The Emmons Kids

First Steps!

// June 22nd, 2006 // No Comments » // Milestones

It looks like everyone who thought Ally would be walking for her first birthday were right – Ally took her first steps tonight! And in her usual style she didn’t take just one step, but four (okay maybe it was three), stopped and looked at me then the floor with an expression of “hey I just did something new” and then proceeded to take three more steps before falling into my lap. I immediately started crying and called Eric to tell him the good news. Of course we spent the rest of the night trying to get her to walk more, which she did, but by the end of the night, she was quite sick of us making her walk and would go limp as soon as we picked her up.

Now that my computer is up and running again, I hope to be back to posting updates on Ally on a more regular basis – that includes pictures too! Since I last posted, we attended Matt and Beth’s very beautiful wedding. It truly was a gorgeous affair and we all had a wonderful time. Luckily Tom was able to take time from his groomsmen duties to take some great family pictures. He also took one of my new favorite pictures of Ally – climbing the steps at the reception. I was worried about how well Ally would behave herself, but she did very well, aside from a few tantrums when she wasn’t able to get to her daddy. And it wasn’t planned, but Ally and Brie (the matron of honor’s daughter) showed up in the same dress. It made for a fun photo op with the bride and groom.

We also continue to work on the house. It’s coming along nicely and looking good, but there is still so much to do. We get our new table for the kitchen tonight. Ally has enjoyed making a mess of the new house since she is now eating regular table food and she drops or throws more than she eats. It makes for good mealtime entertainment.

Now to get everything unpacked and hidden away before Ally really takes off!

The Letter of the Day is T…for Tooth

// March 19th, 2006 // No Comments » // Milestones

That’s right. Ally has her first tooth!! Well, kind of. Her bottom right tooth has broken through the gum so that you can see it, but that’s all the farther it’s come so far. At least we now know why she hasn’t been sleeping well and running a low grade fever over the past few days.

Eric and I debated when to say she got her first tooth. He says it counts now, I said when it’s completely in. Obviously he won (thanks a lot for the tie breaker vote little sis…), but on the other hand, I’m not disappointed he won this one, because that means Ally’s first word is Mama. She would say da when she babbled, but Mama is the only word she says independent of that. So, despite the fact that I don’t know for sure if she understands what she says, she’s been saying it for about two weeks now and that’s all that matters to me!

It’s funny, because she only says Mama when she gets upset, and keeps saying it until I pick her up. I guess that would imply that she knows that I’ll come running when she says it, but on the other hand she doesn’t look at me and say it. Who knows. The point is she says it, and based on Eric and Sam’s first tooth rule, I get first word

Ally is doing a good job of standing now. She pulls herself up when holding on to anything, but can also push herself onto her feet when just sitting on the floor. She likes to stand like that and push things around the floor, so we went out and bought a push and ride car for her. She still needs to get the hang of it, but she was having fun playing with the steering wheel and horn.

And I realize I’ve turned into the ultimate working Mommy, now that I have business cards that have my name, phone, email, Ally’s site URL and my job title listed as Alexandra’s Mom. I know it’s a bit much, but I figured that was better than giving out my other business cards and having people call and email me at work, and it’s easier than always having to write it down for other Moms I meet. OK – I’m a dork – I can admit it.

On the house front, we had our first open house yesterday. We had about 16 showings. Our agent said that was outstanding as they consider eight to be a success. So that makes about 35 showings in less than two weeks. Not bad, but we are still waiting on someone to actually put in a bid and that’s the part that stinks.

Eric posted some new pictures of Ally last night, so be sure to check them out. She now shares her mommy and daddy’s love of Starbucks… 

Standing Tall

// March 15th, 2006 // No Comments » // Milestones

I get the call from Eric this morning that our little girl has officially learned to stand up. When he came in from walking Bailey, he went to get Ally from her crib and there she stood, not surprisingly, chewing away at her crib railing. It’s amazing to think that just eight short months ago, all she could do was grasp our fingers. Now that she can stand, I think Hurricane Ally has been upgraded to a Category 4.

As with all babies, it was just a matter of time, given that she has been working to climb the stairs and pulls herself up onto her knees to grab at the pots and pans in the kitchen. She also likes to open and close cabinets primarily because of the loud banging sound the cabinets make when she pushes them closed. Ally’s also got the hang of turning off her bedroom light.

I’ve been most surprised at how fast she can crawl though! I tried to get video of her last night, but could only record for a few seconds before she was into something else she shouldn’t be. It’s funny, Ally is so easily distracted that I can’t even read her a story when nursing her, because she knows the book is back there and is constantly trying to grab it. On the other hand, she has one hell of a memory, because no matter how many times I pull her away from something she shouldn’t get into and take her into the next room, she’ll look up at me, smile and haul butt right back to whatever it was, and repeat this process five times in a row.

In other news, we put our house on the market and put in an offer on a new house. Our stress levels have been running high because we have to be out of the house so much with all the showings, and I confess that having strangers touring my home on a regular basis is making me nuts. Buying our first house was easy – the dominoes that stack up when trying to buy your second home is insane – the timing issues are enough to make anyone crazy. I just want to get everything done so I can get down to planning miss munchkin’s first birthday bash.

Oh What a Night

// February 22nd, 2006 // 3 Comments » // Milestones

Eric and I were standing in the kitchen sampling the spices we’d ordered from Penzey’s last night as Ally pulled herself across the floor, taking hold of everything within reach, as well as licking the fridge and dishwasher (she seems to have an affinity for anything silver) – a typical evening in the Emmons’ household. That is until we turned around.

There sat Ally smiling up at us. Now the fact that she was sitting up by herself was not impressive since she’s been doing that for some time now. It was the fact that she managed to pull herself up to sitting all on her own. And wouldn’t you know it – the very first time she does it and we missed it! Thankfully after some coaxing she did it again a few more times that evening.

We were so excited by Ally achieving her latest milestone and were heaping the praise on her. Well it must have been great motivation because that wasn’t enough for one night – she also started to crawl! Now it was only one or two "steps", but needless to say we were going out of our minds.

She is still very into walking around with Mommy and Daddy’s help, so we went out and bought her real shoes this weekend. A pair of sneakers and mary janes, which we think will help her learn to balance herself better. Although with how much she can get into now, I don’t know if we are ready for her to walk and should be encouraging her that much!

Ally is already getting into everything so heaven help us now with these latest milestones. The baby proofing must commence ASAP because Hurricane Ally has officially arrived!