Emma and I went off to a little photography get-together a little while ago and I had a hard time getting some good shots because A) it was really fun to socialize with the other girls and B) Emma was the youngest one there (only by about 2 weeks, but the other little one much more stable sitting up haha). So I ended up having my hands full when trying to take pictures and keep Emma happy! But, I did manage to get a couple of cute shots, and here they are!





I also had a chance today to take some more pictures of Emma using my new plexi-glass. It made me realize just how much I wanted my seamless paper for my Birthday! The white bedsheet just isn't doing it anymore! Anyway, here are a few more pictures of our little Tiny (who has been teething like crazy lately)!

I had to include this one too just because I end up having a lot of pictures like this in my camera after the "photoshoot". Haha...Shamus never wants to be far behind and always wants to make sure his baby is doing okay!

We Are Moving (Rolling) Now!!

Well, it only took about 7 months but I think we finally got the hang of rolling over for real! Ha! You may remember that Emma rolled over for the first time back in November (5 Months & Rolling!!) from her tummy to her back. Well, since then, she has done it very rarely as if she was saying to us "Umm hello! I did it a few months ago so you know I can do it, but that doesn't mean that I LIKE to do it!!" Haha! Since November, I may have actually watched her roll from her tummy to her back maybe 5 times, and never from her back to her tummy.

Well, I picked up Emma from daycare last Thursday (January 21st) and just like normal, I jokingly asked her in my ever so popular baby voice "Did we roll over today?" and one of her teachers replied with "Yup, she just did about 5 minutes ago!" Nothing thinking to much about it a said (again in my baby voice haha) "From your tummy to your back I assume." (Like I was expecting Emma to actually respond to me haha - good thing they are used to parents doing that all the time at daycare haha). Nope! From her back to her tummy!! I missed it!! DOH!! We asked her morning teacher the next day who had also missed it but low and behold, she did it once or twice again on Friday while at daycare.

By this time, Wes and I are just dying to see it for our own eyes (yes, that is the new excitement in our lives...normally rolling over, laughing and pooping are big topics of discussion now-a-days haha). Emma finally did it for Mommy and Daddy over the weekend and we were just brimming with pride! She even demonstrated her new found ability to roll over on Sunday night for Mimi and Pop! After a full day of playing with Mimi yesterday, she still had enough energy to roll from her back to her tummy, then about a minute later, she went tummy to back, then about thirty seconds after that, from her back to her tummy again! Of course after all that rolling she was exhausted and started crying because she couldn't get to her back again haha.

This morning at daycare she was a rolling all over the place! She went back to tummy and then again right back to her back no less then 8 or 9 times just in the 20 minutes that it took me to drop her off!! That's my girl!! I can't believe she is going to be 7 months old already tomorrow!!

This weekend Emma and I took a trip down to Chantilly, VA for a little get-together with some of my new found photography buddies! We met up at a local library to snap some pictures and learn from each other and it was a blast! We are already planning the next spring gathering! Here are a few pictures from the day. I can't take credit for any of them since I was mostly standing right by Emma as we are still a bit wobbly with the sitting up thing haha! I still have to download some of my pictures so there may be more to come (although these are probably better)!

It's The Little Things...

Emotional alert! Beware!

A few years ago, this would have been a very different post about what I thought made me happy. It would have consisted of the obvious, like friends and family and my husband, which are certainly all still true, but also things like new cars, or getting a pay raise at work, or buying something for myself. And not that there is anything wrong with any of those things, but the day that Emma was born, that list changed.

The big things are clearly still the same on my list today. Like friends and my family and my husband and obviously Emma. However, the list is full of much smaller things now.

The first time I realized this was just a few days ago, when I got a text message from my mom who wanted to know what size PJs Emma was wearing because there was a sale going on at Sears. It took me a few minutes, but all of the sudden it hit me as I was on my way to pick Tiny up at daycare. "WOW! I HAVE A DAUGHTER AND AM THE PERSON THAT GETS ASKED ABOUT SIZES. FOR ONCE, I'M NOT ALWAYS ASKING OTHER MOM'S ABOUT SIZES". BAM! Bring on the water-works!

