A whale of a tale

Dearest readers,
I apologize for my recent hiatus from Emmeline's blog. We have been rather busy this past month (nothing new there...we are always busy) but in addition to our normal activities, Emmeline and I took an unexpected trip to North Dakota for ten days. We had a lovely time with family and friends, despite the fact that we were there due to my grandmother's ill health. But all is well now. She is right as rain, craving sweets like always and looking forward to flying a kite this summer.
Since so much has happened recently, I thought I would just post a bunch of pictures with detailed captions below. They will have to serve as my means of storytelling for the time being. I promise to publish shorter posts more frequently in the future. I know these novellas can be rather daunting to read.
A lot has happened with Emmeline's development during the past few weeks. She is now crawling on her hands and knees, pulling herself up to stand and cruise along furniture, crawling up the stairs, claps every time we say "Yay!", and is understanding "no thank-you" when she does something that we do not want her to do (but does not usually decide to listen). She cries when things are taken away from her and has a bit of separation anxiety. When we arrived at the Grand Forks airport, I handed her to my mom and walked away to get my luggage. In just a few seconds her face had clouded over and she started to cry. By the end of our few weeks at home, though, she was fast friends with everyone.
She is actually very interested in strangers, just as long as they don't take her away from her mom! She has also cut three more teeth (five total): top front left, top left incisor and top right incisor. She is able to make the hard "c" sound for "cat" but has not paired it yet with the "-at". She is pretty good with "duh" for "duck" and, of course, "mamamamama" and "dadadadada". There are many other sounds that she had been working on; I have recently heard ga, ya, na, and wa sounds. She has a very full and vibrant babyspeak vocabulary. It is amazing to think that she will soon be asking (or demanding!) things by name.
Paul and I have grown increasingly frustrated by her nighttime sleep habits. Everything seemed to get worse when we got back from the Midwest, too. We were co-sleeping the entire time we were there so she nursed quite a bit at night. When we returned, we tried to keep her in her crib most of the night but she woke quite frequently. We finally decided to try the Ferber method, which was recommended to us by another mom at the Birth Center. This methods requires you to let your baby "cry it out" gradually. So on the first night, after your bedtime routine, you put your baby in his or her crib and leave the room. You let them cry for three minutes and after that time you may go in to the baby and try to sooth them, but you can't pick them up. Then after one minute, you must leave the room for five minutes and then return for one, then leave for seven and return for one. The first night it took over an hour and a half to get her to sleep. It was awful and I cried through most of it. The method really isn't working that well and I am sure it has a lot to do with the fact that I simply do not have the stomach for this sort of thing. Ferber's bottom line is that even if your child vomits from crying so hard, you clean her up and get back to business. That just doesn't seem right. There must be a better way.
Well, enough of that for now. I hope you enjoy our pictures:

Happy 52nd birthday Grandpa!
Let me help you with that...

Oooo...paper is fun!

Emmeline, me, my dad, and my little sisters,
Jacy and Kelsey

Emmeline and her auntie Kelsey

Emmeline making friends with the
bird at the nursing home

Look how well I can sit on my own!

Emmeline, me and Kelsey posing with
Jacy in her stage makeup and costume
for Guys and Dolls

What you lookin' at?
(Emmeline's great-auntie Darlene
is in the background)

I love my grandma.

Emmeline and her second cousin, Ty,
driving for Team DuPont

Auntie Kelsey is a baby-wearin' expert!

Happy St. Patties Day!

Emmeline's first Easter egg

Hey! Where did mine go?

Emmeline playing with her friend, Baird, and
Baird's auntie Lisa

Baird is fun!


Emmeline, me, Erin and Baird...what a
fun play date!

So content to be home at last
with daddy

Oooo...stairs!

Let's see how I do...

One down, fourteen to go...

Almost there!

Hey, daddy! Give me a spot
while you are back there.

Aw...its OK, Emmy Lou.
Daddy is here for you.

Emmeline playing with her pal, Estella

Wild beasts of the jungle (I mean the mall):
Elisa (and her mommy Deborah)
Haley (and her mommy Alison)
and Emmeline

Yay! Bath time!

That's all for now folks! Bye bye!

To shower or not to shower, that is the question

Emmeline just went down for her first nap of the day and I am deciding how to make the best use of the time that I have. There are only a few things that I can do: eat, shower, take a short nap, light housework or prep work for Monday evening's class. I have not washed my hair since Monday so the shower is a priority. I have also not eaten today so that is probably priority number two (if she naps that long). But then again, a nap would be sooooo nice since Emmeline is waking up every one and half hours between the hours of 1am and 6am.
Everything is getting complicated all over again. We were experiencing a bit of freedom when Emmeline learned how to amuse herself by playing alone but now she just wants to move and groove. Her mobility is such a novelty for her so she is not content to be playing in her crib (which is the safest place for her if I can't keep both eyes on her). I can't leave her on the floor anywhere and she will only stand her highchair for so long if she is not eating. She also does not like it when she can see me leave a room or when she cannot touch me if I am in the same room. This does not make Paul feel very good. He always talks about "playing second fiddle in the band." I told him that he is more than welcome to breastfeed our next child and be the stay at home parent.
Well, I suppose I have wasted enough free time in front of this silly whirring machine. Off to shower!

Heralding the Spring

Today Emmeline had her first ride in a swing and we went for a long walk at Bellevue Park outside with our Birth Center friends. It was a balmy 67 degrees though it was overcast. Before today we have been walking in the two locals mall since it turned chilly in October/November. It was so refreshing to be out of doors for an extended amount of time. It was a tease, though, because it is supposed to stay rainy and chilly for the next several days. It is currently raining and we have a flood watch in affect (sigh).
I love the smell of spring: the fresh, wet mud, the slightly warmer air that carries on it a scent of budding flowers and trees, damp tree bark. These smells always bring me back to my childhood on the prairie. I am reminded of chilly Easter egg hunts, melting ice in the ditches, muddy shoes and discovering toys once long lost in the winter snow. The spring is beautiful in the Mid-Atlantic states, too. The UD campus has loads of magnolia trees that blossom in late March-early April. Our neighborhood has the most beautiful trees; though I do not know what they are called, they look like a cross between cherry blossoms and magnolia blossoms. The trees bloom for several weeks and then when they are good and ripe, the wind shakes them just right and the petals rain down to the street. It makes me think of the scene from Memoirs of a Geshia when Sayurie goes into the country to see the blooming trees. The petals float all around her like hundreds of tiny pink butterflies. When we first saw our house it was in the spring and these blossoms made the house all the more desirable. I can't wait to show Emmeline the blossoms, the birds, the flowers, the greenness of things... it is such a romantic, refreshing and hopeful season. No matter how harsh, gloomy or depressing the winter months have been, the promise of warm spring days and blooming nature is always around the corner.

Emmeline's first ride in a swing!

I don't know what this is, but I like it!

Mommy 'n me

Emmeline and her friend, Elisa, chilling at the playground