Easter at home in South Africa

This Easter weekend went by too quickly.  We couldn't have chosen a better weekend to arrive in SA, as everyone had the long weekend to spend together. 

After a long flight and probably only 10 hours of sleep on the entire flight to South Africa (out of a total of 26),  Emma was a little overwhelmed by all the new faces that welcomed her.  So after a quick feed and relaxing bath, Emma slept for about 10 or 11 hours.  Even though Emma did not sleep that well on the plane as I had hoped, she did me proud and was really well behaved.  With a few fusses here and there, I'm glad she wasn't a shrieking and inconsolable baby.
We were fortunate to get bulkhead seats and a bassinet for Emma.  She was a little too big for it, fitting it head to toe, but at least a place for her to lay.  I found myself sleeping with one eye open, just incase someone decided to swipe my baby (visions of Flightplane running through my head!).  I'm so grateful that I had Shannon by my side to help me, with every situation we faced I tried to picture it doing it myself.  It would have definitely been a bit of a pain.  Thanks Shan for all your help. 

Anyways....after a good nights rest, Emma was all smiles the next day and ready to meet the family.  She took really well to everyone, not crying once.  She absolutely loves her cousins, reaching out to touch them and play with them, Cam and Cait being so gentle and loving toward Emma, it's as if they've been together since the day Emma was born.  It's times like this I really want to be back in SA.
What has amazed me that in these few days of Emma interacting with her cousins, her vocab has increased incredibly and she's become such a talker.  Stringing sentences together with her ba, ya, da, making lost of clicking and blowing sounds  and at times it seems like you're hearing her say what we say.

Emma finally got to meet her Tai Por and Tai Kung, they're just so proud of their 3 great grandkids and really made their day seeing all three play togeher at their apartment on Saturday.

Sunday was a great day, we planned an Easter Egg hunt for the kids, which they thoroughly enjoyed.  We told them the Easter Bunny arrived by helicopter and dropped of a whole lot of easter eggs in the garden.  Gave them their easter bags and they had to go find them.
Cam was all game, Cait too, although when it came to finding them she wasn't quite sure what to do.  So with a little help from her Saamie, she was on her way.  It was truely special seeing the kids enjoy themselves.  Emma was happy with her two eggs in her basket that she got to play with, sitting in the garden and just watching everything go on around her.  I couldn't resist dressing her up in this dress I found at TJ Maxx.

After our hunt we enjoyed lunch with Rods folks and sister (Sharon) at Orient Fusion, eat as much as you like buffet.  We filled up on the sushi and prawns (shrimp), it was pretty good for a buffet. 

We're at day 6 of our holiday and Emma has settled down pretty well.  We are in our routine a bit, bedtime is a little later than normal, but it gives Emma more time with the family.  The first three nights were not fun, I thought it would be easy after the first night, but after that night she would choose to wake at 11pm and be fully awake until 2/3am refusing to sleep.  Left me really tired, as I was up from 6am already.  The one night had me and my mom bathing Emma at 12am just to relax her and go about her normal "bedtime" routine, as that is the time we would be doing it in the US.  It seemed to have worked, now we've been able to set bedtime at 9:30pm with wake up at 7:30am, so a pretty decent nights rest, thankgoodness.  To think I'll have to deal with this again when we get back to the US.
 
It's good to be home, everything still looks pretty much the same, maybe some trees are bigger and there are new sites, like the Gautrain, expanding highways and so many new shopping centers. It's a little weird hearing the SA accent, but hearing it makes you feel more at home, love the SA expressions, so funny to hear again. Like a lady walking out of Sandton city with a bunch of helium balloons and pushing a trolley against the wind saying "oh my god!"

Just savouring all the family moments. It almost feels like I've never left. It's really good seeing everyone again.

I hope the rest of this vacation goes by as slow as possible.  Can't wait for Rod to get here though in over a weeks time to join in the family time.

A few more of my favorite pics from the Easter Egg Hunt.....

