More Thursday fun!

Emma had so much fun at the wading pool this morning that when her nap turned out to be a rather short one, I took her out to another wading pool to give it a go. Here she is outside in her bathing suit with her "blankie"... she did understand that blankie did not want to go for a swim and had to stay in the car!lol Hey, look at the cool hat she found at the pool! I swear she spent an hour sitting in the wading pool, tranferring water from a little cup to this big bucket! So, it would seem that what I need to keep Emma in one spot for more than a minute is a wading pool... wonder if Gary will go for it when I tell him our back yard needs to be turned into a wading pool!lol

Water baby!

I took Emma to play at the park this morning. I'd forgotten that the wading pools in city parks had all opened this past weekend but as soon as we got to the park and Emma saw water, that was it, she wasn't going to play on any swing or slide if she could be in the water. There were only one or two kids around, so the lifeguard was kind enough to let her in just with her t-shirt and regular diaper. The water was freezing but that didn't faze Emma one little bit...she was in there in a flash and I had to pull her out about half an hour later when her diaper, now probably heavier than her, was threatening to fall off!lol Thankfully we had a blanket to use as a towel and her diaper bag always has a change of clothing in it. From now on, I'll have to be sure to enclose swim diapers, swimsuit and towel so that we're ready any time we unexpectedly find a body of water!lol

Biking!

Here's Thomas biking around the neighbourhood...think he'll be needing a new bike soon - he's growing so quickly!!

Emma in the process of being strapped, velcroed and zipped into her new wheels!

Emma trying on her new helmet...she wasn't overly fond of it but once she got on the bike, she was great! She loved being on the bike and cried when we told her we were done. I look forward to exploring many of the local bike trails with her and Thomas. Where's Gary you ask...well, Gary and bikes just don't get along!lol

Wild hair!

Wild "after nap" hair!lol

The girls!

We had a lovely time yesterday at Carolyn's with Rebecca and Kate and their moms. Sorry this is the best pic I've got - add me being a lousy photographer and the girls not particularly wanting yet another photo taken and this is what you get...oh well, they're still cute as can be! Left to right is Emma, Rebecca and Kate.

Here comes trouble with a capital T...or should I say E!!lol

Here are the kids playing in the wading pool... can you tell who the instigator is??lol

A little hard to tell what kind of trouble Miss Emma has gotten herself into here but this is a patio chair in our back yard. Emma did a belly crawl under the chair as she seemed to feel the need to explore, but then she turned around and tried to sit up and didn't really fit and couldn't seem to get out from under there... I'll have to remember that chair when I need her to stay put somewhere for more than 2 seconds!lolol

A visit to the farm!

We stopped to visit a little farm. Here's Thomas climbing the fence to get a better look at the horses.

Here are Emma and Heli trying to get the best possible view of the ducks!
Here's Emma trying to climb up for a better look at the horses!

After 0ur visit to the farm, we stopped off for lunch...here's what happens when Emma, aka Tomato Sauce Face, holds her own slice of pizza!lol

Summer flowers!

We went out to the country today...they sure make flowers tall around there!!lol Here's Thomas standing in front of some pretty blooms, and then Emma and her friend Heli.

Being my silly self!

Here's Emma' new look when I ask her for a smile for the camera - teeth Emma, I want to see teeth, not your tongue! And then we have Emma hanging off the bar at the park...she's such a monkey!

Fun at the zoo!

Last week, we were lucky enough to have Gary's cousin, Anita - okay, in reality Gary's father's cousin - stay with us for a couple of days. I asked Anita what she'd like to see and she said "the zoo" so off we went with Emma, Thomas and Thomas' friend Gabriel. We spent a few lovely hours at the zoo and saw some wonderful animals. Anita, come back anytime!

More photog pics

Here are a few pics added to the voting after Gary and I looked at the pictures again. It's so hard to narrow it down to just a few pictures! BTW, someone was asking why she seems to be holding her hands in so many pics...well, at first she was freaking out and we distracted her by singing "if you're happy and you know it clap your hands" so she did a variety of clapping and clasping and stomping her way through the song!lol A lot of the pics we can't use because her limbs are blurred in movement!lol

Thomas and Emma

Today, I took the kids to the photographer's to try to get some good pics of them, both together and alone. I really thought it would be a disaster since Miss Emma was in quite the mood and for our first few shots, she held true to her grumpy form and screamed and cried, but then we managed to distract her and she did great! I think it helped that we did the shoot outside - lots of distractions and not quite as aware of what was going on as she would be in a studio. About 30 minutes and 300 pictures later, here's what I've narrowed it down to and I'd love to hear if ya'll have any faves because I could use some help narrowing it down to one pic each of Thomas, Emma and the 2 of them together. :-)

Thomas

Here are the Thomas pics - any favourite stand out?

Emma

Here's what I've narrowed it down to for Emma pics... any faves?? Thomas said I should have chosen a different dress since this one acted as camouflage and we almost lost her in the greenery!lol

No more pictures!!!

You can't really tell what she's doing here so let me explain. I guess Emma has decided that I've taken enough pictures. Now when I ask her to look at the camera and smile, she thinks it's really actually much better to twirl around a million miles an hour and see if mommy can really get a picture that's not totally blurry...look at her hair, it's not quite catching up with the rest of her...needless to say, most of our pics these days are candids or big posed blurs!!lol

Our little peanut!

Did you really want me to change into my bathing suit before jumping into the pool...oops...I'll try to remember next time!!

When we traveled to China in Oct/Nov 05 to get Emma, we spent the first week in her native province, Guangdong, which is in southern China and is a very hot part of the country, even in the fall. Well, at the end of last summer, I hit the sales and got Emma a few summer things for our time in Guangzhou... well, as you can see, she's just wearing them now and they fit perfectly...needless to say, they weren't too useful 7 months ago in China!!lol She's growing really well, but she's still a little peanut!lol

Saturday

Just another Saturday...Emma is splashing around in our wading pool and Thomas finally lost his other front tooth!

Future Model?lol

Here's Emma modelling her new dress!lol

Fun at the park!

Look Mama, can I go get it... why Emma, what do you want - umm... a squirrel?? Who needs toys and play equipment when you can just chase a squirrel all around the park!!lol

Just for Mark - not a baby anywhere in this post!!

Mark is one of the dads from our China travel group. Poor Mark, all these blogs ever contain are baby pictures... he's tried to post car stuff, but we girls don't get very excited about that! So Mark, this one's for you - after 8 long years, we are no longer a minivan family - we got rid of the minivan this week and replaced it with this - okay, a Honda Pilot isn't exactly exciting, but at least it's not a minivan!! Hopefully we're working our way, ever so slowly, to that cool convertible sports car - a SUV with a sunroof is a start, right!lol

Hanging some more!

Well, Rebecca might be little, but she sure is mighty!!lol Actually, they were just getting into a really cute cuddling pose, but that of course I didn't get a picture of!!

Well, that whole resting together didn't work, let's take separate breaks!lol

Just hanging out!

Carolyn and Rebecca popped by for a quick visit today. Here are the girls taking a little break and then, back up and looking for trouble!lol