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| I can't ever seem to catch a picture of her smiling! |
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| Cutest Minnie Mouse ever! |
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| She had so much fun! |
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| She is my heart! |
Friday, November 4, 2011
Happy Halloween!
For Halloween, Emma Kate dressed up as Minnie Mouse. I found a super cute costume that I just had to get for her and I figured she wouldn't be too bothered by it since it was just a dress and bloomers. I bought her a pink bow to match because I didn't think she would actually wear the headband with the ears longer than two seconds. I was wrong though! She wore the ears the entire night and looked SOOO cute! Halloween is my dad's birthday so he and my mom came and ate dinner and went trick or treating with us. The stores downtown in Cleveland all stayed open and had people outside passing out candy so there were lots of kids running around all dressed up. It was a very family friendly atmosphere and a great idea! We had more fun doing that than we would have going door to door. Delta State had a Trunk-or-Treat festival that night also and we went for a few minutes to see what it was like but it was mostly games for older kids to play. I think Drew and I had more fun than Emma Kate did overall! These types of things are getting more exciting the older she gets. We can't wait for Thanksgiving and especially Christmas. This year is going to be the best yet!
Day to Day Life
Not a day goes by that Emma Kate doesn't do something hilarious! She has such a great personality. I have been amazed at how quickly she is learning new things. She keeps us busy and we are loving every second of it! She has discovered that she is tall enough to climb into things now. And by things, I mean anything she can fit her little body into! She loves to play in our kitchen cabinets on a daily basis. She gets the colander out of the cabinet and will put a couple of her small toys inside of it but then she gets her blanket and climbs into it and sits down. It is the funniest thing! I wish I knew what goes through her head! She has a little toy shopping cart filled with food that she pushes around the house and fills with random things (which leads to a lot of "lost" items I later find when I clean up her toys). A few days ago, she pushed it across the living room and then just climbed right in it on top of all of the toy food! Drew and I laughed so hard because we could not figure out why the idea to climb into a shopping cart would have even occurred to her! I filled up her pack-n-play with toy balls (makeshift ball pit) and she has LOVED it. If you ask her if she wants to get in her ball pit she runs over to it smiling and waits on you to come put her into it.
Slowly but surely she is getting to be more social with other people. I have taken her up to Mom's store a few times over the past month and she has too much fun running around "rearranging" things. We went this past Thursday since it was Clarksdale's downtown Christmas Open House and she ran and ran until she wore herself out. There was a sweet older woman in the store shopping and when she picked Emma Kate up, Mom and I both were expecting her to start crying. Emma Kate just let the woman carry her around and look at stuff and when she put her back down on the ground, Emma Kate reached back up wanting her to hold her again. It was definitely a big improvement in her reaction to new people!
When I took her to her doctor appointment for her 15 month check up in October, she weighed 19 pounds. I was sure she would weigh over 20 pounds, but even though she eats non-stop all day she is so active that she burns it all off! Based on her birth weight, she is gaining appropriately for her age and size according to the doctor even though she looks so tiny.
Speaking of Emma Kate's eating habits, she now can reach almost everything in the refrigerator. Everytime we open the door to get anything out, she runs as fast as she can over to it. She pulls out the pickle jar and brings it to one of us wanting us to open it for her. She would eat pickles all day long if I would let her. In an effort to help her gain weight, I've tried to feed her more filling food with more calories. I learned the hard way that I have to feed her vegetables and fruit and any other healthy food last (almost as a dessert) because she would choose those over any kind of pasta or meat or even unhealthy fattening foods that most children beg to eat. At least we will never have to worry about fighting with her to get her to eat healthy! :)
She has twelve teeth and is currently not cutting any new ones so we are enjoying a much needed break from the pains of teething. With the weather getting colder we have had to cut back on spending so much time outside and I have come to the conclusion that I will just have to bundle her up really good because she hates not spending the majority of her day outside!
Slowly but surely she is getting to be more social with other people. I have taken her up to Mom's store a few times over the past month and she has too much fun running around "rearranging" things. We went this past Thursday since it was Clarksdale's downtown Christmas Open House and she ran and ran until she wore herself out. There was a sweet older woman in the store shopping and when she picked Emma Kate up, Mom and I both were expecting her to start crying. Emma Kate just let the woman carry her around and look at stuff and when she put her back down on the ground, Emma Kate reached back up wanting her to hold her again. It was definitely a big improvement in her reaction to new people!
When I took her to her doctor appointment for her 15 month check up in October, she weighed 19 pounds. I was sure she would weigh over 20 pounds, but even though she eats non-stop all day she is so active that she burns it all off! Based on her birth weight, she is gaining appropriately for her age and size according to the doctor even though she looks so tiny.
