Eating my veggies

Emerson has really started eating and is finally enjoying her food.  So far she eats oatmeal, sweet potatoes, carrots and her new favorite..peas.  Hayden would never eat the peas, but Emerson LOVES them.  She is a very messy eater and already shows signs of being "Miss Independent" as she wants to feed herself and grabs on to the spoon.  Next we will try avocado and green beans and then we will introduce the good stuff...fruit.

Carrots

Peas



Little Miss Independent



"Lake Time"

It is officially the opening of the lake season and we are off to Alabama for Memorial Day.  The past few years has been interesting as it has been a rain out.  The weather forecast is sunny skies and hot temperatures.  It should be a blast!  There will be lots of food, beer, swimming and sun.  I know one little boy who is so excited he even packed his suitcase.  I never expected he was packing the whole playroom.   As you can see he has packed...numerous books, a robot hand, chainsaw, microphone and hungry hungry hippo.  At least he remembered his toothbrush and toothpaste. 

Too cute not to share

There is nothing cuter than ruffles on the buttom and chunky, baby legs!!
 

Picking Berries and Cicada Invasion

Last week was absolutely beautiful, it finally felt like summer.  We decided it was perfect for heading to a local farm and picking strawberries.  We had so much fun and the strawberries were absolutely delicious.  Even Emerson could not pass up taking a bite of a strawberry.
 

This summer has blessed us with the 13 year cicada invasion.  Hayden is very excited about cicada's and our first real upclose encounter with them was at the farm.  Yuck..they were everwhere!



Sitting up like a big girl

Here are some of my favorite pictures of Emerson sitting up.

6 months

I am a little late to posting, but you are officially 6 months old or as Hayden says.."you are none".  He is so proud to show you off.  He tells everyone, "This is my sister Emerson, she has no teeth and is none".  He speaks the truth!!  You still do not have any teeth, but I have a feeling it could be any day now.  You are really chewing and gnawing on your hands and anything else that is within reaching distance.  You are still doing pretty good in your crib, however, you are not sleeping as well.  You are getting up a few times and fussing, but seem to cry yourself back to sleep.  Then, around 4-4:30am you are up and ready to eat.  Luckily, you go right back to sleep after eating, but 4:30 is still a little rough on your mommy.  I hope you get back to sleeping until 6 or 7am soon.  You are not napping well either...I am listening to you scream as I type.  I was hoping to have you to 2 naps a day by now, but it seems you are on your own schedule and will only take about three 10 minute cat naps.   We will all be much happier once we get a good system down!!

You now know who your mommy and daddy are and you are not so sure of strangers.  You are very picky with who you will allow to hold you. You will smile at anyone as long as I am holding you, but once you leave my arms you go to screaming.  I am hoping you will not have major stranger anxiety like your brother and will come out of it soon.  In fact, I have been putting off taking you to the nursery at church because I am too scared you will scream the whole time.  Yesterday, I decided was the day and you went to the nursery for the first time.  I help on to the buzzer waiting for it to go off, but it never did.  I was so excited, until the last five minutes of church I could hear screaming from down the hallway.  I looked at your daddy and we both knew it was you, so off I went.  Sure enough, this poor woman was hugging and kissing on you and you were just screaming.  As I took you from her, you immediatly stopped and looked at her with a big smile.  You are such the tease. 

You are sitting pretty well on your own.  You love pulling hair and scream with delight when you get a good handful of hair.  You still stick your "lizard tongue" out all the time and are now smacking your lips, blowing rasberries and spitting.  Don't know why, but you love to spit.  I have switched you to oatmeal and you are doing much better.  You now eat oatmeal, sweet potatoes and carrots.  Next I will start trying some peas, green beans and avocado...can't wait to see what you think of those. 

These past 6 months have really flown by.  I can't believe how much you have changed.  You personality is really starting to show and everyday you are doing something new.   I can't wait to see what these next few months have in store for us, but for now, I am going to enjoy every moment with you while you are 6 months old. 

