1 Year Old!

I don't even know what to say. This year has flown by so quickly! My little baby girl was just entering the world at this time one year ago. Boy, we had no clue what we were in for! Sure there were lots of hard times, I won't lie, but it has been so very worth every moment. I'm sitting here trying to think of words to describe how I feel about my little girly, but it's really impossible to put it into words at all. I love her. I guess that's all that needs to be said.

Embry is going to get a very good birthday present today... she'll be seeing all 4 of her grandparents in the same day! We're going over to my parent's house to eat because my sister is visiting from Montana. Tony's dad was transferred to a halfway house in Tucson yesterday, so we'll be going to visit him at 6:30pm. Then Tony's mom and sister are coming down from Phoenix to spend the night before Embry's party on Sunday.

There's still lots to do for the party. Mainly making the food and finishing the cakes. I got the fondant on the castle cake so it still needs the candy accents and then I need to make Embry's smash cake tomorrow. I guess that means I'll be getting up early, so I should get to bed.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMBRY!

Week 51

So I was kinda hoping in the back of my mind to get Embry's scrapbook done in time to display it at her first birthday party, but that's not going to happen seeing as I haven't even started it yet. The farthest I've gotten is making a pile of the pictures I want to put in it and setting it next to my computer so I can go through all my picture files and date the photos so they can be put in chronological order. I haven't even finished my pregnancy scrapbook yet. I think I'm on week 34 of that one. Bleh. It's hard to keep Embry entertained in the office and the bonus is that she opens every single cabinet and drawer and ends up playing with a bunch of pens, markers, notecards, pictures, etc...anything she can get her hands on. I've been super tired lately too, so when she naps I either lounge or take a nap too. Tony seems to think that I'm so tired because I've been getting too much sleep but I keep telling him that I don't think it's possible for someone with lupus to get too much sleep. I've been trying to get to bed shortly after Embry goes to bed (so this means 8pm, I know, I'm a loser) and sleeping till she wakes up around 8:30am. Seeing as before I was pregnant I was sleeping between 14-16 hours a day, this still doesn't qualify as enough sleep.

This brings me to my next point, I'm not sure if I really want another kid. I asked Tony about it, he definitely wants more, but he can't actually give me a reason why. Although I think it's hard to qualify why you want something like another child. Anyhow, if I am this tired with one then how will it be with 2? Bleh, I just don't know. I guess whatever God wants is what's going to happen so I might as well not analyze it to death. There's also the thought that I love Embry so terribly much I don't feel that same sort of longing for another child as I did to have her. Then I guess I'm also scared that the next kid could be a rotten egg, you know, a bad apple. Embry's such a good baby and so much fun, I guess we've been spoiled into thinking all kids are like her, but in reality they're not.

Halloween was pretty great. I had taken back the candy I had bought because I thought we were going to be in Phoenix for trick-or-treating, so I went and bought a bunch before the sun went down. Then we put Embry in her turkey outfit and took her to about 5 houses right around here. She walked the whole way and looked like such a big girl. Of course everyone thought she was a boy, but they don't make turkey outfits with big bows on the top. Then we came back and tried handing out candy from inside the house but everytime I would open the door Embry would quick go outside and then throw a fit when I took her back in. I decided it would be easier to sit outside and strap her into her swing while I handed out candy. I was quite disappointed that some parents and older teens were trick or treating without even bothering to put on costumes. That's just ridiculous! After I ran out of candy about halfway through I rummaged through our snack cabinet and found a big bag of blowpops, so I handed those out along with some individually wrapped mints. I also took a sucker for myself and realized that the gum in the middle was rock hard...woops! Luckily those kids will have no idea who gave them the stale lollipops. :)

Here's a pic of Embry in her turkey costume:

Week 50

Sorry, but out of the 2 pics I got of Embry for this week, this is actually the better one. In the other she is halfway rolled over, although she is making a better face. Anyhow, 2 more weeks and she'll be one, eeek.

So this week Embry's had a cold. I think she's pretty much over it now, but she's still got the occasional cough and slightly runny nose. Therefore we had my parents babysit last night while Tony and I went to the Young Married's Halloween party. We were mr and mrs pacman and Embry was one of the white dots that they eat in the game. Here's a photo...
But Embry didn't come with us, so I just tied the white dot to my arm. So since she's still ill, we're not going up to Phoenix tomorrow for Tony's mom's friend's party either, which I was really excited about. :( I guess that means we're going trick or treating here and handing out candy, but I already returned the candy I had bought to hand out because we weren't going to be here. Bleh. I'm thinking I'll dress her up in her Turkey outfit...she can't just be a white dot by herself.

I guess we were pretty boring this week, didn't really do much.

Week 49

I can't believe that Embry is almost a year old! I'm getting excited/nervous about her birthday party. I am excited because it will be fun and she'll have a good time, but I am nervous because I always feel like people need to be entertained and I'm just not very entertaining. Tony is going to smoke some pork butts for pulled pork sandwiches (which are amazingly delicious) and I got the pork this week, but it's bone-in. I guess that just means it will be more work to pull apart.

I'm going to call the Dr to see if it's ok to switch her over to whole milk before she's 1 (it's 2 weeks early, I don't see how that could be a problem) because I'm down to about half a can of formula. So far I've only used the samples that I got for free in the mail and I really don't want to have to buy any cuz it's darn expensive. She's still being nursed in the morning and at night and I put her back to the football hold on the right side to alleviate pain. Yes, it's awkward with such a large child, but it works, so I don't care how silly it looks.

Embry came down with what I believe to be a cold. She's got a lot of snot and is coughing a bunch...it's icky. Tonight she kept wanting to give me kisses, not a good time for that, but it was hard to say no since I love her kisses so much. She's adorable. She pretty much only walks now, no more crawling at all. It's so cute to see her walking because she's so small, but she's turning into a little person right before my eyes. I love her.

Week 48

Embry choked this week...yep that's right, choked. I was out at the park with some girls from my MOPS discussion group and I was letting her take little bites of an apple slice (not the skin) and ripping off pieces of a pb&j sandwich for her to eat. Then she looked up at me and was doing that mouth open, eyes wide, scared to death look that you get when you're choking. I have no idea how to give a baby the Heimlich and so I did what is probably very bad and started patting her back. She was trying to claw her way up onto me and I was trying not to look like I was panicking, but the only thing going through my mind was, 'my baby is going to die, right here, in the middle of a park, with 2 other moms watching and there's nothing I can do.' So I stuck my finger in her mouth to try and dislodge whatever was in there and she ended up vomiting up the last like 6 bites she had taken into my hand and down her dress. The bites came back up exactly the way they went in, whole. She hadn't chewed any of it, at all. I thought she was good at chewing, but apparently I was wrong and I'll be mashing up her food for a while. After that was over she started screaming probably cuz she was scared. I choked on a piece of bread when I was about 10 and my dad gave me the Heimlich and I know I was pretty shook up afterward, so I can't even imagine how she felt. Gosh darn, it was scary!! Worst part is, it's probably not the last time it will happen and I'm sure it happens to every kid/mom out there. I told the moms I was with that I had just been thinking on the way to the park how Embry had never choked on anything and they were shocked that she was almost 1 and still hadn't choked which leads me to believe it is a pretty common occurrence.

