Christmas!

Can I start by saying that I am so glad that Christmas is over?!? It was a fairly uneventful day, but tiring nonetheless. By Christmas day my cold had crossed over into probably sinus infection and I felt like someone had whacked me upside the head with a brick. Emma was wide awake crying/screaming by 4am and would not go back to sleep, even when we brought her back to our bed. We've been chalking it up to teething, but I finally got a good look inside her mouth tonight and there is not even a hint of red or swollen gums. After a week of crappy sleeping and increased fussiness, I honestly expected to see something poking through. I'm pretty sure incisors come next. Perhaps she's getting a 2nd molar instead and I'm just not looking in the right place. Unfortunately today, her nasal drainage picked up again and her cough has really swung into high gear again. We managed about 30 minutes of a nap today total. I'm not looking forward to tonight since I know she is going to be awake most of the time coughing like crazy.

As for the presents, we finally gave up with trying to get her back to sleep by 5 and went out to show her the big unwrapped gift (a kitchen set) and open stockings. I'm not calling it a "Santa" gift because I think we're still leaning towards no Santa. Then we ate breakfast and opened some gifts. Took a nap break and then went back to finish the presents. By the final round, Emma was completely over it and just ran around playing with things she'd already seen while we finished opening things. I really can't say which gift was her favorite because she seems to be playing with things pretty equally.

Around the house things are feeling somewhat normal. The decorations have been removed and put away. Thank you cards have been written and mailed. We went to the bank and opened a savings account for Emma with her birthday and Christmas money. (We already have a separate savings investment for college.) I went to the doctor today and got an antibiotic. Decided that this was as good a time as any to go ahead and drop that morning nursing today (I wouldn't have been able to nurse her on the antibiotic anyway). I figure if I did it now, I still have that extra time home with her during the day rather than jump right back into the daycare schedule after 10 days home AND wean on top of it. She seemed fine taking a bottle today and hasn't indicated any desire to nurse. I'm hoping that since I was down to just one time a day and have weaned gradually that it won't be a jolt on my body.

Even though she's majorly cranky and I'm sick and cranky too, I've really been enjoying being home with Emma. She is so silly! She has this new facial expression that can either break into a big smile or a scream - either way, it's adorable. She is really saying 2 words recently - "noooooooooooooooooo" usually in a yell as she is running away from me and 'mama' which has nothing to do with Mommy and everything to do with yummy snacks! She has been signing a lot lately (glad those classes finally are paying off). She signs milk, more, bath, eat, sleepy. She blows kisses if you say kiss or love. Once she signed want and another time she signed diaper. We are working on water and help next. We also sign mommy and daddy frequently, but she hasn't used those yet. She's still nodding yes and no. And knows nose, eye brow (that one is thanks to one of her favorite songs on Sesame Street), toes, and belly. She seems to be figuring out head, cheeks, and hair but isn't as consistent with those ones yet.

9th Day of Christmas

On the ninth day of Christmas, my loving family gave to me --

a giant monkey jammie suit from cousin Robbie;

a jumbo floor puzzle from Grandpa and Granny;

My Pal Violet from a friend;

a pink, butterfly purse from Grandpa and Granny;

Baby Einstein book and a Laugh & Learn camera from a friend;

Crayola Tadoodles Markers from Mommy;

a Christmas bear from cousin Meg;

a book about Little Girls from Grandpa and Granny;

and a Hokey Pokey Elmo from cousin Robbie.

Dan made his delicious homemade spaghetti & meatballs for dinner tonight. Emma didn't care much for the noodles, but enjoyed the meatballs! You can also tell that Dan made pizzelles the other day. Emma likes to take a few bites, but then seems to bury it under a towel or shove it in a shoe.

8th Day of Christmas

On the eighth day of Christmas, my loving family gave to me --

a jumbo floor puzzle from Grandpa and Granny;

My Pal Violet from another friend;

a pink, butterfly purse from Grandpa and Granny;

Baby Einstein book and a Laugh & Learn camera from a friend;

Crayola Tadoodles Markers from Mommy;

a Christmas bear from cousin Meg;

a book from Grandpa and Granny;

and a Hokey Pokey Elmo from cousin Robbie.

7th Day of Christmas

On the seventh day of Christmas, my loving family gave to me --

My Pal Violet from another friend; a pink, butterfly purse from Grandpa and Granny; a Baby Einstein book and a Laugh & Learn camera from a friend;

Crayola Tadoodles Markers from Mommy;

a Christmas bear from cousin Meg;

a book from my Grandpa and Granny;

and a Hokey Pokey Elmo from cousin Robbie.

