9 months!

Loves:  laughing, joking, her sisters, eating, rough housing, being outside, playing in the basement (seriously her legs start doing the happy dance when I start walking down the basement stairs),  taking baths, crawling, hair pulling, climbing up on furniture and long walks in the stroller.
Doesn't love:  napping or sleeping through the night consistently.

 Nothing like an ode to the baby without at least one pouty face....

 Hair pulling in action:

Happy Saturday!

This pic kills me, she looks like she's 30 and calling a meeting to order.  

"Get me somebody, anybody.  And get me somebody while I'm waiting!" 

Life

On mornings that we walk Ryan to school, Reese will hang out on Ryan's school playground after we say goodbye....she usually holds court with the boys, this time she just wanted me to take random pictures of her while she posed.

My adorable, self sufficient, eater....in the cases below I should say 'snacker' - a girl after my own heart....snacking her way through the day.  

 Ryan asks for a dog about 1,345 times per day.  The answer is always the same.  Starts with a "N", ends with a "O".  So when her buddy Amelia had a visitor one afternoon, the girls were in heaven and while her parents and I were talking we turned around only to see Ryan, Amelia and the dog running into our house to play.  Ryan got her wish for about 3 minutes.

We did some closet cleaning the other day, found some gems.....

 My coffee/bagel dates:

 Ahhhhhhhh, my heart explodes:

 Reese went over to play with Timmy and Amelia and got a sweet escort home when they were all done..

 Killing time while waiting to pick up Ryan from school...

 We tested out my timer app on my phone at the park.....Reese was less than cooperative to say the least.

 When this lady wakes up from sleeping just happily playing away it makes my day.

 Nothing like a good stomach zerbert.....and as my sister so sweetly pointed out, yes that is Reese working on her underwear in the background.

 This basically sums up Reese...

 The other day Ryan came home from school asking if we could go to the bookstore to buy some books.  Never mind the thousands of books in their room.  I told her we could go to the library instead.  She said no, bookstore.  I asked her if she had any money.....that's when she suggested that I give her a chore list so she could earn money.  Ok.  We dusted off the ole chore chart and she got to work.

Imagine my surprise when the girl seriously went to town, I told her to start by cleaning her room and making their beds (which, PS, look who got bunked!)....

 Then, without telling her, I see her wiping down my stairs (hell, I rarely do that) - she's hired.

 Next up, she vacuumed...

 I got a pretty damn clean house for a whopping 4 quarters.  Score one for mom.
Dad surprised Ryan at school and joined her for lunch last week!   Good dad.  Happy Ryan.

 We had a little parade last weekend here in Kirkwood so we took the crew...

 The girls loved watching the cute high-school cheerleaders.  So did Grant.

That's it.  People are starting to stir and I need another cup of coffee..... I'm out.

Wednesday afternoon dance party.....

Blogging is becoming hard and for no good reason.....my apologies.  A video of Reese dancing with cameos by Emerson (head bobbing and clapping) in return for your forgiveness.

8 months!

Hard to believe we're 3/4 of the way through her first year - Emerson is still my awesome little buddy. Feisty and stubborn at times (wonder where she gets that?) but oh so cute and playful.  Although right now she's cursing my name because we're still having issues willingly taking naps during the day.  It's a good thing we don't live in an apartment or condo with close neighbors, because this mom isn't afraid to make her cry it out.

On the subject of sleep, she's gotten wayyyyyyy better.  I've alluded to it numerous times on Instagram but perhaps not a lot on the blog.  Emerson decided a few months ago that she'd prefer sleeping like she did when she was about 5 days old.  Up every few hours wanting to nurse.  At first I blamed it on teething (which it probably was), but then it turned to habit and my fear of keeping the girls and Grant up at night so it was just easier to give in and get her (she falls right back asleep).  Then we went to Colorado, so I didn't want to start any sleep training deal prior to leaving knowing full well vacation would just screw everything back up again.  Then she had a cold so clearly I wasn't going to start then.  You get the picture....1,0001 excuses (least of which including the mere fact that 'she's my last little baby!').  Finally enough was enough.  Mama needed some real sleep.  So we took advantage of the long Labor Day weekend and let her cry it out two nights in a row.  Wasn't all that bad - I'd say we broke her after 30 minutes the first night and only 10 the second.  I wanted to hit my head against the wall it was that easy....why oh why did I wait so long?  Since then she's been awesome - normally sleeping from 7:30/8pm - 6:30/7am.   The last two nights she's been up at 5am, but I'm suspecting another tooth to pop through any second.  But if girlfriend starts creeping into the 4am wakeup calls, we'll have to turn on the waterworks again.  Naps still suck.  She seriously just fought one for 25 minutes, tired as hell but putting up a fight nonetheless.
Predictable, scheduled naps mom?   Ha.  I'll show you who's boss.  Sweet revenge for making me live out of my carseat all summer.

