Just Adorable and Alligators

I need to upload some pics from the camera, but I thought I would add a pic since I haven't in a while...Emma now has 5 teeth and the top ones have NOT been fun! She has also had a cold at the same time so life has been pretty crazy and mostly consisting of trying to sleep and cuddling when she lets me:)



We have recently spotted the alligators that live at the park near our house. Once we started spotting them it was crazy how many we saw. Once we counted 6 or 7- they seem to stay far enough away, but I have seen a couple in the water with Emma that were quite close. Plus this one likes the same area that is fairly close to the trail. Ah, the south!

Standing up!

Emma always seems to take gigantic leaps when growing and developing. One day she was crawling over us as we played on the ground and the next day she decided that was too easy so she needed to try something else...like standing up to everything and anything!



Morning playtime...



She sets her sights on a fun adventure and gets stuck...



Yeah-She figured it out!



Back for more later in the day. Needless to say I have had to step up the efforts in baby proofing and realizing what she sees as a jungle gym is not the same as I see. (What you don't see here is that she is pulling up to the couch, chairs, bookshelf, etc. Then she lets go and is surprised when she falls...oh the growing pains of learning:))

Savannah, GA

We recently went to Savannah to spend a couple of nights when Matt had vacation. What a charming city! Emma enjoyed the time with both Matt and I. She soaks up the time with her daddy for sure. Unfortunately it was chilly while we were there so Emma wore her cute hat the whole weekend. Let's face it, she knows she looks cute.

Emma rode in her "suv" on the cobblestone streets.

The view of the Atlantic Ocean from Tybee Island in Georgia.

Since we only seem to visit the ocean when it is cold I am sure Emma thinks it isn't all that fun to go to the beach. We will have to get there when it is warm!

Down by the Savannah River there are all of these shops and when we stopped in the candy store they were making taffy. Emma was completely mesmerized by it!

We were at a park downtown in Savannah. This fountain was pretty and the huge trees in the park were just beautiful.

This is a view of the Savannah River. There are big freight liner boats that go through there and as we were sitting there watching Matt said he just saw 2 dolphins. I didn't believe it, but then I saw it too...sure enough the dolphins bobbed up a few times before they disappeared. Apparently that is fairly common for them to swim that close. Too bad they got camera shy!

We had a great time and would love to go back sometime. We are trying to see as much of these places that we live by while we can.

Becoming Mobile

Never in my wildest dreams did I think that Emma rolling on her tummy and starting to crawl could cause me so much stress:) The first night that she rolled on her tummy to sleep was a long one! She wanted to be on her tummy but once she got there she kind of freaked out and started to cry...and that was the cycle for a couple of nights. Finally she got the hang of it and I think must have realized that she was ok on her tummy and actually like sleeping that way! Silly girl. This was one of her first attempts at "swimming"...or crawling. She looked like she was treading water all of the time.

Then she went up on her hands and knees and lurched. She would get up and do it over and over again. She just skipped past the rocking or army crawling and was just ready to move!

Playtime now is a series of crawling and then sitting up like she was born to do it:) It was very humorous to watch her in the first phases of learning to walk her feet to her hands and then turn to sit. You can almost see the wheels turning in her head at times and I love watching her learn new things.

She likes to lounge, her feet up on the couch here...and she has finally gotten the hang of the sippy cup since she never liked the bottle.

Her favorite show to watch with mom before her nap is The Chew. She will play around and then stop occasionally to watch. (This was priceless.) Maybe she'll be a chef one day.

She is so much fun! Since she has started crawling it is kind of a game for her to come find me when I leave the room. Our apartment is pretty small, but for a new crawler she gets around quick. If only I could freeze her in this little stage!

First Food

Emma is already 6 months old! Boy how time flies with a baby...she has grown up overnight! Her first try with food was avocado. Emma wasn't so sure about it the first time, but the second time she LOVED it! Since then she has had rice, barley, oatmeal, yams, sweet peas, and squash. Each one she has done really well with, but doesn't like the barley. I have tried to disguise it with the veggies and she will eat it, but it takes forever to get it down.

Thinking it over...

More mom!

Next up, carrots!

Atlantic Ocean

My first look at the Atlantic Ocean. It was a chilly and windy day. Emma was snuggled in her stroller sleeping when we saw it during the day.

On the pier taking in all of the surrounding sights.

We had to go back later so Emma could experience the ocean. Well, at least she will see a picture of when she "enjoyed" the sunset on the Atlantic Ocean.

