Guess who's crawling!?!?!?!?!

Emma Kate is beginning to really get the hang of this crawling thing. I took some video today and thought I would share it.

Let me see your teeth!

Here is a cute video of Emma Kate one day during our lunch. I asked her to show me her teeth (she has 2 on the bottom) and it is funny to see what she does. There is no sound at the beginning but then you will hear something. Hope you enjoy it!

9 months old on August 28th

Well, yesterday Emma Kate turned 9 months old. We skyped with Brian, Stephanie and Sylvie (our travel mates in China) yesterday which was lots of fun. Sylvie has really changed alot and her hair has gotten longer. Brian and Stephanie will send me some pictures of Sylvie soon so I can share them on the blog! Emma Kate and I went to a neighbors garage sale and found some fun new toys. Other than that, we just hung around the house most of the day but I did take some pictures to share.

Emma Kate posing for the camera

Being silly and laughing

Perfecting the double wave

Leaping to daddy

Playing with daddy's shoes

Emma Kate has not been very interested in taking baths. In the orphanage, she was most likely just wiped clean with a wet wash cloth and never been in the bath. When we gave her baths in China, she was clearly frightened of this new activity. We have been taking it slow getting her used to water and the whole process. She now seems to enjoy the bath and I took some pictures of her in her new bathtub she got as a gift from the shower. Thanks Ann!

Playing in the water

That's it for now! Hope everyone has a great rest of their weekend!

This week at our house!

This week started off great with a shower for Emma Kate thrown by our wonderful neighbors, Ann, Jill and Peggy! What a wonderful event that was. We had so much good food, good company and lots of fun. I had 2 helpers handing me presents and helping me open gifts. Thanks Nia and Kit! Here are some pictures from the shower.

Dressed in a new outfit from Jaynie!

Please, no more photos until the shower starts!

In front of the beautifully decorated table of goodies!

Hamming it up for all the ladies to see.

Emma Kate with Ann, one of the hostesses.

Checking out the ladybug ride on toy... too cute!

Hanging out with the girls.

Ok, I confess, I registered for this so I could play with it too! So glad we got it. Thanks Loida!

Daddy came to help load up all the wonderful things we got.

Emma has also finally figured out how to balance while sitting up. This is great and she seems so proud of herself. She still falls over sometimes but she is really doing great with this. Here are some pictures of her working on sitting.

We are still so close to seeing Emma Kate crawl. Everyday I think that today will be the day but not yet. Her hair conitnues to grow. I can't wait to see her with a full head of hair.

Tomorrow the 28th will mark Emma Kate's 9th month in this world. We have been home from China for one month. Wow, that is hard to believe. Hope everyone has a great weekend!! Much love to you all!

Video and a couple of pictures

Well, I thought I would add a really cute video of Emma Kate giggling with daddy! We love to hear her chuckle out loud but it is hard to video it. I just happened to have my iphone in my hand when Emma Kate and Calvin were playing on the floor.

After Emma Kate's bath tonight, I took some pictures of her wrapped up in her towel. So clean, cute and precious. I thought I would share!

I had mentioned that she was getting up on her hands and knees lately. Here are some pictures of her playing on the floor in different positions.

That's it for now!

What's new this week in the life of Emma Kate!

Well, I have to say that Emma Kate is now sleeping through the night most nights. Thank goodness! She still does not always like to go down for her naps but nighttime is definitely easier. It is amazing how much better we can be as parents when we are not so sleep deprived.

Emma Kate is learning to wave. Actually it is more of a high five than a wave but she has learned to do it when someone speaks to her. She has also learned that she gets a lot of attention when she does it. She is so cute when she does her wave! Here are a couple of pictures of her doing her wave.

Posing with a handmade gift from Mimi

She can wave while posing on her side.

This is called "The double wave".

Emma Kate has not started crawling yet but she is so close. She loves to be on the floor playing with her toys and just doing lots of gross motor movement. I know she will start crawling very soon. Now, when she is on her knees, rocking back and forth, she will launch herself forward in order to get something she wants in front of her.

We have been out to eat in restaurants several times and Emma Kate does really well. She loves all the people and things to look at and she is very willing to eat different things. She enjoys eating chicken, turkey, hamburger meat, bread (just like her daddy), ice cream (just like her mommy) mashed potatoes, mac n cheese, and grits to name a few. Baby foods she likes are sweet potatoes, corn, squash, applesauce, pears, peaches, yogurt, rice cereal and baby oatmeal. The only thing so far she does not seem to like were the baby food peas. She took a couple bits and then acted like she was gagging. We tried it several times and the same thing happened. Oh well, we will try them again in a month or so.

