Father's Day 2010

Jeremy celebrated his first Father's Day this year! Jeremy has definitely become a seasoned parent over the past few months. I don't know what I would do without him. Sometimes I think about single mothers, divorced mothers, widowed mothers, and I am so thankful to have a wonderful husband and father in Jeremy. It is wonderful to be able to divvy up responsibilities, give each other a break when one of us is weary, and witness all of the beautiful baby moments together. It has been a joy to see him grow in his confidence in taking care of Emily. It is beautiful to see their father/daughter bond growing stronger every day.

This year, Emily got Jeremy a baseball batting tee. (She knows her Daddy so well already!) We also got Jeremy a book called Father's, Daughters, and Sports. The book caught my attention because I want Jeremy and Emily to experience a similar relationship that I had with my dad with sports. He didn't hesitate to teach me how to throw a softball or shoot a jump shot just because I was a girl. I can remember Dad hitting softballs to me in our large front yard and teaching me how to judge where it would land so I could catch it in the air. Dad would get home after working all day and still have energy to play with us until it was too dark outside. Many times he would still be wearing his work uniform.

Who knows if Emily will love sports or dancing or art. I know that Jeremy will be loving and supportive of her dreams. Happy Father's Day to my sweet husband and to Poppy and Pop who are both head over heels in love with their only granddaughter!

Hunter's First Birthday

My nephew, Hunter, turned one on June 17th. We were so happy to be able to spend this special day with family. Hunter was born in Thailand and lived in India for several months before we got to be a part of his life, so there was no way we were going to miss this important birthday! On Saturday June 19th, we headed to Bowling Green for the celebration. Laura and I have enjoyed watching Emily and Hunter interact more together as older babies. Emily is a fast crawler, but she can't outpace Hunter's walking so I'm sure she will be giving up the crawling soon in favor of upright mobility so she can keep up with her cousin. Laura had an adorable cake for Hunter and in usual 1 year old fashion, we enjoyed watching him tear into his "monkey" chocolate cupcake. Hunter got all kinds of fun gifts for his first birthday which is making this Mom kind of look forward to Emily's birthday, but at the same time I'm really having a hard time with thinking about Emily being one in just a few weeks. This year has been so hard and so wonderful all at the same time. Everything has been new and I'm continuing to learn and grow with Emily every day. Here are a few of my favorite photos from Hunter's first birthday.

First Steps!

Our little one is WALKING! I can't believe it! It is hard to pin-point the exact day or moment when she took her first step. As with many milestones, it is a gradual process that you get to watch them work on for weeks. She has been pulling up to stand and cruising for awhile. She really started standing well unsupported at 10 mon. This whole week she has been turning to let go of one object (e.g. coffee table) and she is willing to take an unsupported step to the next object. (e.g. play house). This Tuesday June 15th, I must have caught Emily taking steps at LEAST three times! One time, she took about 3-4 unsupported steps before falling into my arms. It is the cutest thing to see a person so small WALK!

I've been busy researching new shoes for Emily. She is going to need them for our outdoor adventures this summer, but barefoot is still best for learning to walk.

I will hopefully capture some video of her walking soon. I imagine that I will have many willing helpers this Father's Day weekend!

Emily's first word is....

OK, so when do you know when to make the call on "first word" or is it just baby babble? I think as Emily's mommy, I'm going to make the official call that Emily's first word is "hi." A close second would be "dada" and distant third is "mama." Emily regularly says "Hi" when she meets people and she seems to use it appropriate as a greeting. So, that would make it her first word, right? Her first two syllable word would be "dada." Sometimes Emily just babbles "dadada.", but many times I hear her say it when she wants to be picked up or say "dada" to indicate she wants Jeremy or me. (She also likes to point a lot.) Nancy and I have also noticed that Emily has said "baby" or "baba." Nancy said that on Wednesday she pointed to a baby in a magazine and said "baby." I've seen her point to a framed photo of herself and say "baby." On more than one occasion, she repeated "baby" after I said it.

Anyway, in case you can't tell, I'm pretty excited that my baby is learning to communicate and I can't wait to hear what is next.

Texas Vacation

Ed and Jen's Home in Frisco

Saying good-bye on Sunday.

