Fall Update

We went apple-picking with our neighbors on Saturday. There were 4 cars of us who went, and we all had a good time reaching for the biggest spotless apples we could find. I held Emma up a couple of time so she could grab an apple off the high branches...she had to grab on with both hands and PULL! She didn't like to let go of the apple once she picked it...trying to convince her to put it in the bag so she could get another one was almost a fruitless (no pun intended) effort. I made applesauce yesterday and it turned out great!!! We'll be eating it for days and days. It was a large pot...a little more than I intended.

I need to head to Lowe's in just a few minutes and buy a part to repair our toilet. Unfortunately, I can't seem to get a screw undone underneath the toilet to get the old part out. Not sure how to remedy this. I may have to get some help from a co-worker. I also want to price shelving while I'm there. We're in the midst of overhauling our downstairs, and I want to install some shelves on a particular wall. Our flooring will arrive on Thursday, so next Monday will be the first day of laying. I hope it goes smoothly and that we get it done quickly. I'm anxious to see the finished product.

Emma is turning into a little girl, even though she isn't yet 2 years old. Her language is expanding daily, and she's forming little sentences left and right. She's developing a little imagination, too, and likes to order "fwyed chickn and chino" for me -- that would be fried chicken and iced cappuccino -- from our neighbor's little Dora cash register. Grandma visited this past weekend and they had fun together. My mom brought Emma some Hello Kitty underpants, and I guess they were a big hit. She also got Emma a book about the potty, which we've read several times in the last couple of days. It would be great if Emma would catch on so that could wear the underpants daily! We need to break Emma of her pacifier soon. She's suddenly gotten really attached to it unlike ever before. People keep giving us suggestions of how to get rid of it....pretend someone else NEEDS her paci and ask if she'll give it to them, say it got lost, etc. Problem is, Emma's smart enough to realize that we have multiples! How do you get rid of 6 pacifiers at the same time? I don't think we can trick her out of all of them. Any other ideas?

New Glimpses of the Peach

@ the pool with "Aunt" Wendy

Emma, Brittany & Trevor in their hoodies
Check out that frown!! She didn't want her picture taken after devouring a donut.
This is what happens when Emma dresses herself...
While we were swimming with the boys.
Emma loved this little car
Unique shot -- had to include it.
Typical evening or weekend afternoon -- hanging out in the garage and alley while all the kids play.
Back at the pool -- the pictures didn't pop up in order for some reason...

Swinging with Kalli at her house
At COSI in the water area

Yummy yogurt. I love watching Emma feed herself.
Grant is so much taller than Emma now. Wyatt is closer in size.

Emma in June and July

I Hate Blogger Right Now

Okay, so at my mom's request, I uploaded a ton of pictures last night, and wrote quite a lengthy blog. Wanna know where it is? So do I. I hit "publish," which it said it did effectively, yet it failed to appear. And it also fails to appear in the post list as one that's saved, but not visible. Unless I can find it, you'll all just have to wait a while longer to get any update from us. Sorry.

"Thank you, Mommy"

More photos to come soon -- have to upload pictures from home.

Bigger news, though, is that Emma said her first phrase other than "I don't know" yesterday. I gave her a little piece of a bagel (which she then fed to Butter) and she turned, looked straight at me, and said, "Thank you, Mommy"!!!!!! Jon was right there, so he heard it too. It was music to my ears. Frankly, I was stunned. My brilliant child, in perfect context, THANKED ME, stringing together more than two words. It was a banner day. And we think she said it again this morning. Ahhhhh ::long sigh:: what a PEACH!

Some other words she's doing well with are:
Clock
Yellow
Avacado (yup, a weird one, we know)
Haley (a friend whose grad party we went to yesterday...sounds like "Hee hee")
Shoes
Blue
Elbow (I think this might be one of her favorites)
Bottle
Ew! (said most often while picking her nose, or when we're wiping it)

We're having a family portrait taken today for the church pictorial directory. Hope we all look good. We'll get a free 8x10 copy just for having the picture taken.

That's it for now. I'm sure we'll have more stories to share soon. Oh! Perhaps some tales from the Zoo. Wendy, Emma & I are going on Friday, and perhaps also Emma's friend, Kalli. I can't wait, even though I think it's going to be a scorching hot day.

