Valentine's Week

I'm going to start off with a confession - we haven't taken any pictures to update. We usually bring the camera when we are going somewhere new or exciting, and this week we've really just been around the house. However, I thought I'd post a picture from almost exactly one year ago.

I can hardly believe that this was a year ago. It seems like just yesterday! Emma's getting so big these days. She's got such an incredible personality! She's a stubborn as can be and as impatient as they come - wonder where she gets it........ :)

We DID have an exciting day this week. Brad and I decided to celebrate Valentine's Day a little early and went to dinner on Saturday, leaving Emma with Brad's parents for the first time. They came over to our house and we gave them the run down. Emma laid down for a short nap and then we left. We called to get an update and she was being an angel. She had just woken up from a nap and was in the floor playing and giggling. We went to Provino's and had the best dinner. We dropped by Krispy Kreme afterwards to pick up some doughnuts for his parents as a "thank you" gift. When we came home, we weren't expecting what we saw. Apparently, Emma and her Grandmother had been playing in her room with some of Emma's sunglasses. Unfortunately, Emma ended up stabbing herself in the eye with them. When we got home her eye was bright red and tearing and she had what looked to be a rash going up the side of her head near her eye. Brad's mother thought that we should go to the emergency room. I decided to call the 24-hour nurseline at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta before spending all night in the waiting room. Thank GOD the nurse put me at ease. She said to keep our eyes out for any vomiting or discomfort that lasted more than an hour, otherwise, she should be fine. Luckily, within less than an hour she was fine and back to normal. I must say, the worst part of it for me was that I wasn't there to comfort her when she got hurt. I know that her Grandmother did a great job at that, but I still wish I were there. I'm her mama! She DID get a few extra squeezes from her Grandmother and her Mama though! She scared the hell out of us!! So our first major crisis has be averted.

So that was Emma's first 'boo boo,' but I'm sure it won't be the last. She's getting more and more mobile these days. She's scooting a ton and rolling over, and over, and over, and over. But no crawling. She HAS gotten up on all fours once by herself though, so it's right around the corner. To be honest, I'm really not pushing it. I'm just enjoying what I know are the last few weeks of my 'stay remotely where I put her' daughter.

Emma and I went to my friend, Mary's house on Monday to visit with she and her little boy, Jack. Jack is 18 months old and into EVERYTHING - Emma LOVED it! He's so stinkin cute! She just stared and watched him - she couldn't take her eyes off of him. I personally think she was flirting a little bit for the first time. We might be in trouble! I can say though, Mary and Jeremy would make awesome in-laws!!!

Brad has this Friday and Monday off for a long President's Day weekend and we're looking forward to spending some quality time at home doing nothing. Our friends Amber, Jason, and their little boy, Seth, are coming over on Saturday to visit before they go to the circus. We haven't seen them since Emma's baptism and are really looking forward to it. We sure do wish that they lived closer than Carrollton though. When we lived there, we were inseparable. Now that we're farther away, the visits are much more infrequent. :(

Hope everyone has a good Valentine's Day! We'll be spending it at home loving on our little girl this year!

Wordless Wednesday

Ok, NEARLY Wordless.....Thank you Aunt Gerri!!!!

Party girl!

We've had SUCH a good week this week! Emma's sleeping habits had gotten horrible - she was waking up as many as 5-6 times a night wanting to eat. I KNEW that she didn't really need to nurse that much, but it seemed to be the only thing that got her back to sleep. Well, after a trip to the pediatrician's office to make sure nothing was wrong (she was starting to scream everytime we laid her down and even sometimes when I nursed her, which was VERY unlike her), we decided to do some sleep training.

We did the "No Cry Sleep Solution" a few months ago, which helped somewhat. However, we needed something much quicker or NONE of us were ever going to get any sleep. I talked to the pediatrician for a LONG time and finally decided that she was ready for a version of the "Cry It Out" method called the "Ferber Method." It involves waiting when she wakes up and letting her cry for short, scheduled amounts of time to learn to soothe herself back to sleep before going in to comfort her. When we do go in, we are only to stay for 2-3 minutes and cannot get her out of the crib. If she didn't calm down, we set the timer for a little bit longer and wait.

I hesitate to even say it for fear of jinxing it, but I thinks she's been officially "ferberized!" She never cried for more than 10 minutes at a time, and now is able to soothe herself back to sleep all on her own - even without the passy! Brad has this awesome technique where he puts his arm on her back and rocks her back and forth in the crib. She goes to sleep within seconds. THAT was the only reason that she cried for so little time because he was always able to get her back to sleep. I did discover that she really IS hungry at least once a night. So we have decided that, until she's no longer needing it, we'll wake her up before she would naturally wake up hungry so that she's not associating crying with getting out of the crib. With that one feeding, she slept from 8:30PM last night until 9:00AM!!! Well, Brad put the passy back in around 7:00AM so that I could get a little extra sleep ;) I'm so proud of her. Now if I can just get in the habit of going to bed a little earlier I might feel rested for once.

