Happy Father's Day

We had a great day today. We started off the morning hanging out and daddy and Emma spent the morning together while mommy went to yoga. When we first woke up I whispered to Emma, "say happy father's day" and she walked in to Frank and ... whispered happy father's day. It was so cute!

We had fun play time and pool time. And we baked a cake!

Dinner tonight was very yummy. Daddy got his favorite....steak! Emma had a really yummy fettuccine bolognese. I have not made it before but I will be doing so again, she pretty much licked the bowl. She has always been a good eater but this was definitely a hit.

We topped off the meal with our yummy blackberry cake, delish!

Happy Father's Day to Frank and my awesome dad Dave (aka Gramps) and all of the wonderful fathers in our family and among our friends.

Ready for the Pool

Swimming

it is summer and that means swimming. We put Emma back in the lessons we did last year. After our first week she is floating and turning over and swimming - Hooray!

She did not just jump back in without complaints though. The first few days were a little rough. Today though was quite fun and she just shows us how smart she is all the time. Her teacher Erika was trying to get her to put her nose just in the water and look down to get be used to staying horizontal and not dropping her legs. Erika kept saying touch your nose, meaning to the water.

Emma looks up at her and puts her index finger to her nose, smiles and says all done!

The Wildlife Ranch

Emma woke up ready to go the morning after Sea World.

We got up and hit the road to visit the Wildlife Ranch at Natural Bridge Caverns. We had a great time and highly recommend a visit if you are near San Antonio this summer.

When you drive up you get bags of food and then you start driving your own car through their 4 mile trek. Throughout the four miles you see many many animals and they walk right up to your car to say hello. Of course they are hoping some of your food makes it out the window to them.



We saw all kinds deer, buffalo and rams. There were giraffe and hippos but those were kept behind their own extra fencing. Most interesting and a little scary were the ostrich and zebras. We had a zebra stick his head into the back window and say hello.



After you drive through there is still more to do including a petting zoo, restaurant and gift shop. We had a ball feeding baby goats and we let Emma pick her souvenir....a monkey.



So fun!

Sea World

Last weekend we made our first trip to Sea World with Emma. Beth and Josh and the boys met us in San Antonio.



Just arriving was exciting and once we got in the gates it took Emma a little while to understand that it is ok to leave one activity to go to another. The first thing we did was visit the dolphins, unfortunately it wasn't the feeding time so we watched them swimming and then decided to head over to the sharks. Emma didn't want to leave....

We loved the shark aquarium and spent quite a bit of time in there, Emma loves Finding Nemo so I think she was intrigued to see "Nemo" not on the TV screen. But again as we decided to move on to the next thing, it was a battle to get Emma out the door.

She rode the Merry Go Round but wasn't quite brave enough to sit on one of the horses.



Emma's favorite event was the Beluga whale show, she cheered and clapped.


We wrapped up the day in the kiddy splash pad area. Colson and Emma climbed and splashed and played for what seemed like hours.

We definitely enjoyed the park and are looking forward to our next adventure there.

Reading

Tonight when we were reading our goodnight stories, I was asking Emma "where is the toothbrush?" and "where is the shoe?" She looks at me and says "Mommy, where is the dinosaur?" It was awesome!

Cousins

Here are a couple of pictures of Emma's visit with Caleb and Colson.

Having lunch!


Jumping!
Emma and Colson jumped and jumped and then they would plop down at the same time. Repeat! Over and over and over! And it was hysterical to them, they had a ball!

Easter Vacation

We all had a great time this last week. Thanks to Aunt Beth and Uncle Josh, Emma spent most of the week playing with her cousins while Frank and I had a nice little holiday in Cancun. The parents had a nice relaxing and much needed vacation and Emma had a blast!

The visit started out with a fun time at Nana and Gramps for an egg hunt and Easter dinner. Emma had a lot of fun finding eggs. I think she enjoyed the candy quite a bit too!

Caleb and Colson showed her a fun time of swimming and dance class and plenty of play time. Loved seeing these pictures of them together!

Slide

I have been meaning to post this picture for weeks now....Emma graduated to the biggest slide on the playground and went down all by herself!

