Check This Out!

We'd like to introduce you to a new face that you'll be seeing a lot of in a few months... http://nycrosbys.blogspot.com/2010/06/little-baby-big-news.html

little baby = BIG NEWS!

Our BIG NEWS is that we're expecting a little baby to join our family at the end of October. We got our first peek at the little one back on April 13th.
Today we found out that Gwen is going to be a big sister to a little sister. The little sister is already following in Gwen's footsteps by looking pretty cute! We're thrilled!

Gwen at 2 Years & 1 Month

Gwen loves to “help” Mom prepare food in the kitchen by standing on a chair so she is able to reach the counter and do things. If Mom is standing at the counter, Gwen automatically assumes Mom is making something and says, while pulling a chair from the table, “Ah-make! Ah-make!” She likes to pour things into bowls, stir things, and help measure things. If Mom is cutting up vegetables, Gwen is sure to grab a few and stuff them in her mouth. Once Mom picked up a tomato that was sitting on the counter only to find Gwen had already taken a bite out of it!

Gwen says “NO!” A LOT! She has many ways of saying “No”, and some even sound so sweet! Gwen is really into coloring lately. As might be expected, she a very delicate colorer and makes many small marks on her paper as opposed to lots of scribbles. She’ll lean close to her paper as if she is taking great care as she makes each mark.

Gwen’s newest phrase is “Ah-hold.” She makes her lips into a little “o” shape and furrows her brow a bit when she says “hold,” and she keeps her face like that as she repeats herself and waits to be held. She uses this phrase for a couple different reasons. She says it when she gets hurt or is sad and wants to be held and comforted. That’s normal enough. However, she also says this when she is corrected. For example, Dad will say, “Gwen, you need to put the book back where you got it.” When she doesn’t follow the direction and Dad comes over to make it happen, she’ll quickly say, “Ah-hold! Ah-hold!” and reach for Dad to hold her. The next is to get out of something she doesn’t want to do. When she is sitting in her high chair and doesn’t want whatever food is in front of her, she’ll reach for Mom and say, “Ah-hold. Ah-hold.” She thinks that if Mom will hold her the food will go away. And finally, if she doesn’t have her parents’ full and undivided attention, she’ll come up to Mom and Dad and say, “Ah-hold! Ah-hold!” We hear that phrase A LOT!

Gwen really likes to drink the “juice” out of her bowl that was left behind by whatever food was in there. It started when she had some canned fruit and a little juice would be left behind. After she ate the juice she took a spoonful of juice, and then she just picked up the whole bowl and slurped whatever was left. Now she will take all of the food out of the bowl, drink whatever juice might be there, and then put the food back in the bowl to eat it. It gets messy.

Gwen loves being naked and always wants her clothes taken off. Since she’s working on potty training, she often gets to run around without a diaper on, but she’ll tug at her undershirt and say, “Nake, nake!” She wants to take it off to be naked. She also has some crayons that some of the wrappers kind of slipped of off. She says they are “nake” and she brings Mom or Dad the crayons that still have the wrappers on because she wants the wrappers off so all of her crayons can be “nake”.

Gwen is talking more and more. She says a lot of two word phrases and will even repeat some sentences. She got a book from Grandma Earnshaw called Kiss Goodnight. It is about a mother bear putting a little bear named Sam to bed. She gives him a drink, they read a book, she tucks him in, and after each thing she asks if he’s ready for bed. He always says, “Oh no, I’m waiting!” because he’s waiting for a goodnight kiss. Gwen used to always say, “I’m waiting” in her own really cute way. Recently she’s begun saying the whole phrase, “Oh no, I’m waiting!” It is so cute and she loves to help “read” the book.

Gwen can swing on a regular swing now. She holds on very tightly with her hands, so her arms are probably getting a pretty good workout, but she is proud of herself when she does it.Gwen likes to blow bubbles and it quite good at it. She’s been carrying around a little bubble tumbler that is just her size and doesn’t spill easily. She brought it on a walk around the block the other day and liked to take a break here and there to blow bubbles.

