EMMA UNPLUGGED

If you think a cute baby takes cute pictures, you should see Emma on the big screen...  (or youtube for us commoners).  She's gotten big.  Must be getting too much milk...

Emma (9 days old) hangs out at the house:

Emma (3 months and 4 days old) takes over the master bedroom:

Emma (5 months and 3 weeks old) gets a new toy:

...the Amazing Emma!

THINGS I MISS

In no particular order, here are some things that I miss since Emma joined our family.  Emma should know the sacrifices it takes to have such a cute child, in case she ever thinks she wants to have one as well.  This thought process better not occur before age 30.... 

I miss Emma.  Every day.  Even the days I am home with her, I miss her when she goes to bed.  Please note that I prefer she stay in bed and that I don't physically see her again until the morning.  I sit at work and think about her.  She's making friends and learning new things without me all day.  Perhaps it's time to pick up a Powerball ticket.

I miss sleeping.  I LOVE to sleep.  I used to love weekends where I could sleep in and David would make breakfast and then we'd just sit in our pajamas until we got motivated to do something besides clip coupons.  As it stands, I sleep approximately 3-4 hours per night and not all at the same time.  Often, not in the same location.

I miss not having milk shoot out of my boobs.  And I miss not actively trying to get them to do so.  It's a lot of pressure to be the sole source of sustinence for a person, especially a cute little person.  The way that we go about ensuring this daily milk is ridiculous.  I sometimes get sad that I miss out on conversations and activities because I have to leave the room in order to strip down for lunchtime.  But I do it for my little Emma and I am proud that I am able.  I try to remember that at 4 am when I am praying that I can get one more ounce to complete her bottles for school.

I miss just up and going to Buffalo Wild Wings with David.  And having beverages.  And staying up playing Wii or watching The Hangover whilst somewhat buzzed.  The spontanaeity of life is gone and I didn't remember how much I enjoyed that part of our lives.  Planning my life in 2-3 hour increments.  Want to run by the mall after work?  Sure.  Go to the game on Saturday?  Of course.  Oh hold up, we got a baby.

 I miss not packing the car like we're going on a week-long vacation just to go to Target.  Or finding hot water so I can heat a bottle, lest I sit in the car in a parking lot and feed Emma straight from the source.

I miss having a hot dinner with David at the time that dinner is actually made.  And then sitting at the table and eating it.  The same goes for breakfast and lunch.

I miss being surprised in the morning by my emails and facebook posts and what's going on in the news.  Why?  Because I read it already at 4 in the morning.

I miss that people were excited to see me when we arrived somewhere.  Now they just want to see Emma.  I'd have it no other way, but don't expect me to dress up as much if I don't get the love.  It's just not worth it.

I miss sitting on the deck and having wine.  At whatever time I wanted to have wine.  Because somewhere inside is an Emma who needs supervision and shouldn't have wine-tainted milk.  Not only would she be drunk, it'd be some nasty milk.

All that in mind, I love having a family and a little girl that I can take at least 50% credit for.  I love the dog and the house and the Volvo.  I love our parents and our families and how much they, in turn, love Emma.  I would never in a million years trade Emma for my previous life, but if I could just get a babysitter and relive those glory years for a day or two, I'd be mighty grateful.

SMILEY AND SNOTTY

Emma is the smiliest baby ever, except when she's snotty.  When she's snotty, that means I take the snot sucker (I'm sure there's a better word for it) and suck her snot out.  She likely thinks I am sucking her cerebellum out for the tears and screams and insane head shaking that I get when trying to do it.  She literally takes her hands and removes the sucker from her nose unless I have her arms pinned down.  Frustrating for Mom and baby and likely entertaining to watch too.

The boogers coming out of this kid are amazing.  I'm surprised she can breathe.  She will drop some actual tears sometimes and it takes her a while to get right again. 

Happy baby.

When not getting her brains sucked out, Emma has been such a happy girl!  She smiles at Mommy and Daddy and Grandpa and Grandmommy and will give laughs and appreciative looks when we're making stupid faces.  She's been a real pleasure to have around the house (I say that like she's the housekeeper).  It just makes my day when she smiles and coos and laughs and talks.  Grandmommy might feel differently after the one way conversation Emma had with her on our 50 minute ride this weekend.

Grandmommies are the best!

She is still taking a while to get to sleep and is doing some houdini tricks with her arm and swaddle.  She likes to sleep swaddled, but she will bash her way around the crib trying to get her arms out.  And she will have quite the backstroke kick when she starts swimming.  I got her up the other day and her head was at the foot of the crib and her arm was out all gangster style.  Must be like an MMA fight in her room every night.

She pet Gracie last weekend.  I took a video.  More for Gracie's sake, since she typically flees the scene if Emma starts laying on her.

I had to work past her bedtime last night and it was hard not seeing her until this morning.  That was the longest I'd ever gone not seeing the kid and I don't necessarily like it. 

Just havin some milk.

Apparently, she is now able to hold her own bottle.  She rolls from her back to her tummy.  And I have not seen any of these things.  She is growing up entirely too much away from her Mommy.  I'm so proud of her for getting big and doing big things.  Her teachers just rave over her outfits (proud of that one too!) and how smart she is for her age.  Miss Linda was not shy on the compliments of our little girl to David yesterday.  Makes me feel like we're doing something right!

