Sick Day

Emma and I are having a sick day but really it is like we are playing hooky because Emma only has a cold as confirmed by the doctor this morning. She was running a low grade fever yesterday and had a runny nose along with a cough. While Brad and I suspected that it was nothing serious, they made it clear at daycare that she would not be welcome today and possibly not tomorrow if we didn't get to the root of the issue. With that, we decided it was just best to take her to the doctor and let them tell us what we already knew, which he did thankfully. That means that Emma and I just get to enjoy the day together since she is in a good mood and her normal self just plus a runny nose.

Brad and Emma thoroughly enjoyed their time together last week and had a great dinner out on Friday night at The Purple Cow. For dessert, they shared (I suspect that Brad had the lion's share) a chocolate shake. Brad said that he couldn't get the spoon into her mouth quickly enough. We finally ventured out to the neighborhood park last Sunday and Emma had a ball swinging and going down the slide. The slide is about 6 feet up but she had no fear and even went down twice head first with a big old grin on her face. She would have continued to go down head first if we had let her but it is much easier to catch her when she comes down feet first. No pictures or videos from that adventure but we will definitely have to catch some next time. In the meanwhile, here are a few photos from a couple of weeks ago.

16 Months Old

Yet another month gone...I was just thinking about the fact that at this time last year, we had a four month old who could roll from tummy to back, smile, and coo but that was pretty much it. Now we have a full on 16 month old toddler who is getting the tantrum thing down pat. Emma is starting to pick up new words almost daily although she uses them a few times and then you are lucky to hear them again. Some words from the last few days include cracker, diaper, and cookie. She has learned how to successfully use a straw and is getting better with her fork and spoon although the utensils still have a ways to go. Emma has 15 teeth but it seems like she might be working on those second molars. All the rest have been early so why not?

She absolutely loves getting to play with the big kids at daycare and even got to nap with them on a cot yesterday. She did great and slept for two hours but it could just be that she was exhausted from playing so hard all morning. Emma continues to be a leader for the nursery kids and is so caring for the other little ones. They had one new baby and a little boy one month younger than Emma start last week. The older one was having a little trouble adjusting so Emma went over and patted him on the shoulder as if to say, "It's okay!". Emma also knows exactly where to find the pacifiers at daycare and when the mood strikes, she walks over, opens the drawer, and helps herself. I guess we won't work on breaking that habit until after she moves up to the freshman class in August. As much as I loved all those little baby moments, the toddler stage, tantrums and all, is just so much fun. I can't wait to see what she has in store for us this month.

Oklahoma or Bust

I am off to Oklahoma this morning for a one day conference tomorrow so Brad and Emma are on their own for the next two nights. They are going to have a daddy/daughter dinner date tomorrow night, which should be big fun. While I am gone though, I will be missing moments like this...




and this...

and this...

and this...

Emma loves to get in the cabinet under the kitchen sink. Last night, she was closing the door and then when you would say "Where's Emma? and "Peek-a-boo", she would say "Peek-boo" back. Of course, we couldn't get her to say it once the camcorder came out so you will just have to take my word for it. I will have a 16 month update once I get back from OK.

Wordless Wednesday - Finger Puppets (A Post Especially for Linda)

Sentences

Emma has two sentences, "Bye baby" and "Hi Daddy". Okay, so they are only two words each but we are very proud of her. Miss Andi at daycare also swears that Emma said Andi yesterday and I certainly wouldn't doubt it. There were two new classmates for Emma that started yesterday. One is about a month younger than Emma and the other will turn one in May. I guess the older one was having a little trouble adjusting yesterday so Emma did her best to comfort him. They said that she would go over to him and kind of pat him on the shoulder. She is the mother hen to her little brood in the nursery.

We finally got her carseat turned this weekend; we haven't been in a big hurry to do so but she was starting to get a little cramped facing backwards. She is so excited now to have room to swing those little legs all around. Also, now she has more room to shake her groove thing when a catchy tune comes on the radio. That head gets to shaking, lets get to kicking, and hands get to clapping. Last night while the tub was still filling up for her bath, Emma managed to turn on the shower; that was great fun until she actually walked under the stream of water and then the fun was done. Apparently, she doesn't like too much water in her face at once. We've got new photos and I promise to post some tomorrow.

Enjoying the New Backyard

We have taken advantage of a couple of nice evenings this week and spent some time playing in the backyard. I think that Emma really enjoys all of her new space. She is all over the place and loves to explore/touch/rip up everything. One of her favorite pastimes is tearing the blossoms off the flowers and then handing them to me. Here is a little clip of her enjoying the yard the other night.

Wordless Wednesday - Cousins

Happy St. Patrick's Day

The corned beef and cabbage are in the slow cooker. Brad is especially looking forward to the cabbage!

Frog Legs & Randoms

Last week Uncle Dale was in town on business for a couple of days so we were lucky enough to get some of his time. He took us out to dinner on Thursday night to one of our favorite restaurants, The Faded Rose. One of the appetizers that they offer is frog legs, which Brad and I have had but it had been several years and not because they weren't good the first time around. Anyhow, we got an order of frog legs and guess who couldn't get enough? That's right, Emma loved frog legs. I could not keep enough meat on her placemat. I didn't know what she would do with them since the majority of time, meat is really an afterthought and she would much rather eat her fruits and veggies. However, it seems that from legs are a big hit. I guess we'll have to try them again some other time.

Emma's new favorite word these days is "Hi" only it is not "hi" but "hiiiiiiiiiiiiii". She says it all day long at home, at daycare, at church, everywhere. You can seriously be out of her sight for five seconds and come back into the room and get a little "hiiiiiiiiiiiiii". It is too cute.

