Meetings

Most little girls take their dolls on walks in their strollers and drive their little cars to the store or Grandma's house. When we ask Emmy where she's heading "bye-bye" her response is always "meeting!" Is that a sign that we're a good Mormon family or a sign that we go to way too many meetings? With Brett in the YM presidency and me in the Primary Presidency, we certainly do go to quite a few meetings. In fact, Emmy has dubbed Brett's Scout shirt his meeting shirt since he always leaves when he wears it.

Every once in a while, we get invited to go with Emmy to her meetings. The day after Christmas, Emmy dragged Brett into my parents' living room after dinner.

"Where are we going, Emmy?" Brett asked.

"Meeting!" Emmy replied.

"Okay, what do we do at the meeting?" Brett questioned as he sat in his directed spot behind the rocking chair.

"Sing. La, la, la." Emmy has a really cute singing voice, and she's learning to put tunes with her songs so they are actually recognizable.

"Prayer!" Emmy shouted abruptly and started into her version of a prayer with a few words we know and a few more words that she apparently knows.

"Now what?" Brett asked.

"Listen," Emmy replied and looked forward at the rocking chair in front of them.

Sounds to me like she's got meetings pretty well figured out! We sit behind something big that we can't see past. We sing, we pray, and we listen. The meeting usually ends with "Nursery! Play!" What a fun insight into a 20 month old's perception of church!

Puzzlers

Brett has a tradition of getting a puzzle every year for Christmas. But not just any puzzle. It all started when he was pretty young. His parents got him a puzzle and he finished it on Christmas day. The next year they set out to find a harder puzzle that would take him longer than just one day. Each year, the puzzles got harder, but he could always finish them in one day.

Enter me in 2004. For the first time, he didn't finish his puzzle on Christmas day...because he spent several hours at my house and then I was with him for the rest of the day at his house. After we got married, we spent most of Christmas day traveling to our parents' houses to see our families. So the tradition has had to change. He still gets a puzzle each year, but he has to find minutes (and space away from Emmy's reach) to complete it.

This year, I found a box with 10 puzzles of pictures by Thomas Kinkade. I opened 5 of the bags and combined the pieces into one bag. He is currently working on creating 5 different puzzles from a bunch of mixed up pieces and thoroughly enjoying it!


Emmy has been his little helper this year, handing him pieces and pawing through the box.

Overalls

Emmy was just too cute putting her hands in the pockets of her overalls. She insisted on wearing overalls. Here comes the terrible twos! :) Good thing she's so cute!

A New Addition

We have a new addition to our family! His name is Baby Ammon, Emmy's new doll. She got a nursery set complete with a rocking bassinet, high chair, carrier, and stroller from us for Christmas. And Santa brought her a baby doll. When Brett asked her what her baby's name was, she replied, "Umm, Ammon!" Ammon is her favorite baby in our ward, so we weren't too surprised at her answer.

So now we have a new baby at our house. Luckily, he falls asleep really quickly, can sleep through anything, and never complains! And best of all, Emmy does all the work with him. I can't think of a better arrangement! :)

Bye, Bye Binky!

Emmy bit a hole in her binky on Saturday. It was actually the second one that she'd bitten a hole in. I wasn't brave enough to say goodbye to the binky then, and it didn't help that Emmy kept saying, "Other buh-buh" between sad sniffles.

But on Sunday afternoon, I was ready. Emmy didn't want the broken binky and apparently wasn't too sure about us having more binkies. When naptime came, we got a snuggle and her special cup with a straw and sat down in the rocking chair. When she asked for her binky, I told her, "Your binky is broken, remember? Do you want some water?" She was pretty content with her water, cried a little when I put her in her crib (just until I shut the door), and went to sleep. She didn't take as long of a nap as she usually does, and I'm betting it's because she didn't have a binky to suck on when she woke up and could have slept more but didn't really want to.

Last night was a bit harder, but I used the same trick I'd used when I weened her. We talked to distract her from missing her binky. She cried again when I put her down, but was able to put herself to sleep. I was really nervous about during the night, but she didn't wake up until her usual late time of 8. (Sorry to all you parents of early risers. I know my time will come too, but we are sure enjoying Emmy's 12 hour nights.)