She's standing up on her own now and will stand up when you say 'stand up' and she's walking all over the place, even without being prompted. Walking is still not her main mode of transportation, but she's getting much better at it. She falls down quite often, but doesn't seem to mind, except for that one time where her face hit my knee before her hands could stop her. Oh yes, she can also point now. She says 'mama' much more often but doesn't associate it with me yet. A bonus development this week is that Embry started to chew on her crib railing. About 80% of the time when I go to get her out of her crib, she's got little white paint flecks all over her head, mainly around her mouth. Yucky. I wonder if maybe she'll grow out of this phase quickly or if I should invest in those plastic crib rail covers?

My birthday was great! We went to Apple Annies, found out that Embry is afraid of Sunflowers, went on a hayride, hung out in a pumkin patch, bought some veggies, had some delicious caramel kettle corn, went through a corn maze, found out that an umbrella stroller is not a good idea in a corn maze, and had some apple/cherry pie. I did not make it in time for the apple smoked burgers, which I was quite disappointed about, but that just means we'll have to go again sometime! Embry really seemed to enjoy herself and I had a blast. We got some great pics too! I'd post some but for some reason when I upload a pic on here it only comes up as code until I actually post and that would be confusing. Then we came home and my parents came over to babysit and they got me a balloon and made me a cake. Tony and I went to dinner at Sakura which is a japanese steakhouse thing where they cook the food at your table, then we met some friends to see 'Cronan the Barbarian' at the Gaslight theatre...it was hilarious!

We've been working on getting Embry's swing (I bought her a swing for her birthday, I don't know if I mentioned that before) hung up in the tree in our front yard. Very complicated. You're spos to have a certain type of hook with some plastic on it so the metal doesn't rub on the metal or something, but you have to special order those etc etc. Anyhow, I think we finally have all the parts to put it up, so Tony is going to attempt to get that done tomorrow morning. Speaking of Embry's birthday, I got all her gifts wrapped today as well as the party favors put together. I am having a slight issue though, I only have enough favors for the bigger (over 2 yrs old) kids, but none for the younger kids. I'm still wavering on what to do about that.

Week 47

Some bigs things are happening this week for little Embry. On Monday my family was over for my mom's 68th birthday. After we ate pizza, pink stuff, and cake/ice cream we went outside to let the kids play in the grass. So we're standing there and Embry is sitting in the grass and then Colter sits in front of her, so she grabs onto him and pulls herself up to standing and then lets go and just stands there all on her own for the very first time! She did it for like 10 seconds straight too! I had my regular camera out there and got some great pictures, then later in the day she was playing with the beach ball outside and she stood up on her own again, but this time I had the video camera out. That night she did it a lot more using my brother's arm and various other things and she would take maybe a wobbly step or two as well. Then Monday night she also said 'mama' twice, but not at all since then. She definitely didn't associate it with me either, but that will happen eventually.

On Wednesday morning Tony got me up because Embry was going from sitting to standing on her own and then taking a few steps to get to something she wanted (a toy or food). We sat across from each other on the floor and had her walk back and forth between us which was about 4 steps each way. Then I held out a wooden ring and kept moving it farther and farther away. The farthest she walked without stopping was about 16 steps. She will only do it when she really wants though. So I guess this means she can officially walk as of 10/7/09! I wonder when she'll decide that walking will be her main mode of transportation...probably not for a while.

My birthday is tomorrow. I'm turning 26. I decided I would like to go to either Apple Annie's or Buckelew Farms to go on a hayride, pick some pumpkins, and wander the corn maze. I think Apple Annie's sounds slightly more appealing even though it's about 30 miles further away because they have an apple smoked burger lunch. Neither has a petting zoo though, which kinda bums me out. I wonder if there's hot apple cider, or caramel apples? Anyhow, then we're supposed to go out to dinner (although depending on time and hunger that may not happen) and then we're meeting some friends at the Gaslight theater to see 'Cronan the Barbarian.' I'm so excited for that, I love the gaslight! I'd really like to get some chairs and fire pit or chiminea for the pool area, but it seems like by the time my birthday rolls around we never have any extra cash to go towards presents. I don't know how that happens, but it never fails. I mean, I don't really care about the present part, but I'd really like to get some of this house stuff done. I could ramble off the list of house things I'd like to have done, but it's virtually endless and extremely costly. I am fairly certain (judging from 2 $150 water bills in a row and our marshy lawn) that one of our sprinkler pipes is leaking. Money = stress. I'm so thankful for what we have and appreciative of all the blessings we've been given, but I'm sure everyone can understand that it's hard to not always want more.

This week both my brother and Tony were sick. Tony never really gets fully sick though. He rests right away when he feels illness coming on, then it never actually develops into anything major...so he seems to be ok now. It was incredibly bad timing though, you can look at my chart if you so desire to find out why, the chart. Then my brother, not sure what kind of illness he had since he stayed in his room virtually the entire time (which I'm very thankful for) and I would just drop food off at his door. He's doing better as well, but I'm hoping now that he's out and about around the house neither me or Embry catch what he's got. Speaking of illness, I had my flu shot last week and Embry got her first round this week. She only cried for a second and then we cuddled and she was fine. I told the dr that her diaper rash still had open sores that weren't healing so now we're mixing in hydrocortizone cream with the other 2 antifungal creams and then putting desitin on top of all of it. It seems to be getting better. Eliminating the juice from her diet has really solidified her poo, so I guess that's good for the diaper rash aspect.

I'm having issues figuring out this halloween thing. I want me and Tony to match Embry, so if she's a ladybug then I'd want us to be bugs, but the only adult bee costume I can find Tony says is not 'manly' enough for him. I don't really want her to be a princess if she's going to wear that for her birthday party, but if she is, then we'd be a king and queen, but those costumes are too expensive. I wish things were free.

Week 46

Embry learned how to blow a kiss this week. We've been trying to teach her for a while, but on Tuesday night I was feeding her some baby food and my brother was sitting on the other couch blowing kisses to her, then she finally put her hand up by her mouth and flung her arm out. So it's kind of blowing a kiss, right? Then we started clapping and I tried to feed her another spoonful of food, then she clapped right onto the spoon flinging food all over the place. I was not pleased. ;)

Formula feeding is going quite well except for the fact that it smells to high heaven. Eww. There is no way that I would EVER drink formula, but I guess I'm used to cow milk, anyhow yuck. So Embry's getting breastmilk in the morning and before bed and then formula and baby food and regular food (whatever we're eating) during the day. Oddly though, ever since we started formula she's had a bad bad diaper rash. My friend said the same thing happened to her daughter and she was having a reaction to the milk in formula, so I just switched to soy based formula and we'll see if it makes a difference. It was really heartbreaking over the weekend when the rash was the worst with big open sores. She would freak out and clench her legs closed when we got out a wipe. Yes, we used some soapy wet paper towels instead of wipes when we could, but it was just horrible. It looked fungal, so we started using the same creams that the dr had prescribed in the past, but on Monday I was worried so we went into the dr. She weighed 19 lbs 8 oz and he said it was in fact fungal. Apparently girls get diaper rashes a lot more than boys just from having more folds and whatnot, but I guess it's just from pee mainly. So I asked the dr how long I should wait when she gets a diaper rash before I bring her in and he said to try the creams on it and wait about a week to see if it gets better. He also said that giving them juice makes them have more liquidy poo, so we cut that out of her diet. Now she just gets water in her sippy cup and let me tell you, she is not as happy with water as she is with juice...a girl after my own heart. Bonus is that I just bought 10 bottles of Juicy Juice for her, oh well, more for me!

