Lots and Lots of Pictures!

We finally uploaded pictures from last fall, through the winter, and spring. Click below to see the albums. We'll work on captioning them over the next few days. Enjoy!


This link wraps up 2011 and includes Mia's newborn pictures.


This link goes to 2012 pictures.

Grammy Visits!

Carrie's Mom, Grammy to the girls, visited for a week in mid-June.

The day she arrived, the girls and I visited Gigi in the morning for a bit. In the evening, Emma and I went to the bus station to get her. The entire way there was basically variations of "Are we there yet?" and "Where is Grammy now?" Although it got old, it was very cute to see her so excited.

Emma enjoyed showing Grammy all her toys and playing with her the whole week. Emma got to stay home a few days and went to school for a few days. She enjoyed Grammy giving her baths and reading to her at night. She also sneaked into the basement when she woke up early in the morning to snuggle with Grammy. One of the days, we took both girls out to Kohls and Target and then to lunch at Burger King. At Target, Grammy bought Emma a sit and spin! She loves it! She also loves some fabric triangle scraps that Grammy gave her. She likes matching them up. Mia enjoyed snuggles and getting evening bottles from Grammy.

The days that Emma went to school, Mom, Mia, and I got to go out shopping a couple times. We visited a quilt shop in Annapolis as well as a couple local malls in addition to regular grocery/errand shopping. Mom helped out a lot with dishes and dinners the whole time she was here...not so much a vacation for her! We appreciated everything she did and were all sad to see her go. We look forward to visiting her and Grandpa in July!

3 year check up!

While Grammy was visiting, Emma had her 3 year check up. She's a healthy little girl weighing in at 33 pounds (70th percentile) and 36.75 inches (45th percentile). Lucky for her, no shots this time, but she'll make up for it next year with 4 vaccinations!

Since her check up, she's asked several times if she gets to go again (could be something to do with the lollypop she got on the way out). And whenever she plays with her doctor kit at home, she says she's Dr. Turn which we've corrected to Dr. Turner.

Babies in Bloom

As I got the girls in the car this morning to take Emma to daycare, a thought flashed through my mind that I had something to do this morning. I couldn't find my calendar in the diaper bag, and of course I didn't want to take them both back inside, so I figured it could wait until I got home. Luckily, my friend Emily texted me that this morning was Babies in Bloom at the library. Timing worked out perfectly that Mia and I were able to meet Emily and Effie for Mia's first story time!

Mia enjoyed looking around at the other kids and had some fun with the sing songy nursery rhymes with movement accompaniments that we did. She did start to get a bit fussy and I had to walk around with her, but she was probably over stimulated and hungry at the time. At any rate, it was fun for Mommy too!

And I told Mia, this was 1 thing that Emma hasn't done...yay, point for the little one! :)

From the library website:

Babies in Bloom

It’s never too early to come to the library!
Parents and caregivers are invited to bring their babies (up to two years) for a fun-filled half-hour of stories, songs, rhymes and fingerplays all specifically designed to stimulate early infant development.

Visit from Not me!

When I got out of the shower this morning, I heard Mia crying. She was quietly looking around when I got in the shower. I asked Emma why Mia was crying. Her response, "I don't know. I didn't pinch her." mmmhmmm.

Mia was in her bouncer seat and the side two toy thingys were flipped up, so it's possible that Emma only bumped Mia. There weren't any red marks or anything. I just thought it was funny that Emma basically implicated herself in a crime. :)

Getting Bigger!

Mia almost rolled over today! She's rolled over about 3 times before this, but they have always been flukes...usually it's how I put her down and she's not super stable, she looks one way and her body follows. Today though, it appeared as though she knew what she was doing (sort of) or what she wanted to do (maybe) (Or I could just be her Mom who thinks she's awesome!) She rolled from her tummy onto her side and then got stuck. I let her be for a minute or two to try to figure out how to kick her leg over, but she only got angry. Finally, I moved her leg for her before picking her up. It's only a matter of time before she figures it out for real!

Since she was born, Mia has been able to get her hand to her mouth. Of course at the beginning, she couldn't really hold it there to suck on but as time goes by, she gets it there more consistently and for longer periods of time. She's even managed to get her thumb sort of in her mouth a couple of times! When she started making noise this morning after a feeding, I went to check on her to see if she needed her pacifier, but her eyes were closed and she already had her thumb in her mouth and her other four fingers pointed straight up. It was adorable!

Mia's first bottle!

