Emily is "Free" (3)

Emily is three!  I can't put words on what it's like to see my little girl grow up and see her little personality develop from baby to toddler to little girl.   Sweet, sensitive, and smart are still the words that come to mind. This has been a big year, with the arrival of her baby sister and move to a new house.  She enjoyed new activities (gymnastics, romp & stomp) and spent a lot of time with friends.  She still loves to read books, do puzzles, play with her animals, and visit family.

A few interview questions with the birthday girl, asked over the course of a few days.

Who is your best friend? Rosalie

What is your favorite color?  Purple, and pink

What is your favorite book- The cat in the hat

What is your favorite animal?  An owl.  "Did you know that when owls are really still, they let people pet 'em?...[Giggle...]  That doesn't really happen."

What is your favorite food?  Cupcakes

What is your favorite game?- Daddy's chess

What is your favorite thing to drink? Grape juice  [not sure where this one came from - she won't really drink anything besides water lately.  Or chocolate milk.]

What's your favorite thing to do outside?   Ride tricycles

What animals do you sleep with? My night night animals.  [Papa Bear, Monkey, Baby bear & bunny]

What is your favorite thing to do with Daddy? Plant something in the garden 

What is your favorite thing to do with Mommy? Read a book together

Months ago, we started talking about her birthday and going to visit Granny in Philadelphia and go to the zoo.  The big event did not disappoint!!  We enjoyed perfect weather and made it through the majority of the zoo.  Some favorite animals were the rhino, giraffes, and kangaroos, as well as a close encounter with a tiger.    More pictures are here in our June album.

Getting close!

Adara has started really wanting to crawl.  Uncle Alden took this video today:

A post on Emily at age 3 is coming soon.  Things have been a little chaotic around here.   In the meantime, a quote.

Lauren: Emily, what lives in a garage?

Emily: [thinks] Stuff!  

Swingset Unveil

Emily turns three next week, but the celebration has started early.  This is a pretty good reaction for a girl who was running a high fever and spent the rest of the day sleeping or lying on the floor.

Adara at 8 Months

our baby girl is 8 months old.  

sidenotes: 1) emily chose this photo 2) when alasdair commented to emily that adara's shirt looked like a kimono, emily started calling her a "kimono dragon" 3) note our unfinished cabinets in the background.  hopefully someday soon we will be done living out of boxes.

these days adara likes to:

sit up to play. her favorite game is to take all the toys out of a basket, also loves the music table. starting to stand while supported.

eat. especially corn & sweet potatoes. where a jar of baby food often lasted a emily a day or two, adara eats 4-6 per day, in addition to nursing 4 times.

wave. she loves to wave at mom, dad & emily, but will also engage total strangers. she made a lot of friends at ikea this weekend.

talk. all the time. combinations of ya ba da ma ga. if she wants your attention she will grunt or cough and bang her hands on her lap until you look.

she's learning to give kisses. (ie lean her face against mine and laugh delightedly)

we've learned that she does not like to be hot! after some nighttime battles, we realized we'd been dressing her too warmly. on a hot night it's not unusual for big sister to be sleeping in full length PJ's and a blanket, while baby sister is in just a onesie. guess which one spent her first months in a philadelphia summer, and which in a NH winter. :)

just trying to savor her baby-hood!

Toddler Talk

We are (hopefully) at the tail end of a couple weeks of chaos.  We love our new home!  We moved in May 12th and have been having some work done, which has meant we haven't had a functional kitchen yet... hopefully by Thursday.  One of these days I will post some pictures, but in the meantime I have to jot down a few of the Emily words that make me smile.

"Snook" as the past tense of sneak.  As in her gleeful smile when she asks the rhetorical, "Did I snook out of quiet time?"

"Ever ever" As in "I will not ever ever hurt you Mama."  Or (after I warned her that if she fell off the deck railing and broke her arm, she wouldn't get to go swimming this summer), "I will not ever ever break my arm!"

"Why not can I?" instead of "Why can't I?"  as in "Why not can I climb on the railing?"

Her "th" sound often comes out as "fl" as in "This finger is my flumb!"
Her rolled r sound (when trying to speak her Dora-inspired Spanish) comes out as a "d" as in "gadacias" for gracias.  She also says "de mada" instead of "de nada".

Sometimes I wish I could just bottle her up at this age forever!

Seven Months

At 7 months, Adara is still a very happy, social baby.  She is babbling up a storm and discovering she can make all kinds of new noises.  She loves to use her hands and will grab anything in reach, and often things we thought were out of reach.  She is getting pretty good at sitting up although she still needs help, and is starting to want to move herself around. (We spent a weekend with one of her baby-friends who can crawl: you can see Adara's fascination with Emma in this picture.)

A few more from today:

Edit: I got distracted with pictures and forgot some of the notes I meant to include about Adara at 7 months. She is loving solid foods now - so much more than I ever remember Emily eating.  She likes oatmeal and prefers veggies (and baby meats -- eww) to fruits.  She had been sleeping through the night (except a 10pm feeding) but has been starting to wait up again... I'm not sure if it's stomach trouble and I should limit her solids, or hunger and I should increase them?  Or teeth?  (She still has just the two bottom middles, but she might be working on some more.)  For now, I'm hoping it will just run its course.

Misc.

Conversation with Emily yesterday... for some reason she started calling me "God" and I explained to her that we weren't going to pretend mommy is God, since "only God is God".  She smiled deviously and said, "Is Jesus God?"  Very proud of herself that she caught me. ;)

And since all posts need a picture... is there anything sweeter than a baby wrapped up in a towel?