Starting Some Christmas Traditions

With this being Emma's first Christmas, Kevin and I were definitely excited to add some new traditions to our usual Christmas routine. Of course since Emma was only 8 months old and probably had no clue what was really going on, it wasn't necessary for us to do EVERYTHING this year (no Elf on the Shelf here - phew!).

Decorating for Christmas

Some of our nativity scenes and
our new advent calendar

I love decorating for Christmas time. There's just something about the tree, the twinkling lights, and the carols that make it all so magical. It's something I've loved ever since I was a child, and I guess it's because Christmas time means family time - a time to come together and celebrate what we've been blessed with and thank God who has provided for us.

This year we had to add to and update a few of our decorations to celebrate with Emma. First, that meant getting new stockings to hang by the fireplace so that Emma could have one. Then, when it came time to putting up the Christmas tree we actually had to think about where to put ornaments on the tree so her curious little fingers couldn't get to the breakable ones. I also found a really neat advent calendar of the nativity scene at the Sugar Plum Market where each day you add a character to the story of Jesus' birth.

A bit of our indoor decor

This year I also wanted to update our outdoor display to reflect Emma's addition to our family. Normally, we have two metal moose out in our side yard, and year after year, people stop to ask us about them. So this year we added a third moose and jazzed them up a bit to reflect that now mommy, daddy, and baby live here. (And yes, I know female moose don't have antlers, but it just wouldn't look right otherwise).

  
Creating a Christmas Card
I've always loved getting people's cards at Christmas because it's so cool to see how families grow and change over the years. However, I've never sent one out because it felt weird to me to just send pictures of Kevin and I (and maybe the dog). But this year, we had cuteness to share with everyone! Now, I kind of got a late start on getting this together, and I really didn't want to do fancy formal pictures and have to wait forever to get them, so we settled on pajamas in front of the fire place because let's be honest, that's how we roll in this household.

Emma's watching BabyTV
while I try to snap some pictures

Now if you've never done a photo session with a baby, then you don't know the rigmarole that goes into getting one to look at the camera and smile. Or just be still. Or not put her hands in her mouth. Or not ooze with drool. Those monthly pictures of Emma just don't happen by magic. Usually Kevin is dancing around, making goofy noises, and engaging in all kinds of hullabaloo so that I can capture that moment. Emma always smiles for him. So what do you do when daddy needs to be in the picture?

Well, you turn to uncles, Pappy, and BabyTV to make the magic happen. I tried to get a leg up on things by snapping some cute pictures of Emma on my own, and oh boy, was that an adventure. My dinky little Canon Powershot has seen a lot of use and is getting so slow, which meant the shot I wanted had already changed by the time the camera snapped the photo. But we persevered and I bribed her with watching BabyTV on my iPhone to get my shots. When it came to doing our family picture, Uncle Stephen tried to take the pictures and entertain at the same time, but it wasn't working. Emma was as stoic as could be. So the next day, we had my mom take pictures while Uncle Philip and my dad (aka Pappy) goofed around, and again Emma was stoic and tired of taking pictures. I think we took a total of 200 pictures over the 2 days (we were using the burst function), and ended up with 2 shots that were decent enough to put on our card. It just proves that Emma's daddy just has the perfect touch in getting that girl to smile!

Here's the final product:

Here are some of the pictures that didn't make the cut.

Can you tell why?

  

 

Visiting Santa
As a little girl, every year my mom and dad took me downtown to see Santa Claus. It was a big deal because I got to visit my dad at work, we all got dressed up in fancy Christmas clothes (cause this was when men still wore suits to work), we'd go out to eat at nice restaurant where I'd get to have dessert, and then head to Foley's to take my picture. Back in the day Foley's did a big display with all the Santa Claus figures throughout the world, and it was so neat. I loved looking at it year after year, but more importantly I loved having a special day out with my parents.

So accordingly, I wanted to be able to start that tradition with my own kids. Now unfortunately downtown Foley's/Macy's doesn't exist, so I was on the trail to find a legitimate looking Santa somewhere where we could make it a tradition to go year after year. After asking around, our friends the Neils suggested we check out the one in Brenham. Some googling and a phone call later and we were set up with an appointment to meet Santa!

