Shopping in the living room

Trip to the zoo

Emma cuddling with a tortoise statue at the zoo.

Feeding the piggy bank

Cherry Festival

Feasting on black cherries at the Cherry Festival air show.

Resting after a full morning of swimming

Emma, taking a juice-box break after a full morning of swimming at Great Wolf Lodge.

New dress and sandals

Flowers in her hair

Silly Sunglasses

Sleeping on the couch

Emma, sleeping on the living room couch.

Emma at the Zoo

Last weekend, we all went to the Detroit Zoo. We had a great time, although Emma didn't take a nap the entire time... which meant she fell asleep almost instantly when we put her into the car to leave! Emma's favorites seemed to be the penguins ("penguin funny," she said) and the polar bears. She also really enjoyed the train ride. It was a perfect day, both in terms of weather and fun.

Happy Girl

Emma at breakfast. She loves sausage and pancakes, and was excited when she saw the waitress bringing them to her!

Emma likes hummus!

Emma likes Hummus! (But as we discovered later on, hummus and diapers don't mix.)

To the doctor... again.

Tonight we took Emma to the doctor, after picking her up early from daycare with a 102-degree fever. She has a double ear infection -- the third time she's had it in both ears this Spring. Which would explain why she hasn't entirely been herself the last few days. She's still generally happy, but has seemed more clingy, more easily tired, and has been going to bed earlier than normal. Looks like I will be taking a sick day tomorrow to stay home with her.

Emma and Teddy, May 22, 2006

First full sentence?

Today we think Emma said her first "full" sentence. She was sitting on our bed this morning, and wanting us to turn Sesame Street on... and she said "I want to watch Elmo." We were all amazed, and tried to get her to say it again, but of course that was the only time she said it. She has been stringing 2, 3, and sometimes even 4 words together at a time ("airplane up high", etc.).

Right now, she can also name almost all the main colors. She knows Yellow ("lello"), Red, Blue, Pink, Orange (!), and even White. But she doesn't know Brown yet, and often gets Green mixed up with Orange for some reason, even when there is both an orange item and a green item right next to each other. Our favorite color has to be yellow... she will spot things that are yellow that we don't even notice: Yellow truck, yellow bus, yellow sign, yellow building, and so on.

My favorite illustration of how quickly she has been learning things happened a couple of weeks ago. She was walking around upstairs, looking for Jordan. I told her that Jordan had gone to school. She stopped, looked at me, and asked "Bus?" I said "Yes, Jordan went on a bus to school." She nodded very knowingly and said "Yellow bus."

Emma has also learned that the word "Please" works miracles. When she wants something and we say no, she immediately says "please?" and smiles. It's hard to say no when she does that. Yesterday she wanted a bottle of water, and said (completely unprompted), "Please, Dada?"

Owned!

Distracted Driver

Emma in her red "all terrain" wagon

Today it was a nice enough day to go outside for a bit, and take Emma for a ride in her new All-Terrain Wagon. Emma had a great time, and didn't want to come in, even when it clouded up and started to rain. I have a feeling we'll be going for a lot more wagon rides in the near future.

Too cool for words

Emma in her ducky hat

Ray-bans

Easter 2006

Sleeping in the car

French toast!

Tonight, Emma and Jordan went out for dinner with me to a new local cafe that specializes in breakfast food. I ordered pancakes with bacon for Emma, but instead they brought french toast with sausage. Go figure. In any event, she hated the sausage patties but loved the french toast! She even liked it without syrup.

Emma at the Christmas Eve service

This was Emma in her Christmas Eve outfit, about five minutes before she decided she had had enough of the church service and began to pitch a minor fit in the back of the church. Mommy had to take her out of the service until it was done. Apparently she took her to the ladies' restroom, where Emma attempted to flop on the floor in anger, pitching an even bigger fit. Nice way to behave in church! Once the service concluded, we had a Christmas Eve celebration and buffet dinner with my family at our new house, where Emma was in a good mood once again. It may be a while before we go back to church. That's Emma's grandpa in the background, by the way.

Riding the penny horse at the local Meijer store. It's the best penny I ever spent! (OK, so she made me spend 3 pennies because she wanted to ride more, but it was still worth it!)

Dunking a chicken nugget

Emma has learned how to dunk chicken nuggets, french fries, and pretty much anything else in ketchup. I suppose it was only a matter of time! She also learned the word "dunk" quicker than almost any word she has learned to date.

On the subject of words, she is saying so many now it is hard to keep track of them all. Here's a partial list of all the words she knows now, at 15 months:

Dada

Mama

Dog

Abbi (pronounced "Abba".)

Jordan (pronounced "Doh-da".)

Emma

"Get down" (used when speaking to the dog.)

Up (pronounced "up-ah"... my personal favorite.)

Uh-oh

That (usually used when pointing to an object.)

Get (as in "I'm going to get you!")

Ouch

Look (pronounced "gook", and often said when she sees Mickey Mouse)

Nose

"Buckle up!" (pronounced "buh-buck")

Dunk

Ball

Pop

Book

Thank You (occasionally only, pronounced "tee-tee".)

Kitty (also pronounced "tee-tee".)

Donald Duck

Elmo

Emma has also learned to nod her head when she wants something (for example, if I ask her "do you want a drink?") and she dances now... both on the floor when you tell her to dance, or sitting in her high chair if she hears music, particularly Christmas music. She also knows what some more abstract concepts mean like "put it away", "get your boots on", "go find the doggy", or "it's time to take a bath". It's really amazing to see her learning so many things so quickly.

Emma's 2005 Christmas Portrait

Sledding at Grandpa and Grandma's House

Today, Emma went sledding for the very first time. After getting her all bundled up in her new snowsuit, Uncle Aaron (and Daddy) took her down the hill at Grandma and Grandpa's house. The first time down, she didn't quite know what to make of it, but by the second trip down the hill she was giggling and laughing. We only spent about 15 minutes outside with her since she was ready for a nap, but she had a ball outside in the snow!

Sleeping in the high chair

Ready to go!

Yes, I like Pina Coladas!

On the cruise ship tonight at dinner in the Parrot Cay restaurant, Emma tried her very first non-alcoholic frozen pina colada. And we definitely hit a home run! She absolutely loved it, and wouldn't let us put it down for even a moment. Dinner was good, but apparently the pina coladas were even better.