Emmaline picked out the present she wanted to open and actually started ripping into it. She got distracted by the cat part way through and by the cracker she was eating. (Crackers are her snack after daycare while Dan's getting dinner ready.)

She was very excited about this purple dog! While she was taking a bath, I uploaded the program that comes with it and downloaded the personalization (had to put Emma because it didn't recognize Emmaline although it had 4 different variants of Emmalynn and even an Emmaleen). It is a pretty cute too. Like the other gifts she has received, I think it will get a lot of use over the next couple years.

5th & 6th Days of Christmas

On the sixth day of Christmas, my loving family gave to me --

a pink, butterfly purse from my Grandpa and Granny;

a Baby Einstein Book and a Laugh & Learn camera from a friend;

Crayola Tadoodles Markers from Mommy;

a Christmas bear from cousin Meg;

a book from my Grandpa and Granny;

and a Hokey Pokey Elmo from cousin Robbie.

On the 5th night, Emma picked out her own gift (partially on accident). She was eating a cracker and decided to drop it in a gift bag. When she went to get the cracker out, she discovered a book and was very excited! She immediately forgot about the cracker (not a small feat) and ran over to me with the book so I could read it to hear half a dozen times. After that, she went back to find the cracker and found the Fisher Price Laugh & Learn camera. If you press one of the buttons, it occasionally sings "If you're happy and you know it", a song we've discovered Emma is quite familiar with and she knows to clap at the right part! It is pretty adorable.

The 6th night was when she finally seemed to understand to rip open the wrapping paper. However, once she got to the point where she could see the gift, she froze. We still had to take the gift (a fuzzy, pink butterfly purse) out of the paper and give it to her. At that point, she was very excited about it.

Obviously, I missed a few nights posting. The 5th night I came down with the stomach bug Dan had earlier. I guess he wasn't just being a baby about it - it was pretty horrible. I ended up going to bed at like 6:30. Luckily, it passed within about 24 hours for me instead of 72 like his and I was able to deal with work on Tuesday. Last night I was still worn out and decided to finish reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows instead of posting. After watching Pt 1 at the theater last week I realized that I'd only read the book once and did that very quickly just to get to the end. I couldn't believe how much I'd forgotten/missed the first time. It just may have pushed it back to the #1 spot on my Favorite Series list. Percy Jackson had crept up there, but it just doesn't have the same magic (for lack of better word) that Harry Potter does.

I think that Emmaline is starting to cut another tooth (although I haven't been able to inspect her mouth recently). She's getting a bit more cranky, drooling more -- luckily she has never been a super drooley baby, and keeps her finger in her mouth constantly. A big part of me wants to just give her the pacifier back because I know it gives her some relief, but we've gone almost 2 weeks without it. If only she would give up needing to be rocked to sleep as easily! :)

4th Day of Christmas

On the fourth day of Christmas, my loving family gave to me --

Crayola Tadoodles Markers from Mommy;

a Christmas bear from cousin Meg;

a book from my Grandpa and Granny;

and a Hokey Pokey Elmo from cousin Robbie.

I've already realized that the markers were a mistake! The ink is very runny (reminds me more of paint). They will definitely be used when she's up at a covered table or in her high chair and NOT when she's sitting on the carpet again. Luckily, they are washable and so the ink was quickly removed from her hands and the bookshelf. We also quickly swapped the marker for a pen and she was equally happy to play with that after just a little fuss. Should have gone with the round crayons and not the markers. :) Live and learn, right?

I think she may have had nightmares last night. She woke up screaming/crying and I went in and rocked her for about an hour. At one point (while she was asleep in my arms) she started swinging her arms, mumbled something, and then her eyes popped open and she started to cry again. A little later she started clapping in her sleep. Another time, she put her hand up and felt my face, then felt hers - I thought she was awake but her eyes never opened and her breathing pattern hadn't changed. I had tried to pass her off to Dan at some point before we had taken her to our bed and she completely freaked out. I really can't remember her screaming like that before. She just wouldn't let me put her down so she ended up in bed with us.

3rd Day of Christmas

On the third day of Christmas, my loving family gave to me --

a Christmas bear from cousin Meg;

a book from my Grandpa and Granny;

and a Hokey Pokey Elmo from cousin Robbie.

