Eyes (and bubbles)

Still not sure about eye color! Darkish, greyish, green?

Peterson Grandparents!

Recently, Grandpa and Grandma Peterson made their way out to see the three of us. We had a great time!

In addition to all of the relaxing moments, we had some great walks around the block, fixing things around the house, and delicious meals like pot pie! Mmm.

Emily had a blast and so did we. Thanks for all your help, Grandpa and Grandma!

good advice

Occasionally, Mom is too busy for us and when we need to make a decision, I ask Emily for help. Here, she's helping me select some items to buy on Amazon.

-M

Past Month...

Time seems to keep flying by! Here are some highlights from August:

* Bath-time! Emily's always been a good sport about her baths. As long as we keep dribbling the warm water over her, she's one happy camper.

* Speaking of dribbling, Emily's mouth has become a constant faucet of raspberries and spit bubbles. Consequently, the shoulders of our shirts are forever drenched.

* Emily is regularly participating in involuntary "tummy time" --meaning we flip her over and make her root around on her belly for a few minutes. Depending on her mood she either loves this, tolerates it, or cries right off the bat. This is her on a good day.

* Emily's become an avid thumb sucker (yay!), giving our pinky fingers a much needed break. When trying to fall asleep, she often has her left thumb in her mouth and the other hand/arm swept across her eyes, presumably to block out the sun. (Although I wonder if it's more of a dramatic gesture. Is she destined to become an actress?)

* She had her first ride across the Golden Gate Bridge last week. Alas, she slept through it.

* No complaints about her night-time habits: Emily sleeps from around 9:30pm until 3 or 4am, wakes for a feeding, and then heads back to bed until 7 or 8am. We still have her in the Pack'n'Play in our bedroom--can't seem to leave her alone in her nursery just yet. Oh, I almost forgot: to celebrate her 3 month birthday Emily slept for 9 hours straight!! What a pleasant surprise.

* Emily went on several successful restaurant outings with me these past few weeks--and she was a dream on all but one occasion. Luckily Matt and I were together for that one, so we took turns walking her around the parking lot of Chili's. Ah, the joys of parenthood :)

* At a neighborhood garage sale and we came across an electronic baby swing in very good condition. Having no idea if Emily would love it or hate it, we talked the sellers into taking $20 for it. After loading it into our car, they were so glad it would be put to good use they only accepted $10. Hands down this was THE best $10 ever spent--Emily loves her new swing! She often naps for nearly 2 hours in it, and wakes up cooing like an angel. The only other time she got this kind of daytime rest was when lying on me. This swing has afforded me all kinds of freedoms--when she sleeps my hands are now my own again. So bless you, our neighbors on Folsom, for selling us a baby swing at a very reasonable price. Bless you, bless you, bless you.

* Finally, we had the first "portrait" of our family taken when my folks were in town!

Found it!!

Emily seems to have finally mastered the art of sucking her thumb. Hoorah! From time to time she still pulls it out unknowingly, but now she can pop it back in and continue sucking 'til her heart's content.

3 Months

For Miss Emily's 3 month birthday, we celebrated with an apple pie. It was about her size. She loved it. We did too.

who me?

the Grohowski visit

We had a great time with Becky and Grandpa & Grandma G this past week!

-M

coordination

There's been a little bit of this recently - an adventurous finger or thumb will fly a little too close to the black hole that is Emily's mouth. The gravitational pull is still not strong enough to keep these daring digits locked in, but they do occasionally leave quite wet.

-M

ready for blast off

happy two months, Emily!

Mmm! Aunt Becky's lemon bars were a perfect two month birthday treat.

-M

Aunt Steph's Visit

Aunt Stephanie paid us a visit last weekend, and we all had a great, relaxing time. Emily was delighted to meet her other Aunt!

Not only did we enjoy the farmer's market Saturday morning, but we made a tremendous grilled bbq chicken dinner complete with sweet potato / garlic / onion medley (not shown) and we finished it off with Aunt Becky's amazing strawberry shortcake (also not shown). Thanks for coming out, Steph, and congratulations on your engagement, Steph and Luke!

-M

Good Times

Someone likes playing with Daddy...

The Inevitable...

Well it happened. I've been expecting this since Emily was born, just hoping it would take a little longer. Last weekend Matt and I were changing Emily and as we finished up I said, "Dad, I'm going to take a shower. Cool?" And Matt said yep before I even realized what I'd done. I called him Dad. Not in the context of speaking for Emily (as in "Daddy can you hold me?" or Daddy, what should I wear today?") But I called him Dad, as in my dad. Oy vey.

The other "inevitable" is that Emily's slowly rubbing out the hair all across the back of her head. She's now constantly looking from side to side in her crib, as though she might miss some big event if she doesn't scan from left to right and back every 2 seconds. Silly girl!

6 Weeks

I'm finding it hard to believe that tomorrow it'll be 6 weeks since our baby girl arrived. In that short time she's grown so much and we've learned a lot about little Emily: she loves falling asleep on daddy's chest * she's completely content babbling to her owl mobile in the early morning hours before we're awake * her tendency to cry is almost always soothed when Matt's pinky finger is slipped into her mouth * she desperately wants to suck her thumb, but hasn't been able to find it * despite what all the experts say, she's not a fan of swaddling * she kicks out her left foot when she's both excited and upset * when mama's not available she feeds from the bottle like a champ * on weekend mornings she likes hanging out with us in "the big kids' bed" * and when not being held, her favorite spot to hang out is her changing table.

