On December 7th I helped throw a sprinkle for Melanie & sweet baby girl McClain with Melanie's good friends Savannah, Meredith & Melissa. After much back and forth about the locale and some trouble finding a suitable place during the holidays, we wound up having it at Melanie's house. It was so kind of her to open it up to everyone. It made the whole setting so personal and cozy- plus it made Jonathan's fatherly task of hauling the loot home much easier. It was a win on all fronts!
Melanie had the house looking faaaaabulous, as always. Savannah came in town the day before just in time to escape the crazy ice storm that broad-sided north Texas. She & I hung out on Friday decorating and gabbing under Melanie's watchful eye while Mel's maid got the joint super spiffed up. Thank heavens for great company because while it was supposed to be work, it actually wound up being a ton of fun.
Saturday was the day of the shower. Chef Savannah whipped up two incredible breakfast casseroles and the resident pastry chef, Meredith, cranked out some delicious brownies and cupcakes. Lots of Melanie's loved ones showed up and we all enjoyed noshing on the aforementioned goodies, discussing Jonathan's hair future and planning Emery's sweet BFF's future. Oh, and of COURSE, baby girl scored some fantastic goodies. She is going to be one sharply dressed little femme fatale! Over all it was a wonderful time and I'm so happy to have been a part of getting to celebrate the sweet little nugget I've already come to love like my own. Can't wait to meet you tiny angel!
Shawna, please teach me how to take pictures.
What's more welcoming for a tiny lady than a table full of sweets and elephants?! Nothing that I can think of.
Meredith's masterpieces.
A very small fraction of Miss McClain's wardrobe. Hope she doesn't expect her whole closet to be displayed in the living room regularly.
The gift table before people arrived. Sidenote: how incredible is that chandelier? I am obsessed.
Baby Mel, Baby Jake...
... and Baby Jonathan. With genetics like this she's destined to be a baby model, obviously.
Those napkins were the cutest!
Real men wear pink bandanas when they're excited about their sister's arrival***
Melanie and the beautiful Savannah.
Pretty Mama with pretty Meredith.
Savannah & Eva.
Julie, Beth & Miss Harper, another future BFF.
Heather, Melanie & Meredith.
Real pregnant women eat straight out of the dish. Sweet Baby McClain & Baby Patrick are only due 10 days apart! Soul mates?
Adorbs. The elephant lovey isn't bad either. (Do you get it?)
Voila! We love you Mama!
*** and when Dad isn't home to keep Mom from doing this.
Editors Note: As a tiny Christmas bonus (and because I completely forgot to include them in the iPhone post), I'm adding some video footage of a few new tricks at the bottom. You're welcome.
The Story
I have really got to stop falling so far behind on blogging. By the time I get to blogging a month, we are well into the next month and the way things were in the previous one become kind of blurry. I would like to promise you a more timely update for the 10th month, but January 1st is suspiciously close to January 6th. What is January 1st? For those of you who don't know any accountants, it's the day that we go into hibernation for approximately 2 months. Some bad decisions in college ended in a week of regret when you saw someone in class every day. Others ended in an adult life time of regret every January & February. You win some, you lose some. (I'm joking. I derive an amount of joy from color-coding spreadsheets that rivals most children's on Christmas morning. This is what the heavens wanted for me, obviously.) I digress though.
Whoa, whoa, whoooooa. Just what do you think you're doing with my bear up there, Mom?
So let's talk about my tiny little angel, shall we? This month she got even cuter, if you can imagine that. It really was an early Christmas miracle. At the beginning of the month she grew too long for most of her 9 month stuff. That seems to be her standard- outgrowing a size about a month before it actually ends, give or take a week.
Her tiny little teefers sure are taking the scenic route coming in. This month I think the two she started on in late October finally reached their final height. No new ones have come in. She has some impressive bibs of drool to show off at the end of each day, but no teeth. I really think her teeth must just be pretty stubborn. Can not imagine where that comes from. :c)
This month really was pretty similar to her 8th. She has been such a sweet, sweet girl. If you had shown anyone videos of her as a newborn, they would never believe she was the same baby. I hardly believe it myself. For those of you reading this worrying that her inner fire has died out (I'm talking to you Kaysie), keep in mind that I now have the knowledge of being 3 weeks into her 10th month. Stay tuned. The fire is now burning brighter than ever. :c)
I don't even look like I hurled 5 times in the last 24 hours do I?
Back to what I was saying though, month 9 she continued to be such a little doll baby. We could take her places and she would just sit and watch everyone and everything. She would shoot smiles that would just charm your socks right off. I wouldn't be surprised if her behavior in public convinced strangers to add "infant" to their Christmas list. She never acted up in front of anyone else and really even at home she would only fuss when something was truly wrong.
