London's Run

Today, Jessica and Sophia made the long drive to our side of town to participate in London's Run. Unfortunately, we missed "the run" but still had a great time walking around the event, checking out vendor booths, and of course catching up with each other.

London was a patient of mine about 5 years ago when I worked in-patient. She was diagnosed with an aggressive form of Leukemia and sadly lost her battle about a week before Christmas.

When you work with children, no matter what capacity, you aren't suppose to have "favorites". But I'll admit that there are some patients that managed to find that spot with me. London was one of them. Both her and her family are amazing people, and I am glad that I have been able to stay in touch with them. You can read London's Story HERE.

Ready to go! It was cold this morning! We wish we had our mittens!

The sweet lady we asked to take our picture, had a very difficult time fitting us all in! We are lucky she didn't completely cut out the girls!

Emma finally smiling after she realizes that she is with her friend Sophia! It really was like all the sudden she realized that she was there!

Me and Emma (who turned her head as soon as the picture was taken!) with Jenn, Maddie, and Kendal. Maddie was diagnosed with cancer when she was only a year and a half, and was roommates with London throughout their entire treatment. You might remember them from THIS post.

Sophia excited to be out of her stroller

Like always, we tried to get a picture of the girls together. And as usual, we couldn't get them to both look at the camera at the same time!

During these pictures, someone asked as again if the girls were twins!

Notice Emma's leg in the air? She was using Sophia as a brace to pull herself up! Sophia wasn't so sure she liked this idea!

It was time to try and get a picture of Emma by herself, but she was more interested in eating the grass then having her picture taken!

We have another busy day tomorrow. Emma and I are meeting some of the girls I worked with at the hospital at the zoo. More pictures to come!

A Little Bit of This and That

I started putting Emma's food on a plate. This lasted about 2 minutes and then she realized that she could lift the plate!


She has been wanting her teething rings every night about 5:30. Still on tooth watch!


Her hair has also been something of interest this week. (Notice no plate!) Emma has finally discovered her hair clips. She pulls them out and starts chewing on them! There has been many times that I have ran to the kitchen, put a load of laundry in, etc and come back to the entire hair clip in her mouth! Because they are a chocking hazard, she can only wear them now when we are right with her. She can't even wear them in her car seat! So we have resorted to ponys. This way, I can keep her hair out of her eyes, and she hasn't seem to discovered them yet!

Speaking of hair...this is what her hair looks like after her bath. It is getting way curlier, and if I try to comb it straight, it turns into a big wave.

This is her curls in the morning. Her hair is so fine, and because she sleeps on her belly/face, the curls pretty much flatten out. It is hard to see in this picture, but her hair is wild and seems to stick out all over, so the clip helps to tame it.

The other big thing the past couple of days is Emma is eating more and more table food and less and less baby food. So I have had to really put on my thinking cap for meals that she can eat, but still get variety and all the healthy stuff she needs. This has really opened my eyes to what food is out there. I couldn't believe how much food high fructose corn syrup is really in. Just about everything! Now I am not going crazy and saying that Emma will never have junk food, I am just being very aware and want to limit these foods. As she eats more and more table food, I am sure I will start making visits to Trader Joes, and other stores that sell more "natural" products.

Speaking of healthy food, we got our second Bountiful Basket on Saturday. It had lots of yummy stuff like broccoli, zucchini, tomatoes, grapefruit, tangelos, strawberries, apples, pears, and lettuce. I also added a 9 grain bread that is from a local bakery. It is so yummy and so much healthier then the 9 grain I was buying in the store. When I compared ingredients, I couldn't believe it. Emma really likes it also, so we will keep getting it.

The other interesting thing in our basket were pickling cucumbers. I have never pickled anything before, but thought I would try it and make dill pickles. After going to 3 different stores to get everything we needed I was ready. It seemed to be pretty easy, but unfortunately I am not really expecting them to turn out. I couldn't get the lids to seal, so I am afraid they will go bad before the process is done. Oh well. We will just have to wait and see.

A Big Storm and A Big Girl

The last couple of days we have had heavy rain, wind, hail, and even a tornado watch that was upgraded to a tornado warning! With this crazy weather, we have spent the last handful of days inside.

We have been busy with our toys...


Playing Peek-a-Boo....

The rainy weather even made us tired...but we still didn't want to take our naps!

And we discovered a fun new way to play!

Not Exactly What it Looks Like...

The thing of concern lately at our house is that Emma is not crawling. Wait. Let me rephrase that. ROBERT has been very concerned that Emma isn't showing any signs of crawling. She rolls all around, (to the point that she will end up on the other side of the room!) she scoots, impressively reaches for and figures out how to get objects just out of reach, and moves her legs like crazy. Because of all of this I am really not that concerned about it. I have tried to reassure Robert that she is just fine, and crawling has even been taken off of some developmental check lists because more and more babies aren't crawling first. Still he is concerned.

So I decided I was going to try and "teach" Emma to crawl. I know I am kidding myself, but we have gotten to the point that when she is on her knees, she stays up and even rocks back and forth. Of course we yell and clap "yay Emma!". But the only way she gets on her knees is if I put her there. She won't do it on her own. Jessica says (talking about Sophia) "we have one baby that can crawl, and one baby that can eat solid food." My mom says they make the perfect pair. One can go and get the food, and the other can eat it. The more I think about that, it doesn't really make sense. How is Sophia going to eat? I guess Emma can be like the mommy bird and chew it up for her, but that is kind of gross!

