Graduation, Grandparents and Great Friends!

This past weekend was filled with lots of excitement and lots of exhaustion.  On Friday, Emma, Mommy and both sets of grandparents watched as Daddy graduated with his Masters degree.  Having gone to smaller colleges for her degrees, Mommy didn't realize how lengthy the graduations were for even a Masters group from the U.  Mommy also accidentally brought in a balloon and was told by security that she would need to remove the balloon from the arena.

 Congratulations Daddy!  Way to go!

The following morning, Mommy and Grandma Kathy went to the yearly ECFE garage sale to get toys and clothes for Emma.  We found so many neat things for Emma to play with this next year.  We definitely did all of our Christmas shopping and birthday shopping now.  Emma was really happy to receive a swing, rocking cow and a Baby Einstein jumper.

Ha-ha grandpa, I am going to let it go again.

It is so much fun watching you try to get it off the ceiling

During the day, Mommy and Daddy were able to get a lot of cleaning and yard work done thanks to Grandpa Bruce and Grandma Jan.  Emma played lots, went on a walk and showed Grandma her bath time ritual (hopefully not showing how she does her back dives).

On Sunday morning, Grandma and Grandpa headed back to Wisconsin, but the fun was not yet over.  Emma and Mommy went to visit friends at Como Park while Daddy got some final course projects done.  The afternoon was a great one to be outside.  We met up with Colleen and Mike and their three daughters Charolette, Audrey and Clare as well as our friends Patience and Mike and their two children, Violet and Oscar.  Patience and Mike are visiting this week from Alaska.  We were quite the group when we visited Keys Cafe.  Food and coloring toys were shared by all as the adults tried desperately to converse.  Emma loved her fruit plate and managed to get almost all of the fruit flavors onto Mommy's clothes.

After lunch, we visited Central Park and played on the playground.  After about three hours, Emma was exhausted and ready for a nap.  We made our weekend Costco run and headed to church.  By the time we got home, everyone was exhausted.  Hopefully, this week will go by fast because I think Mommy and Daddy are definitely ready to get more sleep.

All Things New

Emma has had a lot of firsts these past two weeks.

• Two new teeth
• Started clapping her hands
• Used the big potty effectively lots of times
• Use of the sippy cup instead of a bottles 
• First time wearing shoes without trying to pull them off our feet

The only forced activity is the use of the sippy cup.  Emma hates using the sippy cup instead of her bottle.  If we even come in sight of a bottle, we start screaming.  It must be extremely hard for the daycare ladies when kids in their group always have bottles out.  We were thinking that we could gradually let go of the bottle, but Emma is just going to get confused if she gets it sometimes and other times she does not.  Hopefully we will adjust to life without the bottle soon.

Love Sick

Emma had her first kiss from a boy yesterday while we visited the library.  At the Maplewood Public Library, they have many new toys that kids can use to pretend.  Emma was standing near the fake oak tree watching other kids play with stuffed animals.  There was a boy about 18 months old who was following Mommy and Emma around quite a bit.  Emma was soaking up all the interactions when the boy stood really close to her.  She smiled.  Mommy thought that he just wanted to smile back or maybe give her a hug.  Nope.  He slowly moved in and kissed her on the lips.  At that point Mommy's mouth dropped.  The first thing she ended up saying was, "No." Then out came a, "Thank you, but no."  Emma didn't seem to be as shocked by this affection as Mommy was.  Hopefully she is not kissing all the boys at daycare too.  If she is, we are going to have a bunch of sick little boys.  Emma once again has a virus.  Before the library we had just finished visiting the doctor.

When we were at the doctor's office, Emma was pretty cute.  She waited patiently for the doctor to talk with her.  When the doctor asked if she could use the light to look in her ear, she responded with an, "Ok."  We also loved watching the fish in doctor's office waiting area.

Full Speed Ahead

Well, it is official.  Emma wants Mommy and Daddy to purchase an iPhone.  She cleverly told her daycare staff that they needed to be using this new app to enter all of her daily routine data.  Now Mommy and Daddy have to look up all the information and it is much easier to just use a phone or iPad rather than our at home computer.  Mommy didn't think Emma would be demanding such technology until she was at least elementary school age.  She also didn't think she would be attending conferences at 10 months of age. 

This year has definitely opened Mommy's eyes to how quickly everything is changing as well as the push that is out there to succeed.  We can now chart and graph just about any data we want related to Emma.  Even her doctor's visits can all be charted right on our phone.  No need for the doctor to analyze the data, we can just do it ourselves and then tell him what we think is going on.  Mommy just wishes things would slow down a bit.

Daily Connect

Good Morning Sunshine!

Usually Emma doesn't enjoy mornings (just like Daddy).  However, lately we have enjoyed the "Sunny-side" of Emma when she wakes up.  We are also very into sharing.  Emma is willing to share just about anything she has...bottles, blocks, even pacifiers.

Daddy, do you want some formula?

 I wish to welcome you to Munchkin Land!

Today Mommy and Emma went to the Maplewood Library to find some new books.  We saw one of Mommy's students, Katy while we were there.  Katy made Emma laugh when she put a parrot puppet on her hand and squawked hello to us.  We also played house and pretended to plant a garden of vegetables.  In addition to the library, we went to Menards to look for a gutter than we can use of water fun this summer.  During our adventure, we located a little rocking chair that was just Emma's size.  When we got home, we constructed the chair.  Emma helped Mommy figure out if we had all of the parts before we started to build.  She was also very patient and observed Mommy while she tightened screws.  After the chair was finished, Emma wanted to push it all over the living room.

What's Under the Bed?

Rather, who is under the bed?  Recently Emma has decided that a fun activity is to pull herself under her crib.  She starts by holding onto the side of the crib.  Then she slowly lowers herself under until the only thing sticking out is her head and arms.  After she gets this far, she attempts to pull herself back out without much luck.  The next best option is to flip over and crawl out.  However, during the crawling out process, she often gets stuck and cries for Mommy or Daddy's assistance.

Hee-hee, look at me.  See you later Mommy.

Okay, I flip myself over and just scoot out...

Mommy, mommy help!  I am stuck!