Kurt, Carrie, & Emma

Snow!

2012-01-09T19:59:00.000-05:00

It started snowing this afternoon and was still snowing when I picked Emma up from daycare. I told her as we were putting on her coat and she got really excited. When we walked outside, her face lit up in awe and she held her hands out to catch snowflakes. It was a very magical moment. There are several lights on the walk to the car and we stopped for a few seconds at each one to look at 'all the snow!' When we arrived home, Emma asked if she could walk in the grass. (The ground is still warm and the roads and sidewalks were only wet.) After we went in to change into warmer coats and boots, she took a couple steps in the grass, turned to me and with a look of pure excitement on her face exclaimed, "It's crunchy!" She also enjoyed looking for snowballs. She found a few little clumps of snow where she had walked. (I didn't have gloves and was not about to make her one!) We stayed out for about 10 minutes while we waited for Kurt to get home and Emma showed him how she walked in the snow.

Turtle the Polar Bear

2012-01-09T19:50:00.003-05:00

Emma asked for her new stuffed polar bear tonight at bed time. When we got him for her, we asked what his name was. She first said BoBo. Kurt told her that she names everything BoBo and that he needed a unique name and suggested Fred. She said, "No, his name is Turtle." Turtle the Polar Bear.

The Next Radio Star

2011-12-06T20:18:00.002-05:00

After her shower tonight (more on that later), Emma told us that Aurora was on the radio. At first we were confused and didn't know where she got that from. After talking with her some more, she told us, that the fairies made Aurora sing pretty and that she was very pretty so one day she would be on the radio.

The week before Thanksgiving, Emma took an interest in showering instead of bathing. Her bathroom has a detachable shower head which we routinely use to rinse her hair thoroughly. One evening, she didn't want a full bath but we wanted to rinse her off before bed and used that shower. Afterwards, she decided she liked it and asked for it several times that week. After we returned from our Thanksgiving travels, we started letting her decide if she wants a bath or a shower each night. So far, she's about 2:1 for her shower:bath decisions.

Caretaker

2011-12-06T20:14:00.000-05:00

Over the weekend, Emma was sitting on the carpet in front of the sink eating a banana when I (carrie) groaned a bit on my way down to the floor to sit next to her. She looked at me with a very concerned look in her eye and asked if my back hurt. I said, yes a bit. Then she asked if my belly hurt and I assured her that my belly was fine and it was just my back. She thought for a quick minute and said, "Ok Mama, when I finish my 'nana, I'll rub your back." It made my heart melt and I quickly forgot several frustrating situations with her that had happened earlier in the day.

She makes us eat our words

2011-12-05T21:26:00.000-05:00

Recently, Emma has started adding -e to many words. (For instance, "I want milky." or "Give me a huggy."or "I'm all done-y") It has been driving us insane, especially since we took great care not to use baby talk with her. I mentioned it to one of her teachers at school when she first started it and she said that Emma hadn't been doing it there. Every time she does it, we attempt to correct her and have her repeat the word correctly.

She did it again as we were cleaning up dinner tonight and making her wait her turn to get cleaned up so she could go play.

The conversation went something like this:

Emma: I'm all done-y.
Carrie: *sigh* Emma quit adding a y to words.
Kurt: Emma that's not a word. Say I'm all done. You can't just add y to the end of words.
Emma: I'm messy, as she lifts up her hands to show us and has a completely straight face.
Kurt and Carrie's thoughts: Man we can't pull ANYTHING over on this kid.
Followed by some chuckles.
Kurt: Emma are you too smart for your own good?
Emma: No! I don't think so Mister!
....where did she get that from?!?.....
Carrie: Who says that Emma?
Emma: Miss Brianna says it when she reads the book No, David!

As we laughed, Emma got the biggest smile on her face and laughed SO hard. She was incredibly proud of herself!

Happy Halloween!

2011-11-01T21:37:00.001-04:00

We asked Emma back in September what she wanted to be for Halloween. She was adamant that she dress up as Strawberry Shortcake. As luck would have it, we were at a consignment sale and Kurt and Emma actually found a Strawberry Shortcake costume! Emma was very excited! She especially liked the hat. She asked every day for a week if she could wear it.

On Friday evening, we met up with a friend and went to her community center's Halloween Party. Emma and Kate, who dressed up as a bumblebee, had a good time playing together before and after the party, but Emma was very timid the whole time we were at the party. She was very apprehensive about costumes which included masks.

She was very excited to wear her costume to school on Monday for character day. She had a fun day with a costume parade and various forms of sugar. (I'm not sure I want to know exactly how much she ate, all I know is that her fingers and one eyebrow came home stained orange from a cupcake. She also told me her tummy hurt so I'm thinking she had a fair amount of junk.)

After dinner, she was excited to go out trick or treating. We got ready to head out and opened the front door just as the first group of kids was getting ready to ring the doorbell. There was a little boy dressed as the Incredible Hulk with a full mask which scared Emma. (She is not a fan of masks when she can't see the person's face.) We took her outside and went to our neighbors' who she loves but she was very shy and wouldn't say anything. After another group of kids came through and she saw how the whole process worked, she warmed up a bit and said Trick or Treat to a couple other neighbors that we see regularly.

After watching a couple more groups of kids come up to our house, she was ready to try it herself. "Mommy, I want to go to THAT house." It was super cute. At first I had to coax her but soon she would just say Trick or Treat herself and every once in while tell people she was Strawberry Shortcake. She said Thank you at every house and very carefully chose lollipops whenever they were an option. We probably went to 15 houses give or take before her pumpkin was full. Every few houses she would ask where Daddy was and we'd make our way home so that we could show him her loot.

We were very excited for this Halloween after she was so timid last year and she seemed very excited for it this year. We were so happy that she got over her initial shock of seeing the Incredible Hulk and had a great time! She told me that she can't wait for next year!

Emma's Playlist

2011-11-01T21:16:00.000-04:00

In addition to kiddo songs that she sings at school and requests from a CD in Carrie's car, Emma has a few Top 40 songs that she loves to sing along and dance to. In the car, she will sing along and picks up more words every time she hears them. At home, she'll ask if we can play them on the computer so that she can either watch the video or dance or bounce on a ball to them. (She really enjoys dancing in just her t shirt and underwear...what girl doesn't??)

Her favorites, in preferential order are:
Hello, Martin Solveig
Party Rock Anthem, LMFAO
Pumped up Kicks , Foster the People
Superbase Nicki Minaj
I Wanna Go, Brittany Spears

In the more age appropriate genre of music, some of Emma's favorites are:
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (sometime she performs this as if she is a pirate: Twinkle Twinkle little stARRR.)
The ABCs (we're currently working on ...Q, R, S, T....instead of Q, R, X, Y and Z)
Baa Baa Black Sheep
Rain Rain Go Away
Bringing Home a Baby Bumblebee

From the CD in the car, she is a big fan of
The Firetruck Song
Five Green and Speckled Frogs
and The Chicken Dance
She is also slowly beginning to clap and say the letters to DISCO (the ghetto version of BINGO)

Television

2011-11-01T20:55:00.001-04:00

Emma has several favorite tv shows. Her favorite of the day rotates between Dora the Explorer, Go Diego Go!, Dragon Tales, and Yo Gabba Gabba. We stream all of these via Netflix on the Wii. Usually when a 23 minute episode ends, she would tell either of us that her show was over and ask for us to start another one. Within the last week, however, she has started grabbing remote, aiming at the television, and starting the next episode all by herself. Almost every time, she declares, "I did it!"
The first time Emma did it, Kurt didn't believe her and made her show him twice before he realized that it wasn't a fluke!

In the past, she has requested a specific show and every once in a while describes an episode that she's watched recently. She will now request a very specific episode, almost down to the actual episode title and we will have to scroll through the titles before we find it for her.

Yesterday Emma and Kurt had this conversation:
Emma: I need a new episode.
Kurt: Didn't you just start a new episode?
Emma: I wanted the choo-choo one. I can't do it. (She can only start the next episode in the queue, she can't scroll through the queue to find the one she wants.)

Poll

2011-10-30T20:28:00.000-04:00

Just a quick note in case you use a reader to view our blog. We've added a poll on the right hand side to see if everyone thinks we'll have a boy or a girl this time around.

Hopefully the baby will cooperate and will let us find out this upcoming Friday!

Cookie Advocate

2011-10-12T21:12:00.000-04:00

Tonight Emma was dilly-dallying while eating dinner. I really just wanted her to finish up and told her that if she finished before Daddy got home she would get a special treat. She skeptically looked at me and asked, "What kind of special treat?" I have no doubt that if I answered the incorrect item, that dinner would not have been finished. Since I had nothing specific in mind, I told her that she had to finish in order to find out. This seemed to work for a few minutes, until Kurt walked in the door. Since it was about 3 minutes after I gave her the first incentive, I didn't think it was quite fair that she didn't finish yet and told her again if she just finished she would get a treat. Kurt remembered some cookies that we had stashed away and showed them to her. As you can imagine, she quickly finished her dinner. I told Emma that Daddy was her cookie-advocate. Before bed, Kurt asked Emma who her cookie-advocate was, she promptly replied, "Daddy!" with a big smile.

Although I've known it for a while now, we are definitely in for some trouble since our 2 1/3 year old apparently has rudimentary reasoning skills. :)

The Big Room

2011-10-12T21:06:00.000-04:00

Emma had a wonderful time spending the majority of her day in the 3-year old class room today! The day care director told me that she first asked Emma if she wanted to go to the 3-year old room and Emma said no but when her friend Layla said yes, Emma changed her mind. The director told me that Emma was not clingy at all and went right in and didn't look back. The teacher in the room, Miss Kim, told me that she did wonderful all day, she ate lunch well, napped well, and played with the other kids well. She said that Emma follows directions very well and is very polite. The vice-director told me that neither she nor Miss Kim could believe that Emma wasn't even 2 1/2 yet and that she did everything just as well as the 3 year olds.

The director told me that she hadn't really considered moving Emma up so soon, but would think about giving her more time in the 3-year old classroom since she's seen how well she does in there. This makes us happy because, Emma has always seemed to thrive whenever she's been placed with slightly older kids.

Emma was very happy on the way home from school today. Usually, I'll try to ask her about her day and she replies, "No Mommy, later," or on good days, I'll get one word responses. Today, though, she was more than willing to share. I still had to ask questions, she hasn't quite progressed to just babble about her day, but her eyes were shining when she told me that she played with Cameron and Taylor and 'that other boy.' And she was very excited that she got to play with playdough and that she made a birthday cake and a GREEN robot...with moving hands! She even shared that robots talk in a nasally voice and say, "Waaaah Waaaah Wahh!"

When Daddy called on his way home, she eagerly shared her big day with him on the phone. This is huge because Emma rarely will talk on the phone let alone for several minutes!

We're so excited that Emma had such a great experience in the 'big classroom' and hope she gets to spend some more time there soon!

Emma's going to be a big sister!

2011-10-03T21:43:00.000-04:00

Like I said in the last post, we were really busy this summer and have many fun stories to share. For right now our most exciting story is that Emma is going to be a big sister around the end of March! She is very excited for her new role and has preparing by taking care of 2 dolls, Baby Sister and Baby Boy, quite well. She makes sure they get lots of sleep and likes to fed them applesauce. She also gets quite distressed when they get dirty during their meals and insists we change them. (for the record, she's just pretending on both the food and changing them since their clothes don't come off) She enjoys holding them frequently and showing them off with the sweetest voice and smile, "Mommy look at my Baby. See Mommy?"

Also for the record, Carrie is only having one baby, although we won't know for another month or so if it's a boy or girl. Currently, Emma's name choices are Sleeping Beauty, or Baby Hazel after our friends Ashley and Matt's daughter Hazel.

Carrie has felt well for the most part, just more exhausted than usual. Luckily some of that seems to be passing. Although running after a toddler is exhausting in and of itself!

Stay tuned for more about our summer as well as more current stories!

Pictures....FINALLY!

2011-10-03T21:35:00.000-04:00

Obviously I'm ridiculously far behind on the blog, hopefully you haven't given up on us completely. I have many stories from our very busy summer to share! Hopefully these albums will make you smile until I can write some stories!

Split Rock - 4th of July

June Pictures!

2011-07-16T10:32:00.001-04:00

Emma in June - A Month of Cake

Then and Now...

