Happy Thanksgiving!

We have always had many many reasons to be thankful but this year we are especially thankful to have Emma in our lives. She brings us so much joy daily and is the best little girl we could have ever imagined.

This morning, Emma had rice cereal for the first time. We've been eagerly anticipating today for weeks. While she could have had food about a month and a half ago, our pediatrician recommended that we wait to start solids until Emma reached 6 months. Sunday is Emma's 6 month birthday, so we figured that Thanksgiving was close enough to give her rice cereal. Emma enthusiastically ate a couple spoonfuls but didn't know quite what to make of it. She didn't spit it back out, but made the funniest faces, probably because of the consistency. There's a learning curve on all of our parts and we may have made the cereal a little too thick. Tomorrow, we're planning on making it a bit more watery to see if she likes it better.


We spent the afternoon at a Thanksgiving potluck with about 25 other good friends. It was wonderful to see everyone and eat delicious food! The past 2 years, we traveled for Thanksgiving (how can you pass up taking 1 day off and getting a 4 day weekend?), so it was especially nice to celebrate with so many friends that have been our family out here for the past 3 years.

During dinner, Kurt was eating mashed potatoes while I was holding Emma. He asked Emma if she wanted some, and she quickly ate a forkful! Her reaction was pretty much the same as with the rice cereal, but again, she didn't spit anything out.

Emma has been eying our food and us eating our food for weeks. We think she's going to be a good eater once she gets used to the consistency of it. We're excited to try some veggies next!

Growing Pains

Our poor little Emma has been really uncomfortable for a week now. She had her first cold last week- she was congested and had a little cough when she was laying down. Luckily, it didn't seem to bother her too much and she handled it like a champ. Once she was over her cold, however, it seemed like her mouth started to bother her. We still can't feel anything that indicates that teeth are going to pop through anytime soon, but she's been chewing incessantly and is constantly putting our fingers into her mouth to gnaw on. She also refused to nurse on one side and has been eating smaller meals more frequently.

A few times, she has woken up from her naps crying. Emma almost never wakes up crying. Today she woke up crying which quickly escalated to screaming like I have never heard her. I felt so bad for her that I almost started crying with her. I feel so bad for her because I'm sure that she has no clue what is going on or why she is in pain or why the things that usually feel good (sucking her nuk or eating) make her even more uncomfortable. Luckily, she is slowly starting to take to some of the teething toys we have for her and usually she'll snuggle for a while until she feels better and is back to her smiley, happy self again.

Growing and Learning

It's amazing how quickly babies grow, change, and learn. When I got home from work today, I swear Emma had more hair than she did yesterday. Kurt said he thought the same thing this morning. He also thought it was more red than it was yesterday. It could be our imagination, but it seems like our little fuzzy headed girl is a bit fuzzier!

This evening, while we were playing, Emma wanted to play with her snail pull toy. Even though I've been trying to get her to use the string, she usually just leaned forward to grab at it instead of pulling it to herself. Tonight, however, she grasped the string in her hand and pulled the snail! She was even able to grab the string when it was laying on her leg, (instead of me placing the string in her hand)! She immediately put on her "proud" smile in response to my praise and eagerly pulled the snail toward herself a few more times.

Another not so fun first is that Emma currently has her first cold. =( In addition to being incredibly irritable yesterday, we noticed that she had a little cough. She woke up a few times last night and after putting her down each time, she would cough a couple times and sometimes sneeze before falling back to sleep. Poor baby! Today she was congested as well. (I'm thinking that the cough is a post nasal drip) . Today, although she seemed a bit "off," she didn't seem to mind the coughing or sneezing too much. Here's hoping she is healthy in the next day or two!

Sitting and Standing

As soon as Emma figured out she had abdominal muscles, she has loved sitting. Of course at first, it was with our help, then it was propped up, until about the last month when she became strong enough to sit up unaided. Currently, she is trying really hard to pull herself to sitting from her back. I think she's still has a way to go, but it's cute to watch her grunt and groan and pull her shoulders and feet off the ground.

