Month 1 Review

Highlights of Emma at 1 month:

• Giving lots of smiles 
• Got to wear her hat (still too big, but super cute)
• Doing tummy time - tough, but gives it her best shot
• Getting better at looking at her black and white cards
• Loves to be swaddled, most especially by her daddy
• Started to make cute sounds/sing
• At 6 weeks she was sleeping 4-6 hours/night
• Makes lots of visits up to daddy at the library or math offie

Feb 12, 8:30 a.m. Smiling after a yummy morning breakfast

Feb 12, 12:30 p.m. All bundled up to walk up to campus and visit Daddy

Snoozing on the job...but glad to be in the BYU library with Daddy

Feb 13, 1:30 p.m. Emma has started to like to be held on our shoulders

Feb 14, 10:00 a.m. Emma getting rocked and cuddled by Dallas - he is
so good at rocking her to sleep. When I try to rock her, she always wants
to nurse. Dallas has the magic touch, he wraps her up and rocks her
and she goes to sleep no problem.

Feb 14, 5:30 p.m. For Valentine's we took Emma
rollerblading. She slept through it. 

Feb 15, 8:00 p.m. Tummy time is not my favorite thing.
I often forget to make it happen. Dallas always
remembers though and he is good about hanging out
with Emma so she doesn't have to be all by her lonesome. 

Feb 20, 6:00 p.m. Emma spends much time in her bouncer. I think
she likes it because she can see me while I do other stuff. One of her
favorite places to sit is on the table so she can have an even better
view of what I'm doing AND look out the window. 

Feb 23, 7:30 p.m. Dallas helping Emma with her black and white cards.
Someone gave us these cards and instructed us to show them to Emma.
She really enjoys looking at them and following them with her eyes. 

Feb 24, 3:30 p.m. The process of bundling Emma up to go outside

Just because this picture is so cute...I posted it again full-size :)

Feb 24, 5:00 p.m. Dallas helping Emma practice her cards

Feb 25, 10:00 a.m. Emma has started singing and making cute sounds!
She doesn't sound happy in this clip...but she did before I started taking it!

Feb 25, 11:00 a.m. I just love holding, cuddling, and looking at
our sweet Emma.My mom and everyone jokes that I never lay her
down and the only difference between now and two months ago is
that Emma is still attached to me, just now she's on the outside. 

Feb 26, 12:00 p.m. Emma laughs and smiles all the time!
Even during diaper changes! She is such a happy baby. :)

Feb 27, 11:30 a.m. Emma being super cute. So happy...and then within
minutes, she was sound asleep! Emma often falls asleep about 1.5
hours after waking up and then can make it about 2 hours
before she's ready for another nap.  

Feb 27, 4:30 p.m. I love this little outfit and bow of Emma's!  She is
such a beautiful,happy baby. I feel I have to capture every moment!

March 1, 5:45 p.m. Emma is pretty petite. Newborn outfits are all
she wears. Having heard that babies grow so fast they hardly
need newborn clothes, I was seriously lacking. This is a little
dress I bought for Emma to wear to church...still too big for her! 

March 3, 5:00 p.m. Here is Dallas cleaning out Emma's nose.
He is really good at it and Emma is a pretty good sport.   

March 3, 5:30 p.m. Emma loves when Dallas comes home.
I love the way they are looking at each other in this picture. 

Just some Emma Dallas time :)

March 4, 9:00 a.m. Emma is super excited for a new day!

March 4, 2:00 p.m. BYU has some great bathrooms that have 
entire rooms devoted to nursing mothers. Here are Emma and I 
hanging out in the Math building mother's lounge. 
She was being so happy and cute we had to document.

March 5, 4:30 p.m. It's so fun to play with Emma! I could 

watch her and take pictures ALL DAY! Oh wait...I do.

March 5, 5:30 p.m. Dallas LOVES how many pictures I take.:)

March 6, 11:30 a.m. Emma and I go on walks EVERYDAY! 

Often we go on multiple walks a day! Here's when we went 

to the duck pond, the temple, and we also noticed the trees 

starting to bud!  We love going on walks together! 

I hope it's a tradition we'll always keep.

Emma is crawling! And has teeth!!

Emma is now 6.5 months! We love her so much and love seeing her grow and hit each phase. Her most recent accomplishment is FORWARD crawling. She has been moving backwards for more than a month. She could turn around and back up like a pro, in fact, my sister Wendy said, "Get her a rear view mirror and she's set!"

