Pages

Emma 21 Month Update

Little girls are the best! Seriously, I would have at least a dozen Emmas if I could. E turned 21 months while we were in North Carolina. When people ask I either say 1.5, or almost two. Who has time to keep track of months? 

Every day with her is such a blessing. We have so much fun! I am so lucky (blessed) to be at home with her and I couldn't imagine it any other way. 

Let's see-- she's about 25 pounds. She has a 2 year well check so we'll get her stats in October. 


Emma is animal obsessed! Mostly dogs, bugs, sometimes cats, and birds. She will literally chase down a dog at Petsmart. Speaking of chasing, there was a bird in the Newark airport and she did chase it! I followed her and we ended up 3 gates away. 

She loves being in and playing with water. Nathan surprised us (her) with a pool a few weeks ago-- after E saw our neighbor's grandson in a pool in their front yard and went in sat in it. Talk about embarrassing and she was in her clothes. 


Some days we'll play with water and that is her favorite. She goes bonkers if I let her pour, stir, and splash in the water. 


We usually bring the bowls outside but this day (above) she was a bit crabby so I allowed it inside. :-)  And sometimes she drinks the water out of a teaspoon, LOL. 

We started doing morning "walks" as a family to our back yard/pond area to look for animals. This is our favorite morning ritual. Most mornings we see turtles, bunnies, birds, and lots of bugs. And if we're lucky Happy the beagle will be out walking. ;)


If you look closely above you can see our little turtle friend. We have to wave at every animal/car/person/plane that goes by. 

Eat: Emma is a good eater. :-) She is finally really loving cow's milk so she'll have a full sippy of that throughout the day, sometimes more. 

Her favorite foods are bananas, broccoli, black beans, raisins/craisins/dried fruit, watermelon, and cheese cubes. She loves spaghetti with turkey meatballs, mac and cheese with broccoli, and brown rice with corn. Whose kid is she? 


She sleeps awesome-- 8:30ish until 7:30ish and a good 2-3 hour nap each afternoon. I just jinxed myself for tonight, yawn. 

Took that picture below to remember how long she is. :-) I know one day I will tell her, "You used to lay along that step!". She also sits on the first step to put her shoes on and will pat anything if she wants you to sit down beside her. It is precious. 


Emma is very outgoing and has a lot of personality. She has so many crazy mannerisms that make me laugh. Nathan is pretty quiet and reserved, so her personality is a bit surprising. 

She will hug anyone, hold out her arms for them to pick her up or hug her, and wave. She has lots of friends through gymnastics, our local playground, and baby wearing group. Right now her favorites are my friend's kids, Christian and Nyla. 


We made silly putty at a moms morning out. Kind of a weird craft to make with a bunch of toddlers but we got it home mess free (somehow). Nathan got one look at it and threw it out. He's such a kill joy. 

She's really adamant about her clothes and shoes. She picks out everything and will make you change her, remove shoes, put shoes on. . . it's quite exhausting and she's a bit bossy! Sometimes she'll nap in her shoes because I don't want to fight her on it. 


Homegirl is still rear facing and thrilled about it. :-) She went through a very stressful stage of hating the car but I'm happy to report that is long gone. 


Her favorite "treat" is pops. She really thinks she's hot stuff eating them and they are just frozen greek yogurt tubes, ha. She doesn't get many sweets. A smoothie or ice cream every few weeks. 




Her favorite thing is "shopping". If we go anywhere, I'll call it shopping-- the grocery store, mall, etc. She loves shopping. ;) 

She doesn't have a ton of words-- mom, dad, hi, dog, bye bye (buh-by), this (dis), and my personal favorite "I do". 


She signs quite well. I really can't believe it-- I was quite doubtful at first but I will definitely do baby sign language from the beginning next time. She will sign "me" if she wants something, more, and all done. 


Emma is a very smart girl! Everything she does amazes me. She knows how to open my EOS chapstick and will put it on and offer me some. Same with deodorant and body spray (Ha). 

She knows where we keep stuff and will open the drawer/cabinet/whatever to get stuff. 

She'll kiss a picture (give Papi a kiss!), point out objects on pictures (find grandma), and uses a fork and spoon effortlessly. 


She can follow 2 step commands. Go get my shoes and bring them to me, go give this to daddy, go to your room and get your bear. 

Homegirl is so ready to potty train. Too bad her mom is a lazy bum. She hates wearing diapers and rips them off, has peed on the potty twice, and knows where pee pee is, etc. Who knows. I may explore this in another month or so. 


And her hair could possibly be getting lighter? I'm not quite sure. We will see! She wears all different sizes-- 18 mos and 2T usually. 

Emma's latest tricks are dancing on command, doing her stretches by herself before gymnastics (!), pointing "one" when you ask how old she is, and spanking booties. I didn't teach her the last one, promise. She also mocks you if you sneeze, cough, etc. 


I could go on and on and I'm sure I forgot stuff but this will have to do. Maybe I'll do a post on her favorite toys/activities. 


Love my little home skillet. She is the BOMB! 

North Carolina Part 2

Read about Part 1 over here.

