a little light reading

When my best friend, Elisa, threw our baby shower this time last year, I'm sure no one ever dreamed that the baby inside my belly would actually read their well wishes :) I love cards and I'm not too embarassed to admit that I've definitely cried in the card section at Target. I have a box at home filled with special cards and notes I've gotten through the years. I have the first card Ryan every wrote to me....we were 15 and had been dating for three months. It's covered in a coffee stain and is tattered at the edge but I can't and won't ever get rid of it. I have notes we passed in the back of high school algebra class....some of them too hard to read because our scribbled handwriting is starting to fade. I have cards from my parents, my brother, all the cards we got at our wedding, and I just recently added a few I got for my first mother's day. I'm such a sap. But, there is just something about cards.....the way people fill them with a message meant just for you for a very particular moment of time. I love handwritten notes and I wish sending them was still en vogue. Email is great for speedy communication but sometimes you just can't beat the sentiment behind a handwritten letter. Like stacks of other cards I've kept, the group we got at our baby shower is no different. I keep them in a silver box along with all of Emma's ultrasounds proudly displayed in Emma's room.

In an effort to entertain her, I pulled down the box one day this week. Boy ohhhhhh boy.

First came the tossing of the cards....like big pieces of confetti.....all across the room. Then came the careful inspection of each and every last one. Open, close, open, close....dedede, nenene, lalalaLAAAAA!!!! Ok, moving on!

We must have sat there for an hour. I read cards to her and told her about the people who had written them. And then she read some to me and pretty soon it was time to pack up the cards before Emma turned them into real confetti!

When all is said and done, I think she was thoroughly entertained and I think I may have met the one person more enamored with cards than me. I can't wait until I have a note from the beanie to add to my stack :)

vocal adrenaline

there's alot of singing going on in the murphy house these days. emma discovered her voice a long while ago but only recently started gracing us with little spurts of what i like to call "vocal adrenaline" (yes, glee fans, that IS a reference!). there is constant baby chatter in our house....mamama, dadada, nanana, gagaga, lalala....all of which usually follow a cute sing song-y kind of tune. until one of these spurts of adrenaline hits and the tunes gradually get louder....and louder....and LOUDER to the point where our eardrums literally feel like they might start bleeding! seriously, this is not a joke. who knew such serious noise could come from such a tiny squirt :) she's not upset in any way shape or fashion....in fact, quite the opposite.....the louder the squeal, the bigger the smile. she is oh so proud of her voice....and i like to think that some day it will serve her very well :) for now, we just hope no glasses will break.

lalalalaLAAAAAAAA

she loves to spend the mornings while ryan and i get ready looking out the sliding glass windows and banging her toys together, chewing on them, squealing, repeat.....

she's on the move and everywhere. we try and stay a few steps ahead of her but this is impossible. i found her in the laundry room a few days back with a handful of puppy chow and a piece of kibble in her mouth. she looked like she had won the lottery. if only i weren't philosophically opposed to those baby leash things..... ;)

it's so nice to feel the hint of fall air, don't you agree?? we are so looking forward to the holiday season, this year in particular! we are headed to jacksonville next weekend for some pumpkin patch shots with our favorite, Jenn Hopkins of Jenn Hopkins Photography. i promise to share pics when i get them back. i hope everyone has a great week :) go out and do something wonderful...

with love,

the murphys

little ladybug

Well, it's been a long while since I've posted but with good reason. We've been settling into our new and exciting role as Emma's parents! The past 6 months have been a whirlwind....and as I look back, I'm absolutely amazed that in such a short period of time we have all learned so much. I have alot of work to do on this blog but time is precious these days. I'll get around to it eventually.

We have lots going on but the most important topic is, of course, EMMA! The counter on my photo storage program tallied the photos taken of her at around 8000 since her birth.....yes, it is true, I am totally obsessed with this child and take pictures of her at every opportune (and sometimes inopportune) moment! What can I say....I love that she's growing and learning about the world around her but I just want it to slow down!!!! I pulled 6 photos from the 8000 to share as a quick progression of her life...

