Playground fun!

This weekend Gemma and I discovered a little playground across the street from us at the School for Deaf.  It was great since we were the only ones there and she was able to freely explore at her own pace.  She had a blast climbing, seeing the world from new heights, running, discovering... she was so very proud of herself and so were we:

Speaking of new heights, she loved looking out at the top of the playground set by the slide.  I was always very close to her so she wouldn't fall or hurt herself.  Here is a series of pictures documenting her first time going down the slide by herself... not planned but ended up a good experience for her.  LOL.

Woo Woo fun with daddy

Gemma loves to play with her daddy.  Here she is just enjoying herself and laughing and laughing so much.  :)  

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:

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!  :)

Laugh Attack!

Scotty has a way to really make Gemma laugh.  This video cracks me up!  Watch out for the surprise ending!  LOL!  :)

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! :)

Music Class

Gemma and I are taking an music class for infants at Mo Music.

It is super fun for both of us. We sing songs and dance around and she giggles and loves to look at the other babies and parents. She even gets to play instruments - here she is in her very first class and her very first time playing maracas:

In her 2nd class she played a lot with the tambourine:
I hope that she continues to enjoy the music and movement and that she becomes musically inclined. :)

Bouncy Chair

Gemma loves her bouncy chair. At first she was completely terrified by it but now she loves it! :) Here's a short little video or her playing in it:

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. :)

Abuelito

Over Thanksgiving, my father met Gemma for the first time.  It was quite emotional and an extremely important event for the whole family but especially for me, my father and Gemmita.  

Translation:

Thank you, my Lord, for this wish that you have granted me

I praise you and bless you for such a marvelous thing

For this little person

For this jewel

I ask you Lord that you bless her always 

Straighten her roads

Shorten her paths, Lord Jesus

You brought her here for something

And something you will make of her

Unleash all of your love, all of your blessings, all of your protection on her

and her adoring parents, Rosaura and Scott

I give you thanks, Lord, because you granted me my wish of meeting her

and to tell you, Lord Jesus Christ, how Great you are, how Great you are

How will I ever repay you

So many blessings

I thought I would never arrive at this point

But I have arrived... and now I can leave

Whenever you wish

Thank you, my Lord, for the beauty, for the love, for the affection...

For all these things...

3 months!

Gemma has been growing so fast!!! All of a sudden she is much more interactive - cooing, smiling and sometimes laughing (though it currently sounds like a cough or a really excited inhale). She's a very calm and observant little girl who gives her coos and smiles judiciously right now but when she does it is about the best thing ever. :)

Sorry for not writing sooner, so much is going on in life right now... illnesses, marriages, birthdays (Happy 90th Birthday, Grandma Krotz), performances, breakdowns, healing, forgiveness... I'll write more about it all in another entry but for now here are some videos to get everyone acquainted with Gemma's world. :)

Buenos dias
Our morning ritual, I sing to her to help wake her up. This particular morning she was sooo enchanted with her hands and fingers that she didn't give us her usual coos and smiles. These days her world revolves around her hands, especially her right thumb. This new discovery is wonderful since she soothes herself back to sleep if she wakes up in the middle of the night. As a result the past 4 nights she's been an angel sleeper; 2 nights sleeping 9 hours straight, then 9.5 hours and last night 10.5 hours! Each time I woke up before she did with my boobs just aching to offload stored up milk for her.

Daddy Time
Here she is a little more awake having some daddy time before he heads off to work:

Bee Time
Play time for Gemma. She Loooves her bee mobile! :)

1 month old!

I can't believe we've hit the one mark already. It feels both like it has taken forever and that she just arrived. :) I think that will be a recurring theme for the rest of our lives from now on. ;)

Our first family (sleepy) picture (we tried one with Blitz but he was not cooperative!): Gemma continues to grow and fill out. At her 4-week check-up she weighed 9lbs 5ozs (having gained 10ozs in a week). She's now in the 50% for weight (up from 25% at birth). :)A few accomplishments to note:
* She's very good at tummy time and her neck is getting strong.
* We visited Target (my favorite store after The Container Store) together for the first time. Yahoo for me!
* One night this week she actually slept for 5 hours!
* We think she's going to be an early crawler (oh no!) - she just crawled up from Scott's tummy up to his shoulder (her preferred spot these days).
* We've outgrown 'Newborn' diapers and are now on Size 1!

