Future Lovebirds

Alternate title: Emme's milkshake brings all the boys to the yard

The B-man lovin' on Emme. He's going to be such a good big brother!

Disaster Strikes

The other day we got an error message on the front of our washing machine after a load was put in. When we looked it up in the manual, it said something about having trouble draining the suds, most likely because something was lodged in the drain (like a piece of clothing). We were instructed to remove the front panel and find the blockage.

No sweat, right? Chris is about as handy as they come.

So he sets Emme in the bumbo on the floor of the bathroom right by him and begins to take off the front panel of the machine. When he goes to remove the cap of the drain, it just starts gushing water like crazy! (The manual didn't say anything about water coming out if you remove the cap...but I suppose we should have put two and two together.) Chris starts yelling for help and I run in there, toss him a cup and the salad spinner bowl* I was holding in my hand and he starts bailing water into it. Then I run to the closet and grab an armful of towels and throw onto the floor to sop up the flood that's happening.

All the while, Emme is sitting there in her bumbo, kicking her feet in the water and laughing at her crazy parents.

Long story short, we had water EVERYWHERE in our newly remodeled bathroom. Luckily we were able to sop it all up upstairs, and the downstairs where it leaked through to was already torn out since we're in the process of remodeling.

We removed the blockage (a rogue sock!) and got the machine put back together...but only after having Chris climb in and out of the washing machine closet about 20 times. What a guy.


*Don't worry, I'll wash the salad spinner bowl before the next time anyone comes to dinner. :)

Emme At 5 Months

We sure love our little miss Emme Lou. She just gets bigger and more aware of her surroundings every day. She loves to be sitting up and looking around and being part of the action. The bumbo is our friend. I wish I had one in every room! Emme especially loves textures these days and she wants to feel everything with her hands.

{Hey mom, this bunny's beard is a lot softer than dad's!}

We also think this little chica is starting to teethe. The only thing she ever puts in her mouth is her hands (she could care less about chewing on her toys) but she chomps on them ALL. DAY. LONG. She's also started weaning herself from her binky. She never takes it when she's awake, and only takes it about half the time when we're putting her down to sleep.

Church is disastrous these days because I did such a good job training Emme to sleep in her crib that she won't fall asleep anywhere else (especially church). By the time we get home it's two o'clock in the afternoon and she hasn't had a nap all day, and I wonder why we even went because I was out in the hall the entire time! Sigh.

Emme loves being outside and going on walks. Chris and I take advantage of the good weather whenever we can to put her in the stroller. We love watching Emme discover the sounds of birds and dogs and feel the wind on her face. She gets so excited that she'll coo and talk to the world as we walk. It's adorable! It makes us stop and enjoy the little things in life more, which I love.

Emme also loves her bathtime. I'm worried once she starts sitting up in the bath and playing with more toys we'll never be able to get her out!

{Emme's freshly-washed mullet}

New Toys

Emme just can't get enough of her new toys these days.

The tongue:

The toes:

The pink poodle:

{She won't let go of that thing...even in her sleep.}

The jumperoo:

I just can't get enough of watching her learn and grow and play. It's so fascinating! And it makes me happy to see her so happy, especially with toys like the jumperoo. (Who are these geniuses that work for Fisher Price anyway? I'd like to give 'em a big smack right on the lips!)

Solids

We started Emme on solids the day of her 4-month checkup, because the doctor thought she was ready. We began with sweet potatoes, at her recommendation.

The first time we tried it, she didn't quite know what to do with the food in her mouth.

{Emme's very first bite of solid food}

{It's so funny to spit it all out!}

{Help, my parents are trying to poison me!}

{Ha ha, now you have to bathe me! Take that, Mom and Dad.}

But after a week or so, I couldn't get the spoon to her mouth fast enough! She would do this adorable shake thing, and try to grab the spoon with her hand to get it to her mouth faster. And she figured out that opening her mouth expedited the whole process.

{Helping the spoon to her mouth}

Now we've tried a few more varieties of foods, and most of them she really likes. She even makes an "mmmm" sound when she's eating something she likes, which is super cute. There are only a few things she doesn't love, like bananas:

{Yuck! Give the bananas back to the monkeys, mom!}

Emme's Yum List:
Sweet potatoes
Applesauce
Squash
Prunes
Mixed Whole Grain/Rice Cereal

Emme's Gag List:
Carrots
Peas
Bananas

Now when we set Emme in her bumbo on the table with us while we eat dinner, it's like she knows what spoons and food are. She'll follow your fork with her eyes all the way from your plate to your mouth, like she's saying "gimme some already!" Ha ha! It makes us feel a little bit bad that we can't share our grown up food with her just yet. In a few months maybe!