Speaking of Emma Kate's eating habits, she now can reach almost everything in the refrigerator. Everytime we open the door to get anything out, she runs as fast as she can over to it. She pulls out the pickle jar and brings it to one of us wanting us to open it for her. She would eat pickles all day long if I would let her. In an effort to help her gain weight, I've tried to feed her more filling food with more calories. I learned the hard way that I have to feed her vegetables and fruit and any other healthy food last (almost as a dessert) because she would choose those over any kind of pasta or meat or even unhealthy fattening foods that most children beg to eat. At least we will never have to worry about fighting with her to get her to eat healthy! :)
She has twelve teeth and is currently not cutting any new ones so we are enjoying a much needed break from the pains of teething. With the weather getting colder we have had to cut back on spending so much time outside and I have come to the conclusion that I will just have to bundle her up really good because she hates not spending the majority of her day outside!
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Long Overdue
I did not realize that it has been over a month since my last post! Things around our house get busier every day it seems like! I started the Special Education Master's program at Delta State in August and so far, I am loving it. It is a lot like what I learned in undergraduate speech pathology but with the focus being on all areas of life of a child with a disability rather than solely treating their speech. One of my professors is such a great teacher and is honestly the best one I have had since coming to college. Actually, she is among the top three of any teacher I've ever had. I have had a lot of adjusting to do after a summer of no school work. Last year while I was in school, Emma Kate wasn't running around so I could actually get some studying done while she was awake. Now things are completely different! The only time I can study is late at night after she goes to bed so I have started learning how important it is to not procrastinate (something I have done my entire life). Drew is working and being such a supportive and helpful husband and dad. I couldn't be going back to school if he didn't help me as much as he does!He keeps Emma Kate on Tuesday and Wednesday nights when I have class and they have fun spending alone time together.
Emma Kate has grown so much in the past month! And in more ways than just size. She is SO smart and even though she isn't saying many actual words yet, she understands the majority of what I say to her. She says "dada/daddy" but I don't think she really knows that the name only applies to Drew and not to every object she sees! When we tell her to say "mama" her response is "yaya". And it is so cute because she will grin and her eyes light up like she is saying it perfect that I don't even mind her thinking that is my name! She will figure it out soon enough I am sure! She knows what her paci and blankie are and if I ask her where they are, she will go around the house until she finds them. Just recently she has started actually helping me clean up, granted she doesn't always put things up where they are supposed to go. I never know what I am going to find when I open a drawer or cabinet and it always makes me laugh. The other day, I was putting up dishes and opened the cabinet and found her See-n-Say, a baby doll, a paci, and one of her Weebles. She has one book called My Goodnight Book that she loves! When I say she loves it, I mean that she brings it to Drew and me at LEAST 5-10 times each on a daily basis. We both have it memorized and don't even have to look at the pages to read it. For some reason it is the only book she will sit still and listen and look at.
Another funny story- A few weeks ago, Drew came home from work for lunch and Emma Kate got his phone off the table to play with. Normally, this is not a problem because she always either leaves it on the floor or brings it back to him. This particular day, she walked off with it towards the living room so we thought she was going to play with her toys. Drew was about to leave to go back to work and he realized he never got his phone back from her but in that hour, neither of us had seen her with it. We looked all over the house and the phone was on vibrate so I kept calling to see if we could hear where it was. After a few minutes we narrowed the area down to the kitchen and Drew just happened to open the garbage can and see something glowing at the very bottom of our very full garbage can. She had thrown it away when we weren't looking! We just had to laugh because it was so funny but I'm glad he didn't take the garbage out before he realized he didn't have it anymore!
The Itsy Bitsy Spider is a huge hit around here these days. EK started making the rain motions and when she realized that we would start singing when she did it, it became a regular thing. Both of us have to sing it and do the motions at the same time or she will get mad and walk over to the one not singing and put their hands together. She also has started to think it's funny when I sing I'm a Little Teapot with the motions. She could very well be laughing at my singing voice (which is HORRIBLE) though!
Outside is her favorite place to be! If someone walks out of the door and doesn't take her with them, she bursts into tears! It doesn't matter who it is or whether they are coming right back in or not, she must go with them no matter what. We spend the majority of our days outside playing in the yard and strolling now that the weather is not 100 degrees!
Until last week, we had not been out to eat with just the three of us for supper in a very long time. We didn't want to try to tackle the task of trying to keep her in a highchair and keep her entertained since she is such an active child that very rarely sits still unless she is about to go to sleep. We decided to give it a try and go eat at Lost Dog. She was perfect the whole time and loved seeing all of the other kids running around playing!
