins from my side there to celebrate. :) Thank you guys for making the effort to come to the party! Here's Gemma's proud abuelita: Also my awesome familia from the Oakland area showed up and they helped make the party happen. Gracias por la ayuda e ambiente!!!! Some of Gemma's baby and toddler friends were also in attendance. It was quite the party including swimming and tons of yummy food:
Gemma was such a good sport considering all the people and activities and the fact that she was feeling a little under the weather. She pretty much stuck to me and Scott the whole time so I didn't get to take many pictures. Luckily my brother Gonzalo and sister Carmen took quite a few (the ones you see here). I know my cousins Christina and Ana took some too - can't wait to see them. :)

A party in my family wouldn't be complete without a piñata! Thanks to my cousin Christina y familia, we had an amazing one filled with chocolates, granola bars, tangerines, nuts... YUM!
Gemma was the first at bat but she wasn't too sure about the whole piñata thing:

All the rest of the kids really got into it. Thanks Felipe for doing a good job operating the piñata! Here's Lulu (Vittoria) taking a swing:My cousin's daughter Sophia is the one who finally took the piñata down in a glorious fashion and everyone screamed and shouted and launched at the bounty of goodies.

Even Gemma had a little candy. Well, she just held it. :)
I incorporated a cool Chinese tradition to Gemma's party (thanks for the idea, Nerissa). On the table were objects that Gemma hadn't seem before that represent different possible professions (starfish for biologist, whisk for chef, med kit for doctor....). The idea is to place her in front of the items and see what she picks up. Whatever she picks up is she will be when she grows up. Fun idea.
She wasn't in a great mood by then but she still played along. At first she didn't know what to do. She just sat there. Then a microphone caught her eye but she didn't pick it up. Finally what caught her eye was the model of molecules. I guess she'll be a scientist! :)
It was a great party. Thank you to everyone who could be there to help us celebrate.  Special thanks to:

*  Christina y familia for bringing the drinks and pinata and filling it.

*  Ana for bringing the awesome sushi.

*  Daniella for bringing all the lunch meats & supplies & for making the flans.

*  Felipe for making the food run with Scotty and for operating the pinata.

*  Gonzalo, Francesca, Nerissa & folks for decorating the streamers & balloons.

*  Nerissa and Mark for picking up the cake.

*  Felipe, Gonzalo y Marcos for being the wonderful musicians & playing for us.

*  Gonzalo for making the ice run and for making the big 'bombs' in the pool.

*  Carmen, Gonzalo, Christina & Ana for taking pictures.

*  All my Oakland family for joining us.

*  Maria & Eddie for bringing the whole familia from Palmdale.

*  All my LA family for driving up.

*  My amazing Scott for his patience and for surviving the party.  :)

*  And especially for Vic for hosting the party at his wonderful house.

Thank you to all Gemmita's baby friends (and their parents) for coming to the party too.

First Word = Agua!!!

Gemma has been very vocal and babbles quite a bit.  We thought that every now and then she'd land on a word that was recognizable like 'abajo (down)' and 'gato (cat)' but she hasn't been consistent.  Just in the past 3 days she has shown us that she really knows and can consistently reproduce 'agua (water).'  This is very exciting!

So now when we go to her in the morning, besides begin greeted by her regular cheerful demeanor, she says 'agua' and we now immediately go to the kitchen and sure enough she's thirsty and drinks a ton of water.  She loves to drink water, just like her mama.  :)

Walking!!!

So just about 2 weeks ago when she turned 11 months, she started taking her first very awkward steps.  In fact her first steps were with all the same foot so she ended up pivoting and it was very hilarious.  She was soooo very proud of herself - she's been practicing tons everyday and everyday she improves in leaps and bounds.  

Now she's pretty much an expert walker - she walks from room to room without falling, can turn around and even transports her favorite toy of the the moment while walking!  We are all having tons of fun!

Here she is playing and walking at her daycare:

Gemma feeds Daddy

Gemma's been learning so many things these days.  Her latest trick it to feed others, especially daddy.  :)

Crawling!

Gemma is a super duper crawler now! Almost as soon as she learned how to crawl (about a month ago), all she wants to do is stand up!

All our videos these days end up with Gemma pulling her "Gemma eats Tokyo" move by grabbing the camera and eating it. She makes us laugh so much!

Here she is getting her crawl on first thing in the morning:

Tooth-y Girl!

No pictures, just an announcement:

Gemma is now the proud owner of her own little bottom baby teeth... more like tooth.  We see the other bottom one trying to come out but only one has slightly popped through.  Scott is the one who discovered this wonderful event yesterday.  When he told me over the phone I couldn't help but jump around for joy, literally.  Aaaahh.  I love being a parent!

