Life (via Instagram) Lately

1. Before and after Emma's first solids: sweet potatoes. A huge hit. 

2. She is seriously the biggest charmer I have ever met. She can't not look at someone and smile. These famous words from Elf fit her perfectly "Smiling is my favorite". 

3. After a blowout at grandma's, a change of clothes resulted in a blast from the past. Wearing aunt Alaina's first bib overalls and turtleneck....18 years later.

4. She is an animal. We use to be able to sit her in her bumbo while we ate and now she does this.

5. Finally got to introduce Emma to one of my very close friends, Mackenzie. 

6. A little play time before dad gets home from work.

7. Lucky that she doesn't mind watching mom get ready for the day

8. Got to see aunt Alaina all dressed up for winter formal. 

9. Emma's first Nike outfit courtesy of Coach Steyer

Emma: Six Months

It is mind boggling to think that we have a six month old! SIX MONTHS! How is that possible?

Emma seems to really "get" things now, such as who people are, responding to her name, actually enjoying books and her toys. She is now an active participant in playing, instead of just laying there and relying on us to entertain her. Speaking of just laying there, laying there is not an option for her. She is rolling over until she gets stuck and can't roll any farther. Once she rolls to her stomach, she instantly gets up on her knees and starts rocking back and forth. She can be on her knees for minutes, but just doesn't know yet how to get where she wants to go. She also loves different textures, rubbing the carpet, blankets and the leather chairs.

When we got back from Hawaii, I spent a Sunday afternoon making baby food for her: sweet potatoes, carrots, avocados, apples, pears and bananas. It was super easy and only cost me $7 to make over 140 little ice cube sized servings. We did buy some Gerber food too as I had a coupon and didn't want to make green beans and peas. Emma has tried all of the above foods and really loves sitting in her high chair and eating. The only foods she wasn't a fan of were the green beans and peas.

We are now four nights in of Emma sleeping through the night....finally! We should have started trying it a long time ago as it has been fairly easy. I knew that when we went to her six month checkup that the doctor would tell us that she doesn't need to be eating in the middle of the night, so we tried it two nights before her appointment. Her night routine is usually falling asleep while taking her bottle or me rocking her after her bottle. I knew she was used to that and we didn't want it to be a crutch for her. She needed to learn to fall asleep on her own. So we established a new nighttime routine: bath, bottle, change diaper, read two books back in her room, say "I love yous" and lay her in her crib. The first night she fussed for about 20 minutes, the second night was 10 minutes and the last two minutes have been just a couple minutes before falling to sleep. She woke up the first two nights in the middle of the night, but we didn't go get her and she put herself back to sleep. The last two nights she didn't wake up at all! Now I just need to learn to sleep through the night again!

Emma had her six month checkup on Friday and put on quite the show for the nurse and doctor: rolling over, rocking on her knees and killing them with her charm. She measured in at 27.5 inches (97th percentile) and 16lbs 2oz (52nd percentile), our long and lean girl.

Emma: 5 Months

Emma had quite the eventful month. I was going to say that this month has been the most exciting, but I put that last month....so maybe that is how it will be as she grows up and learns more things? Either way, Emma brought us tons of smiles and laughs this month as she learned new tricks and how to really use her voice.

We have a talker on our hands. Are we surprised? Not at all! Emma is constantly talking or making some sort of noises - squeals, moans, grunts, you name it. We actually started referring to her as "Forrest" as in Forrest Gump. Remember the scene where Forrest hears his mom with a guy and then imitates the moaning? Yea, she sounds like that. When she wakes up for the day or from a nap you can often hear her talking in her crib. Oh, and the giggling? To die for. I could listen to her laugh all day long. I am clearly not funny enough as she only seems to get a kick out of Matt or other little kids. Her feet are a new phenomenon as she is constantly playing with them and putting them in her mouth. If her socks are off, event better.

She is eating cereal once a day and still having a bottle every three hours. Since cutting two (!!) teeth, it has been a struggle to get her to even take a bottle. She tends to barely drink four to five ounces and if she does, it usually takes sometimes up to an hour to finish it. Speaking of those teeth....fellow parents are right, teething is not fun at all. Since after Thanksgiving, we have been able to see them trying to cut through with no luck of ever doing so. Tylenol and Orajel seemed to work at the beginning, but now she closes her jaw tight and refuses them. The only thing that seems to help is her putting her hands in her mouth and moaning to self soothe. Hey, whatever works.

She had a month full of Christmas celebrations and holiday traditions. I am carrying on the tradition my mom started with us kids of giving us a pair of pajamas, an ornament and a Christmas book (or DVD) every year when we put up our tree. I love that I am able to share with Emma some of the things I grew up loving about the holidays. My mom and sister had success taking her to see Santa after Matt and I had a struggle. They also took some fun holiday pictures of her. One thing is for sure, this girl will have no lack of pictures of her. She is a ham and always cheesin' it up for the camera (most days).

Can't believe that soon I will be writing a post for her six month! Crazy to even think about!

