parkin' it again

Emma Jane met her buds at a new park today. We almost had to cut our park fun short since the ground was covered in gravel and Emma Jane thinks rocks are treats! Luckily she decided that little rocks are hard on your teeth! She had fun swinging and sliding, but most of all she seemed to enjoy watching the construction workers at work behind the park.

park picnic

Emma Jane rarely eats lunch at home. Some days we meet our friends for lunch. Other days we are out running errands so we stop at Starbucks for my coffee and I feed her there. Most days I take her to one of the walking parks. That's what we did today and I took a few cute pictures during our "picnic" walk. It's nice to sit on a bench and watch the river while she slowly eats her lunch. Today she dropped a cracker and before I had a chance to pick it up, the ants came marching in. She thought that was pretty cool and she kept pointing excitedly at her ant-covered cracker from her stroller. I let her walk along the bridge today and she was thrilled to have this rare freedom, but I am worried sick that she's going to run too far ahead of me and get into trouble. She's getting pretty fast and keeping me on my toes!

spinning & tooting

I finally caught Emma Jane "spinning" on video today. She's been doing this for a few months now, but I don't have the camera handy when she does it spontaneously and she isn't usually one to perform on command! She also learned how to "play" a recorder yesterday. It came in a musical instrument kit given to her by Marlene at Christmas and I have slowly taken out the instruments that I feel are now safe for her to play. I only gave her the top section of the recorder because I was afraid she could hurt herself with the longer piece. Yesterday I showed her how to blow in it to make "music" and when I handed it to her, she would just stuff it back in my mouth. After I'd given up with the lesson, she surprised me a few hours later when she picked it up and started tooting up a storm. I caught that on video today, too. I think she is quite a musician...well, maybe not, but she sure is proud of her new found talent!