Happy Halloweener

Emma was a very happy Halloweener yesterday.  We started our festivities the day before Halloween because we're awesome and waited until the last minute to do any kind of celebrating and then showed up at the pumpkin patch with a dead battery in our camera so only got two pictures.  Fortunately our camera phones came to the rescue so we didn't walk away totally empty handed.

Here's our little flying dino-lizard (in rain boots and froggy pajamas cuz it was after bed time when we arrived at said pumpkin patch due to daddy's work schedule).

And, here's Emma's trick-or-treating crew.

We started the night at a friend's house for pics and headed out to take the neighborhood by storm.  At the first house, the guy answered the door with a scary mask on and screamed when he opened the door so Emma started crying...great start to the night.  But, after the next few houses she had the whole "trick or treat" thing down and was pulling me to the doors instead of me carrying her.  She ended up with a ton of loot that Dan and I get to eat.  There's nothing like some cute kids to amp up the take home.

It was a great night with our dear friends and their darling little guys.

Remind me someday

My sweet Emma,
You're 21 months old TODAY.  That means the big 2 is just a few months away and I'm already feeling like I'm forgetting moments of your babyness that I promised myself I would remember forever.  While I have little snippets on camera that I can look back on, nothing compares to the real moments experienced with you.  Here are some things I don't want to forget...

- The first time I heard you sing yourself to sleep with "Jesus Loves Me" on our deep sea fishing trip earlier this year.
- How you say "Bless you" to yourself every time you sneeze (you also say it to us to when we sneeze, cough, or make any other noise besides speaking).
- When we say "I love you," you respond with "too" because you're a woman of few words and you know that we know what you mean.
- That the first book you asked me to read was "Brown Bear."  I couldn't understand what you were saying at first and then you pointed to the book and kept saying "bunbay" which I then interpreted to mean "Brown Bear."  Now you basically have it memorized.
- Every time I pick up my computer you ask to watch "Harry the Bunny" on Baby's First TV website (that's what grandpa lets you watch when you're at his house...such a treat), and you ask for Boos Poos, otherwise known as Blues Clues all.the.time.
- You love tomatoes and pick them off my plant when they're two days away from being perfect, but sit on your playhouse steps and eat it all with the seeds squirting everywhere.  I guess if your guilty pleasure is a tomato off the vine then we're okay.
- You still crawl in the dog crates and close yourself in when I'm not looking.
- The main reason you like having stuffed animals in your crib when you fall asleep is so you can play with the tags, and if I hand it to you the wrong way you say "tag" until I turn it around.
- You love music and the other night when your dad was playing his guitar you went to the living room and got your own instrument (don't know what it's called, but it's from Africa) and started playing along with him all on your own.
- You think most little things that you pick up are "buggies" including watermelon seeds.
- I've caught you at least four times (so far) with a mouth full of dirt.
- You can put your alphabet puzzle together with one hand tied behind your back.  We have not, in fact, tied your hand behind your back, but considering that you usually just use one hand to put it together anyways I'm pretty sure you could do it if the other one was tied behind you.
- Your friends in the church nursery say that you walk around the room like you own it, and you're always soooo happy to go play with the other kids.
- When I walk around our yard picking up dog poop you stop every three steps, point down and say poopy even if there's nothing there.
- There have been several times when you adamantly say something and we just don't understand.  You're obviously much smarter than we are because you will learn our language so quickly and we will never learn yours.
- Your version of tickling is walking up to us and just poking our leg or foot.  We don't tell you that it doesn't actually tickle because it's just so funny seeing you giggle and "tickle" us that we laugh out of sheer joy.  You just walk up and say "tickle" and start laughing hysterically.
- Sometimes when we pray before dinner we ask you to pray and you just say "Jesus."  That's the perfect prayer in my humble opinion.

Sweet girl, if you can't tell, there are so many things I don't want to forget and I'm sure so many things I already have forgotten.  I want to savor every second with you knowing how fleeting this time is, and even though each moment can't be etched in my memory forever I know that every experience we have is building on the one prior so the end result will be one amazing person with memories of your own and fun stories to tell.

Love you tons,
Mommy

OC Fair 2012

We have the distinct pleasure of living about five minutes away from our county fairgrounds, so we typically get the season pass and this year was no different.  What was different, however, was the awesome kids area that they put together for the first time this year.

