Flash Cards

I made Emily some flash cards with some of her favorite things--I haven't really looked for any when we've been shopping, but I'm sure I can find some that will hold up a little better than these.

She can't quite say all of the words, but she sure tries. And she's great at picking out the pictures when I say the words (this was "where's the lady bug?").

She seems to enjoy anticipating what I'm going to say next so she can sort through the pictures and find it.

The Girl Loves Shoes!

Emily is starting young with a shoe fetish, I'm afraid. She loves putting shoes on--and she's especially infatuated with this pair right now. Stride Rite had a great sale, so I bought these cute pink and brown suede shoes a little big so Emily could wear them this fall and winter. As soon as she saw them, she wanted to put them on (we were in the process of getting her undressed for her bath).

Now, every time she sees the box, she says "shoes!" and reaches for them to take them out and try them on.

Silly Snacker

Emily loves to eat, but she's pretty easily distracted when something more interesting comes along. We've found that if we sometimes do things to break up the monotony of sitting in her high chair or booster that she'll usually eat better because she thinks we're playing a game.

Since she gets up at 6:00 in the mornings during the week and doesn't eat breakfast at school until around 8:30, she still eats something here before we leave. She loves oatmeal, and got to sit up on the island in the kitchen one morning this week!

When we got home that afternoon, she ate some dried fruit in her snack cup, which always makes her happy. She's decided now that the stairs are her favorite place to sit--she'll get on the second step so she can dangle her legs off.

Updates

Finally, I've caught up with posting videos and uploading pictures to Emily's sites--just click the Emily in Action and Emily Claire Jackson links to the right!

More Weekend Fun

We were in Super Wal-Mart this weekend looking for a baby gate and came across this bubble mower. Emily loves being outside so much and we thought she'd like to help Mick with some yard work. She actually "mowed" our grass while our neighbor was out mowing his. The mower blows bubbles when you push it with all four wheels on the ground.

The funny thing was that every time it started to blow bubbles, Emily got excited and stopped pushing so she could pop all the bubbles! It's in the garage now beside John Deere, and she wants to play with it every time we come in and out.

Emily also got a care package from her Grandma Jackson on Saturday with this cool little boom box--it plays four different instruments when you push the buttons. If Emily can dance to it, she loves it!

And Bella is always a fan if something distracts Emily enough for her fingers to be licked after eating graham crackers--check out that tongue in action!

Fun Sunday

We've decided to try to find a church to attend (I won't go into the long story about why we aren't currently attending--let's just say there are issues that lead to us being a little confused about where we belong in organized religion). There's a nice church right down the road from us now, so we went Sunday morning. Emily really had a tough time in the nursery, so we ended up bringing her back into the sanctuary, where she proceeded to run down the aisle squealing in the middle of the service. I don't think we'll be going back there--but not because of that. The church didn't fit us. I had to get a picture of Emily in her pretty little dress though.

We didn't leave the dress on too long--she needed to change into play clothes...

but not before she rode her horsey around a little!

This afternoon, we went to Monkey Joe's. We went to one for Zachary's birthday back in January, but Emily was a little young to really enjoy it. We actually just found out there was one in Charlotte (there are actually 5 or 6 of them!), and it's been so hot lately, we needed to stay inside.

The whole place was huge inflatable bounce houses, but there were a couple of separate areas just for toddlers, so we stayed there most of the time. There were a lot of older kids and we felt like Emily was safer in the mini-monkey areas. She found the doggie immediately.

Once she found a slide she could do on her own, she was in love!

She'd get to the top and then slide down on her tummy.

She must have gone down the slide a hundred times!

We thought she was losing steam at one point, but she found a little carousel with a lion, zebra and elephant on it.

She even went down the big slide with Daddy once!

On the way home, she entertained us by being silly in her sunglasses (she's showing me her eye here).

Bye-Bye Ba-Ba

Yes, Emily has still been drinking milk from a bottle and she's 16 months old (judge us if you must). We've still been giving her a bottle in the morning before breakfast, and a bottle at night before she brushes her teeth and goes to bed. I'm not sure she really needed it, but we knew she needed the milk, and weren't convinced she would drink enough milk just from her cup.

