Emma Cari Jo Keeney

Weekend at grandparents with auntie Laura and the dogs

2008-11-09T18:11:00.003-07:00

Laura and Ben are moving acroos the country to San Diego for Ben's naval appointment. They were in Colorado for the weekend so we went up to the George's to spend the weekend. Laura had not seen Emma since June. Ben had only met Emma once when she was three weeks old. Laura and Ben have two very largr great danes who were very friendly with Emma. Great grandma George also spent the weekend visting with Laura and Ben.

Holloween and Kagaroo Kingdoom

2008-11-09T17:13:00.005-07:00

Emma dressed as Elmo this year for Holloween. She met up with Parker from down the street who was dressed up as a very cute dinosaur. They both had a lot of fun trick-or-treating. Elmo wore herself out she feel asleep with mom on the couch.

After a month we went back to kagaroo kingdom. Emma had a blast agian. She really enjoys going down the slide and playing with the bubbles.

Kangaroo's, Chairs, and Soy

2008-09-23T19:58:00.006-06:00

We went to the Kangaroo Kingdom with Koben and Riley and had a blast. Emma loved to run and climb and go down the slide. She was too funny to watch. She would walk/run as fast as she could into this peanut ball thing and go flying off of it like a perfect ricochet! She loved the bubbles, would stand and spin and try to grab them. We had a lot of fun just playing there. There are a lot of cute pictures of her with her boyfriends. One with Riley putting his hand on her head/face, he was trying to grab her pig tails. And of course, one of Koben loving on her while they are playing "house".

There are also some pictures from our weekend at my parents house in the mountains. It's almost complete and soon they will be living there full time. Will be a new change for us all to not have my parents living in Fort Collins any longer.

Tracy is on a business trip in CA until late Thursday night so it has been just us girls at home. Tonight when I was cooking dinner, she took it upon herself to rearrange all the dining chairs in various spots throughout the kitchen. This girl will find anything to entertain herself. It was hilarious, watch for those pictures when Tracy's back. This morning when I was getting ready for work, Emma was wandering all around our room and babbling up a story. She kept going to Tracy's side of the bed and pointing and talking and I kept telling her where he was. Then she would look in the bathroom and point at the shower and talk and I told her he was in California. She just shook her head, laughed, and went back to putting her toys and my lotion and brush into the bath tub.

For the past 9 days she has gone without milk and we have switched her to soy milk. This is at the suggestion of her chiropracter to see if she has a milk allergy that could explain her rashy looking skin and frequent ear infections. She loves the soy milk and is flourishing with it. Her skin is clearing up and her typical course would be to have had another cold by now (enough time has passed since her last anti-biotic prescription) and we don't have the sniffles. She also suggested some various vitamin supplements and diet changes to think about so now I just need to figure out what to do with some of them and find some recipes. So far so good, so we'll keep our fingers crossed. She is also getting her alignment better, her foot no longer points out when she walks, her eye has "lifted", and she has no tenderness in her neck when the doctor touches it now. So far, I've been very happy with the doctor and the progress that Emma has been making. The doctor even lets me email her and tells me things all the time to try, which I love!

Gilmore Girls

2008-09-11T18:54:00.003-06:00

The cutest thing she started doing yesterday...when the theme song to the Gilmore Girls plays (yes we watch this almost nightly), she immediately stops what she's doing, looks, gets up and starts dancing. She will twirl around, clap and laugh. It is the cutest thing. We'll get it on video and post soon.

Camping Trip

2008-09-11T18:21:00.002-06:00

We took Emma on her first camping trip and is was, well, a success. We had originally planned to camp in RMNP but due to cold weather, and no available campsites, we moved on down to Carter Lake. We found a lovely spot surrounded by grass, and a lot of dirt, but few rocks or dangers for a toddling baby. She enjoyed getting dirty, carrying rocks around, taking things in and out of the bin, and just looking at stuff. When it was time to get into the tent, it was like Christmas for the child. She walked around in the tent in circles, laughing, pulling things out of bags, she was having the best time in her life. It was really cute. Got all dressed for bed and then we all climbed into our one large bag and asleep we went. She woke up 3 times during the night, we quickly spoiled her with a bottle to quiet the screaming baby for the neighbors and back to sleep she went. Low and behold, she used her magical inner clock and awoke at exactly 6:20 am, her typical weekday time, and was up, wandering around the tent talking and laughing and making us get up with her. It was very cold that morning, but was fun to have her all dressed up in her gear. All in all, a wonderful trip. No bugs, no injuries, decent sleep for us all. Though I can't remember the last time we had packed up camp and were ready to head home before 8 a.m. And of course, she was sound asleep in the car.

She has been talking more lately and continues with her "words" which are very close to the real ones. "ish" = fish; "geesh" = geese; "at" = hat; "eh" = what is that; "emo" = elmo; and of course "mama" and "dad". The ENT doctor wants to do ear tubes, but I think we'll wait longer. Her speech is just fine and she responds well once we start antibiotics. The chiropracter also wants to keep working on boosting her immune system to try to avoid any cold. We'll see what happens. I'm just waiting for her eustacion tube to straighten out and go down instead of horizontal so we can avoid this in the future!!! She is so smart about things we say to her. I tell her to look out her car window and she looks right out, "time for bath" and she heads for the stairs, when she sees us getting dinner ready, she goes to her high chair, she can look under the couch when we ask where Lucy is, and tries to put her socks on her feet, of course getting frustrated when they just fall off.

Baptism and CT Trip

2008-08-17T20:16:00.002-06:00

Just returned from our trip to Old Saybrook CT for Emma's Baptism and our week long vacation. It was a wonderful trip. Lots of friends and family and an overall nice get away. Emma did great and enjoyed her relatives, playing, walking, and waving at the waves. You'll see a TON of pictures from this trip. We went to the Mystic Aquarium and then had Mystic Pizza (yes, the movie), we spent time in the ocean (well kind of in the water), and spend a lot of time watching Emma love on Samantha (the black lab in the pictures). Becca and Todd are her godparents and traveled all that way for us. It was awesome. My parents also were able to make the journey and we'll post some of my dad's pics later this week.

She's getting very good at walking. One of her favorite things to do at the shore was take golf cart rides. On the way home, we flew late in the day and mostly after her bedtime. She screamed until we were airborne and then slept beautifully the rest of the flight. She also got spoiled on this trip by sleeping in bed with mom and dad for the last few hours of the night. It was very cute to have her sleep with us and cuddle right in. Check out the pictures...it was an awesome trip!

Lucky 8's

2008-08-08T19:52:00.003-06:00

Well, today, on 8-8-08, Emma's 8th tooth appeared. FINALLY broke through her gums. It's her 1st molar on the bottom left side. She also had her first visit to the pediatric chiropracter. The doctor found her to be fairly misaligned. Stated that due to her rough birth (aren't they all rough???) her occipital bone is pushing onto her top two vertebrae and they are wacky. She gave her a massage basically, she said she was doing vibration therapy, but all I saw were her hands. Anyway, Emma loved it, tolerated it very well. At the beginning she didn't want the doctor anywhere near her ears, neck, etc and was bothered, but as she did more examining she relaxed and apparently enjoyed how it felt as she let out a huge sigh afterward. So maybe it will help. The top two vertebrae are connected with sinuses and the ears (among other things), but the doctor said she "untwisted" her two vertebrae...OUCH! She also has one ear that is lower than another, one eye which is bigger than the other, and her left foot sticks out farther than her right. The dr also said it was "interesting" that she crawled in the modified army crawl for as long as she did, as if this was a new found indication for a misalignment?!?!?! Anyway, hopefully she's aligned and that 8's continue to be a lucky number for her and our family!!!

Already August

2008-08-03T20:25:00.004-06:00

Some pictures of Emma with Jack and Robbie in the pool. There are pictures of her walking in RMNP last weekend, she liked to walk on the trail holding on to both our hands and looking at the water and the flowers. Was a fun day trip. Cute pics of her asleep in her car seat on the way to Grandma and Grandpa's almost finished house remodel up in the mountains. You'll see some blurry pictures of her toddling around, it's hard to capture a baby in motion! And finally, as usual, some adorable messy hair pictures. Her hair is so cute when it's up and when it's taken out of the clips and bands and what not, it likes to stay in place.....very cute.

We leave for Old Saybrook in less than one week. Will be interesting to see how she does on this plane trip now that she knows the joys of being mobile!

Mobility

2008-07-28T11:58:00.002-06:00

She is walking quite well, made it from our kitchen table to the couch without problem a couple days ago. She will take off, turn in a different direction and even went in a circle, all purposeful! Very cool to watch. This morning she has been "crawl/walking" on her hands and tip toes. I think this is her way of practicing to stand from sitting...very hard skill!

Now that she's walking better we'll consider camping with her. The thought of a baby crawling in the dirt is not something I enjoyed, nor holding her 24/7 while she demanded to move. She can walk all she wants in it though. We checked out a campground in RMNP yesterday that I think we'll try for in August or early September. Will be cooler so less mosquito's which I also like!

She continues to have teething issues. I swear this kid is the slowest teether I've ever heard of. The same tooth will cause problems for weeks/months for this kid and it's painful to watch the lump just sit there under her gums! We're still working on her left molar and I'm thinking a couple more top teeth are also culprits for her latest round of discomfort.

We had the Ruthig's here for a quick stop en route to Iowa. Emma enjoyed watching Jack play and throw things and be a boy and Robbie was very cute to watch crawl around as well.

Poor Baby

2008-07-21T19:47:00.002-06:00

Well Emma was just a mess tonight!! Another ear infection (we're going to consult with Children's Hospital now about her being so prone to these, as well as an allergist), diaper rash, teething, excema and just being a 1 yr old all wrapped up at once! After her bath she got: antibiotics, tylenol, teething tablets, rash cream, cortizone for her excema, and regular lotion on her cheeky's!! What a project! And not happy at the same time, but who would be???

She is so determined to walk. She takes a good 4-5 steps on her own without holding things, from things to us or from us to things. She falls pretty good after these steps and the doctor thinks that can also be from her current ear infection since they can throw off balance! So once this medicine kicks in....she's off!!!

She still loves to eat anything and everything and is starting to throw fun tantrums. I even got my hair pulled in Walgreens today! Fun times. She's in the toddler room at day care and LOVING it. She smiles every day when I drop her off and all the little tots are happy to see her and all I hear is "Emma" "Emma" in baby language and I even get waves from the other kids! :) She has her big girl tennis shoes now, with laces, since she hates shoes so much, she can't pull these off. She needs to be in shoes since they go outside and play on their playground a lot. She has a girly pair (white with pink flowers) and a boyish pair (navy blue). Fun times!

Stepping Stones

2008-07-07T19:53:00.003-06:00

Emma took 3 steps on her own today....I had her standing in the middle of the room and she took 3 steps toward me without holding anything! It was very exciting! She also enjoys pushing her toys around while walking and thinks she is such big stuff!

We had a lovely time in Manitou Springs this weekend and pictures are posted on the keeney blog. She enjoyed playing with the giraffe's at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo and was startled by a swimming bear right in her face! :) It was fun to be in a little cabin and she liked investigating all the surroundings, drawers, cabinets, etc. She also liked standing up in her pack and play staring at us first thing in the morning.....who am I kidding....I loved that as well. :)

New lessons

2008-06-04T21:32:00.004-06:00

Emma continues to teach and amaze us every day! We have learned that she bounces like a ball (fell down our small staircase without incident); enjoys watching someone use a hair dryer, but doesn't like it on her (had her first hair cut - she now has bangs!);likes to have her teeth brushed (especially with her Elmo tooth brush); and enjoys pulling herself up to standing in her crib, with her toy basket or on my legs. She is enjoying climbing on us when we play with her on the floor, climbs over couch cushions and either pulls her toy basket on top of her or up to standing to look inside of it. She likes spaghetti, dairy queen ice cream cones, mandarin oranges, avacado, and any other food that is placed in her vicinity (nothing this kid won't eat....sauerkraut included!!!) She's awesome and I can't believe that she is almost a year old already!

On the Go

2008-05-01T20:04:00.002-06:00

Emma has been trying to become mobile over the past month and in the last few days has managed to do a modified army crawl for short distances. Tonight she managed to pull herself half way across the kitchen floor. She has become very friendly with our cats and Finn seems to be fine when she grabs his tail. Her vocal skills have improved vastly with a lot of babbling and razzes. Dinner time has become a time for playing with her food and getting some in her mouth and a lot on her clothes and in her chair. She has lost interest in baby food and much prefers cut up veggies, fruits, breads, and basically anything that mom and dad are eating. Sleeping has become more routine with her sleeping through the night on a regular basis. She is now over 20lbs and recently we had to switch her to a new car seat which she seems to enjoy even though it's more upright and her head slumps when she falls asleep. It's very hard to believe that in under two months she is going to be a year old.

