July Update

It has been 4 weeks since I last updated! Since the end of June, Emma turned 4 months old, we had a mellow celebration of July 4th at home, Emma and I traveled to Chicago (her third plane trip!), Emma had her first visit to the ER, Curtis went to scout camp, we made two trips to Tucson, and Emma had more immunizations and became just an average 4-month-old.

Emma is growing up more quickly than I thought. I can hardly believe she is almost 5 months old already. We no longer get the inquisitive looks and questions from strangers who wonder how old she is because she's so small. You can't really tell she was ever a premature baby. The Arizona Nursery Intensive Care Program tracks all babies who have had a stay in the NICU after birth. Nurse Violet made her second visit to our home at the end of June and was amazed at how Emma had changed from the first visit 3 months prior. Emma does many things 4-month-olds do. She still sleeps pretty well at night, although naps are a challenge. She is still not very fussy, except when she's very tired and wants to sleep. She is working on her neck muscles, and just recently started sitting up by herself with some assistance from Bumbo the Babysitter. The best thing is watching her smile, and listening to her squeals and laughter and babbling, especially when she doesn't know we're listening and watching. She seems to understand what adults are saying, and is very sensitive to tone of voice. If she thinks you're scolding her, she bursts into tears, and when you talk about her or tease her, she'll coyly look away or hide her face as if she's embarrassed. She's discovered her hands and will often hold them out and stare at them. And lately, she prefers her mommy and daddy to other people and will sometimes cry if someone else gets in her face or holds her. We know this makes other people feel bad, but I'm a little relieved that she knows her mama.

On July 4th, Curtis, Emma and I went to see Wall-E, a new Disney movie. Emma went to bed at 7:30 pm, but Curtis and I got to peek from our backyard fireworks from the casino down the road. We would have loved to have been in Tucson to watch fireworks from the Busbys' backyard, but since Curtis was leaving for scout camp the next morning, we decided not to make the trek. Curtis left for scout camp the next morning in Matt's Jeep. I loaded him up with treats for the boys and peanut butter cookies for him. Sunday was a bit more difficult to manage without Curtis here - we barely made it to church on time. It's much easier when we tag team Emma.

On Sunday night, Curtis returned from camp, so he could go to Las Vegas for a business trip the next day. It ended up being cancelled, but he was available to drive Emma and me to the airport in the morning, so we could leave for Chicago. We were looking forward to meeting Naomi Olivia, my sister's new baby. Again, we had quite a lot of work to do to travel with Emma. The little package requires a lot of stuff - at least a week's worth of diapers, extra clothes, extra baby wipes, toys, blankets, books, baby carrier.... She is still a good little trooper when it comes to traveling. She slept most of the time, but it's definitely getting more difficult to keep her on my lap for over 3 hours.

While in Chicago, Emma had her first visit to the ER. While walking down the stairs carrying Emma in one arm and my sister's laptop computer in the other arm, I dropped Emma ON HER HEAD when she stiffened her back and popped up out of my arm. She hit the hardwood stairs pretty hard, and for a few moments, I thought I had killed her. I yelped (yes, yelped) for my mom who was also there to come quickly. Emma started to cry (which is a good thing) after I picked her up. I don't think I was ever so scared in my life, and a million regrets went through my head (like why didn't I drop the laptop, or make two trips...). My sister called her pediatrician's office for a recommendation, which was to go to the ER. We went to the University of Chicago Children's Hospital Emergency Room, which is brand new. We waited for a CT Scan, which showed no bleeding or fracture (whew!). Emma was a trooper again - they had her wrapped and taped down really tightly for the scan, so she couldn't move, and except for one little wimper before the scan, she was just as compliant as tiny patients come. Emma had a restless night, and the next day, woke up with a huge bump on her head. The poor thing must have had the worst headache! The squishy bump from the fall finally went away after about 10 days, and even our pediatrician determined she was fine, but I have a feeling that when Emma is five years old, and she does something funny, my family will tease her about how I dropped her on her head when she was little. I couldn't tell Curtis until the day after the fall because he was at camp, but when I did tell him, he was as kind as ever, encouraging me and consoling me (because I was crying on the phone). I love him for that!

We had a wonderful time in Chicago. Naomi is a cute little baby, with a good set of lungs. While a good-sized 8-pound newborn, she felt so small and light when I held her. I couldn't believe Emma had ever been so small, or even much smaller at less than half that weight! (See my sister's blog http://www.gregandhyeyoung.blogspot.com/ for some cute stories about Emma and Naomi's antics.) We hope Emma and Naomi will become good friends.

My brother Puyol's family (sans Puyol) are in Chicago for the summer, so we were able to spend more time with them. We had all eight of the Bang grandchildren together on Sunday afternoon. Nicole, the oldest, 18, is now a freshman at BYU-Idaho. My dad drove up on Saturday, and we had a wonderful reunion with the kids and my parents. Because of visa issues, we don't think my brother's family will be around in August for Naomi's blessing and our get-together. (Sad!)

After his second two-day stint at scout camp, Curtis headed down to fly up to Las Vegas and got stuck on highway 87 when they closed it an hour north of Phoenix. From Chicago, I was able to navigate for him on the phone an alternate route for him to get to the airport, but it ended up being a terrible travel day for him because his flight to Las Vegas was delayed after the passengers were already boarded. After he returned home, Curtis had to play bachelor for several more days until we returned, and he was very happy to have us back home.

Later in the week, on Thursday, Emma had her 4-month well child check-up and immunizations. She weighed 12 lbs 11.5 oz (70th percentile for 4-month-olds), was 24 inches long (75th percentile for 4-month-olds), and had head circumference of 40.5 cm (75th percentile for 4-month-olds). Apparently, prematurity didn't slow her down for too long! She also had several immunizations, and took them all with not much more than a wimper and a couple of tears. She amazes me with her resilience.

The following Sunday we spent the day in Tucson visiting Grandma Ella, whom we found out will be moving to a private care home in California to be closer to her son, and attending sacrament meeting where Grandma and Grandpa Busby gave their post-mission talks. They spoke of people in Costa Rica whom they have come to love and about how the mission blessed the lives of their family.

Another quick week went by, and we were headed back to Tucson for Annika's baptism on Saturday afternoon. She is the youngest of Kent's 3 children. I started thinking that by the time Emma is 8, Riley will be 24 and possibly even married, Ryan will be in college or on his mission, and Annika will be 16-years-old. I'm certain that seems like it's far away from now, but that day will be here before we know it. We had a nice time with Kent and Nancy and their family, and we're very proud of Annika's decision to be baptized. When I asked her if she felt differently afterwards, she said, "Yes. I feel older." Annika adores Emma, and loves to hold her and play with her. Since Annika doesn't have a younger sibling, it's very cute to watch her dote on Emma.