Losing a Tooth, Frost Style : Part 2

I'm pretty sure this is going to become a blog series around here. To see Part 1 (Carter's first tooth loss) go here: Losing A Tooth, Frost Style

Makenna has been dying to lose a tooth for months and when she showed us two wiggly bottom teeth we thought for sure she'd lose something before she turned 7! Nope. She half-heartedly wiggled her teeth even though we begged her to get them out. A few weeks ago I looked in her mouth and realized her adult tooth was coming up BEHIND her baby tooth. It was time for it to go. We gave her a time limit and told her the tooth had to be out by that weekend. She was not happy. It went down much like our first loss with Carter:

1. Many tears ensued:
2. Daddy did a bunch of wiggling to get it more loose

3. Makenna excused herself to another room to pray (I super duper love that both my kids have prayed in this situation or anytime they are scared)

4. Makenna begged to wait a few more days to get it out.

5. Daddy threatened to take it out with pliers

6. More tears

7. Makenna screws up her courage and let's Allen take another go at it:
8. After quite a bit of blood the tooth came out! Happiness and relief!
9. In our tradition our tooth fairy brings a small gift with the first tooth loss. She brought Kenna some new, much loved jewelry:
A couple days later we noticed the adult tooth pushing up behind the other bottom tooth so we insisted that one come out too. Repeat the previous 9 steps! I hope all her losses are not this dramatic!

11 Months!

She is 11 months old! I seriously can't stand it. Yes, I say it every month but it is MY blog and I can say I'm heartbroken over this baby growing up as many times as I want to. I have had a few breakdowns in the past few weeks over her almost being one. I can't stand it. I want her to stay little forever.

Ems has been a big stinker with having her picture taken lately. She was having none of it so these aren't the pictures I was envisioning in her cute outfit I had picked out. But that is so her personality right now. Still hating the bow:
Please stop putting this thing on my head mom!!!
I relented and got some au natural shots of her, which are really sweet too! I will for sure have to have a "helper" when I take her 1 year pictures!


This month Emery has:

- added a few words to her vocabulary: ball, night-night, dog

- started to stand on her own without holding on (she doesn't even realize she's doing it)

- started getting into EVERYTHING. We've never had a baby who likes to open cupboards and drawers and pull everything out like she does. We need to do some major baby proofing

- started drinking milk. I gave her a sippy cup with milk in it last week to see how she would like it. She drank the entire thing and then cried when it was all gone. She gets so excited when she sees me get the milk out of the fridge.

- pooped in the bathtub twice. GROSS! Again, she is the first of our kids to ever do this (we are lucky in that department). We have resorted to getting her in and out of the tub as quickly as possible.

- remained the champion peek-a-boo baby. I keep forgetting to write this about her but she love PAB. Every time we lay her in bed she pulls her blanket up and down while we say boo. It cracks her up and she will play for as long as we are willing. Adorable.

- loved pulling clothes off the hangers in the closet. We are excited to get her into her own room in the next couple weeks and out of our closet!

- not gotten any teeth. She is right on track with our other kids to getting first teeth right after turning one. We can see two bottom teeth that are getting ready to poke through.

- almost cut out all nursing. We are down to once a day (at night) and I'm fairly certain we will be able to cut it out pretty easily. Totally bittersweet for me. Part of me is really ready to be done, part of me is heartbroken.

- started loving books. I can sit her with a pile of books and she will look at them for a long time. She especially loves touchy-feely books and has a bunch coming for her birthday!

- started loving to blow on things. It is so funny but she loves whistles and harmonicas and anything that will make noise when she blows on it. It cracks us up because she blows on everything to see what kind of noise it will make.

- gotten more attached to Allen and me. She hates to be put down and will cry at our feet until one of us picks her up.

She remains the star of the show in our family and is beloved by all!!

Santa Baby (10 Months!)