Embry now says 'hi' a lot. She also started saying 'na na na' all the time. This just drives me nuts because it's soooo close to 'mama' and I know she can say 'mmm' and 'aaaah' but she just won't put them together. So frustrating! She also started saying 'uh oh' except it comes out more like 'uh eee.' Oooh and if she sees someone rubbing their hands together (as she did at the dr's office) she will imitate it. Oh, she's so cute! Oh my gosh, I almost forgot, she does this adorable thing where I'll say 'let's cuddle!' and she'll rest her head on my chest. Oh, I love it sooo sooo much. I never want it to end.

I took her into the Picture People on Monday...it did not go well to say the least. I think that from now on before I take her to get her picture taken I need to take a few prozacs or something. So, basically the entire time it was her crawling away and me pulling her back while she screamed at the top of her lungs. It didn't help that they put us in the studio that is out in the lobby without a door so naturally she wants to crawl and see all the people and explore. Also, she hates having her clothes changed and I had 3 outfit changes...yikes. Anyhow after all that, then the guy tells me that I can't use both of my coupons at the same time. I had one for a free picture package and one for a free trilogy frame, matte, and pictures. I ended up using the trilogy one because it was a better deal and the guy said I could bring her back before the package coupon expires which I thought was funny because the last thing I'd want is to go through that ordeal again! The pics turned out cute and I ended up getting a frame with a matte with 3 openings which had 2 5x7s and an 8x10 in it and then 2 extra 8x10s all for $8. The one thing I really don't like about them is that the cameras focus on other things besides the kid's face a lot. There was a really cute close up of Embry's face with the hat and boas on, but it was focused on the fuzzy boa instead of her face so it would have bothered me endlessly if I had bought it. I got some pics of her in her halloween princess costume (she thoroughly enjoyed sucking on the fake prop pumpkins), then of her in a hat with my pearl necklace and fuzzy boas my mom gave her, then some of her in the dress I got for her birthday. I would like some more of her in the dress because none of those were super great.

I looked tonight and the second tooth on her bottom left is just poking through the gums. So pretty soon she'll have 8 whole teeth! My baby is growing up!

I reserved the ramada for Embry's birthday party. The larger ramada was reserved all day on the 14 (which is her birthday), but open on the 15, so looks like the party will be on the 15 of Nov. My sister Nancy is coming down from Montana that week, so we'll be taking family pictures on Saturday (Embry's birthday). I figure the convenience of having more picnic tables is worth it to have it a day late. Now I'm trying to decide whether I should send out real invitations or just an evite. Hmmm.

Week 45

I've started seriously planning for Embry's birthday party. I have decided to do an all out princess theme. I found a crown/tiara shaped cake pan to use for her smash cake and I'm going to attempt to make a princess castle cake for the real people cake. We'll see if it looks even remotely princessy in the end, but I'll try. At Michael's today they had a bunch of princess themed party stuff for 70% off so I lucked out and got napkins, plates, etc for pretty cheap. I think we'll have it at Purple Heart Park mostly for convenience sake, so I guess I need to call and reserve a ramada.

I dressed Embry up in all her different Halloween costume options and took pictures. One of them that I bought last year which is size 9-12 months is way too short. One is too big, then 3 of them fit. Out of the 3 that fit, the princess one is by far the cutest although the turkey one is darn cute too, but I think I might save that for Thanksgiving (which was the original plan). However I want Tony and I to match Embry, so we might do the Elf thing again and make her a little elf too.

On Tuesday the girls from my MOPS discussion group came over with their kiddos to go swimming. We got a solar cover 2 weeks ago and it has really warmed up the water temp. It was lots of fun getting to know the ladies more and meeting their kids. Embry has started climbing up the pool steps to play with the rocks, so even though we were nowhere near the steps, she wanted to get out and play with the rocks. I let her do just that and she was happy as could be. I think she only tried to eat one rock too. She's progressing.

Over the past 2 days I've been trying to switch her from breast milk to formula due to her getting the 4 top teeth. At first she was not happy, but now she seems somewhat ok with it. Today she drank 8 ounces of formula. Sometimes I'm mixing it with breast milk and sometimes not. I hate the smell of formula though, but then today I realized the kind I've been giving her says it has iron which is what I keep smelling. It smells like metal, yuck. Anyhow, I'm still nursing her before bed and sometimes in the morning, but trying to do formula in the daytime.

So we're officially trying for baby #2...whatever that means. I'm kind of feeling indifferent right now, but I know that if months go by without getting pregnant then I will revert to the feelings I had last time and probably become obsessed once again. Wish us luck!

Week 44

44 Weeks Old on 9/18/09

Last weekend we went camping with my friend Anna and her family at Lake Patagonia. It was so much fun! Normally I hate camping. I realized that I always like the first day. I like hanging out and being outside and playing games and eating. Then I sleep on an air mattress and wake up at the crack of dawn, so the second day is pretty much ruined due to the exhaustion and pain. This time however the second day got off to a rough start (next time I'm bringing ear plugs) but then quickly picked up after I won skipbo and had some delicious eggs and bacon for breakfast. The best part of the whole trip though was swimming in the lake!!!!!! I absolutely LOVE swimming outside in a natural (ok I know it's a man made lake, but you know what I mean) body of water! To make it ever more enjoyable, Embry loves lakes too! She did a much better job of not eating the sand this time and she just had the time of her life playing in the water. It's interesting to me that once you have a child, your life revolves around doing whatever it is that makes your child happy. Anyhow, we also took a paddle boat out on the lake. I tried to explain to Tony that paddle boat does not equal fun, but he thought it would be easier to take Embry on than a canoe. So, yes, the paddling was painful and very difficult as always and Embry had a meltdown about halfway though, so we fed her some cheerios and she fell asleep sitting between us on the boat. This is where she got a slight sunburn on one half of her face, woops. I'm sure it will be the first of many. Overall, I'd say the camping was a huge success! I'd like to take Embry back on Sunday for the day to hang out at the beach and have a picnic, but Tony has yardwork he needs to do, so I might be going it alone.

Embry turned 10 months old on Monday! Only 2 more months and she'll be a year old, that's ridiculous! Where did the time go? I'm trying to think of what I'd like to do for her birthday party (Keep Nov 14 open!). The napkins etc that I purchased are a princess kind of theme, but I'd really like her to have a hello kitty smash cake...not sure if those things really go together. Although if I did an all out princess theme, I do happen to have a princess halloween costume that she could wear to her party. That would be super cute! :) I have this nagging fear that nobody will show up though. My mom has always hated parties for that very reason and apparently I also harbor that fear. The other conundrum is that I was thinking of having it at Purple Heart Park in order to have playground equipment for the older kids to play on, but then I took Embry to Agua Caliente park again on Wed morning and she loves watching the ducks and playing on the grass etc, so I think she might have more fun at a place like that. The problem there (which we had to deal with for our wedding too) is that you need to get a special permit to have a gathering there and they only allow up to 25 people. I was also told that people might not come because it's too far, but I don't think it's very far at all. So anyhow, that's what I've been thinking about.

On Monday I took Embry out to my parent's house. She played with Colter and laughed up a storm. She thought he was so funny! She really likes playing with other kids. Naturally she pulls their hair and tries to knock them onto the ground so she can laugh at them, but she has a lot of fun. I figure if nobody is crying then there's no problem. :) Embry is very rough and tumble, but if I try to set her down for 3 seconds or shut the bathroom door you would think she was dying. Such a drama queen.

