May I Have This Dance?

Emily has always loved music and dancing. Earlier this summer we bought her some sunglasses and she thinks that whenever she has them on it’s time to dance. At first she did the “Night at the Roxbury” head bob, but now she’ll get her whole body into it. Whenever I have music on at home she’ll run around the house skipping and dancing and she’ll eventually come up to me and say “dance” and want me to hold her. As soon as I pick her up she grabs my hand and starts bouncing up and down and laughing. She sure has a ton of energy.

Brrr...

The other day we decided to try Emily's winter coat on her. It's a little big right now, but we're hoping it'll fit ok when it gets cold. Emily loved it and ran around the house dancing in it. She even liked having the hood on - which really surprised us. Hopefully she likes it this much when she has to wear it in a couple of months.

Party Animals

Last week was our last school-and-football-free weekend. We decided to celebrate by going to the zoo, attending the Farmer's Market, and visiting some parks. ~ Emily loved the zoo. The baby orangutan came and played right in front of the window where we were standing and Emily got so excited she kept pointing at the baby with her surprised “oh” face. We also took the time to see the bird show this time. Emily sat in awe as the birds flew back and forth right over our heads and she was very eager to clap when each bird was done. ~ Emily was in heaven at the Farmer’s Market because everyone decided to show up with their dogs. I think she “barked” the whole time we were there. ~ At the park on Saturday we decided Emily was big enough to try the slides alone. Our first attempt didn’t go so well when Emily freaked out and flipped over to her stomach and just held herself in the middle of the slide. Our efforts at coaxing her to lift up her arms and feet and just slide down, didn’t really work. Jeff finally had to climb up and pull her down. The next time Emily was a little hesitant, but actually made it down all by herself and after that she was a pro. She loved coming down all by herself and even felt brave enough to lift her shoes up – just a little bit – so she went faster. ~ All in all, it was a good week and one we are definitely missing right about now. Fall is in full swing now with Jeff pretty much just coming home to sleep between classes and games. He told me on his first day back that he had two goals for the semester: 1. To survive and 2. To see me and Emily. Not exactly the most exciting thing I’ve heard. I’m really not looking forward to spending the next 16 weeks as a single parent. But I guess I can survive if it means only one more year of school, right? At least, that's what I keep telling myself.

Teething

As we have mentioned, Emily decided that 13 months was just about the right time to cut teeth, so our perfect little angel cut her first one while we were back East. She is now working on a second tooth and has been quite the little devil. She has had a fever & runny nose and is more fussy than not. She has become pretty clingy to her mom, dad, teddy bears, baby and blanket (and of course her pacifier) and has a hard time parting with any of them. We've also had a difficult time getting her to take a decent nap and to go down quietly at night (giving us flashbacks to her first three months -ahhh!). Last night, we, or I should say Jeff - as I was in a meeting - was attempting the nightly routine with the only results being a baby that was screaming so much that her nose was running worse than ever and a dad that was beginning to question his decision on fatherhood. However after an hour and a half of his pleading and her screaming, she finally passed out. When we went back in to check on her, this is what we found...

Now how can you possibly stay frustrated when you see something like that???

Back to Reality

Even though we've been home almost two weeks, we still haven't managed to get back on top of everything. Jeff and I have returned to a monstrous list of "To Do's" and are trying all we can to complete it before he starts school next week (or at least make a sizable dent in it). Emily, however, has come back to all of her long lost toys and has probably made more headway in playing with every single one, then we have with our lists. But even amongst our crazy schedules, we've been able to snap a few pictures of Emily doing what she does best. But then how can you not take the time to whip out the camera when you have a daughter as cute as ours???

NY & VA

Well, as Jeff has mentioned, we just got back from a very fun, and very lengthy, trip back East. Jeff's parents & sister were in the Hill Cumorah Pageant in New York so we flew out to meet them and tour around. Jeff's youngest brother, Stan, and his wife, Melanie, also joined us. We toured around Palmyra, NY, went up to Canada and saw Niagara Falls, dropped down to Kirtland, OH and toured some more church history sites and then went on to Virginia. There we stayed in Stan & Mel's new home and went to see Natural Bridge and also spent some much needed time relaxing. After a couple of days there we crossed the state and headed to Brad & Heather's in Norfolk. We spent a few days playing on the beach and getting to know the latest Holbrook addition - Ella Marie. We enjoyed all the time with family and everything we were able to see. It was all a great experience...however, we were more than ready to come home. After three weeks of being on the road with a one year old, I've decided traveling isn't all it's cracked up to be.

Emily did extremely well though. She was completely thrown off schedule and her naps were almost non-existent on some days. It got continually harder to coax her into eating cheerios and goldfish in the end and I know she was craving some fresh fruit or something that didn't come out of a box. Emily also decided to continue extending her "firsts" while we were gone. She not only visited three new states, left the country, and played in the ocean for the first time...she also decided to finally show us her pearly whites. Well, ok, one of them. Emily kept biting and gnawing her fingers and thumb. On our last day I noticed she finally cut her first tooth! So considering how far away from home and routine she was and the fact that she was teething, I would say we pretty much had a little angel on our trip!

More to Come

Sorry for the lapse in posts, we were out of town for most of the month of July. We've only been back for a few days and we're trying to get back in the swing of things. Also, Bec came home to a special package... the new Harry Potter book, and she didn't put it down for 2 days (until she finished it). We (by we I mean Becca) will share with you about our trips, Emily's newest tricks, and anything else that comes to mind within the next few days.