6 months

Happy half birthday Emerson! We cannot believe you have been a part of our lives for half a year already. You have forever changed our world and we can't imagine another day without you!

At six months you're sitting up on your own (with Mommy or Daddy right there to catch you if you lean too far over); you've started to eat baby purees and so far your favorites are bananas and peaches; you're naps are getting longer (which lets Mommy enjoy a hot cup of coffee); and you're talking up a storm (still only gibberish though)! 

Mommy has been trying to make all your baby food, but the ease of store-bought purees is making it hard to stay motivated. You've tried almost all of the vegetables and now you're starting on fruits. We've tried giving you purees and soft solids, but you're not the biggest fan of the solids. I guess we can try those again once you have some chompers. 

 








Speaking of chompers, you've been teething like crazy these last couple of weeks. You chew on anything and everything you can get your hands on - toys, teethers, blankets, and Mommy and Daddy's fingers. We tried out some teething tablets and they seem to help, but you still show signs of being in pain. We hate when you're hurting. Hoping some teeth show up very soon!


You had your 6 month check up this week and your Dr. says you're growing perfectly! This month you weighed in at 16 lbs 13 oz (35%); you're 27 in (67%) long; and your head is a whopping 17.5 in (81%) around. You were scheduled to get two shots, but since the H1N1 flu is going around this year we asked that you get your flu shot as well. We are very sorry that you had to get three shots, but you'll thank us later when you're not getting the flu! You were such a strong boy during your shots and stopped crying once Mommy picked you up. The rest of the night went well, but you woke up with a fever. I fed you then gave you some Tylenol and put you down for your morning nap. I let work know I would be in late as long as your fever had gone down, but when you woke up it was worse. I stayed home the rest of the day and tried to make you as comfortable as possible. You just wanted to snuggle and sleep all day, which was a-okay with me! Even though you still had a fever, you were back to smiling by bed time. 

It's been a very WARM winter and we've been taking advantage of it! Last weekend we stopped by Grandma's house and enjoyed some sunshine while testing out your new bounce house. Of course this is for your first birthday, but we had to give it a test run. We love that you're an outdoors baby and can't wait until it's warmer!

My dearest Emerson, thank you again for giving us the very best 6 months! We can't wait to see what incredible new thing you do next! Thanks for all the smiles that melt our hearts!

4/52

In this week's portrait I was trying to capture the misery my little man was in the day after his 6 month shots. It was a jammies-all-day kind of day for Emerson. He had a high fever ALL day. There was no amount of Tylenol that could help my little guy. I stayed home with him and snuggled. It was a terrible day for Emerson, but I was loving every minute of his snuggles! A little before bed time we started to see that personality shine through again. The next morning we had our smiley Emerson back!

3/52

My two handsome boys!

A rare pic of me and Emerson!

Week 3 portraits courtesy of the Oakland Zoo. We took Emerson on his first trip to the zoo this weekend. Thank you sunny California for a beautiful 80 degree January Saturday! We went to the zoo to celebrate Emerson's future wifey's 2nd birthday. The zoo is Ellie's most favorite place so she was a ball of energy showing us around all day! 

Emerson wasn't too interested in any of the animals just yet, but he did enjoy being outside. We plan on making many more trips with Ellie and hope that Emerson soon discovers his love for the zoo!

In need of a helping hand or two

Calling all SEWriffic people in my life-this Momma wants to learn how to sew! Since I was pregnant I've been oohing and awing over these cute little hipster babes and I want Mr. Emerson to be a coolio foolio too!

After some research it seems that all I need to complete these looks are printed baby leggings, some raglan tees, slouchy beanies, and baby moccasins. Emerson already rocks the baseball tee and his first pair of baby moccs are in the mail as we speak (or blog). I also bought one of these adorable bibdanas to accessorize his new look. Since I can't buy headbands and bows I'll buy bibdanas and beanies!

Emerson's new moccs

The only items missing from the complete look are the leggings and the beanies. From my point of view these are made from a simple pattern with minimal fabric so they should be affordable, right? WRONG! I can't believe how much people charge for these things! The leggings average $28-$38/ea and the beanies are from $13-$20/ea. I can't even begin to justify spending that much for clothes my son will grow out of in a couple short months. This is why I need to learn how to sew-ASAP! Heck if I can start making these pieces and sell them I could possibly be a stay at home mama-guess I should take it one step at a time.

Step 1-Buy a sewing machine.
Step 2-Learn to sew.
Step 3-Make adorable clothes and sell them for mucho $$.
Step 4-Conquer the world!

Sew who's with me?!

2/52

Oh those eyes! Everyday I get to spend a couple of hours of my day staring down at those big brown eyes while I nurse. I've been going back and forth with myself about when to stop. This little piglet eats way more than his Mommy can make in one feeding so he drinks two to three formula bottles a day. When I had to start supplementing I was devastated and felt like a failure, but with the support of AJ and my family I realized that giving him some breast milk is better than none at all so I kept at it. 

I'm still working three days a week so while at work I'm pumping at least twice. By Friday I'm over the pumping and ready to throw in the towel, but then come Saturday I'm back to nursing and staring down at this face. When I see these big, beautiful eyes staring back at me I'm reminded of why I keep going - for him! This bond is so special to me and I know it won't last forever so when I've reached my limit I'll remember these pictures and pump it up!  

1/52

Week One:

My boys are my life! AJ is the world's best dad by far! I love watching him with Emerson; he melts my heart. His love for our son is a daily reminder of why I married this man.

My baby boy is teething a lot this week and having a very hard time getting solid sleep. He has woken crying more times this week then ever before. There are few things to help with his teething pain so seeing him sleep so peaceful makes me feel at ease. 