Yeah, we finally made it. We were so thankful to see them at the airport! Not to mention the entire cooler and snacks that my dad & Becky had for us. Shout out to my dad for picking out the Sofia sippy cup-- Emma about lost it. 

Their house is super cool. It is literally up on a mountain. I had been to this neighborhood about ten years ago, but I guess I forgot about the windy roads. Holy Dramamine. 


Yeah no clue but Emma found that flag somewhere and she loved marching around the room while we sang Yankee Doodle. 

They have a wrap around deck (sort of?) that looks off into some really beautiful scenery. This doesn't really do it justice: 


Sunday night we just kind of settled in because Monday we had our big horseback riding adventure. I could not wait! 

I think it has been 10 years since I have been on a horse but it was so much fun. Nathan got the slow one (we called him Glue) and mine was named Bernadette. 


Our trail ride was 2.5 hours but we stopped to look at some waterfalls. They were so pretty but I didn't have my camera. 





It was also Becky's birthday so we grilled out, ate cake, and stood on pieces of furniture to get the balloons Emma kept letting go of. 

After dinner my dad took us on his fancy 4 wheeler thing and it was scary but very cool. 





They have a fire route in case the mountain ever catches on fire, so we went down that way. It was super creepy and reminded me of a scary movie. 

My dad drove so fast I swear we almost died. Or tipped over. At least Becky had my baby. 


The next morning we woke up and it was so foggy. Or we were up in the clouds I'm not sure. 


It was so strange. When we first walked in it smelled like wood! I thought they must have been cleaning but then it occurred to be-- DUH their entire house is wood! It smelled so good and fresh! 


Emma could see the ears of corn in the fridge and would cry for it every time we opened it. So funny. Note the one balloon. The other was up in the ceiling. :-)

Also note the supplies to make our strong Blackberry Margs. 



Tuesday we did some laundry and went to the place people go white water rafting. Maybe next time we will go but it was fun to people watch. 




We ate dinner at that place below. The kids all play in the water but it was so cold! Look at Emma's face, LOL. 

Also, a moment of silence for Emma's adorable southern bow. It got dirt on it and when I cleaned it, a string got caught and it fell apart. I'm devastated. 



Not pictured were the ducks we got to feed! We took turns taking Emma to feed the ducks during dinner. When Becky got back with Emma she said Emma ate the popcorn they were feeding the ducks. Can't say I'm surprised. Guess she broke my rule of no popcorn until 3. 

Tuesday night we did one last scary ride on the death mobile. We went to another mountain (?) to get a picture of their house. 


Can you see it? Top left-ish dark brown. 

The other neighborhood we went to had paved roads. I think that is the next step in my dad's neighborhood. I don't know but I pretend I do. 





And just like that we headed home. Emma was exhausted. Can you tell? Shocker: We were delayed in Newark. 


E did so well on the plane rides! I cannot say enough good things about it. We brought her car seat and she fell right asleep. Boom. 


Beck to reality. Naptime is over! Hope everyone is having a good day! xox

North Carolina Part 1

Not one of these photos were taken in North Carolina. Ha! 



We showed up to the airport and our plane was nowhere to be seen. Two hours later and at least $25 at the little cafe, we finally made it to Newark. And missed our connection. Awesome sauce. 


Where we stayed for 24 hours because there were no flights to North Carolina. None. The lady had all these crazy suggestions-- 2 more flights and she could get us to Chatanooga! Tonight! 


Emma made lots of friends in the Newark airport while we talked with the gate lady. They put us up in a hotel, gave us some food money, and we were on our merry way. Well not before having to deal with the bag situation but we got them and it only took an eternity to carry 2 carry ons, my bag, 2 suitcases, a car seat. Oh and a toddler. 

We got to the hotel at 4. By 4:03, I was totally bored wondering what in God's name we were going to do until bedtime. 

And somehow we ended up in the best city in the world. 


There really is no place I would rather be. We were so giddy when we walked up the stairs. You could just feel it-- the hot dog stands, the people. . . nothing better. I sent my dad the picture of MSG and his reply was "Best city in the world". 

We really just wanted to say Emma had been to NYC. We didn't care where we went so we just wandered around and of course ended up here: 


She was on my back and dozing in and out which was pretty funny. We walked towards Time's Square first, then got some food right by Bryant Park, wandered around there for a while and peeked at the Empire State Building. 


Everyone on the train and at dinner was so nice to us! We had extra room at our table and people asked if they could sit there so we chatted them up for a while. New Yorkers are so outgoing. 


I can let the pictures do the talking. :-)










After we found her souvenir shirt we headed back to Grand Central. Emma was zonked but did awesome and made some old lady friends on the ride back. 


We were up bright and early and so ready to get to North Carolina! E did great in the hotel. Slept on the bed and didn't even move all night. I checked to make sure she was breathing at least a dozen times, ha. 

We got pretty antsy because our flight wasn't until 1, but they had a pool so DUH. 


Emma loved the shuttle! She cried anytime we walked by it and we didn't get on. I think she liked it because it was a car and she didn't have to be in her car seat? 


Okay I promise the next post will actually have pictures from North Carolina. 

Click here to read Part 2

Happy Tuesday, folks!