And now we are to today's nap. It was rough to say the least. She had been grumpy all morning and should have fallen asleep with no problem, but I think she was over tired. I rocked her with her water and snuggle while we listened to her music. Then I put her in her crib. Her crying stopped when I shut the door. Then it started again a few minutes later. I went in to let her know I was still around and to tell her to go to sleep. She was pitiful looking - so tired, and tears streaming down her face. I stayed and held her hand for 15 minutes until she fell asleep. And then she slept for 2 1/2 hours! I think she was VERY tired.

So there is our binky progress. We'll see how things continue to go. Wish us luck!

A New Christmas Dress

At church a couple of weeks ago, I realized that I had not even thought about a Christmas dress for Emmy! Aah! What kind of a Molly Mormon mother am I?!?! I was so caught up in finishing a temple dress I was working on for my home ward's old bishop's future daughter-in-law (how's that for a long description of a relation?) that was turning out to be a bit more complicated than I had first imagined. But I finally finished it (hurrah!), and then I focused on Emmy's Christmas dress.

I started where any frugal Becca does and looked through the bag of fabric Brett's mom gave me that has the left over pieces from his sisters' formal dresses that she had made. I found the perfect fabric. Then I took it over to my mom's house the next day so I could use her pattern and get her opinion. (I'd already asked Brett's opinion, but I needed another girl opinion.) We got the dress cut out and ened up pawing through her scraps since there wasn't enough of the skirt fabric I'd wanted. As luck would have it, she had a piece that was identical to the one I had chosen. Crazy, eh?

I spent Emmy's next nap sewing the dress to the point of needing a serger (an expense that is farther down on the someday list, after a piano, but before a new computer for me). So I used my mom's serger the next day and finished Emmy's dress! Yay for a simple, by the pattern sewing project that was refreshing after the last one. (But I hope that girl loves her temple dress and looks very beautiful. I am happily thinking of many ways I could spend the money I earned. :))

So here is Emmy in all her elegant beauty on Sunday afternoon. And, yes, she is in the bathroom sitting on a toolbox. I let her choose where she sat so she would actually sit still for a picture.

We felt a little sad that we didn't have a big Christmas tree when we were setting it up. In fact, we planned to use Brett's parents' old tree, but now I am quite happy with our small, only our family ornaments on it, high enough that Emmy can't take off all the decorations tree.

I realized on Saturday night (after having completed my Walmart trip that afternoon) that we did not have any black shoes for Emmy to wear with this dress. But it worked out okay since she won't keep shoes on at church anyway. In nursery, she takes them off, picks them up, carries them over to the door, and puts them "away" right by the door. I'm guessing it's because we don't wear shoes inside our house, so why in the world are we wearing them inside the Church? And after church, Emmy made do with Daddy's shoes.

She was quite proud of herself, saying "walk-y, walk-y" all around the house!

Big Girl Cup

This is for Nanna.
Emmy LOVES her big girl cup! She was so excited to get to drink out of a cup at breakfast. I am amazed that she is so careful and doesn't spill...except when she intentionally dumps it out saying it is "ah gone."
But I discovered a downside to cups that I hadn't thought about before. The open top allows things to be put IN the cup as well as dumped OUT of the cup. The out part I was expecting, but Emmy got Froot Loops, grapes, and cracker bits in that cup without me even noticing. Monkey!

Diapers!

My sister is planning to use cloth diapers with her next baby (due in two weeks! Yay!). I think that's great, and I really admire people who use cloth diapers. I didn't think I'd want to do it even though the diapers are not the cloth diapers I grew up with. These things are quite easy (no pins involved) and cute, too! Although the initial expense sounded like quite a lot ( like $400) I realized that it isn't that much in comparison to what we spend on disposibles. When I was going through Emmy's closet, I realized we were hanging onto a bunch of empty diaper boxes. (I've become a bit of a box hoarder since we had to scrounge up so many to move.) So I pulled them all out and we built a tower with BIG blocks.

And then I realized that those boxes represent $200 worth of diapers! That's a lot of money! I don't know that I'll be tough enough and on top of laundry enough to do cloth diapers with our next baby, but this has certainly made me think. Crazy, eh?

Potty Princess

Emmy has been working on potty training for a few months now. I say Emmy has been working on it because it was her idea - not mine. Back in September, she decided she wanted to use the big potty like we did, and she did it every once in awhile. Not all the time, but just often enough for me to get excited and think how great it would be to not have to buy diapers and wipe her messy bum. How great!

