Fifteen months already?

We've been bad bloggers for the past week or so. Sadly, Tim's grandmother (Emma's Nanny) passed away last week. Tim & I went up to Niagara Falls for the funeral, and Emma stayed with Grandma & Grandpa Hill. It was a whirlwind 2 day trip, but it was nice to meet all of the relatives I'd always heard so much about and to see the landmarks that had filled the many stories Grandma Wisz (and Tim) had told me over the years. We did manage to see the Falls, and we got some pictures, but they are on Grandma & Grandpa Korey's camera. Hopefully they will email them to us or print some copies for us. (Hint hint!) The funeral service was very nice, and I think Grandma would have been happy with the way everything turned out. She will certainly be missed.


This afternoon was Emma's 15-month check up with Dr. Dewling. How time flies. She weighs 21 lbs 8 oz, and she is 30 1/4" tall. Both are just a little bit under the 50th percentile. She's still not walking, although you can tell she is so close. Lately it seems like she would rather be down on the ground holding your hand and walking along than being carried. The doctor said she appears to have developed her communication skills first -- I guess most kids either do walking or talking first and the other one follows. In her case, she has done the talking part first! Dr. Dewling couldn't believe that Emma knows her nose, mouth, ears, feet, and tummy. She said that most 15 month olds only know one body part, if that. She told me that we've got ourselves a great kid. Of course we already knew that!

More snow fun

We got another 2 inches of snow on Saturday morning, so we took Emma out to see what she would do. She said it was "pretty," but she didn't want to touch it or get near it. Watch what happened when I tried to set her down!

It was cold, and Emma didn't seem to be having all that much fun, so we came back inside after just a few minutes. We discovered after coming inside that she was quite fond of her little winter hat. She insisted on wearing it around the house for about 20 more minutes. I wish we had gotten video of the constant giggles when she first put it on!
Later in the afternoon, Grandpa H. brought Flip & Pam over to see our house and say hello. Emma had fun playing with Ms. Pam and gave her lots of good ideas about things to buy for her granddaughter Ashley!

Last night, we met up with all kinds of family and friends at Killer Creek to celebrate Grandpa's 60th birthday and his retirement from the Air Force. We had lots of yummy food and drink, and had a nice time seeing everyone, even if it was only for a few hours. Unfortunately, Emma finally hit a wall at about 9:30 and we had to go home. Considering that her bedtime is 8:00, we thought she hung in there very well!

Tonight, she walked while holding on with just one hand for the first time. She cried the whole time, but she went all the way across the kitchen without falling once. Maybe once she gets a little more confident with one hand, she'll try doing it without holding on to anything. She's been cruising for so long that I think she already has the balance. She just doesn't have the confidence to let go and give it a try. Yet.

Winter wonderland

It started snowing this evening around 5:00, and it came down pretty good for a few hours. I'd guess that we got somewhere around an inch. May not seem like a big deal to those of you up north, but down here, we only get snow about once a year, so anything that sticks is major news! Tim & I can't remember it snowing last winter, so we're thinking this may have been Emma's first time seeing snow. And if it did snow last year, she surely doesn't remember, so we'll call this her first snowfall.

This is supposed to be a picture of Emma watching the snow fall on the back deck. Unfortunately, you can't see much of her or the snow, but the batteries in the camera died before we could get anymore. So this is it!

She was really captivated by the snowflakes at first, and she thought it was hilarious when I tried to catch them on my tongue. But once there was enough collected on the deck to make a little snowball, she decided she wasn't interested after all. She'll care alot more when she's older and snow means a chance that school might be cancelled!

Tickling the ivories

We finally got the piano delivered from Grandma & Grandpa H's last week. It looks fantastic in the living room (or, as we like to call it, "the piano room"). Emma loves playing on it. So does her Mommy! Here is Emma, multitasking:
In other news, we are working on the bottle-to-sippy cup transition. I thought we'd have a hard time getting her to forget about the bottle. It hasn't been too bad so far, but she's not exactly scarfing down the milk when it's in the sippy cup. As with all things, I'm sure it will come in time.

We're celebrating Grandpa H's 60th birthday with a big family dinner this weekend. Looking forward to seeing lots of you there!

Cute as a cupcake

Aunt Laura bought Emma this outfit for Christmas, and she had fun modeling it today! (Notice the sprinkles on the cuffs of the jeans...so cute!)
Checking it out for herself:Emma wants to make sure you see the little cupcakes dangling from the belt loops.

Sous chef

Emma has found some drawers in the kitchen that she can open. Luckily, they are the drawers where we put the plastic food storage containers, and all of the plastic measuring spoons/cups/etc. I've allowed her to have free reign with those two drawers, so that she can "help out" while I am cooking in the kitchen. She has a great time loading and unloading all of the items, and she gets to be near Mommy, which seems to be a big issue for her lately.

Look at this goofball! Those of you that have heard her trademark "OOOOOOOOH!" can probably imagine her saying it here: (which is exactly what she was doing!)Last week was action-packed. Grandma H and Aunt Laura came over on Monday to babysit. We already posted about our New Years Eve festivities. On Wednesday, Grandma K came for a few days to help Tim while I went out of town for work. Emma & Grandma reportedly had a great time playing together while Daddy was at work. Then, on Saturday, our friends Dan & Micaela stopped by for a visit, with Emma's little buddy Jackson. They are building a house right down the street in our neighborhood, so they came by to look at what we chose for the options. Today hasn't been quite as hectic, but we did have an amusing encounter. The little girl who lives next door came over to sell us some Girl Scout cookies. (Don't worry, Caroline...your order comes first!) The little girl's name? Emma! Her mom & I agreed that it's a great name for a sweet little girl. Now it's Sunday night, Emma is in bed, and Tim & I are wondering how Sunday night got here so fast, when Friday seemed like it would never come.

Another discovery for the books -- I feel so stupid! I've been checking periodically to see if Emma's 8th tooth has come in, to no avail. Tonight, I checked, and while there is still no tooth next to the left front one, I felt farther back to find a molar on either side that look like they have been in for at least a week or two! How did I miss those before? It sure helps explain why she's been a little crankier than usual lately. That brings the official count to 9.

Ringing in the New Year

Okay, so none of us actually made it to midnight (although Mommy & Daddy tried!). Still, we spent yesterday evening celebrating the last night of 2007. Audrey, Niki, and Andy came over for awhile, and the girls had a great time playing together. Audrey had lots of fun playing peekaboo with her daddy.
Emma has been very insistent lately that she have her little guitar toy, so that she can serenade us during dinner. Maybe she will be into music. It will be interesting to see what happens when we get Grandma & Grandpa's piano in a few weeks!
We are off soon to meet Uncle Mike, Aunt Heather, and Alex for a New Years Day lunch. Happy 2008 to all!