Emmaline opened her gift in the afternoon today because my work Christmas party is at 6 this evening. We still aren't sure if everyone is going or if I'm going alone since Dan continues to feel horrible. I took Emma to the gym alone this morning and then we went to WalMart to buy some stocking stuffers for Dan. That gave him about 3 quiet hours home resting in bed. Emma also took a nice long nap this afternoon (about 90 minutes) and that allowed him to sit on the couch and read. He finally ate lunch (soup again), but that was the first time he'd eaten in 24 hours. I am trying to bite my tongue and not point out that maybe if he took some Dayquil, he wouldn't feel quite so bad.

Back to the gift. I pulled three or four gifts from under the tree and let her pick which one to open. She tore a little paper, but still left most of the unwrapping to Dan. Once we took the bear out she held it and then went and got her bear from last Christmas (Jingles). She set the new bear down next to Jingles and covered them both with a washcloth -- which is pretty much her favorite thing to do with stuffed animals lately. She takes it very seriously and concentrates hard while opening the washcloth and laying it flat on the animals (usually covering their faces which I find odd). I should also note that she was a good girl and made sure all of the scraps of wrapping paper were placed in the trashcan.

You may notice in the picture that she is eating something. I will admit that I gave her a snickerdoodle. What are the holidays without all the holiday junk food?

2nd Day of Christmas

On the second day of Christmas, my loving family gave to me --

a book from my Grandpa and Granny;

and a Hokey Pokey Elmo from cousin Robbie.

Tonight, Dan picked out the present (one from his parents). It was a book "What Little Girls are Made of." It's a cute book with quotes and story excerpts about little girls. The illustrations are beautiful paintings of girls in fancy, old-fashioned dresses. Right away Emma noticed that there is a cat on most pages!

As for the unwrapping process, she took about 3 swipes at the wrapping paper and then went over to the pillow and sat down. She waited there until I unwrapped the rest of the present for her. Dan is worried that teaching her to open presents is going to translate into disaster for all the other wrapped presents under the tree. I still believe that she's just not that into it.

Emma has been refusing her milk during the day. The last two days, they've been lucky to get her to drink 4 oz at daycare. She's also barely nursing in the morning (pretty sure we're going to drop that in the next week). She will take 4 oz at bedtime though. She drinks water from a sippy cup, but probably only 3-5 oz a day. Part of me feels like I should be worried, but she still has plenty of wet diapers. Tomorrow I'm going to use her old bottle (with the slow nipple) for her morning one and then try to give her milk in a sippy for the afternoon. Not sure if that will help at all, but I feel like if she's going to refuse milk - it might as well be from a sippy. Our goal is to get rid of daytime bottles over the holiday break. She stopped using a pacifier on Monday, except for naps at daycare. We're also planning to get rid of nap time pacifiers while she's home over break.

I'll admit that I still feel totally clueless when it comes to feeding this child. I miss the days of just nursing her and knowing that was enough! Now I'm constantly worried about what to feed her and if she's getting enough food and enough of the right kinds of food and how much she drank and what she drank and how she drank it.

As for the rest of the household, I seem to be getting over my cold (still a bit stuffy and the cough is lingering). Unfortunately, it hit Dan hard today. He just took some Nyquil and headed off to bed at 7pm! He's really trying not to act like a big baby, and in return I'm trying not to get upset that he's feeling horrible and not helping as much.

1st Day of Christmas

On the first day of Christmas, my loving family gave to me --

a Hokey Pokey Elmo from cousin Robbie!

Dan and I have been putting presents under the tree as boxes arrive from grandmas, grandpas, godparents, aunts, and uncles. And this kid is spoiled! All I've been able to think of is spending hours Christmas day unwrapping her gifts for her while she runs around the house or throws a fit when we try to get her to sit still. Last year she was too little and just slept. At her birthday, she just wasn't into it (we did manage to get a couple pics with her "playing" with tissue paper, but that was kinda faked). So to try to avoid this, we (and by "we", I just mean "I") decided to adapt one of my family traditions - opening 1 present on Christmas Eve - and turn it into open 1 present each night, starting tonight.

I chose the weirdest shaped gift (mostly because I was curious about what it was) and we kinda got Emma to open it. She liked pulling the ribbon off of it and then smacked it a few times which ripped a bit of the paper. Eventually her curiosity got the best and she tore a little more paper until she could see that it was Elmo. Then she got excited and squawked until we took it the rest of the way out. This was about a 5 minute process. That made me feel like we're making the right decision because I can't handle 5 minutes per gift with like 50 gifts all on Christmas day!

My goal is to post each night with her latest gift.

