80/365 and Emmett's birthday celebration

We waited until today to celebrate Emmett's birthday so that Diane could be there with us. Emmett was not a happy camper, so he didn't think opening presents and eating cupcakes was all that fun, but Evie had a blast.

the aftermath

very happy to play with the toys after Evie opened them for him

not sure why "birthday" is behind "happy", but you get the picture

he tried to eat the candle

Honestly, this is what most of the pictures looked like that I took today. Grump.

chocolate!!!

that's better

Happy birthday little man! We love you so much!

Emmett: 6 months

Emmett, are you really 6 months old already? I'm late writing this, so you're actually almost 7 months old now. You are such a happy, smiley, beautiful baby and we can never get enough of you.You eat a TON, so that takes up most of my day. You now love oatmeal, but you're less of a fan of baby food, so I have to mix the two together so you'll eat it. You can sit up by yourself, but I have to stay close by because you will inevitably lunge for something and fall over. Emmett, you are oh so close to crawling now and it makes me so sad! I can't bear that you're growing up. I wish you would just stop!

You are such a happy and content little baby. You came into this world with a "let's just roll with it" attitude and I love it. It's been such a blessing because 2 months after you were born, we carted you around the United States and then moved you to Korea. I was so worried about all that flying with two little ones, but you were a champ.

 I really thought having two kids was going to be impossible, and sometimes it still feels that way, but even on those no good, terrible, bad days, you are my ray of sunshine. One little smile from you makes my whole world brighter and I don't know how I lived without it for so long.

You have dark black hair, though it's barely there, and beautiful dark blue eyes. Boy, I hope you keep those cause they're gorgeous.

You have CHEEKS! Cheeks, cheeks, and more cheeks! It's seriously impossible for everyone and anyone not to kiss you because you have a perfectly round face and cheeks that never end.

And, hate to tell you, but you have a huge head. Just like your sister did. 99 percentile, baby!

 You love, love your sister and think that she is the most entertaining thing on the planet. Your whole face lights up whenever she comes into the room and it's a lot of fun to see. Every single time.

You're also kind of a huge fan of people in general. Let me tell you, the Koreans love you little man. They start talking to you and you flash them the biggest, cheesiest grin, and they are hooked for life. Emmett, you are a social butterfly. You don't mind being held by other people and are totally content as long as SOMEONE is paying attention to you.

You are also a huge flirt. Man, you love the ladies.

Your first tooth came in the other day on the bottom, and the one next to it will soon follow.

 I can't imagine life without you, little boy, now that I've met you. You are sweet and cuddly. Sometimes boisterous and loud. Always happy and curious. And I love you more than words could ever express.

 Emmett Merrill Christensen. 6 (almost 7) months old and you're already one of the two best things that has ever happened to me.

My boy

I was reading through some of my old blog posts and reading my cousin's blog, when I realized I've been seriously neglectful of writing about Emmett. I wrote a post about every month of Evie's life until she was 1, but I haven't posted about my lil man at all. Huge oversight. In all the craziness that moving to Korea has created, I've neglected to write about him, and since this is basically my journal, here it goes.

Our (not so) little Emmett is now 3 months old, and time really has flown by with him. In his short life he has been moved from Virginia to Wichita, Wichita to Provo, and then Provo to Seattle and Korea. He has been carted from place to place and has never complained.

He is huge, but not exactly chubby. He has big cheeks that I can never seem to stop kissing and is in the 70-90 percentile for just about everything. 

Our Emmett is a dream baby, and I mean that he is straight out of my dreams. He loves when you talk to him and tries his hardest to talk back by making the cutest coos and grunts. He is the sweetest and most content baby I have ever met and I feel like I won the lottery because he chose me to be his mother.

Before we moved to Korea, he would sleep a solid 9-10 hours every night, which was amazing. Since we've been here, though, he hasn't been sleeping well at all and I feel bad that I get so frustrated with him at 3 am because he is still so happy and content, but all I want is for him to be asleep.

He loves to stand up or be sitting up, but can't do either by himself yet (obviously), so he expects you to hold him upright all day long. He doesn't like being laid down on his back for happy awake time, so don't even try it.

