Hello 2010!

Emma went for her one year checkup on the morning of New Year's Eve. Here are her stats:

Weight: 22 lbs. 12 oz. (75th percentile)
Height: 29.5 inches (75th percentile)
Head: 18.5 inches (90th percentile)

All around very good checkup. Now her height is catching up to her weight and they're both in the 75th (before her weight was 75th but her height was 50th).

We are also officially off formula and on whole milk now. We weren't sure how it would go because she has galactosemia (the condition in which the body is unable to metabolize the simple sugar galactose). But her doctor said that she was ready now and she should have no problem. We'll just be on the lookout for anything unusual when we start. He said that it is very normal for babies to not like milk because it is so different. In this case, we would mix formula with the milk until eventually there is no formula and it's all milk. We went and bought some whole milk and gave it to her when we got home. We have zero problem with the milk...she barely breathed as she sucked down 4 ounces.

Now that Emma has 6 teeth and we think her molars are coming in now, I need to get a toothbrush. I have been using a washcloth and just rubbing her teeth and gums at night but the more teeth that she gets, the harder that is! She bites!! And she thinks it's kind of funny. I asked the doctor what to do if you have a biter and he said that luckily she's not biting out of meanness but because it feels good on her gums...I'll just keep telling myself that. But I need to switch to a baby toothbrush so I don't get hurt from here on out. Should be interesting. We'll start that soon and I'll let you know how it goes.

We didn't do much for New Years Eve. Josh got home from hunting around 8:00 so that gave us time to eat and then go to our neighbors in time to see the fireworks for a few minutes.



Then once we got home, got Emma changed into pajamas and gave her some milk it was nearly 11:00. Since we're on central time, the ball drops here at 11:00 so we decided to let her stay up a bit longer so we could ring the new year together and she could watch the ball drop.


On New Years Day we made Emma some black eyed peas and spinach for good luck in 2010. We used one of her new ladybug plates that she got for her birthday.





Josh's dad and Sandra (aka JD and Honey) came to visit on New Years day. We celebrated Christmas and Emma's birthday again. She got lots more presents including two baby dolls that made her eyes light up. After her nap we went to celebrate at California Pizza Kitchen. Here is a picture of me and Emma on our way out...doesn't she look cute with gloves? We never thought she'd actually keep them on, but she really liked them!


Now that she's reached the one year mark and hit the 20 pound mark we were able to turn her carseat around and let her face forward. Emma was a little skeptical at first but once she had a few minutes to check out her new surroundings, she loved it.



Happy New Year!!

Birthday Girl

Our baby turned one yesterday! We all had a fantastic day and are so happy that so many friends could join us to celebrate.

Emma woke up about 8:00 and we went upstairs to say happy birthday to her. She had trouble standing up because of her sleep sack...


Josh's Uncle Paul sent her a birthday card that actually sings "Happy Birthday" and it says Emma's name in it. Let's just say it was a hit...


Next we went downstairs to let Emma see her ladybug balloons and have a little breakfast. She absolutely LOVED the balloons. She really didn't want to let them go. Here is a picture of her holding one in each hand.


And then, still keeping one in each hand, drinking some water and eating some toast.


Afterward, she took a nap and me, Josh and his mom got ready for the party to begin. Josh and I made the cake. I wanted to do a cupcake cake in the shape of a ladybug. We ended up making THREE batches of cupcakes before we were pleased with the outcome.

Proof:


Here is the final product. We also made a separate ladybug cupcake just for Emma to have. As an added bonus, we dyed the cake green so that it looked like her ladybug was sitting in the grass...and because she loves all things green!


We even made the icing which turned into it's own circus sideshow. All the colors worked out fine...except black! A word to the wise, if you're going to make icing and then dye it black, just don't. The black dye makes the icing taste terrible! Josh went back to Walmart to just get some already made black icing and we mixed it with some chocolate. Disaster avoided!

Here a picture of the table...we had green beans wrapped in bacon, sausage balls, chicken salad sandwich that were cut into animal shapes, black & red M&Ms, some chips, dip and cheese, and of course some Cheerios for the kids. We also had one of those old fashioned popcorn machines that Josh bought me a few years ago, but I forgot take a picture of the popcorn station...use your imagination.


Here is a shot of Emma celebrating:


And here is one of her and Jaime:


Then it was time for CAKE!!








