Emily

My sister Michelle made this dress for Emily. I love her in purple!

She is definitely enjoying her oatmeal now. She also tried sweet potatoes for the first time this week : )
I love watching Emily and Joe together:

My Baby is getting so big!

This past week Emily has been doing several new things to the point where this morning I felt a sense of sadness because I felt like my baby was getting too "big". Don't get me wrong . .. I'm excited to see her accomplishments each week but that also means that she is growing up . . . ya know what I mean? Here are just a few things that I've noticed this week . . . bear with me while I ramble:

She cut her first teeth so soon I won't be able to see that cute "gummy" smile . . . I have found her asleep on her tummy a couple of mornings and naps this week so she soon won't want to be swaddled and I finally took the baby wedge out of her bed this morning because when I got her up from her nap she had it in her hands chewing on the tags : ) Up until this week she has always been right where I put her in her bed and now she is turning over and moving all over the bed. Last night I had to pull out her 6-9 month sleepers and put some of her 3-6 month sleepers away : ( She is trying to sit up now and can sit on her own for a few seconds at a time . . . she is eating her oatmeal in the travel chair at the kitchen table now . . . I'm going to start her on some baby food next week. I've also noticed this week if I put her on her play mat or give her a book that she now goes for the tags instantly on them. Today she was in the excersaucer and pulled the magazines off the coffee table and started chewing on them. This morning when she woke up I found her at the head of her baby bed playing with the extra pacifiers that I keep up there . . .

This is how she has been found sleeping just this week:

Here she is sitting up:
At her afternoon nap I heard her in her bed playing so I went in there and found her facing the other direction and pushed up against the side of the bed out of her covers:
I had a couple of things I needed to do before getting her out of her bed so I turned on the mobile to pacify her for a couple of minutes and when I went to go get her she was at the head of the bed:
My big girl! I pray that I cherish every stage of her development and I hope I don't feel too sad every time she moves on to a new stage.

Updates on Emily

Emily had her 6 month check up yesterday. She weighs 14 lbs 2 oz and is 27 inches long. She is in the 25 percentile for her weight and 90 percentile for her height so she is long and lean . . . so she is like her daddy and not her mommy : ) She has also cut her first two teeth on the bottom! The right bottom tooth broke thru on Saturday and the left bottom tooth broke thru today. She seems to be doing better with her shots this time. She had such a hard time at her 2 month and 4 month shots with fever. But this time she seems much better. She won't have to have shots again for 6 more months! Yea!

Here is a picture I took of her the other night in her cow pajamas that Rita gave her (no she did not sleep with the cap on . . . I just put it on her for the picture)

My Dress

A couple of weeks ago Emily wore the dress I wore home from the hospital as a baby. It was fun having her wear it!

Time with friends

This past weekend Tara (my friend from college) and I drove to Opelika (right outside of Auburn) to see some Auburn alumni friends. We had such a great time together! Pictured below is Amelia, Emily (holding Emily), myself, and Tara. Thanks Emily for helping so much with Emily. Your boys are such sweetie pies! We had such a great time staying up late and talking and buying Auburn stuff on Saturday!


Nolan loved holding Emily and Emily was mesmerized by him:
Paul shared his toy truck with Emily and she gummed it to death:

Six Months Old!

Emily celebrates her 6 month birthday today!!!!

Trying new things

I just love the next two pictures so decided to post more new things that Emily is trying. I pulled out her travel chair the other day and let her sit in it. She did o.k. for a while and then started getting wobbly but it was good for her to try it out:

I love this picture because she has discovered her feet! They taste so good and unlike toys that fall to the ground these are always available for chewing : )

Enjoying Things Better

I put Emily in the excersaucer the other day that we are borrowing from the Weathers. She enjoys it for about 5-10 minutes and then is ready to get out . . . here she is in her happy moment in the chair : )

I also had to post this picture of this welcomed smile during her bath. For the first couple of months of her life she HATED getting a bath . . . to the point where I thought I was just going to have a dirty child . . . but she definitely likes them better now:
After 6 days of spitting out rice and then oatmeal she actually swallowed the oatmeal Sunday afternoon! Yea!!! I still don't think she knows exactly what to do with it or the fact that it's actually something to eat but at least she is swallowing it now. We'll continue to eat the oatmeal the rest of this week and see if she is ready to try something new or just to keep practicing with her oatmeal.

