2010: A Year in Review (July - December)

It's been a busy couple of days so I am just not trying to finish up my recap of 2010. More to come on what happened last week and Emma's fun "sleep week" as we like to call it. ACK.

It's kind of funny because when I was look back through the blog to do the recap of the last half of 2010, I realized how much my blog fell off and how there were only a couple of posts each month because Emma was sure keeping us busy! So needless to say the July - December recap will probably be a lot shorter! Ha!

 

We start off in July, with a new one year old who was keeping us on our toes for sure. This is when we also started Emma's daily antibiotics/study medicine and we introduced the poop tracker of 2010 haha! Emma took her first steps on Tuesday, July 13th, was working on cutting her 8th tooth, was on whole milk and completely off her pacifier.

July also brought on the warmer weather and Emma's first trip out on her Pop's boat! She has always loved being outside and despite her not being such a fan of her life jacket, she very much enjoyed her first boat trip and actually like swimming in the Magothy River more so than in any pools! Emma was already working on her animal sounds (which is one of her favorite things to this day) and would respond with "ooooh ooooh" for a dog, "aaaahahhh" for a lion and "Mmmm" for a cow.

August brought on Emma's 2nd vacation to Ocean City but her first time visiting the beach! Surprisingly, she LOVED to play in the sand but wasn't too much of a fan of the waves and water. Emma also had her one year appointment at the doctors in August and was in the 50th percentile for height, in between the 10 - 25th percentile for weight, and in the 25th percentile for head circumference. So she is average height, skinny and small head. Just like Daddy! Ha!

We actually found out in July that we were expecting Baby #2, we didn't spread the news until September when I was about 13 weeks pregnant. At the same time, Emma was just starting her first classes at Junior Tumblebees which she completely loved! It was a rough start for Mommy since I was completely exhausted after work and had to go chase Emma around the gym, but she loved it and that's what matters!!

Although I was getting a little better with my photography, I started to realize that most of my pictures were of the back of Emma's head because she was always on the go! Once she started walking, she didn't stop!!

October brought us to 16 weeks pregnant with a 15 month old which was pretty tricky! This month was filled with exciting news when we found out we were expecting a boy, but it also brought some surprises, like finding out baby Jackson had two Choroid Plexus Cysts (CPC) which is one of the markers for Down Syndrome and Trisomy 13 and 18 chromosome abnormalities. Luckily, the CPCs disappeared on their own (much later on) but it certainly was a bump in the road!

In October, we once again participated in the Alzheimer's Association Memory Walk in my grandmother's name and Emma had a great time, and pregnant Mommy survived! :) It was a bright and sunny day and Emma got to see lots of other little ones and puppies which she loved.

At the end of October we celebrated Emma's 2nd Halloween where she was a fairy princess one day (during her daycare Halloween parade) and Minnie Mouse on the actual holiday. I was never a huge fan of Halloween growing up but ever since we had Emma, it's one of my absolute favorite days of the year. Emma walked around the house sporting those Minnie Mouse ears for weeks!

Although Emma was still a very happy go lucky baby, she certainly was developing her own personality and becoming more and more outspoken as she learned she could communicate. This resulted in the purchase of a Time Out Spot where luckily, her Pluto sticker has spent most of the time on instead of her. Ha!

December brought a lot of changes for sure! Mommy turned 6 months pregnant, we picked out a name for our baby boy (Jackson Douglas) and Emma turned into a full on 18 month old toddler! She was in a new room at daycare, down to one nap a day and more active than ever. We once again went out into the cold and cut down our Christmas tree, celebrated Emma's 2nd Christmas and overall had a fantastic month!!

2010 was an absolutely amazing year! It certainly came with it's surprises and its up and downs but I wouldn't have had it any other way. Emma has continued to be the love of our lives and we can't wait to get to meet our new little man which will only add to our joy! I can't wait to share what 2011 will bring and hopefully I will have enough time to actually keep you updated in between dirty diapers, runny noses, belly laughs, birthday parties, giggles, kisses and lots and lots of love.