6 Months

Emma is 6 months old tomorrow. She is still on her reduced dose of Prevacid. She's on 15mg morning and 7.5mg nighttime and still eating and gaining well as far as we know. We have an ENT appointment this week with a weigh in and probably a fiber optic scope since it's been a couple months since her last one.

These last 2 weeks have been busy with preparing for the Christmas season. We finally got leave approved for after Christmas, so that's exciting. We have been decorating the house and getting ready to celebrate our first Christmas at home, although it is our 9th Christmas together. We have been practicing for Will's Christmas pageant, which was today, and I am singing in an ensemble and with the worship team next week for a Christmas special. We also had Jered's Christmas party for his command's Chief's mess last night, and our Young Family Ministry Christmas party next week. Lots going on, I feel harried sometimes, but happy. I've written our Christmas letter, but still need to take a picture with everyone...putting that off because I'm sure it will be loads of fun...Anyway, it is fun to prepare for Christmas with Will at this age. He is starting to understand what Christmas is about (Jesus' birthday) and told me the other day that Jesus "loves his heart." So wonderful to see the truth and meaning of Christmas start to become part of his life.

We are still in the midst of getting our new orders sorted out. Our New Orleans orders will be cancelled because Emma was put in Category 4 of the Exceptional Family Member program. That means we have to be stationed in only specific areas of the country until her status is changed. We need to stay here in San Diego until her vocal cords are working or she has surgery, so Jered's command master chief is helping him work with the detailer to either extend a couple years at his command or find orders with another squadron in San Diego. We are praying for this to work out soon so we know more about what our future holds.

5 1/2 Months

Emma has been very stable the last couple of weeks - we had a GI appointment this week and we are going to start slowly taking down her reflux meds. We're starting this week with decreasing her nighttime dose from 15mg to 7.5mg of Prevacid and keeping the morning dose at 15mg. If she does well, we'll try decreasing the morning to 7.5mg as well in a few weeks. She is gaining weight at a normal pace now and is right below 15lbs and very long at 26.5" That's only 1 inch shorter than Will was at 5 mos, so pretty long for a girl! She is very happy and smiles so much. She mostly loves to be with people, especially her family. Emma has really been developing a love for Daddy and wants him to hold her when he gets home from work. It's a nice development because she was such a mama's girl from birth (not that I minded the attention). She is still on the same basic schedule, but takes a shorter morning nap (1-2hrs) and a long afternoon nap (3-4hrs) and then a little bitty nap before dinner most days - sometimes she won't do that one! She wants to be a big kid like her brother I think. She goes to bed at 7 or 7:30 and usually sleeps until about 8am.

Will is such a comedian these days. He always wants to make people laugh. He tells jokes and makes funny faces. He says the sweetest things too. I can tell that he has a soft heart for me and his baby sister especially. Daddy is his wrestling buddy and portable jungle gym, and they are loving the same movies and tv shows. Will even requested to watch The Hobbit today. When I asked him if he liked Gollum, he said "He's my precious." Very funny - with the Gollum voice and everything. Will is also so smart. He amazes me. He was reading my feeding chart I keep for Emma. He was reading the numbers out loud, then stopped and asked me why one of the squares was blank because all the others in the row had been filled in. He brings me books and asks me "Can I help you read it?" While I read, he also points his finger to the words on the page as I read them, and copies what I say. He can pick his name out on the page and can read all his capital letters and most lower case ones now too. I'm excited for when we can afford to send him to pre-school because I know he will enjoy learning even more. He is so bright. He still can't draw a lick, but we have plenty of time for that later :o)