Sibling rivalry?

More tug-of-war between the girls. But you know, dog chew toys are so appealing to teething kids!


Zoe wins!

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Hello kitty!

Look at me! I'm so excited!

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Splish splash

Here's Emma this evening. You may notice that her shirt is all wet - a result of a run-in with Zoe's water bowl! You wouldn't believe how fast she can make a B line for that bowl when it's down. I try to keep it up out of the way, but poor Zoe, she needs a drink once in a while!


Plus, you can see she's a bit sleepy. Emma only took one nap today, so she went to bed around 7:15. This is not a new trend, but she cried the entire time at the nursery this morning (instead of sleeping), and then when we got home from church she took a little over an hour nap and that was it!! She definitely didn't get the amount of sleep she needed today. In the past couple of weeks, she has moved from three naps a day to two. However, I'm pretty sure she's not ready for one nap a day yet!!

Anyway, good night!
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Ta-da!

Emma's latest trick is doing this ta-da kind of pose! She usually has a big smile on her face when she does it too.


She can't say ta-da yet, but today she was babbling what sounded like dada quite a lot. In fact, the past few days she has just been talking on and on and on about something. Someday it will all make sense!

Well hi there, cutie!

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Deep thoughts

Have you ever wondered what the little ones are thinking?!



1. Hmm, do I want to go to bed or play some more?
2. Boy, this really feels good on my gums.
3. Gee, why did that chicken cross the road?
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Lil' helper

Now that Emma is one year old, it's time she starts pulling her own weight (all 18 pounds of it) around here!!

JUST KIDDING! Emma meandered over today to help me with the laundry.

All done mom!

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Gone to the dogs

Emma is thinking about starting a dog walking business... except, maybe it should be a dog crawling business since she can't exactly walk yet!


Actually, as usual, the leash clip went in her mouth. Her top two teeth are cutting through finally, and she is chewing on anything and everything she can get her hands on!

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Birthday: part two

Phew, I feel like I'm still recovering from Emma's birthday! At least I have a few months before planning her second birthday party - ha ha. Emma is catching up on sleep too, so we're thankful that we had a cozy Sunday to relax!

This is a picture of me on my first birthday. I hope you can see how wild my hair was then too!


I forgot to post this picture of Zoe yesterday. It was taken as Emma's party drew to a close, and she was soooo tired!! In fact, she was so tired that she (thankfully) stopped barking at our guests about halfway through. That's how we know!


There are two videos here, because it wasn't until the second video that Emma started to actually eat her very first cupcake! Zoe really enjoyed getting the crumbs under her highchair of course!

Cupcake part 1:

Cupcake part 2:

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMMA!!

Today Emma turned one year old! All week we have been remembering back to where we were in 2007 at this same time! Still hard to believe sometimes :)



This is Emma's first cupcake!


First bite! Mmm, pretty yummy. Zoe was wise and sat under the highchair, which resulted in several cupcake crumbs!


Here's Brett and Emma playing with a balloon. I have to tell you this made me so nervous! Emma would try to bite it, and I would hate to see it pop on her. Fortunately we had no balloon incidents to report!


This is her new doll: Learn-To-Dress Emma! The doll's name is Emma, so we knew she had to have it! She can learn how to buckle, button, snap, etc.!


Well, it has been one fun day today! Emma certainly partied well on her first birthday!

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Peek-a-boo!

Where did Emma go?!


HERE'S EMMA!!


Are you surprised?!

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September 17th...

Here's Emma playing around today. I have already thought that she's going to love roller coaster, but drink coasters?! She likes to play with them - they are fun, what can I say?


This picture is from Labor Day weekend. It's the cousins, Miranda and Emma, just swinging away! I love this picture!



Now for a trip down memory lane! We're going to have a lot of that this week as Emma's big day draws near! One year ago today I woke up with the worst headache I'd ever experienced and was sick all night. I ended up sleeping downstairs sitting upright, it hurt too much to lie down! The next morning I called in sick to work. (Actually, I probably "e-mailed" in sick to work!) This was big for me because it was the first time I had ever called in sick at my job in the 4 years and 50 weeks that I had worked there! I think they knew something was pretty wrong at that point.