We had a great time and it was fun to be able to spend time with our little family. Matt had a crazy October and this was his reward for working so hard. He is such a hard working guy and has a ton on his plate right now, but being able to take a long weekend away was just what we needed!

Downtown Charleston

One day we walked downtown in Charleston. The buildings were very cool and it definitely had the old town vibe with brick sidewalks and single lane streets.

Walking along the water edge downtown.

Matt loved the cotton fields everywhere.

Boone Hall Plantation, Charleston

We went to Charleston, SC for a couple of days during Matt's vacation. One of the places I wanted to see was this plantation. The Notebook was filmed here among other movies that I didn't know. It was beautiful!

Emma loved being outside this day and did so well to take it all in.

This is the Avenue of Oaks, an oak tree lined street leading up to the mansion on the plantation. It was much prettier than we can capture in a picture.

These trees are hundreds of years old and so amazing! This was one of the best places we got to see on this quick trip.

Random Cuteness

All dressed up for church. Isn't this the utmost in cute? She thought she was pretty cute too in the mirror. :)

Emma has started to giggle. It is the best sound in the world! This an "action" shot of the giggles.

She already adores her daddy! As soon as he walks in the room I am pretty much forgotten. It is adorable to see them interact together.

Halloween

This year I really wanted to find something "fallish" to have Emma experience. Since we now live in the south that proved to be more difficult than when we lived in Michigan. We found this random pumpkin patch to take a few pics and get a pumpkin for Matt to carve.

Doesn't Emma look super enthused to be doing this? She has the most sensitive skin and we put her next to some hay bales to get pics with the pumpkins and the poor thing was totally red by the time we got home...guess we won't be doing that one again.

Matt carved a cute Elmo pumpkin for Emma this year. Sadly enough, we only had one day with the pumpkin because it was rotten on the inside and smelled like something died inside of it and we couldn't stand it so we had to throw it out. It was such a pretty pumpkin on the outside!

Matt told me this was the lamest Halloween we have had so far- well, it isn't my favorite holiday to begin with and he LOVES the scary aspect where I do not! Emma can't appreciate the costume part yet anyways so we will for sure put her in one next year. That part of Halloween I can get on board with- cute and sweet little kid innocence of Halloween:)

Big Girl

She has become very aware of her tongue and sticks it out all of the time!

Emma is gaining weight like a champ! The pediatrician says she is one healthy little girl.

All dressed up for church! She hates texture on her clothes and it drives her crazy so the tulle on this dress just about drove her over the edge.;) But she did look darn cute!

Matt is one proud daddy! Emma loves hanging out with him and and is a ball of smiles when he is home.

Nearing the End

We wanted to get one last pic of just the two of us, but yet notice my enormous protrusion of Emma:).

Matt was wearing the last week of our countdown chain. When we got to the due date and she still wasn't making her debut Matt suggested we add some more to the chain to get to the induction date, which was already scheduled for 1 week past due. Absolutely not! Don't jinx it! Luckily, we went out to a work dinner and had Mexican food the night of her due date and I loaded up on salsa...just doing what I can to induce labor. Whatever it was, I woke up with contractions that next morning starting at 4am. Of course they were all over the place, but I felt like we were making progress!

Not a pretty sight! I was so ready to have her and more miserable with every passing day. I do not recommend driving around 900 miles to move just weeks before having a baby. We made LOTS of stops for me to get out and walk around and also check out almost every rest stop from Michigan to South Carolina. Some states take more pride in their rest stops than others:). All in all, my feet didn't turn into sausages until the 3rd day of driving but by then my belly was killing me and I just wanted to get to the end of the trip and settle in our new place.

My favorite part of being pregnant was feeling Emma move and get the hiccups at least 3 times a day...super fun, and uncomfortable at times- but very cool!

More Emma

Look at her cute blond hair! It is part blond part brown for now. She also has pretty blue eyes that are light in the very center and get darker on the outside...for now. (Who knows what they will be a year from now.) She very much looks like Matt now but looks like me as a baby. I had the chubby cheeks and round nose. These pics are still from her first couple of months.

Emma loves to sleep with her arms above her head and does it no matter what position she is in. Adorable! Her hair is deceivingly red looking in this picture-not true in "real life".

I love her in yellow! She has so many cute little outfits that she really needs a mid-day change to get them all in before we are out of hot days to get to wear the summer clothes.

This is the first time I could catch a smile on camera! That smile is priceless!

Being a mom is so much fun! I am very lucky to be able to stay at home with her and see every cute moment. Since we just moved here to SC and don't really know much about it, we have been learning our area and what is around us. More pics to come...