2011-06-19T21:34:00.004-04:00

Emma and Calvin's first date:

1-2 weeks old
(14 June 2009)

Many dates later:

2 years and 2-3 weeks old
(19 June 2011)

My how time flies! They were WAY easier to photograph when they were brand new! They were laying across the pack and play in the first picture and longways in the 2nd. My how time flies and kiddos grow!

Nap Time or Gymnastics Time?

2011-06-18T13:52:00.000-04:00

Getting Emma down for a nap has always been a nightmare, today was no exception.

Backing up, yesterday I had the brilliant idea that Emma and I would get up, eat breakfast, and then head right out to "the big park" which she has been asking to visit for 2 days now in the hopes of tiring her out and making nap time go smoothly. We ended up having a slower morning than intended, but she was happy playing and watching Dora while I did a few chores. At any rate, we were outside at 8:45. Emma sprinted down the steps while I struggled to get the jogging stroller which she had asked to ride in out of the house and down the steps. As she's watching me, she said, "Come on Mommy! Go BIG park, ride swings, go FAST!"

We played at the big park for a while, walked around a pond, played at a smaller park for about 3.5 minutes, and threw leaves off a bridge into the stream. At this point, Emma asked to back to the big park and climbed back into the stroller. When we got there, she DID NOT want to be there...little girl was getting tired! As I pushed her home, she fell asleep and ended up sleeping in the stroller for about 15 minutes. I attempted to transfer her into her bed, but of course she popped right up and was ready for a snack!

After lunch, I could tell she was tired, but was fighting it. I sat with her and watched a Dora hoping that would calm her down. It didn't. She wouldn't let me take her into the cool dark basement and wriggled away from me and back up the steps screaming the whole time. I tried laying down with her in the guest bed, in our bed. Nothing worked. I asked if she wanted her pack and play. She said yes. I put her in, she said, "Bye bye Mommy." So I kissed her and left. Next thing I hear is Emma crying...and it's getting louder, not because she's increasing in volume but because she's getting closer! Little monkey climbed out of her pack and play! I took her back upstairs and put her back in...she immediately vaulted back out. It was pretty impressive. I put her back in and rubbed her back for about 30 seconds and she was out.....finally! Here's hoping she gets a good 2 hours in!

Morning Snuggle Time!

2011-06-18T12:05:00.000-04:00

This morning, Emma padded into my bedroom when she woke up. Although we're trying really hard not to bring her into bed with us, I did bring her into bed to snuggle for a few minutes before we got up for the day. She immediately laid down on the pillow on her side with her hands up under her face and smiled. She was gorgeous! As I laid there and woke up slowly, she would lean over from time to time and give me a quick kiss on the cheek or on the lips. It was one of the best ways to wake up!

One of my favorite things....

2011-06-18T11:58:00.002-04:00

Kinda weird but...the smell of hours old sunscreen and dried toddler sweat on a happy, snuggly kid. (I'm relatively sure that the kid has to be mine for me to appreciate this.)

All better!

2011-06-17T19:24:00.000-04:00

After a brief rain shower this evening, Emma convinced me that we should go outside. We walked, skipped, ran, and walked backwards until we got to the park. Emma didn't believe that the park would be wet. Specifically she said, "I see it Mommy." The slides and the swings were indeed wet. When Emma saw this, she picked up a stick and said, "Time to clean up. I make it all better." She then proceeded to 'clean up' all three slides and a climbing wall with her small stick. She also dumped the water off all three swings. We ended up playing there for a while, because, although it was wet, it was also 80 degrees, so I figured it wouldn't hurt her too much. She enjoyed getting her hands wet. Towards the end of our time there, her friend Natalie and her parents came out to the park and the girls had fun playing (not necessarily together, but at least at the same time!)

This was the first time that I've heard her use the I make it all better sentence. It was cute!

2 year stats

2011-06-09T17:26:00.000-04:00

Emma had her 2 year well check today. She is a little on the small side at 26 pounds (45th percentile) and 33 inches tall (25th percentile) but the doctor said not to worry about it and that she likely will even out in the next year or so. Emma was very brave and did great getting weighed and having her height taken. She even let the nurse listen to her heart without a fight. By the time the doctor came in though, Emma started getting antsy and was a little fussy. The doctor did her exam with Emma wigging the whole time. Emma had a 2nd Hepatitis A vaccine and will now be good on vaccines until she's 4 (aside from the flu shot which she will be able to get via flu mist this fall).

The doctor assured us that Emma is right on target and perhaps a little advanced developmentally for her age. We learned that we're not supposed to pressure her to use a potty for her BMs and that sometimes it takes at least a year until kids can master that. The doctor also gave us a few discipline pointers to try to get Emma to stop hitting us when she gets mad or frustrated and told us that the biggest way to mitigate tantrums is to watch for clues such as hunger/tiredness/general over stimulation.

Although we know that Emma is thriving, it's always nice to have an 'expert' chime in and tell you so too!

Pictures of Emma in May

2011-06-06T22:36:00.000-04:00

Emma in May

Emma's 2nd Birthday!

Science Experiment

2011-06-06T22:14:00.000-04:00

I am proud to announce that Emma completed her first science experiment tonight!

We on our way home from the park when Emma fell on the sidewalk and scraped up her knee pretty badly. She immediately started crying and told me that she needed ice. (She also told me that she needed her bike as well as bubbles before deciding that ice was what was going to make her knee feel better.) I put a couple ice cubes in a baggie and she decided they were too big and relatively quickly was distracted by something else. A short time later, she wanted to try to ice her knee again and I suggested that we take the ice with us for her bath. She had a great time watching the ice get smaller and melt. Each ice cube's life ended with, "Where did it go?" complete with her little palms facing upwards. It was very cute! We talked about how water freezes to become ice and then when ice gets warm, it melts back into water. Oh, how I can't wait for more experiments!!

Big Girl Bed

2011-06-05T20:34:00.000-04:00

Since we had driven up to Pennsylvania separately, we each stopped at different places for errands on the way home. Kurt intended to just stop for gas, but Emma said she wanted to go into a store. Since Emma has Daddy wrapped around her little finger, they went into Walmart for a bit to wander around. Their wandering led them to toddler beds and they ended up bringing one home. Emma was very proud that she helped pick it out and if you ask her, she'll probably tell you that she put it together herself. ;) She did hold some of the pieces and told us that she was helping....over and over again. (Daddy, I helping. Daddy, I helping.) :) She was very excited once it was put together and immediately started to try to bounce on it. We quickly told her that was not good. She seemed to go to bed fine tonight in it, but she was exhausted, so we'll see how it goes tomorrow.

(A few weeks ago, she did sleep on her mattress on the floor for a week. Exactly a week after I put the mattress on the floor, she asked for it to be put back in her crib.)

We had intended on just getting her a regular twin size bed and not using a toddler bed, but the toddler bed was easy and cheap. (Easy meaning, Kurt threw it in his car and we didn't have to worry about delivery or making things fit.) Also, I think it's making the transition from Emma being a baby to a big girl easier for both Mom and Dad!

Grandma and Papa's Birthday Celebration

2011-06-05T20:24:00.000-04:00

Emma had a great time at Papa and Grandma's. All the kids were home to help celebrate their parents' birthdays and Emma got loads of attention from everyone. Within minutes of Emma and I walking into the house, Papa had whisked her away and they headed down to the creek to throw stones into the water. In the afternoon, Emma helped Grandma and Aunt Katie make Papa his birthday cake. After dinner, Emma went to the grocery store with Daddy and Papa to pick up some last minute items.

Emma slept like a rock in Grandma and Papa's room and didn't move during thunderstorms. In the morning, she woke up dry, used the potty, and snuggled for a while in bed with them before getting up and helping Grandma make pancakes. When I woke up and walked upstairs, I saw Emma sitting in her little chair at a table on the deck with her 2nd breakfast plate full of pancakes, a water cup, and a milk cup complete with a flower straw! Grandma's B&B was in full swing! :)

Emma also had fun riding her new tricycle in the garage in the morning with Grandma, Papa, and Aunt Rachel. Aunt Rachel braided her hair after Aunt Katie helped her get dressed to go down to the creek to play with bubbles for a while.

Calvin's 2nd Birthday!

2011-06-05T20:16:00.000-04:00

On Saturday, Emma and Carrie helped Calvin celebrate his 2nd birthday at Elioak Petting Farm. It was a fantastically sunny morning and the kids had a ton of fun running around and seeing, feeding, and petting the animals. Emma particularly liked the calf and a bunny. The rest of the time I spent trying to convince her to get off the toys and go find the group to see what animal they were looking at next. After the animals, we went on a tractor ride. Emma was very impressed by this and said several times, "I'm on a tractor!" Only towards the end did she get antsy. Hopefully, this Halloween, she'll remember how fun the tractor ride is and we'll be able to enjoy a hay ride! Following the tractor ride, we went on a cow train. Emma found this very fun. I folded myself into one of the cars and sat with Emma. I didn't trust her to go by herself. I was worried that about 1/3 of the way through the ride, she would decide she was "all done" and try to get up and/or get out of the moving car. The rest of the kiddos did great on the ride by themselves, and I'm pretty sure I was just being an over protective Mom.

After some pizza and juice, Calvin opened his gifts. He has a lot of fun trucks and diggers that Emma thinks will be very fun to play with on their next play date! Following the gifts, Emma helped sing Happy Birthday to Calvin before he blew out his candles and everyone dug into some delicious cake! Emma and Calvin were sitting beside each other eating their cake and all of a sudden, Emma got down from the picnic table bench, told me that Calvin needed his water cup and scampered up onto another bench to grab his cup from the table. When she handed it to Calvin, he said, "Thanks!" Apparently, these very grown-up 2year olds had a conversation that none of the adults heard and took matters into their own hands!

Emma had fun running around for a couple minutes before we packed up and headed up to Grandma and Papa's house for the rest of the weekend. The poor girl was so tired, she got very upset when I told her she wasn't big enough to sit in the front seat with me. She bawled for quite a while and insisted on holding my hand to calm down. (For a Mom with short appendages, it was quite a feat to drive and hold her hand for several miles!) She finally went to sleep about 20 minutes into our trip.

Potty story of the day:
When we first arrived at the farm, Emma told me that she had to go potty. We went to the bathrooms which were port-a-potties. When I opened the lid, she looked down with a horrified face and said, "No thank you Mommy," and walked right back out. Poor girl may have been slightly traumatized by that. However, she did stay dry the entire time we were there!

A couple cute pictures from today

2011-05-30T20:52:00.000-04:00

All set to go outside on a 90 degree day!

All set for the pool! (Thanks Kate for the swimsuit and hat!)

The Cake!

2011-05-30T20:50:00.000-04:00

As a followup to my Disaster Cake post, I am very happy to announce that Emma's actual cake turned out amazing, *ahem*, if I do say so myself. Luckily, I had all the icing made and started icing and then decorating the cake around 8:30 after Emma went to bed and finished at 10:50 (cleanup took until about 11:30 :( ). Kurt was wonderful moral support and helped me with a few spatial relations issues as well as Dora's hands which were a bit tricky. I was pretty impressed with myself and think that the cake did resemble Dora (albeit Dora wearing eyeliner) pretty well.

See for yourself!

Also, I was pretty proud of myself for making Backpack Party favors. I did see the idea online, but created them myself.

Happy Birthday Emma!

2011-05-30T20:37:00.006-04:00

Emma had a fantastic 2nd Birthday!

In the morning, she wore the Birthday Princess outfit that she wore on Friday and had fun watching us decorate the house for her party that afternoon. The best quote from her was when we were putting streamers up in the living room. She looked up and said, "Man! Awesome!" completely unprompted. It was fantastic! She was very excited when Kurt came home with balloons as well.

Emma got a pink and purple tricycle from us for her gift this year. She's been asking for a bike for almost a year now. Earlier this spring, she clarified that she wanted a pink and purple bike and that a red bike simply would not do. She had a lot of fun trying it out inside and then made it about 1/4 of the way to the park before she decided that walking was easier and that Mommy should carry the bike. *sigh* We're sure she'll get the hang of it soon, and that we'll be racing to catch up!

I went into wake Emma up from her nap around 2:45 and found her already awake, probably laying there thinking what a big girl she is! We changed her into her party dress and she insisted on wearing her shorts underneath for almost her whole party. She was slow to warm up to Grandma, Great Grandma and Rachel who had come in before she woke up. She was fine by the time her friends started arriving at 3pm. She had a great time with all her friends, and we heard her saying a few times, "Calvin, Cameron, and Max are at Emma's house!" (For the past week, after school, she has been telling us very excitedly that "Cameron is coming to Emma's house. Max is coming to Emma's house. Connor is coming to Emma's house." She was VERY excited to have her friends over!)

