Little Miss Chatterbox

Emersyn is talking a ton now and has started to squeal the first part of every "sentence" which always makes me laugh and makes her happy. For Christmas, Emersyn got Alex a camcorder so that he can record her growing up. (Don't ask where a 3 month old got the money for a camcorder- the girl has connections and a personal shopper already). Here is Emersyn talking on Christmas to Alex and I at my mom's house.

ZooLights!!!

Emersyn is in love with lights (espeically Christmas lights at the moment) so I knew she would love ZooLights. We invited out friends and headed to dinner at Red Robin, BevMo (we needed to get some small shots of Bailey's for the hot chocolate hehe) and headed over to the zoo. I had gotten Emersyn a fleece snowsuit to wear to stay warm and before we left the restuarant I put her in her fleece pajamas so that I could just put her to bed when we got home. She was all warm and bundled up and totally looked like the kid from 'A Christmas Story' because she couldn't even move her arms she was so bundled up. I put her in the baby backpack so she could see everything and off we went to walk around. She was instantly facinated with the lights and couldn't get enough of looking around back and forth with her eyes bugging out. But, alas, her normal bedtime is around 8pm and about that time the rocking of the backpack got the best of her and out she went. We moved her to the stroller and the adults continued to enjoy the lights and the spiked hot chocolate. An amazing time and a tradition in the making :-)

My parents are SO funny

It has been awhile since the last time I blogged. I am making a commitment to myself and my readers to be much better at posting. But, since the last post... Emersyn is becoming a very happy baby and apparently Alex and I are some of the funniest people ever (according to a 2 month old lol). She loves to smile and talk all day long. She is pretty good at her "goo's" and "ga's" and even gets in a "ba" every now and then. See how funny we are...

Cry Cry Cry

We were lucky enough to have one of the guys that works with my mom and does photography on the side offer us a free 1 hour sitting and the CD with the pics as a present for Emersyn so we took the opportunity to take her Christmas pictures. We got some amazing pictures but the ones that I think are the funniest are the ones of her losing it since that is the side I see of her daily. Below is my daughter having a few of her typical meltdowns. I plan to use these as evidence in the future :-)

Everbodys got a laughin' place

Yesterday Emersyn laughed for the first time. For some reason she loves to have me high five both her hands really fast. She has always smiled when we played this "game" but yesterday as we were playing on her changing table.... she started laughing. Niether Jamie, Alex or I could get her to do it again, but she is right on the brink of it and I know that once she sees the reaction she gets from us when she does laugh that she will be laughing all the time.

Maybe mommy and daddy will get a few giggles on Thanksgiving.. great thing to be thankful for :-)

Geocaching fun

**I took the liberty of stealing Jamie's blog post and reposting it since we enjoyed the time together.

Geocaching is SO much fun. Here are a few of the questions some have asked:

• What is geocaching? Geocaching is an updated version of a scavengar hunt or hide-and-seek. You use clues and GPS coordinates to find the hidden 'treasure'.
• Is it expensive to do? Geocaching does NOT cost anything, and can offer hours of entertainment..for free!!
• Do you really have fun? Yes, we always have fun! It can be frustrating if you can't find it at first, but it really is a treat. Plus, you get exercise!
• Can you Geocache anywhere? Yep- even over seas. People all over the world play this game.
• Can you geocache with kids? Yes! Here is proof:

Our success today only feeds the anxiety to do it again! We hoped to find quite a few caches, and thanks to Princess Emersyn we found all of them. She was such a big help, being able to look in the hardest and smallest of places...

Today we found 5 geocaches: White Peaches, No Crab Here, World Trail Travel, Girly Girlz Memorial Day, and So You Want to go Huntin

 

Interested in geocaching, go to http://www.geocaching.com/

Rub a Dub Dub

I was so happy when Emersyn finally lost her unbilical cord stump and I could give her a real bath. The whole "sponge bath only" thing just wasn't cutting it and she was starting to get a little smelly. (Hey, she is my kid and I can say she smelled). After a week of hating the tub, she has finally started to love. She smiles and enjoys herself up until I wash her hair. Then she screams and bathtime is over. Since she can't sit up yet,  bathtime is still a two person job where Alex holds her up and I wash but I actually love the fact that bathtime is a family activity for us. And since nothing is cuter then a wet baby.. I have attached some pics from our bathtime tonight. (I covered up all her girly bits with a washcloth since I am not raising the next Brittney Spears or Paris).

First Halloween

Yesterday was Emersyn's first Halloween. Like other babies on their first Halloween, Emersyn did NOT pose cute for pictures, sleep peacefully while we took her Trick or Treating or take a break from her fussy time to let her mommy and daddy enjoy her first Halloween. We spent the night with Emersyn screaming as I put on her costume. Followed by her screaming half the drive over to my mom's house (the one house she Trick or Treated at), followed by my mom giving her a bottle (it was her treat), followed by us taking pics super quick before the screaming started up again. Emersyn just wouldn't be my daughter if she didn't add a little drama to the night. Below are some pics of the night. Even with the screaming, I think it was a fantastic first Halloween and can't wait until next year for Halloween.

Three weeks old

My darling daughter turned 3 weeks old on Friday and I decided to make a list (in honor of you Stephanie) of everything that I have learned in the past 21 days.

