Friday, September 29, 2006

Fashion Friday: Seconds Please!

Is Emma ready for Fall in this outfit or what? That hat is perfect for playing outside! And, of course, it's totally cute!

But the best part of this outfit is that it was free! Thanks to cousin Olivia, Emma is stylish and thrifty. Who would guess this outfit is 6 years old?!

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Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Ouch!

It was gorgeous today, so Emma and I went to the park, hoping to have an experience like this. It started out that way -- Emma was so excited when we got there, she practically jumped out of her stroller. She enjoyed the swing, but absolutely LOVED the slide ... all 500 times we went up and down it. Unfortunately, it wasn't long before she discovered the bark, which meant digging, eating, and well, more eating.

Then she decided to venture out onto the sidewalk and whoops -- she took a tumble. But my toughie little girl literally rolled out of the fall and brushed it off. There is too much to do, ya know!

But then came tumble No.2 -- a face-plant right onto the cement. The tears came quick and so did the (gasp!) blood. My first experience with a bloody boo-boo, and of course, I was totally unprepared. That meant tears and blood all over my shirt, but it didn't matter. I felt so horrible, like I should have been holding her hand or something. I knew there was a step up onto the sidewalk, but it seemed like she had it under control. Sorry, baby!

The end result was several cuts on her lip, a few scratches on her chin and a little scrape inside her nose. She was pretty traumatized, but got over it during our stroller ride home. I, however, am still recovering. I got her to suck on an ice cube when we got home, so I'm hoping there's no fat lip. I guess we'll see what the morning brings!

BTW, her ears seem to be fine now. We'll be finished with the antibiotics on Thursday... yeah!! :o)

**UPDATE: Emma's face looks as pretty as ever this morning. Not a whole lot of damage done. So no photos necessary. Is it sick that I'm a little disappointed?? :o) **

Thursday, September 21, 2006

Fashion Friday: Flashback!

With the week Emma's had, she's understandably in no mood for modeling. So I thought this would be the perfect time for a fashion flashback. (Yes, the alliterations just keep coming!)

So here she is in her first "real" outfit purchased by her stylish Auntie Jenni. She is a mere 3 weeks old. I can't believe she was ever that tiny!!!

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I Needed This!

After three nights of zero sleep and a very unhappy baby, I absolutely needed this. It is hysterical! Click here to see for yourself...

Thanks to Amanda for the heads up! :o)

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

It Was Bound to Happen...

Our 13-month milestone: The princess has her first ear infection. And in true Emma style, it's a double infection. Nothing in moderation with this girl.

It started on Monday morning with a fever. She woke up with one, which is never a good sign, but I was optimistic that it was another tooth. By 10am it was 102.6 degrees, a clear indication this was no tooth issue. Tylenol attempted to save the day, but managed to only get the temp down to 100.5. Still, no major boogies or otherwise obvious problems. Just one crabby, crabby baby who wanted to be held ALL.DAY.LONG. My first instinct was ear infection, but she wasn't pulling on her ears and was eating and drinking just fine. Naps went okay. So I was hopeful.

Then came nighttime. She went down an hour early, but I had to wake her up around 7pm to give her Motrin. I'm not a big meds person, but when temps go above 102, I get a little nervous. Little did I know that I was about to hear from Miss Emma every hour, on the hour ALL.NIGHT.LONG.

The saddest part of it all was that she started to have minor "convulsions" around 9pm that didn't go away for around 3 hours. So while she's crying on my shoulder, trying desperately to find a way to sleep comfortably, her body was jerking for no reason. My poor, poor baby -- it totally broke my heart and scared me to death. After some late-night (early-morning?) reading, I concluded the jerking was from the fever and decided to skip work and bring her in to the doctor first thing in the morning. I'm glad I did.

The doc confirmed the ear infections and said they were "just starting," so it was good that we caught them now. He also said the convulsions were from the fever and not to worry about them. Fine with me. I'm all about putting those completely out of my mind.

So Emma is officially on her first dose of antibiotics. I'm not crazy about this, but she's exhausted and in pain, so that's a no-brainer for me -- I'm not messing with her ears. I just can't wait for the meds to kick in. Today was another crabby, clingy day, but with lots more crying. So far tonight, she's been awake about 3 times. I have a feeling it's going to be a long, long night... say a prayer for us?!

*UPDATE: Funny how I am constantly saying, "I'm not a meds person," yet I mention three in this post AND the girl is on Prevacid. Maybe I'm more of a meds person than I thought. Although, I guess that's another post all together...*

**UPDATE #2: Emma did okay last night, but still struggled with pain. She still woke up every hour, but did sleep a 3-hour stretch, which gave me and Dada some sleep. The good news is she was MUCH happier this morning and is napping now, so we'll see how the day goes. Thanks for your concern. Blogging friends rock!**

Thursday, September 14, 2006

Fashion Friday: All Prepped Up

(Photos are a bit blurry this time, but you get the point!)




Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Better Late than Never!

I'm a little behind on a few posts because I swear everything came at once in August -- our vacation, Emma's birthday letter, her party, etc. Lots of good material if you're a daily blogger, but as you all know, I'm not quite that organized.

So I guess I'll tell you about our vacation to Michigan now...over a month later. After all, it was our first official family vacation!

For many, many years, it has been Jeff's family tradition to go to Holland, Michigan every summer for about a week. I'm not sure when it started, but in the 10 years I've been a part of the family, we've gone every year. We used to all squeeze into a condo Jeff's parents rented, until we expanded and added another condo. Finally, we decided we needed a house to fit all of us, but even that got too small. So instead of renting an entire hotel, we opted to divide up this summer. Sad, yes, but we did get a weekend where all 11 of us were together. Jeff's parents and sister stayed for one week and then we took the next week, with Brian, Alicia & their 3 kids. That way all the kids could be together.

And Emma totally loved it. Seeing her cousins every morning was so much fun for her. They truly love her so much. Even with a baby brother of their own, Livi and Jax gave Emma tons of attention. Evan was also very tolerant of Emma's constant "loving," which sometimes involved kisses and other times meant a bop on the head!

She napped surprisingly well all week and went to bed on time almost every night. My biggest accomplishment was letting her stay up until 9pm one night when we met some cousins for ice cream and a bonfire. It took major effort for me not to go into freak out mode about Emma not getting her rest, but I survived. And so did she. It was a good lesson in "letting go," so I can officially check that off the list and quickly go back to my old over-protective, first-time mom ways.

Emma loved splashing around in the extremely cold lake water and really enjoyed playing (a.k.a. eating) the sand. That was probably the hardest part about this trip. She was old enough to want to experience everything, but not old enough to know when to just chill. Where do you put a baby when she wants to walk around and you're surrounded by miles and miles of sand that she thinks belongs in her mouth, eyes, and hair? On a blanket? Um, sure, if you can get her to sit still...NOT happening. So, the beach was not so fun for mommy. And the house wasn't exactly baby-proofed, which also made my usual bodyguard job that much more intensive. Still, it was nice for Emma to enjoy new surroundings and explore every nook and cranny. She also got some major lovin' from her Auntie Sha and Uncle Bri, who are happy to give her whatever she wants!

In fact, our families got along so well that I could have stayed another week. We always have gotten along with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law -- Jeff and his bro are truly each other's best friends -- but I expected some friction living in such close quarters with four kids. But there was none. It was true, Beaver Cleaver bliss in our little Michigan house. Too bad real life called and made us come back to stuff like work, laundry, and well, laundry.

Of course, my post wouldn't be complete without a boatload of photos, so here ya go. I'll keep 'em small since there are more than a few. Are you sick of all these photos yet? Man, someone take the camera away from this woman!

Flower Power
Emma checks out the flowers and other "pretties" in our new backyard.
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Do these fit, Mom?
Emma gets her first pair of wooden shoes! And, yes, we got her ones that actually fit.
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The kids!
Adorable... I know! (L to R: Evan, Jax, Livi and Emma)
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Sand... yummy!!
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Best photo of the trip... hands down!
I just wish it wasn't so dark!
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Family Photos
Us...
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Them...Aren't they gorgeous. Makes you want to puke, huh?! :-)
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Friday, September 08, 2006

Fashion Friday: Going Gaucho

Okay, so Emma and I jumped on the gaucho bandwagon F.A.S.T.!! They are the next best thing to draw-string jammie pants. Attractive? Who cares!?! They are comfy and in style, so we wear them happily -- as fast as I can wash them. Hopefully they'll still be around when God decides to give Emma a sibling!

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On Location: Michigan
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Wednesday, September 06, 2006

The Belly, Books, and The Baby

All is going pretty darn good in Emmaland these days. There were more than a few days the last 2 weeks when I thought the nap fairy was going to rob me of Emma's morning snooze, but alas, it remains...at least for now. I ended up just moving her two naps up a half hour later, and we are now back on track.

Another factor may have been her medicine. At her 12-month well baby appointment (when she was actually sick, but that's another story), we decided to finish up her Prevacid and take her off of it to see if that magic 1-year reflux button shut off. The first few days were promising, but then I started noticing the old signs I had started to forget ever existed -- the "urping," the random choking, the hiccups, the uncomfortable squirming when I try to put her down for a nap (and inability to fall asleep), and the whole binkie in and out of the mouth thing during soothing. Plus, she was very spastic, just like when she was a baby -- her legs constantly swinging and her need to grab onto everything and anything that might provide comfort -- including my skin.

