Happy Winter

Happy First Day of Winter! 

Peace

I had a bought with the stomach flu the last 2 days. I have been feeling run down and generally out of it for over a week now so it was only a matter of time before I picked up some sort of bug. I found that having a sick mama equals no fun for the little one. Kevin is out of town this week which makes for bad timing when all I wanted to do was crawl underneath my covers. However there was a babe to be taken care of.

I swear she is either not feeling the best or knows that I am not feeling the best. She has been an absolute angel the last 2 days. Last night she woke up from her nap around the time for her last bottle of the day. I picked her up and just snuggled for a second. She nuzzled her head into my neck and went back to sleep. I laid down on the couch and let her sleep on my chest for what I thought would be a minute or two. It ended up being about an hour. It was the most peacful I have felt in weeks. It made all of the stress of holidays, trip planning, sickness, and life in general go away. I wouldn't trade that for anything.

Emily's First Thanksgiving

Emily enjoyed her first Thanksgiving. We were at Kevin's "aunt" Trudy and "uncle" Jerry's house. It was a great day of family fun and football. Em even tried some of Auntie Beth's squash! It was a great day.



family photo



Tuckered out after a long day.





Adventures in Rice Cereal

Emily is in her fourth month and we have started solid foods! The first time I gave her rice cereal she did not like it at all. Exhibit A:

She wanted nothing to do with a spoon in her mouth or the funny texture that is rice cereal. Plus I am pretty sure it lacks any sort of taste. With the advice of several mommies, daycare personnel, and our pediatrician I have pressed on and given her a chance to eat some every night around dinner time. We have slowly but surely progressed and she is now eating like a champ. So I decided to introduce bananas. Again she is not so sure about the flavoring or how to really handle the spoon. But little by little we are getting more and more comfortable. So much that I will be taking advantage of this Thanksgiving holiday and giving her some sweet potatoes. I am looking forward to making my own baby food and seeing how she does. Kevin and I are truly thankful for the miracle of Emily. We are looking forward to our first Thanksgiving as a family of 3.

Oh and for those of you who aren't aware the Badgers are one win away (with a little help from our other Big 10 friends) from going to the Rose Bowl. We hope you will be cheering Bucky on this weekend.

Go Bucky!



Four Months--Babyproofing?!?

Yesterday we went to Emily's 4 month well check up. She topped the scales at 15 lbs and is 24 inches long. She is in the 85th percentile for weight and the 62nd for height. We talked to Dr. Hillery about a variety of baby things including introducing cereal and baby food (adventures in rice cereal have already started), Em's excellent motor skills, the number of colds babies will get during their first winter (6-12!), and how well she is thriving. Then I told the Dr about how one of Emily's favorite things to do these days is flip onto her tummy and "swim". She balances on her tummy and kicks her arms and legs. When she is unable to move anywhere she get frustrated and mad. That is when Dr. Hillery told us it was probably time to start thinking about babyproofing the house. My first thought was I am not ready for my baby to be on the move just yet! Once she starts crawling our whole lives are going to change again. Right now I can trust in the fact that I can put her on the floor while I go to get dinner ready or empty the dishwasher and I will find her in the same spot when I come back. I have a feeling that won't last for long. So in the next couple weeks we will begin putting locks on our cabinets and investing in a babygate or two. I am excited that she is acheiving and thriving but a small part of me wishes she could just stay like this for a little bit longer.

Happy Halloween!

We spent Emily's first Halloween watching the Packer's play and handing out candy to the neighborhood trick or treaters. She didn't really enjoy being in her costume but managed a few smiles for Mama. She made a very cute little cow or as Kevin's grampa always said--a very cute Moo Bossy.





Our happy little Moo Bossy.





Em enjoying her first Halloween.



Spoiled Parents

We are pretty spoiled as new parents go. Emily is a relatively easy going child, who is happy for the majority of the day. She has her fussy times at night but we really can't complain.

Em has been sleeping through the night since she was 5 weeks old. We have started to put her down earlier and earlier so her bedtime is now 8 or 8:30. She has embraced her new bedtime like a champ. However, in the last several days she has decided she needs to eat around 5 am. Now, our alarm clock goes off at 5:30 am. So when I hear her a half and hour before I *should* be getting up I get a little frustrated. Mind you it has been about 8 hours or so since she ate last. And when she wakes up she eats for about 10 min and falls back into her peaceful sleep state. Because this is slowly becoming the norm I am beginning to get used to it.