I am tired and wish to stay in bed for approximately 27 hours.  I will then like to wake up and eat tacos, drink a Captain and Coke and watch some basketball.  What will happen is that I will put Emma to bed, almost fall asleep myself, wake up twice (if I'm lucky) during the night and then wake up again for good at 6 am.  Being a grown up is not good for my overall health.

ALL OVER THE PLACE

I haven't slept much lately, thanks to my precious Amazing Emma.  She has her first cold and yesterday (ok, two days ago) had her first fever.  Margaret from Chapel Hill Pediatrics and me are now best friends.  Emma has been whiny and in place of sleeping has been snotty and coughing.  It's terrible.  She's coughed so hard on two occasions that she lost all her milk.  On me.  I worked hard for that milk.  And it smelled terrible, like when you might leave the expiring milk out on the counter for a couple of days before throwing it in the actual trash can.  Maybe I'm the only one who's done that before.  But anyway, yuck.

The toilets with the econo-flush option (up for pee, down for...whatever)....well, I feel like the toilet explodes with the pee option.  Hate to see what it does when you opt for the other.

David let me go to bed the other night at 8:00 pm.  It was wonderful.  I was refreshed again at 11:30 pm when I woke up again.  Good thing, too, since I got up again at 4:30 am to a fussy, snotty, now lying perpendicular in her crib baby.  I was so refreshed that I didn't mind scooping her up and loving on her when the people that make the biscuits at Bojangles haven't even left the house yet.

I made really good pork chops the other night before my early bedtime.  I fixed a co-worker's computer and don't know how.  I set up a printer on someone else's computer.  I am exceeding expectations I set for myself.

People in Chapel Hill suck at driving.  They are always on their phone or just being otherwise stupid.  Don't get me started on the Whole Foods parking lot.  For the love of organic mayonnaise, those people are morons.

It's hard to have time to do anything anymore without having to clean up something or feed the baby.  Maybe I should take a time management class, but I think my problem is just that I want to sleep.

Watching for my school on the news
and hoping for a snow day!

I hope Emma feels better soon.  It's hard to see your baby girl coughing and hacking and sneezing and just not being unsick.  I love her and would take the sickness from her if I could.  But I think I already did.  I blame Nia and Abigail and Eve and Emma S.  Probably some other kids too, but I didn't see snot coming out of their noses recently.

The one time that I needed to pay a bill online is the one time I left my bag in the car, figuring I wouldn't need it for the rest of the hour I was at work.  I was wrong.  Son of a......

A DAY IN THE LIFE...

Emma is 5 months old today!!!  I can't believe how time has flown (time flew so fast that her 5 month birthday was really yesterday).  It certainly didn't fly when she ate every two hours, or when she couldn't stay asleep or when she never got to sleep to start with.  It must have flown in the middle of the night, when I get up twice to milk myself.  Or it could have been when she's having fun with all of her new friends at school (not Jackson, I hear he bites).

Either way, my baby is getting big.  Old.  Set in her ways.  She is long in the legs and she laughs and smiles at her Grandpa.  She moves her head towards noises and rolls over like it's her job.  Back to front.  We'll get the hang of front to back soon enough.  It makes me sad for her to get big.  It also makes me proud as a mommy for providing her breakfast, lunch and dinner, even if it kills me.  Goodness does grow in North Carolina.

She has a routine each day that is only hindered by weekends and holidays.  Daddy wakes her up and allows her to stretch in the morning.  Then Daddy wakes Mommy up.  Mommy is not as anxious to get up as Emma.  After some stretching, we settle down for breakfast and I try not to fall back asleep.  She eats for a half hour and then I change her pants and put on her outfit for school.  Generally it's this time when she's most awake, kicking and smiling and talking.  We go downstairs and meet up with Daddy, who has finished his shower and is hopefully making me some breakfast.  I get Emma set up in her car seat and wham, bam, thank you ma'am, she and David are out the door to school.

There she plays with friends, naps, eats, solves the Fiscal Cliff problem and then awaits a ride home.  Surprisingly, she can't drive yet.  When David picks her up, she naps on the way home and for a bit afterwards.  When I pick her up, hell breaks loose and there is no napping.  This is not fair. 

She has some extended grazing for dinner (we'll call it a dairy buffet).  And then we love on her and ask her to roll over and let her watch a little basketball.  Soon, it's time for a bath and bed.  She gets some dessert as part of this deal while we rock our way to a sleepy baby.  Most of the time, this process runs fairly smoothly.

This past week, it has not.  This past week, she's down.  No wait, she's up.  Down again, thank goodness.  WHAT THE CRAP you are awake and crying again???  It's become a little more of a tag team effort.  She doesn't understand that the hour after she goes to bed is time for her parents.  Time for us to relax and talk to each other.  Time for us to check the internet on our phones.  Time for us to realize how tired we are and why not just go to bed too.

So exciting.  A day in the life of Emma.

Happy Birthday sweet girl, I love you and am so proud of the big girl you're becoming!

(pictures will be added if and when this picture adder lets me add them)
(who wouldn't want to see more pictures of the Amazing Emma?)