Vivian at 7 months and Funny comments by Emma

So Vivian is 7 months old today.  At her last appointment she weighed 14 lbs 14 oz., so she is slowly, but surely gaining some good weight.  She loves her rice cereal and sweet potatoes.  The other day I bought her her first "sippee cup".  It is a training bottle that eventually can turn into a sippee cup.  At that moment I realized that she is only getting bigger.  I love this stage because they are still babies, but you can interact with them, and you can see them growing and learning so much.  It is fun watching them explore the world around them.  It is also hard when they are upset because they just look at you like, "why are you being so mean to me!"  We sure love Vivian.  This past week has really thrown me though because I am so used to her being my "easy" baby, but after getting her shots, 2 teeth, and a cold, she has been so miserable, and so has mommy.  Like I mentioned in my last post she has been having a hard time sleeping because of all these discomforts and it has been a real trial and error trying to figure out how to get her some sleep.  Mike is superman because he sure know how to calm our kids down.  We are all so lucky to have him, he is so patient.  At 7 months Vivian is rolling all over to get where she wants to go, she has 2 teeth, and is working on sitting up.  She is a little behind in this area, but we are working on it.  She just has no desire to sit, she can't get the things that she wants from that position.:)  Vivian loves to babble, grunt, and squeal.  She scrunches her nose in a super cute way when she smiles, especially at her daddy.  She loves sitting in her saucer, and she also loves sweet potatoes and rice cereal.  She has super fluffy brown hair on top of her head, which is fun since Emma was completely bald at this age.  We think we might have a toe head as well as a brunette.  At this point her eyes are blue-grey so they could either turn blue or hazel.  It will be fun to watch and see.  She has just brought so much joy to our family.

So I have to add some funny things that Emma has said lately.  Oh she is a funny kid.  While we were at the doctor the other day she saw a little boy that she wanted to play with.  She goes up to him and says, "My name is Emma" and then proceeds to bend as low as she can into a very respectful bow. :)  I was cracking up so much, I had no idea why she was bowing to this little boy. She continued to do it as well.  Too funny.  I remembered at Disneyland that they taught the kids that they should bow and curtsy whenever they meet royalty, or a princess.  I wonder if that was what she was trying to do. 

So on to the funny comments

• "Mom it will be so fun when I am big like you."

• "Mom are you going to go to play practice and have yellow hair?"  (I had shown her a clip from my high school musical days and she couldn't recognize me because of my "yellow hair".  So now she thinks that my being in a play means I go and have yellow hair.)

• Another funny thing she did was when I went exercising the other day.  We were doing step and weight workouts and she proceeded to grab some dumb bells and did a VERY good job at imitating the moves that we were doing.  She was also laying on the mat and trying to do the same stretches as well.  She loves to try and imitate me when I am exercising. 

• "For my party I want a purple present and purple balloons because purple is my favorite color!"  She also wants a play vacuum for her birthday.

She says so many funny things each day that I can't remember them all, but she just makes us laugh all day long.

Shark and Sleep Deprived Kids

So I know it has been forever since I've posted, but up until the past week there really wasn't a whole lot going on.  Our biggest news and excitement has been the purchase of this little baby.  Our vacuum (which we spent like 50 bucks on) finally died and it was past time to get a new one.  I never realized how many different vacuums are out there and all with glowing reviews from some and terrible reviews from others.  It made the process of finding a good, yet reasonable vacuum somewhat frustrating.  After weighing the pros and cons we decided to by this Shark vacuum.  So far it has been wonderful.  According to Mike, whoever designed it did it in a very smart way.  Everything is so easy to access, and it is super good at sucking things up.  I have been loving it so much that I have been wanting to clean just so I can us it!  Oh, it has been lovely having clean carpet.  So yeah for the Shark!

For the past week or so Emma has been having a hard time sleeping.  She doesn't want to go to bed at night and has been waking up at 6:00.  She also does not want to be taking her naps.  She seriously just plays in her room for 2 hours.  I keep thinking that she HAS to be TIRED!!  I am not about to consider the possibility that she is just growing out of her naps.  Argh that sounds terrible!  Both she and I need her naps.:)  Also, Vivian has been having a rough few days as well.  She cut her first tooth, got her 6 month shots and developed a cold all within 3 days so she has been pretty miserable.  Because of this she has also not been sleeping.  She maybe gets 2 hours of sleep ALL DAY LONG!!  I don't know what to do and it is getting really frustrating.  Poor Vivian just wants to play or be held and she is not one to be "rocked" to sleep by mommy.  Hopefully I'll figure it out soon.  So at Viv's appointment she is doing pretty well.  She is almost 15 pounds and is a little behind on some of her milestones, such as sitting up by herself, but that is to be expected since she was born 5 weeks early.  She is getting stronger each day, and loves to "roll" herself all over the house. 

