12 Weeks!

12 weeks old!

Emmy is really growing and changing a lot lately, it's pretty amazing to see. Here's some of the things we've noticed that are new or different with her lately:

-Talking: She is a little chatterbox!! She is particularly talkative in the mornings, and after her mid-morning feeding. Sometimes after she gets done eating we just sit & talk for awhile. It's really fun to see her concentrating so hard on moving her mouth & making noise. I can't wait until she can use words I understand to talk to me!

Talking to Paige!

-Bringing her hands together to hold things: You can tell when she's really concentrating on her arm & hand movements, and she is able to bring her hands together and even hold things now! She can really only hold a few things by herself so far, including burp cloths, a small stuffed dog rattle, and an "o" ball! She also wants to touch books when we read, but they're still a little hard for her to "hold".

Holding my "o ball"!

-Pulling on her car seat toys: We've had some toys hanging from the handle of her car seat for awhile now, and one of them has a handle you pull down on, and it shakes going back up. We've helped her to hold the handle of that toy before, but lately when we give her the handle she will really hold on to it for awhile. One day this week she held it halfway to the store, and was pulling it down by herself! The best part was when she let go of the handle, and she got it back again all by herself! I was so proud!

Putting things in her mouth: This goes hand in hand with starting to hold things with both hands, she now wants to bring everything up to her mouth! It's funny to see when she gets something in her mouth that she doesn't like how it feels or tastes... you can definitely tell from her facial expressions!

Tasting my easter egg!

-Becoming more aware of things & people around her: Emmy is definitely more aware when people come & go around her, and she has become much more interested in looking at the things in her world. We went out to eat tonight and she was really interested in watching the little boy at the table next to us. She wants to sit up so she can see things, and when we hold her she prefers to be facing away from us so she can take it all in!

Hi Uncle Jims!

-Blowing "raspberries": This is brand new, and she hasn't officially "blown raspberries" that we've seen yet, but I blow them at her usually when I'm changing her, and she will stick out her tongue & kind of grunt, like she's trying to blow. She creates a ton of spit & bubbles when she's trying, and I think I heard her blow them once when I was getting a diaper, but I didn't actually witness it. We'll keep working on that!

-Staring at her hands & feet: Emmy has recently discovered that she has hands & feet, and is amazed by them! She's gotten good at moving her hands and arms purposefully, and she likes to move her toes as she stares at them. She particularly liked her feet when I put her in an outfit that had lady bugs on the footies!

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Hey, what are those!

-Watching TV!: She is definitely her daddy's daughter; I keep catching her watching TV! I nurse her on the couch during the day, and when she's done I'll catch her looking over my shoulder at the TV. Or after she wakes up from a nap in her bouncy chair, she'll just sit there quietly & watch TV, so I don't even know she's awake!

-Sitting in her bumbo seat: This is a fun one! We were downstairs changing the laundry one day, and we passed the pile of Emmy's stuff for when she gets bigger, and I noticed the Bumbo seat. I figured it was worth seeing if she could sit in it, so I brought it upstairs, and sure enough she can! She's still small, and tips from side to side in the seat, but the sides of it keep her upright in the seat. We also have a tray for the seat, so she can sit up and play with toys on her tray! This is still pretty new, and since her hand control isn't all there yet, she gets frustrated when trying to get the toys off the tray, so we'll have to keep working on that!

Sitting in my bumbo seat!

-Turning her head or body to see something or someone: It seems Emmy has just realized that she doesn't have to always face the way we're holding her, and that if she turns her head or body we'll turn her towards what she wants to see. It's pretty amazing to watch her learn that she can control her own body!!

-Sleeping through the night in her crib! I know I was just talking about how we're still working on this last week, but she really seems to have gotten the hang of it just in the past week! It's still sometimes hard to get her to sleep at night, but once she's down she's been sleeping for chunks of anywhere from 4 to 8 hours!! She's even napped in the crib and in her pack & play a few times, which is a relief for me, I was beginning to worry we were going to have to build a bigger rock & play for her to sleep in!!

Napping in my crib like a big girl!

"Hoppy" Easter!

In addition to watching Emmy grow & change this past week, we celebrated Easter! The Easter bunny visited Emmy at our house, and she had a basket of goodies to go through on Easter morning!

After opening Emmy's basket & going to church, we visited both of our families to celebrate. Emmy did really well visiting with everyone, and this was probably the first family party where she didn't have a meltdown! We've gotten better about making sure to give her some play time and nap time inbetween being held by all our family members. It's getting easier each time!

This current week is the last week of my maternity leave, and I go back to work next Monday :-( I'm very sad about having to leave Emmy. I've really enjoyed these past 12 weeks with her; despite the tough times it's been so much fun getting to know and love her & watching her grow and change! I know she will be well taken care of while I'm at work as both of our mom's are going to be watching her. I'm so thankful they are going to be watching her, and we won't have to put her in a big germy day care until next fall when she's 8 months old! Another good thing is I only have to work 9 weeks and then I'm off for summer break, which will be here before I know it, right?! ;-)