7 Months Old!!

lkj drdf a BB mm nbmbnkn bnjncfxds (Emily typed this all by herself!)

I let Emily do that typing for two reasons: one, to show everyone how smart she is (look at how cleverly she created her own language), and two, it was easier than trying to keep her from getting to the keyboard. Emily is getting very strong and it is getting very hard to keep her from getting whatever she is after. She is very determined once she sets her sites on something and goes at it with every ounce of muscle available to her. The only way to deter her is to move the item of interest to where she can no longer see it. This new habit of hers has us dreading the day she begins to crawl, and judging by her recent efforts, it won't be long.

Well the title of this post is, 7 Months Old, so let's talk about that . . . Emily is now 7 Months Old. There you go, that was really easy, see ya in a couple of days . . . though I suppose I could talk a little about the weekend. On Friday, Emily spent some time with Grandma B while Christa & I went to see the new Harry Potter movie. After the movie, we went to Babies R Us to get Emily something to play with in her new carseat (yes, we said new carseat . . . she's already outgrown her "baby bucket" because she's so tall.), because her old carseat toys have nowhere to attach on the new seat. Emily also had the experience of eating while sitting in her new high chair! She really liked sitting at the table and being able to see more than just our legs. After Emily finished her meal of oatmeal & formula, we all went to dinner with Grandma Kathy & Auntie Mandy.

Saturday was Emily's official 7 Month birthday and we celebrated by going to her swimming lesson. This lesson started out well, Emily was happy and kicking and splashing and having a great time. Unfortunately, during an exercise that had Emily on her stomach kicking her feet, she sneezed, this thrust her face into the water, which she was not expecting at all. From that point forward she was not happy, in fact, during portions of the rest of the lesson she was actually crying. Thankfully she did not seem to blame me for this incident and we remained on good terms. After our lesson it was time to get her official 7 Month portrait taken. This was really fun because Emily's interest in sitting still was very low. The photographer had to act very fast to get any pictures at all because she was looking around at everything. The item that had her interest the most was the rolling tripod the camera was on. More specifically, it was the tripod wheel closest to her which had her leaning forward and almost falling out of the bean bag chair she was on. After pictures, Emily spent the night at Grandma Kathy's house to give Mommy & Daddy a bit of a break.

Sunday brought with it another visit to Great Bob. Emily really does seem to enjoy her time at Great Bob's. Whenever he moved around she followed him with her eyes with great interest. No matter where Emily was, or who she was with, her head was turned to look at him. I guess that for Emily, Great Bob truly is great. After our visit with Great Bob, we did some shopping and then went to Grandma and Grandpa B's for dinner. We all enjoyed a delicious meal and went home to get some rest to start the new week.

You can very clearly see those 2 little teeth that she has. Don't be fooled, this innocent face is merely a cover . . . any finger that gets too close quickly pays the price.

The photographer managed to snap a couple of really cute shots like this one, when Emily took a moment to sit still, that is. She was all over the place, investigating her surroundings. She'll be crawling soon, we bet.

This is a comparison of Emily in her carseat(s) over the last 7 months. The first picture is Emily in the hospital when Daddy was testing out the carseat to make sure that he knew what to do when we got downstairs to the car. (She was soooo tiny!) The second picture is Emily in her old carseat, the day after we bought her new carseat. (Look how BIG she has gotten!) The last picture is Emily in her new Big Girl carseat. (Look how much more room she has now!) I'm hoping that if you click on this picture, you'll see it a little better; however, that doesn't always work, so don't hold me to it.

"Look, Mommy! I'm eating my oatmeal in my Big Girl chair!"


"Auntie Mandy, would you please stop wiggling your toes, I'm trying to eat!

"Wow, Auntie Mandy, did you know that these strings tasted so good?"

She wouldn't stop looking at Great Bob. Even when she was playing with Daddy, she kept looking in the corner at Great Bob's chair and smiling at him.

When Emily ATTACKS!!

(See what I was talking about. That cute face is just a cover.)



Emily & her Great Bob

Emily, always the wiggleworm, was having so much fun with Great Bob. She wouldn't stop wiggling and he was struggling to hold on to the strong little baby that Emily has become.

You can see how much she was reorienting herself during the time that Great Bob was holding her. Here she is gently rubbing Great Bob's cheek.

By the time she was done sitting with Great Bob, that's exactly what she was doing. She was sitting on the chair next to him. She pushed him over with all of her wiggling and settled into the empty space that had been created.

Another flashback to tiny Emily. . . This was her first visit with Great Bob; she was only 8 days old & very tiny.

