Stars and Stripes

today emmy saw her first parade....and wow oh wow she just couldn't believe it...
it's fun how each day with a baby is something new and exciting...it's like experiencing everything for the first time all over again...
and the fact that the parade was only about 10 minutes was even more perfect. the perfect length, the perfect weather...it was a good day with great friends

Emmy's pool...or Winston's big water dish

it's been so hot so we are trying to partake in lot of water activities. friday emmy and i went down to the beach and she splashed as the waves came up on shore.
friday night i bought her a water table. and it was so much fun to sit and play- but that only lasted so long before she was begging to get in. and since she fit, why not?

what a happy baby. winston was jealous and wished he could get in too...

everytime i take emmy to her closet to get dressed she pulls on this dress so i let her wear it. she likes the bright colors.

saturday i found myself in the attic of the garage pulling down the little pool. what was once Winston's pool is now emersons, although winston did try to get in ...

this is the closest Brad has ever gotten to helping give Emmy a bath... and yes, we decided since she was already wet and I was just too tired from being sick, that this would be a great time for a bath.

i think she enjoyed it!

a little R & R

Thank goodness Memorial weekend is here! Brad needs some rest after flying the whole month with no sleep, and I have come down with a sinus infection so am a little under the weather. I'm hoping we can get in a lot of rest and relaxation this weekend!
When Emmy wakes up from her nap I hope to go down to the beach and let her play in the water. She loves being outdoors and I'm sure will get a kick out of the lake.
Hope you all have a great long weekend!

love of shoes

it's a big day when i put shoes on my child...she starts giggling and just loves to touch them and put them in her mouth. it is so much fun having a girl. i cannot wait until she's a little bigger and can fit in her ugg boots. she will just love those!
we had a decent night. she crashed at 6 so i knew it was going to be an early morning. she was up once at 10 and then up for good at 5am so we had to take a little nap before daycare this morning. here she is after waking up from her nap before i dropped her off. i'm so lucky i have such a lenient job that i can go in later than most!

happy wednesday!

just a typical morning

Life after 6PM

It's amazing how much you can get done when you can stay up past 6 - I've been really enjoying the fact that Emmy is no longer connected to me all night long and I'm not stuck in bed when Emmy is napping or sleeping for the night. Tonight we had dinner with the Savages although Emmy was soo tired and wanted to go to bed at 5!! Then Brad and I came home and planted 10 little Colorado Blue Spruce trees. I hope they make it! Now I'm catching up on email, watching the Bachelorette!!! and playing with my new camera! SO excited!!
Here's pictures I took of Emmy tonight with it.

Dare I say...

that she is crib trained on day 2!!
She went down at 7:55 as I had to lay her down for a late afternoon nap after daycare - she only took a late morning nap there (for 3 hours) so was in need of one when she got home...so she went down after 8 minutes of crying and slept until 4:30 am! So I changed and nursed her and laid her back down. She let out one scream and was out! And she's still sleeping (it's almost 7am!) maybe a late bedtime is better! it certainly would work well for everyone else! we got to enjoy the evening with her and take the dogs (Winston and Buckley) down to the dock for a swim and then take a walk with the Markell's. I love this weather....

day 1 down...going well!

day one of crib training was a great success! she went down at 6:45 and woke again at 8 so we let her cry it out....22 minutes :( but then she didnt wake until 11 and that time only cried 1 minute sleeping until 3, cried for 10 minutes and slept until 6am! the latest she has EVER slept! she was even snoring this morning. of course i didnt sleep at all as i was so afraid she had stopped breathing but all was well....aaahhhh - this is going to be a great thing! today she took a very late morning nap at daycare so was tired when i picked her up. she has now been sleeping an hour and it's almost 5pm so i have a feeling it's going to be a rough start to the night as i broke the never let a baby sleep past 3 rule....but what do you do when she's tired and it's still almost 4 hours until bedtime? hopefully tonight will be okay as i'm going it alone....not that brad even woke up last night. how he sleeps through her crying is beyond me! oh well he needed his sleep as he has 4 nights of flying in a row starting tonight.
here are some pics of her posing in her adirondack chair from gma and gpa savage...

