Our Little Jet Setter

Well it has been a BUSY 8 weeks!  We have been on three trips, celebrated 6 birthdays, gone to a beautiful wedding and put our house on the market.  Emmett has been a real trooper through all of this activity and honestly seems to enjoy all the travel and borderline chaos.  At 10 months old he has officially been on a plane more then his daddy was before he was 21.

Emmett is getting so big and strong.  He is standing up without any assistance, walking along objects, in between objects and has even taken a few "hail mary" steps with no assistance to get to his next desired walking aide.  He is into everything- there is not a cabinet, trash can, basket, stool or drawer in our house that has not been hit by hurricane Emmett.  He has 4 teeth and is about to cut his 5th and 6th.  (How much longer does this teething thing last for?!)  The newest edition to his bag of tricks is jabbering.  This truly started a few weeks ago, and like his mother...the boy loves to talk. Non stop.  No seriously, he doesn't ever stop.  Apparently, he has a lot he has to tell us.  When we don't listen, he actively seeks out other people to speak to. Which is less than desirable when we are out eating...or on a plane.

Our first trip was to Indiana, to celebrate Grandma Deb's birthday.  It was surprise for Grandma and Emmett got to meet Auntie Danielle, Uncle Chad, Great Grandma Sophie and four of his cousins!  It was a wonderful trip and Emmet loved getting to spend time with his family.  :)

He loved his cousin Aubrey.

Meeting Great Grandma.

A little love from Grandpa.  Why won't this drawer open?

Hmm...how do you want me to get to your hands Grandma?

Cousin Wesley is cool.

So is cousin Brady.

Auntie Danielle Emmett.  She definitely has the magic touch.

Cousin Aubrey giving Emmett his bottle.  What a little helper :)

Jeffrey's pretty cool Mom.

Did Grandpa teach you guys to do this, too?

  Our next trip was to California for Grandma Betsy's birthday.  This was our quickest trip, but it was still action packed!  Filled with cousins, Aunts and Uncles and Emmett's first swim. (This made Daddy really nervous.)

Focus on the baby, ignore his human life preserver.

Emmett and I with Uncle Rob and Aunt Melissa.  

Emmett with Aunt Kacie.  Seriously Dad, no more photos of this outfit.

He loves the water, just like his Mom.

Kick! Kick! Kick! Kick!

Our last trip was to the East Coast, we managed to hit New Jersey, NY and Connecticut in 6 days. (Oh, and Pennsylvania unexpectedly for 18 hours thanks to an emergency diversion because of plane issues.  THAT was exciting!)  We spent 2 days in Manhattan being tourists and seeing Alicia and Ryan, spent 2 days in Connecticut for Geir and Rae's beautiful wedding, and then went to the beach for the first time with Alicia and Ryan and stayed at their lovely new home.

Emmett's liked flying first class...this is the life Mom & Dad!

Are we tourists?

Yes, definitely.

Emmett's bunny enjoying the beauty of Connecticut.

Hmm...I don't like this flavor sand, Mom.

Dad, you know the ground moves when I walk on it, right?

Road Trip! (And 6 month portraits!!)

Back in December when Emmett was 5 months old, Todd and I planned to take our first road trip with Emmett up to the San Juan Islands.  Unfortunately, Emmett and I caught a nasty flu the week before and Todd insisted that we cancel the trip.  A few weeks ago, we finally rescheduled the trip and made the trek back up to San Juan Island.  Getting to the San Juans from Portland requires a 4 hour drive, assuming you miss Seattle traffic, and then an hour and a half ferry ride, assuming you catch the express ferry to Friday Harbor.

The voyage is totally worth it.  That said, planning our prior trips with the drive and the ferry was complex enough on it's own, throw in an infant who really likes his to stick to his schedule and this coordination becomes as complex as a chess match!  We based our travel schedule on two things- when Todd could leave the office and when we had to catch the ferry.  Then from there, I backed into Emmett's nap times and feeding schedule to figure out when I would have to wake him up in the morning to ensure that he would be ready for his second nap right when we were ready to leave the house.  This part of the trip worked beautifully.  By the time Todd came home from work, I had packed up the car (or overpacked it per Todd) and was ready to nurse Emmett and put him in his car seat.  Emmett slept the ENTIRE trip up north until we got off I5.  At this point, I realized we had made a grave error and had misread the ferry schedule. The ferry we needed to catch actually left at 5:30, not 4 pm.   Can you say, meltdown?  Our poor little guy was just DONE with his car seat by the time we got to our hotel at 8:30 pm that night.

All of the planning and schedule manipulating resulted in us having a wonderful, relaxed weekend!  Something about being up there just relaxes Todd and I. Emmett definitely picked up on that.  It's so peaceful and removed from the rest of the world.  Much to Emmett's amazement, the weekend was filled with whale, bald eagle and seal sightings.  What is THAT, mommy?!  It was also the first time he saw the ocean.  On the way home, we stopped and had our 6 month photo session with Kristen Honeycutt.  We were all pretty worn out at that point from traveling and Emmett was teething but, as usual, Kristen did a great job.  The link to her photos and ours from the trip are below.

Emmett is 8 months today.  It has been a big week for us!  He has cut his first tooth, really crawled for the first time and has perfected his pincer grasp so he can feed himself.  All three of these developments are amazing but also mixed blessings. He only has cut one tooth and it's just the top of it that has come through.  So as cute as that tooth is, the crying, drooling and other joys of teeth cutting are still continuing.  Learning to crawl has occupied Emmett for innumerable hours and has been a great distraction for us.  Now that he's actually doing it?  I am in trouble...nothing is more attractive to him than hazardous objects.  What is so darn interesting about the fireplace?!  I was really excited about him learning to feed himself.  It was so cute to watch him try to get his Oat O's into his little mouth.  The only problem with this development is that our little guy has experienced some independence and he really, really likes it.  He is no longer interested in the pureed fruits and veggies Mom and Dad serve him with his cute little baby spoons.  He can do it himself.  Consequently, our meals are taking A LOT longer and have gotten a lot messier- have you watched an 8 month try to eat a meal of Oat O's and bananas one piece at a time?

