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.