8 Months

Boy how time flies!  It's almost impossible to fathom that our little darling is 8 months old.  I find that Melissa and I are commenting more and more lately about the incredible things that Emma can do, like sit up and play with toys, pass them hand to hand, show different expressions and emotions on her face, roll like crazy, jibber jabber, HOLD ONTO A SIPPY CUP!  I mean seriously, where did the little baby go that had just learned to smile, discover her feet, gave up on tummy time to lick the play mat, shuddered at her first bite of food, and stayed put wherever you lay her down.  It just doesn't seem like that long ago.  It seems that 2 months ago I remember saying, can you believe how much she's changed over the last 2 months?  And here I am saying it again.  It's hard to believe what the next 2 month will bring - crawling? walking? first words?  Stay tuned!

Enough of my daddy rhetoric.  Here are some facts of what went down in the life of Emma and her 'rents over the past couple of weeks.

A couple of weeks ago we took a trip to the Minnesota Zoo with Emma's friend John Karlgaard and his parents.  We had a great time checking out the aquarium, saw a dolphin show, watched monkeys, and took a stroll through the rain forest. 

 This yellow sweater is one that Melissa's great-aunt knitted for Melissa as a baby.

The following weekend my parents came up for a visit.  It was wonderful having them here. It was the first time in a long time that it was just the 5 of us, allowing them some uninterrupted Emma time.  On Sunday morning Mom took Emma and sent us back to bed for a couple more hours of sleep.  I thought she was doing this as a favor to us so we could catch up on sleep, but I found out that this was actually a cunning grandmother ploy to isolate the baby for some one-on-one time.  Very cleaver...we certainly didn't mind.

 Emma loved lounging on Grandpa

So my father apparently doesn't care for avocados.  This was apparent as he gave Emma all of her carrots but no avocados because clearly she shouldn't like them either...

Other than that it has been pretty quiet around here.  Just a whole lot of baby cuteness to try to capture on picture and video.  I have some adorable videos of Emma that I need to post but they are going to require so editing.  Look for them soon (this is what they call a tease in the advertising business)!

 I have been trying to play my guitar more lately and Emma loves it!  A jam session usually breaks out on Daddy Day Care days - me on the guitar and Emma on the stacking cups and vocals. 

 What you'll find on our couch any given Saturday or Sunday morning around 10 a.m.

 One of Emma's fun tricks that she is beginning to perfect is to push down the flaps when they open. 

Emma made a new friend the other day in the mirror.  I don't know why we didn't think to sit her in front of it before but she loved it!  It was a solid 30 minutes of entertainment for her.

 We finally got some snow to show Emma.  I think she was impressed :)  Now, if we could just get it to stick around long enough to take her out to play in it or for a ride in her sweet sled!

A sweet picture to say goodnight.  I have to admit I got lucky with the lighting on this photo but I think it really helps to captures the sweet bond and unfiltered love between mother and child.   

With love,

Jason, Melissa, and Emma

Giggles

Listening to Emma giggle must be what it's like to hear angels sing.  To me, it is the sweetest sound in the entire world!  When she starts jibber jabbering and giggling I can't help but smile at her and jibber jabber right back.  Unfortunately for Emma, but fortunately for those who enjoy her laughter, I have found her "tickle buttons."  She has 2, one is over her tiny collar bones and the other is just below her arm pits.  The place where she likes to laugh the most is on her changing table with nothing but a diaper on.  This must be her utopia because she will laugh and giggle with me until both of our cheeks hurt.  Here is a great clip of Emma laughing at her Grandpa John.

Emma continues to try new foods and her list has grown to include fruits!  She now eats squash, sweet potatoes, peas, carrots  and recently added avocados, bananas, and finally pears.  So far she has liked everything that she's eaten except the carrot puree we made.  The introduction of fruit has gone well with the small side effect of banana induced constipation.  It is not anything substantial but Emma has to work significantly harder and with more frequent red faced bouts of pushing.  After a few days of pear puree things have returned to "normal." 

On a more exciting food front, Emma has a new throne on which to eat.  A couple weeks ago we got a high hair and she LOVES it!  It has made feedings so much easier for her and us.  Before the high chair, we had her sitting on the kitchen table in her Bumbo seat.  This created a number of problems, first and foremost was safety; you couldn't leave here there unattended to go get more food or a rag to wash up - everything had to be laid out in advance and within arm's reach.  This contributed to problem number 2: distractions - she wanted to look at and touch everything on the table except for what you wanted her to.  Needless to say, the high chair is a welcome addition to our kitchen.

From the techie side of things, I'm very excited to announce the purchase of a new camera lens.  It is a 35mm fast aperture lens.  This lens will allow us to achieve a greater change in the "depth of field" of a photo.  Basically it allows us to manage better what is in focus and what is blurry.  Pictures taken with smaller aperture have a smaller point of focus which are great for portraits because the person (or in this case, baby) will be in focus but the background and foreground will be blurry - thus making the subject appear to stand out more.  A larger aperture will have the opposite effect and is good for large nature scenes of something, like say a mountain, where you want everything in focus.  The other bonus is that this lens will take better pictures in low level lighting which is perfect for the pictures we take in the house.  The down side is that there is no zoom - what you see is what you get, so if you want the subject to be bigger or smaller you have to step forward or back.  This will take some getting used to but I think we'll get by. :)  It has been fun learning the ins and outs of photography and trying to get the extra "wow" factor in a photo.  Next on my list to learn is lighting effects.  It certainly helps to have such cute subjects.

One of my favorite pictures!  Check out the mohawk and her two pearly whites :) 





Chew toy or zylaphone?

Over the last couple weekends we have had a few visitors.  Grandpa and Grandma Stull came up a couple of weekends ago to watch Emma while Melissa and I headed out to her firm's holiday party.  Last weekend Aunt Megan and Uncle Kevin came to spend the weekend so Megan could get her Emma fix.  It's a bit of an addiction, but I totally get it.

One last picture to share is of our trip to Lake Nokomis (our neighborhood lake - yes we have a neighborhood lake) for the US Pond Hockey Championships.  How much more Minnesotan can you get??  We couldn't pass up the opportunity to share this with Emma so we bundled up and headed out.  It would have been pretty good weather if it weren't for the wind.  It dropped the wind chill close to zero degrees; needless to say we weren't on the ice very long.  We ended up spending most of the time in the warming hut.  Emma rose above it all, was a trooper and took it all in like the northerner that she is. 

This blog post (and our clean kitchen) was sponsored by Emma's 3 hour (yes, 3 hour!!) nap this afternoon!  She was a sleepy girl.

With love from Minnesota,
Jason, Melissa, and Emma