Your not the boss of me

the battle has begun- i guess for me it took to the point of complete exhaustion to be so desperate and beaten down to give in to letting her cry it out in the crib. after an hour of her screaming last night at 2am we laid her down at about 3:30 and let her scream...and she did - but thank goodness only for 17 minutes and then she was out until 5:30. but of course i laid wide awake in bed waiting for her to make a noise, and of course she fell asleep with her face buried in her blanket and her leg through one of the railings so i was so worried she would somehow stop breathing! no one said this would be easy but there is something that seems sooo wrong about letting your poor little baby cry herself to sleep when you know she just wants you....but, alas, i have not slept for more than 2 hours straight in 9 months, she is sleep deprived, i am sleep deprived, brad gets better sleep on the road flying, and even winston has been begging to let me let him sleep on the porch at night to escape the madness.
we had emmy's 9 month doc appt. on friday and this is what started it all. she is doing great - 74% percentile for weight, 49% for height, but my baby is sleep deprived. i was confused as to why she consistently gets up at 4:30 but it's because we are keeping her up until 8 which is too late. we were letting her take a late afternoon nap at about 4, not okay. i guess there is a rule (where is my handbook) not to let baby's nap past 3 in the afternoon....and the doc says baby's bedtime should be between 6 and 7....last night we put her down at 6:45 which seemed to work well for her. I will just have to make sure she is home and ready for bed by about 6:30 from now on. no more pushing the envelope.
i want to be able to enjoy a summer evening now and then, and work while she sleeps. i love my little girl and this is going to be the best for all of us.. it just may be a painful week :( but we are currently on nap #1 of the day in the crib and this time she only cried for 7 minutes so that is progress i think??? hopefully she'll sleep for an hour at least???
i hope we can do this so she can begin overnights at paula's house! she got a crib so that will be perfect! and i can start living again!!!
here are some pictures from yesterday. we ran a family 5K. Emmy and Brad won of course :) and then we went out for breakfast at cobblestone. brad hung a hammock in our yard and i cant wait to lay out in it with the baby monitor in my hand and enjoy a sunny afternoon! aaaahhh....i think this may be the start to something wonderful! if i ever do this again...i will definitely be doing things differently from the start....emmy gave my the staredown yesterday and you could just tell she was thinking she was the boss of me....but the winds are about to change and i'm taking back this house from my little 3 foot dictator! (even if she's adorable)

Wedding and Mother's day

Saturday was the Peine wedding in St. Paul so we got all dressed up and headed down. Emmy was an angel in church. Grandpa Ron held her the whole time. She loved his tie and glasses. Too bad he probably couldn't use his glasses the rest of the night due to all of the slobber :) The wedding was beautiful and besides being exhausted and finally falling asleep during the social hour (the loudest part of the evening) Emmy was on her best behavior and made it thru dinner until about 8:30. Thank you Paula for holding her during dinner so Brad and I got to eat! She babbled the whole way home and finally started getting crabby when I turned into our driveway and was out like a light. Here are some pics for the night.... thank you Lauren and Hannie for borrowing us an outfit. I really only had stopped over to say hi on our way to buy a dress for the wedding but they insisted and saved me some $$ so thank you!

just a little catnap to get her thru....

well unfortunately daddy even though he was home pretty early, is out of practice so had to spend the morning in bed for Mother's day. But after a nap he rebounded and we headed to the lake to run the dogs. He also bought me a certificate to the spa so I cannot wait to use it! Very sweet of him. Tonight my family is at Ron and Paula's for dinner and while I should have gone, I really wanted a bubblebath and some quiet time to work. Pretty lonely here tonight but it's going to be a very busy work week so wanted to get a jump on it and sometimes it's nice to have the house to myself...but I am so lucky to have my baby and Brad - very lucky indeed. Happy Mother's day to all those mothers.

First trip to the zoo

okay, this wasnt the zoo but I thought her face was cute

in a good mood at home playing before the trip

eyes are huge, she woke up and didnt know what to think...

she LOVES fish, discovered this at the doctor's office and now has to watch a fish clip on baby einstein over and over again... can't wait to take her to underwater world...

love brad's face in this next one. there was a questionable prom/wedding party walking around...very lovely indeed

she loved the seals and I could tell they loved her too, they wanted to come out and play...