Emily 5 Months

Happy 5 Months Sweet Emily!  This was a big month for us with many small accomplishments and one HUGE accomplishment.  Yep, this marked the month that you started to sleep in your own bed at night.  All night.  With typically only one wake up time per night.  Considering you were sleeping in bed with us all night and waking us up 2-3 times per night last month, this is HUGE.  For you, for us, HUGE!  We are all sleeping better now and I think all happier now too.  Way to go big girl!  Oh, and speaking of big girl--you weighed in at 16.4 lbs this month--you are growing, growing, growing!  You are also napping in your bed for both your morning and afternoon naps and beginning to get a little more routine about the times that those occur, how long you sleep, etc.  You will learn that your Mommy thrives on routine and predictability so your growth in these areas has really been a big blessing for all of us this month. 

You are so in to everything around you these days.  You want to look at and touch everything.  And if you can get your hands on it, you want to put it in your mouth.  You are exploring your body and figuring out new things--you use your voice more and more and are very loud; you are starting to laugh more with us; you found your feet and quickly learned how to put them in your mouth; you learned to blow raspberries with your mouth and love to do this back and forth with Mommy or Daddy.  We are really having more and more fun playing with you and watching you learn and explore new things.

You like to play on your mat and spend time in the exersaucer.  You do well on both as long as someone is close by.  If we leave, you notice and let us know that you want us to come back!  You've rolled from your tummy to your back and are oh so close to rolling from your back to your tummy.  Seriously, so close--you stretch and contort your little body almost all the way around and just can't quite make it over.  Soon I know you will though.  And as you are attempting to roll you sort of scoot all over the place.  It makes me realize that we're only a short time away from you really being able to move.  Yikes!

As your schedule has gotten a little more predictable, you've also consolidated some of your sleep and awake times so you have one morning nap that lasts 1.5-2 hours, then you're awake for about 1.5-2 hours then ready for an afternoon nap that lasts 1-2 hours.  Usually you can be up another 2+ hours until bedtime after your nap though sometimes you need another short cat nap to last you till bedtime.  These bigger gaps of awake time have allowed us to go out and take you with us.  Sweet girl, for the first few months you weren't that sweet all the time and honestly after a few attempts to take you with me on errands including a trip to HEB where you cried the ENTIRE time, I was afraid to take you anywhere.  So up until now it's basically been home, daycare, church and doctor visits only for you.  It's so great to be able to take you along with us now.  Granted so far we've only ventured one dinner and one lunch outing, still that's quite the accomplishment!

You're still doing pretty well with your hearing aids.  Some days you pull them off a lot.  Other days they stay on great.  I think now that your ears have grown a little they stay on better.  I got sneaky and found a way to help keep them on with cute head bands too.  Now we accessorize for a dual purpose--to look cute and to keep your aids from falling out and getting eaten or lost (both would be bad!).   You got to go in the sound booth at UT for the first time this month.  Oh the things we are learning with you!  You did great for your first time and for now this is just to get you used to the experience.  We'll go back to the hospital next month to officially recheck your hearing to see if there have been any changes.

We look forward to celebrating your first Christmas with you in a few days and having the rest of the family around to see how much you've grown and to enjoy some of the fun things you are doing these days.  We love you so much!

"I just wanna eat this bear! Get in my mouth Mr. Bear!"

So, so close to rolling over.

You started out on the mat, so see--you've actually moved quite a bit in your attempts to roll.

Breakfast with Santa

We don't make a big deal of Santa at our house around Christmas time.  We focus much more on celebrating Jesus' birthday--the real reason for Christmas! 

However, with kids, it's still fun to get that ever cute photo with Santa every year.  This year, we made it to the Breakfast with Santa event put on in our neighborhood by our HOA.  Such a great deal. 

1. It was FREE. We took pictures.  They took pictures.  We got digitial images of all.  And it cost us nothing.

2. It was in the neighborhood-meaning a 3 minute drive vs. a 20 minute drive to the mall. 

3. Almost NO waiting.  There was one family in front of us to see Santa.  We were there less than 5 minutes and had already had our visit and photos with Santa

4. Not only was it free, but we also enjoyed a free breakfast afterward too--kolaches, donuts, breakfast tacos, fruit, juice.  NICE!

Here's Noah telling Santa that what he wanted for Christmas. We made big strides from last year when he wouldn't even aknowledge Santa and had a complete melt down when I even suggested sitting on his lap.  This was also beneficial since I hadn't yet heard this specfic item mentioned and thus I was able to share it with some elves later to help complete Noah's Christmas wishes.

Again, always a challenge getting two little ones to cooperate and look at the camera at the same time (see previous post).  Thanks for being patient, Santa!

Kuddos to our HOA for putting on this event!  It's nice to be able to appreciate what they do for us (for a change!)