But I haven't pushed potty training too much because I don't want to stress Emmy. And so we continue with great days and not so great days. It would be much easier to do this in the summer when she wouldn't get so blasted cold in the mornings when I put her on the potty before our house has warmed up. And onesies are a pain in the neck when she is jumping up and down, saying "Emmy potty! Pee pee potty!" A week or so ago, my brother Garratt was visiting during one of these episodes, so he took her into the bathroom and started undoing layers. When he got the onesie under the onesie under the pants, he almost gave up, saying "Man, it's like Fort Knox!"

But here is a picture of our Potty Princess at her finest. We try to find lots of things to keep us entertained in the bathroom while we wait for those elusive pee pees. (This would be a great time to be pregnant seeing as we spend so much time in the bathroom. Alas...)

A Season for Giving

Emmy was "helping" me put things away from our adventurous shopping day yesterday. (I learned why I don't take Emmy with me shopping when I'm going by myself. She's into EVERYTHING! And she's "ah-done" a little sooner than I'm all done. But we made it through two stores and I'm a lot more ready for Christmas now.)

Anyway, Emmy found the little musical toy we got to donate to our ward "Giving Tree" for families in our ward who need some help for Christmas. She thought it looked like a pretty neat toy.

I told her, "That is a toy we're going to give to a little baby for Christmas. Do you think the baby will like it?"

Emmy ran over to her Little People Nativity (that was scattered on the floor - she doesn't seem to get that it should go on the coffee table. Her favorite spot is on the couch, all set up, but on the couch.) She whispered "Baby Jeshus, Baby Jeshus" and grabbed the right piece. "Here ya doe, Baby Jeshus" she said, setting the Baby Jesus piece in front of the toy as she showed Him how it made music.

It was the first time this season that I really paused to feel the true meaning of Christmas. My 19 month old reminded me who we should be giving gifts to - the reason we run around to so many stores and stress about what for who. I'm so grateful for "teaching moments" - especially those that teach me.

Our House

So I realized last week that we had never taken a picture of our house. So, I took one on Monday. Here is our fabulous house!

We really love our house and are so grateful to have it. It has TONS of space (5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, a family room, a living room, and another room in the finished basement that isn't really classified as anything- maybe an office?). I love the kitchen. Brett is happy with the garage. Emmy enjoys having so many rooms to scatter her toys. We're all good. And it hasn't even been that bad to clean. (That was my biggest worry after living in apartments for so long.)

And here is the darling little girl who calls this house home. (Actually she calls it "Emmy 'ouse", but it's home, too.) I know this picture is blurry, but it was too cute to not share.

Language Learners

I have realized that both Emmy and I are learning a new language right now. Emmy is learning English. I am learning Emmy-ish, a combination of English, Pig Latin, and the Adamic tongue (I'm guessing). Yesterday evening we got a perfect example.
Emmy and Daddy were playing with her bears in the blanket tent Daddy built over the weekend.
"Duh-cla," Emmy said and headed for the stairs.
"What do you want?" I asked.
"Duh-cla," Emmy insisted as she climbed the stairs.
"Duh-cla, duh-cla. I know this one. What is it? I've heard it before..." I muttered, frustrated that I couldn't remember the meaning of the word.
"You'd better go find out what a duck claw is," I told Brett when we saw Emmy walk over the next half flight of stairs leading to our bedrooms.
As soon as I heard them in the bathroom, I remembered what a 'duh-claw' is. (Any guesses? It might help if you knew that Emmy and Daddy were giving their bear a bath in the tent.) A duh-cla is a wash cloth! Of course! The similarity is apparent once you know what you're listening for.
Emmy is doing amazingly well with her words, but there are still a few that she hasn't got quite right. Shoe, for example is 'wosh'. She has all the sounds just in the opposite order. She did the same thing to wash cloth. Is it possible to be a dyslexic speaker? :)
So now I will forever know what a 'duh-cla' is. I just hope I remember to tell our babysitters about it and the several other words that only a mother (and father sometimes) can understand. Otherwise, we'll have a frustrated baby and a confused teenager on our hands!

