Watch Emma Grow - Month Eleven

Back to my old tricks of getting posts out late, but two in one week! Praise the lord! Yea I know.....this whole blogging thing has taken a back seat to the mommy/working thing so my time is limited. We have been having such fun with lil miss though it's worth it. I have so many posts I want to write, yet the time passes by. Have any momma's found those extra hours yet?

Lets get down to why your here. To hear about miss Emma's 11th month of life in this crazy world. So much happened in May that its kind of a blur. Emma was baptized in the Catholic faith at the beginning of the month, she helped celebrate her Auntie's graduation from Vet school, we went to the zoo, we celebrated Mother's Day and had a ton of craft projects and naps and snuggles along the way. Her baptism was so beautiful and was a great day, I will have to do another post just on that. We also went to the local strawberry festival and took our first trip to the beach.

She's become quite the social butterfly. Loves to chatter up a storm and dance with her toys. I think it's the cutest thing when she babbles on. She's getting really good at standing up on things and holding her balance and she's really quick to walk along furniture. Blitz speed on the crawling also. One second shes one place and I blink and she's in a whole other location. Still not yet walking but it's coming up really soon!

Speaking of the social butterfly...we have deemed her first word to be dog. It doesn't quite sound completely correct, but we know she saying dog, mostly because she sees and points to the dog. It's so cute to see how excited she gets to see familiar people, especially mommy and daddy. I makes my heart swell to know how much she loves us. She also loves to give open mouth kisses. A slobbery wet kiss is all good when it comes from your loving baby!

She cut another two teeth so we now have a total of 8 out of the 20 baby teeth we will get. At her 9 month appointment, her pediatrician said she was cutting molars and she's been pretty irritated with those bad boys. I wonder when they will make an appearance.

She loves to sort. Toys, blocks, anything. Sort sort sort. Playing with the pots, pans, tupperware etc. is the most fun thing ever! I think we need to get her a child set of pots and pans so I don't have to constantly be washing my dishes! Lol

9 Month Well Check Stats:
Weight: 17 lbs 3 ozs (30%)
Height: 27" (24%)
Head: 17.5" (60%)

6 Month Well Check Stats:
Weight: 14 lbs 7 ozs (20%)
Height: 25.5" (38%)
Head: 17.25" (84%)
Updated weight: 15lbs (24%)

Eat: Emma has loved everything we have put in front of her for the most part. She especially loves pasta and fruit. Any and all fruit. Veggie's are good too, but FRUIT! Same eating schedule as last month...she breastfeeds in the morning, then eats solids and either the breast or a bottle before her nap, has lunch and breast/bottle, then another a snack and the breast/bottle after her second nap, dinner with us before her bath. Then she nurses to sleep and through the night. If she seems hungry she gets either a snack or the breast/bottle whenever she wants. I try to get her to eat as often as possible because of how active she is becoming.

Sleep: On and off. Most nights we get a stretch from 10-11pm til around 3am which means mom gets a good chunk of sleep also!

Diapers: Size three's.

Milestones to date:
Bringing her home: July 2nd (1 day old)
First Bath: July 4th (3 days old)
First Holiday: Independence Day (3 days old)
Held Up Head: July 11th (1 week old)
Lost Belly Button: (8 days old) First Walk (2 weeks old)
First Smile: July 27th (3 weeks old)
First Trip: Lake Tahoe/Carson City (5 weeks old)
Found her hands: (6 weeks old)
First Swim: (6 Weeks old)
Laughed Out Loud: Sept 25th (12 Weeks Old)
Rolled Over: October 28th (3 Months Old)
Found Her Feet: November 2nd (4 Months Old)
First Teeth: December 3rd (5 Months Old)
Crawled: (Army: January 16th - 6 mo; Normal: March 17th - 8 mo)
Sat on her own: January 7th (6 Months Old)
Ate Solid Foods: January 7th (6 Months Old)
First Vacation: Florida March 9th (8 Months Old)
Stood on her own: March 8th (8 Months Old)

And for the monthly photo dump!

Being Baptized

With Auntie/Godmommy!

Strawberry Festival Stuffed Strawberry

Family Time at the beach!

Baby toes in the sand for the first time

Balloons are fun with cousins!

Toys galore and were going to play with a makeup bag.

First birthday photo shoot (for the invitations)

Water bottles are so FUN!

As are tupperware!

Psh...standing is easy mom!

Yummy Quesadilla!

I love those blue peepers!

Fun time at the LA Zoo!

Pinterest and Parties

Oh Hai! Long time no speak. Why? Because I have been crazy busy with an almost toddler, a baptism party and planning Emma's first birthday. Things have been just a smidge crazy in our house, and I have been going in circles in my head making lists and trying to figure out everything that needs to happen for the birthday.

The expectation that Pinterest has put on us mothers to create cute and adorable and handcrafted parties has made me a crazy woman once again. Why did I even go online and look up inspiration photos for this party? I put together lots of items in my board and thinking to myself that I got off easy because I picked an easy theme. HA HA HA ha. (insert sarcastic laughter) I my head doing a 4th of July inspired BBQ was easy. But now with all of my "inspiration" I am feeling the stress. I think I say this with EVERY party I do. Why why why do I do this to myself? After a couple of crafting weekends under my belt, invitations out and decisions made I am feeling better and we will hopefully be able to enjoy this upcoming weekend as a early birthday celebration for me and the hubbies first Father's Day.

What's a post without a couple of craft updates (Pinterest inspiration), and a Pinterest fail!

The hubby and I painted this wooden pallet as a flag inspiration. It was a fun project that we did together, and it can be used as decor on our porch, when we have one.

Again, I saw this inspiration on Pinterest and had to do it because it was so cute. They are firecrackers made out of pool noodles and some wire decor. They were hung from the ceiling in the pin, but our location has vaulted ceilings and I cannot do that, so they are going to be table center pieces.

There's no first birthday without a highchair banner. I took inspiration from two separate pins and blended them together. Excuse the blurry image of Emma, but I LOVE this thing! It was so fun to make. I also made some "sacks" for sack races. Hopefully I can come back and do another post with all the fun things I am planning.

I promised a Pinterest fail didn't I? Well, in all my glory of ideas I plan on making Emma's smash cake. I have some cake decorating tools so I thought that I would practice. Here's my inspiration:

Source

Seems simple enough. I emptied a couple of large cans of chicken and baked my cakes to have a small little three tiered cake. I then died my frosting using liquid food coloring....mistake one, it wasn't even red or blue. Then I used my horrible tool and started frosting.

NOT EVEN CLOSE!

I kept trying and it wasn't working so I eventually just ended up with this:

I was so frustrated that I had a mini meltdown and cried in my hubbies lap. I eventually calmed down and once at work asked a coworker if she had better decorating tools. She brought me an arsenal and I practiced my roses on a plate.

Much better. I feel a little more confident that I can pull off the cake now. All I need is some gel food coloring. Pray that I don't die of frustration before the party! Happy Monday!