A Little Crawling, Sort Of

FINALLY...it posted.

A Little Military Action, Here, In My Kitchen!

WHOOOOO! My baby is not a total lump. This morning, she actually ARMY CRAWLED to me! She was playing ever so nicely on the floor, and when I finished getting everything ready so we could go, I asked her if she was ready. She mae her way over to me, talking the whole time! It was so nice not to have her typical response: "WHINE, WHINE, WHINE." (read: pick me up, slave)

Four Beach Babies, OBX (too cute, no?)

Does This Qualify as a Life Event?

I finally did it. I have joined the legions of stay at home moms. SAHM. "Do you work?" I'm not sure how to answer that... for a paycheck? No. But, yes, I work.
Anyway, this new thing won't start until after Halloween. I gave my boss my notice today, but I gave them 8 weeks. I have a strong sense of guilt. I feel like I'm abandoning the kids in my class and their parents, so I wanted to give my boss a good long time to find a good replacement. I have two kids starting toileting in the next month, so I can't abandon them to some quack off the street. I know they'll all be just fine, but I still worry.
I worry a lot. About everything. What if I get bored? I'm used to working with lots of kids with various things going on, not just one kid. What if I end up with a spoiled rotten, Mommy's-girl who won't go to strangers and cries unless I hold her? What if I go crazy, having no me time? What if Shawn loses his job? What if I lose all sense of my identity? What if I worry about things so much I don't just enjoy my daughter, which is why I'm doing this in the first place?
I'm sure it will all work out in the long run.

This Girl...is impatient

And that's being kind. You can clearly hear her grunting and growling. If we don't get the food in her mouth fast enough, we hear about it. Luckily, she can feed herself finger food, like Cheerios and cut up fruit. In fact, she won't let us feed her if it's something she can do. I think she may have developed a little bit of a 'tude.

Our big girl is getting...well, big. She still looks like a chub, but in fact is quite skinny. You wouldn't know it by watching her eat, though.

She's starting to eat some finger food, like the salmon (cat food?) at left. She does great with Cheerios, and we tried bananas this morning. Hilarious. No worry about choking, she made sure to pulverize the bananas first by pounding the plate. Reminded me of some kind of comedy routine you'd see Peter Sellers doing, pouding the food to make sure it's dead on the plate. She has lots of adventures lately, going to the Baltimore aquarium with Grandma Patsy when she was in town, and enduring new windows being installed. Very loud. The aquarium wasn't as cool as I thought it would be - she didn't really care about the fish too much. She did enjoy Grandma Patsy being here, and showed off appropriately. (Emmy and Daddy at Phillips' Crab House in B-more)

Back to Basics

Now that Em is sitting up, it is time for new toys! She loves the ring stacker, and also enjoyed a pot and spoon I gave her on Monday night.

Splash Time...Oh, Nevermind.

As you might be able to tell from the pictures, our church had a little water night for the kids. The flyer said "birth to twelve," so we lathered Emmy up in sunscreen, and put her mermaid swimsuit on. The little wading pool was not happening, (I think the water was too cold!) but she did enjoy sitting in my lap loving on her duck. Emmeline also got to taste her first ever watermelon. She definitely liked it until I snatched it away from her because she was able to gum off a chunk large enough to choke on. Which she promptly did.

She also got to have her first meal in a restaurant on Sunday night - I don't count nursing while I eat. We went to Tequila Grande in Vienna, and she sat in her big girl high chair and ate broccoli and cereal. Once she had that experience, there's no holding her back. She got to eat out again on Monday for Uncle Alex's birthday dinner. Having a big girl dinner with Grammy, Grampy, Uncle Alex, Aunt Katie, Blake and Sebastian was SO exciting.

Truly, though, it is this picture that captures the weekend, and her attitude generally. This was taken at Wegman's; she's so cool. So casual. So grown up. My silly monkey and her baby doll.