Oh Yaaaah, You Betcha'

So, with the summer in full swing, and time getting shorter between activities and work, we seem to be experiencing a bit of a Blog Backlog, or a Blogjam as I like to call it. I still need to tell you about last weekend, and Emily turned 7 months old today. I am in a bit of a quandary as to what to do here. Do I skip last weekend and do it later so I can talk about Emily's seventh month, or push that off till later and talk about last weekend? I think it would be best to discuss last weekend and write a separate blog later on about Emily's seventh month and the good times from this weekend. With that decision being made, let's get started.

We left you on the 4th of July with us turning in early before the fireworks, here is what happened next . . . On Friday evening, Chista, Auntie Mandy, Emily and I all piled into the car and headed off to Minnesota. Our primary goal was to visit Emily's Great Grandpa Wodtke, as Saturday was his 81st birthday and he had not yet met his Great Granddaughter. We also wanted to visit again with Great Grandma Wyland and see Aunt Barbie, who had missed meeting Emily during girls weekend. We also wanted to see Aunt Kate & Uncle Ron, who have become some of Emily's biggest fans. So, off we went. We left Schaumburg at around 5:00 p.m. and kept on cruisin' for a couple hours before Emily needed a pit stop. After we all stretched our legs, Emily was ready to get moving again. We continued on until we got to Black River Falls Wisconson, which is our favorite place to stop on the way. While we were there, we said hello to the Moose and introduced him to Emily, checked on a letterbox we have there, and ate dinner at the Perkins. When we arrived at the stop, the parking lot was jammed full, which we didn't think was out of the ordinary, but the Perkins was out of a few food items, which was out of the ordinary. It wasn't until we were paying our check that we found out why the stop was so busy and the reason behind the missing soup & cookies. It seems that there had been an accident just north of the exit that had closed the expressway down for a while, we completely missed all of the traffic by stopping here for two hours. We did a little dance of joy for missing the traffic backup and got back on the road. We had smooth sailing all the way to Coon Rapids, which was our destination. We checked into the hotel at 1:15, got everything set up and turned in for the night.

Saturday dawned in Minnesota very early and very HOT. Emily was nice enough to let us all sleep until almost 7:00 a.m., what a great kid. We all got ready and met Emily downstairs for the continental breakfast. She had been trying to get somebody to make her a waffle before we got down there and put a stop to it. Once we all had some breakfast and Emily had her bottle, no waffles today, we headed off for a visit with Great Grandma Wyland. Grandma was very happy to see Emily again, and Emily was very happy to see Grandma. Grandma was so happy to see her, she didn't even notice the rest of us until we had been there for close to an hour. I am not sure how she thought Emily had gotten there, but she sure seemed surprised to see us sitting in her living room. After having some snacks and lemonade, it was time to say goodbye and head over to Great Grandpa Wodtke. Emily was very excited to meet him, as he completes her collection of grandparents, he is the only one she had not yet met (hey, that rhymes! I'm a poet and didn't know it! Hey! that rhymes too!)(SPLEEN SPLEEN SPLEEN!!!). Grandpa Wodtke was also very happy to see Emily and he seemed to notice us right away, but didn't seem to care that we were there (another rhyme!), he was all about Emily, something we are getting used to. We all shared a birthday cupcake with Grandpa (well not Emily, who tried mightily...HA! more rhyming!), took some pictures, told some stories, took some pictures, laughed at stuff Emily was doing, took some pictures (are you noticing a trend, this has got to end...AAAAHHHGGGHH, no more rhyming now, I mean it!!). After taking a few pictures, we said our goodbyes to Grandpa and went with Ron & Kate to meet their daughter, Laura, for a quick visit over lunch at Subway. With all the picture taking and great grandparent visiting and her long drive and short night catching up to her, Emily slept through her entire visit with Laura. It was so bad we had to show Laura a picture of Emily to prove that she had been awake. I am afraid that this visit was not very memorable for Emily, but Laura was happy to meet her, and coincidentally, see us. In fact, with Emily sleeping we actually got to be a major part of this visit. We said goodbye to Laura, Kate, and Ron and went off to the hotel pool to catch up on Emily's missed swimming lesson. The rest of the evening was spent relaxing at the hotel, watching movies and playing with Emily. (WOW! That is one long paragraph! It is like the neck on a Giraffe!!)

With Saturday behind us, we had two tasks left to complete, but first we needed something to eat (make it stop, make it STOP!!!!!) Auntie Mandy & I packed up the car, while Christa played with Emily. When the car was packed, we left to find a place to hide the letterbox we created for Coon Rapids (clues for "The Wet Bandit" are available on AQ & LBNA). We checked a couple of parks before finding a suitable spot, and then headed off to visit Aunt Barbie. It should be mentioned here that driving in Minnesota is at best confusing, and when you add construction to the mix, it is absolutely crazy!! We drove around FOREVER trying to get to Aunt Barbie's and after approximately twelve hours, we finally completed what should have been about a 30-45 minute drive. As a result of the Minnesota roads being kerfluey, we had a very short visit with Aunt Barbie before finally heading home. The drive home was mostly uneventful, but very long, as the drive home tends to be. Emily had a great time over the weekend and was very happy to have finally filled in the last spot on her Great Grandparent Card, something that was not very hard (now really, what has gotten into me?).

