December 2012

December was a fun month for the girls and full of lots of opportunity to spend with family and friends. Both girls continue growing up before our very eyes, and it’s hard to believe another year has gone by. And of course with Christmas being this month, the girls got completely spoiled by all the gifts!

Whitney got to meet Santa for the first time when he came to North High School to visit all the teacher's kids. Whit was completely oblivious to the whole situation - just like the first year Emry met Santa.  Whit sat right on his lap, and did really well with the experience.  This year, we had been talking to Emry about Santa, since it was the first time she would be aware of what was going on.  Emry was excited to meet him...that is, until the moment finally arrived and she was completely scared out of her mind!

"Who are you?...And what are you doing with my baby sister?"

The real Santa was busy at the North Pole that day, so the funny part was that her great-grandpa was filling in for Santa, and Emry didn't want any part of it! She finally agreed to stand on the floor next to Santa to tell him what she wanted - "Mickey blocks."

Awkward family photos...

The next weekend the girls went to a Christmas-themed exhibit in Louisville called kaleidoscope. Whitney was fascinated by all the colorful lights, and loved staring up at them. Emry wrote a letter to Santa and changed what she wanted a little bit "a horn...Mickey blocks...stickers...and her baby sister wanted Goofy blocks." We don't know how Emry randomly came up with wanting a horn for Christmas. After that day though, anytime someone asked what she wanted for Christmas, Emry's answer was "a horn!" Emry still wanted nothing to do with Santa, so we skipped him and went to ride the polar express train and visited the snow-fairy princess instead.

Chillaxin' on the caboose

She's so much nicer than that Santa-guy!

A week later the girls went to the Fantasy of Lights and got to go on a horse-drawn carriage ride! Again, both girls were fascinated by all the colorful lights. In fact, Emry loved just driving around and looking at Christmas lights. She called the lights, "Christmas or-ma-nents."

Awe-struck by the fantasy of lights!

Emry also got into the spirit by singing tons of Christmas carols. Her top 3 were:  1.Jingle-Bells  2.Hark! The Herald Angels Sing(she called it the Charlie Brown song)  3.Santa Claus is Coming to Town. As much as Emry loved singing carols, she probably danced even more this month. She would dance to any kind of music. One day we put down a cardboard box on the living room floor and practiced break-dancing. Emry even taught Whitney how to dance too!

On Christmas morning, Emry was excited to see that Santa came to visit! She was really impressed that he ate the cookies and drank the milk she left out for him.

Skim milk so Santa can keep his trim-figure!

"Puffs! Best(only) Christmas Ever!"

"A Horn!!!!"

Taking a rest on the yoga mat after a long
morning of opening gifts!

In addition to the cool things Santa brought, Emry and Whit were spoiled by their aunts, uncles, and grandparents too!

Her look of excitement and anticipation was
the best gift we received this year

Our very own snow-fairy princess!

Giving some luvin' to her new baby doll

Besides all the holiday fun and excitement, the girls continued to grow and learn new things this month. Whitney started eating a lot more solid foods in place of baby cereal and baby food. She is a pro a using her hands to feed herself and started using a sippy cup at meals. She goes absolutely bananas for bananas, as they are her favorite food.

That sly-grin makes you wonder what she's thinking...

Whit is also crawling all over the place now. She is really fast and we've only lost her in the house like 3 or 4 times so far.

She skipped the scooting and inch-worming and
went straight to crawling

On Dec 23rd Whitney pulled herself up to a standing position using the basement stairs. A few days later she pulled up on the coffee table and started cruising! Prior to that, Emry had coached her on the proper cruising technique...

Earlier in the month, Whitney started imitating our body movements. Shortly after, she began clapping, waving bye-bye and playing the "How big is Whitney? Soooo big!" game. She also started repeating ma-ma and da-da when we'd say it.  Whitney is still very serious most of the time, but as she started becoming more interactive, she also started smiling more and more.

She can smile when she wants to!

