Thanksgiving - Part 1

Since we knew there would be a new baby in the family by Thanksgiving this year, we planned to spend the holiday in (or near) Wilmington so Jason and Jenn wouldn't have to travel far. My mom came up with the idea to rent a house at the beach and all stay together rather than get hotel rooms. Let's face it--several days in a house with your entire family can be stressful, and ours is no different--but we did enjoy the time together and everyone came out alive :).

The house was awesome. It was in Kure Beach, and across the street from the beach, but there were ocean views from the front balconies, and every room opened to an outdoor space, which was really nice.

We all arrived on Tuesday, and didn't do much except get settled in and made a trip to the grocery store to stock up for the week.

Emily and Cody had a good time exploring the house, especially since there was a huge toy cabinet with this little princess chair, along with some other cool stuff that (of course) was better than anything either of them brought with them.

Everybody got to meet sweet little Chase, who was less than two weeks old!

Wednesday morning, everyone was up early and Cody and Emily were back at it--racing through the house with their new discoveries!

Emily loves pushing and pulling things with wheels, so this little shopping cart was right up her alley.

We decided to go to the Fort Fisher Aquarium later that morning, which was a big hit, especially with Cody and Emily.

Emily had to give kisses to the crocodile,

touched a starfish,

and loved checking out the turtles with Aunt Julie.

On our way out, Cody and Emily both got excited about the frog big enough for them to sit on together.

Wednesday afternoon, a friend of Jenn's who is also a photographer came down to do some family pictures for us--I caught a few of Emily after the official shoot was over.

I just love these--she looks like she belongs at the beach :).

More to come!

Little Puppeteer

We bought this puppet at a Labor Day festival we went to because Emily liked it so much. Since then, she's had no interest in it at all, so I've kept it hanging in a closet. She saw it this morning and wanted to play with it.

She made the puppet dance and had the best time!

Horrible

We bought this owl hat and mittens for Emily (she picked them out, because she loves owls right now), and Friday was a really cold morning, so I thought we'd try them. This is what Emily thought about the hat.

She can be such a little drama queen! When she gives us her fake cry like this, I'll sometimes say "I know, it's horrible," and she'll say (between sobs) "horrible!"

The funniest thing is she got mad at me again when I took the hat off, because she had decided she liked it after all!

PJs All Day!

Gateway had pajama day on Thursday, and Emily was so proud of her "Elmo head to toe" look! She held her feet up to show everyone her slippers :).

I was surprised to see that the whole outfit made it through the day--I had taken real shoes for her, but I can only imagine the battle someone would have had in order to change them!

Snuggly

We had a laid back weekend--Emily wasn't quite herself on Saturday, so we didn't do a whole lot. She had a tough night Saturday night, and then on Sunday, she woke up not feeling well at all. She threw up twice while she was eating breakfast, and then fell asleep in my lap. When she woke up, she seemed to be feeling much better, but still wanted to snuggle (which was fine with us!).


We took it easy all day, and she acted fine the rest of the day. We decided to get out for a little while this afternoon and went to the mall. Emily is loving all the lights and decorations up for Christmas (already!!), so we wanted to stay inside but give her a chance to walk around. We ended up at Build-A-Bear Workshop, and she built her very own bear. She picked out a heart, kissed it, and put it in her bear. There's a foot pedal for blowing the stuffing in, and she stepped right up like she knew what she was doing. She named him Bear, and hugged and kissed him all the way home!

She had a great night on Sunday, and I'm going in to work a little late this morning so I can let her sleep in. Hopefully she'll be back to 100% today!

Little Things

Emily seems to do something that excites us every day--it's the little things that really make us realize how fast she's growing and learning.

This morning, we were choosing what to have for breakfast, and I had offered her all of her favorites--oatmeal, eggs with cheese, grits, toast--she said no to everything. Finally, I asked if she wanted cereal, and she jumped up and said "yeah!" I took down the Cheerios and poured some in a bowl. When I handed her the bowl, she looked at it, handed it back and said "milk!"

