10 Months

Dear Emma,

10 months. Wow. I cannot even describe how much fun your Dad and I have with you these days. You are hilarious and we get so much joy out of being your parents. Your personality sure is developing!

You love being around other people. You have so much fun playing in the nursery with others. Your favorite sound to make is a "growl". You are indeed a very loud baby and never go more than a few seconds without making some kind of noise (except when you are sleeping). You also love to climb. You try to climb everything--from baby gates, to shelves, to the play kitchen in the nursery. I think we are going to have our hands full when you are a little older! You are also the "paci theif" in the nursery. You love to steal everyone's pacis (out of their mouths) and put them in your mouth. The funny thing is you don't even like the kind of pacis they have and refuse to use them at home. You are starting to "dance" when music plays and lift your arms up when we say "yay" or "hooray". Oh, and I can't forget that you love to play peek-a-boo and initiate it on your own all the time!

You love your food. You love to eat pancakes, turkey, chicken, cheese, any kind of bean, yogurt melts, and any kind of bread. Mommy gave you a few pieces of her cupcake the other day and you loved it. Yo definitely like sweets! You are not too interested in baby food anymore, as you like to feed yourself.

It's hard to believe that in two short months you will be one year old!

We love you, Emma Grace!

Mommy and Daddy

Prayers

I have been getting my knees dirty praying for MckMama's sweet Stellan. He is in the hospital with SVT. Please pray with me.

Big Girl

Just last week, Emma got her new "big girl" carseat. We were excited to get a super deal ($100 off!)on a Britax Marathon from www.albeebaby.com. Here she is in the carseat (before we put it in the car).

And just because it was cute, here she is taking a nap...

Obsessions

Got this idea from a few other blogs.

Here are my top 10 recent obsessions...

1. Cloth diapering. I have been researching it and ordered our first cloth diapers! I have ordered a Bum Genius 3.0 and FuzziBunz and can't wait to try them out! I am loving the idea of cloth diapering my baby!

2. McDonald's iced coffee. Cheap and delicious.

3. Reading. I have been averaging about 2 books a week lately. I make the kids at work take walks to the library a few times a week.

4. my charming kids. I am absolutely obsessed with this blog. MckMama takes wonderful pictures, has adorable kids, and writes about topics that I am interested in. Just today she posted a blog about cloth diapering!

5. Thinking about our next trip back to South Carolina. We'll be there May 22-May 31st and I am SO ready.

6. Wii Fit. Matt and I are so into the Wii fit! When Emma goes to bed, it's Wii time!

7. Etsy. Of course. It is just too much fun to look at all the cute baby stuff.

8. Flip flops. It's officially spring and flip flop season!

9. Sleep. Ever since we did the cry it out thing with Emma, she has been sleeping through the night. It has been absolutely wonderful to get uninterrupted sleep every night!

10. Dreaming of a vacation. I want to go on a real vacation--like a cruise, the beach, Disney World, just somewhere! Won't happen anytime soon, but it's fun to dream.

Art Journaling

I have a new hobby, thanks to my dear friend, Karina. She has introduced me to the world of art journaling. Here are a few of my creations.

Prompt: Valentine to yourself

Prompt: Your perfect man

Prompt: Self-portrait

Prompt: MLK Jr/I Have a Dream

Lipsmacker!

Mardi Gras & a picnic

I've been neglecting my blog lately. It is definitely not that I don't think of posting or greatly wish to post, but it's because my dear daughter has had serious night-time sleeping issues and we had to work those out before I got any free time at night. I'm hear to say that letting the little misses cry it out the past three nights has been heaven to us! The first night she cried for 20 minutes and fell asleep, last night she cried for about 4 minutes, and tonight cried for less than 1 minute. PRAISE GOD! So, here I am!

Lundi Gras and Mardi Gras day were fun, but we were pretty tired by the time they rolled around. That's what a months worth of parades and festivities will do to you. For those of you who don't know, Mardi Gras day is actually the final day of the Carnival season. So, by then, we're pretty much all worn out!

Last Saturday, we took Emma on her first picnic to Audubon Park. We had a sweet time and even got to see some baby ducklings!

