Alabama part 1

We have officially passed the half point of our stay in Alabama. While we've gone out and done quite a few things as a family, and with other mommas, I keep forgetting to bring my camera. Here are a few pics we have from playing inside, but I promise to have more fun pictures from the second half of our time here.

Emily's favorite thing to do lately is play with her baby. She loves to rock the baby, hug the baby, kiss the baby, chew on it's ear, stick it's foot in her mouth - so many fun things to do with a baby!

Hugs for the baby!




Rocking the baby

From 2010.01.05 Alabama

Tasty foot!


Snuggles with the baby

From 2010.01.05 Alabama

The other thing she loves to do is stand! She can stand up on her own, and is so proud of herself, but is still hesitant to take a step. Apparently she favors the faster crawling over the scary walking. This too will change soon ;)



I call this her superstar pose

From 2010.01.05 Alabama

Atlanta, GA

Last weekend we went to visit Uncle Jeff and Aunt Keiko in Atlanta! It's about a 2.5 hour drive (when you don't take scenic detours, thanks Chris!:).

We had so much fun! Emily was being goofy!



As some of you know, Emily is generally scared of women if I'm around. She loooves men. But for some reason, it takes her a long time to warm up to most womem when she can see me. So, in an effort to lure her into Keiko's lap, we gave Keiko all of Emily's favorite toys.



Sadly, it didn't work :(. But she was giving Keiko kisses later that night, so maybe it helped a bit?

Emily was exhausted after lots of playing with Uncle Jeff, so she fell asleep on his arm!



We plan to visit them at least one more time before we leave Alabama. Can't wait to see you again Uncle Jeff and Aunt Keiko!

As most of you know, Chris and I are in Alabama for a month (Jan 5-Feb 5) for a class he is taking at Maxwell AFB.

One of my goals while we are here is to get all of my photos organized and edited. I've officially made the switch over to picasa, and should make uploading photos (and thus, picture posts) a lot easier.

So, hopefully there will be pictures soon! I've finally got pictures from the last 2 months on my computer.

More from Alabama to come soon!

Birthday Party!

We had a big first birthday party for Emily. Grandma Susan was able to come out for the party, and boy were we glad to have her here! In total, there were about 25-30 people here!

Emily had a "test run" the night before the party so she could get used to cake and icing.


Then we opened presents from Grandma


Emily loves opening eating presents!


The next day we set up for the party!


Emily checks out Granmda's party hat!


Dad joins in on the fun! This is probably the first (and last) time you'll see daddy with a pink flowerly birthday hat on! He's such a good dad.


birthday cake!


Opening more presents!


Emily's personal cake!


Thanks to all our local friends for coming to the party! It means a lot to us that you came to celebrate with us!

Pineapple

So, Emily's favorite food tends to change with no warning. For example, a couple weeks ago, Emily was packing away peaches like nobody's business. I couldn't cut the slices into bite size pieces fast enough. Peach-eating-machine, I tell you. SO I went out and bough a bunch of peaches. The next day, she wouldn't touch them. Chris tried to put some on her highchair, and she picked them up and flung them across the kitchen.

I suggested that I try...you know, mama's special touch and all.

yeah, didn't work. Since then, peaches have been black-listed.

She's gone through this process with pretty much every "favorite" food she has had. Cheerios. steamed apples. watermelon. Thankfully she's come around on a couple of them.

For the past few days, Emily has been LOVING pineapple. I've been waiting for the moment when we can add pineapple to the list of discarded favorite foods. However, much to my surprise, she's been eating them for almost an entire week! Maybe we have an official favorite food finally?

She takes after her mama - that girl :). We're pineapple eating machines!

12 things about Emily on her 1 year birthday!

Yes, it has come time to do another one of these!

1. She LOVES being thrown around - she is going to love roller coasters if she keeps up with this. Swing her upside-down, throw her up in the air, spin her around in circles - she couldn't be happier.

2. She has a special smile reserved just for her daddy - it will be a weapon against him when she's a teenager! Watch out daddy!

3. She's a crawling champion, and has recently mastered the art of cruising.

4. She loves her angel teddy bear - and anything soft she can put up against her face.

5. She also loves to take hard toys and bang them against her head - we're still trying to figure that one out!

6. She loves to scratch at things with her fingernails....the laptop, a door, the bumpers in her bed, mama's shoulder.

7. We have a biter - watch out! She loves to explore things...with her teeth...we're working on "gentle".

8. She goes to the daycare at the gym 3-4 times a week, and is such a little angel. All the ladies there love her and play with her.

9. She loves books - like, LOVES books. Many people have commented on how well behaved she is if you give her a book to look at. We're very excited about this and plan to encourage it through the rest of her life :).

