August Picture

This is Emmett's August Picture from Studio One.  Since we got his newborn photos done there we subscribe to their website to hold all of our pictures, which gives us a free 8x10 every month.  I didn't get around to picking this one up until Friday.  Out of all the poses this one was just too good to pass up.  A lot of his previous pictures are more posed, but in this photo he was just laughing so big, I love it.  We go tomorrow to get his September photo done.  We are dressing him in Hokie gear and bringing Hokie paraphanalia, so I have a feeling we will end up buying some extra ones.  If you are interested, our website is www.holdmymemories.com/correll

I strive to be worthy

I've been trying to find places to take Emmett where he can play other than at our house.  I can tell when he's starting to get bored because he gets a little fussy for no other apparent reason.  Its still too hot for him to play outside, plus he isn't walking yet so that really limits him as far as outdoor activities are concerned.  I can push him in the stroller, which he enjoys to an extent, but he quickly gets tired of sitting.  This kid is really active.  I took him to the indoor playground at Chick-fil-A today to see if there was anything he could do.  Really there wasn't much, and the floor was made of this rubbery stuff that was actually kinda rough for him to crawl on.  Plus its a small enclosed area and there were a lot of kids running around and screaming.  Poor Emmett gets a little freaked out when other kids are being loud.  Every time one of them would scream he would jump.  So he will need to be a bit older before we can go back there.  I wish we had a Discovery Zone or someplace like that with an area just for babies.  I'm not sure those even exist anymore.  In the mean time I will continue looking for baby-friendly activities around here.

We let Emmett climb the stairs on Monday night.  He went all the way up, one step at a time.  I was in front of him calling him up and Chris was behind him ready to catch him if need be.  He was so proud of himself!  So were we of course.  And I realized after the fact that I should have been taking pictures and video.  I never remember to do that when he does something for the first time.  I will the next time.

Its coming to the point where I am probably going to need to get a part-time job.  I say this every month and then somehow we always end up just barely making it.  If we can just make it until his first birthday, after which he will be gradually weaned from breastfeeding, it will be a lot easier for me to work.  I would love to find something I could do at home on my own time while he's napping and in the evenings, but nothing like that seems to exist.  I don't even need a lot of additional income, just a little bit to give us some wiggle room.  I have received no inquiries about tutoring yet this school year, so that is disappointing.  Maybe after the first report cards go out I will get some business.  I try not to worry about money and just enjoy the time that I have with him now.

On that note, I just love the way Emmett's whole face lights up when I walk into his room in the morning.  The look of love and happiness on his face gets me choaked up every time.  Every day I strive to be worthy of that kind of adoration.

Couch Jumping

This is Emmett's favorite thing to do right now.  He wants to jump on the couch all the time.  He will crawl over to me, pull up on my legs and just whine until I pull him up onto the couch with me.  Yesterday I picked him up off of the couch and he let out an ear piercing scream at the very top of his lungs.  This child knows what he wants.  His toddler years are going to be tough, I can see it already.

Here he is again, grinning like a madman.  And this picture was taken last month.  I always upload photos from the camera to the computer at the end of the month.  Its the only way I can keep them organized.  And I sure am going to miss summer weather where I can throw a onesie on him and that's it.  I always put a pair of shorts on over the onesie if we go out in public, but around the house I don't bother.  Oh and soon he'll start to need socks again...and maybe shoes if he starts walking.  Ugh.  I hate cold weather.

My parents were here this weekend and we had a great time.  Friday night I made burritos and spanish rice and we stayed home and played with Emmett.  After he went to bed we played a round of nertz.  It was a weird game where the scores were very close.  Everyone went out and Chris ended up winning because he was the one doubled on the last hand.  It was his first win, so he was excited.  Usually my dad wins or my brother if he's there (but he wasn't).  It was a typical game in that we laughed a lot and yelled a lot.  And we managed not to wake up the baby.

Saturday I made blueberry muffins for breakfast and we just hung around home until after Emmett's morning nap.  Then we headed to the park.  It was cloudy when we left but not raining, but as we drove it began to sprinkle and gradually picked up.  We decided to go on and walk when we got there, hoping the trees would block most of the sprinkles, which they did for the most part.  We were able to walk around for at least an hour without getting wet.  The park is great because its in the woods but the paths are paved so we could push the stroller.  Just as we were leaving the rain picked up, so our timing was perfect.  We stopped and got some ice cream at Sonic on the way home.  Yum! 

When we got home Emmet took his afternoon nap and we watched Avatar.  Chris and I rented the movie a few weeks ago but we kept falling asleep whenever we would try to watch it.  We eventually just sent it back.  Mom and Dad had rented it and watched it already, but they said they wanted to see it again and that it was worth watching.  I thought it was pretty good, but it wasn't quite all it was cracked up to be.  The animation was beautiful and the concept was interesting.  Not sure I cared for the political message behind it, but that's ok.  We didn't quite finish the movie before Emmett woke up.

Next we went out to dinner at Longhorn Steakhouse.  The food was great and Emmett was really good.  We fed him his cereal and his veggies before we left because its just easier that way.  At the restaurant he munched on his cheerios and puffs for a while.  When he got tired of those we gave him some bread, which he absolutely loved.  He still had some of his puffs on the table when we started giving him bread.  Once he accidently picked up a puff instead of a piece of bread.  He looked at it and tossed it over his shoulder.  So much for puffs being his favorite.  By the end he was getting pretty tired of being in his highchair so Chris and I took him outside while Mom and Dad paid the check.

