Pics of the Princess

Holiday Fun

While the holidays are fun and all, they have clearly taken a toll on my ability to update the blog! We have been crazy busy picking out stuff for the house, shopping and trying to get as much QT with Emma as possible. We headed up to Iowa for Thanksgiving and overall everything went well! Emma got a little tired of being in her car seat and her schedule got a bit out of wack, but some of that is to be expected. It was also our first road trip with Cooper and Emma and he actually did well also. Our trip back to KC ended up being a bit longer than we expected as we had some probs. We stopped in Des Moines to get some food and give Emma a break from the car seat which went fine. About a half hour south of DM, Emma wasn’t happy to be in her seat so we stopped to see if she wanted food. In the process we discovered that she had pooped some so lela took her into the gas station to change her. . . Well Lela forgot the diaper bag that had a change of close in it and as Emma often does she had blown through her diaper so Lela carried Emma to the car in 40 degree weather in nothing but a diaper, which didn’t look WT at all!:) Anyway, we got everything fixed up and the rest of the drive was relatively uneventful with the main occurrence being Cooper falling asleep while sitting up because he isn’t used to being entertained for 6+ hrs at a time!

We did also finally get a camcorder, so we will be getting some Emma vids up on the site. Emma has really started to show more and more personality, which is great. She discovered she could talk a few weeks ago so is cooing up a storm. This can be problematic when she decides in church that she wants to be heard, but we’ll take the problems with all the fun! She has also started to be able to sit in a tripod position, which is great and loved to grab things and stick them into her mouth. Feeding is becoming more of a pain as Emma is more and more interested in the world around her rather than just her bottle and tends to talk while eating. We are trying to hold her off real food as long as possible, but to say she is interested in watching people eat would be an understatement, so we’ll have to cave one of these days on that front. . .Can’t wait!

Emma and I had our first fight last week. I went to DC for the AICPA conference (aka the Meeting of the League of Sportcoat Geeks) and was gone for 3 days. Mom and Dad were gracious enough to come down and spend time with Emma so Lela didn’t have to get everything done herself, so that was very appreciated. Anyway, I got home late Wednesday so I only got a brief amount of time with Emma in the morning and Lela got distracted at a Happy Hour after work. So as I brought Emma home, she decided she was mad at me for deserting her for part of the week and voice her displeasure until Lela came home, which was less than fun! So basically, I will never travel againJ

Anyways, we will get some pics loaded tonight, but I wanted to let everyone know how great Emma is doing!

Race day part 2

Last weekend it was Lela's turn to run in a half marathon. It was 4 months almost to the day from when Emma decided to join us, so I was pretty proud of Lela for doing so well in the race! It was a pretty decent day for mid November, even nicer than the weather I had for my race in mid October! I have to admit it was also fun to be a spectator, possibly more fun than running in the race. Rather than the "why the eff am I doing this" feeling I generally have during races, I was able to have some Starbucks, dress so I was at no time cold (as in a race I generally dress so I don't get hot from running), enjoy hanging next to drink stations where they rocked some LL Cool J and Snoop Doggy Dogg, observe the underarmour 3% body fat dude who 3 miles later became the dude who had decided to take off his shirt even though it was still only 45 degrees and windy out as everyone laughed at him (sorry, if you don't want to be laughed at, don't be ridiculous), and many other fun citings. It did make it easier that, as usual, Emma was an angel and just slept the whole race. Emma had brought home a cold and given it to her mom as a special present so we were also battling that all week, which made for a fun week of getting to the race with a sick baby and wife! Anyway, enough about me, Lela did great, we were very proud of her, and we both wish we were as fast as her!

Emma's 4 month appt was today. She has gotten pretty big! She is 15 lbs, 13 oz which puts her at 86th percentile, 25 inches (72nd percentile), and her head is at the 47th percentile. The doc said she's right around normal since breastfed babies tend to be bigger prior to 4th months. Everything else was great, and I think Emma may have a flare for the dramatic. We asked if she should be rolling over yet, the doc was going into how generally when babies are this big they tend to roll a bit later but that's not an issue. . approximately 30 seconds later Emma just about rolled herself off the table! This was before the shots, which while Emma screamed for about 30 seconds, she took like a champ.

Few other observations about us/Emma

1) Maybe its just us, but Emma seems to expand her diaper quite a bit, which creates what we call "diaper toe". . . you can figure that out, makes us laugh every time we say it and yes we are 5.