We weren't really sure how Emma was going to handle meeting Santa for the first time. She's pretty good around people, even strangers. But we've all seen the kids meltdown when it comes to meeting Santa, and when Kevin had put a Santa hat and beard on at home, her bottom lip would just start a slow tremble. So, Kevin and I plus my parents piled into the car on the first Saturday in December despite the rain and chilly temps and headed off to Brenham. The inauspicious morning weather coupled with a cranky Emma did not make me feel very confident. But a car ride, bottle, and wardrobe change later, and Emma was set to go. 

We got to the store early, so we'd have time to show her Santa and let her observe for a while. She loves watching people, and the fact that there were so many kids to watch was a definite bonus. We were doing well until the little girl in front of us had her turn. She looked at Santa and started wailing, and Emma just watched and watched. But luckily, the crying wasn't contagious! When it was our turn, we went up to Santa and played and talked a little, and Emma was captivated with the fluffy ball at the end of his hat. She did so well, and we got the excellent picture below.

Emma's first Santa Claus picture

Afterwards, we did a little shopping and stopped in at Must Be Heaven for a yummy lunch. Emma was happy because she got to people watch, and Pappy let her eat crackers! It was a fun outing for everybody, and one I look forward to again next year!

Emma at lunch - sitting in a big girl high chair!

Playing catch up - Emma at 8 months

Phew! The holidays are over. With such a quick turnaround between Thanksgiving and Christmas, it's been a dizzying flurry of activity at our house. A good flurry of activity, but a lot of it! So now as everybody heads back to work and we are easing back into our daily routine, I finally have a moment to get some stuff posted up on the blog. I think I've got enough to do two more entries after this!

Trying to stand in the crib

Emma's been growing by leaps and bounds and becoming quite the adventurer. It seems like she went from starting to crawl to starting to pull up and cruise around the furniture in a matter of days. Of course, she didn't just do it in safe, supervised, pillow padded situations either. She started pulling up and standing in her crib, which meant Kevin had to lower the mattress yet again and that I have to stand on my tiptoes to reach over to lay her down. Then because she was standing in the crib, she found that she could chew on said crib. Thus, our sweet child turned into quite a little busy beaver and that meant it was time to put the crib rail protectors on. Needless to say, there's a lot of cause and effect learning going on at our house for all of us - mommy, daddy, and baby. 

Oh, and don't forget - what goes up, must come down. And usually Emma comes down with a less than graceful thump which is sometimes coupled with a head bump and tears. Good thing she mostly lands on a padded bottom!

Now another side effect of this newly developed motor skill is that we needed a quick infusion of new toys to keep Emma entertained (and out of trouble). So Christmas came a little early as Kevin and I decided that the Playskool Laugh and Learn house we were planning on giving Emma needed to appear sooner rather than later. Can I tell you how much this toy has been a lifesaver? Emma has played with it for hours on end and keeps discovering new activities. Also I have to admit, it's pretty fun playing with her too. There are lots of different ways to play peek-a-boo, and it is fun to surprise her by putting things in the mailbox. Plus, it's sturdy enough that she can pull up on it, which keeps her away from the things she shouldn't be getting in to. I would definitely recommend this toy!

Emma supervising construction

Endless hours of fun

Lastly, Emma's been working on both her verbal and nonverbal communication skills. We always laugh looking back at old videos to see what the sound of the month was - it seems like she only works on one at a time, and we get at least a month of that one sound before she moves on to another. Currently, she's working on the long I sound and subsequently, we've been working on saying "hi." Now, I'm not sure if she's actually saying hi or just making the vowel sound, but she definitely has started to learn when to say it. When she sees Lizzy or someone she knows, she'll say it. When playing peek-a-boo, you sometimes get a "hi," and the best one is when she sees herself in the mirror. She loves that silly baby in the mirror! We've also been working on high fives and waving goodbye. The high five gesture kind of gets stuck on repeat, and you get more like a 20 or 30 by the time she's done though. It's a work in progress - no one can just be cool over night. Waving goodbye has been quicker for her to pick up. We think it's cute because she can't decide whether to wave her whole arm or to just move her fingers. But either way, she knows what she's doing. The other day she was watching BabyTV and the characters on The Cuddlies always wave goodbye at the end, and she sat there waving back to them. I wish I had caught it on film! There's a lot more I could tell you about what's been going on, but I'll save that for some of our Christmas posts.