And Gemma has been such a super star.  She was a little fussy the the before and drooling but nothing too out of the ordinary.  We feel really lucky that the teething (so far) hasn't dramatically affected her... yet... (crossing my fingers).  :)

I hear that molars are really the ones to watch out for... yikes!

Revvvving UP!

Gemma is on the brink of crawling.  She's practicing a lot but still hasn't fully connected all the dots yet.  We are not in too big of a hurry since we know when she starts there will be no stopping her!  :)

Gemma Sits & Plays!

Gemma has learned how to sit up in the last month and has become very confident in her new skill! :) Check out this little video:

She's also becoming really efficient at rolling over from her tummy to her back. And once I even saw her roll from her back to her tummy - but that only happened once. She's also really talk-y these days and it cracks us up. We think she's also on the brink of crawling but we think (hope) that is still a little while aways...still need to baby-proof the house! Yikes!

Gemma has also been into her tongue these days. And I'm happy to announce that I saw her make a taco tongue! There are 2 types of people in this world, those that can make a taco with their tongues and those that cannot. Gemma is of the taco making kind! :)

Footies

Gemma is almost 5 months old! :)

Her latest new trick is playing with her feet and toes. They are her favorite toy these days. She just loves to grab them, preferably both feet at the same time. She's become Graby McGraberson - everything she needs to touch and put in her mouth. Here she is on her way to grab the camera. :)
Here's what happens when she actually grabs the camera - Attack of the Giant Baby:
Thank goodness she's so adorable because lately she's been reverting and waking up at all hours of the night. She used to be such a good sleeper but now I feel like I'm dealing with a newborn again. In my mom's groups, everyone with babies this age is going through the same thing, it seems. It just may be that she's going through a growth spurt or maybe teething. She drools like crazy.

Blitz doesn't help us much either. He's taken to howling for attention at the most inopportune times, often waking up the baby. Scott and I are still trying to figure how to deal with it.
All in all, life is good and Gemma is the light of our lives. :)

Gemma turned on her side just now!

So it starts!

Gemma just rolled on her side by herself for the very first time! And
then she proceeded to repeat her new found talent 4 times in a row!

Here's a little video of our girl in action. :)

4 Months!

Yesterday Gemma hit her 4-month milestone! :) She's happy and doing well. :)
Her favorite things to do these days:
* Babble and squeal in delight, especially in the mornings.
* Screech in discomfort - this little girl has some lungs on her especially when we misread the cues like when I try to feed her and she wants to nap!
* Chew on both index fingers at the same time. It is hilarious and I have get a picture of this.
* Produce saliva like it is going out of style, especially in bubble form.
* Grab her toes! - She did this for the first just this past week!
* Play 'shy girl' in the mirror - she looks at herself, smiles, turns away only to turn back to the mirror and smile again at herself. She also likes to play this game with her daddy too.
* She likes to sit up these days and observe everything, especially Blitz .
* Her mouth is the first line of defense when investigating anything and everything!
* She loves her bunny, we call him Frank the bunny, sometimes Frank ze bunny (a mountain climber) or Frank le bunny (a chef)
Here she is actively grabbing her first toy successfully just before xmas!:"I did it, mommy!!!"Her stats:
* Weight = 14lbs 2 oz. - she's doing good, but dropped from 75% to 65%
* Head Circumference = 16.14 ", maintaining at 50%
* Height = 24" , maintaining at 50%I have been concerned about my milk production since it has gone down some for 2 reasons I think - first my bout with mastitis (never fully recovered my flow) and Gemma sleeping through the night.

So a friend of ours loaned us their child scale (thanks Gary & Jen!) to do weigh-and-feeds to see how much she is really getting. She should be getting at least 4 oz but preferably 5 to 6 oz at each feed, per the lactation consultants. At the clinic I went to yesterday she only got 2 oz. But that was in the afternoon and she definitely eats more in the mornings. Hopefully the scales will help me understand what is going on better.

Here is Blitz, of course, weighing in on the topic. LOL! We found out he weighs 7.5lbs. He's doing much better and starting to regain some of his weight after his illness. :)
I've also started taking fenugreek, a traditional herbal supplement used to increase milk production. It has this sort of sweet smell to it and I'm told I might start smelling like pancakes drenched in maple syrup but if it helps with my production, I'm all for it! :)

Just before the weather turned, Gemma and I went out for a walk around Lake Elizabeth:I'm excited for this new year and continuing our journey with Gemma - she makes us laugh every day and it feels great.

Wishing you all the best!