Our Summer In Pictures

Helping Daddy with his furniture.  This picture is from late April/Early May.  I think she looks like such a baby...

You have to forgive me because the pictures got all out of order and I have tried to move them around some but it was not working so well.  I will put captions under most to give you an idea of when they were...sorry

Meal time!  Emily is a very silly girl and likes to make faces.  

Em started to eat all finger food at about 9 1/2 months old, she LOVES to eat solids!

Waiting for surgery (June 26th)

 Playing with our farm!  I think Em would play farm all day every day if I let her :)  We got the farm in Mid July and this picture was taken shortly after.  

 For Fathers day we went on a weekend trip to Des Moines.  We went to Blank Park Zoo and did some window shopping at Jordan Creek Mall.  Em did get some new clothes that trip :)

Emily and I rode a camel, Em thought it was the best thing ever and was so excited the whole ride, we also all got to feed a giraffe.

 Another Farm picture - it was taken the same day as the first.  Sorry again that the pictures are so out of order...

Cousins!!  Emily has so much fun with the boys, and it is so cute to see them care for her.  Both Noah and Eli just love her, and are so sweet to her.  They had to take turns pushing her and Eli would give her kisses whenever needed.  In the top picture Eli is sharing the leaf he found with Em.  I do not remember when these pictures were taken, it must have been earlier in the summer since we are in long pants/sleeves.  Amanda would know because it was shortly after Maggie joined their household.

Baptism Mid June

 Memorial Day weekend we went to Old McDonalds farm in Cedar Rapids.

 We went to Niabi Zoo for my birthday (end of may).  It was a very nice day, and Emily loved all the animals!

our monkey!

 These two pictures (top and bottom) are from the Circus, Emily really loved it and it was the first of all our animal themed trips this summer.  The Circus came to town at the end of April if I remember correctly...

 Emily loved all the pool time in Orlando, we were lucky enough to tag along with Paul to Orlando (mid July), Paul attended a Tax conference during the days.  We had lots of time as a family in the evening and then stayed a few extra days.  We went swimming every day, went to the beach, and Gatorland.  It was a a very nice first family trip :)

 Paul and I eating gator!  We decided we had to try it at Gatorland, it was really tough and greasy and I don't know if I would recommend it to a friend.

 Emily picked out one good pearl for Mommy!

 Getting ready to Swim in Orlando
 We took the scenic rout home from Columbia, Mo. after visiting family.  We decided to go to the drive in that night on the way home in Grandview, IA and found this foot bridge just off the highway in Columbus Junction, IA.  I was too afraid to go on the bridge with Emily or by myself, so Paul was the only one who enjoyed it!  He looks so small in the picture!

 At Grandpa and Grandma's 60th wedding anniversary dinner, the last weekend in July

 

 "You be my puppy, Emily".  Noah walking Emily, both had a great time!

Trip to Omaha, NE the second weekend in August.  on the way to Omaha we stopped in Prairie City, IA to see the 8,600 sq. mile prairie restoration.  It was a nice almost half way stop for lunch and a beautiful drive through the Prairie.  We were lucky enough to see two free roaming buffalo, and one came very close.

 Omaha Zoo!  We had so much fun, could have gone back another day.  It is a large zoo, with a wide variety of animals.  We did not even see the whole zoo and spent the entire day walking around it.

 Emily LOVED the Gorillas.  She was so excited the second she saw them and was kissing the glass.  Grandma bought her a stuffed gorilla in the gift shop and it is her favorite toy, she kisses it all day long :)

 Just relaxing and enjoying the ride!

 Emily also enjoyed the Tigers very much!  She kept saying "cat".

 She really enjoyed watching all the animals!

 Her Gorilla :)

 Enjoying her Dairy, Soy, Wheat free pizza!  She LOVED having a whole piece and her own plate...

We stopped in Elk Horn, IA to stretch our legs and see the Danish Windmill.  The windmill was brought over from Denmark piece by piece, it was a nice stop on the way home.  

Emily, sitting in front of the windmill

This pretty much sums up Emily :)  As happy as can be upside down sticking her tongue out at us...

And that sums up the summer for us, the university school year starts back up on Monday so Paul will be working some longer hours then.  We love having him home early (well on time) during the summer but he ends up working longer hours during the school year when the students are back.  Emily is just starting to ask about him during the day, she will say "daddy?" and I tell her he is at work and then she waves and says "dada bye bye"  she really misses him when he is away and has just started to yell for him during the day when I tell her no, like he will let her do it instead...and on our fussy/cranky days she asks about him more as well, she is in search of some more love and sympathy...

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) :)

The Big 3 0!

