This has been a hell of a half year.  Doesn't everyone in the world say you just gotta make it to six months?  Or something stupid like that?  I am going to do my best not to sound selfish and ungrateful, but it's been damn hard.  Emmett is soft and smooshy and cute and cuddly.  But he is cranky, difficult, fussy, and unhappy.  Doesn't eat, definitely doesn't sleep.  Screams a lot.  And now in the last month he's gone on a total milk strike.  Particularly the last 3 days.  Hasn't had more than maybe 3 ounces.  Won't breastfeed, sure won't take a bottle.  Nothing about him is consistent or predictable.  Anyway, I'm a wimp and a whiner.  But that's my excuse for being lousy about monthly updates.  I promised myself I would do one for 6 months.  Half a year.  It's kind of big deal.

At his check up, Emmett weighed in at 17 pounds 10 ounces.  I was sure he would be at least 18 pounds.  He had dropped a solid 15% in weight, so I'm chalking that up to the milk strike.  But that's still significantly more than either of his older brothers.  Em is also what the doctor called "neurologically delayed."  Sounds scary, right?  Or maybe only to a crazy anxious mom, I don't know, but all it means is that he's developing his neurological pathways a bit slower than average.  He just barely learned to roll over last week.  He doesn't push himself up when on his tummy, and he isn't really even close to sitting on his own.  But the doctor promised me there were no implications whatsoever, other than Emmett hits his milestones a bit later than most babies.  As for his social, mental, and emotional "skills," Emmett is right on track and doing fine. 

So, six months in, here are a few other highlights, favorites, and things we want to remember about our tricky Emmett M.

• I flippin love the little crease under his nose.  It's probably not something anyone else would notice, but I do.  And I love it.
• I also love his 17 dimples.  Seriously, at least that many on his fat face when he smiles.
• He has a cute little voice quiver that he does when he's talking or playing. 
• He is so so responsive to his big brothers.  Nothing warms this mama's heart more than to see them interacting with each other.
• Another thing Em does that I find simply irresistable is when I'm holding him on my hip or lap or whatever (which I am a lot) and he turns to look up at me.  It's like he's just checking in. 
• He still does this kind of weird, involutary hand pump.  It's almost like a repetitive twitch.  He does it particularly when he's eating or falling asleep.
• He is always swinging his arms up and down, and bicycling his legs.  On the floor, in the bath, in the bouncer, while being held.  Always. 
• Compared to his crazy brothers at this age, Emmett is pretty quiet and mild.

Although it's been a tough go, we sure wouldn't send this little Emmerooney back.  He has taught us new things, and that we still have a lot left to learn.  He is so sweet and so special, and so so sooooo so cute.  And we love him a lot! 

Sofa cushion mountains/forts are one of the boys' favorite things to do.

Lots of play dates with friends to keep us busy.

Rockin' a killer outfit. 

Chubbs helping with the laundry.

Owen making sure Em was sufficiently entertained.

Potty training!!!  I'm not sure what O is showing you . . . probably the number of times he peed on the floor that day.

A little bit more snow.  He was "building a fortress to proctect us from the trolls."

Sam helping me make dinner.  I was whining about how much I hate cutting onions.  Samuel saved the day with his matter-of-fact solution, "We just need our sunglasses on!"

Emmett's been going on a milk strike or something.  Doesn't want Mom, and refuses a bottle.  In an act of desperation –this kid needed to eat something!!– we started solids.  Em caught on so fast and has done amazing with them!!  Erik and I couldn't believe that we had a baby who was a) interested in food, b) continually wanted more, and even c) got mad when we weren't shoveling it in fast enough.  He has no preference for flavors, and will eat green beans just as well as applesauce.  Except for peas.  He had to warm up to peas.  Of course, with starting solids, it makes for fantastic picture taking opportunities of this Chubbalubs fat face. 

First solids ever with Mommy and Sam.

Later, with Daddy, and not so happy about the highchair at first.

January 29, 2012

Ten days later, he's a pro.

It's been a pretty dry and warm winter.  I'm not complaining.  But every time it does barely snow, the boys go nuts and want to go play.  I told them they had to wait one snowy morning because we needed to run a couple errands.  As soon as we got home, both Samuel and Owen bolted out of the car into the snow.  Once Emmett went down for a nap, I rounded up some snowman supplies and we all got to work.  Samuel tried to name him Sam, then settled on Frosty, even though I suggested Quasimodo.  (He thought that was funny.  Every time he told someone about the snowman, he'd include, "And we named him Frosty but my Mom wanted to call him something else, what was that name, Mom?  Yeah, Quasimodo, hahaha!")  This time, at least, the boys got their fill.  A good 90 minutes later they both came inside freezing, soaked, and screaming, "WE HATE THE STUPID SNOW!!!!"  And later that day, poor Frosty had already fallen over.  Owen found that pretty amusing, and kept running to the front window, pointing and explaining to anyone who would listen (for the fifth and sixth time), "Look, look at dat poor snowman.  He felled over!!!"  It was fun while it lasted.

