April 2012

As each month passes by, the days seem busier and busier.  There were lots of family events this month, with Easter being the first.  Emry had fun getting into the holiday aspect of Easter this year. She liked to say "egg" a lot.  She had a lot of fun hunting eggs with her cousins DonDon, Z, and Chris.  Emry got a new bike
helmet and some sidewalk chalk from the easter bunny.  Whitney got a weird stuffed animal(see picture below).

The other big family event this month was the girls got a visit from their cousin Weesie from NC.  The girls got their pictures taken together, went swimming and attended a formal event called a Sip 'n See.  It was a party where all the local friends could get a chance to meet Weesie for the first time.

The final big event this month was Whitney took her first trip out of the state, as we went to a wedding in Louisville, KY.  While in Louisville, Whitney got to meet her namesake for the first time, so that was pretty cool too.

Emry is talking more and more everyday.  She knows all her aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins names and even knows several friends and neighbors too. Emry is also saying lots of phrases and identifying/associating/matching objects like Daddy's bike, Whitney's bow,  Mommy's ring.  She also matches people together too.  She'll see one of  her grandparents and ask about the other.  And the last couple of weeks she's been working on saying please, thank you and your welcome.

Emry has also been identifying places.  When we make the turn onto either grandparent's street she'll say Mia's house or Grammy's house.  Same thing when we turn on our street, she'll say "home."  Any And when we drive by Good Shepherd she'll say "Emry's church."

As far as playing goes, Emry still loves being outside and going to the playground.  If she sees Ken's bike she'll say "Bike ride!" and "Daddy bike, daddy helmet." Or "Emmy helmet."  Emry's behavior has been really good lately, but she tries to test us on things we tell her not to do, like playing in the fireplace and climbing on the tables.  Oh yeah, she's also starting picking her nose too!

Emry is always concerned for Whitney.  If get in the car to go somewhere without Whitney, Emry will repeat over and over, "Whit!  Whit!" 

As for Whitney's activities this month, she has been working on lifting her head and taking a bottle.  She will sometimes give an occasional smile.  She enjoys being awake and letting people know that she's awake...although she's not a big screamer and cryer, she just likes to fuss and grunt a lot.  Its not like she's upset, but more just saying "Hey, look at me, I'm over here!"  I guess that's pretty typical of the second child.

Whitney's not a big fan of being swaddled, because she likes to be able to move her arms around.  That is one of the few times where she really belts out her cries.  She also doesn't like getting shots or being kicked by Emry(even though it was an accident).  Both of those brought out the dreaded silent cry!

But both girls are happy and healthy, and we couldn't ask for anything more.  Here are some pics from the month of April...

Easter Morning!

Emry usually is not allowed to climb on the coffee table,
but she was wearing a helmet...



So we celebrated Jesus's resurrection by getting Whitney a strange
duck/bunny thing that does not exist in His creation

 

Emry kept saying "Egg! Egg!" when she saw the easter baskets,
so we went outside to look...




...but the Easter Bunny hadn't hidden any eggs yet... 



...at least it provided a good opportunity to take the
obligatory "Easter outfit photos."

 

"Dude, what do you mean there's no eggs?"




Whitney's Easter outfit!



All Emry's eggs were filled with money, so she had to give them
a good shake before she put them in her basket

Jackpot!



Whit couldn't let Emry have all the fun



Two eggs was enough for Whit

She was tired from all the hunting



Emry was pretty tired too, hence the fingers in the mouth




Luckily she's got her mom's toes!



Whitney is in bow training right now.  Emry never got used
to wearing a bow, so we are staring early with Whit!

Hanging out at the Sip 'n See for cousin Weesie

March 2012

Wow, its been hard keeping up with these two...there has been so much going on this month!  Where to start?  Emry has become quite the big sister.  She is always wanting to hold, pickup and carry Whitney.  She is always looking out for her by bringing Whitney her blanket, toys and clothes.  Emry has certainly accepted Whitney with loving and open arms! 

