She's Got My...

A common thought of adoption is children who are adopted end up looking like their parents.  As if that makes the adoption "meant to be."  I actually don't really believe this because think of all the transracial families through adoption.  I truly feel that they are "meant to be" as well.  In fact Emme is half Hispanic, but this is for a whole other post.  My point is as I was looking through photos today I realized Emme does have something of mine. 

What you don't believe me?

Just look....

That lucky girl has my HAIR!

idea courtesy of Que and Brittany's Adoption Journal

Temple Redo Pics

Remember how I got shingles?  Well, one of the reason I did might have been the stress of getting pictures right after our temple sealing.  The night before the sealing I was almost in tears after hours of searching for an outfit to wear for our family photos (after temple pics) so I called our photographer and we rescheduled for a later date.  Did anyone notice how spring sucked this year?  Well, it was not pro Alexander photos so we rescheduled multiple times and FINALLY after two months we got our pictures taken.  I'm glad we did because the weather was awesome and we were more refreshed.  Oh and that outfit I cried over?  I ended up wearing stuff I already had.  Isn't life funny?

I Am Thankful...

To live in this country and for those willing to sacrifice leaving their families, wives, and children.

A few months ago I did a new clients hair. She brought in her little girl that was close to Emme's age. I soon found out her husband had been gone for months training to serve our country. I broke out in tears because I couldn't help but think of Gregg being gone and away from Emme. Thanks to all those that help our country stay free.

The R house had this video posted. Watch it, but I warn that you will cry.

Lover's Deployment and Return from David George on Vimeo.

Understanding and Supporting Pregnancy Loss

Over at the R House {an adoption blog} she discussed pregnancy loss. Whether it be early in pregnancy or later in pregnancy. I have never been pregnant or close to, but the articles were good enough that I wanted to share them. Through them, I learned how to better understand, help, and talk to others that have lost a child during pregnancy. I've known many women who I am close to that have lost babies. I hope I didn't say anything at the time that might have hurt them. Sometimes when you see people that have children, it's easy to forget the struggle they went through to get them here. We're all in this together so let's be a little more kind and understanding.
Start here
Then here
Then go here.

It's a cousin thing.

We recently took another trip to St. George (more to come) and we couldn't resist remaking the pictures we did in February.
 

 

Grantermander sandwich.  Poor kid is going to get smothered with all these girls.

Trying to distract Emme to keep her headband on and keep G happy.

Fail.

February.  My how they've grown.

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.