Labor Day reflections

Every time I look at this picture I'm reminded that I'm the luckiest guy on the face of this earth.  Emma is the sweetest baby and sometimes it takes me by surprise when I realize how much joy she brings into our lives.  She pretty much melts my heart on a daily basis and has daddy completely wrapped around her tiny little finger. 


Emma's birth announcement.


So, this past weekend we went back to Iowa for a wedding. Melissa's second cousin Liz (Hoy) Pekarek, who also happened to be the bride, told me how she is an avid reader of this blog and has been checking almost daily for new posts.  Well, anyone who would rather read my ramblings than plan their own wedding is a blog VIP in my book so, Liz, this one is for you!  Despite the apparent distractions, their wedding was beautiful and brought back some fond memories.  The reception was at the Pipac Center in Cedar Falls, which was the same place Melissa and I partied after our wedding.  Some of you who were there probably remember what a beautiful venue it is, and I'm guessing some of you who were there don't remember much from that night ;)  We stayed in Reinbeck for the weekend which afforded another opportunity for Grandma and Grandpa Stull to enjoy Emma (read: spoil her rotten with love and affection).  CAM (Crazy Aunt Megan), Uncle Kevin and cousin Ella were also in attendance.  Ella made Emma the sweetest book out of colored paper bags.  She's a crafty one! 

Grandma Roz doing a puppet show for Emma.  Ella would later get in on the fun.

A couple of weeks ago my mom came to visit and brought her mother with.  My Grandma Marge, who goes by GG rather than Great Grandma (she doesn't want to be reminded that she is old enough to be a great grandmother), got to meet Emma for the first time.  They were pals from the get go.  Emma snuggled right in and according to GG, "she's a keeper."  It was great having them up for a few days during the week while Melissa was still home.  They were able to watch Emma while Melissa got out and ran some errands.  They also watched her for an evening while Melissa and I went for a dinner date. 

GG and Emma

Emma also made a couple of other new friends this past week.  The Birkenholz's, Matt, Kelly, and their 4 month old Kya stopped by for a quick visit.  Melissa and I graduated from Luther College with Matt and Kelly.  Their daughter, Kya, is A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E!!  She has the cutest baby big blue eyes I've seen in a long time.  Matt and I reconnected in the cities a couple years ago as golfing buddies and we both look forward to raising our daughters out on the course. 


Matt and Kelly with Emma



Emma's newest playmate, Kya Birkenholz

Emma isn't quite ready for golf yet (although our neighbor Pat, who is a professional caddie has suggested that I need to get a club in her hands so she can start working on her grip) but she has been working on her hand eye coordination and is finding her voice.  Here is a picture and a couple videos of her working on her new skills.  Its so much fun to watch her learn and develop.  I'm amazed at her weekly, and seemly daily, progress. 


Just today Emma started grabbing this toy that was sitting beside her.  She has to concentrate so hard to open her hand and reach out to grab it.  Its so fun to watch her process everything - she is already a very determined little girl!



Be sure to have your volume turned on to hear Emma talk :)



And finally; FINALLY the nursery is beginning see its finishing touches.  The curtains that Melissa ordered 8 weeks before Emma was born have been completed.  After 3 months and many frustrated phone calls with a local boutique baby shop in town who we had ordered them through, we finally canceled our order and bought the fabric online.  We then handed it over to Melissa's grandma who went to work and had them ready within a couple weeks.  They have been hung and look great!  It is amazing how much the curtains transform the room and make it feel cozy and warm.  We also framed a couple of pictures from Emma's newborn photo session and hung them above her changing table.  The last piece of the nursery puzzle rests in the hands of my wood working father.  He is working on making an E, two Ms and an A that will hang above Emma's crib.  Once we get those I think we'll finally have things the way we want.

I hope everyone had a wonderful long Labor Day weekend.  As always, I'll leave you with some random cute photos of our Emma-Bee :)

  





Ever studious, Emma is hard at work learning about The Very Hungry Caterpillar



In the Bronze glove outside Target Field at Emma's second Twin's game.







With love,

Jason, Melissa, and Emma

So much to say

My very talented cousin, Katie Nelson, made this.

This post is long overdue.  I've had so many ideas swimming in my head for my next update but I haven't had the time to sit and write.  Currently, my mom and grandma are here lending a hand so I've got a free minute.  I had planned on 4 seperate posts but I think I'll just break this up into 4 segments.  We are going to talk about Emma's poo problems or as we like to call them, "pooblems" (turns out it's even funnier to look at in print than it is to say :), her trip to New Hampton to meet the Burgarts, her 2 month check up, and her first Twins game! 

