Our sparkling Gemmi girl

It's been a funny thing to be a parent the second time.  I feel like I have just cherished all the baby stuff so much more.  With Greyson, it was all, "I can't wait till he crawls...I can't wait till he talks....I can't wait till he walks..." But now that I know that all happens so quickly (and then never stops) with Gem it's been all, hugga hugga, squeeza squeeza, snuggle snuggle, kissa kissa.

(God bless you non-parents still sticking around after reading that last bit).

So now that Gem is almost 11 months and her birthday party planning is right around the corner (boohoo) her little attitude and behavior has opened our eyes to the little girl that is growing out of her baby clothes and wiggling out of our arms...major boohoo.  She is already bossing us around the place and walking (she took her first steps on her 10mo birthday(!!) and is now up to comfortably walking around the room = 10-15 steps before bailing on it and speed-crawling).  She also has this uncanny ability to mimic intonation so when I say, "Gemmi, do you want a banana?"  She answers back with the same intonation "nanana" so that we swear she's speaking real words half the time (she isn't).

Our Gem is something else.  At some point, we say every.single.day:  "What are we going to do with this child?"  Sometimes we say it because she is too smart for her own good and has already figured out how to get her own way by making a screaming at a high shrill until someone gives her whatever she wants.

Sometimes we say 'What are we going to do with this child?" because she is the most curious little child on the planet.  She has earned her knickname 'Nosey Rosey' getting into everything and anything and leaving a trail of things she shouldn't be playing with in her wake.  Today she pulled a ceramic plate off of the table and it broke in half (off of her head!!) and smashed to the floor.  She cried for two minutes until she was squirming to get into something else - only sporting a huge goose-egg bruise and two black&blue marks on  her forehead.

But mostly we ask, "What are we going to do with this child?" because she is so obnoxiously beautiful and gives this smile that knocks the wind out of grown men (mainly her Daddy, grandpas, and uncles) that we honestly don't know how we're going to do as she continues to grow up and only realizes more quickly that no one can tell her No.  After she gives Brandon that grin I say to him, "Sorry man, but you don't stand a chance."  He laughs cause he knows its true.

Booboo has even fallen under her spell.  He knows just how to make her laugh (he looks at her and fake giggles until she starts giggling right along with him) and he sometimes is overcome by her sweet face that he puts his hands to her cheeks and says, "aww honey."

I have been a pretty serious 'boy mom' for the past 2.5 years.  I've learned about 'boy' things like trucks, and cars, and swords, and Ninja turtles, and Turtleman.  And Gem has still been too baby to have any gender-specific toy/show/etc sway her in any direction.  She plays with babydolls and cars without bias; so I still feel very much like a 'boy mom.'

And then the other day when I was emptying out the dryer lint catcher after Christmas, I was stopped in my tracks by something shiny.  The catcher was filled with lint but was covered by a thin layer of silver glitter (that had unfortunately fallen off of one of her handwash only dresses that I had hurriedly tossed in the washer/dryer).

There I was; fully feeling like a boy's mom (rushing around trying to finish before I was pelted with another nerf bullet), and in that sparkly moment, I smiled to myself;  "This is the sort of thing that happens to a girl's mom."

Thank you for bringing glitter and the sweetest kind of tenderness into our lives Gemmi girl.  We love you so much we honestly can't stand ourselves.