2:00 am, can't sleep...

Well I have to say I haven't posted many 2:00 am blogs in a couple of years but here I go! I just thought since I was awake I'd write a few things down that I love about my Tiny.

A list, in no particular order:

* She's a Mini Me!!! Yes this is frightening in so many ways, but makes my life so fun in a million more ways. I fully understand her bad moods (sleepy? hungry? both?) and fully appreciate and love her goofiness.

* She's a total actress! She has been crying when requested for well over a year but now she adds drama to any situation, she fake laughs, she pulls attitude all the time, and makes up stories with her "friends".

* Apparently, though, this last one is also a mini rendition of me. As a kid I guess I used to line up my toys and have conversations between them and create stories and Emer is the queen of doing this. It's awesome to watch!

* She is naturally talented in gymnastics (according to not just me but also her instructor!). The other day she showed me a handstand with the instructor's help. Emer's toes were perfectly pointed and she kept her arms straight and tight. She was almost doing it on her own!

* However, she is very cautious. She is nervous on the balance beam and I feel like one of my old gymnastics coaches when I prod her to do stuff on her own. I was always so scared and I can tell she has that bit of fear as well. It will hold her back, unless I can find a way to move her past it...

* She has the greatest set of laughs! There is the goofy laugh when she's being completely silly. This is usually accompanied by a fake double-over in laughter. There is the deep, gutteral laugh when she's happy and laughing with others. There is the uncontrolable laugh when she's being tickled or listening to something so funny she can't stop and think. Who knew there were so many different ways for one Tiny 3-year-old to laugh!

* She loves to read! She memorizes books and then reads them to herself or her babies.

* She loves nature! She has an ever-growing collection of sticks, flowers, rocks, pine cones, and now acorns in my car. However, the acorns originally were not for her collection. When I asked her, she replied with, "No mommy, these are for the squirrels". Sorry!

* She loves to swim!! We got a pool recently (one of the big blow up ones, 10ft long, 4ft wide, 3ft or something deep) and she's spent every day in it. And the last time we went to the regular pool she swam the whole time and never got out to play at the splash pad. I was so surprised!

* She just so dang cute!!! I'll do a photo spread soon so you can see some updated pics. I know that's what most readers of this blog want anyway...

And now, since it's 2:15 am, I better get going. Here's hoping Tiny sleeps in tomorrow and takes a nap! Mommy's gonna need a nap :) Good night all and thanks for stopping by!

Big Things are Coming!

August 1st - Emer used a regular cup, without spilling anything, by herself, for the first time today. I know my mom has helped her use a small regular cup, but I have never been able to get her to drink from a cup without dumping it on herself. So this was a very exciting development! She was so proud of herself!

August 2nd - I went back to work for another year of counseling the primary students in Greencastle. I'm excited for school to start, but as I was driving home one day I started thinking about Emer. I wonder what kind of student she will be like...I wonder if she'll make friends easily...I wonder if she'll like reading or math better...I wonder what she'll look like. She's changing slowly, but you can see it when you look closely. (Of course she's still nearly impossible to capture via photograph!)

She's only 2 but I was having trouble remembering what I used to do with my time before she was born. This is usually a romantic thought many people have when they are thinking about a new boyfriend or girlfriend. I never understood it. What did people mean they couldn't remember life before that person? How ridiculous! We make our own lives and don't need someone else to make our lives for us. Geesh. But it's different with a kid. My tiny wonder has given me someone to be with all the time. I can teach her things, show her the world, play in the little world of our backyard, and watch her run around like a crazy person. It's so much more fun than I ever thought! And I know she's not perfect. She has her (my) temper. When she doesn't get enough sleep she gets CRABBY! And who knows what she'll decide to eat when we sit down to a meal. (Hmmm, that also sounds a lot like me...)

Random side thought - do you think my love for Emer makes me a narcissist???

August 4th - I was able to put a french braid in Em's hair for the first time! It stayed in all day as well, I was so excited :)

August 8th - Let the potty training begin! I will update this blog next week with our progress. But for now, please wish us luck!!

Pix, Finally!

Here it is!

The pictures you've all been waiting for!

(And yes, I SHOULD be organizing my PartyLite closet and cleaning up the boxes in the dining room, but writing my blog is SOOOO much more fun!)

Enjoy!

Happy 4th of July! And, more importantly, Happy Birthday Emer! Here she is enjoying the flag from her new golf set :)

1.) Not so sure about this birthday cookie thing...

2.) Hmmm, it wasn't too bad! (Hey, Mom can cook! lol!)
1.) 2.)

We wanted to take advantage of our Zoo Membership (it was an early birthday pressie for Em). So after too many gloomy days we decided to go out anyway and we went to the Butterfly Gardens.

Emer loved it!

Even though Poppy was in Alaska on his birthday, we decided to hit the McDonald's and have some birthday ice cream! It was Em's first taste of it.

Like her mama, she loved it!

Finally, there's no story to go along with this picture, she was just too cute to not share with you!

Check back later for the Pike YMCA Family Adventure Slide Show!

