Emma: 18 Months

How is my baby girl a year and a half old?!?! Time is flying!  This was a big month for Emma- this was the month she became a sister.  Her world was rocked and I would love to say that she adjusted beautifully, but every day is a new day with a toddler- some days are great, some days are more trying.  

Height: 31 1/2 inches
Weight: 22 lbs 9 oz

Skills: oh my goodness, her vocabulary took off this month.  I was so good at keeping detailed notes about all of the words that she knows in my phone, but then my phone crashed.  Alas- I will have to go by memory.  Her new favorite word of the month is baby.  This is how she refers to Everly most often, but she will also call her sister and Everly when prompted.  In addition to the other words I have mentioned previously, she knows how to say ball, please, yes, no, oh boy, go dog go, hi Everly, potty, mine, bath, water, ice cream and cheese (I am sure there are a ton of words that I am forgetting).  As far as animal sounds go- she has been able to make the monkey, bear/lion/tiger, and elephant sounds for awhile.  This month, she added mooing like a cow, neighing like a horse (my favorite) and whoing (sp?) like an owl.  We are working with her on colors, but she is just not getting it yet.  

Likes: Emma continues to love getting a bath and this month really started to love swimming as well.  We have been very lucky since I have been on maternity leave- we have been able to spend a lot of time with Emma at the pool.  This is the most that we have used our pool since we bought the house- which I am loving!  Emma's favorite food continues to be cheese and watermelon which she will ask for on demand.  She has become a pickier eater, but will still consistently eat eggs (with cheese), sausage (breakfast, smoked and bratwurst), ham, strawberries, blackberries, bananas, cantaloupe, avocado, pasta, potatoes, refried beans and corn on the cob.  She also loves her milk- drinking about 25 - 30 ounces a day.  The only other thing she will drink is watered down Gatorade.  She loves the elephant auto insurance company commercial and can pick up on it even when she is not in the same room as the TV.  She moves her arm like a trunk and growls.  She loves to read- her favorite books are The Foot Book, Go Dog Go, her baby Bible (that my parents got her for her Baptism) and a book of prayers (that my friend Natalie got Everly).  When I am nursing Everly, we do everything we can do to get Emma to read with Daddy which solves most of our problems.  Emma likes going places and does very well when we are out and about (especially if we have snacks!).  We have been making a point to get out of the house at least once a day (even if it's just to go to the park) and Emma almost always behaves very well.  Emma loves, loves, loves giving her baby sister kisses.  This is the thing she is most obsessed with- that and holding her sister!.  We try and let her give as many kisses a day as she wants too- even when I am nursing because we want to show her that it is a great thing to love on your sister so much.  However, this has caused some very stressful moments and sheer panic  (remember, we only kiss on the lips) on my part when she goes in for these kisses!

Struggles:  As you can probably imagine, our biggest struggle with Emma this month is being gentle around the baby and the jealousy that comes with being a big sister.  While she does give Everly the best kisses and she has never attempted to actually hit the baby, she is a very rough and tumble toddler.  Emma's jealousy shows through mostly when I am nursing Everly (which can be every 45 minutes sometimes during the day!).  Emma will walk over and hit me on the head or try to kick me with her feet.  She has tried to nurse herself sometimes- at which point, I tell her that ship has sailed!  She also doesn't like for me to change her diaper.  She will try to run away and when I pin her down she will try to kick me.  I try to calmly tell her, "Emma, I am your mommy which means I am the boss and I am going to change your diaper".  I am sure you can tell how well that goes over.  Luckily, she changes her diaper much better for Wes.  She also doesn't eat out in restaurants very well, so we just don't take her anymore (unless we go to chick-fil-a).  If we want to go somewhere, we now go to lunch while she is at preschool and my in-laws have graciously kept her for a few dates (we currently take Everly everywhere with us since I am nursing).

