Brushing Teeth

Emma likes to brush her teeth using the electric toothbrush. After watching Daddy, she likes to spit in the sink and take a drink too.

Some recent shots of Emma

Just hangin' out.



Getting ready to go outside.



Emma and Daddy playing.



Happy girl!



Aunty Chantale gave me a 'thingy' for Christmas a few years ago. Emma just loves it and carts it around the house.

Stroller Derby

Emma received a dolly stroller for Christmas. We've been watching our toes and shins ever since!

The Cackler

I must admit, Emma is a constant source of entertainment for us. For a while she was making this funny cackling sound when laughing... and did I mention she is quite zippy too.

Merry Christmas

"A lovely thing about Christmas is that it's compulsory, like a thunderstorm, and we all go through it together." (Garrison Keillor)

Merry Christmas and best wishes for the new year.



More blog updates when we come back from visiting family.

Christmas Photos

It takes a lot of photos to get one or two good pictures of Emma. It's hard for such a busy girl to sit still.



(There appears to be some technical difficulty this morning. If a slideshow doesn't appear try here:

Christmas Photos

Sleep or Eat?

Sometimes it is hard to decide if sleeping or eating is more important.

Cooking Lessons

It is good to help mommy with making dinner. Taste testing is helping, right?!

Our Family Tree

Apparently, our family tree has two cats and a kiddo.

First Snow

First snow of the year and Emma wasn't quite sure what to think of it. I'm quite sure she was wondering why her world went white over night.


Getting the snow off her hands.


Daddy brushing the snow off after he tried throwing snowballs at Emma. She wasn't impressed.

October 2008

Some photos from the last month...


I never know what the daycare lady will have her in next. Apparently a top knot is the solution for a hood that is too large.




Emma loves to hang out with the kitties. Usually Smudge doesn't stick around but that day was too good to miss the window seat.



This one is for Grandma.



Emma loves playing in the pillows with Daddy.



Snuggle time with mom as she is trying to make Pepere's fudge.

Happy Halloween

A bit late but our little lion cub has been keeping us busy.

Catching up

So, it's been a while. Now that we have our new routine, Emma is in a day home, I'm back at work and the kitties have the house to themselves during the day, I need to be extra-creative about carving out time for posting. Anyways, here's a selection from the last few months.

Doin' Dishes

Rockin'!

Emma really enjoys her rocking giraffe. They can really fly!

Dilemma

So, what does a parent do when their kid does a face-plant in the dirt?
1. A quick assessment to make sure nothing is seriously wrong.
2. Grab the camera.



oh and 3. Give her a cuddle.

Camping

For summer vacation we went camping with Doug's family in northern BC, Tumbler Ridge to be exact. We were there for Emma's first birthday.

For souther Ontario folk, it was quite nippy in the mountains. (Yes, that is what I remember most. No one should be shivering in summer!)

One Year of Emma

A reprise of her first year.

Faces of Emma - 12 months

Two months late, but to finish the series...

Happy Birthday Emma!

Emma astride the rocking giraffe Daddy and Mommy made her. Ok, Daddy made the giraffe but Mommy took care of Emma so he had the time to do it. Not sure who did the more work!

Faces of Emma - 11 months

Here she is at 11 months (plus a week or so but close enough). Between then and now she has cut four (yes FOUR) new teeth, all on the top.

Painting

If you wondered why I suddenly have time to post after completely missing June, it is because we finally finished painting our living/dining room. Emma and I have spent nearly four weeks playing in only half the house. Ugh! Of course, what better reason to go play outside, unless too disgustingly hot and humid.

Anyways, the final results are an improvement. At the start Grandma came for a visit to take care of Emma while I sanded down the baseboards (thank heaven of belt sanders!) Here we are taking a break. Emma fits nicely in the garden seat (sans the seat) I sit on to do low work.



Leo liked napping on top of the cabinets. Kept him nicely out of reach of little hands.


Emma helped Daddy rewire the outlets. She likes to be in the thick of things.




It was thirsty work.

At the park

In the afternoons, we usually go to the park. Sometimes there are other kids to play with and sometimes she has to make do with mommy. Whatever the case, she has fun.

Our morning walk

In the morning before her nap, Emma and I go for a walk. Sometimes we just walk down the street and sometimes we take the wagon and go around the block. This particular morning, Emma wanted to take the wagon.



Even with the wagon, Emma likes to get out and explore. Progress can be rather slow.

Not everyone is mommy material...

A picture is worth a thousand words. :)

Sailin'

We went down to the sailing club last month. Emma liked checking out the boats.

