First Food

First the facts:

> Emerson is nearly 6 months now.

> She woke up at 11:30 last night (and heartily ate) for the first time since probably Sept.

> She has been watching me eat a lot lately.

> Steve bought rice cereal 2 months ago.

There comes a time in every baby's life when the facts are stacked against Mom. And that time has come :(

Based on this we gave Em her first taste of semi-solid food today and she didn't do too bad!:

BTW, she did manage to get some of it in her mouth!

* Next week - bananas!!

Santa, Jesus, and the Colts (of course!)

It's been a busy couple of weekends for little Emer and family. Winter is definitely upon us with the 2 and a half hour long drive I took home from work on Tuesday thanks to the ice and freezing winds threatening to blow our house down. We've seen a little snow, and Em seems to like looking at it. It's easy for her though, we just bundle her into her carrier and away we go! And here's where we've been going to:

After a Colts game we were just relaxing at home when we got a call from a woman at church. The family designated to represent Baby Jesus and parents had bailed on the performance and they were in need of a new baby. We didn't have anything going on and I thought it would be fun so Em and I headed off to church and costumed ourselves up!

Yes, she's a very large newborn!, but she played the part well! Towards the end (about 1.5 hours in!) she started to get fussy and tired but every time a group of people would come by she would stop crying and watch them quietly. Do we have a future Hollywood star on our hands?!? Goodness I hope not!

The following weekend we shared a different tradition with Emer - Santa!

The Pike YMCA where I work hosted Santa for breakfast. Everyone got pancakes and fruit to eat and the kids got to sit on Santa's lap and tell him what they wanted for Christmas. I'm not sure Em had decided what she wanted, but she seemed to like him. She even took away a chunk of his beard, ooops!

After all this excitement, and a couple more wins for the Colts, we decided it was nap time. And Steve decided it was photo time.

Wow those close Colts games wear us out!

Have a wonderful Holiday everyone!

Baptism and Other Exciting Things

So I'm back! And with fun pics of Em to share. First off, sorry for the delay in posting things. I got a new phone (yep, got the Dare!) for my birthday and playing with it has kind of taken over a lot of my time. This phone is amazing. It takes great pics and has a super fun editing option. The pic of my brother that I use for his ID has been doctored up to where he is wearing a crown. LOL! I took a pic of him watching Emmy then cropped him out of it, put a crown on his head, and blew it up to a regular size pic. All on my phone. Awesome, right?! It also allows me to send a slide show of a few pics to people as a pix message. And for texting messages I can either type out the message with the regular phone numbers/letters or use a full keyboard or use the handwriting recognition feature. I usually use the regular numbers b/c I'm used to them and very fast with them. But I've been known to kill time by drawing on the drawing board feature and saving funny pics there. I also have a tip calculator as well as a regular calculator. Very handy when out to eat! I've been working to transfer everything from my old phone's calendar to my new phone's calendar. Which is a lot of fun to touch and slide from day to day...Wait, am I still talking about my phone? Sorry, it's so very cool I can't help it! But you all checked in to find out about Em so here you go:

Saturday November 29th: My birthday. We took Em to our friend's Friend Thanksgiving and she was wonderful. She just hung out and watched everyone and never got upset. What a good baby!

Sunday November 30th: Baptism. My mom has been asking when we were going to get her baptised (Emmy, not my mom!). So I finally set it up for today. We had nearly the entire family there which was very nice. Shown here is Uncle Scotty, (Aunt Eron is there, beside Scotty, but unfortunately you can't see her in this pic.), Great Uncle Kurt, Great Grandma Irene, Grandma, Daddy, Mommy, Emerson, Grammy, and Poppy. Minister Linda Johnson is doing the talking.

After the ceremony Linda walked down the aisle with Em while everyone sang Jesus Loves Me. She was near tears but held it together like a wonderful baby!

October/November pics: My mom (Grammy) takes a lot more pics than we do so here are a couple she took in late Oct. and Nov.: (Thanks for taking pics for us!)

She's also changing into a fun, personable little person.

* She's been fond of sitting but she's now getting better able at holding herself up. We put her in the boppy and she barely use it to hold herself up.

* She has some favorite toys also - she seems to like things that crinkle.

* This week she decided it would be fun to talk more. So she babbles on and on and I have no idea what she is saying but she's having a fun little conversation! She also yells at me when I'm taking too long to do something. It's kind of funny and I hope it passes, but I know what I was like as a teen so I don't have too high of hopes for this to pass...

