Happy Halloween and 7 months old!

Emily turned 7 months old a week ago, we can't believe how fast this has gone and how big she is (and how little time we have for this blog)! She barely resembles the 6 pound infant we met at the hospital!

At 7 months old Emily is:

• 28 inches long and 20 pounds 9 ounces. Which means we have transitioned to the convertible car seat instead of the infant carrier seat because she is getting so long!
• Wearing some 12 month size clothes (some pants and sleeper pajamas and jacket) and some 9 month size clothes still (shirts and some pants). Wearing size 3 diapers during the day and size 4 overnight diapers at night.
  
• Sitting up on her own and reaching for toys, but not crawling yet. She really likes sitting on her blanket in the living room or sitting in her high chair watching us cook or do stuff around the house.
  
• She still eats 4 bottles a day of 9 ounces each and is having baby food once a day at noon. She has had a variety of fruits and veggies and is just starting in the last week or so to act more interested in the food and taking more than a couple ounces. So we will probably start giving her some food around 5pm as well this week.
• Still takes 3 naps a day for about 90 minutes in the morning and in the afternoon and then about 20-30 minutes around 5pm. Goes to bed between 6:30 and 7:00 and wakes up about 12 hours later.
• She is vocalizing more and more, making a variety of sounds kind of like she is singing, often high pitched. She love to laugh and be tickled and play peek-a-boo.
  
• We continue to be so amazed at how happy she is and how little she cries. She really only gets fussy if she is tired and getting fussy for her means whining and wanting to be held while walking around looking at things. She almost never has a real melt down.
  
• She puts EVERYTHING in her mouth and her favorite part of all her toys to put in the mouth is the tag. Even the small blanket she has that has these ribbon tags all over it, she will find the white store tag to suck on the most.
  
• She is drooling a lot and gumming her teething rings a lot, we can't feel or see teeth yet, but think they are coming soon.
  

Last weekend we went on a road trip to Milwaukee for Megan Olson's (Megan's college roommate) wedding. Emily got to stay in a hotel for the first time and did great despite only sleeping for two 30 minute naps in the car ride. She came to the wedding for about 30 minutes and then went back to the hotel to play with Aunt Julia and her boyfriend Tyler, who had come to babysit from Madison.
Last night we went to hang out with our new friends Peter and Annaliese and their daughter Caroline who is 13 months old. Emily sure likes watching Caroline play and we are excited to be meeting more friends who have kids and are more understanding of what we are going through (aka having to leave by 7pm to make bed-time!).

We are going to the trick-or-treat event in the Coe Residence Halls later today and she will wear her costume to daycare tomorrow, so we will post more pictures of that later this week.

Happy Fall!

We've had some beautiful warm fall weather this week and had a fun visit with Aunt Julia on Saturday and Sunday. We took a walk and checked out the Coe Football game on Saturday. Emily sure looks great in her sunglasses and doesn't mind them at all!


On Sunday, we went to the apple orchard to get some pumpkins and apples and had to try out Emily's Halloween Costume! Even though it was warm out, she did great!Now time to go make some peach baby food for Emily to try. She's had cereal, pears, sweet potato, and still isn't all that interested so today we will try peaches!

Bouncing, Noses and Pears, Oh My!

In the last two weeks Emily has had lots of family time! After her 6 month birthday we all went for a visit to see the Comer family in Minnesota. This was our first long car trip since our 4th of July vacation and Emily was not as interested in sleeping in the car as she was at that age. She did fine despite having less nap time than usual which really impressed us, and she continued to sleep through the night in the unfamiliar environment and new crib. Good job!

Emily had so much fun with all the new toys that Mary had for her! She did especially well showing off all her rolling and smiling skills for all the family and guests that came over to meet her. She enjoyed checking out Grandpa Joe's mustache and like pulling on Aunt Rachel's long hair! She tried to make friends with doggie Bruce, but he just couldn't contain his excitement over trying to figure out what that wiggling, noisy thing was that we all were holding!

Then two days after we returned home to Iowa Nana Ellen and Grandpa Lee arrived for a visit and brought with them the car that we bought from them (subaru outback) since our Mazda was totaled in the accident at the beginning on September. Emily liked staying home from daycare to hang out with them, but unfortunately got another cold which she gave to everyone else, especially Nana and Mommy who got it really bad! But despite having a cold, Emily still is a trooper and wasn't fussy, just sometimes had trouble breathing through her nose which would wake her up from naps. She does great with the nose syringe though, and it seems to provide her much needed relief. She loved reading books, singing songs, and going on walks with Nana and Grandpa.
Emily had her first food while Nana and Grandpa Lee were in town. Started with rice cereal which she wasn't interested in. Then added bananas to the rice cereal which she was somewhat more interested in, but not really. And is now on to pears, which she doesn't mind, but she still doesn't really get the concept of opening her mouth to put the spoon in!

At her 6 month well visit we found out Emily is 19 pounds 5 ounces and is 27 inches long. She got a few more shots, including a flu shot, but did great.

We all three stayed home sick on Monday and are still battling this dumb cold. Here's hoping we get better soon before Aunt Julia comes to visit this weekend!