 More of our pics here

Spring Blossoms

On February 8th, I posted a photo of the one tree in our yard with it's buds, well here it is in bloom.

It seems that Spring is officially here.  This particular tree is in our backyard.  As pretty as these trees are, they're not so pretty for our sinuses... the past fews weeks have been terrible with runny noses and endless sneezes.  My nose just tickles thinking of them.  All the roads are lined with these white trees. Apparently they're called Bradford Pear Trees.

The weather has warmed up nicely, except for today we seemed to have a bit of a cold spell. 
And just as it starts warming up and we're getting excited about being outdoors, we leave for South Africa in a few days to the beginning of winter there. 

So before we leave, and being Shannon's last weekend in North Carolina we spent some time at the playground and tennis courts.  We played a bit of tennis rotating shifts looking after little Emmakins.  She seems to love the outdoors and we do too, as it definitely tires her out and we know for sure she'll take an afternoon nap.

Ella joined us at the playground too and the girls got to swing together, this was Ella's first time on the swing and she seemed to enjoy it.  Lately Emma seems to be bit of a chicken heart, getting frights really easily and crying at strangers.  Yesterday, the girls were "talking" to each other until Ella gave off the normal baby shriek, well, that just made Emma cry.  It's going to be interesting to see how she reacts to all the family next week, she's not going to know what hit her, she better toughen up.

Well 3 more sleeps before we're on our way to SA and Shan says bye to North Carolina.  Lots of packing to do.  It'd been great having Shan with us this past month.  Even after a month we haven't been able to do all we planned on doing, not sure where time went, nonetheless we had good QT together.  We hope you had a good time Shan, thanks for coming out.

7 Months

Whoa....time just seems to go by faster and faster (I know I say it at every monthly update).  Emma is 7 months today.  We've seen this month in with a lot more giggles or squeals, they're almost shrieking, it's too cute.  The one thing that really gets her going is playing Pat A Cake and Peek a Boo.
We're now able to give her tickles or blow on her tummy and get laughs out of her, the one thing you can't wait to do with your baby.

At Duke Campus

Rolling over is a breeze now, she seems to be more dominant rolling to her left.  The rolling over has it's pros and cons, pros - Emma can entertain herself when she wakes up by rolling over and playing with her toys in her crib, also she can find her paci and pop it in her mouth, cons - occassionally we have to wake up in the middle of the night and help a rolled over sleeping baby return to her normal sleeping position.  Lately sleeping on her back has changed to sleeping on her side, I see this and think, gosh my baby is growing up, already able to comfort herself and decide for herself what she likes or how she likes to sleep, sounds silly, but these little things blow our minds as we watch her grow.

Today Emma had two injections, her second dose of the flu shot and h1n1.  She took todays shots like a champ, after the first shot she gave out a small cry and stopped shortly after, then after the second shot pulled a face and gave out another small yelp,  but she got over that real quick too.  Such a big girl...I had Shanny come with, thinking we'd see the normal tears, but she had to show her Saamie what a big girl she is.  So now we're all good to travel.

Just 9 more days before we're on our way to South Africa.  Looking forward to going home and seeing family and most importantly introducing Emma to all the family.  Not sure what to expect on such a long flight with Emma, I can only hope she behaves and flying will be a breeze.  Glad Shanny will be there to help.

Emma is doing great with her solids, we had a break in all solids for about a week as Emma had a rash on the side of her face which didn't want to go away.  Lost track of which food might have caused it, so I thought I'd start from the bottom again.  Since stopping the oatmeal, it's seems to have come down somewhat, so maybe it was a wheat allergy??  Could also be aggrevated by heat, her own sweat, maybe something I was eating...great playing detective with your baby.