Yesterday we got back from a 4-day trip to Frisco, Texas to visit Ed and Jennifer. It was Emily's first plane trip at almost 10 mon. of age. I was pretty sure she would do just fine at Ed and Jen's house because she's been on a good schedule for months, but I wasn't so sure about how the flight would go. She is SO active now and wants to move, crawl, stand, etc. and of course she isn't allowed to do any of that on the plane. Everything went as well as expected for both plane flights. The flight was direct and just under two hours. The flights departed at noon which is after Emily's morning nap, but during the time of her afternoon nap. I was really hoping she would sleep some on the plane and luckily she slept about an hour both ways. During the time before she fell asleep, Jeremy and I were CONSTANTLY keeping her busy with activities (books, toys, talking to the people behind us, playing with the tray table, standing on our laps, looking out the window, and lots and lots of "hush food.") I have never in my life given a baby so much "hush food" as on this trip. I was passing out rice puffs on the plane and at restaurants, and practically in my sleep. Once after one two many margaritas (one too many meaning about half of a margarita), I even threw some over the table at Ed to give to Emily during dinner while he was holding her. Through all of the change in routine and time change, Emily did pretty well overall. It really helped that Jen already had some of the larger baby gear items at the house so we didn't have to pack our car seat or pack-n-play.

Here's what we did during our brief visit:

Thursday:

Arrived at DFW airport and left for Frisco at around 3pm.

Played and rested at Jen's house that afternoon. (LOVIN' the Fisher Price Laugh and Learn House!)

Dinner in Frisco at a yummy Tex-Mex place across from the Soccer complex.

Everyone crashes early due to travel fatigue.

Friday:

Lunch and shopping at the Legacy Shops.

Cook-out at Ed and Jen's with Nathan, Courtney, and 2-year old Jacob.

Saturday:

Swim time at the local pool.

Jon Hall came by to visit us.

Cigars and Bourbon for the guys.

Nap time and quiet reading time for Emily and me.

Quick shopping outing to Carter's (Why oh why can't Louisville have a Carter's store?)

Dinner at Ann and Joe Lee's house in Lakeside, Texas.

(Wicked play for Ed and Jen that night)

Sunday:

Time to pack up and leave. Time went by way too fast.

We had plenty of down time to enjoy being together and to play with Emily which was the whole point of the trip. Wish we would have stayed another day, but we will know better next time.

Emily watching the clouds

Playing with her new horsey "Rachel Alexander"

Dad keeping Emily entertained at Louisville airport.

We had a 1 1/2 hr. delay and we thoroughly wore Emily out

before getting on the plane!

Summer, Summer, Summertime!

Memorial Day has come and gone and in my book, that means it is officially SUMMER! We have kicked it off with a trip to the zoo with Amy Graybeal and her boys and an outing to Lakeside! It took Emily a little while to warm up to the Splash Park at the zoo, but she wasn't the least bit hesitant at the pool. She stayed in so long that her little toes were all shriveled! The best part was that Jeremy, my mom, and Nancy were all there for her first dip in the pool! Mom came up to visit to get another "Emily fix" before she starts full time Grandma duty for Cooper next week. Mom just retired last week and we recently attended her retirement dinner in Bowling Green. Mom managed to work 22 years at the same place and that was AFTER staying home with all of us until Stephen was in kindergarten. (I don't think I'm ever going to manage to stay at the same place for that long, but I am going on 6 yrs. at Southern Indiana Rehab Hospital.) I have lots of photos of Mom's retirement and today's trip to the pool, but here's a few I could upload quickly from my camera.

Random notes:

On Monday, I noticed that Emily clapped her hands together for the first time. Well, she mainly hit her hands together without making the "clap" sound, but she still did it! She was imitating me clapping my hands and she was in the grocery cart at Kroger's. She is very friendly when we are out and about. She must have said "Hi" to at least 5 people while we were in the store. It actually sounds like she is saying "Hi" and she does it to get attention so they will look at her. We have started asking her to "Give us a five" and sometimes she will smack at our hands. Tonight I was changing her diaper right before bed and she said "mama." It was the sweetest thing! The lights were out in her room and she was actually lying still and quiet on her changing table (and she's never lying still.) I looked at her and said "mama" and she imitated and said it right back in a quiet voice. Man, I wish you could just bottle that feeling up and keep it with you forever.