Her cup runneth over!

For the past couple of weeks, Emma has seemed to have a lot of interest in our coffee cups at church on Sunday morning. She followed Ed's cup around 2 weeks ago, and this past Sunday when I was holding her she leaned down so she could put her mouth on my cup!

Today I noticed her staring at something on her dresser. I took a drink of my water, and she made a little noise of excitement. So, I ran downstairs and got her a kiddie cup to see if she'd want to play with it. Oh what fun it was!!



I've got to get the last drop out!


By the way, look at her bangs when her hair is brushed down!

Silly old bear!

Here's Emma in a Pooh Bear outfit that was originally worn by my niece Miranda (on the right)! I kept forgetting to get a picture of Emma in it - good thing I remembered because she's just about too big for it now! (Miranda is 3 months old in her picture.)

Just look at the determination on her face here! I'm going to get that foot.... Mmm, I wonder if the Pooh Bear on her foot tastes like "hunny"?! She really liked those bears on her feet!!


I simply cannot take a picture of Emma on the floor without Zoe coming in for kiss after kiss after kiss!!

Toes... with jam!

I caught Emma doing a little foot exploration this morning! I think she was trying to suck her thumb and toes at the same time!

Monday, Monday (so good to me)

Our visiting friend Benjamin went home last night. Today sure was quiet around the house! Our excitement pretty much consisted of laundry and grocery shopping. Fortunately for Zoe the weather was nice this evening, and we got out for a family walk after dinner! It still was windy and those gray clouds sure were looming...

We think Emma looks a little preppy in this outfit - I think it must be because of the shirt collar! Here she is posing, as usual :)

Nursery time!

So, today was sort of a big day (for me anyway!). We put Emma in the church nursery for the first time this morning! Now, our doctor had told us to keep Emma out of the nursery through April. Well, April is almost over and we've been anxious to do it before she is afraid of strangers!! We didn't want to be too overly protective, but this was really best for Emma to get through the first bad sickness season.

I hadn't planned on doing it this morning though. I was putting Emma in her car seat before we left, and Ed said "What do you think about putting her in the nursery today?" I said hmm, well I need to wait until we're on the road before I can clear my head to think about it....

Now, Daddies sure are smart that way. Ed's plan was to just do it (TM in case Phil Knight reads this blog!). Had we talked about this too far in advance, I would have worried about it and dwelled upon it forever. So, as we were driving I figured yeah, let's try it! It's no big deal, you know if Emma was crying or hungry they would page me to come get her anyway.

We got there and checked her in immediately, since this was our first time. We then kept her with us through the worship music. She was almost asleep on my shoulder when I went to drop her off! The teacher just took her right back and it was quick and painless - almost. You see, I don't want to be one of those moms who cries when her daughter goes to school for the first time, etc., but guess what, I AM! I didn't cry, but boy was I close. As I was holding her through the music the tears were welling up and the lump in my throat grew bigger. I am thankful that the handoff at the nursery was super fast so I didn't have time to shed one tear! It's no surprise, I mean I'm a very sensitive person, but I WANT to be strong at certain times, and it just doesn't always work!!

So, throughout the service I was so nervous that my 'mom' pager would go off. It wouldn't have bothered me, but I had a hard time relaxing! (Oh no, was the pager even working?!) It was nice to be able to sit through the whole service with Ed as I haven't had many opportunities to do that in a while! I'd take Emma back to a special mom's room during the service for the past few months, but fortunately they had a tv monitor so I could still see the service.

When we went to pick Emma up she had just started crying for them. They had just changed her diaper and I guess that's what finally did it for her! She was in there just under one hour so that's not bad at all. I'm glad she did so well, and as she gets older she'll enjoy going to class and seeing and playing with her little friends! I took her while she was crying and she was just crying on my shoulder for a few minutes. When she settled down, I put her in her car seat and she had already fallen asleep. That was part of it - I know she would have been sleeping if we were at home! In the car on the way home she was sobbing in her sleep! Every now and then we'd hear this big gasp/sob. It was precious - heartbreaking a little bit - but precious nonetheless!

I double dog dare ya!

This afternoon Emma and I went on a double-dog-duty walk! It actually went pretty smooth - at first I thought I must be crazy. You just have to be quick with swapping the leashes between hands so they don't get tangled up as the dogs wander around! It was the perfect temperature for a walk. The sun was behind the clouds, but it was still warm enough for no jacket!


