Emmy Love at 8 Months

Emmy, at 8 months old, you are just precious. I cannot get enough of you. You are smiley, social, nosey, sweet as sugar, and so much fun. In the past couple of weeks, you have learned some new tricks! Here are the highlights so far!

• You mastered sitting up while on Spring Break. You had been getting better, but during Spring Break, you were finally solid!
• You babble. A lot. You started with lots and lots of BABABABABABABAs, but now you have added DADADADADADADA, which Daddy likes a lot. I will say to you, "Say Mommy!" and you reply, "DADADADADADA!" You think you are pretty funny ;) Daddy loves it.
• Ummm, out of NOWHERE, you decided it was time to move. You aren't crawling. You are wiggling like a snake. And it works for you. Your favorite spot to wiggle to is the TV stand. Where you pull out all the movies from the bottom shelf. I see those disappearing very soon.
• You like food. You are kind of getting picky about which baby foods you will actually swallow, but, you will eat just about anything you can put in your hand. And, you like to snatch food from your brother. He does not like this, as you can imagine.
• Speaking of snatching from Brother, we have rearranged car seats, which put him right next to you in the car. You get your little hands on everything he has. He gets so so upset. To comfort him, I try to explain that you just want to play with him, but you and I both know you are doing it for the reaction it gets from him.
• Those size 2 diapers are getting small! My next amazon order, I am moving you to 3s.
• You weigh 16.2 pounds! Putting you only 10 pounds behind brother, and about 21 pounds from sister.
• You had your very first ear infection. If it weren't for your fever and goopy eyes, I wouldn't have known you were sick. You stayed smiley the whole time. In the doctor's office, the nurse and dr got the biggest laugh out of "how very sick" you were as you were with all your giggling and flirting with everyone who would look at you! Had you not been running a temp of 102, they might have thought I was crazy for bringing you in to the after hours clinic.
• You have a new favorite toy. I lost your beloved wire ball sometime over spring break. I am still very sad about that. But, thanks to your buddy, Palmer, I knew you would love a Sophie giraffe. You really do love her. She is a perfect teething toy for your age. You bite her all day long (Sophie, not Palmer.)
• Knock on wood, but the time change has served you well. You were waking up at 5 every morning, and now you wake up at 6 ish. So, you still haven't figured out that we are a sleep late kind of family (Your siblings will sleep til 9 or so if we don't wake them!) but, I will take 6 over 5 any day. And the fact that you sleep solidly through the night earns you many bonus points.
• I love you. A lot.

Video of Noah riding Thomas

A short little video of Noah riding Thomas. My favorite part is towards the end when he yells out "Island of Sodor!" He really thought that was where Thomas was taking us. I'll never tell.

Our Day Out With Thomas!

John and I searched a few months ago to look at the Day Out With Thomas tour schedule and found he was going to be about 40 minutes away from us. We were in! I was worried because Noah had been sick for a solid week by the time it rolled around, but he did great. He was truly in awe. We had such a great day together.

She did it!

Ear piercing is kind of a touchy subject, right? And everyone has an opinion of when to do it. I understand why some people choose to have their babies' ears pierced, and even why some make their daughters wait till 13, or 18, or whatever. As parents, you just have to make your own rule about this. Our rule? You have to be old enough to understand that it hurts and you want to do it any way! Ha! I just didn't want to take her in there and her have no idea what was going on while two people put holes in her body. So, we have talked about it from time to time, but she had no interest in voluntarily signing up for pain. Well, something happened to change her mind, and she was ready! We have talked about it for several week, with us reminding her that it does hurt, and also how much responsibility it is to take care of them for 6 weeks and yada yada. She never backed down. I was 6 years old as well when I had mine pierced, so I am liking that. We had planned on doing it during spring break, but brother got sick, and it just didn't happen. So, Saturday, we went to the Grapevine Mills mall to do it! Of course my baby picked the most sparkly pair. Pink flowers. She just took it like a champ. Never flinched, never shed a tear, she really is crazy brave (she hasn't cried over having a shot in YEARS.) She is so good (too good?) at reminding me to clean them, and to wash my hands before I do, and she also will not touch them without washing her own hands first. I am pretty proud at how big she has been about it. It was no problem at all to get her out of bed Monday morning. She was ready to show her friends the fabulousness!