Emma also loves standing. When she was younger, Daddy would stand Emma on his legs and she would love looking around and directly into his face. As she got stronger, we would stand her on the floor for short period of time (i.e. less than a minute). For the past couple of months (probably since September), she has loved being pulled to standing from a sitting position. It's incredible that in just a couple short weeks, we were doing most of the work to get her to standing and now, she is doing most of the work and pushing up with her legs and pulling with her arms and most of the time we're just there for support and balance.

Recently, we've been trying to show her how to hold on to her crib to stay standing. She seems to get a little over confident though and tries to let go, obviously resulting in her falling backward. Silly girl! We've also been showing her how to use her bumbo seat to pull herself up to standing (with our help of course). She does pretty well if her starting position is sitting on one of our legs (she's about 1/3 of the way up). If she's not tired, she can sometimes do ok from a full sitting position. But again, she gets over confident and tries to let go and stand alone or she tries to stand on one leg.

She does the funniest thing if she can't pull herself up. She sort of yells at the bumbo seat and then tries to eat it. As if exerting her dominance over an inanimate object will help it help her stand! Silly girl!

We thing all of her development is really exciting, although we've been warned that once she starts moving, we'll never be able to relax!

Shopping just got easier!

Emma and I ran errands today. For most of the errands, we use the stroller, but when we go grocery shopping, she goes into the BabyBjörn carrier. Since today is gloomy and rainy, instead of putting her in the Björn at the car, I wrapped her in a blanket and got into the store as quickly as possible. As I pulled the cart off to the side of the first aisle to get Emma situated, I decided to see if she liked sitting in the cart...she did! She enjoyed looking around and I felt like I could carry on a conversation with her better than just talking to the back of her head. She insisted on "helping" by holding the grocery list. =)

Having Emma sit in the cart is a lot easier than having her in the Björn. For one thing, she is starting to get heavy! Also, it's difficult to pick up items on the bottom shelves as well as unload the cart at the checkout with her in the carrier. I think she likes having a bit more freedom to move around than what she gets in either her stroller or in the carrier.

Today, I just used the blanket in the cart but it looks like it's time to get out the shopping cart cover we received as a gift!

More Pictures

Here are some pictures of Emma in October and Halloween.

Enjoy!

Emma in October

Halloween Festivities

Maureen's 2nd Visit This Year!

Maureen stayed with us for a few days in mid-October, trained to Salzburg, Austria, to see her sister who is studying there, and then spent a few more days with us before headng home. It was great to see her, although she made it VERY clear that she was here to meet and spend time with Emma first and hang out with Kurt and me if there was time left over (who can blame her really? Emma is such a darling!) .

Emma loved Maureen the minute she saw her. We're thinking it is because our hair is similar. (Or because Maureen is just awesome.) Emma even did long spurts of tummy time when Maureen was playing with her which was amazing!

Maureen brought Emma a bumbo seat and tray. Emma loves sitting in it and playing with her cars, although most of the time, the cars drive off a cliff and someone has to get them for her. :) Emma is sitting up well on her own, but since our floors are so hard, we keep Emma on play mats. The bumbo seat has come in handy when we want to take Emma into the office or bedroom to get something done and don't just want to lay her on the floor.

While Maureen was here, we toured Mainz, shopped in Wiesbaden, and took day trips to Koblenz and Rothenburg ob der Tauber.

Kurt and I had never been to Koblenz, which is a very cute town at the convergence of the Rhein and Mosel rivers. The drive to Koblenz consisted of 3 detours, but was well worth it. We saw beautiful autumn colors and arrived in town just in time for lunch. We had beautiful weather and enjoyed walking around the town, seeing half-timbered houses, going into churches, witnessing the Das Schängelchen (The Spitting Boy) fountain, and seeing the Deutsche Eck (literally, the German Corner). We drove home alone the Rhein river and enjoyed the castles on the hills and vineyards along the river banks.

We consider Rothenburg to be the quintesential German town and love taking visitors there. It is about 2 hours away and makes a perfect day trip. Again, we arrived just in time for lunch. Unfortunately, we had one of the least appetizing meals ever. This is what we get for not using one of "Rick's Recs". Oh well. Live and learn. We had a fun afternoon walking around the city wall, walking around town, and shopping in the Christmas stores.

Unfortunately, Maureen's visit came to an end much too soon. We're looking forward to visiting her in Georgia soon!

