Watch Emma Grow - Month Ten

Hi ho there! I made it just in the first half of the month! Go me! Life this month wasn't too hectic, but I say that and look back and realize just how much we actually did! We celebrated her first Easter, but other than that it has been life as usual.

This months big thing was practicing standing. She stands up with the assistance of anything. Then she started to let go. Only for a couple of seconds and then longer and longer. I feel like she is going to walk very soon. She's in major exploratory mode. Crawling into and under everything. Loves to play with shoes (ew! I catch her quickly and redirect) and also loves to crawl over to the case of water and pull them out.

She loves the dogs in her life. I mean, so excited and bangs on the door to get their attention if they are outside. She has started to call out to them, either "buh" and points as Shelby walks by or she says "duh" and I am taking that as dog. When we ask where Shelby is, she looks for her. However she is not fond of the face licking or when Shelby hits her in the face with her tail.....it's ok mommy doesn't like that either. Her favorite times of day are still morning time/play time and bath time with daddy. She HATES getting dressed. Too much to do and see, "ain't nobody got time" to get dressed.

She started the stranger anxiety this month also. People she doesn't know well are a no go. She clings to the hubby or myself in fear. Poor little thing. She also has a mild case when I reintroduce a new toy that has eyes. She gets a little scared, but then realizes that its a toy and grabs it and hugs it. She's so sweet. Her favorite toys are stacking blocks, and books. She loves to look at the books, but not sit and read just yet. and when mommy tries to stack up the blocks she knocks them over before I am done.

She definitely recognizes daddy and myself and gets so excited when we pick her up after work. She throws her arms excitedly up and down and then crawls over to my lap and gives me her version of a hug....face buried into my shoulder. I love it so much! She went to her first friends birthday party, the Large Cat reserve and mommy got her act together and got her birth announcement posted in the paper. I guess it was a big month! 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: Here's her new eating schedule, since our pediatrician gave us the big food go ahead. She can eat everything except nuts and honey. Seriously, this child has loved everything we have put in front of her minus zucchini. She especially loves pasta and cheerios. Anything that she can feed to herself is a plus! Here's her eating schedule....she breastfeeds in the morning, then eats solids and either the breast or a bottle before her nap, has lunch and a 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: I haven't even tried with the transitioning. As long as we are all sleeping, I don't mind her in our bed or if she wakes. As long as she's happy and healthy that's all that matters to me.

Diapers: Size three's. The Huggies little movers are good for crawling, but I still love my Pampers Little Snugglers.

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!

Crinkle Nose!

Messy Moo!

Rocking out to her piano

Pinata's are COOL!

My little "My Little Pony"

Tigers and peacocks at the Cat reserve

Laundry baskets are fun

Ill take the filet please!

Thoughts on Mother's Day

As Mother's Day approaches I find myself getting really emotional. Thought's run through my head thinking about my first official Mother's Day and the special meaning behind that day. In the past did I think of myself as a "mother" to our puppy, yes. Did I truly understand the meaning of that word until last year. Absolutely not. I did not officially become a Mother until July 1st 2014. It was the single most glorious and exhausting day of my life and I wouldn't trade it for the world. If you'd like to read about Emma's fist days into the world please check out here and here. What I thought I would do is just write down my thoughts of what I think a Mother looks like, to me. How I choose to be a mother to Emma.

A mother thinks of her children first. I wake up in the morning and glance down at Emma as she nurses and I cannot wait for those beautiful blue eyes to open and for her to look up and smile at me. Her smile just makes my mornings so bright! I think of her all day long at work, and resist the urge to text a million times a day just to see how she is doing. When I pick her up, all I want is to snuggle, and cover her with hugs and kisses. Her meals are planned before mine, her sleep schedule is what matters more than me time and just watching her play is fun to me. My heart swells when she crawls over to sit in my lap, it fills with joy when she gives me the wettest of kisses and it just explodes when she buries into my shoulder to snuggle and hug me. Her little voice saying "mama" is the sweetest sound I can hear.

I think about the future. How I will raise her to be a responsible adult, a kind teen, and a fun loving child. I always want her to know how much I love her.....so much that it spills out of my eyes....on an almost weekly basis (hormones much?) I want her to feel secure with herself emotionally and physically. I want her to be fearless in her learning and ability to try new things, but I want her to be cautious as well, but not overly cautious.

I want her to be kind to her peers, to people from all walks of life, and to be respectful of the country she was born into. I hope she's a patriot and respectful of the world that she lives in. To be kind to the planet and all creatures in it.