There were 7 kids and about 15 adults in total and we think everything went pretty well. We had pizza, watermelon, veggies, punch and juice boxes, and cake & ice cream. The kids had fun playing and coloring and there weren't any major breakdowns. Emma has very loving family and friends and got very fun gifts. All the kids got to leave with a balloon and a 'backpack' party bag.

The day went by so quickly, but we all had a great time and we hope all our guests did too!
Here are a few more pictures of the day!

Backpack party favors in the background and the Dora cake I made

Blowing out the candle! She's asked us to practice for days!

Her presents

Action Packed Weekend

2011-05-30T20:17:00.001-04:00

Although Emma didn't turn 2 until Sunday, we had an action packed weekend which started on Friday afternoon!

Emma wore her princess birthday outfit and took cupcakes into school with her on Friday. She was very excited for her outfit! That afternoon, her class had a Spring Fling for all the parents and to say good bye to one of her teachers. The theme revolved around water -- the kids wore animal hats, carried fish shapes on popsicle sticks, and "swam" to Under the Sea. Emma has a bit of stage fright and so instead of "swimming" with all her friends, she stood in the corner and picked her nose for the entire 20 minute show. We were so proud!

On Saturday, Emma's friend, Shannon, and her parents came over to play in the morning. The girls had a lot of fun playing at the park, looking at ants, and playing in Emma's kitchen. The playdate thoroughly wore Emma out and she took a good nap so that we were able to get a few chores done for Emma's party. After her nap, we went to the kiddie pool, which Emma has been talking about nonstop for at least a week. She kept saying, "I want to swim with the babies." It took us about 10 minutes to coax her into the water. She ended up having a lot of fun after a few timid minutes. She kept saying that she was swimming when in fact she was just marching through the water like the kids entered the room for their presentation on Friday. She did have a scary experience when she was walking towards Kurt and lost her balance and fell three times before he was able to get to her. She was fine, just scared out of her mind. We got her over that then, Kurt held her on his knees and had her kick her feet and doggy paddle which she thought was fun for a few minutes. We also took her into the regular pool and she was NOT happy! She kept saying, "OUT! OUT! OUT!" And back to the kiddie pool we went!

That evening we went to the local volunteer fireman's carnival. As soon as we entered, Emma was enthralled by all the rides! Unfortunately, she was only tall enough for 2 rides, the carousel and a train ride. We took her on the train twice. She loved it. Every time around, she would wave to Daddy, blow a kiss, or say "Choo Choo!" complete with an arm movement. We're excited for next year, when she should have a few more rides to choose from.

Sunday was Emma's 2nd Birthday! (See next post)

On Monday, Emma slept in until almost 8!! This was a VERY nice present for Mommy and Daddy!! In the morning, we ran a few errands, and stopped at Chick-Fil-A for lunch. Emma eagerly gobbled her up her nuggets and fruit and then headed into the playground. She was very determined to go on the big kids climbing toy to get to the slide. Unfortunately, she slipped and fell a few steps down as she was trying to hoist herself up to a higher platform. She didn't get hurt, well, maybe her pride got hurt a little bit, and we convinced her to give it another go. Kurt helped boost her up and she was able to make it to the top. She was very upset when we told her it was time to head home! After her nap, we went to the pool again. She had a great time with some little pool balls that Kurt picked up for her. She made friends with a couple little boys and girl who were there and had a lot of fun playing catch with them. We're very excited that she is liking the pool this summer...we think we'll be spending a lot of time there!

Disaster Cake

2011-05-23T22:32:00.001-04:00

A few weeks ago, we asked Emma what kind of cake she wanted for her birthday. Instead of the chocolate or vanilla answer I expected, she promptly responded with, "A Dora cake!" And so the theme of her 2nd birthday party was decided. I wanted to use my new cake decorating skills to make Emma's cake and thought it was in my best interest to practice the cake prior to Emma's party to help alleviate ~~potential~~ probable tears. I found the perfect picture of Dora to use, and got all the right food coloring together. I baked the cake yesterday and planned to ice it tonight. Instead of the icing recipe that I learned in class, I got adventurous (like Dora herself) and tried a new recipe which a coworker passed to me. While the recipe is very delicious, unfortunately, I couldn't get it thick enough to adequately ice the cake and set for me to do a piping gel transfer technique. Oh well, luckily I still have 5 more nights to practice before the big day! I'm sure Kurt's coworkers will still gobble it up though no matter what it looks like!

*sigh* Live and learn. But yay for me planning ahead! :)

On the plus side, I now have all the icing colors made for icing Dora! I think tomorrow night, I'll just practice on wax paper instead of making another whole cake. Plus that way, I can reuse the icing afterwards!

Here's a picture of the disaster cake:

Big Day

2011-05-15T20:37:00.000-04:00

Emma had a big day yesterday.

In the morning, I took the mattress out of her crib to change the sheet. After I finished, she pretended to sleep on it and I ended up leaving it on the floor of her room. A little while later, Kurt her to the post office and to get me flowers (aww!) and she was ready for an early nap when they got home. She ended up sleeping on the mattress on the floor and seemed to like it.

After she woke up, we met Calvin, Melanie, and Adam at Child Fest. Emma had fun playing with Calvin in the atrium before going into the auditorium to meet ELMO! Although Emma was excited to see Elmo, she seemed more interested in finding Calvin a few rows up as well as looking around at the huge crowd. She was very well behaved the entire time and listened to us a few times we had to ask her to stop something that was dangerous (i.e. walking on a wall that had a 3 foot drop, and running up and down brick steps).

It wasn't raining when we got home and we walked her down to the Street Fest. Emma loved seeing the climbing wall and really wanted to try. It took us a while to convince her that she was too little and maybe next year she would be big enough. She liked walking with us while we checked out local vendors and even got to pick out a new barrette! She had a lot of fun dancing to some music and watching some local gymnasts demonstrate their handsprings, jumps, and hand walking. Emma repeatedly would walk towards the mats and say, "I do it." I picked up a brochure and might take her try out a "Mommy and Me class in the next few weeks.

After we got back, Emma got to put on some training pants and impressed us when she stayed dry all evening long! Even after another walk out to the street fest when Mommy got hungry for a funnel cake!

After bath time, we asked Emma if she wanted us to put her mattress back in her crib or if she wanted to sleep on the mattress like it was a big girl bed. She was adamant that she wanted a big girl bed. She went down relatively smoothly and stayed in her bed all night long! The mattress is still on the floor and she napped there again today and went to bed there again tonight. Looks like Mommy and Daddy need to go shopping for a real big girl bed soon!

New Pictures!

2011-05-15T20:14:00.000-04:00

Here are links to pictures from the last few months.

Enjoy!

23 months old!

2011-04-29T21:43:00.001-04:00

It's very hard to believe that Emma is 23 months old today!

As we've said before, Emma continues to amaze us.

- Her vocabulary and pronunciation continue to get better and better.

- She has definite opinions on what she eats and what she wears.
- One week she insisted on wearing pink and only pink every day.
-There have been several series of days that Emma will only eat one thing. I am pretty sure that she had mac and cheese every day for a week. This week, she has wanted pasta for dinner for the past 3 days!

- Generally, Emma is happy when Kurt drops her off at daycare which is a welcome change from when she was clinging to us like super glue and fussing every morning. She is doing great in the 2-year old room and participates in all the activities.

- Earlier this week, the 3 of us were at the grocery store and Kurt and I were debating between two items while walking down an aisle and Emma was having fun taking long strides between colored tiles and babbling. All of a sudden we realized that she was counting! She counted from 1 to 11 correctly! She continued on to at least 13, but wasn't able to pronounce them very distinctly at all.

-Emma has recently started addressing people while she is talking. For instance, if I'm helping her with breakfast when Kurt comes into the kitchen, she's look at him and say, "I'm having special K, (pause for effect) DAD!" Or in the car, I'll turn to look at her while we're at stop lights and she's point her finger at me and say, "Turn around, (pause for effect) MOM!" The pauses are hysterical! We'll have to try to get a video soon. When we were at Carrie's parents', Emma finished some grapes and asked for more. I told her she had had enough for the time being. She turned to Tricey (one of my parents' dogs) and said, "I need more grapes, DOG!" I asked if she thought Tricey was going to get her more grapes, she solemnly said, "I do." I laughed for quite a while over that one.

- Emma is starting to make more complex sentences. The other day we got home after work/school and our neighbor, Gabby, was outside playing. After I took our things inside, Emma and I went back out but Gabby had to go in to do some chores. Emma was dismayed. She said to me, "I need (to) see Abby." (Emma can't say the G-sound very well and calls Gabby Abby) This is one example, but I've noticed several other instances recently where she will use a compound verb where previously she would have just said, I need Gabby.

Princess!

2011-04-29T20:46:00.000-04:00

Even Emma got excited about the Royal Wedding today! I do admit that I might* have had something to do with her excitement.

After I went through my normal morning routine, I turned the television on and was excited to see that I was tuning in right as William and Kate were starting to say their vows. A few minutes later, Emma woke up and as we walked downstairs, I asked if she wanted to see a princess. (I do know that Kate isn't a Princess, but a Duchess, however, I thought the semantics might be lost on my 23 month old.) She said she did. By this point, the ceremony was going on and cameras were panning around the cathedral, and not just focused on the bride and groom. Eventually, the camera did pan back to them and I pointed out Kate and said she was a princess. I could see the wheels turning as she tried to figure out why this princess did not look like Snow White, Cinderella, or Ariel. :) After she accepted that she was infact a princess, every time the camera panned away from the couple, Emma would ask, "Where's the princess?" complete with upturned hands. This evening, Kurt was using his laptop and Emma climbed up to sit beside him and demanded to see pictures of the princess before her bath.

I think that I've officially made my toddler a girl by introducing her to princesses!

Rough Week

2011-04-29T20:31:00.001-04:00

It was a rough week in our house.

Monday, we came home after work to find that our air conditioning wasn't working and that our house was about 85 degrees. Kurt stayed home on Tuesday to wait for the repair man and found out that luckily, it was only a fuse that had blown.

Thursday, when I went into the pantry to get Emma a snack before dinner, I found that a colony of ants had decided that they needed a snack as well. Emma was fantastic and amused herself why I took everything out of the pantry, inspected it and then cleaned up the ants. That evening, Kurt sprayed the outside of the house and windows. With any luck, the ants will stay outside for the rest of the season!

Thursday evening, Emma got a little clingy towards bedtime, and told Kurt that she was hot after he had put her in her crib. We figured she was just being her usual particular self. Friday morning she seemed fine, although perhaps a little clingy. Around 11, I got a call that she wasn't feeling well and had a 101.6 degree fever. When I got her home a little bit later, she had a quick snack and I a tiny bit of medicine into her (she HATES medicine). We watched 2 episodes of Dora in bed together before I told her it was time to sleep. She only slept for 30 minutes but then we watched some more television for a bit so at least she rested. As the evening wore on, although she still had a fever, she got less cuddly and got more energy and seemed more like herself. Hopefully, she'll be back to normal tomorrow!

Easter!

2011-04-24T20:47:00.000-04:00

We took Good Friday off and drove up to NEPA to spend Easter weekend with Carrie's family. Emma warmed up quickly to the dogs and had fun being brave and running across the living room between Mommy and Daddy in front of the dogs. That evening, Grammy helped Emma dye eggs. Emma had a lot of fun deciding when they were done and how pink was pink enough!

On Saturday, we met Uncle Dave's new dog, Gary. Gary is a 2 year old rescue dog who is very mild mannered and well behaved. He got along well with both the other dogs. Emma, who was still getting used to the big dogs, was not very excited to have a 3rd dog thrown into the mix! We also visited Grammy at work, and Emma picked out some new sneakers. We had a wonderful ham dinner that evening. That night, after Emma went to bed, we had a good time teaching Kurt how to play the card game Flinch.

On Sunday morning, Emma woke up at 4am and needed a drink of water and then came to bed with us for a few hours before she woke up for the day. Since the rest of the house was still asleep at 630am, I ignored the baskets that the Easter Bunny left for Emma and she did too for quite a while. Just before people started waking up, Emma stood on a chair, and said, "I need a juice box." Apparently, she hadn't been ignoring the baskets as much as I thought she had! Later, Emma had fun finding some eggs that the Easter Bunny had hidden through out the house.