I will leave you here, hopefully in good cheer. Tune in again soon, unless you think me a buffoon. Maybe we will play the bassoon, perhaps under the full moon. We try to eat our lunch at noon, and always eat soup with a spoon. (Mental note, don't blog late at night, it could end up a fright.)

"Oh, Moooooose!"

On our way up to Minnesota, we stopped by to see an old friend, check on our letterbox, and have some dinner. The Moose seemed happy to see us.

"My Daddy is a little groggy from driving, could someone please bring me a sundae before he realizes what he just agreed to?"

While at Perkins, Emily finally figured out how to get her front end and back ends both up at the same time. We thought we were going to witness her first crawl. Steve is holding her here, because she was very reminiscent of Bambi on the ice with her new found altitude.

Our first stop in Minnesota was to see Emily's Great Grandma Wyland. She was very happy to see Emily again; oh yeah, she was happy to see us too.

Emily & Great Grandma Wyland

Emily & Great Grandpa Wodtke

This was a very prolonged gaze, as this was the first time either of them had seen each other.

Emily just stared at Great Grandpa Wodtke for a little bit, then she started to smile at him. She just needed a few moments to size him up; plus, she was really tired from the drive the previous day, so it took her a few minutes to warm up.

The whole gang!

Aunt Kate & Uncle Ron were very happy to get their hands on Emily again. They were sooooo excited to see her!

Uncle Ron was playing with Emily. She really liked Great Grandpa's puppy.

After our visit with Grandpa, it was off to get some lunch. Mommy & Auntie Mandy's cousin, Laura, works just down the street from where Grandpa is, so we met her at the local Subway for some Emily hugs and subs. Unfortunately for Laura, Emily had passed out from exhaustion on the quick drive between locations, so Laura only got to hug a sleeping baby.

After a busy day of family visits, Emily was very happy to go back to the hotel for a quick dip in the pool. She then wanted to have some rolling around time on the bed with her toys.

A very pensive gaze from such a little girl. She was probably wondering what Auntie Mandy was doing. Auntie Mandy is such a troublemaker.

The next morning, Emily was ready for her ride home to Illinois. She just wanted a few more minutes to play with "Bunny".

After getting dressed, Emily played with "Polar Bear" while Daddy & Auntie Mandy packed the car. This time they were both trying to figure out what Auntie Mandy could possibly be up to.

"Mommy, Auntie Mandy is soooo crazy. I wish I knew how to roll my eyes at her. Do you think that this face will work instead?"

On our way out of Minnesota, we stopped by White Bear Lake to visit with Aunt Barbie.

"Mommy, that trip was really fun, but I'm really tired. I'm going to take a little nap now."

We call this "The Polar Bear Fling."

Our latest film is a mere 15 seconds long, but it carries quite the punch.

All American Girl

A lot has happened since our last post, and I do apologize for the delay in updating, but sometimes we are so busy living life with Emily, we run out of time to write about life with Emily. As I said, we have a lot to talk about so once again we will break this up into a couple of different posts. I am going to start with the Saturday before the 4th and go all the way to the 4th in this one, then later this week, we will talk about last weekend. This post would have been up yesterday, but the weather conspired against us.

So, here we go! Saturday started once again with swimming lessons for Emily & me, only this time Auntie Mandy & Grandma Kathy showed up to watch. They picked a pretty good week because our regular teacher was back and Emily started the lesson really kicking her legs and having a lot of fun until something horrible happened. The teacher suggested that we try to get their faces in the water, something I'll admit that I was reluctant to do. Well, I watched some of the other parents dunk their kids and nothing really bad happened so I said to myself, "self, let's do it!" I would like to say at this point that nothing happened to Emily, let's just say she wasn't happy, you might even say that she was really mad. She didn't cry, but she wasn't laughing either. I figured at this point that if I was already in trouble, I might as well do it a few more times, at no point did Emily change her attitude about this new experience.

