Emily Ann- 9 months

Firsts: friend's birthday party (Happy Bday Lily!), Cinco de Mayo, first trip to the zoo, Mother's Day, baby dedication, trip to the Smoky Mountains, first time eating "real food," first two sleepovers without Mommy and Daddy at Grandpa/ Grandma's and Poppy/Annie's.

Milestones: You have grown up so much this month! You are sitting up on your own and can pull yourself up using something slightly taller than you. You lost your shyness and are talking all the time. Sometimes it sounds like words, but most of the time they are just sweet little sounds. You are not crawling quite yet but move forward, sit down, move forward, sit down, so that eventually you get where you want to go. (Though since I am 4 days late posting this, you actually are crawling now!) You also moved out of the newborn Sunday School class. 

Measurements: About 20 lbs., 28 inches long , size 3 diapers, a few 9 month clothes, but mostly 12 month clothes.

Like Mommy: Once you've been around people for a few minutes, you are quite the talker!

Like Daddy: Once you've been around people for a few minutes, you are quite the talker!

Food: You eat 6-7 oz. of baby food fruit and 4 oz. of formula when you wake up in the morning. You take 8 oz. of formula  at lunchtime. For dinner, you eat 6 ounces of stage 3 baby food and some kind of fruit for dessert. So far you have tried watermelon, cantaloupe, blueberries, green beans, English peas, carrots, and cheerios that were not processed! You take between 8 oz. of formula right before you go to bed. You are started letting us give you a sippy cup, but you haven't shown much interest in feeding it to yourself. You are still working on getting cheerios/ puffs into your mouth on your own- you achieve this about 20% of the time... but you are making progress :)

Sleep:  You sleep from 8:30PM- 9:00 to 8:15 AM every night. You usually fall straight to sleep when we lay you down. When we are at home, you take a 45 min to hour morning nap. In the afternoons, you usually sleep between 2 and 3 hours. 

Challenges:  You love power cords and seem to migrate toward them when you are on the floor. We try to keep you away from them, but sooner or later, we will have to find a new place to plug in the lamp!

Our Days: You wake up at about 8:15 each morning and talk in your bed until about 8:30. You play and snack on puffs between 8:30 and 9:00, then have breakfast. After you eat, we usually cuddle and you play before we run errands or you lay down for a nap.  You eat again between 12:30 to 1:00. You usually get sleepy pretty quickly after you eat, so you lay down for your afternoon nap between 1:30 and 2:30. You sleep until about 4:45. At 4:45 you eat baby food, then spend some time with Daddy. You play with your toys after "dinner" and cuddle with Mommy and Daddy. You take a bath every other night, sometimes with Mommy and sometimes on your own. We feed you at about 8:30 and you go to bed at 8:45. 

Favorite Moments

Mommy's Favorite: Mama coming back into your vocabulary :) 

Daddy's Favorite: Napping in his new hammock with you in you Smoky Mountains

Nicknames: EA, Doodlebug, Squirt, Baby girl

Photo ops:

The sweet teachers in EAs first Sunday School class

Baby Dedication Sunday

Lily's birthday party- Sombrero!

EA's first trip to the zoo! 

Napping with Daddy in the hammock

Cade's Cove