Nice Words

Emmy was very ready for bed last night. She was bathed and pajama-ed, and we were just playing for a few minutes before bedtime rolled around. Something traumatic happened (like she slipped or was told she couldn't touch something she knows she can't touch), and she lost it.
"Buh-buh! Buh-buh!" she cried. (Although she can say 'binky', she's still hanging onto her baby word for it.)
"Just a minute. We need to say a prayer and then we can go upstairs and get it," I told her.
"No. Buh-buh!" she replied emphatically.
"Alright. Can you say 'binky please' nicely?" I asked, caving (but still making her say please, so it's not all bad, right?)
Without skipping a beat, Emmy replied,"Nicey."
We went upstairs, got her binky, and tried to stop laughing long enough to say a prayer.

For Grandma

My mom made these pajamas for Emmy as a trial run before making her Christmas pajamas. (I think Emmy is just super spoiled and so cute that my mom wanted to make her two pairs of pajamas.) But here is my little doll all dressed up to go to bed!

Such beautiful eyes, don't you think? :)

A little past bedtime...grumpy face!

Emmy the Builder

Apparently stacking is Emmy's new hobby. This is what I saw when I turned around to check on Emmy and how she was doing eating her string cheese circles.

And then she announced, "Stack!" a few minutes later as she was eating her banana circles.

(This is her new "Cheese" face. A little scrunched...do I do that? I don't know where else she'd have picked it up. How embarassing!)

I can't wait to see how she does at Jenga!

First Snow

I know this is a week late, but I just haven't gotten around to downloading the pictures. But better late than never...here are pictures of Emmy in the first snow (or, "no" as she calls it - quite confusing sometimes) of this year.

"Look, 'no! Pitty!"

She enjoyed looking at it and touching it from inside the garage, but she was in tears by the time I finished shoveling the driveway. We have a coat and snowpants that were given to us by a neighbor with a little girl a year older than Emmy, but we were still waiting for Emmy's shoes to arrive at Payless (a whole other story in and of itself...let's just say that we had to wait over a month to get the shoes, but I almost got them for free). And we didn't have any mittens since she wasn't really into playing in the snow last year. So her feet and hands were freezing and it took a good 15 minutes inside for her to calm down enough to eat breakfast. Poor baby!

Compassion

Emmy is quite the little mother. She LOVES babies and recognizes a few of them in our ward and calls them by name each Sunday. She gives the sweetest hugs and kisses, and says "Oooh" often. All the requirements for a mother, right?

But last night our angel amazed us yet again. Brett was not feeling well after eating some bad Chinese food for lunch. I found a 7-Up and took it upstairs to him. He said he'd drink it later, so Emmy and I took it back down to the kitchen and set it on the table. About 20 minutes later, we were all in the family room downstairs. Emmy climbed up the stairs, and I didn't notice what she was doing until I heard a thud on the table and looked up to see Emmy bringing the can of 7-Up down to Daddy. She carried it over to him and handed it to him. Quite the feat when you're only 32 1/4 inches tall! She had to climb on a chair, reach across the table, and then carry a heavy (for a 22 pounder) can as she scrambled off the chair, slid down the short flight of stairs to the family room (we live in a split level house which will clarify all the upstairs and downstairs explanations), and give it to Brett. What a sweetheart!

And, as a funny sidenote, she kept pointing to Brett's nose as she said he was sick. She had a cold a week ago, and her nastily runny nose was sick then, so if someone's sick, it must be something the matter with their nose, right?

Emmy the Builder

Emmy and I were playing with blocks this morning. We like to make towers and then knock them down. Emmy enjoys the knocking down part most, so it is a game as parents to see how high of a tower we can make before she knocks it down.

But this morning, it was Emmy who was doing the building. I was very proud of her when she stacked three blocks together (since this is usually as high as it gets - actually an impressive skill for an 18 month old from a child development stand point). When she continued building without the tower falling over, I was amazed. 5, then 6, then 7 blocks! Wow, I couldn't believe it! Then she reached over past her leg to get another block and added it to the top. An 8 block tower! I made her promise not to knock it over while I ran for the camera. She made good on her promise, and now I can prove my baby's amazing building skills to the world.

I asked her to take her binky out of her mouth so I could get a smiling picture, and this was the immediate result!

What a darling, obedient little girl!

