9 Month Followup Appointment

Because Emma was underweight at her 9 Month Dr.'s appointment, the Dr. asked us to change up a few things in her diet and to return in a month to check her weight. So Friday was the day we went back and things are looking really good! Emma weighed 17 pounds, 1 ounce which means she gained almost 2 pounds in the last month!!! The Dr. was kind of amazed at how much weight she had gained - I guess all that cheese, yogurt, avocado and other fun new foods are working for her. I did cut back almost completely on the breastfeeding shortly after her last appointment and so now she is drinking formula for the most part. She is doing really well with it!! :) The Dr. didn't measure her length this time and so I did it myself this morning and she is now 27 1/4 inches. She really seems to be chunking up. I think it is almost time for a size 4 diaper. Haha! So although she is still on the low end of normal, she is doing great and her weight is right back up where it needs to be!

Emma & Tigger!

About 3 weeks ago Emma decided that she really liked a stuffed Tigger that she has. It's been sitting in her room pretty much since she's been born, along with Eeyore, Pooh & Piglet but she's never really had much interest in them...until now. She picked up her Tigger right before she went down for a nap a few weeks ago & has been attached to him ever since. She sleeps with him & often takes him on some of her adventures around the house. So over the last couple of days I decided I needed to document this cuteness. Here are several pictures of Emma with Tigger. The last one I took today after she fell asleep.It was kind of dark in her room and since she is such a light sleeper I only took one picture to avoid waking her up. Anyway, it's a little blurry but it's so cute b/c she's all cuddled up with him. :)

Father's Day!

Yesterday was Father's Day & Emma & I did our best to make Dave feel very special because he is a wonderful Daddy!! We both love him so very much!!

I got up and made him breakfast before he had to head off to church for the morning. He was playing in the band at church so he was gone all morning long. I used the time to prepare a picnic lunch for us to take up to the tram. When I asked Dave what he wanted to do on Father's Day he said he thought going up to the tram would be fun. We had bought a summer season pass about a month ago so we can go up as many times as we want all summer long. It is really nice because it is significantly cooler up at the top. :) So we went up there when he was done at church and we found a picnic table in the shade and had a very pleasant lunch up there. We actually got a tiny bit chilly, but we are not complaining! Emma had bought Dave some "Dad's Rootbeer" for Father's Day so we had that while we were up there too. :)

Here is Emma with her Daddy out in nature:

We got home around 5 and Emma hadn't had much of an afternoon nap so we didn't have a whole lot of time before it was time for bed. Dave decided he was going to play his videogames and Emma decided to join him (she's discovered that she can use the controls to make the t.v. do things - it's really kind of cute):

After she went to bed, Dave & I made steak for dinner and sat outside on the patio for several hours, just talking & drinking a bottle of wine. It was a very pleasant evening and Dave said he had a great Father's Day!! :)

His favorite present was something that Emma gave him all on her own with no help from Mommy! We are fairly confident that she now has a first word!!! :) We have both heard her say it on several occasions and so although it is a little difficult to know for sure, we have decided to declare that she said her first word on Father's Day!! :) And of course I'm sure you are now wondering what it is and so I will tell you. Emma's first word is "kitty". :) We have both been holding her when one of our cats has crossed our path and heard her say what really sounds like kitty while she is looking at it. So that is our big news.

For all of your fathers out there, we would like to wish you a happy Father's Day too! We hope you all had a wonderful day yesterday and that you felt honored and loved because you all deserve it! :)

Ten Months Old!

Okay, I think this is my last post and then I am all caught up - for now at least! Monday was Emma's 10 month birthday - she is now in the double digits. Wow! She is such a little kid now and most of the time I don't even think of her as a baby anymore. I look at pictures of when she was a newborn and I can't believe how much she has changed in such a short amount of time.

She is a very proficient crawler now - she is all over the place and into EVERYTHING!! I have to keep a very close eye on her. She is also really good at pulling herself up onto things...couches, tables, baskets, people, etc. I am hoping that she will learn to balance herself soon and start to walk b/c she lets go of things and then just falls over. I hate seeing her bump her head on the floor (which is mostly all tile), but Dave says I should just get used to it because she's just going to start doing it more. He can say that because he never actually sees it happens or hears her cry when he's at work. Just wait until it happens when he's home - then he won't blow it off so easily. :)

She still has no teeth!!! I can't even see that there are any trying to come through. Who knows where they are? Although, people have been telling us that the longer it takes to get teeth the stronger and longer lasting the teeth will be. Does anyone know if this is true? Dave & I think it's just a stupid lie that some parent made up to make themselves feel better about the fact that their kid had no teeth. Somebody fill me in! :) Of course she doesn't care - it just means that she's eating a bunch of food now and we just have to cut it up really, really small. :)

So to celebrate her 10 month birthday after Dave got home from work on Monday we went and picked up KFC and took it to the park for a little picnic. I chose KFC because they have a lot of food that Emma can eat. She really enjoyed herself and so did Dave & I. It was really fun.

