Emmeline is 9 months old today!

Emmeline trying to escape baby prison, a.k.a. her crib



"Why are you torturing me?"




These cheeks are empty, believe it or not

 I remember thinking as I wrote a post on facebook one month ago that there probably wouldn't be much to tell about Emmeline's life during her 8th month. I mean, how do you top an E.R. visit?  Well, little did we know about the present she brought home from the E.R.- a supersonic strain of pink eye.  72 hours after visiting the E.R. Emmeline's left eye was puffy.  The next day, of course a Saturday, we were at the doctor's office with a full blown case of pink eye and a fever.  The fever lasted for 3 days and the eyes didn't get any better so we were back at the doctor on Tuesday for an antibiotic.  And of course, antibiotics bring the gift of diarrhea, but at least we didn't have to keep putting drops in eyes that we so swollen we couldn't get them open to put the drops into them.  Emmeline did get better, eventually.  It took three weeks for the swelling to go down.  After two weeks, we visited an opthomologist, who said the swelling would go down soon.  In between all of this glee, and because of Emmeline's irresistible infection laced cheeks, I got pink eye, Judd got pink eye, Reuben got pink eye, Clara got pink eye, and Timothy got pink eye.  We went through about 400 tissues, 2 bottles of hand soap, and 32 ounces of hand sanitizer in 10 days.  We spent over $100 on eye drops.  We all learned how dangerous it can be to touch your eyes.  Thank you Emmeline! Even very little people can teach big people important lessons. 

Despite illness, Emmeline took time over the last month to perfect her speed crawling and continued to work on her goal of introducing non-digestible objects to her stomach.  We have taken away game pieces, wood chips, a sewing needle, a gobstopper( she actually had gotten down to the soft insides before that one was found), a dime, a nickel, and lots and lots of plastic in many forms.  Last night Grandma Dellory ordered a Super Play Yard with the two piece expansion set so Emmeline can have her very own 24.5 sq. ft. "cage".  I never felt a need for one of these before, but I am counting down the hours until it comes. 
Emmeline has also learned how to pull herself to stand at the furniture and to exist with irrationally small amounts of sleep.  She abhors being put in  her crib and only likes to go to bed being held by Daddy while watching T.V.  She thinks nap time is for babies without hair and does not appreciate our feelings on the subject. 

Somehow we have taken to calling her either Lemon or Roomba.  Roomba for the vacuum, Lemon for Lemon Lime because it rhymes with Emmeline, sort of.  I'm still trying to figure out how I feel about calling my child Lemon.  I still mostly call her Emmeline.  And we all still adore her.  Audrey has learned to hunt for choking hazards, but she doesn't quite understand what that means.  She was sure baby spit up was a choking hazard.  Clara continues to pick her up, without permission, and carry her around, without permission, and she even dropped her, definitely without permission.  Amy, Timothy, and Reuben are truly helpful and are on constant alert to keep the baby safe and happy. She knows their names and looks at them when I ask her to find them.  We love you Emmeline!