All of a sudden Emmeline has lost her newborn baby face. Her features are moving towards a toddler look. Wow - it goes fast! 

Emmeline and Aubrey

Craig's good friend Ryan and his wife Megan came to visit this past weekend. They have a beautiful little girl, Aubrey. She is about 3 months younger than Emmeline. We sat them down on our bed while we got their bath ready - here is what happened. 

Emmeline gives Aubrey a little love pat on the shoulder just to let her know everything is ok. 
Emmeline's little love pat quickly becomes a pinch and poor, little, innocent Aubrey is in tears. 

I guess Emmeline feels bad - or just a little old Italian guilt kicks in and she tried to hand off her paci. Because a paci makes anything better. 

Watermelon Love

This past weekend we found out that Emmeline absolutely LOVES watermelon.  I gave her a quick bite of mine and she went crazy for it so I gave her a piece to hold on her own and she quickly gobbled that up and then cried when it was all gone.
I was amazed - she isn't the most interested eater so this was a surprise and a complete delight. It was soo cute to watch her until we took a piece away and then it was like Ollie with the artichoke leaves. She was seriously mad. I took a quick video and will post soon. 

Emmeline's New Swing

Craig attached this swing to the garage so that Emmeline could have a little outdoor fun. 
She loves her new swing. It really makes her smile and forget about all the teething pain she's currently in. 

Sleep Training

Emmeline has never been a very good sleeper, even from the beginning. In the first couple weeks after she was born Craig and I were just so tired that it was easier to just let her sleep on my chest - where she could sleep for hours.  In the past 7 months she has only slept next to me in bed, on my chest or in the bassinet next to my bed. She hadn't spent one night or even a single nap in her crib. I know this was a sleep mistake - but I just wasn't ready to have her in a different room. Plus I just loved the cuddle time. 

In the past month she would not stay asleep unless I was right there next to her. We decided it was time for her to sleep in her crib. Well, the transition has not been an easy one. After reading 4 different seep solutions books we decided to go with a mix of "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Baby" and "Twelve Hours at Twelve Weeks". 

We have put into play a pretty strict schedule of a 7:00am wake up, 9:00am nap, 1:00pm, nap and an early bedtime of 6:30pm.  We decided we would be putting her to bed sleepy but awake ( we had never done this - not once). When she cried (which was instantly) we would wait 5 minutes and then go in and soothe her but not pick her up. The first night she cried for 1 hour and we went in to sooth her every 5 minutes. The same thing happened the next night, But on the third night she only cried for 20 minutes. It seems to be getting better and she is already in napping in her crib without any tears. I'm thrilled that it's working but those first couple of nights were so awful. I sat in my room and cried in-between the 5 minutes.  I know that she needs to learn to sleep on her own it just breaks my heart to put her down knowing she will cry.  For now, I'm sticking with it since it seems to be working. We'll see how she's sleeping a couple months from now. 

7 Months and a couple days!

On May 1st little Miss Emmeline turned 7 months! I seriously can't believe how fast it goes by. I know that I'll blink my eyes and she's be headed of to school. 
Emmeline is such a delightful little girl and her personality is really coming out. She loves to smile and does so for anyone but doesn't give away a laugh too easily. You really have to work for it. She's stubborn but sweet and cuddly and watches my every move. We are hoping for some interest in crawling soon but for now she's content to sit and have toys brought to her. Emmeline isn't the most voracious eater and she would prefer to snack on mum mum's all day so I'm thinking she'll like when she can pick up her food. 

Our biggest challenge is her sleeping schedule but as I type we're doing some sleep training (I'll post more about this later.) 

Being a mother is so much more than I ever expected. I knew that I would love her more than anything but I never expected that that love would completely overwhelm me every day. I love her more and more every time I look at her. 

Aunt Alissa and Great Falls

We were lucky enough to have Aunt Alissa visit us over the weekend. It was so great seeing her and getting to spend some good time catching up. Now, if we can just get her to move closer life would be so much better. Thanks Alissa for all your help over the weekend. We miss you so much already!!! 
We had a great time at Great Falls and were surprised to see how close it was to the house.  I think we'll be making more and more trips out there this summer. 
Stacey and Ollie enjoying the view! 
You can tell how hot it was by Emmeline's sweaty hair and pink cheeks.