The other day we placed Emma on the scale to see what she weighs, seems like she's weighing in the region of 18lbs, we can definitely feel it.  Just love the chubby thighs and cute little belly, Emma loves squeezing her own rolls and anything else that comes within her grip, your arm, nose, cheek, a toy.  She's just so curious about everything around her, always amazing watching her take everything in, we love her innnocent and inquisitive look.  She loves playing with her toes, occassinally putting them toward her mouth when lying down during diaper change or bath time, and she loves playing with your hands, just wave them infront of her and she'll grab them and play with your fingers.  Her legs are definitely getting stronger, she's able to bear more of her own weight when we put her in a standing position.
Another one of her latest things is touching my face, not squeezing but almost stroking.  When I place her on my lap and read to her or just hold her, Emma will reach up her hand and stroke my face, actually we managed to capture this in the following photo taken this past weekend at Duke University. Just love it!

So many little things I can write about, but writing about it isn't the same as seeing it. Which makes going home to South Africe even more exciting, the family can finally see Emma in action, just hope she'll participate and do all the things I speak of.

Before I end off this post, this deserve a mention:
Family from Vancouver (Aunty Lily, Uncle Sumpy, Wendy, Tessa and the boys) sent over a gift for Emma, Vancouver Winter Olympic 2010 clothing and the one little mascot, Miga.  Well Miga is Emma's new best friend, her face lights up when she see's this toy.  Must be the black, white, red and green colors.  Anyways, today we went shopping at Target, while shopping Emma dropped Miga on the floor, so I picked it up and gave it back to her, carried on with our shopping and made our way back home.  When we got home I noticed someone was missing, Miga. My heart sank!  Shan quickly said lets go back, we can't leave Miga, we'll find him.  So we quickly drove back and retraced our steps.  Shan found him, such relief, this little toy has become part of the family, as mad as it sounds we had tears in our eyes when we found him.  We've never been so happy to find a toy, Emma didn't seem to be distrubed really, but I think she'll be grateful we made our way back to find Miga.  The first of many crazy things we'll do for our baby's. 

Meet Miga

Happy 7 months Emma, we just love watching you grow!

Charleston Weekend

We thought we'd take Shan on a roadtrip to see another part of the US, and not be cooped up in Raleigh/Durham, so we decided to visit the city of Charleston.  This would be Emma's first road trip too.  Located in South Carolina, about a 5 hour drive from Durham. A small city with so much charm, cute homes, interesting buildings, a great historic downtown. The feel of Charleston for me was a mix between Carolina and New Orleans (even though I’ve never been to New Orleans, just from what I’ve heard or seen in pictures, the wrought iron balconies, swamps and moss type things hanging from trees).

We left early on Friday afternoon and arrived in Charleston in time to go downtown to grab dinner. We got a good feel of the night time buzz while searching the busy roads for parking and a place to eat, we decided on the Charleston Crab House. Saturday we wandered the busy streets of the historic downtown. Very easy to walk by foot, otherwise you can choose to take a horse drawn cart. So many cobbled streets, restaurants, markets, shops and beautiful homes to discover. With so many homes on sale we decided to take a look at the prices of them, expecting to see prices in the region of $400K, more like in the millions…CRAZY!

We ended the day with a drive to Isle of Palm, viewed the beautiful beach homes there and took a walk along the beach. Sunday before heading home, we grabbed some breakfast at Toast, then drove to Folly Beach, it was pretty windy so didn’t spend too much time there. We then took a drive to Kiawah Island, hoping to see the golf course/s there, however only open to residents, so a bit of a waste of a 45 minute drive. But nonetheless we got to see more of South Carolina.

I wasn’t sure what to expect of Charleston. Definitely thought small city with quaint shops, but it was a bit “bigger” and busier than I thought. I was surprised by the high end shopping available, better than what Raleigh/Durham has to offer.  I actually thought I was wondering through a smaller version of New York at times minus the dirty streets. Charleston is very clean.

All the while seeing all of this we almost forgot we had a baby with us. Emma was very easy going, times like this just feel so blessed to have such a happy and content baby. Emma just loved seeing everything. She didn't seem at all phased by the disruption of her schedule, managing well on the little naps she had. After our trip to Orlando in December I’m always hopeful that with little sleep we won’t end up with a cranky baby.

