Playing with Brody

Emma loves her cousin Brody so much. She watches his every single move and smiles and giggles at him whenever he tries to play with her. Right now, he's a little jealous of the attention Emma gets, so he tries to take away whatever toy she's chewing on and runs away with it. Luckily, she doesn't seem to mind. She just cheerfully moves on to the next toy!

He also has really sweet moments where he helps Emma get her binky back when she drops it, or sits on the floor with her and hugs her. The other day when we were leaving for home he kissed her on the head and said, "Love you, Baby Emma." It made my heart squeeze.

I assure you, he's hugging Emma in this pic, not trying to choke her! Haha

6 Months Old

Dear Emma,

In the past month, you have grown so much! Your feet can touch the bottom in your froggy jumper now and you love sort of hopping in there. You are almost crawling - you can get up on your hands and knees and kind of rock back and forth, but you just won't move your hands or feet to get going anywhere. It's probably because you're too interested in standing all the time. You love it when someone holds you up so you can stand and wiggle around trying to get your balance. Your cousin Brody kindly let you borrow his activity table, and you have a blast standing there and playing with everything, watching the lights and listening to the sounds and music.


Bath time is definitely lots of fun now. You continue to splash and have fun most of the time. Other times you kind of mellow out and look at me like you're just so relaxed and happy (you must have gotten that from Mommy, because I love a good, relaxing bubble bath).

You love to play peek-a-boo, and you laugh like crazy when your Daddy pops up from somewhere and surprises you (no matter how many times he does it). You've also been known to laugh at Mommy when she sings silly songs and dances around to amuse you. Zoe, of course, still gets laughter when you see her playing around. You also started giggling when you saw Brody hitting a baseball in Pap-Pap's yard. I guess you thought it looked like fun!


You have a new high chair that you get to sit in for dinner time, and you love it! You've tried lots of veggies and fruits (apples are detested, sweet potatoes are loved). If you're not eating, you like to play with toys and watch Mommy and Daddy tinkering in the kitchen. You can also sit up in a shopping cart now like a big girl and you always look around the stores wide-eyed, just taking it all in.


We've noticed now that you're also starting to cry if you don't get a toy or object that you want (such as Mommy's iPhone or a Tostitos bag Daddy was holding) - but luckily you're easily distracted. I do have to mention that you seem to love all Apple products. :P

You've also been teething quite a bit, and got your second bottom tooth this month. There's been lots of drooling, chewing on frozen washcloths and teething rings, and general fussiness - but you came through it all like a champ.


Each and every day you're growing in new and different ways and your Daddy and I are having so much fun watching it all unfold. You are so loved, baby girl.

Splish Splash

I've still been giving Emma her baths in the kitchen sink since it's so much easier than kneeling in front of the bathtub. She's starting to get too big for the sink, and tonight she proved it. She smacked the water with her open hand by accident and got a shocked look on her face. Then she did it again. And again. And again, adding in some kicks for good measure. She was having fun splashing and wouldn't stop! Water got all over me, all over the counter, window and floor. Every once in a while she would splash water into her own face and freak out a little. It was pretty all pretty funny. I probably shouldn't have laughed and encouraged it. Looks like we'll be moving to the baby tub inside the big tub soon!

First Tooth!

Paul discovered this week that Emma has a tooth poking through! She's certainly been chewing on everything in sight, so I guess it's not so surprising but it's still exciting. She keeps sticking her tongue on it feeling it out like she's not quite sure what to think.

She's been crying a bit in the evenings holding her mouth, but overall she's been handling it really well. All of the random teething toys we've collected are now being put to good use.

Brunch with the Kiddos

Our brave souls decided to attempt to go out to brunch with all of us and the kids. So, Tracy, Jena, Aunt Cathy, me, Brody, Emma, and Elliott headed out to Bob Evans and ended up having a really nice time. Everyone behaved themselves in the restaurant (even the adults).

Afterwards, we all went to Dad's house to hang out for a little while and it was really nice to have everyone together (sans Susie of course, our missing-in-action beach bum). Emma had an awesome time seeing everyone - especially Brody, who was having fun entertaining her.

Lucky Little Girl

We are all so lucky that Aunt Cathy and Uncle Joe are watching Emma during the work week for us. Emma just lights up as soon as she sees either one of them. They not only watch her but spend time playing with her, reading to her, singing to her, and teaching her how to sit, crawl, and stand. She's such a lucky little girl, and it makes my heart so happy to have them in our lives.

Aunt Cathy also made Emma an adorable reversible quilt with two different animal prints that she plays on every single day. It's so beautiful and padded just enough that it's the perfect play area for our active little girl. I can't thank you enough, Aunt Cath!




Aunt Cathy also made a quilt for Brody in dinosaur prints (which I hear he carries around the house with him) and one for Elliott covered in owls.