Meeting Cousin Elizabeth!

Hi all,

This was an exciting week. Emily met her cousin Elizabeth, Aunt Tracey (Kevin's sister), and Uncle Mark for the first time. Elizabeth and Emily are only a few months apart in age, and just about the same size! It was great fun to see them meet each other. Elizabeth is fair skinned with strawberry blonde hair. She's so sweet and friendly. Then there's dark-haired, quiet and serious Emily. The contrast is amazing.

Everyone enjoyed the pool, especially considering the heat! Papa and Nona visited, too, and got to see the girls meet each other. Here's Uncle Kevvie, enjoying his Elizabeth! Then there's Mommy Tracey, Elizabeth, and Daddy Mark relaxing in the pool.



Kevin thouht it would be funny to show the girls his neat bubble maker--it makes bubbles with corn syrup in them, so they last for a while and stick to everything in sight. Poor Elizabeth, she never knew what hit her! Check out the bubble on top of her head. Hours later we were still removing bubbles from the tv, couch, bookshelves, dog, etc.

Then we dressed the girls up in their Halloween costumes--too cute! They both started to kick their feet in unison! Thanks to Grammi Frani for the adorable pumpkin costume.

Unfortunately, Elizbeth had to leave the next day, and we couldn't go with them to Papa and Nona's because Hurricane Wilma was barrelling down on us. By the time it hit us, it was a Category 1 hurricane, which took about 12 unsettling hours to pass through. We lost a large Fig tree, a flagpole, and had water enter our sunroom. Other than that and a tornado hitting a mere mile south of us, we were safe, as were family and friends. Mia (the dog) hid in the closet through much of the storm, while Emily seemed unconcerned. Here she relaxes on Daddy while he checks in with concerned family members.



Emily's milestones this week:

1) She's sticking everything in her mouth, including an Oak leaf, which caused Mommy to call poison control because oak leaves are toxic to babies! Luckily, she, er, brought it back up, so it didn't cause any lasting damage.

2) On the bright side, she's feeding herself crackers and fruit puffs (a type of Cheerio) daily, and slowly trying pieces of food and a sippy cup (ever so slooowwwlly).

3) She's getting more independent, and is now showing her frustration when she wants to walk but doesn't quite have the confidence yet to do it by herself. Unfortunately, one of the frustrating days was in Walmart, so Mommy had to move pretty quickly through the store!

4) Although she understands "No", sometimes she pretends she doesn't hear, especially when she's pulling on curtains or playing in the dog's water dish.

5) She's regularly signing "more" and "bottle", so she lets us know when she's hungry.

6) She's mimicking regularly--she makes faces when she sees children doing the same in books. She makes more hand movements to The Wiggles songs, so that's all we ever sing in this house! If Kevin and I have to belt out "Five Little Ducks" one more time...! And Cousin Elizabeth likes to shake her tiny tush when she dances, and after she left, Emily began doing the same!

That's all for this week. Watch for Halloween photos! Emily attends her first Halloween party this week!

Take care,

Caroline