We figured forward crawling we could come sometime soon...and just in time! Emma surprised me with her first forward crawling on MY BIRTHDAY! What a thoughtful little girl - six months old and already getting her mommy presents :) She moved just a bit forward and I immediately g-chatted to Dallas "Emma is crawling forward!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Emma gets tons of encouragement from me and Dallas. Nobody lives next to us right now, but if someone did, they would probably think I watch a lot of football. To the contrary, I'm just watching my baby do great stuff and cheering her on. :)

She has now been crawling forward almost two weeks and she is a speed demon! Today in church she crawled all over the place. I thought it would be a bit more difficult because she was in a long frilly dress and had shoes. But, nope! That didn't stop her! During Relief Society she met a new friend. He had lots of toys and Emma raced to get them all. Sweet, funny girl. Dallas and I both love being her parents and watching her grow. It's so fun to see her grow but also makes me sad to know she won't always be our little baby. I take a ton of pictures to make up for it...so many, our icloud storage is full and I couldn't take one of playing with her friend in Relief Society today! Bummer. 

Emma also has two teeth growing in! We noticed her first tooth on July 16. Emma was chomping on Dallas' finger when he jerked back and realized there were more than gums chomping down on him. We affectionately call her "our little vampire" and joke that she must sharpen her teeth at night when we are not paying attention. Her second tooth showed up within the next week. Our baby is growing up!

Back to Blogging

Hello!

I have kept putting off blogging because I know how far behind I have gotten! And it just keeps getting worse! Today I watched the mormon message Choose This Day and it reminded me that I need to get started TODAY! I would like to share everything that has happened in the last four months (which is code for everything about Emma's growth and new tricks and happy, adorable pictures)...but for now, I will just post a picture and video of Emma from TODAY (don't worry, I usually take at least one picture a day).

Emma and I on a walk this morning - I said her name
and she gave me this winning smile :)

Tonight after dinner. Emma was showing off her panting skills.
She's such an adorable pro :) Don't mind the junk in the
background - I was going through old papers and journals,
I'm thinking of typing them all up...

As you can see from the video, one of Emma's new tricks is panting. We are not sure why she does it, but we theorize that it began when she got sick and had to cough. The cough has since switched to a pant. Now she does it because we laugh and she also likes to hear us do it. I have a video of me doing it, but it isn't anywhere near as cute as Emma.

One of Emma's other most recent tricks (did it over and over and over again yesterday!) is getting up on all fours. Do not worry, if I have not yet taken a picture of that, I will do so first thing tomorrow :) I clap super energetically and say in my most happy voice, "Good job, Emma! Good job!" And she gives me the BIGGEST smile!  I love it!

I think she has started doing this because her dear daddy gives her crawling lessons EVERYDAY when he comes home from school! She loves it! Emma loves when her daddy comes home. Dallas is so good about taking Emma out on the grass, on walks around the block, reading her books, teaching her to crawl, helping her eat "real" food (baby oatmeal mixed with breastmilk - she's been doing that for almost a week!), wrapping her up in baby burritos, and so much more.

I am so happy we are a family. I love being together and I really want to be better - I know there is so much more I can be doing with my time and also to help us build good habits and traditions. Feel free to share any great ideas you have! Hasta mañana!

February News

I took this Mid-March,
so it's almost done.

Here are some things that happened during our February:


1) We made a goal thermometer. Dallas signed up to run 150 miles before March 20, 2015. If he does it, he wins a super cool BYU Intramural Champion t-shirt. We also made goals for Emma and I. I must also make 150 miles (but walking also counts for me) and Emma's goal is to be 12 pounds by March 20, 2015.


2) We enjoyed a dinner with one of Dallas' professors. Dr. Glasgow was super nice and invited Dallas and Emma and I over for a family dinner one Sunday. It was fun getting to know Dr. Glasgow and his family and friends better.


3) We had excellent weather for ALL of February! This had to be the greatest February of all time. Well, if you aren't a skier or super wanting snow. The temperatures were in the upper 40s and 50s for the WHOLE month! I believe this was a gift from Heavenly Father so that Emma and I could go on lots of walks. :)


4) We sold our car and bought one a week later! Dallas and I had been looking at cars since December with no luck. Then, in February, our friend offered to buy our car. We were ready for something different and they were ready for our VW Passat so it was perfect. Unfortunately we couldn't find any cars we liked. I had decided that maybe we could make it without a car till Fall (since the weather was so nice and everything is pretty much walking distance), but! I looked on KSL one day and found something that got me excited again and we went to check it out. It was a mini-mini-van! So cute!