Here you are spitting



It is getting harder and harder to get you to sit still in this chair



It's in the eyes

From the day Emerson was born, I never thought that she looked anything like Hayden.  They are so different from the color of their hair to the shape of their head, but I came across this picture of Emerson and and it made me think of one of my all time favorite pictures from when Hayden was around her age of 6 months.  I now see in her beautiful, big eyes a little bit of her big brother.   They both have a special twinkle in their eyes!!

Operation Baby Boot camp!

Yes, after 6 months of Emerson sleeping in her swing, the day finally came.  It was 'sleep in your crib' and 'sleep training' boot camp time meaning no more swing sleeping or middle of the night feedings.  I put it off for so long because I imagined many sleepless nights of crying (Emerson and I both), screaming, and more crying.  I knew it was time and I was ready for a fight.

After a night of celebrating Cinco De Mayo with friends, Emerson was worn out.  I made sure she was sound asleep before attempting to place her in her crib.  Usually, she wakes up the moment her body touches the mattress, but she did not make a peep.   So,  downstairs I went and crawled into my bed mentally prepared to pull an all nighter.  Around 10:30 pm the monitor exploded with screaming and crying.  After about 20 minutes of listening to crying, I went upstairs and gave her a little pep talk and went back downstairs and slid into bed.  David was sound asleep and it astonishes me how anyone could sleep through the chaos (I know he will read this and totally say that he did not sleep through it, but trust me he was. For the first time, I was actually thankful he was snoring because it helped drown out Emerson's screaming). I believe around 11:30 pm I threw the pillow over my head and shut my eyes.  It was not until 5:30 am that I awoke in complete shock.  She did it....she slept in her crib...through the night.  Seriously, was baby boot camp really that easy?  I am not 100% positive that boot camp is a complete success, but we are off to an amazing start.  It has been two nights in a row now that she has slept through the night.  I sure hope we are on to something!!  Now..to get her to take a nap in her crib and not her carseat.

A good night sleep makes for a happy baby...

New addition to the family

This weekend we traveled to Memphis for Addi's third birthday.  When we left, we were a happy, family of four.  We came back larger, happy, family of five.  That is right, we have added a pet to the family.  Mimi surprised Hayden with his first pet fish.  Oh, his eye's lit up like the fourth of July when he met his new friend.  So far the fish has made it two days in the Smith household.  I was so worried we would wake up to find Hayden's new pet/best friend floating on top of the bowl.  So far...so good.  Hayden waves to his fish, plays toys with his fish and makes a point to talk to his fish.  I sure hope this fish last a long time, because Hayden is in love!!

 Meet Nightlight... 

That is right...Nightlight is her name.  Why...because he glows in the dark according to Hayden.  I hope it will be a long lasting friendship. 

Easter Weekend

A little late in getting this up, but Easter weekend was wonderful.  It was actually pretty laid back and calm.  On Saturday, Hayden had a baseball game and what a game it was.  The poor boy is really not that into baseball, however, he was the only one to actually hit the ball...three times...coach pitch.  I was so proud of him.  Still not so sure that baseball is his thing as he still did not really know where to run, but I am still proud of that boy!!  After the game, we had a neighborhood Easter egg hunt and I believe Hayden brought home about one hundred eggs. After the hunt, we headed to Bob and Nana's to cookout, hide more eggs and dye eggs.  Here are a few pictures from the hunt...

Hayden in action

Showing off his loot



Emerson hanging out at the Egg hunt

 We got a little crazy Sunday and decided we would attend the sunrise service.  It was at 6:30am outside at the North Campus of the church.  It was amazing!!   I can't believe we were up and ready and made it on time.  I will do it again every year.  We went to breakfast and Easter was over by 8:30am.  David and Hayden ended up going to play golf that afternoon and we were worn out that night.  I believe we all slept great!! 

Hayden always has to stick grass in her ear

Hayden said "DAD..why are you wearing the same pants as me"?