Emma Baby

My sweet little Emma is 6 months old. 

6 MONTHS OLD! 

I'm really trying to enjoy every moment since she's most likely my last.  But I've found that in doing so, I'm kinda making myself miserable.  I keep saying things like "this is my last tiny baby...last one month old baby...last fully nursing baby," etc. to ensure that I appreciate every. single. moment., but the constant reminders are a little bit depressing.  How do I give special attention to the moment, without highlighting the finality of it all?  What a conundrum.

Well anyway, my little cutie patootie is six months old now, and she's just as adorable as ever. She's my little hummingbird, because she's constantly making humming noises. Not singing-humming, just a hmmm-mmm-mmmm sound. She makes it when she's happy/laughing, and also when she's starting to get upset. It can be a little confusing until she starts full-on crying, and then I know what's going on. She's doing all kids of cute things...blowing raspberries all day, rolling that chubby little body of hers all over the place, biting Mommy with her two little bottom teeth (got them at 5 months like Lydia), letting out high pitched happy squeels at restaurants and church, scarfing down graham crackers like there's no tomorrow, and pursuing a never-ending quest of seeing, touching, and yes, tasting absolutely anything and everthing that she can find. 

For being my smallest baby she sure looks like a chubby little munchkin.  It's all in the CHEEKS!  In fact, if the word "cheeks" didn't bring to mind two different things, I would probably make it her nickname.

They always like Mommy WAY more than Daddy until they grow up and discover that Mommy's the mean one that makes them do their chores, finish their homework, get to bed on time...  Then Daddy becomes the hero.

 So tiny!  I bet she couldn't even fit in that little bucket thingy anymore!

Her hair Au Naturale -

Emma loves her swing.  She actually even takes all her naps and sleeps through the night in it.  Well, at least she USED TO sleep through the night a couple of months ago, but then she stopped for some reason and is now waking up in the middle of the night and joining us in bed.  Oh well.  Let them be little, right? 

Savanna always makes sure she has some entertainment while she's in her swing -

Emma is such an active little thing.  Constantly kicking, squirming, rolling, and all the while making farting noises.  It's pretty impressive. 

As you can see she's not much of a smile-er.  She will flash a small smile every once in a while, but you better have a fast camera or you're going to miss it.  Even though she doesn't do the big, open-mouthed, grin-whenever-someone-looks-at-her smiles, she's still a very content baby. 

 All that crazy kicking makes for an exciting bath time!

First pony tail -

At this stage, I had to hold her hands down if I ever wanted a picture without her chewing on them!

Emma is OBSESSED with her feet.  I remember trying and trying to get Lydia to grab her feet (because it was a milestone Kids On the Move wanted to cross off), but she was never interested.  Not a problem with this one.

She also is ALWAYS sucking in her bottom lip.  I'm actually surprised how many pics I found with her lip OUT, because until she got her bottom teeth, it was constantly in there! 

 Lip in and playing with the feet again!

Looks like someone's been spending lots of time playing with her brothers!

In case you couldn't tell, that was a Jedi robe that's just a few sizes too large. ;)

 You probably won't be surprised to hear that she's a really good eater-

As you can see we've been having SO MUCH fun with our little Emma baby.  She's SO sweet, and even though it makes me sad to see her grow up, it's awesome to start seeing her little personality come out.  Love, Love, Love you Emma!

Back to School...ALREADY?!

I'm not done with my summer blogposts, but I'm going to go ahead and throw in my back to school post so that it doesn't end up coming out in November.  Here are my little cutie-kins before school this morning -

Carter looks pretty happy considering that he kept saying today is "the worst day of his life."

 I had to take several of this shot because Carter kept making silly faces

 like this -

and this -

Aside from the massive trip on thin air and fall on my face with my camera shooting 10 feet out in front of me that I performed this morning, I'd say first day drop off went pretty well.  Emma slept in so I could use 2 arms to get everyone ready, it took me less than 5 minutes to convince Meleah that we had to do SOMETHING with her hair (rather than just leave it "long and blonde"), the little ones didn't cry after we dropped them off.... And fortunately, my fall was actually better than it could have been.  I just suffered a skinned knee and one Dad laughing out loud at me (can't blame him, because I would have been laughing too).  Everyone else was kind enough to pretend that they didn't see me.  PLUS my camera still works.  Not too shabby. 

None of Carter's previous girlfriends are in his class, so it will be interesting to see who he has a crush on this year.  Also, don't look too closely but I CUT HIS HAIR myself!  As a public service announcement, I'd like to say that it's NOT a good idea to head out at 6:45 pm to take your son to get his hair cut on the day before school starts.  You will be told at 3 different locations that they are not taking any more clients because they are booked for the day.  Just so you know.  Apparently I am not the only procrastinator in the world.

It may not be perfect, but I do think it's a slight improvement from this -

This is a picture from when Carter brought me breakfast in bed that he made all by himself a couple of weeks ago.  He made eggs with cheese and bacon bits (Not a single shell, and bounce off the walls rubbery - just how I like them.), along with yogurt.  He even brought me a baby spoon because that's how I like to eat yogurt and pudding.  And it was all done and delivered at ten to seven...during sleep-in summer.  It was very sweet.  ;)

Meleah was so excited after the "Meet Your Teacher" yesterday that she wanted to go to bed right away so that tomorrow would come sooner. That's why I was a little surprised to see these slightly teary eyes when it was time to line up.  I think she was just a little overwhelmed, but I'm sure she'll be fine this afternoon. 

I don't know if it's cause my little Meleah was a bit sad or what, but I am SO bummed out right now.  I remember DREADING the first day of school last year, but when it came I actually appreciated how peaceful my house was.  Of course, I was also in my morning sick pregnancy phase so the kids were totally bored all summer, and at each other's throats.  This year I've been able to keep them pretty busy with parks, play dates, camping, etc. so the fighting has been pretty minimal.  I just seriously can't believe how fast the summer flew by!  Hopefully the school year will be just as fast and it will be summer again before we know it! 

"Da Red Bwankie"

My kids are OBSESSED with this beautiful red quilt that my Grandma Jensen gave me for my High School graduation.  They fight over it ALL THE TIME.  We have at least 50 - 60 "blankies" in this house (Not. Even. Kidding.) and yet they all want the one that's completely falling apart.  I can't blame them, though.  It IS an AWESOME blanket.  And Grandma would want it to be used, and not stored in some closet. (Safe from all destructive children.) So, I guess I'll let my kids snuggle up in it's warmth and tell them that it's like they're getting a hug from my sweet Grandma Jensen.  I would LOVE  to have another warm hug from her right now... I guess I'd better go get in on all that fighting!