A Day at the Fair
We enjoyed a beautiful summer morning at the fair where Emily took a pony ride, drove a car and saw lots of farm animals. It looks like she wasn't having fun on the rides but really, she was. She must have forgotten to smile! Our fair pictures begin here.
Posted 06/07/08
An Outdoors Girl with a Shoe Obsession
Emily is 18 months old and a already a areal outdoors girl. At daycare she has her girl friends to play with (Nicole, Ella, Abby and Caitlyn) but at home she always wants to go outside. She still loves to visit the ducks and geese and she also likes playing with her sandbox and sidewalk chalk. But her favorite outdoor activity is to take walks and explore. She collects flowers, rocks, leaves, sticks, bits of grass, pinecones... whatever she finds. She even likes imaginary flowers! Just the other day she picked up invisible flowers from the ground and deposited these little nothings into my hands. Then she pointed to my empty hands, looked at me and said "Flower, flower!" Just so there was no confusion - these are flowers, Mom! Then she went back to the same 
spot several more times to collect more "flowers" for me. So sweet.
When she does happen to be inside, she loves anything to do with shoes. She tries to put on and take off her own but she after a few attempts she caves in and requests help from us. Recently she figured out that she it's much easier to put Mommy's bigger shoes on her feet, even over her pajamas, so she often puts them on and practices walking all over the place in them. It looks both adorable and ridiculous!
Posted 06/07/08
Happy Camper
For Memorial Day weekend we camped on the coast, north of San Francisco. The weather was cooler than we would have liked but we were prepared with plenty of layers and blankets. Our group consisted of 8 adults, 2 teens, 3 dogs and 1 toddler. Emily had a great time playing in the sand and hanging out with the dogs while the grown-ups enjoyed kayaking, walks on the beach and keeping warm by the campfire.
Posted 06/07/08
New Sandbox
Posted 5/12/08
May Update
Emily's vocabulary is increasing rapidly this month with a couple new words each day. She can even string together 2 or 3 so it's becoming much easier to understand her. I find it interesting to follow how her pronounciation improves with certain words, too. For weeks she said 'Faaf' and 'App' for flower and apple and now she's able to say both correctly.
Lately, Emily has become obsessed with the ducks and geese at our apartment complex - and especially with the ducklings and goslings ("babies") She asks (demands?) to visit them every night after dinner. First, she'll find her jacket and bring it to me so I can put it on her. Then she'll give me my shoes and wait for me
to put them on. Then takes my hand and pulls me toward the door,
saying "Duckie, Duckie!! Baby! BABY!!" Yes, 
she's demanding but the walk is good for me and it's a nice way to spend time together so I don't mind. It's amazing that she never gets tired of this routine. She seems to only need a short visit and then back at home she goes to bed happy after having checked on her duckies.
Posted 5/11/08
April Vacation
In April Emily and I had a 2 week, 2 part vacation. First we went to North Carolina and Virginia. At my parents' place we saw more progress on their property including the addition of a new boat, boat dock and landscaping. Athough the weather wasn't great, we took the boat out twice which was fun. In Virginia Emily had a great time playing with her big cousin Zack and meeting her little cousin, Ryan. Emily and Zack played well together and he enjoyed teaching her things like how to race his matchbox race cars on the track.
The second week of our vacation was a Western Caribbean cruise. My parents, Emily and I drove from NC to Miami and picked up Richard at his West Palm Beach motel on the way. On the cruise we were joined by my Aunt Ellen, Uncle Steve and their friends Teri and Andy. We had a great time together and did group activities as well as stuff on our own.
On board we enjoyed dinner in the formal dining room each night and watching the shows afterwards. All the ports were new for us and we enjoyed each one. On Grand Cayman Island and Roatan, Honduras, we did island tours, on Belize we visited the small but interesting Belize Zoo and on Cozumel, Mexico we spent the day on the beach - Emily's loved playing in the sand - while Richard went diving.
Here are the rest of the photos.
Posted 5/11/08
Happy Easter
Emily was too busy to sit still for an Easter photo today so we have a few shots of her on the go instead. In this photo she's holding on to a "Peep" chick that blows bubbles when squeezed. She enjoyed the bubbles! In her other hand she's holding a bit of dirt that she presented to me. Gee, thanks for that.
Posted 3/23/08
More Words...
