Go the F to Sleep.

You know that amazing feeling when you wake up at night, fully thinking that your alarm will be going off any second but when you look at the clock you see it's only like, 12:30 am?

That feeling is over and done with in our house.  Emilie has been hitting a trifecta of sleep disturbances over the past few weeks.  And I don't mean getting up every few hours, but more getting up, being soothed back to sleep and waking back up a few minutes later.  First, we think she's either going through a growth spurt or approaching a milestone or something because if her belly is not FULL, she's waking up at night.  This means that her last feedings before bed are full of oatmeal, veggies and breastmilk.  Essentially we're stuffing her like a Thanksgiving turkey so we can drink a glass of wine and go to bed at a sane hour.

Secondly, we think she's more aware of the whole "mom and dad are missing" thing and so when she wakes up and doesn't see us she cries for us...okay, for me...okay, for my boob. 

And finally, we think we're slowly approaching the inevitable sleep training time that all kids eventually have to go through in some form or another.  Because right now when she's getting up at night and refusing to go back to sleep, I'm bringing her back to bed with us.  It gets her back to sleep but is just not ideal for our family.  Thankfully but unfortunately, friends Jodi and Stacey know all too much about sleep training, so they're acting as a great resource for us.

So at night when she cries and I look at my clock I am praying it's 5:30/6:00 am which would mean we all made it through the night :)

That aside though Emilie is doing great.  At her 6 month checkup she was 19.4 pounds and hovering in the 98th percentile.  She's sitting up on her own, dancing to music and trying to get the animals to love her just as much as she loves them...they're reluctant due to her grabby grab hands.


She's growing on Izzy.

Last weekend we went to Philadelphia for a conference that Steve attended.  It was E's first car trip and for the most part she did great!  She slept for the better part of both ways and only got cranky at the end on our way home.  But really, so did we.  The weekend started out great but ended in me getting food poisoning and us having to stay an extra day.  Then Steve got a fever and our car started making crazy noises.  Luckily the car checked out so we were able to drive home, but it was a bit of a mess.

Emilie found the full length mirror hysterical. 





This was my view while sick with food poisoning.  She's pretty good medicine if you ask me.



Emilie has branched out into eating all sorts of fruits and veggies.  We haven't had any issues with food yet, but clearly they're not all winners:





Look at her little face! OhmygoshIcantevenstandit.



Emilie loves music and loves to dance.  Anything with a beat gets her going which includes a lot of 70s disco.  I, however, think it's never too early to get down with Ani Difranco.  And I was elated to see that Emilie felt the same way.

I've also started taking video of Emilie with my iPhone so that she can see herself while being filmed.  It cracks her up.  She is a funny kid though, so I get it.

Other things I've been thinking about lately?  I pick someone else's nose.  Like, on a regular if not daily basis.  You kinda know that when you're going to be a parent you're going to be someone that regularly smells someone else's butt and you make peace with that.  But for some reason lately it's been an odd feeling of just how normal it is to pick another persons nose.  You see, I don't even know anymore if that was gross for me to share.  Let's just keep it between you and me, internet.

Do you remember on The Simpson's when they would give you a glimpse of what's going on in Homer's head it was always circus music?  It being silly circus music was evidence of how simple and kinda stupid he is.  I have the ABC's in my head.  Very frequently.  I know this will graduate to more complex music as E gets bigger, but it makes me glad that people can't randomly hear what's going on inside my head.

And finally, our house.  After a year and a half we're finally getting things moving on the house.  Last weekend we repained the dining room and plastered some vents and holes that needed fixing.  This weekend we're priming the kitchen and getting the floor ready to be pulled up and replaced.  Operation Fix Our Broke Ass House is in full effect y'all.  Stay tuned for pictures.