Cheerleader in the making?

Emma was way too cute tonight, and we ended up getting some really great pictures! The funny thing is that this is the outfit she wore for Halloween last year (its 6-9 months!).

Hands on her hips:

So cute!

And a picture with Mommy!

Mommy date day!

We've been so busy lately, especially this week, that I decided to spend a special morning out with Emma today. She did a great job playing by herself while I got things ready. We headed out to the car and I grabbed her for a quick picture. Mid-photo she spotted an airplane...

There was a huge accident on Rt. 1 which clogged up 13 south from Middletown this morning, so we ended up taking the scenic route south, which Emma enjoyed because she got to see a helicopter dusting crops. We finally made it to Willey's!

Willey's is one of our favorite places to walk around, especially when the weather is so nice. Emma loved the fountains,

smelling the flowers,

and was tickled to death by the giant turtle!

We splashed through some little puddles!

Emma loved looking at ALL the tomatoes!

We sampled some watermelon - yum!

After we left Willey's we headed to Odessa for a picnic lunch! Emma helped by carrying our lunch bag.

We enjoyed sandwiches,

yum!

raspberries and a plum,

Emma loves raspberries (I do too!)

And a special treat - juice with lunch!

What a cutie!

Mommy's helper!

Our final stop was to the library! We picked out a bunch of new books and a train movie. Emma also got to enjoy one of her favorite books at the library, the giant picture book about trucks!

It was a wonderful morning making memories with each other! I hope that we'll be able to take advantage of the few weeks left before little brother shows up to enjoy some more sweet Emma/Mommy time!

My favorite picture from today:

Last Weekend

We had another (surprise, surprise) busy weekend, beginning with last Saturday. We headed north to PA and stopped at Jeremy and Karene's to visit and meet Joshua!

Emma was a little shy at first,

But she soon was giving Joshua kisses on the forehead and holding his hand. She also wanted to hold him, which was really sweet!

Happy Family!

Then we continued north to get together with many of Martin's side of the family. We hadn't gotten together in a really long time, so it was great to see everyone.

It was actually a little cool for the pool, though we did get in for a bit. Emma enjoyed time with Grandmom and even got to ride around the pool on the boat with Daddy!

And Emma loved "playing" the drums on Rock Band with Lauren! She's our little musician for sure!

Emma did really well for only getting to nap for 30 minutes or so, but she was sure tired by the evening. We were all in the living room together and Emma kept laying down on the ottoman and then getting back up when she realized she was falling asleep. She wanted to still be in on the action with everyone!

Tot School: At the beach & lots of new words!

Tot School!

Emma is 19 months

Tot school last week was the beach edition! I did a pretty good job of keeping the blog updated on some of our day-to-day activities, but did not focus on what Emma was learning as much. My camera battery died on day 2, so I have some holes for pictures right now, because I didn't get everyone's put on the computer yet!

Some of Emma's new words that I don't have in the pictures below are 'choo-choo' 'boo-boo' 'juice' 'Memma or Mamma' (for Emma) and 'Trrr' (for truck) and raspberries noises for bee noises!

The beach was, of course, one of the main attractions for Emma (once she got over being scared of it the first day). She enjoyed the freedom of getting to walk wherever she wanted, since we had a good bit of beach to ourselves. Classic Emma with her "purse" pose.

Emma's scooping skills improved a ton recently! She's been feeding herself cereal with a spoon for breakfast most mornings and she did a great job scooping sand into her bucket.

The last day we were at the beach she began filling her bucket with water and dumping it into a hole we had dug. This was probably her favorite thing we did on the beach! She also enjoyed dancing and kicking her feet in the water...

Uncle Evan became Emma's special buddy over the week. She loved standing out on the porch and looking for birds with him. They also had fun looking at pictures and videos online. The monkey videos were her favorite!

Emma also enjoyed looking for birds with Pap Pap out on the porch. She now says her version of bird when she sees them in books! Pap Pap has also become one of her favorite new words!