We were a little nervous she'd get jealous of all the attention given to the baby, but she loves to jump right in and help out.  Emry has really taken on the role of teacher, as she loves to play on the floor with Whitney and show her different things.  Emry's vocabulary has exploded recently, as she has added several phrases and new words.  She loves to point things out to Whitney and talk to her in giberish. 

Since the weather has been so nice, we've spent a lot of time outside.  Playing outside is by far Emry's favorite thing to do right now.  Whether we're going on walks, runs in the jogging stroller with dad, bike rides, wagon rides, exploring in the yard, swinging or going to the park, Emry can't get enough!  

Playing outside has caused some added danger, as Emry suffered her first skinned knee this month.  She cut it pretty good and some blood & tears were shed.  But she liked showing off her band-aid and saying boo-boo.

As far as Whitney this month, she did have her first bottle feeding, but other than that she has been doing the normal 1 month old routine: eating, pooping, crying and sleeping.  She has pretty blue eyes and still has a full head of brown hair.  It has been another great month watching our little ones grown and develop!  Here are some pics from this month to keep track of all of Marches adventures...

 

Wiped out after a long day of helping take care of Whit

Practicing with the Baby Bjorn...

...for when Whit is big enough to fit in it... 

...but who needs the Baby Bjorn when you have
a perfectly good set of shoulders!

Just hangin out together...





...getting ready for a nap!

One of the many faces of Whitney



Teaching Whit how to use the crocodile rattle!

Emry wanted to put Whit in her baby doll
stroller one day.  Then decided she should
get in her own stroller too.



Emry loves to give the baby kisses



Ouch! Next off the pile is skinned-knee D.
(One of her favorite books right now is Chicka-Chicka Boom Boom)



Showing her boo-boo off to Whitney!



Its hard work being a baby



Time for a nap.  See ya next month!

When Emry Met Whitney

The other big development from February was the arrival of Emry's little sister, Whitney Ann Smith.  At the first meeting, Emry wasn't sure what to think.  After a few minutes in the hospital room, she really warmed up to the new baby.  She would point to the baby and say "Baby."  She liked liked to point out Whitney's nose, ears, hair, fingers, toes, etc.  She also liked to hold Whitney and give her kisses.  Emry was also always concerned that Whitney was cold because anytime Whitney's head was exposed, Emry would point to her head and say "hat!"  By the time we left the hospital, Emry knew the baby was here to stay and had accepted the fact that she was a part of the family. 

The First Meeting...

Emry has been a great big sister!  She loves to help take care of her lil' sis.  Emry likes to get diapers and wipes when its time to change Whitney.  Then she throws away the dirty diapers when we're done and says "Yucky!" She also likes to get toys and blankets for Whitney.  One day Emry even tried to share her Goldfish crackers with Whitney. 

Just before we left the hospital...

When its time for Whitney to be fed, sometimes she is really sleepy.  Emry noticed this one day, so she decided to start screaming whenever she heard us say "Wake up Whitney!"  One afternoon we came home an outing and set Whitney(in her carrier) on the kitchen floor.  Maren and I were both occupied getting lunch together when Whitney started fussing.  Emry walked over and started rocking the carrier to calm Whitney down.  It was pretty cute!  We're hoping these two continue to get along this well throughout their teenage years...

Enjoy the photos!

Emry loves to hold Whitney

Lil' Whitney

Michelangelo couldn't have painted it any better!

Apparently Emry gives good foot rubs too

I hope they always get along this well...

The famous women's hospital drink cups!

Finally time for Emry to take her little sister home!

Just another diaper change

Playing on the floor together.

February 2012

Emry has become quite the social butterfly this month.  She is talking more and more everyday.  Emry has been able to identify all her aunts, uncles, grandparents, and great grandparent in person(as well as in pictures).  She is working on pronouncing their names now.  She also said her first phrase this month, "Oh yeah!"  She has added several more since then.  Emry has also become quite the jokester, as she has told her first 3 jokes recently....

1. She was taking a shower at the Y after swimming with Mia(her grandma, not the rapper from the super bowl halftime show).  While showering, Emry put the showerhead in front of her privates, sprayed it on the floor and said "pee-pee."  She thought it was hilarious and started giggling.