Gwen has multiple names for Dad. Historically he’s been called “Davvy,” but she sometimes calls him “Bobby” or “Bubby”, and most recently, “Davia.”

Gwen's 2 Year Old Stats

Gwen had her 2 year check-up today. Her parents' suspicions, that she is healthy and growing, growing, growing, were confirmed! Up until now, she has been on the petite side, measuring small compared to other kids her age (except for her head...her head, although it doesn't look it, has always been huge). Now she's all caught up!

Weight: 27 lbs (56th percentile)

Height: 34 1/2 inches (70th percentile)

Head Circumference: 20 inches (99th percentile)

Gwen at 2 Years Old

-The words that Gwen says most clearly and most often are “Mommy” and “Davvy.” (Jared used to try to get her to say “DaDDy,” but Gwen would always respond with “Davvy”, so Davvy it is!) Gwen calls for Mommy or Davvy when she wakes up in the morning. Whoever goes to get her gets asked where the other parent is. She’ll often just be babbling and say, “Mommy, Davvy, Mommy, Davvy…” When we’re in the car she’ll randomly call out, “Mommy?” Mom will say, “Gwen!” Then she’ll say, “Davvy?” and Dad will have to say her name. She’ll do this over and over again and thinks it is a fun game.

-Gwen will repeat everything she hears, but she’ll usually only repeat the first syllable of the word. She says “pill” for pillow, “blank” for blanket, “fi” for fish, and “Gwe” for Gwen. Many words are just one syllable, so this isn’t always a problem. Words she can say pretty clearly include: cat, car, tray, poo, pee, milk, bear, peas, please, fork, bowl, cup, play, and lots more. Sometimes she will say whole words like bread, giraffe, and baby. The other funny thing Gwen often does is say “ah” before she says a word. If she’s asking to be held, she’ll say, “ah-hold.” If she wants a snuggle it’s “ah-snug.” If she wants milk she’ll say, “ah-milk.” It’s Gwenese!

-Gwen does something funny. She’ll say a word to you, but what she really wants is for you to ask her a question with that word. For example, at dinner Mom will give her her food which is just the right temperature for her to eat. She’ll say, “Hot?” and Mom will say, “Is it hot?” Gwen will smile and say, “NO!” Then Gwen will say, “Cold?” and Mom will say, “Is it cold?” Gwen will smile and say, “NO!” Then Mom will ask, “Is it just right?” and Gwen will say, “Righ!” for right. If Mom doesn’t play along and says, “It’s not hot” when Gwen asks, “Hot?” Gwen will keep asking “Hot?....Hot?” until Mom asks her “Is it hot?” She’ll do this at other times too, like when she gets a diaper change. She’ll say, “Poo?” and Mom will say, “Did you go poo?” Gwen will smile really big and say, “NO!” It must just be her way of making conversation!

-Gwen always requests Jesus songs when she goes to bed. This started around Christmas time and the song she meant when she said “Je” was “I’m Trying to be Like Jesus.” However, now she knows more Jesus songs and Mom has to guess which one she wants by listing them all off. She’ll usually say no to all of the songs Mom says, but still insists on a Jesus song. Because Mom knows Gwen is stalling, Mom will just pick one and start singing, even though Gwen insists, “NO! NO!” for the first few lines. One Jesus song Gwen likes, even though it is out of season, is “Away in a Manger.” Gwen always gets worried when Mom sings, “No crib for his bed” and she says urgently, “BED! BED! BED!” while patting her bed. Mom has to stop singing and say, “Baby Jesus didn’t have a bed, so he slept in the manger, but its okay.” Then Gwen will relax for the rest of the song. (Gwen never does he Jesus song shenanigans with Dad. She always just listens to whatever he sings.) She may also request “God” which means “I am a Child of God” or “tem” which means “I Love to See the Temple.”

