Amber 3 months

Happy 3 months, sweet little Amber!

You are just the most content little baby around.  You only fuss a little when you are hungry or tired.  You are on a 3 hour schedule: eat, up for 1-2 hours, nap for an hour (or 44 minutes), repeat.  Mommy loves her schedules and you are enjoying it, too.

Sweet sleeper beeper!  You have been pretty consistent at a 4am feeding and a 9am morning wake up  We have enjoyed a couple sporadic  all the way until 6:30am and once you slept until after 8am! You like to go to bed between 8 and 9pm.

We love your smiles!  You recognize how fun and energetic your sisters are and you always have big smiles and giggles for them.  You are the happiest when you are in the midst of all the playtime and noise going on in the living room or the kitchen.

It was fun to have a first Christmas with you!  Savannah and Emily love all your presents and were more than happy to open them all for you.

Your little neck has so many folds.  You started smelly stinky winky under there and we've had to be very diligent about wiping your many chins dry multiple times a day to keep you smelling like the fresh little baby you are.

Those baby blues are still as blue as ever.  Mommy's dream!

Love you, little sweetie.  Keep growing and smiling!

Amber 2 months

Happy 2 months, sweetheart!

You have the most adorable and contagious smile!  It lights up your whole face and starts right in those darling blue, blue eyes.  And you dole out smiles for anyone who will give you any attention.

You are a wonderful sleeper, just like your sisters.  We can usually count on 8-10 hours of sleep in a row, followed by another 2-3 to finish the night.  What a blessing!  You were especially wonderful the night that mommy had a gallbladder attack and you slept over 10 hours-that was a tender mercy.

We all enjoyed a beautiful blessing day with you.  All your grandparents came, plus your Poulsen cousins and Caroline.  We had a fun lunch on the front lawn and everyone thought you were so darling, which of course you are.

Emily loves to call you Amber Bamber.  Savannah has nicknamed you Poof Poof.

Thanksgiving was great fun meeting so many cousins.  The girls formed a line on the couch and waited their turns to get to hold you...and then cycled back to the end of the line.  So cute.

We love you so much, sweet Amber!!  

Amber 1 month

Happy 1 month, Amber!

Wow time has flown by.  You are such an easy baby and we are just so in love with you!

Highlights this month:
*You are sleeping from 7-8 hours a night, waking up to eat and back to sleep for another 3-4.  You are a dream, literally.
*You have given us a few smiles and wow does your face light up!  You smile with your eyes more than your brain is telling your mouth, too.  Don't worry-it'll come.  :)  You dole out the most smiles to daddy.
*You look a lot like Daddy and Savannah.  Even mommy can see it, which is hard for her.  And random strangers comment on it, too.  That's a little weird.
*You are a champion nurser.  I love you.
*You have had only one dr appointment.  That is a record for the babies in our family.
*Your sisters love you love you love you.  Emily reads you stories and loves to show you the pictures.  Savannah likes to ask your opinion about everything.  It's a good thing she can read your mind because she tells us what you want all the time.  Emily lets us know immediately if you "spit paci out!"  I think she might have some fond memories of her paci of days gone by.  Savannah loves to pick out all your outfits, every day.  Sometimes she picks out your jammies for the night by 1pm.

Can't wait to get to know you more, dearie!

Emily is 1 year old!

Oh sweet Emily, happy happy birthday to you!

You are the best eater!  You try everything.  You like everything (except plain cheerios).  You are such a clean eater...no food on your glasses and rarely in your hair.

You are a sweet sleeper.  Seriously, it is the sweetest thing to see you curled up in your little footie pajamas surrounded by a million pacifiers and your little hands up by your face.  Mommy and Daddy love to go in and watch you before we go to bed.

You love to say banana!  And mama...and now dada.  You like to point to our noses and mouths.

You LOVE your glasses.  You get so excited when mommy picks them up to put them on.  You don't take them off or even play with them and if they slide, you whimper and look at mommy until I fix them.  I've been so surprised and so happy!  You also love your bows.  You like to point them out whenever we are in your room and you proudly smile when we put one on you.  Cute girly girl.

You have 6 little teeth now...finally!  Those top four came in all together at the start of this month.

You are taking STEPS!  Hooray!  You like to push the trash can, the hamper, and the stroller all around them house.  On your birthday you took a few steps on your own!!! Here we go, little almost toddler!

You love to be flipped.  You have loved it for a long time.  This month you started flipping your body backwards in a sort of trust fall *trusting* that we would flip you over.  You did this when mommy and daddy were both in front of you and we both lunged to catch you.  You silly girl. Mommy also caught you "flipping" backwards onto a pillow while you were looking at a book by yourself.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SWEETHEART!  We are so glad you have been in our family for a whole year and love you with all our hearts!

Emily 11 months

My my what a big girl you are getting to be.  Happy 11 months to sweet little Emily!

Highlights of this month:

Kneeling up.  You are so cute as you crawl to something you like then kneel up to play with it.  Or when you crawl to mommy and then kneel up and reach for me to pick you up-oh melts my heart!  Or when you hear music and you go up on your knees and start bouncing and dancing.

