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.