Emilia's Seven Month Photos!

Sneaking this one in right before Emilia turns eight months (although photos were taken at the 7 month mark). That about describes life right now! Hectic and stressful! The good news is we sold our house!! The bad news is we have no place to live!  We are definitely feeling the clock ticking away as we look towards our November closing date. Since we haven't seen any homes we love enough to buy, we are going to shift our attention towards rental options this weekend (while keeping our eye out for new listings). We are leaning more towards staying in Pennsylvania vs moving to New Jersey, but we'll have to see where life leads us!

Back to our little Emmy... she's been a trooper through all the chaos, and lights up our lives in so many ways.

Emilia Caroline - 7 Months Old

Seven months of Emilia! Sometimes I look at her newborn pictures and can't believe it is the same child!

Our kids at 7 months: Nolan (L), Emilia (R)

Emilia continues to become more and more aware and active with each day. I think the comparison above is appropriate as Nolan was all about exploring with his feet, and Emilia is all about grabbing with her hands. She is always searching/grabbing whatever is in her reach (often times Mommy's hair and earrings - ouch!) She has even pulled out my small diamond stud earrings out of my ear twice now! She loves attention and will loudly demand it if you don't give it to her. She is extremely loud and has been experimenting with her shrieks/screaming lately (just for attention), and she can really get out those ear-splitting sounds!

Emilia turned 7 months on Aunt Emily's birthday, so I gave her a daisy to hold for some of the shoot. I didn't get many photos with it because she quickly tried to eat it ;) Nolan also held a daisy during his 5 month photoshoot.

This looks delicious!

 The lighting wasn't great on the day I took these photos, but I still got a "classic Emmy phase" with the white rug photoshoot.

This closed mouth smile KILLS me every time. I love her.

The many hairstyles of Emmy C. It's growing back a good deal lighter than what she started with!

My two silly billies at seven months. 

Emilia and Nolan's relationship continues to flourish, and I seriously can't get enough of watching them together. I never in a million years thought I'd have to utter the phrase "Nolan, please stop hugging your sister so we can get in the car!" :) It's a good problem to have! Nolan calls Emmy "my little Bemmers" and "my baby girl". I sometimes refer to her as "girlfriend" (ie "what's wrong, girlfriend?!") and at the Doctor's office a few weeks ago, I was checking out with Emmy while Nolan played in the waiting room. One of the mother's asked him if that was her little sister at the counter, and he replied "that's my girlfriend!" We both got a good laugh out of that! Another thing I love is on the rides home from daycare, I ask both kids how their days were. When I ask Emmy about her day, she typically makes some kind of baby noise, which Nolan finds HILARIOUS! He laughs so hard when I repeat the noise and wonder out loud what that must mean! I'm really enjoying interacting with the kids these days. Nolan definitely seems to be growing out of the terrible three's/threenager phase.

Thumbs up, Emmy!

I got some good laughing pictures during the blanket part of the photoshoot. One of the easiest ways to get Emmy to laugh is to make a loud "A-CHOO!" fake sneezing noise. I remember Nolan loving that too at this stage. 

Mommy is SO funny!

So many faces, expressive little one!

ROAR!

Crankers - I'm so over this.

Other notes for this stage:

• My girl does not NAP. A common report of her naps from daycare is three 20-30 naps for the entire day there. Every once in awhile she'll nap for over an hour there, which is considered great! She won't even fall asleep in the car rides to/from school anymore. She is really aware of everything around her and really feel that it is because she doesn't want to miss out.
• Her typical bedtime is around 6:45pm. She doesn't really resist going to bed in her crib - I imagine she is exhausted after her full day with little napping. She sleeps with a white noise app playing on an old iPhone/speaker dock, humidifier running, blackout curtains drawn, pacifier in her mouth, and recently a "lovie" that she snuggles (Nolan's owl blanket that he never took to). 
• Her nighttime sleeping is all over the place. Very rarely she will make it with just 1 wake up (the best is when this is at 10pm when I'm still awake, but usually it is around 1am). The most common is 2-3 wake ups (10pm, 1am, 5am). I think there a lot of culprits here - constant stuffy nose from daycare, teeth coming in, trying to practice rolling/etc. Hoping we get into a good groove soon - this mama is TIRED.
• She is a great eater and has loved everything she's tried. She doesn't quite have the pincher grip yet so had some trouble self-feeding puffs the one time I tried. I'll try again soon - she wants to get them in her mouth, but can't quite figure it out.
• Her first teeth finally popped through this month! She has two little white teeth just above her bottom gums. I have a feeling more are coming with the amount of drool she has!
• She adores her little brother and loves watching him and laughing. 
• She sits up by herself and loves grabbing all the toys around her and knocking them around on the floor. 
• She still hates tummy time, but I've seen her rolling from her back to her tummy a few times now, but not the other way (although maybe she has at school). She only is really happy being held or sitting up!
• She has started babbling! Lots of "dadadada", "ah-bababa", etc. I love hearing her little voice coming through. If she's anything like her brother, I will never get a word in at this house!
• I really miss seeing Emmy during the week. Most days I see her very briefly in the morning and put her straight to bed when we get home in the evening. I'm really happy I had a long maternity leave with her, and that we finally sold our house so that my long days of commuting are almost over!
• We love our little girl and think she's the perfect addition to our family (non-sleeping, screaming, and all!) <3