Emma turns 9 months old

Emma turned 9 months old this week. We had a lot of activity this month. We had our first visit to the ER, took a trip to the zoo, Grandma Thelma came to visit, and we celebrated my first Mother’s Day.

Emma hasn’t even had a cold yet, but here we are one night, going the ER at 2:00am. It turns out Emma had picked up “Hand, Foot, and Mouth” disease. This is very common in small children, but it’s tough to see our little girl so miserable. We had to stay home for several days until we knew she was no longer contagious. She is definitely an outdoors girl, so it was hard to keep her housebound.

Grandma Thelma came to visit us from Ohio. She stayed the week and got to see Emma moving all around. She even tried to get Emma to crawl, but to no avail. Emma rolls everywhere she wants to go. Usually, she rolls straight to Jackson.

Emma and I are still taking our sign language classes. She is getting really good at understanding. She gets excited about the words water, dog, and cheese. So far, we have only seen her sign the word “dog”. We also have a few songs that we sign to her. These seem to work magic when she is fussy, or going to bed for the night. Both of us are enjoying the classes and interaction with other babies.

We also ventured out to the San Francisco Zoo with Emma’s friend, Charlotte. We walked around for hours. Emma loved watching the giraffes – she knows them as Sophie! The zoo has two or three baby giraffes, and an amazing feeding barn where they can be seen up close.

With warmer weather, Emma spends a lot of time at the park. She loves being outside. We found a cute little push wagon at a rummage sale that she just loves. She isn’t walking yet, so she just lets anyone push or pull her around, including her friend Char. We also spend at least one day a week at the pool. She’s not too sure about being in that much water yet, but we’re hoping to get into our first swim class in June.

One of the best days this month was Mother’s Day. It has an entirely new meaning for me. Emma (and Daddy) went above and beyond for me. I loved getting cards. (Yes, I got more than one.) They took me out to an amazing brunch. Emma also got me a much needed wallet. She has great taste! Doug set a high bar for Father’s Day!

Every day with Emma is amazing. It seems like she does something new every day. And it gets harder to keep up with her when she’s moving around so much. Even if that’s just rolling or crawling backwards for now. Just when I think it couldn’t get any better, it does! We love you Emma. Thank you for another wonderful month!