If you look at her gums you can see the teeth that have popped through -
Her front left tooth FINALLY popped through the skin
Practicing with scissors
The mask he made
Video - Since our time on the North Pole Express, Maxwell has loved singing "I want a hippopotamus for Christmas". I caught him singing to himself.
Gotta love that winter-never-going-to-stop-runny nose
One of the photo mugs I made for Peter for Christmas. He loved them which makes me super happy.
Cousins playing with cars at Hayden's basketball practice
such a happy girl
I love that it's cold enough he can finally wear his cute winter warm clothes
We have been letting Emmalyn sleep in our bed since she hasn't been sleeping so soundly, we are trying to get more diligent on making her sleep in her own bed.
One of the best things ever about having a baby and then nursing is that you get to go like a year and a half without a period! Well, that blessing is now over for me, darnit.
Emmalyn won't say "guh" anymore, instead she's all about saying "Buh" and she sort of says "mama" but not all the time.
We do the kids bedtime routines at the same time and when it comes time for cuddles, it is seriously a fight between them over who gets to cuddle with Momma. It's pretty funny because she's only (almost) 9 months old! But she will crawl over Maxwell to get between the two of us or she will crawl up to my pillow and then force herself between us. It makes Maxwell so mad.
There is a girl at work, Angela, who I have worked with for a few years and she had her daughter a little more than a year before Emmalyn. Anyway, when I got back to work she was still pumping and there were so many women pumping that those who were comfortable with it, sometimes paired up and pumped together since the room was constantly being used. Anyway, Angela was still pumping when I came back to work and we often pumped together. She reached out to me recently because she had a bunch of stored, frozen breast milk that her daughter wouldn't drink anymore and wanted to know if I wanted it. I checked with Peter to make sure he would be okay with me giving Emmalyn someone else's breastmilk and he said yes. So, I took everything she had. It was over 40 bags with at least 4 oz in them. It was such an amazing gift and so very appreciated. My supply is slowing down and having that extra milk has alleviated a lot of stress. I still have plenty of milk frozen but I'm no longer pumping enough to meet her daily needs and starting to rely more and more on the frozen supply.
So 2015 started out with a hang-my-head-in-shame, so-glad-things-weren't-worse, parenting fail.
We bring Emmalyn into our bed early in the morning when she wakes up to nurse. We then have her sleep between us. Well, as you can imagine we were up late for New Years Eve so I was super tired when I brought her into bed. We both slept for awhile and Peter had gotten up and was letting us sleep. Then, later in the morning, she was up and moving around and I was trying to stay conscious since she was up. But I dozed off and next thing I know, I hear her screaming and I jolt awake. She had fallen off my bed. My blood was pumping and I moved so fast to grab her and was so worried that I was going to find her seriously hurt - my bed is so far off the ground for a little baby! Luckily, she was absolutely fine, just scared (like her Momma). I felt soooooooo awful about it and still do. I was shaken up for quite awhile.
Making some cool colored goo with Uncle Peter
Mashing all the colors together before making it foam
Perfectly precious. I can't help but love these sweet times with her snuggled up against me.
Ahhhh - - "family time" - everyone on their phones. :) We try to avoid it but at some point it still happens.
The kids were hanging out in Maxwell's room and when they came out, Kaity had dressed them up. :)
These cousins had so much fun being together. One of the benefits of Britt living here was that it was nice having everyone in the same house.
Playing games
Old-man-bitter-beer-face
Movie night
Synchronized eating
Maxwell and Aunt Kimi
Maxwell and his Shelly Belly - we hated seeing her and Kimberly go. We LOVE having them here.
Playdo animals - I think an elephant?
Maxwell really loves playing with playdo
Out for a walk to the park - all bundled up in her pretty pink coat
Maxwell all bundled up too
Pic courtesy of Maxwell
video - Brittany playing boo with Emmalyn
Playing together
Dipping pretzels with dad
My house all lit up and festive
Video - Emmalyn can clap!
We were sad to have Kimberly leave but we soon had more visitors come to town! My Aunt Sue and Aunt Leanne came to town. I really appreciate, from the bottom of my heart, them taking the time to drive all the way here and spend time with me and my family. I feel their efforts to stay close even after my mom's passing. I appreciate the way they keep me and my siblings in their hearts.
Emmalyn's first time in a high chair (I think!)
