Spring Break in Los Angeles

Dan had two weeks off for spring break, but since my department was busy, I worked extra days while he stayed home with Emma.  We've normally taken a vacation during spring break time, so it was disappointing that I wasn't able to get time off this year.  Things did eventually slow down at work, so we were able to get away for a long weekend in Los Angeles right before Dan went back to work.  There's a lot to do in L.A. and the drive is only about 3 hours, which is especially nice when you're on your way home afterwards!

 

Emma had a doctor's appointment scheduled that Friday morning for a scan of her bladder and kidneys.  They inserted a catheter (which isn't the worst thing she's been through), but she had to lay still on her back for about 15 minutes during the scan (which IS the worst thing!).  That meant that Dan and a nurse had to hold her down the whole time.  It made her so mad, it sounded like they were torturing her the entire time.  I felt so sorry for poor Dan - ha!   

 

So we stopped at a Long Island pizza place for lunch and got him some New York-style comfort food afterwards. 

 

Great pizza and a huge map of Long Island. Double win!

One of us was excited about stopping for ice cream afterwards. Heh!

 

Once we got to L.A. our plan was to hike to the Hollywood sign, but apparently the (very wealthy) neighboring residents have been complaining about the hikers and are trying to close down all the trails to the sign.  They had a police officer turning cars around, so instead we drove to the Griffith Park Observatory.

From the Observatory, there were great views of downtown L.A.

And the inaccessible Hollywood Sign (on the hill in the background)

Inside were lots of great exhibits

Most of them moved and lit up, which fascinated Emma.

Our hotel provided a crib for her. Since the bars were shorter and closer together than our crib's at home, she was easily able to pull up and cruise around the crib.

She was so proud of herself and spent 30 minutes at a time playing in her bed!

We spent the next day at Universal Studios Hollywood. When we paid for the day we got free admission for the rest of 2014, so I'm sure we'll be back later this year!

Emma enjoying the Studio Tour tram ride.  There was one particularly scary part where they drove us into a pitch black studio building and played an intense King Kong-themed IMAX movie. She just sat there with eyes and mouth wide open, and then acted like it was no big deal when it was over. 

When Dan and I wanted to ride something, we took turns watching Emma and riding the ride. It took more time, but we got to ride everything we wanted to. They have an awesome new Transformers ride that we each rode twice.  In the meantime, Emma discovered that when she was unbuckled, she could turn around in the seat to play with the straps and pull up to play peek-a-boo out the back.  She spent about 45 happy minutes playing this way. 

Our last day of vacation, we spent a couple of hours in Santa Monica before heading home.

Emma loved how the sunlight sparkled on the ocean waves!

At the famous Santa Monica Pier.

 

We had a great time during our spontaneous getaway weekend! 

Eleven Months!

Wow, it's hard to believe that this is the last month before Emma turns one year old! We can't wait to celebrate her first birthday with our family and friends!

A couple of weeks this month were pretty tough for our family.  My Uncle David passed away unexpectedly, and we flew to Texas to attend his memorial service.  It was wonderful to see so many of our relatives there, although the circumstances were sad.  We will miss him terribly, yet we are joyful to know that he trusted in Jesus for his salvation and is rejoicing in heaven!  After that exhausting weekend of travel, we were looking forward to relaxing the following weekend.  Unfortunately, Emma caught Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease and was miserable the next weekend with a fever and painful sores in her mouth.  I had never heard of HF&M before she caught it - it's not serious, but it's a highly contagious virus that there is no medical treatment for, kind of like the common cold.  We gave her Infant Tylenol for her fever and the pain, and then quarantined ourselves from other kids and waited for it to run its course.  She felt pretty bad for two days then seemed to improve steadily.  We got up with her at night when she woke up crying to give her Tylenol and soothe her back to sleep - then had to go back to sleep training boot camp to help her adjust to sleeping through the night again.  All in all, it was a tiring and emotional two weeks for all of us.

