afternoon walks

Now that Paul is home most afternoons, we take Emma Jane and Walker to the Riverfront Park for walks when Emma Jane wakes up from her nap. Her independence has become quite astonishing! She can now walk up steps BY HERSELF without even holding onto the railing (of course we still try to insist that she does). Although we say we are taking "walks", Emma Jane does not walk anywhere. Like Forest Gump, everywhere she goes she is RUN-NING!!!!

parkin' it

Emma Jane and I have been spending lots of time at the local parks. Although we still have rainy days pretty regularly, the weather is slowly warming up and we take advantage of it when we can. She loves to be outside swinging, "wock" climbing, and just generally appreciating life the way we all should.

Lil' Noggins

What has kept me from posting on the blog for GASP!?! over a week? My newest endeavor...headbands! Over the past few weeks I have enjoyed making Emma Jane and some of her friends cute felt embellished headbands. After receiving lots of compliments and "WHERE did you get that adorable headband?" anytime someone sees Emma Jane wearing one of my creations, I decided to embark on my first business venture. So, I have set up a Facebook page, appropriately called Lil' Noggins, to showcase some of the headbands I have made. To my surprise, I have had several friends order them....thank you! I plan to open an Etsy account soon to see if there is any interest there....so I have been BUSY! Don't worry, my work only takes place during nap time and after sweet pea goes to bed. We still have PLENTY of time to play! So here are a few snapshots of some of the headbands I have made as well as some pics of our favorite little model wearing them!

hard head

Yes, Emma Jane sported a hard head in more ways than one today. She took her first ride on her daddy's bike! Paul's parents gave him a special bike seat for her last Christmas and we finally decided she was ready. Of course, we had to find a helmet small enough for her little head, but Paul took care of that a few weeks ago on a daddy-daughter trip to the bike shop. As you can imagine, Emma Jane was not thrilled about wearing her helmet. It took a lot of coaxing to strap it on her noggin and even more scolding to make sure she kept it there! She managed to get the helmet off a few times during our bike ride along the river, but she finally left it alone to sit back and enjoy the ride...until she got bored and wanted "down peas!"

dads are more fun

WARNING: The above video could possibly cause the viewer's heart to stop momentarily!

Yep, this video proves that Emma Jane most definitely thinks dads are more fun. Her favorite part of the day is when daddy comes home and takes her outside for some "airplane" time. Sorry for the blurry video...it was hard to keep up with the flying girl, but the giggles are priceless! Listen closely for the "wheeee!" at the beginning. This is quickly becoming one of her most frequently used words.

fun with felt

Emma Jane loves the felt board at the library. As a matter of fact, I have to keep her from taking the felt pieces off the board during class when her teacher is using it to tell a story. So, I thought, why not make one she can play with at home? I bought a large piece of foam poster board, a yard of pink felt, and several colors of the smaller pieces of felt. I measured and cut the pink felt to fit the board, stapled it around the back of the board, and covered the staples with masking tape. Now, I've never claimed to be an artist, so the pieces I have made for her board so far are pretty basic. I cut out some simple shapes to make a house, a boat, a tree, clouds, and the sun. A wavy strip of blue for a river and a shaggy strip of green for grass....voila! Emma Jane mainly likes to take the pieces OFF the board, but she tries to put the apples on the tree and place the rays around the sun. I also cut out some animals from an old pop-up book she had accidently torn, and she likes to put the animals in the boat! She generally likes to just stick the pieces on willy nilly, but I know that in time she'll better understand the concept. I hope this felt board will entertain Emma Jane for years to come.

park attitude

I took Emma Jane to the park yesterday before the cold and rain returned today. Let me tell you, this girl has attitude! She wants to do what she wants to do when she wants to do it! Luckily, we have been teaching her please ("peas!") and "thank you" ("nu!") so most of the time she shouts "No nu!" when she doesn't want to do something instead of just plain "No!" Our time at the park was no exception. Anything I suggested was combated with a "No nu!" and there was a lot of "Come back here!" and "Listen to mama!" from me. Regardless of the battles, it is always eye-opening and never dull on an outing with Emma Jane.

She insisted on walking up the steps by herself!





As soon as we made it up the steps, she took off to do her thing.






I know she looks scared here, but she was really upset with me because I told her it was time to climb down!



Blow the dandelion, don't eat it!



Grass on the booty means the girl had some fun!

zoo anniversary

We had a great time with friends at the zoo last Sunday. Emma Jane said "baboon" for the first time and didn't stop saying it the rest of the day! This was actually our "zoo anniversary". Our first ever visit to Riverbanks Zoo was last year on February 21st, so this was our last day to enjoy the zoo on our year pass. With such beautiful weather, we even took the girls to the Capitol grounds for a picnic where they thorougly enjoyed playing in the dirt! Too bad the warm weather has vanished this week.

Our first trip to the zoo.
Feb. 21, 2009




What a difference a year makes!
Feb. 21, 2010


Babooooon!!!



Emma Jane loves Miss Sara



Checking out the koalas



Round and round we go!




Holding hands with Kaitlyn





First whole apple...crunch!



The dirtier you get, the more fun you have!




A look of pure joy....