I will try to post pics more often. I've got a ton of them on my new awesome phone. It's just a matter of transfering them to the computer...Thanks for stopping by. I hope you have enjoyed the update!

Photo Update!

The O-C household has been having a good time watching summer fade into fall, even though it's a bit colder than the girls would prefer. (How fun is that, there are girls, plural, living in my house! I hope I always think of it as fun...) Here are some of the things we've been doing:

Emmy was a bunny for Halloween. Here is her hat, the body was a little too big!

She likes to sit up and check out the world around her:

Emmy is an official member of the Colts Crib Club now:

We loved the game tonight! And hope you have enjoyed this quick update :)

Four Month Update

Yes, Emerson is 4 months old. Can you believe it?! I'm still amazed at how easy it's been to settle into being a parent. I guess we really did wait until we were ready b/c it's just so fun (usually) to take care of Emmy. The best part is, working at a primary school I get great ideas for when she's older. For example, on Friday (Halloween!) all the classrooms had Fall Harvest Parties. [Yea, they were Halloween parties but in today's mixed up world you can't have a Halloween party anymore so the name is now Fall Harvest.] Anyway, I am just so excited for Emmy to make some friends and we'll invite them all over for a Halloween party where we make and decorate carmel apples, eat yummy cookies and gummy foods, and wear costumes, even bob for apples when she gets a few years older. Doesn't that all sound like so much fun?!?!

Woo hoo! I'm a mom!
LMAO! Anyway, here is the update on Super Cutie Em:
Height - 25.25 inches, 85% percentile
Weight - 13 lbs, 4.5 oz, 50% percentile
Head - 15 3/4 inches, 25% percentile
Milestones - she watches us a lot more now. And also rarely sleeps during the day, it seems. She's drooling all over the place and sucks a finger, or a thumb, or her bink, or her fist. It was the funniest today to see her sucking her pointer finger. She would occassionaly gag b/c she would stick it too far in her mouth! She'll figure it out, and still be cute, I'm sure :)

Now I'd love to download some pics and post them but the card reader is upstairs and it's too cold to get up and get it right now. Also, Grammy has some great pics on her camera that she needs to send me so I can post them as well. So hopefully I'll post a couple tomorrow and more whenever I see Grammy again. In the meantime, just stay tuned and check back soon :)

Catching You Up

And here's your update! I have pictures galore and decided to just post the pics with a short blip explaining each one. These pics have been taken over the past few weeks and I think you'll enjoy them. So here you go!

Great Aunt AB gave Emmy the pretty bracelet that she's wearing. You can kind of see it in this pic. You can at least see something shiny on her arm! She seems like to it and we think it's cute :)

Emmy watches every Colts game with us. They are going to get better, she will believe me that they are a great team. I just know it!

Here she is enjoying her second game with her daddy:

Since I do most of the picture taking it's rare that I get in one. Here's me and Emmy/\ And here's a better pic of just Emmy:

Demitri has found another fav spot to hang out. They are friends, so it's all good :)

I took Emmy up north to visit her Great Granny. She had a good time hanging with out her:

Look how big she is getting in her swing!!:

So I took her to our neighborhood park for a swing on the "big people" swings!

I hope you have enjoyed the update. I'll try to not take so long in the future to update you all! I do know, there will be another blog posted at the end of the month b/c she has her 4 month appointment coming up then. So until then, have a great month!

UPDATE COMING

This is to everyone who keeps asking if I have any new pics of Emmy. The answer is - A few. And I will get those posted with some fun little stories sometime in the next couple of days.

I PROMISE!!!

Things just get busy and I don't take tons of pics b/c I forget that she's growing. When I see her everyday I don't see the changes that people who only see her once a week or do see. But I was just uploading pics and noticed these:

Sometime in her first month of life: Just a couple of weeks ago:

So I guess she is growing! More to come later, when I don't have to run off to teach at the Y :)

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8 Week Appointment

And we're back! I know it's been a while but there hasn't been much to report. Sure there are small things - she's trying hard to roll over, she's awake a LOT more during the day, she's consistently sleeping 6+ hours a night, usually more, etc.
But these are normal mile stones and while they are fun, they are not spectacular and exciting for everyone.

As for pictures, how many times can I show the same baby in the same pose with open eyes or closed eyes? I know she's completely adorable, and some days I love seeing that Ribbit pic on my screen saver at work!, but really, more pics of the same?! I will spare my readers.