P.S. Sorry these pictures are in backwards order.

Picnic @ Audubon

Baby ducklings

"Our trees have bling" (look closely and you can see all the beads on the tree!)

Happy Mardi Gras!

Beautiful sunset on Lundi Gras evening

9 Months

My Dearest Emma,

As I write this, you are sound asleep in your crib. I am so grateful for that, as you have had many restless nights the past few weeks. You have double ear infections and it seems as though you now have a cold as well. Your Mommy and Daddy are trying as hard as we can to make you comfortable and help you to feel better. We wish we could do more.

You have been quite a busy girl this past month. You are now crawling like a pro, pulling up on everything, and even cruising a little bit! You FINALLY got your first tooth and it's so cute! Your favorite things to play with are not toys, but cups, paper, shoes, hairbrushes, socks, and of course, Mardi Gras beads. Speaking of Mardi Gras, you were such a trooper through all the parades and festivities. For the most part, you enjoyed being close to your Daddy in the Baby Bjorn and catching lots of stuffed animals, cups, and beads. And you were proud to show everyone how you can now wave!

You are loving your finger foods these days. Sometimes we have a hard time getting you to eat your babyfood because you would so much rather have a cheerio or puff! You also love any kind of bread (pancakes, waffles, buns, etc.). As soon as you get some more teeth we will be able to venture into eating more finger foods! You are SO ready!

We love you so much Emma Grace. You are such a joy. You have truly taught your Mommy and Daddy how to be selfless and sacrifice ourselves for your needs.

Oh, and have I mentioned that you have TONS of hair?!

Love,
Mommy and Daddy

After Carnival

This is how we all feel tonight...after a full few weeks of partying and parading...hope everyone had a Happy Mardi Gras!

Mardi Gras: Part 1

Mardi Gras (Carnival) is in full swing around New Orleans. It's our favorite time of year and so much fun to celebrate with friends! We took Emma to her first parade last weekend. All this week and until Fat Tuesday (the 24th) we will be hitting up tons of parades and fun events around town.

Here is Emma getting some beads at her first parade, Krewe du Vieux.

Peek-a-boo!

-Matt (I'm running out of memory on my blog because my account has all the Picasa pics)

Not Me! Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

It has been quite a while since I've done one of these, but the time has come again...

*I did NOT give my daughter a piece of paper to play with/eat just to give me a few minutes to catch up on some blogs

*I also did NOT proceed to let her crawl over to my Crocs and let her chew on them for a few minutes before I took them away from her. No, I would never let my daughter chew on nasty shoes!

*My daughter's first Mardi Gras parade was definitely NOT the most scandalous parade (Krewe du Vieux) in which we saw lots of male body parts (fake not real) and other things (I will leave that to your imagination)...

*I did NOT let my daughter's precious little nose get sunburned (burnt?) at another parade. I most certainly do NOT feel like an awful mom for letting that happen.

*I did NOT buy mini powdered sugar donuts from Winn-Dixie (yes, we still have them here) just because they were buy one/get one free. And of course I did NOT eat most of those donuts.

*I did NOT think negative things about my art journaling pages tonight. Nope, not me. I'm not allowed to. It's a rule.

*I did NOT drive 20 minutes to the Starbucks with a drive-thru, even though there are 2 closer Starbucks, just because I didn't feel like getting Emma in and of the car. I would never waste gas like that. Like my $4 cup of coffee wasn't enough?!

Our quirky home

Our home is a fun place to live. It is a cheap, inner-city apartment, and with that comes the good and the bad...

[Good]

• It's cheap!!! Only $750 for 2 bedrooms and believe me, in this city, that is impossible to find!
• It's in the middle of all the action. We love living on Magazine Street. We're in walking distance from restaurants, drugstores, coffee shops, grocery stores, and anything else you could want.
  
• We have awesome neighbors. The guy downstairs even gives us his internet (on purpose)!
• The kitchen has this cute built in cupboard. I love it!
• Lots of wall space!
• We LOVE our front porch. It's spacious and a perfect place to sit in the evenings and watch the traffic/people on Magazine.
• A nice backyard that Emma can play in when she gets a little older.

