Gobble Gobble

I'm not referring to a turkey noise either. That is what Emma did for her first Thanksgiving meal...she gobbled everything up! We went to Laurel to visit with some of Josh's family and we had a great time. It's always nice to see everybody...and of course it's great to eat all day long.

It was Emma's first time to have ham and she loved it! It was one of those times that she was eating it as fast as I could tear it. She also enjoyed the Lima beans, asparagus, green beans, sweet potatoes, turkey and a few bites of a roll. Here is a picture of her as she started out her meal.


Of course after we ate we had to all go outside and work off some turkey. Here are few pictures of us.



It never ceases to amaze me what we'll find when we drive up in Laurel. This year there was an old fire truck sitting in front of the house. Josh's uncle has a lot of hobbies. One of the hobbies is buying old cars and this was one of his recent purchases. Here are some of the shots...









Since it takes so much to load up a baby for a night, we ended up just staying for the day. It worked out well though because Emma was so tuckered out, that she fell asleep in her Nana's arms right before we left. We gently put her in her car seat and she slept nearly the entire way home.

The rest of our weekend was good too. It was so nice to have Josh at home with us. Jaime came over on Saturday to babysit Emma while Josh and I went shopping for a few hours. It was nice to get away, but it was so quiet! We couldn't wait to get back to our little ladybug. We came home to Emma sleeping on Jaime's shoulder. So sweet! A big thank you to Jaime for watching her and letting us get out on our own a little bit.

Giving Thanks

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I thought I'd take the time to say how thankful I am this year for all the many blessings God has given us. I'm so thankful that Emma was brought into our lives and that she has been relatively low maintenance thus far (aside from a few ear infections and stitches!). I couldn't have made it through this year without Josh who is not only patient but also a fantastic father. From Josh, Emma and myself - we truly say thank you to our family and friends whom we love and are more thankful for than you know!

From my home to yours - Happy Thanksgiving!

A Million Words

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I figure a video must be at least worth a million words. Emma is sitting on top of me in this video so although it was difficult to get everything in the frame, you still can't help but smile when you hear that belly laugh of hers.


On Saturday, Josh went hunting and got his first deer of the season. Unfortunately nothing ever comes easy. Long story short, it took him forever to find it in the woods and then he still had to haul it to the hunting camp and clean it. He didn't make it home until around 2:00 that morning. Needless to say, I got up with Emma the next morning and let him sleep. When he woke up, Emma and I went in to say good morning. As Josh was stretching he made a noise with his mouth. He did it once and Emma looked at him, studied it, and then she imitated it! We were both very surprised that she was able to do it because it's really hard to imitate a noise when you can't really "see" how it is made. I grabbed the Flip video to catch a reenactment. You have to turn your volume kind of high to hear her doing it, but trust me, she's doing it and it's adorable!


Also newsworthy is that Emma got two more teeth in this weekend. That makes six for those of you counting! They just keep rolling in.

Mischief

I woke up this morning to see Emma standing in her crib. This is a usual occurrence if not an every day occurrence, so it didn't surprise me. What was funny though is that she seems to have found the camera that is installed on the wall next to her crib. The camera allows us to watch "Emma TV" from our television in the bedroom. As a side note, I don't know how parents live without these things. I can't tell you how many times Josh and I watched the Emma cam in those early weeks to make sure she was breathing (it sounds crazy, but all you moms out there know you've done it too!). It's also great to peek in on her without having to open the door and risk waking her up. Then there are other times, such as this morning, that I would've missed some hilarious footage. There was little Emma sitting in her crib and then all of a sudden, as if a glimmer of the shiny camera caught her eye, she looked over towards it. She had a tiny smirk on her face and her eyes lit up. She crawled over to that end of the crib and stood up, reached out and then all I saw on the television was a hand. So cute! She didn't forget about it either...that's where she was when I went to get her from her nap too. She's so curious...just like somebody else I know...hmmhmm her father!

That was the first bit of mischief that she got into today. Then after lunch, we were playing on the floor of the nursery. That curious little girl noticed that there was something on the side of the rocker. What else is a girl to do but investigate! Can you believe that she took apart the chair?? If you know Josh, then this comes as no surprise...also no surprise is that she didn't put it back together, but instead got distracted by another toy and left the chair parts for me to resolve. Here a few snapshots of our girl in action:




Adorable? - Yes - but there is no telling what she'll get into tomorrow...

Where is Your Nala?

