The life & times of Emery Dean Toothaker: April 2005

Walking through Volunteer Park.

The kid loves beer, what can ya do?

Making monkey face at Mom.

Dad showing Emery how cool grass is.

Finally got the links up!

I feel like such an idiot, I forgot to save the changes for the links I did! Finally I went through the whole thing again and managed to get them up- yea!! I also added the Murri Racing website, so hopefully that will be updated here soon....

Things have been pretty hectic around here lately. I have been working alot, Adam has been looking for work alot and Emery has been working on sitting up all by himself. I think Emery's been the most successful, he was sitting up by himself for minutes on end today. I'm so proud!

Next weekend Adam and I are going to go to Vancouver for a little vacation. My mom has graciously agreed to come watch him while we're gone (her arm was twisted I'm sure). Its a win-win situation, Grandma gets Button time and the Parents get some much needed couple time! I'm really excited although I know we're going to have a hard time not missing him terribly! I figure this will break us in for when we go to Sasquatch this year and leave the babe with Grandma again. Anyway, I''ll let you know how it goes!

In other news... Adam made his television debut last Thursday with the premier of 35th Street Mission on channel 77. It was pretty funny, you should all check it out online at http://www.35sm.com/mambo/. Be sure to vote for Adam as favorite character while you're there!

More firsts for Emery this week- first trip to the park to play in the grass. He was pretty enthralled with it as the photos attest to. He also tried out bananas this week, and of course loves it! I mixed it with some cereal and he couldn't get enough of it- yumm yumm! Let's see, what else? Oh yeah, he has officially graduated to the meduim size diaper wraps. The little man is growing like a weed. He has decided this week that he prefers to sleep on his side or stomach instead of his back now. In the morning I usually find him at the other end of the crib on his stomach. Needless to say he's rolling over both ways with ease now. This week though he has started to get frustrated by his lack of mobility. Before he was like, "Wow, I can roll this way and that way and grab stuff- cool!"! Now he's like, "I can only move this way and that way, but I want that plant right in front of me, WHY CAN'T I GET THAT PLANT?!?!". His fits of frustration have caused him to start what I like to call the mad body shake where his little arms and legs get going like an epileptic fit when he's really excited about something. This week he has also decided that he wants whatever Mom and Dad has, or whatever Mom and Dad doesn't want him to have. He is no longer solely intrested in what we give him or what's going on around him. He wants to be right in the middle of the action. Boy are we in trouble...

Check out the links!

So I noticed that other blogs have a links section in the sidebar and I decided that mine needed one to! It took FOREVER to figure out ( I had to mess with the code, I'm surprised I still have a blog after all of the cutting and pasting I did into the thing!), but did it!! I added some links to my favorite blogs, mainly for myself so that I could access all the other blogs I check out periodically from one place. I hope you all like them, so many cutie pies to check in on, so little time..... Dee, Beth and Heather- I hope you don't mind I've provided links to your sites, let me know if you'd like me to take them off-k? There are some other blogs out there that I wanted to add to my link list but they only have a couple of entries then have fallen to the waste side....I'd like to look at them and see something new for crying out loud!!! Take the Baby Kienlen blog for example, it is a sad site for sure. Now since Auntie Kara has cable access maybe some pictures could be put up?!? I'm putting the screws to you all- you now who you are ;)....

The link to Emery's first solid is now operational (thanks Uncle Jeff!). I downloaded it from my computer and it took about 5 minutes to upload. So all of you with dial-up I would suggest you find someone with cable, or set it download before you go to bed and you'll have a cute little video waiting for you in the morning!!

First solid video link

I relearned how to FTP the videos again, so here's the link to Emery's first experience with cereal- www.murriracing.com/firstsolid.mov. Hope everyone can view it!

Emery update

Emery's had so many firsts since the last time I wrote I barely know where to begin! As you all know from the photos, we have started Emery on some solid food. Uncle Jeff got to be here for the monumentous occasion, and we both recorded the whole event on our digital cameras. Hopefully soon I can get that uploaded (if I can remember how :( ) and linked so that you all can see it. Its pretty long so good luck to all of you with dial-up!

