Things we are into

Has it really been two weeks since I last posted? Life has been a bit of a blur. We spent all of last weekend at CCEF's annual conference. (CCEF is the counseling center where Alasdair works, and of which we are planning to open an affiliate office in New England...stay tuned.) It was really energizing for me to be able to be a part of things. Emily did a great job; we took turns carrying her in the ergo & were both able to participate.

I thought I'd post a few things we are into lately. Emily is into ....sitting up on her own(!) ...

...at least for short intervals...

....and sucking on her lower lip...

Mommy is into... the crockpot! Late afternoon is my hardest time to get anything done, and it's really hard to motivate to cook when Alasdair isn't home for dinner. But with the crockpot I can prepare dinner during Emily's morning nap, it's ready to eat at dinnertime, and easy to reheat for later in the week. Thanks to facebook, I found a great crockpot recipe blog. The intensive week-long class Alasdair has been running ends today, so I'm making this for tonight - and of course we'll have to have margaritas since I opened the bottle of mix.

Kitties

Emily has discovered the cats and loves to watch them. Sometimes I can coax one of them to stay nearby long enough for Emi to "pet" her. I'm glad Syntax & Blaise are so good-natured!

Playing Outside

If you know me, you know that I hate to be inside all day! So, when we don't have time to go on our lovely long walks, I've been bundling Emily up to play on the front porch. Here are a few recent shots.

Hair

Emily was having a bad hair day yesterday, so I tried putting a clip in her hair for the first time. Isn't she beautiful?

Today she had her "4 month" checkup & shots (a little late since she is closer to 5 months now!), and it went soo much better than last time. She cried for just a minute after the shots, and has been fine the rest of the day. She's still in the 90th percentile for weight & height: 16lbs10oz & 26". The doctor suggested starting her on some cereal & fruits, but I'm not sure I want to do solids quite yet...

Oh, and speaking of solids, I had a neat neighborhood interaction last week. We buy our deli meats at the little store on the corner of our block. When I was working full time, I'd always be running in just when David was trying to close up the deli counter, so I was pretty sure I wasn't his favorite customer. Last Thursday though he asked me if Emily had starting eating food yet, because his family had about 30 jars of baby food that granddaughter wasn't eating anymore, and he wanted to give it to me! So now we have a nice stash of food for whenever we do start, and I feel like I have a new friend. I'm planning to bring him some pumpkin bread as soon as I can get around to making it!

Halloween Play Date

We spent Saturday evening with our good friends Erik & Amanda & their baby girl Madda. We dressed the girls up to hand out candy to trick-or-treaters, and cooked ballpark food (sausages, nachos & Phillies Graham Slam ice cream) in honor of the Phillies World Series game. Emily started out the evening in her glow-in-the-dark skeleton onesie from Juanita and then since Madda's pumpkin costume was too big for her, we put it on Emi.

Here are the girls "playing together" with Emily's toys. A great time all around. More pictures in the October album.

So much for normal...

This post will probably be very rambl-y because I only have a couple minutes. I almost titled it "I don't think I'm cut out for this!" I posted a month or so ago about re-engaging with life and developing a sense of normalcy. That went swimmingly for about two weeks! Then... Emily got sick & stopped sleeping well. Then she seemed to be teething. Then it seemed like a growth spurt... and we traveled every weekend... and somehow all of October is gone & we seem to have lost the knack of this! Just like all the veteran moms told me - just when you think you have something figured out, it all changes. I had started going back to the gym, but with Emi being sick & then only having one car for awhile, that stopped. Now since Emily stopped sleeping well, we've being working on getting her on a schedule & she goes to bed earlier soI've had to give up Women's Bible Study (WBS) for awhile. Bah. Add in the sleep deprivation & it's been discouraging! I crashed pretty hard yesterday. Life always looks a little brighter in the morning (at least while Emily is napping!:) and I'm encouraged by doing what I can of WBS at home (fighting hard to stay focused & ignore the urge to run & clean the kitchen while Emily is sleeping and praying that God will give me HIS vision for my life, that I will own the words of the hymn "Be Thou My Vision" that I sing to Emily so often...) and my reading the blog of another mom-friend reminding me that this is "challenging" not "impossible" and we are given grace for the moment. Mmm, that's been hard to remember!

On a brighter note - once I get the pictures off the camera, I'll post about Emily's Halloween play date.