I'm Walking

Over the past week, Emma has learned how to walk on her own.  Currently, she can make it across the living room before she tips forward onto her hands.  One of Mommy's favorite moments from the week was watching Emma take out Daddy's socks from the clean drawer and put them in the dirty clothes bin (at least she knows where they should go once they are used).  Mommy thought that she would only have enough energy to do one or two socks, but Emma had a master plan to empty the entire drawer.  As soon as Mommy was onto the scheme, Emma was quickly whisked away to an alternative activity.  Mommy has no need to do even more laundry than she already does.

Another favorite moment was watching Emma dig for her tennis shoes in her cubby and then bring them over to Mommy because she wanted to go outside.  Emma loves being outdoors.  Throwing and chasing after her colored balls is one of her favorite outdoor activities (thank you Grandma and Grandpa Maas).

One final memorable event from the week occurred at the supermarket.  While Emma and Mommy were in the checkout line, Emma was holding Mommy's coupon book.  She accidentally dropped the book onto the floor and let out a big "Uhhh, Ohhh."

The Children's Museum

Emma, Mom, and Dad spent the morning at the Children's Museum in downtown St. Paul. Emma spent most of her time with the big kids in the blue foam room and the water room, along with a side adventure into a factory. Finally we went all the way upstairs to the small kids area, where Emma thrashed about in a wetland until we had to leave so we didn't get a parking ticket.

Takin' a break in the cattails

My first bike ride

It wad really chilly outside, but Emma loved all of the sights and sounds. She snoozed most of the way.

Emma still loves Alli

What could be more fun than teasing Alli with Blue?

Another Weekend of Fun

We had another fun-filled, exhausting weekend.  Mommy and Emma went to the school carnival on Friday evening.  Emma had a blast meeting all of Mommy's former students as well as lots of babies who also were attending the fair.  She loved watching kids pull turtles from the "Turtle Pond."  With her cute smile and arms stretched out she was definitely one of the hit attractions at the carnival.

On Saturday, Mommy and Emma met up with Carolyn, Yeng and Sofie.  Emma made her first visit to the History Center.  Once again, we received the attention of just about anyone that passed by.  Emma's favorite exhibit had to do with farming in the Midwest.  She loved looking at all the fake little chicks and asked to go back to their window many times.  She also loved listening to the live music played as part of a Civil War reenactment scene.  Although Emma found it hard to keep still, we learned about how women helped in the war effort and even had a lesson in how they took photographs long ago.

Emma's latest facial expression is one that Mommy remembers doing when she was little.  It looks like "O mouth" is back for another generation.

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.