It's been a while...

It’s been a while since our last blog post and a lot has happened. Emma’s first tooth broke through her gum and let me tell you, it is sharp! I am very lucky that she hasn’t bitten down on me while nursing yet, but she does like to put my finger in her mouth and chomp down – now that hurts! Her tooth came in a week ago Tuesday and it was such a great day for many reasons – one, she now has a tooth, and two we got confirmation that we weren’t crazy about her teething. The day her tooth came in she also went to day care for the first time. Trystan was getting his MRI so we took Emma to Bright Horizons, which is the back-up day care facility that my work offers. Emma did wonderfully. She enjoyed watching the caregivers blow bubbles, and she was mesmerized by the fishing swimming in a large tank. She was an angel and smiled the entire day. It makes us so happy to know that Emma was happy even though unfamiliar people were taking care of her.

Emma finally likes to eat!!! She eats puffs and all kinds of food. She opens her mouth and it is an enjoyable experience.

Emma also loves people’s faces and pulling on hair. Any opportunity she has she will grab and pull your hair. We have to be careful because she has a strong grip! She also loves touching people’s faces. You can tell that she is exploring and learning by touching everything and it is pretty neat. Emma also loves being outdoors. She can be crying non-stop and the second we take her outside she will calm down.

Another big thing that happened was we found a wonderful nanny to take care of Emma. Her name is Judith, and she is going to take care of just Emma. She is a really sweet woman, has two kids of her own (two boys, 12 and 16) and is excited to have a little girl to babysit. She came highly recommended by the families she previously worked for and the last little girl she took care of lived down the street from us. One of the great things about Judith is that she is already familiar with the neighborhood and knows all the happenings. Judith was going to start this week but she ended up starting last week because Trystan got sick. The transition went really well. I worked from home on Wednesday (like I always do) and Judith jumped right in and learned all about Emma. The hardest thing about taking care of Emma is feeding her. We never know how much she will eat during her feedings – sometimes she will eat 6 ounces and others she will only eat 2 ounces – and she can be super slow at eating. Judith is really patient with her and is getting the hang of feeding her which is always our biggest concern.

Jumping back to the previous Sunday – July 11 – Jamey took care of Emma all day. It was a first where I wasn’t around at all. I went to LA on Sunday to surprise my mom for her birthday gift from the kids and I left Emma with Jamey. I fed her in the morning and then immediately jumped on a plane. I didn’t get home till late at night and Emma was already asleep. Jamey said he loved being with Emma one-on-one but he has a new appreciation for me because he realized how hard it can be. Then Monday morning the phone rang at 7:30am and we knew it was Laetitia… and she said Trystan was sick so she couldn’t take care of Emma. Bright Horizons was full so Jamey had to stay home from work. The day care was also full on Tuesday and we called Judith to see if she could start early – she was already working on Tuesday so Jamey stayed home another day. It ended up being good that he stayed home because when Emma woke up Tuesday she was really coughing and a slight fever so Jamey took her to the Doctor. Ends up that she had a virus and we just needed to monitor her. Thankfully, we think she just had a cold – she was blowing snot rockets for a couple of days – and was congested. Her fever went away but she was pretty cranky. It made us a bit nervous that Judith was starting and Emma was sick and cranky – we didn’t want to scare her away! But Judith was a pro and Emma was on pretty good behavior.

Emma really took to Judith – she is really happy and smiling all the time. We can’t begin to say how glad we are that it seems to be working out really well with Judith – I know it has only been three days but we feel quite secure and comfortable with her. Judith takes Emma to the park everyday – she went on a swing for the first time last week and she even arranged for a play date. Judith is taking pictures of Emma with our camera so we know what she is doing and so we have pictures of her. There’s a picture of her at someone’s house with another little girl but I don’t know who the girl is. It is just nice to know that Judith is getting out of the house with her everyday and exposing her to different things.

I don’t remember if I wrote about this before or not but Emma is rolling from her back to her tummy now. Before it was only from her tummy to her back but now she is a pro at it both ways. It is fun to watch her move all around and for her to be happy on her tummy. We never thought it was going to happen but she loves lying on her belly and doing push-ups. Soon she will be crawling which means we have to babyproof the house. One thing that has changed now with her rolling all around we can’t leave her on the bed and walk out of the room to get something because she might just roll right off the bed. This is definitely a blessing and a curse. We have to keep our eyes on her at all times. She likes it but it makes it hard for us to leave the room.

Saturday, July 17 was Emma’s 7 month birthday. I still can’t believe she is 7 months old. I don’t know where the time has gone. It is just flying by… I think about how big she is getting and all the new things she is doing. I dream of when the time comes that Emma can walk, talk, play dress up and do all the fun things little girls do but I also want to freeze this moment in time and for her to stay a baby. It is all happening too fast and I want time to slow down. I cherish this time with her so much and treasure of minute of every day that I am with her. She is just so sweet and I love her more than words can describe.

Saturday night was a big night for me and Jamey. We finally went on our first date since Emma was born. Yes, it has been a long long time. We went out to dinner one other time when my mom was visiting but we were out for a short time and I cried the entire time. I was still on leave and was so sad that I was going to be leaving her during the day. I digress. We went to dinner at Farina and then we went to see Wicked. The tickets to Wicked were my Mother’s Day present. We found a babysitter – Emilia – and Emma liked her. We didn’t want to use Judith because she think it is important to find other sitters and for Emma to get used to other people taking care of her in case Judith was busy for one reason or another. Emilia said that Emma did really well. It was pretty easy to take care of her because Emilia came over at 5:15pm and Emma went to bed at 7:20. There wasn’t much for her to do except play with the little girl and then feed her. Again, I was nervous about the nighttime feed but Emilia said that Emma drank all her milk and went right to bed. We were pleased that it went so well especially because we have a wedding next weekend and need a babysitter for that. We plan to use Emilia again. But it was so nice for Jamey and me to get out of the house without Emma and spend some time alone with one another. Everyone told me that it is important for us to make time for one another without the baby and it is really true. We missed little Emma bear but we also enjoyed being together.

Sunday was a beautiful day in San Francisco. Emma wanted to start the day early so she woke up at 5 and wouldn’t go back to sleep. We weren’t thrilled about it to say the least but what were we going to do. You can’t get mad at a baby. So we got up and Emma was pretty cranky for again – she was cranky and a bit difficult most of the weekend – and for good reason it seems. Her second tooth is about to break through her gum. It will definitely happen this week and it wouldn’t surprise me if it happens by Tuesday.

Lately Emma has been giving us kisses. We say they are kisses but it could just be that she opens her mouth and puts in on our face because she is teething. Who knows but I love when she does it! I think they are kisses so that is what I am telling people.