A letter to my daughter

My sweet Emelia,

You wouldn't know it from looking at this blog lately, but you turned one a little over a month ago.  I can't believe how much you have grown and changed since the last time I blogged.  I also can't believe how few blogs I've written since you were born.  I feel the need to explain a few things to you.

First, my failure to blog as frequently about you as I did Oliver does not reflect how much I love you.  It is simply a reflection of how much more time it takes to have two kids instead of one.  But, being a parent of two doesn't explain it either.  You see, your Grandpa Mike died before you turned one.  In December.  He had been sick for a while, and I spent as much time with him as I could this year.  And when I wasn't with Grandpa Mike, I was home with you and Oliver; singing songs and reading books, playing and cuddling, not blogging. 

Over the next few days and weeks, I hope to do some catching up.  I have notes in various notebooks about things that I intended to blog about, when I had time.  I hope that focusing for a while on all the wonderful things that happend this year with you and your brother will help to heal my broken heart.

Please know this, as hard as the last year has been for me, nothing made me happier than snuggling with you and your brother.  Even during the darkest days, your gap-toothed grin and chuckle would make my heart soar.  I will always equate your first year with my Dad's last.  I wish this wasn't the case. But every happy moment we have together is that much brighter because of the darkness.

I can't wait to see you grow and changed into the smart, strong and beautiful young woman you will become.  I am so proud to be your Mama.

Hugs and a million kisses.

Would it be too much to ask...

...for you to put down the camera and put me to bed.

Emelia was really tired the other day and kept falling asleep where she was playing... and I did what any responsible mother would do,

I grabbed my camera!

She kept falling asleep on her little keyboard, which started the music playing and she woke up.  It was so stinkin' cute!

Those are her tired eyes.



Head, sholders, knees and toes...

Oliver learned a new song.  It goes like this:

 

 

Head, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes

Head, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes

 

and eyes and ears and mouth and nose and elbow and penis and chin....

 

 

Ollie really likes to sing to Emelia, or as he refers to her "my baby siser"

 

Here are some other songs he sings here:

 

The Spider Man theme song

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

 

and

one he made up called "baby siser"

 



Summer time!

Its funny that I'm just getting to my summer re-cap post on the first day of autumn!  Actually, it is a bit sad, so much has happened!  But we've been busy playing, traveling (me, for work), working around the house and geting back into the back-to-school schedule (Andy).

 

 

Here are some of our favorite memories of this summer:

 

Playing with Henry and Gabrielle.

 

 

Playing in the pool, running through the sprinkler and eating popciciles!

 

Gabrielle sure loves the baby! (Maybe a bit too much sometimes!)

 

 

 

Oliver continues to adore his sister and cuddles her every chance he gets!

 

 

We took some time (a week!)

 to give our kitchen a face lift and do some other work around our house. 

 

 Here is our kitchen before (but after I removed some cabinets...oops!):

 

 

 

And after:

 

 

In the before pictures, all of the kitchen lights are on.  In the after picture, none of the lights are on!  Since the picture was taken we switched out the light fixture from the brassy colored on pictured to one with a brushed nickel finish and painted the walls a beachy blue.

 

So.Much.Better!

 

Like this:

 

 

Emelia is 7 months old now and has learned a lot of new tricks.

 

She is rolling over like a champ.

 

She's eating solids and, like her brother, has a BIG appetite.

 

Here is how her first bite went...

 

doesn't she look thrilled:

 

What the hell is that?!

 

me: it's yummy!

 

Emelia: if you say so...

 

Can I be done now?

 

Please?

 

But seriously, now that we are beyond cereal, the girl loves to eat!  I'm still making most of my own baby food and I'm still mixing flavors and adding spices.  So far, so good.

 

Oliver has been practicing his soccer skills, he's pretty good!

 

 

Here's Emelia, sitting up like a big girl.

 

 

and laughing at Grandpa Mike.

 

I love the way her little toes are sticking out in this picture.

 

Modeling the short sleeve hoodie Grandma Sherri made.

 

and Oliver's new socks.

 

The End.

 

For now.

 



Everybody has a...

Oliver and I were in Target recently and I was picking up some travel-sized items because I was going out of town for work.  We had the following conversation:

Ollie: What 'dat Mama?

Me: Soap

Ollie: Oh.  For washing your butt?

Me:  Among other things.

Ollie:  Oh.  You a girl so you not hab a penis.  Not everybody hab a penis...

but everybody has a butt!

It's hard to argue with that logic! 

He also recently asked me; "what you do with my crap, Mama"?  It took me a while to realize that he was asking me where I put the art project that he made at daycare... he was saying "craft".

Aren't they cute in stripes?

It has been so fun watching these two bond.  Oliver just adores Emelia, and has all along.  Emelia is starting to really like her big brother too.  No one can make her laugh like Ollie does.

Unfortunately for us, Emelia is usually laughing the hardest when Oliver is acting really obnoxious.  Sometimes I don't know what she is laughing at, Oliver being silly, or how annoyed And and I are!

Emelia has recently found her feet!  So fun...

Her new favorite game is to raise her legs as high as she can (kind of like in this picture) and then slam them down on her mattress as hard as she can.  This makes her whole body bounce.  I can hear her up there squealing in delight every time she does it and it cracks me up. 

Except for the fact that she is supposed to be sleeping.

On the topic of sleeping, last night Emelia stayed asleep until 2:30 am, I fed her and then had to wake her up at 6:00 am to feed her before I got ready for work.  I've (we've) been getting up at 12:30 and 3:30, so this is a step in the right direction.

Which makes us all very happy.





A quick status update

Emelia is now 4 months old.  My how time flys.

Her 4 month well baby check up was this week and my goodness how she has grown!  (but we new that, she is already wearing size 9 month clothes!)

She has grown 5 inches in her 4 short months which puts her at 26 inches

(95th percential.  My child in the 95th percential for height.  Ha!

Guess we have her Papa to thank for that!)

She has also gained a whopping 9 lbs!  She weights just over 16.5 pounds and is right above the 80th percential!

I'd been feeling guilty lately about not blogging as much, until I realized that I'm spending my free time outside of work playing with my kiddos.  Definately more important than blogging, but I love this record... so I'm working to keep at it.

Emelia is a much happier baby than she was a couple of months ago.  She spends most of her awake time cooing, babbeling and blowing bubbles.  She tolerates her brother tremendously (he is still a bit overbearing when it comes to her!) and thinks he is pretty funny most of the time.  Except when he picks her up and drops her!  Oops!

She is happiest when she is outside, being held or playing in her exersaucer.  She can scoot around on her back (very quickly--especially in her crib!) and we are working on sleeping through the night. 
So far, so good.

I'll keep you posted.