4 months photo with Pooh Bear

I realized I have not taken very many photos of her lately or video either. She has done so many new things. Grandma Lala and Papa James were here to see many of her developments. She started reaching and grabbing things with more force and bringing them to her mouth. She talks A LOT. Such a sweet sound. She went that week without rolling over though. But finally, this past weekend she rolled a couple times for Blake to see. Sweet!

Nov. 12 Blake and I went to Riverside Christian School Banquet. My mom came to babysit. Thank you so much. We had fun eating a good meal and hearing the kids choir, other speakers, and laughing at Ken Davis. Emma and Mom did great for the first time being left.

This past week I found that it is one of the worst things to be sick and a mom. Worse is being sick and a mom of a sick baby. I had a fever but she did not. Yay! I'm still coughing a little. She never got over her cough from her last cold but it worsened with so much phlegm that came with this particular cold. Her left eye got runny and gunky again, but seems to be better. She needed lots of extra cuddles. We slept in the rocker/recliner in her room a couple nights. Her voice was hoarse too. So sad and pitiful. It seems like we're both on the mend now though. She slept in her bed from a little after 10pm to almost 10 this morning. She woke up to eat at about 2 and 4. Not bad. She seems better. Through it all she usually was pretty happy and smiley. She did finally do a little giggle this past weekend. Another sweet sound that she won't do very often even though her face looks like she's giggling.

Emma loves to balance on her tummy. She looks like she is swimming...kind of. heh! She also can turn all around. If we lay her one way, she will move until she is facing another way and can make it all the way around on her tummy. She looks like a slow version of a spinner from a board game. She is getting quicker at it though. Soon she will be more mobile than I realize. Get out the baby gates!!!

Here is a video of Emma trying to crawl over the boppy pillow. She usually likes doing this over my leg. She got pretty frustrated after I stopped videoing. I think it was too slippery. Usually she'll get her head onto the floor and then not know what to do. Funny!

4 months old

Emma's 4 month old appointment was on Monday, Nov. 9, 2009. She was 17 lbs. (95th percentile) and almost 25 inches in length (80th percentile). Big healthy girl! She checked out fine. She also got shots. She did well. Of course, she cried. She has done pretty well with it other than some fussiness.

Emma has still been sleeping well during the night. Dr. Greek said that was great because his kids didn't sleep through the night until they were about 9 months old. We weren't even really trying to get her to. I was just glad she was napping and sleeping at night in her own bed.

She has been "talking" a lot these past few days too especially when she wakes up or first sees one of us for the day, like when Blake comes home from work.

Emma also reaches for things she wants to grab and bring to her mouth.

She squeals and smiles with her whole body.

Our little pony

On Oct. 31 we went to Riverside Christian School for their Funanza. Emma dressed up as a horse.

Emma is still as smiley as ever. She lifts her head and chest up while leaning on her hands. She loves for me to hold her hands when she is lying down. Then she wants me to pull her to a sitting position and all the way up until she is standing. I'm only holding onto her hands. She looks so proud of herself.

We weighed her about a week ago and she was 16 lbs. 4 oz. Getting big!

She has rolled a couple more times from belly to back, but she doesn't realize how to do it.

Emma slept through the night Nov. 6. I put her down to bed (Nov. 5) at about 11:30. She woke up at midnight to finish eating. I woke up and checked on her once. Next thing I knew she was waking up at about 6am. yay!

We are really enjoying interacting with her now. She is grabbing for things. She likes to bring anything she grabs to her mouth...links, books, blankets, and other toys (bunny, elephant, rattle). We have a plush Larry the cucumber by her head on her changing pad. She grabs it and tries to put the hard-plastic eyes in her mouth. She's quite ravenous about it. It is funny.

She's not a newborn anymore...

Rock and Roll

Emma likes to bring things to her mouth so we gave her a baby washcloth which she can grab easily and bring to her mouth easily.

Carlos, a co-worker during college at the library, came to GF for a visit.

Emma on her ocean gym with her cutie patootie bibs. Made me think of Auntie Jill when she wore bibs when she was pregnant.

Still prefers to sleep all cuddled up to Mommy or, in this case, Daddy.

Waking up in her crib.

Emma has rolled from belly to back twice this week. Once when I laid her on her floor ocean gym. Another was in her crib during the night. She didn't like that too much! Her arms were flailing, crying, etc. That is why she sleeps on her belly-no flailing arms. She has slept in her bed for the night (waking up some, of course) about 4-5 nights now. She's doing great. She just doesn't like to go to bed and stay in bed very early. That will come. She naps well and she does well during the night once it is about 11-11:30 or so. I keep thinking we will miss this time of her being a baby so I'm trying to be patient (doesn't always work).

