Christmas Pictures!

So we had some Christmas photos taken - not in a studio though because :
A. Not gonna pay money for pictures that
B. Nine times out of Ten look rigid and awkward and cheesy, especially since
C. We have friends who are awesome photographers who will do it for freeee :)

Aside from the two full-on hour-long photo sessions I personally did of Gemma, our amazing friend took a family photo shoot for us the other night as well. We got a lot of really cute shots! Don't worry, I'm actually not going to post a picture overload here! I really just want to share a picture from this year compared with a picture of us at Christmas time last year. It's so fun and crazy to see how we've changed, grown, shrunk, etc!

THIS YEAR - 2011:

LAST YEAR - 2010:

Gemma's 6 Month Update... A Month Late

I truly cannot believe I am sitting here writing this 6 month update on Gemma... and it's a month late! That's right, Gemma will be 7 months old THIS Sunday!! Can you believe it? Ah, I am just so amazed at how quickly it's all going.

So, logistically speaking, she is now 16lbs, 2oz. 26 in. long. I don't remember what they said her head circumference is, but does anybody really get excited about that? And now for her list of favorite activities:

Sitting (and playing with anything within her reach)

Learning to crawl (more on this later, including her favorite baby yoga poses!)

Experimenting with big people food (also more on this later)

Teething (well, she doesn't actually enjoy this particular activity, but it's happening - we should see her two bottom teeth soon!)

Skyping with friends and family (though she freezes up a little and just kind of stares at the screen)

Nursing (as usual. she is in that lovely easily-distracted phase though - not so fun for Mom)

Babbling like crazy (including the ever-popular 'mama' and 'dada')

Trying to play exclusively with things that are not toys (ie, shoelaces, Mom's cell phone, the computer, anything plastic, paper bags, Mom's hair, etc. although she still has a deep love for mr. duckie)

Bathtime (mostly because of her deep love for mr. duckie)

Jumping in her jumperoo (video to come)

Reading (well, being read to - if we're going to be technical)

And in her spare time, she's picked up the piano:

Getting ready to compose her first masterpiece

It was beautiful. You should have heard it.

Favorite of the Day: Baby Forgiveness

"To err is human; to forgive is divine."
-Alexander Pope

Today's Favorite of the Day actually deals with a topic that is very difficult for me, and moms everywhere, I'm sure. As moms, we want to be perfect all the time. We want to believe that we can give our child(ren) everything good in the world, and somehow protect them from everything bad in the world as well. Unfortunately, not only are we unable to protect them from everything bad, sometimes we are the source of the bad! 

Of course it's always unintentional, but crazy things happen with babies, no matter how careful we try to be. They fling themselves out of your arms and fly face first into the floor. You accidentally bonk their head on the way in or out of the car. You clip that fingernail a little too closely and end up drawing blood. You lay the baby on a cool beach blanket tent that your mother-in-law gave you and while trying to shift the blanket, you kick up a bunch of sand into your baby's eyes.

I have done all of these things. At first, Gemma would scream bloody murder. I would immediately respond by picking her up, holding her close, kissing whatever bumps and scrapes she received, all while crying hysterically. I swear, I cry harder when Gemma gets hurt than she does. After cuddling and or nursing her for a few minutes, she is completely over it. No longer crying, she's moved onto the next activity and could care less about what happened five minutes earlier. 

I, however, require intensive therapy to get over the trauma. I literally cried for three hours the first time I banged Gemma up. I was SO sad that I caused her to cry, even if she only cried for a few minutes. I kept snuggling her and apologizing to her. At some point, I quit my sniffling, looked Gemma in the face, and smiled. She looked back at me and beamed this enormous smile at me. Of course, she couldn't speak to me in words, but that smile spoke directly to my heart. That beautiful, toothless smile said more in the way of forgiveness than a thousand "I forgive you"s ever could. It was a special moment; a special connection. 

Too bad I couldn't forgive myself as easily! I was still shaken up about it for days. Eventually, over time, it all fades a bit, but I will never forget that day! Gemma, on the other hand, completely forgives and completely forgets. A little over a week ago, Rocky had his first run-in with an accident resulting in Gemma getting a few bumps. He. Was. Devastated. Of course, I'm home with Gemma everyday, so by this point, I was an old pro at the experience. I assured him that it's okay, accidents happen, and Gemma will be over it long before he would.

Later on that night, we were all cuddling, and he was just looking down at Gemma who was merrily busying herself with her hands. He said something that I'll never forget. He said, "She's just like God." He was referring to her ability to forgive so easily, to forget so quickly, and to move on so happily.