Video: Emma says "Hi!"
 

 

Click here for more pictures and videos from this month! 

Giving Thanks!

“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not;

remember that what you now have was once

among the things you only hoped for.”
― Epicurus

 

 "God has two dwellings; one in heaven,

and the other in a meek and thankful heart."

― Izaak Walton

Well, we're a little past due on our seven month update, but I wanted to include our Thanksgiving holiday with the post too, so I've held off. The past month has been quite a triumphant month for Emma. She's reached a lot of milestones, including learning how to crawl and getting her first two teeth. Needless to say, our lives just got a lot more interesting.

So here's our monthly round-up categorized by things we are thankful for!

Almost mobile!

• A healthy and growing baby: Emma's done a lot of growing in the past month. First, she has officially surpassed our dog Lizzy in weight (by a whole pound), and while she might be on smaller side falling in the 30th percentile, she is mighty and doggedly persistent. At the beginning of the month, she was just starting to sit up on her own, but she didn't really care for it much. So to encourage her to practice more, we began to let her sit up during bath time, which is one of her favorite times of the day. It was like she had this great epiphany: splashing with my hands is fun; I can see more things; and I got new toys to play with in the tub! From the first night we let her try it, she was hooked. Of course, with sitting up came the knowledge that she could go from sitting up on to her knees and that her knees moved. I think it was about a week from rocking on her knees to figuring out how to move her arms and hands to actual crawling. You can see the progression of her development pretty well in this month's videos. And of course now, there's no stopping her. She's ready to explore this whole new world (or at least find the next door stop to play with).

Video: Emma legitimately crawling!

 

 

Can you see my little teeth?

The weekend she learned how to crawl was also the same weekend that her first two bottom teeth came in! She had been battling with these teeth for a while, but it seemed like they were never actually going to show up. But one day, I was putting some Orajel on her gums, and I noticed it felt different - a little rough. So Kevin and I tried to finagle a way to look into her mouth (open and say "ah" just doesn't compute), and when we finally got a peek - there they were just barely poking through. While they're still not all the way in, you can clearly see them now whenever she smiles or laughs. Now that she has teeth, she's had to realize what kind of things they can do - like when she puts her feet in her mouth and bites down. Now, it hurts and tears most likely follow. There's definitely a learning curve to be had here.

Emma sitting in Grandpa
Elmer's lap at cousin
Christian's soccer game

• Parents and grandparents who love us and our child: We are truly blessed that most of our family lives within an hour of our house. This means that Emma gets to see all her grandparents, great grandparents, aunt and uncles, and cousins pretty frequently. To say she's spoiled would be an understatement. I don't think she leaves any grandparents' house without first giving away all her kisses.
  
  This past football season Kevin's parents, Sandra and Elmer, have been keeping Emma, so that we can keep up my family's tradition of going to the Texas A&M home games in College Station. My youngest brother Stephen is still working on his undergraduate degree in aerospace engineering there, so it's a chance to catch up with him too. Emma's had a lot of fun adventures with Sandra and Elmer, like going to bible study, soccer games, and a baby shower. Since some of the football games have been quite late, she's even gotten to spend the night multiple times! She definitely loves it because she gets spoiled with all the attention, there are new places to explore, and two more puppies to love on at their house.

Emma playing with
her Pappy after work

She also usually goes once a week to my parents' house to spend the day, so that I can have the day to do errands, housework, or just have some personal time without a baby under foot. Emma and her Mimi spend lots of time snuggling and giggling while Pappy is at work. But as soon as he gets home, he's ready to play with Emma. He's the best at making all kinds of weird noises and faces to get her to laugh. Emma loves playing with all with all of my mom's "retro" toys and spends a lot of time chasing her plush ball all over the living room. 

It means so much to us that our families willingly give up their time to help us out or to spend it with Emma. For Kevin and I, it's meant that we can spend some quality time together, just as husband and wife for a bit, which in turn helps us better a better mom and dad to Emma.

