Minnesota Zoo

I drove up to Apple Valley, MN to meet my sister and kids at the zoo. We all had such a great time! Abby and Ryan love it there (although Ryan was getting sick of it by the end) and Emily enjoyed it too. This was a perfect time of year to go...there weren't many people there at all!!!

Miss Independent

It's a slow process but a sad one. Each day Emily gets less and less dependent on me. It of course starts the instant she's born where she once was 100% dependent on me is now more like 95%. Then she moves from sleeping right next to me in the co-sleeper to sleeping down the hall in her crib. Then she plays by herself for longer periods of time without needing me to constantly pick her up and hold her. To now when I am no longer breast feeding. If I think about it too much (the fact that I will never breast feed her again) it gets me sad but obviously it has to end sometime. And since I'm producing very little at this point, it's not worth the extra effort to nurse her anymore. So yet another way she is becoming less dependent on me. It's as if our days are filled with training our children to depend on themselves. From holding the bottle to potty training to driving a car. That's what parenting is though, it's such a weird combination of being proud of your child for becoming self-sufficient and sadness that they no longer need your help. I'm in for much much more I'm aware.

Wanted to include this picture of her sleeping. There's really no feeling better than this...seeing your child fast asleep. I have been so happy with how she's been sleeping!! She's always been a wonderful sleeper (takes after me). These last few days she's been going to bed around 9pm, waking around 6am, I then feed her and put her back down and she sleeps until a little after 11am!! Loving it! My mom warns me that just when you think they're the perfect baby they start teething and it all goes downhill from there (at least for a period of time). So I'm expecting that will happen so I don't get TOO frustrated when/if it does. In the meantime, I'll continue enjoying the quiet nights and pray for my friends who have not-so-great sleepers.

Glorified Formula

So I started on solids today. She seemed to be eating a lot of formula lately and it just felt like the right time. I'm actually kind of nervous to start solids. Partly because I'm afraid of the portions and whether or not I'm going to be giving her enough or too much. Then there's so many options it's overwhelming!! Plus it's just more work than the bottle honestly so I know I'm in for more planning ahead. Like everything else though it will just take getting used to. My sister reassured me that really she's getting most of her nutrients from the formula and breast milk anyway. Starting on solids this early really is just to get them used to eating with a spoon more than anything.

The first batch I made for her was pretty much glorified formula in a bowl. Just a bit thicker than formula. Here's a video and some pics.

Another 5k

Suzanne and I raced another 5k together again!! This time, we ran the whole way together!!!! It was much better than the first as far as that goes. But my time wasn't the greatest. Oh well we still had fun and challenged ourselves. Here are the stats:

Jennifer Elder
bib number: 771
age: 28
gender: F
overall place: 149 out of 171
division place: 18 out of 22
gender place: 76 out of 96
time: 36:22
pace: 11:43
gun time : 36:28

Growing Girl - 4 month appointment

Here are Emily's stats for her 4 month appointment (she's quite the little chub):

Height - 25 1/2 inches (85th percentile)
Weight - 17 lb 4 oz (96th percentile)
Head - 16 3/4" (84th percentile)

So all of this on top of wearing cloth diapers means she's wearing 6-9 month clothes. She's starting to grab things much better, becoming more aware of her surroundings (Gus, when we talk etc), she loves to smile, she sometimes laughs but not as often as we'd like and she LOVES chewing/sucking on her hands. That's her favorite past time.

I'm starting to get into a routine now finally. This is a typical day for her not including eating and changing diaper schedules (I want to record this for my benefit later with other children plus I'm always interested in others schedules so hopefully someone out there will find this interesting.)

7-8am - wake
10am-1:30pm (or 2 hours after she wakes) - nap
1:30-1:45 - tummy time
1:45-4:30 play
4:30pm-5:30 - nap number 2
8pm - start getting ready for bed/bath
8:30pm - down for the night

I LOVE that she takes that long nap in the morning because it works really well with my schedule since I'm not only a full time stay at home mom but also a work from home mom!! I need to get stuff done and this is a good opportunity to do that.

