S I X Months!

Half a year. Half a year!?!? It seems like a blur and yet it’s a half a year full of wonderful memories. 

This month’s milestones were biggies. She started sitting up, can grab her toes, developed object permanence and started canonical/reduplicated babbling. The babbling was just in time for this post. Last week she started making the /f/ sound with her gums and lip and was pretty impressed with herself. Then a few days later she discovered how to add her voice and make the /v/ sound. She got a kick out of playing around between those sounds and I had fun showing her all the bilabials (sounds made with your lips). She would just stare intently at my mouth and watch me make each sound (I just have to say, I put equal emphasis on [dadada] as I did [mamama]). Then on her half birthday she started babbling with /b/ and /m/. It’s just so darn cute! 

Emerson is at that ‘classic baby’ stage, sitting but not 100% stable (she still throws herself back when she laughs sometimes and a rogue toy gets the better of her now and then), she’s making those cute babble sounds, she’s putting everything in her mouth and reaching for everything in sight with her sweet chubby fingers and wrists. Oh and those cheeks. They're just so kissable!

She is 18 ½ pounds and 27 ¼ inches long. She fits in 9 month clothes the best and usually 6-9 months. Some 6 month clothes still fit, but they’re getting pretty tight. EJ is still on the first rise of her BG 4.0s but now there are three snaps open in the middle. She still fits in her co-sleeper, and has a little bit of room left. I’m surprised but glad that we've been able to use it this long. We find that we carry more toys than burp cloths now and although she can still entertain herself she sure loves it when we talk back to her, stand her up and jump her around. She also really prefers that we stay within line of sight unless she's very into what she's doing... but may or may not be too happy when she finds out you're gone. We busted out the Johhny Jump Up and after a few days of warm up, she just loves it (I know, the horror.. they're a little controversial but we used them as kids aaannd we're fine. While I don't love that logic for everything... we're using it in moderation).

She has also started napping a little longer, although not consistently enough for that to disappear now that I've said it online ;). Sometimes we even get two, two-hour naps in a day.

People always comment about how much she observes. She really checks out the room, people and actions very thoroughly, and notices new details every day. She really checks out a new person before deciding if she'll smile at them (she usually does) and is pretty reserved until she's familiar with a situation.

As always, I reflect on my time with her as pure heavenly joy. She is such a treat. I love seeing her learning, growing and exploring. She's our sweet P and she lives up to the name.

And now..

There's that cool hand again.

And those awesome feet!

Look at what I have!

Yawn!

A quick nap

Just-woke-up smiles

Love those pudgy fingers

Looking in the mirror

I'll try to sneak the dress up into my mouth slowly,
maybe then mom won't notice...

Watching Daddy

And here are a few out takes from our Christmas pictures:

 

Thanksgiving

This year we had the honor of hosting Thanksgiving. We usually rotate between my mom's family every three years (my mom and dad's house, my aunt and uncle near Seattle and my aunt and uncle in Idaho). This year it was my Idaho relative's turn, but we live almost the same distance from everyone 4-6 hours and agreed that it would be nice to have it in the middle of everyone.

We had a full house - 16 adults, my cousin's 5 year old daughter and Emerson. It was so fun!  This was also the first year that everyone has made it. Usually work, weather or something gets in the way of one or more of us but this year we all made it, including two new significant others! Here are some pictures of the weekend.

The kids, Joie and Emerson

Joie, Emerson and Uncle Jared

Poor Emerson, it was rough having so many people loving on her  ;)

My Aunt Lesli (far left) made everyone aprons! So cute! As the host, I got two! A turkey one, and an everyday one.

Cooking away

My mom and Joie making pie crust

The guys (and EJ with Papa) talking about guy things (guns, I'm sure)

Ready for dinner

Blake cooked the turkey on our wood pellet grill. It was SUPERB!

I mean really, it's hard work being this adored. Good thing no one in my family enjoys her.

The whole family.
L-R, Back row: Older brother Jared, mom and dad, Aunt Sandy and Uncle Rodney, Aunt Lesli and Uncle Dave, Cousin Kalen
Middle row: Jared's wife Theresa (chair), Danielle and Jed (cousins), younger brother Jordan and Kalen's wife Brandie (chair).
Front row: Blake, me, Emerson, Joie (Jed and Danielle's daughter) and cousin Macey

Such a treat to have everyone together!

Sweet Tooth Tuesday

Soooo, last week's sweet tooth attempt didn't pan out. In the event you ever want to try chia seed chocolate pudding... you've been warned.

This week I tried a single serving cookie. After the brownie in a mug my mom showed me a screenshot of this and I thought I'd better try it out. I didn't mean to have this series of posts centered on microwavable desserts served in mugs.. but so far these are a hit.

Without further ado, here is the single serving microwavable cookie saga.

In reading about the brownie in a mug, reviews said that the egg-less version was best. So I started with an egg-less recipe and jumped right in with a healthy version (whole wheat flour, sucanat).
First you melt the butter, then stir in the sugar and vanilla. Then you mix in flour, baking soda and salt. Now you look all around for your camera. I mean ALL around. Then you give up and just take pictures with your cell phone (this is your warning.. the pictures aren't pretty).

I got this:

Yikes. If you have a tongue that only tastes but doesn't feel texture,
then this is for you. Ya, I ate it.

So then I tried the same recipe but as written, with standard flour and sugar. I got this:

Looks a lot better but it was pretty firm. Ya, I ate it too.

So I thought I might have cooked it too long (I only cooked it for 40 seconds, but our microwave is hot). I decided to make it again and only cook it 30 seconds. I got this:

It's pretty good. Taste and texture are there but it was a little dry
and I had to add extra butter before baking. When the recipe says
1.5-2 TBSP butter and scant cup of flour... go with more butter
and less flour. It also got pretty hard when it cooled,
so 25 secs might have been plenty.

Just to be thorough, I tried a recipe with egg. It goes together pretty much the same, except of course the separating of the egg. I cooked it for 30 seconds and got this:

You can see the added yellow from our farm fresh eggs :)
I tried this one but Blake ate it.

Conclusions: Both the egg recipe and the final trial of the no-egg recipe are edible and cookie like. The egg-less one is a little finicky with the balance of moisture. However, I think that an entire egg yolk in one sitting is a lot. Now, egg yolks are extremely nutritious (particularly raw) but I think the flour and sugar cancel out the nutrition here and I wouldn't really count this as health food, even with the egg yolk. If you think about it, there are two whole eggs in a full batch of cookies.. so one egg yolk in one cookie seems like a lot. Plus then you have the egg white to deal with.

Blake tried both of the better versions and said that the egg recipe had better texture and was a little closer to a cookie, but the egg-less recipe was good too. No matter what, go on the underdone side of cooking times. Microwaves vary greatly and in my experience underdone is better than over done here.

Enjoy!