So this weekend, we quit the bottle cold turkey, and she did great. She's drinking more milk from her cup and didn't even ask for her bottle once.

I know she kept her ba-ba longer than most people think she should have, but we did what we felt was best for her, and she quit when she was ready.

Colors

Emily likes to scribble and color with just about anything--crayons, sidewalk chalk, markers, pens or pencils. We were coloring this afternoon and she started saying colors with me. I have to hide the video camera in order to capture anything--Emily always wants to stop what she's doing and play with the camera--so I propped it in a chair at the kitchen table. That explains the not so great aim here.

The end of the video shows off her penguin walk a little (again, the aim of the camera is off). I'll have to get a better one of this, because it's really cute.

Sounds Worse Than It Is!

When I left Emily at Gateway Monday morning, she waved and said bye-bye like everything was fine. I didn't even make it to work before her teacher called and said she had a 101.3 fever and a rash that looked like hand, foot and mouth disease!

She had what we thought was a diaper rash with little bumps on Friday afternoon when we got home, but they looked much better by Sunday. She has also been having a tough time with one of her molars coming in on the left side--her gums have bled a little and she didn't want to eat much. We attributed all of this to teething and didn't think much else of it.

I u-turned and went back to Gateway to pick her up, and called to make her an appointment with the doctor on the way. We saw the doctor at 10:15, and she confirmed that Emily had hand, foot and mouth disease. It sounds completely disgusting, but they should really come up with a different name, because there wasn't much to it. The doctor said it's very contagious and that most kids will get it at some point--there are rarely any complications, and there's no treatment--it just goes away on its own after 5-7 days. Since she had the bumps on Friday, we know we're at least in day 4 already.

So Emily and I stayed home on Monday--she was a little grumpy, but still wanted to play and do most of her normal things. She seems to really like these new puzzles we got this weekend, and is very good at matching the pieces!

I decided to keep her home again Tuesday morning, but by lunch time, she was feeling much better and hadn't had a fever in 24 hours, so I took her to school.

She had a great afternoon and seemed to be back to 100% tonight! Luckily, this apparently works a little like chicken pox, so she should be immune to it if it goes around again!

Climber

Emily loves to climb on everything--she's a little daredevil!

She can now climb onto chairs or the couches with no assistance at all--check out those little tip toes!

She's always so happy with herself when she reaches her goal.

16 Months Old: What's Happening

This has been an extremely busy month for us, but we've had a lot of fun, and Emily has enjoyed the adventure. I guess most little girls haven't lived in three houses by the time they're 16 months old--hopefully this will be the last time she'll move for a good long time!

Emily is becoming more of a toddler every day--there are very few "baby" moments anymore, which sometimes makes me sad. When she's sleepy or doesn't feel great and wants to cuddle, or when I still get to rock her for a few minutes before bed are those sweet, wonderful times that I cherish now.

Animal sounds and impressions continue to be some of her favorite things to do. She can stomp and swing her arm like an elephant trunk, walk like a penguin, and raise her arms and growl like a bear. We have several different CDs we listen to in the car with her with songs like "Old McDonald," "If You're Happy and You Know It" and "The Hokey Pokey." She'll do most of the commands in the songs--including raising her arms up and saying "Ray!" when the song says to "shout Hooray!" It's just too cute.

Emily is quite the little helper--she's usually the first one in her class in the mornings, and her teachers tell me that she walks around and helps them get the classroom ready. She's great at pushing buttons on the copier or pulling out supplies or books :). She's the same way at home--I usually start making dinner as soon as we get home at night, and I've been giving her a job to help me. She really loves it, and is much more content when she's involved in what I'm doing. The island in the kitchen is huge, and there's plenty of room for her to sit closeby while I'm working there.

I had a big pile of chopped veggies that I wanted to toss in some olive oil and spices, so she put them all in the bowl for me while I fixed the chicken. It was funny when we sat down to eat and found tooth marks in some of the squash and zuchini!

