Emma and Her Nala

Best Friends!! Emma took it upon herself to set up a little snack and tea party with Nala one night this week. Nala was so sweet and patient with Emma. She just sat there the whole time and let Emma play with her.

Free At Last

I feel free! I have worked every day for the past three weeks, so it was amazing to finally be free today. I didn't check my email, I didn't call my voicemail at the office, I didn't do anything related to work. These past few weeks have been tough to say the least. But now they're over and I can relax and spend some time with the family.

So, what did I do on my first day off in weeks? First, I slept in. It was wonderful to not have an agenda and to wake up without an alarm. Josh and Emma went to run a few errands this morning and then I went to meet them for lunch. Since we were feeling crazy, we let Emma have some ice cream after lunch.

She enjoyed her treat thoroughly. And she thought she was pretty cool with her hood on.

She even let me have a few licks

Then we played outside for a little bit. Emma and Josh have on matching Bass Pro Shop hooded sweatshirts. So, when they were walking back to our house, I just had to snap a picture of them with their hoods on and hands in their pockets. Adorable!

Of course outside play time is never complete without playing with Nala. Here Emma is playing "stick" with Nala. The cat loves to attack a stick as you run it along the ground. Emma is till learning how to correctly play this game.

For now, Emma ends up hitting Nala with the stick more than anything. Thankfully Nala is a patient kitty because she doesn't seem to be upset by this.

There was also a lot of cleaning and straightening today. I would've done several loads of laundry too, but our dryer is broken! Josh has taken it apart and pinpointed the problem. He ordered the part and it will be here Thursday. I don't know if I can make it until Thursday to do laundry. More importantly, I don't know if I can go that long with dryer parts all over the kitchen. I have moved them all to one central location, but it's still chaotic. I will be counting down the days until Thursday!

You Ain't Seen Nothin'...

...Till you've seen a teething diaper! You can add smell to that phrase too! Both of Emma's bottom two-year molars are popping through. When I picked her up from school today, her teacher told me she had a couple of really bad "teething diapers." Then she had another one tonight. Which brings me to two things I'm thankful for tonight:

1. That I was able to talk Josh into changing that stinky, terrible diaper! Thanks Josh!
2. That she did this before I gave her a bath instead of after. Otherwise it would've been a wasted effort and lately I don't have time for wasted efforts.

Two Year Stats

Last week we took Emma for her two year checkup. Here are the stats:

Weight: 27 lbs. 4 oz. (50-75th percentile)
Height: 33 1/2 in. (75th - 90th percentile)

Here are few of some more personal statistics:

-Favorite food: Shrimp, cheese, eggs, Cheerios, bananas, anything that can be dipped
-Favorite toys: all about baby dolls, baseball/glove, coloring, anything that makes music
-Favorite tv show: hands down right now - Curious George!
-Favorite words/phrases: Baby, No Dadda, I tee-tee!, I don't know, Where Nala?
-Prefers/Insists on sitting in a regular chair when we go out to eat now
-Uses her fork, spoon and big girl cup beautifully
-When we had the Christmas tree up, she would ask for the lights on as soon as we walked in the door
-Uses the potty every time you put her on there. And she goes immediately now. We're on our way to being potty trained!
-Loves being a little helper: she helps me clean up, put clothes in the washer/dryer, put silverware in the dishwasher, and cleans her place mat off after she eats
-Mimics everything we do now!
-Favorite thing of mine that she does right now: If you ask her what the crab does, she does her fingers like pinchers and then shakes her head back and forth while she says "pinch, pinch, pinch." It is the cutest little dance you've ever seen!!!!

Here are some pictures from this week...

She figured out that she could put these crayons on her fingers. Now she does it all the time.

Today Josh stayed home with Emma since school was closed for MLK Day. This is how she woke up from her nap...she had pulled her arms through the top of shirt and had it around her armpits! What a goofy girl...

They played outside for a while on her 4Wheeler. It wore her AND Daddy out. Then Josh showed her that she could put her hands in her pockets. He said she loved it and wouldn't take her hands out of her pockets.

Iced In

Since Emma's school was closed again today, I stayed with her and worked from home. Here is what our day was like while we were iced in...

Watching Curious George with two purses on, holding one baby and wearing 11 bracelets

Nala really enjoyed the fire

Emma came around the corner like this...she took her socks off and put them on her hands, found her ladybug sunglasses, and pushed up her pants legs.

Then for lunch (spaghetti and wheat toast) she insisted on keeping her glasses on for the meal. I guess she wanted to be prepared for her close up. We never use bibs anymore, but I figured I'd try it since she was eating spaghetti. She actually wore it! I still ended up giving her a bath afterward...