10. She has a "fake" smile now. One where she scrunches up her nose and pulls her cheeks up and shows off her 7 teeth. It's adorable. But fake. But so stinkin' adorable.

11. She still loves dogs - especially big ones! When she sees one, she gets so excited she starts shaking and squealing.

12. She loves to pull herself up by the shelf her books are on, and one at a time pull them off the shelf onto the floor. She has started doing this with other toys too. it has earned her the nickname "destructor".

At her 1 year checkup, Emily was:
22 pounds 8 ounces (75th percentile)
31.5 inches tall (above 95th percentile)
head circumference is 48 cm (above 95th percentile)

So, she's tall (that's my side of the family) and has a big head (that's Chris!)

Coming soon: recap and pictures from Emily's First Birthday Bash!!

Long time no post!

I know it's been a while since I posted anything, but nothing like a fun fall holiday to get me back in gear!

We had a wonderful Halloween with Emily. Halloween is so much more fun when there's a baby to share it with!!

We did lots of fun things the last week of October. For Halloween, Emily was a girl bear cub! (Please note the pink bows around her ears :). Here we are before in the parking lot at the Baltimore Zoo before we went to the ZooBoooo.


The weekend before Halloween we went to Homestead Gardens which is a big nursery that has a little fall vestival/carnival in October.


Apparently Em isn't a fan of big life size fuzzy creatures....maybe Disney World will have to wait a little while.


Then we went to a pumpkin farm to pick out our pumpkin. They made teepees from corn husks!


Our cute little Pumpkin!


We had a Halloween themed playdate and dressed our little ones up in their costumes! It's much harder to get all 5 to sit still and face the camera than it used to be. They all crawl/walk away!) This was our best shot


We also went trick or treating at an Assisted Living Center. Unfortunately, no good pictures from that event.

Lastly, as promised to my mom, I painted Emily's face green (a la Elphaba from Wicked the Musical...it's awesome, go see it!) She bought Emily a onesie from the theater when we saw Wicked together in the summer of 2008.
mmm...tasty.


Final product


Don't worry, it was non-toxic and washed off very easily with water.

One thing we have learned from this Halloween is that even more fun will be had NEXT year!

Summer of Fun!

This has been a very busy and fun summer for our little Family! After we got back from Seattle in July, we started our summer-of-guests!

Early in the summer, Grandpa Mike spent some time with us after a business trip to Washington DC, and helped us pull out the dead bushes in front of our house! We're actually going to plant new ones this weekend, weather permitting.


Emily loves hanging out with her Grandpa Mike!...and chewing on his thumb!


After we got back from Seattle, my friends Lynn and Sooz came down to visit!




Then, my friend Katie came down from Boston!


Then Jenn came down with her family when the Red Sox were playing Balitmore!


Then Uncle Jeff and Aunt Keiko came up from Atlanta. Grandpa Mike eventually joined us too!


After that, Grandpa Timothy (Emily's Great Grandpa) and Grandma Susan came from Seattle! Uncle Ryan and his dog Soba joined us the next day.




Overall, it was a very very fun summer. It will be so lonely without visitors this Fall! We have one more friend Steph coming to visit us from Texas over Labor Day weekend.

9 things about Emily on her 9 month birthday

9 things about Emily on her 9 month birthday!

1. She loves to cross her ankles when in her stroller or car seat. She does it all the time.
2. She can wave! But not consistently. Or at the appropriate time. Or to the appropriate people. (For example, she just waved to her toy before she picked it up to play with it.) But she waves!!
3. She prefers to drink her bottles in 3 courses.
4. She gives eskimo kisses! Violent eskimo kisses. That often result in my nose being bit, or us knocking heads.
5. Her most tickelish spot is right below her collar bone.
6. She has recently found the joy of laying in her bed talking to herself. I love to listen to her over the monitor.
7. She's a roller! Why crawl when you can roll?
8. She loves to dance. Sometimes it's a head shake, other times it's rocking side to side or spinning around the room in our arms - it doesn't matter. This girl loves to cut a rug.
9. Emily loves to give big, wet, sloppy kisses. But watch out - those four chompers she has can do quite a bit of damage!

My big girl. Already 9 months old! We love you sweetie!

Aug 3, 2009

Happy I've-been-on-the-outside-as-long-as-I-was-on-the-inside day sweet Emily!

A full term (40 weeks) baby spends 266 days in the womb. Emily was 6 days late. So today, on her 272nd day of life, she has been on the outside of my belly as long as she was on the inside!!

It really feels like she's been a part of our world so much longer than that. We can't imagine life without her now :).

Happy special day to you sweetheart! We love you!