Just a week in the life...

Oh Emery...  oh how she is becoming such a little chatterbox!  It's awesome!  She is constantly picking up new words.  I have heard that teaching babies to sign can delay their speech.  I think she may be a little late in forming words, but I don't regret signing because it allowed us to communicate with her long before she could talk.  However, it was so wonderful hearing these sweet words finally come from her mouth!  I have, honestly, been anxious to hear her speak. :)  Her latest words are... Cheese, Hi, Ma (intentionally now!), duck, knees, ice, apple (her first two syllable word!), banana "nana", cheek, keys, juice..... oh... and Zach! lol  One day when we were driving to bible study, she had her book with her in her carseat and as she was turning the pages, she was 'reading'.  She would jabber away, stop and turn the page and then continue jabbering, stop and turn the page, and so on.  It was the cutest thing I've seen!  She LOVES talking on the phone (kind of like her mom)!  She will walk all over the apt, with my phone to her ear, talking, pausing "to let the other person talk", laughing!  It's hilarious!  Which brings me to the most heart-melting moment.  I was driving home yesterday and Sean calls me and tells me Emery wanted to call me.  So I start talking to her but all she does at first in wave at the phone.  But then... there it was.... "HI!"  And then again... "HI!"  And then she starts talking and then calls to me "Ma! Ma!".  It was music to my ears!  This was a first (on the phone)!

Had to add this picture... it was from our little outing to Market Street (the most amazing grocery store I've ever been to! I think I talked about it in a previous post).  Well it was pouring rain that day but not very cold.  So here is Emery dressed for a nice summery day. lol  She was so precious holding the umbrella for us!  :-)

She knows, and can point to, her head, hair, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, tongue, chin, cheek, tummy, belly button, arms, elbows, hands, fingers, legs, knees, feet, back (I just read on babycenter.com that this is an advanced skill for her age!! Ooooooooo!!!!!  ;-)
She is getting more and more fun and her personality is coming out more and more.  There are times we are genuinely laughing together.  It's so fun!  She can be very loving and giving, but she can also be a firecracker!  I can now see why some parents out there let there kids become the tyrants they are because it is just so tiring!  It is a constant, sometimes moment to moment job of teaching, disciplining, redirecting, etc.  It's exhausting!!  It is hard work!  Kudos to all you parents who have gone before me!!!  But I know I'm up for the challenge! :)
She also is becoming momma's little helper!  Whenever I get the broom out, she always wants to sweep the floor.  So once I get it clean, then I let her have at it!  Or when I'm getting ready in the mornings, she will get a sponge and 'clean' the lid of the toilet.  It's so cute.

Here are a couple pics from Sean's actual birthday (Oct 2).  He unfortunately had to work so we went out for breakfast at Panera (just like old times!).

Emery sat in a booster seat for the first time!!  It was fun having her in the booth with us. :)

For fun, I wanted to share my latest baking!  Tuesday night, I was home alone while Sean worked (on his birthday, poor guy).  I had been watching Chopped, and got inspired to do something with the canned pumpkin in my pantry.   So I ended up making pumpkin rice pudding with homemade whipped cream!  It was amazing!!  (I just had some again!... although a much smaller portion)  Enjoy the pics!

And... Voila!!

Emery enjoyed it too with her first mixer blade full of whipped cream!  Note how it got all over her face all the way up into her eyebrows!!  lol

Today Tyranie (one of my original Cali friends) took us to Arcadia park.  This is a normal neighborhood park... except that it has the most beautiful trail going through it which connects it to 3 other parks!  It's about 2-3 miles long.  It winds in and out of dense trees, over creeks that are a home to turtles and water mocassins, and through beautiful natural ecosystem prairies!  They've heard of sightings of snakes and bobcats as well but we, thankfully, didn't see any.  It is just gorgeous!!  I swear every next trail system I'm introduced to beats the last one.  Can't wait to take Sean!!!  It was a beautiful day for a walk today!  Although it looked like it was going to rain, rain wasn't in the forecast.  And when you were standing still, it was perfect weather, cool and very breezy.  But man, once we started walking.... that's when you met Mr. Humidity! lol  It's not bad, really, you just sweat more. hehe  It really was a cool and beautiful day though!

Getting everyone situated over the first bridge

Meagen and Emery going down the slide together

Then Emery and I hit Taco Casa on the way home.  Reminds me of the good ol' Taco Bell of when I was in high school.  Just good, straight forward fast mexican food!  

It's my new fast food fave!

And it was Emery's first bean burrito!  She did good once I opened it up and she could eat with a spoon.  lol  Silly girl....