It's been a while

I know it's been a long time since I have updated with pics of Emmory, and a lot has happened in the last month or so. It was definitely rough for a while when Emmory was cutting his two teeth and was sick, but thankfully after the second tooth broke through he has been as happy as can be. He turned 7 months on Thanksgiving, which completely blows my mind, I don't know how he got so big so fast. While we were in Seattle he started saying the "d" syllable and would just carry-on constantly saying, "dadadadada". It was so sweet, even though he doesn't know what it means I love hearing him say "dada". He has since added "m's" and "b's" to his vocabulary, and I think I have also heard him say "n". He is just so much fun right now, so interactive and responsive. He's sitting up really well on his own, he only loses his balance when he leans way to the side to reach for something. He's doing really well with his solid food, for a while there while he was teething he didn't want to eat anything, but since then he's doing great and eats 12 or more ounces of veggies/fruits and at least 2 ounces of cereal. Just like his nursing he is a fast eater with his solids as well, which I am thankful for because it doesn't usually take long to feed him. I've been making his baby food which I love doing, it's really simple and it saves us money, plus I know exactly what is in the food he eats. Here are some pics from October and November, including our trip to Seattle.

First time eating green beans...was not a big fan

My lil husky fan

This was taken in Seattle, right before we went to the pumpkin patch for E's very first trip there

E and Papa at the pumpkin patch

At the pumpkin patch

All of us, minus Dad who was taking the picture

Probably one of the strangest places a baby has been nursed....on a pumpkin :) (Although for some reason you can't see the pumpkin in this pic, but yes, I was really sitting on a pumpkin)

Uncle Kyle had diaper bag duty, and he was thrilled about it :)

With Aunt Christy, we wanted to get a pic of him in the wheelbarrow with the pumpkins, but that didn't work out so well

A group shot with my Dad in it this time instead of my Mom

Nama had the magic touch gettin E to sleep at our fav breakfast place, Wild Wheat

He really started sucking his thumb a lot on this trip...it's so sweet he will suck his thumb and with the other hand put his fingers in his hair

The fam at Wild Wheat

Aunt Kimmie and the lil pumpkin

Our lil penguino

He was such a cute lil penguin for Halloween

Me and my lil boo on Halloween

Carving pumpkins

I gave E a bath right before naptime, and this is what his hair looked like when he woke up

Husky fans (Unfortunately they did terrible that weekend, but we still love em)

Having a bottle on the plane ride back home

Back home, a day at the park with Nama

Had to get a shot of poor Tillman in here

Our family at the park, Emmory trying to grab Tillman as usual

He found a leaf, and of course it went straight to the mouth

Nursing on a park bench...my Mom decided to take a pic of allthe different places I nursed him

Our fav ice cream place, Spill the Beans

Of course he fell asleep on the way home, because he wouldn't fall asleep in his stroller

He is getting so long!

His favorite sleeping position now, with his thumb in his mouth

We went to visit Mark's Gpa Burton who was in town for the Clemson game, this is his first time meeting Emmory

3 generations....getting all three of them to cooperate for the camera was difficult!

All of us who went

Double trouble

Well we are back home now. At the tail end of our visit in Seattle, Emmory started to get sick, and also his two front teeth started to work their way up and out of his gums. This has not made for a pleasant experience. The trip back to Greenville definitely did not go as well as the trip to Seattle, although it wasn't horrible. He just got pretty fussy in the middle of the flight to Atlanta. Since we've been back home, it's been more of the same. He seems fine during the day, but at night he is a different baby, very unhappy, we are both not getting very much sleep. I think I have the same thing as Emmory, as I have been feeling sick as well. To add to the teething and cold, E also got his shots yesterday at his 6 month checkup, and has had a low-grade fever as a result. It is definitely miserable when a baby is sick, there just isn't a lot you can do. I guess we'll just have to tough it out these next few days/weeks and hope things get better soon.
On a positive note, Emmory's 6 month check-up went well. The dr said he looks great and is doing everything she wants him to be doing developmentally. Since he's gotten more active with his jumperoo and rolling around on the floor, his weight gain has slowed down a tad bit. He is 18lbs, 13ozs, down to the 70th percentile. However he continues to grow longer at an incredible rate, and is up to the 95th percentile in length. I have no idea where he gets this from, but I'm sure it doesn't mean he's going to be tall later in life.
I'd like to get some recent pics up of Emmory eating solids for the first time (which at the moment he is completely disinterested in, hopefully just b/c of either teething or his cold and it will get back to normal soon), our trip to Seattle, Haloween, etc, but I don't have time for that right now.
All in all, I have so much to be thankful for even though things have been a little rough lately, and I need to choose to dwell on these things. My mom is here with us until November 13th, and it has been so great to have her here for her company and an extra set of hands.
We had a great visit in Seattle with family, one of the huge blessings of being able to stay home with Emmory is that I have the flexibility to be able to do that. I hope it is something we will get to do many more times, since my family lives so far away.