Year One Stats Update

I know, I know, I have been slacking on posting here. I've been waiting to get pics from my mom of Emer on her birthday but haven't yet for a variety of reasons. Since she is in Alaska right now, and Em's one year doc appointment was last week, I figured I better just post the stats for everyone. Pics will be coming along someday. So here you go,
The Stats at One Year:
Height = 30 inches
Weight = 18 lbs
Head = (I don't remember!)
Milestones = She's crawling everywhere still and now walks along furniture. In other words, she can hold onto something and walk a few steps. She talks constantly, though I have NO IDEA what she is saying! She is a little spelunker (sp?), trying to get into cabinets and little spaces in the house.
Foods = We got the "go ahead" from the doc to give her nearly everything so we've been trying new little foods over the last week. New foods she's tried include:
grilled cheese,
yogurt,
veggie dogs,
tilapia,
tuna,
bagel and cream cheese.
She really hasn't seemed to not like anything yet, although she's still iffy on bananas!

My thoughts =
* I've been making her a house out of PartyLite boxes; it's going to be awesome! I'll be sure and post pics when it's done. She loves playing in the boxes and it's so cute to see her trying out the door and stuff as I make it!
* It's kind of fun giving her new foods to try. I soooo wish I could give her peanut butter b/c that would make lunch a lot easier. It is really hard trying to come up with different meals all the time. Whoever said it was easier when babies eat real food was on crack. Breastmilk is super easy, figuring out and fixing meals takes all my time! I feel like I am constantly thinking about food - what should we have for lunch? What should we have for dinner? Do we have everything we need for this meal? What do I still need from the store? Do you think she could eat pizza?!
* Finally, we've been vying for the Most Beautiful Baby contest through Fox 59. If you'd like to help please follow this link and vote for her:
http://beautifulbabies.trb.com/wxin/babies_home_gallery,0,4359108,permalink.ugcphotogallery?u=JLO74
You have 1 more week to cast your votes. We Really appreciate the votes!

Thanks so much for checking in and voting for Emer! I PROMISE to have pics up soon. We are doing the Pike YMCA Family Adventure and we take a pic at each stop so I will be posting those very soon. Stay tuned!

Things I Don't Want to Forget

It's the greatest cliche that 'time flies when you're having fun'. And I can't count on one hand how many people have told me that the first year just goes so fast. Well it does fly and it has gone so fast and I realize that I've already forgotten some things about Emerson's first year of life. I have managed to write most of what I wanted to remember in this blog (birth, size at various doc appointments, pics showing her growth, first foods, etc), but I feel the need to make a list of important things that I haven't blogged about yet. So here goes!

-------------------------------------------------------

* I want to remember how I feel right now - I wanted a son, and I know I probably will again in about 11 or 12 years, ha!, but right now I'm so happy with my little daughter and excited to share all kinds of things with her. I am loving it so much that when I think about having another kid I think I would want another girl (ack!). But regardless of whether we have 1 or 2, I'm looking forward to going to the park, going downtown, hitting the zoo together, catching a Colts game, going to New York, etc. with her.

* She's all about fun and games already:

* I want to catch on video her being a total ham. She is so funny around other people - well behaved, a big show off. But I never think about pulling out a camera until I sit down to update this. But then today, I caught this short clip!

She's a funny one, little Emer.

* I hope I never forget her funny jack-o-lantern smile. I can't seem to get a good pic of her smiling lately and the ones other people get do not show off her crazy teeth. But trust me, they are hilarious looking!

* She's a techno baby - she dance's to Daddy's made up techno music and is totally into technology:

* She is a social butterfly and loves hanging with Mommy's friends!

* And because they ALL grow up so fast, we need to remember Emer and cousin Hayden hangin' together as babies!

I hope that some day Emer decides to have a kid and she can share this blog (well, the baby book that will eventually be made out of the blog) with her kid. Of course, I hope this is 30+ years down the road, lol! Stay tuned for a special Birthday Blog to come next week :)

Finally - an Update!

It has been over a week since Emer's doctor appointment and a week and 3 days since her 6 month birthday. So I guess I better give you all an update! Well here you are, facts and pix just for you:

First the Facts:

Height - 27 1/4 inches (90th percentile still!!!)

Weight - 15 lbs 4 oz (50th percentile still)

Head - 16 1/2 inches (just under 50th percentile still)

Foods - She has been eating rice cereal for nearly 3 weeks now and oatmeal for over a week. The doc recommended we try different grains, one a week, then mix them before we move into veggies. After veggies we can try fruit. Funny enough, if a kid aquires a taste for fruit they are less likely to enjoy veggies which is why veggies should come first. We are still on oatmeal, though.

Conclusion - She is continuing to grow at the same rate which is good. If we see a growth spurt in one area but not another or a slow down in one area then we worry, but as she's the perfect baby, there is no cause to worry about anything!

Now the Pix:

Pictured here on Christmas Day with Great Grandma and Grammy.

Over break we also went to visit Great Granny:

Here's just us girls, hanging out on a cold, snowy day!

And to conclude, she's just so cute when sleeping:

Happy New Year!!!

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!

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!

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

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!