It's been way too long since I posted to the blog. I realize now, it's been since BEFORE Emma's first birthday. I'm going to get back on track with a post from today, and then I'll start backtracking with pictures.
Today we had a wonderful visit from our Sweet New Hampshire cousins Andrew, Denise, Matty, and Zach (as well as Janna, Emma, Dan, and me). It was a beautiful day to play outside and catch up with family. These three kids combined are some serious cuteness! Emma loves playing with anyone close to her age, as is evident by some of the pictures below.
Last week for my February break, we decided to go to NYC and visit our family. We haven't seen them since Thanksgiving, so it was nice to have Emma see them again. We stayed with Vicki, Joe, Max, Alex, and Dani. Andrew, Denise, Matty, and Zachary stayed with us for a few days as well. We finally got to meet baby Zachary, who is absolutely adorable. Unfortunately, we didn't get any pictures of them because we thought we left the camera at home but found it in the car Friday afternoon.
In typical Osman fashion, we tried to be proactive to avoid a nasty storm and leave a day early, but as we were driving, the storm showed up early. We left VT at 2:00 and didn't get to the Tahl's until 10:30. It was a very long drive, but it really could have been worse. I sat in the back seat to keep Emma company while she was awake. It was a terrible idea. My back and hip hurt the whole way, but I was able to quickly make a bottle, sing songs and play with her without having to find a place to pull over.
We got to play with everyone, and Emma had so much fun. She definitely loves her cousins, and the toys that they shared with her. Her favorite had to be the bouncy castle. All the kids were really excited to use it, but they slowed down and let Emma hop around in it. She screamed and laughed so loud and was really mad when we deflated it.
On Saturday, it was a beautiful day in the city. We went to Central Park where we went to the Zoo and walked around. Emma is old enough now to actually lock-in on and observe the animals. It was awesome watching her discover the animals. She saw the penguins, the polar bear, the snow leopard, and the sea lions. Emma loved them all, but she was especially interested in the penguins and the sea lions (Max and Alex loved watching Gus the polar bear poop in the water). The penguins were moving around like crazy, and the sea lions were jumping and playing with balls and frisbees, so that held her attention for a while. We took a walk to the carousel, but it was shut down for renovations. We were talking about it the day before, so it was a disappointment that it was closed. Oh well, that just means we have to go back sometime soon to ride with Alex!
On Sunday afternoon, after we had packed the car and Emma fell asleep in her car seat, Dan started the car to back out of the parking spot, only the car didn't start. My battery died! Our best guess is that the dome light in my car shorted out, or died. I can't believe that I've used my light so much in the past year and a half that it would have burned out, so I'm a little upset to say the least. I carry jumper cables in my car, so we used Rachel's car and jumped my car. What a way to start the journey home! Then, we hit another snow storm on the way home, which slowed down our trip. An exciting thing on the way home that we noticed was that Emma definitely know what to do when you start to say Patty Cake. She immediately starts clapping, and she now is rolling her arms when it comes to that part of the song. It's so stinking cute!
This slide show was made with the pictures from our trip. I'm just learning how to export pictures as a slide show to Quick Time, and then to You Tube, so it's a little long and there are so many of the same thing. Good thing we have an adorable subject to shoot!
Dan and I are starting to get a little sad, yet a little excited that Emma is going to be 1 in just about 2 weeks. Where did the time go? We don't have a baby anymore, but a toddler on the verge of walking and talking. Emma says the following sounds: ma ma, bu bu, da da, na na, ge ge, and it looks like she's attempting to say the th or the l sound. She's standing now for a minute or so without holding on to anything, and she's practically running along the couch/her toys/the coffee table only hanging on with one finger. He new thing is that she does everything with her pointer finger. She's a tech-baby at heart, and is swiping and tapping the iPad/iPhone with one finger, and she's pointing at people now with one finger.
We're in the middle of planning her birthday party right now. Yikes!
Well, 10 months was a pretty rough month for Emma. She had the terrible Norovirus (extreme vomiting and diarrhea) for almost two weeks. Just when she was getting better she got an ear infection. She was put on Amoxicillin to clear it up. Instead, she was irritable and either had a rock-hard stomach and couldn't poop, or she had extreme diarrhea. She slept terribly-we took turns sitting up with her in the chair when she was screaming all night. Come to find out, she's allergic to Amoxicillin! Poor baby, January to February was so tough on her, but she's still smiling and having fun. I was scrolling through pictures, and these are the only ones we have for her 10th month of life since she (or we) spent most of it sick. Luckily, she seems like she's on the mend. Let's keep our fingers crossed that it stays that way!
Eating can be exhausting!
Emma's homemade Valentine's Day cards for school.
Look how tall I am! This is getting ready to go to school. Look Grandma, I'm tall enough to wear my new fleece!
I love do anything on my tiger, especially reading while I'm naked.
Playing with Daddy is tiring! Note the pacifier hanging on for dear life.
Cheese! Look at my new sweater that Grandpa's friend made for me!
It's my turn to take a picture!
Tired our after music class. Dancing and singing is hard work!
Modeling my new "Super Grover" pajamas.
My toes sure are tasty!
This is the monitor we use to listen for Emma when she's sleeping. One morning, this was the last image it captured when the camera was shut off. Paranormal Activity anyone?
Happy (late) New Year! Emma is now 10 months old! The last month has been a little challenging. Emma experienced her first real sicknesses starting right before Christmas. She had double ear infections and what was thought to be Pertussis. All 3 of us were quarantined for 5 days and treated with a 5-day course of antibiotics. It was a little challenging since we couldn't leave the house in fear of exposing others if she was actually positive. Luckily, her test came back negative. The up side, was that Dan and I probably wouldn't have spent 132 hours straight with each other. We didn't even get sick of each other!
