11 Month Update

11 months and many milestones later, Emma continues to amaze us with her developments!  Please excuse me if I use the words amaze/amazing too many times in this post, but that is what this past month with Emma has been - amazing!  The things she can now do and understand. 
All in one month Emma got her 4 top teeth, so now a total of 6 (2 bottom, 4 top).  Her pearly whites show each time she smiles, she looks likes such a big girl now.  Brushing her teeth or cleaning her tongue is a fun task, taking the risk of getting bitten each time, dad normally summons mom to come do the job.
We have taught her to smile, so she srunches her eyes and shows her teeth, it's too funny.

Emma went from crawling, she's getting faster and learning to crawl over obstacles now, to kneeling, then to pulling herself up to standing (which she just started doing on Sunday).  It's amazing watching her go through these milestones and how she tackles them, for instance the crawling, she just woke up the one day and started crawling as though she'd been doing it forever, the day before she was moaning when she tried to get into crawling position and got stuck, or just moaned so I would come and get her.  Once she mastered the crawling and found her way to objects (her activity table in particular), she'd reach up and press the buttons with her fingers, then discovered she could pull herself up to her knees which made it even easier for her to reach and play more comfortably.  This past Sunday I took her to the pool.  I let her stand on the step and she held onto the wall, a few minutes later I saw her push herself away from the wall and stood with no support for a few seconds, then held the wall again.  After her nap that same day, I took her out of her crib to change her diaper, she assumed the crawling postion, but started lifting her legs, so almost in the downward dog position.  Shortly after that I was on the phone, I placed Emma in her pack and play which is at the base of our bed, while talking I see this little head pop up, she had pulled herself to standing position.  Now she's slowly discovering how to cruise along the furniture.  We wait and wait for her to do these things and then in a flash it's done.
We haven't yet run into the problem of her standing up in her crib and then crying because she can't get down, so we're just waiting for that.

Other new things that Emma can do - she can wave hi and bye, blow kisses (she seems to use one hand for a kiss to anyone, and then two hands for her daddy - obviously cos he's extra special), she loves paging through her books, and I love watching her pry the pages apart with her two little thumbs.  We've taught her to switch the lights on and off, put toys away at bath time, put dirty clothes in the washing basket and stretch!!!  Just amazing how you can tell her what to do things and she understands, or responds with a notion that she understands.  Whenever she gets into something she shouldn't she drops what she's doing, shakes her head and closes her eyes, then gives a little shout, like No!
Emma doesn't quite like prickly or rough objects, Rod will often tease her with his stubble, me with my hairbrush, trying to get her to touch it, she squeals and shakes her head, when she does touch it her expression is almost like one when you hear someone scraping their nails down a blackboard.  Most of the time she's very quick to pull her hands away before even touching it.

For the first time yesterday (July 22) Emma completed putting all the shapes into her shape sorter - she did it over the course of the day, another activity amazing to watch.  She's had this toy since 6 months, she started off hitting the shapes against the ball and now uses both hands to shift the shape around to finally fit it in the ball.

Tomorrow we're attending Ella's first birthday party! Emma's first birthday invite.  Talking of Ella, Emma's reaction to her yesterday was hilarious.   Amy and I got the girls together for some play time before their naps, well I think both of them we're actually over tired.  Ella was talking alot and maybe too loud for Emma's liking, at any opportunity Ella was trying to hug and kiss Emma, and whatever Emma was playing with Ella came along to have a look too.  Well after a while of this, Emma just had a enough of this and would start moaning and come to me for security.  Ella eventually crawled away, now Ella's crawl is different to a typical crawl, almost like sit/crawl position and scoots on her hands and knees, Emma followed her, suddenty Ella decides to turn around, Emma caught a fright, quickly turned around too and crawled as fast as she could toward me, almost crying.  Hopefully this isn't a permanent fear.  We'll see how it goes tomorrow.

Well think thats enough talk of Emma (although I could talk a whole lot more, yes sadly I'm one of those moms!)  One more month and we're celebrating 1 year of Emma in our lives.  I look back at previous photo's and can't believe how quick our little one has grown - only then do you realize how she's changed.
These photos we're taken at a studio, we purchased a program called "watch me grow" and captures them for the first year - these were taken recently.

