A Card from a Friend

I received a card from a very good friend a few weeks ago when I was going through a rough patch. I keep it posted at my desk and I read it almost every day.

I believe in you...
in your spirit,
your goodness,
in the way that you face each day
with a commitment
to your life
and the things
that really matter.
I believe in the decisions you make,
in the careful consideration
you give each challenge,
in the perseverance
you've shown
when others might have given up.
I believe that you possess
an extraordinary strength
and endless reserve of resilience-
even more than you realize.
You are a person of enormous courage,
someone truly special
in this world,
a rare and beautiful gift
to all of us...
And I hope you'll never forget
that I believe in you.


Thank you for that card. It is so special to me. I am so thankful to have you (and your Harry Potter wand) in my life.

More Emme Videos

Here are some videos that Kory took of Emily playing in his office:

Daddy - what is wrong with this STUPID door???




Oh...now I got it. What is in here?

Standing Up Video

Here is the video I was talking about - Emily is standing up all by herself for the FIRST time!!!

Double Digits!!

Emily is 10 months old today. Happy October! We can't believe it's almost Halloween already - where did the summer go?
Emme surprised us this weekend by pulling herself up to her knees and then to her feet!!!! I think we will have a walker by Christmas, but we'll see. She is always on the go.

She has been very sick the last week though. We are not sure what she had, but it was no fun for any of us. I missed 3 days of work and she was very sick. We took her to urgent care and to her regular doctor. It was not fun spending 3 hrs at the clinic trying to get a 10 month old to give a urine sample!! Especially one who wasn't peeing because she'd hardly eaten anything in 3 or 4 days. She did finally pee in the bag and they ran some tests, but everything came back fine. Which meant what she had was viral and had to work it's course. When her underarm temp was up to 100.8 on Fri, I was freaking out!!! Finally she woke up Sat morning with a smile - and I was so excited!! I had my baby back - sort of!!!! She is a bit needy right now - so I hope she is good for Chris tomorrow. Seems all she wants is mommy....constantly - and sometimes even mommy can't "fix" it. So I'm not sure if she's still a bit under the weather or if she is just feeling super attached.

We haven't taken any pics since the last time we uploaded, so here is the same link again for her 10 month pics: http://photos.walmart.com/share/p=483201224549798055/l=14955462/g=3242809/cobrandOid=1011/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

We do have a video or two that we want to post, but haven't had time to upload them, so I will try to do that this week sometime.

Happy Halloween!!
Teresa, Kory & Emme

Last Swimming Lesson

Emme had her last swim lesson on October 15th. I am just a little behind in updating it. She got her first "report card" and aced it with flying colors! yay!





Grandma Bonnie came to watch - in her sling and all! Here's a pic of Emme and Grandma before we left for the pool:

Grandma Bonnie had rotator cuff surgery about a month ago. Hurry up and recover Grandma :)

I love being a mommy!

I got to spend the last 5 full days with my daughter and I have to say I really do love being a mommy. I find it completely amazing that you can love this little person with every ounce of your being. Every day is an adventure and she is learning and growing and turning into this beautiful little girl - both inside and out.

I took off Thursday, Friday and Monday to visit with my family down in Illinois. My Grandma (Dad's mom) and my Aunt Carol (Dad's sister) flew in from South Carolina on Thursday and then Cori, Jeff and the girls flew in on Friday. We had such a nice time! On Saturday we celebrated my cousin Jeanna's wedding at a reception (they got married in Jamaica a few weeks ago)which was lots of fun - although a little chilly for the kiddos. Then on Sunday we went to Harms Farm (my aunt and uncle's place) and had lots of fun playing on the pumpkin train ride, the fun house, the petting zoo and even the jump house. Ok - so Emme couldn't do everything - but she got to watch her cousin Mikaiya have a blast!!

Other than that we just hung out with the fam and went to bed early! ha ha Three kids under the age of 3 were EXHAUSTING! But we had lots of fun. Everyone helped out with the kids and made it all seem easy.

Although I woke up this morning and got Emme out of her pack n play and noticed she stunk - but not like poops. It was dark in the basement (our sleeping quarters), so I brought her upstairs and turned the light on and she was covered in vomit. Ugh! I was like OH NO! Of course she was smiley as always, but stinky!!! I guess she must have gotten sick at some time during the night. I am so thankful she didn't choke or anything - although I had the monitor on her but I was still so worried. Today she seems a little cuddly and affectionate, but hasn't gotten sick again.