-Gwen likes to sing songs with actions and catches on quickly. Favorites include “The Itsy, Bitsy Spider,” “Popcorn Popping,” “The Wheels on the Bus,” and “If You’re Happy and You Know It.” She also likes to do the following little nursery rhyme with her hands that Grammie taught her: “Open, shut them, Open, shut them, Give a little clap. Open, shut them, Open, shut them, Put them in your lap.”

-Gwen has one other bed time stall tactic that we could do without. Gwen will lay down when she gets put in bed and whoever is putting her to bed will cover her up and then sing a few songs. Almost immediately after being covered up, Gwen will sit up, knocking the blankets off of her, and say, “Cold!” She means “I’m cold, cover me up!” Dad or Mom says, “Lay down, and I’ll cover you up.” So she does, only to pop up again a few seconds later while saying, “Cold!” Now Dad or Mom says, “Gwen, if you don’t stay lying down, I’m all done singing” and this seems to help keep her warm under her covers!

-Gwen loves nursery at church and always gets positive comments from her nursery leaders.

-Gwen sometimes makes Dad feel sad because she says, “Away! Away!” when he comes in the door or comes into the same room she is in. We’ve begun to pretend she is saying, “Hooray!” and we run up to dad to give him a hug. This hasn’t worked as well as we had hoped, but perhaps it will in the long run.

-For quite a few months, Gwen was obsessed with her Little People Fisher Price house and putting the little people around the table in their chairs. At the library there is a large doll house and her favorite thing to do was gather the people and put them all in chairs around a table. More recently she has moved on to playing with baby dolls. She likes to put a doll in her high chair, buckle it in, put a bib on it, and “feed” it with a little bowl and spoon. She also likes to diaper and cloth dolls with her own diapers and clothing. She makes sure her dolls go for walks around the house in their stroller. There is one doll that doesn’t have any clothes and Gwen insists that it is cold and always wants to find a blanket for it. Sometimes she is very tender and kisses and hugs her dolls, but sometimes she throws them around and isn’t so good at pretending they’re real babies!

-Gwen loves to read books. She is maturing in her book choice and likes books that have more than just a word or two per page. For example, she likes to be read “The Little Engine That Could.” This is all well and good until she wants to read the same long story over and over and over in one sitting! There was recently a library book we checked out called “Fix It” with a little bear that starts to cry and has little tears on her cheeks in many of the pictures. Gwen is now on high alert for other crying characters in books and will often point at a picture and ask, “Cry?” This means she wants you to ask her, “Is he crying?” and she’ll tell you if the character is crying or not. She recognizes sad faces, too.

-Gwen is a dependable night sleeper and sleeps from around 7pm to around 7am. Her napping is less dependable, but she usually sleeps for at least an hour in the late morning or early afternoon.

-Gwen loves the white, crocheted blanket Great Grandma Earnshaw made her for her blessing and calls it her “blank” for blankie. She likes to have it to sleep with, and we try to keep it in her bed when she is awake because she has tripped on it in the past. However, she’ll often go in her room quietly and get it out of her crib so she can cuddle with it.

-Recently, Gwen always wants to go somewhere. She’ll go to the door that leads to the garage and say, “Go! Go!” If asked where she wants to go, she says, “Car!” She seems to like road trips short and long (and she even survives the four and a half hours of driving to Maine without much of a break). She loves trips to the library, store, church, gym, out to eat, or just anywhere. She’s really pleasant in public, so it’s usually very nice to have her company.

-With the warmer weather we’ve been spending more time outside and Gwen loves it. She likes to drive her cars up and down the driveway, sweep, kick balls, go up and down the little stairs that are part of the walkway that leads to the front door, swing, etc. She’s been on e few walks this spring and will walk all the way around the block!

