Of course she's brilliant

Here are some fun things Emmy is up to these days...

1. She says "Daddy/Dada", "Rags/Ragsie", "hey", "Big DaDa", "doggie" (or Lucy, we're not quite sure which since she was referring to Lucy-dog) and finally "MAMA" very clearly. Plus, several other things that we can't quite distinguish but often sound a lot like Daddy and Ragsie. Obviously, Emmy loves Rags!

2. She can tell you what a whale, a dog, a cow, a monkey and a lion say. For the record, she has lots of bath toys, to include whales, so I told her that whale says "Pffff" (like when he blows water out of his blow hole." Much to my surprise, she started blowing raspberries back to me and when you ask her what a whale says, she will blow you a raspberry. Well, most of the time. Charles just taught her how to roar like a lion, and it is probably the cutest. All the others she manages to do with her mouth closed, but her roar involves her moving her mouth, and then grinning at you. I love it!

3. She likes to feed herself with the spoon/fork. She's been reaching for the spoon and helping us feed her yogurt, oatmeal, etc. for a while, but when she grabs it and we let go, she likes to sling it about. Of course this means oatmeal winds up on the floor, high chair, or one of us. She's starting to do a better job of just putting the spoon in her mouth, and now she's using the fork, too and there's a lot less food flying with the fork. She cannot put the food on the fork or spoon herself yet, but that's okay. It's very cute to see her using her fork, and sometimes when she is in mood and won't eat, the fork is the best way to get a little more food in her!

4. Speaking of food, she is still quite the good eater. She likes lots of vegetables and fruits, though peaches, watermelon, bananas, figs, applesauce, carrots, pickles, and squash (particularly Su-Su's squash casserole) are some of her favorites. She has quite a fondness for spaghetti, chicken salad (one of the few meats she really likes eating), black beans, and shrimp. Oh, and peanut butter. Man, this kid loves peanut butter! Here she is two fisting a PB&J.

5. No more bottles or formula! I mentioned that she stopped using bottles a couple of weeks ago. We found a sippy she'd finally drink more than a few sips from, and so after a couple of days we just stopped giving her bottles and she's never looked back! Yay! It's nice not to have to put all the parts together. We also finished our last can of formula on Sunday. Dr. J. wanted her to stay on formula until she was at least 14 months for the extra calories. Hopefully, we're safe in stopping now, so it feels like we got a raise! It's nice not to have to worry about mixing anything any more, too. I really hope that with a future baby I will have better success nursing exclusively. Formula is really expensive! Here are Emmy and Will taking a sippy cup break.

6. We have been doing the Kindermusik Sign and Sing class this summer, so we've all been learning some sign language. We had been doing a few signs with her before we signed up for the class, like for Mama, Daddy, milk, bath, and a couple of others. I think she recognized them, but milk was the only one she'd done back to us. Since we started class, she has learned a couple more. She will occasionally sign "more", "all done", "night-night" and "eat/food", but her favorites are "fan" and "light". She is always looking up at the ceiling and signing one or the other. If you ask her where the fan is, she will point and do the sign, and you ask her here the light is, and she will sign light. She's so smart. :) Supposedly teaching young children sign language helps with their language development and they tend to talk sooner. I don't know if it's true, but it sure is fun to watch! Here she is signing "fan".

7. She is still a dancin' fool! She's added this little shoulder shimmy occasionally which if you can catch it is hysterical. She dances in her car seat. She dances while she's playing. The other day we were trying to get her to walk to us from the den to her room. "Stayin' Alive" was on the radio and she was holding onto the wall, walking to us, and every few steps she'd stop and bounce and dance. So funny! She'll also push buttons on her musical toys, clap as the music starts, then dance.

8. We call her the DESTROYER. Man, she can destroy a room in no time flat! Fortunately, she is also interested in putting things in buckets/containers, so occasionally she will put blocks back in buckets. She has gotten quite good at stacking her rings, too, so maybe one day she'll work toward helping clean up more than destroy. If only we can get her to stop pulling my cookbooks off the bookshelf...

