Just hanging...

Thomas playing his new fave game: chess

Doesn't she just have a "don't mess with me " look!!lol

More Florida Fun!

Water baby!

Emma enjoying the waves.

Florida!

Just a quick couple of pics of the kids on the beach. Wireless access is a little spotty here, kind of like one of those telephone TV commercials with "can you hear me now"... you move a foot or two this way or that and you can connect... no connection from our room though. Anyhow, the weather is perfect, the kids are loving it and Emma is loving the water, can't keep her away from the pool or the ocean. She's eaten some sand and seems to like it!lol

Yummy!!

Usually when I make my famous banana chocolate chip muffins, I set some batter aside for Emma before adding the chocolate chips. Yesterday, I forgot so I ended up giving her a muffin with a couple of chocolate chips in it...I think this might be her first taste of chocolate - her birthday cake was chocolate, but I'm not sure any of that actually made it in her mouth!lol Not sure much of this did either, but she sure enjoyed it!

More grandparents!

Emma and Thomas reading with Anne, Gary's mother, and my father, Gerald, teaching Emma some more bad habits - like she didn't have enough already!!lol

Freedom!

We had a gorgeous weekend, weather wise, and Emma got her first taste of the real outdoors - running around all by herself all over the place! Up til now, an outing meant the stroller or the car, she'd never been able to just run around outside - it's pretty hard to do while it's -10 and you're wearing big boots you can't move in!lol Anyhow, this weekend she got to check out the neighbourhood, meet neighbours, pick rocks, throw a ball, play at the park. She loved it...it was so cool to see her excitement at this whole new outdoor discovery!lol She kept asking for "more, more, more"!! In these pics, Thomas is showing her the ropes!lol

Blowing kisses and fish face

Let's see if I can get this to work again, it's Emma blowing kisses and doing a fish face. Let's just say she's generally not overly cooperative in my new endeavour to videotape her!lol

Thomas and the Lions Den

Here's Thomas in the "Lions Den" from their school play this week - Daniel in the Lions Den. The kids were great and they all did a beautful job - they have such lovely voices!

Emma video

Okay, I'm trying to post video of Emma, thanks to Jackie and Janice for explaining how, but I can't quite seem to get it right... yeah, it's sideways, but don't know how to change that either!!lol This is Emma doing a little dance to Dontcha. :-)

Boy or Girl??

Yup, that's the question I was asked this morning at the grocery store. Is it a boy or a girl? And here's a picture of what Emma was wearing when the question was posed: a light pink jacket, a dark pink shirt, pants which are mauve with various pink and orange flowers on them, not to mention pink shoes and to top it all off, a pink daisy shaped barrette in her hair - I can understand why the woman was at a loss as to her gender!!!lol With her powers of observation though, she's really wasting her time working at a grocery store, she should be working with the FBI or CIA or something!lol

Modeling and exercising??

Today, I got some summery clothes for Emma since we'll soon be heading South for a few days... here she is modeling her new dress and cute shoes!

Okay, so even once the dress came off, she insisted on wearing her pretty shoes!lol She loves shoes - she definitely gets that from her momma!!lol

Looks like she's working on her squats... well, at least someone in this house is exercising!lol

Hurricane Emma!

We have a little reading nook in our master bedroom, with a chair and ottoman. Emma loves to take the small ottoman and tip it over and then sit on it, jump on it, use it to try to climb up on things she shouldn't be trying to climb on, etc, etc!!lol Here she is in action. BTW, I don't know why we buy her toys, one of her fave things to play with these days is a "Rolaids noisemaker"!!lolol Easy to make too for you crafty moms out there - take a container of Rolaids (Tums will work as well!lol), make sure it's about half empty and then give to baby to shake, shake, shake!lol

More pics from our visit with Jade and Sam!

Jade and Emma are playing house.

Emma and Rebecca are making a break for it!

Here are some more pics from our day with Sam and Jade yesterday. Would you believe in the 3 hours we were at Sam's house, I snapped over 80 pictures. The girls are obviously gorgeous yet from all the pics, I don't have any great photos...that really speaks to how bad a photographer I really am!!lol BTW, I have to mention that I LOVED Sam's house. Those of you who know me well know that I love architecture and love looking at houses. Sam and Bill's house is from the 1800s (mid 1800s I think Sam said) and Bill is a real craftsman who has been restoring it in his spare time. It is just so amazingly charming!! The whole neighbourhood is full of these old, gracious homes and is just fantastic! Anyhow, I digress...

A Visit with Samantha and Jade!

Carolyn and I loaded up the girls today and drove a little over an hour to Samantha's house. We hadn't seen her and Jade since our time in China so it was wonderful to get caught up with Samantha and see how much Jade has grown! We had a wonderful visit, Sam cooked us an amazing lunch (Emma is already asking for the chicken dish recipe!lol) and it went by way too fast!

