i(Phone) Spy: Months Twenty Two to Twenty Four - Emery

Well, it seems that somehow, despite my lack of consent, my toddler became a "preschooler" (at least per my 'Your Baby This Week...' emails) on March 6th.  I am still in a state of serious shock that it's been two years since I officially became a Mama.  Before I pelt you with a barrage of birthday-related posts, why don't I hit you with the one full o' pictures of her highness from the past 3 months?

Oh.  You again.  Just trying my best to convince Daddy to give me a pedi.

Sister jammies, you say?  Haven't seen 'em.  I do have this super cape to show you though.

Act cool, act cool... Maybe she'll move on.

"Read-ee gooooo Mom-may!"

Whatchaaaaa doing?  I hope you're buying me something.  Mama hopes it's some other jammies so you stop putting me in these Christmas ones.

"Em, can you make Mama something?"  "Coffee!"  Kid knows me.

I have so many adorbs pics of these two.  Peas and carrots.

"Owl book.  Reeeeeal (l's = d's.  or t's.) it!"

What do I look like?  Your maid?  Make your own cookie.

Yogurt.  Good to the last handful.  (Author's note: you know when she's at the end because she starts using her hand.)

Daddy's Little Angel.

I see.  You think I'm going to brush my teeth.  You crazy, Daddy.

Food brings about a lot of focus in this family.

  

To walk upright I would need to put this snack catcher down?  Nah.  I'm good.

Daddy the horse.

I'm sure Hello Kitty magic markers are where Michelangelo got his start as well.

FaceTime with Nonnie & Pawpaw.  It's a toss up who started doing this first.

Just a little chaperoned date with Jake and his cat.

Forcing Nonnie to watch "animoes" for the 50th time.

Just another Saturday morning.

Seriously these two melt my heart.

Does anyone know where Ryan went to school?  I forget sometimes.

Wait, wait, waaaaait.  Your Mom DOESN'T put boots over your footie jammies before you go to the grocery store to make herself seem less lazy?  I'm confused.

Took that "walk a mile in my shoes" adage pretty literally.

RIP owl book.  Also RIP Lola's happiness.

I know she's too old for public posting of pics in a diaper but just look how cute this is.

First time Mama got brave enough to attempt pigtails.  They're fairly atenna-like, but what're you gonna do?

Definitely not a trip anywhere with Emery without a snack/beverage, at least 2 unnecessary accessories and a baby.

I'm just as shocked as you are that I ended up in here.  I've heard you say a million times I'm too big for this.  I have NO idea how this happened.

Like a boss.

Demanding that Daddy read her an ad in our fav local breakfast spot.

You shall not pass.  Girl has some street cred.

I will give you one guess as to who selected jammies this evening.

You know.  Just diapering a bunny and reading some cupcake recipes.  What else would I be doing?

Maybe if I act real engrossed Mom won't see me trying to break into these.

Uma and I are ditching 2.  See you kids at 2.5!

Discussions with Daddy: Segment 6

Well friends, I got wrapped up in that whole having-a-baby thing and this little segment fell by the wayside.  The good news about that?  I have more stockpiled than usual.  I would like to tell you I have captured every single funny thing that has been uttered in our house since I last posted in August, but alas- that would be a lie.  I haven't been quite as hands-free lately as I need to be to succeed in that arena.

I've noticed that as Emery becomes more vocal herself, the exchanges are no longer one-sided which means they are even more hilarious.  So you have that to look forward to in the future.  Silver linings?

Enjoy a small snippet of life around here as of late.

• (Getting Emery ready to go to school in the morning.  Background, Ryan had a panic attack when he was certain that at 13 months old one of Emery's classmates greeted him with "Good morning!")  "Em, are you excited to go to school?  We'll go see Anakin and Kalyn and your future boss!"

• (Playing with bath toys one evening)  "That's an octopus.  Octo from the Latin for 8.  You'll need that for your SATs one day."

• (One evening while trying to unload the dishwasher after school.  Emery kept bending down to try to drink the water in it.)  "Honey, this isn't Naked and Afraid."

