Follow-Up Appointment

Emma had her follow-up this morning with the ENT doctor who did her surgery last month. He said that everything looked great and that in a few years, the incision will be so well healed that we won't even know that they were there. Unless something else should come up, we are done with the ENT doctor. Happy and safe Labor Day weekend to everybody. I will get some more photos posted soon!

9 Month Stats

Emma's nine month check-up was yesterday and she was such a big girl at the appointment. She sat still through the entire exam and didn't flinch, wimper or anything when they stuck her finger to draw blood to test for anemia. Emma is now 18 pounds and 27 inches. She stayed right on her growth curve and is just below the 50th percentile. She is doing great with all of her skills and no anemia. The doctor gave us the green light to start even more table foods. She definitely thought Emma was ready when we told her that she snatches green beans from the other kids at daycare. She wanted us to work with her on mama and dada and the big thing is to start working with the sippy cup. The goal is to have Emma off the bottle by 12 months. Currently Emma likes to bite, bang, throw the sippy cup so we have our work cut out for us although she did actually manage to drink a little bit of water last night. Also last night, Emma actually crawled with her belly off the ground for about four or five strides. She repeated the feat for a few strides this morning. There is hope for her clothes after all!

9 Months Old

It is hard to believe that another month has already passed and Emma is now 9 months old. Won't be long and we will be celebrating the first year. Wow! Emma goes for her nine month check-up later today so I will update with her stats later. It is amazing how much Emma has changed over the past month. She has now become a master of the army crawl and I am still hoping that she will learn to get that belly up off the ground soon since her clothes are always filthy at the end of the day. Emma has also started pulling herself up, which is making baths a little more challenging these days since she wants to stand up in there as well. This time last month, puffs or anything solid would make her gag and now she can't get enough puffs, cheerios, stolen green beans (yes, she swiped another green bean yesterday), etc. No mama or dada yet but lots of ba, ba, bas. In the past month we have also seen a sense of humor start to develop. She knows when Brad is doing something funny and will give a big old roar. At times she is showing herself to be quite the drama queen as well. The other night she was looking at a book and when she would put it down (mind you, nobody was taking it away from her), she would break out in these big old crocodile tears. She would pick it back up and be fine and then repeat the whole process. As you saw from the recent videos, she is bopping around to music and loves to give zerbers. Happy 9 months Emma! We can't wait to see what you have in store for us over the next month.

Giving Zerbers

Here is a little clip of Emma giving me zerbers on my arm. She started doing this a couple of weeks ago. It is too funny and I think that she enjoys giving them as much as she has always enjoyed getting them.

Grandma Kate and Emma

Here are just a few photos from Emma's visit with Grandma last weekend.

She's Got Rhythm

Last night Emma was playing with a little toy that when you push the button plays a tune. Every time the music started, she would start bobbing her head up and down like she was dancing. It was too funny. We were even able to catch a little bit on video. It is a little dark but you get the picture. Looks like she has the rhythm of her Grandpa Jimbo and Grandpa Schnackenberg!

Wordless Wednesday - In the Tunnel

Grandma's Visit and 5 Teeth!

Emma got to spend a long weekend with Grandma Kate. The last time that she was here for a visit was in April and Emma had only started rolling over from her tummy to her back at that point. Needless to say, Grandma noticed some big changes in Emma and Emma certainly enjoyed showing off all of her new tricks. I will post some photos from the visit as soon as I get them downloaded. We hope that Grandma had a nice visit and that she'll come back soon. On another note, Emma now has five teeth. Right now she looks like she has fangs when she laughs since the upper two outer teeth have come in more but one of the upper two front teeth has broken through. Now all she wants for Christmas is one upper front tooth but I am sure that it isn't far behind.

Wordless Wednesday - Checking the Tire Pressure

The Hungry Caterpillar

Since we apparently don't feed Emma at home, she has to scavenge what she can at daycare. Miss Michelle said that they put the babies in bumbo seats and line them all up so they can eat at the same time. The little guy next to Emma yesterday was having some green beans for lunch. As soon as she got the opportunity, Emma swiped a green bean and scarfed it down. Mind you, she has only had a few puffs here and there at home since until recently, she would gag on them. However, it would appear that the green bean was no problem whatsoever. It also turns out that they have been giving her puffs at daycare for several weeks and she has had some cheerios as she likes to follow around the babies that are eating and pick up whatever they drop. I guess it is time to start introducing a few more table foods. On another note, Brad warned Miss Aimee and Miss Michelle yesterday that Emma had pulled herself up over the weekend and it was a good thing because she pulled herself up twice yesterday.

A Surprise Visit

We got to spend a little time with Grandma and Grandpa this weekend. They went on a bit of an adventure last week and ended up in Mountain View, which is about two hours north of us. We couldn't let them be that close and not get to see Emma. They were amazed at how quickly and how much Emma gets around these days. Emma also decided she should show us all that she is capable of pulling herself up. We have a playmat that has now been converted into a tunnel (you can see it in the first photo below). Let's just say that it is pretty much a piece of fabric with little support (as Brad said, it was more for moral support). Somehow Emma was able to use this to pull herself up to a standing position for a few seconds before crash landing on her behind. Brad's jaw nearly hit the floor when she did that. We had been talking about lowering the crib mattress and let's just say that this incident was the straw that broke the camel's back. We weren't very good at taking photos with Grandma and Grandpa but we were very happy to have them visit even if it was just a short one.

Emma & Grandpa

Wordless Wednesday - Naptime

Baby Jail

We had to put up a baby gate over the weekend to at least keep Emma out of the kitchen. Of course, there is still plenty of trouble that she can find in the living room alone. All of a sudden, it has become a lot of work keeping up with our little dynamo. I honestly don't know how you did it with three the same age MB. It has become abundantly clear that we need to do some serious rearranging in the living room since everything that Emma is not supposed to have is what she wants. Forget all the toys! It is also clear that we weren't thinking children when we bought our coffee table and end table. It doesn't seem like so long ago that we could just lay her out on the blanket and that is where she would stay. Even though we are having to chase her down more these days, we love this new stage.

Cleaning the Floor

This is what Emma's top looked like on both Thursday and Friday after getting home from daycare. Notice the thick layer of dirt.



Emma has explored every inch of the nursery at daycare and even though they just had the carpet cleaned, Emma has found more dirt (I think I would ask for my money back). She went through five outfits over the two days and I am not sure that any of them will ever be clean/white again. She is an army crawling expert these days but it would be nice if she could crawl with that belly up off the ground. We also need to invest in some knee pads as Emma's poor little knees are so red from all the exploring. Thankfully they have had a little break this weekend as the floor at home doesn't seem to be as tough on her.