The Waterfront

We just love it when we take one look at Emma, she’ll stop what she’s doing and gives you this wonderful gummy smile, melts our hearts.  The photo above, people walking by couldn't get over how Emma was smiling for the camera. On the drive down to Charleston she couldn’t stop talking, her words have moved on to Ma Ma Ma/Mum Mum Mum – still trying to distinguish. On the way back she managed to catch a lot of Zzzzz’s, catching up from the weekend.

I thought bedtime would be interesting, with all 4 of us sharing one room. Turns out the crib was more of a distraction to Emma, than what we were. We were given one of those white metal ones, so Emma just loved hitting the bars. She would give out her weak cry every now and again, obviously telling us she wasn’t happy there, so eventually I put her in the bed with Rod and I, and she fell asleep shortly after. She managed to sleep right through till her normal 6:30am and actually managed to go back to sleep shortly after her first morning feed for a further 2 hours. She never does this at home. I think the dark curtains really helped.
The first night she slept with us, and then the following with Shan. Em’s reaction in the morning after seeing where she was, was that of amazement each time, like wow I’m sleeping with everyone and in a big bed.

Isle of Palm

Back at home we’ve slipped back pretty easily into our usual routine. Yesterday morning upon waking in her own room, her head was all over the show, bending backward to see every corner of her room. It was as though she’d never seen her own room. I guess it’s good to be home.

Our American Girl

We took so many photos, the ones posted here, are just a few of my favourite. You can view the rest of our phtoos here.

Kindermusik

We have finally decided on a music class to take Emma to, we chose Kindermusik.  We're atteneding the Village class which is for babies from newborn until 18 months.  It allows bonding with your baby, and exposing them to music.  It's great to get Emma out once a week to experience something different, see new sights and sounds, aswell as meet other little babies.  We've joined at an inbetween time as sessions have already begun, and we're going to be away for the month of April, so we're just going to slot into classes until we're back from SA and can then attend an entire summer course in June and July.

An itchy gum smile

Every class starts off with the Hello song and every baby is greeted, during this song there is clapping of hands, clicking of fingers, slapping of laps all to the beat of the song.  Every song involves some sort of action, from bouncing to swaying to massage to just cuddling, playing with different items, paper bags, scarves, balls and bells.  Today Emma got to play with the big drum, rattles/bells and she went for a hayride.  The hayride is just being pulled around the room on a blanket/towel.

Going on a Hayride

Emma didn't nap too well this morning, so she wasn't her entire jolly self.  When we arrived at class we sat down in the circle and I placed Emma in front of me, she took a look around and then started to bawl.  Same thing when it came to the drum, looked around, heard the loud banging and bawled.  Took her a few minutes each time to realise what was going on and then we could carry on.  The clapping and bouncing got her smiling in no time.

We had a "first" moment today, when we were done playing with the bells (Emma had two different ones), I asked for one of them, which she gave to me without a problem, but when it came to the second one which I took from her as she didn't want to let go, she actually started to cry and stopped as soon as I gave it back to her.  I was actually shocked that she did this...our little one is growing up and knows what she wants already.

I think the class was quite stimulating, Emma fell asleep as soon as we got her into the car, and this afternoon she napped for 3 hours.

Here are two more pics from todays class:

     Playing with paper bags

The big ol' drum

Finding a Way to make a Baby Sleep

This past Saturday we were out at the Outlet Mall for most of the day, which meant hardly any sleep for Emma. I had envisioned how our day would pan out, and of course it did not all go according to plan. Emma was awake from 7am until 6pm, she did not want to know anything about napping while shopping.  Which girl would choose sleep over shopping?