Here she is after she rolled over that one time so I tried to capture the next one. She never did it again and kept doing this...

She is growing so fast. We tried to weigh her last night (Sat.) but she was wiggling and happened to pee on the scale. It registered close to 15.5 lbs. But we are not real sure. She grows out of her clothes pretty quickly.

We quit using the cloth diapers. They were so big she was growing out of her clothes even faster than with disposables. They would leak often so we had to wash more clothes, bedding too. We had to take them apart, wash them, and put them back together so often. When she was sick for so long I just was getting a little too stressed out and gave up on the cloth diapers. So, if you know of anyone who likes to use the Fuzzi Bunz pocket diapers, size medium, let me know.

Emma enjoys songs or nursery rhymes. She likes Itsy Bitsy Spider, This is the Day, Jesus Loves Me, Head and Shoulders, Knees, and Toes. She smiles a lot. She really looks at us when we laugh and at our lips when we talk.

She loves to "stand" on our laps. She looks so proud of herself. She is very strong...her legs, neck, arms, etc.

She's our cuddle bug.

Here she is laying on her ocean gym playing with the octopus.

Still Stuffy

Emma still has a stuffy nose. I talked to a nurse again. She said it probably would be worse to bring Emma in since there is so much flu going around. But I got some saline nose spray/drops to help. They have helped but she still gets mildly stuffed up. She still has a cough but seems a little better. Slowly but surely she will get better.

Emma tends to stick her tongue out a lot. I'm not sure why. Maybe she is teething and it feels good on her gums. Here are a couple pictures of her doing just that.





She can lift her head really well. Plus, this (in below videos) is one of my favorite outfits for her. It says "My sunshine" and is a shirt and pant set. She is also showing beginning stages of rolling over but she hasn't yet.

The next video is of Emma and Emmitt.

3 months old

Emma turned 3 months old on my 31st birthday (Oct. 8). We went to Paradiso. She looked around for quite awhile. Then we got our food and she decided she didn't want anything to do with toys, mommy milk in a bottle, or sitting down. So, we took turns standing up and holding her while the other quickly ate. No sombrero for me which I wasn't too sad about. :)

She now weighs 14 lbs. 10.5 oz. (almost twice her birth weight of 7 lbs. 11.6 oz.)

Here are pics of us on that day. Do all babies have so many facial expressions?





Emma is still sick. We think she might have had a cold and then caught Blake's cold so she didn't have a break. She is really stuffed up. Poor girl. She is still pretty smiley during the day and napping well. Nighttime is difficult. I have called the nurse once and the doctor-on-call twice. We might take her to the doctor tomorrow. Her eye started watering yesterday and was gunky this morning.

Last week she started to notice her feet. Here is a video of her looking at them.

Here is a snippet of Blake reading a book to her. She is starting to be real interested in books after we've shown them to her a couple times.

Our family

Our family

Now that it is cooler weather we needed to get the cozy carseat cover out.

We need to put a bow in her hair when she wears her "ducky" outfit. That will lessen confusion and help others not feel bad about mistaking her for a boy in yellow. :) This picture also shows how she can hold her head up pretty well.

Emma is getting quite big. We weighed her about a week ago and she was 13 lbs. 13 oz. She smiles A LOT even though she isn't in any of the above pictures! ha

She's been napping really well by herself in her crib. She slept one night in her crib by herself. Then she got a cold, so she's still with us. I am glad that she's transitioning to her bed pretty well. After she is done with her cold she will be back in her bed. Through this transition she has started sucking on her hands more. She can't quite get just her thumb in her mouth. Whatever she wants to do. I'm not going to encourage or discourage her from sucking on her hands, fingers, or thumbs.

2-3 weeks ago we started using the Fuzzi Bunz cloth diapers. We like them and we dislike them. ha! I like that they are simple to put on and I like the snaps instead of velcro. We like not having as much going into the trash and money going to buy diapers. But we need to wash them and put the inserts in them quite often. Plus, some of her clothes don't fit as well as if she wore disposables, which are not as thick. We haven't decided if we will go back to disposables after she has outgrown these. These are size medium. "They" say potty training is easier if you use cloth, so we'll see when the time comes.

The other day I looked at her and told her all the things she is so I will repeat it here. She is a good listener, a good observer, eater, a good smiler, sleeper, pooper, snuggler, kicker, talker, etc.

She has started to put her hands together. It looks like she's praying.

On Thursday (Oct. 8) she will be 3 months old on my 31st birthday. How special!

We enjoy our Emma.