Oops!

Has it really been over a week since I last posted? Oi vey! Hmmm, since my last post we've had lots of fun. Emily turned 11 months old on Saturday. She has gained 4 lbs since the middle of February and is now up to 18 lbs. She's still small though and wears mostly size 6-9 mos. (But most of her pants have to be smaller than 9 mos or they fall off!) I can't believe how fast time has flown. Each day she learns more and more and makes us grin from ear to ear.

AT THE OFFICE: Emily continues to enjoy "staff meetings at the office". (See my Office post from the 7th.) She likes to stand up in her cubicle... ahem... exersaucer. And, the last few days she's really enjoyed bouncing in it.

AT CHURCH: She's always done really well during church. I've been trying to keep her with me during church because she hasn't been so good at sitting up by herself yet and didn't feel that was fair to the people helping in the nursery. Since Tom is the pastor of our church, Ryan and I get Emily duty on Sunday mornings. We get there about 2 hours before church starts to get everything ready. Since it's hard to make coffee (and unsafe) and hold Emily and since she likes her portable high chair so well, I decided it might be worth taking with us so she can entertain herself while I take on my morning tasks. After the preparations were made we get her out and play with her and she gets to visit with everyone at church. When church started back up, I put the portable high chair on the seat beside mine and she sat and played and "read" her book and ate Cheerios in total bliss while Daddy preached.

PHYSICAL THERAPY: Em has had 2 physical therapy appointments so far. Our insurance covers 20 visits and we're expected to need more than that unless she makes some rapid progress. We go once a week for a half hour at a time. Our physical therapist, Laurie, gives Emily a good workout and stretches out her muscles and teaches us what to do during the week to keep her limbered up. Our first visit was a little frustrating because Emily had more "high-toned" muscles than I suspected. I think I posted this already, but her spine had limited mobility and her legs were not very flexible. Her feet were in a "tippy-toe" position most of the time and it took some effort to get her to stand flat-footed. At our second visit, Laurie was impressed with the progress Emily had made and gave me some more things to work on with her. We are still working on the same stretches that I posted in our initial PT post but we are also working on what I call her butterfly stretch... while sitting or laying down, we bend her knees and rock her from side to side to stretch inner leg muscles. (I'm hoping this makes diaper changes easier in the long run... it's hard to change diapers on a straight-legged baby.)

EATING: Emily is still eating very well. As far as I can tell, she still hasn't quite figured out when she's full but I feel we're not too far away from that. We have more and more days now when she's interested in looking around while she's eating instead of waiting for the next spoonful to make it to her mouth. She still eating just about anything I offer. She's had a cold for the past week and a half and I think a couple of the things I offered her were irritating her throat. She turned her nose up at oatmeal cereal with apples & cinnamon but ate it a couple of days later. She did the same thing with a jar of chicken noodle dinner. She hasn't found anything that she doesn't like a couple of days later.... totally the opposite from how I was a kid -- or least so I'm told! ;-)

SICKIES: Speaking of her cold... she still has it, but it's not so bad except she's a little congested when she's waking up. But, shhhhh... she doesn't know she has a cold yet or that she's supposed to feel bad... and we're not going to tell her!

SLEEPING: She's still sleeping through the night and has ever since we first got custody. She woke up for an hour during the night earlier this week from coughing but decided after a little cuddling that she could go back to sleep for a few more hours until it was time for breakfast. We usually put her to bed around 8pm and she's awake and playing in her crib around 7-7:30am.

CHEERIOS vs FRUIT PUFFS: Emily has become a champion Cherrios eater. She's able to pick them up with either hand (although she tends to prefer her left hand right now). Now that she's got the skill mastered, I've been switching back and forth between Cheerios and Fruit Puffs.

Hmmmm... did I miss anything? I know, I know... pictures will be coming soon!