Emry's communication skills continued to grow exponentially this month. She impresses us with how she can hold a long conversation on a single topic and with how analytical she is when she tries to solve a problem. She takes a long time to think about her answers, and you can almost hear the gears turning inside her little head. Emry is also not nearly as shy around other people anymore. She jumps right in to play with other kids, where in the past she was usually very hesitant.

Emry's favorite movie this month was Dumbo. This was the first time she actually found humor in a TV show where the characters did something to make her laugh.  Prior to Dumbo, Emry would point out things happening on shows and talk about what was on the screen, but this was the first movie to make her laugh out loud. Unfortunately, the scene that made her laugh was where Timothy and Dumbo get drunk on champagne and Timothy gets the hiccups, starts stumbling around and keeps popping the champagne bubbles.

This whole scenario has left us with two questions: 1. What does this say about Emry's future? 2. Can you imagine the outcry if someone tried to produce Dumbo in 2013? Between the drunken BABY elephant and the not-so-subtle racial stereotypes of the black crows...sorry, we're getting off topic. Back to the girls...

Emry's imagination continues to impress us as well. One day she found the old baby monitor in Whitney's room. She drug it around the house by the cord, pretending it was a dog on a leash. She would stop to pet it, roll it over, and she even named him Biscuit. After this went on for two days, we hid "Biscuit" and told Emry that he went to live on a farm. We took one of the stuffed doggys off the shelf above her bed, and introduced him as the new "Biscuit". This satisfied Emry, and she now has a 'real' pet doggy!

Emry has also become quite the artist.  She colored in her coloring books almost everyday this month.  She was really excited to get water color paints for Christmas.  Now her new favorite hobby is painting!

The artist is hard at work!

The last big thing the girls got to experience this month was SNOW! Whitney didn't care too much for it, but she looked really cute all bundled up in her snowsuit. Emry had a blast being pulled in the sled, making snowballs and a snowman, making snow angels, running through the snow and going down her snow-covered slide!

Cheesin' that big with a mouse on your head
could be dangerous!

The girls got along and played together everyday this month.  Not a day went by without Emry saying something that made us laugh, or Whitney doing a new 'trick' that brought smiles to our faces.  As we said in the beginning, it was a fun-filled month for both the girls and us. We were all very blessed this year, and we are looking forward to a great 2013!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

November 2012

November was a pretty relaxing month for the girls.  They continue to grow and learn new things all the time.  The girls were visited by their cousin, Weezy, this month.  They had a lot of fun playing with Weezy and showing her the fun things they do here in Indiana. 



We may have a future hairdresser on our hands...



It's not that I condone fascism....or any "ism" for that matter. "Isms" in my opinion
are not good. A person should not believe in an "ism", they should believe in
themselves.  I quote John Lennon, "I don't believe in Beatles...I just believe in me." **

Emry and Whit continue to play together and get along.  E likes to comment on things that Whitney does and tries to help Whit get stuff that she wants.  Its cute, but its not always a good thing..."Whitty get the color crayons?  Here you go Whitty!"(Now we have a mess to clean up!)  Whitney also loves to watch Emry play, laugh, talk, etc.  She looks up to big sis and tries to imitate her.

"So what are we supposed to do now?"
"Just smile and look cute."



It's my kid in a box!

One thing the girls enjoyed doing with mom and dad this month was walk on the trails at Angel Mounds and Wesselman's Park.  Emry thought the woods at Angel Mounds were a big deal.  She kept asking "Dis a rain forest?"  She also said that she saw a monkey, and she found lots of dinosaur bones(tree roots).

"Look!  Dat's a dinosaur bone?!"

Emry was able to navigate through the rain forest
with the help of her walking stick

Whitney is now an official crawler!  She had some iffy crawls early in the month where she would move a couple inches and faceplant into the carpet.  We didn't make it official until her friend Brooklyn came over the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.  Whitney was really interested in seeing the little baby, so she crawled about 5 or 6 "steps" across the floor to check her out.  I guess Whit just needed the right motivation!  Now she's all over the place - time mom and dad to cover the outlets,  shut the basement door and make sure their aren't any little choking hazards left on the floor.