She also started this screeching thing yesterday afternoon to get your attention. At first I thought something was wrong until I looked down and she was wearing an enormous smile. Needless to say, now that we know she is just screeching for attention, that behavior will not be encouraged.

Finally, much to Emma's delight, we have a kitty that likes to hang out on our back deck. She waves, points and even said kitty yesterday. When you ask Emma what a kitty says, instead of "Meow", it comes out "Bowwwww". It is too cute!

Follow-up and a Video

Just as a follow-up to yesterday's Wordless Wednesday, Junior (not in homage to Linda and Chad's cat) as we refer to Emma's brother or sister is due on September 11th. My most recent visit to the doctor was on Monday, which was pretty much just to check the heartbeat and I had blood drawn for the routine work-up. The nurse practitioner had no problem finding the heartbeat, which was a strong 165. I was sad when I went down for my blood draw though because the technician who worked there during my pregnancy with Emma was gone and she was so good. I never felt a thing. While the new girl was nice, every time she would switch vials, she would shove the needle further into my arm. I just had to grin and bear it. I will go back next in six weeks for the ultrasound and unless we change our minds between now and then, we are going to find out who is on the way this time around. While it was great being surprised with Emma, this time we just want to be able to prepare a little more since we do have Emma to chase around as well. I guess that I'll need to start getting some belly shots before too long.

Here is a short clip of Emma walking Bailey around at Grandma and Grandpa's last weekend. As I noted on Monday, she had a ball taking poor Bailey around.

Wordless Wednesday

For all of you that were paying attention last Wednesday...

Off the Cuff

On Sunday morning, Pastor was giving his sermon on the Gospel text Mark 8:31-38. As he was going on with his sermon, Pastor got to the point where he brought up the statement by Jesus that says, "Get behind me, Satan!". As soon as he said this, Emma interjected with an "Uh oh!". Since we were right up in the front for Maddie's baptism, her "uh oh" was heard loud and clear by Pastor so he took the opportunity to amend his sermon and said something to the effect of, "You're right, uh oh is right". It was perfect; Emma couldn't have timed that "uh oh" any better.

Baptism

As it turned out, Emma did have an ear infection last week. Since Emma was feeling pretty good and was fever free by Saturday morning, we loaded up the car and headed on up to Missouri for Maddie's baptism.

As predicted, Emma wasn't all that interested in her new cousin...unless Brad or I were holding her. Then, Emma wanted and needed to be picked up by whoever had the baby. She was on the go from the minute we let her out of the car until she went to bed on Saturday night. Her favorite part of the weekend was playing/tormenting Bailey, Lesa's dog. It all started when Emma got to walk Bailey outside.

For the rest of the evening and into Sunday morning, Emma would find the leash, bring it over to have somebody strap it onto Bailey's collar and off they would go in the house. At one point, Emma was walking circles around the island and would catch poor Bailey who was just standing there with this "Help me somebody, anybody!" look on her face. The next morning was feeding/walking and boy was Emma ticked when we made her leave to go to church.

It was funny on Saturday night though because we got Emma into her pajamas but she was still so wound up that we were going to give her a little while longer before putting her to bed. We come back out into the living room and Aunt Lesa says something about being ready for "night night" to Emma. Hearing the magical words, Emma turns on her heel and takes off for the bedroom. Lesa was like, "Where is she going?" to which we replied "Bed" since that is what you told her. She has got a good little memory though since we hadn't been there since Christmas and she still knew where to go to sleep. It was a short trip with way too much time in the car (just ask Emma) but we're so glad that we got to meet Maddie and witness her baptism.

Sick Girl

Emma developed a fever late Wednesday afternoon, which lasted into the wee hours this morning. Thankfully the fever seems to have broken and will hopefully stay away at this point so we can head up to Missouri for the baptism of Emma's little cousin Maddie. Brad is going to take her to the doctor this morning just to get her checked out and make sure that she doesn't have an ear infection (the fever had to come from somewhere). Emma is a very good patient when she is not feeling well. Give her a little Tylenol and she is good to go although she does like to sit in your lap and cuddle a bit more, which we don't get when she is 100%. In fact, that is how they figured out that she had a fever at daycare the other day; she came over and crawled into one of the teacher's laps to be held and rocked.

On another note, Emma led to the rearrangement of some of the furniture at daycare earlier this week. Previously there was table and some rocking chairs along the left wall as you look into the room. The swings were all along the wall opposite the door where there is a bank of windows that run the length of the wall. When we walked in Monday night, the swings were now along the left wall with the table closer to the door sort of in the middle of the room. I made a comment about how the room had been rearranged and was told that it was due primarily to our daughter. It seems that she was always trying to get to the windows and kept waking up the babies sleeping in their swings. Hey, a girl has got to know what is going on in the world, right?

Wordless Wednesday

The Daredevil

Emma is so Brad's child as demonstrated in the following video. Don't think us bad parents as we sat, laughed and recorded her deeds instead of jumping up and making her sit on her little behind. It just had to be preserved for posterity's sake. Since the video is mostly of Emma's backside, you can't see the huge grin that she is wearing the entire time. She is trouble!

Playing

Emma loves all the new space that she has to run around in at the new house (at least when the upstairs heater is working, which so far has been about 4 of the 9 days that we have lived there). The hardwood floors in the family room and kitchen are especially good for riding around on her little princess mobile. Of course, the little princess mobile is also good for demonstrating your skills as a daredevil (video clip to come tomorrow). The only problem with more space from my perspective is that there are more places to stash the pieces of various toys. Here are a few photos that Brad took of Emma one night last week in between dinner and bathtime/bedtime.

On a Mission

Focus!

Thinking about Trouble

Preparing for Take-off

Good Jumping!

Taking Baby for a Ride