For so many years, I would make phone calls to either my sister in laws or friends asking what sizes their little ones were wearing. How I wished an prayed for years, that the shoe was on the other foot and that people were asking me about my son or daughter, because that would mean, that I would too have a family of my own. Here it was. Finally.

This may seem stupid or trivial to a lot of people, but to me, it was a big deal. It also got me thinking about all of the other little things that I take for granted every day, that fill my heart in ways that I could have never imagined. Here are just a few examples of what I am talking about:
It's the basket full of toys and stuffed animals in our family room, that was never there before.


It's the sound of Emma's Bunny Mobile playing in the background as she goes to sleep at night.


It's the fact that my bathtub is full of letters, numbers and rubber duckies, instead of being empty.


It's little figurines like this, that are scattered throughout Emma's room that I move to dust.


It's the look of Emma tiny little brush and bows when I open her drawers to put her clothes away, that remind me, that one day (when my daughter actually has some hair) I will be brushing and curling her hair and putting in french braids just like my Mom did for me for so many years.

Who would have thought, that such small things, would have such a big impact on your life.

LIVE! with Regis & Kelly!

That's right! LIVE! with Regis and Kelly is having a Beautiful Baby contest (thanks for letting me know Kim!) and I couldn't help but enter our own little beautiful baby!! Of course everyone thinks that their own baby is the cutest baby in the entire world, and we certainly are no exception.

So keep an eye out for Emma on LIVE! with Regis and Kelly as I am 100% sure she will be a finalist haha!! I mean, there are only 1,589 PAGES of babies already entered, so she has a pretty good chance haha!

Journey of "The Puff"

Emma had a new milestone last week! She had her first taste of "solid food" which was a Puff! For anyone that doesn't know what it a Puff is, its basically a little crunchy snack that dissolves really quickly (faster then a Cheerio). You will get the idea when you check out the pictures below.

I just had this feeling that I was going to regret not having the camera with me when we tried our first Puff, and boy am I glad that I did. Check out what we now like to call, "The Journey of the Puff"...

This is what we started with. A nice happy baby. Until...

These really weird things showed up in front of Emma. She wasn't quite sure what to do with them. Are they food? Are they toys? Why are they so little?

A close up of what "The Enemy" looks like...


Then, it started to come closer and closer to Emma's mouth.

(Check out the look of absolute panic on her face haha).


Ah! "Why is this thing in my mouth and what do I do with it now?!?!" She says.

"Help Mommy...there is something stuck to my lip and I can't get it off!!!!"

(This is where Mommy and Daddy are doubled over in laughter because the Puff is positioned just right to look like two little buck-teeth.)

"Hey! Wait a minute! This isn't too bad!!"


"Hmmm...I wonder what will happen if I touch one?"

"Ummm...I'm still not too sure about those things. I better just try to eat the tray instead. I better keep a close eye on them though!"


"Well...I do have these two big teeth! I better use them for something!"



"Again Mommy! Again!"



All in all, it was a successful event. Hilarious, and successful. Here is a little video we took after we started getting the hang of things. Ha!

When Mommy Is Bored...

...she takes even more pictures of Tiny! Ha!

We headed down to southern Maryland this weekend to celebrate our niece's 11th Birthday (I still can'e believe she is 11 already). We had a great time and loved getting to see everyone since we missed them over the holidays. The drive down is a little over an hour and a half and we picked up Emma's great grandmother Nanny on the way, so Mommy sat in the back for most of the ride. About an hour into it, I got totally bored and noticed that I actually remembered to bring my camera this time! So...poor Emma, was subject to even more pictures yet again! Some actually turned out pretty cute!



Despite Emma not sleeping much on the ride down (gee...I couldn't imagine why haha) she was a pretty happy baby and had a great time playing with all of her big cousins!!

Christmas Video - Nebulizer or Bust!