I am so thankful that she is not a picky eater. It amazes me that she prefers healthy food over junk food when given a choice. Her favorite food is broccoli and we just learned that she loves salad! She would eat a hundred grapes if her stomach would hold them all and she eats all day long! I guess she just burns off all of the calories because she still doesn't have much fat anywhere on her body.
We have finally broadened our television shows to more than just Barney and Mickey Mouse so at least we are not waking up with those songs stuck in our head everyday! Sleeping has been a bit of an issue lately. A few weeks ago, she started waking up in the middle of the night, sometimes multiple times. We were all a lot grumpier during the days because we were not getting very much sleep. It turns out that she started back teething and she just could not stay asleep because it was hurting. She now has a total of ten teeth with two more right under the surface. Three of them are back teeth and a fourth one is about to come through. She never gets just one tooth at a time; they always come in pairs at least and the three back teeth all came at the same time. Her sleeping is starting to get back to normal and so is our regular routine.
This is such a long post and it doesn't even cover all of the funny stuff she has been doing and all that she is learning but I will try to stay caught up so I can add in a few more stories that happened over the last month!
Emma Kate has grown so much in the past month! And in more ways than just size. She is SO smart and even though she isn't saying many actual words yet, she understands the majority of what I say to her. She says "dada/daddy" but I don't think she really knows that the name only applies to Drew and not to every object she sees! When we tell her to say "mama" her response is "yaya". And it is so cute because she will grin and her eyes light up like she is saying it perfect that I don't even mind her thinking that is my name! She will figure it out soon enough I am sure! She knows what her paci and blankie are and if I ask her where they are, she will go around the house until she finds them. Just recently she has started actually helping me clean up, granted she doesn't always put things up where they are supposed to go. I never know what I am going to find when I open a drawer or cabinet and it always makes me laugh. The other day, I was putting up dishes and opened the cabinet and found her See-n-Say, a baby doll, a paci, and one of her Weebles. She has one book called My Goodnight Book that she loves! When I say she loves it, I mean that she brings it to Drew and me at LEAST 5-10 times each on a daily basis. We both have it memorized and don't even have to look at the pages to read it. For some reason it is the only book she will sit still and listen and look at.
Another funny story- A few weeks ago, Drew came home from work for lunch and Emma Kate got his phone off the table to play with. Normally, this is not a problem because she always either leaves it on the floor or brings it back to him. This particular day, she walked off with it towards the living room so we thought she was going to play with her toys. Drew was about to leave to go back to work and he realized he never got his phone back from her but in that hour, neither of us had seen her with it. We looked all over the house and the phone was on vibrate so I kept calling to see if we could hear where it was. After a few minutes we narrowed the area down to the kitchen and Drew just happened to open the garbage can and see something glowing at the very bottom of our very full garbage can. She had thrown it away when we weren't looking! We just had to laugh because it was so funny but I'm glad he didn't take the garbage out before he realized he didn't have it anymore!
The Itsy Bitsy Spider is a huge hit around here these days. EK started making the rain motions and when she realized that we would start singing when she did it, it became a regular thing. Both of us have to sing it and do the motions at the same time or she will get mad and walk over to the one not singing and put their hands together. She also has started to think it's funny when I sing I'm a Little Teapot with the motions. She could very well be laughing at my singing voice (which is HORRIBLE) though!
Outside is her favorite place to be! If someone walks out of the door and doesn't take her with them, she bursts into tears! It doesn't matter who it is or whether they are coming right back in or not, she must go with them no matter what. We spend the majority of our days outside playing in the yard and strolling now that the weather is not 100 degrees!
Until last week, we had not been out to eat with just the three of us for supper in a very long time. We didn't want to try to tackle the task of trying to keep her in a highchair and keep her entertained since she is such an active child that very rarely sits still unless she is about to go to sleep. We decided to give it a try and go eat at Lost Dog. She was perfect the whole time and loved seeing all of the other kids running around playing!
I am so thankful that she is not a picky eater. It amazes me that she prefers healthy food over junk food when given a choice. Her favorite food is broccoli and we just learned that she loves salad! She would eat a hundred grapes if her stomach would hold them all and she eats all day long! I guess she just burns off all of the calories because she still doesn't have much fat anywhere on her body.
We have finally broadened our television shows to more than just Barney and Mickey Mouse so at least we are not waking up with those songs stuck in our head everyday! Sleeping has been a bit of an issue lately. A few weeks ago, she started waking up in the middle of the night, sometimes multiple times. We were all a lot grumpier during the days because we were not getting very much sleep. It turns out that she started back teething and she just could not stay asleep because it was hurting. She now has a total of ten teeth with two more right under the surface. Three of them are back teeth and a fourth one is about to come through. She never gets just one tooth at a time; they always come in pairs at least and the three back teeth all came at the same time. Her sleeping is starting to get back to normal and so is our regular routine.