I got a few good pictures of my SUPER wiggly baby this month! I can't believe that we're just a few weeks away from her first birthday. I'm trying VERY hard to be ok with her growing up but in reality I want to cry anytime I think about it. Ems has had another big month. She is very mobile and can crawl like a champ. She is also pulling up and taking a few very tentative steps holding onto the furniture. Based on her current mobility she might be our earliest walker yet.

Another big milestone this month is that she will eat almost anything we give her. She is doing great with table food which has simplified my life. Her favorite foods as of right now: PB&J, Pasta of all kind but she prefers marinara sauce, quesadillas, grapes, oranges, peas, corn, green beans, meats of all kind, yogurt. She still loves her salty snacks - pretzels, rice cakes, goldfish & veggie straws are her favorite and she really doesn't care for sweets (other than ice cream, which she loves).

She has the funniest laugh and it cracks people up whenever they hear it. She has uncanny timing and will begin her deep, throaty belly laugh at the most inopportune times (almost always in the middle of the sacrament on Sundays). It's so cute and unique to her.


She is still nursing twice a day and I've been hoping she would start getting less interested but I think the opposite is true. I'm starting my hard-core diet the second she is one so I need to have weaned by then. It could be a rough few weeks!

She is still very, very attached to me (and I still love it) and she can be heard calling mama all over the house until she finds me. It's adorable.

She is increasingly difficult to photograph. To get one good picture of her, I have about 20 shots that look something like this:

Of course our love for her has only increased over these last 10 months. The kids still fight over her every single day and even beg to wake her up in the morning. Emery is a joy to us all!

9 Months!

Miss cutie patootie is 9 months old! I seriously can't stand how big she is getting!Ems is OFFICIALLY mobile and has been crawling for a couple of weeks. She thinks it is so funny to get herself caught in tricky spots or when I can't find her and have to go searching. I don't think she yet realizes how mobile she is because she doesn't come looking for me when I leave the room. She will sit until I come back for her.

She is still sleeping through the night but will occasionally wake up for a binky or to get a blanket over her. Emery also started clapping this month. This also makes her feel like she is pretty big stuff. She won't clap on command yet but she does it when she gets really excited.

We think she has a milk allergy or at least a lactose intolerance. She does NOT do well when she has milk products. She loves yogurt but it causes her to have 6-8 stinky diapers a day. Once we have cut it out she is doing much better. We'll try again in a couple months to see how she does.

She is definitely getting harder to photograph. It is hard to get her to stay still long enough to take pictures!

Is saying Mama and Dada. She still prefers me over anyone and I still love it.

She is nursing 3 times a day (morning, noon, night) and still gets distracted SO easily. I know I could wean her right now and she'd barely notice but I am definitely not ready! I have to send everyone out of the room while she nurses because once she's distracted, it's all over!

Has become a bow-puller-outer. Ack! I've never had a baby fight hair accessories like she does. It doesn't stop me from putting a bow or hat on her every day, even if it is out in a few minutes!

Emery loves music and she will do her own little dance whenever it is on or someone is playing the piano. It is so cute to watch her wiggle around to the beat!

Points to her nose on demand! So funny! Allen was telling her where her nose was the other day and a few days later I said something about her nose and she pointed right to it. Adorable!

Emery is loved and adored by everyone more than I ever thought possible! I can't imagine our family without her and wonder how I existed without her in my life every single day!

8 Months!

{Doesn't this picture just scream "here I am world!"}

Emery has had a BIG month! It seems like she has made leaps and bounds in her development really quickly lately. This month she is:

- saying Mama. It appears that she recognizes me as Mama and she will call for me if I am out of her sight. It is adorable and she is the first of my kids to say mama before dada.

- almost crawling. She is so so close! She goes from sitting to on hands/knees to scooting forward and back to sitting. She hasn't quite figured out how to coordinate her hands and knees yet but I know she'll figure it out really soon.