Knock Knock

Knock Knock jokes are big here in our house. Hope is just started to get them, and loves a good round of knock knock jokes. Noah, wanting to be a part of the fun, tries to participate as well. He says this knock knock joke no less than 20 times a day. And it cracks himself up every single time.

Noah: Knock Knock
Us: Who's there?
Noah: 'nana popsicle
Us: 'nana popsicle who?
Noah: 'nana popsicle!!!

Followed by a pause until someone laughs, and then he cracks up.

Yeah, we don't get it either. :) But, he sure is cute.

Happy Emmy! 8 months

I know I have told you Emmy is a happy baby, but maybe you haven't seen her to know. This was Emmy just hanging out this morning. Keep in mind, she is sick right now. She has a fever of 101 while I filmed this video today. So, really, I am claiming the title of world's happiest, easiest baby for her.

Spring break!

We have been enjoying Hope's Spring Break this week! My sweet friends Deni and Shauna (and the precious Baby Palmer!) came to see us last weekend in Texas. It was so fun to catch up with some of my favorite people. The kids and I loaded up in Shauna's van and rode back to Arkansas with them. Which was very brave of Shauna and Deni to allow us to do, because they know how awful my kids are in the car! We all survived!

Monday we went to the CDC where Noah was reunited with the wonderful Meesha, his old teacher. He ran to her and hugged her for a solid 5 minutes! He even made her cry! She said we will need to make custody arrangements before we leave. ;) When he hugged her so tight I felt like he was wanting to tell her, "Oh Meesha, no one else understands me!" They have a very special bond. He has spent lots of time with her this week, which has been a much appreciated break for the mommy.

This week, I have tried to let Hope do some of the things I always say no to. Like jumping on the the trampoline/ bungee things at the mall, Build a Bear, eating where she picks, etc. She has enjoyed every second.

Hope had a project this weekend where she had to take a penguin (Paul the Penguin) with her on Spring Break and write about his adventures. We decided we needed to take Paul to the new Penguin exhibit at the Little Rock Zoo! I will upload those pics soon. It was a fun day!

Party like a Rock Star

This weekend, Hope went to a Rock Star Birthday Party for a friend-boy in her class. (Interestingly enough, there were actually 2 Rock Star Birthday Parties this weekend, but we only made it to one. I'm guessing that's the hot theme for BDay parties right now?) I pulled out several items that I felt were Rock Star worthy. She is wearing none of them. This is totally all her doing, from the single cinderella glove to the pink cowgirl boots...

I did enjoy doing her hair though! She did not enjoy getting the rats nest out that night though! She made Bo about 10 different birthday cards, and this was the winner. At the party she handed him the card first and gave him a few minutes to appreciate her card before she would hand them the present. I'm not kidding, she was not going to give him that present until he checked that card all the way out!

Hope is cracking me up right now. She is using some big words, some correctly, some not. This morning after I changed a stinky diaper of Emmy's, she came downstairs and said, "Oh, something in this room smells very un-delightful."

She also has been fighting me on her clothes. Daily. As in she likes nothing I pick out. I knew this day would come, but seriously. I am not ready to give in yet. Have you seen what happens when you go from buying 5T clothing at Target, to buying size 6 at Target? It is insane. Target is no longer my friend. There is a book that I love called Stop Dressing Your 6 Year Old Like a Skank by Celia Rivenbark. I promise I think of that book every time I look at the clothes in Target. It's just gross. And don't get me started on the underwe@r . Why would my child need bikini briefs? Or hipsters? No. Anyway, back to my story. She said to me the other day something like, " Mommy, I've been thinking that it's time for me to start dressing like the high school girls." Ummm. No. So a few days later she asked if she could pick out her clothes so she could dress like a high schooler. I told her I had to see her outfit first, but yes. She picked out her "Big Sister" t-shirt, a too small jacket, jeans with patches, and to top it off, one of Emmy's flower headbands. Which made me giggle to think about a high school girl showing up in a "Big Sister" T-Shirt and infant headband! Ha! I let her wear it, and I think her teacher got a giggle out of it as well.

She is finishing up her cheerleading days with Upward. She has loved it. It has been so great for her to be able to get to know some friends from school better, as well as some new friends. She is going to be so sad when it is over.