Mush for brains

No, not Emily, me! It has recently, and frequently, been mentioned that I need to update my blog. I mean to write more often, but most days I am so drained by the time that I get Emily to bed that I don't feel like I can put together coherent sentences. I have also been trying to get up earlier to work out - and in this case earlier means 5 a.m., since I was already getting up at 5:30 so that I could get to work by 7:30. So yeah, I'm tired. But enough about me! I know that anyone that is reading this only wants Emily pictures anyway!

At the end of May, we had Emily's 6 month photos taken by our friend Evin. You can see the best of them here - http://evinphotography.com/blog/2013/06/emily-6-month-portraits-at-harlinsdale-farm-franklin-tn/

She was such a good little model! She smiled and put up with outfit changes and was about as cute as can be. I can't decide which ones to order! I think I might wallpaper my house in them.

We took Emily for a walk at a lake near our house a few weeks ago. I think she liked it!

Sophie continues to be a big favorite around here. She is just so darn delicious I guess!

We have a walk in attic upstairs in our house and one day I opened the door to put something away and saw that there were bits of insulation pulled out all over the place. Mikey climbed up there and found this little bird hanging out. He let him go out back, but a few days later we heard him up there again. Silly bird.

Outfit pictures!

Emily is so close to being able to crawl! She can push up on her arms, and she can get her knees underneath her, but she just can't do both of these things at once!

But man you should see her spin in a circle.

A friend found her this little princess car at a garage sale and she seems to like it, even though her feet are no where close to reaching the ground.

 These kids and their internets these days.

 Fathers Day was a good day! Emily and I made her Daddy a funfetti cake, and we got him a golf bag that he picked out. She dressed for the occasion (of course!)

I got him this onesie for Father's Day last year, when we knew a baby was coming, but before it really really sunk in.

In our wildest dreams, we could not have come up with a more perfect baby to wear this!

She is everything we didn't even know we could ask for.

This past weekend we went to Kentucky for a long overdue visit. 

Cousin Ryah read Emily a book. 

Emily was more interested in trying to eat the book, but whatever!

They played all weekend long. Ryah really wants to take care of Emily and she was a big help with changing diapers, feeding her bottles and entertaining her.

Time to swim!

And finally, some pictures I took the past two days that just blow me away by how grown she looks!

She is sitting just like it's no big deal, giving me that coy little smile. 

Such a goofball!

She thought I was going to "get her".

And then Daddy walked in the room..

And that's all for now! I can't promise, but I will say that I will try to update sooner next time!

She will be 7 months old in a few days so we are due for another photo shoot soon.

6 Months!

As of last Monday, our little lady is 6 whole months old! I'm pretty sure I have mentioned it once or twice, but she is an absolute joy and the light of our lives.

Some things about Emily, so that I don't forget:

She weighs 15.7 lbs and is 26 inches long, which puts her in the 45th percentile for weight and 75th for height. A tall, thin, blue eyed, blonde? Uh oh! The weight one is kind of funny to me because she seems like such a chunk, but then again I have nothing to compare her to.

She is eating Stage 1 baby foods twice a day and drinking 6 to 8 ounces of formula four times a day. So far she has had avocados, peaches, sweet potatoes, green beans, apples and bananas. Bananas and peaches seem to be the faves, but she hasn't rejected anything yet! She sits in her highchair to eat and bangs her hand on the tray in between each bite.

She goes to bed around 7:30 or 8:00 and always lets us know she is tired by rubbing her eyes with her fists. We let her hold on to her soft blankie to fall asleep and then we sneak back in and take it from her, just to be on the safe side. She sleeps until about 6:00 am and rarely wakes up in the night. On the weekends, she gets up about 6, we feed her and then we all three go back to sleep for another few hours.

She can roll over both ways and sit up for a few seconds unassisted. No attempt to crawl yet, but she moves all around her crib at night somehow - every time we check on her she is in a different corner!

She continues to be praised by her daycare teachers on what a good baby she is. They all comment on her happy disposition and how easy she is to care for. It means so much to me to hear that, because that tells me she is happy and content there and it makes me feel better about being away from her all day.

We had her 6 month photo shoot and her 6 month check up all on the same day. The photos went so well - I can't wait to see them! The check up went well too, even though she had to get 5 shots! They usually combine 3 of those into one shot, but there is a shortage of that blend so they had to stick her 5 times. And this time I had to hold her arms down and she was looking right at me and SCREAMING and I felt so bad for her! But like every other time, as soon as the nurse was done and I could pick her up, she was fine.
She has been coughing and wheezing on and off for a while now, and we watch her carefully, but she never runs a fever or has interrupted sleep so we figured it was just allergies. Her doctor said it could be allergies and gave us the ok to give her some allergy meds, but he was also concerned about the wheezing. We now have a nebulizer and have to give her breathing treatments every day and go back to let him listen again in 3 weeks. Poor booger.

Ok, so enough words - time for some pictures!

Why does she look 7 feet long here?!

Always busy, exploring everything she can reach.