Click here to Access Kristen Honeycutt photos

Password: Emmett

My first ferry ride.  Thank you for getting me out of that stupid car seat! 

Our wedding pictures were on display when we walked into the lobby to check in :)

Our favorite chapel.

Beautiful Roche Harbor

Super low tide.  We decided Emmett isn't quite ready for the tide pools yet.

Daddy and Emmett

So Emmett, should Daddy buy Mommy this lot to build her dream house?

Yes Daddy

After 20 years, I can still find my grandparent's house on the island.  The fact that their mailbox is still up always helps me feel at home.

Our romantic 5 course meal

Look buddy, that's called a seal.

How you eat the 5th course of your romantic dinner when you bring your 7 month old with you.

The seal we watched him play in the harbor.

If look closely enough you will see the fin of the male orca with the transient pod we were lucky enough to see.

Life Stuck in Fast Forward

When you have a teething 6 month old, who happens to also be so obsessed with crawling that he practices in his sleep, time flies...

So much so that I started this blog post 5 weeks ago when he was 6 months, and am just now coming back to it- Emmett is now 7 months.  One mommy blog I happened to read described life with an infant as stuck on fast forward, making life before the baby seem like it was in slow motion.  I couldn't agree more!  Every day I start out with a list of tasks I need to accomplish for the day. Before I know it, the day is over and I have only accomplished about 10% of what I felt like I needed to get done.  That said, my fast forwarded time is being well spent.  Emmett is flourishing- he is a happy, healthy baby who changes and grows every day.  My only complaint is that as my list keeps getting longer, my days go faster and faster.

Our little munchkin is getting big SO fast.  One of the things I wanted to do for his 6 month blog post was create a video montage of the first 6 months of his life.  This has been one of my daily tasks on my ever-growing list for the last 5 weeks.  Every time I work on this project, I end up watching all the videos we have of him, over and over again and marveling at how cute he is/was and exclaiming at how much he has grown.  Editing these videos down to snippets and fusing them together seems like an impossible feat.  Maybe a first year montage is more realistic?  I will start it now and hopefully finish before he is 2.  :)

Emmett got a clean bill of health at his 6 month appointment, and has become an old pro for his shots.  One little initial cry out when the shots were administered and then smiling and flirting with the nurse the next minute!  Our little man loves the ladies...He is above the 70th percentile for both his weight and his height.  It seems like he has been teething FOREVER.  Our doctor told us that his first two teeth "are right there at the surface" and "would come in any day now".  That was 3 weeks ago.  Three LONG weeks ago (in fast forward mode.) I cannot count the number of carrots, stalks of celery or frozen apples that have been gummed through in this time period.

Emmett eats two full meals a day now.  We make all of his baby food in our little food processor at home.  We have tried everything from greek yogurt to kiwis, but his favorite staples are pureed bananas, stewed pears and steamed sweet potatoes.  It would seem that he inherited his mother's sweet tooth but not my love of vegetables. In fact anything green seems to be greeted with pursed lips and a cry- even avocados!

The really big development in our lives is crawling.  He is obsessed with it.  We started a music class with a bunch of big kids in January.  Ever since then, Emmett has been extremely frustrated by his inability to move about the room like the other kids.  We started off the month, rolling around and laying on our belly kicking our legs frantically.  Picture someone trying to swim sloppy freestyle on an area rug.  This evolved to using our belly as a pivot point, and spinning about the room.  This combined with rolling allows you to get to your toys when you realize that swimming on carpet doesn't get you very far.   As of this week, we have mastered the scoot and the backwards crawl.  The scoot works a lot better if he sneaks off of the area rug and finds the hardwood floor.  The backwards crawl I would consider progress because it involves him getting on his hands and knees.  I am pretty sure he would just call it frustrating, if he could talk!  Every time he does it, he gives me an accusatory look as if to say, "You told me if I lifted my behind and got on my hands and knees and moved all of them together, I would crawl.  Clearly you don't understand what I am trying to do here."

I think the best way to catch everyone up on how he is doing, is through a few photos from the last 7 weeks.

Emmett at 25 weeks:

At first he needed the support in the bouncer behind his back.

Getting before bed cuddles from Daddy.

26 Weeks:

Don't need the pillow behind my back anymore!

Chilling in my seat.  I think I am getting too fat for this thing, Mom.

Mmmm...hands.

27 Weeks:

Naked baby :)

TOES!!!  Have you seen these things?!

28 Weeks:

What's for breakfast Mommy?

This look means it's nap time.

No More GREEN stuff. I mean it.

29 Weeks:

Sweet potato, that's more like it!

It's YOU!

The day he ate two whole bananas in one sitting.

Who doesn't love a sleeping baby?!

30 Weeks:

Have I shown you how I can take all the toys off of my bouncer and throw them?

I am on YOUR bed! 

31 Weeks:

Make it stop licking me.  PLEASE.

I love my puppy.

Thanks for sharing your salad with me mom.  What about those french fries?

MMMM...COOKIE.

32 Weeks:

Garbanzo beans!

Maybe we should start brushing my hair?

A few videos that are worth sharing unedited:

We have this adorable book that instructs you to whisper the last page and then get REALLY loud for the last verse.  He cries EVERY time we read it.  He is so cute when he cries, we can't help but laugh at the poor little guy!

His frustrated attempts at crawling in our bedroom.

His frustrated attempts at crawling in the living room.