8 months

Last Sunday was Emma’s 8 month b-day. Very cliché but holy crap its been a fast 8 months. That’s 2/3 of a year for those of you doing the math at home, which means we are 2/3 of the way to a smash cake. That’s 66.6666666666666666666666%. Okay, I am a math nerd, I admit it. Coincidentally, Grandpa and Grandma Huebner rolled into town to visit “their Emma.” So we got extra coffee, milk, and splenda and were excited to see them as its been awhile. And they were excited to see us, well in a particular order. . I may have mentioned this, but one of the interesting aspects of becoming a parent is that you become a secondary note in life. People now ask you how you are doing and then immediately ask how Emma is doing, which means they asked us about us only to get to Emma as she is far more interesting. I guess when you don’t change that much like we old people, you become less interesting. Anyway, we are now just the people who own the house where Emma resides, especially for the grandparents, so seeing us is just secondary. Its not like we mind as though Lela and I still discuss our own lives, I think we would much prefer to just play with Emma and watch her pick up a rattle and make funny faces. What I am getting at is kids make us all dumber and less important

On a development note, Emma is still moving without the full forward crawl. She’ll get a few inches forward and then just decide its much more fun to back up and sit up and goof around than trying to work and crawl. She loves to eat baby food, so we are enjoying that and hopefully it lasts! Her first bite is always exploratory, with a possible sour face, but she generally will eat as much as you can give her! Emma has also decided she hates being on her back, so changing her has become very interesting. She still loves to laugh and talk back and forth, so every day is a fun day with Emma.

Emma definitely got spoiled the week Lela took off in between her jobs and went into Mommy Only mode for a day or so, but she’s generally pretty adaptive so she has come back out of it. Her Grandma Cheryl also taught her to raise her arms to “Sooooo BIG” which she now thinks is the funnest thing ever and I can’t say that we disagree! Emma also started “dancing” a little. Lela thinks this means she’s going to be our little dancer, I tend to think she is just practicing for when she hits the game winning shot or goal (depending on if its soccer or bball season), but we’ll have to see what really goes down.

Peace out

About this time last year, I gave my notice to D&T and moved on from life in public accounting. Now, the Huebner family is moving on from the public accounting life. Yep, that's right, Lela is finally getting out of that joint called PwC! As much as I have enjoyed having a pregnant wife come home at 4 am, after which I was tempted to be that crazy husband and go tell her coworkers they are a-holes who had no clue what they were doing, as much as I enjoyed spending the month of February with a sick kid and an upset wife because she couldn't help more with a sick kid, I am pretty freaking happy. We both got a lot out of public accounting as far as learning and experience, so I am not complaining, but its definitely time for us not to have to deal with a lot of the stuff that went into lives at our respective firms (if you want to hear details, THEN i will complain to you... possibly endlessly). Anyway, Lela has accepted a position with Swiss Re. Its scary to leave the firms, its what you know for so long right out of college that when you leave, there's a sense of "uh, they brought me in when I was straight out of college and didn't know jack and now I have to go learn something new even though I am old now????." So the Sunday before Lela starts her new job and is anxious about the new job...I think I am going to go fishing that day (shhh, don't tell Lela, I don't really do outdoorsy stuff and like to shower every day and go to the grocery store for food and stuff, she'll never figure out I am hiding).

Emma continues to amaze us on a daily basis. Last night we had a Parents as Teachers meeting. Emma seems to be doing well based on their general criteria, so that was good. We have also begun to see that Emma is becoming a showoff. MOst nights, other than eating, reading or other bed time type activities, Emma plays for about 20 min (or so it seems) and then rubs the eyes and its over. IN that 20 min, there is some level of volatility. Well PAT lady comes in and after her 5 min of figuring out that this lady doesn't bite and won't steal her milk, she proceeds to be a complete goofball for an hour. Emma also had her pictures last weekend and performed similarly. Since this is favorable, I think its something she gets from me (we will ignore the fact that I could go to bed at 8 every night and don't like taking pictures).

Emma also loves in the mornings when mommy is still at the gym and cooper is wandering around so she can fantasize grabbing his tail as I sing songs like "Emma's a crazy mofo". Yep, living in the Wasian Paradise, Coolio style, like its 1995. Well maybe its moreso me that enjoys that, especially since once she starts talking for real, I am probably going to have to put away the phrase crazy mofo, or as Lela informed me after hearing the song later one morning "you could really go for worst dad of the year award with songs like that." Speaking of talking, Emma has really started gabbing. We even got some Dadda's out of her the other morning, but she mostly seems to think any noise that comes from her mouth is funny. Probably is internally singing that she's a crazy mofo, and she too thinks its a fun song. She also is getting around more and more. Still no forward crawling, but she is navigating just the same. This morning she rolled herself several times to get to the bed and baby monitor which was originally about 4 ft away. We’d better get on that baby proofing!!!

Here’s some recent pics of the Emma (see, I am preparing her for stardom). I don't have any titles on anything as its all in code for some reason, but enjoy.