In Seattle

Well the dreaded flights to Seattle with Emmory by myself are over, we made it! I know I had many people praying for me, and I am so thankful for those prayers. It was very comforting knowing people were praying, and there were many answers to prayer along the way. God's grace was evident in so many ways, the day we left I had a calm and peace that was not of myself. The night before I was able to have a wonderful last night with my husband, whose words of wisdom helped me to be calm the night before as well. We got to the gate in Greenville with no problems, boarded the plane, started to taxi to the runway, and then were told we were going to have to sit on the plane for 40 minutes before we took off for Atlanta because of weather. This may not seem like a long time, but when you are travelling with a baby even ten extra minutes on a plane can seem like forever. However once again, God's grace was there, and instead of panicking I was able to pray and not be anxious. On both flights, my baby who has a really hard time falling asleep anywhere but his bed, fell asleep with ease in my arms. When we landed in Atlanta, a kind man offered to take Emmory for me while I got my bags from the overhead bins, and then carried him off the plane for me. After we waited for his stroller, we booked it to our connecting gate, as we only had a 1 hour layover to begin with, and with the 40 minutes delay is was going to be really close, especially being in a huge airport like ATL having to go to another terminal very far away. We made it the the connecting flight 5 minutes before they closed the door, with everybody already on board. The flight to Seattle was a long one, 5 hours of flying time, but Emmory did so well, he didn't cry the entire time on the flight. He slept a little, and while he was awake I was able to keep him entertained with toys and walking around the plane. He also was a huge flirt, trying to get everyone's attention and smile at them. It was exhausting having to hold him the entire time, not really able to eat or drink much or even go to the bathroom by myself, but I am so thankful that he did well and we made it to Seattle with no problems. My little boy is definitely a trooper!
It has been so great to be here with my family, I am enjoying every moment of it, and pretty much all I have to do as far as taking care of Emmory is feed him, as his nama, papa, aunts and uncles are very eager to hold him and spend time with him. It has also been very sad though. My uncle's graveside service was on Saturday, and his memorial service on Sunday. The services went really well, they were honoring to God and I pray that God uses Dave's and his family's testimony to save souls, but it is also just so sad. His family is of course grieving and it is hard to see. But I also came away from the services encourged, because while they are grieving, they are handling it in a way that is honoring to God. They truly have hope. Even in this time they are able to say, "The Lord gives and the Lord takes away, BLESSED BE THE NAME OF THE LORD."
There will be pictures to come when I get back to Greenville. We'll be in Seattle until Monday November 2nd. My mom is flying back with us this time, which will be so nice. I'll actually be able to go to the bathroom without a baby in my lap! (Sorry if this is tmi, but that's life with a baby)

A time to mourn

It is a time to mourn in the Moor family right now, as we have suffered a great loss. My Uncle Dave passed away yesterday, after battling lung cancer for over a year. He will be greatly missed by many, his life touched so many people. He was a loving husband, father, son, uncle, and friend. His smile was contagious, he had a wonderful sense of humor, always one to joke and tease, and he was an incredibly generous man. I am so thankful to have had him for an uncle, he took me to many sporting events with my cousin Ben, and growing up I was at their house a lot, as Ben and I were (are) good friends. There were a lot of good times that were made possible by him. My heart breaks for the family, for my cousin Ben, and his brother and sister and each of their spouses and their children, for my Aunt Virginia, who has been so strong and lovingly served her husband and sacrificed herself for him while he had this illness. Yet I also rejoice, because each one of them has a relationship with Christ; and thus has hope. Titus 2:13-14 says, "our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works." I rejoice that my Uncle Dave had this blessed hope, and is now with his Savior, enjoying his glory, in a state of perfection, where there are no tears, no pain, no suffering, no sin!
People often talk about God and heaven when somebody passes away, often as a way to cope and get through the tough times; however I do not speak of this as a way to cope, or as a "quick fix" way to feel better, I speak of this because this was my uncle's life. Christianity is not something that you can just use at certain times in your life when it makes you feel better, Christianity is a way of life. 2 Timothy 1:12 says, "I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day." When my uncle was on this earth, he knew whom he had believed, and he knew his soul was safe in God's hands, and that changed his life. Dave's family knows whom they have believed, and it changed their life. It's what enabled my Aunt Virginia to persevere, to stay strong, to serve her husband even when it was so hard, and it's what enables her to have hope now, even in a time of grief. It does not make things easy, it is still sad, there is still "a time to mourn", but God's all-sufficient grace enables you to get through the hard times, to come out on the other side a stronger person who is more like Christ, and all the while to have a "blessed hope".
They know whom they have believed. I know whom I have believed. Do you?

