She is.....

...8 months old!

...the smiliest of babies

...occasionally serious, more often curious

...a ham, but a beautiful one!

....adored by her big brother!

...a papi baby

...an opportunistic sleeper

...a waver

...one of 5 Hiler grandchildren 2/13/10

(& not happy about having an ear infection)

...a lover of bath time with Jackson

2/7/10

...a pizza eater 2/13/10

...my Valentine!

...our joy!

Emerson turned 8 months old on Tuesday. She is growing so much lately, which I'm so glad since I was convinced after her 6 month appointment that her growth was stunted. She currently weighs almost 16 lbs and is 25 1/2 inches long. She is a wonderful eater of solids - she loves everything! Newest additions to her foods are pizza (see picture above), cranberries, Moo Goo Gai Pan and red bell peppers. I got some okra for her to try also. She can also easily pick up small foods with her thumb & forefinger, so she now eats about 100 puffs or yogurt melts a day. She loves the Gerber Wagon Wheels also. She still does not take a bottle well, although some days are better than others. Last week, she refused her bottle 2 days in a row, so her teacher's just mixed the milk in with her cereal. I have been watching for signs of dehydration and she has none of them - 5+ wet diapers a day, real tears, skin elasticity & fontanel are good, etc. Today, she has sucked down all her bottles (she drinks 3-4 6oz bottles a day) with minimal fussing. She loves her bed & really won't sleep for very long anywhere else. As I stated earlier though, she is an opportunistic sleeper & will take short cat naps anywhere, but takes the good 1.5-3 hour naps only in her bed. At school, she will only sleep in the swing. Her new tricks: waving hi/bye, says Mama when she cries but won't any other time, and she watches our mouths closely & tries to mimic it's movement (not the sound, just the movement). She is very curious, constantly grabbing at things. I just now had to take my earrings out because she was fascinated with them. No signs of crawling yet, but Jackson was a late crawler too. Same with teeth. Emme is the sweetest, most easy going baby & I thank God everyday that He sent her to us!

8 months old!

My little baby is 8 months old today. I can't believe it! How can that be? It feels like only yesterday we were bringing him home from the hospital. What an 8 months it has been! We didn't do much today, but we went to our new house while the inspector was there. He found a few minor things (and they always do) and one MAJOR thing - like a deal breaker major thing! Something about the furnace being rusted which is an indicator of something treacherous, who knows. We are going to tell the owners they have to fix it & if they won't, I guess we walk. :( Hopefully it will not come to that! Afterwards, we came home (to my parents') and Jackson had his first Chinese food sitting at the table -- in his highchair, of course -- with the family. He loved the Moo Goo Gai Pan chicken, broccoli & asparagus. He was not super fond of the plain steam white rice. I thought that was weird considering he loves his rice cereal, but I'm not fond of plain white rice either. Anyway, we're still in boxes or I'd upload a picture of Jackson on his 8 monthiversary. Perhaps I will be able to find the cord tomorrow, so stay tuned......