Gemma at 2.5 years old

I always look back at the kid's age posts. So much changes from two to three so I include a 2.5 year old update. 

Here are some fun things about Gemma at 2.5 years old:

- Gemma loves our neighbor and her gardens. We have a sweet neighbor with three boys. The younger two boys often play with our kids outside. Gemma will go over to Miss D'Ann's home nearly every day and ring the doorbell. Miss D'Ann comes to the door and Gemma asks for a flower. The two of them walk to the backyard and find flowers. Miss D'Ann remarried this past weekend and specifically saved her wedding bouquet for Gemma. Gemma's smile was priceless.

- She is constantly talking. Gemma will request one thing and before you can even respond, she will have added five more things to her request. Her vocabulary, speech intelligibility, articulation, etc. is definitely developing. While this leads to very opinionated conversations, I always love when a kid can talk.

- Still loves her crib. At this age, Tanner was climbing out of the crib. Gemma is very content in her bed and hasn't attempted to climb out at all. We will probably move her to bunk beds early next year to free up the crib for Lydia.

 
- Favorite primary song is "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam"

- Favorite book is probably The Gruffalo. She loves reading books so her favorite changes rapidly.

- Favorite color is purple.

Here is her typical schedule.

8-9am Wake up. I don't know when she actually wakes up. She is often very quiet in the morning and almost always awake when I come in around 8:30/9ish. But she is happy to play in her crib.
9-12 Play time around the house.
12-1 Lunch and then show time with Tanner. She likes to eat a little bit of lots of things. So she'll have a little bit of yogurt, a few apple slices, half a piece of bread, etc. She is a little bird with food.
1:30-4 Naptime! A typical nap is about two hours for Gemma.
Evening: Family time. She enjoys spending time outside, visiting Miss D'Ann, building castles, reading, and playing with play-doh.
7:45 Bathtime and bed time. Gemma loves bubble baths so often has one at night.
8-8:30 In bed. Right before Lydia was born, Gemma was crying and screaming every night once we said goodnight. Thankfully, that ended around 2 and she hasn't done it since. She plays in her crib until she falls asleep.

Tanner was very physically active and Gemma is much more cognitively active. Her mind goes 100 directions all at once. She isn't one to run away in a parking lot but I do have to constantly keep up with where she ran with the markers. She seems a little more mischievous than I recall the others. But my memory has also faded. Gemma is a sweet girl who knows exactly when to be sweet and when to be mean.

Lydia is 8 Months Old

Weight: probably around 23-24 lbs. We'll see at her appointment next month.

Height: I'd guess 27-ish inches. Again, we'll measure her next month.

Clothing Size: Still 18 month size. I'm guessing she'll be in this size for a long time.

Daily Schedule: Still a later bedtime most days. She prefers to sneak in a 3rd nap during dinner hour. The nights she is in bed by 8:30/9 are wonderful and I look forward to that becoming more regular. She is starting to sleep through the night for the most part. Except last night when she stayed up until 11 and woke up at 6:30. That was rough.

Special Outings: No where. I don't think she left the house/stroller this month. Oh, she did come pick up Ashton one day and tolerated the baby carrier.

Firsts: Everything! She's crawling, pulling up, cruising a little, babbling. It was a fun month for milestones.

Eating: Still at four bottles a day plus a nighttime bottle if she wakes up. She is starting to prefer table foods instead of purees but will still eat them. Her favorite is whatever her siblings have. Preferably pretzels or Chex cereal.

Monthly Pictures: 

Despite not being in the van much, Lydia falls asleep quickly in the carseat and stays asleep when coming inside. So nice of her.

Lover of corn on the cob

 Lydia loves bathtime. If she sees the blue bathtub out, her legs start kicking and she goes crazy. The floor typically is soaked by the time she's done. We'd move her to the bathtub but she screams when we try it. So she continues to be the oversized baby in the baby tub.

Almost the end of summer

 We are nearing our first cold front for Houston, which is much wanted. We spent the last few weeks working with virtual learning through school, playing outside as much as possible, and soaking in our summer before it gets too "freezie."

How Ashton felt most of the time with online school. I felt the same too.

We took a family bike ride down to our neighborhood park. Lydia does great in the bike trailer so it is really easy to take everyone around the area.

We got Gemma to ride the balance bike. She is slowly working up her confidence on it. I'm looking forward to her riding around the street.

Lydia spends her time trying to eat leaves and grass.

Tanner prefers to ride his bike while wearing his baseball helmet. I love it. It did save his face a few days later when he completely biffed it on our trail. His nose got scratched pretty badly but his head survived.

Some kid dumped over the spaghetti noodles in the pantry so the kids made a few crafts with them.

More artwork with cotton balls too. The kids are praying for snow this winter. I haven't had the courage to tell them it's probably not going to happen.

Ashton's Birthday

 Ashton had a wonderful seventh birthday! We had a low key day since it was Sunday plus we didn't want a big gathering.

Our one rule was no "birthday celebration" until after family church. We did have birthday pancakes but that was all. I think it was the earliest we've had family church though. It was done by 10:30, which is about an hour ahead of time.

Ashton requested a cake with forest animals. So we had fun making the animals. She loved the cake. Except I made a mistake and the frosting melted a little bit when I took it out of the fridge. So ignore the disastrous picture down below.

