Rest in Peace Rose Mary Stephens

This last week, Emma’s great grandmother, Rose Mary (not to be confused with her abuelita Rose, Marie's mom), passed away. She had been in declining health for some time now but it is never easy to lose someone you love so deeply. I feel so fortunate that Emma was able to meet her in our trip to Seattle last August and you can guarantee that as she grows up, she will hear more and more stories of her.

Mary (as she was most commonly known as) was one of the strongest women that I have ever met. A mother of twelve, yes twelve, children (nine boys and three girls) she constantly had her hands full. She lost her husband at a young age so a lot of the work she did on her own. I never saw her without a smile on her face, no matter what physical or emotional difficulty she was going through and she was always thinking of her children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. Such a loving and caring woman, she always put her family first, no matter how old they were. She has shown me what it means to love someone unconditionally.

You will always be in our thoughts and prayers grandma and even though I know you are in a better place now, I will always miss you.

I want to give a special thank you to my Uncle Chuck and Aunt Tess for taking exceptional care of her in their home for the last few years. I know that the care she was given kept her with us longer and because of that care my beautiful girl was able to spend time with her. You two truly are angels.

Birthday Shout Outs!

Happy Birthday to a few very special people...

Emma's Great Grandma Margaret

GG Margaret and Little Emma, a picture of their 1st meeting when Emma was 1 week old.

and...

Grandpa Bob (Stephens)

We had a little early celebration last night at our house.

Emma even enjoyed a little cake. I know I know, judge me all you want. How could I give her cake before her 1st birthday? We were just trying it out to make sure that she liked it, and it turns out that she does!

Grandma and Grandpa Stephens, and Grandma and Grandpa Prentice as well as Uncle Andy all all were here to celebrate.

Emma even enjoyed a little Yo Gabba Gabba with Uncle Andy.

and...

Happy Birthday to Cory Rogers, (Doug's childhood friend).

We hope that you all had a very special Birthday!

Love,

Doug, Marie and Emma

42 Weeks

Emma is 42 weeks today!!!

She got to celebrate by spending time with her Grandma and Grandpa Stephens who came in from Seattle. They have been visiting since Saturday evening and just left this afternoon.

She was so lucky to get to spend lots of time with them these past few days. I think she might just be their favorite Grand kid!!! Okay, so maybe she is in the front running because she is the only grand kid, but I think they are pretty smitten with her!

We had some baby pasta for dinner the other night, and I just can't resist these pictures...

Someone got a little sleepy and rubbed her dinner ALL over her face.

Such an adorable mess!

We caught a little clip of Emma working on her walking. I didn't do a great job of capturing it, but she took 3 unassisted steps tonight. Woo hoo we are getting close!

Oh and little Emma waves all the time now. She waved to me in the video and she waves almost every time she hears 'hi' and 'bye bye.'

We also played a little peek a boo with dada. She is so cute, because you can tell she gets a little startled, but still loves it.

9 month check up...

Today we went to visit Dr. McCormick for Emma's 9 month check up.

Here are her stats:

Length: 29 7/8 inches - Above 97th percentile

Weight: 19 lbs. 3 oz. - 50th Percentile

Head Circumference - 17 inches - 25th Percentile

Once again, Emma's growth is steady, super long/tall, average weight and a smallish head.

Dr. McCormick was very pleased with how active Emma was. She said that Emma seems to be very independent, which we agree with. She also said that Emma looks as perfect as can be and is hitting all of her goals.

We had a hard time getting her to sit still on the scale.

Little wiggle worm!

Poor thing got two shots today, and a toe prick to check her hemoglobin levels, but good news, her levels were great.

Great check up Emma!

41

Today Emma turned 41 weeks!

We celebrated by having a little mama and Emma play date at My Kids Clubhouse in Poway.

I had heard about it from friends and wanted to go there so that is just what we did after I got off of work. Sad to say I wasn't too impressed. Next time I think we need to go with some friends, then it might be a little more fun.

Emma sure seemed to enjoy herself, so I guess that is all that matters.

Driving the fire engine.

Building with the big soft blocks.

and playing on the bead table.

I couldn't get a picture of her looking at the camera, because she was always people watching and seeing what the other kids were up to.

After about 45 minutes I noticed a certain funk to the place... eww! Just as I was thinking it was time to go, I over heard this conversation between a boy and his mom:

Boy - Mommy, I went poo poo!

Mom - Why did you poo poo?

Boy - I had to!

Mom - Well that's too bad, because I don't have a change of clothes for you, so now you will have to stay in those clothes until it is time to leave.