The Ruffles Are Done

I ended up taking my sewing machine in to get tuned up (which took 3 weeks) before I finished Emme's pettiskirt, mostly because that ruffle foot is a beast of a contraption, as you can see above. It's really jerky by nature, and my machine was having a hard time with it but now it runs like a dream!

For anyone who's interested in making a pettiskirt of their own, my advice would be to skip the hassle and just buy one here! I think it would have been about the same price I paid to make this one, minus the scratching of my eyes out.

But if you're a glutton for punishment, here's a general overview of how to make one:

1. Buy non-fraying nylon chiffon in 2", 3" or 4" rolls here, as well as some satin or acetate and elastic for your waistband. (I used acetate for the waistband, 3" rolls for tiers 1 and 2, and 2" rolls for tier 3.)
2. Then simply run the entire roll through your ruffle foot until you have one long strip, completely ruffled. (Don't be deceived -- it's not simple like it sounds. The chiffon is thin and tricky. But once you get your ruffler on a roll, don't stop...even though the rolls are forever long!)
3. Cut a piece of satin for your waistband 8" tall and the desired waist measurement plus 6" wide, and then attach your first ruffle to the bottom of each side. (The skirt is double-layered to create the desired fullness.)
4. Attach the second ruffle to the bottom of the first. (If your ruffle foot is set at a 6:1 ratio, that means you will need 6 times as much ruffle for tier 2 as you did for tier 1.)
5. Attach the third and smallest ruffle to the bottom of tier 2. (So you will need 6 times as much ruffle for tier 3 as you did for tier 2. See why we ruffle the whole roll? You need a lot of ruffle!)
6. Once you've finished attaching three tiers to each side of your satin base, sew the ends together (to make the skirt loop) and add elastic for the waistband.
7. Voila! Gorgeous pettiskirt.

I ended up sewing 3 tiers to the outside layer of my skirt and only 2 tiers to the inside layer of my skirt (sewing on that third tier makes me want to scratch my eyes out -- it takes forever!). Using one 60 yard roll of 3" chiffon and one 90 yard roll of 2" chiffon, this made two skirts. They were both for very young girls (6 months and 24 months). If I were to make one toddler-sized, I'd probably use 4" and 3" rolls, to make the skirt longer and poofier.

I hope this helps! Let me know if anyone still has questions.

Emme on Babysteals!

Have you heard of Babysteals.com? It's a fun mommy/baby oriented website that features a new deal every day at 9 am, and the items are always at least 50% off retail. It happens to be a Salt Lake based company, so when I ordered something a few weeks ago for Emme, I chose in-store pickup since they're local.

When I walked in their store to pick up my purchase, I had Emme with me. The people at Babysteals couldn't get over how cute Emme was. She's such a flirt these days, and she smiles and coos to anyone who smiles at her.

One of the ladies there happened to be the photographer for their website, and the mother of the woman who owns Babysteals. She asked me if they could take some pictures of Emme for their website, modeling some of their upcoming baby gear. So I of course said yes. She's up on their website today! She's modeling the ErgoBaby changing pad. You can go check it out HERE.

She'll probably be up a few more times in the next few weeks, modeling a few other things they put her in while we were there last week. And they took down my information so they can call me for more baby-modeling-gigs when they get new merchandise in. :)

Laughing

I don't remember what was so funny that day, but Emme sure thought it was hilarious. She does this cute thing now where she gets shy when she smiles and laughs, and she'll turn away her face into whoever's shoulder is nearest. So cute!

Oh, and these are mom's favorite jammies, currently.


And this is what happens when dad plays with baby. He turns her arms into the Michelin man, and baby thinks it's hilarious.

We were all ready...

We were all ready to head out the door this morning, until I accidentally picked Emme up without a burp cloth over my shoulder.

It's like one of the laws of nature. If I pick her up with a burp cloth, she never spits up. Ever.

But the second I pick her up without one, this happens...

Happy Easter

Yesterday morning we waited for Emme to wake up and then took her out to see her Easter basket.

{Oooh, toys!}

She got so excited about the toys that she spit up on herself, ha ha!

{Mmmm. Spit-up moustache.}

She loved all the new toys, and they kept her entertained all through conference.

Since Easter is one of Chris's favorite holidays, he let me get a family photo, via the self timer. Lucky me! Doesn't happen very often. :)


Later in the day we went to Grandma Pace's house for dinner. Emme got to play with the Tucker man...

And with her uncle Stu...


And with Nora Jane. We tried to get a good picture of Emme and Nora Jane in their cute matching dresses, but it turned out to be tricky. Nora Jane is such a little mom that she wanted to "hold" Emme, ha ha. (She's not quite two years old!)

{Sweet kisses}

{Our little ray of sunshine}

And of course, the day wouldn't be complete without Emme spitting up on dad one more time.

{What, mom? It wasn't me, I swear!}