We're seeing GREEN!!

Sorry Em, Mommy & Daddy are stealing your limelight for just a few minutes.

For what has felt like a looooong time, we have finally been approved our Greencards! 
We know it's for sure as the USCIS has taken away our I94's, working cards and crossed out our visas!!
Such an exhilirating feeling!  I said it's taken us 3 years to finally get to where we are, but Rod always looks at things cup half full and says it only took a year even less.  Either way we're super excited!  Sheww.....

We were scheduled for an appointment today to meet with an official.  We were a little worried, unsure of the reason they would call us in, married for too short (pictured them taking us in seperate rooms and drilling us, last night we were asking each other questions ensuring we'd have the same answer - isn't is funny even tho you know each other, you still doubt yourself at a time like this), verifying Rod's position and time at Just Enough.....so we got all our documentation together along with "old" photos from 2002 - 2004, and in the end all we did was sit there while the official (who was a very friendly elder man) verified all the information, compared copies of documents with originals, signed and stamped everything and then we were done!
We should receive our cards by Emma's birthday, so one big celebration coming up!

So Em,  even though it's not citizenship, mom and dad get to stay with you in the States for 10 more years, no more hassles with visas and working permits.  In 5 years we can work toward citizenship and be one big happy american family - hmmm...maybe minus the big!!

Thanks Em for enduring 3 hours with us at the immigration office and missing a nap!!  You did so well, no fussing or crying, just curious to see what the man behind the desk was doing.

Thank you Rod for getting us here, it's been a long journey, but definitely worth all the sacrafices!  We love you so much!

Hooray for us!

The Concept of 'No'

Just tonight Dad asked his 10 month old daughter, how she learnt the word or gesture of "No" and how to use it in context.  All these wonders of your baby.  They catch onto things so quickly.

The past 3 days I've been struggling with Emma's eating habits, rejecting the food I cook for her, shutting her lips and shaking her head.  The only thing she'd take is yoghurt, cottage cheese and fruit - so I'm thinking maybe her teeth are bothering her, even tho they all seem to have cut through, maybe there are more on the way?? again??  Poor girl. 

Anyways, after talking with my neigbor Amy, who's going through a similar problem, she suggested I just make fingerfoods for Emma.  Ella was also refusing food, but rather wanted to feed herself.
It seems to have worked.  I am now a mother to a finger food loving child.  I do feel a little lost, not knowing what to do while she happily feeds herself - guess my new duty is to pick up the food that falls on the floor.  My baby is growing too quickly.  At least now I know she's getting the food that she wants or needs.  Thanks Amy, not sure when it might have dawned on me to try fingerfoods - duh!

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Our Little Monkey

I know I'm posting more photos than blogging, but can't help but share these photos.
Our little munchkin is becoming quite the monkey, knowing how to entertain us.

We had given Emma her apples after dinner in a ziploc containter, after she was done she showed us what she could do with it.
If you look carefully at the 5th photo you can actually see the lines on her face from the container.

We just can't get enough of this little one....

Bathtime Pics

I love bathtime pics. Altho quite the challenge to take photos of Emma at this time, since she's crawling all over the show, before you know it she's heading for the edge of the bed.
She's becoming quite the handful as she masters her crawling skills.  She's slowly learning to crawl over obstacles, me being the main one.

Today I was hiding in the dining room and calling her, and now and again popping my head out so she could see me.  Such an adorable sound of her hands and knees against the wooden floors trying to get to me.  She was a little hesitant, trying to look around the corner before actually getting to the dining room - guess it's a new room for her.  When she hears sounds she doesn't like or isn't familiar with she becomes a little startled and scurries toward me, hanging onto my leg, or trying to crawl up my arm/chest.

We went to Kindermusik today, started a new session called Busy Days, cute songs, so we have our CD which we need to learn the words to.  Emma loved class today and she was quite different to the last time.  Emma did not want to sit in my lap, she wanted to explore the room, so I spent most of the time bringing her back to the circle so she could participate with the songs, eventually I just left her to do her thing.  She was all over the place.  She loved the music though, inbetween crawls, stopping and swaying her body side to side.  Pretty cute.

Well I mainly wanted to share these bath time pics of Em, got carried away sharing our days events.