Anyway, let the rambling end and the info begin:
* Emerson Rachel Cripe had her first full round of shots yesterday. I left the room b/c I'm a serious trypanophobe but Daddy stayed with her and was very good. I could actually hear her screaming from outside the room so I know she hated them. But she was very good and stopped crying as soon as they were done and she was picked up. What a trooper!

* She continues to grow! She is now 23 1/4 inches long (I think this was still around the 70th percentile or something) and 11 lbs 1 oz in weight (this is something like 55th percentile). Her head is proportionate to her and is at the 50-something percentile as well.

* The doc says she is "more than perfect" and we agree :)


So little Miss Perfect went home with her family and did a couple more exciting things that afternoon. First off, she smiled at me!!! I swear she did. To support this, she smiled at Grammy today: (this was the best pic she could get to send me at work). She's even more cute, is that possible?! BTW, this afternoon she smiled at her dad who's heart melted. Wait until she says Daddy for the first time - it will all be over, he'll be a blubbering mess!

But she then started feeling really crappy. This was not fun for anyone. She was crying and screaming and all we could do was walk around and talk quietly until she found a position to be in that was comforting. She ended up falling asleep on my chest. Poor thing...


And finally:

I did a little decorating in Emmy's room! The pic on the wall was done by Gram-in-law Hullinger. The crib was a gift from Grandma, the quilt came with the bedding set courtesy of (Great?) Aunt Kumiko and Uncle Mike and the ruler on the wall was also made by Gram-in-law Hullinger to help chart her ridiculous growth!

Emmy seems to like her new set up :)


And life rolls on! I will try to update this more often b/c I think she's going to be rolling over soon, maybe growing some hair again someday, petting the cats, and many other things babies do as they get older and more exciting. In the meantime, be comforted to know that when I am busy Demitri is happy to help out:

Happy Labor Day Weekend!

It's 1:38 am...she's sleeping...

Well, as the title informs you, it's 1:38 am and I'm awake but Emmy and Steve are sleeping. I should be asleep but I woke up on the couch about midnight having fallen asleep around 10:45. (For those of you who know me well, I just pulled a Steve! LOL!) I figured Emmy would be up soon for a midnight snack so I would just stay awake until she got up. See, at that point it had been 3.5 hours since she finished her dinner. It's now 5 hours since she finished dinner! What is going on?! Is this the miraculous, "OMG is she still alive?!?!?" night? Should I wake her up at some point? Will she wake up on her own soon? Will my ginormous and completely full 'dinner bowls' explode? (It kind of feels like they are going to!) I guess I'll have to wait and see...maybe I'll wake her up at 2:00...hmmmm...

Well let's catch you up while we're waiting. I apologize for not having any new pics. I've gotten out of the habit now since she basically looks the same, only slighter larger, by the day. But here's a list of things we've been doing, that I should have taken pics of:

* A second Colts game! Yes, we lost this one as well, but again we're OK with it as it's still pre-season. And Emmy stayed awake for some of this one :)
* The State Fair! Emmy slept through most of this and because she had been a little fussy the night before we didn't wake her up. I did think about getting her up to get a pic beside by the biggest boar but she was only sort of asleep at that point, and quiet. We let her be :)
* Her first day of babysitting! I went to work on Monday and Wednesday of this week and she enjoyed Daddy/Daughter time. But today Steve and I both had to work so she went out to Grammy's for the first full day. At one point I got a text from G-Pops saying, "i just fed emmy and she's snoozing here in my office. what a way to work" This was followed by a text from Grammy with a pic of her snoozing. <<>> Here's the pic Grammy sent:

Ooooh, I hear her stirring. Perfect timing as that was all the updates I had! I'm thinking maybe I'll make a video in my spare time so check back later to see if I got all motivated for that. Thanks for checking in!

Go Colts!!

This past Sunday was a very important day in terms of the football world. It was the first game of the 2008-09 NFL season (pre-season Hall of Fame game) and it featured the Indianapolis Colts!!! But that's not all...

We also introduced the newest Colts fan to her favorite team, visually!

Emmy heard many games from the 2007-08 season but had never seen a game until this Sunday. As you can see, it was an exciting experience; one that tuckered her out pretty quickly :)

She was able to show us her best "touchdown" pose, though:

I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot more of this pose as the season continues!

* On a side note, the Colts lost. But we are all OK with that b/c, as Emmy's parents know, the year we won the Super Bowl we didn't win a single pre-season game. For now, though, she will just have to trust us that they are the best team out there!!!