1. I can do almost anything one handed while holding a baby.
2. I can fall asleep anywhere, including standing up while holding my daughter.
3. I am astounded by people that can change a dirty diaper with only 3 baby wipes, I have to use 5 minimum and that is when it is an easy "load".
4. I can drive with one hand while reaching into the backseat of a rear facing car seat, find the binky, and put it back in my screaming daughters mouth. And I can do this while staying in my own lane :-)
5. A double chin on a baby is cute until formula starts to pool in it while she is eating... then it is just gross.
6. I can literally tune out my daughter when she has been screaming for over an hour and have a conversation with Alex. (For those of you concerned- I am holding and rocking her while she is screaming, not just letting her lay there and scream).
7. There are a plethora of sirens that go by my house at all hours of the night. I hear at least one at every nighttime feeding.
8. I have a TON of neighbors that stay out to 1 and 2am every night of the week. I hear them come home at night- it's kinda weird.
9. Somehow a little girl whose lady bits are in the middle of her- has a knack for peeing up the back of her diaper and out the top.
10. When my daughter pees up her back in the middle of the night, I have actually contemplated not changing her because it would wake her up. In the end, I always do.. but it's tempting!
11. I can go from frustrated with my screaming child to concerned the second I hear the tone of her cry change.
12. Gas is a bitch! It is what causes her to cry for hours on end and causes me to pay LOTS for sensitive formula instead of being able to buy the cheap Costco brand.
13. My daughter is not one of those "happy all the time" babies that everyone always talks about. She is moody and has a mind of her own already.
14. To add to #13- I wouldn't trade her for the world. She is the most beautiful, wonderful, frustrating little thing and I can't wait to see who she becomes as she grows older.

Please pass the tissues

So I have seen the sappy 'Lifetime movies' with the mom that is bawling her eyes out due to the lovely postpartum horomones but I always thought that they weren't really that bad. Until I had Emersyn. I can cry for any reason. A few nights ago when it was raining and hailing, I was awake with Emersyn and heard the noise outside. I went to the window and then woke Alex up crying because it was hailing on his car and I was so sorry we didn't have a garage for him to park his car in (side note- there was not a dent left on his car and he just laughed at me for crying). I can cry when I sing Emersyn to sleep because they are the songs my mom sang me, I cry when I get frustrated with her for not sleeping because I feel guilty for being annoyed at my precious baby and I can cry for absolutely NO reason (any episode of the Wonder Years which is now on each night gets me crying). I will never make fun of the sappy movies that showcase the "baby blues" again because as my sleep deprived body tries to regulate back to my pre-baby horomone levels, I may just cry a few more times just for the hell of it.

Oh there you are Peter...

Alex is by far one of the funniest people I have ever met, however apparently I lost my sense of humor in the last 3 months of pregnancy. I didn't realize I had changed until this week. I have found myself laughing all the time from hanging out with him and the new common phrase in our house is, "Stop, laughing hard hurts my incision" while I am holding my belly and continuing to laugh at him.

While on a trip to Target yesterday, Alex and I were laughing yet again at something stupid when he looked at me and stated, "I forgot you had a sense of humor when we got together." I was a little floored but sadly it was true. I had truly become a nasty 'witch' to him during the last few months and his attempts to be funny got him yelled at. Well, I am happy to say that in the 8 days since Emersyn has been born, I have fallen back in love with my Prince. I am laughing all time, wanting to hold his hand while we watch TV and cuddling with him on the couch. I have transformed back into the girl he fell in love with. Someone please remind me of this when I am pregnant with baby #2 so poor Alex doesn't have to deal with yet another round of "Pregnant nasty Amanda" :-)

Boobygate 2010

So when Emersyn was first born I wasn't producing any milk/colustrum and since the hospital frowns on not feeding your baby, we put Emersyn on formula. The friendly lactation lady came in and told me to pump a few times a day to help with the situation and what do you know..... I woke up Monday morning with "porn star boobs" (sorry but they just were). So we tried to nurse.

If any of you have children, you know that breast feeding is a lot more work for babies then bottles since they have to actually make an effort to get some food. Also, babies are VERY lazy. So, boobygate 2010 started. My push to get Emersyn to use the boob and her push to not. Well I thought we were doing well until Tuesday night when she was awake crying nonstop for almost 5 hours. She finally calmed down when I gave her a bottle. By Wednesday morning she hadn't poo'd since Monday and at the doctors appointment we found out she had lost weight. So... mommy caved a little and has realized that as long as my angel is well feed we can do boob and then bottle at each feeding.

The lactation specialist at the doctors told me no binky and no bottles because it will make her not want to nurse. While I agree that those efforts are probably productive, in our house we use the binky and we use the bottle. As long as my baby girl is getting the antibodies from the breast milk and the substance of the formula, we are happy. She may fight me each feeding when I try to get her latch but after a minute or two, mommy always wins and she nurses. Boobygate 2010 continues in our house, but I think that as the weeks go on. Breast feeding will get easier and my little angel will realize that mommy is MUCH more stubborn then she is.

It was supposed to be so much easier...

When we found out Emersyn was breech, back in August, we scheduled a C-section for a week before my due date (October 8th).  This meant I would get to "miss out" on contractions and labor pain...and for those of you who know me know this is a good thing!  However, little Emersyn had her own agenda.  On Thursday, Sept. 30th, just as we got into bed my water broke.  Neither of us panicked because we were told in birthing class "it can take hours from when your water breaks until labor truly begins".  They lied.

Luckily we rushed to the hospital (skipping the showering and shaving of my legs) because within two hours my contractions were every twenty seconds.  Since we were waiting on the spinal tap for surgery I had NO PAIN KILLERS.  Thankfully surgery started a little after midnight and 19 minutes into the first of October Emersyn was born.