Lately we've been having teething troubles. Embry is just generally grumpy and I'm going to attribute it to teething. After getting her 4 top front teeth last week, this week she is getting the tooth to the right of her 2 bottom teeth (if that makes any sense). I'm not sure if 1 little tooth coming in can cause all the moodiness of my baby, but that's the only thing I can think of. She has been super clingy too. Oh. My. Goodness. I attempted to make orange chicken in the crock pot on Thursday and she insisted on clinging to my leg while crying as I tried to shuffle around the kitchen breading the chicken. I ended up stopping midway and leaving my thawed chicken on the counter while I fed her for the millionth time that morning and finally she went down for a nap. Surprisingly we didn't get salmonella.

Embry can kind of give you a kiss now, but only when she wants! She was doing it really well mid-week, but now it's kind of hit or miss. You go up to her and say "Embry, can I have a kiss?" and then pucker your lips and if she's in the mood she'll lean her head into your face. However she doesn't understand that most people kiss babies with their mouths closed, so you end up giving the inside of her mouth a peck. Tony has taken to calling her 'Baby-Suck-Face.'

Onto other news (read at your own risk), my cycle started up again on Thursday, FINALLY. So now I'm contemplating whether I should break out the clear blue easy fertility monitor (cbefm) and basal body temp (bbt) thermometer and get crackin on baby #2 or if I should just continue to not prevent and see what happens. On days like Thursday when I want to sit and cry from utter confusion and helplessness, I can't even fathom having more than one child. Then in the rare few moments when Embry will rest her head on my chest, I feel like I won't be satisfied until I have a hundred more sweet precious babies. In all seriousness, it's for certain we will have another child (God willing), but the issue is how to get there. Do I stress because I'm not tracking and not on top of everything or do I stress because I know every detail and can't figure out why I'm not getting pregnant? Either way, I will stress because it is in my nature. I guess the lesser stress would come from being in control (at least of the things I can control) and hoping that we will be blessed with another little one sooner than we were last time. God knows what he's doing, so I will leave it up to him, but it wouldn't hurt to keep myself informed and do all I can on my end to help the process along. Maybe I'll be the next Michelle Duggar and have 19 kids...

Week 43

43 Weeks Old on 9/11/09

Last weekend we went up to Phoenix for the Holiday. We left on Friday after Tony got back from work. We stayed Friday night at Tony's mom's place. Then Saturday we went to stay at the Scottsdale Resort. Tony's mom watched Embry overnight Sat and Sun nights. She said that Embry wouldn't take her bottle, so she just ate a lot baby food, fruit, and yogurt instead. Either Embry doesn't want milk out of a bottle or she didn't like the fact that it was half breastmilk/half formula. I was hoping she would take the bottle because I've been thinking I might switch her to formula for these last 2 months since her top teeth are coming in and let's just say I'm not real pleased with the current nursing situation. She's not biting me, but it pretty much feels like we started nursing all over again from the beginning. Not a good feeling. Anyhow, I had planned on taking Embry swimming at the resort and keeping her there with us, but if someone's willing to watch her overnight then by all means, go for it! Tony and I had a nice time by ourselves and I realized how stressed out I am normally.

On Sunday morning we met Tony's mom and Embry at the Phoenix Zoo. It was great to begin with, nice and cool (well cool for AZ) and then it gradually got super hot. I really wanted to take Embry to the petting zoo, but by the time we got off the train ride we were sweating up a storm so I just bagged it and left. While waiting for the train, I took Embry out of her stroller and set her on my lap for a minute. When I lifted her up, there was poo smeared all over my skirt. Surprisingly enough, she didn't have any on her shorts at all! So I used up all the wipes and prayed that she wouldn't go potty again before we got back to Tony's mom's. Good news is, she seemed to enjoy the zoo a lot more this time than last time. She noticed a lot of the animals and seemed interested in what was going on. She was deathly afraid of the metal and concrete statues around the zoo though. I thought they would be great photo ops, but she screamed bloody murder everytime we tried to set her on or in one. Eventually she was ok touching them with her hands, but clung to me for dear life when I'd try to let her go.

On Sunday night we went to Robeks where Allison works and got some smoothies. I put the straw in Embry's mouth and usually she just bites it but this time she actually sucked on it and hard enough to get smoothie out. So now she's a pro and sucking on straws! I went and bought her some straw type sippy cups today and she likes them a lot. It seems that you either need to suck really hard or bite on the straw to get liquid out though, I don't know if I like that. Either way, she's getting a whole lot more out of this kind of cup than she was out of the regular sippy cups, so I guess we'll stick with these.

About a week ago I got a thing to stick in Embry's crib that plays music and has little bug things that go around with lights and then projects pictures onto the ceiling. My mom gave me $ to buy one a long time ago and I finally got one. So Embry didn't seem to care much about it at first, she was still just so offended that we'd think to leave her in her crib alone when it's bedtime. Now she loves it. She goes up to it and presses the button on and off a bunch and sits there and stares at the ceiling etc. So she still cries a smidge when we put her to bed, but she's got something there to keep her entertained and soothe her. I think I should have gotten one of these a long time ago.

Week 42

42 Weeks old on 9/4/09

Mmk yeh I know I totally suck at posting on time. Moving on.

On Friday we took Embry out to dinner with our friends the Hasbroucks at Pinnacle Peak steakhouse. It's located in this old west town in Tucson so we meandered around afterwards and took some pics of Embry with/in various western props. Then we decided to see the old west show (in other words, a play with guns). Yeh, Embry did not like the gunshots at all! Oh my gosh, once the guns would go off she would scream bloody murder. So Tony quick took her out and walked her around the main street while we finished watching the show. Anyhow, it's a place I'd like to visit again and I'm sad I haven't gone their sooner. I love touristy things.

After 2 unsuccessful tries, on the 3rd try, we found a baby gate that works on the bottom of our stairs! Woohoo! I did have to go out and buy screws and nuts to secure it to the metal railing and my dad drilled one extra hole in the metal because one of the pressurized thingys didn't line up with the holes that were already there. I'm guessing the lady that lived here before had a baby gate screwed into the bottom of the stairs as well which is why the holes are there. It was so frustrating to take back the 2 gates that didn't work (one wasn't wide enough, and one came with extensions which made it too wide) because I had a coupon for 15% off a baby gate and then another coupon for 15% off one item, but if you use them in the same order the 15% off one item will come off whichever item is the highest price and even after the 15% off the baby gate it was still the highest priced item. Problem is, you're not supposed to combine the coupons on the same item. That led to some issues while trying to take back the gates and exchange them for new gates because I'd obviously still want the coupons used on the new ones. Bleh, saving money is a lot of work sometimes.

We went to Mt Lemmon on Sunday with Kim, Anna, and their families. It was so much fun! The weather was great and the little girls (Embry and Haley) played together in the pack and play. Embry pulled some interesting wrestling moves on Haley in order to get the sippy cup, but Haley didn't seem to mind. They have so much fun together! I played lawn darts with Santiago and Anna, Tony and I played some paddle ball, and we took the girls down the to stream to stick their feet in.

