So, much to her daddy’s dismay, Emma has a serious boyfriend. They have been an item since they could roll over. Her teachers at school told us that all day long, they would roll around the room following each other and that they were inseparable. We couldn’t believe it, but here’s the proof. This picture was taken when they were about 5 months old.

Her teachers would regale us with stories about Emma and Chase, as the two of them made quite a pair. They want to be so close to each other that they often are literally sitting on top of each other. One of them would crawl across the room and the other one would follow. After Chase would hit a mobility milestone, it would only be a matter of days before Emma would master the same milestone–I think as an effort to keep up with Chase!

The infant room teachers would feed Emma and Chase at the same time because they would sit in their highchairs and talk to each other, grin at each other and occasionally hold hands.

As they have grown older (they are now a whopping 10-months old) they have only grown closer.

And on Emma’s first Valentine’s Day today, she got several great gifts from the kids in her class, but one gift really stood out–the gift from Chase. Chase gave each baby in the class some yummy treats of Mum-Mums and yogurt, but Emma got a special bag. In her bag, Emma found this:

Did you notice the title of the book? So cute, right?

It gets even more precious.

Check out the inscription:

Not only is Chase an ADORABLY SWEET baby, his parents are awesome. The other day when Nana wasn’t sure if I had left a coat at daycare for Emma, Chase’s mommy loaned Emma Chase’s coat (and we have a sneaking suspicion that she helped Chase with the inscription on the Valentine’s gift). Emma will race across the classroom to get a hug from Chase’s daddy! We couldn’t ask for a better first boyfriend for our daughter.

Happy Valentine’s Day from Emma!

This morning, Emma shocked both of us when she grabbed the front of her doll stroller and pushed it across the room and back. These were her first ASSISTED steps! We missed the chance to capture the first pass, but we grabbed the video camera for the second and third passes.

Enjoy!

Emma has always been a pretty serious tot. She didn’t laugh until she was six or seven months old so we still cherish every time we get to hear her giggle. We wanted to share with you the sweetest sound we have ever heard: Emma’s laugh!

Emma loves her Aunt Mandi! We are so lucky to have her in Emma’s life. Here is a great video of Aunt Mandi sharing a tea party with Emma a few weeks ago.

“The better part of one’s life consists of his friendships.”
- Abraham Lincoln

A cute video from Emma’s playdate with Campbell. We are so thankful for special friends like Campbell and her Mommy!

We know that it has been an obscenely long time since we posted updates about Emma. We have just been having so much fun with her, that we haven’t taken the time to sit down to write about her! They say parents get worse about baby books and blogs with second and subsequent children. If that pattern holds true, our next child doesn’t stand a chance.

The last month has been a big one for Emma. When she turned eight months, she started what we affectionately call “hauling”. It could be considered an army crawl of sorts. She lifted up her chest, pulled herself forward and then threw herself back on the ground. Rinse. Repeat. And so Emma traveled across the room to her favorite things.

Then Chase started crawling.

Who is Chase? Chase is her adorable “boyfriend” at school. They are quite an item and their interactions could fill another entire blog post. But, we will save that for a later date.

Emma couldn’t stand that Chase could crawl away from her, so she decided that it was time to learn to crawl. She started pulling up onto her knees, but couldn’t quite figure out how to move forward. Once she figured it out, she was on the move! She and Chase make quite the pair at school, crawling all over the place! Once she learned how to crawl, she quickly figured out how to sit up from a crawling position, so her crib was promptly lowered a level.

Then today, just shy of two weeks later, Emma started pulling up! We were playing with her on the floor this morning when she crawled over to her walker and very swiftly pulled up onto her feet. Our life is over as we know it. Emma is so tickled with herself when she is “standing”. It is too cute!

Some other notes about Emma at nine months:

Food: Emma has tried just about every Stage 2 food that Gerber makes. She LOVE LOVE LOVES her food! She is getting totally bored with milk, but she has yet to meet a solid food she doesn’t like. She is starting to eat finger foods. She has eaten bread, bananas, cooked carrots, small pieces of turkey and chicken, and mashed potatoes. MumMums are still her favorite snack.

Sippy Cups: We tried a sippy cup a few times and Emma seemed more interested in playing with it than drinking from it. On our last playdate with Campbell, I was telling Leslie that Emma could care less about a sippy cup. Emma promptly stole Campbell’s sippy cup and put it in her own mouth!

