Saying goodbye

It's a little sad in the Stout home right now. Happy, too. But a good bit of sad mixed in there.

On the happy side, Jereme and I are going on a cruise to the Bahamas! I went on the same cruise in college with my girl friends and had a blast. Jereme has never been on a cruise and never been to the Bahamas, so it will be fun to do this together and see him experience it for the first time. The fact that we got a great deal on tickets, plus the fact that we haven't had any alone time in 10 months and 5 days at the time of this post (who's counting?), made it the perfect time to do this. It will be so fun to spend time, just the two of us, relaxing and having fun. Heck, we may even stay up really late and sleep in until something crazy like 9:00 am!

But, we only bought two tickets.

To be honest, I would never even consider taking Emma Grace on a cruise until she is much older. It wouldn't be fun for her or us. I'm happy that we have wonderful parents who are going to take such good care of her while we are gone. But, saying goodbye is going to be hard for this Mommy. The longest I've ever been away from her was not even 24 hours and she was with her Daddy. This will be hard. It's probably good that she'll be sleeping when we leave in the wee hours of the morning, or else Jereme might have to drag me to the car.

Emma Grace, I know you are going to have a great time with your grandparents. They are going to spoil the mess out of you. I have no doubt that you will try food that you've never tried before. You will get tickled way more than you're used to. You won't even miss us. But we will miss you. I will probably ask your Daddy about a thousand times, "wonder what Emma Grace is doing right now?" I'll probably look at my watch and think, "I bet she's eating dinner about this time."

Be sweet and have fun. And I promise to give you lots of kisses when we get home. I love you!

Happy 10 Month Birthday!

Dear Emma Grace,

You are 10 months old today. I got teary-eyed just typing that. Double digits. This is going so fast. You are becoming more and more different from the baby we brought home. You are turning into more of a little girl and less of a baby. I love watching you grow and become the person you were born to be.

You love to eat and you love to sleep. Both things you do very well. You eat 3 meals a day, completely on your own, and have 1 snack. You have a sippy cup of juice every day, 3 bottles, and a small bottle of milk before bed. You recently discovered that what Mommy and Daddy eat tastes better than what you have, so you often beg for our food. We are suckers and let you try it, which leads to you begging again. What can I say? We're new parents. We give in easily. You sleep 12 hours at night and take 2 naps during the day, lasting 1-2 hours each.

You officially crawled about 2 weeks ago. It was a happy day. Your Daddy and I were so proud of you. You don't seem too impressed with it though. You only do it when something you really REALLY want is out of reach. Silly Mommy thought there would be no stopping you once you started! You would much rather pull up to a standing position now. You have managed to stand by yourself for about 5 seconds at a time. Once you realize you're standing on your own, you get so tickled. I wish I could bottle up those moments. I know whatever you do, crawl or walk, you'll do it on your own time.

You are in a Mommy/Daddy phase right now. You don't like for someone you don't know well to take you away from us. When we leave you at the nursery at church, or when a friend picks you up, you'll cry and reach for us. It's sweet that you want us (sometimes), and I try to enjoy it while it lasts. One day you'll gladly wave bye-bye when we leave! Your Daddy and I are getting ready to leave you for 5 whole days (I haven't been away from you for more than a night)while we go on a vacation. On second thought, I better stop right there. Can't talk about it...

Your "words" are ma ma, da da, hi, ba, and gee. You say hi when you see people, so I think you are starting to figure out what that means. You say ma ma when you are upset or want me, so I think you know what that means. With the other words/sounds, I think you're just repeating what you hear. You hold out your hand when you see someone...not quite a wave, but you're getting there. You love to get attention from people and love to flash them your pretty smile. I hope you will be a social little girl.

You are becoming quite the active little girl with a full schedule. You go to story time at the library once or twice a week, you go to play time at church twice a week (while Mommy takes an aerobics class), and you play with your cousins at least once a week. We stay on the go, and I think that's the way you like it. You don't like being home for too long.

Sweet girl, I love spending my days with you. Some days are long, for both of us. But I wouldn't trade a single one. I love you, my big 10 month old.

The Embers

North Hills hosts a weekly beach music concert series every year. We really enjoyed going last year, a few times while I was pregnant and several times more after Emma Grace was born. She will love beach music because she literally has heard it all her life!

The Embers started off the first night and we had a great time!

Clearly, Emma Grace thinks every BOTTLE must have milk in it! Silly little girl!!

Mystery solved

For the past week or so, I have felt like we were living on one paci. I'm not sure what made me feel that way; maybe it was the fact that we only had one paci!

