Ok, back to the blog ( I apologize to all my readers - all 2 of you!) What can I say life gets busy with a toddler in the house!
Here are some updated pictures and a video for your viewing pleasure...
Here is a recent video of Emily singing "Ring around the Rosie" for the first time - I think it took me like 4 minutes tops to teach this one to her (Sorry for the poor quality of video also, our camera's sensor is crapping out)
And for your viewing pleasure some Jellyfish at the Monterey Bay Aquarium --- coolies!
I have something important to tell you all - and it concerns the topic of the POTTY!
Miss Emily has had a handful of potty books for some time now that I keep in our downstairs bathroom - she loves these books by the way and reads them on a daily basis. We just want her to start getting used to the idea of the potty and what goes on in the bathroom so we read them a lot and I will take her into the bathroom with me and talk to her about it when we are in there.
So a few weekends ago when my mom and I were at Babies-r-us I decided to pick up a little Potty chair for Miss Emily and a new Elmo Potty book that has sounds since she is in luuuuuv with Elmo.
I did do a bit of research on potty chairs and decided to go with the Bjorn brand that is pretty basic with a bowl that lifts out for easy dumping and cleaning.
I brought the new potty home that evening and though to myself "Hmmm while I run the bathwater why don't I put Emily on her new Potty and start her getting used to the idea of sitting on it" and I didn't expect any results right away.
So I start the bathwater and Emily sits on the potty while Marc and I talk to her - and low and behold she produces her first gift - a poopy!
Oh Joy! Elation! Marc was impressed by the size, I was just impressed that she did anything! so we clapped and praised her and told her how good she was - I told Marc to watch her while I ran off to get some wipes to wipe her. Well he must have been so impressed he forgot to watch her closely and she just about got a hold of her poopy with her hands! Thank goodness I walked in just then!
Then Marc got grossed out and Mom had to dump the poopy in the toilet and Emily got to flush it away and say "Bye Bye Poopy" while it went down the toilet. And then Mom had to clean the Bowl (Marc was still grossed out! - Men!)
We were so proud of her, that we called Meemaw and told her the news! (She thought I was joking!) then we called JoJo and told her the news too.
So we have had the potty now for a while and Emily loves to sit on it, and read on it and play with it. She also likes to take one of her baby dolls that has a diaper on it and she will take the diaper off and put the baby on the potty - ok it kind of a small baby doll so it fits in the bowl. If you turn the baby upside down she will right it too!
The other night I decided to have her sit on her potty again while we were filling the tub and low and behold she tinkled! More praise and clapping! and me cleaning the potty bowl. "Bye Bye Tinkles" she said as we flushed it down.
Miss Emily is definitly a smart girl and knows what to do with her potty - maybe Potty Training won't be so bad!
We arn't forcing anything and still have a long way to go but it's a start!
Last weekend Marc and I decided to take Emily over to Lane Farms here in town to get more pictures of our sweet Emily in her tutu that I made for her for Halloween. We had a super fun time so get ready for lots of pictures in this post!
We will get the bad family photos out of the way first...
Next thing we knew she was off and running everywhere - Lane Farms is a great place for kids because they have lots of hay all over which provides a cushion if kids fall down a bit. Emily made her way over ot the big Hay pile where she had tons of fun laughing and giggle while the other kids were throwing hay all over. She did find a small pumpkin which she did not want to share with Daniel, a little 11 month old boy dressed up like a lion.
Then we took her to see all the pumpkins, she hugged them, sat on them, slid off of them, found some lovely dirt clods and basically ran all over!
Ok up next are my artsy photos because I had a camera and was just snapping away like a wedding photographer.
Then it was off for some shots of Emily with the Scarecrow - I won't bore you with to many don't worry.
The other thing about Lane Farms that I love is that they have animals - and Miss Emily loves animals!! they had lots of goats, a donkey, a horse and three turkeys! Emily can make the gobble gobble turkey sound so she especially loved these guys. Although did you know that the Turkey's snood goes up and down when it breathes? it will also change colors when it's upset or when it's in a courting type of mood. I found it altogether creepy!!
Emily wanted one more romp in the Hay so we obliged and then went and bought some scruptious corn for dinner from the Lane Farms main stand. Here is something you may not have known either - I used to work at Lane Farms when I was in High School with my best friend Jenny during the summer! We had some good times there!
