HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY!!!!

Happy 1st Birthday, my sweet little girl! One year ago today, my life changed forever. I had no idea how wonderful this experience would be. Today is bittersweet for me. I’m so sad today because a whole year has passed in the blink of an eye, and yet so happy because my life is so much better with you in it. Thank you for the best year of my life!

1st Birthday Party

Emily had her first birthday party today. When presented with her very own baby cake, she decided rather than tasting it herself to instead share it with both of her granddads. Later when I ate a piece of cake, she realized that she should taste some and seemed to enjoy it. She loved her new scooter that she got from her grandparents, as well as the many other wonderful gifts she received. We had a great time, but I can't believe that it's been a year already.

Unfortunately it looks like Emily will not be walking on her first birthday. She learned how to walk at 10 1/2 months, and had become quite good at it. But last weekend, she got her foot caught in a toy and fell, resulting in a hairline fracture in her tibia. The doctor said that no cast was necessary, although I'm wondering if it would help since she's been fussy and wants to be held non-stop since the fall. Since she can't walk on her injured leg, she is back to crawling. I noticed some definite improvement today though, we're she's putting a little more weight on her leg and doesn't seem to be quite so concerned about hurting it. Hopefully her leg will heal soon.

Finally some footage...

Emily walks...

Since I am new to this parent thing, I am never sure when to be excited about my kid doing something, but...I feel safe in saying at this point that Emily is walking. I had seen a few stumbling steps, and never when you were paying attention. Performance anxiety I guess. Last night it was 5-6 steps from the counter to my chair like it was no big deal. Then out comes the camera, and no more show. Caught a quick clip to appear later.

Emily Speaks...sort of...

Emily's 1st Taste of Spaghetti

Apparently Emily takes after her "Poppy" and LOVES spaghetti!

Update

We had a wonderful time on our Northwest vacation. We spent two days in Victoria Island, Canada so Emily has officially been out of the country now. We also went hiking and exploring Olympic National Park. Emily got to ride in a backpack, which she loved. The only problem that we had with Emily was that one day when we had a heavy driving day, she got really tired of being in the car seat and was very fussy. I can’t blame her for this, and all in all I think she was a trooper. I’m so glad that we didn’t let having a baby stop us from traveling.

In the last two weeks, Emily seems so much older to me. I’m losing my little baby. She upgraded to the big kid car seat, has completely transitioned over to finger foods (other than when mom needs the convenience of baby food), and she’s finally getting her first two teeth! She can also now say “ba-ba” (bottle), “mama,” and “dada” with meaning associated to them and she can wave bye-bye. Emily can pull up to a standing position in a split second and can stand with just a tiny bit of help for her balance. She can also walk behind a walker, but it’s definitely a little unsteady and awkward. I can’t believe that her first birthday is now on the horizon. How did this happen so quickly?

My only problem that we’re having with Emily right now is that she’s “exploring her voice”. This is fine when we’re at home, but sometimes when we’re in places where she needs to be reasonably quiet (i.e. restaurant, church), she decides that it’s time to scream “aaaahhh” quite loudly, and it’s embarrassing. She doesn’t understand “sssshhhh” or “be quiet” yet. If anyone has any advice on what to do, I welcome it. This weekend we’re flying to Pennsylvania for my cousin’s wedding and I’m definitely nervous that Emily will be too loud during the ceremony. Fortunately my cousin will have her children there, so I think that they know this may be a problem, and Brian will take her out if necessary. I’m trying to make arrangements to get a baby sitter though so that I can avoid the situation altogether.

Emily's Surgery

Last Friday, Emily had eye surgery for a clogged tear duct that she's had since birth. It went really well. I went back to the operating room with her while they gave her anesthesia, and once she was asleep, I had to go to a post-op room while they performed the procedure. I couldn't believe that they were wheeling her back in the room only 5 minutes later! The doctor had told me that it would be fast, but I didn't realize it would be quite that quick. Before I could verify that it was in fact my child laying in the bed, I thought that they were bringing the wrong child into the room since it was so soon after I left her. She awoke only 15 minutes later, ate, and then was as happy as could be. You would never suspect that she had just had surgery. It seems that the surgery was a success. It is so nice to no longer have to wipe the goop off her eye every morning and evening, with tears and squirming to go with it. I hope to post a picture soon of her in her hospital gown. We're busy trying to prepare for our vacation to the Northwest though, so it may not be until we get back.

Happy Mother's Day!

For Mother's Day, I decided to give my mommy the gift (?) of crawling!!! Look what I can do now!

Emily is crawling for Mother's Day

Since she hasn't mastered shopping, Emily decided to provide mommy the best Mother's Day present she could think of...she crawled and stood up in her crib. She has been working up to this moment by pushing her way around backwards, but the real crawling started on Saturday, and by Sunday she was a pro.

Pulling Up

Last week, as I was putting Emily in the bathtub, she spit up on me. I teased her by acting like she was going in the tub, which she gets so excited about. But when she spit up, rather than put her in the tub, I sat her on the floor outside of the tub so that I could clean myself up first. As I was doing this, Emily put her hands on the side of the tub and pulled herself up to a standing position. She wanted in the tub so badly! She had a repeat performance the next night as well.

Emily has also figured out how to sit up herself. It was weird to walk into her bedroom this morning and to see her sitting in her crib. Needless to say, we will be lowering the crib this weekend. She is also working very seriously on crawling. She can scoot backwards, get up on all fours in a crawling position and move her arms like she's going to crawl, but can't quite move yet. She can, however, scoot across the room. Our lives are about to change!

Rolling the other way!

Emily is adding to her bag of tricks. Yesterday she rolled from her back to her tummy. Too bad it seems as though she's almost forgotten how to roll the other direction. Just when she seemed like she had mastered rolling from her tummy to back, she quit doing it. I guess she needs some time to master her new skills.

Emily is on a roll!

Yesterday Emily rolled over for the first time. There were no witnesses, but we know it happened! Her Grandma put Emily in the crib to do some tummy time while she picked out some clothes for Emily to wear that day. When she went back to the crib, Emily was on her back. We tried to do a repeat performance when I got home last night, and while Emily was really close to getting it again, she couldn’t quite roll. Her arm was in the way. Hopefully tonight she’ll show us her new trick when we’re home from work.

Emily's Baptism

This past Saturday, we had Emily baptized at Transfiguration Catholic Church. It was so nice to have our closest family and friends at the special occasion. Emily’s Godparents, Doug and Leslie, were even able to make it all the way from West Virginia. We had a wonderful dinner at our house afterwards, and I owe much credit to both grandmas who did the bulk of the cooking. I couldn’t have done it without them.