Finally, it was present time! Her birthday dress was so wet with water and the bottom had icing on it, so we changed her into something more comfortable for this portion of the party.


Here is Emma chasing down our neighbor, Parker, because he wanted to play with all the presents she got.


Then the party was over and Mommy got around to eating something. This is my favorite animal shape (a seahorse) because it's in Emma's "Baby Noah" video that she loves and it reminds me of her.


Even after the party was over, our fun wasn't over yet. Emily came by to bring Emma a present. Here is a shot of them with Emma modeling the dress that Emily made. They're sticking their tongues out at each other.


At the end of the day we all curled up to watch Micky Mouse and then it was off to bed.


If you think you're tired from reading that long post, just imagine living it! :)

First Rotation

Our first rotation of family has come and gone and we're awaiting the second rotation. My parents left this morning and we were so sad to see them go. On Christmas Day we took it easy and opened presents and ate a big breakfast...and then it seemed like we pretty much ate the entire rest of the day! Emma quite enjoyed her first Christmas dinner. We had ham, green beans wrapped in bacon, sweet potato casserole, dill fingerling potatoes and Brussels sprouts. Emma quite enjoyed the Brussels sprouts, but of course the green beans and ham were her top two favorites of the day.

On Saturday we all went shopping and of course we can't do anything the easy way so we had to take two cars and all split up. But we made our way back to each other for lunch. We met at PF Changs. As always Emma made lots of friends and ate tons of food. She found that she especially likes watermelon. It was in my dad's salad. He handed me a piece to feed her and she liked it. Since she knew where it came from, she kept pointing to my dad's plate for us to give her some more. She definitely knows what she wants!

Sunday we went to Outback for lunch. Here is a picture that my dad took on our way in...

After we ate we went to get gas. Normally this wouldn't be something that would make the blog post. However this particular day we felt daring. My car said we had zero miles left before we ran out of gas...but we were still about 4 or 5 miles from the nearest gas station! We figured that the people who created the gadget that tells you how many miles are left built in a few extra just in case...we all kind of told ourselves that but none of us really believed it. We were running on fumes, but we made it! Phew!! Jaime and John came to visit shortly after we got home. Emma was so excited to see them and loved the Christmas present that they brought her. They real present was a cute little outfit...but to Emma the real present was the bell ornament on the front of the box. She carried it around until it was time for her nap.

I have two prayer requests for you. First, our friend Leah had her third detached retina on Christmas Eve. She had surgery again today on it and I believe that was her fifth surgery. I talked to her and she is doing alright but before this third detachment happened, she was getting 20/2200 vision. The doctors are predicting that 20/2200 is the best we can anticipate. We can all pray though that she continues to heal and that she will see better with each passing day. Second, our pastor at church had a stroke on Christmas Eve. He is still in the hospital and needs all of our prayers. He is doing better each day but we still have a long way to go. Thank you for your prayers!!

Baby's First Christmas

We've now had the pleasure of experiencing our first Christmas with Emma. It was so much fun to watch her eyes light up when she saw each present coming. It took a while for her to get into some of them because she was so easily distracted by the wrapping paper...next year I think I'll give her a roll of wrapping paper as a gift!

Here are pictures of us on our way to the Christmas Eve service.




From Christmas Eve through New Year's weekend we'll have all the grandparents here at one time or another. Emma realizes how lucky she is being able to celebrate Christmas and her birthday three times...a child's dream! My parents' shift was first. They came on Christmas Eve to visit for a few days.

I guess Emma was a good girl this year because Santa visited us on Christmas Eve too! My mom made some biscotti so we decided to leave that for Santa since he might be tired of cookies.


Santa and his elf enjoyed the biscotti and milk very much...


Here is a shot of what she got from Santa (a chair with her name on it, some reindeer antlers, a riding plane and her tightly packed stocking).


Here she tries on the antlers...


And after a few seconds, here she is taking them off...


Then she goes through the rest of the loot in the stocking.


And stops to stare down the chocolate candy in the candy cane! She hasn't tried any yet but I think she can have chocolate soon...perhaps we'll try it on her birthday since it's right around the corner.


This is Ming Ming from the show Wonder Pets. Mimi and Papa got this for her and she LOVES it! They also got her the flyboat that is also from the show. She especially likes the song that it plays over and over and over and OVER again...thanks guys!