Time for a family photo at the farm! Boy does it look like I am sitting on practically nothing! We went up to the valley a few weekends ago to Quacken Farms to pick out a pumpkin for Emily. They had a tiny pumpkin patch, some coloring tables, a little hay wagon ride and a few farm animals.
So since the farm did not have any big pumpkins we decided to try another patch down the road where we went two years ago when I was pregnant with Emily at the time. They had all kinds of pumpkins, squash, gourds, vegetables etc... I was able to get a few more good pictures of Emily here and Marc and I got to buy our bigger pumpkins. I decided to get a white one this year too!
Interesting title eh??
Since getting her Faux food from Meemaw and loving to pretend cook for everyone, Emily also thinks it's supper funny when the pieces of plastic lettuce stick to her feet.
She actually tries to step on them and then walk around - maybe it feels good? I don't know but it is quite funny to see.
On to the Sticks! Magee loves to chew on sticks and bark - he has loved this his whole life so when Emily is over at MeeMaws she likes to find the biggest sticks to give to Magee for him to chew on. Well she seemed to think that since Magee likes sticks maybe she ought to try them out! MeeMaw said it was a hoot watching her walk around with a stick in her mouth like a dog - at least she isn't eating the dog food yet (but she does lick the dog bones sometimes!)
Ok ok so I am probably the worst blogger ever! I have been neglecting my blog and I feel terrible about it. But I do have a good excuse - I'm a super busy working mom! and at work things have been crazy with our last two tradeshows of the year right now. It's hard trying to find the time to fit everything all in these days but rest assured that I am making a concious effort to try and post during the busy time and holidays so no one misses anything.!
Here are some pictures of Emily in her first car that MeeMaw bought for her. She absolutely loves it and will spend hours getting in, getting out, putting her stuffed animals or babydoll in or out etc...
She also loves to put her treasures in the front trunk compartment. I have found rocks from the fountain, pinecones, acorns, feathers, sand?! and much much more!
We have been super busy these days - so I apologize to my blog readers for the lack of updates.
Here is a Random Bullet List of interesting things:
- Emily has Molars! I didn't even know she was teething and just happened to notice them when I was playing with her and turned her upside down.
- Emily has finally given up nursing with Mama. I can proudly say that we nursed for almost 17 months! I will miss our nursing sessions but I am happy to have my "girls" back - I think Marc is happy about the "girls" also!
- I am also happy that I can take things other than just tylenol for my headaches now.
- Emily's feet have grown another size or two - I had to go out and buy her some new tennis shoes and some adorable black patten leather ones for the holiday's coming up.
- Emily has taken to calling Marc's mom "Jo-Jo" (Marc hates it so everyone tell him how utterly cute Jo-Jo is for a grandma nickname)
- Santa Barbara had our first rain of the season (if you can call it rain!) it was quite funny when Marc was driving me over to my parents house and the windshield wipers were on. Every time they wiped, Emily would say "Rain" from the back!
- Emily and I like to play fun games in the car when we are driving. I will ask her to look for Green lights and say "What does Green mean?" and she will chime in "Go, Go, Go". We also count in the car, I say "one" and she says "two", I say "three" and she says "four" and so on... it's quite amusing really!
- We took a weekend jaunt up to Solvang last Sunday and Emily would look out her window and spy cows on the way up followed by "Mooo Mooo"
- Lately Emily's phrase of the day has been "Ohhhh WOW!" she says it to almost everything new, she will also say "Ooops!" when something drops.
- Emily has been obsessed with bodyparts lately - so beware if you see her she just might point out your: nose, eyes, eyebrows, cheek, neck, ears, hair, teeth etc...and as she point out a body part she will tell you what it is!
- Emily's newest Love is her car! (Pictures will come later - I promise) MeeMaw bought her one of thoes little cars that has a handle on the back that an adult can push. Emily loves her car so much that sometimes that's all she wants to play with - getting in and out and putting her babies in and out and putting other small items in the front trunk etc...We have to tell her that the car is going "Nigh Night" and cover it up and have her say good night to it or she will get upset when we put it away for the day.
