Pictures are up to date!

Here are some new albums.

Enjoy! 

Emma in August: 

Emma in August

Kurt met some friends at the Baltimore Comic conference:

Baltimore Comic-Con

Emma in September:

Emma in September

Our trip to the Pumpkin Patch (October 16):

Pumpkin Picking!

Our trip to the D.C. zoo (October 17):

At the National Zoo

Pizza please!

On our way home from the zoo today, we decided to stop at Costco for a few items. Our first item of business as we entered was a pit stop for all 3 of us. While Emma and Kurt were waiting for me, Emma wandered up towards the food counter. When I got there, I knelt down next to her and she pointed up and said "Pizza." and signed please. It was super cute. She didn't eat a lot for lunch and by this point, it was mid-afternoon, so we got in line and Kurt got out $5. Emma took it from me and started walking up to the counter to give to a cashier. This girl wanted her pizza - NOW! I tried to explain that we had to wait in line...you can imagine how well that conversation went with a hungry 16 month old! Luckily the line moved quickly and we got our pizza slice.

We sat at a table and Kurt started cutting as quickly as he could. As quickly as he placed pieces onto a plate for Emma she had them in her mouth and was saying and signing "More. More. More" Then she started to point to the plate and said "More. Right there." Demanding little thing isn't she?? In the end, she ate pretty much the entire slice of pizza herself and asked for another on our way out!

Interesting points from this story:
1. We must frequent the Costco food counter pretty often that Emma knows that she gets pizza there. (Although there IS a very large picture of pizza on the menu board) (In defense of how often we eat there...who can beat a meal for a family of 3 for about $5-$7???)

2. Emma knows that if you give money (or credit cards) you can get what you want. (I'm not sure if this is a good thing!...although her Mommy is obviously a good teacher! :) )

Zoo!

Emma went to the zoo for the first time today! We met up with Cameron and his Mommy, Kim, and Claire and her parents, Nadine and Paul, at the D.C. zoo for a fun day.

The first animal Emma saw was on the walk into the zoo. It was a maned fox. We were surprised at how big it was...and how stinky it was! Since we arrived a bit before Cameron and Claire, we took our time and walked through the visitor center and gift shop. Emma had fun playing with little toy animal figurines for quite a while. Afterward, we made our way to the panda bear exhibit where one of the pandas was eating bamboo leaves for breakfast. Emma watched him for a while then moved on to climbing on rocks outside the exhibit. After meeting up with our friends, we saw an elephant and gorillas before going to the farm portion of the zoo where Emma got to pet a cow! During lunch, we ran into neighbors who were visiting the zoo with their 4 year old son - small world! After lunch, we saw a tiger and lion where Emma demonstrated that she knew that tigers say "Roar!" Shortly after seeing the big cats, Emma fell asleep and since it was nearing nap time, Cameron and Claire packed up and headed home. On the way back to the car, Kurt and I took a detour to see a cheetah.

It was another gorgeous day and we had a great time being outside and with friends! We're looking forward to visiting the zoo and seeing Cameron and Claire again soon!

Here are some pictures from the day:

At the National Zoo

Soap says "Love"

Emma is constantly taking things in, asking "what's that?" and attempting to repeat the answer. The one thing that she refuses to repeat is "I love you." We even tried settling just for the word "Love." Most of the time she'll change the subject by smiling or running away. (Our consolation though are super sweet kisses and great hugs, so we really shouldn't complain too much!) One thing she is great at is repeating animal sounds. So Kurt got the idea during bath time that soap was going to say "Love." He went through the usual animals and then the introduction that soap says "Love" and repeated it several times. When he asked, "Emma, what does soap say?" Emma looked around the bath tub and then back up at him and said "Bath." We can't get anything by this girl!

Tonight in the bath tub, she did try to repeat "I love you" for Kurt. It was super sweet!

Emma's Ready To Play Operation

Emma has known eye, nose, mouth, head, and toes for a while. She would sometimes know where her ear and hair were as well. A week or two ago we started working on some additional body parts.She now consistently can identify her neck, knees, hands, hair, ears, and boobies. She will some times point to her bum. (I think she knows her bum, since I'm always telling her to sit on it, but is still working on the coordination to be able to point to it or pat it without losing her balance.) She also generally knows where her shoulders are. Again I think this is more of a coordination issue. We're actively working on finding her elbows. She thinks its great when we point them out to her in the bath tub, but I don't think she "knows" them yet. We also have to distinguish between feet and toes and hands and fingers.

Potty Time!

A few weeks ago, Grandma C found a Dora the Explorer training potty for Emma.We placed it in our powder room but didn't pressure Emma at all. We've been trying to make her aware of when she has a dirty diaper so that she can let someone know since she gets such bad diaper rashes, but we weren't trying to actively potty train, just gradually introduce the concept. A couple times, mostly before bath time, we've taken her diaper off and sat her on the potty just to see if we would get lucky but nothing materialized. One day before work, Kurt tried to see if she would use it and one day last week before bath time we tried again. While the potty wasn't filled, Emma did sit on it and appeared to by "trying" and patiently sat on the potty for several minutes.

