H54F

High Five for Friday Post!

1. Playing outside during this beautiful weather with E's bff, Max.

2. What I'm currently reading and I'm loving it! Bringing up BeBe by Pamela Druckerman.

3. On Tuesday Jared and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary by ordering a huge amount of Arabic food.

4. Playing at a playground in a little bouncy car.

5. We felt like getting all dressed up today and visiting Daddy at work for lunch!

Linking up with Lauren Elizabeth

WWWW

Eek, forgot to post a WWWW, so it's late!

I'm pretty awful at remembering where I buy my clothes. Most of them I've just acquired over the years. I can honestly say while I LOVE designer brands, I'm not a label snob. If it looks cute I buy it. If it doesn't last more than a couple weeks, whatevs! :)

My favorite brand though is Banana Republic. I have several items that I am just trying to fit into again, but I don't know that these new baby hips will allow it...I'm still keeping them in hope though!

Anyways, I was feeling vintagy last week and decided to watch tutorials on how to use scarfs in one's hair. I watched the videos while Emilie napped. The.entire.time. A full hour of watching and practicing, just to tie a scarf!

My little bug on the other hand...just easy. Top from Baby GAP, capris from ? and the little Jelly sandals I bought at Babies R Us!

Homemade KoolAid play dough!

Emilie is super picky when it comes to textures. She wasn't very impressed with this greyish purple glob in her way. It smelled like grape though! 

I did try a piece. Haven't we all tried the play dough you buy? Maybe it's just me. This stuff though, don't try it... :/

The ingredients for the play dough. Nice, because there was no cooking involved. Some other recipes require stove top boiling and cooking to form the dough.

Here's a link to the recipe and a few more. 

H54F

1. Monday was the thirteen year anniversary of my brother's death. Normally my mom and I travel together to put the wreath on the cross, but I made the trip alone this year. 

2. I usually am pretty awful at making pies, but my Grandma's Lemon Custard pie turned out delish!

3. I spent at least an hour watching Youtube videos on how to tie a head scarf, pin-up style.

4. I finally painted my toe nails: Fuzzy Dice.

5. My 10 month old hit pony tail status this week!

Linking up for H54F this week!

A week in the life!

Our first week of summer vacation went something like this~

We played outside and watched Daddy power wash the picket fence.

Walked downtown during the Festival of Arts and walked through the Art Museum.

I baked some Snickerdoodles that were delicious and shared at Jared's work.

Emilie came to the doctor with me to get my shoulder checked out again. She was a little angel.

Mommy made pop bottle toys that sparkle and swish when tossed around.

Emilie played with her baby doll as Mommy talked on the phone.

We attempted artwork for Father's Day. We named the art piece "Disaster."

Emilie hated the paint, and it was like pulling teeth to get her to put her hands on the canvas. Instead, she wanted to paint her face, which meant a quick splash in the kiddy pool...except it was ice cold and Emilie was angry, cold, and had goose bumps. She got a warm bath afterwards, but when I came back out a bird had pooped on my phone in the meantime. 

Standing and pulling herself up!

Books, books! She loves tearing her room apart each day and going through all the books as she reads to herself. This gives me time in the morning to put my face on!

Mommy went to a meeting in Holland and Emilie got to see Auntie Amy again!

Sun room fun!

The taste of sweet cherries is just so yummy!

We visited a book store, hoping they'd have story hour, but they didn't. Instead we picked out a book for Daddy to read Emilie for Father's Day. She claimed the book by chewing off a few bits of fiber :).

My little kitchen helper.

I made some fresh raspberry scones, all they needed was some clotted cream!

Pretending to be a 50's housewife, I guess?

Spaghetti dinner for the win!

Cutting teeth. This was a horrifying site to come into, but the bleeding stopped and Emilie was all smiles. 

And lastly, a trip to the farm to visit Grandma again!

8 months

What has Emilie been up to lately?

