Discoveries

"How" is Emma-speak for Howard. At first she just said "Ki-y" (Kitty), then "How", now it's sometimes "Hi, How". She loves the cat. I think Howard is happy that there is glass between the two of them.
Emma played at her friend, Naomi's a couple weeks ago and discovered baby dolls! So, we went out and found one for Emma. At first she thought the baby's binkie was for HER, but now she takes good care of her little one. She wants to rock it in her rocking chair, and I found her holding the baby's hand after falling asleep in the car...how sweet is that! I drug out this Tu-Tu from an old dog costume we used to have. I often find her trying to put it on her head, so I helped her out a little here. She runs around the house with her tongue out the side of her mouth -- a typical Emma face -- She knows she's cute. Man, we're in for it!
Naomi had a butterfly birthday party a few weeks ago, and Emma looked like such a big girl dressing up in wings and sitting at a real little kid table!! She is concentrating on something here at the table. I think she is trying to figure out the crayons... I can't wait to color with her!
I'll post some more soon -- She has been a busy girl lately! I can't get a THING done these days. She is constantly undoing whatever I "do". Pulling books down, unfolding laundry, pulling out toys I have just put away, unwinding toilet paper, basically making me tired. But she is cracking me up and I hope I can capture this time of her life in my head and never forget it.

Monkey Madness!

She IS a monkey. She had no idea what was going on, but she was happy to be with both mommy and daddy. We took her to about 5 houses, and she didn't realize she had a loot until the very end. The last picture is Emma discovering she had some goods on her.

Drew and I went to the fabric store the week before and had picked out a pattern for a skunk and bought fuzzy fabric and everything...lesson #1,001: ask yourself, "am I REALLY going to make this?" before spending $25 at a craft store. Really, you have to take a hard look at yourself and your time-frame, and your sanity.

To make a short story long, we ended up with this monkey suit made from Emma's brown jogging suit, some fuzzy fabric, some felt for the ears, a few safety pins, a cut up towel for the tail, some more safety pins and some make-up for her nose. Done in 10 minutes!! Lesson learned.

This last picture is classic Surprized -delighted- excited Emma. She looks scared, I know - but she isn't.

Emma in October!

Emma's lovin' Lu Lu again... She can now climb up in the rocking chair and "wock, wock". And I can now get a little "Pebbles" pom pom in her hair.

She is taking after her daddy with all the book looking. I hope she keeps it up. She loves her books. One of her first words was "tory" - that's "story" to you and me. One of her favorites is Go Dog Go by Dr. Seuss... on one page it says "stop dogs, stop. The light is red", and she puts her hand up in the air like the bird is doing on the page and says "sta!". She will go and get the book if we say any of the lines in the book. I sound like such a proud mom - I can't help it - I guess I am!!

We went to a farm called Bob's corn in Snohomish that Drew and I visited pre-Emma for some pumpkins. Again, the timing wasn't perfect. I think I am getting better at trying to relax and not get so anxious when she gets so tired and fussy and just take it for what it is, but it is still a far cry from our care-free -go anywhere, any time- life we used to have. (Some of you are probably saying - uh, ya- tell us what we don't know"). It took a while to drive out there and she was definately tired and a bit grumpy when she couldn't do what she wanted to, but she had fun sitting in the pumpkins, the wheel barrow and riding the sadle in the barn! Cowgirl up!

She's growing up!

Wow! She looks so much bigger to me in these pics. I haven't looked at those older ones I've been posting in a while.

Emma LOVES her Lu Lu (the lamb) as you can see... and check out the teeth if you haven't already... she's got 11 and 2 more on the way I think.

Here is Em taking her first bite of birthday cake at her party. She was a bit timid at first, but got into it and ate her icecream until she got cold, then, as usual, gave it to the dog.

I was histerical over the one in the green jacket. Our little elf. She thought she was pretty funny too.

Doesn't she just look so big! She looks like such a big little girl! I guess maybe she is.

More emma this summer

Sorry, I'm backtracking a bit, but I wanted to include some of the fun Emma had with her friend Hannah. Emma and Hannah were born the same day, same hospital, next room over. They have just recently attempted to play together. Before that we would put them next to each other and most of the time they wouldn't even look at each other.

We spent the 4th of July with Alicia, Dan and Hannah... she looks so little and chubby!