That is when I realized what the FUNK was, and we immediately left. On the way to the car as I was sanitizing us, I re-traced our steps to make sure that we weren't playing on the same toys as the poo poo kid. Lucky for us he stuck to the big kids toys, so I think we were safe.

I can't believe some parents! Since when is it acceptable to have your non diaper wearing kid crap their pants and then let him to continue playing in public. Never!!!

On a more pleasant note, later we headed to Olive Garden in Carmel Mountain to meet up with dada and Jessica for dinner. Jessica is our super busy good friend who we don't see often enough anymore. We had a great dinner and Emma loved playing with Jess.

Mr. Ferber... I love you!

Emma hasn't been the best sleeper over the past few months. It seems as if she regressed and started waking up every few hours. We always gave in to her middle of the night cries and fed her. I think part of us still thought we had that poor little string bean of a kid who couldn't gain weight. Well, she has meat on her bones now and has no problem gaining weight, so I decided that it was time that we got serious about this and changed her sleeping habits.

Lucky for me, Doug was on board! I had been hearing from family that we should let her cry it out, so that is exactly what we did. I researched the Ferber Method and we started it this past Thursday, and here is how it has gone:

Night 1 Mama’s turn

Thursday 10/15/09

Bath time, rice cereal, then bottle with story time and singing.

8:13 put her down and went back in every 5 minutes to soothe her.

8:45 Emma is out for the night.

5:30 am, Emma woke up.

Night 2 – Dada’s turn

Friday 10/16/09

Bath time, tried a bottle and story. She was not in the mood for a bottle so Doug put her down.

7:45 pm put Emma down

8:00 pm Emma was out

11:30 pm Emma woke up

11:45 pm we gave in and gave her a bottle.

She had not eaten since 5:00 pm so we knew that it might be a bad night to ferberize.

Night 3 – Mama’s Turn

Saturday 10/17/09

Bath time, Lullaby and Bottle

8:17 pm Mama put Emma down

8:18 NO CRYING!!!

Night 4 – Dada’s Turn

Sunday 10/18/09

Bath Time, a song and some prayers

7:54 pm Dada put Emma down

7:54 She let out one cry and then silence.

I realize that there is still progress to be made and that we need to stick to the routine, but so far so good. So I have to say, "Mr. Ferber, I love you and your method."

Emma really is sleeping much better, which makes for happy and well rested Mama and Dada.

Here are a couple of cute pictures from playtime last night.

Such a sassy face.

Doug says that she was working on her Derek Zoolander impression.

Acting like a doggie with a toy doggie in her mouth.

Working on her steps.

And even working on her one handed walking/pushing.

Thank you to all of you who gave us advice.

Thank you to Douggie for supporting my out of the blue ferber idea.

Most importantly, Thank you to Emma for being a pretty easy going kid!

Curls!

Emma has grown curls over night!!! Seriously... we found them Sunday morning and they weren't there before.

Emma still doesn't have much hair, but the little bit of hair that she does have is becoming curly, and I LOVE it!

Makes me want to eat up her little neck and those cute curls.

Clap your hands everybody, and everybody clap your hands...

We had a little hand clapping lesson at our house this evening that kinda reminded me of this song (wait for the lyrics at just about 1 minute in). I couldn't help but sing it to myself while we were clapping.

Doug says that is is the best movie ever made, I wouldn't go that far, but it it pretty entertaining.

40 Weeks

Happy 40 weeks Emma!

Tonight we enjoyed a little play time at home.

All smiles!

And then we worked on our standing...

A little shaky.

"Look mama no hands"

She is pretty good at standing on her own. She has even taken 2 steps on her own. We aren't considering it walking just yet, but that will be soon enough.

Such a look of determination.

Such a happy little gal

We love ya lots kiddo!

Update on little Emma's tests

This afternoon we went to Rady Children's Hospital for Emma's Ultrasound and X-Ray.

We were really dreading this trip, but everyone there was so friendly, it made us much more at ease.

First they did an Ultrasound of Emma's belly. She was a wiggle worm and it was hard to keep her still. The tech has done this a time or two, because she put down two stickers to distract Emma and they worked wonderfully.

Then we went in for her x-ray and it started out ok, until they put in her catheter, then it was terrible to watch Emma cry. She was so sad and she even cried so hard she almost fell asleep. They injected the dye into the catheter and watched it on the screen. The Dr. said that she didn't notice any signs of Reflux. That was music to our ears! This was just the preliminary reading, we have to wait to get the official reading from Dr. McCormick, but so far it is great news!

