Our little girl is a year old!

Where did the time go? Seriously. It is amazing how much faster time goes when you have a child. Every day/milestone accounted for, every smile, laugh, bump on the head burned into our memory… or at least it seems. I am so conflicted that Emma is 1! Where did my little baby girl go? She is so big now! It is amazing to see her grow but time is just going by too fast!

Emma really is this beautiful, happy little person who is definitely coming into her own. She has a distinctive personality now – she knows what she likes and wants, and really knows what she doesn’t like or want! She is constantly exploring, pointing at things, and even getting pretty good at walking (while assisted). She is our little dancer and social butterfly. Whenever I talk to people who know Emma they always say how happy she is – all the time. It makes me feel so good to know that while I am at work Emma is happy, smiling and in a good mood. She still loves her baths although it is getting more and more challenging to give them to her because she likes to stand up in the tub. She is a great little eater – and there are only a few things that she doesn’t like – avocado and cottage cheese (although we haven’t given it to her for a while). I know I am missing something but I can’t remember. She loves carbs – waffles, pancakes, bread, pasta. I think if that is all we fed her she would be fine. But she loves her veggies and fruit – broccoli and zucchini I think are her favorite vegetables, and she loves all kinds of fruit – mango, papaya, apples, bananas, pears, blueberries.

Emma started a new music class – this time with a new teacher. She absolutely loves it! She pays close attention to what is going on, dances, smiles and participates when she can. As you all know, she loves to swim but her swim classes are coming to an end and Jamey and I decided to take a break from them for a bit. We’ve been doing them for a while but we don’t want to have the commitment for the time being.

Emma continues to love reading and has some favorite books. She loves her two puppy books; I love you Sun, I love you Moon; Goodnight Kisses and another touch and feel book. We read to her every day and she finally pays attention – at least for a little bit.

On Emma’s actual birthday, I worked from home and took a half day so I could be with her. We sang her Happy Birthday many times and Judith threw her a wonderful birthday party at the park. Judith bought her two cakes and all the kids and nannies sang her Happy Birthday. Judith also bought her a princess tiara to wear but Emma was not a fan. She doesn’t like things on her head – it is always a challenge to get her to wear a hat so most of the time we don’t even bother putting one on her. Anyway, Emma loved the cake! I think she would have eaten the entire thing if we allowed her to. That afternoon, I was a cooking machine for her party. I was set on making her cake from scratch – frosting and all, and making all the food. I don’t know why I insisted on doing it all but let me tell you I was very proud of myself!

On Saturday, December 18 we threw her a grand ole party! Grandma Marcia and Grandpa Bob came in from LA to help celebrate. Carissa came over in the morning and helped decorate all the cakes – yes plural – I made 3! She also was a TREMENDOUS help in getting the house ready and decorating it. Chris too came over and helped. We couldn’t have done it all without their help. We are forever grateful to them!

Around 30 people came, kids and adults, everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and Emma was loving every minute of having a full house and the spotlight on her. She was social, went to everyone without a problem and was as happy as can be. Once everyone left, we opened a few gifts and then Emma had enough and was ready to go to bed. We had so much food left over it was ridiculous but I would rather have more food than not enough. All in all the party was a success, I think everyone had a great time and I am thrilled we threw a party for her!

Thanksgiving and the next couple of weeks

What a great Thanksgiving! We went down to LA on Tuesday and spent the week there. We saw lots of family and friends. Emma was great on the flight down – very social although the people around weren’t that friendly. She was trying to engage the people around her – waving, smiling, etc. – but she wasn’t getting much back. It was really sad because she is so cute how could people not pay attention to her. When we landed Grandma picked us up and we went to lunch. We went to a restaurant that had long shared tables and a group of men sat next to Emma. Boy oh boy was she a flirt! She was smiling, laughing, waving at all the men. They were eating it up! I think Jamey and I are going to have a problem on our hands when she grows up.

When we got to the house Emma was so excited to see and play with Gracie. Uncle Ryan and Emily came over and so did Auntie Deb. Emma was very happy to see everyone and play with them. She didn’t cry this time with Ryan which was very good.

On Wednesday we went and visited Great Grandma and Grandpa. It was so nice to see them. They loved seeing Emma and how much she has grown. Great Grandpa kept getting on the floor with her and she was showing off all her tricks. They gave her a musical walker which she just loved! She kept dancing and pressing all the buttons. Later that afternoon my friend Kirin and her new baby Marco came over to visit. It was really cute to see how Emma reacted to a little baby. She definitely sees and is aware that the baby is a little person. She used to not care or be aware of babies but as she has gotten older she definitely does.

On Thursday Grandma Barbara came in the morning and we went for an early lunch. Emma was on very good behavior and we went to a Greek restaurant. She was perfect at lunch and it made me and Jamey think that we should take her out to restaurants more often. My Nana came over early as well and Emma was in such good spirits. She was being her perfect angel self and everyone loved seeing her. She was definitely having a good time – so much so that she didn’t want to take her afternoon nap. After fighting with her for a while we finally put her in the stroller, closed her up and took her for a walk where she finally fell asleep. She woke up just in time for dinner!

