Happy 2nd Birthday Emmy!!

I know it's a day early but I won't have any time tomorrow with all the birthday festivities. Anyhoo,it seems like just a few months ago that we brought her home and she greatly blessed our lives. We are so thankful for her and are truly honored to be her parents. She continually amazes us and entertains us. We are looking forward to many more birthdays with her. Happy 2nd Birthday Emily Jane!! Here's the past 2 years of her life in pictures (just click on the picture collage to enlarge it)...

Bye Bye Mommy

No, the image above is not in celebration of Halloween. It's too early for all that. No, this is to show you what Emily said "bye bye mommy" to while at Lowe's today. I'm not sure if it's the exact model but it's very similar anyway. I spotted the witch in their Halloween section on our way into the store and on our way out I decided to take Emily to see it. Just to see what she thought. As we approached, the witch was perfectly still until we got closer. She then began speaking and stirring her witch's brew. Emily jumped a little, looked concerned, and then just stared at her timidly. As we walked away from her, Emily stopped, turned around to face the witch, and said "bye bye mommy." All I can say is thanks Emily for your high opinion of mommy.

Shoes

The girl loves her some shoes. She will rummage through our shoe basket almost on a daily basis and put them on her tiny feet (albeit fat feet but yet tiny at the same time). Often times she will then attempt to open the front door because "shoes on" means "bye bye". She's getting pretty good at walking in them too. Though she did learn a valuable lesson the other day while wearing her daddy's flip flops. She learned that attempting to escape the sight of the big scary vacuum while dragging a pair of men's size 12 on her feet is not an easy task. Anyway, here are some recent pictures and video of her in my shoes. I guess she is taking the saying "you should try walking in my shoes" literally.

Informing daddy that she's got shoes on and she's ready to go bye bye



Attempting to escape (doesn't she look snazzy in daddy's undershirt and my flip flops?)


Frustrated because putting shoes on didn't buy her a ticket out of here

Photos and Videos Aug 09

Bye Bye Water

In the words of Emily, we had to say "bye bye water." The week long beach trip to Emerald Isle, NC went very well. Emily traveled well (even slept in the pack and play well) and she loves water. Water in the ocean, water in the pool, water in the lake, water in the bath,water in a bowl etc. It doesn't matter where it is, water is tops with her. When we approached the edge of the ocean Emily looked amazed at the vast body of water in front of her. Her first instinct was to run into it. Not to worry, she didn't get very far before we held her hand. Eventually she plopped down on her butt in the surf and was delighted when the water washed over her legs. Bigger waves though, that's a different story. When taking her further out she seemed nervous and had a concerned look on her face. The last day we went to the beach, we took her into the smaller waves in an inflatable boat. She wasn't a fan and so we decided she likes the ocean as long as the waves don't toss her around. When taking her into the pool she tried to swim away from her cousin Haley who was holding her. She didn't want anything or anybody holding her back. Aside from all the playing in the water she had fun playing with her cousins,running on the beach, playing with seashells, and watching the fish swimming at the aquarium. Josh and I had fun too. We played in the ocean, had some good seafood, touched some stingrays at the aquarium,and finally got to see the newest Harry Potter movie. Josh also got to get in some fishing (he almost caught a small sand bar shark). Speaking of sharks, I got bit by something in the ocean on the last day. I have no clue what it was but with all the talk of sharks my heart did race a little and I just kept moving. Whatever it was it wasn't very big and it only drew a little bit of blood. My sisters and I joked that it was a shark. Just for a good story. If it was, it was the smallest shark out there. It was a good trip overall but by the last day I think we were all ready to be home.

Yo Gabba Gabba

Oh my, I tried to avoid this show. I tried to avoid it like I try to avoid Barney. Years ago when my niece was watching this relatively new show called "Barney" I vowed then and there "not my child." My child will not listen to that annoying purple thing. I was only 17 or 18 at the time but his image stuck with me. Honestly I thought 12 years later he would be a thing of the past. Wrong. You see,Emily loves Sesame Street. Okay, she loves Elmo and the songs that they put on the show. Well the purple one comes on after Sesame Street and at times I will admit I have left the show on just to see what she thought of him. I found that since becoming a parent I want her to watch what she likes, not what I like (well when it comes to kid shows anyway). She has a general disinterest in him. Oh yes!!! Now that I've determined she doesn't really care about him, there's no going back. Barney is banned at my house. For now anyway. Okay, so how did a post about Yo Gabba Gabba become one about my disdain for Barney? I guess because I felt the same way about Yo Gabba Gabba just a couple of weeks ago. I found it weird and trying way too hard to be retro. I kind of still do and let's face it I will and always will find Elmo pretty annoying too. But my baby has decided she loves her some Elmo and likes her some Yo Gabba Gabba (can't say love just yet). It's fast paced and has lots of singing. Just what a two year old needs in a show. Now when she sees the beginning of the show she points and says "Gabba" with some jubilation. So, I guess I can find it in my heart to tolerate it for her and like it because she likes it. I did it for her when she decided she loved Elmo. But Barney? I don't know if I'm that selfless.

