blooming with the babes

We met our friends at the botanical gardens last night to listen to a steel breeze band. Although we were quite miserable in the STEAMING South Carolina heat, it was fun to watch the girls "groove" to the music!

chicks dig toys

Emma Jane had her first official playdate in her new playroom. Fun was had by all and NO crying! Of course, that's the norm with these sweet girls. Emma Jane, Addie, and Kaitlyn are hilarious to watch. Of course, it's probably more exciting for the moms as we gleefully shout every time one of our girls does something "amazing" like drinking through a straw, crawling through a tunnel, or standing up with no hands! Chewing on Emma Jane's shoes may have been the highlight for them all! The mamas enjoyed a nice lunch, too!

live, laugh, play!

Emma Jane's playroom is complete! It is so nice to have a safe "baby proof" place for her to play. She LOVES to discover new ways to play with her old toys. It's so much fun to see how her "play" changes from day to day. Her favorite game is crawling through her tunnel to find mom or dad on the other side. She also has fun taking her books and toys one by one out of the baskets and throwing them off to one side until she finds what she wants. The best part is she can make a great BIG mess and she knows mama will clean it all up for her!

fun with friends

We have been busy this week with our SC friends! We started out on Monday with our usual Target/Starbucks trip. It's funny to see people laughing at us as we shop with a train of babies in strollers and shopping carts. Wednesday we had lunch together and the girls babbled at each other from across the table. Thursday we met at the Farmer's Market to find fruits and veggies for making homemade baby food. Today we met at the park and let the girls crawl over each other as they battled for toys. We also had to check out the Memorial Day sale at a local baby boutique! What fun! It's so nice to have found such great friends who are as crazy about their babies as we are about ours!

rhythm and blooms

We took Emma Jane to the botanical gardens for a concert tonight. The weather was perfect and she enjoyed playing in the grass. Climbing up her stroller was the highlight of her evening. Our girl also loved dancing with daddy in the rain that started to drizzle just before we left to go home. Needless to say, we have one pooped out girl fast asleep in her crib as I write this!

future musician?

Emma Jane LOVES music. She listens to classical music all night while she sleeps. She recognizes certain songs that I play in the car and grins ear to ear when she hears a familiar tune. My family is filled with musical talent (unfortunately excluding myself) so it is quite possible that Emma Jane will become a talented musician as well. She had plenty of opportunities to try out the piano during our visit home. She played the keyboard with her cousin Allison, had fun banging on the baby piano at Aunt Scott's, was thrilled to plink plink on the toy xylophone her Aunt Susan and Uncle Brad gave her, and happily sat at the piano with her cousin Hannah. Move over Mozart, here comes Emma Jane Street!

first steps

Emma Jane has been on her feet since she was a week old! She loved to "stand" up with all her weight on her legs at an early age. When she learned to stand up on her own, there was no stopping her. She would "practice" on our bed over and over again. A few weeks ago, she began to take tiny steps and she is now well on her way to taking full strolls! Her record is 6-8 steps in the nursery. I've yet to capture her walks on video, but here's a picture of her taking a few steps.

boy crazy?

Emma Jane had playdates with a couple of boys while we were home. She is quite a flirt when it comes to grown men like daddy who can throw her up in the air, but she wasn't sure what to think about little boys close to her age. When she met Peyton, she was only concerned with eating the grass around them. She had fun playing with Jacob's toys, but then he tried to kiss her, and she squirmed away! Good girl!

tunnel vision

Emma Jane tried her first tunnel crawl in her cousin Izzy's take-along tunnel. We put one of her books and a toy inside and she crawled right through without any hestitation! This girl isn't scared of anything! uh oh.....

family fun

We were fortunate enough to visit our family and friends these past few weeks. We went home for Emma Jane's great grandmother's 90th birthday celebration. She got to see ALL of her cousins on my side (7 total) during our trip. It's easy to see that Emma Jane is loved by all!