Good night.

It's all happening over night

We cannot get over how quickly Emma is progressing now. It's like overnight she started to crawl and at quite a quick pace. Her two front teeth are cutting through, actually after knocking her mouth on her crib a few days ago,  the following day her second, 2nd front tooth broke through - she looks like Baby Dracula.  We're filling the gap now at least. And tonight after dinner, Emma was able to keep her balance and stand with little support.....hopefully mom and dad will be able to keep up with this little one...

We are officiallly crawling!

Emma took her first proper crawl toward physical independence!!!!  She's had a few months of pondering whether this was an action she would attempt, rocking on all floors, crawling backward, falling on her belly and whining, attempting to reach for objects but giving up easily and prefering to go back to a sitting position.  Kept her parents in suspence whether she'd skip the entire crawling phase and just walk, as she's been trying to pull herself up lately.....

Now today, after a morning walk/jog and a nap outdoors, I left her in her room to play and when I went to check up on her, I saw her crawling toward her shoe.  Such excitement.  Obviously I quickly went for my camera to try capture it, but you just don't get it as you first saw it, takes lots of enticing and patience.

Just yesterday I was saying to Heather that I'm enjoying her immobility for as long as I can, well I spoke too soon.  Actually yesterday Rod was playing with Emma on the floor, putting things in front of her, and she managed to crawl a little.  Rod said she slept on this notion and woke up this morning saying, 'Oh, this is how you do it!".

As busy as I know it's going to be, it's such an accomplishment and love watching my baby grow.  Well done Emma - ten months old and crawling!  I guess we're babyproofing this weekend!!

Baby Swim Date

Today we met at Allison's place for our play date, except we thought it might be cute and refreshing to play by the pool.  I thought it was going to be too hot to be out in the sun, as by 9am it's already becoming unbearable.  There was a bit of cloud cover which made it feel somewhat cooler, so we slathered our babies with sunblock, put on their bikinis and hat and hit the pool.  Emma totally LOVED the big pool, she got so excited, kicking and splashing.  Once I knew she was really used to the water I thought I'd try dunk her under the water....and surprisingly she didn't cry, she didn't mind it at all actually, just tried brushing the water out of her eyes.

I think we're going to have to make a few more trips to the pool now - another activity to keep us busy.
It was actually the first time for me to climb into my cozzie since having Emma, quite nice to "swim" again, although definitely time to trade in the string bikini for a mommy bikini...so sad....

Just a few pics from today.....Em was quite the affectionate baby, giving Elise and Emilia hugs and kisses (or at least I like to think she was giving hugs and kisses) - in the photos she looks like a monster, actually she seemed to be showing off a bit today, almost as though she knew she was the big girl.  Normally Ella is the one terrorising Emma, now Emma probably feels she can do the terrorising, although we do show her how to be gentle.  Guess she's just being curious...talking of curious, Allison has a dog, Sophie, a yorkshire terrier type dog.  Emma wasn't phased by Sophie walking around or past her, at one point Sophie was lying next to me and Emma "crawled" over to look at Sophie and tried to touch her nose....Sophie quickly licked Emma's fingers and at that Emma laughed and she proceded to do it again.  Cuteness!!!

HAPPY FATHERS DAY DADDY!

We spent a lovely Father's Day with Rod, breakfast out on our patio, some good family time at home and then our regular grocery shopping.  Rod got some spa treatments on Saturday as his fathers day gift, but he turned one of the two down as he said he'd rather spend that time with his two gals!  How sweet.....

I had asked Rod what he thought of his first father's day and what it felt like being a dad so far.  He said being a father has changed his life, and you don't know what being a father is about until you become one, having this special bond with Emma, and seeing her smile when you walk through the door, just melts your heart and is such a unique feeling, you can't get better than this.  It's just great being a dad!!!

Happy Fathers Day Rod - Thank you for being such a great dad to Emma.  There is so much to learn about being a dad and you're doing a great job.  We both love you so much!!!

Also a special Happy Fathers Day wish goes out to our dads and grandfathers.  We wouldn't be where we are now, if it weren't for your guidance and love.

Our Little American Girl, almost 10 Months old....