{Almost ready to take off!}

- eating solids 3x per day and nursing 4 times per day. She loves baby food, yogurt, crackers, rice cakes, pasta and meat. So far she does not like cheese or bread. She is at the very distracted age for nursing and I have resorted to taking her to a quiet, dark room to keep her as focused as possible

- starting to fuss when getting her diaper changed. She tries to squirm away so we have started changing her on the floor.

- loving bathtime. She loves to splash and will make a huge mess and then look to make sure we are watching her. Adorable.

- sleeping through the night 100% of the time. She takes two solid naps and one shorter cat nap in the late afternoon (perfect for fixing dinner)

- playing with paper whenever she can and loves to play with our keys. She loves to bang things together and thinks she is hilarious when she makes noise to get our attention.

- has earned the nickname "boing boing" from Addison and laughs hysterically whenever anyone calls her it. It is so so so funny to watch.

-shaking her head yes and no. We have no idea if she knows what it means.

- loves to blow raspberries and "talk" to us. She has the CUTEST laugh of all time and smiles and laughs for everyone.

super easy to photograph. I swear she is camera ready any time of the day and will bust out a huge grin on demand. Even my pro photographer friend who took our pics last month was amazed at her darling, smiley personality.

- remains the most good natured, easy, pleasant, happy baby ever. What's not to love?!

7 Months!

7 Months. Officially passed the halfway point to 1. Sigh. Words cannot describe how I feel about this baby. My heart is so full when I think about her and it feels like it could practically burst I love her so much. How did I think my life was complete without her?! This month she is up to:

Eating more solids than ever. 2x a day cereal and fruit or veggies. She likes it all. She also loves graham crackers, cheerios, Cheetos puffs (discovered on accident at a BBQ), bread and pizza crust. She's still not sure what to do when she gets a chunk of something in her mouth that doesn't dissolve so she usually spits it out. Still nursing about every 3 hours but she is so curious that it takes us awhile. She also is not tolerating very much rocking/snuggling which makes me so sad. She is too busy seeing everything around her.

Sitting proficiently and leaning and reaching for things. No sign of crawling yet (yay) and she hates to be on her stomach so that may be awhile. She will push herself forward with her feet and we've tried to prop her up on her hands/knees but she is clueless.

Great sleeper - basically sleeping through the night all the time now. Takes two solid naps every day (that we are home). Hardly sleeps on the go anymore so that is tricky sometimes.

Smiley, smiley, smiley. She is my best laugher yet. She giggles at EVERYTHING and it is so cute. She has a really deep laugh and voice and it is so funny. She is saying Ba-ba-ba and is always so surprised when she catches herself talking.

Has graduated from the Bumbo to a booster seat at the table. She loves it so much. I love that I can put things on the tray and she will play while I make dinner, etc. She still loves to crinkle ANYTHING and tries to eat paper if we give it to her.

Pretty sure she might be the most beloved baby ever. The big kids still fight over her every. single. day. She is spoiled rotten with love from all of us! We could not be more grateful that she is part of our family!

6 Months

Well, here we are. Half way through Miss Emery's first year. The last 6 months have just flown by and sadly, I'm not expecting time to slow down. I am in serious denial that her babyhood is just zipping by. I had a serious breakdown last week as I was boxing up more baby clothes that she has outgrown. Part of me wishes I had the capability to have just one more baby but I know I could not handle another pregnancy. And Allen is completely DONE (funny how our roles have completely reversed since having Emery). I also realize you can't just keep having babies just to have a baby around but it sure is tempting! Now it is time to get busy raising the kiddos we have been blessed with! We are sure appreciating her babyness and drinking in every moment and milestone! - Ems is still HUGE. She weighed in at 20 lbs. 10 oz. and 28 inches at her last appointment. She is off the chart for both height and weight. She only weighs about 6 lbs. less than Addison!

- Emery is doing great sitting up on her own. She loves it and will sit and play with her toys or anything on the floor for a long time.