What a cutie!!!

2008-03-30T13:18:00.002-06:00

Emma continues to do well. She had her 9 month check last week and is in the 97% for height and head and 50% for weight. Long thin body with a big brain! :) We let her play with all kinds of food, some she manages to get in her mouth, some not so much. The spaghetti-o's created a lovely art project. She's on to cheerio's now and lots of little baby treats. Bath time continues to be a splash fest and a chance to debut new hairstyles! She loves her big towels after her bath and looks so cute as a flower.

We spent some time on Easter with my family. You'll see pictures of Emma with her second cousin Riley from WY. They had fun playing together. You'll also see pictures of her at her first Easter egg hunt at Harney Park near our house, tons of kids were there.

Her blue dress was her fancy outfit for daddy's birthday and our family trip to the new library! She went with daddy to work one afternoon and got to nap under his desk! She sleeps in the funniest positions some times and doesn't seem all that bothered if her leg sticks out, or her arm, or if she's twisted up, she just likes to sleep!

And last but not least, my daughter has a matching outfit with her father..... hmmmm....check out all the latest pics on the right!!!

Emma's latest 1-13-08

2008-01-13T19:42:00.000-07:00

You'll see some adventure pictures on this update. We went to the zoo and did some swinging at our neighborhood park. We always have fun with this little package! You'll also see a lot of pictures of her playing and plenty of her drooly chin! It's a faucet. She is definitely working on her top teeth now, though no white spots yet that we can see. She loves to hold her bottle, and for some reason finds it more enjoyable to hold it on the bottom instead of the sides. She lasts like this for a couple minutes sometimes, other times she has no interest to keep holding on.

We found out today that baby Kendall has arrived! Congratulations to Rick and Allena on welcoming their daughter Rachel Claire to the world. Can't wait to meet her!!!

Christmas in Cortland

2008-01-07T20:21:00.000-07:00

We had a wonderful Christmas with our Emma. She traveled well to Cortland, via Chicago, Rochester, and Syracuse airports respectively! She enjoyed meeting all her kin from New York, eating more new food, and getting even more hugs and kisses. You'll see pictures of her dressed in her fancy outfit for Christmas Eve (also her 6 month mark), her Santa outfit for Christmas Day and many other pictures of her with relatives and playing. We think she may get her stylish hair from Grandma Bunny!

Both her bottom teeth have popped through and are so sharp!!! She's officially in her own room and is doing great. She had no problems with the transition. She had her 6 month immunization series which is never fun and other than a little lump and bruise on her thigh you wouldn't know she had it done. She's sitting like a big girl and really likes that view. We try new foods every couple days. We are going through all the vegetable options (carrots, peas, green beans, squash, and sweet potatoes) twice before introducing fruits. She's off the charts in height and head circumference and continues to be in the 50th percentile for weight. Long and skinny this one.

She's making all kinds of noises, lots of aaaaa's, mmmmm's, and I think I heard an "aaamma" but I'm not 100% sure. We occasionally will get a "g" sound and she's starting to do more "wa" sounds. She loves to be outside, checking things out, and really likes to be in her stroller. We went to the Denver Zoo last weekend with the nice weather and though she couldn't always see over the railing, she seemed to have a great time looking at the animals and especially the people!

We're starting to introduce a couple signs to her to try to teach some sign language. She just stares at us in what seems to be either confusion or embarassment! Hopefully our hard work will pay off and she'll someday understand what we are talking about.

She's so awesome and if you haven't met her yet, hopefully your time will be soon!!!

It's Christmastime!

