Yay for Pictures!

Gwen opening presents with help from her cousins Sam, Kim, and Jami.

Blowing out the candles on her princess birthday cake.

Out to lunch with Cinderella aka Gwen at Sweet Tomatos.

Gwen getting ready for her big birthday day.

Emily sits up all by herself. She loves it so much that she hates to lie down at all even to nap.

Gwen at the swimming pool.

Gwen loves chocolate ice cream.

After they got their faces painted at the parade preview.

Emily and Daddy playing video games together.

Video of Gwen jumping into the deep end at the pool.

Gwen's Birthday Party

So, today was Gwen's big birthday pool party. All her cousins (well on my side of the family) came and went swimming with her in our condo's pool. Gwen had been excited about going swimming with her cousins since our last swimming party at the beginning of the summer. All summer she kept saying to me "I go swimming today with Noah and Sam and Mason." Sometimes she'd substitute Jami, Kim, or Heidi in there but usually it was Noah, Sam, and Mason for some reason. I'd tell her "no, not today. We'll all go swimming on your birthday."

Well, that dream finally came true for her and she really didn't want it to end. After spending 3 hours in the pool with a little lunch break in there she still didn't want to get out - not even to open her presents. I finally got her to get out by reminding her that we were going to light candles and sing Happy Birthday to her.

It was so fun to watch how much she's grown over the summer with her confidence in the pool. She jumps into the deep end and swims with her face under the water. She can get herself to anywhere in the pool even over the rope separating the shallow from the deep ends. She rarely spends time in the baby pool unless she's practicing using her goggles or "diving" under the water to pick up the diving rings. One of her favorite things to do is to hold her breath under water and wave to me while I swim below or beside her. She also thinks that she can "almost" touch the bottom of the pool at the 9 foot end. I can't wait for next summer. We'll definitely get her into a swimming class toward the end of the winter or in spring to prepare for pool season. Hopefully we can keep our little fish nice and happy. I love that she loves the water so much. She's absolutely the best swimmer out of all her cousins - who wouldn't be with at least an hour of practice 4 or 5 days a week all summer long?

Gwen loved her birthday party so much that I couldn't get her to take her usual post swimming nap today. She just wanted to play with her new toys. Unfortunately, Emily didn't want to take her nap either. About once a week, Emily goes through nap refusal. She just looks at her bed and starts to scream, and boy do I mean SCREAM. She has the most piercing screech in the world. Today, after all the usual tricks of nursing her and even taking her on a car ride, as soon as I laid her in her bed her little eyes popped open and she would scream. I finally had to just pat her on the tummy and tell her she'd be okay and walk out of the room and close the door. It took about 5-10 minutes of her screaming before she fell asleep. I feel sorry to do that to my neighbors, but they have a 18 month-old and probably understand. It's easy to get caught up in the not wanting them to scream and hard to remember that no baby ever died from crying or screaming.

Thanks to the doctor's I work with for letting me use their Internet access while we've been slow the last couple evenings. I only wish I had brought my camera to upload my pictures. I think that will be my before church project for tomorrow. That or clean the bathrooms. Hmmm, which sounds funner to you?

WCCs

That's Well Child Checks for those of you that don't speak "doctor". Both Gwen and Emily had their check-ups done yesterday. Here's the info for those of you who might care:

Emily weighs 14# 15 oz. That's on the 30% for weight. She's 27 1/2 inches long so 96% for height. That puts her at a 1% for height vs. weight which they use as an indicator of obesity. She's not at all like her big sister which we shall see next. She's right on track as far as milestones go like sitting up all by her big self and rolling over. She also made great eye contact with the doctor and laughed at him. That's encouraging as far as autism goes.

Gwen weighs 37#. That's on the 92% for weight. She's 37 inches tall so 67% for height. On the height vs. weight she's a whopping 96%. That means she's a bit tubby and will be considered obese if she tops over 100% at her check-up next year. What that means to me as her nurse and mommy: she needs to stop snacking and move more. It's so hard in these days and times to try to teach a little impressionable girl to be healthy and not obsessed about her body. I hope that she will see my example and want to be like me. She's already got to fight against genetics, so I hope I can give her the confidence to be active and to enjoy her chubby body. My mom is getting her dance lessons for her birthday and we're going to get her into tumbling too. Not only will she get the benefit of moving around more and developing her muscles and skills, she'll get to make more friends and learn to listen to instructions. I'm also excited to meet other moms with kids her age.