Daddy time - he's so good with her:Bath time (well, prep, anyway...):

This month we are looking forward to her smiling more and cooing more! Fun! :)
Love and healthy to all!
~Family Krotz

3 weeks and Growing!

Today is Gemma's 3rd week of life! In honor of her birthday the folks at Bungie decided to commemorate the day and release the long-awaited Halo3. Scott and the rest of the world are having fun playing it as I write - Yahoo! :)

As Gemma's gift to us, last night she slept for 4 hours at night - from 12:30 am until 4:30am. I was in shock since we've been trying to get her night/day switched and it has been exhausting at night. So her sleeping that much at night was like a magical gift. And then after I nursed her she went back to sleep for another 3.5 hours! Wow. I felt like a beginner golfer who after being so frustrated about her swing finally got that wonderful effortless swing and lovely hollow 'hit' sound. Or a newbie basketball player who just hit her first 3-pointer and hit 'nothing but the bottom of the net'. Aaaah :)The only disadvantage to this event was that I did wake up feeling like someone had replaced my breasts with hard large cantaloupes - ugh - I was engorged! It was amazing how un-Pamela Anderson I felt with huge boobs at that moment. Even after a good feeding, I still had plenty of milk on one side and it was super uncomfortable and painful to the touch. So there I was @ 5:30am trying to read my breast pump manual and get my head around that whole thing . Why didn't I do that sooner?!? I eventually gave up and opted for sleep only to wake up even more engorged and REALLY needing, requiring, Gemma to feed. Luckily she cooperated wonderfully. What relief! :)

Today I went to the 'Latch Clinic' again at Washington's Education Center. I have to say that those folks, Karen Smith (right) and Suzie Lindley (left), are so wonderful and helpful. The 2 times I've been there they've made me feel confident, supported, educated and even made me and the other women laugh and laugh heartily. It feels so good. Plus, again, I can't believe the clinic is FREE. For anyone in the area, please go check it out at 2299 Mowry, Tuesdays and Fridays from 11 - 12pm. You will not regret it.

At my visit to the clinic today, I found that Gemma gained 1lb this week!She now weighs 8lbs 11oz!!!! I could tell she was growing and gaining weight but I didn't realize it was that much. I was hoping she had reached the 8lb mark today so I was happily surprised to find she had well surpassed it.This week has been all about the liquids...
For a few days, Gemma had stopped pooping as much. At first we were concerned but our doctor assured us that at this point babies pooping frequency goes down. She's been peeping a lot and growing so we shouldn't be concerned.

So Scott was changing her last week and as he was holding up her legs and announcing to me that she had only urinated, a major enormous projectile poop came flying at poor Scotty and covered his hands, arms and shirt (not to mention the changing table and carpet behind Scott). He yelped so loudly that the sound-activated toy we had across the room started up. I, of course, couldn't stop laughing. I know it was bad. And as he stood there in shock and not moving, she launched another projectile at him - it was just too hilarious! He laughed too - he's such a good sport. At this point Scott was truly inaugurated into fatherhood. hahahaha! :)

This week I also found out that I am a leaker. I was in the middle of nursing Gemma when she suddenly unlatched and I proceeded to squirt milk at her! I was in shock and laughing as I was trying to reach for a cloth with which to clean her (and myself) up. My poor baby got it good! This week I also soaked my first breast pad and leaked through several shirts. Yes, this all coming from the woman who thought she wasn't going to be able to produce milk. Ha!

Oh, and this week we also ventured into giving Gemma a bath - just me and Scotty - unsupervised! :) We all did ok!Lots of love, light and sleep to you all!
~Scott, Rosi, Gemma and Blitz



Ps. My first attempt at uploading a little video of Gemma: