Photographer Dilemma (again)

you may already know that i'm having some issues deciding between two photographers. here is the lo-down.

Sam: 

pictures look great.

is charging us $400 for the dol, $50/h for a portrait/family shoot beforehand.

at first i wasn't sure about her personality through the emails, but the more i talk to her, the better. and she seems to really want the job of shooting the dol.

Carla:

pictures also look great.

is charging us $250 for the dol, $150 for 90 minutes for a portrait shoot beforehand. because the weather was nice, she offered us a small shoot for $50 of just Gemma, which we took advantage of on sunday. she seems nice, but a little hurried (maybe because she had a client right after us). 

i know what you're thinking... the obvious choice is Carla, right? but a part of me still prefers Sam's pictures just a teeny tiny bit more and i want to meet her/see what she is like, not to mention see the pictures she takes of Gemma. The thing is, she is only offering us the portrait session at $50/h if we hire her to do the dol (otherwise, it would be $190/h). 

but i can't do 2 more shoots before the dol or else i'd be out $200, $200 that i could spend towards the day itself. besides, what if we do the portraits with Sam and decide we don't like her? then that would cost us $190!

oh boy oh boy... why is this so hard? what would you do???  it's like i know the easy solution would be to go with Carla, but i am just so curious about what could be with Sam...

fighting naps

right now, we have an awesome routine. Gemma wakes up at 6:30ish, goes back down for a nap at 8:30ish, then another nap at 1:30-2ish, then down for the night at 7:30ish. For a long time now, she has been going down without a fuss, even without any settling. I could just plop her in her crib, give her my robe (her lovey), and she will turn over and go to sleep. 

the last few days, she has really been fighting me on naps. even as i write this, she has been whining in her room for over 20 minutes. i am sure she is not ready to go down to one nap, but i guess i could try keeping her awake longer in between. i am just afraid she will be overtired...

oh well. i guess we'll figure something out. i just love that when you think you have something down pat, she goes and changes everything! LOL...

Tower 1

...all done!

I can't tell you how many times I've burned my fingers doing this. Those popcorn kernels are TINY!

oh, this was basically says "happy Dol"

Planning Parties

In our B&M class, there are quite a few December babies (seven, to be exact). So we decided to have a December babies birthday party at the end of November (with one November baby). We were at our friend Jeff's house today making party plans and I think got quite a bit accomplished with deciding this and that. 

This party is just a week before Gemma's big party, so I'm a party-planning mess right now. Things are slowly coming together though for the Dol: venue is picked, menu is picked, guest list is pretty much done, most of the invitations are printed, addressed, and stamped, one of the Dol towers is finished (3 more to go), and we received the party favors in the mail today! 

It's kinda daunting as I go back to work in a week, have two parties to plan and pay for, and many, many DIY projects to do. I still have to find a cake I like and order it, order the ddeok (korean rice cake), order flowers, buy a tablecloth, finish the towers, decide on the photographer, and a gazillion more things. As if I couldn't be busy enough, i have a wedding and two birthday parties to attend before the end of November, so three of my weekends are GONE... oh and Thanksgiving... make that four...

This Sunday, we're getting some pictures taken of Gemma from one of the photographic candidates. The idea is to display some of these at the party. 

I think I bit off a bit more than i can chew.... what do you think?

Costly Addiction

someone seriously needs to stop me. Ever since I heard about the baby deal-a-day sites, I've been buying things left and right. I may not necessarily NEED them, but they're cute or a really good deal, so I cave. I must have spent nearly $500 (if not more) since my addiction began...

Like today, they had four pairs of BabyLegs on for $20. They retail at about $15 each, so even though i have 6 pairs already, i HAD to get them. Then the excuse I give myself is that I will give them out as Christmas gifts to Gemma's cousins, but that's what i said when I ordered the super cute Taylor Joelle hats! 

I wish I could just put away my credit card and control my urges that way, but of course i have the number, the expiry date, and the security code all memorized... sigh...

I've NEVER been like this. I HATE spending money and am not usually impulsive on purchases. Sometimes i wish Gemma was a boy and then maybe there would be less cute stuff to tempt me. LOL.

Umma!