Another Video

Here are Emma and her friend, Otto, playing with the balls when Otto and his parents came over for dinner a couple of weeks ago. They had SO MUCH FUN! Unfortunately, we just found out that Otto's family will be moving due to his mom getting a new job in Cleveland. His last day at daycare will be June 6. We are REALLY going to miss him, especially since we've been having fun together outside already this spring. Who else will we feed the fish with? Or chase down the alleyway? ::sniff, sniff::

Emma at the Playground

Here is Emma at the playground in our neighborhood. She loves to hang from these bars! She's getting better on the slides, too. On Saturday Wendy, Em, and I went to the playground and Emma ended up creeping down the tube slide on her belly! I was at the top, and Wendy caught her on the bottom. She was pretty pleased with herself.

100th Post

Well, today marks my 100th post since starting this blog. Not sure it has appealed to most since it's really all about Emma, but hopefully the grandparents have enjoyed it.

I leave today in just a few short hours for Atlanta -- going to a small groups conference. I'll be gone until Saturday afternoon, which amounts to 4 nights and a full 4 days away from Jon and Emma. Pray for Jon while I'm gone! He has to manage work, Emma in the mornings and evenings, and the 2 dogs all on his own. While I've done the single-mom thing many evenings while Jon has had other things going on, I've never had to worry about taking the dogs out too. I set out clothes for Emma for each day (one outfit if it's hot, another if it's cool) at Jon's request. All he has to remember now is to feed her, change her diaper, do bottles, take her milk sippy to daycare in the mornings, and bring home all of her stuff from daycare Friday evening. Hmmm...it just occurred to me that Emma probably won't be able to see for the rest of the week -- I'm always the one to put her hair up, and I'm not sure Jon will dare to try! I've asked the girls in the office to check in on Emma throughout the day and maybe even take her for walks in my absence. Oh, I'm gonna miss that kid! I'm looking forward to Saturday already.

Quick Update

Sorry, no pictures today. I have to add the newest ones from home now, since they're on my "big camera." It's a hassle to drag the whole thing in to work with me, and evenings have been rather full lately, hence the lack of communication.

Emma's walking is improving, and she now tries to run....but it's the herky-jerky walk that makes me hold my breath, anticipating that she's going to get herself going too fast and wind up doing a face-plant on the pavement. Ugh. Hasn't happened yet -- at least not with disasterous effects.

She LOVES to be outdoors. Yesterday it was absolutely beautiful, so I took off two hours during the afternoon, kidnapped her from daycare, and took her to the park in the neighborhood adjoining ours. They have a much nicer playground set and also some swings. We slathered on the sunscreen, changed into shorts and a tank top, slapped on a hat, and away we went. Unfortunately, the slides we too hot to go on, but on the other hand it's really hard to let her on the slides when I'm the only one with her. We really need someone up top with her, then another at the bottom to catch her as she comes down. The swings freaked her out a little, even though she's been in one before, so we didn't stay long on that. She really had fun watching other kids, climbing up and down the steps, and wandering around in the wood chips. I was starting to worry that we'd been out in the sun too long, and that I may have missed spots when applying the sunscreen, so we headed home to get a snack and then came back to the church. I had a meeting at 4:30, so I dropped her back at daycare, then got her again at 6:00. (Jon had to work late last night) As we got out into the parking lot we encountered a mom and her two kids who we haven't seen in quite awhile. All of our kids took off for the little daycare playground, and we ended up staying there for nearly 40 minutes!!! After finally getting home and eating supper (her, not me), we went out for a walk in the stoller and encountered several neighbors and their children. Emma conked out in the stroller before we got home, and woke only long enough for me to changer her diaper and give her a bottle. I couldn't bear to keep her up for a bath, so she went to bed with sunscreen on and her hair still up in a ponytail. Jon gave her a bath this morning. To emphasize just how tired she was, she slept until 5:45....a full hour longer than normal (as of late).

We've made friends with a little girl down the street -- Hannah -- who is almost 3. Hannah tries to hold Emma's hand, or hug her, and it's funny to watch Emma react. Sometimes it doesn't bother her, while other times she seems to not want to be touched, and she gets the furrowed brow. She got to sit on Hannah's Dora bike yesterday, as well as perch on her little John Deere "gator". Fortunately the battering was inside charging, so I didn't have to worry about the thing taking off at a touch of a button! Hannah is a very outgoing and generous kid. EVERYTIME we see her, even from a distance, she yells hello and tries to come to us. She called Em her "sister" yesterday. ::grin:: I'm excited to be meeting the moms of the neighborhood kids.