Faces of Emma - 10 months

Doug hasn't yet taken her 11 month photos so here's the 10 month ones I never managed to post. She is getting so expressive now. She's quite the girl.

First words

So far, Emma has a 2 word vocabulary.

She almost always gets "kitty" right. (She'd love to be friends with Leo and Smudge. Leo and Smudge prefer to be friends with the highest object in the room.)

She frequently gets "daddy" right. (When you walk in the door to a happy cry of "daddy!", even the worst day seems a lot better.)

Christine is working hard on adding "mommy" to Emma's repertoire. This morning was the usual practice of "Can you say 'mommy'? 'Ma-ma', 'ma-ma'". Emma looked at Christine, then licked and smacked her lips (just like the end of a good meal).

Is there any higher praise than that?

Chores

I have this thing about making the bed every day. Doug, like many, doesn't see the point but being a good sport, he humours me. Sometimes he adds too much humour but at least it gets done.

April and May

Where does the time fly? Over the hill and beyond my reach.

Between Emma, spring and my natural tendency for procrastination, I've not done an update for 6 weeks. And what an eventful six weeks! Emma is now 9 months, nearly 10. Since the last post, she has:

- learned how to go up and down stairs. Though she can climb down backwards, her favourite method for getting down is to yell and hold out her arms to be carried down. Too clever for my own good.

- grown two new teeth (only one tooth in this photo but it sure is cute!)



- and last but not least, learned how to walk. She is now able to go across entire rooms and is getting steadier every day.

A slide show of some other notable shots of the last 6 weeks.

Faces of Emma - 8 months

Yes, I know she is over 9 months old now, but her she is at 8 months.

Easter in Manitoba

For Easter we went to Great-grandma's in Manitoba. Doug's family made the trip from Alberta so Emma got to meet her cousins for the first time. It was a busy trip. Emma handled all the people very well, though she didn't like being passed around much (see if you can notice in the photos).

Bradley

Bradley was Emma's Easter gift. He's a wonderful plush monster from the Monster Factory. The Easter trip to Great-grandma Doole's over the Easter holiday was quite and adventure.

He arrived before our trip. He had to wait in his box so he wouldn't spoil the surprise.













Easter finally arrived and Bradley was allowed out to play. He played dress-up with Emma's new sweater. Here he is waiting for his lunch.













Bradley wanted to make sure he didn't get left behind. He snuggled in among the clothes in the suitcase.













Bradley and Emma helped unpack the suitcases when we got home.













Here he is relaxing on the couch. I think he is happy to be home.

Baby gates

Now that Emma is mobile we have a baby gate to keep her out of the kitchen when I am cooking. We bought a clear plastic 'no climb' gate as we suspect that she will be a climber. What we didn't realize was that it was entertaining for parents as well!

Also note which side of the gate Leo is on.

Personal discovery

Emma is discovering new things to do with her face and new sounds to make. Here's a couple from this week.

Funny faces...


My chatty girl...

A week in the life of Emma

My friend CG works close to us and we finally were able to go to lunch the other day. A good time was had by all.

She is now on three meals a day and is getting good use out of her high chair.

Emma is checking out her new dragon she got for Valentines day. She likes to chew on his crinkly wings.

Emma and I go to a mommy exercise class. She likes all the other babies, and in particular, their toys. Note she has successfully snagged the ducky rattle from this little guy.

Snow Days

Recently we had several snow storms go through and dump a lot of the white fluffy stuff behind. The pile at the front of the yard was quite impressive. I would like to point out that it is a hand shovelled pile, no snow blower for us! (Since then we've had rain so what hasn't melted is now compacted and crusty.)

And on days where the commute is predicted to be nasty, Doug has the option to work from home. Here he is on a conference call.


I want to be a software developer.

More 6 month pics

Baby Feet

I love baby feet.

6 months old!

As of Sunday Emma is 6 months old. Yep, a whole half year. Wow. Time flies... and so does she! In the last 3 weeks she has started to crawl, sits up like a veteran, pulls herself up to standing on anything (and I mean anything) and, as of this morning, started trying to figure out stairs.

Am I one proud mommy or what! Of course I'm also turning gray in a hurry.

Faces of Emma at 6 months:




Emma pulling to standing.

A new era

Emma has started to crawl, not just ooch, C-R-A-W-L. I caught her trying to get into the media equipment the other day. Sigh. My life, and house, will never be the same. And yes, she is only 5 1/2 months old.

Swimming

Emma is enjoying her Guardian Swim sessions. We go for a half hour swim on Saturdays. Today Doug took Emma into the pool while I did the Proud Mommy With Camera routine. She looks very cute in her swim diaper, this one is purple with mermaids.