The theme this year was Eat, Live, Grow, and there was a whole section where Emma got to practice being a farmer (startin' 'er young).

 Then, she took a lap on a tractor in her own tractor race (with a little help from dad).

Whaddayaknow...she got first place (good thing as she was the only competitor in a race we made up for her).

So, we had a ton of fun at the fair this year and even though we didn't get there as much as we would have liked (early bedtimes definitely derail the best laid fair plans), we can't wait for next year to see the new baby piggies, get the delicious grilled corn on the cob and the even more deeeelicious cinnamon rolls.  Hopefully we can get by for another year or two before Emma realizes there are rides at the fair (we'll just tell her that they're really scary and dangerous and fall apart all the time), but she already has a monster sized Scooby Doo from last year's fair and her new fave, a cute little stuffed piggy, from this year thanks to Papa so we're out of luck in convincing her that the prizes for the games come to life and eat little kids at night.  We'll just have to wait and see what she wins next year.

Recap of Aunt Becky's farewell

Before my sister, Becky, left for Africa she organized a family farewell at my parent's ranch in the desert at the beginning of August.  My parents go out there more than Dan and I, but we try to go a few times a year.  This was Emma's second time, and she LOVED it.  

She started by introducing her piggy and bunny to the "ranch dog" (the stuffed animal that my mom got from the carpet company when she placed her order...random, right?).

They all seemed to get along just fine which made Emma happy.

Then, we realized that this place isn't really baby proof and we're going to need to keep a close eye on our little one.  With a wood burning stove, sharp corners on tile, and big logs lying around it could have been a recipe for disaster, but considering that Emma was basically surrounded 24/7 by somebody it all worked out.

She took Papa on a ride in Big Foot, the 6-wheeler, and she most certainly did it in style.

And then we got Onyx, our third dog, named after the town where he's from.  Emma's just rollin' with her homey, but Onyx was a little unsure of the whole situation.  He's adjusting just fine now, but he is definitely a puppy.

Some other things we did at the ranch were: swim in the kiddie pool, Emma "drove" my dad's truck along the driveway while he threw weeds in the back, we went to the river and even though the water was freezing cold she had a great time splashing away, had great family time with my sister, and we slept, and slept, and slept.  Oh how I miss those long lazy naps.  I guess if I could sleep like that all the time I wouldn't get sleep deprived enough to really appreciate those times when they come along.

And, oh yeah, Emma pooped and peed all in her pack-n-play after taking her diaper off, then climbed out of said pack-n-play (because who would want to hang out in their own poop) to wind up sitting bare bottomed in our room all while I thought she was taking a nap...oh the joy.  At least she hasn't figured out how to climb out of her crib yet, but I'm sure that time is coming too.  

A Saturday {Un}like any other

Saturdays as a family are a very rare and special treat since Dan's normal work schedule is Tuesday-Saturday.  This gives him Mondays with Emma but leaves us only Sundays together as a full "party of three" day.  When I found out that he had the opportunity to have Saturday off due to a schedule change with the other supervisor I was so excited just to have a normal Saturday with him.  Initially we thought we'd do all sorts of "special" things, but what we really ended up with was the perfect blend of normal that made it so special.

Emma slept until 9a.m.-ish, which meant that we got to sleep until 9a.m.-ish.  Then, the day started with some perfect hang time in the kitchen while Dan made his coffee and Emma sat on the counter eating a banana.  It might be boring to some, but with church on Sunday mornings we don't actually get to just hang out on the one morning per week that we have together.  Then we headed outside for some of this...

And some of this...

And some of this...

When Emma went down for her nap we decided to tackle a few projects that had been on the back burner, so we relocated all of my gardening supplies to the opposite side of the yard, and Dan got to hanging our surfboard rack in the garage AND fixing a side gate that was a little bent out of shape (so lucky to have a handy Dandy).

And then we went to not one, but two birthday parties that afternoon.  Usually Emma and I fly the birthday circuit as a duo because Dan's at work, but this time he actually got to come with us.  He even experienced Emma's first pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey and her first hit of a pinata.

After making it home we were all stuffed full with Mexican food and monkey cupcakes so we put Emma to bed a little early and Dan and I totally cleaned up the side of our house and went to bed feeling extremely productive (and a little sore).  

All in all it was a perfectly plain, ho-hum, nothing extraordinary kind of Saturday which made it all the more wonderful.