Little Miss Muffett

Here is our Little Miss Muffett. Emmy had so much fun getting "nandy" as we went "tick -a-teet"-ing at Brett's work and our neighborhood Halloween get together. She did a fairly good job keeping on her hat during the evening. Maybe it helped that Daddy told her she had to wear it to get treats.

Her bag says "Curds and Whey."

We ended up with plenty of candy and have high hopes that it will help with potty training. Crazy enough, we got more from Brett's co-workers while he showed her off than we did at the neighborhood trick or treating. Maybe we weren't bold enough to fight the crowds around each person.

We were all out of candy by 7. Next year we plan to buy a lot more, cheaper candy. I guess that's what comes with living in a house now.

Cheeser

Emmy got a pair of sunglasses with her purse from Grandma, and she loves them! Here is what I got during my attempt to get a picture of her wearing the glasses. She is so darling carrying around her "puss," putting on the pretend lipstick, and using her keys.

Little Homemaker

My mom and I canned apple pie filling today. Her neighbor's apple tree was loaded, and we were told to take as many as we wanted, so we did! Emmy was such a big helper. She stood right next to me on her stepstool, and she would choose which apple we would peel/core/slice next (on a handy little gadget, not by hand - we are NOT that adventurous!). She also loved to help turn the handle on said gadget.

When that got boring, she started exploring drawers in Grandma's kitchen. My mom and I were talking and I asked her, "Have you ever made apple sauce at home?"

"No," my mom replied.

"Yeah," Emmy said at the same time.

Surprised, I looked at Emmy. "You have? How do you make it?"

"E-M-Y. Emmy!" she replied with a smile.

So now I know how to make homemade apple sauce. I imagine it would turn out like Emmy's own recipe of apple pie filling. Here is how it goes:
Slide your stool over to Grandma's station while she is busy at the stove.
Put the rings of apples that still have the peel on them in the empty jar.
Put the ring on the jar (a wide mouth ring on a regular mouth jar, mind you)
Take the ring off and add a fork and a few more apple pieces.
Replace ring.
Say "Here you go!" and show it to everyone proudly!

Don't tell her that we dumped it out during her nap and filled it with our more conventional - and more boring - apple pie filling. :)

Turn Green!

Brett has taught Emmy a new game. When we are waiting at a stop light, we tell the red light to "turn green." Yes, very simple. And yes, very effective at keeping an 18 month old happy in the car during "long" car rides.

Apparently Emmy enjoys this game. While we were stopped at the opening of my parents' cul-de-sac tonight, waiting to turn onto 1600 N, Emmy piped up from the back seat: "turn green!"

A little bragging

Emmy is just a doll. Today she was an absolute delight to be around. (Which is good because she has a cold and hasn't been sleeping well at all!) So here are some of the highlights of today.

As I was getting her dressed after her bath, she was saying "happy" and "day" over and over with a few more "words" in between. Since it was my sister, Julie's birthday, I started singing "Happy Birthday." Emmy got a big grin on her face and started "singing" along. The only thing I can think of is that one of the children in Nursery had a birthday yesterday and they sang to her in Nursery during the 2 minutes we were in there taking roll (since Emmy couldn't stay because of aforementioned cold). How amazing is her brain that it could still remember the words to that song?!?! So, when I told her it was Aunt Julie's birthday, she started saying "Happy day, Didly" (sounds like Julie if you say it fast enough). Of course I had to call Julie and let her hear it. She loved it, and I'm glad Emmy said it on such an appropriate day!

Story # 2: Emmy loves our whiteboard and begs to draw on it whenever I write something on it. I've started helping her spell her name on it to go along with her scribbles. Today she helped me spell it. The whole thing! Yesterday she knew about the Ms, but today she started with E, said two Ms and ended with a Y. What a child genius! :)

I am just amazed at how much fun Emmy is right now. She is growing up so fast (started calling me "Mommy" instead of "Mama" *sniff*), but she just gets more and more fun! I love it! And I especially love that I get to stay home all day with her. Every once in a while I miss teaching, but then I think about what I've gotten to do with Emmy because I've been home, and I don't regret being a "stay-at-home" mom one bit!

Pumpkins!

Emmy loves pumpkins. We have a little book called "The Tiniest Pumpkin" that I got from my student teaching days. It's one for beginning readers, so it's short and quite simple; Brett doesn't like it. But Emmy loves the book that is just her size. So when pumpkins started showing up for Fall decorations, she was elated! You can imagine her joy when she got to pick a "tiny pumpkin" for herself. (Except that it was overshadowed by seeing 2 dogs in a parked car on our way to the pumpkins; nothing can top seeing dogs!)