Tonight, while I was making supper, Gemma crawled up to me, pulled on my pant leg and said "umma". Umma is Korean for "mom" and we've been teaching her this for a long time, but this is the first time she ever said it. She says it PERFECTLY and, as you can guess, I practically melted to the floor when she said it.

New Car Seat

Gemma is growing out of her infant seat. Actually we had bought a convertible car seat months ago (Safety 1st Alpha Omega), but found that it was just too big to fit rear-facing in our matrix. It fits in the Envoy just fine, so that's where it will stay. 

After asking around, looking around, and researching on the web, I found the Britax Diplomat, which is specifically made for small cars like mine. I was elated when I found it on sale on a Canadian web site with free shipping! 

I finally got it yesterday and Jesse installed it as soon as he got home. There is still plenty of space between the driver's seat and the car seat, which i was so happy to see. It looks comfortable and Gemma doesn't seem to mind it TOO much just yet - but then again, she hates being in the car no matter what....

Today on our way home from Baby & Me, she fell asleep and her head didn't tilt forward, which I was happy to see. We always have that problem in the Alpha Omega and someone has to hold her forehead up...

So if you know anyone who is looking for a convertible car seat for their small vehicle, this is a good one (from what I can gather so far).

Teething Bling Fail

About a month or two ago, I came upon this thing called Teething Bling on a web site. It's a necklace that the mom wears and the baby can chew on it if they want, and I guess the whole point is to save your nice jewelry, hair, and hoodie drawstrings from all the drool and gumming. A few weeks after, I saw that one of the moms at B&M was wearing it and I asked how she liked it and she said she loved it. Then I found out that the teething bling web site was having a 50% sale and so of course I got on that. 

Well I received it a few days ago and washed it and put it on. Then I picked Gemma up and was all eager to see how much she was just going to LOVE this thing. She looked at the pendant, picked it up, looked at me, and then tried to put the pendant in my mouth. 

and that's what she always does. I have yet to see her put it in her own mouth. I have to constantly say "no thank you, you chew it". She thinks it's funny though and I like to see her laugh, so I amuse her from time to time...

Too bad I don't have any new teeth coming in...

a late update

I should have mentioned this last week, but Gemma got her top two teeth.

Keys

Why is it that EVERY baby is obssessed with KEYS?

Smart Cookie

The other day, Gemma started pointing and making a kind of grunting noise to try to tell us what she wants. She also understands so many words (though all in Korean) - mom, dad, grandma, flower, duck, shoes, butterfly, Reggie, food, no (even though she doesn't obey), come here, water, knock-knock...

if we ask her where her nose is, she will put her hand in her mouth (her hand just doesn't quite make it up to her nose). if we say mansei (which is like "hurray!"), she will put both arms up over her head. 

we have these alphabet blocks that have things inside them as an example of a word that starts with the letter on the block (A has an airplane, B has a banana, etc). Yesterday, we lined up five blocks, one of them being D (with a duck inside), and when we asked Gemma where the duck was, she picked up the D block!

I'm so proud of her.... could you tell?

Discipline!?

I never knew a 9-month-old could be such terror. Isn't the terribleness supposed to start when they're 2 years old? This kid has such a bad temper and is so darn moody! (i swear my genes had nothing to do with it, LOL) She is so overly dramatic and I swear it's getting worse everyday. I feel like I don't want to give in to her demands if she is screaming, but what can I do? I feel like we're always battling each other - like who is gonna give in first? I tell ya, this kid is relentless. She can scream non-stop for a good solid hour or longer if I ignore her. How do I discipline her? I'm not against spanking, but right now she won't be able to understand why I'm spanking her. But that goes the same with me raising my voice, ignoring her, whatever. She won't understand why I'm being "mean" to her.

Help!

Party Planning

In Korean tradition, the first birthday is a HUGE deal. I just had a realization this morning that I better get planning right away, especially since I won't have much time once I go back to work. 

First, I need to decide WHERE to have it. The guests will likely be my family, my mom's church friends, our friends, and maybe Jesse's family (they haven't decided yet whether they would come for it). I would also like to invite some of the ladies I work with, as well as our baby & me friends. So the dilemma is whether to have it in Edmonton or in Calgary. Of course things would be easier to plan if it was in Calgary, but probably less people would be able to make it if it was here (family-wise). 