Josh left work early so he could come and watch her while I worked some more (the deadlines don't care that we got iced in!). Then we went to dinner at a place where kids eat free on Tuesday nights. We got her the mini corn dogs and she ate every single bite and then decided to eat some of my fries even though she had plenty on her own plate. Her favorite part was the rice krispy treat that came with her meal. She also liked that they had basketball on the television. Every time she saw somebody make a basket, she'd throw her arms up and say "goal." So cute!! She is becoming so much more talkative which I love because we can have full conversations now instead of me just talking to myself and trying to figure out what her grunts really mean.

FUN DAY...besides the work of course.

Dream Come True

Ever since Josh and I talked about having children, he has had one big dream. He didn't care whether we had a little girl or a little boy - the dream was the same. He looked so forward to the day when he could start playing ball with his daughter or son. He loves baseball. He likes most other sports as well, but his heart belongs to the game of baseball.

For Emma's birthday this year, Josh bought her a glove and a baseball. He was so excited. And it made me light up inside when I realized how pumped up Emma was about it because I knew it made Josh so happy. When she sees her baseball, she says, "Emma's ball. Where Dada?" I love that she automatically wants to play with him...I'm pretty sure she has observed that my hand/eye coordination isn't up to par. That's fine with me because I love watching them play together.

When Josh says, "Get your glove on the ground to catch the ball," she immediately squats and puts her glove down. Here are some of my favorite pictures from their first "lesson."

At the end of this lesson, he decided to add in a free gift of teaching her how spit...yep, spit!

She practiced for a while...

Just in case you thought she was turning completely into her father, she took a moment to show that she has a lot of ME in her. This is her trying to get up from kneeling without touching even a finger to the dirty ground. She is using her glove...very clever! And notice the bracelet and matching necklace in all of these photos. You CAN be girly and sporty. I LOVE HER!

Dry!

Josh changed Emma's diaper when she woke up this morning at 7:40 am. Guess who had on the SAME DRY pullup when I gave her a bath at 7:20 pm tonight?! Drum roll please...

EMMA!

When I picked her up from school, the first thing she did stick out both hands to show me her four stickers...which means she went potty each time they had a designated potty break. And her teacher told me that she was dry each time. And she went again when we got home and then one more time before bath. My little potty training girl! I am elated that she is doing so well with this.

Here are a few random photos that I haven't had a chance to post yet from the past few weeks...

Me, Emma & Jay (my nephew)

Playing in the pantry at my mom's...she dragged her sofa all the way in there! She's so proud of herself.

Visiting with our friends - Summer and little Sophia. Sophia looks quite confused by Emma's loudness/rambunctiousness.

Snoozing on the long drive home. She even sleeps adorably!

With her new Dora backpack Mimi got her. She wants to put everything into it and does not care that it weighs her down to the point that she can hardly carry it.

Watch Emma Grow

Each year on January 4, I post an updated picture of Emma with the same boppy so that we can really see how much she is growing. That time has rolled around again...my little girl is growing up too fast!

January 2009

January 2010

January 2011

TWO! - The Finale

For Emma's birthday, I had a "Very Hungry Caterpillar" Theme. I thought the theme was appropriate because:
a. Emma is our "very hungry" little girl
b. The book is one of her favorites - she loves counting all the things the caterpillar eats and she likes to stick her fingers in each of the holes.
c. I found the plates and cups at the store and they were too cute to pass up!

Here are some pictures from Thursday's celebration:

Yes, I clearly made this cake - don't judge me!

The cake table

The drink table

Food table - complete with my "caterpillar" centerpiece. The lollipops are
antennas...cute right?!

Me and the birthday girl taking a break to eat

Emma showing off her cat outfit with Josh watching her in the background

Emma pushed her baby around in the shopping cart for a while during the party. She didn't want baby to be left out.

My mom has a big pantry and Emma decided that it was her playhouse. Her favorite thing to do while we were visiting was to gather us up and shut us in there. This did not stop for the party! Here she has 6 of us held captive!!

This is me, Anne and Ashley trying to get out. Emma is trying to rally us back inside the pantry. She is very persistent!

Time for cake! She quite enjoyed everybody singing Happy Birthday to her.

Blowing out the candles

We were all amazed that she actually wore this birthday hat. I was not amazed that she wanted me to wear the other one. She thought it was hilarious that I put it on.

She ate almost this whole piece of cake. I guess I didn't too bad of a job baking it!

Time for presents! Here are a few of her favorite gifts...

Madame Alexander Baby doll

Jewelry box with a ballerina that twirls while it plays music

Baseball and glove from Dada. She didn't even want to keep opening presents after she opened this one. She knew just what to do with the glove. She stuck her hand out for me to help her get it on. Pictures of her and Josh playing ball outside to come in a later post.

Little People house

Flute - also notice that she has sunglasses and jeweled purple gloves on. She was so fancy.

After everybody left, me, Emma and Josh relaxed and watched Emma play with her new stuff. She was so happy during her party. It probably didn't hurt that she took a 3.5 hour nap that afternoon!!

Happy Birthday!!