Every night I cannot wait to get to bed, but I find this is the time my mind goes on a frenzy and I can't sleep, always thinking of the things I want or need to do and didn't get round to it, some of it silly things, things that could wait until tomorrow, but you feel you've got to do it now cos you don't know what your day might be like tomorrow, or know that I'll forget!

So here I am, 11:37pm, Saturday night, updating my baby's blog before she turns 10 months on Tuesday....shew....another month gone by and it just keeps getting better and better, busier and busier. 

There are those moments where you just want to pull your hair out, or close your eyes and ignore everything that's going on because you don't know what to do when your baby won't go down for her nap as she used to, you feel bad leaving her to cry, but you do it and she eventually falls asleep, or your baby is clinging to you like a monkey which gives you even less time to do the things you want to do.  Teething is another pain, interfering with sleep, and eating.   But then there are more moments where you're just staring at your baby watching her entertain herself with her toys, and you can't resist sweeping her in your arms and giving her kisses all over her body and hugging her so tightly which are either accepted with baby laughs, or resisted with leg kicking and body stretching trying to get free!!!

Ever since we returned from LA, Emma has become very clingy, I want to place her down on the floor to throw her diaper away or wash my hands, and this little one will grasp on tightly, I'll try sit her down and she'll straighten her legs, which forces me to just lay her down, which causes Em to catch a tantrum, but when she see's I'm not really leaving her, she'll calm down. Again this is one of those things where you say, oh my goodness I wish she wasn't so clingy, but when you feels those little hands grasping on for dear life, you can't help but feel so loved and so special, that this little person loves you so dearly and feels safe with you.

This month has been a fun month, as we are able to play so much more with Emma.  Playing Peek a Boo and I'm going to catch you (which Emma goes down in her play dead position as you approach her), when we tickle her, or kiss her in her neck, she gives out these chuckles which are so addictive.  We can do things like pretend to fall when she comes toward you while swinging and she'll find it hysterical.
And she's understanding more and more each day.  When we're done eating Emma is clapping her hands and signalling "all done".  Whenever we say "yay", she claps, when she hears the words dance or dancing she starts dancing, also when she hears music.  I'm trying to teach her to signal "more", but whenever I do it she starts clapping.  Emma's waving is improving, she'll now wave whenever Rod says bye as he leaves for work, and when he comes home, Emma will start jumping in her seat and wave frantically to her daddy. Best part of Rod's day for sure.  She's beginning to wave to strangers too when they say hi or bye.
We love to dance.  As we spin her around her grip gets tighter and tigher around your  neck or arms and she'll put her head into your chest.  I'm sure the neighbors seeing these two parents bopping around the house, must think we're mad, or feel sorry for Em that she has such crazy parents - but it's fun and we think Emma loves it too.

We're still waiting for Emma to crawl, she's good at getting on all fours, altho her one leg always gets stuck infront of her, she'll rock back and forth, but eventually lies flat on her tummy and start whining, or returns to her sitting position. A few times she's crawled backward, but gets frustated very easily. She has discovered she can pull herself up on her knees and now trying to to pull herself to standing.  If I stand her against her activity table or ottoman, she'll remain standing for quite some time, taking a wide stance for balance.  She's tried to reach for me or another object one hand at time while standing but realises she loses her balance.  She's fallen to sitting position which after the first fall was stunned, but now doesn't mind.  Actually there are plenty of bumps ahead.  We'll try prevent as many as we can, this stage seems more dangerous than when they began to sit as the fall is much greater.

So both bottom teeth are out, and now her top second right tooth is coming out before the two front teeth, looks quite funny....seems like Emma's teeth are coming in quick succession, altho this morning she lost her balance and hit her gum on the side of her crib, I hope this doesn't affect anything.  I felt so bad for our little girl, it was forgotten very quickly tho.

Summer begins on Monday, feels like it began a month ago.....to keep things cool, we got Emma a little splash pool to enjoy.  As you can see, she absolutely loved it.  We started her off small, before we introduce her to the big pool.  Found this cute American Patterned bikini, which shows off her fat tummy really well.  I also wanted her to experience her first pool adventure with her daddy this weekend, as I'm getting together with other mom's for a swim date.  I met the mom's through our church and this past Tuesday we had our first playdate with our babies.  We called it the Babies 'E' Playdate we as had babies Elise (6 months), Emilia (3 months) and Ella (10 months).  And the moms are Allison, Reed and Amy, almost Mommy's 'A'.
The kids loved each other and I think it was great having them watch each other and I really think they learn so much from each other.  Like the following day after the playdate, Emma was doing her standing thing and Emilia did her first roll.  Photos from the swim date will definitely be coming.