Anyway, I couldn't figure out what had caused The Paci Shortage of 2010, but I decided to get to the bottom of it. Which meant that I had no clue what to do except drive over to Target and buy more.

This morning, Emma Grace and I were playing in her room. Charlie came in and I immediately told him to get out because he is banned from the nursery. So he ran out and brought back his ball (he thinks the rules don't apply when the tennis ball is involved). Of course, the ball ended up under the crib and I had to get it out. While I was getting the ball out, I noticed something in the very back, up against the wall.

Can you guess? The Paci Shortage of 2010 was over. They once were lost but now are found. Not one paci. Not two. Six. SIX PACIS!

Because - let's be honest. What could be more fun than throwing your pacis overboard and making your mom use brushes, rulers, and eventually a broom to get them out? Nothing.

Dear Emma Grace,

Do you remember when I told you that your Daddy might act crazy when you bring home a boyfriend? How he might have a gun sitting out and might pull your boyfriend to the side and whisper something in his ear that makes him turn white as a ghost?

Well, I can't make any promises that I won't pull out pictures. Like this one, for example.

In advance, we are sorry.

Love,

Mommy and Daddy

Country girl

Well, life on the farm is kinda laid back

Ain't much an old country girl like me can't hack

It's early to rise, early in the sack

Thank God I'm a country girl

Henry is here!

Lou Ellen delivered Henry Caswell Wright on April 9th at 9:40 pm!

He weighed 8 pounds and 9 ounces. We are so excited that he is finally here, and Emma Grace is happy to have a new friend (or future husband, whatever).

I got to visit with the Wrights on Saturday and Sunday and everyone looked great! Henry was adorable...the second cutest newborn I've ever seen. I even got to hold him for a while. It was so hard to believe Emma Grace was ever that little. Well, actually Emma Grace WASN'T ever that little. But close enough.

He was born with a head full of hair and the most precious face. Holding a newborn made me want one again. For a second. Then I composed myself and gave him back to his owner.

Caleb, daddy hood looks good on you! Lou Ellen, I am so proud of you! You are a mommy now! It's the best title you'll ever have. Henry, Aunt Ashlee loves you!

Pasta and sauce

I feel like we've been in a rut with Emma Grace's food lately. Fruit, veggies, chicken. I read that now is a great time to introduce new foods with different textures and they used spaghetti as an example. Well, instead of spaghetti I used rigatoni and added some diced tomatoes.

I stripped her down (I have 9.5 whole months of mommy experience, and I had a funny feeling that tomatoes wouldn't wear well on Miss Stout's cute dress.) and let her go at it.

She loved it!

Did you know that tomatoes can do wonders for you hair? You didn't? Well, you are missing out!

Pollen, Chocolate, Bows, and Henry

SPOILER ALERT: THIS POST CONTAINS NO E.G. PICTURES

(I think the grandparents just walked away from their computers now!)

We are getting back into our regular routine after Easter. Unfortunately, the Easter Bunny brought us lots of pollen and our eyes and noses have suffered. Emma Grace and I have been hit hard. Emma Grace has developed the skill of seeing the aspirator coming from a mile away and starts screaming. It takes me and Jereme both to hold her down and suction her nose. Bless her heart! Rain is in the forecast, so we're hoping the yellow stuff will wash away!

The Easter Bunny also left lots of chocolate and a note to me saying that I needed to consume large quantities of it each day until it's all gone. Ok, that last part isn't true, but that's what I'm acting like. Honestly, I wish Emma Grace was old enough to eat it. I'd just give it to her and send her outside to run off the sugar. Instead, I'm left to do the job myself (it's tough being a mom). My breakfast this morning consisted of a tall glass of milk and 4 Reese's cups. And a Butterfinger. Ok, and another Reese's cup. Wonder how long I can claim "baby weight?"

Well, I enjoyed the bows while they lasted. The end may be near. Emma Grace has started taking off her bows and eating them. I just want to sit her down and tell her how serious this is. I waited and waited for hair to put a bow in. Now it's here. And now you're breaking Mommy's heart.

Oh, Henry! When will you come? Lou Ellen and I have met twice this week, trying to get Henry moving. Yesterday was Henry's due date and we walked at the mall for a LONG time. We also had lunch and I encouraged (pressured) Lou Ellen to get a makeover. I figured she needed to look her best on her due date, just in case. Well, Henry decided to wait, but Lou Ellen looked beautiful! It was so fun to talk about what the next few weeks might look like and get excited about all that is to come!

