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.