More Random Photos

ABC's and 1,2,3's

I'm convinced that Disney's "Choo Choo Soul" has taught Emily her ABC's and 1,2,3's. Last week her grandma Jane was singing the classic ABC's song and Emily joined in. Now, she only said like 10 letters or so. But still, I didn't know she knew any of them. So, I was pleasantly surprised. The next day I was singing them again. I got to D and she said "l,m,n,o,p." It was jumbled together and she probably will, like me and many others, think it's one letter. Anyway, it made me laugh because it was as if she was thinking ok, let's get to the best part of the song. Tonight I was reading one of her favorite books, "Five Little Ducks." I decided to count the ducks and see if she would repeat me (I knew she could count to 3 since I often do before I tickle her). Well, she counted the fifth and final duck and decided that she wanted to count to 10 instead of five. I was surprised at this as well. She watches Disney's "Choo Choo Soul" a couple of times a week and this particular DVD sings a song about the ABC's (though the tune is totally different from the classic one and so that's why I was surprised she knew her ABC's the other day) and another one that counts up to 12. Thank you Disney for doing my job for me. And they say t.v. rots your brain.

Can you say.....?

Emily has never been much of talker. She's been able to say words (aside from mama and dada) since about 12 months or so. But for the most part she has spoken in her own made up language and occasionally threw a real word in there and in the past few months she's used about 10 words or so to communicate things to us. I've enjoyed listening to her speak what we've dubbed Chinese. But I've been wondering when she would begin to say more. This past month has answered that question. Don't get me wrong, she's still not very talkative but in the past couple of weeks she has repeated me more and more. Now I ask her if she can say (insert word here) throughout each day. Usually she will oblige my request and it tickles me. I've ceased keeping up with the words she knows because it's getting to the point that if I ask her if she can say it she usually can. So, the list would get too long. She also babbles to me more and I can tell she's really trying to tell me something but I usually just stare at her in puzzlement. Eventually she gives up on me and moves on. One word she's been saying a lot lately is medicine (it's a little garbled but I can make it out). She had a runny nose a couple of weeks ago so I gave her some Benedryl and so now when she sees that bottle she requests it. She gets upset when I tell her no but what can I say, I can't feed her drug habit. :) She's starting to give up the fight though. Tonight she found the medicine once again and requested some. I said no and she handed the bottle to me without incident. Another word that I taught her yesterday was ketchup. Josh overheard her and said "that's blog worthy." Only because the man LOVES ketchup. Emily is getting to the point that if you dip it in ketchup she'll usually eat it (excluding foods that would be disgusting with ketchup on it of course). Looks like she might take after her father. The cost of buying for 2 ketchup fanatics is something I don't want to think about just yet.

Mommy's Helper

Apparently there was an opening for "Mommy's Helper" and Emily signed up to be it. Glad that she did because I need all the help I can get. Some examples include trying to dress herself, trying to put on her shoes, getting mommy and daddy's shoes for them (she usually matches them correctly),wiping floors,wiping tables,closing doors behind us,and cleaning up messes she makes. Speaking of messes,the other day she had gotten into a cabinet in the kitchen. Said cabinet holds the cereal. Said Emily loves to help herself to said cereal. Unfortunately when she had her fill she decided to dump the cereal on the floor. Well mommy got flustered and let Emily know just how flustered mommy was. So, Emily began to pick up the cereal and put them back into the bag. I praised her by telling her "good girl" and "good job." Well, she decided to go for an encore performance (except this time she mixed it up and dumped it on the couch) the next day. While helping me put the cereal back she said "good job." Apparently she was grading her own performance. That or she thought I was doing a good job. Now if only I can teach her in order to be "Mommy's Helper" doesn't mean she is supposed to be the source of the mess that she helps me clean up.