"ROAR"

Belated Birthday Party

We had a little birthday party for Emily today at playdate with all her friends and their moms. We had a good time and everyone seemed to enjoy the cupcakes!! :)

Emily's Two Year Old Pictures

Some Videos From Today Too!

Pictures From The Day

Emily had her favorite breakfast this morning -- cheesy scrambled eggs. And of course, she asked for both her water and milk! :)

We opened presents right after breakfast this morning so that Emily could play with her toys for most of the day. She had a great time opening the gifts! :)

I made cupcakes for her instead of a cake this year. She enjoyed diving into the frosting! :)

Happy 2nd Birthday, Emily!

That's right, Emily is two years old today. Hard to believe, isn't it? She has grown and changed so much in the last few months and becoming more and more like a toddler. She is learning new words everyday and her latest favorites are "noisy", "dirty", and "both". She started using "both" in the last week or so. Nelson and I will ask her if she wants pretzels or crackers, or milk or water and she will respond with "both". A few times she has gotten it a little confused and called her pretzels "both", but for the most part she understands what it means. :)

She has also gotten to be quite fascinated with the moon -- especially when it's in the sky before it's dark. She'll do everything in her power to find it and then point at it and say "moo". And she won't stop pointing at and saying it until you acknowledge that it's there and talk to her about it. It's pretty entertaining! :)

Lately, we've been working on teaching her numbers and colors. She loves the color blue and if she doesn't know a color's name, it will ALWAYS be blue. For the most part she knows pink, yellow, blue and green. As far as numbers, that's a different story. This is how she counts, "one...two...three...five...nine".

Animal info and sounds are pretty hit or miss too. She knows a dog goes "woof-woof" and a cat goes "maow". The cow goes "moo", the sheep goes "baa". The latest one is that turtles live in the "wa'er" (this I attribute to either her turtle bath toys or the turtles from "Finding Nemo" -- her favorite movie). If there is an animal sound she does not know, it will always "roar". I will try to get a video of that because she evens holds up her little hands as if they were paws with claws -- it's the cutest thing you will ever see! :)

She LOVES to swing. This is the one activity that she wants to do everyday -- rain or shine! And she loves to color. She has started to say "co'or" instead of "gai-gai", which has been nice for us to hear. She still hasn't quite caught onto the fact that you color on the paper, not the table. So needless to say, our coffee table is constantly covered in crayon marks. :)

And what can I say about her personality. She has a strong-will, no doubt about that. She has started to want to do things for herself but then gets very upset when she can't do them. For example, she likes to buckle and unbuckle (and buckle and unbuckle and buckle and unbuckle) her booster seat. Well, she can buckle it, but the strength and coordination to unbuckle it is still not there. So, we'll ask her if she needs help and she'll respond with a strong "NO". She'll try to do it herself a few times and then throw a fit while asking for help. The good thing is that at least she asks for help . . . it's just not always in the nicest tone! :)

She has definitely noticed my belly and we are constantly asking her where is the baby or where is your brother. Most of the time she will point to my belly, but every once in a while she'll call herself the baby. It's pretty adorable though to hear her call my belly "bro'er". I think she'll be a great big sister!

The last two years have been amazing and we feel so blessed to have been given Emily. She is constantly learning new things, imitating us and everything we do. She is funny and bright and beautiful and we cannot imagine our life without her! She's the best little girl a mom and dad could every hope for! Happy Birthday, Emily. We love you! :)

How Old Are You, Emiliy?

"I'm might be turning two and I can say it, but I don't have to show you with my fingers, Mom. Leave me alone to play!!" :)

2 Year Check-Up

We had Emily's 2 yr check-up last week and Dr. Joyce was very pleased to see how Emily has progressed! She weighed 28 lbs and was 34" tall. Dr. Joyce said she was happy to see how PT was coming along and said she has no more concerns about Emily's development. Yeah!!! :)

And speaking of PT, we still go every Monday. I spoke with Sarah (our therapist) today and she still wants us to come every week for a while longer just to make sure that things continue to progress but she is very happy with the strides Emily is making. Yeah, again!!! :)

As far as development, Emily is growing and talking more everyday! She can now walk up and down the stairs with minimal assistance and is picking up at least 1 new word a day! Her walking and running has greatly improved and I can barely keep up with her energy! :)

This weekend will be her 2nd Birthday and we are hoping to go to the zoo, if the weather is nice. We'll post plenty of pictures then . . .

The Beatles

Nelson took me to an amazing concert in Akron on Saturday night for a Mother's Day gift. We saw The Beatles . . . well, at least what looked and sounded like The Beatles. They're called "1964: The Tribute" and they're basically a cover band that impersonates The Beatles. They were spectacular! They've been together for 24 years and travel all over the world. There were times when we were watching them and I really thought I was looking at Paul, John, Ringo & George. They have all their manerisms mastered and even play and sing just like the orginals. If you ever get a chance to see them I would whole-heartedly recommend them! We had a blast!! :)

The Little Chef

Emily was Mommy's little helper last night while I was making dinner. Pretty cute in her apron, huh?! :)

And here she is trying to get all the rigatoni noodles to stand up. She did a pretty good job except for the ones she bit the ends off of! I tried to warn her that they wouldn't taste very good, but she tried it anyway . . . and then promptly spit them out! :)

Weekend In Indianapolis

We went out to Indy this weekend to see Nathan & Jill and had a wonderful time! It had been entirely too long since we had been out there (Emily's first Thanksgiving -- about 18 mos ago)! The guys worked in the garage most of the day and the girls had a nice relaxing "girls day". We even got to sit outside and paint our toe-nails -- while Jill and I can still reach them!! :) Emily had a great time copying us and trying to do her nails -- using polish remover, cutting, filing and painting. She obviously couldn't do any of those so we painted her toes for her. Just in case there was any doubt -- Emily is ALL GIRL!!! :) You can see her painted nails in the one shot where she's bending down in her dress and hat.

Speaking of her dress and hat: I got her dressed this morning in that little dress and sweater. When we were leaving her room she requested that she wear the hat that she has on in the picture. We went and ran our errands this morning and she insisted on wearing it everywhere we went. Needless to say, she was the source of many "oh, how cute" comments!! :)