Of course we've had good times this month, too.  We loved getting to spend some unexpected time with my family in Texas! Since Emma was the only small baby at the funeral, she made quite a hit and was spoiled with lots of attention.  Right after she got over HF&M, we attended Emma's best friend, Ellie's, first birthday party.  They are only 5 weeks apart in age, so Ellie gives us a good preview of what's around the corner for Emma.  Sue and her daughters Jackie and Stacy (Ellie's mom) took the girls to the zoo for the first time this month.  And Dan, Emma, and I attended the Christian Youth Theater's production of "Shrek, The Musical" which some of Dan's students performed in.  It was really well-done!

Emma has gotten more spunky in the past couple of months! Here are a few facts about her at 11 months old:

• She has FIVE teeth now! Two on top and three on the bottom, and she has learned how to use them. She tries to take a bite out of almost everything she can get her hands on.  We've had to stop giving her things to play with in her car seat that are even remotely edible. 
• It feels sort of like having a puppy, since she follows us from room to room, stopping to eat small objects off the floor along the way. She also carries toys in her mouth while she crawls, which is really funny.
• She is suddenly averse to having her diaper changed, which makes the event more exciting than we'd like it to be. It starts out playful, but almost always ends up with sweat (us) and tears (her) when we resort to pinning her down so we can change her. I'm pretty sure this is a prime example of us not setting appropriate boundaries, but it just started a couple of weeks ago, so we haven't come up with a game plan yet. 
• Her diapers have been leaking recently. It could be that she's outgrown them. It's more likely that they are always askew and can't offer full protection since we have exactly six seconds to change her one-handed while she angrily performs a scissors hold on our forearm.
• She's close to shaking off her second nap of the day.  She'll still take a long (1.5 - 2 hour) nap in the late morning, and then she'll often catch an afternoon cat nap in the car while we're running errands. But if we try to put her down for an afternoon nap in her crib, it usually doesn't happen.
• She is having a blast with crawling! Her very favorite thing is exploring the entire house. She never, ever crawls into her own room, though, because that's where naps and diaper changes happen. She doesn't want to give us any ideas. 
• Some of the fun things she's discovered are the pots and pans in the kitchen, the legs of the kitchen table and chairs, and our bookshelves, which clearly need to be emptied on a regular basis. She hasn't gotten into too much danger yet, although we occasionally have to pull an appliance cord out of her mouth and watch her carefully when we let her play on the bed since she has no appreciation for the morale of the "Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed" story. Dan's barely caught her a couple of times by one foot after she dove headfirst off the side!
• Sleep has been hit-or-miss since she got sick.  She usually still sleeps through the night, but we have had rough nights/early mornings. That's when our video monitor is priceless, because I can see what she's doing and reassure myself that she's okay if we decide to wait it out and let her get back to sleep on her own.
• When she was sick and wanted us to get her out of bed in the middle of the night, she'd scream at the top of her lungs. She hasn't been a screamer, well, ever. So the first night we went racing into her room, ready to slay a ferocious beast.  That worked well for her, and she expected her screams to result in prompt service every night going forward.  But we put our foot (feet) down on that behavior quickly and it hasn't become the norm so far. 
• She understands and responds appropriately to several phrases: "Hi" and "Bye Bye" (she'll wave and sometimes say "bah bah"), "Outside" (points to the door), "Yay!" and "Pat-a-Cake" (claps her hands), "Brush" (we use this for both her toothbrush and her hair brush, so she sometimes brushes her hair with her toothbrush), "More" (it looks like clapping instead of the sign for "more," but we get it), "You do it!" (when we want her to hold her own bottle/spoon/book), "Up?" (she flaps her arms like a bird when she wants us to pick her up)
• She loves books and photographs. She could look at the photos around our house all day long.
• Since she and Dan get home earlier from work than I do, they've started taking walks around the neighborhood. They've met more neighbors (and their dogs) in the past few weeks than Dan and I have in the last 8 years we've been living here!

Here are some pictures from this month.

My Uncle David, whose life we celebrated at his memorial service

The Campbell Family - my dad's side of the family. 

Emma and my mom, looking pretty. I see a lot of my mom's features in Emma.

She is checking out Uncle Paul's teeth. She went through a phase where she wanted to put her hands in peoples' mouths and touch their teeth. Now she has her own teeth to play with.

