Summer Fun

Well this summer has brought some fun family time that I cherish every second of.  June brought family from Texas, Emily met some cousins and her Great Uncle and Aunt for the first time!  Emily loved cousin Jonathan and really missed him after they left.  July brought us to Orlando, FL, Emily and I tagged along on a business trip with Paul.  Emily saw the ocean for the first time, and had lots of pool time.  She loved the water by the end of the week and now we take her to the pool every week or so, she gets so excited when she sees the water and plays in the fountains.  July also brought us to Columbia, MO we helped celebrate my Grandparents 60th wedding anniversary.  Emily met more family for the first time!  And now here we sit in August.  We are leaving in the morning for Omaha, NE to visit the Zoo!  Emily and I will go with my mom and brother.  I am really looking forward to the trip.  

Packing for a family vacation with kids is SO different from before.  When we were getting set for FL I actually started to think about what book I wanted to take!  The days of laying on the beach reading are long over, but are replaced by watching the smile on Emily's face when she sees something for the first time, watching her explore new places, and try new things.  I love that smile and that look up at me with the look in her eyes that she is not quite so sure about this but thinks it is pretty neat and just checking to make sure its safe.  I do miss the lack of sleep on vacations these days though.  All the newness can be overwhelming and cause many sleepless nights, but our attitude was to just have fun and I am lucky enough to stay home with her and we will fix all the bad habits learned on our vacation at home.   

And after an allergic reaction on our most recent trip away from home and a frantic call to our pediatricians office back home while getting to the nearest drug store for some Benadryl I am now preparing meals for Emily to take along on this short trip.  And I will never leave home without Benadryl again :)  So right now I am procrastinating the packing process.  I have been meaning to blog for sometime but to be honest my days are filled with much better things - my daughter :)  and when she does nap it is short lived so I use that time to shower, eat, and clean up what I can before she wakes again.  Laundry is piled up, the sink is full of dishes, floors need washed, and furniture needs dusted.  So I just do not have time to sit and blog, but right now I need some time to decompress after a long day and I have so much to catch everyone up on :)

Well Emily is about 10 and a half months old now, I can not believe where all that time went.  It really does seem like just yesterday I met my beautiful little girl.  She is the Love of my life and I can not imagine a day without her.  

She is changing so quick these days, she is cruising all around the house and starting to stand on her own.  I am excited for her to walk but at the same time want to keep her my little baby forever.  She claps (and will clap for you if you do what she wants - she likes to direct things already), plays peek a boo, dances, waves bye, pretends to talk on the phone, points and gestures, gives kisses, and has some words (mommy, daddy, milk/eat, bye, cat).  Emily has four teeth now (two top and two bottom), we have had many sleepless nights from teething but to be honest as much as I dislike my sleep being interrupted I really do love the quiet time sitting with Emily rocking her and comforting her.  We cuddle and I just hold her and remind myself a day will come when she does not wake up and I will miss the time with just the two of us in the still and quiet of the night.  

Emily is still dealing with food allergies, so far her list of allergies includes dairy, soy, wheat, nuts, citrus, mango, wheat.  I made the very difficult decision to stop nursing after her recent reaction when we were out of town.  I do not know if it was from something I ate or she ate.  It was very scary to see her break out in hives so quickly.  I still cry when I think about it, I really wanted to breastfeed and had no plans to wean Emily until somewhere between 12-15 months.  I really worked hard to make breastfeeding work out - 8 weeks of determined work before it clicked for Emily and we were able to naturally breastfeed.  I just feel like I gave up after all this time and like I am just not doing good enough for her.  I tried to cut things from my diet as what I eat goes into the milk.  I honestly could have done better, I would slip every now and then...I almost feel selfish for deciding to quit.  I feel like I let her down.  Her most recent flair up lasted for about three-four weeks with mucous and occasionally bloody stools and weight loss.  I thought it was from wheat, we cut that out and the stools improvedstressful.  I do not like seeing my little girl in pain, during the flair up she is inconsolable, up all night, does not nap, just screams off and on all day.  I can not do anything for her, and the GI specialist said she is just spoiled and I need to let her cry and not comfort her.  But that could be a post all itself.  Needless to say I was not happy about how that appointment went.  I do not know what all she is allergic to, and it had to be something else I was eating.  We see an allergist later this month and I am really looking forward to that.  I hope to get some long awaited answers.  On the positive side Emily is more happy, has normal stools, and is gaining weight.  

Well I guess I should get finished packing and some sleep before our big day tomorrow!  I will post some pictures from the Zoo (I promise) :)