Baby face

I can't seem to get enough pictures of my sweet girl. Some of these aren't the sharpest, but oh how cute is she? I was playing with how I was exposing each shot and practicing a few things with my camera. I just love the colors she was wearing these days.

Emma is a crawlin' fool these days. Except that she's not a fool. She's darn smart. She seems to obey me quite well when I tell her not to touch certain things (like the dog's food and water dishes, the ever-interesting plugged-up light sockets and any paper product that has fallen to the ground). I say, "Ah, ah, ah. No, Emma." She looks at me, smiles a huge toothy grin and then hesitates before going back to touch the forbidden thing. I need to read up more on discipline and how to start disciplining at this age. Other blogger moms, do you have any book suggestions or website suggestions?

Some of you might think this is gross, with the drip of drool, but I love it. This is who she is right now. She goes still through periods of drooling like crazy, though it's nothing like it used to be when she first started teething.

Do you notice the little bows I am putting in her hair? I love them! I got them at Target. We have eight colors. The clips are easy on her little head and don't snap shut. They just sort of fold back. She looks so much more girly with her little bows. James called them ribbons the other day. I thought that was cute. He said, "What ribbon do you want to put in her hair?" Awww. The fact he even thought of putting a "ribbon" in her hair was sweet. Here she is. She stands up all the time now. She says, "Up. Up. Up," all the time. With a big emphasis on the "P" sound. I can't believe she's so big. It seems like just a month or so ago that I was blogging about her inability to nap and how I was reading and re-reading and re-reading Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child.

I love taking care of her and I love going to get her out of her crib every time she wakes up from a nap or from a full night's sleep. I even don't mind if she cries in the middle of the night every now and then because that just means I get to go in there, pick her up and snuggle her back to sleep.

She is so much more independent now and I have to be very aware of everything she's doing. No more putting her on her back under a playmat to swat at some dangly toys. Just this morning I was emailing and turned around to check on her and she was gone. I found her in our walk-in closet in our bedroom, with the light off. She was digging around in my purse in the dark.

Oh so many things to record about this wonderful time in our lives. I need to update this blog more with my thoughts and experiences. I only ever think to post when I have new pictures to share. I miss using this as my journal space. I keep talking about making it more blunt and more of a realistic mirror of what my life is like now as I'm staying home with Emma (and what OUR life is like now that we have a daughter). I have just been spending so much time editing and taking pictures and reading photography blogs that I haven't had time to write much. Keep coming back though. I'll get more interesting again someday.

Hmm ... what's for dinner tonight? We have stuffed shells and salad left over from last night. Maybe I'll just hang out and take it easy and we'll eat leftovers.