Emily's new toy of choice is...

her toes!  This week Emily has discovered her toes and thinks they're the coolest things!  They're fun to nibble on, grab, pull and stare quizzically at.  Who knew?  She has also started giggling when tickled.  It's like she's a real person!  : )

Emily also got to meet new baby Charlie this week.  He is only a few weeks old and is a completely cute little peanut.  Congratulations Jody and Jeff!

We also found out that Emily likes riding Sammy and that she is pretty good at sitting.  The pictures below are of her first time sitting alone, if only for 20-30 seconds : )

Thanks for visiting Hetland girls!

Last weekend my sister was in town.  It was great to see her and get some time to hang out.  We got to go to a barbecue at uncle Greg's house who we also haven't seen in a while.

The Grillmaster!

Taking a nap with Grandma B!

Love auntie Karen!

Emily also seems to like watching bubbles!

Patrick and I also got the chance to celebrate our friend, Matt's, birthday last weekend thanks to the great babysitting duo...uncle P and auntie Karen.  We enjoyed bowling at the Medina ballroom followed by cake and appetizers.  It was nice to have a night out!

This weekend was pretty calm.  Patrick and I finally saw The Hunger Games.  Neither one of us has read the book in over a year, so that may have made it easier to forget some of the details, but we both agreed that they did a good job with the movie and liked it a lot! Today we took our chances with the weather and went for our first walk with Emily in the stroller sans carseat.  We knew Emily liked it because she fell asleep as usual : )

First time enjoying just laying in the grass

All buckled in and ready to go

Asleep about 3 blocks into the walk!

Tonight after Emily's bath we finally decided it was time...to give our little girl a bit of a hair cut.  She was born with lots of hair just like her daddy but as time has gone by it has thinned out a little.  Not so in the back at the very bottom however!  Along the nape of Emily's neck was a patch of long, wispy hair that could be tucked in to her shirts and, when wet, went down to her back.  Underneath that hair is some new, shorter hair.  So tonight we got out the scissors and cut off the longer hair to make it more in line with the newer hair.  We saved the hair and took some pictures.  We handled this cut pretty well, but I am no stylist so don't worry, she will go to a trained professional when there's more to do : )

Lastly, tonight Emily started giggling pretty good when she was sitting in her high chair.  I was giving her toes some big kisses which she thought was quite funny.  Take a listen below, that little laugh is pretty cute!  As with most things, we started taping just a bit too late and only got a little of the laughing, but we'll continue trying to capture it!

This week should be pretty calm, which is just what we need because Patrick is going to Spain next weekend with the company he works for.  I will get to try my hand out as a "single mom" which I'm a little nervous about, but I'm sure it'll all work out just fine. 

As always,
More to come,
The Harrisons

Look who's talking

Emily's sounds have changed so dramatically in the last 4 and a half months!  Enjoy the video of her latest "talking"!

Long and lean

On Friday we had Emily's 4 month appointment. All was well and not surprisingly she is off of the growth chart for length at 27". Yikes! That means she's grown 7 inches in four months, I can't believe it! For her weight she was a modest 14 lbs. 11 oz., putting her around the 80th percentile. Both Patrick and I thought she would be somewhere in the 15 lb range. Looks like we have a long thin little string bean on our hands. She also got the usual vaccinations which didn't make any of us happy but we realize it needs to be done.

We were also given the green light to start experimenting with baby cereal. We've decided to start with oatmeal instead of rice and Emily loved it! She ate it all up. The doctor said that we can start other foods as soon as we feel like she's eating the cereal well. This will be a fun adventure!

Ha!

From cereal to a taste of pineapple : )

This week at day care Emily also made her first arts and crafts project, an Easter card for mom and dad! They used her footprint to make the little chick in it and we absolutely adore the card, so much so that we decided to make them at home for the grandparents!

Look at that little footprint!  : )

Patrick and I have adult plans the next few weekends and are really looking forward to some time to hang out with friends and do things that don't involve diapers or spit or bottles! Aunt Karen is also coming into town next weekend and Emily is really looking forward to spending time with her and showing her all we've learned since the last time we saw her and how big she's gotten!

Easter was busy as always, but very nice to see everyone. We are lucky enough to have both of our families in town and Emily loves hanging out with grandmas, grandpas, aunts and uncles! For this year, we opted for a cute little "Easter dress" that we already had. We may reconsider the fluffy, tulle-filled dress next year : )  And in typical Emily fashion, she needed a wardrobe change in the middle fo the day.  Thanks to the Helleen's for the cute springy outfit!

Only two more months until summertime and both Emily and I are really looking forward to a little time for fun in the sun!

As always,
More to come!
The Harrisons

Springtime fun!

Since our last post, we have been trying to enjoy this amazing spring weather we've been having.  We took a walk around Lake Harriet and visited the "Easter Bunny" along Minnehaha Creek.  Both were great excuses to get out and about.  A bonus is that Emily is very content in her car seat and likes going for rides in the car as well as strolls!

With dad at Lake Harriet

With mom at Lake Harriet

Visiting Minnehaha's "Easter Bunny"

Emily sporting her brand new tennies!

Emily has also been experimenting with new toys at home.  They include the exersaucer, blocks and barbells!

Love the exersaucer!!