5 months

I honestly feel like I just posted about Emmory being 4 months old, I can't believe how fast this month went by! There have been a few exciting things happen recently, the first being the birth of Emmory's cousin, Rilynn Falefou Sene, and second we gave Emmory cereal for the first time today. He really didn't have a big reaction to it, and he seemed to like it. When we first gave it to him he held the spoon while it was in his mouth, and he would not let go of it, we had to pry it from his fingers. We'll probably just continue to give him a small amount once a day, until he really seems to take a big interest in wanting more. Emmory and Rilynn haven't been able to meet yet, because children aren't allowed in the hospital because of swine flu, but hopefully they'll be able to meet soon after they get home from the hospital, and I can post some pics.

I uploaded a video of Emmory "talking" this morning. Its from our cell phone b/c we can't upload videos from our camera on here for some reason. He starts talking more towards the end of the video.

Ready for food?

We think Emmory may have figured out what food is. It is true that he is very "grabby" in general, but whenever Mark and I are eating or drinking something, he is incredibly desperate to take what we have and try to eat it. Mark was drinking from an open bottle a week or so ago, and Emmory grabbed the bottle and started making sucking movements with his tongue, as if he knew what it was and was trying to drink it. And when Mark was giving him a bottle one night he went to get it out of the fridge and Mark said he immediately knew what it was and grabbed it out of his hands to try to eat it. Now it doesn't matter what it is we are eating or drinking, he decides that he must have it. The first pic is from when we met Mark for lunch one day, and he was trying to get his drink and hamburger the whole time. The second is when he was sitting on my lap trying to drink my drink. This Saturday he'll be five months old, and that is when the dr said we could give him solid food. I think this boy is going to be very happy once this happens. I can't wait to see what his reaction is.

4 months

The 4 month old

I know every parent says this when their kid has a birthday or reaches some sort of milestone, but I really can't believe my boy is four months old! Actually he has been four months for a couple weeks now, I meant to post sooner, but just didn't have the time. I really feel like Emmory has really made some huge changes over the past month; he is starting to show his little personality and moving around so much more and grabbing at anything he can. He's definitely becoming more of a "person" than a little helpless baby. We took E for his four month check-up the other week, and once again found out that he is growing like a weed. He was 17 lbs, 5ozs, which is in the 87th percentile for boys his age. His length was 26 1/2 inches, which is in the 91st percentile. I never would have thought that it would be that exciting to find out how much somebody weighs, and before having a baby I would have probably thought parents were wierd for making such a big deal about it, but that seriously is the highlight of every trip to the doctor; I can't wait to find out how much he has grown! He impressed Dr. Song with his progress; he really seems to like her he was putting on quite a show and trying to play with her the whole time she was examining him. We are so thankful for another good report from the dr about his health and progress! He even did really well for his shots, he cried for maybe 20 seconds and then he was fine. The dr told us we can start giving him some rice cereal when he is 5 months, so we shall see how that goes! So, about his progress, here are some pics to show some of the things he has been doing lately.

He loves his little seat...this was the first time I put him in it.

He also enjoys talking on the phone now! Actually, its more like he enjoys eating my phone, but he does grab it out of my hand whenever I am holding it.

He is loving his tummy time! And he rolled over from his tummy to his back. Didn't act surprised at all either, it's like he knew exactly what he was doing.

Tummy time is especially fun when we have toys to look at!

At first this seems like an ordinary picture, until you find out that this was when he woke up from his nap, after I put him down the opposite direction in his crib. Somehow he managed to move himself so that his head is where his feet were.

Snuggling in close to Daddy

We like to suck on our feet! Usually when we come in after he has woken up, he is playing with his feet...althought lately he is enjoying his bumper as well.

In his little seat doing his favorite thing, eating the toy

He still really likes his play gym. For a few days there he would get mad everytime we put him in it, because the toys wouldn't reach his mouth and he wanted to pull them down, but we have since solved that problem.

A new toy, a jumperoo! This thing is the greatest baby toy ever, it's like a johnny jump up and exersaucer combined, and it's freestanding. From the very first time we put him in it, he LOVED it. I knew he would, b/c he loves to move those legs of his. He just bounces away in the thing, and I haven't even put batteries in it yet so it makes noise.

