Growing Up

Emily is almost 9 months. Which I find very hard to believe. She is definitely leaving her babyhood as quickly as possible. She is crawling all over the place investigating our house. She likes to kneel and play with her toys. She is even pulling her self up on some of the furniture. She is itching to walk. It is like she almost can't move fast enough. It is fun to watch.

Also Emily loves food. Thanks to the wonderful daycare staff at Tanya's she has been exposed to all sorts of great finger foods. The ones she absolutely loves are soy butter and jelly sandwiches (its a peanut free environment so the soy is like peanut butter.) and pasta with Alfredo sauce. She will eat just about anything put in front of her as long as everything is mixed together. If you serve her things separately she won't touch them. Em is also babbling away these days. She grunts in excitement especially at other kids and shrieks with delight while playing with her toys. She has even started to say mama and dada. I don't count these as first words quite yet because I don't think she realizes that we are mama and dada. She is a ball of energy who doesn't always want to stop to nap. I just love this stage!!

Practicing standing on my own at my activity table!

Reaching for my toys

Playing with my blocks

Too cute

My big eater

Yummy!

Bathtime is becomong a nightly ritual since I put all of my food in my hair!

Having fun playing with Dada

Infections

After picking Emily up from daycare on Thursday it was clear that she was not feeling well. Firstly when I got to daycare she was in the swing. The swing was only our friend for about 3 weeks when she was 2 months old. Once I brought her home I decided to call the nurse. To make a long story short I took her in on Friday, ear infection and probably a sinus infection. Our first round of antibiotics. Man do those things work fast. Thank goodness because we were in Grafton over the weekend to help Beth celebrate her 40th. Emily is back to her normal self. A normal self I haven't seen in at least 4 weeks. It is so great to have my happy smiley baby back.

Our sick little babe

Stomach Virus and Teething

We have just ended our second round with the stomach bug. Frankly I hope we never have to deal with it again. Emily seems to recover very very slowly from stomach viruses. Meaning she continues to get sick for several days after initially being sick. So far we have made it a whole day and hopefully are on the upswing.

In addition to being sick Emily is still teething. A process one of my girlfriends said never ends. She has two teeth on the bottom and the top ones are slowly descending. It seems that my daughter finds relief from teething pain by chewing on our coffee table. I have found several bite marks along the bottom rung. We have put blankets and pillows around the bottom of the coffee table to try and make her stop. However she always manages to dig past these. Em is not a fan of any of the traditional teething relief methods. She hates cold teething rings from the fridge and doesn't like chewing on a washcloth. Oh well I guess we will just have to live with the bite marks on our tables.

Other than that Emily's 7th month has been uneventful. We have spent a lot of time at home and are looking forward to the warmer weather and influx of family gatherings that are coming up. We are also having fun making summer plans. .



Practicing sitting on our own



She loves smiling. Especially when Mommy brings out the camera!



7 Months!

Today Emily has been out of the womb for 7 months! Pretty crazy if you ask me. I can't believe that my baby is now investigating the world around us. Em is so close to taking over our house it is scary. She has her army crawl down and continues to rock back and forth on all fours. She is doing a lot of "push ups" and attempting to propel herself forward by pushing her feet into the ground.  Forget about all of the toys and teething rings we have. She loves lamp cords, the TV stand, and gnawing on the coffee table. She is definitely full of personality.

Yesterday we found out that our daycare is doing a little restructuring due to the influx of babies. Instead of moving to the toddler room around a year old, Emily will be moving to the toddler room around 9 months. So in two short months my baby will be in the toddler room. I know that she is not longer an infant. I am reminded of that every day when I pick her up and I see the 9 week old baby doing tummy time on the floor. It is just another reminder at how quickly she is growing and how fast the time goes.

Happy 7 months my love!

A Few Pictures

I finally found my camera cord. Here are a couple of pictures. I will post more soon!

Emily's First Christmas!



I've got 2 teeth now!



Stomach Viruses Are Bad!

It has been awhile since I have posted. We have been down and out with a nasty stomach virus. Emily has taken quite some time to recover from it. I am hoping that she is on the upswing and my happy healthy baby is back. It is no fun to have a sick child that can not communicate to you what she needs. I am greatly looking forward to getting back into our normal routine. I promise to post pictures next time from Christmas and Em at 6 months. If I could only find that camera cord...

Christmas of Firsts

This Christmas was a Christmas of firsts. Emily's first Christmas, first overnight at Grandma and Grampa Krause's, first time seeing Pastor Paul (the minister who baptized Kevin and married us. ), first time sitting up all by herself, first tooth, and first steps towards freedom. Yup that is right our little girl not only popped out her first tooth on Christmas Eve but she is officially crawling. Well I will call it inching. It is much more of an army crawl. But she gets around pretty good. She is a completely different kid then she was a couple of weeks ago. Now she likes to sit on the floor and play with her ring set and stacking cups. When the toys get out of reach she topples over and begins inching towards them to pick them back up. She is much more a kid then she is a baby these days.

Another first happened right after Christmas. It was the first time I left Emily overnight. Kevin and I ventured off to Pasadena CA to (unsuccessfully) cheer on the Badgers in the Rose Bowl. Em stayed with Grandma and Grampa Mixdorf for 4 nights. They had a ball. She loved playing with Uncle Pat and hearing Grampa Ed do his Donald Duck voice. Grandma did a great job! Kevin and I had a great trip but are happy to be back home with our little one. We are back just in time to celebrate 6 months of Emily. Everyone says how quickly time goes by and they weren't kidding. Wasn't it just July? Wasn't I just holding 8 lbs of newborn goodness? Now she is crawling, laughing, and talking up a storm. And, trust me, she isn't 8 lbs anymore!! I will post some pictures as soon as I find my camera cord ( gotta love vacation ) and hope to post a video or two of Em moving around when I get a chance. Happy New Year!!