Happy Halloween!

walking and kissing

I intended to take a short video of emma's crazy walking skills. But in the end, I got a great video of her kissing skills. :) Love. Her.



the kissing bandit from Eeks on Vimeo.

Happy Fall!!

The Santa Ana winds are finally dying down, and it's starting to feel like fall around here. We had a wonderful time yesterday at our friend Winter's house. She and Emma met in utero (hospital tour for mom's) and they're pals in napping crimes. :)

Thank you to Tia for the beautiful fall dress!!

How PRECIOUS are these two???

birthdays and black eyes

Finally getting around to posting this. It's been busy here at Popsicle Central. Three different people have caught the cold! I think we're finally on the mend now. If only the weather would decide which direction it was going to go!

So we spent a week back east celebrating Emma's first birthday with family and friends. She ended up having more than one celebration, what a lucky girl! To make things more interesting, Emma decided to start walking on the trip. And everyone knows that with walking comes bumps, and bruises, and yes, the occasional black eye. So she had a little black eye under her right eye (see below) for her birthday celebrations. She's a tough girl, though. I think she was almost proud. :)

"I'm so excited! I get to have FOUR birthday cakes this week!"

On Friday night, we had her first birthday cake and singing at cousins Morgan & Tommy's house. She loved everyone singing to her, and hanging out with her fun cousins!

We had a Virginia celebration on Saturday, the 27th. Thank you to Aunt Sarah for the beautiful party dress! We got to hang out with G.G., and Tia and Uncle Andy, our special, wonderful Emma (for whom little Emma was named), friends from New York, Florida and Portland, cousins and more! It was great, and Emma loved being the center of attention (before taking a nice long nap in the closet. hey, she slept like a champ!)

On Sunday, we had a birthday celebration for her in Maryland with family. She had a beautiful Princess Cake handmade by Aunt Kelly and cousin Morgan:

Gammie created an amazing birthday Princess party for her Precious Angel. It was a fairytale dream! Just look at this spread!

When it came time for Emma's cake, she was a little tired, but she's still a party girl through and through. She loved her birthday treat!

The wonderful legacy of her first birthday, is that she was able to share it with THREE other generations!! That's right, she had two paternal great-grandparents at her party, and we had to capture it on camera:

What a lucky girl she is. She got lots of wonderful books, clothes, baby dolls, games, puzzles, handmade sweaters, two necklaces, a handmade book by Aunt Kelly and more. The best gift of course, was just having our loved ones around us to help celebrate this little treasure. I think she enjoyed herself immensely and we look forward to many more! Thanks to everyone who worked so hard to make her day so special!

For the rest of our trip, there are simply too many pictures to post at once, so take a look at ALL of them here:
http://eeks101.smugmug.com/gallery/6164504_GM5h3#388568957_Mhntk

enjoy!

relocation package

Poor Parker. He probably feels second-rate these days. First he had to give up some prime real estate when Emma was born, and we had to reduce his stately pillows from three to one. Now, he's having his food and drink relocated at will. Luckily, he's a mellow dude. But if we ever wake up to find a giant poop log on Emma's rug, we'll have an idea of who the suspect is. :)



Movin' from Eeks on Vimeo.

One year visit!

Emma had her 1-year appointment this week with our wonderful pediatrician who, after 2 minutes in the examination room said, "my, she sure is a busy little lady". That's our popsicle!

She weighed in at a healthy 20.5 lbs (43%), stands 29.5 in high (63%) and head circumference was 17.5 in (37%). She did have a lead test due to our older rental home, but everything came out in the clear. Our doctor said that she's doing great with her signing, and walking and interest in books. Hooray! The one thing we do have to work on is getting her off these bottles. She'll drink just about anything we give her (milk, soy milk, rice milk) but it HAS to be in her bottle. Oy. So that's our next challenge!

To commemorate the occasion, we took a picture of us at our favorite post-pediatric coffee-break spot: Bird Rock cove. Here she is at 4 days old:




and here we are a year later! Happy Birthday little star!

Birthday Extravaganza part 2

We spent a week at home celebrating Emma's first birthday with as many friends and family as we could visit. We started off the birthday celebrations in Virginia with mom, Tia, Uncle Andy and a great group of friends and family. Thank you Aunt Sarah for Emma's beautiful party dress!! It came off after the cake, so half the pictures are of Emma running around in her bloomers. She loved being the center of attention, that's for sure!

Stay tuned....

Emma's first birthday celebration post coming soon!

and then my heart pours out

Well kid, it's hard to believe that in 1 short week you won't be my baby anymore. I can't even remember life without you. Ok, maybe I can. But it wasn't the same. I am a changed person. I see life completely differently and would never go back. My heart aches so much more than it ever did about just about everything. They say that when you have children, it's like your heart is walking around outside your body. So true.

I turn into a wet rag just thinking about this past year. I had to take the time to sit down and think about all the things that melt my heart on a daily basis. It's going to be too soon before these memories fade (and new ones take their place) so I wanted to stay in the moment for one little blog entry. Indulge me, will you? Emma, these are the things I cherish about you:

You take tumbles really well. You are one tough toenail. You rarely cry, and the look on your face as you get yourself back up and try again is priceless. You are one determined, fearless little girl.

You loooove the water. During bath time you practically dunk yourself under water, and roll around chasing your squirty toys. Today you made me laugh when you kept the wet washcloth on your head (covering your face) for a good 2 minutes and kept giggling under it thinking I couldn't see you. :)

You give the best open-mouthed kisses I have ever had.

I love the way you cross your legs every single time you sit in the stroller, the carseat or the highchair.