By the end of unwrapping presents, I was in the Christmas spirit and I let Emma talk me into putting on the antlers myself. She thought it was pretty hilarious.


Mimi and Papa also gave her a Rudolph Nose. It was a little big for her but she sure did get a kick when the rest of us wore it. I look like an idiot in this photo series, but you all know you'd do the same thing if it was making your child smile. Here are the pictures to give you an idea of how it went...






We all had a great time and we're so happy that my parents were able to come and celebrate with us. Here is a video to top off this post...

Updates and Pictures and Video, Oh My

Every time that I think there is no way Emma's eyes can light up brighter, I am proven wrong. At the grocery store on Sunday they gave her a balloon. Her eyes were huge and bright. She held on to it the entire time and the toothy grin never left her face! That night I put the balloon in the den so that Emma would eat and not be distracted. On Monday morning she saw it! Her eyes lit up all over again and she wouldn't take her sippy cup (which is a big deal) until I gave it to her. Here is a picture of her holding her sippy cup and the balloon. Long after she threw her empty cup on the ground, she still had the balloon. When I took her out of the seat to play on the floor, she kept on playing with the balloon for a good 20 or 30 minutes more. Who knew a balloon would be such a hit?!


Here are a few pictures of our cat, Nala. This box has some boots in it that need to be returned. She considers any box in the house to be hers and I seriously think she assumes we put them there just for her. I guess it doesn't take much to make my two girls happy, huh?



Emma has always had a sense of humor and laughed easily. But recently it is really starting to show. On a Mickey Mouse movie we were watching, she laughed SO loud at a part where Mickey and Donald are going down a slide and then they fall into each other. I kept rewinding it and she kept laughing just as hard. The next night I played it again to see if she'd laugh again. She was laughing so hard that Josh heard her downstairs and came up to see what we were doing. It's so fun to see her growing up and developing this personality. Clearly she will have her father's sense of humor...he thinks it is funny when people fall too.

Here is a video from last night. She is playing peek-a-boo with this basket. We had people come up to us as they were leaving the restaurant and tell us how good she was. They also had a life size Santa that sings and dances if you push a button. The waitress said that most kids scream and want to run away but we thought we'd give it a shot. Just as we suspected, Emma grinned big and started dancing. Then when he finished his song, she pointed at the button for us to do it again.


The last update is that I have noticed the past several weeks that she is really learning things quickly and retaining it. Last night as I was washing the soap out of her hair Nala came into the room and Emma got excited. I said "Clap" without changing my tone and without doing any motions. And she did it. She has been clapping for months but always after we say "Yay!" or we actually show her the clapping motion. So it was cool to see that she has learned the word and associates it with the action. Same kind of idea with her shoes. She found one of her shoes on the floor. She pulled up her pants leg and put the shoe on top of her foot. Of course she couldn't get the shoe on her foot yet but she put it on top of it because she knows that is where it should go. And when I dress her each day she helps me...when I pull her socks out she lifts up one of her feet and gives it to me or when she sees her shirt, she'll lift up her arms and them push them through the sleeves. Before I know it, she'll be dressing herself!

This was a long update...hopefully you made it through the whole thing! She's just doing so much lately that I want to make sure to document it all and bring you up to speed on our ladybug.

Discovery Daze

Josh and I discovered today that Emma is losing some of the chunk in her legs!! I'm so sad because it's just precious on a baby to see chunky legs. With all the crawling around and "walking" that she does though, I knew it wouldn't be long.

Here are pictures of her from this morning after we got home from church. Isn't she cute in her Christmas dress?





For all the parents out there with children Emma's age or younger, I shall share this discovery with you: Happy Baby and Happy Bites are a brand of food that we love. The Happy Baby food is pureed so we're past that stage but she really enjoyed each variety that they offered. Today at Target we found Happy Bites! Yay! Sometimes if I have an especially long day, it's really nice to have something in the freezer that I know Emma loves and is good for her. She tried the salmon stix tonight...I realize this sounds disgusting. I was a skeptic at first too, but I can attest that it isn't bad at all (yes I tried it...I was curious!). And to top it off it even has "hidden veggies" inside such as cauliflower and chickpeas. As a mom I recommend these brands because they make a full and HAPPY BABY!

At Least I'm Not This Bad

This is for all the parents out there...this story will make us all feel a little better about our parenting skills.