We are having a shower thrown for us on Sunday the 22nd. We are really excited about it and Emma Kate is trying to figure out what she will wear for the big event. Some of our wonderful neighbors are having it for us....thanks in advance Ann, Jill and Peggy!

We have lots of birthdays to celebrate this month. Happy Birthday to Connie (Calvin's sister), Jennifer Smith (Kathy's good friend), Calvin (first birthday as a daddy), Douglas (my brother), and Katie (my niece). Today is actually Douglas' (my brother) birthday so Happy Birthday to you, Douglas!!! Douglas and Erica also just celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary! I can't beleive it has been 25 years. Congrats!

Slowly but Surely plus some pictures

Life is slowly getting to a new normal for us. Emma Kate is beginning to get on the schedule and is sleeping through the night sometimes. I really feel like we have turned the corner and will have much more sleep for all of us. She had one great nights sleep and then the next day we went to the pediatrician and had to have some shots. Sh was fussy the rest of the day and slept very little that night. Since then, I think we are back on track. The pediatrician said that she looked great and did not see anything of concern.

New things Emma Kate is doing this week. She is babbling much more. I am trying to get her to say "dada" since Calvin's birthday is next week. She is not really mimicking my sounds yet but she does make lots of her own sounds. She is also getting on her hands and knees now and rocking back and forth. She will be crawling soon! Watch out! Calvin did teach her how to shake her head "no" which she loves to do when she is eating a meal.

I wanted to post some pictures from China of various street scenes. It is just amazing to see what some people there were able to strap to scooters or bicycles and transport. I don't know how they could do that! Hope you enjoy the pictures.

The little girl was talking on a cell phone; she was too cute!

Blocking traffic

Bamboo scafolding

Live moving scorpians; they would cook or fry them for you! No, we did not try them.

Headlines from last week!

Sleepless in Seattle, Final Flight Home on a Long Journey, Sleepless in Smyrna, Attempting to Change Day into Night and Night into Day, and Outsmarted by an 8 Month Old Baby

When we flew home from China, there seemed to be no easy way to get back to Atlanta. We flew from Beijing to Seattle and we wanted a direct flight from Seattle to Atlanta. We had 2 choices: emdure a 12 hour layover in Seattle or spend the night and fly to Atlanta the next morning. We choose option 2 because we thought we could relax and venture out to the Pike Place Market. Well, our light was about an hour arriving into Seattle and then we had to go through US Customs and Immigration. By the time we did that and said goodbye to Brian, Stephanie and Sylvie along with another couple with their little girl, it was really too late to do anything. Little did we know we would be up most of the night with a crying baby. That was a really long night! The final flight home went well and we arrived home safely. Once home, there was a welcome sign for Emma Kate with some balloons. So very sweet of our neighbors, Susan, Bob and Carol to do! Once inside, we had notes about all the different foods that were in our freezers and we had a meal for that night ready in the fridge. Thanks for friends and family; Susan, Sarah, Caroline and Anne.

Since being home on Sunday July 26th, noone in this house has had a good night's sleep. I never realized how difficult it is to care for a baby when you are so tired, you can't see straight. The hard part about this is that it is a critical bonding time for all of us. This is so important for Emma Kate to know that we are her parents and we will always be there for her. We have tried to adjust us all but especially Emma Kate to our time zone. China is 12 hours time difference from our time zone. It has slowly gotten better but I do mean slow. Calvin and I have been fine tuning Emma Kate's days regarding naps and activities trying to get her really tired so she will sleep through the night. Each day we think we have done the fine tuning ina way that will work. She has not slept through the night yet. The first few nights she had fitful sleeping and woke up every couple of hours. Now she is sleeping longer and will usually wake up between 2:30 to 4:00 and stay awake for a couple of hours and go back to sleep.

We have been out and about quite a few times hoping to get her used to the carseat. She does okay in it most times.

I hope to post some pictures of street scenes from China soon. Keep your eye out for that. Here is a picture of the decorations at our house when we arrived home and a picture of Emma Kate when she fell asleep in her highchair at the kitchen table.

Please keep praying for us regarding the sleep issues. We go to the pediatrician this week and hopefully will get some tips from her. I better try and get some sleep before morning comes; it was 4:30 am here when I started this post.