Even though Emma was under the weather, we were able to go to all of our holiday events. We went to Barre for Christmas Eve, Shelburne on Christmas Day, and Essex the day after Christmas. It was a lot of partying, but it was so much fun (even if I didn't put Emma down for 5 straight days before she was put on meds). Unfortunately because of the unknown status of Pertussis, we weren't able to go to Boston to spend the night with friends. So, we got all dressed up and video chatted with them for an hour while they made dinner. Tyler showed Emma a ton of his toys and read her some books as well, which was really cute. We missed being there, but it was fun to be included and passed around on the iPhone to feel like we were there for a bit.
Over vacation, Emma got 4 new teeth on the top. They are now very visible and she is curious in biting everything. She's started gnawing on the top rail of her crib, biting our shoulders, sticking our fingers in her mouth to just chomp down on them, and the worst, she's constantly grinding her teeth. We have a ton of teething toys for her, but they don't seem to be doing the trick for her. It's starting to drive me crazy. I mean I wear a mouth guard at night so I don't grind my teeth, but the sound is like fingers on a chalkboard to me. Suggestions?
Emma has become VERY interested in the cats over the last month (has it really been over a month since I blogged?). She is constantly racing around the house after them, and occasionally she will even crawl up on them and try to ride them. It's quite amusing to watch. I'm convinced that she's learned what the word "gentle" means as well. We are constantly saying it and help her gently pet the cats, that when we say it now, she doesn't come away with a huge handful of fur (well it happens less often than it did). She even has started to cuddle with them-she crawls up to them and puts her head on them until they run away. Many times she will still put her head down on the floor to cuddle even if the cats run away. I do have a video of this and will upload the next time I find the video camera!
We are having so much fun with Emma right now, but boy is she tiring! She is always on the move and she doesn't really nap. These days it's even getting harder to get her to go to sleep. She puts up a fight and just wants to stay awake. She's recently started diving head-first onto the floor so she can go chase after the cats, crawl on Dan, or just jump up and down instead of rocking to sleep. I read the back of the Children's Benadryl bottle and it says not to give it to kids to make them drowsy. Do you think they really mean it :)
Emma experienced her second real sickness last week. The students that I work with were putting on a band and choral concert last week that I promised them I would bring Emma to. I was exhausted, but I went anyway because I told them I would go. When I picked Emma up from daycare they said she wasn't interested in eating and that she was a little whiny during the day. She didn't really eat dinner, but I didn't think anything of it. I grabbed a bottle for the concert and left. Little did I know what was brewing. Emma was a very attentive and respectful audience member. I'm positive she thought that the 100 kids sitting behind us waiting to sing were all there to watch her perform. She was smiling and waving (I worked really hard to get her to wave) and laughing at them, but she was quiet when the band was playing.
Out of the blue, she started throwing up. This was unlike I anything I have ever seen before. I got her changed, while my friend Ashley (thank you again!) cleaned up the mess. To make a long story short, she kept getting sick and we ended up in the ER after she couldn't keep water down. She got three rounds of fluids, and it took them 6 times to find a good vein. She only fought them on the first time. We got home at 3:30 in the morning and we thought we were in the clear. Then her diarrhea started. It's been like a scene from a movie. To top it off, we woke up Friday morning to a freezing cold house and no hot water (after Emma threw up in her sleep and needed a bath). The relay in our heater had a short and needed to be replaced. Fast forward $300 and 8 hours later, Dan and I both took turns being sick. Emma felt left out so she got sick again, ALL over me. We took a bath to clean up and then she pooped and peed, ALL over me. It was a rough couple of days. Emma went to school today, but she was sent home because of her bowels. This has got to go away. I missed almost 4 days of work and Dan is planning on working from home with her tomorrow. Where is the good health that 2012 was supposed to bring the Osmans?
Enough complaining. It could be worse. It could always be worse. The upside is that we got to spend a lot more time together, even if it was laying on the bathroom floor, or sleeping with Emma in my arms on the living room floor.
We're looking forward to an outing next week, even on a school night. Pat, Liza's boyfriend, got Emma the best Christmas present. He gave us tickets to go the the Flynn theater on the 8th to see 1-2-3 Imagine, Live with Elmo and friends. We're hoping it goes well because Emma loves Elmo and music, it just starts at 7:00 which is when she starts to lose it a little. I'm sure it will be a lot of fun though.
Enjoy some pictures from the last month or so and a few videos. As always, there will be more to come.
Look at my new tu-tu from Aunt Liza!
Emma loves her kitty.
Zazou loves his Emma.
Emma's newest skill is peekaboo without any help. She is so proud! This is okay as long as she doesn't continue to do this with her dresses...
After the third day, she started to figure out how to open her presents.
Raspberries for the camera.
Looking at the Christmas lights on Church Street. Look at those cheeks!
Matching elf hats with Uncle Anthony.
Opening presents with Aunt Liza.
Enjoying a quiet moment with Santa Daddy.
Practicing her wave.
Dan enjoyed Emma's new toy hot dog from Kristen way too much!
Big girl doesn't need a seat in the bath anymore.
Big girl likes to drink from Mommy's cup.
Emma sleeps so hard sometimes (look closely for the deep hand imprint)!
Happy girl!
Of all the toys, she chooses the cat tower.
Emma's teacher sent us some pictures of her since she's been attending school. This is a picture that shocked me-I had no idea that she could hold things at such an early age. Little Picasso painting at school her second week. Look at the grip and intensity of her concentration!
