Well... Poop

Pucker up, lululemon!

 



Today was our last day with MawMaw.  She had to head back to Indiana because spring break is over for her.  It went by so fast!  To celebrate her last night we went to Rincon, a Mexican restaurant that we haven't tried yet.  It was a lot of fun to watch Emma look at all of the colors and people.  She tried a sour lemon for the first time and absolutely loved it!

 

Her new diet has been stirring things up at our house.  So much so that Mama bear here has had the joy of cleaning poop out of the tub twice! MawMaw was giving her a bath one night and I was washing dishes when a hear a quick and urgent, "MAMA!" I dropped what I was doing and ran to the tub, envisioning cuts, bumps, drowning, blood, etc.  Lo and behold Emma was pooping in the tub.  The best part?  MawMaw leaves ME the pooper to clean up even though I told her that she discovered/witnessed it so it was her poo to clean.  It didn't work... I had to fish the poop out of the tub and disinfect it. (Disinfect the tub, not the poop.)  Emma thought it was SO funny that tonight she did a repeater and left me a pooper in the tub for the second time.  Sigh... at least it was at the end of the bath and not at the beginning.  

Busy Bees

"Ummmm... Not so sure about this Pop fella."

Meltdown!

Blueberry buttermilk pancakes.  Yum!

 



We have been veryyyy busy ladies this week!  Pop came by for a visit on Monday and was able to help me with a LOT of work around the house while Zack was at work.  Emma took a long nap while he was here and was surprised to see him when she woke.  She was startled, I think, to see a new face so quickly and got spooked by Pop.  Poor thing! Dad helped me haul mulch, dirt, and bricks from Lowes (as well as giving me the courtesy of using his military discount- THANK YOU!).  We were able to make a mini transformation of the backyard.  New mulch, new bricks, and a new firepit.  We were busy bees!

Superman Lives at OUR House!

 

 



Picture yourself groggy and asleep at 4am.  Your husband rolls out of bed (he truly can, I know it's a figure of speech but on only a few hours of sleep a roll is the best he can do), goes to the bathroom to change from sleep and emerges ready to go in scrubs.  Clark Kent turns Superman-  all in a few minutes time.  It's not my sleepy eyes.  It's true.  Zack got home this morning after a TWENTY HOUR shift.  Not twenty hours up, twenty hours with driving, NO.  Twenty hours working at the hospital without sleep and without coffee.  A snack bag of trail mix was his only food.  I packed him a meal but he never had the luxury of 10 minutes to eat it.  I don't know how he does it.  He came home, ate a cinnamon bun I baked, played with Emma, and then promptly fell asleep on the floor where he was playing.  I covered him with a blanket and let him sleep.  Even Superman needs a break every now and then.

Emma's new trick was learning to crawl through her tunnel this morning.  I got it out, tossed a ball inside and in she went!  She loved it!  She's so close to crawling on hands and knees, can walk long distances with both hands held, drinks from a regular cup with assistance, and likes to feed herself solids.  What a big girl she is!

The Hunger Games

 

Sigh... Emma is weaning herself according to the doctor.  I knew she would wean early (just mama's intuition) but was hoping that she wouldn't.  At least not at nine months old!  Hopefully we can keep at it at least a couple times a day until she's one, which was my goal.  At least then I can act like a multivitamin booster for her a couple times a day.  Again, sigh...

A couple days ago Emma woke (after her 2am grouch-fest of course!) at 8am and nursed perfectly, ate a yummy breakfast of oatmeal, prunes, and greek yogurt, napped and then absolutely positively completely without any reservation REFUSED to nurse until 3pm.  I was bursting (because I didn't want to pump in case she decided to nurse), my feelings were hurt (because my thin skin tells me when she refuses me that she hates me), and I was worried that she was starving herself.  Her rolls tell me otherwise, but still! So I called Aunt Abby and Aunt Myra for advice and after Emma heard us talking she finally decided after her 7 hour nursing strike to resume again before her nap.  We have a gameplan for future strikes.  Offer- if she refuses I pump.  She misses out and we move on.  Another day of offering and getting rejected every hour would be miserable.  She usually refuses a feeding each day (never the same one), but to refuse ALL?!  Seriously.

I wrote the doctor and his opinion is that she's weaning herself because her body wants the type of calories that food provides over what I have to offer (thanks, Doc... that really makes me feel better- I'm a sucky (no pun intended) source of nutrition for my baby now that she's crawling? Fabulous.).  So he says to nurse as often as she'll let me and feed her food even if she refuses to nurse.  Which I had thought- no milk? No food! Food is like getting a cookie after refusing to eat (or drink in this case) your meal.  Not so, according to the doctor. I guess this means that I need to become friends with my pump again.   And this means Emma better get used to getting more solids in.  I just want her to be happy.  And plump.  May the odds be ever in my favor...

