39/52

"A portrait of my child once a week, every week of 2014"

Week 39: It was so hard to choose Gemma's picture this week so I went with two! We took her to a pumpkin patch called Shantzholm farms and she had such a great time visiting the animals, taking a hay ride to the pumpkin fields, drinking apple cider with her Papa and playing in the kids maze. It was a wonderful fall weekend!

Love and Hugs

Completely rational/ Just a little funny for your Friday

Gemma likes sneaky food on sneaky food all the time! Have you seen the rest of these from the Picky Eaters Club?  There is also another #pickyeatersclub member who will only eat his oatmeal if he has multiple spoons. Gemma would have to agree with you on that young sir.

Love and Hugs

38/52

"A portrait of my child once a week, every week of 2014"

Week 38: Out for a Sunday afternoon stroll around the neighbourhood. I would follow that funny little ponytail anywhere it goes. 

Love and Hugs

37/52

"A portrait of my child once a week, every week of 2014"

Week 37: At the Ancaster fair. Gemma made a bee line straight for the goats and wouldn't budge. She  could have stayed there all day, that is until she found out there were free balloons outside the stables!

Love and Hugs

Weeks 31 thru 36 of the 52 week portrait project

Week 36: Was Gemma's 2nd birthday! It was a rainy fall day outside so we brought the party indoors. We had a brunch to accommodate for her nap and invited our family. She had a blast and was so enamoured with everyone signing Happy birthday to her. I thought she'd be freaked out but she smiled quietly and loved it! Her best bday gift by far.

Week 35: Weekends are for lazing around reading books on the couch in your under ware.

Week 34: In the middle of preggo sciatic pain time my Mom came to the save the day! (like all month basically) Here Gemma is at the Aquarium in Toronto with Mom and Auntie Britt and cousin Will. I wish I could have been there to watch her discover all the fishes.

Week 33: Too sick to take pictures

Week 32: Too sick to take pictures

Week 31: Mom and Dad show up again and take Gemma to the park! She never wants to get off those swings! Seriously gotta think about getting a set for our backyard next summer.

So there you have it we are all caught up! I'm am finally feeling relief in my leg and can certainly get back to taking pictures and capturing moments with Gemma so stay tuned!

Love and Hugs

27,28,29,30/52 portrait project catch up

Week 27: Gemma being an orangutan at Shoppers trying on glasses and climbing towers. Girl seriously cracks me up!

Week 28: Enjoying her vichyssoise aux courgettes at Nathalie's wedding in Corsica. My sweet angel.

Week 29: Gemma LOVED the playground beneath the Eiffel Tower in Paris, especially the carousel!

Week 30: Back home she took her very first ride on a tricycle and I think she's hooked!

Love and Hugs

26/52

"A portrait of my child once a week, every week of 2014"

There were a lot of beautiful portraits from this week but I thought the above fuzzy one captures my baby at this moment perfectly. She started expressing herself so much with those lovely eyebrows of hers. It's getting harder and harder to tell her no when she seems to be constantly trying and succeeding at making us laugh. 

Gosh I love her!

Love and Hugs

25/52

"A portrait of my child once a week, every week of 2014"

Doesn't she look like Little Miss out and about? We took her to the Cambridge Arts festival over the weekend and released her from the stroller to have a look around. I love her.

I think Gemma is going through another growth spurt. Ah the mysteries of raising your child. She's so much taller and started waking up a full hour earlier than normal and seems to be mad at a lot of stuff. Any advice fellow mommas out there?

Love and Hugs

24/52

"A portrait of my child once a week, every week of 2014"

It's hard to put into words how happy this picture makes me. That look on Gemma's face, that gaze, her fingers, everything! Sometimes when I am holding her on my knee, reading a book or watching a movie I think how can she possibly love me as much as I love her. Does she know? Does she love me back? Am I doing ok at this? Sometimes I spend too much time on my phone in her presence. Sometimes I feed her mac and cheese out of the box. Sometimes I look the other way and don't correct her behaviour when I know she needs me to.
I don't know how to explain it. It's like this incredible person turned up on my doorstep and I try to take care of her every day and basically feel desperately desperately in love with her. But I almost don't believe she's mine. We are so different and she is her own person. 

And she likes to pick clover flowers in the back yard. 

Love and Hugs

23/52

"A portrait of my child once a week, every week of 2014"

Gemma is patiently waiting for the birthday boy to arrive. Her cousin William turned two over the weekend and we had so much fun at his Dino sized party.

Love and Hugs

22/52

"A portrait of my child once a week, every week of 2014"

Week 22- I love how Gemma holds her opposing hand and fingers when she is concentrating on a task. She usually has her pinky finger up like she's a lady at Tea Time. Melts me everytime.

Love and Hugs

20/52 and 21/52

"A portrait of my child once a week, every week of 2014"

Week 20- This is my baby girl at our mother's day brunch, my prettiest little flower.

"A portrait of my child once a week, every week of 2014"

Week 21- Here we are at Gemma's last Tumbling Tots class. She always needs a moment to herself at the beginning before she goes in and I just love that about her.

Love and Hugs

18/52 and 19/52

"A portrait of my child once a week, every week of 2014"

Week 18- This is Gemma meeting her new baby cousin Charlotte for the first time. I adore the way she touches her. For the most part there was just a lot of pointing and even some weird hand waving near her head. She did get a little too excited and pulled on her fingers a few times but Charlotte didn't seem to mind. She's gonna be one tough cookie with these two rascals hanging around.

