Light Saber Battle!

Thomas is teaching Emma about Star Wars early...here they are having a light saber battle - FYI, Emma is the bad guy!lol

Dad and the kiddies

Daddy, at Bubbie's house, proudly showing off his two cuties.

Climb on up!

It took Emma no time to climb on up on this new gift... isn't it the cutest little bench. :-) We spent the weekend at Bubbie's and Emma met tons of new people. She handled it all wonderfully and enjoyed meeting everyone - as long as mommy and daddy were nearby! Thomas unfortunately came down with a fever and spent most of the weekend resting. We were dreading the 5-6 hour drive back and forth to grandma's house but Emma proved to be almost as good a traveler as her big brother. :-)

How does she do this??

This is one of Emma's favourite positions... my legs hurt just watching her! The flexibility of my youth is obviously long gone, but I'm not sure at my best I could ever do this and live to tell about it!!lol

From Springsteen to Bach!

My parents sent this Leap Frog caterpillar to Emma for her birthday. Amongst other things, it plays a variety of classical music. Emma totally bops to Bach!!lol That's my girl, she can dance to Bach just as well as to Springsteen! Dancing in the Dark is still her favourite song though... when we're in the car, she just can't cry when it comes on... I've heard that song more often in the last month than in the 20 or so years before put together!! OMG, was Born in the USA really released about 20 years ago...I feel so old!

Cake time!

Big brother helps blow out the candles and then it's time to chow down on some cake! Thankfully, I bought a Dustbuster last week!! Emma went straight from the highchair to the bathtub!lol

Birthday Girl!!

Here's the birthday girl, always on the move as usual!!

Look Ma!!

Emma has now discovered the stairs and since our house has 2 big staircases, she can get into lots of trouble!lol We have gates at the top of the stairs, but I think we may need some at the bottom...there's nothing this child won't try!lol Don't worry, I was right by her on the stairs, but she was so funny, with every step, she kept turning back and giving me such a proud look... she was so happy with herself!!lol Oh, and today, while chasing the cats, I swear she said "CAT" clear as day, so that counts as her first "real" word. :-)

Toby teaching Emma a new trick!

It looks like Toby, our cat, is quite the influence on Emma!lol

Blair Coupon

What's for dinner!!!

One of the odd things about just being handed over a 10 month old is that nothing is a progression - I sometimes feel like I've walked into a movie halfway through and I'm not exactly sure what's going on!lol For instance, with Thomas, when it came to eating, we just worked our way up from breastfeeding, to cereal, etc. With Emma, who is turning 1 this week, we can't really start at cereal since apparently our princess is too mature for such an item. She mainly likes to eat what we eat. She loves avocados and bananas but most of all, she wants to eat what we're eating. So tonight, she got to sample some spaghetti, which was Thomas' supper, and we added to the mix with the beef and broccoli stir fry with rice that Gary and I had. Oh, and she has a little piece of the ginger cookies Thomas and I just baked... sure hope her tummy is strong!lol

Weebles wobble but they don't fall down...okay, well, sometimes they do!lol Emma is lunging (or is it walking) all over the place...she's too funny. She looks somewhat zombie-like - arms spread out and heading off at full wobbly speed!lol

Thomas, can you find Emma??

Winter fun!

We got a few inches of snow last night so today we headed off on one of our favourite winter activities: sledding! We thought it was time to introduce Emma to winter fun, well, actually, to introduce her to winter overall since she's from South China where it's very hot. She's a good sport about the whole winter thing, except when it comes to winter outerwear! While she's not much of one to wear a hat, she does seem to find that they make a tasty treat! Speaking of treats, after our sledding, we headed home to make our now famous chocolate chip peanut butter banana muffins (credit goes to Caterina for that great recipe) and Emma helped out there as well - she's sitting on the counter waiting for her assignment - the girl sure can handle a spatula!lol Oh, and no, she didn't go down the hill, she's just on the sled for a photo op! Being the little daredevil she is though, she probably would have loved going full speed down a hill - maybe next year!lol

Why walk when you can run!