You loooove babies. Hands down, the cutest sign you demonstrate is the "baby" sign. (cradling/rocking an invisible baby). When I ask you "who is parker?" you give the baby sign. He's your baby. :)

You are obsessed with anything that flies - airplanes, helicopters and birds make you stop in your tracks, look up and point that crooked little finger up to the sky to show me. Absolutely adorable.

Some nights, when I see you sleeping peacefully in your crib on the video monitor, I just want to crawl in there and lay down right next to you.

Every time you hear a beat - the beeping of a schoolbus, the clanking of a spoon in a coffee cup, the alarm clock or the microwave - you dance. It's more of a dolphin swim/rock, but its your version of dance and it's perfect. I hope you enjoy dancing as much as your mama does!

You have the shortest, fattest little feet I've ever seen. They're so fat that I can't squeeze them into any of the cute little shoes you've gotten. The only ones that fit have laces. (see picture above)

You are most definitely, 100%, a daddy's girl. You have him wrapped around your finger like a fruit roll up on a 7th grade school kid at lunchtime.

Anywhere we go, you laugh, smile, wave and cackle at people. You have already adopted your parents love of people-watching, but you are the one who wants to be watched! You make THEM laugh with your laugh. You. are. contagious.

You are curious about every little hole you see, and feel the need to plug it with your finger. It doesn't matter if it's a screw hole on the back of your toy, or the spout to the water dispenser, a hole in the backyard concrete patio, or a detail on my shoe. You will stick your finger in it, and yes, all our outlets are covered :)

Your hands - I could just eat them. The way you pick up your food so delicately and with such slow, methodical movements. You can pick up one little string of spaghetti, and transfer it onto your spoon. This might take 5 minutes, and it might fall several times, but you keep at it and you're so focused that your little tongue sticks out. I would just sit there and watch you for hours if I could.

Speaking of food, you love it. Particularly peas! I'll splatter a whole mash of stuff on your plate: veggie sausage, mango, noodles, cheese, avocado, corn, peas, etc. and you will single-handedly pick each and every pea out of the pile first.

I stay pretty cool when you fuss, whine, yell, shriek, pout or balk. But so help me God, if you get that real, honest cry (the kind with tears) and that little lip starts quivering, I turn into mush. I would walk over broken glass, uphill, in the snow, to not see those tears. Roger will testify, I can't do tears. I just melt. (Please don't read this when you're 13).

I wish I could keep you like this forever. At this point in time, we can do no wrong. I know that won't last but it sure fills me up. We're so unbelievably lucky that you came into our lives and made us whole. You're so much fun to be around and you are one of a kind. I have had the honor and priviledge of keeping you close to me all year 'round and watching you develop into your own little goofy self. Thank you for you for giving me true purpose. Love ya bun-bun.

it's coming

she's getting SOOO close!!



walkin' fool from Eeks on Vimeo.

need a laugh?

someone was acting VERY silly on her 11-month birthday

SlapHappy from Eeks on Vimeo.

GG & Opa's visit part 2

A ha! I found our other camera (we take our old fashioned point-and-shoot whenever we leave the house, and try to leave the nice one at home...) so here are the rest of the pictures from the weekend.

We had a great time hanging out down by the pool. Emma's turning into quite the little fish. Opa couldn't WAIT to take her swimming and she just looooved it.



Me and my mama
Roger's birthday party celebration at Morton's downtown. We started the night at the rooftop bar overlooking Petco Park. Such a cool place!! (sorry for fuzzy pic, I hate auto-ISO).

Birthday party for twins up the street:

And finally, G.G. and Opa had just returned from the DNC in Denver and presented emma with a souvenir: Her very own Obama doll!! Obama said knock you out!! :) (sorry, I couldn't resist a shameless plug)

The Zoo with Pache

Shortly after one set of grandparents left, another one arrived! Pache came to visit us for a weekend (he had to return earlier than planned to prepare for the possible hurricane fallout). We went to the San Diego Zoo and had an awesome time!! My favorite exhibit at any zoo is always the primates. They're just fascinating to me, and at our zoo here you can get REALLY close. They'll even interact with you!

We started with the bus tour to get an overview of the massive park.

Catching up!

It's been a busy 2 weeks. Roger came back and we had our first of two grandparent's visits. G.G. and Opa came for Labor Day weekend and Roger's birthday. We went to a neighborhood 1-year old (twins) birthday party, so Emma wanted to wear a festive outfit. She refuses to wear hats, but this GIANT flower on her head doesn't seem to bother her!?

(unfortunately, my white balance was WAY off on some of these pictures, which is why they have a blue tint to them. I am still learning!!)

palling around with Parker

Yes, my kid has her hands in the dog's bowls. Sometimes, this is the only way I can wash the dishes...... :)

"What??"

palling around with Parker

Sometimes, this is the only way I can wash the dishes...... :)

Happy Birthdayyyyy toooooo youuu!!!!

It's Roger's birthday today!! Happy birthday to the hottest, goofiest, most loving, hardest working husband and father - we love you and are SO glad you're finally coming home. Can't wait to see you! :)

And if she's not a spitting image of him, I don't know what is!

laundry day

Emma decided to help me with the laundry. "How thoughtful!", I thought. Let's just say that her idea of putting away the clothes was a bit different from mine. :)

She loves to take clothes, blankets, towels, books, whatever and throw them over her head (or on top) and behind her neck. So funny!! Anyone else's silly child do this?!

Finally, she was hugging her baby so hard that she actually fell over!! Goober.

Testing, testing

I rented a portrait lens for a week (insert drool here) , so of course I wanted to try it out on my favorite subject. It's hot here now, so we enjoy being outside (in the shade). Enjoy!