Otto, one of the little boys in daycare with Emma, also lives down the street. We're going to have Otto and his parents over for dinner on Saturday night. I hope after that we'll be able to invite him over to play occassionally on the weekends.

Words Emma has picked up on recently...
Elbow
Bubbles
Keys
Up
Down
Walk
....and she understands Playground and kicks her legs in excitement.

I guess that's it for now. Hopefully there will be new pictures with the next post.

Elmo on Her Back

This is an Elmo Backpack that I got for Emma at a Baby Sale this past weekend. $2!!! What a steal. And it ended up being a woman I knew who was selling it, which put my mind at ease as to its cleanliness, etc. Emma was wearing it as we (Em, me, and Wendy) were walking into Target. I thought it was so adorable that I couldn't resist getting out my camera.

Puddle Jumping

Last night Emma and I went walking down the alleyway behind our house. It was drizzling a little bit, and there were a few puddles around. Well, the Munchkin decided she likes the sound of the water slapping under her feet, and she went trudging back and forth through a puddle over and over again. By the time I hauled her into the house to get my camera so I could catch some video of her, her interest was waining. Alas, this video doesn't capture the true spirit of adventure that characterized the earlier "puddle jumping." When we finally went inside, her shoes, socks, and halfway up her pantlegs were SOAKED! I had to strip her down. It was so much fun to watch. I wish you all could have seen her in the glory if it all.

Major Photo Update

This is the dress Emma wore for the Saturday night Easter service. The lighting in the house was poor, so it's not a very good picture.

Emma LOVES peas! I wish I could get her to eat carrots....

Em's first dum dum. Check out that blue tongue!

I love that I was able to capture this moment. Emma loves her dogs.

YUCK! She's learned to "lick" the dogs back....

Yup! Painted toe nails. She's facinated with them.

We were visiting friends and Emma had a chance to color. She enjoyed sitting on this little chair.

The Peach and her friend, Gabby, in the buggy at daycare.

I was being offered a jelly bean

During the Easter egg hunt at daycare. Fortunately I can enjoy these photo opportunities by being on site.

"Mmmm....how many can I hold at one time?"

I wish I could hold my leg up like that with such ease!

Fun perspective. I'm excited to have caught this.

Sleeping Beauty. She wasn't feeling so well that day and crashed on our bed. I took those moments to go in and clean her room.

Enthralled with her Dora Kitchen

We went out on a cold day. She didn't like the snow, but she did seem to like her snow SUIT!

Some days her ponytail is a fountain. Today it was a geyser!

Check out THAT face!

Emma was fixated on spots of chocolate Jon got on his shirt. This kept her busy for a LONG time.

Just a Few...

Trying on sunglasses at the mall

Hanging out at Half Price Books while Grandpa was shopping

Yup. I turned 30 yesterday. The ladies at my Sunday night class surprised me with this cake.

Just a Quick Update

Sorry this won't be longer. I have a full day slated and so only have a few minutes to slap something on here in the form of an update.

Emma is healthy again....FINALLY! After months of being sick with colds and flu, she seems to have bounced back to her normal, cheerful, fun self. I'm loving it. She's such a joy when everything in her body is working the way it's supposed to. Now if only she would sleep later on the mornings it's my turn to get up with her! (up around 5:15....whereas the days it's Jon's turn she tends to sleep until nearer 6:00. UGH!)

Our trip to Virginia ended up being canceled due to the yucky weather we had last weekend. All Skybus flights were canceled for the day. It was very discouraging, but then Grandma and Grandpa, in their desperation to see their granddaughter, hopped in the car and drove the 7 hours from VA to OH....in rain and snow. I wonder if Emma will ever understand just how WRAPPED she has them around her little fingers. We had a great weekend. Em finally snapped back to almost normal by Sunday afternoon. Jon and I got to go on a date Monday night -- movie then dinner -- while the grandparents put Emma to bed....without incident. Whew. Not sure when we'll see them again, but we've booked another attempt on Skybus in June. Snow shouldn't be a problem.

