Some More Firsts

This girl of ours just keeps on suprising us! This week was as eventful as the last. Emmy decided she would crawl this week. She has been on the verge for a few weeks now, but has largely been pulling herself along with arms only. This week, however, she incorporated the use of knees in order to assemble a legitimate crawl. God bless her, she does not look like the smoothest or most coordinated crawler just yet, but she gets it done and is fairly fast. I may never sit down again! She had me hopping all weekend to keep her from crawling over and rewiring the tv or taste testing dust bunnies under the table. I have to play man-man defense now to keep her safely contained to her blanket or whatever play area I have designated. Good times! While it is great to see her so mobile and independent, it kind of breaks my heart. The snuggly, newborn days are officially over for this little girl! She is so excited to explore the world that she just can't sit still or stop looking around her for the next new discovery. It is pretty awesome.

Other events of note... We took Em for a big hike yesterday at Raven Run. It was the biggest hike we have done there, and really only the second legitimate hike of her life. We have a little infant carrier that she still fits into, but we really need a hiking backpack if we are going to do anything more extensive (G, get to work on finding this apparatus! Fall is here and we have hiking to do!!). She loved it!!! Most of our family and friends know that Emmy is a little tree-hugger at heart. That girl has loved trees, both looking at them and touching them, since day one. She seems to feel quite at home in a forest. She and her dad stopped to inspect half the trees on the red trail, and Emmy talked and sang to them with a look of pure delight on her face! Well, yesterday G introduced her to creeks, and she seems to love them as well. He is trying to train her to be his future boating partner. Of course, before she can become a kayaker like her dad, she must become a good swimmer. Em starts swim lessons at the YMCA tomorrow, and I can't wait to see how she does. I will keep you posted!

Additional events of the weekend... Emmy can now count to one! G has been counting with her and she will raise her finger up to show "number one" on cue. It is adorable! She unfortunately did not get to show off her "we're number one!" skills this weekend while watching the UK game. We were terrible and she passed out during the first quarter. It was too miserable to watch!

A Weekend of Firsts

Emmy's first concert... Tony Rice and Peter Rowan. It was lovely. She and our friend's baby were starting to get a little fussy, but when Uncle Pete started singing they quieted right down! Thank God the girl seems to love music!

Emmy's first family reunion... Cox family. Good people, good food, good times. She was all smiles! Thank God the girl seems to love a party!

Emmy's first UK/UofL game and glimpse of what it does to our neighborhood...We won. Hallelujah! She seemed pretty surprised at all the commotion around here. We were supposed to take her tailgating but I stayed out too late with friends the night before and the game started at noon. We plan to tailgate before the Florida game next weekend. Go Cats! She seems to have the C-A-T-S arm motions down already!

Emmy's first flu shot... made her sick. She ran a low grade fever all weekend, but still had a good time. Thank God our girl is a trooper!

Emmy's first utterances of "dadadada" and "mamamama"...Too cool! She is trying to talk, love her little heart. Such a sweetie! At some point, every day, I'll be holding her and stop and look over at G and say softly, "I love this baby." He just shakes his head, laughs, and says "I know babe... I know." I can't help but be taken aback by some of her sweet little ways. Hearing her voice more and more is like music to my soul. One of our sweet neighbor friends gave us this awesome card that says, "A baby's laugh is the heart set to music." I feel that her laughter, which I also thankfully hear all the time, as well as her happy little babbling noises are just that. The heart set to music. Mmm.. love it!

Thank God she is our girl! I mean it... Thank you, God.

Moving and Shaking

"For the first six months or so, your opponent has been unable to escape. Alas, the rules are about to change drastically... The enemy is now mobile." Peter Mayle

Oh my goodness! Just when I thought I had a handle on things, BG has become another creature entirely and the rules have certainly changed. She had lulled me into a sense of calm over the past few months of sitting, rocking, and putting her in her swing or bouncy seat when I needed to do something. Forget all of that! Those activities are long gone. Now we are busy, busy, busy! We play, we walk, she rolls, she writhes, she screams, and I just try to keep up. Today, I changed a diaper upside down for the first time. Every time I lay her down to change her diaper anymore, she immediately rolls onto her tummy. So I had no choice but to change the diaper with her in "tummy time." She is wild! She is also even more fun than I ever imagined. BG is much more interactive, and strong and into physical play. She loves, strangely enough, for us to swing her in the air and pretend we are going to throw her out into the street like a little orphan child. Twisted, I know, but she loves it. She has also gotten so smart. BG has begun imitating me (Lord, help us all!). If I snap my fingers, she tries to snap her little fingers. If I dance, then she dances. It is too precious! Guess I better start watching how I act and what I say. Little eyes are watching! I need to start inventing some alternative curse words....

Emmy-bear is so smart...

Emmy-bear is so smart she can even do this! She can even make a sound like a gold fish kiss! Seriously. She can. Sounds just like one. Pip!

*N.B. Reference Dr. Seuss' Book of Wonderful Noises, Mr. Brown Can Moo Can You? It is a family favorite, for sure.