It was by fluke that I got her to nap for a whole 15 minutes. While pushing Emma the sun was shining in her eyes, I automatically blocked it from her, but thought to myself, if I don’t block the sun it’ll force her to close her eyes and just maybe she will fall asleep…and voila…it worked!  Now I know what to do if I find myself in the same situation again,at least Emma gets her beauty sleep and dose of Vitamin D. As my neighbor said, “don’t judge, never say never.”

Other than that, Shan has been with us for a week, and it’s been great. Emma has been getting that extra attention and just loves her Saam-ie. Between Shan’s studies we’ve shown her a bit of NC (shopping), she has requested that we spread out the spending a bit. So yesterday and today we went for a walk around our neighborhood and took Emma to the park for the first time. Emma didn’t show any reaction of enjoying the swing or slide at first, think the sounds of screaming kids around her threw her off a bit.  Today it was only us at the playground so Emma could enjoy the swing and slide all to herself.  I think she's getting used to the idea.

It's so nice that the weather is warming up and we get to spend more time outdoors, so looking forward to the spring weather, minus the sneezing.....

Saam-ie's in Town

Shanny (Saam-ie/Saam-Yei - third aunt) arrived this morning, flight delayed by an hour, but arrived safe and sound.
Emma's reaction - at first she just stared, then later reached her hand out to Shan, and shortly after laughing with her Saam-ie. 

Emma chilling with Shan

It's really good having Shan here, and great that Emma will get to know another member of the family.

Here's a video from this afternoon.

Family Date Night

This weekend we had our first family date night. We dined at one of our favorite “special occasions” steakhouse, Flemings, and enjoyed a lovely meal. We had their “Memorable Meal”, a 3-course dinner consisting of Lobster Bisque topped with Lobster Bruschetta for Appetizers, Filet Mignon and Australian Lobster tail for Main with a side of French Green Beans with Shitake mushrooms and Porcini Essence and lastly for Dessert, Warm Pear and Blueberry Tart served with Vanilla Bean Ice-cream. It was DELICIOUS!!!

Fleming’s isn’t your average family restaurant, and even knowing they’d accept babies, I was still worried they might have declined us. It seems somewhat intimidating walking into a restaurant with your baby, and the décor revolves around fine wine and dining and you’re greeted by your last name.

I’m thankful our little angel co-operated so well (how could I have thought otherwise?). Her squeals and banging of toys against the table put me on edge at times as I didn’t want to disrupt the beautiful ambience. Thoughts of the couple next to us having their first date night, or possibly a proposal ran through my mind, people saying, “How could you bring a baby to this type of a restaurant”. But actually with the music, conversation and clanging of wine glasses, Emma's squeals were probably muted. Emma gave us 2 great hours to enjoy our dinner. I’ve realized how fast I eat now and that I take much bigger bites of my food, I may need to go back to school of etiquette and learn how to eat like a lady again.

We got home in time for Emma’s last feed and bedtime, she slept right through until 7:30 this morning. We probably won’t be dining at Flemings anytime soon again.  Our “fine dining” will probably be at Macdonalds or something similar which will allow Emma to mess while she feeds herself, and her squeals blend in with the other kids.  We had a great evening out just the three of us, we look forward to many more date nights together, be it at MacDonalds or at a place like Flemings.

                                Helping Daddy select an after dinner drink

Peach Face

This is Emma's face when I fed her peaches.  Today it wasn't mixed with rice cereal or milk.
Too funny....as much as she scrunched her face, she still opened her mouth for more.

6 Month Update

6 months today

Emma has seen has her 6th month in weighing 17lbs 1oz (7.75kg), her height now 26.5in (67.31cm) and head circumference 42.7cm. Why they measure height in inches and head circumference in cm’s I’m not sure. Em’s in the 75th percentile for height, weight and head – she’s in proportion this month, haha.