After dinner we headed to Babies R Us to look at a new carseat for E.  If he gaines another pound he will be too heavy for his infant seat.  And frankly, I can barely carry him in the infant carrier anymore anyway.  We usually just leave it in the car and pull him out of it.  There's not really any point to using it anymore now that he sits up in a highchair at restaurants and in the front of the buggy at stores.  We had narrowed it down to two carseats and decided to discuss it later and go back the next day to actually purchase the seat.  I have a lot of trouble making a final decision when purchasing expensive items.  And my parents were even paying for the seat as an early birthday present for him.  But still, I needed to sleep on it.  So we went home, did bath and bedtime with Emmett, and then finished watching Avatar.

Sunday morning we decided to forgo church because it just happens to be right in the middle of E's morning nap, and if he doesn't get his nap it throws the whole day off.  So Chris and my dad went golfing while Mom and I stayed with the baby while he napped and then went and bought his new carseat.  We ended up with the Britax Marathon 70.  We chose Britax because they test their seats at 65 mph, as opposed to 45 mph as do all other carseat manufacturers.  The seat was more expensive than we could afford to buy, but how do you put a price on your child's safety?  Thanks Mom and Dad for taking care of it for us.

When we all got home we ordered some tasty wings and then Dad helped us with a couple of things that needed fixed around the house.  For one, our dishwasher detergent cup wouldn't stay closed anymore.  Dad and I took that apart and managed to fix it or at least rig it so that it works.  The other project was Emmett's crib.  Now that he is standing up we needed to lower his crib mattress.  However, it only has 3 levels and we are on the middle one.  The bottom level is almost all the way to the floor, which makes it next to impossible for me to lay a sleeping Emmett down in the crib.  And at this stage I am still rocking him to sleep at nap and bedtime.  For a while he was able to go to sleep on his own, but as soon as he learned to pull up he was just too good at keeping himself awake.  He would eventually go to sleep but it would take 45 minutes of jumping and playing first, and that just wasn't working.  So we managed to create a 4th level between the middle and bottom levels.  Its perfect.  When E stands up, only his head is above the crib rail so there's no way he's climbing out, and I can still lay him down gently enough that he stays asleep.  Yay success!

We had a great weekend!  I was sad when my parents left, as usual.  And somehow it feels worse when they leave ever since E was born.  I was in a funk for the rest of the evening, even though we're going up to my parents house this coming weekend because Chris is going to the ECU game.  My dad will be gone for the weekend though, so we'll miss him.  Chris and a friend of ours have tickets to the game, but there wasn't one for me.  So I'll stay home with Emmett and Mom and I are going to make spaghetti sauce.  The way the Hokies are playing lately I'll probably be glad I'm not at the game.  Maybe they can get it together before the Duke game, I do have a ticket to that one.

Dum dum duh dum...

That's to the tune of here comes the bride...because we spent the weekend at the beach for a wedding!  My best friend-in-law (that would be my husband's best friend - I stole this term from Randi) got married this weekend down in Southport, NC.  Chris's grandparents have a house on Oak Island which is about 15 minutes away from Southport so it was quite convenient.  It was a beautiful wedding.  The venue was actually the very type of thing I was looking for when I got married but just couldn't find.  The place looked like (and probably used to be) an old plantation house with a porch facing the Cape Fear River.  There is a deck overlooking the beach in the shade of some gorgeous old live oaks where the bride and groom took their vows.  Chris was the best man and looked awesome in his black tuxedo with a royal blue vest and necktie.  The bridesmaids wore royal blue tea length dresses with a thin white bow at the empire waist.  The groom wore a black tuxedo with a black vest and necktie.  The bride's dress was a princess style skirt with a fitted bodice and plenty of swirly, sparkly frills.  And Emmett wore a black onesie with a tuxedo printed on it and a pair of black pants.  He was adorable!  Everyone said so.  People just go on and on about how gorgeous he is.  I know I'm biased, but everywhere we go people fawn all over him, so I know its true.  Everything went off without a hitch.  I've never seen a wedding where nothing went wrong before, but unless there was something I didn't know about, this one was about perfect.  It was pretty hot since the wedding was at 3:00, the hottest part of the day.  I mostly stood back under the shade of the porch to keep Emmett out of the sun.  He was a trooper, but he is in a stage where he doesn't want to be held for very long, he wants to get down and crawl around and pull up, and there was just nowhere for him to do that.  The reception was inside and it was nice and cool in there, but still nowhere that Emmett could get down.  Not to mention that 3:00 is Emmett's usual naptime, so he was getting a bit cranky.  Chris's grandparents were at the wedding with us so we ended up taking Emmett home early.  I pumped a bottle for them to give him at bedtime and I went back to the reception.  That was really hard because I have been the one to put him to bed every single night of his entire life; no one else has ever done it.  He put up quite a fuss at first, but they managed to get him down to bed with the help of the swing, which actually made me happy.  I would have been insulted if he went to bed for them with no problem.  And I had a good time at the reception.  I was able to have a few glasses of wine for a change since I knew I wouldn't be nursing the baby that night.  And alcohol is important for me to be able to dance, and dance I did.  I was exhausted by the end of the evening, but I felt great. 

We were at the beach for 4 days, but we never actually put on bathing suits and went to the beach.  We were just so busy with the wedding it never happened.  But I'm ok with that, because we had plenty of other chances to go to the beach earlier in the summer.  Plus it is such an ordeal to take the baby to the beach that it almost isn't worth it.  And he doesn't really care much for it at this point.  Next summer he will love it I'm sure because he will be running around by then.  I can't wait to see him running and playing in the sand and the waves.  He'll be so big then.  We did sit out on the deck and look out over the waterway in the mornings, drinking coffee and watching the boats go by.  Its absolutely relaxing, almost theraputic.  Overall it was a great weekend.  Emmett had a blast with his great-grandparents and Chris and I had some time alone.