I poured some milk in, handed her a spoon, and she went to town!

So proud of our sweet pea, having her first bowl of cereal :).

Little Artist

I've wanted to get Emily an easel for a while now, and we found this one on a great sale today.

She loves to draw and color, but we're always on the floor doing it, and I thought she might like something where she can stand up.

One side is a magnetic white board, and the other side is a chalkboard. We took it out of the box when we got home from dinner tonight and she had a great time creating (and erasing) her masterpieces!

Secret Hiding Spot

Emily is all about hiding these days--she'll hide under the dining room table, in closets or behind the couch. When we enrolled her in the Gymboree Play & Learn class, we got a coupon for a free play parachute. They have all kinds of cool toys and play items, so it's tough not to buy something every time we're there! I finally remembered to take the coupon with us this morning, so we brought home the parachute and made a fort!

Emily was so excited--we play with a huge parachute at her classes, but this one is much smaller and more manageable for us.

She didn't want to come out, but kept peeking underneath and laughing.

She was having so much fun I even had to get in the fort to change her diaper!

A Twinkle, A Gobble and a Mee-ow

I mentioned earlier this week that Emily calls cats "meows," even though she knows the word cat, and will answer you when you ask her where a cat is, or what a cat says.

We've noticed that she does this with other things too. While pumpkin has been her favorite word in October, we've moved on to "gobble gobbles," which she knows are turkeys. She won't even try to say turkey, but she obviously knows what it is.

The same thing goes for stars--she'll exclaim "moon!" and point to the moon, but stars are "twinkle twinkles" to her. Again, she knows what a star is, but she prefers the fancier name, and always accompanies it with her twinkle fingers :).

October Art

The end of a month is always fun, because we get to bring home all of Emily's art projects to make room for more on the classroom walls!

I love them all, but tried to narrow it down to just post a few favorites again. This first one is her tissue sheep.

And her kitty cat mask, or as Em says, her "meow." Even though she knows what it's actually called, every time she sees a cat, she'll say "it's a me-ow!"

The handprints she does each month are always special...it will be neat to be able to look back and see how quickly she's growing.

And in the spirit of Halloween, a spider made out of more handprints! Spiders are all "itsy bitsy" to Em, complete with the finger movements :).

And her cute little ghosts made out of footprints.

A fall pumpkin made from a fist print.

Some fall leaves--one painted, and one with sand glued to it.

And a cute little orange and black taxi cab!

It will undoubtedly be fun to see what November brings...I think I hear a gobble gobble!

Videos!

I think I've posted 21 new videos--I've been terrible about updating these, so they cover the last two months. click the Emily in Action link on the right to view.

Halloween Parade

Monday, Gateway had a fall carnival and Halloween parade, complete with class to class trick-or-treating. Parents were invited, so Mick and I both left early to be there, and Emily was so excited to see us and share some of her favorite things with us, like this dollhouse.

She held on to her treat bag for maybe 15 seconds, and then was done with it.

There wasn't much to the parade, but it was so adorable seeing all the kids in costumes marching around the parking lot.

Emily LOVES to march!

The best part was that it ended around 4:00 PM, so we all got to go home early!

Happy Halloween!

Sunday, the mall had a "Treat-o-Ween" kids' event that we decided to go to--we weren't sure Emily would want to go door to door on Monday night, so this was sort of a test run.

Her costume was complete with a cute little black headband with bumblebee antennae, but Emily would have nothing to do with it--I at least put these little ponytails in her hair. Unfortunately, they didn't last long either.

She wasn't interested in collecting candy, but did enjoy running around the mall with her pumpkin bucket on her arm.

Gymboree is one of my favorite stores for kids' clothes--they have such cute styles, and the clothes are well made and always fit Emily well. They also have a little kids' section in the store with cartoons and fun chairs to play in, which Emily likes.

She's always a little overwhelmed in the Disney store!

It was a fun afternoon, but convinced us we didn't need to go out Monday night--Emily could not have cared less about the candy!