Ashton's gifts included unicorns, Doc McStuffins vet kit thing, fairy lantern craft kit, some books, mermaid tail blanket, binoculars (from Tanner since he wanted something too), a fairy tea set, and a treehouse building kit.

We spent the day playing party games with her siblings, a pinata, had a princess tea party, ate her favorite foods, watched Snow White for movie night. We played outside a bunch and enjoyed her toys.

Ashton's Birthday Interview

 Here's Ashton's responses to our birthday interview with her this year.

How old are you? Seven

What is your favorite color? Pink (same as the past few years)

What is your favorite animal? Horses

What is your favorite book? Charlotte's Web. We just finished this as a read-aloud for her and she loved it.

 What is your favorite show? Doc McStuffins

 What do you like to eat? Pork chops

What is your favorite game? Phase 10

 
What is your favorite thing to do? Play outside with friends

Who is your best friend? Aurora (a friend from church that moved to Utah earlier this year)

What do you like to do with Daddy? Play the Wii

What do you like to do with Mommy? Cook and bake

What is your favorite restaurant? Chick-Fil-A (once again, the only restaurant we really go to. Although we haven't gone to any since March)

Where do you want to go for vacation? Sea World

What do you want to be when you grow up? A vet

What is your favorite song? When I am Baptized (I Like to Look for Rainbows)

What is the best time of day? Nap time. She doesn't take naps anymore but she enjoys the sibling-free time.

What makes you happy? Jokes

The Adams Family

 Last week, we received tragic news. The husband of a family that lived in Lake Jackson died in a motorcycle accident. He leaves behind his wife of nearly 12 years and their five children, between 18 months and 9 years old. From my recollection, this family was the first family we met outside of Church in Lake Jackson. Their second child and Ashton were born the same year and I drew a lot of my mothering from observing Michelle with her little ones.

I am heartbroken for her and her children. I watched the funeral services today and seeing her children sit there was difficult. Since his passing, I find myself thinking, "How is Michelle going to deal with... fill the in blank?"

What about the house they live in? Can she afford to continue living there? Will she need to find work soon and find childcare? How will she pack up his clothes? What will she say to her kids at night when they miss their dad? How can she function each day?

This news has hit me harder than another friend who lost his wife earlier this summer. Probably for a few reasons. 1) I never met his wife. Whereas, I met Joseph and sat in their home. 2) He was now a single dad raising two boys. In the Adams family, I relate more because if my Joseph died, I would be much like Michelle.

As the days pass, I find myself asking similar questions too. I hope Joseph and I grow old together. But there is very little in life that is certain. How would I function? I'm grateful for the Holy Ghost and the Savior that can comfort and provide peace during trials. I wish I could do so much more for Michelle. But they moved to Utah a few years back.

As I watched the service and looked at Michelle, I felt sadness but I also felt assurance. I know she will see him again. I know that. I know their children will hug their father again. While this will most likely be the most challenging time in their lives, I know that their family is sealed. Their family is not done, finished, gone. Their family continues to function with their husband/dad on the other side of the veil. And I am reassured in that. That no matter what happens to my family, we are sealed for time and for eternity.

End of the summer

Continuation of our summer:

Here's a quick photo recap of the last part of summer:

 

Tanner purchased a bug city to hold all his bugs. This kid will find bugs in the house and take them to the city. I love it! He's gotten quite a few in there. 

Gemma's potty training chart! After two accidents and a whole lot of Frozen stickers, I'd consider this girl pretty well potty trained. She did have issues with constipation but we worked that out. She can wear underwear and do just fine. I've taken her to a few parks to test her and she's done great. I really thought this was going to fail miserably so I am quite surprised.

Ashton started first grade on Monday. To ease the kids back in, the school is only until 12noon-ish. Well, then the hurricane started coming so Ashton had two mornings of school and probably won't have it until next week again. Poor kid! She cried when I told her school was cancelled and piano lessons were cancelled.

Lydia is now big enough to reach the knife block during baths. Guess I should think about moving those.

Target had a slime kit on clearance for two dollars a few months ago. I grabbed it thinking it'd make a fun activity. The kids enjoyed it, except Gemma. She didn't like the texture of it and instead played with playdough.

Another item on our summer bucket list was tie-dye shirts. I found tie dye at the Dollar Store and we had some older white shirts to use so it was a cheap activity. It actually went better than I thought it would. The kids loved doing it and wearing them!

Ashton and Gemma really love helping in the kitchen. Anytime I get a bowl out, I have two instant helpers. I love these pictures and hope they remember the good moments in the kitchen.

We organized a fun water day in the backyard. A few neighbors came over as well. We found these two water things on sale for $20 and said, "it's worth it!" This was back before COVID and it has been a lifesaver this summer. Except for the grass that died under the slip-n-slide.

Also on our summer bucket list was butterflies. The kids enjoyed watching them this time around. When we did it previously, the butterflies stuck around on our fingers when we released them but these ones flew right away. Honestly, so would I if I was released around three loud kids.

 Tanner is fascinated with any type of disaster/destruction. Titanic has been a recent one so we made one out of cardboard boxes. With the hurricane approaching, he's been wishing it will come to see the destruction. He also loves to watch tornado destruction videos.