Well, Emma Grace is down for a nap (a.k.a sitting up in her crib and throwing her paci over the side, waiting for me to come in and lay her down) so I need to get some chores done. And see if I can get Charlie to hide the candy in a place I'll never find it.

Why not sit?

We had a busy Monday morning. We went to the library for story time (Technically it's called "Baby Lapsit" and Emma Grace wanted nothing to do with the lapsit part of it. She wanted to stand and practice walking.) Then we met Lou Ellen for an early lunch (She is due with baby Henry tomorrow and wanted to visit with her before she went to the hospital. We have a tentative date to visit again tomorrow, but I hope she is preoccupied by then! Henry is on the pre-approved husband list for Emma Grace. You know, when she's 30.)

It was beyond time for a nap by the time we got home. So I was surprised when I heard her talking a while after I put her in her crib. No crying, just talking. I couldn't figure out what was keeping her up, and since a certain 9 month old pulled the video monitor off our kitchen counter a few weeks ago which caused the video to stop working, I had to go in her room to see what she was doing.

Do you know what I found? Emma Grace sitting in her crib.

Could hardly believe my eyes. I've seen her get from her tummy to sitting up while she was playing, I just thought it would be a while before she would do it in bed.

I put her back down and she took a long nap. Once she started to wake up, I could hear her talking. Before too long, I heard music. At first, I thought she must have pushed her music doll in her crib, or even her musical aquarium on the side of her crib. Then I recognized the song and I knew exactly where it was coming from: her mobile. Hanging above her crib. And I knew the only way she could reach her mobile.

The funny thing about parenthood: one moment you're in one phase, and the next second you're in a whole new phase. So here we are. Time to lower the mattress and hope that this new trick doesn't give her something else to do instead of sleep!

Easter

Are you ready for an insane amount of pictures from our Easter weekend recap? Get ready!

Jereme worked a half day on Friday and played golf with several of his co-workers outside of Smithfield. We decided it would be best for him to ride with someone out there, then Emma Grace and I would come pick him up and we'd head to Jacksonville. Trying to avoid an afternoon nap, I left Raleigh a little too early. Then I heard from Jereme that the course was packed and they were running behind. I decided to kill some time at the outlet in Smithfield...I hate it when that happens!

I left Emma Grace's stroller in Raleigh, so I had to carry her. The worst part was when I wanted to try on some clothes and had no way to contain her in the dressing room. Not only did she eat her cereal off the floor, but she tried to escape under the door. Mommy fail #1.

We headed to the golf course and had to wait a while for Jereme to finish up. We found some shade and played for a while. Then Emma Grace ate pine straw. Mommy fail #2.

We made it to Jacksonville and had dinner with the Stouts. Saturday morning, Jereme and Dad fished and, thankfully, our dinner didn't depend on it. We had some soul food for lunch and shrimp creole for dinner. Delicious!

Back at the Stouts' house, Papa put Emma Grace in a basket and it was the best 7 minutes of her life.

Then she practiced crawling.

Which is much harder than you would think. Especially when you make it harder than it has to be.

Sunday morning, Emma Grace woke up to her very first Easter basket. She got two books, a toothbrush and toothpaste, sandals, and eggs filled with money.

Grandma and Papa gave her some cute outfits and tights, a bathing suit and cover up, sunscreen, and I know I'm forgetting the rest. Her favorite gift may have been the bubbles.

We went to church and Emma Grace looked so cute in her dress. I could just eat her up. Mom cooked lunch for my family. Dee Dee and Papou and YiaYia were also there. Emma Grace received more gifts...clothes, snacks, books and toys. It was like Christmas for her.

And she loved it.

Our final stop included an Easter egg hunt with some of Jereme's extended family. Emma Grace filled her basket with 30 eggs. She must have had some help.

It is hard to believe that last Easter I was carrying around a baby that I loved, yet knew nothing about. I was excited to be a mother, but I didn't even know what that would look like.

And this Easter, we took our baby girl to church to celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus. This year we helped her find eggs in her very first egg hunt. What a difference a year makes!

Happy Easter!

The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: 'He has risen from the dead'..." -Matthew 28:5-7

Daddy dressed me

Obviously.

Ice cream at North Hills

Tonight after dinner we ventured over to North Hills to walk off some of our food.

Then we cancelled that effort when we got ice cream. Oh well.

North Hills has a great little commons area where you can always find children running around. Emma Grace enjoyed watching everyone and several kids came over to play with her.






And her Daddy may have given her some ice cream.