Visit with Grandma

Grandma Ann came to visit us last week. We had an awesome time and had lots of adventures. We hit the playground on the first day. The second morning we woke up and drove to Sweet Berry Farms to pick strawberries. The fruit was quite yummy and we had strawberry shortcake with whip cream for the rest of the week.

On Saturday we woke up and headed for the Austin Zoo. This isn't a large zoo but you can get up close with the animals. There is a train ride and a petting zoo. We saw many fun animals, including a pot belly pig, the fattest turkey ever and some deer that were heckled by some geese.

Grandma helped us plant many flowers at the house and she rewarded her hard work with a dip in the pool. The FREEZING pool .... no way any of us Texans were getting in.

On our last day together we went to our music class. We had fun singing and dancing and playing instruments. We all had a great time with grandma and it was very sad for her to leave. Each day since she left, when I pick Emma up at the end of the work day she say, Grandma?

Austin Children's Museum - Happy Birthday Luke!

Today we spent the morning at the Austin Children's Museum to help our buddy Luke celebrate his birthday. Emma had a blast playing and running and eating cupcakes. Here are a few of the best pictures of the day. Happy Birthday Luke!

The birthday boy!


Emma loved counting the fish


Emma would stand at the top of the slide and roll the ball down to Frank. She was definitely surprised the first time it rolled back up to her.



But the cupcakes were the best! Emma enjoying her cupcake with Kyan!

So cool...I have to wear shades

We were shopping today and thought we would give some shades a try. We did not end up making the purchase but we sure had fun trying them on.

Counting the pearplanes

Today Emma was counting fish and she kept going...one, two, three, four, five, six!
She is saying words like crazy too. Pearplane (Airplane), Chicken, Orange (both the color and the fruit) are just a few of the more recent ones.

Update on Sunday - the counting continued seven, eight, nine and ten!

Kite Festival Fun

Frank and I took Emma to the Zilker Park Kite Festival today and had a wonderful day. It happens to be the longest continuous American Kite Festival and for these first timers it was a great time! We didn't make a kite or even fly a kite but we saw some pretty cool kites! Frank spotted the Umizoomi kite....which I must say I would not have even recognized. Way to go dad!! There were barbie kites, butterflies and spiderman but we liked this pair of crazy guys!



There were plenty of kid things to do...the bounce houses and giant slides were a little daunting for Emma yet but she happily hopped on the mechanical horse....in the carriage.....and held on for dear life. ha!

One, Two, Three...A, B, C

I have been meaning to post for awhile about this.....about a month ago one night while I was cooking, Emma was in the kitchen playing with her fridge magnets of all the letters.

Emma took all of the letters off and she started putting them back up and saying letters... R, E, T, B, P etc etc. Astonishingly enough she got every one of them correct! She has done this in the bathroom occasionally as well, we have the tub letters. But never that many in a row and we always thought maybe she was getting lucky. Apparently not.....she knows many of the letters.....and her numbers too!

She has been counting to three for about the same time...sometimes three turns into wee but it is still cute cute cute!!!

Our buddy Nickie beagle

She came to me when she was five months old as a rescue. She was always a happy dog who loved people and food. I think she knew how lucky she was and she showed us every day. She was nosy and could open purses. She stole things, chewed gum and buried just about everything.

She lived a wonderful full 14 and a half years and I have to say it is a miracle she lived to old age. She was tired though and she was ready so we said goodbye.

We have all missed Felix but she kept us company the last six months and now the house is pretty quiet. It was almost fifteen years that we had our beagle friends and it is a sad week. Tonight when I was rocking Emma, I said "You love Nickie beagle right?" Her reply was sweet and simply "woof".

We miss them both terribly but at least they are together again. Hopefully chasing some squirrels....
xoxo

Be Mine

I thought I would attach a sweet photo of Emma and her best pal Fain. We were leaving the park Saturday and they were holding hands.

Today was a fun day, lots of love and kisses. We gave Emma a pillow pet with hearts on his tummy and she has been petting him and took him to bed.

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Lettuce, tomato and cucumber....oh my!

Emma has always been a great eater. She eats just about everything for me.....she eats even better for Brenda. Lately she has added broccoli with cheese to her list of favorites..but of course for Brenda. :)

Hooray for mommy though...Emma shared my salad today, she ate bites of everything including onion and kept coming back for more. She signs more while she says the word....more, more, more. Music to my ears!