- Totally rolling over on her own but she's still unsure how to get from her tummy back to her back. She has done it before but usually gets frustrated being on her tummy so she cries.

- Starting to push up on her hands and tries to pull herself forward. I am so NOT ready for her to be mobile yet!

- Loves to look at herself in the mirror and cracks herself up all the time.

- Loves to play with anything crinkly. Wrappers, paper, etc. She is also SUPER grabby and we have to be really careful with anything within reaching distance because it will get pulled or knocked over. We have broken a few glasses by accidentally putting them too close to her.

- Doing better with solids. She still doesn't LOVE to eat them but we can tell she is getting more hungry and needs the solids. She does this funny low growl when she gets fed and tries to spit out the food. She really loves drinking water from a sippy cup.

- Still a good sleeper, waking up 1 time per night half the time and sleeping straight through the other half. She does this funny thing where she curls up into a ball, rolls to her left side and pulls her blanket over her head when she is ready for bed/nap.

- Loves to laugh. She loves having her belly kissed and will laugh her head off.

- Has a few favorite toys: crinkly board books, Sophie the giraffe, plastic keys, rubber spatulas and measuring cups

She is just such a happy, happy baby and very chill. She is such a little ray of sunshine in our home and I cannot get enough of watching my big kids interact with her.

5 Months

Another month has gone by and I just wish time would SLOW DOWN! Emery is such a happy and delightful baby and I can't stand how fast her babyhood is flying by. This month Ems did a lot of the same things as last month but is now doing them better.

She is:

- sitting up on her own for quite awhile. We sometimes have to help her get her arms in the right place to balance but she is getting so good

- rolling from her back to her stomach. She can do it but she hates being on her tummy so she doesn't do it often

- getting on a MUCH more predictable nap schedule. She usually takes a morning, afternoon and early evening nap and is in bed by 8 p.m. most nights. She also loves to sleep with her blanket over her face. It freaks me out but anytime I pull it off of her face she immediately reaches for it and pulls it back on.

- waking up 1-2 times per night to eat. Better napping has meant less predictable sleep at night but it is a good tradeoff for me

- talking up a storm. I don't think we've ever had this verbal of a baby. She loves to make noise with her mouth and I can actually tell what she needs by the kinds of noises she makes. For example, I can always tell when she is poopy because she does a funny screech that she reserves just for that. So fun!

- putting everything in her mouth. She loooooooves her feet and is always trying to get them to her mouth. She also loves to suck on her clothes and will always pull them into her mouth.

- playing with toys. She loves her interlocking rings, Sophie the giraffe and her playyard

- laughing up a storm. She loves to have her belly kissed and will laugh forever afterwards.

- trying solids. So far, no luck, but she is warming up to the idea. She has tried rice cereal and pears so far and acts like we are trying to kill her with every bite.

- still very attached to me. She still cries if I walk out of her line of sight and often cries when strangers pick her up or talk to her.

- still spitting up a ton. It's so gross. It seems to be tapering off a bit but it is still bad. She is also the diaper blow-out queen.

- happy, happy, happy baby. She is the squishiest, most snuggly, loveable baby ever. I just love her to pieces and think she is our best decision ever! {I can say that because I was SOOOO on the fence about her even when pregnant and I still can't believe I considered my life complete without her. I knew I WANTED 3 kids but didn't know I NEEDED 4.}

4 Months

I know I say it every month, but I can't believe Emery is already 4 months old! I have forgotten how quickly babies change at this age and it never ceases to amaze me how much I love watching my FOURTH child reach her milestones. It just never gets old watching a baby grow and develop.

This month Emery:

• Found her feet and loves trying to get them in her mouth



• Found her thumb. We're not sure if she'll be thumb sucker since she doesn't suck at night but she likes it during the day.



• Has mastered rolling from side to side but hasn't made it all the way over yet (she's SO close)



• Figured out she only likes to sleep in very dark places. We moved her into our closet a few days ago and she is a different baby sleep-wise. It's making for a much happier baby and mom! She is also no longer sleeping in her carseat!
  


