Solid foods and more!

I know you're all dying for a "what's Emmy up to" report, so, here goes...

Emmy started eating solid foods last week! So far she's had brown rice, oatmeal, sweet potatoes, peas, applesauce, avocados, bananas, and green beans. For those of you secretly judging that she's had so many foods in one week, I know the standard recommendation is to wait 3-4 days in between each food, but I've been reading a book that suggests it doesn't really aid as much in detecting allergies as previously thought(plus their are no food allergies in our immediate family). The book also suggests that in fact babies learn to like a wider variety of foods if you give them new flavors in rapid succession, so she's been having a new food almost every day. We've got more veggies to try in the coming days, then we'll add more fruits. I want her to be a good, healthy eater so we're trying to give her a good start and make sure we're practicing better habits in front of her, too.

She's not entirely in love with anything yet, but she's getting used to it! She hasn't flat out refused to eat at least a little of each thing. Plus, it can take introducing a new food up to seven times before a child learns to like it, so we'll just keep trying them again and again! I don't think she enjoys the texture of the rice or oatmeal very much. So far I've made everything by mashing it up with a fork or pulsing it in a food processor. This should help her get used to the textures of the foods better, too. I think she's liked the bananas best so far, which is par for the course since her daddy eats a lot of bananas.

Oh, she did love the teething biscuit that Lizzie made for her, so I'll be getting that recipe soon, thanks, Lizzie!

Aside from new foods, she is of course continuing to sit up on her own all the time now. She can play for extended periods of time and it's so much fun to watch her play with her toys. She can push buttons on her musical toys and she can throw her blocks and rings anything else within reach. Well, it's more like she pitches them aside when she's done with them.

Emmy is very observant and she's always looking for the next thing she can shove in her mouth. It's hilarious to watch her inspect something, usually "taste" it, sling it around back and forth, then deliberately toss it aside. Don't worry, it's usually a toy, a piece of paper, a spoon or something else safe for her to be playing with. She's particularly interested in the remote control and the computer, but it's not so easy to let her chew on those. Above she is enjoying some tissue paper from a gift Jason and Jocelyn gave us when they came for a visit.

She is sitting up in her bathtub now for bath time, so it'll soon be time to make the transition to the big bathtub. Charles' and my knees just haven't been quite ready for that yet. We just got some new bath toys and a couple other "essentials" to make bath time safer and easier, so we'll probably make the switch this week.

She has been babbling more constant sounds the last couple of weeks. Da-da-da-da is her favorite phrase. We know she's not actually referring to Charles, but it is fun to hear her say. She also says Ba-ba-ba-ba and I'm working on Mama with her...haha. She still babbles, "sings" and squeals a lot like she has been doing for a while and that's still the majority of the "talking" she does. She loves music and she'll "sing" along sometimes, and she "talks" to her toys and to us or just to talk in general. Not surprisingly as my child, she's very verbal.

Ever since we traveled over the holidays her sleeping schedule has been a complete mystery. For most of November and December she was going down sometime around 6:30 or 7:00 p.m., waking up between 4 and 4:30 a.m. to eat, and going back to sleep until 7:15 or 7:30. If only I'd been making myself go to bed earlier I'd have gotten more sleep, but really, it was a good, predicable nighttime routine. Then Christmas happened and we started traveling, and since then it's been all mixed up. I'm not entirely sure it's the travel alone, because there are those darn teeth. There are days when she's so grumpy and drooly and I think "oh great, here comes a tooth, finally!" and then the next day, she's back to her usual self and there's no tooth. Argh! We've gone through teething tablets, Tylenol, and Motrin. I don't want to OD on the meds, but I don't want to let her stay in pain if she's really hurting. Oh if only babies could tell us what they want! I think we're going to start working on some signs this week so maybe I can teach her "hurt" so she can tell me herself. I just hope we see a tooth or two soon! And I really hope that sleep becomes at least somewhat predictable again. I've even been trying to go to bed earlier, only to be awakened a short while later. Sigh.

Emmy, I suppose you will get to read this one day and Daddy and I just want you to know how much fun it is to see you learning new things and growing up. I love the way you rub Daddy's stubbly face and you smile a huge smile for him when he walks in the door. I love the way you giggle when we make faces at your or when I cover your face with kisses and tickle your face with my hair. I love that you think it's hysterical if we are willing to make fools of ourselves or practically hyperventilate to make you laugh. I love how you are fascinated with your hands and you inspect them so carefully and watch your fingers wiggle. I love how you squeeze our hands and fingers (or whatever body part you can reach) when you're eating and when you're sleepy. I don't love when that squeezing involves fingers and your baby razor fingernails scratch. (Daddy dreamed he was being scratched to death when you were in bed with us early Sunday morning.) I wouldn't trade any of it for the world, even when you're grouchy and tired and it's 6:00 and I'm ready for a break when Daddy walks in the door. How can I be mad when your Daddy takes you in the living room and I hear you giggling for 10 minutes?

She's a lot of fun these days! Hopefully she'll get to spend sometime with all her "fans" soon.