I'm completely thrilled with Emerson's 10 month pictures for several reasons.

1. I shot in manual
2. I think did a pretty good job at hitting focus
3. There is little noise that I see
4. Her new outfits are just adorable and the color pops perfectly.
5. She wore a bow willingly!
6. I got her to not only look at the camera but SMILE! All it took was me shaking one of her new discovery blocks. I should have got these months ago.

Yay I'm 10 months old!

There are few hot spots here but I just loved how the sun was coming over her shoulders.

Don't these big brown eyes just melt your heart???

Counting Sheep

So you may remember me talking about our starting a new sleep routine. I was good about it for awhile but a few nights of Emerson waking up literally every 20 minutes in the crib I'm sad to say I gave up. It seemed when I held Emerson she passed out and slept until we went to bed, and much into the early morning hours. One touch of the crib and she magically woke up, no matter how zonked out she looked. Fast forward a couple months and she had been going to bed between 8-9:30. No big deal there, even if it was only sleeping with me. Then we went out and about for four days to celebrate Christmas. Somehow her sleep is a hot mess. Yesterday she took 5 naps! I tried several times to wake her up and she cried and cried. It was just plain pitiful. When she woke up at 5pm, we ran errands came back took a bath around 7:30 and got ready for bed. I was feeling optimistic as she feel asleep for the first time around 9:20. Then suddenly 30 minutes later popped straight up. She is the only baby I have ever seen wake up straight to sitting. Not open her eyes while laying down then sit up. It's pretty crazy. After failed attempts I took her upstairs to my bed to relax her a bit. After 2 more falling asleep and shooting straight up I pretty much held her down. I don't know who fell asleep first, probably me. So she is going to bed around 11pm (yikes!) and waking up around 8am. Since she woke up this morning she has been following me around tugging my pants leg. We are down for nap 1 at 9am. I'm assuming most of these problems are self-induced but I'm really at a lost to how to get a baby that can't stop moving to sleep. Here's hoping in 2010 we have better luck so I don't pull my hair out. If she thinks she can stay up until midnight to see the ball drop she is mistaken! Ha!

First Christmas

So I kind of forgot all about Christmas but Emerson had a great first one if I do say so myself. We stayed in town on Christmas Eve for our first round of festivities.

Unfortunately Emerson was a present thief and had little interest in her own presents. Luckily her cousin was pretty understanding.

Somehow we managed to only get a Christmas Eve family picture but none of us on Christmas Day. But, anyways Emerson was in a great mood for staying up so late.

Emerson and her Grandparents

We've had a Christmas tree since the first week in December and somehow Emerson just discovered how neat they are on Christmas Eve. Since then she has been squealing and pointing at them with excitement. Too bad the tree is coming down soon.

On Christmas morning Emerson had a shocked look on her face when she saw all the fun stuff out. She went straight for her musical table and really enjoyed playing with it. We had to really coax her to open other gifts. Ok, we will pretty much opened them ourselves.

But, she had fun looking at the wrapping.

Baby toy or Dog toy?

Although Santa was very good to Emerson she would rather have what Mia got. Mia disagreed.

The rest of the weekend was full of family festivities and yummy food. Here is Emerson walking all over her Grandpa. We were really blessed this year and we're very thankful for all the love Emerson received. Our living room now looks like a toy store. Maybe we should just rewrap some things for her birthday because honestly the child has more than enough to play with and still I have said several times today, "Emerson, do not go up those stairs!" I guess nothing can keep her that occupied.

Emerson enjoyed a visit from her Great Aunt Reba. Can you tell we're related?

She also got to spend some time with her Great Grandma. I was impressed with her super social behavior but not surprised she pretty much resisted naps all weekend. With Emerson, not Grandma. Ha. We are still recovering. She is on her fourth nap today.

She also had a blast playing with her cousins. She is just fascinated by older children and is thoroughly entertained by them. I have no kidding hundreds more pictures I hope to post on facebook if it ever cooperates with me. Hope you had a wonderful Christmas!

10 Months Old

We're in the double digits! I can't believe Emerson is 10 months old. It really blows my mind. Just think this time last year Emerson was bouncing away in my tummy because of all the Christmas treats I was chowing down.

Christmas 2008

I think Emerson has changed A LOT in the last month. I can just see her growth everyday. Here is what's going on with Miss Thang right now.

*She is cruising all over the place and can even get up to standing by scaling the wall.
*She loves to dance and is always bouncing up and down.
*She loves music and even gives the church band applause when they play.

*She says mama, dada pretty frequently now.

*She has found her tongue to be fun and can flip it on it's side and fold it in half. It's quite a talent.

*She gives firm but loving kisses and says mmmm while she does it.

*She has on a few occasions enjoyed an apple slice but for the most part has no interest in food. Although she has tried to take several cookies from me. Haha.

*She loves her Daddy! She has recently taken to going to sleep while he hold her and cuddling with him at night.

*She is really into other babies/kids. She will babble and yell at them in her own unique baby language.