Emily has decided she really enjoys washing her hands lately. We wash our hands pretty frequently because we're always touching the dogs, but they also have specific hand washing times at school, so she sees everyone doing it there too. I don't know if it's the soap or the water she enjoys more, but it's certainly not a bad habit to have.

Something we probably weren't prepared for this month is the perfection of the temper tantrum. Emily is such a happy, good natured little girl most of the time that her tantrums sometimes almost catch us off guard. She really knows how to test the boundaries, and likes to make sure we really mean it when we tell her no. She can turn on the tears with the best of them, and they look so authentic it's tough not to pity her!

We're still not quite settled completely (so please excuse the mess in the picture of the kitchen above), but I finished the main wall in Emily's room.

I wanted to leave it simple so we can add stuff as she gets older. Here's the before picture--

The potato heads had to go! I left the window valance up, and it matches the accent wall really well, so I'm happy with the way it turned out. There's plenty of room for her to grow into it, and she even has her own private bathroom, which will be nice as she gets older.

Cleaning Service

We've been thinking of hiring a cleaning company to come in a few times each month to help us keep up with everything.

Maybe we won't have to now--Emily has become quite attached to the Swiffer, so I took a couple of sections out of the handle to make it her size. She loves it--she'll even go to the closet, get it out on her own, and then put it away when she's done!

Weekend with Family

We've been looking forward to this weekend for a while now--my family all came to visit, and we couldn't wait for everyone to see what a big girl Emily is now, and to share our new house with them.

Jason, Jenn and Cody came in on Wednesday night, and then Julie's flight landed around noon on Thursday. My parents got here right after we returned from the airport that afternoon. Everybody was excited to be together, and a little tired from traveling, so we didn't do much on Thursday except spend time around the house. Emily showed off her sliding skills to her Grandma.

And read lots of books with her Papa and Cousin Cody!

She even showed Uncle Jason how she can stick out her tongue.

Thursday night, it was still warm enough to head to the pool for a late night swim.

On Friday, it was too hot to do anything except get in the pool again, so that's exactly what we did!

That night, Cody and Emily had fun in the bath together--we bought these letters and numbers that stick to the side of the tub when they're wet, and Mick said the tub looked like alphabet soup! He's actually right :).

Emily is such a clown in the bathtub some nights, and Cody really enjoyed her silly hairdo.

We spent some more time at the pool on Saturday, and Jason, Jenn and Cody decided to leave that afternoon to head home. There's always so much to do on the weekends to get ready for work and school on Monday--we hated to see them go, but understood why they needed to get back and have Sunday at home.

Emily helped Aunt Julie check in for her flight and print her boarding pass before she left on Sunday. Then we grabbed a quick lunch and headed to the airport.

We never feel like we have enough time with everyone, and I'm always disappointed that I didn't take more pictures! I guess that just gives us something to look forward to next time.

Settling In

Things are slowly coming together in the new house--everyone seems happy to be in our own place again, and it's really beginning to feel like home. Even Gracie and Bella seem more content than they have over the past few months. I'm sure they could sense that we weren't settled and things were never quite in their place in the rental house.

Emily is having a great time exploring everything. We have these built-in shelves and cabinets in the main living room, and decided to devote a couple of them to storing Emily's toys. She certainly wasted no time crawling right in to pick out the ones she wanted!

Books are still her favorite thing by far.

She's still been eating great, even though she has some side teeth and her molars still cutting through. I wrote recently that Emily had finally eaten a banana after my relentless attempts--well, sweet potatoes were my most recent victory! I absolutely love them, and was just sure Emily would. I've tried them so many ways and she refused to eat them--I even baked sweet potato fries, and she wouldn't eat them. It turns out that she loves them mashed with cinnamon.

The doctor told us last week that sometime over the next several months, it would be perfectly normal if Emily completely changed her eating habits and became really picky. We're hoping that won't happen, but are prepared for it if it does.

We're slowing down a little with unpacking so we can take some time to enjoy the house right now. Emily's room is almost done, which is really my priority. I loved her room in our Atlanta house, but didn't put any effort into her room in the rental house, so I'm ready for her to have a little getaway again! I'll post pictures soon of the before and after.