2.  She was at dinner one night kept closing her eyes and leaning to the side.  We couldn't figure out what she was doing.  Finally she started making a snoring sound, and we knew she was fake-sleeping, so we said "Wake up Emry!"  She opened her eyes, squealed and laughed.

3.  Maren has had a terrible cough lately and one night just got done with a long, hacking coughing spell.  Emry did a fake cough to mock Maren and started giggling. (It would have been funnier if she said "I think I'm getting the black lung", but she missed the opportunity.)

Emry has been getting ready for the new baby's arrival.  We got out all the old baby gear - swing, bouncer, car seat.  Emry has practiced putting her baby doll in each of those...she's going to make a great big sister.  However, when we tell Emry to give the baby a toy, she tends to throw it on the swing, car seat, etc where the baby is lying...we'll need to smooth that out. 

Emry also took her first photo using the big, bulky Nikon camera.  She is hoping to perfect her picture-taking skills before #2 arrives.  Her first two pictures are posted below...

   

Emry's first photo with the "big" camera.  She captured dad's best feature!

Emry's second photo with the "big" camera.  Testing the bouncer with her doll
to make sure it is fit for the newborn...

A couple other fun events this month were Emry's first trip to the children's museum and Emry's first time to try finger-painting.  We used chocolate pudding for the finger-paint...about 10 minutes into it, Emry finally realized she could eat it.  After that point it turned from finger painting to paint eating. 

Originally this was the end for the Feb post, but we had a visitor drop in early on us! There is a lot more to write on that topic, so soon we'll have a whole other post to cover that topic! For now, enjoy these pics from February!

The next Picasso!

Or the next Billy Madison?

All the great ones know how to leave their mark...

The final product...a masterpiece!

Testing the swing to make sure it will hold the new baby.  Hard to believe
she actually fit in the swing just a few months ago...

One of Emry's favorite places at the children's museum was the rice box.

Digging up some dinosaur bones with dad.

If the art thing doesn't work out, maybe she could be an archeologist...

Or maybe she could be a doctor.  Doogie Howser aint got nuthin on Dr. E

Our little booger just crawled out of the nose!

Getting her boots on so her feet stay dry on the wet deck!

If only E knew she was going to be a big sister in a few hours....
Hard to believe mom is in labor in this photo!

January 2012

January brought many new things to Emry....She peed on the training potty on Jan 2nd for the first time.  She's been really interested in pee-pee and poo and has been asking more and more to use the potty.  Emry also had her first haircut this month. She has a toddler mullet thing developing, so we took her to get it trimmed on January 24th.  She did really well! No crying or screaming.  She just sat there silently and expressionless(as you'll see in the pictures) the whole time.  It was like she wasn't too sure what was happening and didn't know how to react.  Ken recorded the whole thing, but the file was way too large to upload on the blog.  Maybe we'll post a few short clips in the near future...

Emry has been talking a lot, but a lot of the time we're not quite sure what she is saying.  She can repeat words very well, and she identifies pictures of relatives, animals and other objects.  But when she decides to ad libs some random gibberish, we just have to guess what she is saying. 

Emry got some more updates to her "crib" in preparation for #2. She has graciously allowed us to use her old furniture for the baby's room.  She added a white wicker dresser and nightstand to the decor in her room. 

Emry still loves for us to read her favorite books every night before bed, but her new favorite thing to do is watching movies.  Ever since we went to visit her cousin and she watched a movie on the plane, she has been fascinated by the Baby Einstein movies.  She will sit in front of the TV and completely zone out...kind of like Ken when he's watching a game. 

Can't wait to get out of those diapers!

And goodnight to the little old lady whispering "hush"

Watching a movie with mom...seriously, she's
 acting like its extra innings in game 7

In the waiting room at "Posh"

You can see why we decided to get her hair cut

Happy?

Sad?

Excited?

Scared?

No...just cute!

A few more finishing touches...

Finally done!  You can tell she is thrilled!