December 13, 2010

We seemed to have survived croup, but Emma still has a cough and a LOT of nasal drainage. The last few nights, her left ear started draining a lot too. We attempted to take her to Urgent Care on Sunday but we're denied. Apparently here on Sundays they just offer "Quick Care" services by a nurse practitioner. Although the website included the symptoms that we wanted to take her in to be seen for (ear ache, cough/cold) they only see patients 18 months and up. That fact is not listed anywhere on the website. So we waited it out -- and luckily she slept last night -- and took her to the doctor today. We were told that her ears are waxy, but otherwise fine. The drainage was actually a good sign that the tubes are doing their job. We did get some recommendations on treating her super red, dry cheeks (cortisone with aquaphor over that for a week). It's starting to get really bad around here mouth from all the snot/drool and the pacifier. Yet another reason to get rid of the pacifier. Unfortunately it's still the only thing she wants when teething and she has molar #3 and #4 that have cut, but are still working their way down.

This weekend was a bit of a flop. We went to the Picture People on Saturday morning to do some Christmas pictures. That was a disaster. The photographer sucked, to put it nicely. She was determined to just take pictures of Emma sitting or standing perfectly still and looking directly at the camera. I don't think she snapped more than 30 photos in all and only uploaded 13 for us to choose from. That's a huge difference from the 275 choices we had at her last pictures with Portrait Innovations. Granted, she wasn't mobile at that shoot. It was very frustrating and I think we'll travel the extra hour next time and go back to Portrait Innovations. Their staff was much friendlier and seemed to work better with babies.

Sunday, I had plans to go out of town with a friend and then a friend's daughter was going to come watch Emma so Dan and I could finally go see Harry Potter in the theaters. Friend cancelled (not a huge problem cause Emma had been up most of Saturday night and I was exhausted). And the girl who was supposed to babysit never called back to confirm -- even though SHE was the one who asked to babysit. So Dan and I didn't get to go to the movies.

I never realized how hard it would be to get a babysitter! When I was pregnant, tons of people told me "oh, I can't wait to babysit!" And then when I tried to set a day and time - they flaked. Let's see if I can list the number of times Emma has stayed with someone (other than daycare) so that Dan and I could go do something -- his parents watched her once last November and we went to the movies. Robin watched her once last December and we went out to dinner. Dawn watched her once last November while we finished Christmas shopping. Jess watched her in June while we went to get our eyes checked. Our moms watched her (sleep) at the hotel room in Vegas while we went to see a Cirque du Soleil show with family. That's it. Five times in 14 months. It's not like Dan and I are real social people or anything. We are definitely home-bodies, but it would be nice to get out occasionally with just the two of us.

Pictures this week are a blog exclusive - they won't be posted on Facebook until after Christmas cards have been sent out. These are the 3 decent pics from this weekend. They aren't horrible - but Emma never would smile (probably didn't help that I wasn't smiling much either because the photographer was frustrating me so bad). Next year we won't bother with professional ones.

As for milestones - she's been nodding her head yes and no. That's absolutely adorable! The other day I found her standing in the living room, pointing at the cat, yelling "no, no, no". We've been trying to teach her to say "No, no Jo-Jo" to Jonah because he likes to try to run outside. (We also try to get her to say "bad kitty" to Britney when she's on the kitchen table.) She has started using a fork when she feels like it. She has figured out how to put her knit hat on all by herself. And she is getting very familiar with daily routines. When she knows it's time to leave the house, she puts her hat on and brings her coat to Dan. As soon as she gets inside (school or home) she takes her hat off and fusses until you take her coat off. After dinner tonight, I took her out of the high chair and hoped that she would play for a few minutes so I could clean up. Nope, she went straight to the bathroom and banged on the door. She's holding a crayon and actually drawing lines now inside of just making dots. For now, she seems to be over the separation anxiety at school and waves bye-bye from the breakfast table inside of screaming and clinging to me. (That only lasted a few weeks, but was still difficult.) Her latest toy obsession has been the Glo-Worm. She doesn't necessarily like the glowing part or the music - she likes to take a washcloth and cover it up. We dug out Jingles (her Christmas bear from last year) and now she carries both Glo-Worm and Jingles around with 2 separate washcloths and sets them down places to cover them up. Then she'll pick them up and move them somewhere else and cover them up. She is also obsessed with Elmo. We started watching some video clips on SesameStreet.org and she is a bit addicted. Our favorites include the Imagination song, Elmo's song, Song about Elmo with Adam Sandler, What I am by Will.I.Am., Elmo's Ducks, Elmo Loves You, and this one with a duck that moos and a cow that quacks. We watch each of these (and a few others) 2-3 times a day.