Family Photos

If you received a Christmas card from our family or the Tiltons (my parents) or Zimmermans (my sister), you may be wondering "Whats with all the white shirts?".  Well, we went for a family photo shoot over Thanksgiving and all of us ended up using some of our practice shots from before we left home.  Since all of us were gathered in one place for more than 24 hours, we all coordinated and went to get a big family photo taken.  Aside from weddings, we haven't all gathered for a professional photo since we were kids. This was actually my mom's birthday present from us kids (her birthday is right before Christmas).  Here are some of the photos we got that day. 

Getting two kids to cooperate and look at the camera and smile was quite the challenge.  Anyone that has attempted this before knows what I'm talking about.  Plus Emily was fighting a cold and was even more fussy than usual that day--you can even see some residual tears in some of the photos.  Mike would have to step out and walk with her, then would quickly jump back in with the rest of the group once she calmed to try to capture a good shot.  Meanwhile Noah completely forgot how to smile like a normal person.  In spite of all the chaos we did get some really good shots. 

Children's Christmas Program

As a big 3 year old and member of the Pre-K Sunday School class, Noah got to participate in the Children's Christmas program for the first time this year.  His age group only had a small part--singing a couple songs (with some super cute hand motions) at the beginning of the program.  He and a few other little ones also got to dress up as sheep for a later part of the program.

I got to watch them practice the day before the real performance so contrary to what the video and photos show, I know he knew the words and motions to the songs.  But Noah and some of the other kids I think were a bit "star struck" with the bright spot lights and full congregation when it came time for the big day.  He seemed more interested in the big kids behind him on stage and trying to see beyond the spotlight into the crowd than signing the songs.  I had a hard time getting any pictures of him facing forward.  And what's with the hands in his pockets?  He never does that.  And the yawning--it's like he never sleeps. 

The whole thing was very cute.  And hilarious.  Perhpaps this will provide some good ammo for embarrassing him as a teenager.  Enjoy!

Hands in pockets.  Thrilled to be doing this.

This must be the moment he noticed I was in the front row taking pictures.

Some of the other "animals"

Mary and Joseph

Angels

The flock of little sheep making their way onto the stage

  

 I love how all the sheep are all very obviously not paying attention to the actual program

Had to get one photo of Miss Emily too--all dressed up and ready to see big brother's performance

Lights of Love 5K

Last weekend Noah and I participated in the Lights of Love 5K benefiting the Ronald McDonald House of Austin.  RMH provides a "home away from home" for families whose children are hospitalized.  This was an event close to our hearts this year as we have some very good friends who benefitted greatly from their stay at the RMH in Cincinnati while their infant son, Caleb, (also our Godson) had surgery in October.  Even while they were still in Cincinnati, Bea found out about the Lights of Love here in Austin and began putting together their team, Caleb's Army, so they could give back and help other families.  They know how important the cause is because they've been there.

And we did indeed have a small army.  Caleb's Army had almost 40 members and was the top fundraising team for the whole event--they raised over $5000!  We got a break from the weather as it actually rained most of the day (ironic since we've had so little rain at all in 2011) but cleared by the evening.  It was cool, but not cold, perfect weather really.

Santa was there to visit with the kids before the race began.  The kids got to do a Kids K first.  Noah actually ran the whole way--we had once incident where he was briefly taken out by a cone (I swear the kid doesn't ever look where he's going when he runs!) which was followed by a short meltdown after he also dropped his glow in the dark sword.  But he finished strong.  And then did a great job looking at Christmas lights and cheering on the grown ups from the jogging stroller as we did the 5K (ask me sometime about our little pit stop in the residential neighborhood.  Let's just say I'm glad he's a boy, that's he's had practice going potty on the fence in our back yard and that it was dark outside.  Thankfully when he had to "go" we were near one of the few park areas that had some bushes to hide behind!).

I'm so glad we got to be a part of this night.  So we could be there to support Caleb and the Smiths.  So we could be a part of something bigger than just our little family.  I know the Smiths plan to make it a family tradition and I hope to be back out there again next year and have Mike and Emily with us next time too!

Here is Caleb's Army.  That's Team Smith in the middle with the tripple jogger.  Jay and Bea right behind it and their three kids in the stroller: Elle, Caleb, and Ava. 

Doesn't this just make your day?

This made my day--Cutest little love EVER!  Ok, I'm biased.  But still, she's pretty stinkin' cute.  Best part was, this gorgeous smile was my treat after a particularly long (2.5 hours long!) and challenging visit with the ENT and audiologists for Emily.  It was just me and both kids (our ECI caseworker was there too but she only was able to stay for the first 20ish minutes and had to leave befor the doctor even came in to see us) and both children did fantastic! Especially given the long time frame we were there.  I was not at all prepared for the lenght of the visit and the challenges had nothing to do with us--just lots of poor communication amongst the staff at the office and a doctor that was a total jerk (a story for another day).  So, as we were loading ourselves into the car around 12:45 after our 10:10 appt that morning, miss Emily blessed me with the sweetest, most beauftiful grins and giggles.  Love her!  This sweet little face makes it all worth it!  (And for the record, big brother and I treated ourselves to some Chick-Fil-A for lunch on our way home too!)

Decorating

Christmas decorating fun!