Nine Months

     Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Happy Nine Months Miss Em!  Wow... Nine months old.  I think this is the point where I'm supposed to have lost all of my lingering pregnancy weight, right?  :)
     Anyways, we will start with Miss Em's first Christmas!  We were brave and took Emily to church at the 11pm candlelight service on Christmas eve night.  Having worked the past two years on Christmas eve, I was SO excited to attend this service.  Emily did AWESOME and fell asleep around 20 minutes into the service.  The service itself had changed from previous years, but I still got teary eyed when singing Silent Night with the candles lit.  I do believe God enjoys us shining His light for the World to see, and that service always sets my heart in the true Spirit of Christmas.  Emily wore a dress my Grandma had made 25 years ago... when my baby sister Marie had worn it for her very first Christmas (pictures below!).  Christmas morning, we discovered Santa had visited the Poole house and left Emily a house to crawl through and play with!  She also got a babydoll, from us, under the tree with whom she tried to share her toys with.  From there, we traveled to Spartanburg and had a wonderful time with Stephen's family and later on, Stephen's extended family.  I really love spending time with all them since my extended family is SO tiny.  Emily received her favorite gift from her Aunt Ali- a stuffed pillow pet dog.  She LOVES it.  She constantly kisses it and pets it.  The next day... we headed back to Aiken IN the snow (Yes, we had a true "White Christmas" in Spartanburg), and spent that day with my sisters and family.  It was so much fun to see Chad and Emily play together.
    
     Well that is a very SHORT summary of Emily's first Christmas.  Here are her 9 month accomplishments!

• CRAWLING everywhere, pulling up, trying to walk, and pushes her toys across the room with a kind of crawl/sit/walk
• Has 2 teeth, both on the bottom!
• Weighs 19 lbs at her last check up... which was also for her fourth ear infection
• Sleeps in her crib all night unless she is feeling ill or teething
• Likes to rock and read books before going to bed (actually likes for you to just let her open and close the book repeatedly)
• Says bah, dada, MAMA, and "Daah" which stands for dog.  Every animal is a dog, and I am considering this as her first real word since she actually comprehends it!  Emily looovvveeeees Ace.
• Eats baby food like its going out of style, but will ONLY eat her favorites which are...
• Pears, Sweet Potatoes, Squash, Bananas, Carrots, and BABY YOGURT (her fave)
• However, me being the good mom that I am, Em has also tried ice cream amongst other grown up food items... :)

      Because she is such an active and MOBILE little girl, Emily will be "graduating" on Monday to the next class at her school.  It is so hard to believe she is growing up so, so fast.  We are enjoying every second of it!!  Nine month check up will be later this week... hopefully we will be clear of ear infections!   Don't have time to upload pictures now, but I will post a bunch of them soon!