Christmas Card photo shoot

We had two different Christmas Card photos this year. On Christmas Day we posted one of our Christmas card photos. Our hope was to have one good family photo to send, but we weren't able to get Emmy to smile in a photo of the three of us. But, we liked this family photo, too, so we printed some copies of this one, and some of the one of Emmy and Rags (because how cute are they?) and some cards had one, some had the other. It was random, so if were really disappointed in your Christmas card photo, well, you just let me know and I'll send you a copy of the other one. :)

We had planned to take pictures weeks before, but Emmy was sick one of those days and other things came up for us, or Mary Ann (who had kindly offered to try and get a good picture for us). Finally, we managed to get together a week or so before Christmas, but it was too dark to go outside, so we settled for an inside photo and tried to light up the living room as best we could. I'm learning through Mary Ann and others that really no flash is best. The colors are warmer and the pictures just overall turn out better, but it's so hard to have the right lighting for no flash, especially with a point and shoot camera like we have. I wish I had the money and patience to handle a better camera!

This year Charles even helped me get all the Christmas cards addressed, stamped, and signed and all ready to go. I decided I just couldn't do my usual personal note/message in each card this year if they were going to get on time (or at all) so he did all the signing. Then we ordered our pictures and figured we'd have them in the mail by the 21st or 22nd. Except the photos didn't arrive until 5 pm on Christmas Eve. Oh well. So we finally got them in the mail on the 27th. So much for being on top of things this year! Next year I think we need to return to our old favorite...Valentine's cards. I did that a couple of years when we didn't have time to do Christmas cards before Emmy was born and everyone loved it. Maybe next year we'll try that again. :)

Below are some some additional photos from the "photo shoot" that didn't make the cut.

Hey Emmy, smile!

I love Charles' face in this one.

Maybe if we smile really big, then she'll smile, too!

Did you say candy?

Cute, but Rags is a little fuzzy.

I love their faces in this one. Originally we just wanted a couple of photos of Emmy in her chair, but of course before we got one good photo, Rags had to be in on the action.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I just realized I forgot to publish this post...from Thanksgiving.

Hope everyone has had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We've just returned from Rome where we spent Thanksgiving with DeeDee, Granddaddy, Aunt Beth, and Uncle Griffin. Emmy had fun playing with everyone! Here she is hamming it up in her cool shades.

Her favorite game? Fly around the room in her portable high chair, piloted by Uncle Griff. He couldn't resist when he'd stop and she'd sign and say "more, more" which sounds a bit more like "boore, boore!" Too cute!

Touchdown!



Trying on one of Aunt Beth's old hats.

She is very advanced, you know

Last week was a busy week for Emmy! On Tuesday she had another check-up at the Developmental Clinic at the hospital where she was born. They offer this as a free service to preemies born at the hospital and they bring them back sometime after 6 months and then again sometime around 16-18 months. As it turns out Emmy was 18 months Monday so she was exactly 18 months for her evaluation this time around.

Again she met with an occupational, physical, and speech therapist and they evaluated her fine and gross motor skills, her social interaction, her speech, her eating, etc. She is 100% caught up to 18 months in ALL areas and in fact is ahead in most! Not that we were worried at all, but we were happy to hear it officially. And of course, now we can say "oh she's so advanced". Haha. The therapists were laughing at her faces she makes and impressed with how well she obeys/understands commands. They asked us if she had at least 20 words she could say, and we guessed yes, at least 20, but when we started counting later, we've gotten to at least 40 words that she can come up with on her own. Not that it matters, but it's funny to start going through the list. She's also very good at repeating, but not everything she repeats she remembers to say on her own.

Emmy went to school in the morning, as usual, and we picked her up about 11 for her 11:30 appointment. By the time she was actually "seen" (which involved playing with the therapists mostly) it was after 12, and by the time we left, she was falling asleep in her Daddy's arms. Imagine if she'd been more awake!

