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.

Five Months

So, I could have sworn I left a little baby around here somewhere, but I have looked and looked and all I can find is this big ol' 5 month old!

She is growing SO.FAST.

I love it and hate it all at once.

She would not take her hands out of her mouth for her pictures. Which makes this much more accurate, because those hands are always in her mouth anyway!

 She is very interested in sitting up, but she kind of sucks at it!

We were trying to get a picture of her sitting so Mikey would hold her and I would try to catch a shot before she wiped out. 

We were laughing so hard at her!

on your mark...

get set...

fall!

now go this way...

"seriously people?"

Sweet sisters! 

Emily loves sticking her hands in the dogs mouths while they lick her.

Gross but inevitable so I will just have to learn to deal with it!

Busted!

I believe we will see this look on both of their faces many times in the future.

Previous months:

(Aunt Katie says she hasn't really changed since month 1...she may be right according to these!)

Let's party, Emily is 21!! (weeks)

Lots of milestones around here these days! 

Our girl is getting so big, sometimes it seems like she grows overnight. She is SO much fun to be

around - always smiling and laughing (mostly at her daddy and his funny faces).

She is very aware of us and where we are and she is always watching our every move.

This is her watching me put on my makeup before work.

 She also found her feet recently. This means that socks don't stay on for long! Guess the world will now see her one flaw - Flintstone feet. They are little squares and the toenails are sharp as knives, because they kind of grow up instead of out and I can't really cut them.

Is there plastic surgery for feet?

I don't know why I keep taking variations of this same picture - the two of them nap together like this frequently. It just melts my heart though.

Aunt Katie sent me a picture of this outfit in her cart at Target, and luckily I was able to tell her not to buy it, since I had already purchased it the day before! Great minds, I tell ya!

Why does she look HUGE all of a sudden? This is never going to end is it? They just keep growing, don't they????

Emily and her cousin Erin, snoozing together at my parent's house last Friday. 

We tried a little rice cereal recently. She didn't hate it, but I am not sure that a ton of it actually made its way in to her stomach!

We will try again soon.

She is now eating 8oz per feeding, and usually takes 5 bottles per day.

This past Sunday was absolutely gorgeous, so Emily and I went to the park while Mikey golfed. We went on a short nature walk, and then found ourselves a shady spot to hang out in.

Emily napped, I read, we stopped at Sonic on the way home - it was an awesome afternoon! We will definitely be repeating that one.

Emily's other new trick this week is rolling over from back to front! She has been so close to doing it for about a week but just couldn't make that last push. So the other night, we put her to bed and a little while later we checked the monitor and, what do you know, she was on her tummy!

I managed to restrain myself and only went in to flip her over twice - once when she was up against the rails and fussing, and once at midnight when I checked on her and she was face down on the mattress. Logically I know that she is strong enough to turn her head and she won't smother, but I just couldn't sleep knowing she was lying that way.

So far she only flips in her crib though - we haven't seen her do it "live", only over the monitor.

Since my parents have their house on the market, we have moved some of their stuff to our house temporarily. My mom has a bouncy chair for Emily and it is here now. 

The first few times we put her in it she just kind of hung there and smiled at us. This time she was playing with all the stuff herself!

Not much longer and those toes will touch the floor.

Emily went to check the mail with Daddy last night.

And then they tried to take a peek at the bird's nest on the top of that column.

And that is how Emily spent her week!