Sweets

As an early valentine treat, Emma opened a package from Aunt Beth this morning. It was a box of chocolates with this note .... "Make sure your mommy gives you one before she lets your dad have the rest. Well, Emma did get to have one and I would say she enjoyed it. We caught it on video and it is mmmmm worth it.

We also had our first bonding over baking today. Thanks to our new helper stand Emma helped me add the ingredients, stir it up and pop it in the oven. And then she had to go to sleep. Even though she has never had a brownie she still had a ball :) And daddy is enjoying the candy AND the brownies. We hope you have a sweet Valentine's Day too!!

Happy Birthday Emma!

Wow I can't believe we have a two year old....a beautiful, fun, smart, spunky girl.
We had Emma's birthday party on Saturday at Gymboree and I don't think she was the only one that had fun! Thanks to everyone who helped us celebrate. :)



Today we had one last cupcake and when I took it out she got really excited. I would say our days of her not being interested in sweets are about over!

She blew out the candle all by herself after we sang happy birthday and ate every bite and licked her fingers.

Now that I am two....

Emma had her two year checkup last Friday....here are the stats!
Ht. 35 inches (80%)
Wt. 26 lbs 15 oz (60%)
Head Circ 48.5 cm (75%)

She was a real trooper at the appointment. We have been reading about Dora visiting the Dr. for a checkup and I think it really helped.

Emma has also started helping feed the dog. Every night she runs to get the bowl and helps Frank feed Nickie beagle. It is part of our nightly routine now and Emma won't sit down for her own dinner unless she has already fed the dog.

She has always really loved books but we have been reading a lot more lately. Her favorite phrase right now is "There it is!" It also feels like all of a sudden she knows a lot more words. Butterfly, lion, horse, bear, baby, bird, fish....it goes on and on. I am convinced she recognizes the letter B and she always says two after you say one.

We are having lots of fun! Each weekend we have gymboree on Saturday and music class on Sunday. She enjoys every minute!

Happy New Year

Since it has been a month since I last posted I thought I should recap our very busy December. We kicked off the month with Grandma visiting from Wisconsin and all of us enjoyed our time together. We did some special Christmas shopping and cooked lots of yummy food and got in a lot of playtime. Emma and Grandma also helped me host my annual holiday party. Here is cute picture of Emma playing hostess.



Also in December, Jennifer signed Fain and Emma up for an early childhood music class and Grandma was able to join us for our first class. The class is held by Austin Lyric Opera and the goal is to get kids interested in silly songs and music and how just about anything can be turned in to an instrument. We start our spring class next weekend and we are all looking forward to it.

We have had a few firsts this month. Some new words include Dora, out and down. She has two favorite exclamations - Oh No! and Bye! She says bye to everyone....the checkout at the grocery, when we are leaving the post office...etc.

Another not so fun first that we have encountered this month is our first fear. And just as the literature says, it happened overnight. One day she was her usual fun self and the next night she was terrified to take a bath. She had such a reaction that we really had to think and wonder if she had been burned by hot water. Although it is quite upsetting, apparently this is quite normal. Thanks to some bathtub crayons, paints and toys we have been able to coax her back in. Each time seems to be better so we hope to overcome this hurdle soon.

We had a wonderful Christmas with my family in Conroe. Santa visited and brought many fun toys. At first it seemed that Colson and Emma were only interested in the toys the other one received but pretty soon it was just crazy, fun present opening with Nana and Gramps. The day after, Beth and Colson drove to Houston with Emma and I to visit my dear friends Briana, Liz and Heather. Valentina was a great hostess and she and Colson played and played while Emma slept off her cold. It was a wonderful but short visit, thanks Liz for bringing us together.

We headed back to Austin and Frank was able to spend the last week at home with Emma. They both really enjoyed the time and funny enough she has started running to daddy first when she gets upset or something. It is very sweet and very refreshing.

I will end with one last story. We FINALLY have a spaghetti eater!! Emma would so emphatically deny noodles that Grandma started to wonder if they were related. This week though...Frank showed Emma how silly it can be to eat noodles and she went for it. Now as long as there are no noodles hanging over the edge of her spoon she eats it all up.

I started this blog a year ago with the goal of posting once per week. I almost made it to 52 posts.....I am sure 2011 is my year!

Happy New Year!