Then, I need to decide on a venue. A restaurant or a hotel? 

Then, a theme.... that's gonna be a hard one. 

Then I can start working on the decoration ideas, gift ideas, game ideas, look into photographers, etc.

Did you think i was joking when I said it was a HUGE deal? Jesse and I are aware that Gemma's dol (1st birthday party) will cost us somewhere along the lines of what our wedding reception cost us. But we WANT to have a big party for her and have been preparing for this even before she was born.

I guess Jesse and I will have a lot to discuss in the next few days...

9 months

We went to the doctor for her 9-month check. She is 19 lb 5 oz. I'm not even gonna keep track of her length, because there is such a huge margin of error and at some appointments she is shorter than she was at the last one. 

I think she is pretty well on track with her development. Over the weekend, she began saying new consonants. Until then, she was always only saying B's (like bbabbabba) and Jesse was always thrilled because "abba" is korean for daddy and he keeps saying that is her first word (i don't think so!). Now she has added "ch", "j", "y", and "d". It's really funny because sometimes it sounds like she is saying "Jeshee"...

She is a big climber. She likes to climb stairs, mattresses, pillows, ME, Reggie's bed, etc. She also likes to stand up against the TV stand and open the door and pull out all the DVDs. She is also a really fast crawler and will "run away" from you if you're trying to prevent her from getting into trouble. She loves to go and splatter Reggie's water bowl all over the floor and so we have to constantly move his water bowl throughout the day. She can "jam-jam" which is opening and closing the fist repeatedly. If we say "ko" (which means nose), she will put her hand in her mouth (she is supposed to touch her nose, but it doesn't quite make it up to it). She is warming up to people a lot faster now (she will still cry initially, but usually that's all). She's also began biting (i don't know if that's just cuz she is teething) people, especially my mom. She will often come up to me and put her open mouth on my body, whether it's my knee, my arm, my face, anything. If she finds my robe on the floor, she likes to smother herself in it and roll around in it. 

Eating-wise, she seems to be getting pickier. She is okay with most vegetables, but she is now starting to dislike meats, i think. She still loves any and all fruit. She is nursing twice a day with formula once a day. I started her on homo milk to drink with her meals and she loves it. 

When we saw the doctor yesterday, he was really not a fan of giving homo AT ALL before 1 year. Apparently cow's milk interferes with iron absorption in the stomach and can lead to anemia. AND apparently a study done following kids who were anemic as babies showed that they had slightly lower IQs. So what should I do? 

Also with the weaning, I decided to keep nursing until she is 1. The main reason for weaning was to possibly get pregnant again, but after talking over it with Jesse a few more times, we decided we would wait til spring maybe. Although if we aren't preggers by July 2011, Gemma will probably be our only biological child.

and I think that's it for now.

First Zoo Trip

My brother is here visiting and we decided to go to the zoo yesterday. It was incredibly busy and I don't think we'll ever go again on a long weekend. Too many people...

While we had fun, it was windy and Gemma was tired and so we had to cut the trip short. But it was neat to see her react to all the different animals. She was so mesmerized and was talking the entire time (ooh-ing and ahh-ing). Here are a few pictures to enjoy:

Little Climber

So we're feeling much better in the K household. Gemma has a bit of phlegm, but she is eating better now and sleeping better. Phew!

Today, she climbed the stairs in our house. Even just a few days ago, she was struggling to get her legs up, but today she is climbing like a pro. We have 16 steps in our house and she went up about a dozen before she got tired and didn't want to go up anymore.

She is also going to be 9 months old tomorrow, which means she will have spent half of her life inside me and half of her life outside! I can't believe how much she has grown...

so sick, but so cute

Gemma has exactly what I had. My voice is finally coming back and she is just losing hers. And - she coughs and then cries, which is so sad to see, but really cute at the same time. Poor thing cries out, but her voice is so hoarse... 

She is unfortunately not sleeping well due to the coughing and crying. I hear her almost every 20 minutes or so and she is exhausted during the day from having had such poor sleep. 

I am hoping she'll feel better soon, but unfortunately if it's running the same course with her as it did with me, she won't be back to normal for a couple of weeks at least... 

Please keep us in your thoughts!