I Eat My Toes

Aria's going to swim school

3 weeks ago, I (her mommy) started Aria with swim lessons. I found a local "swim school" that is fantastic, reasonably priced, and the teacher is sooooo friendly. It's important for her to be comfortable/safe with water because she's going to be around it a bunch starting in the spring with our trip to OBX, then visits to my parent's cottage on a river and then pool time during the summer. I would say that she HAD an unhealthy fear of the water. She didn't even like me pouring water on her hair to wash it. And for some reason she thought water was just like air and she would constantly inhale it. With a lot of time and effort, I believe Aria is on her way to becoming my little water bug!

Aria spent a couple visits to the pool sitting on the steps playing with her toys. This got her comfortable with the pool and gave her a chance to meet Coach Dan. Last week she started her official lessons and she is doing great! Coach Dan is perfect with her and she really likes him. He gave us some great tips for bath time play that really has helped us out and has gotten Aria adjusted to the water quite fast. In only 3 weeks, she is blowing bubbles, holding her breath for a couple seconds under water, and laying on her back in the water. Yesterday, it didn't take any convincing to take "rides" with Coach Dan to leave the steps. I'm SO proud of her!

It really is great to see how extra time and effort spent on your child really can make so much of a difference in their lives.

"I love the water!"

"Let's go for a ride, Coach Dan!"

"Look, I can hold my breath under water!"

"All done, until next time!"

Emmett is 8 months old today!

Emmett is a growing boy! Last time I documented his doings he was 5 months. I can't believe it's been 3 more months!

Emmett is continuing to enjoy his time home with Daddy. He's been a good napper getting about 3.5 hours total a day between the hours of 9-11 and 1-3. During that time Kevin tries to get as much work done as he can.

Emmett's continuing to eat well. We tried to slowly introduce formula (to lighten the load on mommy), but discovered after a little while that something disagreed with him. He even started to flat out reject it - I don't blame him if it is what was making him sick. I thankfully could still provide for him and put in just a little more effort to increase my supply. (4 more months!!!! I can do this!) He takes about 25oz of my milk and we've introduced solids. He looooooves his food. At 6 months he started on veggies/fruits after he got the hang of cereal. I've been steaming and pureeing all kinds of food from broccoli to beets (16 different foods so far) and of course the standards. He seems to like green beans, beets, sweet potatoes, and peaches the best.

His nights are ok. He still is great about staying in his crib for about 11 hours (no eating or having to take him out) He's done a handful more nights of 11.5 hrs straight since 5 months, but the rest of the time he wakes a few times a night. He usually cries or yells out and I sleep walk to his room, find his pacifier and plug him! He's had a couple head colds in the past 3 months and that has been the main cause of the disturbed sleep.

He now has 3 teeth that are fully grown in on the bottom. He's drooling A LOT so I wouldn't be surprised if we see that 4th soon. He goes through a million bibs a day.

Shortly after starting the solids, we got solid poos! YAY. This is exciting because using cloth diapers becomes sooooo much easier. We're using them about 60% of the time. We're sticking with disposables at night.

Emmett is officially a roller. He's rolling every which way and back. This just happened 1.5 weeks ago! It took him a little while, but that just seems his style. He's laid back and in no rush. He's getting more sturdy sitting up everyday. He can sit op for 5 minutes, but will eventually flop over. You have to be there to catch him because he doesn't do it slowly!

Emmett loves to make noises. He is constantly making happy grunts and groans. He also started a new trick of pursing his lips and blowing. Kevin noticed he did it yesterday (probably by accident), but he's worked with him since to continue to do it. Emmett might be able to blow out his 1 year b-day candle!

Overall he's a pretty happy boy. He loves being tickled on his collar bone and he laughs when he feels Daddy's spiky hair on his little hands! He is still entertained by watching his big sister. She has to just stand there and do nothing to get a smile. He's just such a fun addition to our family :-)

Spring is coming!

We had a nice suprise in our yard this past week - the crocus flowers bloomed! Kevin was taking Emmett for a walk when Aria and I got home from work/school, so we waited for them out on the driveway. Me in my haze didn't even notice them! Aria yelled out, "Oooooo mommy, look at that!" We spent a little time admiring them.

the goofy before the storm

Emmett was in a goofy mood last week so I got a couple pictures. A day later, he was snotty and had a fever. We had a fun weekend! :-P

Everyone in our house (except me) had some degree of sickness. Luckily, Aria hasn't had anything but a runny nose. Emmett had sinus issues as well and a fever that spiked at 102.6 on Sunday, but was down to 99.8 Monday morning. Dana had a head cold too. They're all feeling better, but a houseful of sick crabby people is no fun! The weather was nice, so they got to go out and get some fresh air.

saturday funny

I saw Shutter Island last night. A very good movie, but it seemed familiar to me.

*possible spoiler alert*

that's because it's pretty much the same plot (really the exact opposite) as a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode from the sixth season called "Frame of Mind."

*end of possible spoiler (but only if you know that Star Trek episode or look it up on Wikipedia*

When I realized that this morning, it kinda ruined the movie for me. When I told Dana, she responded:

"Well they're running out of ideas."

Aria, hearing our conversation, replied:

"Yeah, they're running out of Quesadillas."

We could not stop laughing! It was just one of those many many moments we wished we had a camera rolling in this house!

Doogan!

a little bit of drama over the weekend: Aria's favorite stuffed animal Doogan got lost in the mall! We re-traced our steps about 5 times, but he was nowhere to be found! We had taken pictures while at the mall, and were able to narrow down where he could have fallen out of the stroller. Still no Doogan! It was getting late, and Emmett had to eat soon (we didn't come prepared because it was supposed to be a quick trip), so we went to the mall security office and gave a description of poor old Doogan.

It was kinda funny, because Aria had no idea what we were doing while frantically running around the mall looking for her Doogan. Finally, we had to tell her. I dreaded this moment. She got a little upset, but amazingly, she handled it pretty well! We knew that if we didn't get a call on Sunday, he was gone for good, so we found a brand new Doogan on Ebay that night and bought him. Dana sewed a ribbon on Aria's stuffed ducky, and he became a Doogan stand-in for the night.

Dana left her cell in the car Sunday afternoon, and checked her messages Monday morning. Mall security had Doogan! I couldn't wait to get him after I dropped Aria off at school—I didn't tell her because that would have made the drop-off SO much more difficult! When Aria got home that afternoon, we took a video of the reunion: