emerson lately

Emerson is growing up quickly, but I still feel like he's my squishy little baby, so I don't feel too bad about it yet. It helps that he doesn't even crawl yet, so he kind of still is my squishy baby.

He's as cute as ever, and he loves flailing his arms and legs. It's hard to get a good picture of him, because he's always moving.

At nine and a half months, he has way more hair than I ever expected him to (I'm pretty sure I was bald until I was two), and it's super cute.

He now has four teeth (just barely), and he loves to bite everything, especially our clothes.

Mmm, jeans.

At his nine-month appointment, he measured 28.5 inches (45th percentile) and weighed 19 pounds (35th percentile). He's already slimming down!

He's getting to be quite vocal and loves calling out mama! whenever he's lonely or hungry and dada! when he's excited. Hmm.

We went out for lunch the other day when Andrew didn't have class, and it was cold in the restaurant, so I let Emerson borrow my cardigan. He loved it.

He's still a great sleeper, and he's starting to eat a lot more food, which is fun (and time consuming). He loves playing with socks, shoes, cords, and paper.

And he still makes some great faces.

He's a great baby, and we love him to pieces!

making time stand still

From the moment Emerson was born, people have been telling me things like "Enjoy every minute, because it goes by so fast!" and "I know it might be hard now, but you'll miss this stage once it's gone!"

That kind of thinking can make me antsy. I hate to dwell on the fact that time passes quickly; I end up worrying about time passing instead of enjoying what I'm doing.

So whenever I find myself thinking I think I'm going to miss this when he's older or even He looks so cute doing that!, I try to take a picture. Even if it's not perfectly posed, or the lighting is kind of bad, I just take a picture (or a few) anyway. My hope is that I can enjoy everything as much as possible without feeling stressed or sad about time passing. Emerson gets more fun every day, and I want to remember everything!

Here are some pictures I've snapped in the past couple months.

Look, I found all my favorite toys!

He was so amused that he rolled all the way down the hall.

See how these pages rip apart so nicely??

Hiding under the comforter.

Hanging out at Costco.

His new favorite face (and noise) to make.

Daddy let me try his sucker.

And then I tried to steal it back.

He tipped over the lamp and was so pleased with himself.

Trying to drink from my water bottle. There was so much slobber...

Mommy, how did I get stuck in here?

Outside enjoying the sunlight. It was quite bright, if you couldn't tell.

Ultimate focus.