- Emily has inherited from me holding her breath when she gets upset. She can get so worked up sometimes (Like when she can't play with her car anymore or her play food because we want her to take a bath) that she will do an open mouth silent cry/scream and then get blue and her eyes roll back and she faints a bit till she can catch a breath. Can I just say the first time it was truly scary! But it doesn't hurt her and is actually the body's way of protecting itself. After she has gone all "Limp baby" on me she will sometimes laugh for a few seconds till it sets in again and then she just cries like normal. Emily has only done this about 4 times total to date.
- Emily HATES HATES HATES when I have to cut her fingernails. I have no idea why, I have tried numerous tactics - none of them work so we have to make her suffer a bit while Marc holds her and I cut away. You would think we were torturing the poor child the way she reacts! I have never cut or nicked her - she just HATES it for whatever reason a toddler can have.
Well thats all for now folks!
Emily had so much fun playing with Samantha's little Kitchen and her faux food that MeeMaw went out and bought Emily her own faux food. The pots and pans were mine when I was little so now Miss Emily can "cook" to her hearts content.
When I am cooking at home Emily loves to watch. If she is having lunch I will roll her high chair into the kitchen so she can see what I am doing and she is just facinated. Marc usually has to take her on walks so I can get the dinner started and when she comes back all she wants to do is watch mommy finish cooking the rest of the meal. Someday I hope to pass on my culinary skills to her - as most of you know I love cooking and especially baking.
So without futher ado, here is Miss Emily "cooking", her sous chef is Annie.
This past weekend Emily's Great Uncle Kirk, Great Aunt Carrie and her other Great Uncle Jeff all came for a visit.
Emily hasn't seen Kirk or Carrie since last year when we went to visit them on the East Coast at the cabin.I will post a picture below so you can all see the difference a year makes.
You remember Great Uncle Jeff don't you - the one who gave Emily his collection of Rubber Duckies! It was Jeff's birthday so we got to celebrate with him, but poor Emily was asleep when we passed out the cupcakes.
Jeff and Kirk are MeeMaw's two brothers. Emily was very happy to see her Great Uncles, but she really liked seeing her Great Aunt Carrie.
The next picture is last year at the cabin with Carrie - look at how much Emily has grown. She still loves her Great Auntie though! They are all smiles when they are together. Gosh, look how bald she was last year! She is now finally getting some more hair - but still not much.
Before Emily was born, Carrie lovingly painted all the bugs and flowers and other creatures in Emily's room. Emily has a special fondness for the bumble bee by the light switch and the ladybug that is near her changing table. Every night Miss Emily has to say "Nigh Night" to all the critters in her room before we put her down.
For thoes readers that haven't seen it here are a few pictures of Emily's enchanting bedroom.
Meet Samantha. Emily and Samantha have been friends since Emily was about 6 months old. Samantha is the grandaughter of Mary Jane and Bard Salcido. Mr. Salcido was one of my History teachers in High School, his son Bard Jr., Samantha's daddy, was also one of my teachers in High School - does that strike any of you as weird?
Anyways, my family and the Salcidos have been friends for ages. Mary Jane, Samantha's Nonnie, watches Samantha while her Mommy and Daddy are at work - just like my mom and Marc's mom watch Emily for us while we work.
So at least once a week or so Samantha has always come over to our house with Mary Jane to play with "Baby Emily" as Samantha refers to Miss Em, although Miss Em is no longer a little itty bitty baby anymore.
The girls love to laugh and giggle and go for walks down to the park near our house and eat snacks. It's good for the Grandma's too as they get some adult conversation during the time the girls are together.
Just recently Samantha went for a playdate over at MeeMaw's house and got to run around in the backyard and go on the swing over there.
So yesterday MeeMaw took Emily over to Mary Jane's house to have lunch and play with Samantha. I visited the girls on my lunch break and they were happy as clams.
Emily got to play in Samantha's little play kitchen with all the faux food, though someone (GreatGrandpa Sey) kept telling Samantha to take the food away from Miss Emily. This didn't seem to phase Emily, she just found something else to play with. Like Mary Jane's old baby buggy - she took some bears for a quick spin.
Then it was time for me to get back to work so I tried to get one more photo of the two girls together - do you know how hard it is to take a picture of two toddlers??
On is looking off in the distance and the other is trying to get out of the chair. Oh and look I also captured the back of Miss Kitty to the left - she also didn't want her picture taken I guess.
Even though Samantha is now is PreSchool I do hope they can still have their playdates, and guess what? Samantha will be getting a baby brother/sister soon so Miss Emily will have a new friend to play with as well.
