Emily 11 Months

You know the saying, a picture is worth a thousand words.  So very true this month.  I was quite unsuccessful in getting a really good 11 month photo because Miss Emily is ON THE MOVE as it is so clear from my photo attempts!  Crawling fast, pulling up, cruising, standing alone for a few seconds at a time and even taking a few baby steps and transferring between objects or people.  She is fast and she is sneaky.  I'm convinced she'll be walking by her birthday next month.

We've been enjoying summer.  Emily has loved pool and outdoor time and has fun playing and visiting with lots of friends.    We've had lots of playtime with friends.  She still loves playing games with us--especially peek-a-boo and chasing after mommy or brother (while daddy holds her and they run after us). She likes to drop things just to have us say "uh-oh" and then she turns her hands over like "uh-oh, what did I do?" except she knows exactly what she just did!!

In addition to all the new movement, she also has learned to drink from a straw and is getting much better at drinking from a sippy cup.  She  now consistently signs "more" when she wants more food (though it's really just her clapping her hands) and eats more and more table food.  While signing "more" is really the only consistent signed or verbal word she has, she is beginning to experiment with some new speech sounds, specifically s/t/k/p.  This is really exciting because these are all "softer" speech sounds that lie in the upper frequencies where she has the hearing loss.  It's great to hear her produce these sounds and mimic them back to use when we make them to her which is a great indicator that with her hearing aids she is actually hearing those sounds.  

We continue to be reassured by her speech therapist and auditory teaching that she is right on track developmentally for communication but as Mom, I am still oh so anxious for those first consistent words.  

It's hard to believe that 12 months is so quickly approaching!  We can't wait to celebrate that first birthday with our sweet girl next month!

Playing with brother

Causing trouble

Noah's First Day of Preschool

Noah started preschool at Immanuel Lutheran Day School here in Pflugerville at the beginning of June.  He goes only two days a week on Tue/Thur which coincides with my new work schedule.  He was SO excited to start school.  He'd been whining for the last few months "Why do I have to go to Ruth's?  When can I go to school?"  He loved Ms. Ruth's but was really ready to be with the big kids and go to school!  I can't wait to tell him this a few years from now when he's whining about why he has to go to school when he wants to stay home!

A while back I scored a Dino lunch box and back pack at half price.  It was great to surprise him with these "big kid" things too.  And I got some great name label from KiDECALS to make sure his stuff doesn't get lost (washing machine and dishwasher safe!). 

School has gone great so far.   The first day I dropped him off, he walked right in like he'd been doing it forever.  And then cried when I picked him up because he wasn't ready to go home.  According to his teachers he laid back, well mannered, and has fit right in. It almost seems like it hasn't been an adjustment at all for him.  It's interesting as he's making new friends at school since this is really the first time where he's making his own friends--not someone that we're not already friends as parents.  

Emily is still at Ruth's but will move over to ILDS after her first birthday since they don't have a part time baby program.  I think she misses him--she seems more excited to see him when we all get home in the evening that she does to see me.  I'm not offended--I think it's cute and just a sign of how much she loves her big brother (since typically you can't pry her away from me). 

These kids are sure growing up!!

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to the best Dad!  We are so blessed to have you in our lives!  We love you!

May Recap

May was quite a month for us in the White household.  Here are some highlights to recap.

We kicked off the month with our first visit down to the Houston area since Emily's been born.  This was only her second road trip and I'm embarrassed to say at 9 months of age her first trip down to Angleton.  A big thanks to all our family for coming to us during this past crazy year!

Mike met up with his siblings to go to The Woodlands to do some spring cleaning at his Dad's house.  Knowing they would have their hands full there, the kids and I went down to Angleton to see my parents.  My siblings came down as well which was a nice treat.  We got to see a bunch of my mom's side of the family and Emily go to meet them for the first time.  We also ended up getting to see both Vanessa and Thomas's places in Houston along the way.  It was a good time seeing and catching up with family.  

The first weekend of May we traveled to Houston, second weekend was full of Mother's Day fun.  The third weekend was full of celebrations for friends--we had the Smith birthday extravaganza celebrating the birthdays of all three of our favorite playmates followed by celebrating our friend Jon's graduation with his MBA from UT.  My sister came in town that weekend too to take stock of all our babystuff and she is into the major planning stages for baby Elise scheduled to arrive in October.  So excited that we also found out this month she's having a girl.  And already passed on two huge bags of Emily's clothes to her!

After the first 3 busy weekends, we enjoyed some "down time" for Memorial Day by filling it with fun activities with friends: Saturday--to Jon and Erin's for pool time and burgers.  Sunday--to the neighborhood pool with the Smiths followed by pizza at our house.  Monday--more neighborhood pool time with Vanessa who came in town to visit for the day.  Pool, pool, pool!  The kids love the water!

We've also had some excited changes that took place this month.  After wrapping up my last class for the semester I turned in my keys at UT.  I was able to get a long term position with Child Inc and let the School of Nursing know I would not be returning to teach in the fall.  I'll miss the students but won't miss a lot of the other stuff that went along with the job.  I may return once our kids are both in school but for now will enjoy a shorter more flexible work schedule which will allow me to spend more time with Noah and Emily.  I'll be working for Child Inc which is the HeadStart program in Austin (goverment funded preschool for lowincome/at risk kids).  I'll work with Health Services to provide health screenings/physicals/shots, etc to all kids entering the program and then monitor my assigned kids to make sure they stay up to date with all their medical care throughout the year.  I did some work with them last summer before Emily was born and it's a great group to work with.  The work is low stress and I get to work with one of my best friends from my old job at the CWC.  Plus I only work 2 days a week and arrange my hours to be whatever I need them to be to work for our family.  Lots of perks to that!

As my job stuff finally settled out, so did preschool for the kids.  We'd been working on this since earlier this spring.  And thanks to God's perfect timing it all came together right when it needed to.  Noah had his last day at Ms. Ruth's at the end of May and will be starting a Tue/Thur program at Immanuel Lutheran Day School in Pflugerville the first part of June.  This coincides perfectly with my new work schedule.  Once Emily turns one, she'll transfer over to ILDS too.  The school is well established and comes highly recommended from several families we know that have kids that have gone there.  Plus we love that it's a faith based school with daily chapel.  They have a huge playground plus a gym for when it's too hot/cold/wet so we know they'll gets lots of activity.  Ruth's has been a great place for them to be--crazy to think that Noah's been there since he was only 6 months old--but it's time for a change for them too.

Enjoy some photos with some other recaps from this month:

Yummy spaghetti!

Noah went through a phase of sleeping in a tent in his room.

This is what happens when you have an older brother and crazy Dad.  Those are bullets stuck to her headband.

Mohawk baby!