Our last view of this Kyle Field before renovation construction begins

• Making new memories as a family: A year ago at Thanksgiving, we were just finding out that we were having a little girl. We couldn't have imagined then just how many different ways that little girl would impact our lives. Our lives now revolve around bottles and bed times, giggles and gurgles. Sure, it's a big challenge trying to figure out what to do as parents (they really don't give you manuals) and there are days and nights when Kevin and I look at each other in exhaustion and wonder how we're going to make to the next day - but we wouldn't trade it for the world. Whenever we're away from Emma, we find ourselves talking about her, mimicking her latest noise to pester each other, or laughing at some Emma moment that we forgot to tell the other about. She's always on our minds and in our hearts.

 Here are some of our personal favorites:

 

 

 

Video: Emma and her daddy

 



And some photos from this year's Thanksgiving at the farm:

 

Click here to view more pictures and videos from the month!

Where'd half a year go?

Well another month has come and gone. Emma keeps my days so busy that I hardly have time to even notice. I remember thinking when I first started to stay at home how the days just dragged on, and I lost a sense of what day of the week it was. Well, that's not the case anymore. Since Emma's a lot more mobile now, a lot of my time is spent chasing her down or rescuing her from her latest situation. It's not that I'm not paying attention, it's just that she moves that fast! And heaven help us, she's not even crawling yet!!

So what have our days been full of, you ask. Here's a look!

We sleep...whenever and wherever.

 

We practice our new skills...like sitting and learning how to get up on all fours.

We gobble down food...quite enthusiastically!

 

We play games....like peek-a-boo.

We go out and about...to shop, to visit, and to party!

 

 And when this mommy gets a moment...she's been sewing!

Click here to view more pictures and videos from this month!

You've got a friend in me!

When you have a baby, it can be hard at times to get out of the house, and I think this is especially true when you have your first (not that I have any knowledge otherwise) because you really feel like you have no clue about what you're doing. I think for the first two months, the only time I left the house with Emma was when someone else could go with me. I think I was really just scared to leave the house with her on my own. What if she cried and wouldn't stop? What if I forgot something we needed at home? What if other people thought I was a bad mother? What if I was a bad mother? These fears were debilitating and confidence shaking - even for a person who used to teach teenagers for a living! And after a while, this routine got old and staying at home with Emma felt very isolating.

Step in the Neil family - Matt, Cayte, Beckett, and Dinah Grace! Cayte texted me this summer saying that they were going to do a swim day at their house one day a week after the big kids finished swim lessons, and she invited Emma and I to come and join them. Now part of me was like, "Yay! Human contact! With adults!!" But the other part of me was more like, "Swimming? With a BABY?!?! Being in a swimsuit after being pregnant!? What if she cries? What if she POOPS?!?" You get the gist...it was that fear creeping up again. But I felt like I needed to bite the bullet and take a chance because honestly, I really didn't have any mommy friends, and I needed to get out.

Our weekly swim day turned out to be such a blessing in disguise! Not only did we get some much needed outdoor time, but it gave me a chance to ask a lot of my mommy questions and hear stories from other moms who had been there and done that. God definitely placed Cayte's invitation in our life at the exact right moment. It was also fun for both of us to watch the other kids play in the pool, even if all we could do was pretty much float around.

Baby doll Emma, Dinah Grace, and Emma

Now there's something about kids and babies that mesh so well. They're equally fascinated by each other. And that was totally true for Matt and Cayte's little girl, Dinah Grace, who's two years old. From the moment they got Emma's birth announcement, Dinah Grace has been fascinated with Emma. In fact, she took that birth announcement everywhere she went until it fell apart. Every time we went over to the Neils' house, Emma and Dinah Grace hung out together, and we were serenaded in the pool with choruses of "Baby Emma." It was beyond precious! So when Dinah Grace got a baby doll for her birthday this year and went about choosing names for it, can you guess what she chose? That's right, Emma! So now, we have real Emma and baby Emma, the doll.

Dinah Grace is whispering to Emma, "I love you!"

Kisses from Dinah Grace

Smiles all around!

So while my Emma probably has no clue what's going on, she is clearly loved by her friend Dinah Grace, and we are equally blessed by having the Neil family as our friends!

