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Thursday, May 20, 2010

C.U.T.E.

(Rachel here. NOTE. I tried to upload this picture THREE times, and it won't turn... hmmmm. Also I couldn't get the camera to auto focus on the face, hence the random giant pink centipede looking thing.) Daddy has been working on drawing "yellow happy faces" with me before bedtime. He reads me my stories, and then we draw on my magna doodle for a little while. Interestingly enough I drew this happy face upside down. Intriguing.

I also love to "read." It may be KIND OF (and when I say "kind of" I mean "really" hard to understand her. She's going SUPER fast and skips over a lot of words, but it's adorable anyway) hard to understand, but trust me... it's the best rendition of "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" that ever did exist. :)

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

11 months old

Rachel here. As I post this, I literally want to vomit. In ONE month my BABY will be ONE. Let's all take a moment shall we? Just look at that little face!
Our Emma Grace is just such a blessing to us. She is the sweetest little baby ever. Reese was cute and fun and hysterical, but little EG is just SO SWEET... I could eat her up. She's just about as perfect as a wee one can be. Her little personality is starting to shine... even when her sister is starting to over power her. We can tell EG isn't going to take any shenanigans from Reese which is great, but I may soon feel like the mother of two little boys. ;) They are already wrestling and climbing all over one another. They play really well together a good chunk of the time, but Reese sometimes forgets that Emma Grace is smaller than her, so we usually end our play time with some crying.

Emma Grace is a super eater just like Reese was, which is very easy on me. She'll eat virtually anything we put in front of her. She does need help with yogurt or applesauce, but other than that... it's all her. She loves... really everything... some favorites though are cheese and mandarin oranges... she also really loves broccoli. We have an official sippy cup drinker... cold turkey baby. I'm a huge fan of cold turkey. We are huge supporters of getting your kids weaned from crutches early on. We let both girls cry it out when it was time for then to no longer be swaddled, sippy cups and finger foods by 1, and no pacis after 1 either. While weaning and listening to your baby cry is AWFUL... it's fairly quick... so that's how we roll. We'll be holding out on the paci until the beginning of July though because of traveling. We'd rather not put others through listening to our child scream. :)
Tomorrow she moves into her big size 3 diapers (our kids both have super tiny waists and butts!) and is moving into her 12-18 month clothing. Weighing her this morning, she was 19.9 lbs.

Emma Grace is babbling, crawling, climbing up the stairs, and pulling up like a crazy person. She's beginning to cruise along the couch, and LOVES to push her push toys while crawling, so hopefully we'll be on our way to doing that standing up soon. There have been a handful of times when I've caught her standing alone for a few seconds at a time. It's so exciting!

Emma Grace has become a huge helper around the house just like her big sister. She loves to unload the dishwasher for me.
And she's also big into helping us with the cooking/baking. Next we'll work on laundry. :)
The next big update will be when I'm the mother of an almost 3 year old and a 1 year old. Now I'm off to devise a plan on how to freeze time.

I ride my popsicle!

When I turned 1, my Grandpa and Pearl got me a tricycle for my birthday. There have been NUMEROUS times that Mommy and Daddy have put me on the darn thing, only to have me just sit there. They've pushed, they've pulled... I just wasn't getting the hang of it. That was until yesterday. Bum Bum Bum... that's right people... I'm a tricycle rider. :)

Just dance!

Sippy cup warrior

Rachel here. Reese didn't drink for days when we switched her to sippy cups. I tried to wean her... exchanging a bottle for a sippy cup for weeks. She just wouldn't drink until she knew she was getting a feeding from a bottle. FRUSTRATION set it. Bryan and I then decided we would just wait until she turned one to switch her to whole milk, and then we would do the sippy cup all in one shebang. With Emma Grace it's been a little different approach. I only introduced her to the sippy cup a handful of times hoping she was some sort of prodigy who would swipe it up and start chugging just to make my life easier. Not the case. So before frustration set in, Bryan and I again decided we would just do cold turkey for her as well once we were out of her drop-ins for her bottles. We technically don't run out of those until this weekend, but I'm traveling to Tidewater with my nugget for the big Rapier baby shower... no good when it comes to life changes and roadtrips. The day before yesterday we decided to go ahead and cold turkey our wee one.
This is how the first cup went. It was a good time.

By the third one, I had brought her to the other side. And by the 4th we were an old pro. There is one thing she can't manage to grasp though, and that's sitting up while drinking the damn thing. Bryan thinks it has something to do with the fact she was breastfed (which is usually what we blame everything on... hehe. He thinks it has to do with the fact she didn't have nearly as much practice holding a bottle as Reese did... blah blah blah... MAYBE he has a point. Then again, maybe not.)

We've been smooth sailing ever since. :) For the record, I believe it took Reese 2-3 days before she decided the sippy cup was worth taking ONE SINGLE SIP FROM. Why must she be so much like her mama? ;)

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Alllllllll ABOARD!

Yesterday we took Grandma and Grandaddy to Tweetsie Railroad with us... it was UBER fun!


Mommy happens to be in TONS of pictures for the first time EVER... thank you Daddy!


Mommy is DEATHLY afraid of go-carts, but this little number was VERY controlled. They started everyone off with a delay from the person in front of them, and there was no bumping... Mommy's kind of ride.


Then it was time for Daddy and I to have a date on the carousel.


Grandma and Grandaddy were great Emma Grace slaves. ;)
I DESPERATELY wanted to ride this number. Mommy and Daddy were gungho... at least for the first minute and a half of the ride. Unfortunately they had to sit through the ride for almost 3.5 minutes. AWFUL.

WARNING... this video is WAY TOO LONG... but you can easily get the idea of Reese's excitement in the first 10 seconds. :)

Then it was time to get robbed at the games.

Since Grandma and Grandaddy aren't much for spinny rides or rides that go too fast, and Mommy and Daddy were desperately trying to recuperate, we headed up to the kiddie rides where I could enjoy a little solo mio time.





Mommy got a wild idea that it would be SUPER FUN to "mine" for some gems... RIIIIIGHT Mommy. I was hardly entertained, but I got some really pretty rocks. :)
AND a mining hat to boot!
Next up... the petting zoo area.





My first time getting my face painted!!!!!

I mean who wouldn't want a giant green sparkly octopus on their face?
Grandma and Grandaddy were kind enough to hang out with Sleeping Beauty while Mommy and Daddy took me on the ski lift.


Then it was time for us to ride the mini train.
Emma Grace woke up JUST IN TIME to hop on with us.


We kept missing the big train. :(
While we waited for our turn on the train Grandaddy and I stopped for a little pick-me-up.
ALLLLLLL ABOARD!









All the gunfire scared Emma G. :(


Our lovely day ended with us in the slammer. Only appropriate.