8-month-old Emma

She's been trying more and more foods lately. Some of her new favorites are salmon, and avocado. She's not much of a fan of bread or noodles because of the texture but she'll eat bread (not so much noodles). She still enjoys pretty much every pureed food we feed her.

She's rolling around and has gotten to the rocking-on-all-fours stage but no crawling yet except an occasion of accidental backwards crawling that didn't go far. Mobility limitations frustrate her and she fairly often lets us hear about those frustrations.

Emma enjoys story time/looking at books which is cute. Her favorite activity (aside from eating) is holding on to someone's fingers and walking around on her own two feet. It's pretty adorable except she hates to stop even though her legs will get tired and she can barely stand up after a while.

She still likes to go out and about and see new places and people. She has a much harder time now sleeping when we're not at home. Three hours at church sometimes messes her up because she typically will resist sleep while we're there and then have a hard time napping after we get home.

Typically she is most happy right after eating. A full belly makes for a happy baby Emma. That's when she's mostly likely to "converse" with me. She usually says "da da dadada" a lot which is pretty cute (although not as cute as if she were saying mama...).

We love her to pieces and she's often so darn cute. From approximations I can make at home she's almost 28 inches long and around 17 lbs (give or take).

Here are some pictures of her with her sweet baby face. =)

Love the concentration on her face. 

The Art of Rolling Over by Emma

Step 1: Lie down on back.

Step 2: Roll onto side with legs and arms sticking out in front of you and shoulder to floor slightly tucked under.

Step 3: Swing leg on top over to pull your weight.

Step 4: Put your arm out as well to catch yourself when you get on your stomach.

Step 5: Put both hands out.

Be proud and say it was a piece of cake (or baby food - that's even easier to eat).

7-month baby Emma

This is late but whatever.

Emma is learning more every day it seems. She practices rolling from tummy to back now that back to tummy has become so easy she can do it instantly. She loves it if I applaud her for practicing and will sometimes go back and forth a few times. Note: It takes a lot of ab muscles to keep from hitting your head when you roll from stomach to back so you can't do it too many times (the baby way).
Emma has been sending mixed signals about food - sometimes she loves it and sometimes she spits it out. I'm trying to figure out what her preferences are but it has been challenging. She still loves milk and wishes she could have like a hamster-feeder with it so she could eat it all day every day whenever she wants. She is fed baby food about three times a day - minimum twice a day.
She continues to be a good traveler although she has a harder time falling asleep if we take her out for errands. She resists sleeping until we get home most of the time or if she does nap it's only 20-30 minutes which isn't great but we'll take it.
Emma LOVES to have visitors come over who will play with her and converse with her. She loves talking to people although she typically won't talk to people she doesn't know well. She definitely loves attention though. That being said she requires a lot of it when she's awake which makes it hard for me to do much.
She's still a good sleeper and typically takes 4 naps a day and sleeps through the night. There are the exceptions but she does well. She has become accustomed to waking up between 6:30am and 7:00am (although I don't really know WHY - she seems to be more Bry's child). It's not a habit I am fond of. She doesn't usually stay awake for too long before her first nap though (45-60 minutes).
Emma is an enthusiastic little baby who wants so badly to be mobile so that she can get into all the stuff she sees. She likes to play a lot and loves her family.
Also, she LOVES hands and toes; they fascinate her. I'll often catch her admiring one of her hands as she turns it and bends her fingers.
I love to hear and see her "talk" and she does lots of funny sounds and faces. She's challenging at times but she's so very sweet and cute too.

So many fun faces...

I love when she sticks her legs straight out and rotates her feet. So funny.

You have to love that sweet face.

Love that lip.

AAAHHHHH!! This is her daddy face.

"Toes. I like toes."

Last Day of Hawaii Adventures

We moved out of the house in the morning, stopped by an amazing lookout on our way to Laie, went to the temple, took family photos, got lunch (yummy shrimp), attempted to check into our hotel (which was a pain because they were way behind and our rooms weren't ready for hours), went to the PCC briefly, did souvenir shopping, and got a late dinner at Kahuku grill (burgers) which was super tasty but really slow. Sadly I didn't do a good job of taking pictures of food on this trip (as in I'm pretty sure I didn't take pictures of any of it except the Dole Whips).

Nu'uanu Pali Lookout

Laie Temple Grounds

Lunch at Giovanni's

Shrimp (not shown) and smoothies (not shown)

Becca's baby was approximately pineapple-sized on the trip. ;)
This was taken in front of a truck we ordered smoothies at - they were super good. 

Back at the PCC

LOVE this stroller (Graco Verb). It was so amazing for the whole trip.

Did I mention I LOVE hibiscus? LOVE!

Pearl Harbor

We left early in the morning to get there for tickets to the USS Arizona Memorial. Emma was cranky and ended up crying during most of the pre-boat ride documentary, through most of the boat ride and after we arrived at the memorial where her cries echoed off the walls. We eventually got her to go to sleep (she was definitely overtired) by having me hold her sideways toward me, bouncing her, and playing white noise on Bry's phone via an app. Hallelujah for (free) white noise.

After that we decided to spend the rest of the day leisurely enjoying our time at the house by the beach.

Photo dump #4 (Friday, July 24)

Early morning before we left; view out the back of the house.

Seriously sad face.

Emma's First Time

in the ocean and on the beach 

Yes, we really did take almost all week before getting her in the water. We were out and about most days and those days we weren't out as much I would forget or remember right before she needed to go down for a nap or someone would be napping who I'd figured would want to see it happen. So Friday was it.

Emma's first dip in the ocean.
Aiden on right. Ha. He LOVES the beach.

 

She loved being in the water - just look at that face. Baths are one of her favorite things, so I had hopes she'd like it.

Her swim suit was just a little small and barely covered her tummy. 

Happy beach baby.

Haha - her face. She loved this activity seat thing we rented.
Not that she got to use it much with so many fun people around to hold her. ;)