12 months of Emma

Today was Emma's birthday party. I won't say it went off without a hitch, but more like we managed to fit it in between naps and everyone ended up being there...and Steven was on Skype, although I don't know how much he could see. Emma really loved her presents, particularly the ones that made music. She danced to those, it was super cute. She did not know what to do with her cake...guess I forgot to read her that part of the book. For a game, I showed everyone pictures of Emma at each of her month birthdays, to see if they could put them in order. Uncle Alex won the game, with 7 correct...he used her hair to help him decide. Anyway, here are her pictures...one thru twelve months.

One month...7lbs 11oz

Two months 

Three months

Four months...ornery girl!

Five months...dedicated to the Lord.

Six months! Eating food!

Seven months!

Pretty...eight months.

Nine months.

Ten months.

Eleven months

Twelve months

Tiny Emma

So....yesterday I was looking for old pictures of Emma, like right after she was born. Since mine are all on my computer back in TX, I was looking at Connie's pictures from when she was there...when Emma was around a week old. And guess what I found...videos of Emma...tiny baby Emma.  Here is one I just had to share.

One year old

Happy First Birthday, Emma!
I can hardly believe I have a one-year-old. But here she is:

I guess she wanted to celebrate this morning.

Playing in her pool at Grandma Joy's house.

Age: 1
Weight: 15-16lbs?
Number of teeth: 6
Favorite Foods: ice cream, puffs, blueberries, bananas, chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, refried beans, applesauce, mac and cheese, eggs, anything Mom is eating
Favorite color: yellow, green, pink?
Favorite Toy: books, anything that is not a toy
Favorite Songs: If You're Happy and You Know It, The Itsy Bitsy Spider, Pat-a-Cake
Words she can say: Mama, Daddy, Hi, Arf-arf, Ga (Grace), Pepper, uh-oh, Ray! (hoo-ray), Poop
Signs she can do: more, finished, drink, claps for yes, shakes head 'no'
Mobility: Cruising, standing, tri-poding
Sleeps through the night? Not even close
Emma loves: Animals (Cats), waving, being chased, being read to, Happy Bunny, music/singing, giving kisses, swinging, being outside, watching other kids, 'shopping' in the pantry, teething tabs, looking and waving at pictures, being the center of attention, going for walks
Emma does NOT love: too many car rides, being anywhere but home when she is tired, peas, carrots

My angel

Silliness

Beautiful

Ornery

Growing up is hard to do

Well, Emma is getting older. Right now that means that she is getting frustrated because she can't communicate everything she wants, or she can't have what she wants...even if she can communicate it. It's a rough life. It is has been especially difficult when it comes to food...is she hungry? Does she want yogurt? Puffs? Something else? She can do sign language...but only when I say the word first, not usually to communicate something on her own to me yet. Also, the last few days she has been restless when she sleeps...I think it is partly from gas, but also our schedule has been a little off. Last night, she woke up around 11:30pm, and kicked and cried when I tried to put her back to sleep. So, I turned on the light and let her play. Every so often she would toot, or more, and I would try to put her back down again with the same  results. We read lots of books, played with a ball, and finally around 3am she went back down. So a big thank you to my mother, who took Emma for the morning so I could get some more sleep...once again....so glad I came to KS.

A few of Emma's books...she loves to be read to....or to look at the kitty.

Walking in to get her after a nap.

Is is bright in here?

My ornery girl.

Shopping!

Emma's birth story

Emma's birth story...for those interested. If not, just scroll down and enjoy the pictures!

I had a fairly uncomfortable pregnancy. The first trimester I was very nauseous, and the second trimester was great. But then the day after my grandmother died, at the beginning of my third trimester, Emma got on my sciatic nerve. I was very uncomfortable, and could hardly walk the month of July. Thankfully, the pain let up some in August. At my 38 week appointment, my blood pressure was high. Even though it started going down, my doctor wanted to induce soon. She gave me the option of the next day (Friday) or Monday. I chose Monday. So we had the weekend to 'plan,' get hotel reservations for family, plan their trips, etc.  On Monday, Steven went into work and came home to take me out to lunch...at which time he told me he had just found out that he was deploying to Afghanistan in April, for six months. So trying to process this, I remembered we still had to go to the hospital to have a baby that night! (I do have a picture of me right before we went to the hospital, but it is on my computer in Texas.)

