10 Months, 5 Teeth and 1 Happy Baby

OK, it has been ages since an update on Emmajane/EmmaJane (we STILL can't decide how to write it). She is now 10 months old today and my heart can't hold all the love I have for this human. Above all, she is a happy, animated, bundle of energy. Her passion for life comes out more and more every single day. 

If you want to skip all the milestone details, scroll to the bottom for a picture dump of smiles, naked cottage cheese bums and the bluest eyes you've ever seen...

7 Months 

By seven months Emmajane was crawling like a pro and pulling herself up to standing. 

She got croup on the drive home from Christmas break, and had it for about 2 weeks. I'll never forget feeling her burning hot head and wishing I could just take it all away. She got up to 107 one day, and we rushed her to the doctor right as the fever broke. It was funny how her personality and energy left, making her an entirely different baby. That's when she learned "mama." So sweet. Except for it was more like "mamamamaaaa" and I loved it. We would rock to sleep almost every night and cuddle on the couch whenever she would wake from a coughing fit. I'd stand with our front door open in my pajamas at 2, 3, 4 in the morning just so she could clear that cough. It made me so happy when we started seeing her smile again.

8 Months

At 8 months she became a self-feeder. I loved watching her double-fist those cheerios, and then palm them into her mouth. Since then, she's been pretty stubborn about feeding herself. No baby food on a spoon. No sir! She's got this, Mom and Dad.

She loves eating asparagus, frozen peas, tomatoes, yogurt, string cheese, green beans, and apples. Whole apples! Just like her mama. We'll let her gnaw on Granny Smiths for 30 minutes.

Between seven and eight months, she became a pro traveler with two set of airplane rides from Utah to California. She was a dream and won over the entire crew. On her second leg for Megan and Tyler's wedding, she was a little loud and the only way we could get her to quite down was to pat our hands over her mouth (Indian style). She loves that and her yell seemed just a bit quieter than if she wasn't playing Indian. Now she's learned to do it on her own, and I love it!

9 Months

Went to the doc. and she was 16.23 pounds (15th percentile) and 27 inches (70th percentile). A string bean! But growing right on track.

She's a little chatterbox! She says her ga ga ga's and da da da's and whole bunch of other random words we can't follow. My favorite thing, though, is that she now knows the difference between "yay" and "hi." If you say one, she'll wave, and for the other she claps her hands. 

She thinks she's hilarious. She'll go around the entire room going "ha! ha! ha!" while bouncing front and back to make you laugh.

She got her first taste of what it would be like to live with dogs when we were dog-sitting Cade and Kass's dog when they were in Hawaii. It was a good and bad thing that she loved being around dogs because that's the closest you're gonna get, sister. The White house is canine-free. FOREVER.

She is still super social. She loves other kids like crazy! I took her to City Creek, where they have this massive indoor playground in the food court, and she was so excited to see so many kids. She couldn't do much except stand agains one of the many fake dinosaurs and pound and scream for joy - which ended up scaring off the kids and defeating the purpose. I kept trying to explain, "she's excited and happy to meet you," but they were like, "see ya!"




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#majorphotodump 

#commence 

#now

// 7-8 Months //

 

 

 traveling like a champ

// 9 Months //

 

asparagus and blue berries 

her favorites

 

this is cute BUT

 these are better

 or this

 

yo yo yooo!

a little privacy please?
life with dogs

 

her very first visit to BYU and we commemorated it was her first rice krispie treat

and she never let go

buuuuuuuns

The Aunt Zaz side smile. It runs in the family!

 St. Patrick's Day!

 whoa. life is so much better with three of me

Photo dump complete

A Carter Christmas

Emma Jane was suffering from a high fever which turned into croup the next week, but thankfully, my family insisted she join us. I love them. It was so fun getting together. Emma Jane and Harper were deathly afraid of Kai's monstrous beard, Michael got hand-me-down headphones (which had been on his wishlist for a quite a while), and Dad got teary missing his baby girl Hermana Carter. A pretty sweet belated Christmas.

Work it, Harper girl

A Winter Beach Day

Huntington Beach // December 26, 2013

I am obsessed with baby hands. Apparently, so is Emma Jane.

Melt. 

Favorite Christmas Moments (One Month Later...)

This Christmas was special because it was my baby's very first Christmas. As a new mom, the holiday took on an entirely different meaning. I couldn't make it through songs like "Away in a Manger" or "Silent Night" without crying because I finally knew the beauty and wonder of bringing a child into this world. And knowing that the Savior of the World entered this earth as helpless as my little Emma Jane was both humbling and beautiful to think about. As part of that, I decided to post a picture a day for the 25 days of Christmas on Instagram. Despite the fact that I'm sure people were sick of seeing baby pictures everyday, I'm so glad I captured her first experience of the best season of all. My favorite moment for her was when she was given her ornament. The White family has a long-time tradition where the father gives everyone in his immediate family an ornament symbolizing their year. Michael gave Emma Jane a present, because she is our family's greatest gift.

A full day at the beach! Can't tell you how much I missed that place! It was so fun getting Emma Jane's feet in the water and seeing her try to eat every single grain of sand. Plus, I won the first championship of ladder ball. I was seriously surprised!

Carter Christmas at Cade and Kass's home. So happy we got a chance to see Kai and Mandi as they were traveling through after Christmas at Mandi's. Before we opened our gifts we said one thing we were grateful that year. It was sweet to hear how blessed my family is and how grateful each person was for their individual families. 

Side note, Emma Jane had not taken a nap all day and you can tell. She was asleep within 60 seconds of getting in the car. She can barely keep her eyes open in this picture.

From Miss to Mrs.

If you haven't heard, my dear friend Megan Looney is marrying into the White family! You may remember her as my London buddy and bridesmaid, which is actually where the White family (all except her fiance) met her. Tyler was on his mission at the time, but exactly 2 years later - give or take a week - they met. And now, they are getting married February 15!! 

So last night, the friends got together to shower her with love. 

I couldn't pick which Emma Jane face I liked better. And of course, she pooped her pants right before the shower and ended up in PJ's. Why do I even dress her?