Quick Visit

Last Saturday my grandmother and aunt came for a quick visit. Emory was a little shy at first, because she had not seen them since Mother's Day weekend, but she warmed up quickly. Then put on quite the show!

Emory and Alpie

Emory being silly with Aunt Shirley

A close up of the silliness!

Giving Alpie a hug goodbye.

INTRODUCING..........

Mckenzie Rae Contreras! Mckenzie made her debut on Saturday July 10, 2010 at 8:06 am. She weighed 6 lbs 14 ounces and was 19 inches long! So its official, Emory is a BIG cousin now! Congratulations Rachel and Andrew and Happy Belated Birthday Mckenzie, we can't wait to meet you!

This picture was taken on her way home from the hospital. I love her expression!

Close, but no cigar!

Emory got a potty chair for her 1st birthday and for the last few months I have been putting her on it before her bath and talking about going potty. She usually just sits there for a few seconds and then jumps up and runs to the bath tub. Then a few weeks ago she discovered that if she stood in it the sensor would trigger and music would play. Since then I have been explaining to her that the music will also play if she goes potty in her potty chair. Last night Bradley undressed her while I ran her bath water, which is our routine, and then Emory typically runs in and sits on her potty chair. Well last night after she came in the bathroom I point in the direction of the potty chair and said, “Go potty!” Well she did, except she was sitting on the floor next to the potty chair. She was still proud of herself and applauded her effort all the way to the tub! Now I just have to figure out if this was a fluke or if she understands the concept of going potty, however I know NOW not to utter the word potty until she is seated on the chair!

In other “firsts” news, Emory said her first “sentence” this past weekend. Emory’s first sentence was…. “Mine Mommy Mine.” She said it with such authority and conviction too! This week she has added a few more, “Daddy Outside?” and “Doggie Night Night?”

After Emory gets out of the tub her favorite thing to do is pretend she is a bird. She runs around the house in her towel flapping her “wings” shouting tweet, tweet, and laughing hysterically. This picture was taken during one of her “flights!”

Happy Birthday America

My parents came Saturday morning for a visit, which worked out great because Bradley and I had a wedding to attend that night and I was nervous about Emory Grace attending. She is in this I think I am hysterical so why don’t I put on a show for everyone phase. So that evening we headed out and my parents kept Emory. Then Sunday we shopped a little, visited a little, and went for a late lunch where Emory ate a TREMENDOUS amount of food. We went to a local buffet style restaurant where kids under a certain age eat free. We joked that they are going to charge Emory the next time because she ate like a BIG kid! I joke about it, but I feel very fortunate that Emory eats so well and that she loves fruit and veggies! Then after our lunch my parents headed back to Arkansas, that still sounds weird to say, and we had a semi-quiet afternoon. We were going to go watch the fireworks, but Bradley’s dad re-hurt his back and ended up in the hospital last night. He is doing much better now. I told Bradley when he got back from the hospital that next year we need to just sit out in our driveway and watch the fireworks our neighbors down the road do. They put on quite the show. Luckily, Emory slept through it all, even Cole’s incessant barking. He does not like loud bangs and booms! So this year we had a very relaxing low key quiet 4th of July and a great visit with grandma and pawpaw!

This is the look I got when I said, "Say CHEESE!"

Emory modeling her slippers and necklaces.

Working on her walk or should I say strut!

This is a picture from when Bradley and I were at the wedding!

Vocabulary Explosion

Over the past few weeks Emory’s vocabulary has grown by leaps and bounds. Last night I decided to try and write down all the words that Emory knows and I was surprised at how many words she can say. Granted, not all of them are the clearest, but we are still able to understand what she is saying. So hear it goes! Emory at nearly 18 months old this is what you are saying: cookie, outside, coke (daddy taught you this one), ire truck (fire truck), mine (your favorite word), bib, no, cracker, ice keem (ice cream), cup, bow, spoon, moo, cow, cat, meow, baa, quack, doggie, wuf wuf (wolf wolf), diaper, hello (this is what you call a telephone), ba-ni-na (banana), apple, ball, book, bathy, shoe, socky, daddy, mommy, Cole, light, keys, tractor, baby, night night, bye bye, hat, broken, uh oh, mote (remote), fow-er (flower), door, cheese, Elmo, illow (pillow), peese (please), vroom (this is what you call a car), and tant you (thank you). Emory also likes to sing songs which go a bit like this lalalalalalalalaaaaaaaaaaaalalalala. She is quite the entertainer!

Emory likes to get diet cokes out of the pantry and give them to us. Sometimes she insists on putting them in the fridge.

Her other favorite thing to get out of the pantry is this container of oil. She carried it all over yesterday evening. Who knew oil could be so entertaining!

The Biting Continues

When I picked Emory up from daycare on Friday Ms. Betty informed me that Emory had to go to time out for biting a little boy. I felt horrible for the little boy she bit, but Ms. Betty assured me he was fine and that it was through his clothes. Apparently she took a chunk out of his toosh. Emory and I had a long "talk" all the way home. I think she knows she is not suppose to bite, but when she is in the moment of not getting her way, biting is the only way she thinks she can express her frustration. She will bite anything too, chairs, bar stools, my arms, it does not matter. I just hope this phase passes soon.

Our weekend was very low key, it consisted of playing, eating, napping, and throwing temper tantrums when Emory did not get her way. It amazes me how such a sweet little girl can turn into a biting, hitting, Noing little girl in a matter of seconds! That's right, Emory loves to tell us NO. Her other favorite is MINE!

Playing with her toys!

Taking a rest on Rocket Ship.

Putting her puzzle together.

Throwing a fit. I can't remember why.

Eating ice cream, which she LOVED!

Licking her fingers!

Using her spoon!

Making a silly face at me, when I told her to say cheese! She insisted on wearing this hat!

Trying to stay awake just before bed time!

Time

We recently experienced a loss in our family, Bradley’s grandmother passed away last Friday, and since her passing I have been thinking a lot about time. Time is a funny thing, sometimes you have too much and sometimes too little. Each month I find myself saying, I can’t believe Emory is … old, or it seems like just yesterday she was ….” I am constantly trying to capture time through pictures or video, because I find myself wanting to hold on to that moment, afraid I won’t be able to remember it later. It is that same reason I write this blog. This morning I realized I had not touched the blog this week, then that I had not even taken one picture of Emory since her turning 17 months last Tuesday. So with all my pondering about time this week, I managed to forget to capture it through photos and words. So here is a picture of Emory from this time last year.