9 Months as a Lewman!!

WHAT A MONTH!  Emmy is now 9 months old and I feel like she’s ready for her permit.  We have had one helluva month and can’t wait to share all our stories.

Emmy has progressed so much within the last 31 days – it’s amazing.  She is on the verge of talking.  I can tell she gets so frustrated trying to explain something that sounds like “dophbu aaaaye gon”.  I am nearly positive she is saying, “yes, I would like more of the spinach/apple meal” …or “you look lovely today Mama”…one of the two!  She is constantly sounding out letters.  She is really chatty in the morning and sounds like she’s trying to go through the alphabet.  We think we have heard “dada” and “banana” but nothing confirmed.  Looking forward to hearing her sweet little voice tell me she wants “up”!



She was sick nearly the entire month with a wheezing cough.  After taking her into the doctor three times, I got the hint that she is okay and it’s just a cold.  Every time I went in, I thought she was going to have gained at least 5 lbs…nope.  She has remained at 20lbs for the last two months.  Now that she has a turbo boost in those little knees, she is lightning fast.  We have covered the outlets, moved the glass décor and rearranged our living room for more play space.   Emmy pulls herself up on chairs, ottomans, pant legs, stairs, fridge, cupboards and anything that will hold her.  She has stood a few times on her own but pretty wobbly.  With all this exercise she is just slimming down while growing tall.  She is 28” without heels and growing a beautiful head of hair.  It’s in a perma-mohawk but I am sure it’s just a phase.  

Hayden barreling through the lilypad obstacle

We headed up to the Great Wolf Lodge and it was pretty amazing.  And crazy.  There must have been about 3 million kids of all ages there in costume and running around like they had been up for days on sugar.  The water slides were SUPER cool and they had a wave pool and a wizard scavenger hunt throughout the entire hotel.  Emmy and I spent most of the time sick in the room but Tye and Hayden had a blast.  It's a pretty penny but you can get good deals.  Definitely worth a two night stay to do everything they have to offer.  For the little gals they have a spa called Scoops - which I thought was pretty neat.  It was definitely worth the money and we all had a really fun time.

Then of course the annual pumpkin patch at Lakeview Farms.  We ride the boat over to the punkins, pick out our punkins and ride the train back.  This time we had Emmy and she appeared to really like all the action.  We found the perfect pumpkins and some quality photos that I can't wait to frame.  Can't wait to see her running around the patch next year and maybe get her face painted (a logical reason for me to FINALLY get my face painted).

Mama & Baby

She is still eating really well.  I have not once, seen her full or turn food away so we have to be careful with how much we feed her. She would easily sacrifice her body to get a hold of that bottle.  I started making her food this month.  Just some basic squash, sweet potatoes, carrots and applesauce.  It’s really easy, just really time consuming and messy!  But she seems to like them so it’s a money saver and I love being able to make her food.  Eventually I will move on to more complex meals like Chicken al Genoa or Lobster bisque (just kidding).

Getting ready for her first game!

Thanks to you all, Emmy made it to the Top 10 in Portland’s Cutest Baby contest this month.  I honestly felt like I was on the campaign tour…that’s tough work!  She didn’t win but she sure had a lot of people voting for her.  Thank you to everyone that helped get her that far in the contest.  I thought for sure with her Duck gear she would take the cake.  She was able to wear her Duck gear to an actual game this month against Colorado.  She loved all the people watching and the rain held out for us.  This was a perfect game for her to attend because we knew the following week was going to be CRAZY... 

Star Tours - one of our favorite rides!

Hayden Barner

We surprised Hayden with a trip to DISNEYLAND & the Oregon/USC game!  After several almost slip-ups by family members (I won’t name names, Jay)…we pulled it off.  We stayed with (expecting) friends Zander & Jenn Brown and went to Disneyland, California Adventure and Venice Beach.  It was a non-stop, exhausting, incredible vacation with so much laughter and excitement.  Hayden was on Cloud 9 for about 5 days straight (so were we).  The highlight might have been when Hayden got to take a photo with RB Kenjon Barner’s family! Although we had a blast, we missed our little Emmy so much.  We talked about her all the time but knew she was having so much fun with Gramma Judi and Grandma & Papa Lew.  Thanks to our parents for allowing us to go have this vacation with Hayden! 

The night before we left for Disneyland was Halloween.  Hayden was a Hazmat Hazard and was honestly, really creepy.  He wouldn’t even let Emmy see his mask for fear it would haunt her.  Emmy was a little blue Garden Gnome.  I was really excited to make her first Halloween costume…even though it took 5 hours and she only wore it for 30 minutes – totally worth it!  We went trick-or-treating with Hayden’s mom Jenny and now step-dad Mike (they were married 10-11-12) and Tye’s parents.  Lots of candy at our house so if you are running low and need some – let me know!  I dressed up as well for work and discovered I make a very believable man.  I was Steve Prefontaine and sadly, all I had to do was draw a mustache with eyeliner and I nailed it.  Tye was not attracted to me that day.  We also went to our friend Garrett’s Zombie Tombstone themed Halloween party with the Byers.  Amazing costumes and everyone had such a fun time.  I am already scheming next year's costumes!!  I am thinking Wizard of Oz?

Looking forward to Thanksgiving at my mom’s this year and Tye’s 32^nd birthday which is December 1^st.  And of course the rest of this amazing football season for the Ducks.  Happy Holidays and see you in December.  Maybe we’ll have a walker by then??