2) Emma also found her voice a little over a week ago and is cooing and giggling all over the place. She even busted some out for the doctor today.

3) Emma is a very warm baby. There are times when I can't hold her as we just heat each other up and one of us gets upset. Emma doesn't like it either. . .We feel bad dropping her off at daycare dressed with less clothes than other babies, but they assure us she doesn't get cold. Only time in her life less clothes than normal will be acceptable, so she'd better enjoy!

4) At daycare, Emma loves the jumperoo, they say she can spend a lot of time in there. Maybe she will be a baller, as previously stated projected at PG.

5) There also seems to be a lot of boys in her 9 baby room at daycare. . not sure how I feel about that. They also took a picture of her when she was holding one boys hand last week, though I think they may have superimposed it. Even though we have been very busy the last few weeks, this has led me to search for an all girls day care. . .you think I am kidding don't you. . .

6) Emma loves to sleep on people. When she was in the throws of her cold, she would sometimes only sleep on me. Its all well and good until it creates a lack of sleep for Dad along with some punches thrown in her sleep.

Anyway, here's some pics!

Lela's too fast for my picture taking. .

Emma sporting Daddy's hat since he forgot hers. . .looks good to me!

Well we are now finishing the 2nd week of Emma being in day care. Every morning is an adventure getting out the door we are finding as we are trying to sell our house, so prepping the house for showing on top of getting her out the door proves to be a daily chore, but we are managing. I generally drop off since that’s the less fun part of day care, so its hard to get Lela to leave some mornings. . . Emma has gotten in the routine of sitting in her bouncer and watching Lela get ready in the morning, she really seems to think its pretty funny, so its nice to get that extra time with her. She also got her first cold this week. She's been congested, but it hasn't really effected her (knocking on wood) in any way that we can tell, so hopefully that continues!

Emma has also gotten in a good routine at day care it sounds like, especially on the eating front. She generally knocks out 6 oz at a time 3, sometimes for times a day and allegedly they are going to try a bit more today. Man she likes to eat! Our daycare also has cameras on the cribs for when they nap, so its fun to open up the web page and see Emma sleeping occasionally. She hasn’t so much been a fan of naps in the crib for a long time, but hopefully she gets there. They have told us Emma is a very happy little girl and loves one of the exersaucers they have for her, which reminds me that Emma also has been pooping through her diaper once a day all week it seems (one time happened in an exersaucer), so hopefully that pattern does not continue! We can tell she is wore out by the end of the day, because she generally has a somewhat glazed look on her face when we pick her up.

Few other things about Emma

- She loves baths now, and enjoys kicking A LOT in the bath tub. She thinks its really neat and kicks the whole time.
- Lela discovered that she loves when you clap her hands together. She has her hands either together or in her mouth about 90% of the time any more too and has started more and more of grabbing things. Here we go!
- She has also started to like to look at various things with patterns and focus in more on them. She also seems to be noticing Cooper, who would gladly play with her if he were allowed to. . .
- Emma is definitely a morning baby (as it sounds like most are). I generally get her up and a lot of the time she is just laying in her crib awake and content. After she eats is about the time Lela gets back from working out and Emma smiles most of the time when Lela gets back, so I think that likely makes getting back from a workout even better!

Anyway, a few examples of Emma’s pictures from day care since we haven’t gotten as many pics at home the last 10 days.

Missing Mommy

Today was Lela's first day back at the grind. Yesterday was rough for Lela, and Emma decided to make today even rougher by waking up at midnight and 6 am hungry, which then led to her being a sleepy/grumpy mood for prepping for her first day at day care. Luckily we get updates online about her and pictures of her sleeping, so that's comforting.

We did get her into her Halloween outfit for about 5 min for pictures. This outfit was made for the cold, so Emma got hot in about 2 min, so we did what we could and then took her out of it. We posted some pics below.

Emma is also our new Hawkeye good luck charm. She has yet to see a Hawkeye football loss, you are welcome Kirk Ferentz, we had her to help you out, now finish the season strong.