 She's a crawling machine....only took her a few days to master that and now she's all over the place.

 Happy as a clam and a big fan of peek-a-boo and clapping.  Just like Grant.

 Loves her sisters....and now that Ryan is gone during the day, she and the Reesers have become even better buds.  But, don't tell Reese, Ryan and Emerson are still pretty darn tight.

 Used to living in a jungle full of crazy people.

 Two bottom teeth, of which she likes to use to nibble on my arms, legs, stomach....ever been bitten on the stomach?  Holy hell.

The girl also eats like a horse.  She can feed herself now (with her little pinchers obviously, we don't have some fine china prodigy on our hands) and she truly does eat what we do.  I made a few purees that I froze in ice cube trays so I can pop one out when need be but really I just give her bits of whatever the rest of us are having.  She's a big fan of cheerios, eggs, oatmeal and/or fruit in the morning, pieces of bread, turkey, avocado for lunch and chicken, pulled pork (seriously she could win pulled pork eating contests), green beans, corn, mushrooms, sweet potatoes, whatever....for dinner. And Grandpa is ensuring she has a sweet tooth as he likes to sneak her cinnamon rolls, muffins, ice cream, you name it.   There is honestly not a food she doesn't like (knock on wood), except of course for the one thing that would be nice every now and then - a bottle of formula.  I can't complain since I did it to myself but Reese and I tried to get her to take one the other day and it was like chasing around a goat who was full and wanted nothing to do with the bottle.  Only four more months till sippy cup time, right?  Then I can go out again for longer than 3 hours....

iPhone updates

This will be random and all over the place.
Every child has LOVED the Keurig k-cups.  It is one of the best toys in the house (behind the remote, but only the remote that actually works, not an old replacement, these kids are wicked smart).  And it's only good until they start puncturing the tops with their teeth and you may or may not see your child with brown bits of coffee grounds in their mouth (ahem, Reese, ahem).

 Reesey back in the day...

 And with Ryan helping out....

And they are still one of my go-to toys for distracting these hellions angels while I try to make dinner....that and Tupperware.   Emerson wouldn't even know what to do with a legit Mattel toy if you gave her one.  

We'll just file this one under the 'random sh*t a 5 year old can come up with to wear out of the house' category: 

 We got our first legit babysitter for Emerson a few weeks ago (embarrassing, right?  at almost 8 months old), granted I was only gone one hour, but clearly she had a good time.  We're trying it again next week - here's hoping to a life outside the house again!

 Reese is hilarious at the park.....little boys flock to her and she holds court and roars in their faces, orders them around, manically laughs and they all love her.

 We finished up with Mr. Chuck over the summer and occasionally you go back for a quick refresher lesson (just to make sure I haven't screwed them up) - last one he busted out his underwater camera.

 Now with Ryan at school, this one is my new.....

 Grant has been traveling quite a bit lately (and over weekends) so the four of us have become quite close (sometimes a bit too much when our patience is wearing thin with each other).

 Ryan likes to dress Emerson up....

 Reese told me the other morning (at 5am nonetheless) that she wanted to be a mermaid for Halloween.  Later that day as we were strolling through Sam's Club with grandma, what do we spot.....  Good heavens.  She wears this constantly and now demands to be called Aerial.  $1,000 the costume doesn't even make it to Halloween as it already has a nice sized whole up the side.

 9 times out of 10 Reese passes out in the car line to pick up Ryan.  9 times out of 10, she is Aerial.

 We've been walking Ryan up to school in the mornings...forced hug photo op.

 And did I mention Emerson is a helluva a crawler now?  She had her first encounter with a step stool.