This is such a long post and it doesn't even cover all of the funny stuff she has been doing and all that she is learning but I will try to stay caught up so I can add in a few more stories that happened over the last month!
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Daddy's Girl
Emma Kate loves her daddy so much! She thinks he is hilarious and always wants him to play with her. I caught these super cute videos of them a couple of nights ago that I just had to share! They are both cute but Emma Kate is laughing so hard in the second one that you can't help but smile just watching her!
Family Vacation
Since Emma Kate doesn't have the best track record for riding in the car for long periods of time, we decided a beach trip wouldn't be the best kind of trip this year! My mom, dad, brother, sister-in-law, Drew, Emma Kate, and I went to Heber Springs, AR, for a long weekend. It was the perfect distance and Emma Kate was wonderful in the car. We had such a good time. The lake is beautiful! We rented a boat and headed out to catch some sun both days. Emma Kate was a little unsure at first but ended up loving the boat ride both days and all of us had a blast! It was so great to spend some time with family and just relax. Kyle and Jamie are expecting a baby come February so next year, Emma Kate will have a baby cousin to play with! We are so blessed to have such a great family to share time and fun memories with!
Monday, July 11, 2011
Scavenger Hunt
Lately, I have noticed Emma Kate's pacifiers keep disappearing. A couple of weeks ago, we were down to just one left so I cleaned/ reorganized the house from top to bottom and still didn't find any of them. I went and bought her some more last week before we headed out of town for the weekend. While we were visiting family, I tried to pay close attention to what she did with them. I happened to look down into a bathroom garbage can to see one of her pacifiers in it! I couldn't help but laugh because I guess she has been putting them in our bathroom garbage at home and we have been throwing them away one by one without checking! Once we got back home, I made sure to keep track of where each one was throughout the day. Since Emma Kate has started walking everywhere and opening drawers and cabinets, this was not an easy task! She has had us cracking up because we have been finding her pacifiers in the funniest places! And now she has started trying to "share" them with the dogs by holding the pacifier up to their heads! I hope they do not start to think the pacifiers are new toys! Needless to say, we have had our hands full with this sweet little girl and are loving every second of it!!! She makes us laugh every day and we are so thankful to have her in our lives!
Fourth of July Weekend with Family!
To celebrate the Fourth, we went to Doodle and D's house for a few nights. Our cousins from Jackson were there visiting and we had a blast seeing them and playing games. It is so hard to remember to take pictures while I am chasing a one year old around but I managed to catch a few cute ones! On Monday we went up to Drew's aunt's house for the day but forgot the camera so we didn't get any pictures that day. I can't believe how fast time has flown by. This time last year, Emma Kate was less than a month old and was so tiny! Now she is walking around getting into everything!
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| July 3, 2011 - I can't believe she is this big! |
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| July 4, 2010 - So little and such a big bow! :) |
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| Max liked the pool more than Emma Kate did! |
Monday, June 27, 2011
Growing up too fast
Emma Kate turned one June 21. The weekend before, we had three different parties with each side of the family. Needless to say, by the time we got back to Cleveland Sunday night, she was on sugar overload from all of the cake and cupcakes from the weekend! It was a great weekend! We are so blessed to have this sweet little girl in our lives. It seems like just a few days ago that we were bringing her home from the hospital for the first time. Time really does go by way too fast.
Even though it is sad that she is no longer a baby, we have been having so much fun with her now that she is getting older. She walks around a little but still prefers crawling since she can get places so much faster. She is drinking regular whole milk instead of formula now and says "dada" all the time! She figured out how to open our kitchen cabinets and just loves dragging everything out and playing with it.She likes to play music on her xylophone and loves to play with her daddy! She has such a strong personality and a great sense of humor that just keeps getting funnier!
Even though it is sad that she is no longer a baby, we have been having so much fun with her now that she is getting older. She walks around a little but still prefers crawling since she can get places so much faster. She is drinking regular whole milk instead of formula now and says "dada" all the time! She figured out how to open our kitchen cabinets and just loves dragging everything out and playing with it.She likes to play music on her xylophone and loves to play with her daddy! She has such a strong personality and a great sense of humor that just keeps getting funnier!
Sweet Summer Time!