Monday Kim and I took the kids to the pool at the Sheraton to swim with my moms group. It was lots of fun and the water was really nice. We went to IHOP afterwards to get some lunch and oh man, that was pretty bad. Our kids (mostly mine) kept trying to scream louder than the other one. There was no stopping them. Luckily it seemed that most people didn't mind and if they did, well they didn't say anything. This trip also reminded me that a child is only as cute as their accessories. Haley had on this cute matching outfit and sun hat while Embry was just wearing a onesie and everyone stopped to say how cute Haley was and then as an afterthought they'd turn to Embry and say, 'oh yes, I'll say hi to you too.' I'm surprised nobody asked if she was a boy since she wasn't wearing a dress or a headband. That night I went to a margarita night with the moms from the moms group. It was fun and I met some nice ladies while playing 'who knew.' They guessed that I would like the Sunday paper the best out of the given options and boy were they wrong. It was fun though!

MOPS started up again on Tuesday. I was babysitting Haley so I took both the girls and dropped them off in the nursery. I was called by the nursery workers about 30 min before the meeting was over to tell me that Embry was crying uncontrollably. That's a first for her. I'm guessing it was a combo of being really tired and hungry. I took her to the cry room and fed her and she was fine. Our discussion groups for the year were determined and I'm in the same group as my friend Rachael and a girl from the moms group I joined. I'm looking forward to the rest of the year!

Thursday I took Embry down to purple heart park to meet with the moms group for bubble fun. I got a big bubble wand for half off at Frys and it made some awesome big bubbles. It was a big hit with the kids. It got really hot really fast and silly me I brought no water or sippy cup for Embry, so we left. My parents came over and built some more shelves in the garage so we can put my brother's things on them to park both our cars in the garage. We moved the desk that was in the garage (I think as a work bench) up into the office so I have a place to do my scrapbooking. I'm excited to move everything up there so it's no longer sitting in the dining room. I'm a little worried though cuz Embry in the play yard for a long period of time does not work out well, so we'll see how it goes. I'd also like to get a sewing maching at some point. I'm not sure if I'm really that good at things like that (if you saw a heart shaped magnet that I sewed and stuffed in 7th grade FACE class you'd know what I'm talking about) but it would be really useful to know. So then on Friday my parents were over helping finish up the garage thing and they were kind enough to watch Embry while I packed for our trip to Phoenix.

Embry can now wave with both hands. After she started getting that new tooth, she started getting the same tooth on the other side and a few days after that the two middle top ones started coming in. So she's getting all 4 front top teeth at the same time and she's been a bit of a grumpy bear about it. Now the 2 on the right are all the way through and the 2 on the left are just poking through a little. She also got an Embry sized arm chair in purple plaid which is now sitting in the living room. She can't get up into it by herself, but she figured out how to turn around and climb down backwards. It's so adorable to see her in her little chair. Oh she's also doing this high pitched 'hi' thing. It kinda sounds like she's saying hi without the 'h' but kind of singing it. I'll try to get a video of it. She and Tony go back and forth making and 'ssss' sound which she thinks is a lot of fun and she giggles a bunch when I sniff her vigorously or try to bite her hands. She's so cute. :)

In other more gross news, I think my toenail fungus is getting better. I've been putting vaporub on it everynight and putting a sock on while I sleep. I'm tracking the progress in pictures, maybe I'll make them into a flip book! Haha.

Week 41

41 Weeks old on 8/28/09

I joined a mom's group called Eastside Desert Moms. It was recommended to me from a girl in MOPS last year but then the group closed to new members for the summer so I wasn't able to sign up then. It just reopened in August, so I signed up and met some girls to at the zoo on Wed. It was fun, but really hot! Let me just say that I won't be wearing makeup next time I go to the zoo in he middle of summer. Anyhow a fun coincidence happened that a girl who I've been emailing back and forth who was in our birthing class at TMC also happened to be a member of this group! It was fun to see her again and meet her little guy while strolling through the zoo. On another note, the Tucson zoo seemed a lot bigger when I was a kid.

I took Embry to the pediatric cardiologist on Friday. They did an EKG and an echocardiogram. The dr said that everything looks fine and she has an innocent heart murmur which she will probably grow out of at some point. He said kids can grow out of them all the way into their teenage years, so don't worry about it and if he had to rate it's intensity on a scale of 1-6 (six being the worst) he'd say it's a 2. Basically it's mild and nothing to sweat over which is what I figured.

Week 40

40 Weeks Old on 8/21/09

Tony and I took her to get her 9 month pics taken at the picture people on Friday. I definitely like how they turned out at her 6 month session better. I definitely think it makes a big difference which photographer you get. I painted her toenails beforehand, it was horrible. I don't think I'll be trying that again. The couch now has some lovely pink accents. I couldn't do it when she was sleeping because she tucks her legs up underneath her and she would have woken up if I pulled one out. Back to the photo session, it was also much easier to get her to smile when she was 6 mos old. Now she just stares at new people in bewilderment with her mouth hanging open. I made the mistake of not bringing along a comfortable pair of shoes to change into and bonus, I didn't even wear my shoes for any of the pictures. We got some cute shots though all in all. The photog had me sign a release saying she could use Embry's pics for her portfolio and as possible stock shots to use in the stores display frames. I think it would be fun to go into the mall and see my little girl's smiling face hanging up for all to see.
The first 5 are the ones that I bought:


And the others I liked but didn't buy:


Sunday we had a family bbq so Tony could use his new smoker. He made some fantastic pulled pork sandwiches! Jen (my sis), Jason, and Colter came over along with my parents and my brother was already here. We took some family pictures which turned out pretty cute. I put Embry's stuffed duck that quacks up by the camera while it was on self timer in order to get the kids to look at the camera. Embry and Colter got to play together which was really fun to watch. Colter didn't seem too interested in Embry, but very interested in her toys and Embry was so excited to play with Colter. She kept grinning at him from ear to ear. So cute! I got some really cute pictures of them together. Then we took them out in the driveway to play with sidewalk chalk. Embry really enjoyed eating hers and Colter tapped his on the pavement for a while. I, however, drew a beautiful butterfly.

I took Embry in for her 9 month check up on Monday. Here are her stats:
Weight: 18lbs 7oz (about 35th percentile)
Head Circ: 44cm (50th percentile)
Length: 29.5" (97th percentile!)
So basically she's long and lean with an average sized melon. While we were there she waved bye bye to the nurse which was amazing because up until that point she would almost always just sit and stare at your in wonderment as you tried to get her to wave on command. I was so proud. The dr said that he thinks she might have a heart murmur which he's sending her to a cardiologist for in order to have an echo cardiogram done. I'm not worried about that at all, kids can outgrow that and it seems like everyone has a heart murmur. I asked the dr about switching her from breast milk to whole milk when she turns 1 in order to ttc and he said it would be fine. Here's another thing which is kinda gross, but pertains to ttc so I'll go ahead and say it. You know how my big toenail and my pinky toenail on my right foot have been falling off forever? Well, I went to get a pedicure while they were in the process of coming off and ended up getting toenail fungus on both toenails from it. Eww. So, the dr said he can't give me the (oral) medicine to get rid of it until I stop breastfeeding. I asked him at the appt how long I have to take that stuff to get rid of the fungus and if we can ttc while I'm taking it. The answers were 3 months and no. So that puts a kink into things. I told him I thought that was retarded. Bleh, I'm already stressing about how long it will take us to get conceive again and now an extra 3 months is added on. Oh well. My dad swears that he got rid of toenail fungus by using vicks vapor rub on it. I might as well try it. The dr said none of those topical 'cures' you see on tv work at all, plus they're expensive, so I won't go that route. After stewing about it for a few days, I'm wondering if I should just use formula for the next 3 months, take the medicine, then be ready to ttc in Nov. If we want to have our kids 2 years apart, we'd have to conceive end of Feb which is highly unlikely in either scenario (stop bfing now or when Embry's 1). Anyone have any thoughts? Oh, to be able to get pregnant when you want, that would be the life! Anyhow, back to Embry...he said otherwise she's in good working order. :)

Last night I discovered that Embry is getting another tooth! It's the one on the top next to the front teeth on the right side. It's only poking through very slightly, enough to feel a little tooth through the gum when you run your finger over it. She's been doing this new 'smile' thing where she kind of hisses and throws her head back and shows all her upper gums. It's hilarious and when she does it, you can see all the little white teeth under her gums which is what prompted me to check again. This is what her new 'smile' looks like:

Other exciting developments this week are that Embry learned how to go up the stairs. I've let her get as far as about 6 stairs up. Now we really have to watch her when she's downstairs cuz she'll be halfway up the stairs in the blink of an eye. She can successfully wave (like I said before). She does the sign language for milk, which is super cute :) Now she can walk just holding onto one of your hands. She's very cautious and wobbly, but she's getting better.