Here are some pictures from her visit:

Maureen Visit

Emma meets Grandma and Grandpa Campbell

Kurt's parents came to visit for 1.5 weeks at the beginning of October. We were pretty laid back while they were here. They enjoyed meeting and playing with Emma and we enjoyed visiting and being spoiled by them.

We tried to introduce Emma to them right after she woke up. This was not a good idea. She looked at Kurt and I with the most pitiful little pout that said "Who ARE these people and WHY are you giving me away??" I guess this is the beginning of "stranger danger" as our pediatrician calls it. After she woke up a bit more, she took right to them and had a lot of fun playing and snuggling with them.

We took a day trip to the American post in Heidelberg where there was a winter bazaar going on. We had fun purusing wares from vendors from all over the world. Kurt and I both got a couple souvenier items that we've wanted for a while.

Since it was still Oktoberfest season, we went to the local Oktoberfest in Mainz for a German lunch and mass of beer. We enjoyed seeing many people dressed in traditional dirndl and lederhosen, listening to a live band, and watching traditional dances. Unfortunately, the music was a little loud for Emma and we couldn't stay as long as we would have liked.

We also spent time touring some of the churches in Mainz that Kurt and I hadn't been to yet (you never seem to do things in your own back yard!). We went into St. Stephan's which has beautiful stained glass windows done by Chagall; St. Ignatius' which has baroque style architecture; and St. Augustine's which is a rococco style church.

We were able to meet up with Melanie, Adam, Calvin, and Calvin's Grandma for dinner one evening at the Pfungstadt brewery. We had never been to the brewery before (primarily due to their odd hours), but wish we had. We all had one of the best meals that we've had in Germany!

The biggest trip during the week was a day trip to the Kreuzberg Monastery which is about 2 hours NorthEast of Mainz. Kurt's Dad had heard that this was the BEST beer in Germany; so of course we had to go! As we drove north, we watched the thermometer drop...and keep dropping. By the time we arrived at our destination, there were flurries in the air and it was 34 degrees! (When we left the house, it was 47!) Luckily, we had plenty of blankets for Emma so she didn't mind at all. We had lunch at the monastery and walked around the grounds before heading home. There was limited seating for lunch, and since it was so cold, we obviously didn't want to sit outside. Luckily, we were able to snag a table as one family got up to leave. Kurt's Dad got a growler filled with beer to take home.

During this time, Emma had some sleeping issues. Even though we were sticking to her routine, she woke up multiple times a night. One night, we saw every hour! Needless to say, it was nice having a few extra hands here so that we could rest a bit! Luckily, her sleeping patterns have returned to normal and she's only up once a night again!

I said earlier that we had some down time. In addition to just hanging out, Kurt's Mom baked cookies and cinnamon rolls (so delicious!) and Kurt's Dad went on bike rides around the area.
We had a great time with them here and were sad to see them go!

Here are some pictures from their trip:

Campbell Visit

Halloween!

Emma and I got into the Halloween spirit on Thursday by carving pumpkins at Ashely's house with a few other friends. Ashley prepared some delicious snacks including warm cider, spider guacamole, and pumpkin empanadas. It was the first time that I have ever carved a pumpkin. I've taken part in pumpkin carving before...but my job has always been cleaning out the pumpkin and baking the seeds. Our jack-o-lantern is a little lopsided this year, but he's still cute and Emma liked him, so that's all that matters.

Emma and a pumpkin at Ashley's

On Saturday evening, we all got dressed up and headed over to Danielle and Jonathan's for their annual Halloween Bash. Kurt was an entomologist and Emma and Carrie were his specimens. Emma was the cutest little ladybug you've ever seen...and took home the prize in the cutest costume category to prove it! Carrie was a white witch moth.

An entomologist and his specimens

Look at the cute little lady bug we found in our back yard!

We didn't expect to be at the party very long since it started right at Emma's normal bedtime. Emma, however, turned out to be a party animal! She absolutely loved seeing tons of people all dressed up. She took a quick nap around 9pm and then woke up to party some more until 1030!

Since she was passed out when we got home, Emma slept in her costume. So this morning, we took a few more pictures of her with our jack-o-lantern.

Emma is still a fan of our lopsided Jack

We think that Emma is going to love Halloween as much as we do!