• (During a diaper change with a higher whining to not whining ratio than usual.)  "Sweetheart- have you heard the expression, 'you catch more flies with honey than by being an a-hole?'"

• (Wreaking havoc on the toy stash in the living room.)  "Daddy just cleaned that up!  Why don't you sit down and do some math problems?"

• (One night I yelled into the bathroom to see what some commotion was about during bathtime and Ryan responded with the following:)  "Oh no big deal.  She's just holding Dolly over the edge.  Michael Jackson and Blanket style."

• (One morning when Ryan picked out some palazzo pants to go under a dress.  I tried to impress upon him how much of a fashion miss this was.)  "A dress?  This is not a dress.  Maybe for some hussy baby, but not MY baby."

• (One evening he was changing out of his work shirt while I was running a bath for Emery.)  Ryan - "Hey Em, one day you might get married.  When you do, I hope he has a body like this! *flexes*"  Emery - "Yes."

• (Ryan doesn't read the actual words in books.  He completely makes up his own.  One night Emery picked a Minnie book that is comprised of maybe 10 short stories about Minnie.  I was feeding Brynn so I'm not sure exactly what the story was about but I gathered it centered around daffodils.)  "And then Mickey said- wow, what a low margin product that is!"  "And Goofy told him, 'Minnie wants flowers.  If you don't buy her some, she won't talk to you.'  And Mickey said, 'I guess that's just how women are.'"

Just a Daddy & his princesses in a sea of pink.

I Wanna Hold Your Haaaaaand

As any Mama of 2 can likely relate, during maternity leave I feel like I spent 80% of my time holding and/or attending to Brynn's needs.  I am not sure this bothered my little Daddy's Girl in the slightest, but it did sit tough with yours truly.  While I love taking care of my youngest nugget, I found myself missing getting to have some true quality alone time with the dollface who made me a Mama.  I told Ryan that when I started back at work I was going to try to devote some of my Fridays off to spending time with Miss Em.

I put this plan in action right away on my first Friday off after returning, February 27th.  What better place to start on a cold, blustery day than the Children's Museum?  A high school friend of mine, Ava, happened to have a son 2-3 weeks younger than Emery and then another son 2-3 weeks younger than Brynn.  Clearly this fateful fact means that our kids are destined to be BFFs.  We attempted to have a play date with the little 'uns while I was still out on maternity leave but due to yucky winter sickness, we never made it work.  As an olive branch we asked if they wanted to join E & I on this adventure.  They accepted because they are just as crazy brave as we are.

We had a great time!  Emery was exactly how I expected her to be- completely skeptical and cautious of the entire thing.  Poor Princess inherited her father's extreme skepticism and my total aversion to risk.  If she couldn't do it with a firm grasp on her Mama's hand then she wasn't doing it.  She also was too shy to talk to anyone except me until we got in the car to leave, of course.  Then she said all their names about 37x before falling fast asleep.

It was genuinely such a fun day and I'm so glad that we did it.  We will definitely be returning some other time in the near future.  I think there were a few places we both wish we could explore again.  Maybe next time Brynnie Boo and Daddy can even join us!

Many thanks to Ava, Silas & Asher for playing with us.  We look forward to some more play dates in the future.  Hopefully with less lines for the changing table!  ;c)

"Emmy do it furst!"  This is a common chant around these parts.

The car was a hot commodity in the Tot Spot.

It took approximately 50 times of me telling her I couldn't go with her on the slide before she attempted on her own.  Then she loved it.  Note evidence of smile above.

How adorable is Silas?

I wonder if when our parents were watching us play volleyball they ever thought that some... uh... let's go with 10 (haaaaaa) years later we'd be watching our own kids play together.

Showing me how train conductor-ing is done.

"Cooookies, mommay!  Cookies!"

Proof that Ava & Asher were also there.  (Hey, being the photographer when it's 2 against 3 is tough.)

You know what goes great with chocolate milk?  Onions.  Or Orange juice.

The best pic I captured.  I should win an award or something, right?

Breaking bread.  Nothing says "ok, I've finally warmed up to you" like trying to share your croissant.