That's all the really interesting (okay, interesting to some people, maybe) things I can think of right now, but I'm sure there will be more to come!

Some photos are courtesy Su-Su (from Emmy's Greenville trip) and some came from Aunt Lisa (from the 4th of July). Thanks, y'all! I've not been as good about taking photos lately.

She's Walking!

So, Emmy has finally started taking some steps! She's been walking around holding onto things (walls, the sofa, the ottopersons, Charles and me, etc. etc.) for a while now. She's often acted like she wanted to let go and walk on her own, but every time she did, she would take one step and sit down. We decided we'd call it walking on her own when there were at least two steps in succession.

Emmy spent most of last week at Su-Su and Big Daddy's. Su-Su reported that she took two steps on Friday (so Emmy was 14 months and 1 day old!). We went up Sunday to spend a couple of days and bring her home, and on Monday she took four steps in a row. Woohoo!!

Since then she is getting braver. She will try to walk short distances unprompted. She still doesn't do more than 5 or 6 steps max, but she's getting there!

Here she is above walking from me to her Daddy at church. Then, here she is after she was done clapping because the crowd of friends standing around here yelled and clapped. She was a little alarmed at first by the whooping, but then she was excited and started clapping, too. So cute!

Photos from the last few weeks

Here is a quick recap of some photos from the month of June. They are in reverse order. You can view more in the Picasa album. (For our less tech savvy readers, when it's underlined and blue like this, it is a link...click on it, and it will take you to the album!)

Emmy and Will on our first visit to their new house. We had not seen Will since his first birthday, so we gave him his present. He didn't seem all that interested, so Emmy promptly took it and I could just hear her saying "here, let me show you how you should play with this."

Enjoying some peanut butter crackers. What a great face for Daddy!

Playing with birthday presents from Dee-Dee and Granddaddy. I just love this look!

Sitting in the sprinklers while watering the garden. She crawled over here and just sat and loved the water hitting her every few seconds. Hysterical!
Emmy likes to "unload" the dishwasher, clean or dirty. So, um, helpful? Here you see she's reaching for parts of her bottles. I'm happy to report that as of Tuesday 6/29 we are bottle free! We FINALLY found a sippy cup she would use for more than just a teething toy, and once she seemed to like it, we just tried only giving her the sippy, and it's worked! It's much easier not having to wash all the bottle pieces!

Hey, Dad, I can help you get those boxes up in the attic!

Such a big helper!

Trying on Mama's sunglasses.

Catching up

Hello faithful readers!

I'm sorry it's been a long time since I've updated. Needless to say having a very active toddler who loves to play on the computer does not lend itself to a lot of time for blogging. Or taking pictures, for that matter. I realized that I have woefully neglected to take a lot of pictures the last few weeks, particularly over the 4th of July weekend. Alas!

I hope everyone had a great 4th. Charles' parents came for a visit and we a had a good time having them here! Of course Emmy loved getting extra attention. We spent time just cooking and eating and hanging around the house. Sunday morning we all went to church, of course. Charles had to be there extra early to sing the National Anthem with a men's quintet (annual tradition) 9:00 service, and then of course we heard them at the 11:00 service and they did a lovely job. Emmy looked super cute in her red, white, and blue dress that Dee-Dee gave her...and no, I have no photos. But Granddaddy (photographer extraordinaire!) took plenty and promised to send me a cd, which I will share when I can.

Lucas, Lisa, and Will, newly settled into their new home in Greenwood, came down to spend the evening with us, too. We were all invited to Mary Ann and Joel's for ribs and chicken so we packed up our food contributions and headed over to spend the evening with them. We had a great time, although of course having two toddlers makes for a wild evening. Not that we're biased, but Will and Emmy are so cute! I can't wait until they are really playing (and probably making mischief) together.