This is a pretty cute video (although pretty dark so it may be hard to see), but this was Emma after our second visit to the pediatrician the week of Christmas and the diagnosis of RSV. Normally, Emma takes about two 3 hour naps each day, with one or two quick 20 minute naps (power naps as we like to call it) thrown in here or there. On this day, we woke Emma up about an hour into her nap to go to the doctors and she didn't sleep for the rest of the day. This video was taken about 7:00 or 8:00 at night and is proof of what a nebulizer can do!

Emma sure does love her Shamus!

My Little Trooper

I couldn't help but take pictures of Emma's chunky little legs covered in Band Aids after all of her shots last week.

My poor baby!! She was really tired after that visit so she went to bed pretty early that night. This was right before her evening bath...

As you can see, even after the bath the Band Aids were still there! Those little stinkers are hard to get off! You always have to have some naked baby pictures right? I tried to take this picture so it wasn't too revealing haha!

Then, my little peanut proceeded to fall asleep on the changing table as Mommy was putting on her PJs. As you can see, we got through the onesie but that was about it!

I don't think it was 5 minutes later, that Emma was down for the count!

My Poor Baby!! 5 Shots!!

My poor little, tiny Emma got a whopping 5 shots plus an oral vaccine this week all at once!! It was pretty much the maximum number of shots that they could have given her!! Her chunky little thighs were COVERED with Band Aids from all the needles. My poor baby!! Of course I took pictures of her "wounds" but I still need to download them from the camera so stay tuned for some super embarrassing pictures haha. I have to have something to be able to embarrass her on her wedding day right?! Planning ahead! Poor baby not only got the same shots she got at 4 months, but two flu shots as well! We will be heading back in a month because both flu shots require boosters. Here is what she was loaded up with on Wednesday:

• Diphtheria, Tetanus & Pertussis
• Polio
• Haemophilus Influenza Type b (Hib)
• Pneumococcal Conjugate (PCV)
• Hepatitis B
• Rotavirus
• 2009 Influenza (Regular Flu Shot)
• 2009 H1N1 Influenza

Despite that long list of "stuff", she did really well that night but woke up with a 101.5 fever the next morning. We kept her pumped full of Tylenol the next day which did the trick and she is back to her happy self again! Shew!

Her appointment went really well overall though which was great to hear! She weighed in at 15 lbs, 6 ounces and was 26 inches long. Pretty much everything was in the 50th percentile and looking good. Dr. P. was pretty impressed with her ability to sit up and her love of standing and wasn't concerned at all about her not rolling over haha. He said that crawling may be a little delayed because she is not a fan of Tummy Time but I still tend to think she is going to skip crawling all together. She gets so excited when she is standing and looking at Shamus, one day she is just going to start walking over to him!!

Dr. P. said to continue with just fruits and veggies, no meat yet, but we can start to give her little Puffs or Cheerios if we want! My baby is getting so big! We will probably start her on "lunch" soon, but we aren't replacing any bottles yet. She is still working on getting her appetite back from her RSV but she is doing better everyday. She still has a cough but you can tell is feeling much better, or at least she was until all of her shots on Wednesday! Emma's two little teeth are getting bigger and bigger by the day too! Stay tuned for some updated pictures this weekend!

What A Guy!!

I have to probably embarrass Wes here for a minute but I just felt like I needed to tell everyone what an amazing father that he is. Although there are times that I get frustrated with him, and I have no doubt there are times that he gets frustrated with me (I can't imagine why though haha), I couldn't have picked a better father for our child.

What stands out to me is all of the little things that he does to make sure both Emma and I are taken care of. Almost every morning when Tiny and I come downstairs from getting ready and are about to head out, I find a warm bagel with cream cheese, a hot mug of coffee and a nice warm car all ready for us (which can make your morning when its 25 degrees out). He makes sure to tell me to be careful with the ice at the bottom of the driveway, and when it snows he will back the car down the driveway and have it ready for Emma and I to head straight down the road. He gets so worried about Tiny whenever she is sick or doesn't want to eat and he truly looks forward to the days that he picks her up from daycare.