Getting a photo of her and Sydney together is quite the challenge now. Emily LOVES her puppy sisters. She laughs and reaches for them every time they walk by. 

And Sydney thinks that any sweet talk must be directed at her, so whenever I would try to get Em's attention, Sydney would get up and come to me. Grrr.

Look at the joy on that face! Sydney and Marlee are in trouble when this one gets mobile!

Previous months:

Happy Days

One of the words I hear used most often to describe Miss Emily is HAPPY! Her daycare teachers tell me almost every day how happy she is. Everyone who meets her usually comments on it. And it is true - she is almost always smiling! I am so thankful for that. I know that I can't protect her forever and that this life knocks us all on our rear occasionally, but I sure hope she can hold on to her sunny disposition as long as possible. She deserves to have more smiles than frowns!

Anybody who can smile while covered in green beans must be a happy soul!

The main reason she is so covered in them....she wants to feed herself!

If she could reach the cabinets where the food is, she wouldn't need me at all anymore!

All that feeding herself is exhausting though - she was too tired to close her eyes all the way for her nap.

Allison brought Em a bag full of her girl's hand me downs and we couldn't wait to wear them!

This little outfit was so cute but a tad tight for her big ol diaper bootie...she had a bit of a wedgie all day. Which explains the sour look on her face!

My little flower.

Burrito Baby!

She apparently loves her jumper from Aunt Katie!

I took this picture of the tag on her boppy pillow, because I used to stare at it when she was nursing and think "we are never going to get to the 6 month use of this thing". And what do you know, in the blink of an eye, here we are! Emily will be SIX months old on Monday.

I am sure that any parents reading this are like "yes, Reagan, children grow up. Deal with it."

And I am so looking forward to her growing - watching her learn, hearing her thoughts, playing with her and showing her all the places and things that her Dad and I love - I can't wait for those days!

And while we might have other children one day who will use the Boppy during months 0, 2 and 4, Emily has moved past that. And that makes me happy and sad.

The happy and the sad

Sorry for the blogging delay - things were crazy busy at the first of the month and then, in the past week, our family suffered an unexpected loss.
My sweet Grandaddy passed away last Monday. He was 81 years old and, up until a few months ago, very healthy for his age. Around the first of the year, he found out that he had several blocked arteries and he made the decision to go ahead with the surgery to repair them. The surgery went well, but he had a severe reaction to being put under anesthesia and ended up with post operative dementia. Apparently it happens alot, especially in older people, but most are able to come out of it within a few days or weeks. In my Grandaddy's case, he was never able to fully shake it and required 24 hour care from his 5 children.
My mom and her siblings spent every moment of his last few months of life taking care of their daddy. I know it was difficult and I know there were times they wished they could skip a shift, but they did an amazing job of making sure he could stay in his home as long as possible. I hope they know what an extraordinary thing they did for him.
Eventually he came to require more care than they could give him and had to be admitted to the hospital for observation in anticipation of placing him somewhere that he could be safe and medically attended to. Last Sunday night the hospital staff checked on him once and he was fine and when they checked again 30 minutes later, he was unresponsive. They were able to resuscitate him and place him on a ventilator, but he had been without oxygen too long and the damage to his brain was too severe. A few of us were able to make it to the hospital in time to be with him during his last moments. It was awful and amazing all at once. We should all be so lucky as to leave this world surrounded by love.
I had some of the best grandparents that a person could ask for, and I know that they are together now, as they were for most of their lives.

Since the title of this blog promised happy and sad, I am going to move on to the happy. It would be easy to stay on the sad - that is where my heart is right now - but I think we all have to try to find the happy at times like these. I don't have to look far though - Emily Marie brings me nothing but happy!

She came to all of the funeral proceedings and hopefully brought a smile to a few faces. She was an angel - held and passed around and kept up past her bedtime two nights in a row and barely a fuss out of her.

So - on to the photos!

We have tried solid foods a few times lately, with mixed results. She wants to hold the spoon herself and chew on it, but she isn't so much interested in swallowing the food!

 Bottles are still a big hit though!

My little fashionista in her menswear inspired top and jeggings.

Looking thrilled.

Aunt Katie requested some smiling photos of our girl, and Emily was more than happy to oblige.

Leg warmers on a mild day.... Big hit at daycare!

 This past weekend we headed down to Atlanta for Katie and Tyler's 2nd annual Crawfish Boil.

Gross.

The corn and potatoes were good though!

Emily enjoyed the cups.

 One of Katie's friends from highschool makes the cutest kids clothes and I had her make this crawfish dress for Emily to wear at the party. Of course, it was a hit!

And those bows were perfectly positioned for her to chew on!

Emily's daycare had picture day recently and this was the proof they sent home.

I am not sure why Gerber is not knocking down our door, but it is just their loss.

Think of all the baby food this face would sell! :)

Strawberry butt

 Ready to go home after a long day at the funeral home. Look at those long legs!

Emily only got to be around her Great Grandaddy a few times before he died, but she will grow up being told story after story about him so she will feel like she knew him. And we can show her this blog and hundreds of pictures, and she will know he loved her.