First Sewing Attempts

So, Tony's grandparents, aunt, and uncle bought me a sewing machine for Christmas! I've been wanting to learn how to sew and was super excited to get some fabric and make something. I decided that since I was in desperate need of an apron (and it seemed simple enough) I would try that first. I downloaded a pattern from Martha Stewart, got some fabric and thread, and got to work. Tony told me I wasn't allowed to open the sewing machine until Christmas, but I couldn't resist. Luckily he wasn't angry when he got home and I said, "I made an apron today!" I really had pretty much no clue what I was doing, but it seemed to turn out ok anyhow. Let me tell you, using a sewing machine is a thousand times easier than trying to sew by hand! It took me about 4 hours to sew my apron. Then tonight I thought, 'well how hard could it be to make a mini apron for Embry?' So at 9pm I decided to try it out. It took about 2 hours and is cute as can be, but we'll have to wait until tomorrow to see if it actually fits her. I'm hoping it will fit her for a few years since at the moment she's not much of a help in the kitchen...unless you count hanging onto my leg and having me drag her across the floor while she cries...I don't. Here are some photos for your enjoyment:

Christmas Survey

A Christmas survey


1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? - Wrapping paper, I hate gifts in bags, it's like the person giving it doesn't care enough to actually wrap it.

2. Real tree or artificial? - This is the first year we have a real tree and I absolutely love it!

3. When do you put up the tree? - Right after Thanksgiving.

4. When do you take the tree down? - I wait as long as possible. I love Christmas.

5. Do you like eggnog? - no I do not, but I can make some good (according to other ppl) eggnog

6. What about Fruitcake? - I don't think I've ever actually had it, but it looks gross to me.

7. Favorite gift received as a child? - This is easy, a New Kids on the Block tape.

8. Do you have a nativity scene? - yes we have a precious moments one and a hallmark one.

9. Hardest person to buy for? - my mom and dad. They never want anything and so I have to guess what I should get.

10. Easiest person to buy for? - Tony, he wants a lot of things.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? - hmm, I can't really think of anything that was bad. There were a couple of things that I didn't particularly like, but the worst part about that is feeling so incredibly bad for not being as grateful as I should be to receive a gift in the first place.

12. Mail or email Christmas cards? - Mail and it's getting darn expensive with the cost of stamps and pictures and I'm fairly certain that hardly anyone even cares.

13. Favorite Christmas movie? - The Holiday (I also really like Christmas Vacation and Elf)

14. When do you start shopping for Christmas? - all year long when I find something I know someone would like and it's on clearance.

15. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? - Christmas, no, except for white elephant gifts. Other presents yes, I've given a giftcard that I got from someone to someone else.

16. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? - I love food. I love turkey in particular. I also enjoy sparkling grape juice and hot apple cider.

17. Clear lights or colored on the tree? - Colored, I do not like white lights for Christmas.

18. Favorite Christmas song? - Carol of the Bells is #1, but I'm also fond of Baby It's Cold Outside and Last Christmas

19. Travel for Christmas or stay at home? - I like being home. I like having family over. I like watching Christmas movies and snuggling under blankets. That's more of an answer than anyone needed.

20. Can you name all of Santa's reindeers? - Yes I believe I can.

21. Angel on the tree top or a star? - We have an angel, it's beautiful, but quite heavy. We had a colored light star when I was growing up.

22. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? - We always opened them on Christmas Eve because it is my brother's birthday. Now we do Christmas Day.

23. What is the one present you want most this year? - Hmm, well I got an awesome sewing machine, although with a toddler who hates to be in the office I don't know when I'm going to learn how to use it. Otherwise, I'd like to get pregnant...I think.

24. Most annoying thing about this time of year? - the most annoying thing for me is wanting to buy a bunch of stuff for people but not having enough money to do so and then waiting to see their disappointement when they open the gifts I got them. Oh and stores being out of stuff, like mod podge.

25. What I love most about Christmas? - Well, I love to shop and it gives me an excuse to do that. I love pretty much everything about Christmas. I love the idea that God came to Earth as a mere human and grew up just like the rest of us in order to be more connected with us. I also love Christmas lights and the tree and the food and the movies and just the general feeling of happiness and warmth that I feel this time of year. I wish it could last all year long.

Christmas Tree

I finally got a real tree!!!

We had a few when I was growing up, but mostly fake ones and I have longed to have a real tree every year. Since being married it just hasn't seemed economical to buy a real tree when we own a perfectly good fake one. Plus being in AZ they're darn expensive. Now that we have a house (and a high ceiling) I really wanted a huge tree. I'd have liked one that went all the way to the ceiling (so probably 15 ft tall), but I can't even find one that tall. The tallest was 9-10 ft and at Lowes that was $99 which is insane. I saw trees at Frys (a grocery store) and they had 9-10 ft Douglass Firs for $39...so I got one!

