It’s Christmastime!, originally uploaded by Robby Edwards.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Emily is certainly enjoying her first Christmas.

She Found Treasures, originally uploaded by Robby Edwards.

Oak Ridge, TN, November 2007

Emily has taken to collection things, like the leaves in this photo. Rachelle and I call them her treasures. Once she has a treasure in her little hands she doesn’t like to give it up easily.

Playing in the Leaves, originally uploaded by Robby Edwards.

Oak Ridge, TN, November 2007

A couple of weeks ago, Rachelle took Emily out to play in the leaves which had fallen in our yard. Next year, we’ll probably let her jump in the big piles of leaves after we rake them up.

By the way, Emily also has a shiny set of new front teeth. Her lower two front teeth have come in, after a relatively short bout of teething related fussiness. She doesn’t quite know what to make of them. She keeps rubbing her tongue over them as if to check that they are still there.

(10 months) We had a string of bright temperate days after our leaves had started to accumulate in our yard. I decided that it was time for Emily to be introduced to the fun of playing in the leaves. She was so satisfied to just sit in the leaves and touch them. She had found so many treasures to look at, touch, and sometimes taste. These days are such simple days of joy for us! Next year I will rake the leaves into a pile and let her jump into them. I might even join her.

(10 months) We have had a few rough days with Emily not feeling well. We couldn’t tell if she had a cold or was teething and were beginning to worry that it was a cold. On Saturday it reached a climax and our normally happy baby girl was anything but happy. She just cried for no reason. By the time we went to some friends to watch the UT football game she was doing better. Emily is putting everything into her mouth now, so when I went fishing to pull out the little string that Emily put in her mouth I found a tooth instead. The first tooth is her lower left front tooth. The tooth has been pretty interesting to Emily. She keeps feeling it with both her tongue and her finger. We have new funny faces to chuckle at as she plays with her new tooth.