Summer Days

We've so been enjoying our summer days with morning walks at the park, afternoon craft projects and growing growing!! Lena took her first real steps yesterday and though she hasn't yet realized her freedom, Emmie noticed right away and was a bit worried about the whole thing! This two and a half year old world has been, lets just say....very active.  In one week we had 2 wall colorings, one diaper cream painting on the bed, one rug unraveling and body art.  Emmie has learned how to use her trashcan to climb on top of dressers, turn on lights and take the money out of her bank! We're busy learning shapes and letters, left and right, the C scale on the piano and conducting most music on the radio.  Emmie is loving the tricycle, cooking in the kitchen and being Momma's big helper in everything.  We've just celebrated our seventh anniversary and chose to cook in and stay together instead of going out.  How time does fly by!!

Lena Loo , you are 13 months and you are so busy trying to keep up with big sister. You are still our wee little lady but you are now getting long and you're finally into some size 12 month clothing!  Woo hoo!  We're having a tough time with 1 year molars.  Oh dear.  Hair is finally starting to grow in and it's looking more blond than brown, thicker and curlier than Emmie. Perhaps your hair is like Papa's as a baby?  Your eyes are still blue/green/brown.  Lena, you have an unlimited amount of energy. You do not like to be alone and you do not like to be still. You're not terribly interested in books but we think that is beginning to change.  You like noise and music and movement. You are a talker. You have strings of words and phrases like "Where are you Momma, here you are" and "over there, another one, look, clock, uh oh...." You can be SO SO silly!  You have discovered the toilet paper, cabinet doors and climbing on furniture.  You like to eat just about every food but your favorite is still sausage.  You can eat so much!! As June flies away and July comes it's hard to believe the summer is half over already, but we're savoring every day!

Beaching Part 2

 We love the sea, but we enjoyed a day at Leaming's Run Gardens, listening to frogs, walking through Bamboo forests, enjoying the flowers. We also went to the Cape May County Zoo!

Beaching

We've just returned from a week by the sea. It was lovely. But it was especially fun to catch the thrill of a two year old and one year old as they experienced the sights and sounds and smells of the shore. Emmie was so very excited to spend time with cousins. She thought Sam and Ben were "Aunt Bec's friends". She went into the water for a few days until the ocean was scary and then wouldn't go near it.  But many a sand castle and sand hole were built and many a sea shell gathered.  Lena developed a turbo crawl on the sand but wasn't too keen on the ocean. She thought the gulls were just the silliest creatures around. It was sweet to live life together for a week with family and they were all gracious with our 6 am (or 4:45!) risers.  After the littles went to bed,  the games came out and grownups played until they fell asleep.  The girlies had a fun week and now we are working on getting back into routine and weeding our garden! 

Emmieisms

 This girl!! Emmeline is a wonder to us, and a hoot! She makes us laugh with her funny phrases and ideas.  I want to remember all of them forever because they show how smart she is and how silly and how the world appears to a 2.5 year old. Sometimes I think she is smarter than us because of her perspective.  Here are a few of her best phrases these days:

- yellow is my favorite (she mentions this everytime she sees anything yellow and sometimes it goes like this "yellow is my favorite, blue is papa's favorite, pink is lena's favorite (how do we know?), purple is mama's favorite". This girl could talk the hind leg off a mule

-I'm proud of you (when she has done something praiseworthy)

-I take a long nap (when she wakes up in the morning)

- Its still orange sunset Momma (when it isn't as dark as she'd like it to be at bedtime and she is stalling)

- Want to do a "poject" (any art craft)- her great love!

- I pooped a big one, do you like it (sorry tmi- but we're in the thick of potty training and so there's a lot of this kind of conversation going on these days and this girl is SO proud).

- Naming her friends: Henty (Henry), Nina (Lena), Skylar (kyler)

-The way she says "sure" is kind of like "sür" - just like Sammy, her cousin did

-That flower is melting (when it has died)

-Motorcycles are microsotls

-I want to read a magazina (love the Italian Em)

-Jesus is ALIVE, no more in the stone

-Grandmom living with Jesus, through sky.


Although we have our days of training and discipline, these are precious days with our Em. She is discovering her world and talking all about it! It is so much fun.  Can you tell which picture is of momma- I threw that in just to document that Emmie has somehow gotten Momma's wisp thin baby hair.  :)