-Gwen continues to be a great eater. She likes most everything, but sure bets include: peas, carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, edamame, broccoli, dutch babies, cheese tortillas, rice and chicken, black beans, toast or bagels with cream cheese, oranges, pears, bananas, cantaloupe, enchiladas, pasta with red or cheese sauce, yogurt with cheerios and blueberries, strawberries, cheese, crackers, tortilla chips, sweet potatoes, okay… most everything!

-Gwen will often say “again” or “more” when she wants something to continue. The cutest is at the end of Family Home Evening she always asks, “More?” When we say we’re all done she says, “Again! Again!”

-Gwen’s loudest time of day seems to be during scripture time when Dad reads to the family. She can play quietly or look at her own little scripture book, but she prefers to yell and talk gibberish very loudly. This makes us think she is unlikely getting anything out of our scripture time. However, this evening when we began reading she remembered what we had been reading on another night when the Spirit says to Nephi, “Look!” On that night, Dad had read this very enthusiastically and pointed dramatically. Tonight when dad began reading scriptures, Gwen said, “LOOK!” and pointed energetically. It was so cute!

-Gwen says “No” a lot and rarely, if ever, says, “Yes.” She may nod or repeat what you said to show her agreement, but she just doesn’t use the word yes.

-Gwen is working towards potty proficiency. She does really well if she doesn’t have pants or a diaper on, pretty well without pants on, and not very well with pants on. Hopefully warmer spring weather will allow more “no pants” days so she can master this skill soon!

-Gwen’s hair is super long and Mom likes to put it in all sorts of pony tails. She is pretty tolerant of having her hair done and she looks adorable!

-Gwen is super sweet and cuddly. We appreciate her obedient spirit which brings so much joy to our home. We love her very much and can’t wait to see all the new things she’ll learn and do as a two-year-old.

Flip That Eating Nook

When we moved into our house, one of the things we really liked about it was that everything was in good working condition. However, every inch of wall on the main floor (with the exception of the living room) was covered in outdated wallpaper. It's been slowly coming down, but the wallpaper removal process has been unpredictable. Our latest project was the dining area. It was a small amount of wall space, but with layers of wallpaper to remove and with the first paint color too bright, it took more than its share of time! After finishing the curtains today, we're finally satisfied and wish we had done it months ago! (Now we just need a new light fixture, but who knows when that will happen so we'll post now.)

BEFORE

AFTER

Of course Gwen was a big help throughout the the process. She helped perforate the wallpaper prior to steaming and peel off the remaining shards of wallpaper around the edges after steaming. (These photos are from back in September when we started the project.)

Gwen at 20 Months

Some things I don’t want to forget about Gwen at 20 months:

We recently got out the nativity set we got last year for Christmas (thanks Grandma Earnshaw). Gwen loves the baby Jesus and carries it around all day. She rocks it back and forth and says, “Rock, rock, rock.” She’ll often set it down and forget where she has left it. When this happens she walks around the house calling, “Jee! Jee!” It’s precious!

Gwen has started “saying” prayers by repeating, as best she can, what I say. She likes to do it, so now we take turns when we bless the food.

Gwen has started saying please. She’ll even ask for something with a please, like “pees pees” means “peas, please.” Asking for something with please have been some of her first two word phrases.

Before I put Gwen in her bed I sing her a few songs. She used to lie down on my shoulder and I’d rock her a little bit as I sang. She’ll still lie down sometimes, but more often she gets silly and puts her face really close to mine as I sing. She’ll try to knock heads with me, or point to parts of my face and say, “nose, nose, nose” or “eyes”. She is usually quite gentle, but I always have to be on guard for the occasional hard poke. If she gets really silly she’ll rock the opposite way from what I am rocking her and throw herself back and forth while saying, “Rock Rock Rock” in a loud voice. We usually end by singing “Twinkle, Twinkle” and she yells the last word from each line of the song. I’ll say, “Twinkle twinkle little…” and she’ll say, “SHTA!” “How I wonder what you…” “ AAAAA!” “Up above the world so…” “HIGH!” “Like a diamond in the…” “SHY!” It’s quite adorable!