After a big brunch, we packed up our car and got on the road. There were quite a few tears as we drove away and Emma exclaiming that she "Needed Jimmy." Emma has had eyes for her Uncle since she was a baby and he visited us in Germany. This trip, Jim took Emma out several times on walks in the driveway and helped her throw stones in puddles.

On the way home, we stopped in to see Kurt's family as they were just sitting down to dinner. It was wonderful to see everyone and we enjoyed visiting briefly before we got back on the road so that we could get home and unpacked and ready for the following week.

I forgot to take pictures of the baskets, but she received juice boxes, animal crackers, gummy fruit treats, teddy grahams, yogurt puffs, a new water bottle, twistable crayons, stickers, a couple books, a notebook and crayon for her diaperbag, an Elmo figurine, along with a 2-foot chocolate bunny from her Uncle Jim.

We had a wonderful weekend and can't wait to see everyone again soon!

Maureen's Visit!

2011-04-09T21:28:00.000-04:00

Maureen came to visit last weekend!

Although Emma hasn't seen Maureen in over a year, she was very excited to see her and warmed up to her quickly.

We had been practicing Maureen's name for a week or so and all weekend long, instead of Emma yelling "Mommy!" we heard "Maureen!" instead. Emma did not want to leave her side and had a ton of fun making mac & cheese and pouring milk for Maureen. They also had fun coloring and playing with Emma's truck.When asked who was her favorite in the group, Mommy, Daddy, or Maureen, Maureen was the winner!

Emma wasn't the only one who was excited that Maureen was here last weekend...I was too! We had a lazy evening on Friday and relaxed after Emma went to bed. On Saturday, we did what we do best and went shopping! Saturday night we planned how we could make over our powder room over a bottle of wine, but Kurt nixed our ideas saying it was the wine talking. As a result, Sunday was spent shopping some more before Maureen had to leave for work on Monday.

It was fantastic having Maureen here for a weekend...hopefully, we'll get to see each other more frequently!

Entering the Terrible Twos

2011-04-09T21:20:00.000-04:00

Although she is two months shy of being 2, we've had a few glimpses of what the 'terrible twos' are going to look like recently. Emma is a very strong willed child. She does not like it when she doesn't get her way. Just this month, on several occasions when she hasn't gotten her way or was reprimanded she has literally thrown herself on to the living room floor and screamed and screamed. Usually, these tantrums have been close to a nap time or bed time, so tiredness obviously is a factor. It is really quite amazing how she throws herself...she doesn't just lay down or even fall down onto the floor, she actually throws herself and gets some air before landing on her stomach and beginning to yell. Maybe she will be a stunt double when she grows up.

Another reaction instead of the tantrums is that she will just refuse to talk to us. She sets her little face into a pout and will shoot daggers out of her eyes at us (aren't we the ones that are supposed to have the 'evil eye'?) until she calms down or we can distract her and she forgets that she's mad at us.

We can tell we're in for some fun!

Hmmm, Ummm, & Uh-Uh

2011-04-09T21:08:00.000-04:00

Our little ~~8 year old~~, I mean practically 2 year old has started to use speech disfluencies. (I had no idea what hmmm, ummm, and uh-uh were called and had to look them up and found they are disfluencies. Interesting. I learned something new today...and maybe so did you!) When asked a question that she doesn't immediately know the answer to, Emma will think about it while saying "Ummmm." Every once in a while, she'll use "hmmm" when something perplexes her. In the last week or so, instead of answering no, she has started to use "uh-uh." It was cute the first couple times, now we are starting to find it annoying and bordering on rude. We're pretty sure that she picked it up at daycare. We're currently trying to get her to use no, thank you instead.

Mantra

2011-04-09T20:54:00.000-04:00

Last weekend, Emma started using the mantra, "I do it!" which is then followed by "I did it!" complete with clapping after she completes whatever it is that she set out to do. We have heard these phrases countless times over the last week, and expect to hear them countless more as she becomes more and more independent.

Some of the times she's adamant about doing things herself this past week:

She has to go potty and insists on doing it by herself. Generally, I am able to stick my hand in to turn on the light before she closes the door. I wait about a minute and ask if she needs help. One time, I went in and there was a puddle on the floor. I asked if she tried to pee standing up. Her response, "I did it! Yay!" *sigh* Thank goodness for Lysol wipes!
Usually, Emma insists on taking off her pants and pull-ups whenever she uses the potty. This exasperates me. When she finishes she insists on sitting on the regular toilet and trying to put her pull-ups on herself.
At daycare, I attempted to help Emma put on her coat. She pulled the coat away from me and said, "I do it." She almost got it on by herself. She used the 'flip' method, but did it backwards and had it on upside down instead. She also enjoys zipper her coat herself, although of course she can't get it started by herself yet. She zips up her footie pjs at night too.
At bathtime, Emma again uses "I do it" and climbs in and out of the tub by herself.
This morning, I went in to pick her up out of her crib, she said, "No, I do it." and got her ankle up on the crib rail. I think it's only a matter of time before she figures out how to climb out. We'll have to move bed shopping up on our list of things to do!

Day trip to Pennsylvania with GiGi

2011-03-27T21:38:00.000-04:00

We took GiGi to Pennsylvania for the day today. We had a great time visiting with her and Emma had a great time showing her around Grandma and PaPa's house. We also had a lot of fun visiting the Deli where Rachel has her art displayed for the month. Emma had a lot of fun baking with Grandma: She held the recipe card for Grandma, helped zest the lemon and helped juice the lemon. She also had a ton of fun with PaPa outside and looking at his new planer in his woodshop. During some conversations, Emma let us know that she also had something to contribute and would poke her head in and tell us about how she had been outside with Papa. It was super cute!

After we dropped GiGi off, Emma kept saying, "I need GiGi." We asked if she had fun with Gigi today, she said she did and reiterated that she needed her. We assured her that we would visit with GiGi again soon.

Happy 96th Birthday GiGi! We had fun today and hope you did too! Hope to see you soon! Love you!

Funny Potty Story

2011-03-27T21:25:00.000-04:00

Emma has been doing really well with potty training at school. We haven't been as good at home and Kurt and I have decided to make a more concerted effort with her at home so that we don't end up with a kid that is potty trained at school but still wearing diapers at home when she's 4. Grandma got Emma a Dora the Explorer potty last summer and she has had intermittent interest in it. This weekend, we got her another one so that we would have one on each floor and hopefully have some more luck with potty training. Emma picked it out...it's pink.

Yesterday, we were in the bathroom and Emma kept popping up, turning around, and facing the potty. I kept telling her over and over (with increasing levels of exasperation in my voice) that she has to sit down to go potty when I finally realized that she was trying to pee standing up. She had the stance correct: pants around her ankles, hips thrust forward, and was even pulling at some skin. Apparently, she has been watching Daddy and the little boys at school a little too closely!

Update: Good Books

2011-03-22T20:08:00.002-04:00

Kurt is awesome and surprised me with the third book in the trilogy tonight! Now the decision is...start reading or The Biggest Loser! I have a rough life!

Thanks Kurt! I love you!

More Pink!

2011-03-22T20:06:00.000-04:00

On the way home tonight, out of the blue Emma said something that ended in something that sounded like bike. I asked if she wanted a bike. She said 'I do' and continued on with more words. I asked her to repeat it two more times and got the word pink out of it. She was trying her best to enunciate and was even using hand motions (not that I knew what they were, but it was sort of like charades...two words 1 syllable each). I finally figured out that she was saying, "I want a pink bike." She was very excited when I put it all together!

I guess that's a good start to her birthday wish list!

Last night neighbors were out on scooters and a tricycle...They let Emma have a turn on it and she LOVED it..even though her legs weren't long enough to reach the pedals she had fun being pushed. Although at times, she didn't want us to touch the bike but she quickly figured out that without our help, she was going no where fast!

Good Books

2011-03-20T21:34:00.000-04:00

Kurt got me The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and the 2nd book in trilogy The Girl who Played with Fire for Christmas. At the time I was reading The Pillars of the Earth, and he ended up reading The Girl w/ the Dragon Tattoo first. He said it was good but that he didn't think he would continue on with the second or third book. I finished it a couple weeks ago and thought it was really good and couldn't wait to read the 2nd book. Unfortunately, we've been busy and I didn't get a chance to pick it up until this past Friday. I couldn't put it down and finished this afternoon around dinner time. They are definitely disturbing books, but also very good. Now I can't wait to make a trip to the library to get the third book, The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest to see how it all ends up.

Big thanks to Kurt for letting me be a slacker Mom today so that I could finish my book!

PINK!

2011-03-20T21:24:00.000-04:00

Emma has been very attached to the color pink lately. She has insisted that her cereal be in a pink bowl and that she uses a pink spoon to eat it and that her milk be in a pink cup. She has also insisted several times in the past week that she wear pink pants.

On St. Patrick's Day, I planned to put her green khaki pants on her. When we went upstairs after breakfast to get changed, she pulled open her shirt drawer and picked out a shirt that had a tiny green, red, and brown flower pattern on it. I thought, Great! That's going to match the pants pretty well. When I pulled out the green pants, she said, No! Pink! and quickly found a pair of pink knit pants to wear. She did not match even the slightest bit. I told myself, she's only going to daycare and it doesn't matter what she looks like. Her clothes are clean and she is happy. No need to make this a battle. The next day, I pulled out a cute dress and leggings (neither were pink) that Grammy had bought for her at the end of last year for this spring. Emma did not like it and quickly found a pair of pink pants to wear instead. Looks like our girl might be a girly girl!

Pictures for Daddy

2011-03-20T21:10:00.000-04:00

While Kurt was away, Emma insisted that we take pictures to send to him. (OK, maybe not, but that's the story that Mommy is sticking to!)

Here's what we sent:

Happy girl at breakfast

Her hair is a little out of control

I asked her to make a funny face

Playing with Grandma at 530 am

Love this picture!

Trying on her Easter Dress

A Week without Daddy

2011-03-20T20:58:00.002-04:00

Emma and I were on our own from 7-12 March while Kurt attended a conference on the west coast. It was an exhausting week and we did better than I expected but I was so happy to have Kurt home again. The mornings started out early so that I was completely ready for work before Emma woke up. We got her breakfast and changed and were out the door relatively quickly. I was actually into work around 730 all week long. In the evenings, I would pick her up and we ate dinner and then did our normal bath time routine around 730. She was very good for me during both bath time and bedtime. I just had to tell her that Mommy had chores to do and that she needed to be a big girl and go to sleep. The chores consisted of getting clothes ready for the following day, cleaning up toys, cleaning up dinner dishes and getting lunch ready for the following day. Generally I was able to finally sit down by 9pm before heading to bed and starting all over the following day.

On Monday, Kurt helped get Emma ready for school and all of us went to daycare to drop her off in the 2 year old classroom. Kurt left from there to go to the airport. That evening, she asked for Daddy and I told her that he was on an adventure. (Emma knows what an adventure is; we use it frequently when we go for walks or to a store.) Kurt had a layover and called us during dinner time. Of course, Emma wanted to hold the phone more than she wanted to talk.

Tuesday morning, she asked for Daddy again when she woke up. I told her that he was still on an adventure and she was easily distracted by breakfast. Tuesday evening, she really seemed to miss Kurt on the way home from daycare. Luckily we had a lot of plans the last part of the week and I was able to distract her. She was very excited that on Wednesday we were going to see Calvin. I took time to explain to her that we would eat dinner at Calvin's and then she was going to hang out with Calvin and Adam while Mommy went on some errands with Melanie. (The errands were the first night of cake decorating class!) She said that that would be fine. Then I told her that on Thursday, after school, Grandma was coming to visit and would probably be waiting for us when we got home. She got very excited and quickly asked if Papa and ReRe were coming too--she was disappointed that they weren't. She said that she and Grandma would have a ton of fun at home together on Friday. These distractions for the next few days helped the days fly by and I don't think she dwelled on Kurt being away too much.

Wednesday evening went very well. We ate dinner and Emma, Calvin, and Adam went upstairs to play. Adam said that Emma did great and didn't cry at all when I left. She and Calvin play so well together. Since it was a late night, I changed her into pajamas before we left then took the sleeping baby up to bed as soon as we got home.