This is the day he rolled over from back to front, only a day or two after he rolled over front to back.

Emmory,

Mommy can't believe you are four 1/2 months already! I remember on the way home from the hospital thinking that I never knew I could love somebody so much, and I still think that now all the time. You are an amazing, fun, happy little boy. Your smile lights up the world, and brings such overflowing joy to my heart. You have been really good to Mommy and Daddy so far, you have always slept so well at night, starting at 6 weeks where you started sleeping 6 straight hours, and you have continued to stretch it out, now sleeping 11 hours. You really don't cry much at all, you get fussy when you are bored, tired, or hungry; but pretty much if you are moving or have something/somebody to play with, you are happy. You are making some funny noises now, Daddy calls them your dolphin noises because they are such high pitched squeals. Sometimes when we are all riding in the car together, and you are making your little noises, your Daddy and I just look at eachother and smile, b/c it is the best sound in the world to listen to you and it makes us so happy. You are also laughing a lot now, and it is music to our ears. Right now your favorite toy is your fisher price rainforest jumperoo, you just love to bounce like crazy in that thing. It entertains you so much, and the noise part doesn't even work yet! You also love watching tv with your Daddy, especially sportscenter. You watched your first Clemson football game the other night, you loved laying on the floor, going in between playing with Mommy and turning to look at the tv, but there was a scary moment for you when Daddy yelled really loud because something exciting happened in the game. You didn't like it at all and started crying. That is another thing you are doing now, you get scared at loud noises and start to cry. You are really enjoying our daily walks, you just sit there perfectly still not making a sound; I think you are just looking around and taking everything in. You are such a joy to us Emmo; while things definitely aren't the same around here, and I have just accepted the fact that the house will never be as clean as it used to be, I am okay with that, because you are far more worth it, and I would so much rather spend time with you than have a spotless house. Your Daddy and I can't wait to see how you continue to grow and change, we are loving every minute of this roller-coaster ride of being your parents, and we only hope that we can take the time to savor every moment of it! I love you so, so much baby boy.

Love, Mommy

Pawley's Island, SC

The day after we flew back from Seattle, we drove to Pawley's Island to spend the week at an awesome beach house with friends from church. As soon as we got to Pawley's Island we loved it, our favorite beach on the SC coast by far. It was a great week of beach and fellowship, however there were a few bumps in the road, as E didn't sleep as well on this trip and woke up pretty early some mornings, and we had to take him to the doctor while we were there because he woke up from a nap basically screaming with a big red puffy eye. The rest of the afternoon he wasn't himself, he would cry hard anytime we would lay him down. As an answer to prayer, there was a pediatrician nearby who was on our insurance, and we were able to get an appointment really quickly. We took him in and it ended up being that he scratched his eye, the dr said it would be better by the next morning, and it was, which we were very thankful for. Here are some pics we took on our trip.

This is the view from the back dock. The back of the house was right on the marsh, which was really cool because we could fish from the dock and kayak the creeks. The front of the house faced the beach, which was right across the street, which was so nice to be able to just walk to the beach.

The marsh straight ahead of the dock

To the right of the dock

Mark "crabbing"....there were a ton of blue crab in the water, and to catch them all you had to do was tie string to a stick and attatch a chicken neck to the string, put it in the water and the crabs would clamp on with their pinchers and not let go until you lifted them to the surface and put a net underneath them to lift them out of the water.

Look at all the crab they caught in one morning. I was unsuccessfull in catching one crab, which was pretty sad b/c people were catching them all around me.

Taylor caught a big crab

Sun setting over the marsh

"Boogie boarding"...I put parenthesis because the waves here are nothing like the waves on the west coast...however there were some waves that were decent enough to catch and ride for a while, but just not the same.

Waiting for a good one

Mark is helping one of the kids try to catch a wave

Haha, I was taking a pic of the beach to the right of us, and didn't even realize I got Will's face in the pic

The beach to the left

There's a decent wave

The ladies lounging in the sun

Storm clouds a-comin

Not exactly sure what this bird is called...anybody know?

E's first time on the Atlantic coast

Daddy and son

The family

This was so funny when we put his feet down the tide came up and rushed over his feet and he immediately jerked them up away from the water

The three of us

Once again

Emmory's second day on the beach. We were so thankful for a few days of really nice weather, not too hot and mostly cloudy so the sun wasn't blazing down on us, so E was able to come out for a lil bit

Me and E hanging out on the blanket

I love my lil boo!

Close up

Daddy and son again. Thank you John and Christina for a great trip!