Brynn Tracker: 3 Months

The Story
My baby's 3 months old, my baby's 3 months old!  This is sort of old news as she has been since February 18th which actually puts her closer to 4 months old.  I apologize, sweet child o' mine, for my tardiness.  Mama started back to work right in the middle of a forecast which meant she's been preeeeeetty busy.

Good gracious this one was an excellent month!  First, an update on our issues, huh?  As you recall- Brynn and the car weren't going to be getting BFF necklaces any time soon.  For most of the month this was still true.  I would say towards the end of the month it slowly improved.  Team car won the battle maybe something like 20% of the time.  I'll take progress where I can eek it out.  I think this can mainly be attributed to the fact that this kid has learned how to put things in her mouth.  More on that in just a bit.

Haaaaa - you guys think you're going to keep me awake for longer than 15 minutes after a full day of school don't you?  Suckers.  (Editor's note:  This calendar photo shoot works best when your child's birthday is at the beginning or end of a month.  Not smack in the middle because then they lay on it.)

You might also remember that when we last left you Brynn wasn't quite as fond of sleeping as her parents were.  She had just started sleeping in the pack n play thanks to Ryan digging deep to find his inner McGyver.  I'm proud to report- my little doll face still sleeps in the pack n play.  Sweet, sweet VIC-TO-RY.  (Pause for me to knock on every square centimeter of wood in this house.)  Not only does she continue to make nice with my favorite Graco item, but she's started sleeping through the night.  It's every bit as shocking to me as to you.  Still.  I would typically put her down around 11ish and she would usually wake up for her first feeding sometime between 5 & 6:30.  I can not complain one bit about this schedule.  I am crossing all digits that 4 month sleep regression doesn't hit this house.

As for her being a Mama's girl- that was still the case.  She improved towards the end of the month, most definitely.  She started to let her Daddy hold her- albeit he had to face her out.  Usually towards the TV.  Sometimes watching such educational things as Night at the Roxbury or WWE Raw, but hey- everyone bonds differently, right?

Whaaaat are you doing to try to grab my attention now, Mama?

Last month we were on the verge of uncovering a new challenge...taking a bottle.  The struggle was real for most of the month.  Everyone tried.  Nonnie.  Ryan.  Her teacher at school.  Do you know the only person who succeeded?  Mama.  Which is completely the opposite of how it should be.  Sweet, silly Brynnie.  Her first school trial run went terribly and she wouldn't take a bottle.  Her second trial run (2 days later) something clicked, she decided it wasn't the worst thing to happen to her after all and she's had no issues since.  

This month we've benched a few issues only to sub in a another.  Life would be boring without them, right?  This month Brynn became a pretty serious hand/thumb sucker.  We have known from the beginning that this kid was far more orally fixated than her older sister was.  We tried giving her a pacifier a few times and she just looked at us like we were on drugs.  Apparently she considers life BYOP.  Obviously this thumb sucking thing isn't a huge issue now... but could be in the future.  Her teacher has already made mention of it to us.  Wheeee!

Enough with that stuff- let's talk about some fun things.  This month Brynn became a HUGE smiler.  So so so smiley.  It's really caught Ryan and I off-guard because it's so opposite of Emery.  Emery is definitely a happy kid but if you gave me 100 words to describe her, smiley wouldn't be one of them.  She's much more like her Daddy that way.  So it's been so much fun to watch how easily baby B flashes her huge, precious grin.  She reserves her biggest ones for her sister.  It makes my insides turn to total mush.

This is her- do-I-smile-or-is-she-going-to-hit-me face.  Reserved solely for her sister, of course.

She also LAUGHS.  I kid you not.  The first few times I thought I was just being an overzealous Mom.  After the first few times though I couldn't deny it any more.  It is so addictive.  I would audition for American Idol (or go into an Audit Committee meeting in sweats, Jen) just to make her do it.