More Fall Fun

I don't remember if I ever posted that we did decide to enroll Emily in the Gymboree Play & Learn class for Toddlers 16-22 months old. It's every Saturday morning at 9:00 AM, and we all have a good time going. In addition to the class, enrollment also gives us access during "open gym" time, a couple of nights a week and on Sundays for a couple of hours. It's a nice way to start out our weekend together.

After class, some friends of ours invited us to go with them to Country Days Corn Maze Saturday afternoon. George was our neighbor when we lived in Charlotte the first time, and he and Amber got married right about the time we moved to Atlanta. They have a 3 1/2 year old boy, Bryce, and a 22 month old girl, Skylar. We really haven't spent enough time together since we moved back for Emily and Skylar to get to know each other well, but Emily always enjoys being around other kids.

We got there a little before they did, so we rode the wagon from the parking lot to the corn maze area where there was a playground and some games. It was really chilly, so we bundled up--Emily loved swinging on this tire-horse,

and she sat in my lap to ride the cow train!

There were 12 semi-private campfires, and Amber had reserved one for us. It's a really cool setup, because you can bring all of your own food and drinks, and you have the campfire, picnic table and benches for two hours at a time to cook and eat. We had hot dogs and s'mores (Emily's first time for both--even though she only had a tiny bite of the hot dog). She really enjoyed helping Daddy cook the hot dogs more than anything.


She just really loved spending time outside, and seems to like the cooler weather because she gets to wear jackets and coats and say "cold! cold!" when we go out.

Playing with the flashlight was loads of fun too!

19 Months Old: What's Happening

Mick and I think Emily is the smartest, sweetest and most beautiful little girl we've ever been around, but this month, it seems like more people are beginning to realize that as well :). We've started receiving compliments on Emily's manners and her personality this month. One morning this week, her teacher told me the mother of a little boy in her class was talking about how smart Emily was, and said "her mom must work with her a lot at home." There's nothing I've ever heard that made me prouder than that! What's funny is that we don't think about it as working with her, but we're constantly talking to her and she's learning new words and phrases. I'd say she easily has a 100 word vocabulary, but I think I need to be keeping track of her words a little better so I know for sure. I started making a list and quickly thought of more than 80 words off the top of my head that she uses without us prompting her. Mick has been working on the alphabet with her since she was a newborn--she says "A-B-C" and "1-2-3" but doesn't go past those yet. There aren't many things we say that she doesn't repeat, and she knows shapes, colors, and (of course) animals. She's even told us "love you" a time or two, repeating us.

Her favorite phrase right now seems to be "oh no!" and she'll say it any time she sees something broken or torn, or if anything seems out of place. It's so cute, and has taken the place of "uh oh."

Emily rarely wants to ride in the stroller when we're out and about. She would much prefer to hold hands and walk. When she gets tired, she'd rather be carried than have to be strapped in. Fortunately, she doesn't protest the stroller too much when it's been a long day and she's tired.

She moves with great confidence, no matter what she's doing--climbing, running, jumping or dancing. It's amazing how quickly she seemed to progress from crawling to cruising to walking to sprinting!

She loves animals, and I can't help but think part of that is because of Gracie and Bella--she's completely fearless, and thinks every animal wants to be cuddled like they do.

Emily is also getting better and better at crafts, and I hope that doesn't change (since I love it as much as she does)! I really like that she gets to make so many art projects at school. Here are a couple of her fall creations!

Obviously, she had some help with the jack-o-lantern jar candle, but she sure enjoyed painting pumpkins this month!

Em continues to be a good eater, but there have been some nights when she doesn't want much of anything, and we think it's because of her teeth coming through. Here's an after dinner shot one night when she wsn't shy at the table--which is quite apparent by the stains on the front of her shirt!

She's been very healthy this fall (I'm almost afraid to write this), and we're hoping that her little immune system will stay strong this winter.

Every month gets more and more fun with our little adventurer, so we're really looking forward to the rest of the fall, and finding some things to get into this winter!