It's strange because she has never really cried about the reflux; she just always seems uncomfortable. It's almost as if she doesn't understand that it's not normal to have acid burning her throat. That she has a right to be upset about it. And that she doesn't have to tough it out. But she tries to deal with it, which just breaks my heart.

So Jeff and I made the executive decision to put her back on the medicine, but only once a day (instead of twice a day) It seems to be going well so far. We figure we'll slowly get her body used to being without the medicine instead of just cutting it off cold turkey. And while I am NOT a medicine person, I can't stand the thought of her hurting.

Once she was back on the medicine, her naps were suddenly back to "normal," although this was also the same time I tried the whole 30 min later thing, so who knows. The other symptoms have diminished as well, so I feel good about our decision. Hopefully the reflux button will turn itself off soon so no meds are necessary, and she can finally eat some more yummy foods!

The doctor appt. also revealed that our peanut is about 25th percentile in weight and 75th in height. I'm okay with the weight thing because I KNOW this girl eats enough. I was concerned about protein, but we just added turkey to her diet and I plan to try eggs next week. That might add a few pounds in the next few months, but I have a feeling that our Emma is going to be on the small side because a.) she never stops moving; b.) she never stops moving, and c.) she never stops moving. I think she was just born with a fast metabolism.

As far as height, I think she's more in the 50th percentile because I swear the measuring tactics they use are about as inaccurate as you can get. At her 9-mo, they said she was 31 inches, which put her in like the billionth percentile. Emma then decided to, uh, shrink down to 28.5 for her 12-mo measuring. Noticing something was wrong here, the doctor re-measured and Emma had managed to grow to 30 inches again in a matter of 20 minutes. Amazing, huh?! My guess is that she's more like 29.5 inches, but hey, I'm just the mom.

We are sticking to her hypoallergenic formula until 15 months, and then we will try soy milk. The doctor suggested we wait until 2 years to introduce dairy, and I agree. We haven't tried soy anything yet, but I'll get there eventually. I'm just slowly expanding her diet. It took about 4 days to get her body used to turkey, so I'm not rushing into anything. If we get past eggs, I'll be happy!

On a more fun note, Emma is really starting to become a little person. She loves to dance any time music comes on and has a few new dance moves. Her knee bouncing has now turned into head swaying, turning around in circles, and clasping her hands together and rapidly moving them up and down. Sometimes she does all three moves at once, and sometimes it's just a simple head bop during lunch. As long as music is playing, she is always ready to rock.

She also just started to stack blocks, as opposed to just knocking them down. She brings me books constantly and plops on my lap so I can read them to her. The current fav is Five Little Ladybugs. Thanks to Grandma's fun interpretation of this lovely story -- which involves hand movements and silly voices to match -- I now get to read the book 20 times a day. And refusal is just not an option. Distraction, perhaps, but refusal, forget it. I think this book might have to go into hiding in the next couple of days while mama regains a little sanity... :o)

Oh, and the Itty Bitty baby. She LOVES her baby to no end. I don't know what's normal for 1-year-olds, but she kisses and loves on that baby as if it was her own. She may be a busy, active little lady, but she has such a soft, sweet side to her that it makes my heart just melt. There is nothing more gratifying than watching your child express love. I know she will be a wonderful, caring sibling some day.

Now that the rain has finally stopped, Emma really enjoys playing outside in her new car and empty sand box. Yes, I said empty. We're waiting until next year to add the sand -- I guess I'm just not ready to add that to her diet yet... The house she received has yet to be put together because a certain Dada thinks we should wait until next year, while a certain Mama disagrees. Stay tuned for who wins that one...

I'll close with a few pix of Emma with her baby and comfy Elmo couch, another favorite toy. And did I mention she was climbing???

"Wherever she goes, I go..."
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Yes, I gave in and put in a Baby Einstein DVD so we could eat dinner in peace, but of course we just stared at her the whole time...she's just too dang cute!
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Busted!
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Friday, September 01, 2006

Fashion Fridays

"On matters of style, swim with the current; on matters of principle, stand like a rock."
-Thomas Jefferson

Everyone has some clever day when they only post photos on their blog -- Wordless Wednesdays, Foto Fridays, etc. So I decided to bring you Fashion Fridays because frankly, I LOVE dressing Emma. It's so much fun putting her in all these little cute outfits...most of which I wish I had for myself. The best part is that most of them were free (borrowed), which makes the process that much more fun -- no guilt!!

So here is the first installment of Fashion Fridays. Check back every Friday for a new look, but the same cute face. Plus, it gives me an excuse to use a whole bunch of cheesy alliterations (writer geek, I know). Anyway, enjoy!

Sporty Spice
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