You love to eat.  You eat pretty much any and every veggie, fruit, meat, bread that we put in front of you.  You still don't like cheerios unless we are out and about (and it's the only option) or mac and cheese (which is one of Savannah's favorites).  It's so fun to watch you enjoy your meals. New this month is the deliberate hair styling while eating.  You take one hand and run it from the back of your neck, all the way up and over your hair down to your forehead.  Or you take both hands and repeatedly wipe the sides of your hair.  Love you.

Oh sweet teether we can see four little teeth just under your gums up top.  They sure are taking their sweet little time to come through!

Double ear infections this month.  Welcome to your mommy's genes.  :(  We sure are glad you are feeling better!  You are a whole new baby since we gave you that amox!  Although your ears weren't affecting your sleeping or eating, you just weren't as happy.  You have been much less fussy now that your ears are clear-you were sick for a whole month.

We got your prosthesis refitted and recolored.  It looks great!  We go in to fit you for glasses this week-mainly to protect your good eye but it will have a slight prescription, too.  Here goes our next adventure!

Favorite game this month: CHASE.  You love to chase Savannah (being held or "walking" holding our hands) and you love Savannah to chase you.  You also love and SQUEAL and tense up your whole body when daddy says "i'm gonna get you!"  So CuTe.

You love to wave at everything that makes noise.  When a car starts, you wave.  When we are eating dinner, you wave.  When momma's phone rings, you wave. When we walk into the house, you wave.

Cute, cute, cute, little missy.  Happy 11 months to our favorite little Emily!

Emily 10 months

Miss Emily...you are 10 months and then some!  You are growing up so fast.

You love to point.  It's fun to see what you are interested in looking at or going to see as we follow your cute pointer finger.

You are becoming a little more adventurous eater, although you are still picky when something is slightly flavorless (like cheerios).  You much prefer a casserole or something with lots of spices and flavor!

Crawler, crawler, you love to crawl and one of our favorite games is to crawl around following a crawling mommy.  You're too cute.

We had two reunions this month and you got to meet ALL of your cousins and all of your uncles and aunts except Uncle Spencer who is on a mission.

You probably don't care but our insurance finally processed and approved a great chunk of coverage for your prosthesis.  Wahoo!

Your favorite game is to be flipped over.  You crawl up to mommy and put your head down on my tummy while I'm laying down and I flip you over...you laugh, roll over and come put your head down on my tummy again. So fun!

You do NOT like to lay down and be still...for a diaper change, eye drop, PICTURE (hence the slightly unhappy face and paci)...you just roll yourself right over and take off!

Love you sweetie!

Savannah is 2!

Happy Birthday, Savannah Michelle!  You are such a fun 2 year old and we love every new thing you are learning.  What a fun age!!

You are very particular and organized.  If something is even slightly amiss, you want mommy or daddy to "fix it!" right away.  You clean up your own stuffed animals when you take a nap because it drives you crazy to have them not put away. The other night mommy's flip flops were not exactly straight so you stopped playing with daddy, went over and fixed them perfectly and evenly, and then continued on your merry way.  If something is out of it's place, such as a magazine on the wrong shelf, you will proclaim "oopsies" and move it to its "proper" place.

You have learned to smile a cheesy smile and we love it!  You give us this smile a lot when you think we are being funny or when you are being funny.

You have quite the sense of humor.  You know all the animals sounds but now when we ask you what a particular animal makes, you hesitate, give another animal sound and smile that cheesy smile.  Too funny!

Oh boy do you love your little sister.  You love giving her kisses and hugs.  You like to tell mommy when she falls down and then you try and pick her up...which has made mommy come running to Emily's aid much faster.  :)  You do not like to go in the car without Emily.  You always make sure that Emily is coming when I say we are going to the store or church or someone's house.

You like to tell mommy each morning where you think we should go.  The library, grocery store, toy store, mall, Walmart, Addie's house, and daddy's work are your favorites.  You also love to vacuum and clean the bathrooms with mommy.

You like having a schedule.  You know exactly what is going to happen next in the day and you like that it happens that way.  When we switch things up, you sometimes have a hard time adjusting...probably mom's fault-sorry :)

You love silly words and phrases and have cute phrases of your own: "oopsies" "woah, woops" "oh my" "golly sakes" "momma (high pitched) momma (low pitched)" "oh bummer" "savannah wake now!!!" "everybody _______ (almost done, out, share)" "go nursery now! (after every amen in church)" "call grandma grandpa" "self"

Favorite game: Running around the couch squealing while getting chased by daddy and Emily with fun music playing.

Awww mommy found you with a book the other day and you were reciting words and phrases from it while pointing and counting in it.  Too cute!

You know your ABCs, like to count (1,2,3,5,6,8,10,11,12,13,14,8,9...etc), are getting more into coloring, know all your colors, love hats...but not on your head for very long.

You are daddy's girl.  You are the first to run and greet daddy when he gets home from work.  You don't want to try on shoes at the store?  "oh they are like daddy's" and now you want to wear them nonstop.  Daddy is the first person you ask for in the morning...too bad you have been sleeping late and he is gone by the time you wake up (mommy's not complaining!)


We love you, sweet Savannah! Enjoy being 2!