Happy New Year!

Emmelyn eats rice cereal!

Emmelyn turned 20 weeks --5 months!--old on Tuesday. That means it's time to start rice cereal. She doesn't quite know what to think yet. Mom needs to try again when she's not starving. During this attempt, she got frustrated she couldn't eat as fast as she can from a bottle and started crying until I gave her a bottle. We'll try again the next few days.

Emmelyn rolls over

More Christmas photos

Christmas Table

I think it would do my mother proud, if I do say so myself...

We spent Christmas Eve with our friends Rachel and Dustin, and their daughter, Molly, who is 5 weeks old. After a turkey dinner, Joe headed to work and later on in the evening Emmelyn and I went to a party at our friend Erin's house. It was a fun night --and special, as Erin became engaged to her boyfriend, Craig! Em was a good girl, but got scared of Craig and Erin's dog Rosie. I guess if I woke up from a nap to find a strange black lab inquistively looking at me, I'd be a little scare, too! On Christmas day we made chocolate chip pancakes and opened our Christmas present. Emmelyn of course, was very spoiled by her grandparents and other relatives (not to mention all the nice early X-mas gifts she got from Chris, Nicolle, Tessa and Lucas at Thanksgiving!) Santa was also king to Emmelyn --she got a baby sled we are hoping to test out next weekend when we are due for snow. She also got a Spinnin' Animals Zoo that she seems a little scared of...and some smaller things. Overall, it was a fun holiday. Emmelyn is resting right now, listening to the new lullaby CD she got from Grandma Sue and Grandpa Jerry. We hope everyone had a great time with their respective family/friends!

Merry Christmas!

Em has kept us busy as ever this week, and as you can see from the below videos, she is really finding her voice. She seems to like experimenting with new sounds and has just discovered different volumes. She continues to be fascinated by mirrors and by Mopsy. She also loves, I mean LOVES, pacifiers. And she has learned to throw them. Lucky us. I now have an emergency pacifier "hidden" so I know where one is if all the others are lost and I need to find a pacifier pronto. Em has learned to take her pacifier out of her mouth, but she gets mad when she can't put it back in. So now, we put one pacifier in her mouth and make sure we have one on hand for her to grab. That seems to do the trick...most of the time. She is a funny girl who is very particular, stubborn and determined when she wants something. Somedays, I think we've met our match. But, then I remember she probably inherited that streak from me, and I will just have to outfox her at her own game sometimes. ;-) We're looking forward to celebrating the holidays this week with friends and we hope everyone has a great Christmas!

Emmelyn's 4-month checkup

Emmelyn had her 4-month checkup with Dr. Morgan and she surprised us as we thought she was going to be a giant. She weighed in at 14 pounds, 8 ounces and is in th 60th percentile for weight (pretty average, after all). She is, however, perhaps going to be tall like her dad. Her length is close to 26 inches, which puts her in the 75th percentile for height.

She also got more shots and did NOT enjoy it. She screamed, her entire face got red she was so bad, and she balled her little hands up into fists. She was better a short time later, but was fussy for Joe all day. (He is off with her all day on Mondays).

Dr. Morgan reports that Emmelyn is a healthy girl who is devleoping right on track. We were mildly concerned that Emmelyn isn't regularly rolling over. She rolls onto her side and then doesn't seem interested in doing much else. Dr. Morgan says rolling onto her side does constitute "rolling over" and that some babies delay rolling onto their tummies simply because they do not like it. (Em hates tummy time, so this could be the case with her). She gave the doctor a big smile, so she showed off her social development. We got back for her 6-month appointment on Valentine's Day, provided ear infections or colds don't bring us back sooner.

EWatching the game on Saturday morning

Christmas decorating

Christmas tree!

The holiday season!

We've had a busy week adjusting to more changes --we are both now back at work full time, and Em's nanny, Sara, started this week. She is a University of Utah graduate from an early childhood education program and she is very good with Emmelyn. She works Tues.-Fri. from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. (Joe watches Emmelyn until he goes to work). So, it is a good set-up, but still hard the first couple of days knowing one of us couldn't be with her at all times. By Sara's third day, Emmelyn seemed to be more used to her routine and Sara reported Em seemed a little more interested in playing with the new "stranger." We are getting ready for Christmas and went to see Santa in Sugarhouse today. Emmelyn didn't cry, but seemed confused by what the heck she was doing next to a guy in a big red suit.

Em continues learning and growing everyday. She has figured out how to take her pacifier out of her mouth and enjoys clutching it and waving it around. Now, if she could only figure out how to put it back in --she gets very frustrated when she realizes it is not in her mouth anymore!

We hope to try to get our Christmas tree set up by the end of the weekend, so we'll post some new pics at that time.