Whitney tried some new baby foods this month including green beans, carrots, turnips and beets.  In fact, Whit decided to audition as the Joker after eating some beets one night.  Luckily we found these rare still shots from her and Heath Ledger's audition tapes...

Most parents don't compare their
children to psychopaths...

but we're not most parents!

Whitney also started eating with her hands this month.  She celebrated her first thanksgiving by eating fruit for the first time - a banana.  Whit also likes to eat grapes, apples and puffs with her hands.



Overeating and falling asleep on the couch...this is one holiday
 that Whitney actually understands!

Emry became a lot more conversational with her level of communication.  She will talk about a topic for more than one or two statements.  She'll ask follow up questions, and her ability to recall, think and analyze amazes us sometimes.  The week after Halloween, Emry asked when we would get out her Christmas tree.  She asked where it was.  We told her it was in the attic.  She asked where the attic was.  We showed her the door in the hallway ceiling.  Then she asked how we get to the attic, so we showed her how the ladder pulls down from the ceiling.  She wants to get an explanation for everything and tries to understand how stuff works...stuff no longer magically appears.  In fact, we think she already knows the truth behind Santa but is just playing along so mom and dad aren't disappointed!

"Cheese!"

During November, Emry's favorite things to do were dance, jump on the bed, climb the tree in the front yard, color her coloring books, and read books.  She still loves to read Curious George books, but a new favorite this month was Dumbo. 

No more monkeys jumping on the bed!

All that jumping must make Emry tired, because she is sleeping a lot later in the mornings now.  Thankfully for mom and dad, E is no longer the first one up during the week.  We actually have to wake her up in the mornings now!  And on the weekends, E sleeps until about 7-7:30 in the morning. That beats the heck out of the old 5:30 and 6am wake up calls!

Emry is developing into a great big sister and big helper with Whitney.  Although she helps mom and dad a lot, she still is pretty good at making a mess.  One day she went into Whitney's room and got into the Aquaphor(this is the second time she's done this).  By the time we found her, she was a greasy mess from head to toe!

Is that...Is that hair gel? **

It took a lot of soap, water, towels and baby powder
to finally get this girl clean.

On the bright side, Emry didn't have to worry
about dry skin for the next 2 weeks!

Well, it was a fun month.  The girls, and by the girls we mean Emry, are excited about the upcoming Christmas season.  We've been blessed with great health and happiness this month and can't wait to see what December will bring!


**Special bonus for anyone who leaves a comment naming the two movies that are quoted in the captions of the pictures marked with **.  If you cheat by looking it up online, the girls will be disappointed in you, so show some integrity!







 

October 2012

October came and went in the blink of an eye.  These girls are growing up so fast!

Whitney is so close to crawling now!  She will go from a sitting position to getting down on all fours.  From that position she will push herself backwards, but just hasn't got the forward movement down yet.  Whit loves to sit up on her own and is very content just playing by herself.  But she also is a lot more interactive when playing people this month and loves to clap, smile and laugh.  No one can make her laugh quite like her sister though.

Whitney is now taking baths without her "bathtub seat," and the girls take baths together.  Emry likes to splash, and Whitney laughs and claps when she does.  That gets Emry even more excited so then she splashes even more to make Whitney happy.

"I'm not satisfied unless someone is splashing!"

Emry has been showing a lot of focus and concentration this month.  She will get involved in something and block everything else out.  We can practically yell and she won't break her concentration.  She actually sat down and watched her first full length movie from beginning to end - Finding Nemo.  Unfortunately for mom and dad, Emry has also recently wanted to  watch "Barney and Friends."  Hopefully that's a phase that doesn't last too long!

Emry is a lot better about identifying her colors now, and thinks hard when deciding what colors she should use in her coloring books.  She still loves to read books as well.  She was really into Charlie Brown books this month.  One day we were playing in the living room and a Metlife commercial came on TV.  Charlie Brown, Lucy and Snoopy were in it, and Emry got really excited, but also very confused.  She said "Charlie Brown on TV?"  