Week 39

39 Weeks Old on 8/14/09

Embry is exactly 9 months old today! I have no idea where the time has gone and I often find myself yearning for a little newborn to snuggle. More on that later!

This past week Embry has gotten quite good and blowing raspberries and I'm continually feeling her little droplets of spit land directly on my face. Before I had a baby, that would have really grossed me out, now I think it's adorable. She getting pretty good at doing one handed cruising around the furniture, but still won't walk while you're only holding onto one of her hands, she immediately sits down.

Her hair is getting longer all around. The tuft in the front never fell out, so that's still the longest, but the rest of it is slowly catching up. I spend as much time as possible running my fingers through it. Mmm, I love her.

I think she might be getting some top teeth in fairly soon, but who knows, I've been wrong about that before.

Tony's turned 24 last Sunday. He made some delicious steaks on the grill and we went out to see GI Joe and to eat at Chili's while my parents came over and watched Embry. My mom got to see her lightning fast crawling first hand. It could tire out even the youngest person.

On Wed I babysat my friend Kim's daughter Haley. It was lots of fun to see her and Embry play together like little friends. It seemed that even with the seemingly endless supply of toys scattered across the floor, they were only interested in the exact toy the other one was playing with. I have to say it was much easier on me now that they are able to play together and entertain each other. They even took a nap at the same time. Of course Haley took about a 4 hour nap while Embry took her usual hour long nap. Why is it that she won't take long naps?! Anyhow, it was fun and I got a lot of cute pictures which makes me happy. :)

So, I've decided that as soon as I stop breast feeding (which I'm thinking will be when Embry's about a year old) we will hop back onto the TTC (trying to conceive) train once again. In all likelihood I would end up wanting another child and a sibling for Embry somewhere down the line and at that point I would have missed the opportunity to have my children close in age, so I figure I might as well start trying as soon as possible. I'd imagine it would still take us a while to conceive (if at all) and even though the torture of those first 2 months with a newborn is fresh in my mind, I will persevere because I know in the end it will be worth it. There are things I will do differently though. In the beginning I will ask for help. I will not suffer alone because I'm too proud to admit that I'm having trouble. I won't go through post-partum without a visit to the dr because I realize now that God already knows my faults and forgives me for my shortcomings before I even ask. I don't have to feel helpless and hopeless again because God is on my side and nothing else matters. So there you go, those are my thoughts on the topic. Plus, I have some freaking awesome baby names that I just have to use! :)

Week 38

38 Weeks old on 8/7/09

Embry started clapping last Friday. Tony was sitting down on the floor with her and she just started clapping. I've been trying to teach her how to clap for a while, but she'd never done it on her own before. Then she went crawling around the house stopping every few feet to sit and clap, she was so proud of herself. Now she claps just if you say the word 'clap' which is amazing to me that she comprehends a word.

Embry could probably stand up for a few seconds without holding onto something, but she won't let us let go in order to find out. Whenever we try to let go, she sits down. When she pulls herself up, she pretty much doesn't use her arms at all, but just holds onto things to feel safe. Oh and everytime we open the fridge, she crawls over real quick and grabs stuff off the bottom shelf in the door. To begin with she would always grab the Siriacha (hot sauce) but now she's moved onto the barbeque sauce. Needless to say, she's 'cruising' all over the place. She walks all around the coffee tables, couches, toys, people...pretty much anything she can grab onto. Even the inside rim of the toilet while I had my back turned, ew ew ew, but they say your toilet is cleaner than your sink right? :/ A new development is that she can sit down from a standing position (while she's holding onto something) which she wouldn't do before this week. She used to just stand there and whine until you would remove her from whatever she was holding onto and place her on the floor. Seems like she might be a bit on the cautious side, much like her mother.

Embry and I went over to my friend Jessica's house on Saturday for a BBQ. It was cute to see her girls play with Embry and I'm amazed to see how grown up her kids are already. It seems like they were just born a little while ago and already they are 3 & 1/2 and almost 2! We went swimming and ate and then I went to the Foothills mall. I wore a skirt I normally don't wear because it's got an uneven hem (on purpose) but it allows the skirt to almost take flight in a breeze. I had my swimming suit on underneath to begin with but changed out of that after it was wet. Unfortunately it was quite a windy day. Between trying to get all my stuff out of the car, transport Embry from the carseat to the stroller, and trying to catch the stroller before it rolled across the parking lot, I'm pretty sure I mooned about 10 innocent passerbys. Once I had all my stuff, I quickly high tailed it inside only to realize I forgot my 20% off coupon for Carter's in the car! I decided rather than brave the wind again and risk more embarrasement, I'd go to Carter's first and luckily there wasn't anything worth buying anyway.

So I ran a bunch of errands the other day with Embry and we went to Trader Joe's to get some curry sauce. To begin with as I was putting Embry in a cart some lady handed me a couple of those sanitizing wipes that they have at the front of grocery stores and said something like, 'we wouldn't want anything to happen to someone as precious as that.' Yes, I guess it's a nice gesture, but if I want to santize my cart then I will, if I don't, then I won't. Anyhow, I wiped my cart down and then went inside. As I'm almost done shopping Embry starts squealing her excited squeal (which I decided I wasn't going to let bother me anymore) and there are 2 guys stocking wine a couple feet away. One of them turns to the other and says, "doesn't that make you want to have a kid?" Of course said sarcastically like my child is throwing a tantrum or something. I swear I almost said, 'hello?! I can hear you!' but since I'm non-confrontational, I bit my tongue and kept perusing the juice and listening to them ramble on about how they don't want children. Ugh.

Week 37

37 Weeks Old on 7/31/09

Last weekend we went up to Phoenix on Friday afternoon. About halfway up there the AC in our car stopped working. It was still cold air coming out, but it was barely blowing at all. It sucked. Once we arrived in Phx, we went to the California Pizza Kitchen to meet some friends for Jamie's birthday. Embry and Tony came in for about a half hour so Embry could give Jamie the sign she 'made' for her. After they got back to the car, I guess the AC decided to work again. It has been working good ever since, so let's pray it doesn't happen again. It's entirely too hot to not have AC. Then we spent the night at Tony's mom's house (Embry got a bottle of formula in addition to her bottle of milk cuz I hadn't pumped enough). I'm relaxing a bit on the whole formula thing. It's harder to pump now that my brother is living with us and if I don't have enough milk she'll just get some formula instead of me not going somewhere because there's not enough milk in the fridge. It's easier now to stretch out the milk since she eats baby food too. Although that never really seems to fully satisfy her. Anyhow, then we left on Saturday at about 11 to come home. We stopped at Arizona Mills on the way home and I did some shopping for Embry. Carters had about half the store on clearance and an extra 20% the clearance price. I had a hard time not buying EVERYTHING.