We are LOVING it being summer time despite the intense heat! Every chance we get we head to Clarksdale to Doodle and D's house to swim. Emma Kate is not too sure about the big swimming pool just yet but loves her little one and loves being able to lean over the side and pull grass up and put it back in the water.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Catching Up
Things have been pretty busy around our house lately! We moved into another house in Cleveland last week so we have been getting things unpacked and decorated. While we were doing this, we got a couple of cute videos of Emma Kate I wanted to share.
I'm not sure why the color is kind of messed up but in the first video she is talking to the "other baby" in the mirror and in the second one is laughing at her daddy saying "Bless you." She thinks it is hilarious when he says that!
Monday, May 9, 2011
"Every end is a new beginning."
This past weekend was a huge celebration for us! I finally (it seems like it took forever) graduated Saturday morning, my grandfather's birthday was Saturday as well, Sunday was my very first Mother's Day, and today is Drew's birthday! We have been busy, busy, busy for so long that it was wonderful to have a weekend of nothing but celebrating and relaxing! Sunday, we relaxed by the pool at Mom and Dad's house and then that afternoon I had a little mini photo shoot with Emma Kate in their backyard and got some GREAT pictures! We are so very blessed to have this beautiful little girl in our lives!
Emma Kate is so smart and is figuring new things out everyday. She loves to be held but loves to spend time crawling around getting into everything! She has a new "game" she likes to play where she will crawl out of the room into another room as fast as she can with me chasing her while she is squealing and laughing. We play this at least an hour every day..... it's amazing how I will do ANYTHING for however long she wants me to just to hear her sweet little laugh!
She surprised me on Sunday (Mother's Day) by standing up in the backyard at Mom and Dad's and taking one step all by herself! Of course I freaked out and tried to get her to walk to me while Doodle was standing by with the camera ready to video and take pictures but she dropped to her knees and crawled the rest of the way. It looks like she could be walking any day now!
We are slowly but surely getting her back into a good bedtime routine. The last few weeks have been so crazy that we had to improvise a little and the changes in her schedule threw a kink in her bedtime! She was staying up until midnight or later and sleeping late in the mornings but thankfully, the last few days we have gotten back to waking up earlier, an earlier nap, and earlier bedtime which has been wonderful.
As of right now, we still aren't sure what our future holds for us exactly. We are looking into different options and talking and praying about everything so hopefully I will have more to update everyone on within the next couple of weeks!
I want to thank everyone that has given us so much support and love throughout the past few years and all the years before that! It was so wonderful to be able to share this exciting weekend with our families!
Emma Kate turns one in less than two months and her party is now my current project since school is finally over! We are so excited but cannot believe our baby girl is growing up so fast!
Emma Kate is so smart and is figuring new things out everyday. She loves to be held but loves to spend time crawling around getting into everything! She has a new "game" she likes to play where she will crawl out of the room into another room as fast as she can with me chasing her while she is squealing and laughing. We play this at least an hour every day..... it's amazing how I will do ANYTHING for however long she wants me to just to hear her sweet little laugh!
She surprised me on Sunday (Mother's Day) by standing up in the backyard at Mom and Dad's and taking one step all by herself! Of course I freaked out and tried to get her to walk to me while Doodle was standing by with the camera ready to video and take pictures but she dropped to her knees and crawled the rest of the way. It looks like she could be walking any day now!
We are slowly but surely getting her back into a good bedtime routine. The last few weeks have been so crazy that we had to improvise a little and the changes in her schedule threw a kink in her bedtime! She was staying up until midnight or later and sleeping late in the mornings but thankfully, the last few days we have gotten back to waking up earlier, an earlier nap, and earlier bedtime which has been wonderful.
As of right now, we still aren't sure what our future holds for us exactly. We are looking into different options and talking and praying about everything so hopefully I will have more to update everyone on within the next couple of weeks!
I want to thank everyone that has given us so much support and love throughout the past few years and all the years before that! It was so wonderful to be able to share this exciting weekend with our families!
Emma Kate turns one in less than two months and her party is now my current project since school is finally over! We are so excited but cannot believe our baby girl is growing up so fast!
Monday, April 25, 2011
Emma Kate's First Easter!
For Easter, we loaded up and went to Drew's aunt's (AKA Auntie) house in Olive Branch for the day. My camera was dead but I was glad some people caught a few shots of us that I wanted to share! Emma Kate wasn't in the best mood, I think she may be cutting another tooth, but we had a good time. It was great to get to visit with everyone and get caught up on life!
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| All of the grandkids (and one great grandkid) with Granny |
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| Uncle Jeff, Uncle Alex, Mimzy, Pop, Drew, Emma Kate, and me |
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| playing peek-a-boo with Ted |
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| Emma Kate and Andi! |
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| Emma Kate and Auntie! |
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