The next day I had a regularly scheduled appointment with my perinatologist, so I decided to just see how I felt and then see him the next day. Well, as you may know that was the day I was admitted to the hospital, told that Emma was coming very soon, etc.! It is incredibly hard to believe that was a whole year ago already. We have come so far, praise the Lord!

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Stat update

The community health nurse came by today, and we got Emma's latest information:


Weight: 17 pounds, 15 ounces

Height: 28 inches

Head circumference: 45 cm (17.72 inches)


She has slowed down in the weight gain department for the time being!

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Just for fun

The first part of this video is Emma and Zoe playing ball. They are both getting really good at sharing and playing together!

Then, once Emma noticed I had the camera on her, she had to come over and say "hello!"

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Cousins

Emma got to hang out with three of her cousins today. They really loved seeing her and couldn't get enough of playing with her!

Emma, do you want to play guitar? Piano? With your ball?!


How about a crane, do you want to play with this crane?!


Emma visits Busytown! (I used to love Richard Scarry books about Busytown!) This is a huge book that unfolds, displaying the whole town.


Eolis and Meethos teach Emma how to play piano!

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Phew! That sure was a busy day for Emma. I predict she'll go to bed early tonight!

Happy birthday Zoe!

Today is Zoe's 4th birthday! Here is Emma giving her a toy monkey.


On second thought, I might want to play with this monkey myself!

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Playing with Benjamin

Today Emma got to play with Benjamin, who we dogsat back in the spring. Here are pictures of Emma and Benjamin today, as well as back on April 25th! One of them has gotten bigger!


Benjamin and Regina play cups with Emma!


I was being swarmed by two cheeseheads! More cheese please!

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Friday Friday Friday!

If you picked a toy to bring on a walk with you, what would you choose? Today, Emma chose bok choy! It's healthy and delicious! (Don't worry, it's plastic!)


Then later she jammed on her xylophone. Zoe, look at me, I'm playing music!!


Oh, this kid is constantly entertaining me! I absolutely love it.

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Hey good looking....

Whatcha got cooking?? When Dacia came over last night, they brought a little kitchen playset that she used to play with as a baby. Emma just loves it! Of course she tries to take a bite out of the fruits and veggies (her favorite so far is the red chili pepper!), but this definitely kept her busy today!

Mmm, tomatoes for dinner!

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Wednesday fun

Last night we had Dacia over for a few hours. Here are the girls eating a snack (including Zoe, hoping to get a bite!). We took an evening walk through the neighborhood later, right before Emma's bedtime. It's so nice outside when it cools off a bit!

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Quack attack

Last night before bed, Emma was playing with Zoe's duck while the puppy was outside. She was talking to it, shaking it, squealing - she was having fun!

However, when Zoe came back inside Emma quickly dropped the duck and crawled the other way! She didn't want to get busted I guess!

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Fish face

Emma has started doing a little fish face. We aren't sure if she just discovered something fun to do, or if the peaches were especially sweet tonight?! I couldn't capture her fully in the moment, but you can see a bit of a pucker here!

"I WANT YOU" to give me more peaches!

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Duck-of-war

Er, I mean tug-of-war! With a duck. Zoe's toy duck. Emma really likes it. It quacks and everything!

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Meet Gracie!

Today Emma got to meet a new friend - Gracie! My friend Teresa's granddaughter, daughter and mother were in town visiting from Indiana. Gracie would have been just about a week older than Emma - if Emma were born in December. So, over the past 9 months we've watched the two grow and seemingly remain pretty comparable in size, so it was really fun to get them together! Emma brought over her cookie jar to share.


They could almost be twins in size!


Gooooooooooo Colts! Gracie is a Colts fan already! Check them out on Sunday Night Football tomorrow...


Emma also wanted to catch Teresa's cat, Juneau! Juneau was just a step or two faster the whole time. She's already learned how to escape from Gracie being there!


Uh-oh, Gracie tipped over! It won't be too long before she's tumbling around in gymnastics!

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Word of the day

Today's word is: Sassy.

Sas·sy - adj. Lively and spirited; jaunty. Stylish; chic. Or, see picture below:

Surprise! Maybe I can sneak up on Zoe and get her chewy...

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