• Weighed in at 17 lb. 1 oz. at her 4 month appointment and is off the charts in both height and weight



• Graduated to size 3 diapers and size 6-12 month clothes



• Learned to put her binky back in by herself



• Learned to squeal and "talk" really loudly to get our attention



• Laughed for the first time. Addison seems to have the real talent to getting her to laugh but it is sure fun when we all try.



• Graduated from the baby bathtub since she will no longer fit in it



• Still loves mama most and gets very sad when I am not around



• Loves putting everything in her mouth

She still loves to sleep with me and that would be her preferred method if only I didn't have 3 other kids to take care of during the day. She is beyond sweet and we all adore her.

Oh, and the cutest part of her outfit is the back {The front says Fairy Princess}:

I'm hoping it still fits her for our Disney vacation in a couple months.

{PS - I'm trying desperately to get my 365 blog up to date before our first vacation of the summer. It should be done sometime today and shows what we've been up to so far this summer}

3 Months!

Wow! This has been a big month for Miss Emery. She is at such a fun age and we all love that she interacts with us more than ever. Ems is SUPER smiley all of the time and likes to have earnest "conversations" with anyone who will listen and react to her. It's the best. She is reaching for toys all the time now and absolutely loves her Bumbo seat. Seriously, I have no idea how I functioned without that thing with the rest of my kids. I put her in it most nights while I cook dinner and she loves to watch me.

Emery is already very attached to me. She gets upset when I leave her line of sight and cries immediately. It's cute (for now) that she loves me so much. She is STILL sleeping in her carseat and loves to snuggle her face into the side. She refuses to sleep anywhere else. She's still doing about a 9 hour stretch at night which has been pretty dreamy. On the days that I can stay home for a decent stretch of time she will take good naps. It's the days when I'm constantly running that she struggles. We will have to be making some adjustments for the summer!

She is obviously still super juicy and chubby. It's stinking adorable. I'm guessing she weighs around 16 lbs. and is well into 6-12 month clothes. I can squeeze her in 3-6 months for now but those outfits won't last much longer. She is able to sit up for a few seconds on her own already. I'm sure it's because she has such a low center of gravity but she is doing really well already!

Every day I wonder how I thought my life was complete without this baby in it. She is such a joy in our family. I love how her arrival has made me slow down and reprioritize my life. She has given me a renewed love of mothering. We are so grateful she came to our family!

Emery at 2 Months!

{sporting a tiny smile} {what double chin?} {see those leg rolls? There's about 4 more per leg under there}

Ack! How is she already 2 months old?!

Emery's stats at 2 months:

Weight: 13 lb. 8 oz. (off the charts)

Height: 23.5 inches (90th percentile)

Head: 39.0 cm. (50th percentile)

Ironically, she weighs exactly half as much as Addison. They might be sharing clothes soon ;) She is solidly in size 3-6 month clothes and size 2 diapers!

It's so amazing how quickly babies change at this age. Emery has spent the last month waking up a lot. She has quite a bit of awake time every day and loves to interact with all of us. She is smiling, cooing and "talking" a ton. It's adorable! She is still sleeping well at night except for the past few nights when she wants to stay awake for 1-2 hours after she's eaten. Good thing she's stinking cute! We thought she was going to be a tummy sleeper because she did well for a couple days on her tummy but now she hates it. We still make her have tummy time and she has started pushing up on her arms to look around. She is still snoozing in her carseat every night!

Ems still loves to nurse a lot and is the biggest spitter of all my kids. Obviously she is gaining weight so it is more annoying than detrimental. She gets more baths than any of my babies since she always smells like spit up (yucky!!). She hates her baths, getting her diaper changed and having her clothes changed. She also HATES the play-yard with the dangling toys. They must scare her or something because she cries any time I lay her under it. Hopefully she grows to like it!