I want her to know that the things I provided are not sacrifices. I housed her in my body for nine months, I embrace the changes to it and am glad that I can nourish her still with breastfeeding. Sleepless nights, snuggling and those nighttime feedings were/are totally worth it to make sure that she grows big and strong. The "me" time that I had is now "mommy and me" time and I wouldn't change it for the world.

My life has completely changed and for the better. I want to be a better person for her. To provide her with an example of a woman that she could become, a wife she can be, and a mom. I am not perfect, nor do I pretend to be. I just would like to provide an example of a kind and respectful person. I find myself correcting how I do things or say things just to be a better example for her. I want to provide her with consistency and a happy household always.

I fear that I am rambling so, all I can say is that this Mother's Day I am blessed to be the mommy of a wonderfully beautiful baby girl and with all my heart I can't imagine my life to be any better right now. She is my life, she is my world, she is my everything.

Happy Mother's Day

Watch Emma Grow - Month Nine

I have been really behind this month. It's been crazy because I have been planning Emma's baptism and just trying to enjoy every free moment I have with her because she is really growing up WAY too fast. This month was huge as far as development goes.

The biggest thing that we did was we went on our first real vacation and our first flight to visit her Grandma Lady in Florida. It was jam packed and I still need to do a post all on that! She had so much fun and met all her Florida family. It was a great time!

Before we left for Florida she started pulling herself into a standing position. Just out of nowhere, here she is standing! She's so strong that she's been able to stand without assistance, but not confident. Since she figured out how to stand up, she also figured out how to crawl on her hands and knees. Before she was just army crawling on her tummy, but now shes on the move! She will crawl out of her room and look for me if I leave to use the restroom or to get something really quick. We think she will definitely be walking by her first birthday.

Due to all this movement, we had to retire the co-sleeper and put her crib in our room. We tried a couple of nights in her room, but it didn't really fly. So we have her crib in our room and at least try to put her in it for a portion of the night. She still wakes to night nurse so most of the time she still sleeps with us. But I am trying.....I promise.

She cut two more teeth also. Her central incisors. That makes six in four months! Over-achiever? Maybe. She loves to talk and sing. Always babbling along, like any normal girl. I love listening to it, and always answer back and try to have conversations. I have been bad about reading to her, but she's in the stage of wanting to eat the books instead of sitting with me and looking at the photos. I try to point things out when I get an opportunity, before she grabs the book and tries to take a bite. Haha. We sing the alphabet and count things, and I point out the colors of everything. She loves watching her "movies" also. I let her watch one Baby Einstein in her jumper every otherish day. She hears that song and instant smile. She will watch the entire 30 minute episode!

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: We are on the same eating schedule, but we keep introducing more foods. We have tried lots of fruits and veggies, a little pasta and rice, some cheese and as always oatmeal is a staple. She breastfeeds in the morning, then eats solids and either the breast or a bottle after her nap, has 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: Still not sleeping through the night, but I am ok with it. Not every child does as I have read. We bond in those nighttime feeds and I love it. Most nights she co-sleeps with us so she gets that bonding time with us. As I said above we are trying to transition, but I do not want to do the CIO method, so any advice is welcomed.

Diapers: Size three's. The Huggies little movers are good for crawling, but I still love my Pampers Little Snugglers.

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!

Loves her exersaucer at grandmas

Big bow, don't care!

Measuring spoons are yummy at G.G.'s

First time in the airport, watching the planes

In the cockpit of our first airplane!

Meeting Grandpa Bobby

And Great Grammy

There's too much commotion to eat mom!

Lunchtime with Daddy

She loved the swing.....I promise!

Boyfriends galore!

Crib in our room, mommy has a hard time getting in and out.

New dress made by grandma's best friend

Family walks

Our Easter Sunday

Happy Tuesday everyone! I am late to the update about Easter bandwagon, but let's get real...I still haven't posted about Christmas. I'll get to it!!!

So here's the down low. I'm not big on the Easter bunny so I had no intention of taking Emma to see the Easter bunny.....then I thought to myself "Self, are you going to regret it if you don't take her to the Easter bunny on her first Easter?" So the hubby and I loaded her up and stood in the 45 minute line to see the Easter bunny. Friends.....why do we torture our poor children this way? Not a single child, mine included, wanted to sit with this creature. They all cried or screamed and made a hullabaloo all so we can spend $22 for two 4x6 photos. Never again! But hey.....we have the photo!

Next up on our agenda was dying eggs. In the 13 years the hubby and I have been together we have never dyed eggs. I know we are lame. So I bought a tie dye kit and with full intention to let Emma solid dye some of them. While intentions are always good, they don't always work out. She was NOT having it Saturday night so daddy held her and she watched as I squirted dye and each of us soaked out eggs until they were the desired color. Ya'll I have never dyed eggs with vinegar only and was thoroughly impress with the color payoff! Definitely going to do it that way from now on!