1 month old

our little sun goddess

2 months old

daddy's little girl

3 months old

murphy sunshine

4 months old

5 months old!

happy half birthday

6 months old

She has been, and continues to be an absolute joy to be with. Most of the time I wake up and just thank my lucky stars that we were blessed to be her parents. She has such a wonderful temperament. She cries when she needs something....food, a diaper change, and when she's sleepy (she gets that from me, sometimes I cry when I'm super sleepy too!!!) but for the most part she is a completely content baby. She giggles and smiles ALOT which I think is pretty cool. She definitely has a little attitude on her....she's definitely OUR child. She's a girl who knows what she wants and isn't afraid to let you know it. She's a big girl....18lbs 8 oz at her 6 month appointment and measuring 26.5 inches long.....which puts her in the 75-90th %ile for both height and weight. She loves bathtime, making a mess when she eats, and "reading" books. She is pretty much obsessed with her walker and her jumper these days and loves standing up with a little help from mom and dad. She's working hard on the crawling thing....getting up onto her hands and knees constitutes her daily workouts....it's so fun to watch her try and put it all together. She say's "mama" regularly and is working very hard on "dada". I could go on and on but the morning is only so long. She is perfect and being her parents is the best thing that has ever happened to us.

Emma, the things mommy loves most about you at 6 months:

- the way you smile, giggle, and flail your arms and legs when you get excited

- your curiosity about the world around you and the way you grab for toys and books you are interested in

- watching you jump up and down so excitedly in your bouncer and cruise like a champ in your walker. i especially love watching you chase deja around the house.

- your diligent attempts to crawl. i love watching you get up on your hands and knees and try to figure out what to do next.

- the way you get so happy to see us when we pick you up from daycare. i also love that you LOVE daycare so much. you get so excited to play with your friends and i love watching you talk to your friends and play with toys together. it's hard to leave you but i know you are learning so much.

- listening to you experiment with sounds. i especially love that you say "mama"!

- the way you reach out for us to pick you up. SO sweet.

- putting you to sleep at night. snuggling with you is one of my favorite things in the world.

- being your mommy. i'm the luckiest lady in the world.

time flies...

I'm not even sure where to start.....

Our world has changed in the most amazing and beautiful (and sleep deprived!) of ways. Emma is finally here.....and has been for the past (almost) 9 weeks. I've been too busy soaking her up to blog! And, who am I kidding.....she's been keeping us a weeeeeee bit busy ;) What I will say is that nothing anyone ever told me about what it would be like when she was here even came close to preparing us. I don't know what it is about not having gone through the experience of bringing home a baby that makes you totally and completely unable to truly grasp what it will be like.....but, in my case, despite all the wonderful tips and advice, it knocked me off my feet. I describe it to Ryan as like getting the job of your dreams and then suddenly realizing you are sorely underqualified! The first 2 weeks of Emma's life I felt completely inadequate! But, something happened around the 2 week mark.....things clicked.....and we suddenly found ourselves in a beautiful groove with our precious little girl. Her patterns emerged, we began to understand her cries and what they meant, and we looked at each other through tired eyes and said, "This is AWESOME!".

I never knew I'd feel a love like this. She is perfect in every way we could imagine and we are so blessed to be her parents. It's so fun watching her grow so fast.....she is a big girl!! She was 7lb 12 oz at birth and at her 6.5 week checkup, she was 11lb 4oz! Woah! She's also long....having already grown 4 inches from birth....so I'm hoping she's tall like her daddy. Well, maybe not THAT tall ;) Also at that checkup she had already met all of her 2 month milestones. She has a megawatt smile that will stop you dead in your tracks and I often find myself doing weird and crazy things JUST to see that toothless grin. Thank god for curtains because I dance around the house like a fool on a daily basis :) She wiggles like a champ and loves to sit up in her bumbo. She is pretty much obsessed with ceiling fans and anything that moves in a circular fashion. She loves being held and thinks bathtime is just about the greatest thing ever. She loves to stand (with assistance of course) and she squeals in delight when we get her naked......look out! She has quite the little personality.....I tell Ryan all the time....she's just the right about of sweetness and the right amount of spunk :)

She is by far and away the accomplishment we are proudest of (I feel confident speaking for Ryan on this one!).

We are SMITTEN!!!!!!

Who IS that pretty girl in the mirror??

Unfortunately for me, maternity leave is over.....that was quick!!! Emma started daycare on March 1st and is thankfully located VERY close to me all day long. She attends Baby Gator which is literally attached to the hospital so I can run and see her anytime I want......and I do! On a daily basis! I swear they must think I am crazy, and I am....for my little ladybug! :)

Being back at work is HARD, I won't lie. Balancing all the responsibilities of being a physician, wife, friend, and mommy is tough. Way tougher than I could have ever imagined. "Multitasking" is now my middle name!

But, getting to be Emma's mommy is sooooooooo worth all the hard work. She's amazing and life is good :)

9 months!