Little Wildflower

Yesterday Emmy had her 1 month doctor appointment. Can you believe she's already a month old?! Even more unbelievable - her size! Here she is getting ready for her appointment:

She just finished a huge stretch while I was getting a fresh, new outfit ready for her.

She looks tiny still, don't you think? I thought so! The truth of the matter is, Emmy now weighs a whopping 9 lbs 6 oz!!! She's also grown nearly 2 inches and is now 22 inches long!!! This puts her in the 60th percentile for weight and 80th for height. You all know me - I'm pretty small. And Steve is just a smidge above average. How do we have a wildflower for a child?! I must somehow make super milk :)

Now I wanted to have a picture to show you of Emmy's fabulous athletic ability but I can't seem to have the camera available at the right times. When we play with her on her tummy she can hold her head up for minutes at a time. And she looks around, alert. Her arms are crazy strong as well as she uses them to hold her upper body up so she can look around. According to some book that Steve has these are milestones a 3 month old should be showing. It seems like we've got an athlete on our hands!

But then she wears herself out and naps in the cutest positions, like this:

I'm just so happy with my tiny and growing little Wildflower of a child!

* Bath Time!!! *

Woo hoo! I have big news for everyone! But first, an apology:

I'm terribly sorry for not posting anything over the past week. It turns out babies are not that exciting. Emmy basically eats, sleeps, gets changed, and occasionally stares into space. She can't go out in crowds yet so she's confined to the house, neighborhood, and park. So there hasn't been a whole lot to write about or show you!

Now, on with the exciting news:

Emmy lost her umbilical cord this week! I decided to have some fun and take a Big People Bath with her. She seemed to really like it! She would tilt her head back to get her hair wet, move her arms and legs around, like she was swimming, and she generally enjoyed it.

This is fabulous news b/c I love to go swimming and was going to be sad if I didn't have a water baby. Now I know that as soon as we are both given the OK, we'll be hitting the pool.

And that's the excitement in the O-C household :)