Easter morning Emma got her basket.....lots of snacks and some bubbles. I am SO creative! ;-) Then she napped and we went to the Easter service at our church. Afterward we went to my grandmothers house and had our Easter meal and then everyone played with Emma until she was so exhausted that she crashed the second we put her in the carseat. She got lots of fun things from her grandmothers and godmother but I got a great bench pillow from my mom! I am so excited and requested all the seasons already!

Of course I had to do a styled shoot for the holiday so I took her out to the park area behind our apartment and let her play with some plastic eggs. She was more interested in pulling on the grass and stuffing those eggs in her mouth to care about smiling for a photo.....priorities. So it wasn't until daddy whipped out the cell phone and put on music that she even cared to look up....then it was way up. But hey, we got that super cute photo above!

Happy Easter Friends!

Asking the Godparents

When miss Emma came into our world it completely changed the dynamic. We weren't just a couple anymore, but a family. We needed to make the decision on whether or not we were going to baptize her in a faith. We come from similar but different backgrounds as a couple and it wasn't ever an issue until now when we needed to decide which faith to baptize her in and who should be her godparents.

It was a long discussion that has consumed us for many months and we finally made the decision, gotten all the paperwork submitted and the date booked for her actual baptism! Whew! I wanted it to be as far away from her first birthday an I could, but her Godmother wont be confirmed until May so we needed to wait. At least it gave me a little time to plan out an invite, more on that later, and to create these cute little cards.

If you have been reading for any amount of time, you know I don't do anything the simple way. It has to be cute, or creative in some way or another so onto the internet I went to find some verbage that I liked to create cards from Emma asking her godparents to take on the roll. I then glued them to cardstock and added some ribbon trims and some buttons to dress it up. I of course made them too large and they wouldn't fit in a traditional envelope but they were a hit regardless.

The verbage says:

"I need an extra pair of hands

to help me learn and grow.

I think that yours

would be the best

'cause Mom and Dad told me so.

Will you be my Godmother/father?"

Her godmother is going to be my baby cousin who was our flower girl at our wedding, since my cousin's are my siblings. Her Godfather is going to be D's brother who just loves his niece to pieces. I think we picked the people who will take on the role without question and will help guide her to be the best person she can be!

Can't wait for the actual day!

Watch Emma Grow - Month Eight

Man o man.....I had this post almost written on my ipad, and the darn thing didn't save! GRRRR! SO ANNOYED. But anyways, I'll try and recap as best I can considering the farther away we get, the less my brain remembers.

We had lots of photoshoots in the month of February. With the adorableness that is Emma in her Superbowl outfit and a styled Valentines Day photoshoot by yours truly. We also took family photo's with an amazing photographer that are to come soon! We haven't narrowed down which pictures we love most yet! I also finally finished her nursery!! It was a crazy busy month!

As far as developments goes, she's just trucking along. She loves to babble lots of things, but her favorite one is mamamama.....which of course is music to my ears. She loves to talk and "sing." She mastered the art of arm crawling and sitting up on her own. I mean all of a sudden she could go from tummy to booty without missing a beat. She's still working in those central incisors and drooling like crazy. Were busy doing a mix of purees and BLW and she loves to eat solid foods. It's so funny to watch her eat and say mmmmmmm when she does! She loves to take walks in the front pack and is a doll whenever we go out. People just oooh and ahhh over her. We love it!

We celebrated lots of birthday's and even asked her godparents if they were up for the task! Post to come on that!

Last Month Stats:
Weight: 16 lbs 1 ozs (27%) Follow up flu booster

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

Eat: As I said above she loves to eat! Here's the list so far: Banana, Pear, Avocado, Sweet Potato, Carrots, Peas, Rice, Oatmeal and pasta. She loves her little Gerber treats too. Snacks on those like a champ. I tend to try and breastfeed before we eat dinner, then we breastfeed to bed and in the morning, on workdays. I am still taking the supplement to keep up the pumping at work, but we have a good stockpile in the freezer so I have take to only pumping twice a day.

Sleep: Still not sleeping through the night, but I am ok with it. Not every child does as I have read. We bond in those nighttime feeds and I love it. Most nights she co-sleeps with us so she gets that bonding time with us. We are going to try and transition soon.

Diapers: Bumped up to size three's. The Huggies little movers are good for crawling, but I still love my Pampers Little Snugglers. We have officially gone through all the baby shower diapers and now have to buy them! **Sobs!!**

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)
Sat on her own: January 7th (6 Months Old)
Ate Solid Foods: January 7th (6 Months Old)

And for the monthly photo dump!