Last week I celebrated my 30th Birthday, it was a great day!  Paul was able to have the day off, so we enjoyed the day as a family :)  I woke up to coffee and breakfast from my amazing husband, we had talked about going to this little "children's zoo" in Cedar Rapids called Old MacDonald's Farm, the city calls it a children's zoo, but that is a huge stretch :)  It is still fun, and free :).  After we were up and getting ready Paul asked if I wanted to go to the farm or the real zoo, and I opted for the real zoo!  About an hour away is a nice small zoo in the quad cities, and I LOVE going to any zoo :)  So we finished getting ready and set off to the zoo (I will share pictures later).  It was a gorgeous day out, sunny and warm!  Emily loved all the animals, she would follow them with her eyes, and squeal in delight and laugh at some!  She really seemed to like the black bear, elephants, and giraffes the most though.  This zoo is the perfect size for little kids, we did the whole thing in about three hours and that included a break for lunch.  We were able to take our time walking around and just enjoying the day!  On the way home as we were getting into town Paul asked me if I wanted to go look for a new van!  And we were able to find one!  We had been looking for awhile for a better family vehicle, we wanted a SUV or a mini van.  Something that down the road we can comfortably put more than one child in :)  We had not had much luck, we wanted something used but not too used (something that would last several years), and a set price range.  We lucked out and found a 2004 Honda Odyssey, we have, had it for about a week now and I love it!  It has so much room, it is so easy to get Emily in and out of her car seat, when she is very fussy I can sit in back with her while Paul drives, I can comfortably breastfeed Emily, I could go on and on!  But its the little things that are really nice it has tented windows so Emily does not have the sun in her eyes anymore!  I wish I could have got a picture of her riding in the old car on a really sunny day she would ride with her eyes shut and yell, or look down and yell out - she just seemed really annoyed.  It was cute, but I felt bad and the windows of my car were too small for the pull down shades :(

Spending the day with my family was enough of a gift, but I got to go do something I really enjoy, Paul took me out to get some things for me (clothes), and a new van!  It was great to turn 30!

Eight Months

I'm trying to get you all caught up :)  This outfit is very special, my grandma Mary handmade it for my mom when she was a baby.  I love that Emily was able to wear it, I was too afraid to actually let her wear it out and about but it was nice being able to take her picture in it.  My mom went through all of our clothes when we were little, so Emily now has some outfits that I, and my mom wore when we were little it really means alot to me to have those things :)  Here are some of the pictures, these were just taken last week (you can see her teeth in the one). 



A few pictures from about a month ago.

These were done at the end of April.  Emily had just turned seven months old, I had wanted to do her six month pictures closer to six months but she had been sick.  I thought they turned out well, I had to get them done before her teeth came in all the way!  Her face looks so different now with two bottom teeth in, I look at her sometimes and wonder where my tiny little baby went :)

I try...

So I know I said I would be better about posting...I do try...

Since the beginning of April, Emily has had two teeth come in and has had four ear infections!  So we have been alittle cranky around here :)  And when (or if) Emily takes a nap during a day I have to hurry to clean the house, think about dinner, or start laundry before we run out of diapers.  But right now I just don't feel like doing any of that so I though I would get on here and talk about my wonderful little girl cause I love talking about her and I am sure you all love to hear about her :) 

It amazes me how much she changes on a daily basis!  She is now crawling, it is still alittle shaky at times and once she is within a foot or two of her goal she will drop down and army crawl the last bit.  She is starting to crawl across a room for a toy and will try to follow after me (though she usually goes about 3 feet and then drops down and cries if she is trying to chase after me) when I go to get something.  She is starting to do the ma, da, ba and na sounds, and talks ALOT!  I love just listening to her talk, you know she is trying to tell you things, and she will laugh at the end of a "sentence" sometimes.  I can not wait until we can all understand what she is trying to say that is so funny!  She has also started to pull up to stand.  She mainly just pulls up to her knees, but when she really wants something she will pull all the way up to stand, she will not stand for long but she is making progress every day.  I am amazed how quickly she has developed her motor skills.  It seems like just a few weeks ago that she started to sit up well on her own and roll over (I guess because it has only been about a month).  I know I have said this before but she is like a new baby now that her diet has changed.  She will play on her own and get down and explore...she doesn't need to be held all day everyday...

She is now doing two "meals" a day with fruit in the morning and veggies with meat or grain in the evening.  She loves meal time and sometimes picking up each chunk of food is jsut too much work (she is still working on her pincer grasp) last night she figured out that she can just open her mouth and put it up to the table and jsut push her food in...when I told her we don't eat that way she just wrinkled her nose up and gave me her cheesy smile and laughed.  She then somehow managed to get her feet up on the table as well and was very very pleased with herself at that point.  It is so hard not to laugh at her sometimes, I had to look away. 

