Eight Months!

Emalyn was eight months old on Saturday. I cannot believe how quickly the past few months have flown; we will be celebrating her first birthday before I know it. It has been so much fun. She has changed so much in the last few months. Here are all the new things she is doing:

• Her first little bottom tooth popped through the middle of August, and she is working hard on that second one (I had forgotten how rough teething was. I now remember why I was so excited when Maddie finally got her last moler). 
• She can push herself up to sitting. It is so fun to walk into her room to get her up from a nap and to see her sitting up in the bed smiling at me. We had a few rough days when she couldn't figure out how to lay back down, but she seems to have worked through it.
• She has started crawling! She is still not really motoring very far yet. But for the past week she has been getting up on all fours and rocking, and has gotten stronger each day. Her life and my life is about to really change once she can start getting into everything!
• She has starting pulling up on things. She pulled up on the coffee table last Friday, but she still hasn't quite figured out how to get her legs untwisted and stand up. But she is working on it none the less.
• She has learned to tip her toy basket over so she can reach the toys inside, which means all I have to do right now is set her in front of her toy basket and she is quite content.
• She has started patting me on the back when I pat her back, and when you ask her to “pat pat mama,” she will get a huge grin on her face, think about it for a second, and then bring her right hand around to pat me – she gets so proud of herself. 
• Gone are the days of setting her in the exersaucer for entertainment.(Thanks to baby Carrie for letting us borrow yours since ours got "flooded" as Maddie calls it). All Emalyn wants to do is to be on the floor scooting now.

She still loves being held and snuggled although she is quite the wiggle worm these days. And she is still is laid back as ever, but we are starting to see a little bit of a temper when she doesn't get her way. :) Bottom line, I am loving life with my sweet family these days. I was reminded tonight by an e-mail from a friend, that September is National Childhood Cancer Awareness month. And I spent a few minutes looking at YouTube videos of pediatric cancer patients, and it so quickly took me back to my precious patients in Atlanta, so many of whom are no longer with us. Chris and I are so blessed to have two healthy girls. I don't have to worry about white blood cell counts, shaving my child's head b/c their scalp is itching from their hair falling out, sores in their mouths from chemo, ports or central lines, emergency trips to the ER, hosptial bills stacking up, and so many other things. Puts so many of my "problems" into perspective!

First Day of School

Miss Maddie starts the 3 year old program yesterday at St. George's Kindergarten, which is where I went to preschool. St. George's is in a area that was devastated by the flood, and they worked hard all summer to get it reopened on time. The school looks great; she even has a touch screen computer in her classroom! She went to St. George's last year one day a week to the Mother's Day Out, but this is her first year to be in the Kindergarten side of it. We went on Tuesday to meet her teachers: Mrs. McMurtrie and Mrs. Hill. They are both so sweet, and I know Miss Maddie will be well loved this year.

Here she is on our front porch before we left for school.

She had a great day and lots of fun playing with new friends. Although I think she mainly played with the one little boy Ethan that was in her class last year. We stopped by Donut Den on the way home (I was hoping for a cupcake from Bread and Company, but she is her daddy's child and wanted Donut Den), and as we talked about her day, the one question she asked me was "How come I have to keep my shoes on there?" She had worn her jellies to school, but I had put her tennis shoes in her bag. Her teacher told me about 10 minutes after I left, she changed shoes, but my guess is she was trying to take her shoes off. She is definitely not a shoes girl; she would much prefer to walk around bare foot like her daddy.