Rebecca and Jade sharing some Cheerios.

You better get a move on Emma and Rebecca, Jade is beating you to the Cheerios!

Jade and Emma

Here they come...a triple threat...oops, I mean treat!lol

Growing Girl!

When we first got home in November, Emma was able to go in and out under the kitchen table without having to bend down. Now, it's taken her a good long while, but after hitting her head more times than I care to remember, she seems to finally be getting that she now needs to bend down to get in and out from under the table... don't even ask what her fascination is with being under the table... maybe she thinks it's her own little clubhouse under there!lol Oh, and notice her new sneakers...she seems quite proud of them and also just as interested in undoing the velcro as walking around in them!lol

Fish Face

Emma, can you show us your fish face? Emma's comprehension has noticeably increased in the last few weeks. She now seems to understand most of what we say to her...and of course we just ask her to do ever so important tasks like showing us her fish face!lol

Body Art!

With this Blog, we have a rule of not posting pictures that show too much, so no cute bath pics and such since you just never know who might be looking although we think this Blog is relatively private...a remaining paranoia from years ago when we wouldn't allow any pics of our kids on the Net!lol However, I thought I'd show you part of Emma after she was done with the crayons today... you get the picture - she coloured herself from top to toe, diaper included and I admit to getting into the game too... she didn't write EMMA on her legs, I did... she's precocious, but not that much!!lol Not a prissy little one our Emma!lol

She's at it again!

Apparently one evening of playing "blankie ghost" wasn't enough, she's at it again tonight... must be a lot more fun than it looks!lol

Get me some Lego!

We discovered very quickly after getting home with Emma that Emma and Lego do NOT go well together...and of course wouldn't you know that Thomas would have 1000s of the itty bittiest pieces of Lego which Emma seems to think she must try to eat. Anyhow, in an attempt to avoid Lego being a regular part of her diet, we made a large enclosure in which all Lego live and that's where Thomas plays with the Lego if Emma is in the room and if he takes it out when she's not there, puts it all back in the pen when he's done. Anyhow, in this pic, you can't really tell, but Thomas is in the pen and just before this pic, Emma was actually trying to get her feet in the holes in the gates to pull herself over the top... she didn't make it, but I'm sure she soon will... maybe if we let her eat a Lego she'll find she doesn't really like them??lolol

Where's Emma??

As you can see, Emma sure does love "blankie"... can you find her under there?? At least during this nap, she didn't take her shirt off. Taking her clothes off seems to be her new thing and most often than not, when we go in after her nap, she's topless!lol

Wonder why!

Gee Emma, I just can't imagine why you're falling and bumping into things tonight!!lol She spent half the evening walking around the kitchen and family room with her "blankie" over her head!lol

Bad Mommy!!lol

Emma somehow managed to fall backwards into the little bin of toys we keep in the kitchen... as you can see, good mommy that I am, I quickly grabbed the camera which was right there on the counter and snapped a pic before rescuing her!lol Thomas then decided to recreate the scene!lol

The many uses of Post-It Notes!

Who knew Post-Its had so many uses!!lol

Visiting with Rebecca

On Thursday, Emma and I popped in for a quick visit with Rebecca and Carolyn. The girls had fun running all over the house together. :-)

Double fisted drinkers!lol

The girls playing at Carolyn's house

Perfect Fit!

Really Mommy, it's my hat, not Thomas', see, it fits perfectly!

The world is green!

Emma grabbed a few pieces of plastic from my storage drawer and when she put the green cover in front of her face, she must have noticed that the world looked different because she spent 15 minutes walking all over the family room with the green cover in front of her face!lol

Gated community?

Perhaps we could just say that Emma resides in a gated community!! The large gate at the forefront is the one blocking access to the dining room and living room, rooms we'd rather keep Emma out of since there are too many things she could get into trouble with in those 2 rooms, not to mention very light coloured furniture and area rugs and a glass top table!lol Then there's the gate blocking access to the basement stairs since Emma still thinks she can just fling off whatever she's standing on and someone will always catch her and get her where she's going. And this weekend, we set up a gate at the entrace to the kitchen/family room area - to keep her IN!!lol When I'm working in the kitchen and she goes out of sight, odds are she's running down the hall and maneuvering her way upstairs to the top floor - she's a real going concern and you can't take your eyes off her, so now, she's gated until she learns how to go up and down the stairs like a pro or until she starts listening when we say NO, wonder which will come first!lol

Hanging out

Thomas and Emma have enjoyed hanging out with Nana and Poppa over the last week. Here are some pics of them with Emma this morning...Thomas wasn't in the mood for photos!lol Cuddling with Nana

Flying high with Poppa

Reading

Here are some pics of Thomas reading to Emma... they both love books - okay, Emma eats them as much as she looks at them, but all I said was that she loved books, nothing about reading them!lol She does love animal books and she's perfecting her animal sounds!lol