Few other items as far as Emma's development - 1) She can now pretty much fully hold her head up, which is helpful for certain ones of us who get lazy on the holding the head up sometimes:) 2) Emma has begun getting more and more interested in tv. Yes, she is my daughter, its to be expected, though she won't be allowed to watch the Real World Road Rules Challenge until she turns 25. 3) Many nights Emma does not like to go to bed. As previously mentioned, this is a trait she gets from her mom, so I can't wait to find out how she tries to get out of going to bed once she mobilizes and can speak! 4) Emma's been smiling more and more every day. Mostly she smiles for Lela, but I can get one out of her occasionally. 5) Emma likes to stand more and more every day as long as she is being held up obviously. Her walking can wait though, no hurry! Anyway those are a few of the fun things going on with her. Every day is a new adventure.

One of the greatest poses EVER!

Hanging with her "friends" on her bumbo seat

We put her in blue but forgot the pink accents. Good thing nobody said, "Isn't HE cute," otherwise they'd have to deal with her mom!

Race weekend

Many of you may know that Mike and I have been training for our own respective half marathon races...well Mike's turn came this past weekend :) Mike ran in the Kansas City Half Marathon this past saturday and finished with a very good time, especially considering that the race should be renamed "the never ending hills" according to Mike.! The day started out a bit scary as it was pouring on our drive to Crown Center but luckily it stopped raining before race time.

Mike was rewarded for his efforts in the race on Saturday by watching the Hawkeyes go 7-0 for the first time since 1985! I have posted some pictures of Emma after a bath this weekend - it was nice to have a spare set of hands to take pictures of our little cutie and all her sudsy hair.

The "before" picture prior to shampooing...

Mommy, did you give me horns?? (a combo of dry/wet hair as I was wetting Emma's head down)

I promise I didn't "style" her hair this way but sort of looks like I blow dried it:)

Ahhh....nice and cozy in my flower towel:)

Unfortunately we didn't get the best pics post race but I think the grimace on Mike's face says "I'm glad the race is over!":)

12 weeks!

Emma was officially 12 weeks old yesterday. Here are some recent pictures...

I can hardly believe that Emma is already 12 weeks old...(this is Lela typing) It seems like just yesterday we were bringing her home from the hospital! Given she is essentially 3 months old (will be 3 months on October 21st), I found myself thinking, how has this whole parenthood thing been so far? Not to be overly sappy but it has truly been the most amazing and wonderful experience.

A concern I had before Emma was born was if I would not feel that maternal bond you always hear about and given I have never truly been a "baby" person, I wondered, would I really love my baby enough? Would I know how to be her mother or would I find myself feeling awkward? I was pleasantly relieved that little Emma stole my heart the moment they handed her to me in the delivery room and being a mother really has come more naturally to me than I had anticipated.

Not to sugar coat things...there have been frustrating nights when Emma has refused to go to sleep or when she was waking every 2-3 hours the first few weeks but from what I've read and heard from other mothers, she is a very well natured baby and we are very blessed to have such a healthy and cuddly baby who sometimes just wants to be held. We are very pleased that so far she sleeps well in the car and doesn't mind her carseat so hopefully that will continue when we have long car rides to Iowa for the holidays...

An update on Emma at 12 weeks...a couple nights ago, she gave us a solid 10 hour stretch of sleep - so we're heading in the right direction at least! We visited her new day care center (Cantebury) last week and met her "teachers" who all seemed very nice and competent...I still can't shake the thought in my head that says "no one is good enough for my Emma (ie: basically they are not as good as mommy)" but in all seriouslness we feel quite confident in the place that we've chosen.

Emma has started to become very curious of her surroundings - staring at the ceiling fan and even the television with all the bright lights and sound. She likes to give Mike and I smiles and even some giggles and has definitely discovered her hands - something that is always available to suck on! Mike thinks that Emma has adopted my "night owl" tendencies as Emma sometimes seems to perk up after bedtime but I still don't know if this is true as she does tend to be perky in the morning just like Mike. (During the "pre-emma" era as I like to call it, Mike was notorious for being overly chatty for our 5:30 am runs...I'm a "morning person" in that I like to get up and get my workout in to start the day but I do not like to converse very much during those first couple hours....In any case, we are looking forward to Emma's future milestones; it's exciting to watch babies learn new skills - we adults seem to take things like rolling over and sitting up for granted!

As promised...some more pics of Emma at 8 and 9 weeks!

Note my growing "fro"....

Emma's smile at 8 weeks

Don't I look adorable in my sleeper?

Emma's first stay in a hotel room...just hanging with mom

What's going on?

A grin from Emma to start.....

...And then an awesome smile! (note the curly hair is post bath)