Emily's New Trick

After weeks of showing Emily the "all done" sign, she is finally starting to use it and it is really funny. She uses it more to say "I don't know" than "All done" but sometimes it is interchangeable. Here is the video.

Weaning Emily

Emily has been pretty much weaned now except for the nursing session before bedtime. I'm having a hard time deciding on a last day. The past year has gone by fast and other than the first couple of weeks of learning how to breast feed, it has been really smooth. At this point, she is ready and I am too....almost. Every time I think, "OK, this is it baby girl" she will fall asleep in my arms all snuggled in close and I think, "Well, maybe another week!" She is SO precious and sweet! I love our cuddle time before bed. We leave for vacation in less than two weeks and I told myself I would wean her by then. I don't want to try to do any big changes while on vacation or a few days before we leave. So I'm left with cutting her off this week or after vacation. I'm not ready for my baby to grow up, but it appears that she has anyway.

Here is how I weaned Emily:

Breast fed exclusively for 5 1/2 mon.

Started solids at 5 1/2 mon (rice and wheat baby cereals)

Started slowly introducing veggies and fruits at 6 mon.

Added yogurts at 9 or 10 mon.

Introduced other meats/proteins at 10-11 mon (she still doesn't eat meat that well, but likes beans, cheese and eggs)

More and more finger foods after 9-10 mon.

Started supplementing some formula after 10 mon (3 breast feedings/day and one formula bottle)

At 11 mon, dropped another breast feeding time (2 breast feedings/day and two formula bottles/day)

At 12 mon. dropped another breast feeding time (1 breast feeding/day and 16-20 oz/day of whole milk by sippy cup or bottle)

So here we are at 13 mon. Time to say good-bye to the boobie Emily. Mama loves you!!!

Surprise!

Grancy and Emily

Woo hoo! I'm free of my stroller!

Emily does not seem to care about the chickens in the cage

Aunt Jen and Emily.

Poppy, Freddy Farm Bureau and Emily

During the weekend of Aug. 20-22, Jen and Ed came to Louisville for a visit. They brought with them some wonderful news....they are expecting March 2nd! We were all thrilled! Jen managed to keep the news a secret from the family for 12 weeks! (I had a really hard time staying quiet for 8 weeks!) Jen arrived to Louisville early in the week and worked. Ed flew in town on Friday evening. Saturday morning, Jen had a very special bouquet of flowers delivered to Don and Nancy that said something like "Pink or Blue? What will it be? We'll have to wait 'till March to see!" She is due March 2nd. We thought that it was very ironic that her baby is due March 2nd and Jeremy's birthday is March 8th and Emily's birthday was August 8th and Jen's birthday is August 4th. Both of their first born children will likely have birthdays the same week as their sibling.

I don't want to sound like a know-it-all, but I did have a pretty good idea that they were expecting (and Jer can vouch for me.) Various small clues made me think that they were expecting, Jeremy kept saying that Jen would have told everyone by now, but I knew that this is news to share in person whenever possible and that if Ed was going to be in town, she would definitely wait until they could tell everyone together. Also, I thought that Ed had gone to a lot of trouble in getting his weekend off from the Army, flying out of town late on a Friday and only to be here for 1 1/2 days. (Usually he stays longer when he comes in town.) I'll have to admit, that when Jen said that she was having a fruity cocktail in Hawaii for me, that kind of threw me off on my conviction that she was expecting. (Later, she told me it was a virgin one!)

God has richly blessed our families in the past year and added to its numbers with Hunter, Emily, Cooper and soon Baby Hannah! Will they have a boy or girl? Give me a few weeks and I'll make another prediction! ha!

Here's some photos from the State Fair! Emily got to see all kinds of new animals (and smells.) We didn't try the donut hamburger, but we did enjoy some icecream and a nice dinner at Grancy and Poppy's later that day. We had a great weekend! We did miss seeing Laura Beth on her 30 th birthday. Plans changed when Memommy Meisel had to have a pacemaker implanted on Aug. 20th (LB's birthday). Luckily, the procedure went well and she is recovering now. We are hopeful that this will take care of the awful dizziness that she was having from such a low, irregular rhythm.

With Bells On...

Aunt Laura found these adorable shoes for Emily while she was in

Thailand last year. They looked huge when she brought them home

to Emily and I can remember thinking, "she probably won't be able

to wear these until she is 3 or 4." Well, I was off by a few years!

Emily is one now, and they fit her perfectly. We tried them on and

she immediately started dancing around to listen to the bells on her

feet. Thanks Aunt Lala!

Emily understands!

We've really noticed a big improvement in Emily's receptive language skills in the past few weeks. You can tell that while she has limited words to communicate verbally, she is understanding more and more all the time. Don reports that when he says, "Let's go change your diaper" that she walks down the hallway to their diaper changing station. When we ask her "Where's your bear? or ball? or baby?" she starts looking around for whatever we've asked her to find and often brings it to us. When Emily picks up something and starts to bring it to her mouth, I'll tell her "No, bring that to me" and amazingly sometimes she obeys! (She also likes to run in the opposite direction and laugh because she knows I will chase her!) We ask her to blow kisses and she blows those kisses very enthusiastically often hitting herself upside the head! (Somehow, she has forgotten to say good-bye as she now prefers to blow kisses.) She is starting to learn her body parts and usually points at the belly (or chest) when we ask her "Where's your belly?"

Emily's fine motor coordination and problem solving is improving! She is now able to do her shape sorter and rings. Sometimes she needs some guidance, but she has done all of the shapes at one time or another on her own with encouragement. It is amazing to see all the learning that takes place and how she is making new connections all the time.

Emily the Model

Today, we got our 12 mon. photos of Emily and a few of the family. We had planned to do this a few days after her party, but the weather has been seriously miserable. I've lost count of how many days the weather has been in the high 90's and 100's and the humidity unbearable. We cancelled last week's appointment, and today we had mild weather at 8:30 am and no rain. The ground was still dewy and it was overcast, but that kind of weather is great for photos. The only problem? Getting Emily to smile. It is maddening that this sweet baby girl that laughs and giggles at us all day long becomes so serious when the camera is in front of her. Also, she is very inquisitive of new places. She was very intent on checking out the situation and getting her lay of the land. Being a smiley, silly, baby wasn't her plan this morning. I think we will have to bring in reinforcement for her 18 mon. photos.

Anyway, we headed to Locust Grove for our outdoor photos. Locust Grove is an old historic home and venue for various events. I LOVE outdoor photography and I can only hope that we somehow captured a little of the beauty and innocence of our 12 mon. old baby. I was very proud of the Reiss family for being on-time and dressed-up for our photos at 8:30 am. This is no small task when you have a baby and you're married to a Reiss (haha! Love you sweetie. I know I'm almost just as bad...)

12 Mon. Check-up

As of Aug. 12th, Emily weighs 20 lbs. 8oz and is 29 1/4 in. long. Emily is right around 50th percentile for both height and weight. She's a little below average for weight. Her 12 mon. check-up went well. We only got two shots this time. I remembered to take off the little round band-aids soon after they were placed on her. (Last time we had a little incident with Emily peeling off the band-aids, eating them, and later passing them in the poo.)