Almost Crawling

• talking A LOT...in the car, in her crib, on walks, while eating, while playing, and everything in between!
• she is in the process of growing two teeth, they are just barely sticking out
• sits up by herself
• laughs and smiles all the time
• loves being outside
• loves other kids and has so much fun with her babysitting buddies
• eat almost everything
• squishes slimy food and wipes it all over the highchair

"The Duquette Look"

Spring Break on the Dairy Farm!

Emilie also says, "dada", "mama", "baba (bottle)", and is starting to repeat the sounds of phrases like, buh-bye, want to eat, and dog

She continues to grow and is so long that she wears 12 month footie pajamas. 

She is also a tough cookie: no tears or even a flinch when she got her follow-up shot a couple weeks ago. She only cries when she bonks her head and knows someone is watching :).

Butterfly Garden

For Spring Break we visited Grammy at the Farm and went to see the cows, chickens, bunnies, and kitties. 

We also went to see the butterflies at Frederick Meijer Gardens. Emilie was very well behaved and has completely turned a corner after five months of torture! :)

Emilie has continued to eat a variety of food, but she refuses to try finger foods. As soon as a piece of food hits her mouth she gags dramatically. 

Happy Spring

What Emilie is looking forward to:

• being in the KinderParade at Tulip Time
• 9 month check-up
• seeing her Great-Grandparents again
• warmer weather
• Summer break!
• visiting with Florida Grandma
• Hanging out with family
• Taking a trip to the Shedd Aquarium & Nashville, IN
  
  

Half Birthday!

February 9, 2013 was Emilie's half birthday! Six months already! She has taken a preference to social development as she has started talking, saying "ba ba," "da da," and other crazy baby sounds. She mimicks some noises, and gestures, and LOVES to talk, LOUDLY. She takes after her daddy I guess!

Puggy playtime

Emilie is learning to sit up, but squirms so much that I think that'll take a while! She loves to eat and has worked up to eating two meals a day, and has tried 9 fruits and veggies: avocado, banana, pear, peach, apple, broccoli, sweet potato, and acorn squash, plus brown rice.

Monkey buddy

She is sleeping through the night now, and I think eating solids plus a bottle right before bed has helped. She's a little easier to take out as she loves watching people and lights and doesn't scream anymore, hallelujah!

Emilie absolutely loves kids, and is lucky enough to get to play with several when she is being babysat. Her new friends are Elianna, Zachary, Vivienne, Kayla, Muriam, Allison, Chloe, and of course her cousins, Gabriel and Samuel. What a lucky girl!

Snow day snuggles!

We've also had five snow days already! It's been such a blessing to be able to stay home and snuggle little Emmy. Although, snow days aren't very productive, as I don't like the idea of hauling Emilie around, and in and out of the car on gross, snowy, icy days. I love that when Emilie does go to school in a few years and has snow days, that I'll be able to stay home and not have to worry about where she'll go.

Emilie has also acquired many names: Emmy, Emmy-Lou-Who, Emmy-Lou, Emmy-Lemmy, LizzyBeth, Em, and Embaabe as affectionately named by her daycare friends.

We recently went to the doctor for Emilie's 6 month appointment and shots. She is 28 inches long, which is the 98th percentile, and 15 lbs 5 oz, which is the 30th percentile for her age group! She did really well with her shots, crying at two of them and quickly focusing on eating her shoe.

Since Emilie has gotten too big for her bouncy chair, which she used to fall asleep in at night, we have moved her to her crib to fall asleep on her own. We go through a bedtime routine: bath, bottle, book and bed. Jared's old phone plays music in her room. There was only one night where Emilie screamed on and off for an hour. I checked on her that night every 10 minutes and she'd laugh when I'd try to soothe her, and kick and scream when I turned my back. I had Jared go in and do the exact same thing: offer a bottle, read a story and put her to bed. She quickly realized that Jared and I are on the same team, and has been soothing herself to sleep at night on her own for a couple days! She definitely loves sleep and seems to need a lot of it to keep her little body moving all.the.time!