Crawling with teeth: Emily Messal

And Emily is pivoting from rocking on her hands and knees to moving forward. She's not fluent yet... But anyway. Watch out world...

And she finally has a tooth. 8.5 months. Bottom right tooth has poked through. No drama.

8 months Emily

Emily Francis, 8 months. 

A quick run down.

Toothless! Still!!!

But eating everything but meat. Most of Emmys meals now are just a blend of what we're eating, and she's slowly gaining more finger foods. Today she's had:

Breakfast, applesauce with oatmeal

Lunch, yogurt with mushed banana

Dinner, a huge bowl of butternut squash

Last night, carrots with an applesauce cereal blend

Snacks, watermelon bits, spaghetti noodles, puffs. 

I promise we feed her greens, too!

Other than for travel, Emily has never eaten store bought baby food. People think I'm being creative, but I swear it's easier to just throw our fruits and veggies in a blender. 

This week Emily started getting herself into a seated position, and she's able to be mobile without rolling (think sitted-scoot or army crawl). This weekend she's pulled up on my desk, the bench in my office, a book shelf, her push toy. She's not on her feet, but she's figuring out that there's more to see above her eye level. 

She continues to be delightful, especially with her new wave. She pops that little hand up in the air when she sees someone new. 

She'll be crawling any day. 

She just completed her first week with nanny Kacie - a real gem!!! How did we survive before Kacie?!??? Kacie, I'll give you my blog password so you can post Emily posts??? I know you get done great pictures. 

8 months later, and we can't remember life before Our Emily.

Big eyed Messal babies

Easter 2015

 This was the year I COMPLETELY forgot to color the eggs (boiled a few weeks in advance)... They seemed satisfied with "painting" eggs on Sunday Easter night :)

Emily's first Easter Basket.

After church, we joined the Funks for a bit at their house, then joined a crew from St. Benedict's for brunch. There were 2 "tweens" for every toddler. Cora was in heaven. Quinn was exhausted. Emily was passed around like a football and took it in stride, as always.

On Sunday evening, at bathtime, I walked in to find Cora in the mirror, trying to figure out how to twist her hand to make a second wrap in order to put her own hair in a ponytail. I tried to teach her. She isn't far from mastering the task.

Later, as we were getting on PJs, I asked, "Cora, did you have fun today?" 

She whispered with such sincerity, "Mommy, I felt like one of the big kids."

Doing something right

On Friday, we were at a neighbors. 5PM. Time to head home for dinner. Landon was cooking.
As we pedaled out of driveway, ice cream truck came around bend. Usually the moms make a call together about whether to go yes to ice cream. I indicated no as the other moms said yes.
I would have been swayed, if it weren't for...

The all out fit thrown by Cora Messal. In the moments before my no became a yes, she threw such a shine that there was no possible way she was getting ice cream. I in fact had to declare ice cream after dinner to reward Quinn for her resolve, and to make clear to Cora we would not tolerate such a spectacle on the neighbor's drive.

So we go home. We did dinner. Everyone ate well. After dinner, Cora asked if she would get ice cream. We said no (we did NOT enjoy this. Parenting is so hard).

Landon took her upstairs so she could be heartbroken. I turned to Quinny.

Me: Quinny, you ready for your ice cream?
Quinn: I'm allright.
Me: You don't want ice cream? You earned it! You were so good when mommy said no to popsicles.
Quinn: Nah. Sissy can't have any.
Me: OK, Quinny, you can have a bowl, and if you want to eat it, you can.

Bowl served. Quinny marched straight up the stairs to share her bowl with Cora.

Bicycle riding, and other signs of independence

March 25, 2015

We got home from school a bit early.
The girls kissed Aunt Feather goodbye (she was heading back to California).
Cora insisted on getting out her two-wheeled bike while Aunt Feather was here. A couple laps around the driveway with Aunt Feather pushing. Aunt Feather left for airport.

A couple more laps around the driveway with me pushing. I was still in my heels from work.

And that was it. She was off.

So free.

Too good to eat

I was at an event tonight; Landon had the girls. We've been struggling to get the kids to eat the healthy part of dinner. Tonight, garlic chicken and quinoa (from Lindy; we've been trading meals each week).
Cora ate her cheese stick, corn kernels, and fruit, but refused the quinoa. Landon was coaxing her. Cora got super enthusiastic. Here is her dialogue.

Cora: Mmmmm mmmm. This chicken is so good, I'm going to eat it up. (took a bite).
Yep, it's so good I won't be able to eat it. It's just too good.

Landon: That doesn't make any sense, Cora. If it's so good, why can't you eat it?

Cora: Yep, just like you all sometimes say that you are so happy that you could cry? That's how I feel about this chicken. It's so good I just won't be able to eat it.