Last night while I was finishing up dinner, Josh put Emma in her highchair to start feeding her. Our cat, Nala, came into the hallway as usual and we heard her meow. We always say to Emma, "Where is your Nala?" And she scans the room until she finally sees her and then she gets the huge grin across her face. That's how it usually goes. But last night when we said it, Emma did her normal thing but then she pointed to Nala! How cute is that? She's recently over the past few weeks begun to point to things she wants since she can't verbalize it. For instance, if she wants water while she's eating, she points to her sippy cup and if she wants a toy that is up on the table, she'll point to it. It's actually very helpful after all these months of guessing!

We thought it was so cute how she pointed out Nala that we decided to see if she could point out Mama and Dada in the room. And she did! She pointed to us both separately. You could tell that she was proud of herself too. It warmed my heart when Josh said to her "Emma, where is your Mama?" and she looked around the side of her highchair, found me, and then pointed to me. CUTE! I love all the new ways she communicates with us.

Here is a picture of Emma in her highchair from last night with Nala who climbed right up in the chair to be next to her.


This is a picture that I took of Emma last night too. Josh fed her some oatmeal with banana and the oatmeal won...it was ALL over her. You can't tell from the picture but the oatmeal covers her shirt sleeves and the front of her pants. It is also in her hair and welded on to her cheeks, chin and nose. He finally admitted defeat and gave her some Cheerios and apples. This face is a much happier face!

A Night Out

About a week ago I realized that Josh and I have only gone out without Emma four times...we went to dinner for Valentine's Day, my birthday, our six year anniversary, and Josh's birthday. Emma is almost 11 months old and we've only been away from her a few times and each time was only an hour or so.

Well, last night we made that a five instead of a four. It was the first time we've had somebody outside the family babysit (Jaime, we count you as family since you're her Godmother). Becky, one of Josh's friends from work, came over and babysat Emma last night. Thankfully she went right to her and Emma didn't even whimper when we left. Emma did great for Becky and I think they both had a good time. Josh and I went to an Italian restaurant that I've been wanting to go to and it was fabulous. We'll have to do it again soon.

Swing High!

We went to Pensacola this weekend to visit Josh's dad and stepmother. The trip down there started out a little rocky. We left at a bad time for Emma's eating schedule, so it took us over an hour extra to get down there. We finally made it a little after midnight and she was sound asleep. But it was just too much excitement with her JD and Honey there to greet us...and their dog, Sugar, which Emma just adored! We couldn't get her back to sleep until well after 1:00 am.

Saturday was much better for us though. We went to lunch at a place on the beach and Emma realized her love for Grouper! This child went to town on the fish...before we could tear off more, she was waiting with her mouth open again. I don't even know how much she ended up eating because we were all donating some of our fish (we all ended up with Grouper somehow - didn't that turn out nicely!). After lunch we went by the beach for a little bit. Afterward, we went back to their house and let Emma try out the neighbor's swing. Pure JOY! These happy squeals and the belly laughs made our day:



And now thanks to JD and Honey, we have a swing of our own. Now Josh just has to find a place to put it! I'm sure she'll have hours of fun on that.

For dinner we went to an Italian restaurant. Emma's uncle Jacob works there so it was great to see him in action. To top off the day, Emma had black olives for the first time. We actually had to ask for another side dish of them because she loved them so much. We would put a few pieces of chicken down and one olive underneath them. She would dig through the chicken, find the olive, and eat it. Who knew olives would be such a hit?! We never know what will turn out to be her next favorite dish, but it is always fun finding out!

A Young Legend

We went this morning for Emma's checkup with the ENT doctor. They said her ears look great and the tubes are 100% clear. Yay! I was afraid she might have another ear infection because she has tugging a little bit at her left ear for a day or two. The doctor said that most likely she is teething because the jaw line goes all the way up to the ear and it is just causing her to grab at them. It could also be that the tubes have a little ear wax in them. This is completely normal and causes the babies to tug sometimes because they hear something in their ear that in unfamiliar.

While the nurse looked in her ears to make sure there were no infections, Emma was anything but still. She did not like that instrument being put into her ear. The nurse finally got a look into the first ear and I let Emma rest a minute while she asked me a few questions and then I picked her back up. Immediately Emma looked at the nurse and covered up the other ear! The nurse was really taken aback by the fact that Emma not only realized what was about to happen to that other ear but compensated for it. Clearly, we have a very advanced baby on our hands (not like we didn't know that already!).

Of course we all know that on the day of her tube surgery, she also had three stitches. I reminded the doctor and nurse about it and asked them to look at her finger too just to make sure everything looked good. The nurse quickly replied, "Oh, we remember! We still talk about it." Fantastic...now we're legendary at the hospital. Not exactly what I want the family to be remembered for! The reason they remember so vividly is because it was difficult for them to get the okay to do the stitches. The doctor told us it would have been easier to get the okay for him to detach the finger and reattach it to her head than put a mere few stitches in it. Crazy, right? They checked it out though and it looks perfect. As if nothing ever happened....