This month she started cruising around on furniture and between furniture pieces. She beams like she's done something worthy of the Nobel prize. It will just melt your heart. We saw her stand on her own many, many times. She is more than capable of doing it, she just doesn't like to. When she's enthralled in a toy or something in her hand, she will stand for several seconds. As soon as she realizes she's standing on her own, she plops her tiny hiney down on the ground stat. She can walk around when she holds our hands, but she has nooooo interest in doing so. She's far more interested in efficiency- again, she is her mama's girl.
How much longer of this until we do puffs?
I'm trying to think what other fun tricks she started this month. Oh! She started waving. She absolutely does it on her terms and will usually only do it with people she knows. She does it at appropriate times though, so I'm pretty positive she understands what it means. You'll see in the video below that her form is unique. Won't be being a beauty queen with that technique, yittle yovey!
Oh and she started dancing. It. Is. ADORABLE. Her best move is tapping/bouncing her right leg nonchalantly. You don't want all the boys to think you're trying too hard, obviously. Sometimes when she gets really into it she bounces. One day Aunt Julie got to see her doing a little baby pop, lock & drop. Unfortunately Mama is rarely quick enough on the camera to catch this stuff.
Hey adoring fans of the interweb!
Climbing. Girlfriend loves it. If I didn't know that her genetics don't bode well for it, I would say she will for sure be a hurdler. Her first instinct is to get up on her tippy toes to reach something and if that fails then she tries to fling her leg up on it. She has crawled over Ryan, me, several large toys, Lola's legs maaaaany times. Next Christmas she may be getting baby's first rock climbing set.
What else? She's also far more interactive and social. I think she's always been fairly social in that she is way more interested in people than toys. In the past she has mainly watched though. This month she's really started trying to smile and babble to (ok, mainly at) people outside of just Ryan & I. It is so, so cute. Speaking of babbling- she's cultivated quite the repertoire of sounds. I know I documented when she started "da" and "ma", but she also makes a "b," "t," and "v" sound now. I know there are other sounds she makes that I can't think of right now because she is sleeping. She has introduced allllll kinds of inflections to her little shrieks.
Her personality still seems to be a bit on the shy, sensitive side. A couple of times Ryan & I have tried to tell her no and she has cried. She cries harder when it comes from Ryan, which is ironic because he's for sure the bigger softie of the two of us. She's also veeeeeery curious and persistent. It takes a lot of hard work to distract her from going after something you don't want her after. You have to re-position her and give her another toy multiple times before she actually forgets. Sometimes she will smile and pretend that you've distracted her and then when you relax, crawl right back to the rocks in the fireplace. Little stinker.
We are so lucky to be your parents, our tiny angel- thank you for another fantastic month!
Check it out Mom, I'm almost as tall as this thing.
The School Stuff
This month at school Emery got quite a few Happy Grams. One was about her understanding waving, one was about her standing on her own and one was about how social she had become. I know it is such a small thing, but those little notes always make my day. It's so nice to know what she's doing for the 10-11 hours a day we can't be with her.
One day when Ryan was picking her up recently he mentioned something about her dancing to her teacher. Her old afternoon teacher, who isn't in the same room anymore but can still see her over the half wall, said "ohhhhh yes- she get's her little right leg going," and started imitating her. That story might be funnier if you know her old afternoon teacher. Just thinking about that conversation between the two of them gives me the giggles.
Other than that they have been trying to introduce her to the sippy cup. I think that's going over like a fart in church though. We try at home as well but she continues to think it's just a fun colored rattle. Le sigh. We will keep trying
.
In here is where my teeth will go. Someday.
The Stats
Height: 29" inches (90th percentile)
Weight: 18 lbs 13 oz (48th percentile)
Head: 17.75" (81st percentile)
Diaper size: 3
Clothes: 9-12 months
Shoes: She's wearing a size 3 and she looooooves to pull them off her feet.
Milk: She's started having about 6 oz every 4 hours. She just isn't eating as much as she used to. I think after next month, we will just have to burn through our freezer stash and use formula after that. I feed her before school and after school. Then she has a 3 oz bottle before bed.
Solids - She still loooooooves herself some oatmeal cereal. She kicks her little feet and goes ballistic when she sees it. She has tried quite a few new solids this month - blueberries, asparagus, mangoes, peaches, broccoli, cherries, pumpkin & mashed potatoes. She really likes blueberries and cherries. She also likes broccoli and asparagus. The rest she has been fairly neutral on. She continues to really love bananas and avocados and HATES green beans. Is obsessed with puffs- any flavor. If there's a stronger word than obsessed, she's that instead.