Thursday, we had torrential rain and Laura hit some traffic on the way here. Emma anxiously looked out the front windows for her to arrive. As soon as she walked into the house, Emma immediately started bringing toys to show her and gave her lots of hugs. Emma barely let me give her a bath and wanted Grandma to read her stories and put her to bed.

Friday, Emma and Grandma had a lot of fun at the park and made new friends there. Emma wore herself out and let Grandma relax for over 3 hours while she napped!

Saturday, Laura took Emma to the park while I ran and then showered for the day. Shortly after lunch, she tried to put Emma down for a nap but Emma was too wound up. Emma was very sad when Grandma had to leave. She stood at the door crying for a while and wouldn't let me comfort her. It took me over an hour and a half to get her down for a nap! She woke up on the wrong side of the crib and was relatively inconsolable for quite a while. I was finally able to cheer her up by telling her that we were going to meet her friends, Cameron and Claire for dinner that night at Red Robin. Emma started the dinner pretty well...but soon she just wanted to be down out of her highchair. Eventually, she settled down when Melissa (C&C's Mom) held her and helped her color. She was very distraught when Melissa had to put her down and kept calling her Mommy. *Sigh* She had a lot of fun at the park and insisted on playing on the big kids' equipment instead of the tiny tyke stuff. I had to follow her closely to make sure she didn't fall through cracks or walk off a ledge. She was very excited when Kurt called to tell us that he had landed.

On Sunday morning, Kurt was excited to see Emma. She let it be known that she was mad at him. She wouldn't go to him or let him give her a hug or a kiss for quite a while. He brought a stuffed moose back with him for her. She took it from him, and threw it in the opposite direction with a look on her face that said "you can't buy my love Dad, how dare you leave me?" Within an hour or so, she had forgiven him and enjoyed cuddling with him on the couch and watching carebears.

Our night

2011-03-08T20:56:00.000-05:00

On the way home today, I told Emma that tomorrow, we'd be seeing Calvin. She got SUPER excited! I told her that the next day, Grandma was coming to visit. She got SUPER excited again. When I told her that she was going to spend all day Friday with Grandma she got even more excited! It was A-dorable!

This evening, since Emma did not like the casserole I planned on having for dinner, I asked if she wanted chicken nuggets instead. She told me she wanted two. I asked if she wanted any more and she proceeded to count to three...four...five followed by clapping and a big smile. For the record she ate about 3 at dinner and the last one right before bed.

This evening, she actually talked to Grammy on the phone...it was only about three words, but she actually spoke! It was very exciting.

She had was very excited when Aunt Rachel called and wanted to skype. Emma talked for a while then started bringing toys to show her and talked about them.

All night long, she was a happy girl. She was very polite, did what I asked, and was very fun. At bed time, she said bye to her books after I read her two then laid down and only fussed the littlest bit.

She is getting so big!

New Room at School

2011-03-08T20:48:00.000-05:00

Emma is adjusting really well to the 2-year old room. One difference for the parents is that we no longer receive a daily summary of what she ate, when she was changed, and when she slept; however, the teachers are helping us adjust this week and are providing short write-ups for so we know how Emma is doing.

The note from Monday was: Emma had a great first day! She fully participated in all our activities (circle time, centers and free play). She also did well at lunchtime with self serving. She ate chicken and rice, greenbeans, peaches,and milk. She used nice manners and did very well sitting on the potty. She napped from 1250 - 230. She played very well with her new classmates and is adjusting to our class routine very well. Welcome to Exploration Station 1! If you have any questions or concerns feel free to contact Me (Ms. Torri) or Mrs. Adanna.

The note from Tuesday was: Emma had a fun-filled day!! She played in cardboard boxes. She ran and played with her new friends outside on the playground. She went potty all day and stayed dry. Emma ate her chicken noodle soup, carrots, and pineapples. She took a nap from 1230pm - 230pm.

Ms. Torri told me today that Emma and the boy who moved up with her, Max, are pretty much joined at the hip. In the morning, they were across the room from each other and yelled each others names back and forth several times. When she told me this, I imagined them calling to each other "Emma!" "Max!" "Emma!" "Max!" and running across the room in slow motion jumping over toys to get to each other to hug movie style. :)

As mentioned in the note, they said Emma only had 1 wet diaper today (maybe after nap time, I forget when). They also suggested pull-ups since Emma can get her pants down by herself but can't undo the diaper. While I am all for potty training, I am a little bummed that we just stocked up on diapers when they were on sale and now have literally 800 diapers in our basement.

When we were leaving daycare today. I helped Emma 'flip' her coat on over her head. I asked her if she was my big girl. She replied "No." I asked if she was my baby girl. She again replied "No." I asked what she was then. She said, "I'm Emma." squealed and ran to the door. Smart girl!

We're so proud of how well our little girl is doing!

It feels good to be organized and prepped

2011-03-06T21:09:00.000-05:00

It's 9pm on Sunday night and let me tell you...I feel like a real grown up! All of our clothes are laid out for tomorrow, my lunch is made, the coffee pot is all set for 'delayed brew,' and a healthy casserole has been prepped and put in the refrigerator for tomorrow's dinner.

I even got things together for Wednesday's cake decorating class with Melanie. My basket is packed with all the supplies and Emma's diaper bag is ready for an evening with Adam and Calvin. The diaper bag even has a set of pajamas so that I can change Emma before we leave Calvin's and I can just carry her in and put her to bed since it will be a late night for her!

Ideally, I would have clothes ironed for the rest of the week...but I don't want to set the bar too high for myself! :)It does feel nice to have everything taken care of for tomorrow...if only I could remember this feeling every evening...or at least on Sunday nights!

Pass!

2011-03-06T21:01:00.000-05:00

Tonight I put Emma's dinner plate in front of her and told her that we were having yummy chicken and cheesy vegetables. She looked at the plate for a few seconds and said, "Pass! All done!" and threw her hands up in the air. *sigh* Since I didn't feel like a huge tantrum, I took her plate away and got her down from her high chair. A few minutes later, she came back and asked for black beans. Since she didn't eat anything else and black beans are a decent choice, I made her some...she proceeded to eat 5. Here's hoping that she doesn't wake up at 3am with a grumbing tummy!

I'm assuming that the "pass" was learned at daycare where they are fed meals and snacks family style and get to choose what they want or don't want that day. I'll have to ask tomorrow when I pick her up.

Movin' on up!

2011-03-03T20:40:00.000-05:00

We were told today that starting Monday, Emma will be in the 2-year old room full time! She's been going to the room on and off for a while now whenever the student-teacher ratios needed to be balanced and we thought she would be getting ready to transition in the next couple of weeks, so we were a little surprised that she and two boys in her class will all start on Monday.

Emma spent most of the day in the 2-year old room today. They said she did really well and only got upset twice. The first time was when her regular teacher brought her sheets down for nap time and Emma didn't want her to leave. The second time was when she saw her friends in the younger class playing outside. Before we left school, we had to stop into her regular classroom, where Emma ran up to Jean to give her a big hug followed by Amy. Several of the kids were excited to see her and Sammy kept giving her hugs. This evening, she told us that she missed Miss Jean and Miss Amy her current teachers. :(

I think this transition might be a little bit more difficult than any of the previous ones. Emma has become really attached to her current teachers and definitely realizes change more than she ever has before. Previous transitions have been to new rooms with cooler, bigger, more advanced toys; while the 2-year old room has different toys, I think she'll miss her friends and teachers more than she has before. The teachers in the new room, Miss Adonna and Miss Tori (I think) are both very nice, very fun women and I'm sure that Emma will love them soon. Emma's friend, Cameron, is also in the 2-year old room. I'm sure that he will help make the transition easier for her as well.

Another plus to Emma moving up is that her tuition has been decreased by about 25%! HUGE!

21 months!

2011-03-01T21:06:00.000-05:00

Emma is 21 months old! We can't believe it! Time is flying! We are getting closer and closer to having a 2 year old! Some days we think she is already two with her willful behavior. Luckily, we've not had too many all out throw down tantrums, but even the minor ones are enough to test our sanity! On the other hand, she is getting more and more fun by the day. She loves playing with her truck and car, making blanket tents with Daddy, reading books, watching Strawberry Shortcake and Carebears, coloring, and playing in her kitchen. We were able to spend some time at the park over the weekend, and Emma was overjoyed to be back outside. We're sure she is very much looking forward to more consistent spring weather.

She is aware of numbers, shapes, letters, and colors. We count steps as we walk up them...many times each step is 'two' but she surprises us by pulling out a 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 13 every once in a while. Several times she's used several numbers correctly in one flight. She is getting better and better at her shape sorter, however, she doesn't show much interest in learning their names. She does know circle, star, heart, flower shapes though. We sing the ABC song and try to show her letters but so far, she doesn't show much interest in them either. Although while coloring, she will tell me she is drawing an M for Emma. She knows basic colors and can point them out or say them if she is in the right mood.

Some fun Emma stories:

This morning, Emma started stirring her cheerios and looked up at Kurt and said, "I'm stirring them arooound." Although it was very cute, she was then encouraged to eat her cereal rather than play with it. :)

Yesterday, Emma woke up and said, " I think it's snowing." When Kurt assured her that it was not snowing, she thought for a moment and said, "I want to go to the park."

Emma's new favorite word is "Hi!" She'll just walk into the room, wave and say HI! enunciating the H. It's really quite funny.

Last week, I (Carrie) was frustrated that Emma was not showing any interest in numbers. That evening, after Kurt put her to bed, he told me that not only does Emma know her numbers, she also can subtract! He explained that he told Emma that they would read TWO books before she would lay down to go to sleep. She repeated 'two books.' After they finished the first book, Kurt put it down and Emma promptly said 'one more,' illustrating her subtraction capability.

A Good Heart

2011-03-01T20:39:00.000-05:00

There is a little girl in Emma's class that had to have surgery recently. She came back to school this week but is in a body cast. Emma seems to have appointed herself caretaker and best friend. Emma constantly brings her toys and books and even helps to push her stroller when the rest of the class goes outside or for walks in the hallway during rainy weather. It made our hearts so happy when Emma's teacher told us that "Emma has a really good heart" and really enjoys helping people.

Baby blankets

2011-02-21T16:47:00.000-05:00

Apparently, dishtowels are the perfect size blanket for Emma's babies.

Baltimore Aquarium

2011-02-20T19:38:00.000-05:00

Kurt has been excited to take Emma to the Baltimore Aquarium since we moved back to the area last year. We made plans to meet some friends at the aquarium and began talking it up to Emma on Friday and Saturday. We told her all about the fish and that we would be meeting her friend Morgan there. This morning, while I was getting Emma breakfast, I asked if she remembered what we were going to do today. She looked a little puzzled and I told her we were going to see the fishies. She got a very concerned look on her face put her hands out and said, "What about Morgan?" (It wasn't quite that clear, but that's what she said.) I quickly assured her that Morgan would be there as well and Emma got very excited!

Emma was very excited by the waterfall as we walked into the aquarium and Kurt and I both thought, 'Wow, this is going to be a great day!' and were very excited to move inside to show Emma some fish. Emma was very excited and was busy dancing and running around and pretty much making herself at home. She loved the bubble tubes which welcomed us into the first part of the aquarium and then looked down into the the sting ray and tiger shark tank in awe. Then we went up an escalator...and Emma decided they were the coolest thing since peeled clementines (I was going to say since sliced bread, but she's not a huge bread fan. :) ) All she wanted to do from that point on was go up escalators, watch people on escalators, or put her hand on the moving rail of the escalator. We made her look at a few fish along the way, but most of the time was spent on the nifty escalators. When we made it to the rain forest portion of the aquarium, she did forget about the escalators for a while and had a lot of fun playing in the water on the ground. She got to see a bird up close as well as a tarantula while we were in the rain forest. They had a lot of fun with some shells and sand in the play area. She and Morgan also had fun running down the ramps on the way out of the museum and stopping to share some snacks along the way.

It was definitely a successful day. Emma was very well behaved and had a lot of fun with Morgan. The girls even did very well during lunch. We'll definitely take Emma back to the aquarium at some point, however, I think we might stick to the mall for escalators and head to Bass Pro next time we want to introduce Emma to some fish.

We weren't able to take many pictures because of the lighting, but here are a couple from the day:

Emma dressed for the day in her froggy sweatshirt. (Thanks Aunt Katie!)

This is what Emma loved most about the day...escalators!

The girls playing in the sand

The girls and their Daddies. I love how excited Emma is in this picture!