Miscellaneous:  Emma is still in size three diapers, wears 12 - 18 month clothing and her size 4 Toms (which I adore).  She got her bottom two molars this month- bringing the total teeth count to 11 teeth.  Her pediatrician noted that her teeth come in very slowly :(.  Emma still takes her pacifier at night and sometimes even during the day.  She enjoys stealing Everly's pacifier (if we can ever get her to take it for five minutes).  She had her first sleepover this month at Nonni and Grandpa George's house.  From the reports that I received- they had fun during the day, but the nights were trying making everyone slightly grumpy.  Also, since then, Emma has not consistently slept through the night.  This has much more to do with Everly and teething than spending the night at my parent's house.  It is my personal mission to get her back to sleeping through the night before I go back to work (I will elaborate on this in another post).

We love our sweet, spunky toddler to the moon in back :).

Confession (and Other Ramblings)

1.  I have fallen in love.  Seriously.  I have not been so intrigued by a TV show in a long time.  I L-O-V-E watching Duck Dynasty.  People at work have talked about this show and I have always made fun of them- how could they like a show about hunting ducks?!?!  It is just so interesting to me to watch this family.  They are millionaires (by making duck calls ?!?!) but so down to earth and hilarious.  Anyways, we are in luck that they are on season 4 because that means we can watch all of the replays and they are all new to us.  Yes, I instructed my husband to record every single episode.  He is not as in love with the duck family as I am, but he will get there :).

2.  In some lighting Everly's hair looks like it is coming in blonde- this makes me want to cry.  I am missing my baby's black hair she was born with (it is turning light brown already :/).

3.  Sometimes I wish that money were no object.  I have become obsessed with Instagram shopping, except for the fact that I don't really buy anything.  I just watch all of these sales happen and then stalk the source.  Case in point, I am in love with these House of Mia mint scooter leggings.  However, they are $32.  You can buy a pair of leggings at Old Navy for $6.  But, I want the scooter leggings.  I am trying to justify this purchase to myself.  Since I have literally thought about them everyday since I have discovered them, I think that is justification enough.  Emma needs these in her life.  Literally. 

She also needs these t-shirts from Passive Juice Motel Etsy shop.  

I also need this Madeline Weinrib rug which comes in at a cool $1,550. 

See why I wish money were no object :).  

4.  This happened.

My girl has been holding herself lately after she goes to the restroom.  So one day I asked her if she wanted to go to the potty.  She took off running for the bathroom.  I stripped her down and we sat on the potty for a long time.  Nothing happened.

She is not ready to be potty trained, but we went ahead and bought her a potty for when she is ready.  We spend a lot of time sitting on this potty and talking about the potty.  It is hilarious.  

5.  I am scared.  Like the  most scared I have ever been in my life.  The fourth biopsy of my mole came back as melanoma.  The 1st, 2nd and 3rd biopsy all came back as being a spitzoid mole which is congenital (I was born with it).  I have to have another surgery to have my lymph node removed to see if the melanoma spread.  I am praying like crazy that it has not spread.  The fear and anxiety has decreased a little bit each day for which I am grateful.  I know there is nothing I can do about it so worrying is pointless, but it is still hard not to think about it :/.  

6. I have become obsessed with these.

Hamburger sliders on Hawaiian roles from Target.  We have eaten these a lot while I have been on maternity leave. Yummy.

7. I love this girl.  A whole lot.  Like I am obsessed with her.  Except when she is doing this :).

Crying for apparently no reason other than that she is a toddler :).

8. I let her eat cake batter on Sunday- she was in heaven.  Like complete meltdown mode when I took the spoon away from her :).

It was worth it to see the pure joy on her face when she first tasted cake batter.  

Everly Grace: 6 Weeks

Likes: outdoor concerts, smiling at the fan, meeting mommy's co-workers, having lunch with my aunts, taking Emma to her first day of preschool, baby acne clearing up(!), nursing

Dislikes: taking a pacifier (still can't figure this one out?!?!), dipping my feet in the pool, taking a bottle when mommy went on a solo outing (with Grandpa George) to Starbucks

Everly's 1st Bath

After Everly's umbilical cord fell off, it was time for her first (fully submerged) bath!!!  Now, I don't get that excited about bath time- there is just something about being dry and then purposely getting yourself wet that I don't understand :).  Needless to say, I was anticipating how Everly would react to her first bath :).  Not so happy getting laid in the bathtub.