Let me think what else- she rolled over for the first time from her tummy to her back.  She doesn't really love tummy time any more because of this fact.  She's definitely much less a proponent of tummy time than her sister was.  We still do it though, of course.  I also saw her get very close to rolling from back to tummy but she can't quite get her arm/hand situation figured out so she winds up rolling back.  She is definitely a mover and a shaker when you leave her on the ground.  I kind of forget how much little ones can move around before they are actually considered mobile.  I will leave her on her back on her play mat facing one way and come back 30 seconds later to find her completely perpendicular to how I left her.

She also has started really grabbing at things.  I don't remember Emery being interested in grabbing things as purposely as Brynn seems to.  Maybe it's her 2nd child instinct.  She knows she needs to perfect this skill early on if she stands a chance of hanging on to anything around here!

If you guys are going to insist on doing this, I may as well get a leg work out in.

Oh, oh!  One of my absolute favorite things she does is when she gets excited to see someone, she kinda shakes her whole body and tries to lunge out of your arms.  It. Is. So. Adorable.  She also started babbling/cooing quite a bit this month.  Her favorite time of day is morning.  Those are when you get the BEST smiles.  I can't recall if I've mentioned it here on the blog but this child is also really into the TV.  This is terrible, I know.  She's far more interested in it than Emery has ever been.  Even now.

I could go on for hours, but I think that is the meat and potatoes for this month.  We love you to pieces, Brynnie Boo Boo.  Seriously.  Pieces.

The School Stuff
Ohhhh how sad I am to add this blurb in here this month.  As you likely know from here, I started back to work on February 17th.  Given how aware Brynn had become of people who weren't her Mama and her resistance to the bottle, we figured a trial run was more than called for.  On Monday February 2nd I took her for about 4 hours.  It went... not awesome.  Her fantastic (seriously love her) teacher said she "had her moments," refused to take the bottle and strongly urged me to bring her back again on Wednesday.  Thankfully Brynn must have had a little come-to-Jesus with herself because when I picked her up after trial run take 2 her teacher told me she was a completely different baby.  Direct quote- "she actually smiled... I had no idea she could smile!"  AND she took a bottle.  To say Mama was relieved would be an understatement.

We're still doing this?

After she started school for real, as you might expect, she slept essentially from the moment she got home to the moment I woke her at 6:30 am the next day for school.  It broke my heart never really getting to see my smiley girl awake, but after about a week she settled into her new routine.

She takes a TON of naps at school.  She's quite the serial napist.  She typically takes between 4 & 6 and they generally start out about 1.5 hours long and drop off to being about 20 mins at the end of the day.  Some days her teachers run out of room on the sheet.  This is also entertaining to me because Emery was such a terrible napper at school.

I can already feel how loved and supported our little boo boo is and I look forward to all the things she'll learn and accomplish at school in the coming months.

Mama tries.

The Stats

• Height:  24.75" (93rd percentile)
• Weight:  13 lbs 4 oz (66th percentile)
• Head Circumference:  Your guess is as good as mine.  :c)
• Firsts:
• First Bath Without Crying - January 22nd
• First Laugh - February 8th
• First Tummy to Back Roll - February 10th
• First Time Grabbing Toys - February 14th
• Diaper Size:  2
• Clothes:  3-6 months
• Feeding:  Before school she was eating every 2-3 hours during the day and mainly sleeping through the night.  At school she has a 4 oz bottle every 3 hours and still sleeps through the night.
• Sleeping:  See above.
• Favorite Games:  She looooooves to pretend to stand up and look you in the eye.  She also loves to pretend to "jump."  Her favorite thing might just be watching her sister... when she's at a safe distance that is.
• Favorite Songs:  Kid loves a good rendition of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and "Old McDonald" - especially when Mama changes inflection and makes ridiculous accompanying gestures.  If we're being honest she hears a LOT of Ed Sheeran too.
• Things dropped in the Moby Wrap:  The usual suspects.  Iced coffee.  Various condiments.  Sometimes depending on how windy is is on her walk she gets some element of nature- a leaf, some unidentified fuzz, etc.
• Other Notables:  You are oh-so-loved!

This is what 99.9% of our pictures from this photoshoot look like.  Our little photog assistant.