Vacation and Festival of Lights

We recently went on vacation with Grandma Mack and Tom. The first destination was Atlanta, GA so Brad could dive with the shark whales. Emily had a lot of fun looking at the jelly fish. Then we headed out to meet up with Brad's cousin Amy and her two kids. Emily ate a pickle and crackers for the first time at lunch that day. It was nice to see them again. Next stop was Savannah, SC. That was a neat town. We went to two plantations, a couple house, the slave mart, and Ft. Sumter. We made a quick stop at Hilton Head where Emily got to see her first ocean. The last stop was Amelia, FL. We stayed at Grandma Mack's friends' house. It was nice and Emily crawled up her first stairs there. On the way back Brad, Emily and I stopped by the Tennessee Aquarium. Here are pictures from the vacation.

This past weekend we went to the Festival of Lights at the Cincinnati Zoo with, Cathy, Brent, Zoe, Kayla, Brian, Nikki, Ellie, and Nathan. It was a lot of fun but very cold. Here are a couple of pictures.

Halloween and 9 month check up

Emily is now 9 months old and not getting so big. HA HA HA! Emily had her 9 month check this past Friday and cried as usually. She only got one shot and a finger prick but she still cried like a little baby. She is now 17.76 lbs and 27.5 inches tall. She gained 2 lbs and grew 1.5 inches since her 6 month visit. That puts her in the 29% for weight and 47% for height. This past Thursday we also had her 9 month photos which did not go as well as planned. Here are some of the pictures.

Halloween was a lot of fun. we went over to Aunt Cathy and Uncle Brent's house to play with Zoe and Kayla. We tried to get some fall pictures but it did not go to well. Kayla was distracted by the dogs down the street and Emily just wanted to pull Kayla's hair. Here are some pictures of the girls and Emily in her costume. Below is a video of Emily crawling in her costume. It was so cute!! I think you will agree.Emily (dronkey), Zoe (lobster) and Kayla (peacock)Emily figured out how to crawl under the table and stand up. All that without bumping her head and getting stuck.She likes to stick out her tongue now so I had to get a picture of it.

Cruising

Sorry for the late post but we have been busy. Emily is now really good at pulling herself up, standing while holding on and getting down on her own. She used to look at the ground then back up trying to decide how to get down. Then she would finally let go and would cry a little from hitting her butt. Now she bends her knees and sits down very nicely. She is also cruising. For those of you who don't know what that is its when a baby walks while holding on to something. I have a video of her crawling, pulling herself up and cruising. Since the house is now baby proof we like to call the area where Emily hangs out baby jail. I have a video of her in baby jail and some pictures. Other than that nothing much is going on. We got her Halloween costume and Emily is going to be a dronkey. That is one of donkey's and dragon's babies from Shrek. Emily can clap now. For some reason it took her awhile to pick it up. She's not perfect at it yet but is getting there. Also she stood all on her own for about 10 seconds the other night. It was great to see. She got so excited to see Ash that she just let go of Brad and stood there.

mobile and traveled baby

Sorry for the delay in posting but we have been busy. Emily is now crawling with the best of them. She is trying to pull herself up as well. She has succeed once pulling herself up on my leg. Emily is good at standing when she is holding on to something. She is getting bigger but she is still small for her size. We will see next month how she has grown since her 6 month visit. It also seems as though she is going to sprout her two bottom teeth at the same time.

We recently went on vacation to South Dakota. Emily did really well flying. She did not scream at all. In fact on the last flight home she was asleep before we took off and did not wake up until after we landed. She takes after her mom when it comes to flying. Grandma and Grandpa Rosenberger were with us on the vacation. Emily enjoyed hanging out with them all week. The cottage we were in was very rustic. It smelled like sulfur for the first 5 days when ever you used the hot water, but the smell finally went away. The walls were so thin you could hear the TV perfectly when you took a shower. It was really funny. We all had fun though and were just happy to be on vacation. We saw herds of buffalo in Custer Park and antelopes. It is really pretty in South Dakota.