Here she is getting some mashed potatoes - yum, yum! She loved them and couldn't get enough:

She also had little pieces of chicken that we would pick off for her. She liked that too and kept trying to take our chicken away from us. But, her favorite part was finding the biscuits. She found the box that they were in and kept pulling pieces out and just gobbling them up. She made quite a mess but thoroughly enjoyed herself.

And she topped it all of with some water (we didn't let her drink our rootbeer):

She had a good time and so did we! I'm sure we'll have to do it again just for fun.

Another Trip to Seattle

Two weekends ago we decided to take a very last minute trip to Seattle. I had really been wanting to go up for a little while and of course my parents are always happy to have us! ;) I realized that my parents actually took most of the pictures of us while we were up there, but here are a couple of cute ones of Emma on the plane. She was such a good girl again and I really have very few reservations about traveling with her. She makes it so easy!!

We had a great time up there. We just got to relax and hang out with my family and enjoy the wonderful weather. It was a really great weather up there - 70's and 80's so it was warm but not too hot. We spent a lot of time outside (which we don't get to do too much of out in the desert). My parents' yard was in full bloom and everything was green and pretty. They also have a hammock and we spent a lot of time swinging out there. We would sit out there for hours - Emma LOVED it! She'd drink her afternoon smoothie and we'd just hang out. It was a really good weekend and I am looking forward to going back up in a couple months.

Here are a couple pictures of Emma sniffing flowers. So cute!! :)

9 Month Checkup

On May 26th Emma had her 9 month Dr.'s appointment. She hadn't been since her 6 month checkup so we were very excited to see how she was doing. She didn't have to get any shots (YEAH) but she did have to have her finger pricked so that they could test her for anemia. They had the results for us before we left and Emma is getting plenty of iron so that is a blessing! :) She was very unhappy with the Dr. and nurses though - she didn't even want them listening to her heart - she was sooooo dramatic. It was kind of funny.

The only concern I had and which we talked to the Dr. about was her weight. She was 15 pounds, 2 ounces and 26 1/4 inches. This means that she had lost weight since her 6 month checkup and she was 3 months older!! So we talked to the Dr. a lot about her diet and what we can do to help her gain some weight. We have been cutting back on the nursing and introducing a lot more solids. She is eating new fun things like yogurt, cheese & avocado. She is having a fun time with it and enjoying getting to try new things! We go back to the Dr. on the 26th to check her weight and make sure that she is making progress. I will be sure and keep you updated.

Emma is Crawling!!

May 7th Emma crawled for the first time! Whoo-hoo!! She had been so close for a month and a half or so but she finally figured it out. She started off a little slow and wobbly but now she is an expert. This is a video of her just a few days after she learned how to crawl.

And of course with crawling, comes Mommy having to chase after her and keep her out of all the things that she really wants to play with (or eat)! :) These pictures were taken on May 13th when she figured out that she likes to play with the cat food. I am always catching her trying to eat the cat food. I don't think she's eaten any yet, but I am not completely positive. She is kind of like a little vacuum cleaner and she is always picking things up off the floor that I didn't even know were there. I am always looking down at her and finding her chewing on something that she's found.

Nine Months Old!

Yes, it's been over a month, but on May 8, Emma turned 9 months old. We had a fairly ordinary day hanging out around the house, but later on in the afternoon I took her to get her first smoothie to celebrate. She LOVED it!! It believe it was a Strawberry/Mango smoothie and it has since become one of her favorite afternoon treats.

Here are some pictures of her later on in the afternoon. She started crawling the day before, but she had not become very proficient yet.

Emma's Beautiful Hair!

Okay, once again I have been terrible about posting updates on our beautiful girl. I'll do my best to get caught up in the next couple of days!! :)

These were taken on May 3rd. Emma was playing with all of the hair things that her "Auntie" Bri gave to her and let's just say she has a lot of fun! :)