I turn 30 this coming weekend and have to go today to get a new driver's license. My last photo wasn't so bad, so I have high hopes for this one. I always get anxious when they make you do the eye exam. Why is that? I've been to the eye doctor recently, but it still makes my heart pound.

Anyhow, on to other things now.

Reading on the Toilet

This'll be a short blog. Something I'm finding absolutely hilarious right now.... Emma gets me up early in the morning and during my time with her before Jon wakes up I have to pee. On more than one occasion, as I sit to do my "business" -- leaving the bathroom door open so I can still monitor the movements of my daughter, Emma grabs books and brings them to me to read AT THAT MOMENT. So, happily, the two of us sit on the potty reading Curious George or, better yet, Clifford the Big Red Dog. She's such a funny girl. Couldn't wait just a minute longer for me to be done and read in her room instead. Nope. The pot seems to be the hot spot. Tee hee.

New Friends

We had some new friends over for dinner -- Mark, Angie, Ashley and Aubrey. Ashley is 3 and Aubrey will be 2 in May. All 3 girls climbed into the dog bed together. It was pretty funny at the time! Emma looks so tiny. Both A and A are in the 90th-something percentile for height, so they tower over Emma.

Had her 15-month check up yesterday. Not sure percentiles, but here are her measurements:

20 lbs, 15 oz

30 1/4 inches long

She's still fitting comfortably in 12-18 month clothes, and is still in size 3 diapers. Not sure when she'll grow enough to transition up to 4's!!!

She Cracks Me Up

I love this short video. Emma has a Dora Kitchen that a friend gave us, and she often mimics the sound of the blender, which you'll hear for yourself. She usually dances to the music from the radio, too, but didn't in this clip.

The Flu Hits Again

I just can't get healthy. I'm sick with the flu again. It hit a couple of days ago. Fortunately, I'm not feverish or achy anymore. No...instead Jon is experiencing those symptoms. Emma had diarrhea twice this morning, so she and I stayed home today. She doesn't seem to be FEELING badly... maybe just a decrease in appetite and some crankiness.

Anyhow, nothing else new to report. Maybe when we return to health and can get back on our feet.

Absolute Temper Tantrum

Emma in her new Dora chair

This was positively hilarious.

Is there anything more peaceful than a sleeping baby?

Today marks the day that I would say Emma had her first FULL-ON temper tantrum. She's had other tantrums before, but this one topped them all. It involved screaming, screeching, sobbing, body contortions, arching of the back, super-baby strength, and incredible attitude which included not looking at Mommy in the face, and even pushing Mommy's face away. Yup. And guess what it was over? Leaving daycare. Shocking, I know. However, Emma had just gotten to go over to "the other side of the wall" after having spent 6 hours in the room she's too old for. They went for a buggy ride and then stopped off in the "big room" to play. Jon had to go to work (odd hours today) and had to take us home first (too cold to walk, and I hate to ask others for transportation, especially sans carseat), so we had to grab Emma from the "big room". Not a happy camper, to say the least. Jon and I laughed about it, but it took a good 20 minutes to get her calm and return her breathing to normal. Then, suddenly, she was her sunny self again, laughing as I tried to tug her socks off.

Anyhow, Grandma was here for a visit this weekend, and we had some great photo opportunities. Something that cracks me up is that Emma's hair will stay in the same "style" after I take out the pony-tail holder(s). You'll see for yourself. After Grandma left we went out and bought a chair that's just Emma's size. She's been trying to sit herself atop several things -- the ledge of the open refrigerator, Peanut..... Anything at just the right level for her to settle her bum on. Back to Grandma, my mom was a big hit with the daycare kids. They followed her around as she dragged Em along in a laundry basket.

Emma's getting more teeth. I think there is one coming in on the bottom, along with one or two molars. She doesn't seem too bothered. Maybe not eating the same, but she's been doing okay with bottles the last couple of days, which we're happy about. Speaking of bottles, the kid will NOT take milk from a sippy cup. Doesn't matter what we do. My only last resort will be to try the Nuby cup from which she usually has juice. I have known people to say...."If that's where the milk is, she'll drink from a cup." However, I think they underestimate the stubborn streak Emma inherited from her Mommy.

So, here are more photos. Enjoy!