1) Pooblems: Melissa did a great job in the last post outlining all the wonderful things we love about Emma.  But, like all parents, there are also a lot of things that scare the crap out of us.  I think I'd mentioned previously that when Emma was about 3 weeks old, we noticed a little bit of blood in her stool.  This happened in 2 or 3 of her poopy diapers over the course of a day or two so we took her to the pediatrician and were informed that Emma likely has a dairy allergy.  Apparently some babies have a difficult time breaking down lactose, the protein in dairy, which then irritates their stomach and bowel lining thus causing a trace amount of blood in her stool.  Because Melissa is nursing, the fix is for Melissa to cut dairy out of her diet.  That means, amoung many things, no ice cream!!!!  Melissa did a great job reading labels and making sacrifices and Emma seemed to be doing better until her second trip to Okoboji.  After a feeding on a Saturday morning, Emma spit up, which in itself is unlike Emma, but what was more unusual and alarming was that there was a significant amount of blood in the spit up.  As she was being packed up for a trip to the hospital she did it again which got people moving a little faster.  The trip to the ER was fairly uneventful with the exception of a blood draw - they stick her little heel and squeeze it until they get enough blood - which nearly broke mommy and daddy's hearts.  Her blood results came back normal and it was suggested that perhaps the allergy had flared up and that we should switch to formula for a couple days until we could see our pediatrician back in Minneapolis.  Reluctantly we did as instructed until we started to notice more blood in her stools; so it was back to nursing.  We were referred by our pediatrician to see a pediatric GI and nutrition specialist which brought good news and some not so good news.  The good news is that the irritation to her bowel and tummy from the allergy will not cause any long term damage.  The not so good news is that he informed us that 40% of babies with a dairy allergy also have an allergy to soy.  UGH!  That means a closer look at labels.  It's amazing how much stuff has soy in it.  Currently it is more of an inconvienience than anything else.  The bottom line is that Emma is thriving and is a happy, healthy baby gaining plenty of weight and growing like a weed.  If it weren't for this I would be much more concerned about this allergy business.  I, however, can eat ice cream.  So, like Melissa pointed out, there are so many things to love about Emma and so many things that terrify us.  I think all parents have felt that helpless feeling where you just want to crawl out of your skin to make sure and KNOW that they are going to be okay.  It's not fun but I guess it is part of the territory.  I am happy to report that it has been 2 weeks now and we haven't had any more pooblems :)

I figured cute pictures of Emma would be more appreciated than the pictures of poopy diapers I have stored on my phone for the pediatrician.

                           

 2) Two Month Check-up: Might as well stick with the medical stuff for the next subject.  Emma had her 2 month check up on Aug. 16th and we were told that she is doing great.  She weighed in at 12lb 2 oz with a length of 23.5 inches, and a HUGE head!  All of these measurements were in the 90th percentile for babies her age.  At 2 months, she has outgrown all of her newborn and 0-3 month clothes because she has gotten too long for them.  We might have had to make the switch anyway because most of the 3-6 month clothes have an extra button or snap to allow then to go over her head.  It was getting pretty tough to get those newborn onsies over her monster mellon :)  Bottom line, Emma is happy and healthy.

3) Burgart Frenzy:  Emma got a special treat a couple weekends ago and met her Burgart kin.  The purpose of the gathering was two-fold:  my Grandmother Francella Burgart's 80th birthday and a baby shower for Emma.  The Burgart clan is your typical Catholic Farm family - my dad has 5 brothers and sisters who gave me 14 cousins to play with growing up.  Needless to say, our gatherings are always a little crazy but always a lot of fun.  The party was a success, everyone loved Emma and Emma loved everyone.  The highlight was having her meet her Great Gandpa Vincent and Great Grandma Francella.  She also met her uncle Justin and her uncle and aunt Jon and Amy and their daughters - Emma's cousins - Aubrey and Annabelle. She also met all of her great aunts and uncles, most of her second cousins, and even some cousins once removed. There is no doubt Emma is blessed with lots of family who love her.  Here are some photos of the big event! 



From left to right: Uncle Justin, Dad, Mom, Emma, Grandpa Jim, Grandma Becky, Cousin Aubrey, Uncle Jon, Aunt Amy, and Cousin Annie (who is apparently not paying attention to the camera)




Great Grandpa Vincent (a.k.a. Timmy) - he's 90 years old in this photo



My cousins and their kids. Michael and Alyssa with Matilda on the far left and Phillip and Jana with Sam next to us.

