Butterfly leggings and shopping carts

I don't have much to say today. Except, how cute is Emily's outfit???

Oh, and Emily sat in a shopping cart for the first time today. She loved being a big girl!

Pink Friday

We had the brilliant idea to venture out on black Friday to do some shopping in Raleigh. We got some cute things, but I can't say we got any special bargain. Emily happened to get the most clothes, but that always seems to be the case. It was pretty nuts, and it got me wondering... is a little discount really worth the crowds?

We have had the problem the past couple of months of people telling me how cute my little boy is. We aren't talking about a couple of people making the mistake, but about 90% of the people who comment on Emily, and that is a lot. I decided to deck her out in pink today, so there would be no confusion. Today was also her first day to sit in a high chair at dinner. My little girl is getting so big!!!

Emily's hair has started going crazy. It just sticks out everywhere. The following pictures were taken without the flash, so you can see my little poofball better...

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

We have so much to be thankful for in this Wetzel household! Although I miss my husband like crazy, I feel blessed that I even have him in my life. Plus, he gave me a wonderful little girl (and hopefully many more future little ones), and for that, I will forever be grateful. We could not ask for a better family, and our friends aren't too bad, either. We have a warm little house, all of our needs our met, and we have a furry little puppy that brightens every day. As you can see, we had a lot to celebrate today...

We started off the day watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. Emily loved all the floats, and was delighted to see Mary Poppins perform a medley of her best songs.

Then we gave Emily her first banana. We got this cool baby feeder that is a mesh sack that you can put fruit or veggies in, and it keeps the baby from choking on the pieces. I love seeing her explore different tastes and textures.
It's quite messy, though.
Emily went back to lounging around the house in her Thanksgiving gear...
As Roxy avoided all the Thanksgiving commotion by hiding under the chair.
We then played with some of the goodies that Mimi brought us for Thanksgiving. She sent a pumpkin toy for Halloween that we have still been playing with, so it was definitely time to retire the pumpkin and get some use out of our new turkey. Whenever we see Mimi, she comes bearing gifts and life lessons, such as the proper way to wave, although Emily has no clue when to do it. My mom and I were both in the kitchen today cooking, and we went to check on Emily. She was laying in front of the television, by herself, waving. Gotta get that practice in! Anytime you feed her, she waves, as well. It's quite odd. I will put up a video soon because it is too funny. Soon our Thanksgiving feast was ready, and we set the table.
Don't worry. Emily had her own Thanksgiving feast... pureed pumpkin.Our meal was incredible and we both really enjoyed it, which is a good thing because we have TONS of leftovers. So much for losing the baby weight...
After dinner, we pulled out Daddy's baby album. Daniel's grandmother gave us three albums for our wedding of Daniel growing up, and we look at them all the time. It has been one of our favorite wedding presents. (Thanks, Grandma Fran!)
I cannot begin to explain how interested Emily was in looking at all the pictures. When we closed the album, she started to freak out. She must think Daddy is cute. (I don't blame her!)

She was so frantic that we decided to look at some more pictures...
It was one good day at the Wetzel house!

Rub a dub dub, there's a duck in the tub!

Tomorrow is a big day... besides being Thanksgiving, my little one is turning 6 months old. I can't believe how fast time has flown by! I would say there is no way it could have been 6 months already, but there is no other explanation for how huge Emily is. Here is a picture from Emily's first bath. It was taken with our video camera, so it is not good quality, but you get the idea...
The next picture is from her bath yesterday. Look how much she has grown!!! And check out the big girl panties that are painted on. And, no, she is not grabbing herself.
As you can see, she is getting a little large for her bath chair. She is such a wiggle worm now, and every time she moves, her bath chair almost topples over. I decided it was time for a big girl bath, and one of the our friends recommended the following bath tub. I couldn't wait to get home and get to use it. We even got some bubble bath for the occasion! I have to say, seeing Emily in her new bath tub for the first time ranks as one of my favorite memories. She loves being able to sit up, splash around, and play with the bubbles. Oh, and the bubbles! It was so fun to see Emily trying to figure out what the bubbles were all about. I mean, she sees them, but she can't really grab them like she grab toys. I'm sure it is confusing.
She loved the tub the second she got in. She splashed around and inspected all the bubbles. I gave her a bubble hat, and then she leaned a little too far forward and face planted into some bubbles.

Just leaning back, relaxing...
How cool is this duck??? You just fill up the tub, and there is a hole in the bottom, so the duck fills up, too. The hole can be plugged up, so the duck can be self-contained if you want it to be. It also has an inflatable pad in the bottom, so it is really comfortable to sit on, or so I imagine.
You can tell she was enjoying her little spa. Oh, what a life!
We can't wait for bath time every night now!!!

Oh, what a night!

Just in case Emily hasn't surprised you by all the new things she has done this week, she decided to pack in one more milestone. I know this should have happened a long time ago, but it was truly my fault. I didn't want to give up my little cuddle bug. I mean, who am I going to cuddle with now when I sleep? I'm sure you can guess what she did by now... yes, she slept in her OWN bed for the first time, and she slept through the ENTIRE night. All 11 hours of it! I have to say, I didn't quite know what to do with myself, but Roxy and I sure did enjoy all the room in our big bed.