Even less happy after she realized what was about to happen :).  I know you cant see Emma's face here- but she was genuinely confused as to why Everly would not like to get a bath (Emma gets super excited when we say its bath time :)).

She calmed down a little when I poured the warm water on her- love the clenched fist.

Time for some soap!

Which means it is time to scream again :).

Ahhhh- and some more warm water to calm the baby girl down :).

No bath would be complete without a kiss from sister to wrap things up :).

I promise- it will get better, Everly.  One day you will get as excited as Emma about bath time (at least I hope so).

Saturday Funday

A couple of Saturdays after Everly was born, the majority of Wes's family came over to go swimming for the day.  Emma had so much fun with all of her cousins here- she was relishing in all of the attention she received, especially from her Aunt Celeste.

If you have been keeping up with the swimming diaries this summer, you know that at the beginning of the summer, Emma stayed as far away from the pool as possible.  On July 4th, we made a little bit of a breakthrough at Aunt Celeste's house- she would get in and out of the baby pool by herself.  Well this weekend was a huge breakthrough for Emma.  Aunt Celeste showed her how fun swimming can be!

She would stand on the steps by herself! And by the end of the afternoon, she even jumped off the steps to Celeste :).

By the time I got out there with the camera, I made the mistake of taking the watermelon out there so we were trying to bribe her to jump by telling her that she could have the watermelon after she jumped!  She is obsessed and distracted by watermelon :).

My two college roommates stopped by to love on Everly!  Stephanie and Everly :)

Natalie and Everly! So glad these two friends got to meet and love on our little girl :).

Everly spent the rest of the day napping and being loved on by her grandma. 

After swimming, pizza and more swimming, we wrapped up the day with watermelon.  Emma loves her some watermelon.  I would even say that it rivals her love (if not outshines) her love for strawberries.  

I still can't get enough of this swimsuit this summer :). 

Monica and Noah!

Then it was time for a group shot of the kiddos (Everly was inside- not quite ready to be in group pictures). 

Heart these kiddos (and Emma's facial expression).  

And back inside- everyone ooohhhing and aaahhhhing over our sweet baby :).  

There was a lot of love this day- love this family that I married into :).  

Preschool

We enrolled Emma in preschool back in March at our church.  I can still remember filling out the application form and it asked me how many words she knew and I had to write down zero.  Our baby couldn't even talk when we registered her for school.  Now she is a legitimate 18 month old that is talking up a storm and started preschool today.  I am still dumbfounded; how is my baby big enough for preschool?

adore this picture of me and my baby

We got up this morning and made Emma's lunch- I wanted to carry on the tradition from my parents and snuck a little note in Emma's lunch box :).

Then, I wanted to have a little first day of school photo shoot outside by our yellow door.  I took away the cup and spoon that Emma was playing with, so our photo shoot started out with a few tears.

But ended with a few smiles :).

Love the drama of a toddler!

Then it was off to school.  Such a big girl wearing her backpack!  Don't worry, it's not heavy- it has one dress and one diaper in it; our little one is just petite.

Holding daddy's hand walking across the parking lot- I think these two are going to miss each other more than they know :).

My favorite picture of the day- looking so grown up here!

Emma has her name on the door :), and her own place to sit at the table!

She was such a big girl- no tears when we dropped her off.  It helps that we also drop her off in the same spot every Sunday during Mass.  Everly and I went to pick her up at 2- and she had a good report all around!

She even colored me (and daddy) a picture of the letter A.  This is how I plan on saving most of her "artwork"- just snapping a picture of it and tossing it.

It is safe to say that Everly loves Emma going to preschool too- lots of one on one mommy time.  She was able to do her tummy time and play on her activity mat with no Emma!

She was also smothered in kisses all day :).  Love my girls!

Everly Grace: 5 Weeks

Likes: going on 1st train ride, visiting the baby elephants at the zoo, outdoor concerts at the Levitt, dinner with Bobbob, visiting both sets of my grandparents, lots of smiles and cooing for my mommy

Dislikes: being hungry, mommy finding out her mole results and knowing that I will have to go through another day of bottle feeding, my 1 month old doctor's appointment (getting shots!)