Promised Picture

As promised here is a picture of Sarah, Sam, Sawyer, and Emily on the day we were trying to get pictures taken of the 4 grandchildren. I think this picture says it all of what was taking place that day. As you can see Emily isn't too happy about the situation, Sam looks like he is thinking "if I wait about 5 more seconds I can take off running before anyone catches me", Sarah seems to be thinking "are we going to be done anytime soon. I've already posed about 50 times during this circus", and you can see Michelle's arm in the background trying to keep Sawyer from taking off like a little lizard across the floor : )

Big Girl!

Yesterday Joe had off work so we went to lunch together and Emily sat in a high chair in the restaurant for the first time! Here is a picture we took with Joe's phone. She is sitting in the chair cover that our friend Angela Seals made and she looked like such a big girl sitting there : ) Of course she only lasted about 5 minutes and was ready to get out but Joe and I enjoyed those 5 minutes just sitting there staring at her and going ga-ga over what a great job she was doing . . . you know . . . being a cute little baby playing with her teether. . . I know we looked crazy!!

I also have to show this picture of Emily about to try rice cereal for the 3rd day in a row. My brother Robert gave me this crazy bib. She still hasn't taken a liking to rice cereal yet . . . I think on day #2 she swallowed once or twice and yesterday it all ended up on her bib. We'll see how day #4 goes later today:

Noticing her surroundings

Emily has finally started paying some attention to Bud. Until recently she was pretty much oblivious of his presence in our house. Now when he walks by or barks she turns to look at him and has tried to touch his ears a couple of times. Yesterday I was trying to take some pictures of her on the couch and she kept turning to look at Bud instead.

I've pulled some new 6 month outfits out of her closet lately that were baby gifts. Having a baby girl is sometimes like dressing a baby doll with all her clothes : ) So far I have only bought 3-4 outfits for her thanks to gifts, items from my niece Sarah, and some clothes I'm borrowing from the Bethels . . . that has been so nice!!!

Here is the picture I was trying to get when she kept turning to look at Bud. Our family friend Tammie Freeman gave Emily this dress:
Thanks to Aunt Olivia for this beautiful dress she wore to church this past Sunday:

Rice Cereal

Emily tried rice cereal for the first time today. I think I made it too soupy for her . . . but this was our first time so we'll try again tomorrow. She of course got more on her face than she did in her mouth and as you can see from the pictures below I don't think she liked it very much : )

Herding Cats

I title today's post with "herding cats" because that's what it felt like the day we got the below picture taken. I had the bright idea of getting a picture of all the grandchildren in matching outfits that Michelle and DeeDee made while we were together a couple of weeks ago . . .but little did I know it was going to be pure chaos : ) If Emily wasn't fussing then Sawyer was off crawling and Sam was off running . . . Sarah did her job well of sitting there and smiling pretty . . . . we definitely will get more pictures taken later when they are older . . . but this one I must say turned out good. When I get all of the proofs I'll be sure to post some of the funnier moments that day.

Joe's mom and brother had dinner with us tonight! Emily got to spend some time with her grandmother . . . Emily has been fussy for the past 3 days so thanks to Grandma for keeping Emily happy while I cooked supper : )

John broke his foot a few weeks ago while jumping into the pool. He'll be in a cast for at least 4 more weeks : ( We hope that he won't have to have surgery and that it will heal properly.

Nap Time

When Emily woke up from her nap today she was on her stomach. I got a quick picture of her while she was still playing in her bed:

Time with Family

Last week I spent time at my parent's house with my parents and my sister and her children. Here are just a few pictures of last week:

Sarah was a big help watching Emily for us

Sawyer loved crawling around everywhere!

Sam enjoyed running and playing. He called himself Curious George this week.

We also got to see "Mama Kate". She was our neighbor growing up and we loved to go play at her house:


I also have to show this picture of Emily. She is trying to learn to sit up but can't quite do it on her own yet. But she looked like such a big girl when my sister put her in this chair one morning for breakfast:


And finally here is a picture of Sarah and Emily hanging out with PawPaw first thing in the morning:


We had a great time together.