Videos Since Christmas

OK, so Blogger videos are acting up, so here are most of the major videos covering most of the important milestones in the month of January. To catch everyone up. Emily loves fridge magnets and dancing, playing "where's Emily Jane," throwing her toys, playing the Djimbe, learning how to walk and other cute things.

Walking Routines

EJ is now completely on cows milk. And her routine has changed. She punished us for this by waking up at all hours "starving." But she adapted and is sleeping better these days. She is also talking constantly. Most of her words are not a written language but she means them passionately. She like to point at something and ask, "A goog?" and then turn her palms upward and say, "A wahgoo yowahgoo, go baleebaloobga."

In the morning, Ryan get's her up (and sometimes she get's Ryan up). They hang out of a few minutes and the Ryan takes her to school. EJ eats breakfast at school with her fiends like Kieva, Lilly, Rory, Eric and Evey. She has more friends, but I don't know their names. Cindy picks her up in the afternoon and they play and sometimes take naps.

Saturday was a big day. Emily Jane took 5 steps. She has been standing on her own for several weeks and has been picking up things and squatting when she plays. But she is now a walker.

Tonight she finally decided that crawling was so 2009 and has embraced a new decade and a new routine. In all fairness, she walked for Cindy first and Cindy has a video of it on the good camera. Here's EJ walking to Daddy from the sony camera.

Another Try at Video

Here's Emily Jane playing with one of her new Christmas toys. Oh and a note to the family, Ryan downloaded all the Christmas and Birthday pictures, deleted them from the camera and now can't find them.

They will be found.

Just not tonight.

We've had problems uploading videos. But we'll try to get them all up this week.

Oh, and yes, the floor really is that dirty.

Happy New Year

Yes it has been too long between posts. We've had Thanksgiving in Charleston, Christmas in Arkansas, Christmas in Decatur, Christmas in Charleston, New Years in Atlanta... We've also weathered several respiratory infections and what we think was a bout of ye ol' h1n1 - if the symptoms fit...

Emily Jane has had an explosion of new things - throwing tantrums, slapping away food, making more teeth, and waking up hungry in the middle of the night! Cindy says she's grown over the past two weeks.

EJ has also gone through over 2000 diapers and is talking our heads off. We don't know what she's saying. But whatever it is, it is important to her.

Emily Jane Turns 11 Months

Emily Jane has four teeth. Today she's calling everything and everyone "Bob." EJ turned 11 months old on Friday. She pulls up and like to play standing up. She has begun cruising along furniture and a few times has been standing by herself on accident. She enjoys talking on the phone and trying to catch falling water.

Last week EJ had the croup, which was very scary. Her dad has been sick with a chest cold and will be seeking professional medical advice on Monday. EJ's mom's begun fighting it off as well.

We'll be heading Wednesday to Charleston and taking an early Christmas in Arkansas. EJ is looking forward to quality time with her cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents.

Princess Leia

A few days ago, In a galaxy far, far away, it is a period of Halloween civil disobedience. Rebel dachshunds have digging a hidden hole strike terror in the trunk or treat fall festival participants.

During the ensuing chaos, dachshunds were able to escape with the secret plans of a chocolatier and the recipe for punchbowl cake.

Pursued by day care workers, Princess Leia races home on all fours to save her dachshunds and restore freedom to the nursery.

more photos

Photo's Bonanza

Practice for the Parade

Every Parent has an especially proud memory of a moment in the early life of their child, when he or she expresses a glimpse of the who they may one day become. Usually a talent, discovered early in life for things like math or music, mechanical prowess or linguistic might. Emily Jane's first apparent communication with the outside world appears to be in preparation for riding in parade floats.

Other Things She's Done This Month:

Making motorboat noises with her mouth

Pulling up to her knees

Speed crawling attempts to escape the nursery

Speed crawling attempts to follow Penny and George

Feeding herself fruit cocktail

Whispering to herself.

Her first art project (painting and placing the eyes)

Making two bottom teeth

Fully outgrowing all her 6 month clothes

Realizing she can reach outside the bars of the crib

Surgery Update...

Friends and Family, Emily Jane's surgery appears by all accounts to have been a success. She is 9 days post-op and her eyes are doing well. The procedure literally took 5 minutes. EJ was gone from us for about 18.5 minutes. She woke up hungry and was her regular self by lunch time.

