Thankful

Times are tough for a lot of people right now in our world. I think now more than ever I find myself taking a step back and seeing all the blessings in my life. I've added a "gratitude list" on the side of my blog (thanks for the idea mom). So I can keep track of the little things that make me happy, and what I'm grateful for.

Strait Jacket

When you have a baby, the hospital instructs new parents to wrap their new bundles of joy into little burritos as shown below. This helps the infant feel more secure as if they were still in the womb. It also helps babies with their uncontrollable reflexes, as some babies sporadically spread their arms and legs out and it wakes them up or makes them feel unsettled.

Emmett 1 day old...aww so sweet.

Well, as Emmett has gotten older, he's much stronger and can wriggle out of that burrito blanket WAY too easy. So when he wakes up in the middle of the night or in the morning, his arms end up by his face. Well, the problem is Emmett loves to rub his eyes. Which results in a pretty mangled up little face as seen below.

His forehead is full of scratches...poor guy. I clip his nails I swear. He just happens to find the sharp parts.

So Mike and I have gotten a litte creative in our own blanket wrapping. Fit for a 4 month old.

This is the blanket on top:

And this is what you see when you lift it off:

His own little strait jacket! His face is looking great!

Trip to California. Part I: Wedding

We're back! Mike's brother Kyle got married in the Oakland Temple on Friday, March 6, so we (by we, I mean Mike's sibs, parents, grandparents and aunt) flew out of the Salt Lake airport on Thursday to go to the wedding. This was my first time flying with a baby and Emmett handled it like a pro. Except for on the return trip he screamed for about 15 min out of exhaustion, but fell asleep as soon as we took off.

We had a great time. I'm not good at explaining trips and I don't want to bore you by reading pages about what we did, so I'll just let the pictures do the explaining.

These are the pictures from the temple:



Here's Mike and I, pretending to be the bride and groom again. jk.




Emmett just hanging out, sucking on his hands. It was a bit chilly out that day, however it was a lot warmer than what we left in Salt Lake, which was snow.







The bride and groom! Kyle and Tyne.



The whole family.






This view is from the front of the temple looking out. Beautiful. I can't believe all the flowers CA has already, and how green the grass was. I know why people live there. You can also see the tiny figures of the bride and groom if you look close enough at the picture.

After the wedding we went back to the church for the luncheon and then later that night, the reception. It was a really nice day. Weddings are so fun! We have a lot coming up in the next little while as Mike's sister Melissa is getting married on March 26, then my sister Krista on June 20!

CA part II: San Francisco

After the wedding day we spent all day Saturday in San Francisco. I didn't realize how close Oakland and San Francisco are to each other. Its just a hop-skip away. We didn't have a lot of time to see everything we wanted to, but we had fun. I've always wanted to see this city, so I was pretty excited. We walked around Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39, both popular tourist shopping areas. I had lunch at In and Out which was INSANE. I will NEVER EVER do that again in downtown San Fran. It was so flippin busy I bet there were 200 people in a teeny weeny restaurant, it was body to body and I was getting major claustrophobia. However the burger itself was quite good.

Anyways, we also took a boat ride on the bay that took you underneath the Golden Gate Bridge and around Alcatraz Island which was fun, except Emmett didn't really enjoy the 'wind in your face' sensation.

Here's some pics of the boat ride:



This was Emmett not enjoying the front of the boat. So we quickly moved to the back.









Underneath the bridge.





This is us on shore with Alcatraz in the background.

The whole family. We drove up on a hill above the bay and got a great view of the city with the bridge.

This is the pacific ocean on the other side.

After the sun set, the rest of the family had since gone back to the hotel so Mike and I decided we would have dinner at Cheesecake Factory downtown. (We had our own rental car) Emmett was sound asleep in the backseat so we decided to go for it. Well, 2 hours later, and only 2 miles later (seriously) and stop and go at dozens and dozens of lights our GPS told us we had arrived at our destination. With no Cheesecake Factory to be seen. We came to the conclusion that the restaurant was inside the mall, which looked like was inside a skyscraper, which was at an extremely busy part of the city, with parking spots nowhere to be seen. So with a sleeping baby we didn't want to attempt the hassle of searching forever for a parking spot, and then the restaurant itself. So we gave up and decided to go to Cheesecake Factory in Pleasanton (which was 30 min away) and also the same city our hotel was located. Well, to make a long story short, we ate dinner at about 9 oclock at night, the food was very mediocre, and Emmett decided to wake up (crying may I add) as soon as our food was placed in front of us, talk about toture when you're starving. All in all though, we had a lot of good conversation, and got to see parts of San Francisco that we wouldn't otherwise have seen. Haha!

It was a great trip!

4 months

Emmett had his 4 month check up last week! Everything went well, shots and all. Emmett fell asleep in the waiting room for his usual morning nap and I was thinking "oh great" cause I knew the exam would wake him up and I was afraid he'd be cranky. Well, we got in there and sure enough, he was woken up, but he was perfectly fine. No crying or crankiness, if anything he was just so curious about what the heck the doctor was doing to him and was "one mellow dude" as the doctor put it. He's such a good baby.

Stats:
16 lbs,
26 inches long
About 90th percentile for both.

Here's a few things about Emmett at 4 months:

-Loves to stand up (with support obviously). If he's crying while sitting in your lap and you pop him up on his feet he immediately stops crying and is happy again.
-He's rolled over once, and only once. I'm not sure he realized what he did and can't figure out how to do it again.
-When he falls asleep in my arms he always likes his face buried into my armpit or elbow.
-Loves Baby Einstein. If he is ever fussy when we put it on he stops immediately and will watch it happily until its over.
-Daddy makes him laugh so much better than mommy. Whenever Mike gets home from work its playtime.
-Prefers mommy for comforting.
-Loves to suck his hands, they're even a bit red and chapped from him sucking them so much.
-Loves blowing raspberries. This is his latest trick.
-Like the doctor said, he's a pretty mellow dude. Except when he's tired. He'll scream bloody murder when he's tired until he falls asleep. However being hungry doesn't seem to make him quite as grumpy. He just whimpers when he's hungry. Sometimes at night he'll whimper for a good 15-20 min before I get up to get him, but it never gets to a screaming point.
-Hates his carseat. He'll cry until he falls asleep, or if Mike is driving, until I go in the backseat and sit with him. I think he feels deserted back there.
-He's a really good sleeper. We never have to rock him to sleep at night. And best of all, he lets me sleep in till about 10 every morning.

Emmett's Ab Workout

Emmett's coming out with a baby-work out video to help strengthen your abs. I tried it, and I'm still feeling the burn. So is he apparently.