Gwen goes to bed between 7 and 7:30. I usually go in later before I go to bed to make sure she is covered up. No matter what time it is, or how quiet I am, she almost always stands up in her crib and reaches for me. I pick her up, she reaches for the door, we go to the kitchen and get a little drink of water in the dark, and then we snuggle for a minute before I put her back in bed. She is still half asleep, but I can’t figure out how she always knows when I come into her room at night.

Gwen has started saying no…A LOT! She says no to most questions, even if she doesn’t mean it. However, when she does mean it, she says, “Nonononono”, but it sounds more like “Nununununu.” She shakes her head with energy and her curls bob all around.

Currently, Gwen’s favorite foods include winter squash, peas, dutch babies, crackers, bananas, pears, pizza, pasta with tomato sauce, and rice pilaf. Her favorite must be peas because that is what responds with when asked, “What do you want to eat?”

Gwen is getting pretty good as drinking from a cup all by herself. She picks up the cup gently and puts it down gently, so it won’t spill. However, she sometimes gets distracted looking at whatever is on the outside of the cup, she tips the cup to get a better view, and then the spill happens.

Gwen is really into garbage lately. She’ll help out by putting things in the garbage can when we ask her to. She’ll also put things in the garbage can when we don’t ask her to. If I’m watching, she’ll show me what she’s going to put in and I’ll say okay or not okay. If I’m not watching, I’ll hear the garbage can shut, turn around to see Gwen running away with this little smirk, and inside the garbage can will be something that is blatantly not garbage (a diaper, a book, a piece of clothing, etc). I tell Gwen, “Just ask Mom before you put something in the garbage.” But she just smiles and it happens again later in the day. She also wants to get things out of the garbage that she has just put in which can be messy. We were exercising at a track recently, and Gwen was hanging out in the middle of the track. She had some toys, but she left them behind and started collecting trash and taking it to a trash can on the side of the track. I was surprised that she knew that the trash can was a trash can because it didn’t look like our trash can at home!

Gwen likes to look at books and magazines and will do it all by herself. It is really cute to watch her be so independent.

Gwen loves to help. She likes to get a diaper and bring it to me when she needs to be changed. She’ll pick up things off the floor and hand them to me if I ask. She’ll help pick up her toys. She loves to carry things for me (like a piece of paper or anything small) when we are running errands. Gwen loves to help me unload the dishwasher. She takes all of the plastic things out and brings them to me to put in the cupboard. She takes one thing out, brings it to me, then goes back for the next, so it takes longer than usual, but the look of purpose she has is priceless! She takes her job seriously! At the end she wants me to pick her up so she can see all of the dishes neatly stacked in the cupboard. The cutest thing of all is when Gwen gets my towel for me when I’m done showering. If she’s awake, she’ll sit in the bathroom on her potty waiting for me to turn off the water. When I do, she jumps up and pulls my towel off the counter and hands it to me with a big smile. I say “Thanks Gwen! Can I give you a big kiss?” She always says, “No!” and then leans up for the kiss. She’s too cute!

Gwen’s favorite things are her blanket (she call it “ba”) and her little pink beanie baby bear (she calls it “ba” too). When she wakes up and gets out of her crib, she will only leave the blanket in the crib if she is given her bear. She likes to make her bear do things like clap, wave, dance, and climb the stairs. She’ll “feed” the bear with a spoon and likes to have the bear sit on a shelf by her high chair when she has a meal.

Gwen likes Dora. She has Dora pajamas (thank Grammie Crosby) and a Dora sweatshirt. She chooses to wear Dora if there is a choice and she reminds us that she is wearing Dora by pointing to Dora and saying, “Du, du”.

Gwen has done this for a long time, but I don’t think I’ve recorded it before. When given a choice between two things, she’ll almost always push away the one she doesn’t want instead of pointing to the one she does want. Sometimes the pushing away can get kind of aggressive. For example, she’ll grab and throw a book she doesn’t want to read at the moment, even if it may be her second choice!Gwen is such a sweetie, and I don't think I could ever forget that!