It was great to spend time with my family that weekend!

One of the main symptoms of Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease is that babies develop blisters around their mouth, hands, and feet. You can see the faint red marks from the blister under her mouth and on her nostril.

My parents had a couple of mirrors sitting on the floor at their house, and Emma LOVED playing in front of them! So when we got home, Dan took a full-length mirror and hung it at her level in our dining room.  Such a fun and inexpensive source of entertainment!

She loves pointing out everyone on the canvas portrait my parents bought us for Christmas (and the other pictures around the house).

We went to Anaheim one afternoon and stopped by Hockey Giant, which is like Dan's candy shop.  Emma got a kick out of all the hockey gear, too.

Emma and I shopped at Downtown Disney while Dan went to a competition to support his students at the Anaheim Convention Center.

She isn't pulling up or walking yet, but she can stand steadily when she's propped!

She doesn't quite get the concept of Ellie's walker, though. 

Emma helped test out Ellie's new toys at her birthday party. That's what friends are for!

We all jumped around Ellie's birthday bounce house

Emma picks Ellie as her very best friend. Heh!

The girls got to visit the San Diego Zoo for the first time

Back at home, there were more adventures to be had under the kitchen table

"How do you feel?" Oscar asks. "Hungry," replies Emma.

She will eat books, paper, leaves, and unidentified objects on the floor, but she is still a solid food Nazi most of the time.

The only way to see all five of those pearly whites is to tickle her. It's a tough job, but Dan was up for the challenge!

Dan and Emma are enjoying the extra hour of daylight so they can make friends around the neighborhood after work

This little 11 month old brings so much fun and joy to our lives!

Ten Months!

Our month has been highlighted with special time with good friends. Our friends from Colorado, Molly and Jeremy, visited San Diego with their youngest son, Luke, for a conference.  They stayed at a hotel just a few miles from our house so we had them over for dinner one night and Emma and I met Molly and Luke for a walk on the beach the next morning.  It was a quick visit, but wonderful to see them so soon after we visited them in Colorado for Thanksgiving! 

Dan plays roller hockey every Wednesday night and when his game time is in the early evening, Emma and I will go cheer him on.  A friend from church, Filipe, plays on Dan’s team, so we get to watch the game with his wife, Jerrica, and their sons, Trevor and Zack.  Once a month, our church has a mom + kids get-together, and Emma and I got to attend for the first time on Valentine's Day.  We had a blast!

On a sadder note, one of Dan’s former students passed away after being in a serious car accident. He was 21 years old and training to join the Navy Seals, but Dan knew him best when he taught his 8th grade class eight years ago. We attended the funeral, where Dan reconnected with many from his 8th grade class from that year, as well as former co-workers, students, and families he hadn’t seen in years.

We spent our gift cards and money from Christmas and my birthday to buy a video baby monitor, and it was the best possible gift!  Emma used to fall asleep in our arms during her last bottle feeding and would stay asleep when we put her in the crib. But lately she wakes up when we lay her down and we have to let her cry for a bit and soothe herself to sleep.  She's fine, but it’s nice to be able to keep an eye on her for my own peace of mind.  If we hear her in the early hours of the morning, I can tell at a glance if she’s really awake or just resettling, so I don’t go in her room if there’s a chance she’ll go back to sleep.  If this monitor lasts a while, it’ll be priceless when she’s a toddler and gets out of bed when she’s not supposed to!

This month, Emma made giant leaps in development! Within a few week's time, she had mastered several new skills.  Here are some fun facts about her at 10 months old:

• The biggest news is that she’s crawling!  Last month, she would lunge for objects and get stuck on her belly, which she didn’t like at all. But once she discovered how to push herself from her stomach back into a sitting position, she felt much more comfortable about attempting to crawl.  She watched her best friend, Ellie, crawl and pull up every day she was at Sue’s house. Once she had the general idea, it only took a few days for her to take off! She is having so much fun exploring the house and drawing our attention to all the baby hazards and dirty spots. :)
• A couple of days before she got the hang of crawling, she learned how to scoot around on her bottom.  She still does it sometimes when crawling seems like too much effort, and it's really funny.  She'll either bounce on her bottom, inching her way toward the thing she wants, or she'll extend her legs, get a grip on the floor with her feet, and bend her knees to drag her body along while sitting upright.
• This month, she's been sleeping through the night every night from about 8 pm to 6 am!  Hallelujah!  There was only one night when she was awake with teething pain for two hours, and after trying unsuccessfully to soothe her, we gave her some Infant Tylenol which put her right to sleep again. 
• Sure enough, the next morning we noticed a brand new bottom tooth! It was her third tooth on the bottom. About a week later, I was changing her diaper and was stunned to get a glimpse of her first top tooth that snuck up on us! We're thankful that teething isn't always painful for her.
• She's slowly becoming more receptive to eating solid food.  I think her appetite has increased since she started crawling. We bought some baby food "pouches" that have a straw-like opening that she can eat directly out of. I've sampled each flavor we've given her, and they are all really tasty! They're supposed to have 1-2 servings per pouch, but it still takes her 3-4 days to finish one off. We'll alternate between feeding her directly from the pouch and with a spoon to keep her interested long enough to take a few extra bites.  
• She learned to clap a couple of weeks ago, too. Since we say "Yaaaay!" when we clap for her, she almost always says "Ahhhh!" while she's clapping. It's super cute. :) 
• We went ahead and lowered her crib as a precaution since she's determined to pull up.  She's hardly ever successful at this point, but she makes several attempts each day.  

Here are some pictures from the past month:

Our friends from Colorado, Jeremy, Molly, and their baby boy, Luke.

The girls

We babysat our good friends' daughter, Olivia, one evening and took the girls to play at our neighborhood park.

Dan and Olivia read books while Emma chewed on hers

Dan's former CCA students reunited at his former student's funeral

Emma playing with some of the girls at our church's mom & kid get-together. There were about a dozen kids there, so she had a blast and was ready for nap time afterwards!

Me and my little sweetheart on Valentine's Day

Emma and Dan exchanged Valentines. 

Her first Valentine's Day card :)

This is my view on our new monitor first thing in the morning. If she's sitting up, it's time to get her out of the crib.

Dan's school assistant, Marianna, went to lunch with us one day and I got a picture of her feeding Emma from a baby food pouch.

Mmmm! Delicious! 

I helped her pull up to look out the window, but as often as she's practicing, it won't be long before she's doing it on her own.

Her babysitter, Sue, bought her a walker. So far she can only go backwards in it, but she enjoys playing in it.

One of her new "tricks" - clapping and saying "ahhhhh!"

She still loves reading all her books

She gets really excited every time we go in the kitchen because she gets to say hi to the kids on our friends' Christmas cards. They might stay on the fridge all year because she gets such a kick out of seeing them.

A little preview of Emma and her best friend, Ellie, in their teenage years!

 Sue has two dogs, and Emma LOVES them! When we take her on walks, the highlight is seeing dogs out for a walk in the neighborhood.

She's been riding normally in the stroller more often (instead of in her car seat on top of the stroller). It's much lighter to push when I'm running and she can see the neighborhood dogs better this way. It's a win-win.

We both love picking Dan up for lunch at least once a week

Since she's learned to crawl, she's discovered that our house is full of fascinating treasures. Like tennis shoes.

 And piles of magazines that clearly need to be organized, Emma-style.

She's also learning some of the hazards, like banging her head on table edges and getting stuck between the couches because her diaper butt is too big to fit through.

She still doesn't have much hair, but it's thickening fast enough that we may not get to see that pretty swirl on the back of her head for too much longer.

She's officially outgrown her diaper changing pad, since she was consistently trying to roll off it during diaper changes. We decided it's flirting with disaster to have one hand holding a dirty diaper, leaving one free hand to save the naked baby from plummeting to the floor. So now we change her on a broader surface like the bed or floor, just in case she rolls. This picture was the last time Dan changed her on the pad, only because she was fascinated enough with her balloon that she laid still. 

Our little girl is growing up way too fast! We're in awe of how quickly she changes in one month's time, but we're enjoying each stage as it comes.