Therefore encourage one another and build each other up,
just as in fact you are doing.

1 Thessalonians 5:14

 

Where there is no counsel, the people fall;
But in the multitude of counselors there is safety.

Proverbs 11:14

   

Five for five!

Well another month has passed here in the Banes household, and Emma is growing and changing SO fast. Whenever I sit down to write one of these posts, I find myself going back and looking at all the old pictures and videos. I am amazed by how different she is in just 5 months, and sometimes I find myself a little sad that these stages don't last a little longer. But since I have not managed to harness the 1.21 gigawatts it apparently takes to travel through time, I must be content to live in the moment.

So, here's our five things about being five months old:

Lizzy gives good kisses!

• Lizzy is Emma's best friend: Whether she knows it or not, Lizzy is Emma's favorite toy/activity/friend, and for her part, Lizzy is pretty accommodating with what she lets Emma get away with when they interact. Once Emma learns to crawl though, poor Lizzy is never going to get a moment's rest. One of our favorite "games" to play is "Where's Lizzy?" All you have to do is ask Emma this question and her eyes immediately go looking for her puppy, and she usually laughs or gets all excited when she finds her.  If Lizzy's within an arm's reach, then Emma starts holding her hands out to touch her, and usually Lizzy responds with puppy kisses. It's an especially useful game for when Emma is fussy because it distracts her in an instant. On the flip side, if you ask Emma "Where's mommy?" or "Where's daddy?," she does nothing. I guess we need to work on that some.

Video: Emma, Kevin, and Lizzy playing "chase"

 

 

Time to rise and shine!

• Sleep is a beautiful thing: In case you haven't noticed, a lot of our pictures of Emma involve her sleeping. That happens for two reasons: (1) she's just so stinking cute when she's asleep and (2) she's a really good sleeper most of the time. She is definitely like her parents in this regard - we love our sleep time. So when we moved Emma upstairs to sleep in her crib, it was a transition for us all. First, we couldn't see or hear her as well any more, which meant that Kevin and I spent our nights only half sleeping and just listening for any rustle or whimper. So to combat our sleeplessness, we went out and bought a video monitor. Now, it eases our minds that we can peek in on her, if needed, and honestly, we rarely have to wake up to do so. Since she's learned to roll, we've discovered that Emma likes to sleep on her side. It's funny to see how much she actually rolls around and moves during the night because she's never in the position you left her unless she's sleeping super hard. Emma sleeps an average of 10 hours a night - and sometimes all in one session. Mostly though she sleeps for 6-8 hours, wakes up to eat, and then sleeps another 2-4 hours. I'm not going to lie, it's pretty nice. I think Kevin's jealous that we sleep in most days, but I guess that there's got to be some perks to be the parent who gets covered in slobber and changes diapers all day long. Of course, nap time is another story. We get about 3-4 in a day, but they're all usually pretty short. It's like she knows when 30 minutes are up, and she's ready to play again. Right now, we just let her nap wherever is most convenient - in her room, in our downstairs portable crib, in her Boppy, chair, or swing. Or my favorite, in my arms!

Desperate times call
for desperate measures

Now since sleep is such a precious commodity, when we have nights that don't go as planned it hits all of us pretty hard. Teething and gas seem to be our biggest culprits when it comes to interrupting a peaceful night's sleep. Unfortunately, when Kevin was out of town a few weeks ago, Emma hit me with a double whammy of teething and gas fussiness. She was up every 1.5 to 2 hours crying. Let me tell you - doing the stairs got old fast. So, I moved her downstairs, but the problem still persisted, and she only really calmed down when being held. Finally about 5 AM, desperation set in. Emma was tired, I was tired, and Lizzy was annoyed that we were both interrupting her sleep time. So in an effort to appease all parties involved, I came up with the idea of putting the changing pad in bed with me and letting Emma sleep there, so that I could keep a comforting hand on her and know that she wouldn't be rolling around in the bed or suffocating under the covers. Thankfully, it worked!