Anyway, we arrived at the hospital at 7pm where they got me all checked in and hooked up. We both spent the night. In the morning, I still had no contractions, so they gave me some pitocin at 6:45, to help get them started. By 8AM, nothing was happening so they broke my water. My contractions began shortly thereafter, and they just wouldn't let up. I wasn't getting breaks in between contractions, so at 10AM I had an epidural. I wasn't angry like other people say they are, I just wanted to cry because of the pain. So after the epidural, my contractions slowed down about 11:30...which we were confused about until the doctor came in at 12:30 to say I was fully dilated already. She had a c-section to do, so she came back later...and after 4 pushes, Emma was born at 1:32pm, August 28, 2012. I got to hold her right after she was born, with her cord still attached. Steven cut the cord.

Playing in the park in Harrisonville, MO, on the way home from Springfield.

Valentine's Day

Easter at the Fishers

Playing with the baby in the mirror

Chillin on Lou's quilt.

Concked out in bed with Daddy.

Getting a kiss from Daddy before he goes back to work.

My beautiful little family. :)

A walk down memory lane

In honor of Emma's upcoming birthday, I have been going through lots of her old pictures. She was such a tiny baby. She only weighed 6lbs when she was born, and was smaller than that when we brought her home from the hospital. I remember that she barely fit in her car seat, and that her newborn clothes didn't even fit for two weeks. We had to buy preemie diapers for her....and would have gotten preemie clothes if we could have found any. When they handed her to me, with her umbilical cord still attached, I remember saying, "I thought she would be bigger. I though she would cry more." (They told me not to complain about that one.) I remember how she looked up at Steven while they cleaned her off. And I remember thinking how overwhelmed I felt...overwhelmed by how much I could love her, and overwhelmed at the responsibility we now had in raising her...or even just keeping her alive by ourselves when we brought her home. I am very thankful that Martha was right next door, and came over whenever we needed her...which was a lot. We were certainly blessed to have neighbors that were more like family, especially then. And thankful God had mercy on us and gave us a very happy baby.

So here are a few of my favorite pictures from this last year. Enjoy.

Our tiny girl, snuggled in Daddy's arms.

Going to see Daddy at work for the first time....pre-smiling.

First smile caught on camera...at the ceiling fan.

On our way to the Christmas Eve service.

Saying goodbye to the Flewellings!

In a Whataburger in Wichita Falls, TX, on our way home for Christmas.
She was the cutest thing we have ever seen!

9 days old. Beautiful.

A little of everything...

Here are a few random pictures I have taken on my iPad recently. And make sure to check back often next week as we will be celebrating Emma's first birthday!

Visiting Grandma Connie at work

Trying to reach things she can't have...in the middle of the night

Momma, will you read this to me?

Chasing the kitty cat

Emma loves looking at her picture of her Grandmas

Shopping in her drawers

Meow...

Here is a video of Emma before bedtime the other day. She is so much fun, I love being her mom....even in the middle of the night.

Chillin' with Uncle Alex

I meant post this on Uncle Alex's birthday, but I forgot. Oops. So here it is...Emma chillin' on the kitchen floor with Uncle Alex. Thankfully, she is not scared of him like Guenie was.

Good helper

Emma loves to 'help' us unstack the dish washer. And technically, she is very good at it. But she is not very good at putting stuff away...she just pulls things out and drops them on the floor. Oh well...one step at a time. When I was six or seven I taught Faith how to unstack the silverware, since that was my least favorite job. She was only one...so Emma doesn't have long before I will put her to work.

Looking out the window

The other night, Emma watched Grandpa Mike mowing the yard from the window in the dining room. There is a ledge there for her to hold on to, and it is a perfect height for toddler viewing. :)

Mom, look! You can see Grandpa! He is loud.

Hi Grandpa!

Oh man! Here he come again!

Emma is doing really well moving around. She crawls (tripods), stands on her own, pulls up, cruises around furniture, and yesterday she stood up all by herself with no help. And she is eating a lot more food now..she loves eating what we are eating. She just seems to be doing new things so fast these days..at this rate she may take a step by her birthday. We will have to wait and see.