We ventured out to the Dekalb County Farmer's market last weekend and tried out a new carrier/sling. I'll try to get the picture off of my phone later. It was AWESOME! She fell asleep and we did our shopping. I love that place.

Emma attended her first birthday party on Saturday. It was baby Kaitlyn's first birthday. We had a great time, but Emma was VERY sleepy and wasn't on her best behavior for the second half. Hard to believe we'll be planning her 1st birthday party in a few months. The time flies so fast. I remember when we went to see Kaitlyn in the hospital when she was born and I was pregnant with Emma - seems like yesterday.

Ready for the party, hairbow and all!

Sleepy girl really liked Kaitlyn's rocking chair!

Pretty birthday girl!

A few tidbits about Emma:

She LOVES Gerber puffs - they melt in her mouth.

She is drinking water from a sippy cup now - one with a straw like a big girl!

Her favorite foods are sweet potato, carrots, pears, peaches, and prunes. Still hates green beans and doesn't really like peas much either.

She's sitting up SO well - she rarely topples over.

She loves sitting in her Baby Einstein exersaucer and working in what Brad calls her "office" while he plays the Wii - she watches his every move.

She finally likes tummy time, now that she's more mobile.

She's quite the little climber on the bed or the floor, though no crawling yet.

She's starting to try to wiggle and turn over while I change her diapers these days - she's also learning the meaning of the word "no!"

She immediately stops what she's doing if Lucy or one of the cats walks in the room - she LOVES them!

She's learning to pet "gently" with Lucy and my parents' dog, Bailey. Slowly but surely. Lucy's gotten very patient.

One of her favorite things to do when it's warm enough is to play on a cool waterproof picnic blanket in the backyard with some toys.

She's such a sweetheart. Her personality is really precious and we see her do something new every single day. She's the love of our lives....well, aside from one another :)

Here are a few more pictures...

Playing at her Grandmother and Grandpop's (Brad's parents)

Gotta love those thigh rolls!! She DID have pants on, but had just had a diaper change and I left them off.

Pajama Day

We have yet again had a pretty laid-back week. We've been to the grandparents' (both sides) house for dinners, played a lot, and tried to catch up on sleep. Tomorrow we are going to my friend, Rachel's house for dinner and another play-date for Juliette and Emma. The boys sort of have fun too (Juan has LOTS of videogames!), and the Mamas enjoy adult conversation while the girls play. It's so nice to have someone with a daughter so close in age. It is also great that we seem to be pretty similar in our ideas on parenting. I think I may have mentioned before, we both graduated from St. Pius (she was the year after me) and we both teach/taught severe and profoundly disabled students in Dekalb County. However, we didn't actually "meet" until last year when I realized from her facebook page that we were both due, with little girls, one day apart from each other! It's a small world.

Unfortunately, Juliette's an even worse sleeper than Emma, so we brought our co-sleeper over for them to try out a few days ago. Brad mistakenly left a piece at home, so we have to bring it to them tomorrow as well. I'm hoping that they enjoy it as much as we did. It's so much easier to get up in the middle of the night when you don't actually have to get "up." I could reach right over, grab Emma, feed her, put her back down, and lay back down without actually waking up. It was great while it lasted.

Tonight started out pretty rough. For starters, we had a "pajama day." It was the first day since Emma was born that I honestly didn't change her clothes from morning until bedtime. Luckily, she kept them clean. We didn't have a good night last night and I just wasn't very motivated to do much, as we didn't have any plans for the day. Emma took a late nap that ran even later while I cooked dinner (more on that in a second). She got fussy around her regular bedtime, so we bathed her and put her down then. I should have known better. Unfortunately, she wasn't really sleepy. She fussed every 5 minutes for a good hour. After both of us tried our patented tricks to get her to sleep (Brad has this "arm thing" that he does that knocks her out everytime - but not tonight) I finally gave up. I told Brad that I'd rather get her up and enjoy her for awhile rather than fight her. So we did. And I'm glad we did, or we would have missed this.....

She LOVES it when you scare her! I think that shows a little bit of what kind of a girl she is. She's fun-loving and loves to be where the action is. After playing for awhile, she went right down in her crib and is asleep as I type this. I'm watching her on the video monitor, which is the coolest thing EVER. Highly recommend it. It's nice because I can check in the middle of the night when she fusses and see if her passy is out, and we need to go in, or if she's just tossing and turning. So great.