My friend Danielle and I took our kiddos while our husbands were at work and got our Christmas trees. We strapped them to the top of her jeep and she helped me drag mine into my living room and set it in the stand. That thing is freaking heavy! So I only tightened the top 4 screws and then put Embry down for a nap and went to finish writing the Christmas letter. I came back downstairs about an hour later to find the tree sprawled across the living room floor. Yep, it fell over. I picked it back up (no easy task) and tried to straighted in out. When Tony got home we put lights and ornaments on it, then the next day it still seemed to be leaning forward and to the right, so we tied it to the wall. It still looks like it's leaning, but it's definitely not going to go anywhere.

Thanksgiving and Stuff

Tony and I with the oven bird (and mac and cheese to the right)

The whole gang after the meal
From l to r (back row): me, Embry, Tony, Stefan, Allison, Donny
(front row): Dorothea, my mom (JoAnn), my dad (Don)

We had a very good Thanksgiving this year! Tony's family came down and it was nice to see Stefan since I haven't seen him in quite a while. He also brought along a combined bday present for Tony and me...'Star Trek'! We watched that on Thanksgiving, I was the only one who hadn't seen it yet, it was quite good. :) Tony's family got here around 11:30 on Thanksgiving and helped us get some side dishes ready. Then my parents and brother got here around 1:30 and we ate at 2:15ish. Tony's smoked turkey turned out great and the one in the oven was delicious too. We made bacon green beans (thanks for that recipe Sarah, everyone loves it), fall to your knees mac and cheese (another big hit at about 5000 calories a bite), stuffing with hot sausage, stuffing without sausage, marshmallow sweet potatoes, rosemary roasted butternut squash (another popular dish), and my mom brought over mashed potatoes, for dessert I made apple pie, and cheesecake with an array of toppings. Let's just say we pretty much gorged ourselves on delicious food. It was fantastic!

Tony's mom, sister, brother, and Tony all went to see Vince (Tony's dad). Apparently they only allow 4 visitors for one person at one time, so I stayed home with Embry since she was taking a nap anyhow. They stayed for a long time, like 2.5 hours. It was the first time Stefan had seen his dad since he was incarcerated like 7 years ago. I only got bits and pieces of what they talked about, but turns out that Vince started smoking again. He knows he can't smoke when he moves in here and he said it wouldn't be a problem to stop again when he has to move in with us. He told Tony's mom that he thinks having an occasional drink would be fine. I asked Tony if he said anything to him about that and he said that he didn't say anything because his mom was already yelling at his dad about it. I think it might mean a lot more coming from his child than his ex-wife. They also found out that Vince is eligible for an early home release, meaning he would move in here before his release date in march and wear an ankle monitor to be on house arrest. We tried to go visit him on Saturday night to find out more about this, but apparently when he first got to the halfway house they had him do a urine drug test but only let him have 1 cup of water and a time limit of 2 hours to complete the test. Needless to say he could not complete it under those circumstances, so they put him on a 'restriction' which means he can't have visitors for 2 weeks. He said he'd call us if he found out anything else. The only thing we'd need to do is get a landline phone so they can call anytime and make sure he's at the house.

So then Friday morning Allison and I got up at 4am to hit to stores for black Friday shopping! It was lots of fun and luckily most people were very pleasant. I am totally bummed that they were out of the $35 office chair at Walmart because I need an office chair very badly. We went to Target first where I got a new set of pots and pans, a new coffee pot, a mini crock pot, Wii Sports Resort, and Allison bought some Christmas presents. Then we went to Walmart and I got Christmas/birthday presents and for us 'The Dark Knight' on bluray, 'He's Just not that Into You', 'Hellboy 2', 'The Princess Bride', a cordless drill, and a wratchet set thingy. Then to Toys R Us which pretty much sucked. I only got baby food and my parents bought Embry this pink rocking pony for Christmas which she LOVES! Then we stopped at Best buy where we got a few more presents and 'Wolverine' on bluray. Allison and I got home around 10am. We opened up some of our new stuff and tried out the new Wii game...pretty fun. Some ppl took naps etc and then we watched 'Wolverine' and we waited till Embry went to sleep to use our new fire pit. It was awesome! We roasted hot dogs and then made smores, it was so fun, I'm really glad we got it.

Saturday morning Tony and I made Crepes and Eggs for breakfast, which was delic. Then Tony's family packed up while Tony, Allison, and I played Skip-bo and they left after getting some goodbye kisses from little Embry. She's getting very good at giving out kisses and sometimes she'll even close her mouth!