Mia had her first bottle today!  She was pretty hungry and therefore angry when Kurt sat down with her to eat. It took her a couple minutes to figure out how to drink from the bottle and she drank about an ounce. After a burp and looking around to find me, she settled back down and drank some more. This process repeated a couple times. A 3oz bottle took about 20 minutes for her to drink...but she did...without any huge disagreement. (This is a HUGE relief for me!) I think we'll try to give her a bottle a day, just to make sure that she takes to it.

Parkour!

A coworker of Kurt's has 2 boys roughly Emma's age who like to jump around and rough house. Apparently, her husband taught the boys to shout, "Parkour!" during their escapades like in the parkour Office episode. (You may know parkour as free running. See below for definition.) Kurt thought this was hysterical. Emma love love loves to jump off the steps in our house. (The steps to the 2nd floor are in the middle of our living room.) Kurt told Emma that whenever she jumps, she should yell, Parkour! He told her this one time. She's been doing it ever since! (Probably going on 3 weeks now.) And as if this isn't bad enough, yelling parkour has apparently given her more courage because instead of the 2nd step, she now jumps from the third step whenever I'm not looking  so I can't tell her not too. *Sigh*

From Wikipedia:
Parkour (French pronunciation: [paʁˈkuʁ]) (abbreviated PK) is a physical discipline and non-competitive sport which focuses on efficient movement around obstacles. Developed in France by David Belle, the main purpose of the discipline is to teach participants how to move through their environment by vaulting, rolling, running, climbing, and jumping. Parkour practitioners are known as "traceurs".

Beating you up!

Emma is definitely a sponge and takes in a lot. We have to be careful what we say around her. It's funny when she misinterprets a phrase or uses it in the wrong context. The other day at breakfast, Emma declared, "Daddy, you're beating me up!" We both turned to her and asked, "What?!?" She repeated it and using our analytical skills determined that Kurt was closer to finishing his cereal than Emma was, so he was beating her....up.  =)

A couple weeks ago, Kurt was exasperated with her and said, "Jeez Emma!" She parroted him a few minutes later, however her pronunciation became, Jesus. Oops. We've since tried to eliminate jeez from our vocabulary!

Emma mimics how we speak to Mia. In the morning, she's get close to Mia's face, kiss her and say, "Good morning Sunshine!" During diaper changes, she will say, "Oh my goodness!", "Hi there pretty girl," or "It's ok Mia." In the car if Mia gets fussy, Emma tells her, "It's ok Mia, we're almost there", or "Hang in there Mia, it's ok." 

Party Time!

We had a couple friends over on Saturday to celebrate Emma's 3rd Birthday. Emma knew the party was set to start at 10am and woke up at 615 asking when her friends were coming over. :) She had fun going with Kurt to pick out some princess balloons that served as both decorations and party favors.

Emma and her friends, Robert, Natalie, and Cameron (unfortunately, Claire was sick and couldn't make it) had fun decorating foam picture frames with princess themed stickers. They also had great fun running around and playing before we had pizza, strawberries and pineapple, and animal crackers and pretzels for lunch. After we ate, the kids had fun playing dress up in Emma's princess costumes -- yes, even the boys participated! Of course, we ended with a castle cake that Kurt and I made together. :) (Truth be told, Kurt did most of the stars because my hands weren't warm enough to get the icing pliable enough.)

Emma and her friends had a great time!

Expressive

Mia was very expressive today. We had a great time playing, smiling, and talking. :) She even smiled when I asked her to a few times. She tried to chime in when Emma and I were singing this evening. She also did great during tummy time, although she still gets frustrated that she can't roll over onto her back. During dinner, she was upset that she wasn't at the table with us and once I picked her up, she was a happy little girl to be with us and see what we were doing.

She is getting into more of a routine. Generally, she wakes up around 6am (give or take 30 minutes), eats and then plays for about an hour then goes back to sleep for about an hour. Then she'll wake up, have some alert quiet time until she's hungry. We then have more play time until she's tired again. We repeat this routine several times although she doesn't take another long nap until the middle of the afternoon. Then generally around 4 or 430, we head out to pick up Emma from school. In the evening, Emma harasses plays with Mia. Every few days we give Mia a bath around 7pm after getting her in pajamas, we read a book, the other nights around 730, we change her into pajamas and  read a book. She then has quiet alert time before falling asleep between 8 and 10. Luckily, (knock on wood) she is still sleeping about 4-5 hours before waking to eat. After her long stretch of sleep, she wakes every 1.5 to 2 hours after that until around 6am.