42 Weeks Young!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Look at that big toothy grin!

To celebrate her 42 week birthday, Emily slept for almost 7 hours straight!!!!!!!  Almost.  She did wake up for about 3 minutes an hour after being put down, which took the total time of the sleep stretch down to 6 hours and 14 minutes, but that's still really good for her!  This mama was proud.  :)

AND, in other big milestone news, guess who got her second top tooth?!?!  Yep!  Emily's right central incisor finally started to cut through on March 9.  I felt like it had been coming forever, and now it's finally here!  Unfortunately that hasn't given her much reprieve in the discomfort department as far as I can see, because she's had a couple clingy / cranky days.  But luckily it's nothing a little extra TLC {and teething remedies} can't help cure!  My poor baby.  In fact, Emily's so crafty that she's invented her own teething remedy.  It's called "licking or pressing her mouth against anything that's cold".  See Exhibit A:

 

She is also extra fascinated this week with looking out the window.  Shep guessed maybe it's because she's tired of being inside so much due to the cold weather, but she does it even if we've just been outside for a long walk, so I'm not sure that cabin fever is the reason.  She pulls the curtain aside and stands there staring and sometimes banging on the window.  Never mind a penny for a thought -- I'd trade all the money in my bank account to be able to know what this smart, spunky little lady is thinking in that beautiful head of hers...

Emily loooooooves to look at books.  She can sit for 5 minutes at a time, entertaining herself, flipping through her books -- looking intently at the photos and text.  We officially have a little book worm on our hands!

This weekend Emily lost an hour of sleep thanks to Daylight Savings Time {like she needs any encouragement in that department...}.  She also visited Connecticut for the first time, and met several more family friends!

Just like our last road trip, she did great in the car on the way there -- sleeping a total of nearly 1.5 hours in the car -- but didn't fare so well the next day while coming home.  Ah, well, 1 out of 2 ain't bad!!

Emily tried crinkle-cut steamed carrots for the first time and was not a fan.  She eats pureed carrots pretty regularly and likes them, so I think it was the texture.  This girl has eyes for food, and chews very well, but doesn't really love the actuality of swallowing the solid foods.  But she is trying new things and making progress, so I'm proud!

In other news, last Monday was *hopefully* Emily's last day on Prevacid!  We tried weaning her off it back in September, but we ended up having to put her back on it because the reflux got worse a few weeks later.  But, since she's much older now and hasn't had that many reflux symptoms lately, we're hoping this is really the end of her need for meds.  Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Hopefully the snow storm that started out the week will be her LAST of this year!  I can't wait for spring to arrive, though it's funny to think that this will be Em's SECOND spring!  Yikes!!

Babymoon = Booked!

Shep and I looooooove to go on vacation.  We're certainly not certified jetsetters by any means, but compared to a lot of couples out there we've definitely had our fair share of trips together.  Some of my favorite places that we've visited together include:  Aruba, Napa, Mexico, Hawaii, Newport RI, Greece, France, and Turks & Caicos.

We realize that once baby comes along it's going to be much more difficult to travel, and we certainly won't be lounging carefree in a hammock on a beach with umbrella drinks in hand for a looooooong time to come....  We also won't be able to decide on a whim to fly to San Diego approx. 48 hours before departure like we did one summer several years ago {crazy, we know}.  Yes, babies are portable, and yes, families with children travel all the time, but it's going to be a lot more work and require a lot more preparation.  I do have a special knack for being able to fit 2-3 times as many pieces of clothing than a normal person needs into my suitcase at about midnight before we leave each time we go away, but babies require a LOT more stuff...

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We realize that our lives are going to change in a multitude of ways once our little one arrives, and while we'll surely miss our days of traveling carefree, it's a change we're trying to prepare ourselves for.  But that doesn't mean we can't have one final fling, just the two of us, before May arrives!!!  And a soft sandy beach with plenty of sun, shade, sapphire blue water, and available umbrella drinks {non-alcoholic for me!} sounds like the PERFECT way to enjoy some precious time together as a twosome.

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Planning a "babymoon" as they call it has been on our pregnancy to-do list for months.  {Just ask The Bump which yells at me each time I sign on for constantly being overdue on this and about 10 other items!}  But thanks to a combination of our work schedules, my propensity for indecisiveness/over-thinking things, my relentless nausea and the 100 other things that have been on our mind the past 3 or 4 months, we couldn't get it together.  That is, my friends, until this week!

Originally I wanted to go to St. Lucia.  It sounded like the perfect romantic Caribbean getaway, and neither of us have been there before.  I looked up a couple resorts, checked into flights, and as of a few weeks ago it was totally doable.  But then I had to research water safety, pasteurization practices, food menus, proximity to the airport, and try to seek via TripAdvisor opinions from pregnant travelers who'd been there, which took a while.  I didn't want to take any chances though.  When I finally narrowed it down to a resort that fit our criteria and that got positive reviews from other babymooners, the resort was sold out.  Through the end of March.  So were all affordable non-stop flights.  Ouch.  I wish I could say this is the first time something like this has happened, but alas it is not, and, if I'm being honest, it certainly won't be the last.  ;)

So there we were, in mid-January, with the clock ticking, pricing literally rising by the day, and having to formulate a new babymoon plan.  Well, I'm happy to say that surprisingly, after tears this weekend and an attempt to just give up -- we pulled it off.  Luckily, Shep snapped me out of my funk and back into the planning game.  This is our LAST opportunity for a trip together before baby comes, after all!

So, in about a month, we're going to....

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THE CAYMAN ISLANDS!!!  And I'm psyched!  We had to do a little finagling with dates and call my OB to double check that our travel dates were still copacetic {which they are} since we're going a little bit later than originally planned, but the plane tickets and hotel are booked and I'm sooooo looking forward to this trip!  Especially since the high temps around here have only been in the teens for what seems like years already...

Calgon, take me away!!!