Emilie Mae- Nine Months Old!

9 Month Stats

18 lbs. 3 oz.
28 inches long

Emilie turned nine months old on Valentine's Day. She remains a very happy baby with an enormous grin from ear to ear. She is pure joy.

Although Emilie still does not have a single tooth, this doesn't surprise us one bit, considering Marin didn't get her first tooth until her first birthday. However, like Marin, Emilie is learning to chew despite not having any teeth. We have recently started giving her some soft solid puffs, that she can grab and put in her mouth. She is a much better eater than she has been, and will eat almost everything that we give her. Although, when she is full, she is definitely done and she lets you know it!

Emilie isn't quite pulling herself to stand, but she does stand with aid, and walks when we hold her hands. She loves to stand!

Emilie loves animals! She loves to snuggle up with the dog, and sweet Norah just lets her crawl all over her and grab at the tags on her collar. Emilie also liked crawling after Jake's kitties last weekend, but they were so fast, and she didn't particularly like when they scampered away so quickly.

Emilie now waves bye-bye. With her tiny little hand, it's adorable. The first time I saw her do this was before Marin's birthday party, to Aunt Vee. I got all excited and announced, "She's waving! She just waved!!" And then Jason piped up in the kitchen, "Oh yeah, she did that yesterday." Poor second child.

Emilie is a good sleeper. She doesn't go for the paci like her sister did, so when she does occasionally wake up, it's a little tougher to get her soothed back to sleep, but she usually sleeps about 14 hours a day- 12 through the night and then a nap or two.

Emilie got moves like Jagger. Just kidding. Sorry, that was lame. But she's crawling all over the place and she moves quickly. Baby gates are definitely up. What is appealing to babies about the stairs that they will perch at the top of the them staring down a long set of wooden steps, and think, "Sure, why not. Let's try this out?" She gets so mad when we put the gates up. Like, "Oh man! I really wanted to try that today! I almost got away with it!"

Emilie says "da-da". I'll say, can you say "ma-ma?" And she just smiles and me and says, "da-da!" We'll keep working on it.

Emilie likes to read books, and then reach out and touch the pages and put it in her mouth. We have started a library class for her, and she loves it! We sing songs and read stories and she watches very intently, and bounces her legs for the stories. Marin goes along too, and tries to steal the show from all the babies. Oy vey.

Speaking of Marin, she is Emilie's favorite person on the planet. She absolutely lights up around her. When Marin acts goofy, Emilie just giggles and giggles. Marin is starting to play with Emilie a lot more now too. Emilie just goes with the flow and follows after her on all fours.

Life is good.

And speaking of Valentine's Day, we spent most of it in the doctor's office after Marin developed a nasty cough that was diagnosed as RSV. She's on the nebulizer and is feeling better, thank goodness! Here are some pictures of the happier points of the day!

Daddy/Daughter Dance

Our Park District hosted its annual Daddy/Daughter Dance the Sunday before Valentine's Day. You have to be a big three year old in order to participate, and Daddy was so excited to take Marin this year.

Marin picked out a special boutonniere for her Daddy a few days earlier. When the florist suggested that a red rose might be nice Marin responded, "Um, actually I think my Daddy's favorite color is blue." So Daddy got a blue and orange boutonniere. Daddy brought Marin a beautiful wrist corsage with a pink sparkly ribbon. She loved it!

Marin and Jason met friends Parker and Josh and B and Mike at the dance. The girls all had a blast dancing together and spending the evening with their daddies. Marin came home and told me all about it, and before she closed her eyes that night she told me, "Know what?! Daddy said we can go to the Daddy/Daughter Dance next year, too!"

Princesses Dance on Ice!

For Marin's birthday, Uncle Jake and Aunt Katy took Marin (and Jason, Emilie and me) to Disney on Ice. Or, as Marin calls it, "Princesses Dance on Ice". They pulled out all the stops, and Marin truly had a magical evening.

We met at their house first for pizza and special fancy birthday cupcakes from a cute cupcake shop down the street from their apartment. True to form, Marin ate a little pizza and a lot of cupcake frosting. And an orange and about three bowl fulls of strawberries and blackberries. The kid loves fruit.

Both girls and all of the adults had a great time. It was a great show, and Jake and Katy got us fabulous seats! Emilie was bopping around in our laps, smiling ear to ear dancing along to the music. Marin was in heaven. Her eyes were fixated on the stage and she clapped along and pointed out all of the princesses. But the true highlight was when "Cinderllella" came out. Her mouth unhinged and she watched her every move. Then, when Cinderella danced with Prince Charming at the ball, Marin literally leaped out of her seat, and very seriously, started dancing like a princess. Arms gracefully at her sides, and then over her head to twirl around and around. It was as if Cinderella channeled into Marin's body; she truly felt that she was a princess. It was a priceless, adorable, and hilarious moment that I'm sure will be mentioned on the day she gets married. The people behind us were also cracking up. It was so very sweet.

After the show, Uncle Jake bought Marin two souvenirs that she picked out. Princess Marin was truly spoiled. Mommy and Daddy would have hit the deck, and ran as fast as we could have past the gift stands hoping and praying the whole way that she hadn't spotted them. Marin picked out a crown and a Rapunzel cup, and promptly filled it up with milk.

The icing on the cake for Marin was that she got to have a sleepover after the show at Jake and Katy's apartment. Which meant that she chased the cats around and ate more cupcake frosting before rolling out her sleeping bag and ending a great day. We all had a great time! Thank you Jake and Katy, for a magical evening for our princess.

Marin's 3rd Birthday Day!

Last Wednesday, the 8th, was Marin's actual birthday. She had a great day. The most exciting part was that Daddy decided to take the day off to help her celebrate.

We woke up and snuggled for a little bit in our jammies before we got ready for ballet. Marin was so excited to have Daddy go to ballet with us. Jason loved watching Marin in her ballet class. Since it was her birthday, she got to be the leader in the line, which she loved. After ballet we all went out to breakfast at a new little french restaurant by our house. Marin had banana and nutella crepes. And then she said they were too sweet, so after we polished off our own breakfasts, Jason and I ate her crepes and Marin had a blueberry muffin and fruit.

After we got home from breakfast we decided to take advantage of the gorgeous weather, and take a walk. Marin rode wanted to her bike so we bundled up and took a little stroll. When we got home from the walk, Marin dressed up like a princess and danced around the family room. Of course she did.

After naps we took another walk/bike ride to Graham's for a birthday treat. Naturally, Marin chose ice cream. We were there for about three minutes before Marin made friends with twin five year olds, also enjoying ice cream. After about another four minutes had passed, she'd told them both her life story, including, (as I was I was snapping away), "My mom is taking my picture all the time!" Busted.

After ice cream, it was time to go home and get ready for Aunt Lindsay to come for dinner. After Lindsay arrived, we watched a video montage of the day Marin was born, that Marin called "the born video", giving a whole new meaning to the Bourne Identity. Marin specifically requested "basketti" for her birthday dinner, since it's her "favorite dinner in all the world." So Daddy made her special dinner extra special, and we all ate dinner together. After dinner, Marin opened her cards and a few presents. We topped dinner off with cupcakes, and then we played "night games", which are what Marin calls games that we play at night. We usually only play night games on weekends, but it was a special occasion, so we played a few rounds of Old Maid and Go Fish before it was time to call it a day.

We had a great day together and loved celebrating our Marin Jane all day. I still can hardly believe that she is THREE!