Emry still says a few words wrong.  Bananas are Dam-as.  When she says the mealtime prayer she says "Bless us O Lord and these 'grifts' which we are about to 'cerieve'...." Despite these cute little mixups, Emry continues to amaze us with the words she knows how to use.  She was helping us make soup one night and she dumped some carrots in the pot.  We asked what she put in the soup.  We were expecting the obvious answer "carrots", but instead her reply was "ingredients."

Adding some ingredients to the cookies

The girls have been playing outside a lot.  We've been trying to get as much time outside while the weather is nice.  Emry has become good friends with the next door neighbor and she looks for her every time we go outside.  They like to climb the tree in the front yard, swing, and color her swingset with sidewalk chalk.  Even though Emry is making other friends, she still loves to include Whitney in her playtime and teaches her how to play new games.  Emry also enjoy pushing Whit around in her cozy coup!

Hopefully this is the only time Emry poses
on the hood of a car!

As you can see from the video, it only takes a 2 year old about 3 minutes to completely wreck a house.  Although she doesn't like to pick things up, Emry still loves to dust and clean.

Another thing the girls did this month was go for their first bike ride with mom and dad in the new bike trailer!

Getting ready for the big ride!

"Emry, should we be nervous?"
"No, I've ridden with dad before."
"Then why are you biting your fingernails?!"

The girls big adventure in October was there first trip to Chicago.  We drove through downtown and showed Emry all the tall buildings.  We ate at some new restaurants, and had a cheesecake party one night.  The girls got to sleep in a cool hotel.

Hanging out in her Chicago "crib"

Also while in Chicago, the girls went to some cool parks and played on the slide and the swings.

 

Every once in awhile the the stars align
and you get a good picture.

We also went to a race and the girls got to see a bunch of runners, including their daddy...

Waiting for dad on the side of the trail...

Emry pushed Whitney all the way to the finish line

Both girls did great on the car ride to Chicago.  The whole way there, we kept telling Emry that we were going to Chicago.  We rewarded Emry the first night by going to the Jump Zone, which was right next to our hotel.  I think this confused Emry into thinking that the Jump Zone is Chicago.  Because after all the cool new experiences she had, when we'd ask her what she did in "Chicago" she'd say "My jump in Mickey's House! My play in pirate ship!"

Arrrgh!

Poor Whit was too small to enjoy the bouncers.
She only had a boring rubber mat to crawl on.

Playing in Mickey's Clubhouse...HOT DOG!

With it being October, the girls got to celebrated Halloween.  Emry was really into it this year.  She finally showed interest in the holiday for the first time, so it made it a lot more fun.  First, we went out to pick out a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch. We took a couple of them home and carved jack-o-lanterns.  Emry didn't want to get messy with the pumpkin guts at first, but eventually she came around.  She was so excited and proud once they were finished!

It took her 5 hours to roll that pumpkin all the way back to our car

Emry enjoyed looking at all the funny shaped gourds

I see the perfect pumpkin!

But Emry's favorite part about Halloween was dressing up.  Both girls went as peacocks.  Emry did pretty well saying "Trick or Treat" when she knocked on doors.  She was shy at first, but after about 3 or 4 houses, she had it mastered.  When we'd leave a house she'd say "More houses!"

Peacock 1

Peacock 2

Whitney was more interested in chewing her giraffe
than watching Emry go trick-or-treating 

"Thanks for making the costumes mom!"

We also took the girls to Boo at the Zoo.  It was pretty crowded and since it was starting to get dark, most of the animals weren't out.  But it was still a fun experience, and we did encounter a few animals...

Emry scared off this goose by spreading her tail feathers
and shrieking at the top of her lungs

The cutest peacock in the whole zoo!

We can't believe another month has already gone by, but we are eagerly awaiting to see what the girls will do next month!