Summer Weekend Fun!

All this fun - in one weekend!
Playing at the park, Eloise's birthday party, M's game in the suite, and a playdate with Peyton and his turtle sprinkler. Ah, the joys of summer!

"Ahhhhhhhh"

"I'm gonna getcha!"

Em's first love, Peyton

"Peek-a-boo!"

Love my Grammy

The dance machine, Gavin!

Em's summer love

"So big!"

"Kiss, kiss"

Mom's BFF, Janice, and her husband Dan

Mom's other BFF, Ginger

Cutie patooties, Rachel and Michelle

Watching baseball with Papa

Jonas cooling off

Miss Isabel taking the plunge at Eloise's birthday party

Miss Em crawling through the big toy for the first time!

Kindermusik

Every Wednesday, Em and I take a trip to Edmonds to attend Kindermusik, a music class for kids and babies. The name should really be Kinderdrug. It's like crack to Emily. She LOVES this class. I'm not even kidding. We walk into the room, I set her down and off she goes to get her crack. (shakers, sticks, stuffed animals, etc.)
She's pretty much the dancing(est) little baby in the entire class, shaking her groove thang any moment she can. And she laughs at almost anything.
It's a silly little class, but I love doing it with her because, well, I'm silly myself.

Today, Grammy J joined us to witness Em in action.
Here are some vids she took of Em busting up during the "doggie dance."
(please excuse the shaking of my tush - not really a move I want to bust out on the dance floor of the club any time soon.)

Look Who's 14 Months!

Well, lookie lookie! We have a 14-month-old cookie!

So what's new with Miss Em?
Lots!

She's got many words in repertoire now - hi, mama, dada, dog, ball, help, more, milk, and achoo. She uses sign language to convey "eat", "more," "please" and "all done."

She can stand up by herself now from sitting position without help from the furniture, but falls down after a few seconds. No walking yet and amazingly, still no teeth! But she's crawling everywhere and going up and down stairs, so she definitely gets around.
Her hair has grown in significantly and she's got cute little curly locks on the back of her head.

She still takes two naps a day and sleeps 12 hours at night. I think we are really lucky to have a girl who doesn't mind taking naps or going to bed!

We are weaning the bottle, so she just takes one a day - the rest of her fluids come in her favorite straw sippy cup. Her favorite toy is BOOKS! I'm so happy about this! She would read all day if she could.
Mama bought her a potty, in hopes to slowly introduce her to that idea. I sit her down on the potty with her diaper on and we talk about what happens, toilet paper, washing hands, etc. We'll see if she takes to it!

Based on her chubbas, you can see she LOVES to eat. She pretty much will eat anything - we are so grateful for that.

She's an amazing little girl - so smart and cute and such a great addition to our lives. It's been a joy to see how she's grown in the last few months, becoming more and more independent (and stubborn) by the day.

Hawaii!

It really is all about who you know.

In our case, we're lucky to know and be great friends with Kelly and Erin Powell! The Powells (one of whom works for Nintendo) invited Matt and me, along with two other couples to the Big Island of Hawaii (Kona side) for a week-long stay at one of the Nintendo abodes, "Pueo."

Any house with a "name" is guaranteed to be grandiose - and this house was nothing short of that. The pictures really don't do it any justice.
Overlooking the Mauna Lani bay, the house features four bedroom suites, a huge pool, hot tub, tons of living space and a kitchen that would make Emeril wheep with joy. Oh - and did I mention a short walk down the stairs leads your toes and senses to a white, sandy beach and glorious sunsets? Ahhhhh...
It was unbelievable.

We kayaked, snorkeled, hiked, drove, went to a fabulous luau and dinner, and just plain ol' relaxed with books and drinks in hand. Even caught a fireworks show on the 4th at a nearby resort - although it was no Emerald Downs. :)

Matt and I left Emi behind with her grandparents. She did great - adjusting well to both environments without us there. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so we had to take full advantage sans baby! However, it was certainly nice to see her the morning after we returned. I was the lucky recipient of a big baby hug and three wet kisses. (from Emily AND Jonas, of course!)

It was a lovely time, with many great memories made. A special thanks again to the Powells for honoring us with the invite!

We went up to the Mauna Kea Observatory - it has the largest telescope in the world!
Elevation: 14,000 ft. I wish we could say we hiked the whole way, but we only used our tootsies for a few hundred feet. :) We got the elevation dizzies - it was quite a unique experience! You really had to stop and catch your breath.

The view of the Observatory from the Pueo house



Makin' Spodi with the crew

A special thanks to Grammy J, Grandma Bonnie and Grandpa Steve for watching our little darling Emi. And to Brooke and Jeannette for watching our other darling, Jonas. And to Stacey for watching Pumpkin. It takes a village these days, people!