They did take note of our little tip-toe walker. She walked around on her tip-toes a lot when she was first starting to walk while holding onto us or the sofa, etc. Then when she started walking on her own, she walked more flat-footed, I'm sure for balance. Now that she is walking, and running, with confidence, the tip-toeing has returned. She WILL (and does) walk flat-footed, but she just doesn't like to, so the therapist told us just to make sure we stretch out the backs of her legs on occasion.

Then, on Wednesday was Emmy's 18 month check up with her pediatrician. Boy, she was not happy to see Dr. J, which is funny since she never does any of the "bad" stuff to Emmy (the nurses give the shots and prick the fingers!) . But she sure cried when Dr. J did the routine listening to her heart and lungs, looking in her eyes, etc. When she checked her ears, much to our surprise she found a bad ear infection in her left ear! We were so surprised. Her nose had been runny again since the weekend, but we hadn't noticed any other signs. She also had her flu shot and chicken pox vaccine. Not a fun visit! We left with an antibiotic prescription and we go back in a month for a recheck on her ear and a 2nd flu shot and one final vaccine.

Oh, I'm sure you want her stats...she is 29 1/2 inches tall and 19 lbs 6 oz. Yep, she's still under 20 lbs. But, she's grown taller and gained weight and she's following her own growth curve, just on the tiny end of things. Who cares?

The speech therapist did ask for Dr. J to check her upper frenulum as she thought it seemed attached. Dr. J confirmed that it is, but Emmy's isn't severe and she said most kids will fall and it will tear on it's own. To send her to a pediatric surgeon to have it clipped would require anesthesia, etc. and there's not much point since in all likelihood it will happen on it's own, bleed a lot, and feel better with a popsicle and a lot less risk, which was fine by us. My mom reminded me that it happened to me when I was 3 during a sandbox incident on the playground.

Needless to say, our very advanced child was a bit unpredictable the end of the week. I'm sure it's the combination of antibiotics and vaccines and maybe just general toddler cantankerousness, but she gave us quite a difficult time a couple of nights. Thursday night was the worst...we stayed up super late getting ready for a dinner party we were throwing for our friend Lizzie's 30th birthday (it's our thing...we stay up super late getting ready for things...we both work well late at night) and just as we were going to bed, Emmy woke up. And would not go back to sleep. Each of us maybe got 3-4 hours of sleep total...not good heading into another day of work and a dinner party for 12. But, the party was lots of fun and everything went well. And Emmy was in bed by 7 pm on Friday, but then back up at 6. Yuck.

So, we all spent Saturday being lazy in our jammies. Charles and I took turns letting each other sleep (he's also not feeling well...Emmy shared her runny nose with him). Man, we needed it. She was up a couple of times Saturday night, but thankfully last night we were back to our usual full night of sleep. Whew!

Wanted: Bunny

This is Emmy's bunny.  She loves her bunny so, so much, and bunny is starting to show his age as a result of all this love and affection.  We would really love to have a bunny twin, but we can't find another bunny anywhere nor can we remember who gave him to Emmy.  We think he was a part of a multi-item gift and when the gift was written down bunny was left out.  Do you recognize this bunny?  Do you know where he came from?  Any help would be much appreciated.  We realize that a day will come when Emmy will have to say goodbye to bunny, but currently that day is approaching far too quickly.

18 months old

Emmy is 18 months old today! In other news I turned 31 yesterday, but that's not nearly as exciting as 18 months, right? Not when you are a busy toddler running all over the place! Although, my birthday did involve cake, which she loved.

Here are some fun things about Emmy...

She is very good at saying "please". She learned to sign, and now say "peeas" when she wants a piece of candy corn. Guess what? She wants a piece of candy corn at least twice a day! She also is big into signing more. She thinks if she signs please or more she will always get what she wants. We admit, it is hard to say no because it is SO cute, but well, as the song says, you can't always get what you want.