5) We celebrated Valentine's Day! The day began with Dallas sending me on a long run while he watched Emma and then I watched her while he went on a long bike ride. That was a great gift for both of us; neither of us had gone on long exercise ventures for a while. I don't remember what we ate for breakfast...but I am certain it was more than just the normal cereal or oatmeal. :) Later in the day we decided Emma should get some fun exercise as well, so...we took her rollerblading! It was super fun! I love being with Dallas and Emma - guess it's a good thing I married him and we get to have sweet baby Emma as our daughter. :)

It'd been a long time since we rollerbladed because I fell once while pregnant and Dallas said, "no más" until the bambina came. After rollerblading we went home and planned what we wanted for dinner and dessert and then Dallas went to Smith's and bought ingredients and we cooked it up! We also exchanged our gifts. This year we specialized in gifts of a symbiotic relationship. I got Dallas new blades for his razor and he got me packs of chapstick. The blades benefit me because they keep Dallas' face soft and smooth while the chapstick benefits Dallas so that he doesn't have to kiss falling apart, chapped lips. :) After eating and swapping gifts and valentines, we watched TWO chickflicks! We never do that...watch two movies and definitely not chickflicks, but this time we did. We watched Confessions of a Shopaholic and When in Rome. I liked the shopping one best - better story and actress and more fun. By then, it was mega late, and Valentine's day was over! It was an excellent day because it was with Dallas and Emma (Oh, Dallas also made Emma an adorable valentine :)

6) We got our blood checked! I'd been wanting to do this since my mission! High cholesterol runs in my family and I wanted to check and see how mine was doing. I've never checked it before so I figured I should get an idea. Turns out it is pretty high....so I am going to be working on that. Dallas is in great shape though! We'll hope Emma gets those genes from Dallas.

7) Dallas signed up to play intramural Soccer with graduate students. The first game was February 28th - they won!

February FHE = Reading Month

February was our reading month. Dallas was in charge of it. For our first FHE he carted us off to the Provo library. We got there a bit late (because we ended up watching all of Groundhog Day) and then had to hustle to get ourselves library cards and a book before the library closed. But! We got it done. After that we went home, had a little lesson (we watched this general conference talk about parents - it was perfect because it also discusses the importance of teaching children to read), and then Dallas read to Emma! That was the sweetest part of the evening.

Dallas read Emma two different books. Although she doesn't seem to be looking at the book, 
I am sure she was listening :) By the way, Emma is 22 days in this picture, just 3 weeks old!

And here is Dallas reading Emma the book, "Emma Goes Shopping". They are so cute together :)

For our second FHE Dallas and I had a book discussion. He chose a book called The Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck. The author is a psychologist and discusses several points that can be helpful in improving self or relationships. Dallas had read it before and thought it would be a good book for discussion, so! He assigned us to read the first chapter by this Monday and then we discussed it. Here are some things I like from the book:

For our third FHE we had a poetry night. We invited our friends Kevin and Amberly Stevens and asked them to bring some poems to share. Dallas quickly found a mormon message about studying the scriptures and then we shared our poems, followed by some great game playing. I don't remember what game we played, but probably Bonanza. Here is one of the poems Dallas shared:

The Pig, by Roald Dahl

In England once there lived a big

And wonderfully clever pig.

To everybody it was plain

That piggy had a massive brain.

He worked out sums inside his head,

There was no book he hadn't read.

He knew what made an airplane fly,

He knew how engines worked and why.

He knew all this, but in the end

One question drove him round the bend:

He simply couldn't puzzle out

What LIFE was really all about.

What was the reason for his birth?

Why was he placed upon this earth?

His giant brain went round and round

Alas, no answer could be found.

Till suddenly one wondrous night

All in a flash he saw the light.

He jumped up like a ballet dancer

And yelled, 'By gum, I've got the answer!'

'They want my bacon slice by slice

'To sell at a tremendous price!

'They want my tender juicy chops

'To put in all the butcher shops!

'They want my pork to make a roast

'And that's the part'll cost the most!

'They want my sausages in strings!

'They even want my chitterlings!

'The butcher's shop! The carving knife!

'That is the reason for my life!'

Such thoughts as these are not designed

To give a pig great piece of mind...

This is not quite the whole poem, but after this I do not like it as much. However, if you would like to finish it, you can look it up!

For our fourth FHE we continued our discussion with the second section of the book. Here are some things I liked from that part:



In honor of reading month, here are the books I read (some were read in January, but I'm accounting for them here):

Sarah, by Orson Scott Card
Mormon Scientist: the Life and Faith of Henry Eyring, by Henry J. Eyring
Night, by Elie Wiesel
Seven Miracles that Saved America, by Ted and Chris Stewart
Stargate?