Emma sat at the table with us in between me and Jamey. She was so happy to be with everyone and loved the Thanksgiving feast! She ate so much stuffing and turkey it was incredible. She also has been on a broccoli kick and eats it like it is going out of style – kinda like her dad.

We got to see Great Grandma and Grandpa one more time before we headed back home and I know it put smiles on their faces. The next time they see her she will be 1! We also met up with my friend Rhianna and her husband Kevin. It was the first time they met Emma and it was so sweet. They bought her some really cute headbands – the trick is keeping them on her head. She isn’t a big fan of hats, sunglasses – really anything on her head or face. She will keep them on for a little while and then she just pulls them off.

We took an evening flight on Saturday and Emma fell asleep on the plane. We were able to flawlessly put her in her car seat without waking her up and the moment we pulled into the garage she woke up! Luckily it was only for a short period of time but we wish she could have slept through it all.

Unfortunately, Sunday is when things took a turn for the worse. Emma developed a little cough that concerned me a bit. I thought she was getting sick but the cough wasn’t that bad. Well, the day went on and by Monday night she had a full blown cold. It was pretty bad. She was stuffy, snotty and all things gross. Her cough got worse and she wasn’t that interested in eating or drinking. By Thursday I knew she wasn’t “right” so I took her to the doctor. Low and behold she had a double ear infection. Thankfully, the doctor said we caught it early (Yes, I was patting myself on the back) and Emma was put on Augmenton. But here’s the other issue… I started to feel a tickle in my throat and nose Wednesday and by Thursday I had a full blown cold as well! And then Thursday night, Jamey developed the same symptoms and he too caught this nasty cold. Who would have thought that we would get sick from our little baby?!?!?!

We were a bit nervous about Emma being put on antibiotic because of what happened last time and come Saturday our fear came true – Emma had severe diarrhea. Poor little girl! She wasn’t eating or drinking – skipping meals and everything. We took her to urgent care and the doctor there said to continue giving her the antibiotic and when her ear infection clears up her appetite will come back too. I of course didn’t like this approach especially since the severe diarrhea continued all weekend long and she wasn’t drinking or eating much. Jamey and I decided that we were going to take her to see her doctor on Monday.

I got pretty sick and by Sunday I wasn’t doing so hot. Long story short Emma ran me ragged and I went to bed pretty early to try to get a good night sleep. Well around 1:30am I woke up and I was really nauseous. I went to the bathroom and next thing I know I heard our garage door open. I ran into our bedroom, woke Jamey up and he said to call 911. I did and then we set off our alarm to scare the burglar away. Emma slept through most of it but I was in her room next to her and she did finally wake up. We had six police officers show up and two of them went into our garage with their guns and flashlights out yelling SFPD. Well it turns out that our garage door was short circuiting. But what was funny is that when Jamey was talking to the police officer outside our front door, I went over there with Emma and she started to wave at the police officer. She is so friendly and social – even at 2 in the morning!! Once all the excitement was over, Emma needed to go back to bed. My nausea came back and Jamey had to take care of her. I then got sick and didn’t go to work for a couple of days. I got the flu on top of the nasty cold. Luckily, I was the only one who got it but it completely wiped me out.

Jamey took Emma to the doctor on Monday and the doctor said that Emma’s ear infections went away. She said to stop giving her the antibiotics and next time this happens to just stop giving her the antibiotics. Emma lost almost a pound through this whole ordeal but her appetite picked up in no time and she has been eating like a crazy woman!! It will be interesting to see what she weighs at her 1 year appointment. The last couple of days/nights, Emma has been quite messy when she eats. Her favorite thing to do is put the food on her head and laugh. She also likes to drop food on the floor. But this usually happens when she is done.

Emma continues to love her books, pull herself up on everything and is talking more than ever. She continues to drag her bunny around and we bought her a “back-up one” in case she ever loses it. She likes to walk when assisted but is afraid to stand on her own. She will do it for a second but when she realizes what she is doing she either quickly grab on to something or immediately sit down. Jamey thinks that one day Emma will just start to walk…

Some new changes…

Emma officially outgrew her infant car seat. We broke out the big girl seat which takes up a lot more room in the car! She looks so small in her car seat but she likes it so that is what is important. She looks very comfortable in it.

Emma got both of her front teeth – just like the song says – all I want for Christmas is my two front teeth. She got them just in time! This was hard for her because her second front tooth came in while she was sick and had double ear infections. I can only imagine what kind of pain she was in. It’s a good thing she won’t remember this time in her life.

