Wiggle wiggle

 Tiffany: "Gavin, will you hold Emery for a quick picture?"

Gavin:"Sure." lays down by Emery and grabs her leg

Tiffany:"Not exactly what I had in mind. How about you pick her up and put her by your face?" 

Gavin: stops being a smart alec and picks her up

Emery: wiggle wiggle wiggle stop just long enough for mom to focus and wiggle right as she snaps the picture wiggle wiggle wiggle

Emery loves to wiggle. She is at that stage where she is constantly moving and exploring and grabbing. It's a lot of fun to see her learn and grow but it is also a bit tiring. Flying back from Idaho to Texas was exhausting. It felt like WWF trying to keep that little girl contained. But we made it back and we are glad to be home.

Just one bite

Emery is a fantastic eater. Bad sleeper, but we'll save that for another day. She eats anything I put in front of her, which is great but has made me wonder if this little girl even has taste buds. That's a joke, I'm sure she does, but she once ate applesauce mixed with ground beef because I make her baby food and that was the quickest thing I could throw together. Like I said, she'll eat anything. The other day she really, REALLY wanted the heel from a loaf of bread we were eating with our dinner. Finally I just gave it to her and we had fun watching her eat her "prize".

Here she is, dexterously picking off little pieces like we usually do for her. 

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Not intimidated by the gigantic size, or the fact that she has no teeth, Emery goes in for the big bite!

She was pretty disappointed when I finally took it away because it was getting drool-saturated and I didn't want her getting huge chunks off. Not too bad for a girl with no teeth!

You know you're a law nerd when...

As we've mentioned multiple times, Gavin is studying for the Texas Bar right now. He takes it THIS TUESDAY THROUGH THURSDAY! One part of me thinks, "I can't believe it's already here!" but the other part (like...99%) thinks, "HALLELUJAH!" I can't wait to have him back again.

Adventures of Emery

I can only imagine what the world looks like from Emery's perspective: everything so big with nooks and crannies all over just begging to be explored, and it apparently looks rather appetizing too as she puts anything she touches in her mouth. The other day I heard her grunting and sighing and moving around and I go over to find that she has made it into the metal jungle that is our table and chairs. And she was stuck. But only for a minute or two, then she wriggled and wiggled her way out. 

Now that she is crawling it's funny to see the places she finds her way in to. She's a busy little girl, but still loves to cuddle and be held. 

Growing love

I love being a stay at home mom. It's so fun to teach Emery new things and watch her learn things on her own. But since I only have one child, and before last week she wasn't crawling so I didn't have to chase her around, I found myself looking for things to do. I've also been wanting to learn how to garden, so I decided to join a local community garden. It's run by a Christian church near us and all the produce goes to a food pantry. I take Emery a few times a week and it has been the perfect activity for me. It gets us outside, I'm learning about gardening in Texas, I get a little bit of exercise, and I feel like in a very small way I'm doing some good in the world.

One day I went with another gardener to drop off the vegetables we harvested and I got to see the food bank it all gets donated to. It warmed my heart to see that place and meet some of the volunteers who give hours and hours of their time to help those in need. There were shelves and shelves full of food and grocery bags piled high with names of those receiving the help. It was an inspiring trip for me. Sometimes as I check the news or read political debates I get a little down because it seems like everybody is hating on something/one. Not just disagreeing, which is important for new ideas and growth, but EVERYBODY BE HATIN'. That's what it feels like some days and it makes me sad. That trip was a great reminder that there are so many people and programs out there, serving selflessly, and spreading love. And as we all know:

What the world needs now is love, sweet love. It's the only thing that there's just too little of.

Here's a picture of the garden. In the picture you can see 4 raised beds, there are actually 8 with 4 more behind these ones pictured. LOTS of weeding.

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Little Helper

You can tell it's laundry day because 1) [obviously] Emery's in a laundry basket and 2) She's not wearing any clothes because nothing was clean (gotta love laundry day!). We have a great system, her and I. I fold, she unfolds and sucks on them, then I fold them again. Takes twice as long, but she's so cute it's worth it. Look at those little curls above her ears! Seriously adorable!

Crawling

Watch out world, Emery is on the move. Not just her "roll roll wiggle wiggle turn roll wiggle" mode of transportation, but a full fledged crawl. Also, my carpet is much cleaner thanks to her ability to find every little speck of anything anywhere and her love of eating said specks.