I can't even explain in words how much of an amazing father he is and will always be. Emma already has him wrapped around her little, chunky finger.

Emma's New Favorite Things

I thought it would be fun to post about Emma's new favorite things since she happened to change so much in just a week! It was amazing how much she changed right before our eyes over the holidays! Here are a few of her new favorite things now, in no particular order.

1. Waking up everday at 4:30AM
2. Standing Up
3. Her Toes
4. Infant Orajel
5. Applesauce
6. Shamus
7. Tigger & Pooh
8. Her Fish Mobile (or as we like to call it "shish-ies").
9. Mommy
10. Daddy

Wow! Catching Up!

It has been way too long since my last update here on Tiny's blog so I am sure that I will be forgetting a lot, but I thought I better update it now, before I forget even more! First...Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone!! We had a great holiday, and are amazed at what a difference just a week makes in Emma's life. I'll try to start from the beginning...

We spent most of Christmas Eve day at home, getting ready for Wes's parents (Gigi and Papa) to come visit for the holidays. That night, my parents (Mimi and Pop) and Nanny (who Emma got her middle name from) came up to visit before Gigi and Papa arrived. We had a nice, relaxing evening and exchanged gifts too. Emma did pretty good too! She even did really well earlier in the evening when we went to mass. I didn't get a picture of her in her Christmas outfit with her new Mary Jane's but I am sure I will dress her in that going to daycare soon (when else is she going to wear it haha) so I will try to snap a picture then. Gigi and Papa got to our house late that night and Emma was fast asleep, so we all pretty much hit the sack shortly after they got here.

There was one present that I couldn't wait to give Wes. This was quite the challenge to pull off seeing that I only had about 2 days before Christmas and we got snowed in so it sure was hard to sneak around Wes to get it done! I got a cute frame that had three, 5 x 7 pictures, and got some wooden letters and painted them white. At this point, Emma wasn't too great at sitting up by herself yet which is why the Bumbo is here, but you get the idea.

Christmas was a blast! Of course Emma was excited to see all of her presents so she got up bright and early (5:00AM) and we came downstairs to wait for everyone else to wake up. I really enjoyed that early morning with her because the house was quiet, it was Christmas morning and I got to selfishly have my daughter all to myself! Once everyone woke up, it was presents time! As much as I tried to keep thing under control this year knowing that Emma wouldn't remember her first Christmas, I went totally overboard! I think Wes, Gigi, Papa and I were all done opening gifts within 30 minutes and Emma's seemed to take hours! Ha! I can't even begin to write down everything that she got! We pretty much just relaxed for the rest of the day and had a great time catching up with Gigi and Papa.

The rest of the week was pretty busy with a few crazy moments thrown in! Two days after Christmas, on Emma's 6 month Birthday, we discovered her first two teeth had poked through her bottom gums! Two at one time, OUCH! She was sitting in my lap and decided to chew on my finger again, which now happens all the time, and I felt something that was certainly not there the day before! I took a peek and there they were! So it was a good thing that she got some more Orajel for Christmas!

After Christmas, Emma had been getting more and more congested which we all thought was from her teeth. She was also running a low grade fever as well, which again, we assumed was from the teething. On Wednesday of last week though, after her morning nap, she felt really warm to me, so I took her temperature and it was all the way up to 103.5! Yikes! So after a dose of Tylenol and a call to her pediatrician, we were off to the doctors office that afternoon. Turns out, Emma tested positive for RSV which is a Respiratory Syncytial Virus. To make a long story short, the doctor sent us home that day because it wasn't terrible, but we were back in his office the next day. So he put Emma on a nebulizer, twice a day with two different medications to help her breathe. She is doing much better now, but is still on the nebulizer and isn't quite back to her old self again. Between the two teeth coming in and the RSV, poor baby had a rough start to 2010.

Like I said above, I am sure that there is a lot that I am forgetting but hopefully now that the holidays are over and we get back into our routine, I will remember to update this more often!

Oh, and here are a few more picture of Tiny that I took earlier this week. I can't believe that she is 6 months old already!!