zoo day

Emma Jane and Lily had fun exploring the zoo yesterday. Some of the highlights include...feeding a giraffe, riding the carousel, and kissing a gorilla! Okay, the gorilla kissing took place with protective glass in between Emma Jane's lips and the BIG furry gorilla, but she tried!

these boots are made for walking...

And crawling, and sliding, and shopping, and generally everything this little missy wants to do! I bought Emma Jane a cute new pair of boots for the fall. I put them on her yesterday to make sure they fit. She LOVED them! She's never really cared much about shoes. Actually, she seems to despise them and fusses when I put them on her. Not this time! This morning I asked her to get her shoes, and she went straight to the boots! I wasn't planning on having her wear them until the weather turned colder, but I couldn't say no. So, she wore her new boots (with a short dress, I might add) to the museum today. I have to say, she looked pretty darn cute!

happy birthday, addie!

Emma Jane enjoyed another wonderful party last Saturday to celebrate her good friend Addie's first birthday. The party was perfect and lots of fun was had by all. Of course, the balloons were Emma Jane's favorite part! She also thought the party favors were pretty cool...a ducky whistle and star shades made this girl feel very special! Taking a "test drive" in Addie's new golf cart was fun, too!

hair bow!

Emma Jane FINALLY kept a hair bow in her hair for more than a few seconds today. Although there still isn't a whole lot of hair on top of that cute little head, there is just enough to support one hair clip. She really seems to like wearing a clip, but is usually too tempted to pull it out. Then she tries to put it back in herself, but it just falls to the ground. Today she wore one the whole time we walked the gardens. Check out those curls in the back too!

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!

mardi gras party

Emma Jane partied New Orleans style today at Maggie's Mardi Gras birthday party. Maggie turned four, so most of the kids at the party were a few years older than Emma Jane. That didn't slow her down! She had a ball chasing balloons, twirling beads, exploring the house and yard, and making friends with a neighborhood dog! As you can see from most of the pictues, I have a hard time getting any shots of her face these days! I will add that she attended the party with only 45 minutes of naptime today, but that didn't keep her from having loads of fun! She even humored us by wearing a Mardi Gras mask most of the party. It seems that our girl is quite the party animal!

another adventure at edventure

Emma Jane went to Edventure today, but this was a whole new "adventure" since it was the first time we met a few of her little friends there. It was a totally different ballgame to have Kaitlyn, Lily and Emma Jane to keep up with! One highlight for Emma Jane was the "Little Pig" grocery store where she walked up and down the aisles collecting pretend food in a tiny shopping cart. It was so funny to watch her because she seemed to know just what to do. We also put miniature firemen jackets on the girls and tried to get a photo of them together, but keeping all three in place at one time was impossible! I managed to get one picture of Emma Jane at the fire hydrant. Our girls explored their little hearts out and wore their mamas out in the process!

rocks, rocks, and more rocks

What is Emma Jane's favorite thing to do at the park? Pick up rocks, of course! She finds a rock for each hand and walks around with them until she finds some that are even better. Today I sat her on a large rock to take a quick picture of her proudly holding her newest rock find. Just as I snapped the photo, she decided to stick one of the rocks in her mouth! I am starting to agree with the motto "a little dirt won't hurt!" since NOTHING stays out of her mouth.