She did it!!

Emma can crawl! I thought it would take her a few more weeks, but today she did it! She's been able to make her way around the floor for a while, but not by only crawling until today. I was so excited trying to grab the camera and take a picture, video anything, but of course the camera card was missing and the camcorder was out of video tapes. So by the 3rd pass crawling across the family room I finally fumbled around and got a new memory card in the camera, she was pretty tired (thus the fussing) but she made it eventually. The first 2 times were better, but I guess you'll just have to take my word for it.

When she was done she was so tired she just laid down flat on the floor, but by the time I grabbed the camera, she was back up trying to crawl some more! Wow, what a girl!

Hooray!

Emma is 7 months old today!

So I kind of dropped the ball for Emma's 6 month celebratory blog entry. I was gonna do an awesome slide show to music, but I was going nuts trying to include EVERY favorite picture of her so I pretty much gave up.
So Emma is our second child, obviously, and every one says that the 2nd child never has photos of just them, but instead always with their siblings so I've made a concerted effort to get photos with only Emma in them. Well lately all of her solo shots are just lame, but in pictures with Riley next to her (who is not looking in the camera or making a semi-attractive face--of course), Emma is being absolutely adorable! So sorry Riley, we love you but I cropped out of these photos of Emma so she can have a few pictures of just her (without a silly-faced sister next to her). Every once in a while they will both look at the camera and I'll be lucky enough to capture those moments, but they are rare.
These photos are a few days old because Emma's been sick with conjunctivitis* for the past few days. The most recent photos I took document all her secretions when she woke up one morning (for medicinal purposes to prove to the doctor how sick my child really was despite her extremely good nature). Emma barely had a fever, she was sleeping longer and eating less, which are all symptoms I can 'wait & see' on but I knew that gunk constantly in her eyes was no good. So the doctor did agree that she was sick (despite her good nature) and gave us some drops "that won't be fun at all." She was right! Emma is smart and can see those drops coming a mile away, no matter how sneaky we think that we are, and clamps her eyes shut and starts to wiggle and fuss. But we wrestle with her to get them in and I'm glad we do because her eyes are better already!
So happy 7 months Emma! (so sorry your only gift/reward is your very first toothbrush & icky eye drops!) We love you soo much. You bring so much joy into our lives! It is so fun to see your social personality grow and see you learn how to eat and crawl and explore everything. You are growing up too fast but we are loving every minute of it!


*conjunctivitis is the medical term to keep you from freaking out that your child has a condition commonly called pink eye (which in this case would be a misnomer because her eyes didn't really get pink at all, just kind of oozed), but oh well, her eyes were infected, we get it.

Don't be fooled, she looks sweet..

Have teeth will bite

Can someone make Emma a onesie or bib with that on it for me? I feel it might be necessary to post like a warning sign, considering Emma has bitten her parents at least for times today! She's bitten shoulders, ankles, & fingers. She has also gotten her two top teeth in about 2 weeks ago, but I've posted enough about her getting teeth, but now I just couldn't believe she's been bitting. Watch out!
I can't wait to see her smile evolve from the toothless grin I'm used to into a smile full of teeth.
Well, maybe not full, but the sharp impact of the few make it feel like there are more.
She also is very mobile lately--almost crawling! She can turn and scoot all over the floor. You can see in the background all the toys she left behind to get where she wants to go.

mom, mom, moms

We had another wonderful weekend with family. Generations of mothers and daughters and families together for mom's day and it was fabulous! We got to go boating and even though good weather failed us, we went anyways and had a great time watching the boys brave the cold water (with the help of a dry suit).
Notice the gray skies? We had more sunshine over Easter weekend on the boat (see header photo? notice the sunglasses?!) But we of course had a blast! Riley was in heaven surrounded by adoring grandparents in tune with her every whim. She loved boating and even got to place new goldfish in grandma & grandpa's pond with her very own net.
She just freed a fish into its new home. We did it first thing in the morning so she's a little sleepy in this picture, but she loved it. All day long she wanted to go check the fish to see if they had grown bigger already, she asked like every 5 seconds. Oh, the focus and persistence of a toddler!

Michael took care of me as much as he could, as we were out of town with family for 36 hours. He took me on an impromptu date (gotta use the free babysitting when you've got it), he gave me a good gift by really remembered what I wanted and a card full of coupons redeemable for future gifts (like breakfast in bed, etc). We even squished in a few hours for Mike's dad to work on his braces with my assistance. I got to see a screw placed into his jaw--crazy, huh?
My girls were their usual wonderful/slightly-trying selves. But they are what make me a mom and I love them sooo much! Here we are in all our cuteness or attempts anyways.We had so much great food, fun and visiting with our parents and grandparents. We love our moms and all they've done for us and our family. They're wonderful examples of love and parenting and patience. Thanks for being our moms and our friends!

ups and downs

Happy Riley:

Oh, the roller coaster of our toddler. Today was mostly a very up day with only a few downs. She woke up early this morning begging to go to Ginny's house. I had a hard time keeping her occupied for over an hour until it was time to go at 7:20am, but every other minute she still said "I want to go to Ginny's house!" After work I picked up her up and told her we were going to go swimming in an hour. Her response, "We're going to go to the beach!" We talked about it and again she constantly asked to put on her swimming suit, go to the pool, go to the beach, go to grandma's pool. Her excitement was darling but tiring. She had so much fun in her tot swimming class with Dad. The pool was so cold, she was shaking, but she was tough! We bundled her up and headed home, but while walking up to our house she tripped on the concrete and got a big scrape on her forearm, poor thing. She cried so hard. She went so nuts and started saying "goo-goo, ga-ga" repeated and very articulately. It was so silly. Luckily we had picked up McDonald's on the way home, so a Happy Meal got her back on the up and up. Bath time reminded her that her arm hurt so another crying fit

down again: "I don't want to take a bath!"

until Emma came in the bathtub and then instantly the pain was forgotten and fun begun. I'm so glad my girls can cheer each other up so well.

And she's happy again: "see my boo-boo? just like daddy's!" (it's just above her elbow; Michael scraped his leg sliding playing baseball)

She is pretty cute!
When she prays at night she still blesses the food and always remembers to pray and give thanks for both sets of grandparents.
She holds Emma and rocks while singing 'Rock-a-bye, baby'
Out of the blue, Riley started counting correctly in Spanish while playing. "Uno, dos, tres, quatro, cinco." I was impressed!

Some spunky things she says:
"you go away now, please" (when she's tired and done with stories and just wants to sleep)
"stop it right now, please!"
"mama, that's so silly"
"you don't try to be funny like Riley"
"mama, see, I'm kicking, and I get smaller and I kick inside your tummy" (we've been looking at pictures of her as a baby and me pregnant with her and I had keep reminding her it was baby Riley not Emma)
"I NEED to watch a movie!!!" (everything Riley wants, becomes a NEED)

With all the ups and downs, we're learning to treasure all the great moments, however short, and enjoy what an extraordinary daughter we have. We try to be good parents, but sometimes struggle not to laugh when she's doing something naughty. She really is a lot of fun and has a lot of energy.