Never will he miss an opportunity to ride his bike!

I was about to vacuum.  Little Owen J pretended like he had no idea, grabbed a pillow, and sat himself down in the middle of the floor for some juice.

Fireman backpack? Check. Whistle around the neck? Check. Froggy boots? Check check. 

I tried to keep him modest with the help of Rubber Ducky.  Not so successful.  And those beautiful baby blues??  That's no trendy Photoshop effect; that's all pure, unedited Em!

You could tell me you don't want to eat him up, but I wouldn't believe you for a second.

Owen got really sick one evening, out of nowhere really.  It hit him fast and hard.  Right in time for cousin Tyler's baptism.  I was just finishing up feeding the baby while Erik loaded the boys into the car to head to the church.  We could tell that O wasn't at his best, and as I was about to walk out the door, Erik was walking back in with Owen in his arms, both of them covered in barf.  Erik and Sam still barely made it on time to the baptism while Emmett and I stayed back to tend to O.  He got a high fever and barfed three more times before crashing for the night.  He woke up in the morning still burning hot and not happy.  Owen fell asleep on the sofa at 9 (crazy!!!) so we moved him to bed where he slept for almost 3 hours.  He woke up much better, and was almost entirely better by the afternoon . . . just in time for Medieval Times!!!!!

So Santa brought us tickets to go to Medieval Times while we were in California.  I was so so excited for it.  I thought the boys would love it, too.  And they were pretty excited, too . . . at first . . . then the actual show started, booming loud, dark and spooky.  Owen covered his ears and hid his face, Samuel covered his ears and whimpered he didn't like it and wanted to leave.  Erik and I were exchanging glances and I seriously was about to cry because it was all my idea and no one was happy and I felt like such an idiot.  Then the fog cleared, the lights came on, we got our chicken, the horses came out, and all was good.  The boys LOOOOOOVED it!!  We cheered and waved our banner for the Yellow Knight.  Our seats were awesome, first row and up higher in the corner of the ring, so the horses noses were right at our table height.  When the Yellow Knight came to throw flowers, the boys were pointing to me, Sam was shouting, "Give one to my mom!!" and I might have been waving for one, too.  The knight looked me right in the eye, smiled, and shook his head no!!!!!!  Ouch!  But still the night was so awesome, without a single picture to prove it.  But lots of memories.  The boys are still playing knights, dueling, riding their horses, and chanting, "Yellow Knight, Yellow Knight!"

While we were there we also spent lots of time with family and cousins.  You'd think the boys might have overloaded, but they really couldn't get enough.  Especially Samuel.  Nevermind that they played hard all day every day and stayed up till almost 10 every night, they were still banging down the doors by 6:30 am.  We got to spend lots of time outside, exploring the never ending adventures in Grandpa B's jungle, going on hikes, and visiting parks.

Seriously, isn't he the cutest?!

Ok, well these two are pretty cute, too, I guess.

So once again it was a really great trip to California.  Usually, I'm ready to head home by the end.  But this time I felt like I wanted to stay longer.  I was not ready to leave, and I even tried to talk Erik into the idea of us staying for another day.  The boys were sad to go, too, but that just means we will be that much more excited to go back again! 

We had a big yummy Christmas Eve dinner, with our "guests" (that's what Sam kept calling them, all day, "When will our guests be here?!") Auntie C and Alex, and John and Guin.  Caroline helped me a ton with the dinner.  Samuel was ridiculously excited for the big turkey.  Ever since the day I brought it home, he asked over and over when we would eat it.  Owen enjoyed the bread.  We were distracted during dinner, and didn't notice it until he had a pile of about 7 slices of bread, all with the middle eaten out, and flour all over his face.  We all laughed because we thought it was so funny and cute, and that made O very embarrassed. 

John and Guin were so sweet to bring some presents for the boys.  Samuel got his very first Nerf gun.  Oh boy.  And Owen got his own Mater that he doesn't have to fight Sam for!  Then there were the obligatory Christmas Eve jammies.  And right before bed, we opened one last present, a star for the top of our tree. 

Samuel and Owen went to bed late, and then the little elves had to get busy preparing for Santa's arrival.  It ended up being a rough night, one of Emmett's worst, but we got through it, and after about 4 hours of sleep for us, it was Christmas morning!  We sent Daddy ahead to make sure Santa had come.  Oh had he!!  He left an almost empty bottle of cream soda and a bag of clementines that Rudolph had eaten one of, with a note telling the boys that it had been a tough call, but he decided to put everyone on the nice list this year.  Phew!  So we opened stockings and presents, had cinnamon rolls for breakfast, ate way too much junk, and played in our jammies the rest of the day.