July 28, 2007

Emma is now 10 months old. Where did this year go? She is growing but not as fast as before. She is now 20 lbs and 6 oz and 29 inches long. In 2 months we can switch her car seat to forward facing, she will really enjoy that. As of now she looks in the her mirror that is on the back seat to see into my review mirror to see me looking at her. I know she can see me in it because she smiles when I smile at her in it.

Emma is so funny. She can be so full of vinegar but also as sweet as the finest chocolates. I was folding towels and as I was folding them, she was busy “helping” me by pulling them all of the coffee table and making sure there wasn’t one that was still folded. I will learn to put the clothes away as soon as I get them folded with that little one there. I couldn’t do anything but laugh, the look on her face was so full of mischief! I told her that her dad and aunt and uncle never would have gotten away with that, well perhaps they did once in a while.

Emma sure loves her grandpa, she gets so excited when he comes home during the day for something. Yesterday though, she wasn’t so happy with him. She was excited when he came home, but then he took Tara with him. She stood at the door yelling “Grandpa… dog!” over and over. She didn’t want Grandpa to take the dog, I guess. She said both words as plain as can be.

She also seems to have interest in standing on her own and if she had the nerve, she could do it. To help her get her courage up, I bought her a little riding car that she can stand behind it and push it or she can ride on it. It is the car from the movie Cars. She loves it and giggles when she “drives” She does well standing up holding on with just one hand and pushing it. That is how we finally got Jordan to walk, by buying him a toy he could push around. Emma “crashes” once in a while and I get her giggling by pretending to be the ambulance, sirens and all.

She is the most precious, lovable, adorable, wonderful baby. She is almost always happy and smiling, always learning and noticing things around her. She amazes me with how she can zone in on something and work with everything she can to get what she wants. You can’t distract her from it. Hope she doesn’t lose that part of her.

July 18, 2007

Emma has had a lot of firsts these last couple weeks. She went on a horse ride with Jordan so it was the first time she was on a horse. She crawled down the stairs by herself (there is only two, well carpeted stairs at my house) and she also sit to close to the stairs and did a backwards summersault down them, which scared her and me big time. She said “grandma”, well cried it as I left the room and she wanted to come with me. But the biggest first she has done was going pooh pooh on the potty chair. I sat her on it as I was running the bath water and was surprised when she did her little job on it. I said “look Emma… Look at what you did!” She glanced at it and looked at me like “yeah? What about it?” then turned her attention to the “bath” which she said over and over until I put her in it.


Emma, Brianna and I went to Rapid City to look at the wedding dresses. Her mom couldn’t come, but they are going tomorrow to pick one up. We found the cutest flower girl dresses for Emma and Kaydance. We found a couple nice wedding dresses for Brianna also. Emma of course loved the shopping trip and was telling everyone she seen “hi” and “bye”. We went to the Olive Garden for dinner and “That’s Amore” was playing on the sound system. She loved that song and each time she heard them say “that’s amore”, she would repeat it. It was so cute. She didn’t like the Chicken Alfredo very well, but loved the chocolate torte that we had afterwards. When the waitress set it in front of Emma, Emma’s eyes grew big and she started dancing in her seat. The little old couple sitting next to us laughed and said “should have started with that” They had such a great time watching Emma. She is quite the entertainer.


When Jordan and Brianna took Emma over to visit Grandma Eda and Grandpa Don, one of the cousin’s were there with his little boy who is a couple weeks older then Emma. Brianna said Emma was quite ornery to Bridger. He would pull himself up to stand next to her at the fireplace and she would push him down. He would play with one of her toys and she would take it away and hit at him. It shocked Brianna for her to misbehave like that, she is always so good. I told her that it is normal for kids to go through that a bit, they don’t know any better and they don’t realize that it hurts the other child when he is hit or pushed. All you can do is intervene and teach her not to be that way. I am still working on her being nice when petting Tara and Cocoa. She likes pulling their hair so they keep their distance unless she has food to share.


Emma also loves singing and will sing a lot during the day. She can let me know what song to sing to her by saying a word or two of it. Like Hush little baby, she will sing “bird” for the songs I sing like “grandma loves you, grandma loves you, yes she does, yes she does, you are her little cuddle bug, you are her little cuddle bug, I love you, I love you” She will sing what sounds like “I love you” and some more in close to the tune. She will also sing “la da da da” since I do that when I am rocking her. She is so cute. I know that there will never be anyone who is loved more then that little girl.

Family Reunion

Brianna and Emma with Brianna's Grandparents

Emma wearing a lei

Emma and Daddy at Hawaiian Day

Emma the hula girl

Bathing Beauty Emmalyne

A day at the zoo

Emma is back in grandma’s arms, such a nice feeling. She had a wonderful time in Colorado at the family reunion and the Denver Zoo. Brianna said she loved all the attention from everyone and she also liked trying to eat rocks, dirt and pine needles. She liked having her baths outside in a big tote and all the sweets that everyone was willing to feed her.



At the zoo they said she liked the giraffes best and would giggle at them as she watched. She didn’t get to see the lion, which is sad since it is one of her favorite stuffed toys.



She liked being in the motel rooms and all the new things they did. She didn’t even do to bad with being in the car so much, probably because Grandma Neil was sitting with her and feeding her juice and donut holes.



I was very impressed on how well Brianna did on planning and putting on the family reunion. She has a natural talent for it. She planned in a Hawaiian day and different games, a talent show and much more entertainment for it. She will be a great Girl Scout leader when Emma is older… if Emma is interested in scouts.



When she got back she went swimming in the small pool I bought for her. She loved it even though it was pretty cold water. She has a little mechanical fish that she would chase around the pool. It was so cute.



Jordan shot off fire works on the night of the 3rd. She didn’t like that very well and would cry and hide her face when one went off. I took her inside and rocked her, first time we had a chance to since they got back from Colorado. She really enjoyed that and when Brianna came in to tell her it was time to go, she would hide her face against me and peek out at Brianna and giggle. I think she thought Mommy couldn’t see her since she couldn’t see mommy and that she was getting away with hiding from her. Jordan went to pick her up out of my arms then and she pushed his hands away and said “DON’T!” just as plain as can be. They left her with me while they packed everything in the car and then came back for her. She told me “hug” and I gave her a big hug and she went to Brianna without a fuss.



She is growing so fast. We bought her a swimming suit to keep here at grandma’s house in a size 12 months but had to take it back for a 18 month size. She also has 6 teeth now, 4 on the top and 2 on the bottom, with the new teeth she found that she can get a good grip on the baby spoons we feed her with, so with every bite she holds onto the spoon with her teeth and thinks it is a great game. She also likes to grind her teeth together to make a different sound… and her mother cringe.
My little grandma’s girl is growing up so fast, less then 3 months until her first birthday.