Happy Thanksgiving

We have SO much to be thankful for this year and as we think back to the 9 year journey to receive this one precocious child, all the time spent bringing us to Emma fades and I am thankful to no longer feel like our lives are on hold.  It's nice to finally focus on being parents to Emma, not just bringing her home.  She happens to be standing on her head as I type this...pure comedy, everyday.
 
Emma will be enjoying her Thanksgiving dinner even more as she acquired 3 more chompers to eat with in the last week.  We will be on a "Turkey Crawl" for the next 3 days, enjoying feasts with different sides of our families, so by Sunday, we will be in a Turkey coma.
 
Happy Thanksgiving to all! 

Zippers

A few days ago, Emma was curious about the zipper on my fleece jacket, so I held her fingers in my hand while I zipped the jacket up and down.  Of course she thought this was hilarious and now when she sees a zipper, she grabs my hand and puts it on the zipper.

This morning when I went into Emma's room, I found her with her PJ's partially unzipped.  She still had the neck tab snapped, but her chest was fully exposed.  I couldn't stop laughing and had to wake Doug up so he could see this for himself.  Hopefully this was a one-time only find because the weather dipped and her room is a bit chilly for her to be climbing out of her pj's.  I'm not sure she realizes yet that if she is cold she should cover up with a blanket.  The blankets she primarily uses to cuddle with and to throw around/shake out when she wakes up, not really to cover up with.

Emma is catching on fast with getting dressed/undressed and now helps push arms in and is able to pull shirts over her head.  We are probably only a few months away from the dressing "wars" most parents experience as kids want to dress themselves, but not fully capable of buttoning etc.  That's also Emma's other new favorite, buttons.  If we have one on our clothing she points to it and wants us to say "button".

Copy cat

E. LOVES to copy cat everything we do this week...wiping off tables, chewing food, laughing and trying to repeat words we say. She breaks into a big grin after each copy cat move. I'm especially fond of her copying us picking up her toys and putting them away. We will be milking that move every chance we get until she realizes picking up toys is a chore and not a game.

Tonight we thought she looked taller than our last wall measurement and sure enough, she grew another 1/2 inch. Some of her 12 month pants are getting short, but the waist isn't ready for the next size, so I guess she will be wearing "high waters" until her waist catches up.

A little "off"

This week E. has been a little "off", so not much time to post between working and being home with her. We went to a family party over the weekend and had to move to a quieter area of the house when Emma became distressed with too many people in the room; she seemed fine after the change of scenery, but the strides we made with naps and bedtime have reversed on us a bit since then.

At the beginning of the week she was REALLY out of sorts, but as the week has moved forth, she has improved. Now I'm a little stressed about holiday gatherings and how many days/what kind of setbacks will happen. In general, most little kids get way overstimulated during the holidays and this year will be extra hard for E. She still has not met a lot of family and friends since coming home as we've had to take it very slow with her. For the most part, "blowing her gun" when she's nervous does not happen as often as it used to and we'd like to keep it that way.

The weather really warmed up here in Ohio, so we have been taking advantage of getting outside this week. Yesterday Emma and I took a stroll to the pharmacy versus driving. It is only an hour walk to/from, but there is a gigantic hill I had to push 21#'s of mouse and 26# of stroller to get us back home. I clearly was not thinking clearly...1pm stroll to the pharmacy with the sun beating down on us and pushing 57lbs up a hill that you can't stand straight while walking up it anyway, let alone pushing a stroller. GENIUS! I am in better shape than I thought though as the calves are only a little sore; last night all my running injuries were burning and I thought, "uh-oh". Emma of course loved the ride and we played a bit more in the driveway when we returned home so I could cool down in the nice breeze we had. I am milking being outdoors every chance we get until the cold weather forces us indoors!

Love Bug

We have quite the love bug on our hands the last few days.  She has woken up happy as a clam, blowing kisses before I even lift her out of the crib, then she's planting them on my face and lips all day. 
 
Yesterday I introduced E. to a rocking chair that was given to me when I was about 3 years old.  She loves sitting in the chair with a book and watching "The Wiggles".  She loves the chair so much, I was able to sneak in the kitchen for some dishwashing without her following me or crying at the baby gate.
 
Emma is such a mimic!  When I feed her, I have a tendency to prop my face with one hand, elbow on the table and feed her with the other hand.  The little ham is copying my moves while I am trying to feed her, then gives me the cheesy-McCheese grin she has.  The funniest part is that the elbow is never touching her tray, so it's a "floating" head prop-up.  She's so funny and she knows it!

Running with Dada

I love crazy hats

Ba no more

Bottle-free bootcamp was successful!  Emma is now 24-hours ba free and drinking only from her sippy cup, which we now refer to as a ba.  That seemed to be the trick, calling the sippy cup a ba.  Funny little brains these wee ones have!

She had a great day yesterday playing, reading and taking a ride in her wagon outdoors.  Mama froze her butt off, but Emma loves going around the block in her wagon and I made Emma wear a hat.  This morning we both woke up with sneezing, sniffles and gunk in our eyes as the Fall allergens are kickin' right now in Ohio.  I swear, I couldn't see anything clearly for the first 5 minutes this AM and it wasn't until I hopped in the shower that I was able to get the gunky film off my eyeballs.  Not sure what the eye gunk is about as it has never happened before, but we have spent the past 2 days being outside and normally I avoid the outdoors like the plague during this time of year because of my mold allergies. 
 
We are pretty sure Emma has allergies as she has this type of reaction in the hours after being outside every single time.  The pediatrician agrees with the allergy suspicions, but they don't diagnose children allergies until after 2 years old, so we treat E. with benadryl only when the runny nose gets too much and bothers her sleep.  Most of the children from Emma's orphanage have been diagnosed with allergies and excema which has already popped up on E.  We have to apply lotion 2-3x's daily or she starts getting red sore spots on her cheeks and legs, especially now that the cooler weather has moved in.

More Halloween pics

Happy Halloween!!!

Emma LOVED wearing her costume and riding in her wagon.  She was in a horrible mood most of the day, walking around with her hand in her mouth, but trick-or-treating redeemed the teething mood.  We thought E. was never going to wind down for bed, so finally I gave her "the ba" even though she didn't seem ready and she nearly passed out while chugging the milk down.
 
Emma is drinking the whole milk in a bottle, but refuses it from the sippy cup.  The odd part is she chugs water all day from the sippy, so we are bewildered as to why she won't take the milk in any of her sippy cups.  We try once everyday, with no luck, so we may have to cut the bottle out completely to make the milk in the sippy happen.
 
Flash forward to one hour later and a failed/returned blog posting...Emma drank 6oz of whole milk from her sippy and we celebrated with homemade blueberry pancakes!!!!