Emery is super patient with all the loves/touching/smothering she gets from her siblings. I sometimes have to ban the kids from touching her since I can tell she sometimes gets overwhelmed with all the attention.

We clearly all love her to pieces. I feel like I'm starting to get into a groove being the mom of 4 kids. There are still definitely moments when I wonder how in the world I will survive this but I think those times will continue to diminish as she gets older and on a better schedule.

One Month!

I'm a couple weeks late posting about Emery at one month! Wow! What a first month it was! Ems is seriously a delightful baby. She is a great sleeper and usually only wakes one time per night to eat. I feed her right before I go to bed (between 10:30-11:00) and then usually feed her around 3:30 a.m. and then she sleeps until 6:30ish when I feed her again. I wouldn't say I'm well rested but it could definitely be a lot worse. She clusters nurses a lot during the day and she thinks that if she's awake, she needs to be eating. She is packing on the pounds too. At one month she was 1 ounce shy of 12 lbs. She is chubby and it is adorable. She has about 4 rolls per leg and her arms are beefing up nicely too!

She is also our spittiest baby and we go through burp rags like crazy! She loves to be swaddled when she sleeps and still loves snoozing in her carseat. I think she would like the swing but it is in our family room and she gets no peace if we have her in a main area of the house so she doesn't get a lot of swing time.

Emery was diagnosed with RSV when she was just 3 weeks old. It was a very scary and exhausting 10 days while she was sick. We gave her breathing treatments every 2 hours, around the clock, for 4 days. As soon as the doctor had us back off the treatments she went downhill fast. She was barely able to avoid hospitalization and we spent hours at the doctors office during those 10 days. She turned the corner really fast though and it went away about as fast as it came one. We are VERY grateful that she is ok and never had to be in the hospital.

Emery loves to be snuggled and against a warm body. We wondered the first couple weeks of her life if she would ever sleep without being in some one's arms but she sleeps great in her "bed" (aka carseat) now. She loves her binky and it makes us happy that she does. Addie is a thumb sucker and I'd rather deal with a binky any day over having to break a thumbsucker.

She is starting to find her voice and it's so funny to watch her startle herself when she "talks." She definitely knows her parents and turns towards us when she hears our voices. The kids are, of course, completely smitten with her. She is a patient baby with all the prodding, poking, loving she gets and has gotten used to the noise level at our house. I truly cannot imagine my life without her in it. She is such a love and has made our family complete!

Losing a tooth, Frost style

1. Have a tooth that has been loose for the better part of 3 months


2. Wrestle with your sister on the trampoline, conk heads and knock the tooth even more loose



3. Show your mom and have your mom tell you not to eat dinner in case you knock the tooth out and swallow it.

4. Listen to your mom beg and plead for you to pull the tooth out already for almost 2 hours

5. Have your dad come home and threaten to take the tooth out himself if you don't pull it out soon

6. Cry. A lot.

7. In desperation have your mom promise you she will call the tooth fairy to bring you Wii Lego Batman if you pull the tooth out.

8. Have your dad pin you down to pull out the tooth all the while crying and covering your mouth with your hands



9. Excuse yourself to the bathroom to say a prayer because you're so scared (awwww...cute!)

10. Believe your dad when he says he's just going to show you how to pull out your tooth

11. Be utterly shocked when your dad shows you your tooth and realize it didn't hurt one bit


12. Wake up your mom at 1:30 a.m. to tell her the tooth fairy has come and left you the beloved game. She tells you to go back to sleep.

13. Wake her up again 15 minutes later to tell her the tooth fairy has left a trail of pixie dust in your room and on your pillow. She tells you to go back to sleep again.

14. Wake up bright an early at 6:00 a.m. to play your new game



14. Have a crazy enough mom to document it all (but too lazy to edit her pictures)!

So yeah, that's how we roll around here. Bribery, coercion, little white lies. Parents of the year, I tell ya!