A Little Disconnected

We have a lot going on, but I haven't posted anything because we're disconnected right now--we had our cable/internet service turned off at the old house on Friday, and it isn't scheduled to be turned on at the new house until Saturday the 16th! Probably good timing because we'll be unpacking, but it means I won't be uploading pictures or posting about Emily's fun adventures exploring her new surroundings for a few more days.

Swimming!

I mentioned that we had signed Emily up for swimming lessons--it's an 8-week class and meets every Saturday morning at a local place called Charlotte Aquatics. Unfortunately, we missed the first two classes because she was sick the first week and we were in Brunswick last weekend. We took her on Saturday morning, and she had the best time!

It's a toddler class where they play games in the water while learning some very basic swimming techniques. Check out our little synchronized swimmer with arms and legs flying around! On Sunday, we decided to take a break from unpacking and go to the neighborhood pool. One of the things we're most excited about is the pool and playground where we've moved--and this weekend was so hot, it was perfect for an afternoon in the water! The pool has a waterslide and a separate kids' pool that goes up to 1 1/2 feet deep with big umbrellas in the middle and fountains along the edge. I have a feeling we'll be spending quite a bit of time there this summer--it was tough to get Emily to come out long enough to have a little snack and drink some water!

15 Month Checkup

Emily was due for her 15-month checkup, so I scheduled it for Friday afternoon, and took a break from moving to pick her up early while Mick met the movers to get started with the furniture.

Emily weighs 23.4 lbs now (only the 50th percentile) and she's 32 inches tall (90th percentile). She's doing everything she should be, and she got a great report!

She did have two shots today--chickenpox and the Hib vaccine. The doctor gave her some stickers and she was pretty excited about the one with the doggie on it, so she held on to it and only cried for a minute.

This is NOT Vacation!

Mick and I both were off on Monday for July 4th, and took the rest of this week off to move. We've worked long days and nights to get everything packed, and rented a U-Haul yesterday so we could make fewer trips with more stuff.

At the end of the day today, we returned the truck and have almost everything done! We're using Two Men and a Truck to move the big furniture, and they're scheduled to come tomorrow afternoon. Tonight will be our last night in the rental house, and we're so excited to officially be in our new house. It will take us more long nights and weekends to get everything unpacked and settled, but that's the fun part :).

Our next vacation will not involve this much work!

4th of July Weekend

We went to Brunswick, GA to see Mick's family for 4th of July weekend. It's about a 5 hour drive, so we decided to make the trip Friday night, hoping Emily would sleep the whole way. She only slept for about an hour, and we didn't get there until midnight. We went straight to bed when we got there, but she was up at 6:00 AM ready for action. Despite not having enough sleep, she was in a great mood on Saturday.

We spent all day Saturday outside--it was hot, but there was a breeze blowing and it was nice under all the shade trees. Everybody took a turn blowing bubbles--even Emily!

Her cousins played in a big inflatable pool, but Papa had a special pool just for Emily, and she had a ball.

Grandma and Papa have this rocking horse at their house that Emily completely fell in love with--it played a "Giddyup Little Cowboy" song that she danced to over and over.

On Sunday, we went down to the pier on St. Simons Island. There was a playground that everyone enjoyed.

Emily even went down the big slide with Grandma!

That afternoon, she read some books with Grandma and Lala (Great Grandma).

We discovered that she's a big Mickey Mouse fan--she's watched him in some cartoons, but never seemed particularly crazy about him until this weekend. Her cousins had a big stuffed Mickey doll, and she just didn't want to put him down!

The tide was so high when we went to the pier Sunday morning that we couldn't get on the sand, so we went over to Jekyll Island later that afternoon so Emily could run around a little.

We didn't stay long, but she had a great time.

We decided to come back home Sunday night. We tried the same thing again--had dinner, gave Emily her bath, and left around 8:00 PM. Emily did much better on the trip home. We barely stopped, and got home in less than 5 hours. She actually slept for most of the trip, but we were all so happy to get home and in our own beds when we finally pulled in the driveway a little before 1:00 AM.