The poor kiddo was a little tuckered out on the car ride home.

She didn't seem to be too phased by today, because she is just as chipper and cute as ever.

She cracked us up. We were watching Yo Gabba Gabba and she was obviously very entertained. We couldn't get enough of her giggle, so luckily this was on DVR so we played it over and over with giggles every time.

9 Months!!!

Emma + 9 months today = Ridiculous!

She is such a little person now and we are enjoying every second that we spend with her.

Sure she may not always sleep as well as we would like her to, but her smile makes it all worth while.

Today we went to Bates Nut Farm with the Family and we all picked out our pumpkins.

Kinda fun way to celebrate 9 months!

Get ready to judge my (Marie) parenting ... I made a pumpkin tutu with a matching head band and and stripped the kiddo down all for the sake of a picture. It was a bit chilly this afternoon so the poor kid froze. If it makes me seem any better, we did keep a blankie close to wrap her up and we did get her dressed again right away.

But I think it was worth it! :)

I could just eat her up!

So we didn't get any smiles, we got straight mouth serious pictures, but I love them just the same.

Emma and Jacob

Ebit and Jacob

We tried for a picture in front of the silly scare crows, but no luck.

Jacob was more entertained with Emma's head band. I think he was impressed with my craftiness. :)

Our little 9 month old is pretty lucky to be able to spend so much time with people that love her.

Thank you to Papa Bob, Abuelita Rose, Ebit, Jacob and Douggie for a great afternoon at BNF on Emma's special Day.

Why I LOVE Fall

10. The colors Brown and Orange, just something about them... LOVE them!

9. I can wear jeans everyday, which means I don't have to shave my legs everyday.

8. Candy corn, yummy!

I had to buy some today.

7. It is totally appropriate to make soup for dinner.

I made French onion tonight, and no that is not the real soup I made, mine didn't look this pretty.

6. How silly Californians dress as if it is below zero.

Ok, so maybe they aren't at this bundled up stage yet, but it is sure Uggs and shorts weather.

This morning I drove past a school where the kids were out running. I laughed because I saw a little girl wearing sweats, a hoodie, a beanie, the hoodie over the beanie and gloves. It is a bit brisk out, but the 68° weather this morning is hardly worthy of bundling up.

5. Getting all cozy in bed with a blanket on it and not just a sheet.

This picture makes me want to go and buy new bedding, doesn't it look so crisp, clean and comfy, I want this bed!

4.Foostie Jammies on Emma!!!

We just started putting her in them this last week and I LOVE them on her.

This is an oldie picture from when Emma was 5 weeks, but those were our favorite footsies. :)

3. Desert Season is only a few weeks away!

We have our first trip planned and we can't wait.

2. The pumpkin patch at Bates Nut Farm.

We went this afternoon and it is a little piece of fall heaven.

And my favorite thing about fall...

1. Harvest Pie, so so so good!

I actually love any kind of pumpkin pie, but this has a fun little twist because it is pumpkin pie with a pumpkin mousse and whipped cream. It came out at the end of September and we had to make a special trip to Coco's last week to get a slice.

Something about Fall... it may just be my favorite season.

To me it means spending time with friends and family, which I LOVE.

Happy Fall!

Ok, I realize that it has been fall for a few weeks now, but recently the weather here has really put me in the Fall mood.

Emma's 1st Padres Game

Last night we went to the Padre Game, and it was Emma's 1st ever.

Can you tell that she loved it.

There were so many new things for her to look at, she was in heaven.

They gave Emma her first baseball, too bad the little old man thought she was a boy, and said "he's gonna be a lefty." I guess that is my fault for dressing her in padres blue and khaki, but I thought the pink socks, pink paci and flowers on her pants were girly enough.

We were lucky enough to be invited to stay in the McMillin Premier box, and that is the best way to go to a game with a crawling kiddo. Emma has plenty of room to move and of course the free food and beer was nice.

Emma loved the cracker jack bags, it's a good thing that she never found out what was inside.

We had a celebrity in our box, the little guy in the white sweatshirt brought his friend (not pictured) and he plays for Park View Little League and he was part of the World Series winning team.

Emma tried to pose for a picture, but she was too distracted by Noel's beer.

Mama and Emma, sporting her 1st Padres tee.

She had a wardrobe change in to her cotton candy jammies and snuggled up to her dada.

Always a fun time with Bri and Noel.

Poor Noel was trying to tell me something, but I ignored him and took the picture any way, oops.

Darn Padres didn't win :(

But we did enjoy the Friday night fireworks.

Douggie and I great time, and I think Emma did too!