The grandparents headed home early Monday to beat the traffic (and said they were super glad they did because even then it was heavy) and we packed up and picked up Mary Ann and Joel for a trip to the lake. Our church has a 4th of July picnic every year at the church's fabulous lake property. Since the 4th was on a Sunday this year, they decided to hold the picnic Monday. It was a great day at the lake, not too hot. Charles and Joel we in charge of the grill, so they spent much of their time cooking burgers and hot dogs for 50+ people. Mary Ann and I took Emmy swimming. That girl loves the water and she loved watching the other kids playing. After I fed her lunch, Ms. Luanne kept her entertained so Charles and I could relax and eat lunch in peace, too. Very nice!

Tuesday we packed Emmy for her first trip to "camp". At least, as Charles noted, that's what it felt like we were doing! Su-Su had said she wanted to come get Emmy and keep her for a few days sometime this summer, and this week turned out to be the best week. So we packed Emmy's stuff and meet Mom in Greenwood. We had lunch together (and Emmy seemed shocked and thrilled to see her Su-Su when we walked into the restaurant!) and then went over to Lucas and Lisa's to do the transfer of car seat and luggage, and give Emmy some play time out of the car for a bit. Lucas' parents were in town and we hadn't seen them in a long time, so we got to visit while Charles helped Lucas and his dad load up some furniture left over from the previous owners. Their house is looking great! They'd spent all day Monday with Mr. Sam's help trimming up the overgrown yard and it made a big difference! They were, of course, much more unpacked and settled since we'd first visited just three days after they moved in and it's such a great house for them. We're excited to have them closer to us!

So, Charles and I have been spending the last few days ALONE. Yes, we miss Emmy terribly, but we have enjoyed some downtime. We've gone out to eat with friends and cooked dinner with those same friends (you'll never guess who). We've slept late and watched copious amounts of TV (USA has marathons...a dangerous thing). We've also done our usual activities like errands, going running, yoga...but we've been able to either do them together and without a loud one-year-old on our hands! Charles has also been spending lots of time studying for finals. He had one final last night and another tomorrow morning. The we are going to the movies to celebrate!

We're looking forward to having our little Pickle back home with us, but we're thankful for times like these to renew us and remind us how much we love and miss her.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to the best Daddies I know! Charles go to spend a couple of days with his Dad earlier this week (and his Mom, of course, who is doing pretty well with her knee replacement recovery) and I spent Friday night with my Dad (and Mom and Mer).

Emmy was so happy to see her Daddy when he got home on Tuesday, and again when she and I got home yesterday afternoon. She was asleep yesterday when we pulled in, and I took her out of the car, but as soon as she realized Charles was there, she sleepily reached for him and buried her face in his chest. Then he tried to put her down to let her finish her nap and she sat up and started giggling. Guess it was playtime with Daddy instead! We love you, Charles, you are the best Daddy! Emmy and I are so lucky to have you.

And now, it's time for a Father's Day nap, per Charles' request. Hope you all have a wonderful Father's Day!

P.S. the picture is from Emmy's birthday at Rhinehart's. It cracks me up every time I see it. They both needed a bottle, it seems. :) Free crab leg appetizer at Rhinehart's for Father's Day, so we might be heading there for supper tonight, actually. Yum!

Did you know we like to torture babies?

So, it seems that Charles and I are quite the baby torturers. Here are all the really mean things that we do to Emmy...

1. We wipe her face off after she's been eating. AND HER HANDS TOO. Oh the torture!
2. We make her sit down in the bathtub. SO mean.
3. Heaven forbid we make her change her diaper or her clothes. Instead of making her lay down on the changing table (and not stand) we've decided the bed is a better choice for diaper changes these days.
4. We don't let her play with the computer. This elicits ear-piercing shrieks
5. We don't let her play with the outlets.
6. Sometimes we have to close the door when we let Rags out. We're not air conditioning the neighborhood here, child.
7. We don't let her have every balloon she sees (or everything she thinks is a balloon...including the big red balls in front of Target). Usually these are shrieks of joy, but occasionally when we turn away from said balloon or balloon type object the shrieks of joy turn to shrieks of anger because she cannot see it anymore.
8. We try to keep her from playing in Rags' food or water. She almost managed to get that piece of dog food in her mouth the other day...
9. I take my wallet away from her. She will spend 20-30 minutes pulling everything out of my wallet and have a blast, but sometimes it's just not convenient for her to dig through my wallet or purse. Mean Mommy!