Checking out the blocks

Play time with dad

Emily still joins us at the dinner table every night and we have concluded that her favorite toy is definitely her ferris wheel that suctions to her high chair tray.  She loves hitting it and trying to get as much of it in her mouth as possible! (Beware: the video is almost a minute long!!  And I don't know how to make the video non-widescreen.  Things that make you go hmmmmmm...)

Emily has also become quite the talker.  She is eager to talk our ears off after her exciting day at daycare most evenings.  It's entertaining to us to hear all of the new sounds she makes, along with some little laughs thrown in there!  We have some good video samples that we'll share next blog entry.

Patrick and I also had another night out thanks to Uncle John and Kim.  They were kind enough to look after Emily while we headed to our friend's, Lucy and Justin, house for the evening.  It was great seeing our friends for an adult night!  On another non-baby related note, our tulips are fully blooming now and the lillies are in full force.  I love spring time flowers.  Now I'm just waiting on the hostas I planted by the garage last year to sprout up.  Here's hoping!

At the end of the week is Emily's 4 month appointment.  We look forward to finding out how much she weighs and how long she is.  We are also hoping that she'll get the green light to dive into some foods, aka baby cereal.  We're excited for her reaction to them, so it's purely selfish : )

4 months old!!

As always,
More to come!
The Harrisons

Springtime is here...early!

Today marked Patrick's and my anniversary.  I can't believe it's been 6 years of marriage.  It seems to have flown by and our lives are so different now than they were 6 years ago.  They have been the most amazingly life changing 6 years of my life and I'm excited for what the next 6 years has in store for us!  We celebrated our anniversary with dinner out at Bar LaGrassa last night and had a steak dinner tonight followed by our first Blizzard of the season.  Overall, a very nice way to celebrate!

The first time Emily played with her dangling carseat toys

Last week I had spring break.  Emily went to daycare 2 of the days because I had my gall bladder out.  Apparently in a small amount of pregnancies women can develop gall stones and I was one of the lucky few!  The surgery went well and I'm relieved that I will not have to experience any more gall bladder attacks.

Emily in her first summer outfit

During the time Emily and I had over spring break we went shopping, to the zoo and to visit family.  We had a great time and enjoyed the BEAUTIFUL spring weather we had.  The temps were in the 70s and sunny all week!!

Another sleepy zoo day

Just in time for bear play time

Saturday was St. Patrick's day and we visited Emily's friend Abby, and our friends Stefanie and Josh.  We had a great time and it was fun to see Abby scooting around trying to get her toys.  I'm excited for Emily to do some scooting of her own!

Tired out after all of the activities

St. Patty's day with Abby

Our spring flowers that we normally don't see until May have also started blooming. We have tulips, lillies and hostas appearing and growing quickly!  It's nice to see that sign of spring so early in the year.

That's it for now, but as always...
More to come!
The Harrisons

Snap back to reality...

This past week was back to work for me, which was a bit of a slap in the face.  It's going fine, but I am looking forward to spring break next week.  Yikes!  Don't know how I'll do it after break : )  Emily began attending "school" as well!

Emily's first week in her new routine was successful as far as we can tell.  The staff seems to like her a lot and she was one tired girl last week!  I was kind of nice to get 2 or 3 nights of uninterrupted sleep.  Friday night/Saturday morning brought a flu virus to the Harrison household, however.  We're very lucky to have our families close by and were even luckier to have Grandma B spend the day with Emily so that we didn't pass along the sickness to her.  Emily had a great time playing with toys and watching TV Land with Grandma B : )  Thankfully, it appeared to be a 24 hour bug because Patrick and I are feeling back to normal today.  Unfortunately, we missed Grandma Val's birthday party but heard that she had lots of fun anyway!

Thanks Grandma B!

Emily's second week of daycare was equally successful and the staff seems to really like her!  She received her first birthday treat this week as well.  It was one of the older babies birthdays and she brought in goldfish crackers for a treat to share with everyone.  Emily's bag of crackers was enjoyed by myself and Patrick : )

I'm 3 months old!!

Since I last wrote, Emily has turned 3 months old and is continuing to amaze us every day.  Her 2 bottom teeth can be seen right below her gums so we're thinking that it's only a short matter of time until we see those pearly whites!  Emily also got to open 2 gifts that we received a while ago but we thought she was too young until now to really appreciate.  She is now very entertained and interested in both toys.  Lastly, Emily joins us at the dinner table every night as part of our evening routine that we're establishing.  She seems to enjoy being with mommy and daddy and sitting in her high chair like a big girl!

New toy #1: "Butterfly spinner"

New toy #2: Owl

Patrick, Pat and I also got to go to a place called the Wildlife Science Center (thanks for the recommendation Val!).  It was a really cool place that's a sanctuary for wolves, foxes, mountain lions, lynxes, bears, falcons and more!  It costs $6 for the hour and a half tour and worth it!  I highly recommend it to anyone who's in the Ham Lake area! While we were there, Grandma B got to babysit Emily : )

Emily with Grandma B

Emily enjoying Grandma B's house : )

So you fancy huh?

Tough guy

A red fox

That's it for now.  I am on spring break this week so we're looking forward to lots of fun activities in the great weather that's forcasted!

More to come!
The Harrisons

Rolling, Rolling, Rolling down the river!

Alright, so Emily is not rolling down the river but she has seemed to figure out how she can roll from her tummy to her back.  This morning she rolled over 5 times in a row before she got tired of it!  Below is a video of one of her rolls.  Enjoy!

More to come!
The Harrisons