Spring days in February!

2011-02-18T21:33:00.000-05:00

Yesterday and today were gorgeous spring-like days near 70. As a result, we got to spend some time outside before it got dark. Yesterday, Emma was NOT happy about having her picture taken and screamed "No Mommy! No!" as if I was trying to torture her. Today she was pretty indifferent, but refused to look at me when I asked her to and smiling was completely out of the question. Here are a couple pictures of our willful daughter.

This literally was just because I pulled out the camera.

Still a little pouty

Happy to be climbing on the playground

Looking at a girl on the monkey bars


Pondering something important.

"I have a boo boo"

2011-02-18T21:19:00.000-05:00

About 20 minutes after Kurt dropped Emma off at daycare today, I got a phone call at work from daycare informing me that Emma was completely fine, but she had been bit. This is the first time she's been bit at daycare. They told me that it didn't break the skin and that Emma didn't even cry. While I was on the phone, Emma was proudly showing off the bandaid with butterfly stickers to all her friends. When I picked her up today, the first thing she said to me was, "Mommy, I boo boo." When I looked at her arm, her wrist was all blotchy and she had a cut on her forearm. The teachers were busy tending to other kids and the class pet fish at the time, and I asked Emma if she had been chewing on her wrist, which she's been known to do when she is exhausted. She said she wasn't. Her teacher then explained to me that she had been bit again today. *awesome* I guess the first situation, Emma and another Child were playing in a kitchen area and the other child decided they wanted the pretend food Emma had and bit her. The second situation was a little less clear, but I'm relatively sure that Emma tried to take a toy from another kid and he or she bit in defense. As we on the way to the car, the daycare director said what a trooper Emma was today and suggested that we might want to get a less delicious brand of soap for her. :)

When we got home, while she was snacking before dinner, she pointed to her arm and said matter-of-factly, "I got bit. I have a boo boo." Later, when Kurt called, she told him, "I have a boo boo." I tried to get her to tell Grammy tonight...but she wasn't into talking on the phone too much and just ended up mumbling it instead.

Bigger by the second!

2011-02-15T20:36:00.000-05:00

Every day for the last week, Kurt and I have remarked how big Emma is getting and how much she has developed. Within the last few days, she seems to be a happier kid. She wakes up happy, she comes home from daycare happy, she happily goes up to get her bath and read books (we're still working on being happy to go to sleep though). She will just run up to us, say HI! and give us the biggest hug ever. It is adorable and melts our hearts!

Her grasp on language is getting stronger and stronger. She's had a pretty big vocabulary for quite a while and it continues to grow daily. Her enunciation is getting better and better and it's getting easier to understand her. (which probably is one reason that she's been happier...she gets her point across quicker). She continues to work on sentences and speaking in multi-word phrases. Yesterday, one of her teachers told me that Emma went to a window looked outside, pointed up and said, "I see the moon." very distinctly and out of the blue. This evening, I was getting a plate ready for her dinner and I asked if she wanted potatoes. Emma responded, "I want mac & cheese." Luckily we had some left over in the refrigerator!

She sometimes gets stuck when she tries to put two words together. After bed time, we were reading a book and she pointed to the moon. I asked her if the moon comes out during the day or at night. She tried so very hard to say "at night." It sounded like 'aabby' and I repeated what she said and asked if it was correct. She said no and really tried to enunciate the word at. It was really cute to see her working so hard and so intently trying to get the right sounds out.

This is all very exciting to us and I'm sure before we know it, she'll be talking our ears off (she is Kurt's daughter after all! ;) ...but as my Mom has told me time and time again, "You can't wait for them to walk and talk and when they do you just tell them to sit down and be quiet!"

Valentine's Weekend

2011-02-15T20:21:00.000-05:00

Valentine's weekend started early in our house. Kurt left work early on Friday and came home to vacuum the whole house, do all the dishes, and mount a television on our bedroom wall. He even had time to stop and get me flowers. :) On Saturday, we dropped Emma off at her friend Calvin's for a few hours while we went out for a late lunch/early dinner followed by coffee and book browsing at Borders and meandering around Target for a while. Some people might not consider this the most romantic valentine's day, but to us it was just perfect. We got some time to do some of our favorite things that aren't really possible with a toddler who is not content to sit in a cart or stroller for more than 5 minutes.

On Sunday, Calvin came to our house for a few hours, while Adam and Melanie went out to dinner. The kids play so well together. It was actually sort of relaxing since they were entertaining each other and Emma wasn't pulling at either Kurt or me to come do something with her every 5 seconds.

Relaxing after dinner with a snack and some Dora the Explorer

Holding Hands

On Monday, Emma brought home a bunch of fun gifts for Daddy and Mommy. A hand-made card, a handmade photo magnet, and a goody bag with a fun tissue paper flower. Emma loved the flower a lot...or she was obsessed with it since she wanted the candy in the goody bag!

She would not look at me and smile

This picture was taken right before she started throwing the cards around the room

What are we in for?

2011-02-08T18:34:00.000-05:00

Emma has been home sick for the last two days. She has a cold with a slight fever and we could tell she just didn't feel well so Kurt stayed home with her Monday and Carrie was home with her on Tuesday. Monday, Kurt definitely got off easy. Emma basically just wanted to cuddle all day and sleep. Tuesday, although she felt much better, we didn't feel comfortable sending her to daycare and thought one more day at home would do her good. She also had way more energy on Tuesday...as evidenced by every room in our house looking like a bomb went off. She was really very good for most of the day...until it got to be way past nap time and the little girl still hadn't napped. (Well, she did fall asleep for about 20 minutes, but started coughing, woke up and wouldn't go back to sleep.) As a result, we had a couple trying hours before Daddy got home this evening. By dinner time, Emma was in full on loopy mode and was busy "disappearing" under a blanket and spinning in circles.

Kurt came in, put his stuff down, and was fixing a dinner plate for himself when Emma ran into the kitchen and said, "Dad, I need (to go to) bed." As if Mom had prohibited her from sleeping all afternoon! Kurt proceeded to have the following conversation with Emma:
Kurt: Did Mommy let you sleep today?
Emma: No.
Kurt: Did you try to sleep today?
Emma: I did.
Kurt: Did Mommy wake you up every time you fell asleep?
Emma: She did. (with emphatic head nodding)

I have a dreading sensation that this may be foreshadowing for several years down the road. *Sigh*

Breakfast with Elmo

2011-02-01T20:50:00.000-05:00

When I went into Emma's room this morning, she wrapped Elmo in a blanket and handed him and told me that he was hungry and needed breakfast. In the kitchen, Emma said that she would sit in her high chair and Elmo would sit in her 'big girl seat', aka her booster seat. When I set Emma's bowl of oatmeal on her tray and sat down at my seat to eat, she told me that Elmo needed a bowl too. So Elmo got a (empty) bowl and spoon set in front of him. Periodically, Emma would tell me that Elmo needed help and I would have to get up and give him a bite of his breakfast before Emma would take another bite of hers. When Kurt wiped up Emma's hands and face and tried to take her upstairs to change her, she yelled that Elmo also needed his hands and face wiped. It was super cute, although I do have to admit that I'm hoping that Elmo doesn't join us every morning for breakfast!

Happy Birthday To Carrie!

2011-01-30T21:03:00.046-05:00

I had a fantastic birthday weekend!

On Friday, Rachel came down after work. Emma, who had been talking about Rachel all week long barely said a word to her for at least an hour after Rachel arrived. Emma finally warmed up to her and had a lot of fun playing with her. Originally Kurt and I were going to go out for a late dinner, but I was too tired and hungry and we ordered in Chiplote. Yummy! After Rachel put Emma to bed, we watched (well I slept through half) The Good Guys.

I was able to have a nice slow morning on Saturday before meeting Melanie and Katie for lunch at Ledos. It was wonderful to catch up with them and of course they spoiled me with gifts and cake. After lunch, Kurt had scheduled an appointment for me to have a steam bath followed by an hour long massage. It was amazingly relaxing! When I got home, we immediately packed up Emma and headed to Claire's 1st birthday party (see previous post). After the party, we let Rachel and her Shari put Emma to bed, and Kurt and I headed to the movies to see No Strings Attached, a super cute and funny romantic comedy. (I think this is the second movie we've seen together in a theater since Emma was born)

On Sunday, Emma was very considerate and slept in until about 7. After Rachel left to meet friends and go to church and Kurt headed out to play Magic, Emma and I had fun playing with a Strawberry Shortcake movie playing in the background. Shortly after lunch time, Kurt's parents arrived and Emma had a ton of fun showing them her kitchen and all her food. Grandma got Emma to nap and I was able to lay down myself for a while. After chicken divan for dinner, my birthday weekend was finished off with chocolate peanut butter cake.

It was a pretty fantastic weekend!

Claire's 1st Birthday Party

2011-01-29T20:51:00.024-05:00

We helped Emma's friend from school, Claire, celebrate her 1st birthday on Saturday. Emma had a lot of fun playing with the other kids. There were a few tense moments when two children wanted the same toy at the same time, but luckily, they were either convinced to trade toys or at least one of them was distracted by something else and everyone continued to have a good time. Claire's parents always throw great parties. (We helped Cameron celebrate his 2nd birthday in October) They had great kid friendly food... Emma and all the other kids devoured the barbecue meatballs; had great activities...the kids got to decorate little clay flowerpots (complete with a lollipop flower) with stickers, and had amazing flower and butterfly cakes!

Funny story from the party that shows how smart 2 year olds are: At one point Emma, Claire's brother Cameron, and a friend Milo were having fun shutting a bedroom door. Carrie was pretty sure that Emma was the instigator and snapped at Kurt to get them to stop. Kurt opened the door and said, "Hey guys, Mommy just yelled at me that we have to stop slamming the door." Kurt said that all 3 kids' eyes got as big as saucers when he said he got in trouble and that Cameron asked, "Do you have to go home now?"

Pictures!

2011-01-16T12:24:00.000-05:00

Here are some recent albums which brings our pictures up to date. We're still working on the blog posts. Stay tuned!

Also, we've started a new album. Please update your bookmarks.

Emma in October:

Emma in October

Tiger Time:

Tiger Time

Emma in November:

Emma in November - 2010

Emma in December:

Emma in December - 2010

Sentences!

2011-01-03T21:24:00.001-05:00

From when she was little, whenever we were around a lot of people for a weekend or went on a weekend or day trip, Emma seemed to develop overnight. Usually the development was language related --sounds or babbles when she was younger and, since summer, increased vocabulary or enunciation of words she already used. Most recently, over gatherings with family and friends for Christmas, we noticed that Emma has started to speak in sentences!

When we returned from Christmas with Kurt's family (details on our Christmas celebrations will come soon!) we noticed that Emma's vocabulary increased tremendously. We also noticed that she started to string a few words together to get her point across. During New Year's weekend we celebrated Christmas with my family (more on that to come too!) and we noticed that Emma was consistently using sentences! Tonight at dinner, we had peas and pork. About half way through dinner, Emma looked up and told us that she "needed sprinkle cheese on my peas and meat." At first we didn't quite understand her, but after asking her to repeat herself, we figured it out. She was very happy. We complimented her over and over again for being patient with us and helping us to figure out what she wanted.

Lately, Emma has been very good about telling us what she wants/needs. She has been very patient with us and will repeat what she says several times for us or will show us when we ask her to. She gets very proud of herself when she can convey her thoughts and we understand them. We compliment her constantly on how good she is talking and putting words together. It is fun to watch her talk, we can see the way she moves her mouth that she is trying so very hard to get the sounds just right. It is so cute. We are hopeful that by being able to express herself, some crying fits might be avoided.

tear-free shampoo is not so tear-free

2011-01-03T20:48:00.000-05:00

Since she was an infant, we've been using head-to-toe body wash during Emma's bath. The current bottle started to get low, so we bought her Johnson's tear-free shampoo. Ever since we started using it however, bath time has had more tears than we can ever remember. Emma gets very distressed every time we use the new shampoo. When she's not in the tub, she will point out the shampoo bottle and name it and will tell us that we use it to wash her hair. She does not seem bothered by it, but try to use it, and she is not a happy kid! We tell her that it's big girl shampoo and it's just like what Mommy uses in the hopes that she will start to like it and bath time will be tear-free once again!

Future Fan Club President?