Emmett is constantly smiling and giggling at everyone. The other day, the cleaning lady walked by Dan and Emmett and he wouldn't stop smiling at her. He seriously wins everyone over as soon as they meet him. He thinks his sister is the greatest thing on planet earth. If she is anywhere near him or if he can hear her voice at all, he gets the biggest grin on his face and looks around for her.

I like to think that he is a momma's boy and that I am his favorite, but I'm the one who feeds him, so that could be why. He squirms harder and smiles bigger when he hears me, so I figure that means he likes me best.

He has black hair and dark blue eyes that are just gorgeous and I hope more than anything that he keeps them. Where did he get dark blue eyes, I don't know, but I swear he's mine.

He still has pretty bad cradle cap, but we are working on it.

After having Evie, he has been a breath of fresh air. I real angel. That isn't to say that Evie is hard or that she's a bad kid, because nothing could be further from the truth, but she was really colicy. I would have nightmares all the time before Emmett was born that he was colicy too, and I just didn't know what to do. Luckily, he is a very mellow and content little dude.

Oh Emmett. We love you so much. Words cannot express how much joy you have brought into our lives. I was so afraid of having you and moving overseas right after, but you've just been amazing. I cannot imagine my life without you now. I love everything about you, beautiful boy, and I can't wait to watch you grow up, but not too quickly I hope.

Emmett

Our little Emmett is already 3 weeks old, so I thought I should finally post about him. He was born on March 21 at 3:11pm and weighed in at 8 lbs even. He was a big boy! I remember thinking, "8 lbs!? How did he fit in there?". I was actually induced with him so that my mom would be here when he was born, but mostly so that we could get started on all the paperwork we needed to do to move to Korea. They wouldn't change Dan's orders to include us until after Emmett was born, and we were fast approaching the point where they wouldn't have time to amend the orders and we wouldn't be going with Dan at all, so I was induced. I'll omit all the things about my doctor and the actual practice I went to, because anything I say will be negative and I want this post to be positive. I'll just say this, trying to get them to induce me was more work than the actual labor and delivery. There. I'm also going to skip the story about my actual labor because, again, anything I say will be mostly negative. I will say that I didn't push long, maybe 6-7 pushes, and then he was here. He was super red and super cute. His poor little face was bruised and his lips were swollen because of the whole being born thing, but the swelling went down after a couple hours. After they wrapped him up, he didn't cry again. Even when they took him up to be circumcised, he just stayed asleep. The only thing that was a little concerning was that he wouldn't eat for almost 24 hours. I tried to nurse him every 2 hours, but to no avail. The nurses said that he was born so fast that his mouth and stomach was still full of mucus, so it took quite a while to get him to want to eat. Ever since then, though, he's been a very good eater. For the most part, he's also a very good sleeper. Most nights he will go 4-5 hours at a time, but there are also other nights when he won't go back to sleep at all and we want to die. Luckily those are few and far between. Our little Emmett is the opposite of Evelyn in almost everything already. Where Evie cried all day long no matter what we did, Emmett only cries if he's hungry, and even then he will only cry if you let him whine and grunt for too long. He is just the most pleasant, most perfect little boy and we are so in love. It's lucky that he is so good because we have to move to Korea when he's 2 months old. Phew. Also, thanks to him, we may actually have more children after this, but not for a while.

 This is little Emmett right after he was born. Swollen face. He apparently got attached to the towel because he wouldn't let it go.

 Holding him for the first time

Don't be deceived by this smile. I was very groggy and exhausted. But, happy.

 

swollen upper lip. Poor guy

My mom and Evie came to see us after we were all settled.

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I love my little family. Hopefully we can get a better family picture someday

So, so cute

Emmett and Grandma. She fell in love at first sight, as did we all.

home at last. Look at that face. Seriously.

His first bath

So, say hello to our newest edition. We call him baby Emmett, lil man, baby boy, Mr. Baggins, and our lil Hobbit. If you're wondering about the Hobbit thing, it's because he has seriously enormous feet. Not only are they like little tug boats, but his big toe and middle toe are super far apart, just like a hobbit.

Love you, sweet boy. Thanks for choosing us to be your parents.