Oh, and this is my life. My damn dog left me a present and forgot to tell me. That's crap on my shoe and dragged across the floor. UGH!

52 Weeks

It's 2014 and time for New Year's resolutions. I told AJ that when this year is over I want to look back and know that I've been a better all-around person. I follow a lot of blogs and they're all posting about resolutions and after reading them I've come to the conclusion that everyone ultimately has the same goal in mind-just be better. I could go into a line-by-line breakdown of my goals for this new year, but ultimately they all result in a happier me.

To help with a couple of my goals I've decided to start two projects that will last all year. They are both 52 week projects. One will help AJ and I start (and continue) a savings plan for Emerson and the other will help capture our ever changing life. Sunday we are starting the "Save $1400 in 2014" challenge and "A Picture a Week" challenge. 

The $ challenge concept is simple. Each week, deposit the number of that week of the year into a savings plan. For example, the first week of 2014, you would deposit $1; the second week, $2; and so on and so on. By the end of the year, we'll have saved close to $1400. Since we are a double income household, we will be doubling each week's amount. If we can continue this each year, we might just have enough money for Emerson's college! 

This next 52 week project is more rewarding in my eyes. I take a ton of pictures of Emerson, but I realized I don't take at least one every week. I've also realized that 99.9% of the pictures I do take are only of Emerson. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE seeing and sharing the super cute pictures of my boy, but I also would love to have memories of all of us during this time in our lives. The goal of this 52 week project is to take one (at least) picture a week to capture the everyday crazy, boring, sleepy, happy, sad, and just plain us life that we live. I'm pretty sure majority of these pictures will be of Emerson, but I'm making this my challenge to beat-I want to remember everything this year! Plus I need to put my new camera to good use!

5 Months & some Holiday Cheer

Gosh where did the time go? These last couple of weeks have gone by in a blink. First off we hope that you all had a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year! Welcome to 2014; the best is yet to come!

Emerson is 5 months old and growing like a weed! He is getting such a personality; he's too smart for his own good (or our good). He has started making a high-pitched whining sound that is awfully similar to the one the dogs make when they want something. It's super cute...for a minute. We try NOT to react when he does it, but it's so hard not to laugh. He's also making another noise, but this one we can't get enough of-his giggle! Isn't this the best video you've ever seen? Emerson couldn't get enough of his Daddy jumping up and down.

Emerson can now sit up with very little assistance. He can sit on his own, but doesn't realize that there are consequences to moving around so he tends to fall over - forwards, sideways, and backwards. He's still building his core strength so after sitting for a few minutes his body starts leaning closer and closer to the floor. He's loving blocks and any toy that makes noises. He's very obsessed with his jumperoo and watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse in his swing. Anytime he sees Mickey he cracks a huge smile and starts kicking up a storm! 

We've introduced solids this month-nothing like a yummy bowl of rice cereal to intrigue his palate. It was so funny to watch him try eating off his spoon for the first time-he tried to suck it like it was a bottle and ended up blowing bubbles. He only had a few spoonfuls before he was over it; but with each attempt he's eaten more. I think we'll be trying some veggie/fruit purees later this month. 

Our holidays are always crazy, but adding a baby to the mix was exhausting. I hate that we spent more time on the road than we did with our families. We're already dreading having to break some Christmas traditions, but excited to create new ones with Emerson. It's impossible to see all of our families on the actual day so we're thinking of hosting a gathering on a different day, but instead of being upset I see it as a possibility to have Christmas last all week long! 

We both knew Emerson wouldn't remember this Christmas, but that didn't stop us from going all out! A must for any kid during Christmas time is sitting on Santa's lap; otherwise how will the big guy know what you want? We searched for the best looking Santa and found him in our own little town. On Christmas Eve's Eve we headed to the mall with Grandma and stood in line while enjoying the hilarious entertainment of horrified children. I thought for sure karma would bite me in the butt because of all the joy I was getting at the sake of these kids, but little Emerson was a champ! I'm pretty sure a one-eyed, one-horned, flying purple people-eater could have been holding him and that kid would still be smiling. I should count my blessings because we won't be lucky forever!

Santa must have been listening real close because as assumed, Mr. Emerson was SPOILED with so many gifts!! I can't believe how much our little man got from all sides of the family. Christmas morning Emerson opened one gift with us and then passed out. He had a second wind at Grandma and Papa's house, but then crashed everywhere else. AJ and I ended up opening the rest of his gifts the following day when he was sleeping. Pretty sure we only wrapped them for our pleasure anyways. We had such a wonderful first Christmas with our son, but we can't wait until next year when he'll actually react when he wakes up Christmas morning!

Since we didn't get to spend a ton of time with our families we decided to get together with my parents, sister, aunt, and cousins to just sit back and enjoy each other's company. We had all heard about this crazy game, Cards Against Humanity so we searched for an app similar to the game and found Evil Apples and played all night long (that's till 10:30 for you young folks). We were dying! Definitely the new go-to party game! 

We kept it low key on NYE cause neither of us wanted to nurse a hangover and a teething 5 month old. Plus we're getting old and sitting at home sipping a (singular) cold beer instead of gulping multiple glasses of champagne sounded a-okay to us. We got dressed up (changed out of our throw up clothes-only to be thrown up on later) and went to dinner with his mom, sister and our friends who have a 4 month old. After dinner our friends came back to the house where we played Evil Apples until midnight. Emerson took a power nap from 8-10 and then was up till 12:01; what a trooper! It was the first year we didn't have plans with all of our friends and as much as I missed them, I was very happy to ring in the new year with my hubby and baby boy.

Happy 2014 to everyone! We hope that this year is everything you want it to be and more! We are excited for all the wonderful adventures 2014 has in store!!