Emerson's Fashion Show

Coming soon - Emerson's Fashion Show

Check back in a few days to see a fashion shoot I've been working on spotlighting clothing from a variety of friends and family :)

~~~~~~~~~~BREAKING NEWS~~~~~~~~~~

The Fashion Show will be posted no later than Monday, July 21st. We've had some hold ups on a couple of outfits but everything will be good to go by Mon.

Thanks!

7 lbs 4 ounces!!!

You read that right, Little Em has gained weight in the first week of her life. We left the hospital with her weighing 6 lbs 10 oz. Today we had her first doctor appointment and she weighed a stunning 7 lbs 4 oz!!! Woo hoo, you go, little girlie!

She's opening her eyes more and spending a few more minutes awake after eating than she had been before. I can't believe she's already a week old. It is true, time flies when you're having fun.

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This morning I played Annie Lebowitz and took some artistic shots of Emerson. Here's my fav. What do you think?

I just think she's the cutest thing I've ever seen! Someday, when she's a teenager, I'll have this blog saved so I can look back at what life was like during her first week on earth. I'm sure I'll be thinking, "Wasn't that just yesterday?"

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On a completely different note, today is Steve and my 10th anniversary! Happy Anniversary, Steve. I love you so much. You have proven over the past 10+ years to be the best husband a woman could ask for. I know I spent a great deal of life saying I'd never get married and I'm so glad you changed my mind.

This new adventure we're on is just showing me even more that you are amazing. I've never seen such love from someone as I've seen you show Emmy and myself this past week. You have been wonderful to me through everything as we learn how to be parents. You have gone above and beyond anything I could have asked for. Being a parent is the easiest job in the world, with you by my side.

Here's to many more happy, wonderful, and supportive years! :-X

The Promised Pics!

Emerson Rachel Cripe, at just about an hour old:

<- And here's the Happy Family, about a half an hour after she was born.

Uncle Scotty got to be there for her first pics as well!

G-pops and Grammy are proud grandparents :) Don't they just look so happy?!

Grandma adores Emmy as well! ->

I think I'll put the rest of the pics in a slide show, that way if you aren't interested in looking at baby pic after pic you can skip right to the written blogs.

So things are going well so far! Knock on wood (please do this to help us!) she's been sleeping and eating like a pro. Steve and I have completely opposite sleep patterns and we thought it would work out perfect for this whole thing and it has. We're averaging about 5-6 hours of sleep a night and then a nap during the day. That's about what Steve usually would get and actually more sleep than I usually run on!

The cats are doing well and have readily accepted Emmy in their home. I figure having a daughter helps balance the house - 3 boys and 2 girls :)

I don't really have a lot to say today so I'll sign off for now. Feel free to comment on the pics and check back later for more updates!

Emerson's First Days

Announcing Emerson Rachel Cripe!!!

She was born at 4:33 this afternoon and weighed 7lbs.

Check back in a few days for pics :)

Oh, OOWwwwwwww!!!

So this could be pre-labor, stomach issues, or actual labor. Who's to say. All I know is I do NOT feel well today. I keep having to burp or run to the bathroom (well, since I'm having weird cramps I sort of hobble to the bathroom), and then I'm good for an hour. Some things don't add up with this:

* Everything I've heard and read says that walking making contractions feel a little better. In the midst of these cramps I can hardly stand!

* Once I go to the bathoom I feel better for a while. Did I just eat something wrong yesterday?

* Sometimes the pain lasts and lasts. Contractions are supposed to subside at some point, right? This morning I was cramping for over 2 hours straight!

* Around 10:00 I thought it had to be contractions b/c the cramps were coming more often. But then they backed off again and went to one an hour again.

Although, they are a lot more often now.

Maybe I should call the doctor...

The Bet

And the bet is on!

Every year I bet on the results of the Super Bowl (well, except the year the Colts were in it, of course, b/c who would bet against them!?!). This year was the first year in a long time that I won the bet. Way to go Eli!

Then my QUASH team just won an award for Best Costume at the Alzheimer's Association's scavenger hunt fund raiser. It was awesome!!!

So now I'm feeling pretty confident than I'm going to win this latest bet. First off, by winning I will get to choose where we go for our first date as parents. I already have a few ideas of what I want to do so it should be a great day/evening.

Now here's the bet:

I bet I would not "pop" until after next Tuesday. (Keep in mind that my due date is the 4th of July.)

Steve bet that I will go before Tuesday. (He's keeping in mind that I'm now basically 4 cm dilated.)

So I would like your comments and opinions on who you think will win the bet. Of course I'll let you all know who wins by posting info and pics when it does happen. I anticipate possibly posting a blog mid-labor :) Unless my doc is correct and it only takes an hour or so...hmmm...at any rate, I'll be sure and let you all know!

Wish me luck!!!

My Kitties, as Promised

Still Hanging In There...

Quick update, in case anyone was wondering how the appointment went this week:

* I'm still 3 cm and the kid is hanging in there! I've told it that it has to hang in until after Saturday b/c I really, REALLY want to QUASH!!! Go Team Scattered!

* My doctor thinks I'm crazy, actually most doctors do, b/c I am enjoying myself so much. I guess most people at this point can't wait to get it out of them. Oh well, maybe they are delusional about how it's going to be after their kids are born, but I just know that this time of carrying it around with me is the easiest it's ever going to be raising it. Plus, I love having my little friend with me at all times! :) (Yes, I'm a freak.)

* That's about it. No other updates right now. I do promise to get pics of my kitties up soon. I was going to do it this morning but I'm on the laptop and my pics are all saved on the desktop. So stay tuned...

It's a Coming...

I've been given my first restriction, my first taste of limited activity - I can no longer go to the pool. I now know what it feels like to be told not to do things and it kind of stinks!

For those of you not in the know (which is probably the majority of the readers here) I'm 3 cm dilated with my first kid! I've had the easiest 8.5 months ever - my husband is sure most pregnant women hate me. From the back, and ocassionally the front depending on the shirt I'm wearing, you would never know I'm pregnant. I love this. I love feeling like everything I thought it was going to be (easy, fun, exciting) is turning out just as I thought. And I fully believe it's b/c I am so active and have good genes. My mom never had any sickness or anything with me or my brother. She's also very active. We're workaholics and work-outaholics - I would highly recommend this when getting pregnant.

But this last week we had a small scare. I didn't know I could be starting to dilate and not know it! I also didn't know that would keep me from taking a bath or swimming. Because of the crappy storms lately I've only gotten to the pool once this summer so let's hope the kid likes to swim as much as I do so we can both go later in the summer!

That's about it for now. I've got 3 weeks until the 4th of July and do not want it to end. I love this whole experience and wish it could go on a little longer. But check back soon for updates and pics. And feel free to comment on things. I'll be happy to respond to any comments or questions! Have a wonderful summer, everyone :)