Happy Belated Fourth!

Hi everyone! Hope you had a great 4th of July. We sure did. With Emily dressed in red and white, and hiding beneath a huge oak tree from the blazing sun overhead, we watched our neighborhood parade. A fire engine led dozens of parents and kids with patriotically decorated bicycles and strollers down 2 brief blocks and over to the beach. A barbeque followed, and Emily and Daddy beat the heat by plunging into the ocean completely clothed.

Later that evening, we took Emily back to the beach for a huge fireworks display and a live band. She clapped her hands and shouted "WOW! WOW!", then entertained everyone by dancing. This is definitely a different child from the one we brought home!

Life with a Toddler

Life is its usual hectic pace, as seen here by the spilled bag of pretzels on the floor. Story time keeps us busy--we made edible necklaces out of licorice strings and Cheerios, and the Cheerios barely made it to the necklaces, the kids were eating them so fast. Music class is still lots of fun, and next we might try out a toddler gymnastics class (see Milestone #7, below).

Girl time in Emily's pool of balls. We had a brief but great visit with Aunt Tracey (Kevin's sister), Uncle Mark, and cousins Kasey, Kellie and Elizabeth. Elizabeth and Emily are the same size, although 3 months apart. The Schraners headed to a much needed vacation at Disney after spending the weekend.

More girl time in the pool of balls!

Playing dress-up with Mommy's jewelry.

Play Doh rose from Daddy...ummmmm...Play Doh is my life right now.

Thanks Aunt Fran, for the cute sailor suit!

Emily's Milestones

Photo Note: Mommy missed the shot of me bent over backward, almost in half, hanging from the fridge doors, shouting "eyesh!!, eyesh!!" at the top of my lungs (for more ice cubes).

- More words: "towel", "hide" (as in hide and seek), "tea", "bear" (as in teddy), "bapes" (grapes) and "Mao". No, it's not Chairman Mao's name she's uttering--whenever she sees a photo of a cat, wherever she is, she shouts "MMMMAAAOOOO!!!" at the top of her lungs. That includes in the middle of the public library, and we're not talking the kids' section! And the sound is hard to describe--it almost sounds like Nigel the cat's shriek whenever Emily pulls his broken tail! Another fun word is "Nnnaoooo" (also sounds like Mao, with an N). This is uttered approximately a half dozen times a day.

- Speaking of Nigel, the poor kitty...Emily's in love with him, and follows him around the house, yelling "MMMMAAAOOOO!!!" Unfortunately, we're back to Day 1 instructions on how to NOT hurt the kitty. Rule #1, don't pull the kitty's tail--he came to us with it already permanently broken in 2 places. Rule #2, When you say "pet, pet", we don't smack the kitty as hard as we can. Rule #3, we don't try and ride the kitty like a horsey. Rule #4, why are you constantly pushing him down to the floor and holding him there? Because you can? It is cute when Emily and Nigel try and kiss each other, though.

- Ahhh, the word "Nnnaoooo" (No). Now I understand why my girlfriend Estelle warned me about using the word "No" in front of Emily. The little munchkin lets us know whenever she doesn't want something. I got a resounding "Nnnaoooo" the other day while trying to feed her a piece of toast when she wanted her 20th "bape!" (grape--she says "bape" forcefully, with her chest rising suddenly, like a hiccough). Grapes...manna from heaven, and a mommy's best friend, especially while grocery shopping.

- We can draw circles with crayons! This is a big change from dragging the crayon across the page lightly and barely making a mark.

- We now hate shopping carts and cling to Mommy instead. Gone are the days of a leisurely trips to the grocery store or Walmart with snacks to keep us busy. Suggestions are greatly appreciated.

- We can put our shoes on by ourself, and certain articles of clothing (mostly Mommy's, and badly).

- She's into everything! She loves to climb onto chairs and lean across the table to grab things. At the grocery store, she stood up in the shopping cart with the safety belt attached to her, flipped over backwards, and hung upside down in the cart, suspended by the safety belt, laughing...there goes 10 years off Mommy's life. She slid on her belly over Daddy as he lay on his stomach in the kitchen to fix the dishwasher. She landed on both hands, then did a perfect flip through the air and onto her back, landing on the tile floor without a scratch...there goes another 10 years...

But isn't she just beautiful? (Dressed in Mommy's clothes and being tickled...what more is there to life??)

Take care, everyone,

Caroline