Keys...Wow...Uh-oh!...Shirt...Cheese...Stick...Bubbles...Boat...Apple
Posted 3/20/08
Easter Egg Hunt - 2008
Over the weekend, we attended Emily's first Easter Egg Hunt at a park in San Ramon. She collected about 8 eggs with the help of mom and dad. The event was organized by the Tri Valley Active Moms which we recently joined. It's been fun getting to know the other families in the group and we look forward to meeting up with them again soon.
Posted 3/17/08
Countdown to the Cruise
Emily modeled some of her cruisewear for us over the weekend including this great big sun hat - perfect for a Caribbean cruise! We set sail next month...
Posted 3/17/08
Emily Update - March 2008
A Very Helpful Girl
Emily is 15 months old and has recently become Mommy and Daddy's little helper. She still loves helping out around the house so we are enjoying while it lasts. She throws trash away, she hands Mom the clean silverware from the dishwasher, she puts her dirty clothes into the washing machine and she even helped Mom put together her new table and chair set. She's doing so much work around the house that she'll probably be asking for an allowance soon!
More Words
Emily can say more than 10 words these days. It's still hard to understand her and sometimes I'm surprised to realize that what I thought was gibberish is really her attempt at a certain word. Here's the rundown of her words so far:
- This
- Quack ("gack")
- Mooo ("oooo")
- Socks ("gox")
- Mama
- Dada
- Shoes
- More ("muh")
- No ("nah")
- Up
- Woof ("uff")
- Baaa ("aaaah")
- Zack ("Eck")
- Clock ("lock")
- Outside ("side")
New Tricycle
Emily got a new trike recently and she loves it. Her feet don't quite touch the pedals but maybe they will by summer. For now she's happy for Daddy to push her around on it.
More March photos are here.
Posted 3/12/08
Emily Update - February 2008
Every day is full of exciting new discoveries for 14-month old Emily and it's fun to try and see the big world through her eyes. I'm constantly amazed by how quickly she learns and how much she understands.
Walk This Way
She is a more confident walker now and can even run a little. She's not afraid to walk away from Mom and Dad and sometimes if we're not quick she can get away from us when she's not supposed to. We really have to be careful in parking lots now!
Talk To Me
Her communication is gradually getting better and she's finally trying to say more words. Last month her first words were: "gack" and "oooo" for quack and moo. It's very cute but we're also working on more practical words such as yes, no, more, done, please and thank you. Usually Emily "says" yes by vigorously nodding her head. Meanwhile we continue to say "yes...yes, please...yes..." and "more?...do you want more?..."
And then one morning I pulled a pair of socks out of her drawer while getting her dressed and she said "gocks!" all on her own. Wow! After that it was "gocks, gocks, gocks..." all morning long. So I know she's listening. She understands a lot. I guess she'll repeat more words when she's ready.
What's For Breakfast? Lunch? Dinner?
When Emily is not sick or teething she has a good appetite and now prefers to feed herself. When it comes to eating she will very rarely accept help from Mom and Dad these days. She does surprisingly well with her fork and spoon but mealtimes are still quite messy.
Helping Around the House
Lately she has become quite interested in helping us out around the house. Some of the ways she is earning her keep are by:
- putting her used diapers in the diaper pail
- putting dirty clothes into the washer, one by one
- handing me the clean forks and spoons from the dishwasher to put away
- wiping down her highchair tray, table, floor - whatever happens to need "cleaning" when she has a wipe
Hugs and Kisses
Emily has learned to give real hugs and sortof kisses - and just in time for Valentines Day and Mom's birthday! What a great present.
Playtime Activities
Some of Emily's favorite ways to spend playtime are:
- Emptying and filling containers - box, bag, cabintet or cubby hole. If she can put something in and take it out again, she's entertained
- Being outside - it's been warm lately and Emily loves going outside to explore, and has a special interest in dirt and sand!
- Imitating us - when she get her hands on the computer mouse or cell phone, it's funny how she mimicks what we do with them
- Looking at books - lately she's become very interested in books. All those hours reading to her when she didn't appear to care weren't wasted! These days she'll choose a book, hand it to me or Richard, plop down on our laps and listen to the whole story. Sometimes we read up to 10 short ones in a row!
Here are some photos we took of her this month.
Posted 2/20/08
Happy 2008 - A Little Bit Late
But better late than never! I've decided to give the site a new look for the new year. After a year of regular updates, we have quite a few archives now. So I've put links to newsy stuff on the left and links to photo albums on the right. Hope you can find what you want to see.
Posted 2/20/08