Another HUGE change is last weekend we introduced cow’s milk to Emma. I was really concerned she wasn’t going to like it because she didn’t like formula. We decided that the best time for us to introduce the milk to her was during the day when she is used to getting a bottle. We gave it to her and guess what – she took it with NO PROBLEM!!! She liked it and now we officially give her cow’s milk during the day. I cut back on pumping which is nice but I am still nursing her in the morning and night. We have tired a couple of times to give her a bottle at night but she isn’t taking it – she only wants me. We have to break her of that but we figure we will try to get rid of the morning nursing session first and then work on the night one. We aren’t too worried about the morning one because we think she will be so hungry that she will just take it without a problem. At night she is used to me nursing her and falling asleep. We will see how long it takes to break her of that. We are hoping it happens before Hawaii because we don’t want her to be screaming and crying with the babysitter when we go to dinner.

Lastly, Emma continues to take swim classes and while she enjoys them, Jamey and I have decided that we are going to take a break from them for a little while. She is too advanced to be in the baby class but the next level for her is a bit too advanced for her. So, we figure we will make sure we get her in a pool every once in a while so she continues to love the water and the pool but not put her in lessons for now.

Emma’s 11 months

Emma’s 11 months

To think that Emma is 11 months now is just crazy. Where did the time go? It has been going by so fast and it makes me sad – happy but sad. I love watching her grow into this beautiful girl and she is so big now. She loves to explore everything and won’t sit still for a minute. She is crawling around everywhere and constantly pulling herself up on things. Her new favorite thing is to go pull herself up on the shelves where we keep her books in her room and pull each book down one by one. She does this everyday numerous times a day. There is no point put the books back on the shelf until it’s bedtime because she will crawl in her room and pull them down.

She also loves her baths. While this is nothing new what is new is she likes to take big girl baths. When we try to give her a bath in her bathtub she tries to escape. She also likes to watch us take showers. She will crawl to the edge of the shower, pull back the curtain and stand to watch us. She gets so much joy watching that she sometimes tires to climb in with us – dressed.

She did great when I was in NY a couple of weeks ago. There were a couple of mishaps but what am I going to do. She and Jamey were playing a game and Emma was feverishly crawling away and she quickly turned the corner only to whack her head against it. She cried and got a little bump but Jamey said he was able to calm her down fairly quickly. Well two days later Jamey was getting ready for work and he put Emma on the bed. He walked into the closet to get his pants and next thing he heard was a big thump, Emma started crying and she was on the floor. She crawled off the bed and hit her head pretty hard and scraped her nose. She got a pretty big bump on her head and the side of her nose got carpet burned. She healed pretty quickly but I was very upset that this happened. Jamey felt horrible that this happened especially since we had talked about not letting her be on the bed without us watching her. We knew something like this could happen and it obviously did. Jamey is a great father and I know that he would never do anything intentional to hurt her.

I got home from NY last Friday night and Emma was already asleep. So when she woke up I ran into her room. She was so excited to see me and I loved to see her to so happy to see me. I checked her out to see what damage had been done since I was gone and if anything new was going on with her I was surprised to find that her right front tooth broke through. This was a surprise to Jamey too! She never lets us look in her mouth – especially the top. We always said that she will have teeth and we will have no idea.

For the last few weeks Emma has become quite attached to her bunny lovey that Grandpa gave her on the day she came home from the hospital. It’s funny how all of a sudden it happened. And it is funny (and wonderful) that she became attached to that one because she has so many! She takes the rabbit everywhere she goes. She crawls with it, mops the floor with it when it gets caught under her leg, holds on to it when I nurse her in the morning and night and sleeps with it. We are constantly washing it because it gets so dirty. It is really cute and sweet to see how attached she is to it. What is interesting about this is she holds it in her left hand. I wonder if it means she is left handed… time will tell.

She also loves her Tulane Monkey that Uncle Ryan gave her. She gives lots of kisses to Tulane Monkey and we even have a song for the monkey. We typically hang it on her changing table and give it to her to distract her since she is so squirmy when we change her diaper. One morning she pulled the monkey into her crib and was playing with it. It was pretty funny.

Emma is still enjoying her swim class. While the YMCA isn’t as nice as Le Petite Baleen the time is much better than before. The class is advanced for her because she is the youngest by at least a year. Most of the kids understand commands and Emma doesn’t. But the real beginners class is too entry level for Emma. The babies in that class are not used to the water and during part of the lesson the teacher has the parents pour water over the baby’s head. Emma already doesn’t mind that so that class isn’t right for her either. We figure it the reason we have her in the class to begin with is to get her used to the water – if she learns something than great – if not that’s OK too.

The last couple of days I have just been watching Emma and staring at her in awe. To see how much she is turning into a big girl is amazing. She really is a little human being who knows what she wants and what she doesn’t. It is awesome to watch her crawl to her toy box and pick the toy she wants to play with. Her personality is coming through and I can’t wait for her to talk and for us to have a conversation. Speaking of which, Emma is talking a lot! She is constantly talking although we have no idea what she is saying but it is obvious she is trying to say something. She is also sticking her tongue out and blowing raspberries. Every day is an adventure with her. And every day I love more and more. I get sad when I think about how fast she is growing and how I want time to slow down. She is my little baby girl but she isn’t a such a baby anymore. She is almost ONE!! Just writing this makes me get tears in my eyes – I am so proud of her and I love her so much it hurts – but in a good way.