Merry Christmas!

We drove to my parents' house on Tuesday night (in a snowstorm, of course) and had crazy weather the entire week: freezing rain, dense fog, 60 degree temps, and 40 mph winds! We are so grateful for safe travels! Emerson had a wonderful time playing with Grandma, Grandpa, and her aunts, uncles, and cousins while we were there. She wasn't all that excited about the gifts, but she loved ripping off wrapping paper, opening boxes, and throwing tissue paper all over the living room! She was a little copycat this week...she said "tractor", "baa-paa" (grandpa), "bye bye", and "rock rock". We had lots of fun!

Dad and Grandpa got her ready for church on Christmas Eve

Hanging out with Kenzie & Maddie on Christmas morning

Ski jumping with Uncle Steve

SANTA???

A mouthful of cottage cheese, not teeth

Grandma made "ebelskeiver" (Danish pancake puffs) for breakfast on Christmas morning

The Ross cousins



Aunt Pam found her "tickle buttons"

We had a brief visit with the Heussners while we were there . Here are Alex, Emma, and Emerson...

...and Kelly and I

One last hug for Grandma and Grandpa before they leave for Florida

Big smiles for Aunt Lori

All Is Well!

Emerson got her tubes put in this morning. She was happy as can be the whole time, even though she had to get up an hour earlier than normal, couldn't eat/drink anything, and had to wait quite awhile when we got there (my sister and I took turns entertaining her). But once they finally took her in for the surgery, she was only away from us for about 10-15 minutes. The doctor told us he removed tons of fluid /mucus (sorry for being graphic here) and even long strands of waxy stuff. She recovered very quickly and fell asleep briefly on the way home. Then she was ready to eat, played for awhile, and is now napping. Thank you all for your prayers!

Cheese!

Emerson is not usually very smiley when we pull out the camera but she was hamming it up for us last night!

On another note, Emerson has her surgery on Monday morning to get tubes in her ears. Please pray for her surgery to go smoothly and for a quick recovery!

Mayra Family Christmas

We had an early Christmas this past weekend at the cottage. We celebrated Emerson's birthday on Friday night and then had Christmas on Saturday. We had wonderful food, lots of laughs, and tons of fun!

She apparently doesn't have much of a sweet tooth, so Dad tried to show her how to do it!

She wasn't a big fan of the noisemakers but Noah thought they were funny!

Tub time with Noah!

She enjoyed her new drum set! (but it's making a weird glare on her face!)

1 Year Old!

Our little girl is ONE! Where has the time gone? She has grown so fast! She turned 1 on Dec. 4. Emerson took some birthday cookies to daycare to share with her friends. That night, the 3 of us celebrated her birthday by going out to dinner together (she shared my burger at Red Robin). We decided not to have a big b-day party, since this time of the year is so busy for everyone and we knew we'd be seeing all of our family between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Instead, she's having lots of smaller celebrations! She is still only walking around the furniture, but she is getting braver and her first real steps could be any day! She has added "key" (kitty) and "yes" to her vocabulary and loves to make all kinds of noises. Emmie had some further testing today as a follow-up to her urinary tract infection. We were very thankful to hear that her bladder and kidneys look like they're functioning properly! Here are her stats from her 12 month appt:

Weight: 23 lbs. (80th%)

Height: 29.5 (70th%)

Head: still off the charts!

Here are some recent pictures of our 1 year old:

Emerson's First Thanksgiving

We traveled to Hancock to spend Thanksgiving with Nick's family. This was Emerson's 2nd trip to the UP. She was a great traveler but not such a great sleeper at Grandma's house! But she had fun climbing Grandma's stairs at every opportunity, she enjoyed lots of yummy new foods from some of our favorite restaurants, and loved playing with her grandmas, her cousin Noah, aunts, and uncles. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving together and we have so much to be thankful for!

Emmie discovered that she's a natural pianist, even if she can't see the keys

Playing peek-a-boo with Uncle Alex kept her entertained. She followed him everywhere!

She has started pointing at everything lately!

Proud Grandma MJ with her babies

Noah and Emerson had lots of fun together!

Update

Grandpa Mike and Grandma Lisa came to visit today to celebrate Nick's birthday. Emmie was very glad to see them, though she was tired when I took the pictures, so she's quite subdued!

On another note, she had her follow-up appt. on Friday to be sure her UTI was cleared up. Her pediatrician wants to do an ultrasound Dec. 11 to verify that there aren't any problems with her bladder or kidneys that would've caused the infection. We also saw an Ear, Nose, and Throat specialist about her repeated ear infections. He said her ears didn't look too bad, but when they did the "tympanic test" to see how her eardrum vibrated, it didn't vibrate at all. There is apparently a lot of fluid behind her eardrum causing pressure. She is scheduled for tubes on Dec. 22.

Yay!

Emerson has had this toy for awhile now but she just figured out how to get the ball into the hole. She was pretty proud of her latest accomplishment!

On The Mend

The past week or so has been a bit crazy...we'll catch you up to speed. A week ago Tuesday when I picked Emerson up from daycare she had a fever. We called the doctor and got her in that evening, figuring it was most likely another ear infection. Her ears weren't infected, so they chalked the fever up to a virus. The fever continued on and off but then on Friday evening as we were getting her ready for bed, her temp spiked and she had a febrile seizure (very mild but very scary!) so we went to the ER. They couldn't find anything wrong after several tests, so they too said it was a virus. The fever continued, so on Monday we took her to follow up with her doctor who informed us that she did have a urinary tract infection after all, but it hadn't shown up right away in the ER. Once she got the antibiotic on Monday, the fever was gone and she was herself again. Needless to say it was an extremely long week for all of us! Emmie enjoyed staying home with Grandma Ross, who came to visit and help us out during my Parent-Teacher conference week. It was such a blessing to have her here!