Firsts:
First time we saw her stand on her own for a few seconds (November 15th)
Note from school saying she understood waving (November 15th)
First steps holding Mama's hands (November 19th)
First time cruising the whole couch (November 26th)
Games: Popping up over the top of furniture or peeking out at her around corners. This is the surest way to get her to smile or laugh. She also loves pressing the buttons on the globe part of her exersaucer that play songs so she can dance.
Favorite Toys: The remote, my iPhone, water bottles, playing on the OUTSIDE of her exersaucer, the big M&M Grandma & Pawpaw brought her from Vegas
Songs: Christmas songs. Mama looooooves Christmas songs. The first time I saw her dance was to Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas," so obviously she has great taste.
Sleep: She was a great sleeper until the very end of the month. She normally goes to sleep between 8 & 8:30 PM and sleeps until we wake her around 6:30 AM. She will sleep until some time between 7:00 & 8:00 AM on weekends. When we have her she will nap 2x a day for about 1.5-2.5 hours a piece. At school she takes 0 naps. At most 1 20 minute nap. It hurts my heart.
Other Notables: Em's eyes are still an unknown. They're certainly still not brown. I don't know what color to call them. She still looks like her Daddy most of the time, but sometimes I see me. When I squint right.
Because it's only appropriate to take a picture of a woman's behind for so long.
Another month has gone by- same song, different verse. My baby is getting way, way too big and WAY, WAY too much fun. Forcing myself to go to work each morning gets more and more difficult. You'll see why below. We love you, little boogie bear!
I've been out in the world as long as I was in your belly... say, whaaaat??
I have 2 minutes worth of hilarious video showing how she wound up in here and how she managed to belly flop her way out. Friday night entertainment sure is different around here than it used to be.
Nonnie's looking a little more amped up about Emery's first Nutcracker Market than she is, huh? Probably because she can't taste the toffee yet. Maybe in a couple of years.
Early on this month we had to switch to 12 month jammies. Em saw this as an invitation to do her best slanket impression.
Laundry baskets make for great faux walkers.
After the 1,000th time chasing her into the kitchen sometimes you resort to this. Parenting: nailed it.
First day it hit below 60 degrees. I may have been overly cautious with the bundling.
Even if your child is on the taller end of things, I don't recommend getting an 18 month coat. It's a litttttle big.
I never did get a great picture in this outfit, but it's too fabulous not to document.
Maybe if I sit here veerrrrry still and don't look she'll go away. (Spoiler alert: wrong.)
Emery & her friend Harper celebrating Jake's birthday. For anyone that knows them, this looks exactly like a baby Ryan & baby Jimmer playing together. You know, except girls.
Sweet Emery showing Aunt Tiffany how good she is at putting away puffs. While making sure to look intimidating enough that Aunt Tiff doesn't try to take any. That would be a suicide mission.
Haaaaaappy Birthday Nonnie!
My big girl passed out. Playing at Grandma & Pawpaw's is hard work.
You can't tell in this picture, but there's a fox on these jammies. It means that Ryan & I sing "What does the fox say," about 50 times any night she wears them. Okay. I might be responsible for 48 of them.
Noooot a great laundry assistant if we're being honest. Nor is Lola obviously.
Drama face is my favorite. (She was just fine. She just wanted Mama to pick her up.)
*sigh* I hope this isn't foreshadowing. Does prove I'm the best wife ever though.
I hope someone is earmarking all these for the wedding slideshow.
I believe it may have been 65 degrees. Daddy may scoff at Mama, but she looks like a happy customer.
Mom! Have you seen this one?! It makes an even more beautiful noise than the one you gave me yesterday! I hope Santa brings me looots of these.
Sweet, happy little lamb.
I took this picture solely so I could caption it "boots with da fur." Mission accomplished.
She looks so BIG here! Tell me it's a joke, right? (Also please note that she's always missing a sock. Emery's feet & the dryer are the bermuda triangle for socks.)
Mama's poor baby got sick right before her 9 month birthday. This day I picked her up from school and she was so tired she fell asleep sitting up in her pack n' play.
Same sick day. Just eating saltines and pondering the meaning of life.
Ohhh, you know. Just modeling my Christmas jam jams a little early. Make me a bath, woman!
Stick around to see if Mama's this sad about my 10 month birthday!
I'm a Longhorn-supporting, Aggie-marrying, high heel-adoring accountant in Houston. I live for my family, friends, and a good belly laugh. I dream of a world without cheese, space, snakes or wind.
Reading Legend:
Ryan = The Dear Man I Married Emery = Our Sweet 1st Daughter