So dinner tonight was FABULOUS! I saw a recipe on Rachel Ray for White Chicken Chili. I can't stand Rachel, but happened to catch it when she was showing the top 10 requested recipes off of her show - most of them weren't her recipes! We changed it just a touch and made it even better. The best thing was that it was SOOO easy. It was literally ready in 20 minutes. Here's the recipe - you'll be doing yourself a disservice if you don't try it. Trust me.

Combine all ingredients in a pot over high heat:

32 oz. chicken stock (one of the boxes)

3 cans of white beans, undrained (we used 2 cans white beans, 1 can black beans)

1, 16-oz jar of salsa (we used hot because it will be so diluted, it wasn't hot at ALL)

5 cups of cooked chicken (I baked 3 chicken breasts at 400 degrees for 40 minutes with seasoned salt and garlic powder, and then shredded them)

2 tsp ground cumin

2 garlic cloves, minced

8 oz of pepper jack cheese (I used a bag of Monterrey jack)

salt and pepper to taste

sour cream, to garnish

You literally throw the ingredients in a pot, bring them to a boil, and simmer for as long as you want to. I think we let it cook for 15 minutes or so. Everything's already cooked, so you're just cooking to combine the flavors. We served it with tortilla chips and it was SOOO good - it will be a regular in our house. You can also cook it in a crock pot - put the raw chicken in with the other ingredients, cook on high 6-8 hours, remove and shred chicken, add it back in, and simmer. Yum. Let me know if you try it!

I'll try to take some pictures tomorrow if I remember to bring my camera. Can't wait to see the girls play again!

7 Months!

I know that I say it all the time, but my baby girl really is growing up. Let's see......She turns 7 months old in 2 days, she's eating 2, sometimes 3 meals of real food a day, most of which I make. She LOVES pears, peaches, and prunes. She tolerates green beans, peas, applesauce, bananas, and pumpkin. The only thing that she CANNOT get down is squash, though she didn't realize I snuck some in with some pears once and she was able to tolerate them. She is finally starting to make some babbling sounds. She wears 9 month clothes. We are still doing cloth, but if we weren't, she'd be in a size 3 diaper. She's quite the hair puller lately - my hair, Brad's beard, the cats.......we're working on the word "no!" She's pulled hair for awhile, but it's recently gotten pretty painful and has turned into a game - she loves it when I scream! We'll fix that. Her sleep is still not great. It really varies from one day to the next. One day she takes 2, 3 hour naps and sleeps like a champ, waking up once to eat. The next, she takes 30 minute naps at the most, and wakes up 4 times to eat at night. Still working on it. She's sitting up!! Have I already mentioned that she's sitting up??? Cuz she is. And I'm proud. Can you tell??? She rarely falls over, and when she does it's no big deal. No traumatic brain injuries yet!

SO proud!

Love this bald little head!

Playing with her busy ball from her Aunt Elaine and Uncle George.

"I see Lucy!" - she's REALLY wanting to play with Lucy these days!

Playing on the floor with Grandmother, showing off!

We've been jet-setting lately. We went to see my Grandpa and Aunt Claire, Uncle David, and Jamie and Jack in Thomson on Saturday. The trip went SO well. Emma was pretty good in the car. She only napped for 20 minutes on the trip up there in her "fortress of solitude," - Brad's clever little invention. When she can see out of the windows of the car she gets all keyed up and stares out the window, keeping her awake. So he decided to cover her up like a bird in a cage. It works! Put her in her fortress, play a little Dixie Chicks "Lullaby," and she's usually out.

"The Fortress of Solitude"

Smilin at my Great-Grandpa!

Aunt Claire loving on Emma after a LONG nap!

She took a good 2 hour nap at Claire's and was a perfect angel the rest of the time. She visited with her Great-Grandpa and her Aunt Claire. She did ok on the ride home. Ok, but not great.

We got an exciting package last week! Do you remember her snowman hat?? Brad's Aunt Gerri made it for her. She and her sisters and Brad's mom also made Emma a gorgeous baby quilt when she was born. As soon as I realized that I actually knew someone who was that creative and artistic, I BEGGED her to make Emma another one. Well, we got them in the mail - not one, but 2! They are SOOO cute! What I really love is that their sized so that they will fit her forever. I can roll them up now and can unroll them when she gets older. How cute are they???

Seriously, does it GET any cuter???? She looks like a little Fraggle!

LOVE this one!