We went to Noah's 2nd bday party Sat evening in Tucson. It was great weather too. Windy and cloudy, so we weren't sweating up a storm. Embry enjoyed some cake frosting and riding on daddy's shoulders (her new favorite past time). We put her down 2 slides as well, she did not enjoy her thighs sticking to the plastic.

Sunday we went with some people from Young Marrieds to Mt Lemmon for a picnic and a walk around the 'lake'. It's more like a pond and I'm pretty ticked that there's no swimming allowed in any lakes in Tucson. We let Embry walk around on the edge of the water and she loved it as you can imagine. She's a water baby. :) Then Sunday night we went to church and in the nursery this girl told me that her aunt just had a baby girl and named her Embry, spelled the same and everything. Take that people who told me it was a dumb name! ;)

She really likes our friend's kid Noah. They get babysat together on Wed nights during young marrieds and this past Wed when he got dropped off, she saw him and immediately started shrieking at him. He was scared and hid behind his dad's legs. When we came home, the babysitter said that she chased him around all night squealing. Hehehe, I think that's so hilariously cute! I met Danielle and Noah at the mall yesterday for some shopping and Embry started screeching the second she saw Noah. Good times. :)

Embry can now crawl up 1 step. I was sitting watching TV and she was playing near the front door then I look back at her and she's on the bottom step whining because she can't get down. Looks like it's time to invest in some baby gates.

Last night I went with my sister to the presale at the Just Between Friends sale. I'd say that if you can't go to the presale it wouldn't be worth it to go unless you're just looking for clothes. I got a leapfrog music table, a fisher price activity push walker, mega blocks, and then other various toys, and a swimming suit/hat. This morning when I was feeding Embry on the couch she saw the new toys and kept eying them until I set her on the floor and she crawled right over to them to see what they were. I'm excited that she likes her new toys :)

Week 36

36 weeks old on 7/24/09

I'm really trying to get the blog done on Fridays, I really am, but it just doesn't seem to happen!

Embry and I had an interesting time in Costco this week. I went to get digital pictures printed, so I had to wait for an hour and look around the store in the mean time while the pics were being processed. Embry loves to scream in delight and she decided that Costco was just the place for it. She screamed and screamed and screamed. All happy, ear piercing screams, until I started clapping my hand over her mouth because people were giving me looks like, 'why don't you shut that kid up?' Then Embry got very upset and started screaming out of frustration. I wasn't about to leave without my pictures, so I tried to push the cart as fast as possible while looking at the ground avoiding eye contact with anyone. I tried to pretend that she didn't belong to me, but that's kind of hard when I'm the one pushing the cart. :/ Oh well, we made it out alive, although embarrassed.

Embry started stage 3 foods this week. They have little chunks of food in them instead of just mush. She seems to like them just fine as long as the words 'whole wheat' aren't in the flavor title. She will not even touch the 'garden vegetables with whole wheat pasta' or the 'chicken noodle.' We also got her some of the yogurt puff things which she likes a lot. I like them too!

She had a really bad night this week. She woke up at 2am and then cried until she went back to sleep around 5:15. In those 3+ hours I fed her 3 times and tried to lay her down in her crib twice, then we set up the play yard in our room, then finally moved it into our bathroom where she finally fell asleep. It was ridiculous. I was reminded of how it was having a newborn, not sure I would like to do that again. Now that more time has passed since having a newborn, it seems that it wasn't quite as bad as it was...although I know better...it was bad. As you can tell, I'm having conflicting thoughts about this more kids thing. We'll see.

Week 35

35 Weeks Old on 7/17/09

Oh my, I can't even remember what happened over the past week! Friday we took Embry out to eat with Kristy and John, then went shopping at Mayfair mall for a few hours before we had to be at Missy's rehearsal dinner. Embry was a sport throughout the long day and Mayfair had a nursing room that I got to use twice. She wasn't exactly happy at the rehearsal dinner, but she did enjoy playing with a cold can of diet rite and sucking the hair on a doggy in a touch and feel book.

Saturday we were going to Missy and Abe's wedding so Kristy and John babysat Embry from about 1pm-10:30pm. They took her to the zoo for the first time. I instructed them to take a lot of pictures and left my video camera with them to document the event. They said that Embry liked people watching more than animal watching and it was super crowded and hot so they left after an hour. After watching the video (good job guys!) I see that Embry was pretty interested in their fishtank and the fish are probably permanently traumatized from her smacking the side of their tank repeatedly. Oh, apparently she also enjoyed screaming at their dog and licking his fur. She went to bed at 8pm for them (which is 6pm our time)! Anyhow, I think that all parties involved were equally exhausted by the end of the day.

Sunday Embry went to her first baseball game (Brewers vs Dodgers). We 'tailgated' beforehand and then put her in the snugli and headed inside. We were on the club level (I think that's what it's called) and half of the level was in the shade and the other half wasn't...we were in the half that wasn't. These two very nice men offered to have Tony with Embry sit up in their seats in the shade until our seats became shaded to keep Embry out of the sun and heat. How sweet! After Tony came back to our seats Embry got restless so Kristy wore her in the Snugli and walked around inside. While doing so, someone stopped her and told her that her daughter was adorable and that she had Kristy's dimples. Kristy replied, 'thanks.' :) We left early and went to Kristy's granparent's house on Lac LaBelle in Oconomowoc. Embry loved the sand once again and was very persistent in trying to eat it. We went out on the pontoon boat where Embry expressed her dislike for the life jacket so much that I finally unbuckled the straps. Tony was holding her about halfway through the ride and lifted her up to find poo all over his swim trunks. We did not bring an extra swim diaper on the boat (my fault) so he just held her until we got back to shore where he took off her suit and her diaper. I had to get pics with naked baby and as we were snapping some photos she decided to pee on me. Luckily we had the lake to rinse everyone/everything off in. Kristy and I then buried Embry's legs in the sand to make her look like a mermaid. She didn't seem to mind.

Monday we went out to my aunt Linda's house. My cousins and their kids came out too and we made a day of it. Pretty much we just hung out, ate, and talked. Embry got to see the ponies (I think she wants one). I keep telling Tony if we got one that's under 5 ft then we could put it in the backyard and nobody would ever know! After that we went to Pewaukee lake and took some pictures.

Tuesday Embry turned 8 months old! We went to visit my friend Anne from high school. Her oldest, Kylie, seemed to like Embry quite a bit. We left Embry in the living room with Anne's kids when we first got there and then Kylie comes walking up to us holding Embry under the arms out in front of her, it was so funny! Anyhow, Embry really liked Anne's son Cade and kept screaming at him in excitement which basically scared Cade. Embry really knows how to make friends. Anne got Embry some puffs which she really really likes! We took the kiddos outside and let them play in the kiddie pool. Embry enjoyed putting every pool toy in her mouth, crawling in the water, turning in circles, and chasing a ball around the pool. Then we stopped at Pewaukee lake again for more pictures.

