Walking?

I am always so amazed every time Emily does something new.  I am such a proud mama, as if no other child has done any of these things and I think she is a genius.  Well, that she may be.  Anyway, I've been trying to help her learn to crawl, but so far she just refuses to get up on her knees.  I've even tried putting her in position and she'll stay like that for a few seconds before falling back on to her tummy.

So the other day I was helping her do sit ups, holding out my hands for her to pull on to sit up.  Once she was in a sitting position, to my surprise, she grabbed on to me and pulled herself into a standing position.  I've said it all along, maybe she'll just skip crawling and go straight to walking, but now it looks like she might do just that.  A few nights later once she was standing she leaned for the christmas tote that was next to us, so I guided her arms from me to the tote, she stood there and took one step toward it.  Yay Emmy!  But then after a few minutes her arms got tired and she face planted into the tote, my poor baby.

It will be amazing when she starts walking, but I kind of hope she doesn't skip crawling.  I am not sure this mama can handle walking right away.  She has less opportunity to get hurt crawling.  Maybe I should take the baby gate downstairs.  When it was delivered months ago we set it against the wall in the hallway and it never got taken downstairs.  I am sick of it sitting there, but I know the minute I haul it downstairs, she will become mobile and I'll have to bring it back upstairs.  So if I want her to become mobile, I should take it downstairs, just like you have to go to the bathroom at a restaurant if you want the food to come.

Last weekend we went with my friend and her boys to see Santa.  Emily did great, no tears, she just stared at him and touched the fur on his coat.  I got some great pictures.  I loved the Santa, he was very nice and friendly, and the location was great, at a museum in my hometown.  My friend's mom got me in the museum for free on a visitor's pass and seeing Santa is free so that was nice.  We plan on getting a membership there this year....in addition to the museum there is also a historic village and Emily and I went there this past summer with my SIL.  It was nice just to walk around, and Emily loved the train, the carousel and the little playground.  Going just twice would pay for the membership itself compared to general admission each time so I think it's definitely worth it and we can go see Santa there every year.

I'm so glad Em is a little older for her first Christmas and not just a tiny newborn.  I know she really has no clue what is going on, but she can at least participate a little.  We decorated our tree the other day and her face lit up when I turned the lights on and I picked her up and we put her ornament on first.  She loves to grab paper and crunch it so I think she will have a good time tearing at her presents.

So my little pumpkin is getting to be quite sassy.  If you take something from her that she shouldn't have, or if you're trying to fix something she has she throws a fit.  Sometimes I will give her something she can have, like if I want her to have a toy but she grabbed my cell phone instead, but I won't just give her something to placate her.  I hope she is not too young to start doing that to, but I think too often people don't discipline their children until their older and by then bad habits are set.  I don't want her to think screaming and crying will always gets her what she wants.  But I do think I must be a horrible mother because I think she is so cute when she cries.  It breaks my heart, but she's adorable with her little face all scrunched up.

In diaper news, I think we've finally found an overnight diaper that works.  Emily sleeps about 12 hours and I hate waking her up in the middle of the night to change her diaper.  We had been using Pamper's baby dry but at least 2 or 3 days a week she woke up soaking wet.  So I tried going up a size, same problem.  So then I doubled up, a smaller size and the bigger size over top....it helped, but she was still waking up wet more often than I liked.  I love Pamper's Swaddlers, but I've heard good things about Huggie overnights.  This morning was day 4 of waking up with completely dry jammies.  Hopefully the trend continues, that's got to feel miserable being all wet and cold.  I still have quite a few baby dry diapers left, but if the Huggies continue to work well, I can give them to my cousin who is coming to visit next week.

Emily and I went to visit them and their new baby last week and also to get the old Keurig they are giving me that they aren't using anymore.  So we went and chatted, got a tour of their new house, laughed at the babies meeting each other, and after a couple hours we said goodbye and were on our way, and we all completely forgot about the Keurig.  So they're going to come visit us next week and (hopefully) bring it.