 

Emma doing her baby Pilates

• A girl's got to move: Well, we've successfully survived a month of having a baby who can roll over. She still hasn't figured out how to go from tummy to back, but at least she's stopped crying about having to spend time on her tummy once she does roll over. She actually spends about three quarters of her play time on her tummy. Now though, it seems like she's taking a baby Pilates class. When she's on her back, Emma will lift her head and feet at the same time like she's trying to figure out how to sit up. She's definitely going to have some strong core muscles. When Emma's on her tummy, she's gotten to the point where she can extend her arms all the way to hold herself up. It looks like she's doing mini-baby push ups because she goes up and down and up and down. The other thing Emma has taken to is scooting. Only, she does it backwards! And very efficiently too! I'll leave Emma on the blanket playing on her back to run to the restroom, and when I come back she's rolled over and 2 feet from where I left her! It's funny to watch though because sometimes she scoots herself into situations she can't get out of - like running out of room cause she got to the wall or the bar on the play gym.

Playing in her exersaucer

We've started working on coordinating her leg strength too. She's a pretty powerful kicker. Any time she finds something funny or entertaining, she kicks those legs in happiness. Needless to say, Kevin's getting pretty wet during bath time because those legs go non-stop! To help burn off some of that leg energy, we got out the exersaucer (which is HUGE), and she loves to move and groove in it. If you watch her feet, she likes to move up and down on her tippy toes a lot. The one point of contention in our household is teaching her how to sit up, mainly because she'd rather stand, and she's pretty adamant about it. When you take Emma's hands and help her sit up, she insists on keeping her legs locked straight and won't bend in the middle. So it's easier to let her stand all the way up, and then get her to sit. She still flops over after a few seconds, but she's getting better at it little by little. After all this exercise, she's pretty tuckered out by the end of the day, and sometimes, she just admits defeat by laying face down on the floor. 

This is the look of tired defeat

Practicing!

• Learning to eat food is an adventure: We got the go ahead at 4 months to start solids with Emma, but at the time we were still having trouble with finding a formula that didn't tie  Emma's system up in knots. While she's still mostly nursing, we like having the option to use formula when needed. Anyways, we found one, and once Kevin was home from traveling to Corpus Christi, we figured we'd give this food thing a go. We started off by just letting Emma practice sitting in the high chair. Since she isn't too much of a fan of sitting, we thought we might need to start there. She did really well in it, and I think she liked getting to look at things at new perspective/height. So after a few "dry" runs, we worked up the courage to add food to the equation.

What? Is there something on my face?

Now, if you've never attempted trying to feed a baby yourself - it's quite messy, comical, frustrating, and did I mention, messy! I mean, how do you tell an infant to open and close her mouth? Or to swallow the pretty much tasteless, weirdly textured mush? (Side note: if you blow on an infant's face, it triggers the swallow reflex). But I can see why so many parents open and shut their own mouths while feeding the baby. You involuntarily mimic the behavior you want to see happen. I have to say Emma did pretty well, even though I think Kevin and I made the cereal a little too thin and it was more like slurping than swallowing. Since then, I think we've all gotten the hang of things a little bit better, and now she opens her mouth when the spoon is coming. We've still got some work to do on learning to close our mouth though. Next, we'll move on to oatmeal and then some fruits and veggies!

Video: Emma's first bites

 

 

I'm all smiles!

• An expressive explosion: Emma's got two modes: pensive observer and expressive munchkin. For the past 4 months, she mainly just been content to watch quietly all the stuff that's been going on around her. Even when playing with her toys, she seemed caught up in her own little world, cooing occasionally. Well, that's not her dominant mode anymore. Now, she likes to make noise, shout, and share everything. Her range of expressions is priceless. I wish I had a pair of those Google glasses, so I could snap pictures from my point of view in an instant. How she reacts to things cracks me up. I would love to know what she's thinking, but for now, I just have settle with coming up with my own inner monologue of what's going on in her head. She's also found a new range of noises and sounds, including growling like a gremlin, fake coughs after real ones, belly laughs, and yelling just cause she can. When she wakes up in her crib, she spends the first 15-20 minutes just rolling around and making noises (mostly raspberries and growls) until she cries that she's ready to get up for the day. Of course, we still have our thoughtful moments, but now she's just more apt to share how she's feeling afterwards. Here are some of our favorite expressions!

Click here for more pictures and videos from the month!