Wednesday we took Embry to meet my great Aunt Joyce and Uncle Al. She really liked their dog and kept grabbing his face fur and pulling as hard as she could. The dog was really funny because he kept picking up his dog toy and dropping it on Embry for her to throw. We also took her to see my aunt Tammy and cousin Chris that day. Tammy had lots of toys to keep Embry amused while we chatted. Then we went to the Waukesha county fair with Kristy and John. Embry went to her first petting zoo and went on her first carousel ride. She liked them both ok, didn't seem thrilled with either one. When we were leaving we went into the cow barn and set her in some straw for pictures near the cows. She didn't like it. After the first straw encounter she wanted nothing to do with it so when we took her over to another cow to pet it she started screaming thinking we were setting her in the straw again. Who can blame her? Nobody said straw was comfortable.

Thursday we had breakfast with Michelle before we caught our plane in Chicago. On the car ride to Chicago Embry decided to have a screaming fit for about a half hour. Then once we got to Chicago the traffic was horrible, so the car ride was a lot longer than we would have liked. We got to our gate just as they started boarding, but tony had to get gate check tags for the carseat, stroller, and play yard. He waited in line while I sat down with Embry and a lady across from me told me that Embry looked just like me. The plane ride was fine although an hour longer than on the way to WI. Embry fell asleep sometime in the middle after having a bottle of apple juice (never tried that one before) but only slept for maybe a half hour. Towards the end of the flight she was getting really antsy so I let her look out the window which was a mistake. She got so excited she started screaming. I'd quick put my hand over her mouth and shove some food in, but then it just sounded like a muffled scream, not a good sound on an airplane.

1808 pictures later, we're back from Wisconsin!

Week 34

34 Weeks Old on 7/12/09

So I'm super late posting this, sorry.

For the 4th of July weekend Tony's mom came down to visit. On Friday we mainly just hung out and I made some dinner, then went to run a few errands with Sarah. At Costco I found a pack of books for Embry that were Hello Kitty books so I just had to get them! That night I tried my hand at a korker headband (which involves wooden dowels covered in ribbon to go into the oven). Then on the 4th of July we put Embry in her outfit and headband and took lots of pics of her with little American flags I got for her. She really wanted to eat the flags or poke her eyes out with them, she wasn't too great at just holding them. We also went swimming for a while, which is always fun. We went to a young marrieds party that night and we drove to watch some fireworks afterwards but Embry had fallen asleep on the car ride so she didn't get to see them. I don't think she would have really cared much for them anyhow. So Embry's first 4th of July was a success.

She started pulling herself up all on her own this week. I had put her down for a nap, then she woke up but I needed to do my hair and makeup so I put some toys in her crib with her and brought the monitor with me. Then she was fine for a while, then started getting louder and louder, so I walked in there to find her standing up in her crib looking at me with the biggest smile on her face. She was so proud of herself. What a big girl! She also pulled herself up on the side of the couch. I got it on my video camera, but when I tried to get it with the digital she did a swirl and a fell onto the floor, which also made for an interesting video but not the one I was hoping for. We're now in WI and yesterday she pulled herself up on Kristy's coffee table, then proceeded to scoot around the outside edge of it.

Speaking of WI, we're here! We made in one piece and I didn't even need to have a breakdown on the plane ride! Woohoo! Embry did better than I thought she would on the plane ride and I think what really made it easier was the fact that I didn't need to use my nursing cover to feed her. My top shirt was rather flowy so I could unsnap my nursing tank top and feed her without anyone seeing anything and just using my shirt to cover up. When I use the cover sometimes she tries to rip it off so I get all paranoid and nervous even if she's behaving herself under it. I had gotten her some cheap new toys to play with on the plane because then they'd be novelties but she wasn't very interested in them. She was however enthralled with an empty mt dew bottle and a cup. She enjoyed throwing things onto the floor for her dad to pick up repeatedly and playing peekaboo with the poor asian guy sitting next to us. He was a good sport. Luckily she didn't cry at all and only shrieked with joy a couple of times. :) There was another couple on the plane with a little girl and then a 10 month old baby who were joking about how when their baby made noise they were going to point toward us and when ours made noise we could point to them. I thought it was cute. We had quite a time trying to fit all our luggage and accessories into a compact car that we rented. We brought 4 suitcases (2 very large), a duffle bag, a laptop, a stroller, a carseat, and a play yard. Luckily we flew into Midway instead of O'Hare because the rental cars are at the airport at Midway instead of offsite like O'Hare. I could just see us trying to get all that stuff onto a shuttle to go to the rental car, haha.

We stopped at the 'Welcome to WI' sign on the way up from Illinois and got bit my a million mosquitoes. Poor Embry was being swarmed. Oh yes, so I got her out of the carseat for the picture and showed her back to tony to ask if there was any poo, he said he didn't see any, so I walked her up the hill a little ways with my arm under her booty. Then I look and I had squished all the poo from her diaper up her back. I wasn't about to take her out of her cute WI onesie before getting my picture though, so we changed her afterwards. Booyah, I win. Then we ate at Culvers which was delic as always. Embry really wanted some, but she's too little. Poor baby, she's missing out.

Thursday we went to Minooka park (just down the road from here) and took Embry to a natural body of water for the first time. I wouldn't say it's a lake, it's more of a pond. Before we left we put Embry into her swim diaper and swimming suit and then got our suits on. While we were getting ready, she pooed all over her suit and the pad in her play yard. We got Culvers on the way and had a picnic while Embry ate, I mean played with, the grass. Then we took her in the water and she had a good time eating, I mean playing with the sand. She pretty much loved it. After realizing that I had forgotten to pack dry underwear, we took a walk around the pond at which point Embry fell asleep.

Days on Vacation: 2
# of outfits pooed on: 2
Amount of sand eaten: indefinite

Week 33

33 Weeks Old on 7/3/09

Embry started crawling this week! She didn't just kind of crawl either, she went all out and crawled across the living room numerous times. I was in the shower at the time and Tony came in with a big smile on his face and said that he thought I should hurry up. So I looked out of the shower and asked if he was having a problem or something and he goes, 'your baby can crawl!' I immediately asked him to take some video and, being the good husband that he is, he already had. He said that he was sitting on the floor reading a book next to her and she was on her hands and knees so he started patting her booty and she crawled forward. She's scrawling up a storm now, but occasionally reverts back to her army crawl. She can also stay standing holding onto something (like the coffee table) and today she pulled herself up onto just her knees and stayed there for a little while. She's gotten really good at occupying herself for a long time by just crawling from toy to toy and playing on the floor. It makes my life easier. Oh she will also walk for a long time while holding onto our fingers. She takes really big steps and gets all excited. Recently she started blowing raspberries and has decided it's really fun to do that while walking.

I sat down and made some baby headbands this week. I found stretchy white lace at JoAnn Fabric (in the past they said they didn't carry any, I'm not fond of their sales people). So I got a bunch of that and made a few headbands for friend's babies and make a couple new ones for Embry. On Friday I experimented and attempted my first korker headband to match Embry's 4th of July outfit and it turned out perfect. I was really excited that it looked so good. I figured I'd set the house on fire trying to make the ribbons curl in the oven, but I didn't.

We leave on Wed for Wisconsin and I'm getting increasingly nervous about the airplane ride. I saw a clip from Jon and Kate plus 8 where all her kids were having a meltdown on the plane and Kate just buried her head in her hands and started crying...that's going to be me. I told Tony that if she starts screeching, he will be able to find me in the airplane lavatory, hiding. Wish us luck!