Good Night Little One...the Day is Done

The last three nights have been great! Emmy has been sleeping through the night. When we woke up Monday morning, we realized that we got a full night's sleep and then panicked for a second and went to check on her. She was fine and sleeping so well. She hasn't slept through the night since she was a couple of months old. I've been putting one of my shirts in her crib to help her fall asleep. It works so well. She gets the comfort that mommy is still nearby.

She seems to sleep pretty well in her crib, but the extra money that we spent on the vibrating mattress was a bit of a waste. She doesn't really care for it yet.

Our baby monitor has come in very handy! We use it every day.

MN Ice Fishing

This weekend we brought Richard back to Montevideo to go ice fishing. Richard grew up in Phoenix, AZ and has never experienced ice fishing. My brother has a fish house on Lac Qui Parle...which is about 15-20 minutes from Montevideo. Lac qui Parle's location makes it a natural gateway to Minnesota's "Lake Country." It's also near Madison, MN - aka the "Lutefisk Capital USA" and also Watson, MN - aka "Goose Capital USA."
Lac qui Parle is a French translation of the name given to the lake by the Dakota Indians who called it the "lake that speaks." If you visit in the spring or fall you'll understand why. The lake is a stop over for thousands of migratory Canada geese and other waterfowl. You'll hear a chorus of honking, quacking, and other vocalizations.
We all packed into Scott's truck like a can of sardines...6 of us total. The ice on the lake was about 26 inches thick. Scott's fish house was about two miles off of the access. There was only one access open on the whole lake. The drive to the fish house was pretty scary...the lake has a thick cover of snow on top of the ice...probably measured to the top of a car tire at some points. I haven't been on the ice for so many years. I got pretty nervous even though the ice was pretty thick. My car would have never made it out there. There was just one path to follow which wasn't plowed and if you met someone else coming from the other direction, you pull off to the side and hope & pray that you don't get stuck!

The guys didn't have very much luck fishing...the only fish that they caught were the bucket of minnows. :) Oh well...the fun part of ice fishing is not always catching fish.

Cousin Dave.
A nice big crack in the ice.

Inside the fish house.

Emmy's 1st Gopher Game

Last week one of our printer rep's at work gave me four free tickets to the U of M Women's Gopher Hockey game for Friday night (1/23). I figured it would be really cool to go see since I heard the women's team has not lost any of their last 16 games. One of my coworkers said that he thought they were rated #1.
We met Sarah, Richard & Max for dinner before the game. We ate in Dinkytown at Kafe 421...It was superb food, a nice/relaxing atmosphere, great conversation, and our first trip across the new 35W bridge. You really couldn't even tell that you were even on the bridge.
Our seats at the game were awesome...front row and just to the right of the goalie. PERFECT! Emmy & Max loved it and Emmy squealed pretty high when the players would skate by us. She was a perfect little cheerleader! The hockey team was really good and besides some of the pony tails hanging out of their helmets, you couldn't really tell that they were girls playing on the ice!
The Gopher's lost the game against UMD (Duluth) that night 4-2, but it was an exciting game & a great night out despite the loss.

Talk about GREAT seats!

Two Front Teeth

Both of Emmy's bottom teeth are coming through. I thought it was just the one, but when I got a good chance to look inside her mouth I saw both of them. Too cute!

Visit to Grandma & Grandpa's House

Grandma Debbie & Papa Jerry were getting lonesome for Emmy so we drove up to see them Friday night and stayed until Sunday evening. We had a nice time. Emmy is becoming a momma's girl. She loves to be near me at all times. She will cry when Brad holds her at times.
Grandma Debbie and I took Shelby to see the movie Hotel for Dogs on Saturday. It was a really cute movie. Emmy stayed home with daddy and grandpa and did pretty good. Jerry and Brad played cribbage and Jerry double skunked Brad...which if you are familiar with cribbage, it's almost unheard of. Jerry was excited that he beat Brad so well, I think he was looking for his wood burning tools so that he could etch "I double skunked Brad on 1-18-09" into his cribbage board!
When us girls got back from the movie, Brad, Tony & Christy wanted to go to a movie. So after feeding and changing Emmy, we drove back to Alexandria to see the movie Gran Torino. Jerry & Deb took care of Emmy. She was asleep when we left for the movie, but then woke up about ten minutes after we left. I think she was missing her mommy & daddy. She cried pretty hard for grandma & grandpa. They gave her a bath, fed her, gave her something for her tummy, but nothing seemed to calm her down. So they called us to let us know and we decided to go home early from the movie. When we walked in the door, she was crying in grandma's arms. But when I held her, she stopped crying and then she was all smiles for the rest of the night. She's so young, but definitely knows how to play us already! Brad said that he definitely knows what his parents were going through with Emmy because the same thing happened to him a couple of months ago the night that I went out with my mom.
She has been a little constipated lately and also had a tooth that popped through this weekend...that could have been why she was a little fussy. We've been giving her lots of extra fluids to get her back on track.
Brad and I took a quick drive out to Ande's Tower Hills on Sunday. Ande's is a ski & tubing hill just a few miles down the road from his parent's place. Brad took advantage of it when he was growing up. He's quite the avid skier. When we drove up, I think it got him excited watching everyone come down the hills. We didn't have any of our snow pants, boots, etc with us...so we just took a quick drive by. He's been talking non-stop about skiing lately. I'm sure we'll be going soon...only if we can get Emmy to be good while we are gone.
Emmy also enjoyed seeing her great aunt Muriel & cousin Kathi...she was a little ham for them.

A Hong Kong Hello - 小姐

Brad's brother and family are living in Hong Kong and were not able to make it back for the Holidays. They sent Emmy this adorable outfit for her to wear. It is really cute but you have to make sure you've got a good grip. She almost slipped through Brad's arms.

Teething

Emmy is teething. She's been running a slight fever and has a runny nose as well. I've been letting her suck on cold teethers, cold rags, and I've also put some baby oral gel on her gums and given her baby Tylenol. She's a little irritated and keeping me up at night. I got about 20 minutes of sleep last night. So when the alarm clock was going off this morning, I couldn't figure out what that noise was and also called Brad, "Bob." I must have been dreaming about my brother!

Last night Emmy discovered how to make a smacking noise with her tongue. It's kind of funny to watch her do it. She's also starting to make "M" sounds...so "Momma" should be coming out of her mouth soon! :) She's starting to reach for things when she's on her tummy. When she's on her back, she scoots all over by pushing her feet along on the floor.

We are preparing to stay indoors this week as it will not get above zero again until the weekend.

Go Tyler!!!

My nephew Tyler is on the Montevideo Junior Varsity Diving Team. We found out last week that he was invited to dive with Monte's varsity team at the Maroon & Gold Invitational which is held at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center. This meet is regarded as one of the top Men’s high school invitational meets in the Midwest. One school came from as far away as Mercer Island, Washington. They BLEW away the competition during the swim meet. The event was held last Saturday and Tyler placed 22nd out of 30 kids. His score was 84.30. I think that's pretty good for an 8th grader! He was the only junior varsity player chosen to dive along with the varsity team for this competition. We are so proud of him! On December 16th, Tyler placed 1st at the Willmar meet with 111.60 points.

Tyler...middle row, 6th from the left.