2 month checkup

Today was Emily's checkup--not my favorite one (or hers, either, I'm guessing) due to the shots. She's now 22 inches long, and weighs 11-4!! She was a really good patient, though, and only cried for a minute after her 3 shots. I love all of the free samples that our pediatrician gives--I got a whole bottle of tylenol, and they even gave me two bandaids in case Emily's fell off. Hilarious.
You can kind of see her two Snoopy bandaids on her little (?) thighs.

Supposed to be sleeping

Emily woke up early from her nap, so I put her in the swing to try to get her to go back to sleep. At first I think she was too entertained to sleep, but then she finally dropped off.

Emily

Some of these pictures are in response to me, some are in response to her new toy.

You can see the corner of the new toy--it has a mirror on it, and in theory she can see her reflection.





I know that these pictures are all very much the same, but what can I say--the girl has me wrapped around her finger. Plus my mom was whining about no pictures. Oh, and can you tell that I'm fascinated/thrilled with her smiling and attempted laughter?

Cute gift

My mail has been very exciting since Emily was born--lots of packages & presents. But, they've mostly been for her. So I was thrilled on Saturday to get a package for ME. My best friend Jessica sent me this--a cute "just because" gift. It's a little bag, and I already have the perfect use for it--it carries my phone, wallet, and a few other essentials that can travel in the diaper bag, or be easily switched to my "real" purse when I don't need/want the diaper bag. I love it.

To be fair, Cindy sent a present just for me, too.

I love DVRs

Last weekend we did some cable upgrade thing that enables us to record TV shows on both of our TVs, and we can watch what we've recorded on either TV (before we could only record in the bedroom, and had to watch the recorded shows in the bedroom).
Reasons why I love this: I no longer have to wait for commercials to use the restroom/change the laundry/check on dinner. The machine "records" what you're currently watching, and you can pause and then catch up. This is especially handy when you want to fast forward through commercials. Sometimes I turn on the TV then wander around on purpose for 5 minutes so that I can then rewind & skip through commercials.
Another reason is that I can tape shows like the Emmys and fast-forward through not only commercials, but things like Barry Manilow's performance and boring acceptance speeches. I think I condensed the program down to about an hour.

Pictures for Cindy

Cindy loves pictures with the pacifier, so I took some last night.

Awesome developmental notes

Emily is definitely growing up! She now really knows our voices, and will smile when she hears us. She sees us and will turn her head from one side to the other to watch us walk across the room. And she's really trying to laugh--right now it's just a squeak or air, but it's definitely going to become a laugh shortly. I know, she's such an over-acheiver.

Answers to Larisa's questions

I decided to answer these as a post for all to enjoy (ha!).
Emily has been sleeping MUCH better the last 3 days, and has even settled into a morning nap/afternoon nap/evening nap routine. Two nights in a row she had really long sleeps at night--the first night it was 7 hours, and the second was 6. I'm benefiting from this sleep and routine, and am really thankful for it. Granted, being able to sleep for 8 straight hours last night was amazing.
I'm heading back to school in a week (sigh), after the Labor Day holiday. It will be good, I know, but sad as well. Emily will go to day care at a Church of Christ that is literally 1/2 mile down the street from my school. Our very good friends go to that church, and their daughter has attended the day care her entire life, and is happy, healthy, and well-rounded. We've already checked it out once, and will go again this week to make sure everything is set up for the following Tuesday.
As strange as it sounds, it was kind of good for me to pick up the grading from school, and even compile all of the annoying statistics. It got my wheels turning for creating assingments and projects for my students, and made me a little excited for the year. I do always like the beginning of school--new students, no preconceived ideas, etc. And I taught the three students who failed last year, so I don't have them this year. So I know it won't be long until I'm counting down for Thanksgiving break, but for now, I'm a little excited to get my intellectual and creative juices flowing again.

Emily's first sleepover

Packed and ready to go!

Some friends from church, the Blounts, offered to watch Emily overnight last night. So Emily was able to have a fun overnighter, and we had a night to ourselves to revel in coupledom. I'd say we painted the town and that frivolity abounded, but it wasn't quite like that. We did go to dinner at Joe's Crab Shack, then saw "Invincible" (amazing movie, by the way). And we enjoyed a full, uninterrupted night's sleep. Granted, we really missed our baby. Jon went into her room twice to check on her, and I woke up and listened to see if it was her hunger cry that woke me up. Apparently she was a good baby for Meagan, and slept well. Definitely a good start to our weekend.

Oh, 17 inches...

Now I know why you're supposed to put toys 17" above the mattress! It's because when your baby wiggles over to them and hits them while she sleeps, thus turning on the music, it gives you a heart attack.

Ah, the joys of teaching (grading)

One of my students just spelled "enough," "anaf."
Another wrote, "vallubull".
Next, "...to yous it."
And I need to check with Wendy, but one of my students wrote, "Well, almost everything is made of electricity," and I'm pretty sure that's not true.

Groan

Yes, I'm grading. Argh. It's the district Benchmark pre-tests, and the sub can't really grade them. Plus I have to do all sorts of breakdowns & statistics with the test, so it's easier if I do it. The results & stats aren't due until the 30th, but I figured I should get started sooner rather than later.

True Southerner

I finally got Emily's backpack/diaper bag monogrammed. Now she really is a Southern girl. Granted, when another mom at church walked in and hung her identical diaper bag next to Emily's, I really felt compelled to get it done. I think it turned out rather cute.

Football fan

Those are honestly Emily's reactions while watching a football game. I was laughing so hard. I'm glad she's a football fan, even if it is the pros. Maybe it's because she hasn't seen a college game yet.

