Smiley!

Emma now weighs over 9 lbs. That is either right on track, extremely low or extremely high, if you go by the incredibly vague charts in the back of the baby books. Actually, I think it's right on track.

While looking for those charts, I came across the fact that by now Emma may be able to smile in response to your smile. So, I tried it out... I sat there with a goofy grin on my face while she was checking me out. And sure enough, she smiled at me. It floored me! Braden didn't smile until he was like 2 or 3 months old. What a cool feeling that was!

And as a teaser, we may have some huge news coming in the next couple of days. I'm not saying any more *cough*newhouse*cough* right now, because *cough*madeanoffer*cough* I don't want to jinx it.

Big Brother Braden

Last night I had Emma sitting up on my lap. Braden came up to her and patted her, very gently, on the head and smiled. Then he took his bear and put him on his head and looked at Emma like she was supposed to laugh at him. Next he took his bear and started to make him dance for Emma. She didn't laugh, but he certainly did. I think he's adjusting pretty well to having a baby sister!

It certainly put a smile on my face.

Trains in the Domes

Today we took our first family outing with Emma. We went to see the trains at the Mitchell Park Domes. Every winter they setup a garden scale train display at the domes. I have to say it was interesting bundling everyone up in the 3 degree weather only to go inside the rain forest dome.

We even got out of the house on schedule. And yes, on schedule for us means 10 minutes later than we said we wanted to leave.

As with anything involving trains, Braden absolutely loved it. I think if we had let him, he'd have sat there for hours watching the trains go around and around.

We did have a near disaster. Braden tore his eyes away from the trains long enough to notice that a little boy next to him had Boo Bear... well he had a bear that looked JUST LIKE Boo Bear anyway. That was pretty exciting, and I'm not really sure Braden even thought it was his Boo Bear, but Daddy quickly stepped in and distracted him. The last thing we needed was a fight over Boo Bear in the domes.

Braden also really liked the train cookies they had... like I said, anything involving trains.

Emma was pretty indifferent and slept through the whole thing, which in our minds was a success! Actually, it's not surprising... if it's not between 1 AM and 6 AM, she's probably sleeping.

More Train Pictures here!

Emma... child of God

On Friday, Emma was baptized in our home. Pastor Oelhafen came over and performed the baptism. Braden was very interested in the whole thing, especially the praying parts. He's a good prayer...um... prayyer... prayrer... he prays well. Emma slept through the whole thing.

Just like Braden we had her baptized here and then will have it affirmed in front of the congregation later. We wanted to have the whole family for that affirmation and this lets us schedule it a later date.

Who turned this off?

I should really keep track of the number of blogs I start with "Yeah, I know it's been a while since I blogged."

Emma will be a month old on Saturday!!!! Wow. That just amazes me.

Things at home are good. Grandma has been a huge help. Braden is still doing some adjusting, but I think any issues we've seen are due more to the fact that he's cooped up in the house. Dad went back to work last week with Grandma helping at home. Everyone's pretty tired, but what do you expect? Well, actually, Braden is still getting his full amount of sleep, so he's not that tired.

The Bears lost the big championship game at the end of the season. I'm not officially licensed by the NFL, so I can't say Super Bowl. Oh great, now I'm going to get sued. We're all REALLY upset by the loss... and yes, I'm just saying that for the one person that reads this blog that is probably truley upset by the loss.