"A portrait of my child once a week, every week of 2014"

Week 19- This is Gem observing the big kids playing. She is so gentle in these moments and so innocent and my little baby. My heart bursts with realizations that I can't be with her everywhere at all times holding her and keeping her safe. I love to see her interact but I also just want to scoop her up and have her all to myself again. You know what I mean?

Love and Hugs

16/52 and 17/52

 "A portrait of my child once a week, every week of 2014" 

Week 16- At my Aunt Jane's house for Easter weekend. She had a blast with her older cousins and the weather was beautiful! I took pictures of her in sunshine everywhere she went.

Week 17- With rainy cold weather back upon us we got a break and headed outside. Gemma is a helpful Virgo so I set her to the task of gardening. She attacked with gusto.

Love and Hugs

15/52

"A portrait of my child once a week., every week of 2014"

Darn it I forgot to take out my camera again this week. So we've got another round of iphone pics for you. Also decided to break the other rule by posting two portraits instead of one. Yay double Gem-Roo! She's a ham I tell ya and a stubborn one at the that. Every time I tried to readjust her hat for these pictures she gave me a roar and repositioned it ever so slightly perfectly askew. Gosh I love her. 

Love and Hugs

14/52

"A portrait of my child once a week, every week of 2014"

Please excuse my horrible iphone pic of Gem this week. I completely forgot about this project and didn't take my camera out once. Instead we were on the go quite a bit and I believe this was Gemma's favourite moment; discovering hoola hoopping at Tumbling Tots. She's a natural, naturally. 

Love and Hugs

13/52

"A portrait of my child once a week, every week of 2014"

Helping her Daddy clean the kitchen and the first time we've seen her toes since last summer. Here's hoping the weather keeps up and we'll be seeing a lot more of them from now on. 

Love and Hugs

12/52

"A portrait of my child once a week, every week of 2014"

It was so hard to pick this weeks photo. There were just so many great ones and a few really great ones of her smiling and looking right at the camera but I just couldn't resist the look on her face in this one. I'm surprised she's still alive and I didn't eat her right there and then.

Love and Hugs

Gemma is 18months old!

I was going for the quintessential pic on the grey chair against the cream wall like the ones from our 12 month photo series but Gemma just wasn't into it. She wanted to run around and play with her Duplo instead. Can you blame her?

I did get her to sit on the grey chair but only if she could hold the remote.

This is definitely an outtake. 

 This one too.

Oh no she's really mad at me now. 

Quick do something. Let her stand on the ottoman! 

 I changed her outfit thinking maybe jeans and sweats might help the situation. 

 Nope! No sitting for anyone!

 Must Dance in moccasins!

A few of Gemma's favourite things: Colouring with her crayons. Or basically making me sit down and colour for her. I love it! Being the Boss er I mean Mom of her dollies. She likes changing their diapers and feeding them bottles and taking them on walks in their stroller. Music! She just loves everything musical. Especially the Wiggles. She's still a pretty good eater but will now clearly tell you NO if she doesn't want to eat something. Her favs are avocado, salmon, cucumbers and chickpeas.

She's talking a little more and has added a few words on top of No!No!No!. Some words she says fully like Help, Bye, Hi, Ball, Hat but others she makes up her own version. For instance when she says All done it sounds like ahhhhJUN. When she says bottle it sounds like baol. And when asking for More she does the sign and says Mo!Mo! Gosh she's cute. She's also showing signs of bilingualism. When we watch her french language learning videos and the little panda bear says Au Revoir she looks up and says, "Bye!"

We are entering the strange and scary world of discipline. Gemma is a powerhouse full of emotional force and to be honest I'm not sure what to do. I definitely tell her no when it's appropriate but I feel she needs even more rules and boundaries and I'm a little lost. Having said that last week was hard but even yesterday I felt like I got her emotions more and could help her better. All I want to do is take care of this baby girl the best way I can! Getting all Schmoopy Mommy I know I know!
 
Did I ever tell you that when our midwife first heard Gemma's heart rate she said it was so strong and fast and will most likely be a boy. I remember spending most of my pregnancy worried I would miscarry like in the past until an experience in one of our last Hypnobirthing classes. The Doula lead us into a meditation and asked us to take the place of the baby inside us. I did and Gemma yelled, "Mom I'm fine, I'm strong and you need to believe in me." It was so amazing! And so true! Gemma is the strongest woman I know. She is firey and bold and brilliant but also quiet and introspective.

But mostly she'd like you to know she won't take no for an answer. She a kinda "go back to the drawing board and sharpen your pencils boys" kinda a girl. With whom I am deeply in love.

If you're curious here's the other updates from her 12 month photo series:

1 Month
2 Months
3 Months
4 Months
5 Months
6 Months
7 Months
8 Months
9 Months
10 Months
11 Months
1 Year Old

Love and Hugs

11/52

"A portrait of my child once a week, every week of 2014"

Our girl loves her accessories. Well now I take that back, she loves hats and shoes. She does not love hair bands, elastics or clips. Phew! Hats good, other head accessories bad. Recently we've moved the hat basket into the playroom area so she can throw one on at her discretion. Cause really, doesn't a hat just make the outfit? Hello!

Love and Hugs