We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our little Murphy nugget as we've started calling her :) Emma is growing larger by the day......5 1/2 pounds by last measure at an ultrasound done in the middle of last week. We are now 36 weeks and change and are dying with anticipation. Why does it seem like the closer we get, the longer it will be before she's here?? :) I guess you could say I'm nesting. Between completely organizing her closet and dresser by clothing size, type, and color to cleaning the house from top to bottom and baking for my co-workers, I'm trying to get the time to pass more quickly. We'll be full term (38 weeks) on Christmas day so maybe Santa will bless us with the greatest of all gifts. I'm a little worried that she's having too much fun in there and that she'll want to stay inside.....twisting, rolling, and dancing away!

This photo was snapped at our recent maternity session with the amazingly talented Jenn Hopkins (www.jenhopkinsphotography.com). She is a whiz behind the camera and such a sweetheart. We can't wait to see her again for Emma's first photo shoot :)

under the weather :(

yuck! the murphy family is home sick this weekend.  ryan has been feeling crummy since monday and i started up mid-week.  we both have that sensation that our heads are going to pop off.....so congested!!! we have a symphony of coughs and sneezes going on around here! our house has turned into a pharmacy as i bought out the shelves at publix the other day. need zicam? we have a lifetime supply ;) we got a little worried that it might be the flu and finally broke down and headed to the doctor together on Friday morning to get flu swabs done (not before we had to sit in the waiting room with super attractive facemasks on like a couple on quarantine!).  we got good news though.....no flu for either of us, thankfully! i don't think it would have worried us so much if we didn't have little emma in tow - she's a trooper, though....kicking and dancing away through it all.  we haven't had the opportunity to get our flu shots yet and we just wanted to be extra careful.....or neurotic depending on how you look at it ;)

 flu or not, we both feel like stink so we headed to the movie store for some movies and to publix for some chicken noodle soup and have been on the couch all weekend hoping that a long weekend of resting will be just the ticket!  

 as i type our wonderful Gators are making QUITE the season debut, up 53 points going into the 4th quarter! we're enjoying taking in the game from the confines of our couch :)  ryan made homemade spinach-artichoke dip (he is turning into my martha stewart man) and i am snuggled up with no place i'd rather be!  here's to a speedy recovery.  hope everyone is having a wonderful labor day weekend. GO GATORS!!!!

what a month!

What a whirlwind of a month!!  Both Ryan and I have been so ridiculously busy that it isn't even funny! I have been working on average 80 hours a week in the Intensive Care Unit and Ryan has been busting his butt finishing up the expansion project at Southwest Rec.  We had dinner with my parents last night to celebrate the end of my rotation (which, I might add entailed spending the night at the hospital every 4th night!) and we both just couldn't help but breathe big sighs of relief.  I feel like I'm crawling out of a hole! My life for the past 4 weeks has been work, eat, sleep....pretty much in that order!  It feels AMAZING to be done....and to know that I won't have to be away from my Ryan like that again for a long while.  Phew!  I feel my life coming back and it feels good!

The month started out with the most amazing of treats.  On July 31st, we learned that we will be welcoming a beautiful baby GIRL into the world.....Emma Claire Murphy.  We truly could not be any more excited that we are right now.  Going for that last ultrasound was, second to our wedding day, the most magical day of our lives.  The experience was surreal and amazing in its entirety.  At first glimpse, the most obvious thing was just how much BIGGER she had gotten in just a few short weeks.  The last time we saw her, she was still relatively constricted....her neck had not finished developing enough to be fully extended and her hands and feet were curled up close to her body.  This time, however, it was like looking at a fully formed child.....her neck was extended and her arms and legs were flailing about :) She was kicking with reckless abandon and opening and closing her hands like a champ.  We watched as she waved to us and swallowed and we got to see every single last inch of her.  We got amazing views of her heart, her face (tiny nose and lips and all!), her lungs/stomach/kidneys and every single last vertebrae.  It was totally stunning....all in all she is completely developed.  Everything is there and she just has to mature now! So cool.  We seriously could have watched this all day.

Now at 21 weeks and just 1 lb, her little flutters have transitioned into full fledged kicks and jabs......she must know I'm typing about her because she's going at it right now!  The absolute best part is that she is strong enough that Ryan can feel her now too.....he can finally make tangible contact with this amazing little life that I've have the pleasure of coming to know in the past weeks.  I have never been so happy in my whole life and while I had everything I could ever need in my relationship with Ryan.....this just makes our life so much sweeter.  We cannot wait to meet HER! :)