Emma's cousins Annabelle and Aubrey.  Grandpa's a lucky guy :)

Uncle Jon and Emma bean.

 On the left are my cousins Amber and Katie and on the right is my cousin Jennifer.

4) Twins Game: On August 20th, Emma made it to her first ever Twins game :)  Not only did she get to see her first Twins game, but she is their good luck charm and got to see her first Twins win!!  To make it sweeter, the win came against the hated Yankees.  In attendance for the game were Aunt Megan, Kyle Orris (a Luther College friend), Melissa and I, and her Great Uncle Larry.  Emma did pretty well - she mostly slept, but woke up a couple times when it got noisy.  I think if you were to ask Emma, she would tell you she had a great time and Go Twins! 

Well, that's probably enough for now.  One last thing I'd like share - it's pretty much the best part of my day.  In the mornings when Emma wakes up I usually go get her out of her swaddle while Melissa gathers her things to nurse her.  Lately, since she has started smiling, as soon as I peak over her crib she looks at me with her big doey eyes and gives me the biggest heart melting smile.  Then she goes into an olympic caliber stretching routine.  Here is a little video I shot the other day.  Enjoy!

With love from Minneapolis,
Jason, Melissa, and Emma

Photo Shoot

Jason previously posted the link to Emma's newborn photos (http://jentaylorphotography.myshowit.com/emmaruth/index.html), but I wanted to include a few of our favorites here:

So Many Things to Love

While Jason normally handles keeping you all up to date on our goings-on, I decided it was time I try my hand at the blogging world; I was inspired one night/morning this week while feeding Emma to record some of the many Emma-isms that just melt my heart. We love millions of things about this little girl, including the following:

Snuggles. Emma is a world class snuggler. She has this move where she wiggles and squirms right up to the crook of your neck, nuzzles in, and then wraps her arms around you. Heaven.

Stretches. Since the day Emma was born, she has been an epic stretcher. When we lift her out of her crib, after she eats, or after a trip in her car seat, she tips her head back, turns it from side to side, scrunches her legs up, and stretches her arms above her head until she is good and stretched out. It is one of the most adorable things I have ever seen.

Smiles. I am completely taken every time my daughter looks up and me and smiles. Need I say more?

Noises (squeeks, grunts, coos, etc.). Jason has blogged about this already, but it bears repeating—Emma’s noises are precious. She is starting to find her voice even more, and her coos and calls are becoming more expressive every day. 

Poops. I know, I know, how can a child’s pooping habits be blog-worthy? I am afraid talking about bowel movements is the true sign of parenthood. But Emma makes even this bodily function cute. First of all, it is not graceful, ladylike, or quiet. Emma grunts, turns red, and stretches out her legs until she is done. And then, she goes straight to the poop coma—dazed look, limp arms, and round mouth.

Hand Holding.  Emma has quite a grip, and often will hold my hand or finger when I’m feeding her. i need to capture this on camera, but here is a picture of her grip on my t-shirt.

And finally, here are a couple more adorable pictures of our sweet Emma.

Smiles!

Well...a smile :)  This is the first and to this point only photographic evidence we have of her smiles.  It was taken with my iPhone and in dark lighting so its not the greatest picture but it still melts my heart!  Her smiles are pretty tough to catch on camera but she has been flashing them more and more lately.  Still a bit uncoordinated but cute and fun none the less.  She has also been cooing a bit.  What a joy it is to hear baby sounds come out that aren't cries or grunts :)  When and where they happen are always a surprise...I think even to Emma!  Often she will have a very startled look on her face after a little "goo" or "ga" as if to say, "where did that come from?"

Long before the conception of our child, Melissa and I always joked that if we were to ever have an Olympian in our family he or she would have to be a curler.  This is one of the reasons we decided to live in Minnesota.  Well, it's no joke anymore and we have already started her on her own baby Olympic training program.  Here are a couple videos of Emma's training sessions.  In the first she is working on a little hand eye coordination to be able to work her broom or throw the rock (I'm sure it has a more official name than "rock").  In the second she is getting an early start on her jogging for conditioning. 

And what would a blog post be without the obligatory cute pictures.  A week ago it was hard to believe that she could get any cuter, but here is evidence that it has happened.

She usually starts by sleeping on your chest and wiggles her way down here.

 

What.


With love,
Jason, Melissa, and Emma