June 21, 2008

We had a great time today. Jordan, Brianna, Kevin and I took Emma to Reptile Gardens and Bear Country USA. Brianna said she hadn’t ever been to either of them and so we thought it would be a great day trip. Emma loved it a lot.
Emma is a Bindi the Jungle Girl fan and loves watching her shows with the different animals and reptiles. We watched the show where Bindi and her dad went to Bear Country and to Reptile Gardens so that made it even more fun.
Emma loved it when we were going through Bear Country, since we went so slow and all traffic was one way, we let her out of her car seat so she could see the animals better. She laughed and squealed all through the bears. When we got to Babyland she loved it too, all except the fake bear to get the picture with, she wasn’t sure about him at all! She got a bear country tattoo on her arm which she is very proud of. We had packed a lunch and ate it at a picnic area at Bear Country. Emma thought that was fun having a picnic. She was so sweet. I would ask her what a bear says and she tells me “moo”.
Reptile Gardens interested her with the snakes and the chameleon. Her new big word is “eek!” which she said when she touched the baby gator. I didn’t get a picture of it since she touched it while I was trying to get the camera out and turned on. She thought the bird show was great, she clapped a lot during it. When we went to the gator show, she was sitting on my lap enjoying it and wanting down to go see better and I told her she had to sit on my lap. She was watching it when all the sudden her head flopped down. She had fallen asleep right in the middle of it all. She was so tired she didn’t even turn to cuddle like she usually does.
She enjoyed seeing the giant turtles. It took us a lot of coaxing to get her to touch one but finally she did with mom’s help. She, of course, said “eek!” What a silly girl.
She picked out a gator and a bear stuffed animal for Grandma to buy as souvenirs. Her mom and dad bought her a t-shirt from each place. Brianna said she likes to get T-shirts so they can get use out of them and they have the place printed on it. I say I like to buy toys, because they are fun for them to play with. So lucky little one, she got both! I sure enjoy that baby.

My Grandpa

My Grandpa
By Shari Gose

My hands and feet are very small
I reach your knees, I’m not that tall
I look to see the love in your eyes
My grandpa who seems so very wise

My hands and feet may be very small
I reach your knees, I’m not that tall
You’ll teach me a lot being my best chum
I have a lot to learn in the years to come

My hands and feet may be very small
I reach your knees, I’m not that tall
Hold my hand & I’ll hold onto your finger
As we explore the world; come on, let’s not linger

Potty Training the Doll

Happy Birthday Daddy and Happy Fathers Day

June 15, 2008

We had Don and Eda's (my in-laws) 60th anniversary party yesterday combined with Kevin's sister Pam and her new husband, Al's wedding reception. Can you imagine being married 60 years? A wonderful marriage they have also, a lot can be learned by watching two people who have been together for so long.

The party went very well, we had a good turn out and everyone seemed to have a great time. Instead of cake we had cupcakes, 167 or so of those things, Brianna, Eda and I frosted (With Emma's help of course) She loves to help with whatever we would let her help with, balling the watermellon, sticking the flag toothpics in each of the cupcakes and of course entertaining us with her silly antics.

It was so good seeing Shelby, Trent, Aiden and Cody again. It is hard to believe how fast Aiden is growing. He is so cute and always was smiling.

Emma did amazingly well with two days and no naps. She showed her almost two year old age Friday night when she wasn't too sure about sharing her toys but didn't have a problem until she had to share two of her favorites in which she acted out by kicking and hitting little Aiden. She, of course got time out since it isn't acceptable to hurt anyone, which she took very well.I understand that little ones who don't have the ability to use words act out with hitting, kicking, biting and throwing fits. Adults have enough trouble trying to show disappointment, anger or displeasure without acting out in negative ways and they CAN use their words. It is still unexceptable and the behavior needs to be corrected from the beginning. All and all, Emma was a good little 1 year old and was sweet and loveable like she always is. I am very proud of her!
Saturday night Emma spent the night with me while Jarrod, Jordan and Brianna went out to shoot the guns. She was so tired, she went down so fast. When she woke up during the night, I just put her in the bed in there and laid down with her and she went right back to sleep. She is spending the night again tonight while her Momma and Daddy went to celebrate Daddy's 21st birthday. She has had so much fun today also. She went right down to sleep for me tonight. We will see if she sleeps all through the night tonight.

Now that all the parties and graduations are over, I will concentrate more on getting back to work so I can spoil Emma some more! I so enjoy buying her things, whether it is toys, clothes or taking her to do something special. Don't worry though, it is well balanced with lots of love and cuddles and kisses. She is given love in everything we do with her including her conscequences for misbehaviors. I think that is why she is such a special young lady who doesn't seem afraid to be around anyone and is self confident to try new things and take such interest in everything.

Emma has done such silly things lately. She is into wanting to be in her stroller and going for walks. She really likes it when we walk Tara with her. She got herself stuck in the bottom of her stroller basket but after she heard us laugh about it, she would do it over and over.