Here are some fun pics from the weekend:

The girls playing-

Emme, Mikaiya and Braenna - the 3 grandkids-

Aunt Cori playing with Mikaiya and Em-

Great Grandma Harms (Mom's mom) with some of her great grandkids-

Emme all bundled up at the wedding reception-

Great Grandma Walker (Dad's Mom) with Emme-

Aunt Carol (Dad's sister) baking cookies with Mikaiya-

Here is the entire photo link for Emme Month 10 - I will continue to upload this month and post her official 10 month blog closer to her birthday. We just have a lot of pics from this past weekend and I wanted to share them all - http://photos.walmart.com/share/p=483201224549798055/l=14955462/g=3242809/cobrandOid=1011/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

Quick Update

Emily had her swim lessons again last night and I just wanted to update that she went under for the first time! yay! She did awesome. Daddy was there watching her for the first time (he can only stay for about 15 minutes before he has to leave for work) and the swim instructor asks us each week if we are ready - but she totally leaves it up to the parent. So I decided to do it especially so Daddy could see it! So what they have you do is she holds Emme and you stand in front of them. Then you blow in her face and she puts her under and then lets go -- she actually puts her pretty far down and then you take a step back and she actually swam to me!! It was so scary, but fun too. I could see her under the water and she had her eyes wide open and she was just kicking away to get to me. It was so cute. As soon as she came up she grabbed me and just looked at me like "what the hell was that?" ha ha It was funny. She didn't even cough or anything - what a good girl!!!!!

9 Months Old...already!

Here's a video of Em in the bathtub last week. I really think we have a swimmer on our hands!!



We took Em to the Dr today for her 9 month check-up. Can't believe it's been 9 months already. Everything went well - no shots today! yay!! She weighs in at a quite small 17 lbs 8oz (27%). She is 27.5" long (50%) and her head circumference is 45.2 cm (83%). Now - as you can see her head is MUCH larger compared the rest of her body. The Dr said he normally in this case - would say she needs to have more calorie intake - but because of her plagiocephaly (i.e. helmet issues) her head circumference is different than most normal kids. So he's not too worried about her small size. Especially because she seems happy and is sleeping well and meeting all of her development milestones.

She has really started talking like CRAZY in the last 2 weeks. You would not believe how much she has to say. I think she got her mom's gene in that one :) She's so funny. She has this stuffed puppy dog with rabbit ears (it's from Easter!!) and the other morning she was carrying on a VERY serious conversation with the dog and then all of a sudden she stopped and looked at it...and bit it's nose! I never laughed so hard!!!

She has learned how to get from a sit to crawl and just about figuring out how to get from a crawl to a sit. She isn't walking around the furniture quite yet - but is close. She just doesn't know how to pull herself up yet (and I'm quite happy about that!!). So for now - she's still a floor duster.

Here she is eating her veggies:


We have lots of photos this month. She started swim lessons, she went to Texas and did lots of other fun things this month.

Here's the photo link: http://photos.walmart.com/shareethumbnailshare/AlbumID=33039438/albumcount=1/p=395271222520738720/l=14869351/g=3242809/cobrandOid=1011/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB/pns/share/p=395271222520738720/l=14869351/g=3242809/cobrandOid=1011/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB


Hope everyone is doing well!

Swim Lessons

Emily started swimming lessons 2 weeks ago. She goes on Tuesday nights to Prairie Athletic Club. It's so much fun!! She loves the water and is a great little swimmer. If you want to come watch her swim - let me know and we can arrange it.

Auntie Tina came last week - so we got some pictures. Thanks Tina!!!

Baby Derek

Our friends, Scott & Melyssa Schroedl had their baby on Tuesday.

Derek Micheal Scott Schroedl

9/16/08

10 lbs 3 oz 21 inches

What a cutie!

Congrats Melyssa and Scott! Can't wait to meet the little peanut.

Our Trip to Texas

Emme went on her first airplane ride. We left on Sept 10th and came home on Sept 14th. Here we are at the airport in Milwaukee. She was such a good little girl. I'm pretty sure everyone at the gate was thinking "oh no - not a BABY on our flight". But by the time we got off - people were stopping me to say how she was such a good girl and that they didn't even hear her on the flight.

Here she is on the actual plane with Auntie Cece. Thanks for helping us!!! She ate her bottle on the way up, then slept for about an hour and then played the rest of the flight and had her bottle again on the way down.

Here is Mikaiya all ready to swim in Texas. She is so cute!!! She had to wear a hat because cousin Emme had a hat on - too funny!

Here we are getting ready to go to lunch before the Dallas World Aquarium. It was so much fun. The girls loved it. Baby Braenna is behind Mikaiya - so you can't see her - but she came along too!

Mikaiya loved to read to Emme. Em liked to "Eat" the book and Mikaiya would get so frustrated. It was too funny.

