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!