Sad Times...

I haven't blogged in a while and this time it is for a very legitimate reason. We lost my grandpa. He had been pretty sick for quite a while, and he passed away peacefully on October 15th at 5 am. Thursday night Hy, myself, and the baby girl, flew into Las Vegas airport and then proceeded to drive to Hurricane. We stayed at my parent's house along with my siblings and their spouses. The viewing was Sunday night at 5 pm in Cedar City and it was really great. The photograph montage with music was totally gorgeous and they had the candy displays that I had suggested.

He looked exactly like himself and at the same time nothing like himself. I struggled through out the week, but didn't really lose my stuff until I saw him at the mortuary. Something pretty hard and sweet happened there as well.

The month before he passed, Em and I had gone to visit my family and spent a few hours with my grandparents. Miss Em is kind of shy at first and takes a little time to warm up to new people. BUt with my grandpa it was INSTANT SMILES and she reached for him INSTANTLY.  It was pretty adorable.

The first thing she did as Hy held her and walked up to his casket, was bend herself right in half and reach hard for him. That was hard for us.

It was really wonderful getting to see a lot of family that we hardly ever see, and it was wonderful introducing them to Miss Emilia for the first time. That was pretty special. And she especially loved my cousin Jenny.

The service was the next day, Monday, at 11 am and it was really beautiful and pretty funny. Some parts were pretty much agony and some parts just so him: straight to the point and funny.

The graveyard service was gorgeous. It was a bright and sunny fall day and the colors couldn't have been more beautiful. They did a full military service with a gun salute, flag folding and presentation, and playing of Taps.

After that, we headed back to the church for a luncheon. The night before I had made German chocolate cupcakes which was his absolute favorite cake that my mom made him every single year for his birthday (probably since before I was alive). That cake is so him to me, and I felt like we couldn't have a celebration of his life with out getting all sugared up on German chocolate.

I just want to put a few of the last pictures that I have of him. They are so very special to me because it was the last time I saw him alive. And it was the last time Emilia did as well.

I could write about what he meant to me, but the truth is that he meant the world... and how do you write about that? One of the things that hit me hardest was the fact that he wouldn't get to know the children we don't have yet. But I have to think that he already does and I have to believe that he is up in Heaven some where getting ready to shoot us down some more babies at a moments notice. The thought of him tending our future children makes me pretty darn happy.

She is 6 months!

It's been a couple of weeks already, but Emilia turned 6 months old!

Here are some things about our sweet baby girl!

-Her eyes are still grey, but are starting to look a little bit green again. Sometimes blue. Sometimes hazel. She has very confused eyes some days!
-She has been eating solid food for the last two months now. She is an amazing eater and has two solid meals a day now! I make all of her baby food. I feel much more comfortable in giving her things when I know how it was made and the exact ingredients.
-She loves to eat pears, apples, squash (all different kinds), banana (although I rarely let her have any), yams and sweet potatoes, mango, carrots, and so many other things! She is pretty adventurous with what she likes and the only thing she hasn't loved so far has been avocado. But I will try it again in the next few months and her opinion may have changed!
-She is army crawling on the floor. I think she gets how to use her knees but choses not to. She pulls herself along using her arms and pushes with her tippy toes. She just likes it that way!
-She is still nursing like a champ! I nurse her on demand and am totally content in doing that for as long as I feel comfortable doing so. I might decide to be one of those extended breastfeeding mamas, but my current goal is at least until she is one years old! I doubt she or I will be ready to wean then... so we will see.
- We worked really hard on breaking her bad sleep habits. When you deal with colic, you are basically willing to do anything that works to get your baby to sleep. Which resulted in her only being able to sleep while in her moving swing. We broke that habit when we went to visit my family in Utah for two weeks. But then she got used to sleeping in bed with me. So when we got home, that habit had to fixed as well. She had a great few weeks with her adjusted sleep and was doing great until this tooth* started to come in! Now her sleep in erratic and a bit of a mess. But hopefully we can get back on track when that tooth finishes coming in!
*Tooth!! She has a tooth! It is her right bottom front tooth! It is only out a little bit, but she can tell the difference! Her tongue is going like crazy and she is drooling up a storm! She is going to look so absolutely adorable with a tooth! She hasn't bitten me while nursing, but I know that one of these days it's going to happen.
- She hasn't ever eaten any rice cereal or any sort of grains. Our pediatrician didn't feel it was necessary for her to have rice cereal and I was more comfortable giving her things that I knew would be more calming to her body. Not to say that we are against rice cereal, it is amazing for a lot of children. I just didn't have any desire to give her it if it wasn't absolutely necessary.
-She has started doing this growling thing! It's like she is trying to talk but it is coming out of her lower vocal ranges! Hy will growl at her and she will growl on back. It's pretty stinking cute!
-Speaking of Hy, this little girl lights up when he comes home! She knows her daddy's voice and we talk to him on the phone at least once a day. She will smile at the phone and kick her legs like crazy. Then when he walks in the door, she has the biggest smiles for him and is so happy!
-She is still a major snuggler and I love it. Sometimes I don't get as much done as I would have liked during the day because of our snuggling sessions, but I let all of that go and just appreciate the time we are spending together bonding.

There are a million other things I could say but it would take a very long time to write all of that! And tonight she is sleeping for longer than a 45 minute chunk! Knock on wood! So I am off to enjoy our night!