Meanwhile Cindy and I have both had bad colds and Cindy had to miss two days of work last week. You might imagine, Cindy, on crutches, with a severe cold tending to a baby who is now getting a big kick out of trying to "get away" by crawling really fast and giggling.

Emily Jane's most recent words are "Olie, olie, olie" pronounced, "ole-lee" and making motor boat noises with her mouth. I'll try to upload a video later (when I'm finished re-downloading a driver.)

Look for another update soon.

It's Technically A Surgical Procedure, But It Only Takes Five Minutes

"It's technically a surgical procedure, but It only takes five minutes"

Tomorrow morning, Friday, September 26th @ 8:00 a.m. Emily Jane will have her nasolacrimal duct unblocked.

Since about 2 weeks, EJ has had constant eye infections. We've been massaging her tear ducts twice or more a day in hopes they would unblock themselves. However, since she has not gone more than a week or so without an eye infection, the only recourse is "surgical probing." It's likely that the duct isn't completely formed. Our tear ducts run from the corner of our eyes into our nose. This is why our nose "runs" when we cry.

Wednesday, Emily Jane went to the ophthalmologist for an examination. The good news is that she has perfect vision and her eyes have not been damaged. The bad news was that she'd need this procedure. Normally it can take several weeks to get an appointment for the procedure, but there had been a cancellation for this Friday so we got in for tomorrow.

Her parents are naturally nervous. EJ will be under anesthesia for 15 minutes, the procedure only takes 5. She can go home immediately afterward. Cindy has taken all day Friday off. The doctor performing the surgery (Dr. Weeks maybe?) does them every Friday morning with a latte in one hand.

Your thoughts and prayers are appreciated. It is a common and "routine" procedure. But there isn't anything routine about it for us.

Emily Jane Learns to Crawl

Much has happened with Emily Jane in the last several weeks. EJ is 8.5 months old. She sprouted two teeth which serve as a constant reminder to us not to put our hands in her mouth. Ouch. She is also eating regular food pretty regularly. She started crawling this very Labor Day Weekend. The world changes again.

The Great Trip Westward

There is a fairly new term used to make people feel better about not going somewhere for vacation. This term is "staycation." It deserves to stay in quotes because it is otherwise known as "crapcation" or "couchcation" or "ressesication."

While it would have been prudent to save the money, saving the money would have hurt the economy even more than it already is. The three of us flew to Los Angeles, then drove to Ventura (Ryan's birthplace and home of his pop). We went to Santa Barbara, Solvang, Santa Barbara wine country(go Sideways), Santa Monica (go Nathan and Debbie), drove to Flagstaff, the Grand Canyon, and Las Vegas.

This was one of those kind of road trip vacations you only read about on the T.V. We'll post more videos and pictures soon.

6 Months Have Come and Gone

Emily Jane got lots of shots, both kinds. The shots that hurt and the shots that please. Here are a few for your pleasure.

First Sunday in the Nursery

Another first, the first Sunday Cindy and Ryan have been in church without Emily Jane. Anna, Wes, and Mercer took vigilant care over the toddlers and infants this Sunday, including EJ. Emily Jane only poops once or twice a week. Guess what day she pooped this week? Shabbat Shalom Anna Davis. As you might imagine, these poops are large events. Imagine you are at your local Lucky China Buddha Restaurant, the one with free soft serve ice cream. And when you've picked through your last plate of candy covered fried meat and rice noodle, you go over to the ice cream machine for a chocolate dairy delight. But when you flip the lever back to the off position the chocolate soft serve doesn't stop serving. You start grasping for more tiny bowls and they spill into the floor. You can't get the cones out fast enough. A kid in cutt-offs runs to the rescue and places his jowels under the gushing nozel. This is EJ's bowl movements. Minus the kid in cut-offs.

In your imagination, was the kid's hair uncombed? He was thinking about being a Kung Pow hero, but instead ended up looking like a chocolate crack addict. This will lead to his nickname "Fudgey" which will be the main reason why he gains so much weight in high school and ends up playing the sousaphone his junior and senior year of marching band. But don't worry, he'll meet a nice girl and on thier third date they'll go to Lucky China Buddha Restaraunt where he cleverly retells the story of how he got his nickname. His date will laugh so hard at the telling of his soft serve rescue that a rice noodle will leave its intended southerly course down her esophagus and, instead, take a turn north, ingoring the sign posted on her uvula and head straight through her middle meatus and exit her left nostril. This will gain her the nickname "Noodle-Nose."

