A Time for Firsts......

Happy New Year to everyone! We celebrated a very quiet New Year at home. Emmalee, Rob and I were actually in bed before midnight, but we were awake as 2007 arrived. . . For a place where fireworks are illegal there was a lot of noise outside. Emmalee slept right through it. Emmalee celebrated her 1st New Year.

On January 2nd I went back to work and Emmalee spent her first day at the sitters. It was a very difficult day. I really enjoyed going back to work and seeing all of my co-workers and friends but it was not easy leaving Emmalee for the day. To top off the day, my 11 year old dog Dutch passed away. He was not doing well so it was a blessing but it was still very hard to let him go. Rob takes Emmalee to the sitters in the morning and picks her up when he is done with his work for the day. It makes it nice because then Emmalee does not have to spend 10 hours at the sitters. Becky (the sitter) lives down the street from the Boys Mom's house.

On January 6th, Emmalee went swimming for the 1st time.. A friend of mine (Mary) has a heated pool she uses for Watsu's and I used the pool for a Watsu and Nana Phyllis brought Emmalee up for her first swim. She loved it. She wanted to drink the water and kept turning her head towards the water. Emmalee was very relaxed and allowed me to float her on her back. I blew in her face a couple of times and then I took her underwater. Emmalee just blinked her eyes and then smiled, I think she likes the water. We had a lot of fun and I can't wait until the next time we get to go swimming.

On January 8th Emmalee and I were playing with our reflections in the bathroom mirror... I made some funny faces and Emmalee made some noises like she was going to laugh... I decided to keep making the funny faces and next thing I knew Emmalee was laughing a true baby belly laugh. I called for Rob to come, this was pretty funny because I was trying to yell without scaring Emmalee so I was yelling while making faces. Rob joined in the face making fun and Emmalee just continued to laugh. Josh came in to make it a family affair. (Bradley was at his Mom's) We called Papa Jim & Nana and they were able to hear her over the phone. Then we called Grandma Rosemary in LA and she got to hear Emmalee as well. I was very greatful that Emmalee saved this first for when I was not at work.... It did make going to work the next day very difficult.

Tonight Emmalee was laying on the floor at Papa Jim and Nana's and she was trying with all of her might to crawl. We had to provide a backstop for her to push on but she was working it really hard... She would grunt and push, grunt and push, grunt and push - she eventually reached her stuffed Panda bear we had sitting in front of her.

I am sorry that I have not updated the blog in a while, going back to work was harder than I thought it would be. There are not enough hours in a day! I also got a sinus infection and did not do much of anything last weekend. I am feeling better and my sisters email quilt trip pretty much lit the fire under me to update the blog.

Oh, this is a picture of Emmalee in her favorite postition to watch sports on TV with her daddy. Emmalee loves to sit on Rob's lap and watch the fast moving action of football and basketball (I think she also loves all of the bright colors!)

I promise to try and update the blog on a more regular basis. I hope all of you are doing well. We love you!

Love, Jill and family.