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!

Hippity, Hoppity Easter is on the Way

Emma's infant group was visited by the Easter Bunny this week.  Most of the infants did not like being held by the bunny, but Emma seemed to have no trouble being held by the big, furry creature.  We have had experiences with bunnies at the pet store and we play with lots of stuffed bunnies when we go over to grandma's house, so maybe that helped us to prepare for his visit.

 Happy Easter!

Right Foot, Left Foot

Emma is officially walking on her own with the help of her pushing devices.  In addition to walking, we have lots of talking, screeching and slobbery kisses.  Yesterday when Mommy was organizing pots in the kitchen, Emma was playing with a plastic Easter egg.  All of a sudden she shouted out, "EGG!"  Mommy pulled her head out of the cupboard to listen for the word again.  However, Emma remained really quiet and just stared at Mommy.  Mommy thought she might say it again, but no such luck.  Mommy decided to make up a rule that Emma's first word had to be said more than once so we would know it wasn't just an accident.  Besides, who wants their first word to be egg?

 I can do it all by myself!

This past Saturday, Emma attended her first ECFE class at the nature center.  She was the youngest child present.  Most of the children attending were two years old, so they were very advanced in comparison to Emma.  We went on an animals that lay eggs hunt, saw a puppet show about a duck that was looking for his mom, colored some bunny ears (which Emma decided to destroy about five minutes after creation), went fishing with a velcro fishing rod and loads of fabric fish and we even went outside on the nature trail hunting for squirrels.  Emma's favorite activity was the welcome song where everyone cheered for each student in the class.  Emma was still flapping her arms and raising them up to shout "hooray" long after the song was done.  Besides watching people, music is definitely one of Emma's favorite things! 

Door Stops and Doggies

Lately Emma is great at finding exactly what Mommy and Daddy don't want her to touch.  Even when Mommy or Daddy move her away from dangerous situations, Emma wants to return.  She is quite the dare devil.  Yesterday Emma discovered that she could hang onto the gate that blocks the stairs and shake it with every once of force in her body.  She also finds all the little bits of Alli fur that have fluttered to the corners of our house when we are too busy to clean.

 Daddy teaches Emma how to sneeze out a dino ball

Emma learns the importance of door stops

In terms of crawling we can go far distances at lightning speed.  You can almost see the ATP reactions taking place in Emma's body.  Emma sits still for a second or two before you hear this great shreaking noise and then see her fly across the kitchen floor.  She can make it the entire length of a room in a matter of seconds.  Perhaps she has been studying some insects and has learned how they move their legs so fast.  Wherever she learned this quick moving skill, it definitely keeps Mommy and Daddy on their toes.

Emma loves to bop to any kind of music