From Breakups to Babies: Sarah's Wedding!

Last weekend we had the chance to travel to North Carolina to go to my old roommate, Sarah's wedding. It was so fun getting to see our friends again and having them all meet Emily.  It was a quick trip, but Emily was a trooper and we had a great time! We're already missing everyone and can't wait until we're able to see them again!

Prepping for the big day:

At the Raleigh Temple:

Beautiful Reception:

Congratulations Sarah and Nat! We love you!

10 months

Emily loves being able to do things for herself!  She wants to go everywhere and do everything and just explore and explore!  She's been refusing to eat baby food for the past few weeks.  She's decided she only wants table foods.  We think that's partly because it tastes better, but mostly because she wants to do it on her own.  The only thing we can still get her to spoon feed is yogurt.  She'll occasionally eat baby food, but only if we've given her awhile on her own with table food.  She'll eat pretty much any table food we give her, but her favorites are blueberries, avocados, bread, and cheese.  And, like I said before, yogurt.  She goes crazy when she sees me opening her yogurt containers!

She still loves people, but sometimes it needs to be at a distance.  She loves smiling at people and talking to them.  Whenever we go anywhere she looks around at all the people, waiting for them to notice her and give her attention.  If they don't notice her at first, she'll start making sounds at them to get them to look.  And then they always comment on how cute she is and she just eats it up.  She knows she's adorable :)  Grocery shopping is one of her favorite things because of all the attention she gets.  She still doesn't love other people holding her.  She's getting a little better about it, especially if she's in a familiar place.  I'm so glad she did so well with the Zinns for our trip to Chicago!  She has a funny thing with people touching her hands, though.  She'll let them stroke her arms, legs, back, head, wherever, but as soon as someone touches her hands she jerks them away.  Sometimes people assume she doesn't like them when she does this, but we have to tell them it's just the hands.  She doesn't even like when I do it (usually).  Maybe she feels like she doesn't have control when someone's touching her hands?  I don't know.

I have one of those shopping cart covers, which she really likes, but of course I forget it half the time.  But she doesn't mind, she's perfectly content just lounging back in the cart :)

She still loves to make noise.  Her favorite toys are rattles, or anything that makes noise when she shakes it.  If she's holding something and I start to sing the shake your booty song, she'll start shaking it really fast and laughing.  She also loves pianos.  If I'm ever playing the piano, she'll crawl straight over to me and either play with the pedals or try to get up on my lap to bang on the keys.  My mom got her a little baby piano and every time we go over to her house that's Emily's first line of business :)

This next section is going to make it look like I'm a terrible mom!  I have tons of pictures of Emily doing things she shouldn't be doing.  Just trust me when I say I was watching her the whole time and I only let her do these things long enough to get a picture!  She's all over the place!  She just wants to explore every nook and cranny of our whole house.  She can totally climb the stairs on her own now, but she knows she's not supposed to.  Every time she crawls over to the stairs, she'll look back at me guiltily and then proceed to climb them anyway (no, I still haven't gotten a baby gate).  She's such a little daredevil, but she's so cautious at the same time.  Whenever she pulls up on something she's always able to slowly and carefully get herself back down.  She never just lets go and plops to the ground.  She doesn't want to get hurt!  She's so fun to watch, but it's a lot of work keeping her out of trouble!

as soon as we start the bath water, she scrambles out of our arms and tries to get in the tub herself.  She LOVES bath time!

We took her to the doctor again this month, because last month the doctor was a little concerned about her weight.  She had been sick right before her last visit, so we wanted to see if things were back on track now.  She's still on the smaller side, but she's gaining.  The doctor said babies often dip in weight toward the end of the first year and start to follow a pattern based on their genetics.  I guess miss Em is just going to be a petite little girl.  We just love our little peanut!

refusing to lean back and get buckled in!

outtakes!