Gwen is EIGHTEEN months old!

Wow! She’s cute, she’s cuddly, and today Gwen is one and a half! There is a librarian who we often see when we’re checking out books. She always says hello to Gwen and mentions that Gwen is really cute. The other day she repeated her usual compliment, and I made the usual response, “Oh, I think she’s pretty cute too.” The librarian looked at me really seriously and said, “No, I mean she’s REALLY cute!” I had to agree again! Besides just growing cuter, she’s also doing and saying new things all the time.

-She’s very interested in talking and copies as many sounds as she can catch you saying. She’ll repeat all of the sounds of the letters in the alphabet. (The cutest are when her little mouth makes the “f” or the “t” sounds!) Her expanding vocabulary now includes hi, bye, fly, ball, boom (sound effect when she kicks a ball), bababa (banana), mo (more), shu (shoe), bow (hair bow or barrette), mao (mouth), mi (milk), ga (dog), pa (cup), and more daily. She makes lots of animal noises including woof woof, cack (quack), neow (meow), moo, and baa. Favorite animal sounds include her guinea pig sound (which is difficult to reproduce with letters) and a really throaty raaaar that Dad taught her for a tiger’s roar. Gwen will also say a few names including Dew (Drew) and RoRo (Rowyn). She is expert at calling Mom “mama” and Dad “dAAA.” Gwen will call for whoever is out of sight and go looking for the person if she doesn't get a response.

-Gwen continues to love to be read to, but she will also look at books and magazines by herself. She likes books with pictures of real animals and books about kids doing things she does (like brushing their hair, taking a bath, washing their hands, or eating). She’ll carry around a favorite book or magazine page. As you can see below, sometimes she gets creative with books…

-Gwen’s really into carrying her favorite things around. She has so many favorite things that sometimes this is difficult to manage, but she doesn’t want any help or a bag to put her things in. Some of her favorite items include her blankets (in case she needs a quick cuddle), little bottles or containers, a stop watch on a lanyard, necklaces, a little car, crayons or markers, her magnadoodle, and for awhile a baggie with birthday candles inside. In this photo you can see her with her “scriptures”, a little flag, a coloring page, and crayons.

-Gwen has started to pretend. When she pretends to read, pray, or talk on the phone she speaks in a voice that is quieter and higher than her normal voice. It’s pretty cute. She also pretends to yawn, which often leads to a real yawn, if you ask, “Are you tired?” If she has a spoon, she’ll pretend to stir something in an empty container and then she’ll take a bite or let you have a taste (she learned this from a friend). Gwen likes to play with her dolls and she’ll put them in their cradle, cover them up, and rock them, only to take them out and do it all again. A few weeks ago she learned how to “feed” her doll with a little empty bottle of children’s medicine as a bottle. She thought it was so neat and now “feeds” her dolls and stuffed animals with care. She even makes little drinking sounds.-Gwen is looking older with a mouth full of teeth. For awhile she had four teeth on the top and four teeth on the bottom. Over the past month or so she’s gotten four more on the top and four more on the bottom, including some molars. She’s better at taking bites and managing with larger pieces of food. She loves fruit, cheese, cucumbers, and black beans. Recently she has also tried and liked tuna fish and beets.

-Gwen has been all about walking for awhile, but she is still prone to trip over things and fall forwards or backwards for no apparent reason. She doesn't seem to mind and gets right back up. She has tried, with some success, to step down very small steps, but can't seem to manage stepping up without a helping hand. She likes to walk up and down slight inclines, like the ramp going into the shed or the little hill on the side of the driveway. She thinks it is funny to walk backwards and turn in circles until she is dizzy.

