Teeth, Crawling and BIRTHDAYS!

Since my last "real" post on the 8th we've been quite busy.

THURSDAY, May 10
We had Aunt Michelle and Aunt Laura over for supper and to celebrate Em's birthday a little early. She ate "real" table food for the first time (all by herself too!)... cooked, diced carrots and did really well! She got some really cool birthday presents and especially loves to play with her new singing pots and pans.








FRIDAY, MAY 11
Emily had physical therapy again. She's definitely getting better at crawling. I learned some more tricks to get her to sit up on her own, some more stretching techniques and some other things to get her crawling a little better. I expressed some concern that over the weekend she regressed for a few days and started standing on her tiptoes again, arching her back more and tighting/straightening up again when I was trying to change her diapers. It was all a bit scary but I was reassured that this was normal after kids have been sick and especially after they've had a big growth spurt (which I'm certain Em has just experienced)! This is caused by bones growing faster than muscle and we had to stretch all those muscles all over again to get them caught up. It took us a few more days of stretching and she seems to be getting back to normal again. It sounds like we might run into this problem each time she has a major growth spurt for a while but at least we'll know what's going on next time so it's not quite so scary.




SATURDAY, May 12
I volunteered at a local food pantry this morning while Emily stayed with Grandma and Grandpa. She went with them to the Ladies Spring Banquet at their church and I joined them as soon as I could after my work was done. After that, we went home and napped for a couple of hours before heading off to Johnstown to celebrate Mother's Day and Em's birthday with Tom's parents. It was a great evening and Em had lots of smiles to share even and hour and a half after her bed time. She loves spending time with family and friends and holds off on sleep because she doesn't want to miss a thing. The good part though is that she hasn't gotten cranky when she does that (so far)... but she definitely fell asleep as soon as the car started rolling home!




SUNDAY, MAY 13
Emily and I had nursery duty at church and then we went to Grandma Isler's house after lunch to celebrate Mother's Day with that side of the family. Emily received a few 1st birthday cards and again loved spending time with her family.




Some time over the weekend Em's 3rd tooth broke through. She now has 2 bottom teeth and 1 top one. The 2nd top tooth isn't too far behind...we can see it on it's way!


MONDAY, MAY 14 (OUR FAVORITE DAY!)
Emily turned 1 year old! She spent the day at "daycare" -- otherwise known as Grandma and Grandpa's. She even had her own mini party and birthday cake with them. In the evening we played with Emily and let her stay up late playing with her new toys.






TUESDAY, MAY 15
Today brought all kinds of new things with it. Grandma happened to have a video camera out when Emily decided it was a good time to sit up (on her own!) for the first time! And then, she let me witness that skill 2 more times later that night. She's also become very adept at crawling. I sat her down in the living room in front of her toys while I walked around the corner to get supper ready in the kitchen. To my surprise, a couple of minutes later I heard a little shuffle in the doorway and had "followed" me about 20 feet away to the kitchen. She's a sneaky little thing!


WEDNESDAY, MAY 16
Tonight we celebrated Em's birthday AGAIN with another cake. This one was sent home over the weekend by the Hypes' and I had promised to take some pictures of Em sinking her teeth (gums) into it. It's a good thing I had a digital camera... I took over 20 pictures of just her making a mess of her piece of cake and then another handful of the post-cake clean-up.







Never fear.... she's still squeaky clean!!!




Now, in retrospect, I probably ought to update this blog a little more often... I can't believe this entry is already over 8 paragraphs long! Sorry about that!