Gemma is 18 months old!

Gemma celebrated turning 18 months old with going to nursery. Hooray! She doesn't love it yet but will with some more time. Joseph has to be the one to take her and then sneaks out when she's not looking. Thankfully, our nursery teacher is a friend and knows the kids outside of church as well. Plus, Tanner is with Gemma for the rest of the year, which helps her a little.

Gemma's typical schedule:
Wakes up between 6:30 and 7:30am. She seems to follow Ashton's sleep schedule more. Tanner is still our best sleeper as he sleeps in most days and takes longer naps. Oh well... maybe Gemma will shift her schedule one day.

Breakfast and morning errands/outings from about 8 to 11am. We can't be out much past 11am or Gemma will fall asleep in the car. She is notoriously good at falling asleep quickly in the van and nothing keeps her awake. So we try to be home by 11am right now.

Lunch around 12noon and then playtime until 12:45ish for naps.

She naps from about 1-3pm. With school pick up, we have to leave by 3pm so naps end no matter what by then. She typically sleeps 1.5-2 hours even on the weekends when she could nap longer.

Gemma goes to bed with the other kids at 8pm. Thanks to school starting for us, we are more strict on bedtime. She typically sleeps through the night. I wake up to her fussing off and on but I think she is just crying a little in her sleep. I've never had to get her out of her crib or anything since she was weaned at 12 months. Last month, she moved from a pack n play in one of the master closets to a crib in her own room upstairs. The transition went just fine with no issues from her. I think she wakes up a little earlier but it could also be that I hear her sooner. Plus she's getting some molars right now, which may contribute to it.

Gemma seems to be a talker. She is already saying about 20-25 words at home. Many of these include animals and animal sounds. She can say: please, cheese, more, all done, thank you (she says "come" as in welcome for thank you), Dada, Mama, Papa, Nana, banana, neigh, moo, quack, duck, dog, cat, meow, shoe, up, cup, woof, roar (for a dinosaur), cracker, bus, and a few others that I can't think of right now. She understands a TON and follows lots of commands. If it's her turn to say a prayer, she will babble during it. I'm happy to see her learning vocabulary quickly.

She's not the most social kid so far in our family but neither was Ashton at this age. And now Ashton doesn't know a stranger. Gemma likes to be nice and social from a distance. If someone tries to pick her up or gets too close to her, she is not afraid to speak up. I think Gemma is our most dramatic kid so far, as well. Which I thought I'd never say. She was so quiet and easy as a baby. She doesn't have huge meltdowns or anything but just makes her preference well-known in the house.

Gemma has caught up with her gross motor skills since 15 months. I wasn't concerned then but now she is going up and down the stairs on two feet rather than climbing on all fours. This terrifies me but she is adamant that she can do it. She hasn't fallen yet so I guess she is doing well. Gemma enjoys riding her tricycle. I tried her on the balance bike a few weeks ago and she isn't quite tall enough. I'm hoping for an early bike rider like her siblings. She kicks at balls, throws things, starting to scribble with crayons, etc.

Favorites:
Food- milk. Hands down, she loves her milk. Her other favorites include black olives, strawberries, pepperoni, corn on the cob, and bananas. She continues to be a little picky with food but we still just provide whatever we're eating and she eats if she's hungry I guess. I'm not about to make special foods for her. I don't have time for that.

At home activity- playing with magnatiles, climbing stuff, playing with the water table outside.

Errand/Outing- HEB. She loves going and lights up when we pull in the parking lot. She especially loves Buddy Bucks and hitting the button on the machine.

Book- any book. Gemma loves reading and will bring book after book to you. She especially loves books with dinosaurs or cats in them.

Show- I put this on here because Ashton had such a preference for this. Gemma actually doesn't watch screens a lot. She's in the playroom if Tanner is watching his lunch show but could care less about it. Same way with movie night. She much prefers to play and run around. I'd say she maybe looks at a screen for a max of ten minutes a day, which I'm grateful for. Although, with school starting, we cut back to one PBS show a day for Tanner and none for Ashton so screen time in general has cut back a lot.

Gemma loves animals and will chase any squirrel or animal she sees. She especially loves cats. There is a super friendly cat that lives outside a few blocks from us. It's on the way to Ashton's school so if we see it, Gemma gets the perk of petting it for a while. She also goes across the street a lot to pet our neighbor dogs behind their driveway gate. Thankfully, the neighbors know Gemma well and don't mind her. She has taken an interest to River lately, which leads to some problems. Gemma just gets in River's space and tries to pet her eyes or grab her tail. Gemma will figure it out soon enough.

Gemma is finally doing much better at going to the YMCA for me. She loves one of the workers there and goes right to her. She does okay with me leaving her at some people's homes for a doctors appointment or something. But even then, she's still a little picky about who it is. She seems to do okay for our babysitter and only cries for a few minutes.

Body measurements:
Height: 31.5 inches
Weight: 25 lbs
About 50th percentile for both. Gemma is probably our smallest kid so far in both areas. I couldn't find the measurements of the older kids but I feel like Gemma is smaller in the percentiles. And clothes that fit Ashton at this time are a little too big right now on Gemma.

Enjoying a cold treat outside

Beach time

Random picture of her on my phone

Loves to wear her siblings' helmets while riding her tricycle