Today was a tough day in that Emma had to have a total of 5 injections (1 oral and 4 needles). Normally she only has 1 oral and 2 needles, but this week the additional 2 were for the flu and h1n1. I would have probably skipped these with spring approaching, but since we’re travelling next month, thought it would probably be for the best. Don’t want our baby catching any silly germs from fellow passengers. The nurses had to double team, so to spare Emma more pain than she had to experience, they each gave an injection at the same time in each leg, so it would seem to Emma that she only got 2 shots. Poor thing. After her shots, I always expect the worst, thinking that Emma will be miserable and just want to sleep. But instead carries on her normal ways, like nothing happened.

Our munchkin has mastered quite a few things like sitting without support, passing objects from one hand to the other, placing her paci in her mouth when handed to her, splashing at bath time, grabbing her toes, jumping, banging object together, or against any surface and right now mastering the art of rolling. Diaper changes are getting more eventful in that when we lift her legs, she lifts her bum and turns her body to see what’s happening behind her. Which reminds me when either one of us are holding Emma or she’s sitting and she wants to see where a particular noise is coming from or see what’s happening around her, she won’t always turn her body, except she’ll bend her head backward, causing us to try catch her from falling.

How I wish I were as supple and flexible as Emma

We have progressed from our rice cereal to oatmeal and have also introduced a few veggies. So far butternut, acorn squash (almost like gem squash, but with a butternut texture) and sweet potato. Today we introduced peach as her first fruit. Apparently all fruits starting with P’s are good for the tummy. When we introduce a new food she will pull a face,but after the first taste just wants more and more. They say to feed until baby is full, I actually wonder if Emma ever gets full, I find that I need to call it quits most of the time.

Emma’s personality is really showing through these days (bubbly & cheeky), she’s a lot more interactive, vocal and independent, in that she’s happy to stay in her crib and finds ways to entertain herself, even if it just means playing with the flowers on her bumper until mom or dad come and get her. Oh and definitely an actress/model, smiling as soon as she sees the camera.  We got her a new activity toy, which she just loves, it has so many buttons to press, and plays tons of songs, today over skype she was showing off her new toy Ma Ma and Yeh Yeh.  I always laugh at how Rods folks can just watch Emma for hours on skype and be entertained by her.  Emma's curiosity and interest in things is amazing, you just see the concentration on her face as she absorbs it all.  You actually wonder whats going on in that little mind of hers.

Emma's new activity center

Emma loves music and being sung to, mom doesn’t have the greatest voice, but her face will always light up when she hears her favorite, Incy Wincy Spider and the Grand Old Duke of York, anything with beats and sharp sounds gets her going.

A week ago we went to a Gymboree Play & Music Class, this class involved singing & activities to help with baby’s developments. From the time we sat down until we left, Emma was beaming, you could see she was having fun, loved seeing the colors around her, looking at the other babies. It’s such a good feeling seeing your baby so happy. One activity the moms had to hold onto this round piece of parachute material with different colors and wave it up and down, as we did this Emma grabbed hold and started waving it up and down with us, had everyone laughing, not sure if it was the colors or the attention that she liked the most. She was the eldest there and it was almost as though she knew she was the big girl. Tomorrow I’m trying out the music class. There seem to be so many of these type of classes around, and the nice thing is that they all offer a free preview class, so I’ll be attending those and decide which to sign up for.

Gosh 6 months have gone by in a blur, to think in the beginning we were counting days, then weeks, now months, soon we’ll just focus on the years. I’m so glad I started this blog, it's good to look back and remember a few things. Happy 6 months Emma!

It's a Roll

Rolling over is tough work, yip definitely tough for a mom and agonizing at times.
It's hard seeing your little one struggle to roll over, you just want to help her, but know she has to learn by herself, so I start rolling the camera and provide encouragement instead.

Rod and I have been trying to get her to roll over, rolling her side to side at nappy changes and bath time, putting toys just within reach when we do some floor time.  She seemed to give up really easy, reaching out to her side for a few seconds and then returning to center.  But I guess I know how it feels, having not worked those tummy muscles in a while, or in Emma's case never, executing this"simple" exercise can be strenuous and takes some time, so you start off slowly.  You even see little beads of sweat on her nose, poor dear.