One last picture. The other day we went to Brad's parents house for dinner. He sat in the back with Emma and I drove. When we got there I went around to get Emma out while Brad got the "stuff." This is what I saw.


So stinkin cute!!!

Chillin

I haven't updated in a little while because, well.....there's not much to say! We enjoyed our snow-day-created 3 day weekend with Brad, and mostly stuck around the house. It's such a hassle to bundle us ALL up these days when it's so cold that we don't usually go far. We DO go to my parents' house several times a week. We're blessed to have them living so close to us and to have them love on us all so much. Not only is it a home-cooked meal that I don't have to cook, but it's a little breathing time for me too when I'm not on full-time duty.

My Dad is so precious with Emma. He often meets me at the car to get her because he just can't wait to see her. She LOVES him too. She puts her hands on either side of his face and just stares at him and smiles so big. It's SO precious. He tells her that he has to get all of his squeezing time in before her Grammy gets home and takes her. And he's right! Her Grammy loves her to pieces and she loves her Grammy.

As much as I love and adore being at home with Emma all day, every day, it's exhausting. By the end of the day I'm so worn out that I've had it. It's great when Brad can take her and play when he gets home, but that doesn't last long because she seems to want her Mama to take her from Dad sometimes. But when she's with her Grammy and Grandpa, she's good to go!

I took these pictures with my mom's camera a few days ago. Emma and Lucy were on my parents' bed playing. Lucy is terrified of children and, though she likes Emma so far, whenever Emma looks mobile, Lucy freaks out. As you can tell, it all started out well and good, until Emma looked like she MIGHT be able to get her hands on Lucy!

What are we gonna play now, Grammy??

Gettin a little wild!!

"Mama, I'm not so sure about this baby stuff!"

Heading for the hills - JUST out of reach.

This picture cracked me up. As soon as I took it I screamed - Emma looks EXACTLY like Brad! Not Brad as a baby, Brad now. Wow.

I'll be the first to tell you that Emma is a high-maintenance little girl. She doesn't like to be put down, gets bored VERY easily, and has quite the temper. I wouldn't have her any other way! My mom recently pointed out to me that, as a teacher, I didn't want the 'easy' kids. I loved the biters, the aggressive kids, the autistic kids, the ones that were so rough and tumble that the other teachers just stared with an expression of 'thank GOD I don't have THAT class!' And she's right. I like kids with personality, and Emma's NOTHING if not full of that.

Today I took Emma on an impromptu visit to my school. We visited with my old co-workers and had a good time. I brought Emma to Midvale when she was about 6 weeks old on a teacher workday, so this was her first visit when she was aware of what was really going on. I think she's a future special ed teacher in the making - she seemed to love staring at the kids! She was a real trooper.

She's napping now, which is the only reason I'm able to type this. She's had a tough time sleeping the last week or so. She's been waking a couple of times at night, which is her norm, but has had a BAD time napping. She wakes up several times during the nap and often "thinks" she only needs to sleep 30 minutes. I know better, so it's a big fight. By the end of those nights, she's a hot mess. When she gets in "that" mood, I call her TeeTee. I'm not sure why, but it's her alter ego. Whenever she has missed some sleep, she turns into TeeTee....not sure WHERE she gets that from (HER DADDY!!!!)

I'm not sure why, but Blogger won't let me make these pictures any bigger. Sorry if they're hard to see! I tried over and over.

Snow Day

We're snowed in! Ok, well, maybe not quite. We have what I would call a heavy dusting, though our driveway is solid ice. It was enough to get a snow day for Brad from school, which is all that counts! We've had a laid back day so far. We got up and got Emma dressed for a blizzard. She had on thick, fleece, footy pj's, a thick zip-up bear suit, mittens, a hat, and the hood of her bear suit.

We played in it a little, walked around the yard surveying the frozen stuff, and Emma even tasted a little snow - not her thing! Check out the video below.

Snow Day! from Susan Gilchrist on Vimeo.

Yesterday was Emma's 6 month check up. She did SOOOO well! She weighs in at 16 lbs 10 oz. and is 26 inches long. She's still right between the 50-75th percentile for both height and weight, which is perfect! She should start drinking a little water now from a sippy cup, which we had already started a little. She can start finger foods (cheerios and puffs) around 7-9 months. The doctor said she looks perfect and couldn't get over how happy she is! Her shots were SO much better than last time. She barely even cried! She had 3 shots, cried a little, but stopped as soon as I picked her up. Awesome! She hasn't had a fever so far either, which she did last time. We're doing the tylenol thing anyway, just in case.

Hope everyone has fun in the snow today! Stay safe!

Little Snow Angel!

Daddy kisses - she's SOOO sleepy!

Mama's girl