[Bad]

• At any given point in time, we may blow a fuse. Sometimes it even blows on it's own when we haven't done anything. Gets kind of frustrating when you are trying to feed a baby dinner and the fuse blows four times in 20 minutes and the breaker box is outside and you have to go flip the switch so your baby won't be sitting in the dark! Yes, this has happened a couple times!
• It's upstairs. I don't mind living upstairs, but the staircase is skinny and gets quite slippery when wet. And it's not very fun to trudge up slippery stairs with a baby and groceries!
• No parking--we have to park on a side street. We have gotten used to this and it only sucks when we have lots of groceries to bring in.
• The walls are very thin. Our precious neighbors like to play some boom boom music on the weekends and we can hear every "boom".
  
• The backdoor has a big gap on the side of it--Matt had to put in a draft guard so that we can keep the heat/air in.
• Because our apartment is shotgun style (with no hallway), we have to walk through the babies room to get from the living room to our room. This is a problem when she is sleeping!
• There is NO counter space in the kitchen.
• No dishwasher.

All this said, we love our home and are so blessed to have found this place!

Eight Months

Dear Emma,

You turned 8 months old yesterday and I am amazed at all you can do! You are growing up too quickly. Some days I just want to freeze the moment and cherish it forever. Especially when you scoot up to me, say "mama" and want me to hold you. You are scooting around quite quickly these days and I'm sure crawling will be soon. You also love to pull up on things and stand. You will stand for about 15 minutes at a time, just looking around at everything. Now that you are more mobile, you are into everything! Your Mommy and Daddy are rearranging the house and trying to make things safe for you. We can't leave you alone for even a few seconds without you finding something to get into. You grab everything you can get a hold of, which includes (but is not limited to): hair, your kitties, noses, remotes, cell phones, tupperware, pans, and your most favorite is paper. You would play with and eat paper all day long if we would let you. You still love to eat and are now enjoying cheerios and avocado as new finger foods. You are also eating with your mesh feeder now and love to eat apples and pears. You aren't too sure about grapes and you still are not thrilled with vegetables (pureed or in your mesh feeder). Oh yeah, and you LOVE to play peek-a-boo! We love watching you learn and grow and are so proud of what you can already do!

Love,
Mommy and Daddy

Peek-a-boo!

Emma loves to play peek-a-boo these days. This is the only video I have been able to get yet, and it's not the best because I took it on my phone. But, it will have to do for now.

Funny kids

I hear kids say funny things every day. Here's one that I found hilarious this week...

"When I have daughters, I want them to take a bottle because I don't want them sucking on my noonies!" [said by a 4 1/2 year old who just stopped breastfeeding LAST WEEK!]

Growing up

My baby girl has been quite busy the past week and a half. Last Thursday, she started pulling up. This week she said her first word "Mama", ate apple from a fruit sack for the first time, sat up in the bathtub in her new bath seat, and drank from a sippy cup. I can't believe how fast she is growing up! We went to Chili's for dinner last night, and Emma thought she was big stuff sitting in the high chair and drinking from a sippy cup. It amazes me how quickly she changes and grows.

Loving her new bath seat!

Enjoying her apple in the mesh feeder.

Playing with (or eating) some new toys.

And loving on her doll given to her by her Aunt Kay

A Word

I, along with over 2000 other women from this blog, have committed to memorizing 24 Scripture passages this year. This is the first verse:

"He is your constant source of stability; He abundantly provides safety and great wisdom; He gives all this to those who fear Him." Isaiah 33:6 (NET)

I sure did need that Word today!

Miss Fussypants

Emma is developing quite a personality. And with her personality comes some sass. With that comes some fussyness. Mommy is not fond of this new personality development. Every time we take something away from Emma, she fusses. Every time we walk away from Emma, she fusses. Every time we put Emma in the exersaucer, she fusses. She will even fuss in the Johnny Jump Up, which used to be her favorite. I think I'm about to have my hands full with a sassy little girl! Anyone have any advice?

Target

Emma's first time in a shopping cart--at Target, of course!