Hop! Hop! Hop!

God bless her, Granny tried to teach Gwennan hopscotch, but alas, all she got was the hop part. And the counting, "One, Two, Six, Nine ..."
Check out the cool pigtails.

Another Reason to Hate Wal-Mart

As if getting the creeps when I walk in the store isn't enough ...

Brain-damaged woman at center of Wal-Mart suit

Non-napper

Well, unfortunately I think Gwennan has reached that point in her life where she no longer sees a daily nap as a necessity. Unfortunately, it IS still a necessity for Mommy. So we're calling it "solitude time" and sticking her in her room for an hour anyway. She doesn't mind too much. She plays with her toys and talks to them and does who knows what else. How I'll survive as a sleep-deprived, nursing mom come July-ish, I have no idea. I think mainly Gwennan will be spending a lot of time with Granny and Paw Paw. At least until baby brother is sleeping through the night.

Cough Cough

Catri was here this past week. We had nine days with her, which was truly wonderful. We watched movies, played games, and in the middle of the week she and Mark went to Maggie Valley, North Carolina to do some snowboarding.
Unfortunately I started feeling bad and coughing before Catri even got here, and then when she and Mark got back from NC on Thursday, Mark started feeling bad and within 15 minutes or so had a fever of 102. So the last part of Catri's visit was spent around the house, with either Mark or me in bed trying to get rest, or nearly catatonic on the couch. Not much fun, but at least we were all together.
It's hard when Catri leaves. We all miss her, but at least Mark and I understand that she'll be back in 6 weeks, and hopefully living full-time in Marietta again by summertime. But for Gwennan, she just doesn't understand, and it breaks my heart. At the airport we said goodbye to Catri at the security line, and, as always, watched as she wound her way through it, waving to her until she was finally out of sight. Gwennan watched too, and she didn't cry, but when we got back to the car she started saying, "Find Catri? Find Catri. Find Catri?" That's when I broke down in tears. Mark tried telling her that Catri was in an airplane going home, but she still kept asking us to go find Catri.
This morning she asked me again, thinking Catri was in her room downstairs and we should go find her. It sucks, it really does. Gwennan loves her Catri, and Catri loves her Gwennan, and I hate that they're apart so much.

Anyway, in other news ...

I can feel Junior (his de facto name for now) kicking and flipping around in my belly now. I've started trying to explain to Gwennan that there's a baby boy in mommy's tummy, but she just looks at me weird. One time she pointed to her own belly and said, "Baby!" So, no, she doesn't get it just yet.

Also, my brother got married last weekend. I'll post pics of the bride and groom as soon as I get my act together. Which, in all honesty, may be never.

It's a ...

BOY!!
I knew it I knew it I knew it!!

Sorry it took me so long to post this, but Gwennan's been sick for the past two days, occupying most of my time and attention.

Gwennan's Birthday Party

Three weeks after the fact, I am finally posting about Gwennan's 1st Birthday Party. She got a ton of presents - toys and clothes - from her adoring fans.
Enjoy the pics ...

Sister Catri decorated the cake. No, Catri hasn't gone Goth. She's just gone ever so slightly skater punk. Note the Volcom hat and the black nails with pink pinkie.













Gwennan getting dressed in her birthday outfit.



















Gwennan and cousin Brenna.













Yay!



















The cake. It's no professional bakery cake, but it's made with more love.



















So we blew out the candles for her ...













But she got a little scared by the crowd of people standing around her loudly singing "Happy Birthday" ...













A little cake cured her fear pretty quickly, though.

Self Portraits by Gwennan

Gwennan turned a year old this past Friday. One year. It's amazing. She's gone from being a tiny baby to a little person. She's crawling like crazy and standing on her own more and more. It won't be long till she's walking. And she's already talking a little. It's hard to discern, but she says Hi, and what sounds like "How are you?" and Ee-I-Ee-I (from the Old MacDonald song). She sways a little to music, and tries to comb her hair and talk on anything that may vaguely resemble a phone.
I'll post photos from the birthday party we had on Saturday as soon as I get them together.
In the meantime I thought I'd show you some self-portraits. This is done by handing her our old Sony digital camera, pressing the timer while she's playing with it, and seeing what photos turn up. They're pretty darn funny. The first one below is from December. The rest are from about a month ago.



















































I love this next one. She had her finger on the lens, which caused the camera to over-expose to compensate. You can see Gwennan to the right of her finger.