2007-12-03T20:14:00.000-07:00

You'll find some latest pictures marked 12-2 over there. She's been a busy girl the last several weeks. Fighting a nasty ear infection which she handled very well all things considered. She didn't like the antibiotics, but the idea of her ear drum bursting if it didn't heal quick enough was scary to me so we kept at it. You'll see a couple pictures of her naked. She had to air dry a bit to help the awful diaper rash heal (which she got from the anti-biotics), but she loved the naked sun time. We cut a Christmas tree over Thanksgiving weekend up at the Ranch and she likes to be up there. She likes to stand/kneal and lean on the couch arm to look at some of the decorations and we like making her part of other decorations! She's not sitting on her own yet, but likes the view when she's propped. We had her in her booster seat to eat oatmeal tonight and she did really well there too. She still loves the peanut shell sling, and it's very handy when she wants to be held and watch things at the same time.

We noticed a suspicious white dot on her gums on Dec 1 and as of today, her first tooth has finally busted through the gums. It's just starting to "erupt" but it's definitely a tooth. It's her front, bottom, right one and it's poking out of her gums, it doesn't seem to bother her, but she's definitely chewing on her fingers, our fingers, my shoulder, and anything else she can get into her mouth. Doesn't like a cold wash rag or anything like that yet, and she's not fussy at all about it either. To me it seems to be coming slowly, but what do I know. It will be fun to monitor it's progress over the next days/weeks and hopefully we'll be able to capture it on camera for you soon. It's hard enough for us to see it now with her tongue constantly out in the way!

Updates!

2007-11-21T19:51:00.000-07:00

A lot has happened since the last entry...she is days away from her 5 month birthday already! Time flies! We celebrated Halloween and tomorrow is Thanksgiving. She's been eating some rice cereal and also some oatmeal. Some of the time she will devour it, other times she has no interest in the new food. She's been rolling over from her back to her belly a lot, still hasn't really rolled from front to back more than the first time Oct 3. She's enjoying her belly time and the view. She's been battling an ear infection, it's got a good hold on her and we're doing anti-biotics. However, she shows no symptoms so she's been pretty happy baby! She loves to laugh and giggle at "funny" things we do. She saw some friends at a couple baby showers a week ago and tolerated her "mom-made" head band with class! There are also a couple of pictures of her sleeping on her play mat...she wore herself out playing so hard!

She continues to amaze us and bring us unpredictable amounts of joy. We continue to work on getting enough food into her during the day so she doesn't need to eat at night. Until then we have 1-3 feedings at night still of quite substantial portions of food. Slowly we are making progress, only to go back when she hits a growth spurt.

Day care continues to pass on good reports. Couple funny stories from day care: she was spotted having a "conversation" with two other babies while they each sat in their chairs or were crawling. They had a lot to say to each other apparently. Yesterday, her "boyfriend" Luke was pulling her hair and she didn't mind it at all. And today an 8 month old girl tried to take her shoes! So she just kicked her feet so she couldn't get a grip! She's quite the trooper and seems to really flourish in the social atmosphere. She always has a lot to tell me when I pick her up.

Fun trips

2007-10-14T19:14:00.000-06:00

We took a short hike around St. Vrain Park last weekend, it was beautiful weather outside, and her sunglasses were handy! She is doing better every day with her head control and loves to sit upright to look out at things. She's not able to sit alone, but likes the bumbo and to be propped with a pillow. You'll also see several cute pictures in some cute clothes that she has.

We spent our first overnight out of this house. We went to the Ranch with Jon, Cassie, and Trevor Busch and had a nice time. It was quite chilly and rained for most of the weekend, but we had fun chasing Trevor around and watching Emma and Trevor interact. He was very sweet and gave her some fall aspen leaves, we think it may be a sign of a long lasting friendship, if not an engagement gift of some kind. She did great sleeping in a foreign place and didn't even seem fazed at all.

She is very close to rolling over now in the other direction. She seems to be 80% of the way there from her back to her belly. She scoots all the way around in a circle, pushing herself with her legs in the process. Quite funny to watch.

Oh and I almost forgot, there are a couple pictures of her reward to Tracy for playing with her after eating a big bottle. Bottoms up!

P.S. We found out that baby Vielehr has joined the world today. Their son Riley was born this morning! So excited to have another baby around!!! Congrats to them!

Enjoy the latest pictures!

More Firsts

2007-10-03T19:11:00.000-06:00

Well a lot has happened in the last week since we posted. Emma did end up getting some sort of stomach bug. She is fine now and it could have been a lot worse, but let me just say watching a 3 month old vomit is not so much fun. She is back to normal. However, Tracy and I again were ill over the weekend. We're thinking it was food related instead of a virus. Not sure that makes it any better.