It's such a blessing to live with this gentle, little person who teaches me so much about God's love for us. I'm learning something new everyday, and I am so grateful.

Apples? Oh yea. Apples and Pumpkins? Double oh yea.

Family life is a bit like a runny peach pie - not perfect but who's complaining?

-Robert Brault

Quite true. Family life isn't perfect, but let's be truthful here - how unbelievably boring would life be if it were perfect? Having said all that, I'd like to conclude that my family has had a pretty perfect October. (This is where I'd insert the appropriate emoticon of that gleaming, sarcastic smile one makes after making an absurd statement, if such an emoticon actually existed. I digress.) But seriously, it was an awesome month. Not really 'perfect', of course, but that's what makes it so fun. 

Before I get into all the highlights, let me first say this: I'm really bound and determined to update my blog more often. There's a few reasons for this.

Reason 1: I'm a chronic procrastinator, so I'll use this as therapy to work through this particular flaw.

Reason 2: Hopefully I won't be so overwhelmed when it comes time to update. When I wait too long, then there's soooo much to write that I end up a) becoming stressed about it and b) writing way too vaguely about life and leaving out potentially entertaining and awesome details!

Reason 3: Well, having more frequent posts is just more exciting for my hoards of avid readers! (Insert previously described emoticon.)

Why did you need to know all that? So that you can keep me honest, people! (Seriously, yell at me if it's been too long since the last post.)

So a few weeks ago, the Rhoades fam took an excursion to an apple orchard. It was Rocky's and, of course, Gemma's first time ever apple picking so this was a big deal!! Sadly, it was raining when we got there, even though the ever-reliable weather man had promised a clear afternoon. Nevertheless, we Rhoadeses are optimists and weren't about to let anything rain on our apple-picking parade... not even rain. So I put the Gemster in her Baby Bjorn and the two of us took shelter under my trusty Yankees umbrella that somebody gave me during the summer that I worked for the environment, as I like to call it. But THAT is a story for another time...

Anyway, Rocky and I had the greatest time picking apple off trees and chomping right into them to see which ones were worthy of taking home. (Don't worry Mom, it was an organic farm -- no pesticides, no one else touching them, no need to wash! haha) Oh, and for the record, this IS acceptable apple picking protocol at this orchard!

We had a great time, despite the rain. In fact, the only real disappointment of the rain was that I was unable to take pictures, due to fear of my camera getting wet. So, we went back two weeks later to snap some shots and buy more apples! (But mostly just to take pictures.)

So, being in the Fall spirit and with Halloween right around the corner, we of course had to go pick some pumpkins! Another first for the hubster and the Gemster. Had a super fun time again even though we got a whole bunch of those bramble things stuck to our pants and shoelaces. (Is that what they're called - brambles? Ya know, those spikey ball things?) Anyway, here are a few pictures for your viewing pleasure:

So then, we went home. And I got this great idea to take pictures of our little baby INSIDE the big pumpkin! Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time. But we hit a few bumps along the way... 

Bump 1: Gemma has a big booty. (Of course, it's mostly diaper, but still.)

Bump 2: We cut a bigger hole for her to fit through. But she was still a bit to tall for it.

Bump 3: Apparently, sitting inside a pumpkin is CHILD TORTURE. Seriously, this kid was not having it.

Anyway, here are the results of failed operation Take-Pictures-of-Gemma-In-A-Pumpkin:

Fortunately for moms and dads everywhere, crying pictures are still completely adorable. Pitiful, but adorable.

So we moved on from there to hopefully redeem ourselves with a successful carving experience. And succeed we did! I'm not sure if Rocky really enjoyed gutting the pumpkins but he did a great job nevertheless. He even helped me finish sorting out the seeds from the stringy stuff once he was done. Why wasn't I finished with the sorting, you ask? Well... Mom, Dad, if you're reading this, I'm sure you're already laughing. You see friends, sometimes in my life, usually while working on some sort of inane project like this, I happen to engage in what some might call perfectionist tendencies. In other words, I was not about to have even one tiny little piece of stringy stuff on my seeds! I digress... again.

So. We sorted them out, baked them up, and munched happily away on them as we carved big ole faces into our fresh, rotund little gourds. 

Yes, those are upside down flower pots. Seeing as I killed my plants long ago due to my extreme lack of a green thumb, I figured I could still put them to use somehow! 

By the way, I do indeed have some great pictures of Gemma on her first Halloween. Once I upload those pics, I'll post them!! Toodles till next time! :)