Crying that leads to sleeping (hopefully)

Letting a baby cry it out is A LOT harder when it's your child than when it's just a kid you're babysitting.
We want Emily to be able to fall asleep in her crib without a pacifier or anything, and up until this point she's been nursed to sleep or rocked to sleep or had a binky. Some friends offered to let her spend the night on Friday night (hooray), which we're excited (okay, and nervous) about, but I don't want them to have a night like I had last night, where she's up until midnight because she keeps waking up and crying whenever her binky falls out. So I figure that if she can learn to use her binky to fall asleep, she can learn to fall asleep without it. So today starts the process, and supposedly it's the hardest. We're "Ferberizing" her (can you name that movie?), which means she's crying it out, but we go in and let her know that she's not been abandoned or anything. Hopefully this will work, and quickly.

Cute shirt

Diana sent Emily this shirt, and I can't believe how perfect it is! In case you can't read it, it says, " 3 little puppies...some short and some tall, I can't pick a favorite...I just love 'em all."

Real live exercise

As part of my plan to change Emily's bedtime from midnight to, say, 9 or 10 pm, I thought we'd start getting up earlier. So this morning she woke up at 5:30 and ate, and at about 6:20 we left and took a walk. We just went down to the elementary school that's down the street from us and walked around the track, but it still felt good. As I was coming back to our corner, I ran into all of the moms & kids waiting for the bus (why they have a bus half a mile from the school is a whole other story), and I was chastised for taking her out when it was so hot. I had to point out that while it was 85 degrees, that was as cool as it would be all day, so I snatched my opportunity. Plus if she were to get cranky, I was close to home, as opposed to the gym, which I haven't ventured to yet.

Ummm...is she okay?

After a relatively napless afternoon (a few quick ones--15-30 minutes, but nothing substantial) and then being awake from about 5-10:30pm, Emily gave us quite the scare. Jon's alarm went off at 5:15am. And she hadn't been up all night. So of course I do the typical rush to the bedroom to insure that she's still breathing. Once we got over the initial shock, we were VERY excited to have slept for 7 straight hours. I highly doubt that it'll be a pattern, but still, it was a nice treat.

Joy

More cute faces made while watching the mobile.

Sound sleeper

Emily ate from 6:30-7ish this morning, and I forgot to get her dressed in "church clothes" before I put her back down. So at 8 when I was getting ready to go, I decided I'd get her changed even though she was sleeping. Well, she slept through the whole thing, including being put in her carseat.




Talk about FAT face!!

New mobile

Thanks to some exchanges at Wal-Mart, we bought Emily a mobile that stays on for 10 minutes and has all kinds of neat things to it. She LOVES it.

Who are you?

After working well over 100 hours in 11 days, Jon finally has a 3-day weekend (Fri-Sun). We realized that we haven't had a full day with just the three of us since July 10, when Emily was four days old. We've always had company, or Jon was working. Crazy. So we're enjoying this time together, doing some things around the house, and running errands with either two sets of hands, or by ourselves, which I've learned to appreciate in the last week. So hooray for time together! And hooray that next week he'll only work until his normal 3pm.

I'm practically a grandma

I ran some errands yesterday, and one happened to be Toys R Us. I was researching mobiles (ours is the wind-up kind, and seeing as how she currently LOVES it, it's annoying to go and wind it every two minutes), but I discovered a toy that I'd been looking for. So I bought it. I've turned into a grandma who can't run an errand without buying the baby a toy. Granted, it was only $2, but still. It's small enough that she can grasp it, which she's really doing a lot of. And this saves my stomach and chest from her claws while she's eating.

Side note on Toys R Us: excellent learning zone for new moms. I mean, I saw two atrocious parents in there with psycho children. Then I saw the mom leaving who had an infant carrier in one hand, her purchase in the other, and told her toddler, "hold my pocket" when they walked into the parking lot, and the child was more than obedient. Things you learn.

Poofy hair

I love how Emily's hair sticks straigt up everywhere after it's been washed. It's so soft!

Odd babysitter

I stopped by my school today to drop some things off--reciepts for my back-to-school reimbursement, some classroom supplies, etc. In the office, of course, they LOVED Emily and pulled her out of her seat right away to play with and hold her. Fine with me. I mentioned that I had two more quick errands to run, and they told me to go--that they'd watch her while I was gone. This proved to be a rather welcome treat, even though Em was falling asleep and my errands only took about 20 minutes round trip. So I think next time I need to go grocery shopping I'll just swing by school first...

Better

Last night was MUCH better, although I don't know who/what to credit it to. Granted, she didn't fall asleep until 10:30, but she only woke up at 2am to eat, and then not again until 7:30am!! I'm a big fan of only waking up once. Let's hope this continues.

Mobile

Lately Em has been enthralled with her mobile. This allows for things like showers and eating lunch with two hands.

Sleeping issues

Emily has been having some sleep issues the last two days. She won't sleep unless she's being held. And if, for some reason, I can trick her into being asleep in her crib, she wakes up within 20 minutes. So yesterday was a LONG day, and last night a LONG night. Yesterday's only errand was to Books-a-million to buy the book "How to Solve Your Baby's Sleep Problems." Granted, I had been wanting this book--two days isn't enough to drive me to book-buying. Alas, I haven't had time to read any of it yet, but today I tried surrounding her with our pillows thinking maybe she'd believe we were still holding her. So far, so good. Solution #1--worked for about an hour on Monday
Solution #2--so far it's been working for an hour. And don't worry, I check on her often to make sure I'm not suffocating her.

Making faces