Emma also had her first elk bugling trip!!! It was successful and we saw some good elk, heard some good calls, got to watch a couple bulls push each other around, watch one move his heard across the road and into the other valley, and hear some babies and females making noise too. Despite the cool breeze, she enjoyed being outdoors as usual and we had a great time. Grandma and Grandpa were there too and we got to have a picnic in the woods. She loves to be bundled!

She has been laughing a lot lately which is fun. Often I'm not sure what she even is laughing at, I mean we aren't purposefully making her laugh. But she just will chuckle. Quite funny. Also, once she's laughed at something, she rarely will laugh at the same thing again. We have had to be pretty creative at times to hear that sound.

And saving the best for last.....today she rolled over for the first time! She rolled from laying on her belly to laying on her back! She did it three times in a row so it wasn't a fluke! Did it the same way each time, rolling on her left side, so pushing with her right arm. What a super star! :) Check out the pictures, they are mostly elk bugling I think.

Fall leaves and pineapple butt

2007-09-25T21:17:00.000-06:00

Emma enjoyed her fall leaf mobile and looked very cute in her pineapple outfit! She continues to thrive and seems very happy. At day care they say that she has adjusted very well and even though she is the youngest, she figured out how to distinguish herself...she has become the loudest! They said she doesn't just sit and fuss, she will almost instantly start screaming for something (this is her 0-60 that we've talked about before). They said it's very easy to figure out what she needs as its one of the basic things: poopy diaper, tired, hungry, or needs to burp. She's getting a lot better with her head control and enjoys the new view. It seems too early for teeth but she certainly is drooling a lot! She missed the mild flu that Tracy and I both had this past weekend. Thank goodness! She didn't need the Pedialyte that I had purchased "just in case" so that's always a good thing.

Check out her latest pictures that were posted 9-23-07! She's a cutie!

Aquarium 101

2007-09-16T19:27:00.000-06:00

Emma finally made a trip to the Denver Aquarium today. It was pretty cool and she did a great job there. She was very aware of what was around her and looked at a lot of fish. Not a lot of expressions, but lots of staring!!!

This weeks picture recap: last weekend, she was all dressed up for Baby Boy Viehler's shower. You will see pics of her in her dress shoes and party outfit. There are also pictures of her trying the Bumbo chair for the first time and then a couple days later. She liked it much better the second time around! You'll see a couple pictures of her finding her fists and being absolutely mesmerized by them. Very cute to watch. And of course, some smiles!!! She's getting a lot stronger with her neck and is gaining decent head control overall. Each week is better and better for that! She's quite a kid!

First Day at Day Care

2007-09-10T17:15:00.000-06:00

I dropped Emma off at about 7:30 this morning and through the tears I was able to say good bye. She enjoyed swaying in a little chair as I wiped my eyes and let her stay behind. Very hard but all in all not too bad. She had a somewhat fussy day, clearly it was because she loves being with me instead, I'm going to ignore the possibility that it's because it was a more busy place than our house. They said she did well for her first day, I guess I should take solace in that. When we got home, she was all smiles and didn't seem fazed at all which was nice. She proceeded to reward my taking her to day care by throwing up just as I went to kiss her and some of it got into my mouth. Yuck!

Other than that she is all smiles these days which is really fun and she is about to laugh...at least that's what her big toothless open mouth seems to say to me.

9-2-07 pictures

2007-09-09T15:40:00.000-06:00

In this group you will see her next to Griffin Mahoney, he's about 3 weeks younger than she is and is bigger than Emma!! He's a big boy! A picture with my Aunt Barb who was here for a visit. And also several pictures of Emma up at the Ranch. Her first trip up there. We also brough Grandma Keeney along as she visited for the week. Weather was great! She enjoyed laying in the grass and we assembled her tent for her which she liked to play in as well. Sunglasses were a big hit!!!

8-27-07 pics

2007-09-09T15:38:00.000-06:00

Just an update on the pics in this group: her first trip to RMNP with Kelly! Some pics with Maxwell Gampp. He's 5 weeks older than she is. And a couple pics of her bandaids from her immunizations!