Here's Emily on her first plane.



Emily and Grandma at Sylvan Lake.

Brad and Emily at Crazy Horse. Emily will probably never see this completed in her lifetime either. I have seen it twice now and in 18 years it has not changed that much. We were able to see a blasting at Crazy horse which knocked off 3000 tons of rock.


Emily rockin' it out in her car seat.


Us at Mt. Rushmore.


The Badlands.

Hanging out at Wall's Drug store in Wall, SD.

Me feeding a burro.

Emily at Bear country. We saw tons of bears, a white buffalo, pregnant donkey, and about 8 bear cubs.




Mt. Rushmore at night.



Deadwood, SD



Emily in Grandpa's hat.


Hanging out in the shopping cart and at home.



Here are a couple of videos. One of Emily at the airport on the way home and of bath time last night.

contemplating crawling

Well Emily has started to attempt crawling. She isn't getting any where currently but you can see it on her face that she wants to go somewhere. She's doing a lot better with sitting up by herself. She can now scout herself around in a circle while sitting, get back up to a sitting position when she's on her belly and get up on her hands and knees. She is talking more and more everyday. I think mama will be her first word since she already makes the "ma" sound. Emily now eats carrots, sweet potatoes, squash, and green beans. We tried bananas and peas but she just doesn't have the taste buds for them yet. Emily and I went to our first Pampered Chefs party ever. It was fun. Someone commented on how small Emily is for her age. I guess I need to see her next to another 6 month old to understand how small she is. But I guess when a 4 month old is bigger than you it must mean that you are small. Its cute that is she small but it does make it hard trying to buy clothes for the future because I am not sure what size she will need. She is still in most of her 3-6 months but can wear her 6 months clothes even though they are lose on her.

6 months!

Time sure does fly. Emily is now 6 months old. It feels like she was only 3 months a few days ago. She had her doctor's visit this past Friday. She is now 15 lbs 7 oz and 26 inches tall. She is in the 40th percentile for weight and 55th percentile for height. This not really surprising. Based on the height of her mother she will not be very tall anyways. Everyone always laughs at her short little legs. Emily is now eating baby food. She is on her third day of sweet potatoes. We will try peas tomorrow. The doctor says we should see a tooth pretty soon. I hope this is the reason that Emily is a little fussy everyday and at night. She is not bad at all (compared to some stories I have heard about teething) but you can tell that her gums bother her sometimes by the way she shoves everything in her mouth. Emily now likes to cuddle and is starting to make some sounds like mama and bababa. It is so cute when she hugs up against you and gets a little grin on her face. There's nothing that compares to that feeling. Emily has also started to push herself backwards. She is able to get her butt up and get up on her hands but does not know how to move forward yet. we think within the next month or so she will be crawling.

We recently moved into our new house. Grandma Mack was nice enough to come watch Emily while we moved and also our but mostly hanging pictures. My friend Kate was in town for a couple days as well. This was the first time she has seen Emily. I think Kate is going to wait awhile before having kids after her visit. It was great having her here though.

Here's Emily eating her bunny.

Emily playing in her exersaucer.

That's a tired baby. This was last night.

Here are some videos. One of Emily eating sweet potatoes for the first time, being a chatter box, and one of her cuddling.

Raspberries and talking

Sorry for the delay in posting. we have been very busy with buying and moving into a new house. The newest thing that Emily is doing is making raspberries. She really gets her tongue out when she does it and sprays the entire area. She is getting really good at putting her pacifier in her mouth. I only wish she would do it in the middle of the night instead of crying so that Brad or I will do it for her. She is just checking to see if we are still there but after getting up 4- 5 times a night you start to get a little tired. We are not sure if she is teething yet because she does not really show any signs except drooling which she as been doing since she was 3 months. Here are some pictures and some videos. She is changing so much we are trying to capture all the different sounds she makes.