We're uncovering more secrets of our little peanut every day, and just hoping we catch on quickly enough to keep up with her!

a

(This photo is from Emily's 1 month birthday celebration a few weeks back.)

july 4

What better way to celebrate our independence from England, than with a sleeping baby on my stomach and a PS3 controller in my hands.

-M

Shake, Rattle, and Roll

No, I'm not talking about Emily's movements, but rather her first earthquake. At less than 5 weeks old, Emily's a true California girl having experienced a 3.5 quake already! It only lasted about 10 seconds, just enough for it to register in my head that we were indeed experiencing an earthquake, to assure Emily we were ok, and to wonder if I should bring her under the door frame with me. After the tremor subsided, I decided to research what in fact we should do with a baby in an earthquake. Rest assured, we'll be prepared next time.

In other events this past week, Emily had her one month check-up and is still growing fast! She's in the 75th percentile for weight, height, and head circumference (no foolin'!). We feel proud she's so proportionate :) Selfishly, I'm glad she hit her growth spurt after birth and was only at the 50th percentile when she was born.

This past week Grandma G was here for a visit, but after tomorrow we'll be a household of 3 again for a little while before Aunt Stephanie arrives in July. Hopefully we'll go on some outings this holiday weekend and have some more pictures to post soon!

a

happy father's day!

we had a wonderful first father's day! Emily surprised me by dressing up in her (and my) favorite onesie. Notice the red in her hair? I think Grandma Dickson would be proud! Depending on the light, Emily's hair looks red, blonde, or brown. Time will tell as to what it actually turns into.

Once we did get out of the house, we drove across the bay bridge to Oakland and walked around a favorite spot of ours - Lake Merritt. There's always a good amount of bird watching to be done and today didn't disappoint. Beside the endless throngs of canadian geese and pigeons, we saw a group of white pelicans land and hunt for fish. One did get tricked by a goose feather. Apparently they aren't as smart as I thought they were.

Here's Emily enjoying the sun. The stroller did have to go off-roading quite a bit, but Emily hung in there like a little trooper. We may have to outfit that stroller with bigger wheels for future trips.

After our stroll around the lake, we went to Fenton's for lunch and ice cream. Emily was on very good behavior so we treated her to a milkshake.

-M 

time for ice cream

As little Emily contently lays by my side on our bed, just watching me sit, type and eat a popsicle, I'm really thinking that Amy and I are pretty lucky. Besides the occasional outburst that usually means Emily is hungry or trying go to the bathroom, she's generally a very happy baby who loves to watch her Mom walk around and enjoys listening to her Dad sing goofy songs. So far. Knock on wood.

Grandma Peterson is here this week and has made it possible for Amy and I to enjoy some downtime. On, Sunday, we braved the heat and walked a mile to Mitchell's Ice Cream Parlor on Valencia. I'd never been before and now wonder how I could've avoided such an amazing place for the past 9.5 years. My scoop of sweet coconut ice cream had bite-size chunks of coconut! Delicious. Amy opted for the Praline ice cream and the couple bites I stole reminded me of the candied pecan treats we'd get in Louisiana.

Another funny Emily anecdote - she's starting to fake sneezes. She'll have a fit of several sneezes at once and then add another of her yelling for good measure.

Uh oh. She's making zombie eyes (rolling into the back of her head). Time to put her to bed. She's still fighting her cold, after all.

-M

holding down the fort

Today was my first day back at work. It is very hard to believe that the past two weeks of Emily's life have already passed by and that my "bringing home the bacon" duties have to resume. While it was only a half day, it still felt difficult leaving. The day's best moment was coming home and walking in to a smiling Amy and a sleeping Emily - great success! It filled me with a lot of pride and happiness to hear that Amy managed just fine.

In other news, Emily has the worst congested nose. Every breath she takes sounds like she's got a throat full of saliva. We've heard that near the one month milestone, she starts to develop more saliva and the congested sounds are normal. And with her heightened growing abilities (ha ha), it's very possible she's two weeks early with that as well. The good news is that we have a weight check tomorrow at the pediatrician so should be able to find out how bad the congestion really is and if we can use our suction plunger on her. Fun!

Happy two week birthday, Emily! How can it feel like a year ago that I cut Emily's umbilical cord, and yet feel like it was just yesterday that we left the hospital? Weird.

-M

More weekend cuteness

She loves her blanket! She loves it so much, moments later she spit up on it.

Mom & Emily napping.

-M

What we've learned so far...

Emily has come a long way in the past 9 days.

What do we know about her so far?

She often doesn't know when to stop eating! This may be a contributing factor as to why she's already exceeded her birthrate a week early and is hovering around 8.5 lbs. Well done!

She loves being held. Her little cries are often quelled when one of us picks her up and cradles her.

She loves going for walks and car rides. Today she went shopping for outfits with her parents in Noe Valley and then to Trader Joe's. Yesterday, she went to Babys R Us and Target. The previous two days she went for walks down Cortland Ave.

She's also a very good sleeper (so far). Her Mom & Dad got 8 hours of sleep last night!

-M

Umm.

I just witnessed 8 day old Emily roll over on to her stomach in her crib this morning. She stayed there for about a minute and then proceeded to roll back on to her back. I hope that's normal.

-M