We went out for yummy Mexican when my aunts were here
Aunt Leanne, Maxwell, and Aunt Sue
Video - Maxwell playing hide n seek with daddy (daddy's way of hiding is pretty funny)
Here's a big update on Emmalyn lately -
As you could see from the video, she's clapping now
She loves her Uncle Joe and will imitate him when he purses his lips and when he moves his hands
I swear that she says "Hi" and has for awhile
She's starting to do more sounds like "muh" and "buh" and instead of talking through her coos it's more babbling
She screams which is not an awesome development
If I set her down and she doesn't want me to she will cry - - WITH TEARS! :(
She's definitely a Momma's girl
She goes everywhere and finds everything on the floor
She gets mad when she's done eating her food
She struggles to stay focused when she's nursing which is not very fun for me and then she wants to nurse to sleep (Not gonna happen - that's one bad habit I don't want forming)
She has been struggling to sleep from 8:30 pm to 11:30 pm if we aren't in the room with her or she's not in our bed. We have to keep putting her binky in to get her back to sleep. After she gets past that, she will sleep until 4 or 5 when she wakes up to nurse quickly and then will go back to sleep until 7:30 or 8:00 am.
She loves getting in the shower with Momma and Max and would stay in there forever if we'd let her
Maxwell hugs and kisses her more and talks about trying to calm her down when she's upset and will do things like giving her the binky. I love seeing him be increasingly more brotherly with her
She really wiggly!!
She is teething and incredibly drooly.
Update on Maxwell -
Maxwell amazing me with the things he notices in the world
I'm also amazed with how well Maxwell is reading - he's expanding his ability so fast
He's such a polite boy - - he shares well on his own and will also share when we prompt him to
I am trying to involve him in as many tasks as possible to expand what he gets to do (cooking tasks, cleaning tasks, etc)
We've had a major change in the bedtime routine - - -! MOMMA is now his choice when we ask him who he wants to tuck him in at night. It's forever been daddy (or Peter) so I'm pretty excited. :) When I tuck him in and then go to leave, he tells me "don't let the bed bugs bite" as I walk out
When I went to get him up once this week in the morning, (he still call for us to come get him in the morning and doesn't get out of bed until we do) he wanted me to get into his bed and cuddle with him. He tucked me into his bed and put blankets on me. He then gave me his stuffed animals, patted my back (they pat his back at Montessori if he's struggling to go to sleep during nap time), and turned his sound machine on to the lullaby setting. It was incredible sweet and of course it worked, and I fell asleep. He is so kind and loving. I adore him.
He's been talking a lot lately about his tummy hurting and also his bottom hurting. I'm not quite sure what it going on but we are trying to figure it out. He's had a fever so I know that he's sick somehow but he doesn't have any other symptoms so I'm not sure if anything more serious is going on. It's so hard as a parent to know something is wrong with your child but not know what, or not know if it's something that a visit to the doctor could help with.
The last day of 2014! It's been a great year filled with many blessings.
Max has been LOVING the song sheet he got on the North Pole Express. We typically end up singing the songs at least once a day and he likes reading the words. Jingle Bell Rock, Frosty the Snowman, and I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas are his favorites.
Painting
I made a Happy New Year Painting (Very sophisticated and complicated)
Kaitlyn and Emmalyn playing together
Max wearing the armor my dad got him for Christmas
Group Selfie!
Silly Faces
The kids got Root Beer Floats for a special treat. I think this is the first time Maxwell has ever had them.
He enjoyed them. :)
Maxwell playing with his uncle Joe. He just adores his Uncle Joe. He's so happy to see Joe when he gets home from work. It's nice having Joe living in the house and developing such close relationships with my kids.
Video - The kids celebrated new years with a count down around 9:00 pm and then went outside to bang pots and pans. Then it was time for bed.
I have neglected to take a picture of my house lit up for the holidays yet. We also did some flashing lights in the bushes along the sidewalk but you can't really see them because they were flashin at the time.
Trying garlic bread for the first time. Of course she loved it - she's a Nelson!
Video - Emmalyn "talking" and pulling faces
Our spread - - we did pretty good this year. I think it worked out better than last year.
Tired girl was having trouble sleeping so she played cards a little bit with us before we put her down again. We ended up playing past midnight.
Video - This video shows so much of Emmalyn's personality right now. She's determined and demanding and sweet all rolled into one.
Wife, Mom, and Career Woman. Trying to succeed at all three. Enjoy cruising, time with friends and family, and sleeping. Busy life doesn't leave time for as much fun as in the past but that's okay, it's still a good life.
