Emma got her first tooth!

I think every blog post will start the same from this point forward... "I'm way behind and should have blogged a long time ago." It's true. I'd give it up but I really like being able to look back and see what Emma was up to because it truly is a blur. Luckily we've been able to keep up with sending random photos and videos to family.

To say life has been chaotic is an understatement. We've had so much going on with packing, Steve driving a 26ft truck to Memphis (that's not typed incorrectly- it really was 26 feet, although the movers thought they could have packed it in a 20ft truck), and unpacking. I knew before we moved that it would be a beast. All moves take a lot of work. But we have stuff. I mean A LOT of stuff. It's actually pretty shameful, but neither Steve nor I get rid of things. I mean, we're not hoarders.We're both being good and starting to take more trips to the Goodwill. I just got rid of my VCR with all my VHS tapes. I was quite proud that I finally parted with it. I guess it was about time. I like things clean and tidy, as does Steve. But I'm afraid this year will be the messiest year yet. Maybe that's the life of a parent. I lack the time to clean and organize that I once had. Emma is 100% worth it, but I still dream of an organized apartment. I will get Steve a lot of credit since he got our apartment looking a ton better and in working order last week when I was working one day and my mom was watching Emma.

Speaking of the move, we do miss Atlanta and all the things it had to offer (yummy, cheap food). Memphis has never felt like a small town to me before now. After having experienced Atlanta traffic, there's no such thing as bad traffic here in Memphis. Overall, it really is good to be in Memphis near family. We've already seen my parents and sister's family quite a bit. Once we get settled, I'm sure we'll hang out with all our other family and friends, hopefully a lot this year. It's weird living in Memphis but not living at my parent's house. That's a first. We really like our apartment minus a major wasp issue and terrifying spiders outside our windows. I mean these spiders have fangs. Luckily they came and sprayed near our apartment (and hopefully in our apartment too since there are lots of little spiders in our apartment) to address the issue. I think I've developed a new phobia- spiders. Ugh. My only other phobia is tornadoes. And just my luck, there was a tornado warning within a week of coming back to Memphis. I think I started to second guess our move back to Memphis during that tornado warning. Tornadoes really give me severe anxiety.

Let's backtrack a little. Our last week in Atlanta was an eventful one for Emma.

-She started blowing bubbles.

-She's so interactive. She usually thinks it's so funny if you stick your tongue out at her. So I do it a lot to get smiles out of her. For the first time, she watched me, then copied me and stuck her tongue out back at me. It was amazing! Oh the little things in life!

-Emma started standing by herself for a couple of seconds without us supporting her. Clearly she has to balance against the futon or our ottoman. She can stand for quite a long time if we're balancing her. She really loves standing. You can tell she's proud of herself when she stands.

-The day before we moved, we noticed that Emma was tugging on her ears. We were thinking that she was getting her first ear infection. Steve and I both had tubes in our ears as kids, so I thought it was just a matter of time before Emma's first ear infection. She never acted fussy, had a fever, or had any other symptoms, so we never took her to the doctor. I was reading one of my free baby magazines last night and learned that some babies tug on their ears when they're teething because the nerves that run into the jaw also enter the middle ear. And sure enough, Steve saw her first tooth tonight. It's her low left front tooth. EMMA HAS A TOOTH! I just can't get over it. She's growing up so quickly! Who knows how she's had it for? She doesn't like us messing with her mouth, so we usually leave her be. She was actually drooling and chewing on everything around the time of Steve's graduation, but Emma's pediatrician didn't think she'd get a tooth too soon based on what she could observe. I guess we missed any recent signs. She hasn't had a fever. And she hasn't been any fussier than normal, but she tends to fuss unless we're giving her all our attention at all times :-)

Since we've been in Memphis, she's been in the pool a few times and loves it. She loves kicking her legs! She's very active, although not crawling quite yet. She usually won't sit still for her diaper changes. She thinks it's more fun to flip over while you're trying to change her. Ha! I wish she would go back to only pooping once a week instead of a couple times a day. :-) She also loves jumping in the exersaucer that we borrowed from Marilyn.

She's still a very temperamental eater 90% of the time. She likes to eat for 5 seconds, then turn her head, hit the bottle out of her mouth, kick the bottle out of her mouth, etc. I used to think she preferred bottles over nursing. I'm not convinced that's the case anymore, although I'm sure drinking from a bottle is a lot less work.  I'm just less willing (and so is she) to nurse her when she's doing that. I'm still pumping 3x daily, which is significantly easier than every 2-3hours. And I nurse her in the middle of the night/early morning when she wakes up. Usually she's a much better eater in the middle of the night/early morning, probably because she's less distracted, at least that's the theory of our pediatrician. She's been waking up 1-2 times per night to eat for a while now. At least she sleeps well between feedings. Overall, she seems to be growing like she should, so there's really no concern about her temperamental eating, although I won't complain when she outgrows this way of eating.

We started feeding her bananas, then applesauce, then rice cereal, and now strawberries. I think she likes all of it. We've started mixing rice cereal with everything to make things a little more bland. We tried one of the baby food packages with bananas and they used lemon juice to preserve it. It was unbelievably sour even for me. No wonder Emma kept giving funny faces when she'd get the food in her mouth.

Steve, Emma, my parents and I are heading down to Florida early Saturday morning. This seems to be our yearly vacation. I like the beach. Steve enjoys going down to Sandestin as well, although maybe not quite as much as me since he's not a fan of the beach. I'm sure Steve likes that it's free, and I'm not going to complain about that. It's one of the perks of a family owned condo at the beach. I'm hoping this will mean that we'll take lots of photos of Emma and maybe even blog more? I guess we'll see.

A few recent fav iphone photos to end this massive blog post. If I come across anymore good photos on my camera, I'll be sure to post them soon!

Emma in a dress that I wore as a kid. Suds smocked it!

Emma borrowed an Indian outfit from Neelu. At Ravi and Aparna's wedding reception.

Don't worry as soon as the music started, we took Emma outside the room so it wouldn't be too loud.

Emma really liked Melissa.

Emma got to try Pink Berry. I think she liked it a lot! 

I know she at least tried Steve's cookies and cream flavor. Ha!

At our favorite Atlanta pizzeria, Antico, for one last time. So good.

Emma also loved trying chocolate Suno.

At Rise and Dine. Yummy breakfast!

At Suds house. Yummy food. Look at Marilyn's cute belly!

Playing with cousin Sylvie.

Emma having fun destroying one of Suds' hydrangeas.

Taking a walk at Shelby Farms.

Lovely. Taken from my parents house.