Emma Rolling Over

Sorry for the poor lighting, but you'll get the idea.

Back to work

Well, today was a great day for a quite a few reasons, but the biggest one is because I started back to work today. Dan spent the day with Emma and I got to see my friends for the start of my last month (my position was eliminated so my last day is April 2). I thought that I knew what today would be like...leaving Emma for the first time for a whole day, and all. I expected some tears (more from me than from her), some guilt, not being able to focus, and a variety of other struggles. Without a tear in sight I left Emma resting peacefully with her dad and drove my little convertible (Zoe) to my office. Once there I settled right in to my routine with some oatmeal and tea, then said hi to some people, and got reacquainted with my desk.

I left for lunch and realized how much I enjoy my job (which highlighted how much I'll miss it when I'm not working there anymore). Regardless of where I'm working or what I'm doing, I think that I'll always need some kind of work in my life to keep me balanced. I felt a little guilty for feeling so good about not having her with me, but my mom said that it just means I'm confident in the decisions that Dan and I have made regarding her care and me going back to work. I know it helped that Dan was the one watching her that first day and I got to see them for lunch, but I didn't feel like a bad mom for going back to work. It was actually relaxing to not have someone dependent on me 100% of the time. I was recharging from the past 14 weeks and I knew that when I went home I would be able to have fun with Emma and Dan and feel rejuvenated as opposed to exhausted.

Another reason it was a great day is because my manager sent me flowers and a card that everyone in the department had signed welcoming me back. I also had a follow up appointment from my eye surgery last week to remove the cataract in my left eye and everything is healing perfectly. My eye is still dilated and I already have 20/20 vision in that eye (great news).

So, the rest of this week will be a patchwork of daycare, but most of it's free so I can't complain. We'll see how it goes, but I have a good feeling about this.

3 months

Wow Emma!! It is unfathomable to me that three months and one day ago you were actually still inside of me. The last three months have flown by even faster than everybody said it would. In the past month you have turned into a huge talker and now you're even starting to laugh. Every day when your dad comes home he looks right at you and says, "How's my beautiful girl?" and you give him the biggest smile. I can tell that it makes his whole day. You've gained serious head and neck control so the next milestones will be rolling over, then sitting up without falling over, and then you'll move on to the big stuff like crawling and walking, but I'm getting ahead of myself. For now you love it when we put you on your changing table. You just start talking and laughing and making the funniest facial expressions. We try to capture your cuteness on film and sometimes you cooperate and give us a smile, and sometimes that smile turns into a pout (which is pretty cute too).

One thing that we're really thankful for is that you're starting to sleep longer and longer each night. You gave us the best Valentine's Day present ever and you slept for almost 7 hours straight!! I couldn't believe it when I woke up the next morning and looked at the clock. Since then your sleep has been more and more consistent, and for the past week or so you've been sleeping from about 10pm until 5ish or so in the morning (even until 6am sometimes). That's amazing considering that you were sleeping 3-4 hours in a row until then. That also means that you're awake more during the day so we get to see you discover more and more about this world around you.

Today was an exceptionally special day for us because we dedicated you at church. Your great-grandma Vi, great-grandma June, great-grandpa Harold, grandma and grandpa Sumner, grandpa and grandma Ellis, Aunt Becky, great-aunt Pam, great-aunt Vicky, and great-uncle Ken all came to celebrate with us as we committed to doing our best to be the parents that God wants us to be for you. We know that he chose us as your parents for a reason, and today was our way of honoring God by recognizing that He is the leader of your life and saying that we will support you as you build a relationship with Him and seek His will for your life. We've seen God's hand at work in our own lives and want the same for you. The verse we chose for you is Romans 15:13, "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." As you grow up, you will face challenges and sometimes you will be overwhelmed and not know what to do. God will give you peace during those times if you look to him so that you can always know that He is by your side. Your generation will need to see that they can have hope in something besides what this world has to offer. You can share the joy, peace, and hope that God's given you in knowing Him.

My little Emma, we love getting to know you and learning how to be parents. We know that we'll make plenty of mistakes, but at least for now you're young enough to not remember them :-)

All my love always,

Mommy

Two months in the blink of an eye

Hi little Emma bean,

Never in my life have two months gone by as fast as the past two months. Over the past month you've done quite a few exciting things. We celebrated your first New Year's and although you were sleeping when 2010 made its west coast debut, you woke up with a glimmer in your eye looking forward to all that this year holds. Last month's squeaks became this month's coo's and you've become quite the talker. We have many conversations during the day where we "coo" back and forth.

If only I had an interpreter to tell me what your little sounds mean, but I'm getting better at understanding you and you certainly let me know if I'm not giving you what you're asking for (especially when you're hungry). Over the past few days you've discovered something exciting about your tongue...that you have one. You look like a frog just sticking it out, pulling it in, sticking it out, and so on, but it's so entertaining for your daddy and me.

You're awake for longer periods of time during the day, and you're starting to sleep for longer periods of time at night (I can't thank you enough for that). I never thought that I'd be thankful anytime I got more than four hours of sleep at a time, but now you're starting to sleep for five or even six hours at a time at night. Let's keep it up! You're getting stronger and stronger all the time, so in just a few weeks you'll get to explore all the fun toys waiting for you when you can hold up your head. We're starting to get you on a routine, but you are great at just going with the flow and your daddy and I are so thankful for it. No matter where we are there's always a line of people wanting to hold you and it just reminds us all the time how much love surrounds you. Your daddy and I talk all the time about how amazed we are that you're a part of our family. You inspire both of us so much and you love listening to your daddy play his guitar for you at bedtime. Nothing puts you to sleep faster or easier than that guitar. You also enjoy the swing from time to time, and you usually (but not always) fall asleep in the car.

We look forward to seeing you every day because you're growing and changing so quickly. Before long you'll be all grown up, so we're treasuring every minute with you and praying for you non-stop.

We love you baby girl,

Mommy

6 week stats

At Emma's six week check up she weighed in at 9 lbs. 14 oz. and measured 22 inches long. That's the 49th percentile for weight and 63rd percentile for length. Her head circumference was 14 3/4 cm (39th percentile). So, she'll be tall and skinny with a well proportioned noggin. Hip hip hooray for those tall, skinny Sumner genes.