After the swimming lesson was finished, I really needed to get back into Emily's good graces, so we went to the zoo!! It was their "Beanie Baby (tm)" weekend and the first 4,000 children under 12 received a free Beanie Baby (tm). Thankfully, we were there in time to get Emily a Beanie Baby (tm) and it appears that all was forgiven. We spent a little extra time at the zoo and checked out a few of the animals we tend to ignore on our way to the bears. We stopped at the big cats and listened to the zoo chat about the lion, who will be getting a girlfriend soon. We were also able to touch some of the hair from his mane, very wiry, one of his teeth that broke off, and the sheath from one of his claws. After seeing all of this I decided that I would not like to be attacked by a lion, something I was pretty sure about before, but this sealed the deal. From here we checked out the seals & sea lions, which were having fun swimming around, but as we did not go into the underwater viewing area there wasn't much to see. From here we went to see what the bears were up to. They had just finished the zoo chat with the Alaskan Brown Bear and we watched him for a minute, then went to wait for Hudson & Arki to come out. The keepers had put out some special treats for them, and it was really fun watching Hudson chase a piece of ice around. He & his mother had fun playing with the treats and swimming in their pool.

On Tuesday, Emily spent the morning with her mommy putting out some letterboxes for some folks who were coming into town. Then they came to meet me at work to go to lunch, followed by some shopping until I came home. Then Emily went to Grandma Kathy's so that Mommy & Daddy could go to dinner and a movie for our eighth anniversary. We had a great time and Emily enjoyed her time with her Grandma & Auntie Mandy.

Wednesday was the 4th of July and Emily wore her red onesie with white polka dots and denim shorts, so she was red, white and blue. We spent the morning at home and then went to Grandma and Grandpa B's for dinner. Emily helped do some of the prep work for dinner and entertained us all. We went home before the fireworks because Emily was just plain worn out.

I am going to end it here, and leave you wanting more. I will post soon with the exciting details of our weekend. I will hint that we left the state, but will say no more!!

Emily had some special visitors at her swimming lesson on June 30; Grandma Kathy & Auntie Mandy came to observe the action.

The swimming lesson began like most of the others . . . splashing Daddy.

Emily made friends with one of the little boys in her class, another 6 month old named Easton.

Things suddenly took a turn for the worse, from Emily's perspective that is. Daddy got a little overzealous after watching a couple of the other parents dunk their babies under the water. Get ready, here it comes! Now you see them . . .

. . . Now you don't!

Emily has had happier moments than she did right after this one. She didn't cry, but she was very obviously upset with her Daddy. Let's just say that if she had a list, he was #1. Her whole attitude changed for the rest of their lesson.

Daddy tries to make peace with her friend from a previous class, Rubber Ducky. It didn't really work. She was happy while she had Rubber Ducky, but as soon as Daddy moved him away so that she could swim towards him, she gave her Daddy a look like "You put him over there, Daddy, you go get him!"

After swimming lessons, Emily donned her "I Love Polar Brrrrs" T-Shirt and we headed off to the zoo. It was Beanie Baby day and Emily let Daddy know that if he wanted to make amends, he needed to take her to the zoo. Here she is with her newly acquired Beanie Baby, Daddy was forgiven.

The Snow Leopard was actually near the front of his exhibit, and awake!

The Sloth Bears were also awake and moving around. Usually, they really live up to their name.

The Lion had been awake. We heard him roaring and he was moving around when we got there, but by the time we got our camera out and got a spot near the fence, he had found a comfy spot and was settling in for a nap.

This Seal was basking in the sunlight while the others swam in their pool.

I captured this great shot of Emily sitting in her stroller while we took a moment to rest on a bench.

This picture shows the size of the different bear species that they have at the zoo. The largest is the Brown Bear, next the Polar Bear, then the Spectacled Bear, and finally the Sloth Bear. All of these bears are larger than Emily.

Since she had forgiven him for "the dunking incident" Emily happily posed for a picture with Daddy. But she kept a close eye on him, just in case.

Jimmy, the zoo's Brown Bear, was also rather energetic. Here he is playing with a stick.

Emily was sitting on the railing, waiting with baited breath for Hudson to make an appearance. After all, she was wearing her Polar Bear shirt.

Finally, he appeared!! He now weighs in at over 100 pounds, very impressive considering that when he was born he was about the size of a stick of butter. He was born the same day as Emily, and she is only 16.1 pounds now and was considerably larger than a stick of butter at birth.

Hudson found one of the fruitsicles that the keepers had put out just before the bears entered their grotto. He had to grab it and make a wild dash to keep it away from Arki.

On July 4th, we headed over to see Grandma B, Grandpa Ray & Aunt Susie. Emily was helping Aunt Susie husk the corn for our dinner while Grandpa Ray prepared the chicken and hot dogs.

Emily was having a lot of fun playing outside and helping Grandpa Ray make dinner.

They spent a little time making faces at each other, too.

She also spent some time inside, rolling around on the floor and playing with her toys.

Daddy had some fun playing with his favorite toy, Emily.

Emily made it be known that she didn't want her picture taken anymore. She learned this maneuver from Brad Pitt.

Where's Emily?

There she is!