2011-01-03T20:32:00.000-05:00

A story from Daddy:
This weekend on the car ride to and from Philly to have Christmas with
the Carrie's family, we heard Justin Bieber's "Baby" on the radio quite a
few times. Emma liked the song a lot and sung along, "baby, baby,
baby" several times, even when the song was over. It was too cute,
although I was quite worried that our 19 month old daughter was
already a fan of the Biebs. So today, I thought I would play her the
music video on youtube, and I really expected her to love it and sing
along again. I was wrong. I could tell she was confused watching the
video, and after a few seconds she said something I was unsure of, but
contained the word "baby." I told her the "baby" part was coming up,
and when the refrain hit, I got her to sing along once, but then she
said what I believe was: "There is no baby." I laughed and told her
there was no baby in the video, but he was just singing the word baby.
Emma was not pleased, and said very clearly, "Where is the baby?" I
laughed again and told her there wasn't a baby, and to that she told
me to turn off the video and turn Blue's Clues back on. Priceless!

Growing up overnight

2010-12-16T21:23:00.000-05:00

Emma has been spending some time in the 2-year old room lately at daycare whenever they need to even out the student-teacher ratios. Whenever she hangs out with the "big" kids, she usually comes home with a new skill. Today was one of those days. When she came home, it seemed like she grew up from when we saw her this morning! She even looked older!

We were eating pizza for dinner and Emma asked for cheese. I pointed out that there was cheese on the pizza. She shook her head no. I got out a slice of cheese from the refridgerator and asked if she wanted it. Again the answer was no. She then seemed to mumble something before she said cheese while making a funny motion with her hands. All of a sudden it dawned on me what she wanted. I asked if she wanted sprinkle cheese and she emphatically said Yes! and was so happy that I figured out what she wanted. Over the weekend, I put some parmesean cheese on pasta and Emma discovered that she liked it as well. (Prior to this, she was not a fan.) She remembered and thought she would like it on her pizza. :)

After dinner, Emma got down from her highchair and said a whole sentence. In Emma-speak, it sounded like, "da dee o dames mumble Daddy." Translated: I want to play video games with Daddy. It was adorable. She kept repeating it to ensure that we knew what she wanted. She was calm the whole time and made sure to get her point across until Daddy was ready to play video games with her. I'm pretty sure it melted Daddy's heart to hear her say it.

On another note: Unfortunately, Emma is going through another, "I hate bath" phase. Bathtime has been rather painful for the past 2 weeks. For some reason, she has decided that she doesn't like getting her hair wet. Hair washing is not really optional because she gets food in it daily. *sigh* hopefully this phase will end soon!

Teacher's Helper

2010-11-21T20:52:00.000-05:00

Last week, Emma's teacher told me that she is a little helper. Apparently, when the lunch cart comes, all the kids run to it and crowd around it, anxious for their milk and lunch. Somehow, they've developed a routine that now all the kids go sit at the table except Emma who is more than happy to carry each child's milk cup to them after the teacher fills it. The teacher said that it definitely helps make the room more organized and that Emma loves doing it and the kids wait patiently for her to bring them their cups.

Little Gamer

2010-11-21T20:49:00.000-05:00

After not having a good night of sleep, Emma was out of sorts today and took an extraordinarily long nap. When she woke up, she was still out of sorts and wouldn't let me pick her up for quite a while. I finally went to get Kurt, hoping that she would let him get her, which she did. She couldn't decide what she wanted...she didn't want to eat or drink or play. But she got really excited when Kurt asked her if she wanted to play video games. She shook her head very emphatically and said "I do!" So downstairs they went to play geometry wars where Emma can fire and Kurt can steer on the same controller. I think this was one of Kurt's happiest days...his little gamer is finally emerging!

Boo Boo

2010-11-21T20:44:00.000-05:00

This morning, Emma was playing in her diaper bag and found a band-aid. When she asked what it was, I told her it was a bandaid and that bandaids make boo boos better. She immediately looked up at me and put it on her mouth. Poor girl, her top two incisors are coming in and her bottom two are still working their way to the surface so her mouth has been pretty sore for the past few days. Hopefully, once they all break through the skin, she'll be much more comfortable.

Weekend Pictures

2010-11-14T20:10:00.000-05:00

Just a couple pictures from all the time we spent outside over the gorgeous fall weekend:

A tired girl fell asleep during lunch

Like Daddy Like Daughter

2010-11-14T20:05:00.000-05:00

A couple evenings ago, Emma and Kurt were in the basement after dinner. When I finished cleaning up, this is what I walked downstairs to:

Like Daddy like Daughter

Emma used to never like blankets on her. At all. She would fight and fidget until she was out from underneath one even if we were snuggling with her on the couch. Lately though, she's been loving her blankets, or "Bee" as she calls them. In the mornings, if we put the television on to entertain her while we get ready for work, she'll climb up on the couch and cover herself up.

In her bedroom, she will pull a blanket out of her crib, climb up into the chair, ask for Elmo, monkey, frog or bear, and then ask for a book and sit and "read" for a bit. She is so happy sitting in that chair. She thinks she is such a big kid when she's sitting there reading her favorite nursery rhyme book or another current favorite, Curious George and the Bunny.

We say this all the time, but it is truly amazing and exciting to see the little person that Emma is becoming.

Little Mommy

2010-11-14T19:56:00.000-05:00

Emma has been very motherly lately. We're not sure if this is a developmental milestone or just Emma's natural personality coming out. She has been very interested in putting her dolls and stuffed animals down for naps and for giving them drinks from her sippy cups. She even shares some tea with them from time to time when she has tea parties with Mommy and Daddy. When she puts her friends down for naps, she covers them up with a blanket and then pats their backs for a bit before tossing them off to the side and going through the same routine with another one. In the evenings, one of us will be laying on the floor playing with her and she will get a blanket and cover us up and then pat and rub our backs for quite a while. One afternoon, she alternated covering each one of us up and patting our backs for about 20 minutes. Every once in a while, she would even give us a good night kiss. It was really quite cute.

This evening, I asked Emma if she would give me a massage. She said yes and tried to repeat massage. She proceeded to cover me up and then pat my back relatively hard about 8-10 times, then rub it about 4 times over and over again. When I told her how sweet she was she came up to kiss me and then leaned in for a thank you kiss and hug. :)

Pink Eye

2010-11-14T16:11:00.000-05:00

When I picked Emma up from daycare on Wednesday, I noticed she had a eye booger in her right eye. I told her that I hoped she wasn't going to wake up on Thursday with pink eye....but she did. :( It wasn't a bad case at all, but since she can't go to daycare without treatment, we called for a sick appointment at the doctor's. Luckily, Thursday was Veteran's Day, so both Kurt and I had the day off. Unfortunately, we spent over 3 hours at the doctor's office and pharmacy. I (Carrie) was not a happy camper.

Emma ended up screaming the entire time she was being checked out. (The nurse practitioner checked her ears, throat, and chest to make sure it was "just pink eye" and not a more systemic infection.) We left the office with a prescription for both eye ointment as well as amoxicillin in case Emma wouldn't let us put the ointment in her eyes. We drove around for 10 minutes so that Emma would fall asleep, then I ran into the pharmacy while Kurt stayed in the car with Emma. After wandering around aimlessly for 15 minutes, I was paged to the pharmacy where I was informed that they couldn't fill the prescription because it was dated for Friday, not Thursday. Back to the doctor's office we went to get it updated. (This took another 20 minutes.) Luckily, it only took about 10 minutes to get the ointment from the pharmacy.

Emma woke up by the time we got home, and Kurt put the first dose of ointment in her eyes while she was in the carseat (We figured restrainment would be helpful). She was not happy. Since we had to fight with her again that evening and on Friday morning as well, I called the pharmacy to have the amoxicillin prescription filled. Emma was fantastic when we picked it up. She held my hand and didn't touch anything I told her not to! She even got to pick out a Dora the Explorer cup during the outing.

That evening, I tried to give her the oral medication but she did not like the bubble gum flavored liquid. We've tried using the medicine spoon, a straw in the spoon, and a dropper, pretty much all have failed. We even resorted to bribing her with orange juice for every dose she takes. This morning though, I offered her juice if she took her medicine and she refused. She definitely knows what she likes and doesn't. Luckily, her eyes are clear and we think she had a viral case not a bacterial case of pink eye.

She loves me!

2010-11-14T15:54:00.000-05:00

Last week for the first time, Emma melted my heart when she said "Love you" for the first time to me. Kurt was getting her ready to settle down for story time before bed and asked her to tell me that she loved me before I left the room and she did!

Sheep

2010-11-14T15:52:00.000-05:00

Last week, Emma was playing with little animal squirt toys. She is really good at telling us what sounds animals make, so I decided to reverse the question and ask her what each animal was called. When we got to the sheep, Emma quickly responded "Sheep." Her pronunciation was a bit off though and it sounded like "Shit." It was quite funny, although I tried not to let her see me laughing. I made a mental note to work on the difference between "t" and "p" sounds.

Birthday Party!

2010-11-03T19:54:00.000-04:00

On 23 October, we attended Emma's friend Cameron's 2nd Birthday party. (Cameron was Emma's first boyfriend at school.) The theme was "Down on the Farm." Luckily, it was a gorgeous day and Cameron and his 6 friends were able to be outside. The kids had fun with animal and farm stickers, playing on the slide, attempting to hit a ball off a tee, and exploring the back yard before singing songs and posing for pictures.

We sang, The Farmer in the Dell, She'll Be Coming around the Mountain, Old MacDonald, and of course, Happy Birthday. The kids, all mostly around 2, did amazingly well and sat on bales of hay during the singing.

Afterward, they were rewarded with animal cupcakes and barns filled with fun favors like animal crackers, silly bands, stickers, and a stuffed animal.

During the party, Emma enjoyed her very first juice box! She loved it and sucked it down in no time. Since she doesn't drink juice very often, we only allowed her to have one. She was relatively satisfied to carry around the empty juice box and chew on the straw from time to time.

Emma fell asleep on the way home from the party around 630pm and slept straight through the night until about 5am. I was able to snuggle with her and she didn't really wake up until 630am the next day! Since she got so much sleep, she was an amazingly happy little girl the entire day!

Happy Halloween!

2010-11-01T21:03:00.001-04:00

Ages ago, Emma and Daddy picked our Emma's tiger costume for Halloween. We immediately started working on her sound effects to go along with her costume. As a result, long before Halloween, Emma could tell you that tigers (and several other animals) said "ROAR!"

On Friday, Emma dressed up as a rare pumpkin lion for school. (The jacket portion of her costume, was too warm for her to wear inside all day at school.) When I first showed her her whiskers, she didn't know what to make of them, but quickly forgot about them. (I'm so thankful that I thought to use eyeliner instead of regular Halloween greasepaint/makeup--so much less mess!)

A rare pumkin tiger (with attitude!)

On Saturday, we carved our pumpkin. (When I say we, I mean Kurt carved and I sorted through the goop for the pumpkin seeds!) Emma was not very interested in playing with the pumpkin guts. I tried to show her how to put the pumpkin seeds on a cookie sheet, but she tried to eat them instead so she got out of that job. Kurt kept what he was thinking of carving a secret while he drew the template. When he was finished he asked Emma if she liked it. I think she gave the ok. When he was finished, he knew he made the right choice! Emma LOVED her Elmo pumpkin! On Sunday morning, she kept looking at the pumpkin sitting on the island during breakfast and saying in a happy voice, "Elmo! Elmo! Elmo!"

Thinking about putting her hand in the pumpkin

The finished pumpkin!

On Halloween, I got her dressed in her costume in the afternoon and asked her to lay down so that I could put on her whiskers and to my surprise, she promptly did! We intended to try to get some good pictures of her outside in the day light but mostly, she just ran around and played with 4 year old neighbor.

The tiger in the wild!

While I was cleaning up dinner, the doorbell rang and at 6pm we had the first of our 95ish trick or treaters! Emma was not very impressed with the costumes. There was a skeleton in the first batch and we think it may have frightened her a bit when he walked toward her. We quickly finished up our chores and got Emma into her jacket and took her outside. Our neighbor, Will, was out on his stoop with his bucket o'candy and we took Emma over to him. He told her how cute she was and we tried to get her to roar....instead she burst into tears! And then cried harder when he put candy into her cute little pumpkin! We got her to calm down a bit and took her to another neighbors' house who we frequently talk to, and she started crying again when they answered the door in costume. :( We thought it would be fun to sit on our stoop to hand out candy and that Emma would have fun seeing all the people but she was just too worked up so we went back inside and Kurt and I took turns handing out candy. Every once in a while, we would grab Emma and show her the costumes, but she was very timid the whole night.

