Sunday, January 27, 2013

3 month basics

Weight:  Emerson continues to grow at a steady rate.  We weighed him on our home scale and he was 14.5 pounds.  He has two fat rolls on his legs and I love it.  

Interests: These days he enjoys sitting up and looking at toys with music and light.  He loves to coo and squeal big conversations with anyone who will look at him.  He's much more social then we remember Abby being.  He has finally taken to the Nuk but doesn't always need it to sleep.  He's as quick to smile as he is to cry.

Fears: Emerson's afraid of most loud noises, especially Abby's Pterondon noises.  He hates tummy time but is getting better at lifting his head.  He's rolled up onto his side several times now.

Best bud:  Despite her sassy and careless ways Emerson lights up when Abby sings to him or tells him a story.

Eating habits:  Now that I'm back to work he's completely off any kind of schedule.  Usually he only eats about 6 times a day now but depending on his mood, or if Mommy was working all day, he may still eat 10 times.  

Sleep (oh sleep how I miss you):  His sleep schedule is off now too.  We started finally putting him in the crib for naps instead of his rock and play sleeper and it's going okay.  Nights he may not wake up until 2 am or he might wake up at 11,1, 4 and 5.  It's been a struggle for us since Abby was a freak baby that slept through the night at 3 months.  This last Friday at daycare he ate really well and took 2 good naps so hopefully he's adjusting and the next month will be better.




I still can't figure out how to rotate pictures since they made changes on blogspot.



Photo bomb

Friday, January 11, 2013

Homemade

I'm feeling sentimental today.  This beautiful outfit was made for Abby by my Great Aunt Bonnie, a woman of many talents.  She died suddenly over a year ago and I'm sad she won't get to meet Emerson and see him in this outfit.  There was not a doubt in her mind my first baby was a boy so she made a blanket and this gorgeous outfit in blue.  She wouldn't even entertain the idea that I was having a girl.  I forgot about it and never put it on Abby.  These pictures are for you Bonnie.  Miss you and your infectious  boisterous laughter.


Showing off new skills, rolling onto his side.




Thursday, January 10, 2013

My baby

The most surprising thing to me about being a mother is how much you can really love another human being.  Every time Abby gets sick or hurt my heart hurts for days.  I can barely sleep or eat.  Every little thing is magnified - a cough could be Croup, chest congestion pneumonia, a bump to the head a traumatic brain injury.












I was discussing this with a good friend and wondered if parents that don't work in a level 1 trauma center immediately think the worst.  Am I just introduced to too many weird happenings and horrible tragedies?




Once again my sweet girl came through with no visible scars.  I'm still crying more than her.  So today when a strange man asked me for money for gas I gave him almost all I had.  I kept the pennies because I thought it was rude to hand him pennies and 25 cents for Aldi's.  I wish I had a 20 dollar bill to give him.  God has been good to us and I wanted some insurance.




I love you more every day Abby.  Even when you're sassy, even when you're mean.  You will always be my baby girl.  You bring so much joy to our life.


I love your free spirit.
 I love your curious nature.
 I love that you are always up for an adventure and love love love your daddy.
I love most of all that you are quick to smile, quick to laugh and always up for a good book and a hug.  You are my first born and will always hold a special spot in my heart.

Friday, January 4, 2013

First friend

 What has captured this little guys undivided attention?
 What elicits the biggest smiles from this baby boy?
 It's not Mama or Abby or even Daddy.

It's this little guy.



Just when I was about to get rid of this swing, because like his sister Emerson was not into the swing at all, Emerson discovered this little elephant.  As soon as he sees it, he smiles so big and squeals loudly with delight.  He'll sit there and "talk" to the elephant for minutes at a time.  It is the cutest, funniest thing happening in our house these days.  Thank you little elephant.


Thursday, January 3, 2013

Busy

Abby's sleeping over at Grandpa Dave's and the house is too quiet.  I miss her nonstop narration of our daily life.  "Emerson smiling at Abby, Mama.  Daddy at work.  Tricia at school.  Mama, you cleaning up?"  As Grandma Marsha says she is always busy.  As soon as she walked in Grandpa's house she went straight to the toys, which were all the same except for one which she found immediately.  While I gave them the run down of her routine she blew her NYE noise maker and meticulously removed every toy from the bin.  She hardly had time to say good bye to me.

These days she is busy playing "princess" with her little people castle and dinosaurs.  Her imagination is amazing.  We love to just sit and listen to her reenacting moments from her day or her favorite show dinosaur train.

She often demands to "my try" for any cooking or cleaning tasks.  She frequently requests to do a craft or paint.  A few times a day she'll take a break to look at some books and then it's your turn to read 4 of them to her.  I wonder if she'll be the kid in the yearbook in every activity. These days I don't get much done because I am just in awe of her and spent so much time watching her.

What's really amazing to us is that all of sudden she remembers things.  When we go to the library she starts singing all the songs from story time, she can recite large parts of picture books, and give you directions how to get to Lori's house or the playground.  Recently we started telling her what is on the agenda for the next day and as soon as she wakes in the morning she reminds us that we are going wherever it is we told her the night before.

Emerson's busy getting stronger in preparation for all the milestones to come - rolling over, sitting, crawling.  He's been establishing a pretty regular routine so today I'm exhausted from his weird night last night.  Maybe he too is missing Abigator.  He's eating less often and spitting up less which seem to be good signs that his medication is working.  Like his sister he is "talking" a lot.  We really don't remember Abby being so vocal so young.  He likes to sit in his swing and look at the elephant and smile and tell him all kinds of stories.  Even though Abby is not always gentle with him, she always gets a big smile when she first comes over by him.

Tim's busy trying to determine what his new career should be.  It's so hard in general to find a new job and like many of us he just doesn't know what he wants to be when he grows up.  He's been real busy at night these days waking up with Abby at least once per night.  The doctor says it's night terrors and will pass.  He never complains, he just goes in there and comforts her and drags himself to work the next day.  He's such an amazing father I'm so glad he picked me for his wife.  He's also working on getting our season tickets again so we can have some dates this year.  We slacked in this department last year.  With his new hours at work he was able to get back into the bowling league again.  I'm so glad he gets this break in his week to hang out with friends and do something he enjoys.  It's so interesting how much the "team" has changed.  Half the guys have children now so when he tells me about the night the conversations are so different and the nights out shorter.

Jessica's been busy daydreaming about all the changes that need to be made on the house and all the healthy changes we want to make for ourselves.  We have to get our deck taking down.  I'm hoping for a patio and a fence for the backyard.  Hopefully before my next time to host book club.  Still loving book club and my great friends I've made there.  Although it is getting harder to read the books.  I didn't finish the last one and Louise was astonished "But YOU always read the book!".

Tim and I are back into our work out competition where whoever puts in the most time that week gets to pick the Netflix movie that week.  With my new obsession with Homeland, he doesn't have a chance.  Have you seen it.  I love it.  I wish we had Showtime so I can watch the new season.  I made it to the gym yesterday for 60 minutes with big plans for today but Emerson knocked all the energy out of me.  Tim and have another new obsession - blockus.  It is such a fun game.  Game night anyone?

This year I'm going to work on figuring out what I want to be when I grow up.  I don't think a dietitian is what I really want.  I'm looking into the area of public health.  Any ideas/suggestions for me?  I just have so many interests it's hard to decide what I really want to do.  I know I want to work with people and make a difference in their lifes so nutrition could still be a fit for me.  I just need the right job.

Today will be more of a resting day then I planned.  And a waiting for Abby and Tim to get home kind of day.  I really feel blessed to have such a great little family.  Maybe I'll make it to the gym tonight when Tim gets home.  My resolution is for 3x a week which I think is manageable.  Two more to go this week.