Since his first experience with cereal we've been giving it to him about once a day to get used to the new texture and taste. He picked up on the eating thing pretty fast and loves it! Today I thought I'd see if he liked my steamed carrots. I've been ansy to use the cool baby food grinder that Mariya got us, so I gave it a shot. He liked it for the first couple of bites, then he got that scrunched up face and the gag reflex set in. It was pretty funny and cute. He hadn't quite made the connection between what was tasting so funky and what I was giving him on the spoon so he kept taking more mouthfulls of the stuff- ergo more face scrunching and gaging. Finally I had some mercy and stopped giving it to him. He was cracking me up, it was hard to stop :)!

I also included some pics of Emery's first friend, Maxine. Maxine is 13 months old (Born on St Patricks Day in fact- that must mean she's quite a lucky girl) and lives right across the street. Erin (Maxine's Mommy) knows Adam from Messenger World and they do play dates during the week. Emery is entralled with Maxine. I'm glad he's getting the opportunity to hang out with another little person, he gets to see what's in store for him in the next few months!

Emery's also bathing in the big tub now. Only with Mom and Dad, but it beats soaking everything within a 3 foot radius in the small tub! We all enjoy bath time now!

Dad's getting pretty ansy being at home, but is being an excellent Mr. Mom. Mom's loving having the kid come to visit her throughout her day, making work not so bad. All in all, our home is pretty darn blissful...

Yummy arrowroot cookie!

Dad and son at Pepe's garden.

Emery and the gnomes.

Angel eyes.

Introducing Emery's first pal, Maxine (and Mommy Erin)!

Emery and Maxine discovering the wonder of books.

Happy little sailor with his ducky.

Here's some more of the cute new clothes from Grandma Billie THAT TOTALLY FIT!! He's growing like a weed!

First cereal- yumm

First bath with Daddy

New jumper from Grandma Billie- it fits ;)

Yummy first solid ever :)

First Arrowroot cookie- he loved it!

5 months!!

Finally got a few minutes for a quick update! Things are going really good here in the Toothaker-Murri family. Adam got laid off and is now at home with Emery full time. It's been pretty great all around I think, but it's been especially nice for me. Adam brings Emery to my work at least once a day so that I can nurse him and my milk production is finally increasing again. I get to get back to a 5 day work week this week and I am soooooo excited to get TWO WHOLE DAYS OFF!!! Not that it was really that bad before, Adam and Emery would come with me on the weekends so that I could feed him before they treked down to the Market to get produce for the week. I actually kinda like working the weekends when no one is there, but I really miss having 2 days off in a row. And even though the new building that my work is in is nice and pretty, I'm still getting sick of looking at it. So, even though this lay-off thing is a quick fix, I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts!

I finally found the stats on Emery's last doctors visit. He weighed 16lb 9oz and was 26 inches long. And that was a month ago! I swear he weighs at least 19 pounds now! Grandma Ann says he's built like a brick and I must agree! We haven't started him on solids yet, but we will very soon! Adam has had to supplement with formula a bit to stretch out my expressed milk supply, but now that my milk supply has increased and he's coming for lunch I think we can phase that out again. And he's back to sleeping through the night- yippee! Our son is so great!

Emery has started rolling everywhere. The other night I put him down in his crib for the night and when I went back in to check on him he was at the other end of the crib facing the other direction! The days of his immobility are almost over, and I'm trying to enjoy it while it lasts. He's already so inquisitive, I know he's going to be into everything all of the time. We've started thinking about all the baby proofing we need to do and will get on it in the next couple of weeks.

Adam's play ends this weekend. It was a great run and got some great reviews. I'm excited to get him back on the weekends, and even more excited to kiss his clean shaven cheeks!! Not sure what or when the next play will be but I'm sure he won't be free for long, he gets ansy when he's not doing something related to theatre. Stay tuned!

As for me, I get my hair cut tomorrow for the first time in a year and a half and I'm sooo excited! I hate my long hair! I feel frumpy and I can't do anything with it but put it in a ponytail. I'm going to feel like a new woman! And Emery won't be able to grab it all of the time- BONUS!!

Uncle Jeff is coming for a quick visit this weekend and is going to be amazed at how much his little nephew has grown! We have a great home for visitors now so it's always nice to have people visit. So if any of you are thinking about it, please come :)!

Emery has recently become enamored with Chloe. He has started going for the death grip, catching fur and skin whenever possible. Surprisingly, Chloe has taken this too in stride and patiently waits for me to pry his fingers open to release her. She's a changed cat I tell ya!