Emma had a blast. Out of the blue she would suddenly squeal with delight! She just loves the dogs, and she sucked her thumb/hand for most of the walk too!

Trendy?

Emma wants to show you her fancy shoes/boots(?)! They are brown with pink flowers, and they perfectly match her flowery onesie!


She really likes them....


I wonder how that would taste without her shoe on?!

Funny baby

Emma was in a real giggly mood this afternoon! I sat her on the couch and Benjamin, our guest, snuggled up next to her. He had no idea how exciting she was going to be!

Jammies time

Emma was playing with Chirpy Bird on Friday night!


Benjamin was very interested in that chirping sound. We've discovered he is a bird dog!

Terrific Thursday

Emma is chomping at the bit! This was funny, she just happened to hang her ring out of her mouth at the right time!


We are dogsitting Benjamin for a few days. He feels right at home here! He enjoyed listening to story time too!


It is pretty crazy at our house right now! The dogs don't often stop to take a break from chasing each other! Emma is pretty used to it by now.

Quick pic

Just a cuddly picture tonight with Emma and her Jesus Loves Me lamb!

Tuesday excitement

Well, all of the excitement in our house this evening consisted of double bath night! Don't worry, it wasn't a two-for-one deal - the girls did not get their baths together :) Instead, Emma had her bath, and then the stinky dog went in the bathtub! Our noses are relieved.

Zoe runs like a mad dog through the hallway, back and forth, back and forth, for about five minutes after her bath. Ed had to protect Emma from getting trampled! Eventually, Zoe air-dried herself off and was tired from all the running. We envision our future of chasing Emma around while trying to catch and diaper her after a bath!

Here are the clean girls hanging out!

Happy Monday!

Emma is a big ball of pink today! She's wearing pink camo pants here. They are very girly, and even have butterflies on them :)

Her little camo reminds me of a children's song:

I may never march in the infantry, ride in the cavalry, shoot the artillery,

I may never fly o'er the enemy, but I'm in the Lord's Army!

I'm in the Lord's Army (yes, sir!)

I'm in the Lord's Army (yes, sir!)

Ooh, look at my caterpillar toy! He sings and talks to me! I like him!

SEVEN months old!!

Raise your hand if you can believe Emma is 7 months old today?! Yikes! It's true!

She's leaning forward in these pictures, so you might notice how her head looks larger than normal!


I think I need to sign up for Emma's Pilates class!


Come on mom, are we really going to take more pictures?


Darn, this is cute except she's closing her eyes!

S-A-T-U-R D-A-Y Night

(Bonus points to those Bay City Rollers fans!)

Happy baby! She loves hanging out in just her diaper, I suppose I need to let her do that more often!


Now stretch, 2, 3, 4... reach, 2, 3, 4...

10-4 Good Buddy

Emma is quite the little ham (radio enthusiast)! I think she was intrigued by all those fun buttons!


Uh, Ponch, do you copy, over...

Thursday greetings!

Sisters on the blanket! Boy, Zoe sure can't get enough kisses in for her baby sister. Lately though, Emma has moved a few times when Zoe was pretty close to her, and it really freaked Zoe out! Emma grabbed her ear the other day and Zoe (the big baby) let out a yip as though it hurt! Then she was a bit scared of Emma for a few days :)


We went for a walk this morning since the weather is supposed to turn yucky over the next few days. There are already some dark clouds out there! There is a little pond not too far from us that is environmentally protected. There are lots of birds and ducks there! It keeps Zoe interested.


There is a new scary dog in our neighborhood! He even followed us for a block, barking all the way...


Isn't he cute?! I'm not sure what type of dog he is, but his name is Brody and he's our neighbor's new pup! He was pretty funny - he was very "aggressive" but yet terrified of us at the same time!


Then, after lunch I was going to let Zoe out in the backyard, and I see two duckies swimming our pond! I've never seen them in our yard before. Zoe and I quietly came outside (me holding her collar, of course), and we watched them for a couple of minutes before they flew away! Zoe really wanted to play with them though!

Wednesday

A couple of Wednesday poses!


Boy, Emma is this close to rolling from her back to her tummy. In anticipation of that, I had the video camera set up for a long time today, but it didn't quite happen yet! That's okay, I figure it's worth taking several minutes of footage in case I can capture it on film. She really reaches out for toys, but she doesn't exactly know what to do with her arm, otherwise I think she would have come all the way over by now! Maybe in the next week, we'll see!

Daddy was taking this picture and Emma began to tip, tip, tip...!