Fudgey and Noodle-Nose will go to the same college, a small state school located just north of Pine Mountain and about two hours from home.

At their wedding rehersal, Fudgey's best man will tell the story of the night when Fudgey knew he found the women with whom he'd spend the rest of his life. It will be the story of when they went to Lucky China Buddha Resturant. The wedding party will laugh and laugh, but one lady, the bride's aunt, will only chuckle a little because everytime she see's a soft serve icecream, she'll think back to one sunday when she had to change this baby's diaper.

higher good quality videos on right.

I Don't Want to Go to Sleep

Emily Jane at 5.5 months can roll, push-up, grab her toes, grab just about anything, and has started talking like crazy.  Her newest thing is to eat dinner, get really sleepy, and then pop-up completely awake when we put her in her crib.  Now that she's grown more confident in her singing ability, she's using singing to keep herself awake.  

She's still a little shy around adults, even her parents when it comes to talking.  I ran and got the camera because she was being so loud in her crib.  As I turned the camera on and went into her room, I made a sound and she got quieter.  But this is Emily Jane having been in bed for about 40 minutes.  She doesn't say any words on purpose yet but she say, "la, la, ooooh," "hoo, hoo" and squeel.  

EJ is fitting well into her 6 month clothes and is about to be done with the 3 to 6 month sleepers with footies.  Her mom ordered cloth diapers - the new generation - http://www.bumgenius.com/ 

a friend of ours, Colbey, has used them on all three of her girls.  They work great.  Cindy washes them.  Emily Jane has already gone through 1000 disposable diapers.  We figure we'll need to use each one about 90 times for it to equal the cost of disposables.  But it's worth not filling the landfill.You know what you get when you don't fill a landfill don't you?  Land.  I'm sure the garbage man appreciates it  as well.   EJ goes to daycare part-time this summer.  She'll still use disposables when she's there.

View Emily Jane's complete video library by clicking on the video tab to the right. 

Ej eats for the first time...

Emily Janes goes to her Daddy's Graduation

So yes, it has been some time since we've blogged about EJ.  Spring has sprung quickly like an old screen door.  We got over to Charleston for a few days during Spring Break.  Then Ryan graduated, with parents (grandparents) on hand.  A good time was had by all.  EJ was dedicated May 3, we'll post the video very soon. This week friends and sisters came into town for a graduation and birthday weekend.  Cindy turned 3o something along with Nancy.  Ryan preached at Union Baptist Church in LaGrange (see Barrett's blog to the right).  

Over the past couple weeks EJ has learned how to roll from her back to her belly and do a push up to look around.  She did it on accident first, then three times in a row and now she's a rolly-poley.   Tomorrow she's getting a high chair, because very soon she begins cereal and pureed vegetables.  

Methods Measuring

There are many ways to measure.  Time, distance, weight, mass (which is not the same as weight), volume, brightness (lumens), speed (which is a function of  distance and time) are all measures.  There are also equivalencies.  A 1/3 cup is equal to 5 tablespoons plus one teaspoon.   Sixty-five miles per hour is 104.6 kilometers per hour.  

Is there anything equal to being 4 months old? (tear).  

Probably not (sniff).  E.J. is four months old today.  She has also completed her first week of day care.  Emily Jane did much better than her parents; though her parents are learning.  Four month shots happen on Friday (ouch).  E.J. is talking a lot now, about what, we have no idea.  I'm working on a new video, but our Internet at home is down.  But stay tuned.  

On Friday, along with the shots, we'll learn some new measurements...weight, height (or is it length at this age?).  I only wish they could run a Brix refractometry.  Because if they could, Emily Jane would be off the chart (sniff and tear).  

Milestones

Emily Jane is gaining weight and her head is growing. This is not official, like what might be declared by a doctor, but by her father, who thinks her head is getting big and she's getting heavier to haul around. E.J. is making new noises and has begun reaching for things she wants. Here's a video. I know, I know, she's cute, i'm a dork and it looks more like i'm throwing the monkey on her. Oh well.