My Emmaline is one year old!

Birthday party morning.


Emma loved the balloons!


I made construction paper flowers and butterflies to celebrate my Spring baby. (Brooke made the butterflies.)


While she was napping, the party started without her.


Pranay, Shawn, and Brooke.


Lola and Ella.

I can't believe it's been a year since my little one came into our lives. It has been such an amazing journey and I am so blessed to be experiencing it. We had her party the Sunday before her actual birthday. Our neighbors, Brooke and Oscar came, as well as Pranay, Elizabeth, and Zivia. Of course Nora, Desi, and Ella rounded out the party. Emma fell asleep about an hour before our guests arrived and we let her snooze for a little while longer. When she woke up, she had some hummus, black bean dip, and veggies before trying and loving her birthday cake. I made an applesauce spice cake, which was quite tasty. Then the little ones played a bit and we opened presents. Emma got some super cute clothes, a wooden train from Shanti, Matt and Mira, and a book. Then it was time for Zivia to take a nap, so everyone went home. I think Emma had a good time. She was surrounded by people who love her.


Emma and Zivia actually interacted!


The mommies switched babies.


She was a bit confused by the candle.


But it was delicious!

She has been doing some great developmental things. She is crawling very quickly, cruising, pointing at things she wants and vocalizing. The down side, is that she has truly entered toddler-hood. She screams bloody murder when she is done eating and wants to get down, arches her back to fling herself out of my arms, and throws food when she is finished. Her vocalizations when displeased are earsplitting! I am trying to be very patient and help her to figure out what her emotions are and how to handle them. We are really pushing the baby signs so she can tell us what she wants and not get so frustrated. We do "all done" and "more" the most. Sometimes she does it and we go crazy with the praise to get her to do it again.

Emma is figuring out that clothes go on the body. She follows commands when dressing, "put your arm in the sleeve," "can I have your foot please?" Today, she tried to put her shoe on her foot, and took her own pants off in the living room. She also likes to put my clothes on when they are on the bathroom floor. She points at things she wants to talk about, points at the kittens in Good Night, Moon and is giving kisses. It's pretty amazing to watch her.

Our 12 months pediatrician appointment was not so great. She only weighs 17lbs 2oz, and is 26.5 inches long. That is 2nd and 8th percentile respectively. She has always been on the small end of the growth curve, but this time she is below the scale. Our doctor isn't too concerned, but she wants to watch her and see how she does in three months. Of course Shawn and I feel like terrible parents, me more so because I am the family's nutritionist! The first few days after her appointment, we were crazy critical of everything she ate and pushed her to eat more and more. Of course she had gotten some vaccines so her appetite was low and she didn't want to eat much. It has gotten better over the last few days. It's fun now, because she is eating just about everything that we eat. I just try to give her some pureed stuff on top of her finger foods to maximize her intake. I have a food log going, and I borrowed a food scale from Brooke so I can know how much she's really eating. Of course it's hard to estimate when much of it ends up on the floor! I'm trying not to freak out about each meal, but to go for a good average of calories and balance of nutrients per week. I am totally going to weigh her on the vegetable scale at Safeway in a few weeks to see how we are doing ;)

On a brighter note, she is sleeping through the night. We did a combination of Kim West's Sleep Lady Shuffle, and Ferber; I night weaned, and Shawn took over the sleep training. It took about 4 nights and she is good. Now if she wakes in the night, she cries for a few moments then falls back asleep. Once in a while she has a hard time, especially when some teeth are about to break through, but other than that, she is good. Speaking of teeth, she now has 3 out on top, and one on the way, and 3 out on the bottom. Her smile is so cute because she keeps feeling her teeth. It's a little crooked, but so adorable.



Shawn put together this fantastic video of Emma 6 months to one year.

The Blizzards of 2010

Between February 5 and 8th, we got a total of 32 inches of snow. It was crazy. They even cancelled surgeries at Union Memorial so Shawn got 2 free days off. We shoveled and shoveled and shoveled. We were too tired from shoveling to ever really go out an play in it. Shawn tackled me and that was fun. But mostly, we shoveled. I shoveled when Emma was napping and just brought the baby monitor outside with me. Schools were closed for a little over a week. I am so very glad Spring is here. I don't want any more snow for a while. We did get to spend a lot of time with the neighbors, Brooke and Oscar, so that was nice. We trudged back and forth between each other's houses. We cooked together, played Rock Band, and just hung out. I am so glad we have such great neighbors who have become such wonderful friends.

This is Shawn trying to shovel while the snow was still coming down to make it easier later. It didn't work.

This is the view from our living room window. You can see the little bump that is the neighbors car.

Here is our house.

The sky was beautiful after the snow.

We went on a walk through the neighborhood once our driveways were clear. I'm pretty sure this house is vacant. The snow came halfway up the garage.

This is on of the side streets that isn't on the emergency snow route. They didn't get plowed out for a few days.

This is our street the day after the second storm. The city did a good job keeping our street driveable the whole time, and clear within a few days. Emma enjoyed our walk.

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