{_)

Emelia went to the doctor yesterday to rule out an ear infection from the end of her cold she has been dealing with. While we were there, she weighed in at 16lbs and measured 26 inches long! Can't believe how much she has grown from that little 4 pound peanut we brought home. She is a bruiser now and is constantly running on beast mode. Amongst other new things she likes doing like crawling, climbing and feeding herself, screaming and yelling at the top of her lungs for fun is one of them. She is currently sitting in her johnny jump up on her tippy toes, yelling so loud, that my ear drums are thumping. Every once in a while she strings together some ma and da sounds but hasn't officially acknowledged us as with anything verbally recognizable yet.

She has been pulling herself up on everything from her toys, to the couch, to my leg. Thankfully she is starting to learn how to let herself back down without bellyflopping backwards on the floor. She is racking up a nice number of bumps on her big melon head from all her acrobatics. We had to lower her crib and pack n plays about two weeks ago since she enjoys standing in them now and screaming for us. Nighttime is also starting to become even more complicated because she puts on a production like we are closing her into a jail cell and stands in her crib clutching the rails and calling for us like she has been sentenced to Life in Crib. There still hasn't been a night that she has slept through and gets up a couple times each night. If we are lucky we will get a 5 hr interval.

We decorated for Christmas and she really likes looking at the stuff and grabbing at the lights. I have a little tree to put in her room yet, but need to find some time to do that and finish packing up all the clothes that don't fit and replacing them with some 9month stuff.

Her hair is FINALLY starting to come in and I'm hoping i will be able to put a barrette in it by her first birthday haha. I am thinking she is going to have hair like me, lightish and wavy. If so that will be about the only thing she has from me it seems. She is Mark through and through.

Being able to work from home and having her Grandmas watch her so close is so awesome. I get to see her so much more and she is really the greatest thing. So much work, but so much fun and my favorite thing right now is that she wants hugs ALL the time ahha. I am probably creating a "hold me" monster but who could say no haha.