One Year

Our little miracle is ONE!! Well, actually she is close to 15months now, but holy cow! The time spent around her birthday had us thinking a lot about the year before. The whole experience almost feels like a dream now. Words can't express the love we have for her and for her birth family.

At her one year check up she was
30 in long or 75%
21lbs 6oz or 55%
Head was 10%

Now on to bragging and mentioning some things I want to remember.  Everywhere we go people comment how smart she is.  They always guess she is a lot older than she is.  Even her pediatrician is always amazed by her vocabulary and motor skills. She has been mimicking words from about 9 months.  None of the credit goes to us by any means.  She is just one smart cookie.  Maybe everyone feels this way about their first baby though.  Her favorite toy by far is books.  She would sit in my lap and read all day.  She has an alphabet train and she has brought me the c for car and v for van and said "car? car?".  She has also brought me the m for monkey and did her arms like a monkey and made the sound they make.   She will copy every word we give her {in fact she never stops jabbering}, but some of her favorites are: pompa (grandpa my dad), papa (Gregg's dad), baby, push, owl, dog, Grant, no no, yes, ya, cow, moo, roar for lion and dinosaur,car, ball, and of course mom and dad.  She makes the sound of many animals and sometimes only needs to hear it once.  I can ask her to find something in one of her books and she will flip to the right page and point to it.  She's even figured out how to push the button on my iPhone and slide to unlock it.  Along with having such a busy mind makes for a busy kid.  She never slows down except to read books and still puts everything in her mouth and I mean EVERYTHING.  Even in an empty room she will find something to do.  Whether it be pulling off dry wall or finding the tiniest speck to taste.  Luckily she sleeps like a champ and loves to go nye nye (night night). That is a big help so Gregg and I can refresh for the next day.  My favorite thing is how cuddly she is.  She gives the best loves and kisses around.  I never mind having drool smeared on my face if that means I get a smooch from her.  I will admit that we snuggle her a lot and give her maybe too many squeezes, but we just can't resist her.  Gregg even made up the phrase, "I've got the squeezies."  Meaning when Emme does something cute and you grit your teeth because you want to squeeze her so bad.  And yes, just looking at these pictures gives me the squeezies.  We love that emme memmer moo of ours. 

My favorite picture.  No fancy bows, background, or clothes needed.  Just Emme in her purest form.

9 months

Someone asked me recently how old Emme was and I told them eight months. Not until later did I realize, "nope she's nine." Holy cow! I love this stage. Her crawling is getting better every day. She is now into drawers and Herc's dog food. She thinks it's hilarious to give our tile floor kisses, which I'm having issues with as you can imagine. Lot's of sweeping and mopping going on these days. Yesterday she learned to pull herself up in her crib. I couldn't believe my eyes. Now she does it all the time and chucks her binki across the room. I'm loving getting to know her personality.

We finally had her ENT appointment and it looks like tubes for Miss Emme. She had a lot of fluid and the Doctor was concerned it would start to affect her hearing and speech. I was shocked they wanted her to have surgery because it has been a while since she had her last ear infection. I thought they were going to think we were crazy for even coming in. It will be much better for Emme in the long run, but I don't like that she already has to be put out at such a young age. I know it's a simple surgery, but it always seemed easy until it was my own child that has to go through it. I'm ready for it to be over with and to have Emme feel better.

While she was there she got weighed.
20lbs 2oz
28in
She's our sturdy little bug.

Grass? Yes, please.

Aunt Tricia gave her a cute do.

What? I always do this.

Gotta love the binki smile. She has a bonk on her nose proving her new love of crawling and pulling herself up.

8.five months

Emme is growing and learning at a rapid pace. I can't believe how far she has come these last few months...Weeks even. Gregg and I babysat three kids for 11 days and Emme picked up a bunch of new tricks.

She can:
Say momma and dada (for real this time)
Claps
Army crawls like no other
Goes from laying down to sitting up
Feeds herself her bottle
Does "so big" with her arms
Signs" more" and "all done" (only if we do it first)
Gives open mouth slobber kisses
Waves

Just a few days ago she started to pull herself up to grab the remote and a toy. She will let anyone hold her, but will not crack a smile for them. She just stares with big eyes, then looks at us and back at them. She drools, drools, drools and I think she has allergies because of her watery eyes. Poor thing. She is not a fan of bows and rips them off her head seconds after me putting one on. I still try though. I can't believe how big she is. She is in such a fun stage. We love when she gives us a big excited scream every time she sees us. She melts our hearts that's for sure.

She had her second visit to the ER a few weeks ago. She woke up about 11PM and starting crying. I went to check on her and she could barely breathe. I of course freaked out and we took her straight to Primary Children's. Apparently it was due to Croup and they gave her a steroid which helped a ton. It was a pretty fast case of it and I was glad it wasn't something more serious. It was just weird how she went to bed normal and woke up barely breathing and gasping for air. That's how Croup works though. Good to know!

Outfit courtesy of her Birth family. So sweet! It's been very handy especially since it's been such a cold spring.

So cute with her hood on. She has already learned the "fake smile". Whenever she hears the beep of my camera she does the pirate face. I think that might be a sign that I take too many pictures of the poor child.

Good thing my camera clicks fast so I can get smiles like this.

6 Months

I hear everyone say this about their kids, but I SERIOUSLY can't believe Emme is 6 months old. B.E. {before emme} every day seemed like a million years. Now time is flying by.

