Emma's Ninth Month

This month, we started things out by taking Emma to see the White Sox sweep the Devil Rays. She clapped and cheered like the rest of the crowd! For the 4th of July, we put her in her baby pool for the first time. She didn't really like it at first, but found out it was kinda fun after a bit. That evening, Mommy, Daddy and Emma went to see the Fireworks at St. Pete Pier. We were sure we had made a huge mistake and they were going to scare her, but she LOVED them! She cuddled on Mommy's lap and looked up at the sky for the whole thing. She has taken a few steps while standing along the furniture, but if we try to hold her hands and walk with her she isn't ready yet. She learned to drink with a straw! She is getting better at eating solids, and has explored more table foods. She is starting to get sick of the mushy jar foods, so I have been thinkening it up a lot or steaming veggies and fruits to feed her. If I cut them in little chunks she will eat them. She went with Mommy to storytime at the library, and Mother Goose read to us and we sang songs. Actually, Emma mostly crawled around and explored everything! She is extremely energetic and keeps us on our toes. She has to check everything out, and her favorite toys are not toys at all (Mommy's sunglasses, spoons, measuring cups, and of course everything she isn't supposed to have!). Mommy and Emma joined Jenni (her Godmother) and her family in Orlando for a day and went to Arabian Nights and Disney World! Neither of us liked Arabian Nights, Emma thought it was too dark and noisy, but Disney World was lots of fun! It was really hot that day, so we had to stay indoors a lot, but we managed to watch a parade, ride the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, and have lunch with the Winnie the Pooh Characters! Emma loved to look at the characters and dance with them. The next day she said "cat" for the first time! This is her 3rd word, we thought she said "bye" a few months ago but it was just a fluke. She saw the Pediatrician on the 26th and weighed 18 lb. 1 oz. and was 29 inches long. She is at the average weight for her age (50th percentile) but at the 95th percentile for her length! She is getting big so fast! Her hair has grown a lot lately, too. She is starting to look less like a baby and more like a little girl!

Emma's Eighth Month

We had a big month this month! She learned to go from tummy to sitting at the beginning of the month. Jim's side of the family came to visit for a week to help us get the house ready to sell. While they were here, we went to the zoo and rode the Merry-Go-Round, went to Busch Gardens, and rode on our neighbor's boat. She got her first tooth on June 4th! She learned how to crawl the next day! It didn't take her very long to get really fast-she keeps me very busy chasing after her! She has tried some finger foods this month, mostly by me feeding her, but she is learning to grab things on her own, too. She doesn't have the pincer grasp yet so she rakes her hands over things and has a hard time getting them in her mouth. She practices drinking water from her sippy cup every day, but she doesn't quite get that yet so I have to tip it up for her. Jim had his first Father's Day, unfortunately it was spent mostly working on the house because we listed it the next day. He did get to take a nice nap with her and play with her a lot, and we plan to go out for a nice belated Father's Day dinner soon. Emma also learned how to dance this month. This is my favorite thing she does now. She has pretty good rhythm, too! On the 20th, Emma and I went to Indiana for a week to visit the family. We watched four of Uncle Tim's baseball games, visited lots of family and friends, went to a graduation party, swam in Grandma and Grandpa Sharp's pool, and took Aunt Rachel to Purdue to check out the campus. We hope she will decide to go there next year! It was fun to visit the campus again and show Emma where Daddy and Mommy met. While we were visiting Great-Grandma Rudy on the 22nd, Emma pulled herself up to the couch! Within a few days, she was pulling herself up to everything. Her second tooth popped in on the 24th while we were home, too. We hated to leave Daddy behind, but with Emma growing so fast we had to show off all she can do! Jim and I joked before we left that she would probably learn something new while we were away from him, and she did! We don't see the Pediatrician again until the end of July, but we weighed her at home and she weighed a little over 18 lbs. and was about 27 1/2 in. long. We have had a very fun month with her and we hope we will get to move home soon so we can share everything with the family.