Let's pray that we're never infamous for something like this again!

Rainy Days

It has been raining since yesterday and I don't see the sun anywhere in sight. Our church had a "Preschool Play Date" today with kids birth to age 5. Me and Emma decided to go to meet some new moms and get out of the house. Here is one of the little boys we met...him and Emma share the same birthday!



At first she just sat in my lap and looked around. She had to take everything in...all the kids running around and all the grown ups sitting on the floor was a lot for a 10 month old to focus on. It was the first time I have seen her be shy. That lasted all of 5 minutes though. Soon she wanted to be everybody's friend. And since I had the Cheerios, all the kids wanted to be our friend. They literally all were just walking up to me and sitting on my lap. I watched Emma to see if she'd be jealous of other children in my lap but she was just fine. They also had a big bouncy castle for the kids to play in but Emma was too small for that. She looked at it a few times but she had some apprehension in her eyes. When she gets a little older, I'm sure that apprehension will all go away and the part of her that is her father will say "Mommy, watch THIS!"

A Day in the Life

7:06 Rise and Shine!

7:15 Sippy cup of milk and get ready for the day. We're now 100% on sippy cups!

8:15 Meet our friend, Mari Beth, at Starbucks to catch up.


9:40 Head back home for nap time (she fell asleep on the way home - couldn't keep her eyes open anymore).

11:15 Wake up from nap. She's always very happy after nap time.


11:45-12:05 Lunch - Acorn squash, barley & oatmeal, some apples and water


12:05-12:35 Play while Mommy cleans up and starts laundry. Her face reads "What, I'm not doing anything wrong!" She really looks like she was up to something, doesn't she?


12:35 Sippy Cup of milk while she watches Baby Neptune.


1:30-3:00 Errands - Post Office, Grocery Store, and a baby store that I never seem to be able to go to. Isn't she a happy shopper? We made lots of friends at the grocery store.


3:00-4:20 Play - Finally got her on video crawling! Also, here is a picture of her watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse from her crib while I put away her clothes and clean up her room. Mickey Mouse is her favorite with Wonder Pets



4:20-5:40 Nap time - The video monitor comes through on our television and this is a photo of that right after I put her down...sound asleep...


5:40 Daddy comes home! I didn't get this on film but the response was complete exhilaration and squealing as usual.

6:00 Family dinner - including our cat, Nala. Pasta with lemon butter sauce, tomatoes and artichokes. I also made asparagus because Emma loves it. She kept picking around the pasta to eat the asparagus...that's a girl!


7:15 Bath time - no pictures but let me tell you that I ended up soaking wet. I bought her some new bath toys at the baby store that I mentioned above. They're really cute but there was apparently too much going on because she startled herself somehow in the water and grabbed for me. I scooped her right up in my arms. She still had suds on her. After about two seconds of me holding her, she was perfectly fine again.

7:25 Play with Daddy and show him how well Emma can walk.


8:15 Final bottle (sippy cup) of the night and story time. Cozy and getting sleepy.


8:40 Bed time - out like a light.

And all is quiet in the house until 7 am the next day when it all starts over again...

LadyBug's Big Weekend

We had a big weekend!

On Saturday morning, Emma decided it was time to crawl. She just took off. She still doesn't crawl often, but she does it when she has to. And the only reason in her mind that warrants "having" to is to more efficiently transport herself to stationary object that will allow her to pull up and stand. We're doing our best to get it on video..stay tuned!

I finally got her saying "Dada" on video. Yay! Here it is:


Emma was the cutest little ladybug I've ever seen! Of course we couldn't help but to take tons of pictures yesterday, but I will just put a few of the highlights.

Here are some of her in the costume Saturday morning (in case she wasn't cooperative that night) before we carved the pumpkins:





I thought this was a cute idea and I knew if we didn't do it this year, we'd never be able to fit her inside of a pumpkin again! I think the pictures turned out great.







Here are the actual Trick-or-Treating pictures. We went with our neighbors, so the first photo is of Emma and Parker (a.k.a Dinosaur):







Tonight Jaime came over for a visit and I captured this exciting game of Peek-a-Boo:


Also, as of tonight, Emma is consistently saying "Bye Bye." It's so cute. You can tell she's thinking really hard about it. I know one day it will be all too easy for her to say "bye bye" to me and Josh and I'll think back to this day and realize how far she's come.