The very best part of the visit was when they gave Gwen a paper gown to wear and she put it on and started to twirl around with it with her cute little bottom showing out the back. The doctor came in the room and remarked that he hadn't seen anyone model the gown so beautifully before. Gwen looked at him with a serious expression and said: "I'm a princess." He even let her take the gown home and she wore it all evening.

Happy Birthday Gwenners!

Just had to make a quick post to wish my little big girl a very happy 3rd birthday. Today started with her getting up at 6:45 am. That's a good 45 minutes earlier than normal. I took her downstairs and she opened her present from Mommy and Daddy - a Disney princess dress-up kit. She immediately stripped her pajamas off and started trying on the different outfits. Then Daddy left for school and Gwen, Emily, and I went to the gym. Gwen wore her Cinderella princess dress and jewels. After the gym we met up with Daddy and went to lunch at Gwen's favorite restaraunt, Sweet Tomatos. Gwen eats so much good food there, I love it. She had a handful of mushrooms and even tried clam chowder which she loved. After lunch she and Emily went swimming with Daddy and I had to go to work. They came and visited me at work after naps and we had chicken nuggets together. I hope she had a great day. She went around telling everyone "I'm three on my birthday." She'd hold up her hand making an "okay" sign to show her three fingers. She'd also demand for me to sing Happy Birthday to her randomly during the day. Tomorrow is her big swimming birthday party. It's going to be so much fun. I love my little big girl so much.

Monthly Update

Since I'm only finding the time to blog about once a month these days, here's my one for August. It's fun to look back at my pictures from the last month to remind myself all that has happened. Those are only the things that I remembered to bring my camera and take pictures of too.

Let's see, since my last post in mid July, I celebrated my 29th birthday. I had to work the entire weekend of my birthday and much of my family had gone to Greece on a cruise, so it wasn't that big of a deal. It was also on a Sunday and those birthday's usually lack the pizazz of regular weekday birthdays. The major plus side of it was that we celebrated my birthday week and that turned into a birthday fort night celebration. We had a family birthday party for me and my older sisters the Sunday before my birthday and everyone came. Gwen had such a blast playing with all her cousins. Then, later that week we met up with my older sisters and their kids at the 24th of July parade preview. Or as Jonathan termed it: the 24th of July face painting extravaganza - since we pretty much spent the entire time in line waiting for face painting and balloons. It was still lots of fun.

Also during my birthday celebration we went to lunch at this Brazilian place in the Gateway Mall. It was fancier than we usually do and we brought the kids. We thought we were all prepared to keep the kids entertained: had the portable DVD player and brought cereal for Emily. Everything was fine until Gwen peed on the floor and Emily finished her cereal and was still hungry. Then Gwen spilled her drink and my drink on the floor, which just diluted her pee puddle and we decided we had better leave a REALLY big tip.

Well, despite some minor accidents, I'd say Gwen is potty trained. She even poops in the potty most of the time now. That was our biggest challenge with her. She's much better at it now, only now she insists on describing each bowel movement to everyone. It's much like when I go visit Grandpa Madsen these days. I hadn't mentioned on here that my almost 96-year-old grandpa got a hip replacement this last month after breaking his hip a few months ago. He's living with my parents now and we go visit at least once a week. Gwen loves to steal his Jolly Ranchers and calls him Mommy's Grandpa which I think is a great way for her to try to keep all her grandpa's straight.

Emily's growing and growing fast. She's rolling over from front to back and back to front. She gets up on her arms and pushes with her legs and manages to scoot herself forward a tiny bit. She'll be crawling any day now and I don't think we're ready for that. It's hard to teach Gwen to keep her smaller toys and objects away from Emily because Emily will eat them. It will be even harder when she's more mobile. Here's a cute story from today: This morning both the girls got up at 6:30. No, that's not the cute part. That's far from cute since I went to bed after midnight and Emily still gets me up once a night to feed. Anyway, Gwen came into our room and wasn't sold on snuggling with me but told me she was going to play with Emily. Emily was making happy noises in her crib in the corner of our room. Gwen climbed up on the rocking chair and right into the crib with Emily. That made Emily squeal with delight. Then Gwen decided to bounce up and down on her knees and Emily thought that was even better. Each baby squeal made Gwen guffaw. It was so cute to listen to them making each other laugh. I love my girls so much and each little moment like that one fills up my heart and makes me realize what life is all about. I miss them so much when I have to be away at work but I know that it's necessary right now and things will change in the future.

Sorry, I tried to upload a bunch of pictures, but the site is having a hard time with it. I'll try again later.