2013

At the end of every year since I have been with Matt, I have said it has been the best yet. In 2009 we met, fell in love and I realized he was "the one". 2010 brought me back to Ames and us moving in together. In the year 2011 we got engaged, went on a cross country road trip and traveled to New York City for the Pinstripe Bowl. 2012 we got married, bought our first home and learned we would be becoming a family of three.

This brings us to 2013, the best year to date, where I started the year off 12 weeks pregnant. I was lucky to have an easy pregnancy and a fantastic partner in Matt, who doted on me hand and foot. We enjoyed the time we had of it being just us two, all while counting down until we got to meet our baby girl. We celebrated our first wedding anniversary in June, while I was eight months pregnant. Then in July, we welcomed our Emma Grace into our world with open arms and hearts so full of love. Being a parent has been the most rewarding, scary, exciting and stressful ride we have ever been on. We have learned more about ourselves as individuals, grew closer as husband and wife and truly learned what unconditional love is. Emma has brought us so much love, happiness and pure joy. We are taking in every moment and cherishing it all because it is going by so fast. 

It is because of Emma that I fell even more in love with her daddy this year. Like I said above, Matt has been a fantastic partner and that has really shown through during my pregnancy and now as we juggle parenthood. Seeing him hold our daughter for the first time was one of the most special things I have ever seen, brings tears to my eyes still thinking of it and seeing pictures. Matt is a phenomenal dad, seriously the best. Emma is so lucky to be able to have him as her daddy. The way she giggles for him and stares at him with bashful eyes, you can see how wrapped he really is. I am excited to watch their relationship over the years and to see them grow.

I don't know what 2014 has in store for us and our family, but I am excited for the adventure and to add on to these memories we have already built as a family. While I didn't make a New Year's resolution, I have devoted to writing down daily in a journal something that I am thankful for that particular day. Looking forward to seeing what I wrote next December.

Wishing you all a healthy and joyous 2014!

Mele Kalikimaka

"Mele Kalikimaka is the thing to say, on a bright Hawaiian Christmas day."

We are back (and survived) from Hawaii where we were lucky enough to spend Emma's first Christmas. Matt's job takes him away from us quite a bit the months September through March, but we are so fortunate the places we have experienced because of his job and the extended athletics family we have. While we were sad to be away from family over the holiday, we definitely did not miss the weather you all had back here. Instead, we enjoyed the 80 degree weather with gorgeous views!

Emma really surprised Matt and I with how awesome she did during the whole trip. We were quite apprehensive as to how she would do and how thrown off she would be, but she was a champ. Our day started at 2am on the 19th so that we could be at the bus by 3:15am. We put Emma to sleep in pajamas and we thought we would just let her sleep and change her before we took off at the airport. She chose to be awake at 3am for the day and just took 45 minute catnaps the rest of the day. That girl can function (somehow) with little sleep. We had a long travel day that started with our first flight out of Des Moines at 6:15am, a four hour layover in Denver, followed by a six hour flight to get us to Honolulu at 4pm Hawaii time (8pm Iowa time). Emma never really cried on the plane, fussed a little, but nothing terrible. It helped having little girls with us to keep her occupied and happy.

Our days outside of the basketball games consisted of 4am wake up calls thanks to Emma, walks around the resort, Matt at practice and just relaxing/hanging out. Matt and I laughed that this wasn't like our honeymoon where we could just sit poolside all day and drink Mai Tai's. Instead, we had three "days" at the pool/beach that lasted maybe a hour at most. The sun was strong and Emma got hot and irritable.

The ONLY perk of Emma getting up at 4am was this view outside our hotel.

We were fortunate enough to accompany the team to visit Pearl Harbor. What an experience to get to see the ships in the water and the oil that is still coming up from it.



We got to watch our Cyclone men's team remain undefeated and win the Diamond Head Classic in three games against George Mason, Akron and Boise State. Emma did great during the games and we received a lot of texts that we were seen on tv quite a few times as we sat behind the team's bench. An exciting part of the tournament was that President Obama and family were attending the game directly after ours to watch Michelle's brother coach for Oregon State.

Christmas didn't really feel like Christmas when it was 80 degrees out, but we celebrated with a delicious Christmas Eve dinner with the team and the families that were there and on Christmas Day we watched the men win the Diamond Head Classic.

After seven nights and eight days in Hawaii, we started our long journey back to Ames. We had to check out of the hotel on the eighth day (Thursday) by 11am and didn't get picked up by the bus until 5:30. Luckily, the President of the Foundation let us borrow their room for a couple hours after lunch so we we could relax and let Emma nap. Our flight left out of Hawaii at 8pm (midnight central time) and got to Chicago at 8am. Emma surprised us and slept seven of the eight hours, while mom didn't sleep at all. That is okay because each seat had their own tv and I got to watch The Butler and The Internship. Once in Chicago we had another four hour layover before a quick hour flight to Des Moines. We were at home by 3pm. By the end of the day, I had not slept more than 30 minutes in almost 40 hours. But, I really can't complain because I was getting back from pretty much a free trip to somewhere I would not have probably went to if it wasn't for this.