Haven't started on rice cereal yet. Honestly, I'm not really in a hurry for this. Many moms seem to not be able to wait for the next stage but I find bottle feeding very easy and convenient...why change that if it's going fine? I will probably start to try to introduce food once she turns 5 months old...which is very soon!!

Blog has been MAJORLY updated (again)

Ok, I've spent the last few weeks updating my blog with all that's happened for the last 6 months or so. I love having this blog for my own memories. It's a great place to keep all the pictures and stories. Anyway, here are the links to everything that's been updated:

Baby showers and prepping for baby
Introducing Emily Mae Elder
Going out in Public
Breastfeeding Woes
Jay and Jen's Wedding
Emily's kidney update
Top 5 can't live without baby items
Emily's photo sessions
Winehaven
Carefest 2009
Father's Day 2009
A day in Red Wing
MEL Vacation 2009
Movies for baby
Elder Vacation 2009

Thanks for reading!

Elder Vacation 2009

For the Elder side of the family we went to Edgerton, WI and stayed at a cabin. This was a great time hanging with family and getting to go a few places too. We mostly hung around the cabin, went to a few tourist places, went downtown, played some games and our friends Shannon and Jeremy came to visit to meet Emily (since they live only an hour from there).

Hanging out in the backyard


Uncle Jay holds Emily for the first time...we made him :)


View from back


Shoot, some are sideways and I'm too lazy to rotate them. This is Yancey (Scott's cousin) doing what he liked to do the most...fish!


Tuck fishing


Scott's "office"




Lucas with Emily


Spencer feeding Em


The House on the Rock carousel






Infinity room at the House on the Rock


Yancey caught a big catfish and named her Bertha. Then they fried her up and ate her...yuck!


Little Norway


Our tour guide


Edgerton's Tobacco Days was going on...we bought some potpurri


Scott's mom couldn't resist the book sale


Family pic (minus Emily who was napping)


Lucas




Smore time!




We were waiting for a gopher to come out from under the car so we could take a pic...no luck!




Scott taking pics of the birds


We loved watching these birds take their first flight while we were there!!

Movies for baby

Who says having a baby means you have to give up what you want to do? Much to her Daddy's delight, Emily has been to 4 movies at the theater since she's been born. Here they are:

Her first movie: Star Trek - she slept in my arms during the entire movie



Second: UP - she needed to be fed at first but then slept through most of it



Third: My Sister's Keeper - a little whiny during this movie but overall pretty good. Luckily my Aunt Donna was there to hold her outside while we finished the movie.



Fourth: Public Enemies - she slept the entire movie in my wrap while I stood up. What I do for her :)



For reviews of these movies go to my husband's website: http://www.minnesotamoviefreak.com

MEL Vacation 2009

This year for our vacation with my side of the family we went to Shell Lake, WI. We rented a cabin there that was right on the lake! It was about 45 minutes from Hayward, WI. The cabin was just beautiful but the weather ended up being pretty chilly. This was perfect for our family with Emily because she really wouldn't have been able to go outside much anyway. Plus we ended up going to 2 movies which Scott loved!! It was so wonderful because my Aunts and cousin Lauren were able to come out for the week too!! The pictures pretty much explain what we did all week.

We went to the Wilderness Walk one day and got lots of great shots! It's so much cooler than the website makes it look! We really enjoyed it.


Most of the animals were just walking around amongst the people




Probably the neatest part were the deer. They would be so close you could touch them and they would just run and hang out around us


An albino deer




Sisters!






Shhhh, don't wake Emily!


Fun with our shadows


Emily spent lots of time in my wrap that week. I went on several walks to this cute little coffee shop a few miles down the road.




Lauren loved "bossing" Abby around...Abby didn't mind either.




Plenty of Rock Band and Wii was played on the trip


Lots of sleeping too


And then of course there's Risk


and Settlers




We did a photo shoot with Lauren towards the end of the trip








The kids loved the hot tub!








The last day was finally nice enough to get in the water. Here Ryan is wishing he was older...