She is into repeating everything. She repeats words that we say to her and she's really building her vocabulary rapidly. She says several words when she signs them (e.g. bath, please, milk), and lots and lots of other words she doesn't have signs for. Her two new favorites are "hot" and "hat." She always tells us the oven or stove is "hot" and she repeatedly told us that the fire at Su-Su and Big Daddy's house was "hot." She frequently makes her Daddy or me put on a hat and she says it over and over and takes it off of us and puts it on herself, or Rags, or her baby, whomever.

She also imitates us when one of us groans in frustration "ugh!". It is so funny, especially since it makes you laugh and forget what you frustrated about in the first place, which oftentimes is something she did, like throw her milk on the floor!

She LOVES "RAGSIE!" It was one of her first words and still when Rags comes trotting in, there is much exclaiming and rejoicing. Similarly, I think Rags loves her so much. She tolerates a lot, and when she's had enough, she moves away. She's still a little "jealous" when Emmy is getting the attention, but never is aggressive towards Emmy. If anything, it just means she gives Emmy lots more kisses to get attention herself.

She is GREAT at giving hugs! She buries her head in you, throws her arms around you, and pats your shoulder. It is awesome. She also blows kisses, which basically constitutes her putting her had up beside or over her mouth and smacking really loudly.

However, she will not give us a kiss. She will blow us one, but she only actually "kisses" her baby, a stuffed animal, a picture, or Rags. Yes, inanimate objects, and Rags. She gives Rags lots of hugs and kisses.

She giggles wildly. Recently a good time to catch her giggling is towards the end of bathtime. She now likes to lay on her belly and stick her face in the water as the water is draining. She'll splash around and laugh until there is no water left. For some reason, she thinks it is hysterical to be in the tub with no water.

She likes to put things in and take things out. She's always pulling things out of bags or purses ("puhs"). She likes zippers and opening up something to see what's inside, then take it out and put it back in again. Basically if it's not a toy, she wants to see what it does.

She is still obsessed with opening and closing doors, though fortunately not nearly as much. We've managed to avoid pinched fingers, too!

She loves to help "cook". She will play with her bowl and spoon or measuring spoons. She sits nicely on the counter and watches while she plays and warns me that the stove is "hot."

She is still great at her animal sounds. She also can say some of the animal names, too. In addition to dog, whale, lion, monkey, and cow she can now also tell you what a duck, cat, bird, fish and rooster. Rooster is hilarious! It's more like "cock-a". We don't have the "doodle-doo" part down just yet.

She loves to be outside. She wants to go "side-side" all the time. She and her Daddy or I, or Miss Ashley, her sitter, spend lots of time outside playing, reading books, and running in the drive way.

She now loves, loves, loves to read. Finally, months of reading to her while trying to keep her from chewing on books or tearing pages, and/or of her only wanting to read one page and then hop up, have paid off! She happily brings you a book, plops down, and listens while you read. She has her favorites that we read over and over and over (and over) again, mostly, but we're getting more variety into our reading and it's just great.

That's as far as I can go tonight, folks. I have uploaded the rest of the Sept./Oct. photos, but I have to do some editing and captioning, then I will get them into an album and post a few here for you, promise! Hope everyone is having a great fall!

Our Little Ladybug - Halloween 2010

Hello there!

I'm sorry I've been not blogging or posting photos. Had I known how busy things would get with my job, I might have thought twice before I said yes! Soon I hope there will be some relief, someone else to help our team and I might not be working all day and all evening!

Here are finally some photos of our little ladybug Emmy. She was the cutest ladybug ever, don't you think? Many more photos taken by "Aunt" Mary Ann are in her Picasa Album.

Here she is at the church Fall Festival.

Kissing Rags. She loves to give Rags hugs and kisses these days. Sometimes Rags tolerates, other times, not so much.

A very intent ladybug with her bucket, ready for some candy collecting.

Regal Rags

Both our girls.