I tried to get her to sleep in her own bed a three nights ago, but she wouldn't have it. I soon realized that I, too, would put up a fight if I had to go from sleeping in a big king bed that feels like a giant pillow to sleeping on a firm baby mattress. Then, two nights ago, Roxy and I somehow got kicked out of the room because Emily couldn't sleep with us in there, and so we cuddled uncomfortably on the couch all night. Baby in bed, mom on couch... I decided this didn't make sense, so last night I made her bed really soft with a whole bunch of blankets, and she told me "good job" by drifting off to sleep without making a peep.

Now I get to look forward to being greeted every morning by this cute little face...

I'm really excited about getting into this photography thing. I love playing with my camera, and I, recently, have enjoyed playing around with pictures in photoshop. Now I just need to figure out how to take good pictures, and I will be set. This isn't a new picture, but it is Daniel's favorite. (I think that is what he said.)Christmas pictures here we come!

Ooh, and I put up the recipe to the pumpkin cake. I urge you to try it. You won't be disappointed! Just go here.

Photo shoot, take 1

Now that I have my new, fancy camera, I am determined to take Christmas pictures of Emily this year. I learned from my hope for birth announcements to start planning early, not that now would qualify as "early" for getting Christmas cards together. (Future children will have birth announcements and a bedroom already set up -- poor Emily). I started playing around with my camera again so when I get Emily all dressed up, I will have and idea of how to work the thing. I spent about a week reading everything I could on my camera in the beginning and played around with it quite a bit, but nothing was turning out how I wanted, so I gave up. I have been using the automatic feature since then, but I am determined to figure the thing out. Obviously she will be dressed differently and will be in a better setting, but I still think she looks cute. It doesn't take much, though!
This one is by far my favorite...

Okay, so eating rice cereal isn't going so well. I can't figure out how to get Emily to open her mouth. I try to mimic it for her, but she just laughs at everything I do it. She has to learn soon, because she is going to get pureed pumpkin for Thanksgiving. To make things worse, she is now doing this...

Even less food is getting in the mouth, and even more food is getting everywhere else. It doesn't help when Mommy encourages it because she thinks it is so funny.

Poons, don't you know

When I was little I couldn't pronounce the "s" in the word spoon. My family tried so hard to get me to say it correctly. Sometimes they would pretend they didn't know what I was asking for, which was suppose to encourage me to say it properly, but it never worked. One night, my parents had dinner guests over and they were telling them how I couldn't say spoon. They thought it was so funny and called me into the room. They told me to say spoon, and I said, "spoon." Take that mom and dad...

I remembered this story tonight when we were over at Jarrod and Jolie's for dinner. I pulled Emily out of her car seat and wanted to show Jolie how we were practicing sitting up (we have only been at it for one day now). All she can really do is sit, leaning forward at a 45 degree angle, with someone right behind her in case she topples over. But instead, she did this...
"What mom? Why are you surprised?"

Videos to follow.

Pirates?

Daniel,

I am dying to know if you are fighting pirates right now...

Are you? Huh, huh???

If you are, reply with the date we got married.
If you aren't, reply with some obscure date.

K?

Love,
Liz

---------------------------------

No, hun, we are not fighting pirates at this time.

---------------------------------

Daniel... you were suppose to respond with an obscure date. Way to not be fun.

We love music (part I)

Daddy teaching Emily to play the air drums...



I think music is in her future.

I'm dreaming of a white... November 18th???

I already know this is going to be one COLD winter. How do I know, you ask? Why because it has already started snowing here. Real snow! I admit, it was Texas type snow, but that is still snow, right? It has been in the 50s most of October and now it is in the 40s. Tonight it is suppose to drop down to 25 degrees. (Great, I haven't put out the trash yet.) I don't know what to make of it because last year at this time, it was still short weather. We (me and Roxy) went outside today to watch the action. Can you see the snow flakes in Roxy's hair?

Okay, so it isn't anyhere close to white. Close enough for a Texas girl, though!

I love my camera, but my baby is fat.

In taking to all things motherly, I decided it was time to upgrade the camera beyond the basic point and shoot. I got a snazzy new camera for my birthday (thank you, Daniel!) and I absolutely love it! It has such a fast shutter speed, which is amazing. My favorite thing to do is to take about 50 pictures in a row of Emily to catch all of her expressions...We went into Wilmington tonight to a Thai restaurant to eat with Jolie, Shaun and Rebecca, and some of Shaun's friends from work. There were 16 of us, so it was a lot of fun. It just so happens, there were 2 other babies in the party. The mothers all took a picture at the end while we were the guys to bring the cars up front. I just want to point out the ages of the babies - Emily (on the left) is 5.5 months, the middle baby is 2 months, and the baby on the right is 7 months.
So... baby on left 5.5 months, baby on right 7 months.
Why is my baby so FAT? I mean, her face is completely round. And, check out those fat rolls on her arms and thighs. You can tell me she is healthy all day, but we never run into babies that are her age and are that size. A nice lady in the restroom tonight told me she had a 10 month old who was the exact same size. Until I looked back at this picture tonight, I never thought she was fat. I guess Daniel was right when he told me I was in denial about her size.