Then we headed home to paint them (an Okelberry tradition that I agree with wholeheartedly!). I dressed Emmy in an old t-shirt of mine so she wouldn't ruin her clothes. It was a little big!She LOVED painting! She would tell us what color she wanted (with a little prompting from us) and then paint away. However, she was done before we were.

Turns out she was MUCH cleaner than I thought she would be...even with waving her brush around. Only her right hand got a little dirty...and we discovered more on her elbow during her bath.
The finished products! Brett's is the good one. Mine is the "creative" one. And Emmy's is the colorful one!

Happy Pumpkin Day!

For Uncle O-do (Garratt)

When Garratt was here a couple of weeks ago, he taught Emmy this finger play. She does it all the time now! We were trying to say a prayer a few days ago, and we heard "church, 'eeple, open doa, 'eeple!"

We finally got it recorded, so here it is for all your entertainment!

We let her watch it afterward, and she would say the words with her video self! It was really cute... with lots "mo, mo, mo!" (more)

Pearls and Belly Laughs

Last night Brett and I went on a date...just the two of us! That really should happen more often since we have both sets of parents willing and eager to watch their darling granddaughter, but we have just been so darn busy, and by we I mean Brett. They really should make a club for all the wives of men in YM presidencies and other crazy, time consuming callings. I'm just grateful he isn't in the Bishopric!

Anyway, we've been planning on this date all week. Brett was late getting home from work because he had stopped at Goldsmith Jewelers to pick up the free string of pearls we'd heard about from my mom. (They will give you a free 14" string of pearls just for coming in the store. It's their new way of advertising, and Brett said it worked for him because they were really nice and friendly. So, if you're in the Provo Center Street and University Ave area, stop in!)

So Brett was late, but I really didn't mind because he'd taken time out of his very busy week to fight through rush hour traffic to get me something I'd mentioned would be nice to have. What a sweetheart! We were both not super hungry, so we just went to Subway, but it was so nice to just talk to eachother and not worry about entertaining and feeding Emmy. And, I have to admit, it was nice to not have a TV on like at Wingers because we had to just look at eachother. :)

We ran a few errands while we were in the area and sans baby and then picked up Emmy from my parents' house. Brett played with her and helped get her ready for bed and then was saying her night time prayer with her.

Prayers with Emmy involve her saying the last word of a sentence with us prompting her by pointing or just counting on her memory and/or creativity. (Vain repetition doesn't count at this age, right?) Here's how last night's went:

Brett: "Dear Heavenly..."
Emmy: "Fader"
B: "Thank you for this..."
E: "de"
B: "Please bless..." (pointing at me)
E: "Mama"
B: "Please bless..." (Pointing at himself)
E: "Mama"
B: "Please bless..." (brief pause while still pointing at himself a little more vigorously)
E: "Mama"
B: "Yep, Mama is so nice" (a little put out and deciding to just move on)

I didn't really catch the rest of the prayer because I started laughing. And you know how you can't stop laughing during prayers? I'm pretty sure it's a Satan tactic or part of our carnal natures, but things seem so much funnier when they are supposed to be serious. Emmy wasn't quite sure what to make of Mommy laughing during the prayer, so she laughed along with me while Brett fought to finish the prayer.

It probably isn't as funny if you weren't there, but Brett and I laughed about it again as we were going to bed. And I'm chuckling to myself as I write about it! It just finished off a fun evening perfectly. Belly laughs are the best medicine...especially when shared with people you love!

Too Much Information

I am amazed at how much Emmy's communications skills have improved over the last few weeks. She is starting to put words together and says more new words each day than I can count. This often makes life much easier and more enjoyable for both of us. However, there are times when it doesn't.
As I was puttering around the kitchen this afternoon, I noticed that Emmy was chewing on something.
"What are you eating?" I asked.
"Doodles!" she replied.
"A noodle or a raisin?" I said, wanting to clarify since she had been eating raisins a little while ago and we hadn't had noodles since our spaghetti last night.
"Doodles!" she repeated.
"Where in the world did you find a noodle?"
"Ri' dare!" she said, pointing inside the garbage can.
Oh, Emmy. I felt like a much better mother before you told me that!
If she hadn't have been able to communicate it so clearly, I could have hoped that she was eating a raisin or even a stowaway noodle from last night she found in her high chair, but that was a little to clear!
Needless to say, she is now happily eating doodles with sauce...that came from the refrigerator.

