Things I Don't Want to Forget

This blog really serves the purpose of documenting happenings in the life of my little family. I have a personal, hand-written journal where I write more spiritual/deep/matters-of-the-heart entries....but this is where I want to keep record of our every day happenings. I have realized that I don't have a problem capturing moments of Emily in pictures...but I do want to get better at recording little things she does so that I remember them later.

That being said:

Emily now has 5 teeth, with a 6th on the brink of popping through her gums. They are really cute little teeth. She smiles, and I remember that I don't have a fresh new baby, rather a baby rapidly morphing into a little girl.

With those 5 teeth (2 on the top and 3, almost 4, on the bottom) she bites EVERYTHING...including me. When I'm nursing her...she bites. When I'm holding her on my hip...she bites my shoulder. When I'm holding her on my lap, she takes my hand and bites whatever finger, wrist, palm, etc she can put in her mouth before I realize what she's doing. In all of these instances, she thinks it's funny when I tell her "No no Emily. No biting." in my firm/stern mother tone. She looks at me as I reprimand her, and then giggles because she thinks that I am interacting with her from her biting me. I kiss her all over, and then she reciprocates the love in the only way she knows how...by biting me all over!

She is not yet crawling, but is really trying to figure it out. She goes from the sitting up position to on her belly so fast when she sees something in front of her that she wants. When it is out of her reach, she focuses on it intensely, and then scoots herself backwards (the only direction she knows how) in hopes to get the object, but it just gets further away from her. Wouldn't that be so frustrating?

She has a huge fascination with our cell phones. If she sees one of them, she instantly wants it, and fusses if you don't give it to her. I have given her an old phone that looks similar to our current phones, and this pacifies her until the real thing comes in eye sight. We "lock" our screen, but she still manages to unlock it and make random calls, or set speed dials.

She loves when I nuzzle my face against hers and make kissing noises in her ear. She giggles, and when I stop, she anticipates me doing it again and starts laughing before I start again.

She LOVES to be sung to. Without fail, if she is crying, as soon as I start singing primary songs or hymns to her, she immediately stops crying and intently looks at me while I sing. I really believe that singing church songs/hymns helps her to feel the Holy Spirit. Maybe that sounds funny, but it's true. The whole time I was pregnant, I sang at least 2 or 3 hymns out loud before I went to bed every night. Call me crazy, but I really think that specific hymns calm her instantly. I believe that little babies and children are so in tune, spiritually speaking, and Emily is a prime example of this belief.

She has been eating like a champ! I made broccoli, yellow squash, peas, and appesauce last week and froze a ton of each, I have been mixing broccoli, squash and peas for her when it's time to feed her baby food, and she gobbles it up. She also loves store bought "mango smoothie" baby food. If I need her to eat something and I don't have time to be patient with her, I feed her mango, and it's gone SO FAST!

She absolutely LOVES bath time! I strip her down and set her little bare bum on the side of the bath tub, holding her while I set the temperature of the water and fill the bath. Just the sight and sound of the water makes her so excited, that she starts kicking her legs off the side of the tub in anticipation of kicking her legs in the water just moments later. She completely soaks me every time. I literally have to pin her legs down while I'm washing her so I don't get slashed in the face. Once she's clean, I stand up and away from her and let her go crazy. And that's exactly what she does...goes CRAZY! She has the fastest, strongest little kicking legs! She splashes her face, and in turn swallows some water, but does that stop her from splashing even harder?? Nope! She loves it!

She is thoroughly entertained sitting on my bed and watching me blow dry and straighten my hair, and do my make up. Seriously, I could take an entire hour getting ready, and she happily watches me with fascination the whole time. She really likes holding my mascara and compact, and always empties the contents of my make up bag. I love having my little buddy with me while I get ready.

When she wakes up in the morning, or from her nap, and I go into her room to get her out of her crib. As soon as she hears the door open she stops crying or talking to herself (whichever one she was doing to let me know she is awake) and she immediately starts kicking her legs against the mattress in pure excitement that I'm coming to save her from the boredom of her crib. Her greetings are some of the best moments of the day. She is so happy to see me and/or Devin, and boy does it make us feel so good!

She likes her independence, but also doesn't want you going too far from her. Most of the time she doesn't want you to be holding her. She likes to sit up on her own, in her own space, with a few toys to play with...but she has to have me/Devin in sight. Usually, I can get away with being on the couch next to her carpet square, but recently, she cries until we actually sit down on the carpet with her. We don't even have to interact with her, just as long as we are right next to her, she's content. But oh my goodness, if we get up to get some water from the kitchen, or to go to the bathroom...her world is coming to an end, and she has a complete melt down during the few seconds we leave the room. I even talk to her the whole time I'm out of the room (our place is not that big) but there is something about seeing me that makes her feel safe.

She is a stomach sleeper. I put her down on her back, and when we check on her before we go to bed, she's on her tummy, sometimes in what seems to be the most uncomfortable positions.

That's all I can think of right now. I'm sure that was boring, but again...this one was really for my enjoyment down the road when Emily asks me what she was like as a baby :)