Gosh, this is becoming quite the post, and I should probably get to bed before 6am wake up.

Emma continues to be such a joy, and we just couldn't ask for more.  So many times I wonder if one is enough, we can give Emma all the attention and love and the best of everything.  But I guess we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

Thanks for reading this far....hope you all have a great rest of the weekend and HAPPY FATHER'S DAY to all the special dad's out there.

Until the next post....

LA Trip - June 2 - 10

Love this photo taken by Vivien

We had a great few days in LA with Janine, Kerwin and Ruby.  We also got together with Trev and Vivien who are now living in LA too.  Time was short, but we sure fit in a lot of things, including eating at a few of our favorite places - Johnnie's Pastrami, Honda, Rubio's, Buca, Porto's.  We never leave LA hungry, only hungry for more of it's good food.

Emma loved Ruby, getting excited everytime she saw her.  Ruby was a little hesitant at first especialy since Emma was invading her territory, playing with her toys, sitting in her highchair.  Ruby would watch Emma play with her Lily Doll (Green Leapster Frog) and when Emma dropped it, Ruby would grab it and say I'm just putting it over here so she can't take it. 

Note where the green frog is so Emma couldn't take it.

Ruby would go up close to Emma, Emma not knowing better would begin tugging at Ruby's hair or going for her face, Ruby would just stay there.  When Emma cried, Ruby would pipe up, "I don't want Emma this weekend!"  Ruby comes up with the cutest quirks, she really kept us entertained.  Things like, Kerwin saying, "Ruby you're killing me!", Ruby would say, "I'm killing dad."  At brunch the one day, Ruby was strapped in her highchair and she wanted to walk around, so Janine and Kerwin said, not right now, later Ruby.  Ruby's response, "Oh Boy! I wish I could walk around!"  Reading a book Ruby would say, "This is an elephant, an elephant is a mammal"  she really absorbs everything.  Oh and she doesn't listen to nursery rhymes, rather songs like Viva La Vida by Coldplay and Are We Human by the Killers, and she knows the words!!!

This little 2 year old seems to know too munch, at times we'd actually forget she's a two year old.

Little Daredevil

Every morning Ruby would want to see Baby Emma and run in the room saying, "Hi Emma!"
Ruby got used to having Emma around just before we left, being better at sharing her toys, and just not minding having her around.  We had placed both girls in the pack n play (travel crib that Emma slept in), they loved it.  Actually Ruby kept on wanting to climb in and apparently even after we left.

Note the hand holding - too precious!

New things that Em was exposed to, besides all the eating places, new toys, new family members... the beach and the aquarium.  Em loved the sand between her toes, at one stage she was actually throwing the sand all over herself.  The beach is a nice idea in theory, but when you're actually there and place your baby in the sand, cleaning up is not fun...sand in every roll, you'd think the nappy would protect somewhat.  Anyways, it was worth it and entertaining.  

At the aquarium Em was mesmerised by all the colorful fish, otters, stingrays - really a great outing and defintiely stimulated Emma alot so she had a great nap after.  Other exposures, Emma got to play with stones (silly I know).  These very quickly ended up in her mouth.  Pretty scary how quick things happen, I had my eyes on her and saw her wanting to put a stone in her mouth, which I told her "No!" and next thing I see one in her mouth.  I thought it was just her fat cheeks, but when I saw her trying to chew....gosh.  Stones aside we got some great photos. 

Kerwin had bought a bubble machine, the kids loved this too.

We've said we'll try make it an annual thing that we get together with Janine, Kerwin and Ruby.  We really want the kids to grow up together.  We know next year is a definite, we were actually meant to have seen U2 on the Sunday we were there, however Bono ended up in hospital so the concert has been postponed until next year. A great excuse to get together with Janine, Kerwin and Ruby again.  Cannot wait.

Here are more of our photos.