Speaking of food....Emma had dinner for the first time with us. I made pot roast with carrots and potatoes for the first time, and then made some green beans to go along with it. I figured everything would be soft enough for her to try some. It was a little salty for my taste, and I think Emma agreed with me. Some bites she would like, and others not so much. I will have to look for a different recipe to try next time.

Just Some New Pictures..

Emma has started playing a new game....Peek-A-Boo. She will use just about anything. Her play mat, shirt, or her blankets!



Her hair has been harder and harder to get to stay straight. It was sticking all over so much this day, I just piled it on top of her head! I think it is time to buy little pony tail holders.



Having a snack

Slobbery hand monster!

Just being her cute self!

Aiden's 3rd Birthday

We headed over to Josh and Christine's to help celebrate Aiden's 3 birthday. It was a small, family party, but it was very nice to see the kids, have the cousins together, and finally catch up with Josh and Christine. I can't believe that Aiden is already 3. It seems just like the other day we were packing up to go to North Carolina to meet the new little guy. Before we get to the birthday pictures, here are some of Aiden over the last 3 years.


Our first time meeting Aiden. He was 1 month old.


1st Birthday. And here in AZ. Yea!



2nd!

3rd! This was his favorite gift. It was a new bike, and when he first saw the box he got so excited and said "oh thank you!"

Trying chocolate cake for the first time. She liked it and wanted more. (but we didn't give her any!)

Trying out the new bike. Anna really wanted to ride it, and the funny thing was, when we took him outside to ride, he didn't want HIS bike, he wanted Anna's bike!

The biggest hit of the party.....Balloons!

Even Emma wanted to hold one!



Emma and Julia - believe it or not, Emma has been very smiley, even with visitors! With all the birthday excitement, she wasn't too sure about the noise level and pretty much looked like this all night!

8 Months!

Emma Grace is officially 8 months today. What seems even harder to realize, is that in just 4 short months we will be celebrating her first birthday! I kind of thought time would start to slow down after the holidays, but the days still just keep flying by.

And just like all the months before, we have enjoyed all her new accomplishments this month, even the emergent of her cute little stinker side to her personality!

This past month she has started to scoot herself across the floor both on her bottom and her stomach. She still hasn't made it up onto her knees yet, but watching her different movements she has when she scoots and when she reaches for a toy, I think she will be crawling in the next month. She is also almost completely self-sufficient when it comes to finger foods and her sippy cup. She isn't so sure when the food is mushy, like bananas, but easily eats toast, lunch meat, cheerios, puffs, and yogurt melts. She loves her yogurt melts, so I bought some yogurt for her to have as a snack. She can't stand it! All she has to do is smell it on the spoon and she clinches her mouth shut! She also seems to be more into the baby food then she is in her formula. Her formula intake has gone way down, but will eat baby food and her finger food no problem!

She started her very cute habit of wrinkling her nose when she smiles, and her stinker side came out after I told her no, and she smiled at me!

In not so good things, she did get her first fever this month and was a trooper the 24 hours she didn't feel good. We never were able to figure out what the cause/source was, and besides being grumpy a different points throughout the day, she seems to have recovered just fine.

We can't wait to see what this month brings!

As you can tell from this photo, she wasn't all that into taking pictures in her chair today. That is why the top picture is of her out and playing!

My New Discovery

Lately I haven't been buying very many fruit or veggies at the store because they have been so expensive. I had heard about Bountiful Baskets before but was leery on trying it. It is a food co-op that is state wide, and is also in Washington, Utah, and Idaho. You pay $15 and you get a basket full of fresh fruit and veggies. You never know what you are going to get. It depends on what is in season and supply. They use local produce when they can and advertise that it is the same produce that is delivered to restaurants and stores. You also have the option of different "add ons" (these cost extra) like different breads, granola, herbs, and spices.
With it being the new year, and being sick of not having any fresh fruit or veggies, I decided to try it this week. When I went to pick up my loot, I was pleasantly surprised! Volunteers already have the produce split up, and I walked out with a milk crate over flowing with stuff. I know I would have spent way more then $15 for this at the store, plus I got stuff that I don't normally buy. We got a whole pineapple, watermelon, bananas, oranges, apples, pears, onions, celery, 2 bunches of romaine lettuce, radishes, bruscle sprouts, tomatoes, and squash (I think). Some of the apples and pears were bruised, but over all I am extremely happy and will do it again in the future. I am also excited to try some of the bread and other goodies. You can get all the information HERE. The website is a little hard to navigate, and right now you can really only read about the policies and see the locations. I think Wednesday night is when the next baskets become available and even though you don't know what is in the baskets, you can see what the extras offered for the week are.
Here is what we got!



And in Emma news....

As you can tell by this picture, she feels much better now. She had a couple of fevers in a 24 hour period, and other then being a little less active, a little more cuddly, and a less hungry, you would have never known she didn't feel good. I am not sure what caused the fevers, but am very glad that she is feeling better!