Stats:
17lbs 14oz
26 1/2 in long {I think, um...I'm pretty sure that's what they said.}

Some things for me to remember, since I can't even positively remember her length are:

-she is mastering sitting
-she got her first tooth
-learned how to sleep without being swaddled
-can put her pacifier back in her mouth without help
-rolls
-learned the "pirate face"
-says momma and dadda {just seeing if anyone is really paying attention.}

Here's a photo shoot I did last week. Enjoy!

This is the pirate face. I think it's because she is teething.

Not so Quick Update

Things have been busy in our household this month. We finalized Emme's adoption yesterday which was awesome, {more to come}. This means we can now take her to the temple and seal her to us as well as bless her. Which means....time to buckle down and finish the long awaited projects we've been meaning to do since we moved because we will have company.

Also, we have a six monther on our hands! {Post to come} Emme has had two ear infections already this month. She finished one dose of antibiotics and only four days later she had an ear infection in the other one. Tubes you ask? We have to see what the future holds. One more infection and we'll be going to an ENT. This last infection was the worst Emme has ever been. She was awake three nights in a row. It was worse than when she was a newborn. Come to find out Emme now has a tooth poking through which explains her extra grouchiness. Poor girl. It was hard to watch her be so sick. We tag teamed it during those nights. Thank goodness Gregg is pretty much the best dad ever or it would have been impossible to get through sane. Now she has a sharp little tooth coming in. I love it! It's one of those proud mommy moments even though all kids get teeth. I keep feeling it and watching it to see if it's grown any more. Any tips on teething babies would be great to hear!

Hmm...what else? I'm currently on a medication called Lupron which I've mentioned before. What does that mean? Well, in a nutshell I got a shot in my bum that will make me feel like I'm going through menopause and lasts three months. I have several hot flashes day and night, acne, and hardly any estrogen in my body. I tend to get a little feistier than normal {okay a lot}, but all in all it's been better than when I took it almost three years ago. Having a baby helps. I just don't have time to stop and think about it as much. It has brought back some issues I had before the whole heart thing, but I'm pretty sure they will go away once the medication does. On the plus side, my abdomen is feeling great and the endo is shrinking. On the negative side, I still have the big cyst on my right ovary that causes grief here and there. Hmm...after writing this I'm trying to decide why I went on Lupron again. It seems the bad out weighs the good. Oh that's right...my doc said either Lupron or surgery and after prayer and getting a blessing we knew Lupron was the right thing to do. I have to remind myself of that A LOT.

I'm still the Gospel Doctrine teacher in our ward. Gregg got released, so now I get to teach EVERY week until they find a new one for me to trade off with. I'm pretty jealous of Gregg to say the least. Every free second is researching and studying because some of the lessons I'm learning for the first time myself. I figure as long as I stick with the manual I can't go wrong. Plus, I'm really trying my best and that's all that matters. right? RIGHT? From my ward to yours....give your Sunday School teachers a break.

Well, that about covers my crazy life right now.

Posts to come~
St. George
Emme's six month
Finalization (Gotcha Day)
Sealing and Blessing

4 months

Emme's third month and the start of the fourth has consisted of continuous ear infections (most likely due to her reflux), a trip to the ER, eating real food, and my two favorites... sleeping 12hrs at night and giggling.  

We're hoping the ear infections are over.  It took 24 days on Amoxicillan and 5 days on Arythomyocin sp? to take away the infections in both ears.  Because of her reflux she gets milk trapped in her nose which we think is causing fluid in her ears.  Poor girl!

Out of the blue Emme became super cranky and upset and was screaming for an hour straight.  This is very unlike her.  She finally had a bowel movement and was happy as a clam.  When I went to change her diaper she had blood mixed in mucous and poo.  Sorry for the gross details.  I called the Dr. and she said to take her to Primary Children's ER.  We got right in and actually had a good experience there.  I've heard horror stories.  Emme giggled her head off while the Dr. was checking her stomach and the nurse that checked her blood pressure said babies always cry for her, but Emme just stared her down.  She smiled while they did x-rays and everyone loved her.  I'm sure most babies are pretty sick though.  Anyway, we found out she has an issue with protein in milk, maybe an allergy and had to change to a formula Gregg calls "liquid gold."  It's the smallest and most expensive formula as far as we have seen, but we would do anything for our little girl. 

Stats
Weight 15lbs 15oz   90%
Height 25 1/2in        90%
Head                         23%

Eating bananas for the first time. The Dr. wanted her to start due to all the other issues she been having.

Ready for church.

She's My Chubby

 

I hate that she doesn't have a bow in this picture, but I can't resist her in all her chubbiness glory.  She had her two month appt on Monday.  She did pretty good with the shots, but didn't feel good the rest of the night.  When she woke up in the morning she was back to her old self.  She cooed at the doctor and loved that she got to be naked for so long.  Here's her stats.  (I hated stats before we got Emme, because they meant nothing to me.  Now, I see that it's one of the ways to brag about your baby and heck ya, I LOVE bragging about Emme.)

Length: 23 1/2 in or 75%

Weight 11lbs 11oz or 75%

Head 10%

We laugh because I took her to the Dr. a couple weeks ago for her acid reflux, and she was 9lbs 2oz.  She was 7lbs 1oz when she was born so she's coming right along.