Sick Kiddo

I needed to post something new, but there hasn't been a whole lot going on at the Sharp house beside the usual and now my play practices which have been minimal so far, but this week Vivian got sick.  I hate when my children get sick, especially when they are infants because they cannot tell you exactly what is wrong with them.  She started out just acting lethargic, then the fever came, some vomiting, and continued fever and irritability.  She hasn't had a fever for a day now, but I am still wondering if I should take her in to check for an ear infection.  I just figured she had caught a bug, but she was still having a hard time sleeping, etc.  Any suggestions.  She is acting more like normal this morning.  Emma never got ear infections so I don't really know what to look out for.  I'm just glad she is feeling a little better and hopefully tomorrow night she will be back to sleeping throughout the night.  I was liking that routine.  If all goes well we will be off to the Bakersfield Museum of Natural History today for pre-school.  Unfortunately I hear it is pretty run down, but hopefully the kids will enjoy it.  Emma keeps asking me if we are going to go see dinosaurs for preschool.  Hope there is one so she won't be disappointed.:)

Marian...Madam Librarian!

So according to my sister Jackie, I needed to post about this.:) I tend to be the type of person who likes to stay on the sidelines and not "toot my own horn" as they say, but I also realize that I need to be more confident and assertive because my self-deprecating behavior is more obnoxious than gracious. So, that being said, I tried out for the Music Man and got the part of Marian. I have been asked if I am excited and I would have to say I have a huge range of emotions, and excited is in there somewhere.:) I am excited to have an opportunity to get to know new people, sing, perform, and mostly have an outlet where I can feel like there is a place where I can develop and share my talents. I really haven't had an opportunity like this for a very long time so I am grateful for it. I am grateful for my husband who pushed me to do it and has been so supportive and patient with my crazy worries. I MISS MY FAMILY ALREADY!!! I can't imagine being away from my children so much. I have wanted to participate in a play for so long, but I just felt like now that I have a family that is not in the cards. Well, thankfully our Stake puts on productions every 3 years, and they will hopefully be very supportive of all of our family situations. It is a big time commitment. We practice 3 times a week for the next 3 months and then there will be like 8 performances. I guess they put on a pretty professional show so that will be exciting. I've definitely had my concerns and although it will be super awkward playing opposite someone who isn't my husband, they are sure going out of their way to make it as comfortable as possible. I have also not been in a show for so long it is a little intimidating to be in one, and have the female lead role. Hopefully this will be a good experience for me and will force me to regain my confidence. So, if anyone is looking for a great pre-summer vacation we will be performing the last weekend in April and the first week in May. :) (How'd ya like that subtle hinting)

New Years Eve 2011

So as is our tradition we spent New Years in Vegas with the Andals. It was so nice being able to spend time with family, and Emma couldn't wait to see Annadele. We had a great time just relaxing, eating great food, and playing games. It was a lot of fun watching Emma interact with her cousins. She was so sad to come home. She wanted to go back to Annadele's for a week after. Happy New Year to you all. At the Bellagio

Bragging Rights

So today Vivian turned 6 months old. I can't believe how quickly time flies. She is eating cereal now and loves to steal the spoon from us. She isn't sitting on her own yet, but she is so close. She would just prefer laying on her back and kicking around. She loves being able to move. She is pretty loved around here. Emma and Rusty especially can't get enough of her.:) .

I wanted to get some cute pictures of her today and Emma wanted to get in on the action. I have such a hard time getting good pictures of her so I was so excited with the results. I told her to pose and this is what she came up with.:) She just cracks me up, what a fun kid.

Emma just loves Vivian and there is no one that Vivian loves more than Emma. She just lights up whenever Emma is around her. We sure are blessed to have these beautiful princesses, children of God.

Mike's Disney Celebration

We had a pretty quiet day planned for Mike's birthday, dinner at home and the evening spent as a family, UNTIL Mike came home from work and announced that he had won an award at work and they had given him 2 free park hopper passes to Disneyland. Our plans changed pretty quickly. We originally thought we might go down and spend the night, but luckily we decided against that plan because none of us would have gotten any sleep since Emma has a very hard time sleeping in new places. We got up really early on Saturday morning and headed down. It only took us a couple hours so it wasn't a bad trip at all. We had such a nice time. Disneyland was pretty crowded of course, but because our kids are so young still we were able to just hit all the rides that had small lines. It's funny how things change once you have children. We went on completely different rides this time compared with the trip Mike and I made shortly after we were married. Although we rode less rides this time around I think I enjoyed it more just being able to see Emma enjoying herself so much. She really did not know what to expect and was pretty overwhelmed, but she was just in awe of everything. She especially LOVED the princesses and riding the tea cups, her sweet daddy took her on them twice.:) The park was decorated for the holidays still so it was just magical being there with all of the lights. I also discovered an awesome service in the "Baby Center". They provide a whole building just for diaper changing, nursing, pumping, high chairs for feeding, toddler toilets, microwave and sink as well as any items such as diapers, bottles, food and formula that you might need. I was so grateful for a place to feed Vivian away from all of the crowds. We had a park hopper so we stopped by California Adventure as well. They had a really fun Disney Junior Live show that Emma really enjoyed. She loves all those characters and it was a fun show. Mike was able to go on a lot more rides with Emma since I was feeding Vivian quite a bit, but we all had a great time. For dinner we hit up the Rainforest Cafe in Downtown Disney and we saw the fireworks from our car in the parking lot. We sure loved being together as a family, watching childlike joy on everyone's faces, the kind Disneyland employee's who were always wishing Mike a Happy Birthday,eating Banana Cream Pie at 11:00 P.M, and so much more. It was a wonderful way to celebrate Mike's birthday. We sure love this husband and father of ours. He is so kind, patient, loving, full of faith, and so much fun. I can't wait until next year when he is officially "old" like me.:)