*She adores animals and shows her excitement by squeling, giggling, and going AAHHH like she wants to express to us that she sees them.

*She has a ball looking at herself in the mirror and has fun waving at herself and giggling.

*She loves looking at pictures of herself and puts on a huge grin. Not lacking for confidence!

*She hates diaper and clothing changes and uses all her might to try to get away. She is much stronger than she looks!

*She's fearless. She has developed a recent interest in climbing stairs and will turn around and throw herself off. Not one of my favorite things.

*She is a super speedy crawler on all fours.

*Her favorite activity is taking everything off our night stand shelves. Mainly her Dad's hats.

Emerson is just a joy to be around. Super happy, silly, goofy, and fun! Not to say she isn't a handful because this girl is into everything. But, I wouldn't trade this age for the world. I just wish I could bottle it up and remember every second. Happy Birthday Emerson. It's almost your "real" birthday!

Is it spring time yet?

Since we are so over our winter clothes (or should I say growing out of them?) I let Emerson try on some of her spring time gear. Apparently she loves her outfit because is the most still she has ever been for a photo in the last 4 months.

Adding an accessory from Mom doesn't hurt either.

Do I look cute or what?

I can tell we are going to have so much fun in the future with her flair for fashion and affection for the color pink.

This is it. Her new expression. I have no idea what it means but it's hilarious just the same.

Maybe she's thinking, "Why oh why can't I wear sundresses year round?" My thoughts exactly my dear. If only we lived in Florida.

"Snowed" in

Last Friday afternoon when we were suppose to be snowed in Emerson found ways to keep herself occupied. I had been running errands all morning in the attempt to avoid the "winter weather" and she fell asleep so I placed the carseat in the living room. After she woke up, not thinking anything of it, I left it there. I was busy wrapping Christmas presents, etc when I turned to see this.

Apparently she likes her carseat if she is not confined to it.

Oops, I've been caught!!

She had a blast entertaining herself as you can see.

Emerson is really into buckles. I think she is just practicing to unfasten herself when I put her in.

Like any good dog, Mia lent a hand.

It might be hard to see but she flipped the carseat over. Yes, she flipped it. Then proceeded to make it a rocking horse. I think Mia is a little jealous that Emerson created a new toy.

The dog also helps out with dirty diaper patrol.

Am I in trouble?

Ok, then I will continue!

This creation of non-toys into toys has become very common. I'm rethinking all those presents she has under the tree.....

Dear Santa, I want Lightroom

I think this could be the best giveaway ever! Even better than cute flower clips, and girly. Lightroom! Yes, MckMama is giving away Lightroom over at her blog. So I'm blogging about it in my attempt to win. I've been drooling over lightroom and I heard it's much speedier than my photoshop. So Santa can you please send Lightroom my way???

Birthdays

I've been sitting around lately thinking of Emerson's first birthday. I know it's 2 months away but I try to be a planner then usually slack off later. So I better use this motivation while I have it. I'm thinking something small and low key. But, I'm definitely getting her a monogram shirt like this one. Isn't it cute?!?! Etsy is a endless place to look for birthday supplies. Things that I don't have the money to waste on but have fun looking at. Like this fun birthday sign. I wonder if I could somehow figure out how to make one on my own. Then I searched around for invitations. I thought I might could design one myself but then I probably will spend entirely too much time on it and still end up buying something. Ha! I looked on etsy and nothing really stood out to me. I know it sounds stupid but they all looked too pink to me. Too pink for a girl? Yep, a lot of them were baby pink and I prefer the loud hot pink. Something a little funky. What about cake? Did you make your own? I'm thinking I will hesitantly try to. I'm not sure if Emerson will even have cake because you know you don't get cake if you don't even eat real food. Ha. I'm a mean Mama like that. Is there a healthier recipe for cake? Perhaps carrot cake? Or is that just a trick to make you think it has some nutritional value. So tell me about your 1st birthday planning.

Jump around

"Jump around, jump around. Jump up, jump up and get down. Jump, jump, jump!"

Is it in your head yet? That's the classic lullabye I sing to Emerson because I'm a dork like that. Lately Emerson has turned everything into her personal trampoline so when our neighbor offered up their jumperoo we "jumped" at the chance.

It has a little kangeroo on the front that she find hysterical and it plays the same 5 notes over and over again. But, hey kids like it!

She has even been standing up on the outside and jumping up and down. Which you usually ends in her feet flying out from under her or a face plant. But, honestly you can't deter her from anything. She's fearless unfortunately.

Check out this goofball face!

Uh oh. Back to the fierce Emerson stare down. I guess picture time is over.

Food Take 2

What could make Emerson's face look like this?

An apple of course.

I put a few dices of apple out and she really didn't care. But, when I put out full slices she thought she would give it a try.

I will not swallow this.

Seriously, food again?!?!

It was entertaining to see her investigate the apple.

Even more entertaining was seeing the worst faces I have ever seen.

Yet, she kept putting the apple slice back in

and making this awful face.

Again and

again. So, I guess this is progress even if it looks kind of scary.