happy 4 months, Emily!

Another successful month has flown by and Emily is doing great.

new jumparoo

Overseeing the operation

I like dogs and cats as long as they stay in this egg.

Our brave sleeper!

Emily did an amazing job resting in her OWN room in her crib the past two nights this weekend. I'm pretty sure we got 9.5 hours of sleep on Friday night! We are so very proud of her.

Thinking that she may be suffering from a mild case of reflux, we propped the left side of her crib up by about 8 inches so that she would sleep with her head slightly elevated. As you'd expect, gravity slowly took her and by the morning she was resting nicely against the right side of the crib.

One nice thing about a small house is that when she was starting to fuss, we could hear her!

Fingers crossed that night three is just as successful. Hopefully her turtle night light will keep her happy!

-M

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