Ice Cream Cone

Emmy enjoyed her first ice cream cone today at Grandma's house. (Can you say spoiled?) She loved it!

But she loves Uncle Garratt (O-do) enough to share some with him.

She licked for a few minutes then tried to use her fingers to get it faster. Uncle Garratt helped her eat the rest of if with a spoon. Yum!

Do as I'm Doing

Emmy is becoming quite the leader...and follower. When we visited cousin Madi on Sunday, Emmy had fun playing with her since she can sit up now. We were doing Patty Cake, and Emmy was doing all of the actions. When we started doing it again, Emmy sat right in front of Madi and clapped. When Madi didn't follow suit, Emmy looked her straight in the eyes, clapped, and said, "Madi, Madi" as if to say "Come on, Madi. It's time to clap your hands." She'll have that 6 month old clapping before too long!

Last night we sang Primary songs for Family Home Evening. We sang "Do as I'm Doing" for the first time. We patted our heads first. Emmy watched us for a while then climbed up next to me on the couch and started patting my head! She was doing what I was doing; what more could we ask for?

Hogle Zoo

Brett called home yesterday morning at 11 and said work was really slow and he was thinking about coming home early. Yay! Then he said he thought it would be fun to take Emmy to the zoo. I always thought Hogle Zoo was really far away, but it turns out that it's less than an hour away, so we headed out after Emmy's nap (which was longer than usual since we wanted her to wake up so we could leave...figures!)

Emmy LOVED the zoo. She would say the animal's names and/or sounds and enjoyed watching them move around. She keeps acting out the elephants' trunks moving. I think it finally makes sense to her why we wave our arm when we make an elephant noise.

Waddle, waddle, waddle. (That's what a penguin says at our house.) They also fed lots of little fish to the penguins while we were watching.

They put the giraffe's food next to the fence, so we got up close and personal with them! How cool is that?

Imagine coming around a corner into an enclosed area and seeing this staring at you like he wanted to eat you! I think maybe they shouldn't keep that glass quite so clean!

But Emmy thoroughly enjoyed following her new friend the whole length of the windows as he paced.Crazy Monkey Daddy! (I actually made him pose for this picture since Emmy wouldn't stay still long enough.)

So all in all, super fun time at the Hogle Zoo. We definitely plan to go back. We spent about 2 hours there and felt like we got to see everything without wearing Emmy or ourselves out. Now, if I'd remembered to locate the binky before our trip home, the whole afternoon would have been quite delightful (instead Emmy screamed and pouted the whole way home because I wouldn't give her her binky that she had thrown on the floor on the way up).

A Method to Her Madness

Brett has nicknamed Emmy "Destructo Baby" and for good reason! She is into everything - we are running out of high, Emmy-proof places because she can climb so well. Her most recent tricks have been dancing on the dining room table while chanting "no, no, no" and climbing up the back of the couch in the family room, onto the shelf in the wall and jumping off (apparently she assumed I would catch her since I was laying on the couch).

My nickname at her age was "Be-wreck-a" so I imagine I was a handful as well. (And my poor mother had three older children to deal with!) However, I was a very easy child to raise after pre-school age. If Emmy follows that pattern, I think I'm okay with putting up with her harrowing feats now. I am just praying she doesn't hurt herself too badly!

She was getting to be a bit too much for me to handle, but I recognized that she really is just curious, not malicious. One morning as I loaded the dishwasher, Emmy started taking dishes out of it. (This drives me crazy because they are dirty dishes, and I don't want her to play with them. Plus, it means I have to load the dishwasher twice, often with a game of diry dishes hide-and-go-seek in between.) But this time, I just watched her. She selected a tupperware dish, a lid, and two forks from the bottom rack of the dishwasher, sat down on the floor, put the lid on the tupperware, took it off, and started eating with the forks.

See, she wasn't trying to make my life difficult; she just needed to eat her pretend dinner!

I should post that somewhere: Emmy is not trying to make your life difficult; she's just curious.