This evening, I thought that she might have to go, so I took her in, sat her down, and grabbed a book. We sat there for a while...and she went! She was very good and content the whole time, but I think she might have to get used to sitting down to go. I guess this will just take practice. Of course we did lots of cheering about how she is such a big girl! After we got her re-diapered and everything cleaned up, she wandered back into the bathroom and sat down again. We told her that it was just for potty time and to come back out to play. Turns out she went again! I guess she wasn't completely done the first time. We made a big deal over this as well since she knew what to do.

While we know that almost 17 months is pretty young for consistent potty use, we are thinking of getting some pull-ups for times when we're just going to be in the house and have time for practice and messes.

Pumpkin Patch!

We joined Calvin, Melanie, & Adam for a day at Larriland Farm. We arrived just in time for opening and were able to explore and let the kids run around for a bit without having to contend with crowds. Although it was bright and sunny, the wind made it quite chilly and fall-like. We were able to warm up a bit with some warm apple cider and apple fritters though! Emma and Calvin enjoyed the pumpkins, chickens, cow pictures, and goats very much. They also liked trying to push around wheelbarrows which were around for people purchasing several pumpkins. They also were very intrigued by a lake and didn't want to admit that it was a bit too cold to go swimming!

Emma went on her first hay wagon ride today! (Calvin is a seasoned veteran when it comes to wagon rides. I think today's was his third!). We were a little hesitant to go since Emma doesn't sit for extended periods of time. We were about 5 minutes in when she looked up at us and said "All done!" Luckily, at that point we entered into the woods and were able to point out some storybook characters decorating the trail. She also enjoyed playing with the hay, until the wind blew some into her face.

After the hay ride, we purchased some cider and produce and headed to the pumpkin patch a few fields down the road. Luckily, by this point, the wind had mostly died down and it was a bit warmer. Emma again found some wheelbarrows to play with before we took her to the middle of the patch to pick our pumpkin. She and Calvin had fun looking at all the pumpkins and both families headed home with pumpkins with great jack-o-lantern potential.

On the way home, we stopped at Double T Diner for lunch. Both kids did great, especially considering it was past lunch time and quickly approaching nap time. Emma enjoyed pickles from both our plates as well as meatballs from Mommy's meatball sub. Emma only napped for about 25 minutes on the way home and was a trooper all day. We even went out and walked around outside for about 40 more minutes this evening before she asked for a bath at 6:45!

We had a perfect autumn day! Here's hoping tomorrow's trip to the zoo is just as great!

Here are a few more pictures from the day: 

Pumpkin Picking!

Anniversary Weekend

Kurt and I had our fourth wedding anniversary at the beginning of September. To celebrate, Kurt planned a weekend get away in Hershey, Pennsylvania, for us the first weekend in October. We stayed at the 1825 Inn, a fantastic B&B which reminded us of the B&B we stayed at in the French Alsace Region in 2008. We had a wonderful weekend, sleeping in, relaxing, shopping, going to a movie, and eating late dinners.

A note and then a quick funny story about this trip.
Note: Kurt has planned every one of our anniversary trips since our honeymoon. He always does a great job and I am never disappointed by his choices!

Quick Funny Story:  Kurt picked Hershey, PA, because it is close to where his parents live who agreed to watch Emma for the weekend (more on that later). Originally, he planned to get tickets to see Chicago, the musical not the band. He booked the B&B so that we would have a place to stay and made a calendar reminder to book the show tickets when they went on sale a few weeks later. When he went to purchase the tickets, he couldn't find them anywhere and contacted the venue site. He was told that the show had a change in schedule and that they were now touring in Europe. He was also told that there was no replacement and that the only thing in for the weekend was a Nickelback concert. (That was the funny part...because if you know Kurt, you know that Nickelback is not his cup of tea. ;) ) When he told me what had happened, he was a little upset. I reassured him that all I wanted was for us to spend time together, sleep in, have coffee, and walk through Target or a book store like we used to do (before Emma.)

Emma spent the weekend at her Grandparents'. She had a great time! We drove up on Friday and were able to spend time with her, Grandpa, Grandma, Uncle Johnny, and Aunt Rachel before leaving for the weekend. It was a gorgeous weekend and they spent a lot of time playing outside throwing walnuts into the creek. When we called to check on her (once in the morning and once in the evening), we found out that she slept in until 730! They said that she was great all day on Saturday and would occasionally go up to pictures of us and point and look inquisitively at them. Grandma reassured her that Mommy and Daddy were coming back and she would wander away to play again. On Sunday, they noticed that she was a little more pensive and seemed to be looking for us more. Luckily we arrived just before lunch time and met them at the park where Emma was having a snack before going back to their house. At first, she wouldn't come to us and was content to be with Grandma. After giving us the cold shoulder for a few minutes, she warmed up to Kurt. Finally, several minutes later, she relented and gave me a big hug and let me play with her on the slide.