Not sure about this whole thing!

Although not entirely how we planned Halloween, we did have a nice, low key time. Hopefully next year, Emma will be a little bit more excited about it!

Pictures are up to date!

2010-10-18T21:15:00.002-04:00

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!

2010-10-17T21:24:00.000-04:00

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!

2010-10-17T21:09:00.001-04:00

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"

2010-10-16T21:09:00.000-04:00

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

2010-10-16T20:57:00.000-04:00

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!

2010-10-16T20:44:00.000-04:00

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!

2010-10-16T20:17:00.006-04:00

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

2010-10-16T20:00:00.000-04:00

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.

It's rough being 15 months old!

2010-09-20T22:08:00.000-04:00

On Saturday, Kurt had plans to play cards and Emma and I planned to go to a friend's birthday lunch. The morning started off reasonably well, but at 10am Emma went into breakdown mode. Finally, we (Emma and I) figured out that she wanted cheese the third time I offered it to her. She refused to eat anything else. I realized she was tired, but she did not want to nap. I tried struggling with her in the rocking chair, tried resting with her in a bed, nothing was working. So, in a very frazzled state, I threw stuff in her diaper bag, changed my clothes and got us both into the car a good 45 minutes before we had to leave for lunch. She was asleep before we go to the first stop sign in our development. We sat in the parking lot for a good 20 minutes before I woke her up to go into lunch.

While we were at lunch, I guess she was mostly good. She just wanted to be up walking around or exploring outside the entire time. Of course, this got me frustrated all over again. She was pretty good during the meal. At one point, she brought me a bag of Melanie's and started taking out the few things that were in it. Melanie was way across the room from us, but I told her to take the items to Melanie and she just turned around and did. Such a good little girl! By the end of the lunch though, she had about had it and wouldn't sit or stand still long enough for me to get my wallet out to pay or find my keys. It was very frustrating, but someone we managed.

After we got home, I really wanted her to nap since I was exhausted, but of course she didn't want to. After a couple hours, and some tears on both our parts, we ended up going to visit with Calvin and Melanie and Adam. The kids had fun playing with a new outdoor toy of Calvin's and then playing inside after dinner.

Looking back, although I thought it was a bad day, it really wasn't that bad...at least she wasn't screaming the whole time! I guess I just have to learn to take things in stride a bit better.

Visitors and Outings

2010-09-20T21:57:00.000-04:00

A couple weeks ago, Rachel came down to visit for the weekend. Emma was thrilled to see her! Her face lights up everytime she sees Rachel. It's really adorable!

After Rachel left, Kurt, Emma, and I drove out to a wine fest at Liganore Winery in Mt. Airy. It was incredibly hot so we didn't stay too long, but Emma had fun walking around making friends and dancing to the live jazz band. Kurt and I enjoyed some wine before heading home. Mommy forgot the diaper bag for this outing, but luckily, everything worked out and we didn't have any major catastrophes!

Kurt's parents came down for an overnight trip over labor day weekend. Emma had a ton of fun with Grandma while Kurt and Grandpa worked on shelves in the basement and Mommy rested with a cold. They spent tons of time outside walking around in the woods and at the playground. Inside, they colored, played with blocks and read. Emma didn't even want me to put her down for her nap...she decidedly wanted Grandma! (I guess Mommy just isn't very fun!)

It makes us so happy that Emma knows and remembers family and has so much fun where ever we go!

Visit with Gigi

2010-09-20T21:47:00.000-04:00

On Sunday, we visited Emma's Gigi in Annapolis. Emma needed a few minutes to warm up, but then made herself right at home! She was particularly fond of all the bottles of paint that Gigi has in her office. Emma had a lot of fun moving them around and making little rows of them in other rooms of the house...especially on the toilet lid! She also enjoyed the grapes that Gigi had for snack.

Of course, Emma was a little stinker and wouldn't let Gigi hold her for a nice picture or give her kisses. Hopefully, we'll be able to see her again soon, so that Emma will remember her more and not be so timid.

Mommy's Little Helper

2010-09-20T21:44:00.000-04:00

On Saturday, I was doing laundry and had the best little helper! It was time to change out the wash to the dryer and Emma was ready to help! I handed her articles of clothing piece by piece (or several if it was a handful of socks) and she very carefully put them into the dryer taking care that each article was just right. She even took the dryer sheet from me and closed the dryer door with me only having to tell her once and not having to explain it! She then proceeded to put a load of towels into the washer for me and helped me put them in the dryer after they were finished! We're still working on folding, but for the moment I'm happy when she leaves piles of folded laundry alone!

Lessons Learned

2010-09-20T21:38:00.000-04:00

Last night, during snack time before bed, Emma kept asking for orange juice. She has only had oj a couple times--I let her have some when she was sick a few weeks ago. We decided that it really couldn't hurt anything to let her have some, so I diluted it about 50/50 with water and let her have a cup. She proceeded to down the cup in almost 1 gulp. A few minutes later, we started bath time and then Kurt sat down to read her a book. About 30 minutes after I left the room, Emma's bedroom door opened and he said, "OK, I give up." And out walks Emma all bright-eyed and bushy tailed. I asked why she wasn't asleep and she just giggled as Kurt explained that she had been busy looking out the window, reading books, and having dance party in her room.

We then realized that she was on a sugar high! What were we thinking, giving her a glass of oj right before bed?!? We knew it was futile to try to get her to settle down so we let her play for a while, all the time asking her if she was tired...because we sure were!! About an hour after her normal bedtime, she started to wind down and I was able to take her up and read some nursery rhymes to her and get her to bed.

All in all she was a very happy little girl. Luckily, she slept in today until 7, so at least she didn't lose much sleep last night!

Bye Bye!

2010-09-20T21:28:00.000-04:00

Emma has known how to say "Bye Bye!" for a long time now, but recently she's started saying it in a very cute little girl voice to everything! She says "Bye Bye!" to random people we see outside or in stores or whenever shows on TV end but the cutest is when she tells all her toys "Bye Bye!" whenever we're leaving the house, going to a different room, or when she's going to bed.

Kurt said that on their way out the door this morning she was telling all her toys Bye Bye and she stopped specifically at her little rocking horse petted it and said "Bye Bye!" Too cute!

Over the weekend, we saw Adam, Melanie, and Calvin. When we were ready to leave, I told her to say good bye to everyone. She walked up to Calvin, put her had about 2 inches from his face and waved and said Bye Bye! She also told Adam and Melanie Bye Bye and gave them hugs. What a sweet little girl!

We also saw Gigi and Aunt Trish this past weekend. Emma said Bye Bye! a couple times but then refused when we were actually ready to walk out the door. She has figured out when we want her to do party tricks and definitely lets us know when she is not willing to perform!

We'll have to try to get her saying Bye Bye! on camera and post it soon!

Broken Record....or....

2010-09-05T20:20:00.002-04:00

On our walk tonight, Emma kept repeating "Uh-OH!" over and over and over again. I asked, "Uh-Oh what-o?" which made her laugh and keep asking. Kurt said, "Emma, you sound like a broken record." I told him that Emma probably won't even know what a record is. He responded with, "Well then, Emma, you sound like a scratched CD. Or maybe a corrupted MP3."

Oh, isn't Emma just going to LOVE her Dad in a few years? =)

"What's This?"

2010-09-04T11:48:00.000-04:00

Emma begins each day with the question "What's this?" or "What is it?" And generally doesn't stop asking all day long. It's very cute! Some times she will repeat what we tell her and sometimes, just move on to asking about something else. She even asks about things she knows! When we're reading books, I'll point out an animal or object she knows and ask what it is...and then she repeats the question. So now, I'm trying to tell her what something is and then ask a question about it afterward like what does X animal say or Where is the blue ball, etc.

I think these "What's ?"questions are way easier than the "Why?" question which I'm sure will be coming shortly!

Teddy Bear

2010-08-31T21:06:00.002-04:00

Emma chooses who gets to read her books and put her to bed each night. Usually she chooses Kurt. Tonight she chose me.

When Kurt puts her down, Emma is all business and he comes down to the living room in about 3.5 minutes flat after reading her a book and giving her a couple cuddles. When I put her down, it's a different story, Emma drags out the process for 15-30 minutes. Some nights it is frustrating, but lately, I keep in mind that she's only little once and that I need to treasure the nights she chooses me.

Tonight, I read her books and she pointed to her crib. I put her in and she did not want to lay down. I picked her up and she pointed to her changing table. I thought that maybe she wanted to sleep there since it's similar to her daycare cot. (I would have until she fell asleep and then transferred her to her crib) She wanted to be picked up again and then wanted to read more books. We sat down, read, cuddled. She indicated she wanted to go back to her crib. She scooted over to her new Teddybear that our friend Erin brought her last week and came back to me with it. We sat back down. She hugged and hugged her bear. Then she got a bottle and fed the bear. We cuddled some more. We read some more. We went back to the crib and she played with her music box. She also had a little dance party before she wanted me to pick her up again. We cuddled some more. We went back to the crib. She picked up her teddy bear, her two lovies, and her blanket and gave them to me and then wanted me to pick her up. I asked what I should do then. She said "Sit." So we sat. She got comfy...the lovies went on the floor as did Teddy Bear. She tried to put her blanket over her so I helped then she wanted her bear back. She snuggled her bear and cuddled into me. It was so cute. Finally, she relaxed enough to go to sleep and I was able to lay her down. Sweet girl!

She has several stuffed animals and lovies. She really hasn't taken to any of them. She'll play with them briefly, but she hasn't "needed" to have one in her arms for any extended period of time. Last week, after Erin left and it was time for bed, Emma took Teddy Bear upstairs with her. I just put it in the corner of her crib, and I think it's been in the same spot since. I thought it was really cute that it was just what she wanted tonight to help her settle down. Thanks Erin!!

15 Month Stats

2010-08-31T20:53:00.001-04:00

Emma had her 15 month well-check and vaccinations today. She is 21 lbs 13.5 oz, 32 inches tall, and has a head circumference of 45.5 ~~inches~~ cm (Thanks for pointing that out Mom!). She gained almost 1.5 lbs and grew 2 inches in 3 months! We weren't crazy when we thought a few of her dresses looked shorter and we could see more of her chubby little legs!!

She received 3 vaccinations: Hep A, Hib, and Tetanus today. She had much more immediate reactions to them than she has previously. In the past, her eyes would get really big while the pain of the injection registered. Today, it was pretty much immediate. Poor thing! She was a trooper though!

Emma was great in the waiting room and stayed right near me while I filled out paperwork. While we were waiting for the doctor to come in, she enjoyed sitting on a stool at a desk eating goldfish and reading through a truck book. She was very excited when the nurse brought Daddy in to the room.While the doctor was examining her, she was a little weary. She did not really want to be poked and prodded. Apparently, this reaction is completely normal at this age.

After the doctor left and we were waiting for the nurse to come back in for the shots, Emma got a little restless. She made it very clear that it was time to go "Outside!" We kept trying to explain that we had to wait just a little more. She proceeded to pretend that the stainless steel wastebasket was a drum. Awesome. We weren't really thinking when we asked if she wanted to go see Oscar and Elmo in Grouchland (a favorite in our house) because that started her wanting to leave immediately. *Sigh*

One question the doctor asked was how big Emma's vocabulary is. We explained that she definitely knows a lot of words and understands commands and what we are talking about but that we don't feel that she says a lot of words. Most of her words are just the first sound or syllable and many words sound very similar and that other people wouldn't know what she is saying and that context plays a big part in understanding her. The doctor reassured us that it sounds like Emma is normal and that at this age, "normal" is considered to be regular use of 2-5 words.

After dinner, I got out a pen and paper and we made a list of words Emma uses daily or at least regularly enough that we know she knows what something is. We (or at least I) were surprised that she uses upwards of 40 words consistently. She has also repeated many more, but hasn't committed them to her regular usage vocabulary. A couple of her favorites are dog, book, cheese, shoes, hi/bye, and pretzel. She also consistently tells us what sounds 6-7 animals make. We're working on 2-3 more and she can repeat with prompting.

We are amazed daily at how much Emma has grown and is developing! Our little baby is getting to be such a big girl! We can't believe how quickly time is flying by!

July Pictures are posted!

2010-08-22T09:35:00.002-04:00

Emma in July