Christmas is Comming

We're back home in Ohio. The snow has fallen and it is the time for giving. Gwen is getting ready for her first Christmas. Well, we're getting ready for her first Christmas. To everyone out there, she loves paper. White paper, so if you haven't wrapped her gift, send it in light colored wrapping paper. You will be her favorite.

Happy Autumn!

We went to the pediatrician's last week for Gwen's 6 month check-up - can you believe that she's a half a year old already! The doctor said that Gwen is perfectly healthy and she's weighs 15 lbs 8 oz and is 26.25 inches tall! A perfect 50th percile all around. Other than that, Gwen has perfected the ability to sit up alone and she's starting to like more and more of the solid foods that she tries - except for peas and green beans - she's not liking those too much! Try, try again though, right?

Still nothing new to report on the home front. We're still waiting to here word if it's ours or not. But in the meantime, we're still fixing the house up and I'm painting like crazy. Hopefully, by this weekend I'll have the whole first level finished (minus the trim in the kitchen, since we still need to buy it and we won't do that until the house is ours).

Gwen, as you can tell by the pictures, was a cute little penguin for Halloween. And for being a baby, she actually didn't seem to mind her custume one bit.

I'm a big girl!

That Gwen is.... ::sigh:: She's growing up so fast! It seems like she should still only be a month old - but I'm glad that she's not, because Gwen has an amazing personality and I'm enjoying every minute of being her mom. This past week she has been mastering the ability to sit on her own (without falling over), and she's doing awesome at it too! She has put the crawling 'thing' on hold as she masters this other trick of hers..... other than that she's rolling all over the place and indian crawling around - so she'll be mobile in no time at all! Gwen just started eating two meals a day and is slowly being introduced to new foods. She hates the veggies that she's had so far - she all but pucks them back out as soon as they touch her mouth - needless to say though, it is quite funny to watch! The last time I weighed Gwen she was 14 lbs 15.4 oz! So she's well on her way to having doubled her birth weight, which is suppose to happen by 6 months - so she's right on par. The other big things in Gwennie's life right now are her kitties! Nothing can make her happier than when one of her kitties walks into the room, she smiles and laughs and starts bouncing all at once - it is so fun to watch! That, and her other fascination is Jon Stewart. I know, weird - right? But whenever Brian watches the Daily Show she can't take her eyes off of Jon Stewart - it's halarious! Here's a link to a Gwen's various pictures.

On the home front - we're still waiting to close on our house, but we have moved in and are renovating like crazy and trying to get everything winterized before it gets too cold..... I've been painting like crazy, while Brian tackles outisde tasks (the projects that his clumsiness can't screw up that bad :-)~ ) So, as of right now, we're just sitting tight until we hear word from their bank - but until then we're living mortgage/rent free and saving as much money as we can for now. I'll try to post some pictures of the finished rooms the next time I post.

Food!?!

What is this new stuff you might ask? Well, it's a hearty rice cereal mixed with milk! Gwen had her first taste at solid foods this evening, and she did surprisingly well with it - she of course made faces and moved it around her mouth wondering what the new substance was, but she didn't reject it - which is a good sign! So, hopefully this journey will go smoothly and she'll continue to like and explore the wide variety of tastes and flavors that there are in the world.

Guess What?

Gwen is four months old! How time flies! Well, Gwen's life has been pretty exciting since the last time we wrote. She's had lots of visits from her family this summer - and let me tell you, she loves watching all her crazy cousins run around and get into everything, I think she's secretly wishing that she could be doing the same. Since last time she's figured out how to roll-over from her back to her belly, and has actually learned to like being on her belly for longer periods of time - I've even caught her falling asleep while being on her belly! Well, I took her to the doctor's on Tuesday and the latest stats: 13 lbs 9 oz and 26.25 inches long! That puts her in the 60th percentile and the 95th percentile, respectively. Other than that she's doing great developmentally. She's almost sitting on her own which really impressed the doctor and she making, what I think, some major jumps towards crawling soon; such as, supporting herself on her hands and lifting her butt high in the air and tucking her knees up under her. Anyways, til next time :-)

Happy Baby

Gwen is doing so well now. She took a trip last weekend to State College and visited our friends and all of her "Uncle Matt's". Our great friends Matt and Kelly got married, and we could not be any happier for them. The trip down made us both realize how much we missed everyone in State College, who has become our family over the last 8 years. While Gwen was the best behaved baby at the reception, she gave us a little trouble on the trip down; turning a 5 1/2 hour drive into 8 hours. Thankfully on the trip back she slept nearly the whole way.

When is doing excellent developmentally. She can reach for things, and her stomach muscles are getting much stronger. She's able to reach down and hold both of her feet. The little coordinated girl has been seen holding a foot in one hand and reaching out and grabbing a toy with the other.

Little Gwen is also been developing a real personality. You can tell when she is looking at you that she is thinking. She doesn't cry a lot, but she has developed the ability to wimper when she wants a change of position or scenery, but cry when she needs changed or fed. To me the whole development of a person is amazing to watch.

I think a huge portion of her development is due to her constant help from her mom. Laura is always encouraging her to learn to roll over, sit up, and even stand. While Gwen does not have the stability to stand on her own, she can stand for a few minutes with only lateral support at her waste. Yesterday, she even reached out and grabbed the toy giraffe for support when we were working on standing.

Summer Fun

Time for an update! Well, two weeks ago Gwen went to see the pediatrician again. It was time for her first shots! Let's just say that our little princess wasn't too thrilled with getting her vaccinations! Other than that Gwen is perfectly healthy and she weighed in at 11 lbs 11 oz and she's now 23 3/4 inches long! So, she grew almost 2 inches in 3 weeks - can we say grew spurt!?!?! The big accomplishments lately have been that Gwen has rolled from her tummy to her back and she slept a whole 7.5 hours straight! I also believe she is starting to teeth - the drool is coming in droves, and she's chewing on her fingers like crazy!

Last week we traveled to Ohio to visit family. This was Gwen's first big road trip! And surprisingly she did really well in the car. She got to meet a lot of new people too! She met both of her great grandmas and she met her Aunt Joyce and her other two cousins, Caden and Conner.... This weekend we're traveling to Pennsylvania and she'll get to meet all of our Penn State friends. Hopefully she likes traveling - because she'll be doing a lot of it!

Still no word on the house yet, the short sale is still pending. Although, the bankruptcy court approved the sale just as long as we get the short sale approval! Hopefully in a couple of weeks we'll know more. I think we're both hoping to get in there while the it is still summer out - we want to make sure that pool is working well ;-) We'll keep you updated!