Today she was potty training her doll. I think she is really going to get the hang of it. She went and sit on her potty chair with her diaper on and wet in her diaper. Then she got up and wanted the diaper off and tried sitting there again wanting toilet paper to wipe herself. Brianna will have to work on it this week when she is over at her grandma's while Jordan is in school. I bet if she works really hard with it she will have her pretty well potty trained before the week is out, especially with Kaydence there to encourage it.

I had to take a printout to a lady who lives at the end of the alley tonight so Kevin, Emma and Tara walked with me. Emma had so much fun helping "Paaa" hold onto Tara's leash. She laughed and laughed over it. She was mad when I made her hold my hand to cross the street though. She was so funny, she would want to hold my hand but she wanted to be independant more so she would reach for my hand, then pull away.

I sure love her!

June 8, 2008

Emma is so funny. Yesterday they were over in Hulett for Grandma Neil’s 85th birthday party and Emma got really worn out. She fell asleep on the way home so when Cassie took her from the car seat when they arrived here, Emma wasn’t very happy. She was going to stay overnight with us but she decided she wanted her mommy and no one, not even grandma was going to change that. I think it hurt Cassie’s feelings a little bit, but Jordan brought her over early this morning which helped. Cassie and I took Emma to breakfast at the restaurant then came back home for a little bit. Emma took a long nap (in grandma’s arms of course) and we baked cookies afterwards. I had picked up a little baking set for Emma. It has her own little rolling pin, just like grandma’s. She had so much fun with it all. We both were covered with flour and after the first batch was done and cooled, she was more into eating the cookies then making the last batch. I think she ate 4 or 5 cookies. Afterwards she had a blue tongue from the blue food coloring in the cookies. She was so funny, laughing at that blue tongue in the mirror. She was such a good little girl all day. Never threw a fit at all until mom and dad got there. Kevin says it is because she knows she can do anything with me. I think it is more because I keep her so busy with things, that and if it isn’t too bad, she can do it. Making memories not messes.

She tried to choke herself on one of the tops to her doll bottle. I was glad I was right there with her. When she started sticking it in her mouth, I said “no, don’t put that in your mouth!” She shoved it in the rest of the way and scared me to death. I pulled it back out, glad the nipple part was sticking out instead of in or it would have been harder to get a grip of it. I took it and put it up telling her that she can’t have that anymore. It scared her pretty bad and she cried and cried. I felt bad scaring her so much but dang, she can’t be putting things in her mouth. I told the kids they need to put up the one they have at their house also. I guess she has been acting so big lately, it is easy to forget she is only a year old and still can’t have all the little toys.

She is such a special and sweet girl. I am glad to be her biggest fan, my little grandma’s girl!

June 5, 2008

Today is Brianna’s 22 birthday so Emma came over and we made a birthday cake for her. Emma loves to cook and bake (especially when she has beaters to lick) She broke an egg for me. She did very well, we didn’t even get any shell in the mix! She hit the side of the bowl with it and it cracked really hard, it was funny. When we were frosting the cake it was hard keeping her fingers out of it. (Thanks Grandpa Lee!) She loved putting the sprinkles on, although she got fed up with them being on the cake when they could be in her mouth! Then we put 22 squiggly candles on it, that was her favorite part. She just stuck them in all over the cake, it was so cute. She thought she should be able to open mom’s presents but was disappointed that they weren’t much fun. She helped blow out the candles on the cake, I think she blew for about 10 minutes afterwards just remembering how fun it was.



Emma is getting so grown up. She is talking more and more now. She still jabbers some but she also lets us know what she wants with some words. She loves Bindi and when we turned it on today they were in Bear Country in Rapid City. Emma got excited and started saying “Bear”. She recognized it right away.



We have had a bit of a problem with one of her little cousins taking toys away from her when she plays with her so I told her she can tell people “No… Don’t” when they take things away from her. She learned this lesson very well and when her momma took her microphone away to see something on it, Emma looked at her and said “NO!” and took it back.



Last weekend we all were in Casper for Uncle Jarrod’s graduation from the Apprentice program. We stayed at the Parkway and Emma thought staying in a motel was loads of fun. She loved the pool and didn’t want to get out of it. She loved taking us for walks and we always ended up down by the pool for some reason. She would look in the window and say “there” or “Weeee” She would go by the drinking fountain and say “mmmm” then she would head to the music playing in the bar and want to go there to dance. She didn’t understand why she couldn’t go in there. She was such a good baby all weekend. So fun and gave us loads of laughs. I get such a kick out of her.



I gave Emma some mini rice cakes and she dropped one. Tara grabbed it up and Emma came to me saying “Maaaa…. Tara” then she made a chomp sound. She was telling me that Tara ate her treat! It was so funny, well to me it was, she didn’t think it was too funny. She is getting really bossy with Tara now. She tells her “Tara, come” and “Tara, no!” and “Tara, stay”. Tara doesn’t know what to think of her anymore now. She still likes to follow Emma around when Emma has food though.