We brought several new books from the library along for vacation, and there wasn't a day that went by without Emma getting several people to read to her! Oma especially enjoyed reading to her in the morning before the Aunties got up. Several of the books were about fish (Emma calls them shish), which made Marine Scientist Aunt Sarah very happy!

I dont have a picture right now, but Emma loved playing guitar with Omi! She would go over to the guitar case and work on the latches when she wanted to play some music. Omi let Emma sit with her and taught her how to strum. They even "played" a few songs together!

And of course, Emma loved dancing to the music in the restaurant we ate at in Charleston! She kept up her dancing after dinner several nights also.

Emma enjoyed giving everyone kisses before bed each night. Aunt Becca was even able to snag one on the beach one day! Emma tried to say Becca several times too - she at least was getting the 'B' sound!

The week wore Emma out for sure! We celebrated Evan finishing his music therapy internship by going out to dinner one night and Emma was sacked out by the time we got home:

Mom's Favorite...really its hard to pick one, but this one was so darn cute!

Book List: July

I've been meaning to get up my book list from July, but I'm just now getting to it! July is full of my eclectic taste in books:

I can't wait until Emma is a little older and I can read this book out loud to her! It is one of my favorites by Jane Austin, and I love how it is full of great examples for girls (and women) in their relationships with men. I think Jane Austin captures this better than just about any author, while still writing a wonderful fiction piece.

A few years back I read Creators , which has a chapter on Jane Austin. She never wrote a conversation that happened between two men (or what a man was thinking) because as a woman she believed she would not be able to capture it accurately. Its interesting to notice this while reading her, especially as a man relates his thoughts to a woman (thus allowing the woman to find out what he was thinking).







Martin and I were given this book while at the NEXT conference over Memorial Day weekend, and I just got around to it this month. This was a simple, easy to read book, but full of many gems that I was able to mull over throughout the days.











I had never read this Han Solo trilogy before, and Martin told me how much he thought I would like it...I did finish the third book, but I figured I would leave that until August since the months changed while reading. I really loved this series! It captured the spirit of the original Star Wars movies and added details that only true Star Wars fans can completely appreciate (including explaining how the Millinium Falcon made the Kessel Run in less than 12 parscecs when parsceces is a distance of measure, not a time!)

Welcome to the world!

Our friends, Jeremy and Karene, welcomed Joshua Owen on Friday morning! We are so happy for you guys and cannot wait to meet this adorable little guy!

More Beach!

The first night here, we took Emma to the ocean and she was mostly overwhelmed, probably because she was exhausted. She has completely warmed up to the ocean now, and is completely enjoying everything about the beach - sand, surf, and of course, more sand!

She loves to kick in the waves

and she will run back and forth between Mommy

and Daddy...

and give kisses!

We couldn't resist another sisters picture...never too many!

And a family picture!

Pure delight!

Martin and I have especially been enjoying taking walks on the beach after dinner (which we've gotten to do nearly every night!).

Charleston

We went into Charleston today and took a carriage ride around part of the city. It was really cool to get to see a bunch of the old churches:

And tons of beautiful, southern houses!

There is always a nice breeze in Charleston (at least, that's what our tour guide told us), which helped keep us cool on the ride for the most part. I ended up being rather swollen by the end and Emma was pretty flushed from the heat too:

so we went to get some authentic Charleston food which included She Crab Soup, hush puppies (yay!),

and shrimp and grits.

It was an amazing lunch (probably because we were all starving), and completely revived Emma.

She really enjoyed dancing with Uncle Evan

and then giving him lots of high fives!

After dinner this evening, we were all sitting around the table and Emma was able to point to each person when we asked her where they were! She has started saying "Pap Pap" and "Ma" for Oma, but she really knows who everyone is now, which is very sweet.

The week is passing way too quickly...just 2 more full days at the beach!