Emma's really starting to work hard on her walking - or Emma being Emma, I should say running!! This child doesn't do anything at a slow pace... she just throws herself from one person to another or one thing to another and seems to figure the faster she goes, the more likely she is to reach her destination!lol She can now take 5-6 steps on her own and can stand on her own indefinitely. Here are a couple of pics of her practicing her walking in the playroom earlier today.

Sleeping?

Here's a picture of sleeping beauty...now doesn't this just look like a comfy position to sleep in - how do babies do that!!!lol Emma is really flexible, a few friends already see her as a future gymnast!lol

Karate Kid!

Thomas got his green belt in karate today...we're so proud of him, he's doing so well. :-) He's thrilled because green is his favourite colour - it has been since he was about one year old! He's trying to push Emma into it too but so far, she seems to have no favourite colour!lol

Birthday and stuff

It was Gary's birthday a couple of days ago. I made the cake and Thomas decorated it. Pics of the boys blowing out the candles and of the decorations Thomas put on top - Gary particularly liked the "Best Dad" part! Thomas also made Gary a great birthday card which of course had a Bionicles theme to it! He's so into Bionicles these days. Earlier this week, he won a set of old and retired Bionicles in an eBay auction - he's so funny, as the seconds to the auction wind down, he's nervous, he's got butterflies, etc. and he's so excited when he wins. I'm turning him into a eBay addict...thankfully he's only got so much allowance to spend!!lol Emma is starting to take a couple of steps without holding on... I'm sure she'll be walking not much after her 1st birthday, if not before. Here's a pic of her in her exersaucer to prove that occasionally, she does use it, although I think the 2 cats use it more!!lol

Pictures

Here are the pics that go with the post below. For some unknown reason, Blogger won't let me post them with the write up, so here they are separately. :-)

Teething and Eating

Emma is teething badly right now...her two top teeth are just about to break through. There are times through the day when her cheeks are bright red and she drools up a storm. Emma has a variety of teethers, none of which she cares to put in her mouth. You don't realize how funny this is when you consider that this is a child that will put dirty socks, money, paper or anything she can pull out of the carpet in her mouth... but a teether, no way, that's not going near her lips!!lol She'll put anything she can pick up from anywhere in her mouth and in a house with 5 people and 2 cats, there's always SOMETHING on a floor somewhere!! I actually went out this week and got a little Dustbuster so that we can vacuum up whatever space Emma is using 100 times a day to try to prevent her eating too much cat hair or gunk she picks out of the basement carpet!!lol Here's a pic of Emma with one of the teethers that will never be used and another of her standing behind the coffee table... I never realize how little she is til you see her against something like this... she's literally just a few inches taller than our coffee table... she can walk under the kitchen table without bending!lol Oops, pics not loading, check in again later. :-)

Motoring!!

Emma's been trying out her walker now and again, taking a few steps, but tonight she really took to it, she kept going up and down the basement hallway, back and forth, again and again! She's having a little trouble with the turns, but she's not a bad driver!lol Here she is with her newly discovered toy, and another pic of her using her usual means of transportation - crawling. :-)

Life with Emma

Life is falling into some sort of pattern again. Emma seems to be adjusting to her new family well and the rest of us are adjusting to Emma well!lol Nana and Papa came to visit and Emma loved walking around with Papa from front to back windows, looking for squirrels! She's doing great, crawling everywhere and grabbing onto everything and even now starting to climb up the stairs! We think she's going to be walking pretty soon. She also is a total daredevil and shows no fear at all which is making Mommy and Daddy pretty scared!!lol Yesteday, we had a visit with 2 families from our travel group and Emma got to see Rebecca and Keira again and it was lovely to see the girls together again. A few pics - Thomas and Emma playing, Emma hiding in plain site, Emma with Nana and Papa and Emma with Rebecca and Keira and Emma and Keira with the most fascinating toy in Carolyn's house - the doorstop!!lol