Half-Birthday Present

Poor, poor little BG got a tooth for her half-birthday. What a lame gift! A tip of one of her lower, front teeth just broke the surface this week. It is somewhat exciting because she is growing up, but I feel sorry for her because it obviously hurts at times. She doesn't really cry about it, but she is babbling constantly, and her talking gets quite loud on occasion. I think she is trying to express her frustration, which is good. No need to keep it in! She has always been on the loud end of the spectrum, so it really isn't all that different. I went out and bought her every teething aid I could find. I bought numbing gel, Motrin, Tylenol, gel chew toys, and baby toothbrushes (my friends say their kids loved chewing on these when teething!). I don't know if anything helps other than the Motrin and Tylenol, but I figured it was worth a shot.

As for other half-birthday events, we had a nice family dinner (BG slept through half of it!) and bought her some big girl toys. We got her a ring stacker (she just takes the rings off and eats them) and a lion-shaped boppy toy that is bigger than her. It is supposed to help the babies develop gross motor skills, but it will probably just make her aggressive. We'll see! Also, I had to buy her some new clothes for fall not that she needs them, as G pointed out. I couldn't help myself because they were just so cute! All sorts of stuff with owls on them, which I love (I find these nocturnal creatures to be super-adorable!). G and I finally got our camera, and we do love it. We've taken about 300 pictures in the past few days and some video, so we'll be adding this on soon. G has promised to be my technical support. Well, that is all for now. Here's to another 6 more months of baby bliss, and then we will have a real celebration!

An Achievement of Monumental Significance

Emmy can sit up on her own!!! She actually sat up and played with her blocks for 15 minutes without any support or toppling over, that is until Bobby (dog) came into the room and she fell over laughing at him. It is crazy how my little, bitty baby can do so much on her own now. She thinks she is Miss Independence, though I try to tell her otherwise. Actually, I am quite proud of her and her intense desire to always be doing more. She is so curious and loves to explore her world around her. I don't know how, but I swear she is also on the verge of crawling, standing and even pretty close to walking. She just needs the slightest support (like holding on to my fingers) to do these things. Maybe I am reading too much into it all, but it also seems like her personality is really emerging as well. First and foremost, Emmy seems to be very happy (thank you, Lord!). She laughs deliriously with minimal provocation- this week it is blankets. All I have to do is throw a blanket or towel over her head or mine, and the kid will crack up. So while light-hearted and a lover of a good laugh, Emmy is also a real go-getter. She loves to explore and do things on her own. I can't wait to see what she will do next.

P.S. The camera purchase really is going to happen this weekend. So hopefully next week's posts will contain pictures and/or video. I'm so excited!!!

Baby's First Fall (the season, that is!)

Oh, I love fall. Such a beautiful season. I'd say it was my favorite except that for me it is a three-way tie between spring, summer and fall. I love them all, just not a big fan of winter. Winter is fine but there is too little sunshine and it inhibits the amount of time you can spend outdoors, which is something that I am really dreading now that we have the baby. So many of our recreational activities involve spending time as a family or with our friends outdoors. Emmy has gotten to enjoy Tuesday night bluegrass, Thursday Night Live downtown, a few other concerts, pool parties, cookouts, a tour of every park in Fayette County, regular strolls, hanging out with neighbors on porches, and the list goes on and on. We try to spend as much time as possible being outside (in spite of the vicious mosquitos), and we are going to miss this soon enough. For now, at least, we are soaking up the gloriousness that is warm weather. Yesterday we spent three straight hours walking to the park, visiting neighbors and walking Bobby (aka Hobbs, our dog) because it was just so nice. It was sunny and beautiful and the air had the crispness of fall even though it is still three weeks away. Emmy seemed to enjoy herself, and it was nice to see that she wasn't a sweaty mess when I got her out of her stroller. She is such a sweater, that one! I am already dreaming of taking her hiking and showing her the golden glow of fall. One of the most magical places I know in late October/early November is the Pinnacle. It is so beautiful there in the late afternoon sunlight with the trees aglow that I always think that this must be what heaven looks like. I hope she likes it too.

Peas, please!

Emmy loves peas! I love that Emmy loves peas, because I love peas, but G hates peas. Of course, I don't actually love pureed peas, but I am hopeful that in the near future Em and I will be enjoying peas with our dinner. Actually, G will eat sugar snap peas, but I love all kinds including regular-old peas and apparently our girl does too. She is so cute when she eats them! I wish I could post a picture of her eating them because she gets all green and gooey around her mouth, and it is precious! A picture would really make this blog entry, but I am boycotting our current camera due to its interminable crappiness. We were all set to go out and buy our new camera on Sunday when just before we left, G nearly cut his thumb off. We decided that an emergency room was no place to bring a baby (unless of course you have to), so Em and I just dropped Daddy off and wished him luck. Fortunately, we live across the street from a hospital, so G didn't have too far of a walk home. Isn't that sad? I felt kind of bad for the guy, but he is a trooper. Anyway, all of this to say that this weekend (barring any emergencies) we are buying a new camera. Pictures and videos of baby cuteness are coming soon!