On a happy note MawMaw came for a visit last night and will be here for a week!  YAYYYYYYY!!! We LOVE our visits.  And Pop is coming in a day or two for a nice little visit as well.  Fabulous!! We are so blessed.

Little Peanut

Check out Terrah's baby belly!  And she still has 8 more weeks to go!

Emma was licking Zack's nose.  Little creeper...

 

Things are much better for Miss Emma Kate and her ears.  After a couple days of antibiotics her fever went away, although her rotten sleeping habits have not.  As per her usual reaction to illness or stress, she's decided that waking up to scream at me in the middle of the night is perfectly acceptable. Sigh... She is so doggone sweet during the day.  Then at 2am-ish she changes her mind and decides to let all the evils out that she was storing during the day.  We'll get there.  She could very well be working on even more teeth.

Saturday night was so much fun!  We had a girls night in and watched (well- talked through is more like it!) Catching Fire.  Emma followed Walt around all night and wanted to play with him constantly.  She finds him fascinating! She's a good little playmate.

Emma is really crawling all around now.  She's still army crawling but is incredibly efficient at it.  She'll hop up on her hands and knees, but doesn't crawl like that.  The doctor said yesterday at her 9 month checkup that only 20% of babies crawl now.  Wow! She's at the 50th percentile for head and weight but only the 25th for her length.  Little peanut...

Her new trick is standing and walking.  She can't pull herself up, but will do an amazing pull up.  She just hasn't figured out how to move her legs up underneath to stand.  Once we help her up she can stand well with support (either holding our hands or holding on to her play table) and can walk with us holding her hands.  Big girl!  (Well... er... little peanuty big girl!)

My free time these last few days has been filled with cleaning and organizing. I redecorated our master bathroom, which was the last room in the house that we hadn't touched yet.  We dodged a bullet from the previous owner who apparently had wallpaper up (I found some behind an old light fixture) and thankfully had it all removed before we moved in.  We already knew she had the whole house repainted but I had no clue about the wallpaper.  THANK GOODNESS! That would've been a nasty mess to take care of.  I'm glad she did it for us.  But I was able to repaint, change a light fixture, replace a toilet handle, and hang new towel bars and a shelf.  It was fun but a lot of work on your own with a baby to take care of at the same time.  It looks so nice and feels good to have accomplished all of it on my own.  We went from drab to fab in the matter of a week!

So I'm happy to say the whole house is done now on the inside.  We have some landscaping to do outside, but the inside is complete.  New rooms, new paints, new fixtures.  It's been a busy few weeks! It feels good to be all done.  Yesterday I was even able to paint my toes- the first time since Emma's birth.  Ahhhhhh.... I'm me again!

Lend Me Your Ear

 

My sweet little punkin has her first ear infection.  According to Dr. Boarman it's thanks to her shiny new teeth.  We now have four beautiful nibblers right up front!  Tooooooooo cute.  She's had a slowly rising temperature over the last couple of days and then yesterday it hit 102.6 so we booked it on into the doctor's office.  Indeed, she has a slight ear infection.  We caught it early according to Dr. Boarman.  She wasn't fussy or pulling at her ears.  Just warm.  Oh, my little hot box- lend me your ear and I'll take it for you so you can be healthy.  If only it were that easy!!   As it is, lend me your ear and I'll sing you a song... and I'll try not to sing out of key. 

Her beautiful dress was worn to storytime yesterday (before the high temp hit). She was the belle of the ball and hands down the cutest and most festive little one there! 

Whoopsy Daisy

Whoopsy Daisy...

Checking out her new shoes.

 

The last two days have been busy ones for Emma Kate and I.  Monday I got Emma down for her morning nap, hopped in the shower, and 15 minutes later heard some weird noises over the monitor.  I got out of the shower in time to hear a crash, turn on the monitor, and look to see a view of an upside down humidifier.  Then there was a blank screen and a beep for there not being a signal.  Oh, boy...  Because she wasn't hurt and was smiling hugely it was funny.  At least for Emma and I... but not for the wall!  She ripped the cord for the monitor from the wall, little Hulk... She wasn't even mad or upset.  She was just being curious and was happy as a clam.  Nevertheless, I spent the rest of Monday patching the wall, painting, and relocating the monitor.  Never a dull moment in the Witte household! Yesterday was a toughie with me having a migraine all day.  Luckily for me I have the best husband in the world who was fine with picking up calzones for dinner and giving Emma her bath when he got home.  What a lucky lady I am!

 

I finally found a way for Emma to like eggs.  She hates them scrambled and hard but does like dippy eggs.  She even ate dippy egg and toast.  Yummy!

 

Now that she crawls and stands I have to encourage Emma to wear shoes now, at least when we go out for storytime and errands.  She doesn't mind wearing them, but does find them veryyyyyyyy interesting!