4 Months of Emmy

We put together a video of our first four months with Emmy. Its really amazing to see how quickly she is changing. She is literally becoming more beautiful by the day. The video also served as a reminder of just how clueless we were those difficult first months. I didn’t even know to hold a newborn -- I still don’t know if I do.

The song in the video was very prominent during Ashlee’s pregnancy. Its a well known hymn, “Come Thou Fount”, but we were actually introduced to it through the TV show Friday Night Lights. We fell in love with the song immediately and it ended up following us all throughout Ashlee’s pregnancy. We would hear it everywhere in different forms and it seemed like a really fitting song to serve as a soundtrack for our baby girl.

{Friday Phone Dump}

{This is how most of our walks end up now a days -- Emmy hates strollers}

{Her smiles make everyone else smile}

 

 {I swear I don't have her in the same outfit everyday}

 {Dinner with girlfriends}

 {Concert time}

{Josh Ritter -- The happiest performer there ever was}

 

 {Brothers}

 {BFF}

 {We love Saturday mornings}

 {Church with my girl}

 {Emmy's first trip to Happy Sumo}

 {One of my eyes and one of Nicks? -- Maybe}

 {Nick sure knows how to plant a good garden}

 {Cousin Sawyer}

 {Cousin Grace}

 {On my nightly drive I like to take pictures of sunsets}

 {Toys}

 {Toys}

{And more toys}

 {... As long as Mama or Daddy are close by}

 {Nick made me}

 {This is what I see when I wake up in the morning -- Usually about 5:30AM}

{Fire sunset}

 

 {Emmy's blessing outfit -- More to come from that beautiful day}

Emmy @ 3 months

What a difference a month makes. Our grumpy two month old who seemed to spend all waking hours balling has transformed into a (mostly) happy baby.

I think the transformation was out of necessity. A month ago we were at our breaking point. Having a new little roommate who spends her days screaming, pooping, and keeping you up all night can be exhausting so we are glad that phase has passed.

Emmy is now smiling all the time. When she wakes up in the morning she is ridiculously cute. She begins waving her hands and kicking her feet out of excitement when we pick her up and she doesn’t stop smiling. This can make it difficult on mornings where she wakes up far too early. We don’t want to encourage her staying up by smiling back -- but we can never resist.

She constantly keeps us guessing. We went to Bear Lake a few weeks ago and we were not looking forward to the drive. She still hasn’t warmed up to her car seat so we weren’t ready for a three hour drive. She was perfect on the drive both there and back. (Although she wasn’t the best baby while we were there).

Then on the fourth of July we were expecting her to wake up every time a firework went off. She is extremely jumpy. If I do something as little as close the bathroom door the wrong way she tosses her arms up like she is being robbed at gunpoint and begins crying. Because of this reflex we weren’t thrilled at the combination of our old windows which keep no sound out, and may actually amplify noise, and the pop and bangs of fireworks.  

Our neighbors do “Streetium of Fire” right in front of our home. It's not your average neighborhood firework show. When Ash and I walked out to join the pre-firework bbq the first thing we noticed was an actual fire suit laying on the grass across the street. We knew it meant we were in for a real show. The firework show did not disappoint. While we sat on our porch watching the fireworks we had a video monitor going so we would be ready to run in and help Emmy when she began crying. She didn’t even fuss. Not even during the grand finale which people could have confused for the actual stadium of fire.

After all of this we were beginning to feel like we really underestimated her. Every time we were expecting her to be rotten she was a perfect baby. We decided we better give her a little more credit. This past weekend we went to St. George and instead of dreading the drive we were just expecting her to be pleasant like she was on our trip to Bear Lake. Turns out we should have been dreading it. She may not have screamed the entire drive -- but it felt like it. Needless to say we will not be going on another road trip for another two to five years.

While Emmy is growing and becoming a better baby -- Ashlee’s anxiety is not. This past month, to go with our breathing monitors, we invested in a night vision webcam that we can control remotely so we can literally always watch her. Our nursery is beginning to look more like a military base than an actual place a child would want to sleep.

Emmy seems to be hitting all the baby “milestones”. Her neck is getting much stronger, which is great for me. I no longer have to worry that I’m going to break her everytime I pick her up. She is playing with her hands and feet more and can entertain herself long enough that we can sit her down more often. She loves pushing her blankets and toys up to her face and then trying to eat them. She is a sucker for stripes. She has a striped skirt that we can’t let her wear anymore because she is just hypnotized by the sight of it. She has also developed the “stink eye” glare. She gives it to me everytime I take her out of the bath. Its probably just a look of pure confusion, but it looks an awful lot like the stink eye to me.

Three months is a whole lot better than two months. Hopefully this is a trend that will continue. There are still the rough days where making it through the day is more a matter of surviving than it is living. Ashlee is developing into a better Mom everyday, whereas I’m still playing the part of the clueless Dad. The other day we had a diaper blowout situation and I found myself just cleaning up her filthy onesie with my bare hands. Its amazing what a baby can do for you (It’s also amazing that an all liquid diet has the results that it has). Before we had her the thought of even changing a diaper used to make me gag. I remember thinking that I would have a pack of latex gloves on our changing table.  Now I am so in love with her I don’t even think twice about things like that. Whatever makes Emmy comfortable/happy... although in full disclosure some of her diapers do make me gag. 

Streetium of Fire

July 4th

 I'm positive we live in the best neighborhood ever.

Patten Reunion at Bear Lake