We are FINALLY getting into a sleep routine (but it keeps getting messed up by teeth and ear infections)!  When Emily is feeling well, she will wake up once overnight to eat and some nights she will wake up twice.  And on a good day she will take a 30 min morning nap and an hour afternoon nap.  She needs to sleep better during the day, she gets very fussy late morning and early evening, I think that if she slept longer, or would do a third short nap during the day we would have much more enjoyable days around here.  I can not really complain about anything though, because for one if we are out running errands the naps are in the car and that is my fault and second things are a million time better than they were two months ago!  I can take fussy days, its nothing compared to how things use to be :) 

Well I should get back to work, Emily will be up any second...We are having our first ever garage sale this weekend and now I know why I have never done one before!  It really takes some time to go through things and price them and get it all organized...it is so much easier to take things to Goodwill or a consignment shop.  But I am actually looking forward to the day, and I do secretly LOVE to reorganize my drawers and closets, so it really has not been that bad :)  We have alot of things to get rid of and it would be nice to make some money to buy new things!  I already have several things in mind that I would like :) 

Wow, its been a long time. Sorry All

I am sure you all have missed hearing from me :)  I am sorry for the absence from my blog, but we have been busy around the Braem house. 

I have been adjusting well to my new diet, learning what I can and can not eat.  It has taken some time to figure out some of the foods that you would not think to be an issue that were bothering Emily.  We had got to the point where Emily had been happy and having normal stools for a little over a week when her symptoms returned full force, after about a weeks time, many calls to our pediatrician and an ER visit I figured out it was the orange juice I was drinking every morning that she was reacting to.  Who would have though someone would be allergic to orange juice.  Since then she had a reaction to citrus flavored antibiotic, so I am staying away from citrus in general now :)  For now her allergy list includes: Dairy, Soy, Almonds, and Orange/Citrus.  We expect her to grow out of all of theses at some point (usually shortly after a year old).  I am a pro at reading food labels and looking for hidden sources of dairy mainly.  I have found many many foods that I love are still safe to eat and I really just eat about the same thing every day.  I am very happy though that we have got to the root of all her health problems and that I am still able to breastfeed her. 

Emily sure has changed since the diet change!  She is like a new baby now that all her tummy pains are gone.  Emily is just over seven months now and is making up for some lost time.  She was at the doctor last week for an ear infection and she was almost 14 lbs (13lbs 12oz)!  She rolls both ways very well, talks up a storm, sits without support and recently has started to get up on her hands and knees - she has no clue what to do next but you can tell she really wants to move!  Once she gets crawling figured out I really don't think we will be able to stop her you can just see it in her eyes how much she wants to be on the go :)  Her little personality has really started to come out as well, and she is one spunky gal!  I say that what she lacks in size she makes up for in personality :)  She still likes to be the center of attention (that has never changed) and will fake cough to get all eyes on her (still).  She also thinks she is funny, she will make a face or sound and then laugh at her self.  She looks at us with this look of "I'm so funny, right?".   When I am driving, she is in the back just talking away and laughing at herself!  She has started to imitate us with little things like sounds, faces, and simple motions (like patting an object).  She LOVES for you to clap at her after she has accomplished something!  She is also getting her two bottom teeth in. 

She has started eating solids once a day, she is doing fruits and veggies and LOVES her food :)  She is learning to use a sippy cup and has started some little baby puffs (finger food) also.  She is very interested in what Paul and I are eating and tries to steer our food to her mouth! 

She will now sleep for 6 hrs at night!  This is AMAZING!!!!!  She has also graduated to her crib!  She has her last feeding around 8-9pm and then goes down to bed after nursing and reading a book (between 9-10) she will wake between 12-2am sometimes she nurses again but has recently been able to fall  back asleep on her own without eating.  She finally wakes up for the day around 6-8am.  Now that we are on some kind of routine for the night, I am working on naps!  It has been totally hit or miss so far but most days she takes a short am nap (usually while nursing) and then an afternoon nap around noon for about an hour. 

I am finally able to get some things done around the house now that she will actually play on the floor, and takes some kind of nap.  Our life before was her screaming inconsolably almost every day from 11am-5pm and waking up every 1-2 hrs at night and having to hold my hand to fall asleep for the short time that she did.  She had to be held all day everyday and only wanted her mom.  And when she was not screaming she was still fussy.  I am so so so very grateful that we have figured out what was wrong and she is a happy healthy baby now.  It makes me cry just thinking about it, I love her so much. 

Well I will end this post now, if you are still reading thanks :)  I will try to post more often now :)