Gwen in Florida 2009

Yesterday Gwen and Mom flew to Florida to visit the Crosby side of the family. Gwen and Mom made the same trip last year, so with Grammie and Poppa's sponsorship this year, it's becoming a fun tradition! We're missing Dad as he had to stay back and work, but we're sure he's not missing this hot weather. Gwen did really well on the flight thanks to an empty seat next to us and a very kind man sitting at the end of the row. He didn't mind Gwen tapping him with her foot, Gwen grabbing his arm if she noticed he had his eyes closed, or Gwen giving him books that she expected he would read to her. Mom kept apologizing and the man kept saying, "I really enjoy it!" Gwen acted like he was serious and occupied his attention as much as possible.

Aunt Rachel and Cousin Katie greeted us at the airport in Florida. We got in the car and headed for the beach house where Grammie and Poppa were waiting. Gwen and Katie sat in the back seat of the car exchanging stuffed animals and blankets until Gwen fell asleep. Gwen has gotten a little whiny with peers lately, but she's done okay with her cousin.

What's the first thing you do when you get to the beach house? Go to the beach of course!

Katie and Gwen eating breakfast.

Katie and Gwen getting ready for the beach on day 2.

Katie is thinking, "How did I end up pulling the wagon?"

Cousin Fun

Gwen's 15 Month Stats

Gwen had her fifteen month appointment with her pediatrician today. She weighed in at 2o lbs 8 oz and was almost 31 inches long, putting her in the 25th and 50th percentiles respectively. Her head circumference continues to defy all odds by being in the 90th percentile at 18 3/4 inches! She continues to learn new things all of the time. Here are a few that come to mind:

-Gwen recently started to fold her arms during a prayer (as pictured above). Sometimes she will keep them folded for the whole prayer. In the evenings we have family prayer and we usually hold her while we pray. Last night she started the prayer in my lap with her arms folded. However, she was squirmy so I let her go and she crawled over to some toys and began to play with them. When the prayer was over we looked over at her. She looked up at us and quickly folded her arms as if she had had them folded the entire prayer. It was precious!

-Gwen will say "Hi" and "Bye". She usually has to be asked to say them, and you can almost see her little mind working as she pronounces them in her own way. After she says a word she is so happy with herself and smiles really big.

-Gwen loves to "organize", although there is an equal amount of disorganizing involved! She's in the stage where she likes to put things into something, and then take them all out again. When we were in Maine she took all the shampoo bottles off the ledge in the bathtub and then worked to put them all back up. The other night she pulled a bunch of diapers out of her closet and put them all on the rug. then she put them all on the wood floor, then she moved them all back to the rug. Recently her favorite thing to play with is an empty yogurt container and about five hair clips. She puts them into the container, shakes them up until they all fall out, and then collects them and puts them all in again. What is so amazing is how driven she is. She does not get distracted by anything else when she is "organizing." If something gets in her way she throws it to the side. The other amazing thing is how long she'll do it for. She doesn't ever seem to get sick of organizing!

-Gwen's current obsession is climbing a short flight of stairs that goes up to our bedroom. She loves to climb them and shrieks with excitement as she gets near the top of the stairs. She's pretty good at it, but we still spot her as she goes up. She is learning to go down, but needs lots of reminders to make it down safely. We have a gate we put at the bottom of the stairs and it makes her so mad when we put it up. Sometimes she says, "Aaaaa" in a disappointed tone or sometimes she cries about it.

-Gwen continues to be a great eater. She likes cheese, pasta, some meat, bread, oatmeal, and dutch babies. She eats lots of vegetables (carrots, corn, broccoli, beans, peas, squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, you name it!) to start a meal and she'll eat a lot of fruit to end it. She loves fruit. The bananas have to be hidden before she gets in her high chair or else so will see them on top of the fridge, say 'ba ba ba" meaning banana, and refuse to eat anything else. She has mastered the art of drinking from a cup.