Embry's vocabulary has really expanded recently. Here are the words that she has said or says regularly:

-duck
-hi
-bye
-die
-poopy
-diapie
-sit
-mouth
-cat
-mama
-dada
-baaa
-meow
-doggie
-is it (meaning 'what is it')
-grandma
-elephant
-mmmm
-aww
-baby
-piggy
-dirty
-uhoh

After Tony's family left on Saturday, I watched Christmas movies with Embry and cleaned up while Tony strung the Christmas lights outside. I have to say it looks pretty good besides the fact that the 3 packs of walkway candle markers I got last year only go halfway down our driveway when they should go all the way to the sidewalk. Last year I thought we had too many multicolored lights going on all over, so this year the tree trunk is still in white lights, then the two big branches are in red lights, and the pillars in front of the front door are in green lights. Then we have the issue of the Christmas tree. I love real trees...being the Christmas Nazi that I am, it would only make sense that I get a real tree. So I had decided that this year I was going to splurge and buy the tallest real tree I could find. Besides the fact that getting it home would be impossible with 2 compact cars I then went to Lowes to look at trees. The tallest they have is 9-10 ft (not very tall in my opinion) and it's $100. Holy freaking cow, that's expensive. I just can't bring myself to waste that much money on a stupid tree. So the options are now either a) buy a $15 park pass and drive a million miles to go chop down our own tree (we also don't know how to use a chainsaw and still have the problem of fitting it on the top of our car) or b) use our same fake tree this year with the promise that after Christmas I can buy the largest fake tree I can find to use for the years to come. Option b would obviously be easier, but I will forever be disappointed that we don't have a real tree. Who knew this could be so complicated?

We weaned Embry from her bottle to her sippy cup. It was way easier than I thought. Now we put her milk in regular sippy cups and water in the straw sippy cups. She's also eating a lot more baby food and regular people food (or as we call it 'human food').

Embry can now point to her nose and ears and your nose and ears. She can also sit down on command. She's a cutie!

In other news I'm hosting a friend's baby shower this weekend and I'm getting excited. I got a bunch of the supplies yesterday and I think it will be lots of fun. In store for this week: prepping and cleaning!

Birthday Par-tay

So it's taken me so long to get this post done because #1 my sister was in town from MT and #2 I was trying to edit some good pictures from the party to post, but I pretty much don't have any good ones. I'm kind of upset about this lack of good pictures from my baby's first birthday party. Basically, I felt really rushed during the party because I didn't want it to take 12 hours and make everyone stand around in the cold because they felt obligated to stay. Soo, that left the picture taking to take a back seat to everything else. Anyhow, I'd say the party was mainly a success besides the picture thing and it being oddly cold that day (like 65, which is darn cold for here). I got everything ready in time, with the help of Tony, his mom, his sis, and my friend Jamie and her bf Matt. Tony got up at midnight the night before to start smoking the 3 pork butts on the grill and let me tell you, it was freaking delicious! We also made german potato salad, deviled eggs, pasta salad, 2 cakes, chip dip, cottage cheese jello salad (aka pink stuff), carameled apples, and my mom brought over her delicious baked beans.

So we ate, then let Embry play with her smash cake. Basically she petted it for a while and wasn't really interested in smashing it so I helped her out and stood her up in it. Then we cleaned her up and put her clothes on and everyone had cake and icecream. Then Embry opened her presents. She got lots of neat stuff, mostly toys, and a few clothing items. She didn't care to actually partake in opening the presents, but I had a good time opening them. :) That was pretty much it! I took her over to the swings afterwards while other people cleaned up (thanks to whoever did that!) and she had a good time swinging. I didn't get any pictures of her in her princess outfit, which makes me very sad. :(

Embry had her 1 year check up on Friday (11/20), here are her stats:
Weight: 20 lbs 1 oz, 50th Percentile
Height: 29.5", about 60th Percentile
Head: 45 cm, 50th Percentile

Luckily while at the dr's office he told us that they happen to have some H1N1 shots in, so Embry got her first dose of that and I got one as well. This was the first time she's gotten shots in her arms so I was supposed to bear hug her while she was facing me and try to keep her arms down. Haha, yeh that didn't work. I ended up just grabbing whichever arm they were poking with both of my hands to hold it still while she screamed and wriggled. She was very upset.

On Saturday Tony was sitting on the couch with her and she accidentally flipped off forward and hit her forehead on the coffee table. Now she's got a purple bruise above her right eye. Then we took her to the nursery at church on Sunday night and they paged me saying that she had fallen down and hit the back of her head but she has like a rug burn above and below her left eye and on the eyelid. It doesn't seem to be bothering her at all, but it looks pretty bad.

Thanksgiving is coming up and we're hosting. Tony's mom, sis, and bro are coming down from Phx and my parents and bro are coming over too. Tony's smoking a turkey on the grill and we're also making one in the oven. Of course we're making a bagillion sides and a couple of desserts too. Somehow I think we're going to have a ton of leftovers. Good thing I LOVE turkey!

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! :)