The pic of Emma and Myra kind of says it all about their relationship. This is how Emma gives kisses... and this is usually the look Myra has on her face...except occasionally she will reciprocate as shown in the last pic.

Emma had started walking in mid September - Here she is making an attempt. Her skills have just recently rapidly improved.

Ferries, Hiking and Biting

We took the ferry home after camping in Sequim-Emma loved it!

We took one hiking trip this summer after we bought this pack at a outdoor resale store. It was miserably hot and there were nasty flies everywhere, but we were happy we went. Time is of the essence when you have a 10 month old with you. You've got to time your trip well... if the car ride takes too long and your little one hasn't had her lunch yet - you're in for it. Then, by the time you get her fed - you've got 45 minutes before she is fed up with this backpack stuff. So, there will be no 5, 6, 7, mile trip today. I don't think Drew has learned this lesson YET. Maybe he should read my blog. 1 mile is good for me for now.

Emma is recouping from her time in the pack, while Myra hunts flies...

And, ah -yes... the biting. If you look closely, you will see two parallel indentations on my jaw. Emma began to "love bite". Those of you who are close to Emma know about her previous tendency to come at you with her mouth open... we're still not sure what that was about, but on this occasion she clamped down - HARD - and I tried to pry her off of my face. Painful, but kinda funny. Since then her biting has decreased in frequency and strength - for now.

More summer adventures

Emma and Nash having a pool party at the Norris'. Emma chose the nude route, while Nash opted for a little coverage.

We went to Sequim for the Lavender festival again this year, arriving to our camping spot LATE friday night with a very tired baby and windy and rainy conditions. It ended up being pretty fun, although quite different from our trips in the past. We spent most of our time at the camping spot waiting for emma to finish her nap. Myra, as you can see- didn't have quite as much fun as she had hoped.

Emma giving her daddy a kiss.... there are no words.

Dog, - er - Monkey days of summer...

Emma's first animal noise was a monkey...Here she is doing "Ooo, Ooo, Ooo -Ahhh, Ahh, Ahh"

I took Em's bathtub outside and we had a little pool party of our own... The little house on the prairie bonnet was mine as a baby...

We took MANY trips to the Ballard fountains on those Hot Hot summer days. Emma loves the fountains. She could spend all day trying to figure out why she can't actually grab the water bubbling up from the hole.

We spent one evening after drew came home from work at this park - playing in the fountains and having a little snack in the grass. It was a perfect evening as a family. It was one for the memory books.


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Summer fun

We got to take Emma to a Mariner's game with Josh and Seth's families this summer. To our surprise, Emma not only contained her fit-throwing, but seemed to really enjoy all the cheering and music. It helped to have a few younger faces to distract her every now and then.

Emma got to know her "aunt" Emily this summer when she came out to visit us. We got to hang out and play and Emily got to see Emma in action.

The last pic is Emma and her friend Naomi chillin' at the park.

Summer '07

Drew comes home from work and gives Emma her bath and puts her to sleep most nights. I think he got home late this night and just fed her and put her to sleep, only he fell asleep too. I remember thinking he had been in there a while, so I peeked in and he looked like this. I was afraid she was going to slide right off of him! He did this quite often when we rocked her to sleep and he came out with a really sore neck!

Here is Emma eating something that didn't quite make it in her mouth... Summer was great for dinner time. I just stripped her down to her diaper, fed her, then plopped her in the bath right after... she is a LITTLE better at getting the food IN her mouth these days.

Emma loved the swings this summer! We went to Lewisville park, where Drew and I got married and spent some time playing.

If you look really hard, you will see a clip in Emma's "hair" in the third pic. I was pretty excited to get a clip in that fuzz.

Emma and her cousin Ryan are in the last pic at Drew's brother's wedding this summer.

Finally!! More pics!

Emma loves bath time... She is about 9 months in this pic. She now has a slew of bath toys, but still thoroughly enjoys her "quack quack". She loves to just get into her basket of books and look at all the pictures. She can sit there for quite a while jabbering about what she sees, sometimes as if she is telling her own story.

I bought sidewalk chalk thinking that it would be fun to draw pics, not really having an idea of what exactly Emma would do with chalk. Let's just say it isn't the best idea to hand your 9 month old a piece of chalk while you attend to your own creative process on the sidewalk. Yep, in the mouth it goes. And all over the face. I was glad I bought non-toxic chalk.