-Gwen likes to play with puzzles from the library. She doesn't really do them yet (although sometimes she tries), she just likes playing with the pieces. The past few weeks we had a transportation puzzle with planes, cars and trains. Dad would make the cars drive around while making a car sound like "rrrrrr". Gwen copied him and loved driving the pieces along people, furniture, or the ground. Her favorite piece was the taxi, but she also liked to carry around the bus and a blue convertible. We happened to have a book from the library that had a picture of a taxi in it. If we were reading that book and came to the taxi page, if Gwen wasn't already holding it, Gwen HAD to go and find the taxi puzzle piece before we could continue.

-Gwen loves to go outside and crawl all around. She used to stay on a blanket, but now she likes to get dirty. She plays with her bubbles or a couple soccer balls. She finds rocks and leaves and puts them in her mouth. We go on walks and she woofs at each dog we pass. If we see a cat and it is friendly enough to come towards us, she gets really excited to pet it.

-Gwen's next major accomplishment will be walking... we hope! She's still not quite there. She is getting pretty good at walking while just holding on with one hand, but she sits down and crawls if she can't hold onto something. Her babysitter has a walker that she likes to use. She looks so cute because she kind of waddles. She's not so good at turning the walked while walking, but she'll sit down, turn the walker by moving it with her arms, and then stand up and keep going.

Fish in Florida

Today we visited The Florida Aquarium, "home to over 20000 aquatic plants and animals from Florida and all over the world." We went with Grammie, Jacob, Rachel, Katie, Jonathan, and Josh. Gwen was on the tired side and wasn't as excited about the "fishies" as we had hoped, but we enjoyed ourselves all the same.

Christmas Eve

2008 is a Crosby Christmas, so this morning we said goodbye to the freezing rain of New York and hello to the 80 degree sunshine of Florida.

Gwen did well on the flight, but only got a few cat naps in throughout the day. This didn't prevent her from enjoying her first swing ride in Grammie and Poppa Crosby's backyard. She held tightly to the rope the whole time! By Christmas Eve, Gwen was a very tired baby!

Gwen, Grammie Crosby, & Cousin Katie Belle

Jared, Gwen, & Ashley

Gwen is ready for her first Christmas... and bed!

Gwen is NINE Months Old!

Another month has passed and Gwen is changing so quickly. Just yesterday Jared found Gwen holding on to the side of her crib and standing up after her nap! She loves "climbing" all over you if you lay down on the ground. She is so strong!

Just this past week Gwen has gotten pretty good at crawling. She still seems to prefer the army crawl on carpet, but on the hardwood floors she crawls on hands and knees. She has started following Mom into the kitchen. Gwen sits at Mom's feet and tries to chew on Mom's slippers.

Gwen still loves bath time. She got too big for her baby bathtub and now takes a bath in the big bathtub while sitting or lying on a large, yellow, bear-shaped sponge called a "Tub Cub." Her preferred bathing position is lying on her back as she loves to chew on her rubber ducky and kick, kick, kick her legs making lots of splashes.

Gwen gives kisses to people, toys, and books. She opens her mouth and leans in gently for the kiss. She is also really good at clapping. She claps her hands together and smiles. She likes to play patty cake and to clap when she hears, "If You're Happy and You Know It" or "Do as I'm Doing." She also likes to make noise by banging a toy on the ground, on her highchair tray, or on another toy.

Gwen continues to try new foods and is generally accepting of whatever she is given. She has some strange habits when is comes to eating. For example, she almost always sucks on her hand after she gets a spoonful of food in her mouth. A lot of the food gets slobbered out of her mouth and onto her hand or arm. She'll continue to suck this food off of her hand and arm, making an even bigger mess. She has also recently started sucking on her bib. These weird habits make feeding Gwen baby food a time consuming and messy ordeal!

Gwen is letting us know that she understands more words. She had a book from the library about loud things and quiet things. Fish were an example of something quiet. Whenever that page was read and someone said fish, Gwen looked immediately at the fish tank. If she's in the right mood, she'll also kiss or clap on command. It's so amazing to see her learn new things!

We can't believe how fast Gwen is growing and how cute she is getting!