A few days ago I was skyping with Rod's mom and she witnessed Emma rolling from her tummy to back,  it took a while, but she eventually did it. 

Yesterday (Wednesday) I laid Emma on her back, on our bed. I closed my eyes for a few minutes and then saw Emma on her side, reaching for her toy.  Quickly grabbed the camera and started recording.....it takes some time for her to complete her roll (you'll understand why I say tough and agonizing) but she did it! Not only once but three times yesterday, YAY!



I'm sure in a few days she'll be doing this effortlessly, another great milestone for Emma.

Happy Valentine's Day Daddy!

This was Daddy's Valentine Gift from Mommy & Emma.

A mug with a picture of Daddy's Little Girl!

Emma always seems to amaze us

I have every intention to blog the day I take a particular picture or when Emma does something new and exciting, but it doesn't always happen.

The reason for this photo.....

Saturday morning, I had put Emma in her crib to take a nap.  After a few minutes of quietness I always sneak in to make sure she's sleeping.  As I did this, I heard her move a bit, I wasn't sure if she just stirred or if she was awake.  Anyways, as I approached her crib, walking on tippy toes and trying to peer into the crib without her seeing me, I saw she had her back and neck arched looking toward the door, but her eyes were focused down...and as I came to her she looked up got all excited, gave me her morning smile and did her scratch your back motion.

I was wondering what she was looking at, so I went down on all fours and there it was....a small gap between the bumper and the mattress which she could peep through and probably saw my feet/legs appraoching her.  It's just so funny how still she became obviously realizing mom is coming to get me and I know I should be sleeping....

Her crib is becoming her gymnasium now, pulling at her bumper, doing 180 and 90 degree turns, she's so much more aware of her surroundings, especially knowing her body and head can "bend" and "turn" in all diffferent directions now.  Our little Emma is too funny, she sure knows to keep us entertained.

Last night at 1am she was crying, I went in to see to her and she had rolled onto her stomach but her hand was caught under her body, I was all excited as this was the first time she'd done this.  As much as I wanted to take a photo and call Rod, thought it was best to roll her over, and she went right back to sleep.

Feels like Spring is almost in the air

For the past 5 and a half months, I’ve been pretty happy staying at home with Emma focusing all my time and energy on her. Before she was born, I thought I’d be one of those moms on the go, not wanting to stay indoors. I quickly realized staying at home is far more easier for both Emma and myself. Emma gets to feed and sleep in the comfort of her nursery and I get to wear sweat pants and not have to worry what I look like for a few months. In these months gone by Emma’s been able to establish a great routine, and I’m hoping that because she’s so used to it, if there are any changes she’ll be able to slip back into the routine pretty quickly, it could flip the other way, but lets hope not.

Feedings have spread out a bit now, only required every 4 – 5 hours, which allows more time per outing which is great. With the 3 hourly feeds, by the time you feed, wind, change, put baby in the car seat, you have probably an hour to do what you need to do, with 20 minutes there and 20 minutes back, 20 minutes trying to remember things like where you put your keys or handbag, doesn’t end up worth the effort at times. Yip suffering with the mommy brain….(whenever we read Goodnight Moon to Emma and we get to the “bowl full of mush” part I think of my brain.)

So this weekend was a lot easier for us to go out shopping, we managed to fit in 2 shopping centers and lunch, record for us! I also feel ready to be out more, not sure if the thought of Spring approaching is what is getting me rearing to go (the sight of buds on the trees excite me), or if this is normal for every mom reaching 6 months to feel? Feeling the need to get my old body back, if that is even possible and to start dressing nicely again.

Today Emma and I went to visit Heather at Smartmomma, she was busy but gave us a short time to catch up somewhat. I ended up buying an Ergo Carrier which I’m super excited about. This should help me along the way of getting out and about more. Can’t wait to walk the American Tobacco Trail with her and be able to talk to her about the sights and sounds as we pass things…much easier than talking to her in the stroller. Think Dad will love it too, as he can have Emma close to his chest and have more bonding time. We’re also hoping that the carrier will make travelling a whole lot easier for us. When I mentioned the carrier to Rod the other day, he said it would be a great idea to buy it, it’d allow me to do more housework….I’m still trying to figure if that was meant to be a joke or not??