See what horrible baby torturers we are? There are lots more things we do to torture her, but these are the main ones that come to mind right now.

Happy 35th Anniversary to my Mom and Dad! It's also our friends Eric and Erin's anniversary today, happy 7th guys! And, today is the Army's Birthday and Flag Day, so fly your flags proudly!

Also, we're thrilled that Charles' mom is doing well after her 2nd knee replacement last week. Three new knees in 6 months between the two of them, they are going to be the bionic couple soon! Charles is in Rome right now spending sometime with them, so Emmy and are having quality time for a couple of days. It's VBS at church this week, so we're spending our evenings there while I help with the middle school/"tweens" and Emmy plays in the nursery.

More pictures and videos to come soon, I promise!

A year later she has three teeth and she likes rap

Emmy came home from the hospital one year ago yesterday.. It was such a great day! We were so tired of having to drive back and forth the hospital and so tired of not being able to hold our baby, bond with our baby, and take care of our baby, not to mention I was ready to be able to nurse all the time. She weighed 3 lbs 15 oz on Tuesday, June 2, 2009. Can you believe it?

Sometime between yesterday afternoon and this morning Emmy's 3rd tooth finally broke through. I will say while the weeks leading up to each tooth have had many moments of what we assume to be discomfort from teething, the actual event of the tooth breaking through has been relatively uneventful. She'll have days of more drool than usual, a fussier temperament than usual, chewing on everything in sight, or maybe slightly redder cheeks, all the signs they tell you to look for. And just when we think, "A tooth must be coming through" nothing happens! Then days or weeks later, you just happen to check and there it is! Her first tooth showed up March 21st, so she was 10 1/2 months old. A week later, on Sunday the 28th, the 2nd tooth showed up.

This time the little bulges have been growing more and more evident for a week or so now. Tooth number three is on her upper left side, and we can see tooth number four just under the skin, so it should be making it's appearance soon, too. Emmy will have four teeth and her pal Will is already working on his 12 month molars. She's a bit behind in the teeth category. :)

It's been hard to see her bottom two teeth, but finally on her birthday Su-Su managed to snap a photo where you can see them. Aren't they cute?

I asked Charles after my last posting if there were other fun "Emmy facts" that I should share with our devoted readers. The newest thing we learned this week is that Emmy likes rap music, with lots of bass. No joke. You all have probably seen her infamous dance moves, so you are aware that the child LOVES music and regularly you can see her wiggling or bouncing to the beat. On Tuesday morning we were listening to NPR (as we do much of the day) and the were doing a story on the rapper M.I.A. (Her song Paper Planes is heard in the movie Slumdog Millionaire.) They played three different clips of her songs, and each time Emmy would immediately start dancing, more so than even we usually see her do. Intrigued, Charles opened up iTunes since he had the computer open and started playing Paper Planes (we like that song and it's in his running mix). She didn't really react, so he suggested I switch the stereo to play the iPod and start the song on the stereo, where it would produce more bass. Sure enough, once she heard that bass beat, she was movin' and groovin'. So, our toddler likes the bass in rap music. A lot.

Charles also said I should tell you that since I wrote that last post she has progressed in her tub standing. As I mentioned previously, she likes to stand up in the tub, which gets a stern "no-no" from us and we sit her back down. The solution has been if after sitting her back down three or four times she continues to pull back up, we lay her down and go ahead and wash her up and get her out of the tub. Well Miss Emmy will no flip herself over to her stomach, sit up, and stand up in a matter of seconds. Before you can scoop up half the toys, she's back up laughing at you.

Oh man, this kid's going to be trouble!

P.S. As of 3 pm tooth number 4 has come through, too!