New games and toys: Nana taught Emma to play “High Five” and she is waving to everyone now. Emma’s cousin Henry got a Little Tykes Rockin’ Puppy for Christmas and Emma tried to steal it from him. She is able to rock herself on it and she has giggled with glee while rocking back and forth! Emma is obsessed with a few random toys: her Sophie the giraffe teether, a blue puppy dog that sings ABCs and kicks his feet, and a monkey rattle.

Clothes: Emma is on the small side—she is still wearing mostly six month clothes, although she is moving into some nine month clothes now.

Teeth: Emma now has TWO teeth on the bottom. Teething was mostly a one-night affair, although she was less interested in her bottles when her gums were sore. Her toothy grin is just too cute.

Disposition: Emma continues to be an absolute angel. She is coming out of her shell and is sharing her beautiful smile with more people. We are thrilled that she seems more at ease in new situations and we can’t get enough of her smile. She continues to spoil us as her parents. Emma is still a Mommy’s girl. I.LOVE.IT.

Here are some pictures of Emma from her 9-month photo shoot:

On the Move

Emma's First Lilly Dress

Cuteness Up Close

Pulling Up in Pink

Ooooohhhh!

Happy Girl Doing the "Haul"

Mommy's Favorite

Emma wrote a letter to Santa about what she wanted for Christmas, and before I mailed it I snuck a peek. There was only one item on the list. Dear Santa, it said, for Christmas I would like my parents to stop being so delinquent and post on the blog already! (Yes, she has quite the vocabulary for an 8-month old).

Here are some pictures of Emma on her very first Christmas morning. As you can tell, she’s very happy. And more than a little tired (which explains the squinty eyes!!).

More to come!

So, in a little more than a week, you should be looking out for Emma’s Five Month Update. We figured now was a great time to post her Four Month Update—sorry we are SLACK! We will be better next month, we promise!

New things Emma loves:

Sitting up – Emma can now sit up for a few seconds unassisted even without propping herself up on her arms. Of course, we have to start her upright for that!

Exersaucer – Emma’s exersaucer was a gift from her Aunt Melanie! She LOVE LOVE LOVES it! She will bat at all of the toys and she loves making the iguana play the song about colors. We have a fun video for you to watch her play:

Her feet – Emma loves to put her feet in her mouth. It is so funny to watch!

Things Emma dislikes:

Last month we posted that she didnt like her Baby Bjorn carrier, but now that she can sit in it facing outward, she is a fan!

New Statistics:

Emma is now 24 inches long which puts her in the 26th percentile. Her weight is 13 lbs, 9 oz which puts her in the 36th
Height: 24 inches. 26th percentile.

Weight: 13 lbs, 9 oz. 36th percentile.

Head Circumference: 16 inches. 29th percentile.

Below are some cute photos from her 4-month unofficial shoot.

So, we are pretty sure that Emma is going to be a prima ballerina. We noticed at the last photo shoot that she kept striking the same pose that is reminiscent of a young ballerina (one without proper form-of course!) Then, I noticed that she actually struck the same pose in her one month shoot!

See below. Emma is hoping that Marissa Soon-To-Be-Gowan will teach her the proper technique!

Emma continues to delight us everyday! I always swore I would never be the mom that only told good stories about her child on her blog, but Emma is making that promise really hard to keep!

Emma is so good natured and sometimes quite serious. It was particularly tough to get a good smile out of her at her four month photo shoot. She fell asleep in the car on the way to the shoot and so we had to wake her up. She really didn’t feel like smiling, so the photographer, my mom and I all tried baby talk and dangling toys and silly stuff like that. I find it really hard to do “baby talk”. I just feel so stupid when I do it. I think that it would be easier to get over the embarrassment if Emma would just reward me with one of her big grins. Instead, she just looks at me like I am crazy when I do baby talk! She is just so mature

I watch TV to fall asleep and one of my newest guilty pleasures is Toddlers and Tiaras. That’s where I saw Eden and heard her “hit single” “Cutie Patootie”. Much to Jared’s dismay, Emma breaks out into a huge grin when I sing this terrible song. For those of you who haven’t heard of Eden Wood or heard her song, google her. Crazy stuff.

Anyway, here are a few of my favorites from her official four month shoot.