Last night she decided that 4:15 am was the time to wake up. And when I say wake up I mean she was ready to play. She was smiling and ready to go. I was not. So I fed her and put her back in her crib, awake. She actually hung out for awhile fairly quiet until she flipped herself over on her tummy and couldn't flip herself back. Kevin went in to settle her and she fell asleep shortly after that and we got to sleep for another 45 minutes.

What I need to remember during these times is how spoiled we really are. I haven't had to wake up every 2 hours to feed her at night since the first week we brought her home. Plus she has blessed me with a solid nights sleep for most of her short life. I feel for those parents whose kids don't sleep through the night. I can't imagine how different life would be without my solid night of sleep. So thank you Emily for being such a good sleeper. Can I just ask one favor? Can we go back to waking up at 5 am? Thanks!

The Great Pumpkin Hunt

We decided to start a new family tradition this year by visiting the pumpkin patch. So this Sunday we went to Treinen Farms in Lodi, WI which is about a 20 minute drive from out house. It was a gorgeous, warm fall day. We put Emily in the pack facing out so she could take everything in. As most of you know she never wants to miss a thing. We did the corn maze which is shaped like a lizard. Instead of just giving you a map to the entire corn maze they give you one-eighth of the map. There are specific checkpoints that you go to to receive the next portion of the map. I thought this was much more fun then just a "regular" corn maze. Emily fell asleep about midway through. It took us about 45 min to find our way out.

After the corn maze we got in line for the horse drawn ride to the pumpkin patch. Once we got to the patch they let you loose. Only one rule is that everyone must be able to carry their own pumpkin. We had decided to only pick out two pumpkins. Which in the end was a good idea b/c I had to carry them! We ended up having a great day with one tuckered out kid. I am really looking forward to going next year and having her pick her own pumpkin.

  

We've Got a Roller

Emily has been slowly discovering how to roll from her back to her tummy. In the last week or so she has decided that sleeping on her side is much more comfortable. She hadn't really figured out how to quite get that top leg all the way over to end up on her tummy. Then on Sunday while we were at Uncle Brian and Auntie Beth's house we gave Em some floor time in hopes she would figure out how to flip over. Well she did and she flipped her self back onto her back! A full roll!

As with most new things she has done this was not repeated right away. However last night I put her in her pack and play while I ran upstairs to put the laundry in the dryer. I heard her crying but thought it was because I left the room. When I got back downstairs I didn't see her in the pack and play and my heart skipped a beat. When I looked closer I saw is that she had rolled herself onto her tummy and under the changing table that sits the top half of the pack and play. However, this time though she could not figure out how to get herself from her tummy to her back and she was upset! I would have grabbed the camera but using my better judgement I pulled her out. I think it is official to say that Emily is rolling!!

Emily's Baptism

On Sunday we had Emily's Baptism. It was a beautiful day filled with lots of love. Most of the family met us at St Luke's for the baptism. Kevin and I were both surprised at how many people showed up for the service. Em did great during the service. Even though it fell right during feeding time. She had a funny look on her face when the water hit her head but didn't cry. Emily was wearing my baptismal dress which was made by my great grandma Emma and is probably about 65 years old. My mom, aunts, some of my cousins, and my brothers also wore it on their baptisms. Emily was blessed with 4 sponsors--Brian & Beth Krause and Gregg & Kelly Mixdorf.



        



After the service we had everyone over to our house for lunch. It was nice to finally have a reason to have both sides of our family at our house. With living the furthest west most people had never been to our house before. Plus in preparation for everyone coming over we had managed to do some small home improvements and the house looked great.

After everyone left I think Emily was a little shell shocked. She cried for about an hour before she fell asleep. She ended up sleeping for 10 hours that night and took many naps on Monday at daycare. She is not quite used to having a house full of people. She is back to her normal self now.

Thank you to everyone who helped make it such a wonderful day.

Emily's First Badger Game

Last Saturday was the first home game for the Badgers. It was also almni band day for Kevin. We decided it would be a good opportunity to take Emily to her first game. She did pretty well. I spent a lot of the game walking around the tunnels with her because she wasn't a fan of me sitting down. But for being only 2 months old she did better than I expected.




Taking a nap during the game



Our little Badger baby



First Thing is First

I have decided to start a blog to help everyone keep up with our fast growing little one. I enjoy checking on other people's blogs so I decided it was time I join them. Hopefully I can figure out how to post pictures soon. Thanks for checking in on us.