Anyways….we’re definitely looking forward to the weather warming up now and being outdoors a lot more to get Emma exposed to the beauty of nature.  I hear we're going to have another cold snap, I hope that will be the last of it.  Its going to be fun seeing Emma's chubby little legs in shorts and chubby arms in t-shirts...can't wait.

6 months is fast approaching...in just 2 weeks, shuwee, almost Emma's half birthday!!!!! This weekend I just mentioned to Rod how we never really measured time, and now that we are measuring time with Emma’s monthly developments, time is just flying by. Way too quickly.

I end off this post with Emma’s picture of the day…no matter what I do her hair just won’t go down, unless she wears a hat, it’s going to be a sad day when she loses her trademark.

Bathtime is such fun!

Bathtimes are becoming a lot more fun these days, between Emma wanting to sit up to play with her toys  and splashing water all over, leaving the bathroom and us drenched!
She loves catching the water with her hands, which is as much of an amazment to us as it is to her.

Emma's record sitting session

So something exciting did happen tonight.  I gave Emma her first shape sorter toy which she just loved.

At first I placed her on her tummy to play with it, but she got a bit frustrated, so I sat her up.

She sat playing with the shape sorter for more than 10 minutes with no support besides leaning on the ball or on her hands a few times.  She would get all excited raising her hands from the ground, eventually after a few raises she lost her balance and almost fell over, mom was there to catch her.

Again its the little things that make you so proud and so excited.

Savouring the moment

This morning brought about a slightly different routine. Usually Emma will wake at 5am, where I feed her and straight away put her back in her crib to go back to sleep, I am in no mood to play at that time. Otherwise she wakes at 7am, where after her feed she’s wide awake and wants to see everything, so we go downstairs and join dad for some breakfast before he goes off to work. Today she woke at 6am, and Emma was inbetween being awake and falling back to sleep, she seemed pretty content in my arms, I was just lapping it all in, holding her, kissing her and rocking her. Which reminded me of this photo of Rod holding her when she was just a few days old.

You think back of how tiny she was and I often wonder if I held her enough, was I too worried about her not being able to sleep without being rocked to sleep, that I didn’t savor those moments enough?

Sometimes reading makes you worry too much if you’re doing the right thing, that it probably takes away those loving moments….I mean I shower Emma with hugs and kisses the whole day hug, but times like this morning when she just moulds to your arms, its moments like that, that you question if you have enough of them.

Where was I going with this???

I think I’ve said this before but I’ve realized that Emma sets her own schedule and knows what she wants to do when. And this seems to be the same for most babies, when I say most I compare to my friend Amy, for the times we’ve compared stories of Emma and Ella, they’re pretty much the same, eating patterns, sleep patterns,….all these books cover the same type of schedule, but just have their own twist to it to say that their way works. When reading it’s almost like the babies are robots, all set the same way, it’s the environment or internal structure which brings about different situations. Did I just compare my baby to a robot??

I guess I use the books as a guide just to make sure there is nothing wrong with Emma, that she’s not sleeping too much or too little? But one really just has to get to know their baby and go according to them, let your baby teach you or guide you.

I can’t say I’ve gone through every page of every book that I’ve taken from the library, just quickly skimmed through the sections that apply, and racking up fines for not returning the books on time.

But after all this, I’m going to try not get too involved with reading and researching, rather use more of that time giving Emma those extra hugs and kisses and holding her for as long as she’ll let me, and most importantly read off her cues.

Best I get back to the full time mom/housewife duties….the ironing has been sitting for a few days….just wanted to type my thoughts down on my blog. Hopefully Emma will do something exciting today that’s more exciting than this post.