The whole reason we went to TX was for Braenna's baptism. She was such a good little girl. Aunt Cece is her godmother and Jeff's brother John is the godfather. It was a great ceremony.

Here is Emily getting ready to grab Braenna's face - which it what she liked to do - so you had to watch her really close. She really liked when Braenna had a bow in her hair. Emme would just rip it right out!!

Here is little Braenna. What a sweetie!

My Cousin Jeanna's Bridal Shower

Just had to post a few pics. This was a few weeks ago - Emme's first bridal shower!!

She loved it. Jeanna looked adorable. Thought I would share with everyone.

Jeanna and Rob are getting married in Jamaica soon! Have fun guys!!

Emily and my truck

I brought my semi home last weekend and took some pictures with Em.

Here she is looking at herself in the center cap of my wheel.



My little peanut fits inside my wheel!




Daddy's first post all by himself :)

8 Months Old

Emily will be 8 months old tomorrow...I can't believe it. She has grown into such a beautiful little girl. She is now 18 lbs, but she still fits in to her 3 - 6 month pants! She has no waist and no butt...it's so cute!!

She's now eating baby food - we've gone through all the 1's and 2's. We even gave her a few pieces of banana this weekend and she seemed to like that. I have this extreme fear of her choking, so I'm a little delayed on giving her people food yet. Every time she has something in her mouth I freak out to make sure she swallows and is still breathing!! I'm hoping it's just new-mommy-syndrome and that it will soon pass. I'm starting to annoy myself!!

Em does seem to like people watching, dog watching, TV watching, etc...more than eating her baby food. I seem to remember being moved to the opposite side of the table as a little girl so that I could no longer look out the window...I think we have another daydreamer on our hands!

You will also see in the pictures that Emme seems to find Daddy's nose quite tasty. We're not sure how that started, but all of sudden she started chewing on the end of his nose. She even chewed on his chin once, but we didn't catch that one in a photo yet. So needless to say - Emme thinks her daddy's nose tastes good - hey whatever keeps her entertained!!

We are getting ready for our big airplane ride trip to Texas. We leave on Sept 10th. Me, Em and Aunt CeCe (Casey for those of you who don't know the auntie lingo). It should be fun - say a few prayers for us that Em behaves herself!! I'm sure she will. Hopefully no large bowel movements while in flight - those airplane bathrooms do not have a fancy diaper changing station!!!

We've had a great summer and really can't believe it's almost labor day weekend already. Thanks to everyone for all your support the last few months. It's meant more than you know. We are on a good track - heading in the right direction with a beautiful daughter. We couldn't ask for more.

Here is her 8 month photo link: http://photos.walmart.com/shareethumbnailshare/AlbumID=32675759/albumcount=1/p=483251219711127206/l=11759430/g=3242809/cobrandOid=1011/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB/pns/share/p=483251219711127206/l=11759430/g=3242809/cobrandOid=1011/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

The bumper of a Peterbilt

Thought we'd post some new pics. Can't believe Emily is going to be 8 months old next week!!

Here she is looking at herself in the bumper of a Peterbilt at the Waupon truck show:


Here she is with Mary, her therapist that she saw each week for her helmet adjustments:

My sleeping angel--check out those long eyelashes:

Emme Crawling

Well I was trying to avoid the issue of my peanut crawling so early, but alas...I can not wait any longer!! I keep calling it the 'army crawl'...but she is crawling!! We've posted a video. It's time to go buy all my house safety gear!!!

Update

I have been meaning to write this week and just haven't had a chance. I wanted to let everyone know that Emily got her helmet off on Monday. We are very excited and quite happy with the results. Her head looks so much better - of course it's not perfect - but we start out in the 'severe' range and are now in the 'normal' range. Mary told us not to really look at her head for about a month because it will change between now and then. We are so happy to snuggle Emme and give her lots of kisses. I even tried putting a barette in her hair, but she doesn't quite have enough hair yet!!!

I dropped Em off at my mom's last night so she could babysit her today while her other grandma is out visiting the kids in Portland. I will head down to my parents tonight to get Miss Em and then we'll head back in the morning. We are taking her to her first truck show up in Waupon tomorrow - so we are all very excited! I will post some pictures this weekend.

New Emme Video

We haven't posted a video in a while and we've heard Emme's cousin Reese LOVES her videos! So this one's for you Reesey!! Miss you buddy.

new teeth

Do you like my new teeth?

Beach Bum

All ready to hit the waves!!!

Yum! I love to drink pool water.

This one is for Grandma Bonnie - she loves me in hats!

Peeky! I see you!

Thanks for letting us come swim Grammy and Grampa! I had a blast.
Love, Emme