Here is what Dallas read:
Xenocide, by Orson Scott Card
Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger

Emma's 4th-6th Weeks

Around this time, Dallas and I realized Emma had a "to-do" list. It included filling her diaper, leaking on at least one of her sets of clothing and at least one of mommy's, spitting-up all over mommy, and then, hiccups! These were her favorite! She had them all the time and Dallas decided she must do it whenever she felt bored and had nothing left to do on her list. I can now happily report (she is 9 weeks old) that her hiccups are much less frequent. Perhaps they are less frequent because Dallas has found more things to put on her to-do list. For example, she now must complete tummy-time, look at her black and white cards, listen to a story, get her vitamin-D drops, and, most recently, sing!

Emma also got her goal thermometer during her 3rd week! Dallas made it for her. It happened because Dallas joined the "Run for your Life" intramural group, which means he has to run 150 miles before March 20, 2015 (he's already completed it - yahoo!). Dallas wanted a thermometer to show his progress. While making his chart, we decided I should have a goal thermometer as well. And then, Dallas figured if we both had a chart, Emma should too! I didn't know what exercise or goals Emma could have, but, luckily for Emma, her daddy thought of one - GROWING! So she has a thermometer marking her goal to be at least 12 pounds by March 20. And, yes, in case you were wondering, we do own a baby-weighing scale. It was given to us by my good ole' sister Becky. Somehow she knew Emma would need one :)

Day 22, Mon, Feb 2: Just hanging out in her bouncer - looks like she's done some of her Houdini work and sneaked off her mitten :)

Day 24, Weds, Feb 4: Daddy's home! Emma loves when Dallas comes home. He is so much better at helping Emma keep her goals. Here they are enjoying some tummy-time.

Day 26, Fri, Feb 6: Emma's morning nap. She usually falls asleep 1.5-2 hours after waking up.

Same day, just later:  Emma almost always resists her pacifier the first few times, and often makes a gagging sound. But, eventually, she remembers she actually likes this thing and happily sucks away. 

Day 27, Sat, Feb 7: Emma being beautiful while Dallas and I finish up a yummy Chinese dinner. Dallas decided it had been too long since we had gone out, so we ordered Chinese and enjoyed it at home!

Day 28, Sun, Feb 8: Emma's adorable WIDE awake eyes. Emma loves resting on our shoulders and looking all around. Sometimes I think she is asleep because she is so calm, but when I have Dallas check, 99% of the time he responds, "Nope, she's WIDE awake!"

Day 29, Mon, Feb 9: Emma's 4 week birthday!! We celebrated by going on a nice long walk and afterward, Emma gave me some of the BEST smiles she'd ever given!

After the walk smiles :)

Even MORE after the walk smiles. This went on for several minutes - adorable smiles and cute little sounds, but I figure you only have time to look at so many pics :)

And a video - in case the pics weren't enough. You have to remember, it was her official four-week b-day, which constitutes for unlimited pictures and videos :)

Day 30, Tues, Feb 10: Emma's first time wearing pants! She looks like a little grown-up! Especially with her mini cardigan :) The pants were size 0-3 months and still big, but it was a cold day and she needed something to keep her legs warm.

Same day, just later: Here's Emma workin' on tummy-time with Daddy. She kept accepting and spitting out her pacifier - another one of her favorite things to do. It keeps daddy focused on her :)

And just because she's so cute, here's a video

Day 32, Thurs, Feb 12: Emma's OFFICIAL 1 month b-day! These are her adorable morning smiles - she loves waking up, just like her mommy :)

Same day, just later: As part of her 1-month festivities, Emma got to wear her new hat and go visit Daddy at the library (I know...we visit him almost everyday, but it's still fun!) As you can see, she's still got plenty of room to grow into her hat.

Day 33, Fri, Feb 13: Emma and I don't have enough pictures together. It's tough because it's just me and her all day, so who is going to take them? I finally figured, "what the heck, this bambina's gotta have some pictures with her mommy, so we'll just take them ourselves" :)

Day 34, Sat, Feb 14: Valentine's morning! Don't let Dallas' face fool you - he loves getting his picture taken with Emma. :) 

Day 35,  Sun, Feb 15: Tummy-time after church

Day 40, Fri, Feb 20: This is the ONLY picture I have of Emma during her sixth week! I don't know how that's possible...perhaps they accidentally got deleted? Or maybe this really is all I took. That's okay. The GREAT news about week six is that this is when Emma started sleeping for long stretches of the night (six hours) and singing during the day, especially mornings. 

 Well, that's the end of weeks four, five, and six! Off to seven, eight, nine, and ten!