A picture to change it up

So you don't have to look at my beauty's poop when you stop by.

The up the back poop...

One day she'll hate me for this, but I have now officially earned the rite of passage that this poop brought on. That is my poor mother holding her up while I get a picture. She was gagging and laughing as was I. I cleaned it though!

Dear Mom

Dear Mom,

Thank you for...

• Your wisdom, grace, and never give up attitude.



• Never giving up on me, especially when I gave up on myself.



• Our almost nightly chats over the phone in college.



• Never letting me get a perm.



• Teaching me to say yes ma'am and yes sir and please and thank you.



• Finding the silver lining amidst the thunder clouds.



• Praying for me to find Mr. Right. You and God did so well on that one!



• Teaching and showing me how to pray and give thanks.



• Teaching me how to cook and craft.



• Holding my hand and saying "they're just jealous," when we both knew they weren't.



• Telling me stories about the good old days and singing me songs while rocking me in your rocking chair.


• Letting me learn to take care of a pet.



• Teaching me the value of a dollar. Showing me how to make something out of nothing and teaching me the very important life long lesson that just because you have it, doesn't mean you should spend it.



• Reading with me every night. No matter how tired you were you made time for me and I thank you for that.



• Showing me that it is entirely possible to be a mother who works--and be damn good at both.



• Working four jobs at a time to send me to private school because you knew that the school I would have gone to would have been sub par.

• Loving Tony as your own and constantly telling me how happy you are that we're together.

• Showing me by example that being a mom is the single most important thing I will ever do.

I could not ask for a better mom.

Totally getting into this...

Last night I started reading those cookbooks and I'm hooked and ready to start planning out my shopping lists. No Emmy won't be starting solids for over a month, but I can't help but plan/pay ahead for things like this:

Picked these up today...

I cannot tell you how excited I am to make my own baby food for Emmy. I love to cook and I love the idea of being able to introduce Emmy to all types of healthy homemade food. I am so ready to tear into these books!

4 Months

Our sweet little Emmy is 4 months old. Wow a 1/3 of a year gone by already. It seems like yesterday that I was meeting her but the first few weeks with her seem like an eternity ago. I guess that's because she's grown so much since then. They say that at 3 months you hit your stride and things chug along and they're right! We still don't have a hard schedule down (who does really?) but things are a little more predictable.

This month Emmy found her feet! It's so cute to watch her curl those bad boys up to her mouth. She tires herself out doing crunches to get to them. She is full on grabbing things. You hold any toy large or small or her Elmo out in front of her and she will grab it and it instantly goes in her mouth. She's grabbing at Einstein as he comes close to her and he doesn't quite know how to handle it.

She's slept through the night a few times this month but not consistently and that's ok. It's just nice to know that she has it in her! Those nights she's slept from 8pm-4am and after eating usually goes to sleep for another hour and a half or so. Our bodies don't quite know how to handle that when she does it-which may be why she won't let it become a habit! She's starting to self soothe herself at night now when she wakes up throughout the night and usually talks herself back to sleep (thank goodness!). Bedtime is usually 7:30-8pm. She's an early morning riser anywhere between 5:45-7am but then wants another nap around 8am. We're trying to mold her to sleep in longer, but you just do what she wants and that's pretty much all you can do! We walk around her like zombies on the weekends before that 8am nap!

This girl is a talker! She wakes us up most mornings just babbling away in her crib. After 30 minutes to an hour or so we realize she just isn't going back to sleep (her talking takes on more of an attitude) we go in there and find her grabbing her feet and just talking to the ceiling with a big ol smile on her face. It is just the sweetest thing! At her 4 month check up today the nurse was asking if she was starting to coo yet. We laughed and said yes and then Emmy went on to talk up a storm for the 15 minutes we were in there waiting for the doctor...and then talked throughout the doctor's visit and checkup. She also grabbed her stethoscope several times to where the doctor had to actually grab it back from her.

We've rolled over from tummy to back and she's working on rolling over from back to tummy. She's sitting up in the tripod stance for a good while with assistance.

This little girl has grown from 7lbs 11oz and 21 1/2 inches long to 15lbs 6oz and 24 3/4 inches long. We've had lots of growth spurts to fuel that growing! No teeth yet and that's ok with me! At times we think she may be teething but so far no go. She eats 6 oz every 3 hours during the day and then usually once at night. She'll go a good 6-8 hours at night and that's so nice! :)

She is our world now. I can remember my life before her-the napping, the freedom, the ability to be selfish, but I can 100% say that I wouldn't trade this for that life at all. I love her laugh, her gummy bear smile, and the way she falls asleep on me when I rock her. We dance around and sing funny rhymes just to make her laugh. She notices us from across the room now and instantly breaks out in smiles when we go to pick her up in the afternoon.

The love we feel for her is so overwhelming that a lot of times we tear up when talking about her after she goes to sleep at night. She's made our hearts deeper and I fully understand love now.

We are so thankful for you Emmy!