Oral Language Explosion

Emma's language skills have really blossomed over the last week or so. She had been repeating the last word of what we said to her for a while, but now she is speaking in 2-4 word sentences. She is saying things like, "I can do it", "I got it" when somebody says "you got it" or "you can do it". She tells me things like..."no me hitting" or "no me jumping" when she is being corrected. Emma is also giving good commands---especially to Bodhi when she tells him to go "outside" when he is licking her. She will now answer questions CORRECTLY with "yes" or "no" and has been listing her friends names when we ask who her friends are. Today she showed my mom the little pool we got her and rattled on and on for about a minute telling my mom what she had done in the pool the night before---complete with hand gestures. This story was 95 %gibberish (words water and bubbles here and there), but I could tell what she was trying to say b/c of her hand movements. It was REALLY cute! This is all happening SOOOOOO fast, but we are enjoying every minute of our sweet Emma Grace!

And YES...I know that the videos are sideways. I did not notice until it was too late. Just turn your heads or computers :)

This video shows Emma dancing to Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and singing Itsy Bitsy Spider. Please excuse my singing at the beginning of the video :)

Emma has been counting A LOT lately. She first surprised me by counting 5 playdough balls. Then a couple of days later...Emma was counting something and after she got past 3, she started saying 11...19...13...14. It made both of us laugh really hard b/c we were so caught off guard. Tonight we got her on video counting. You have to listen really closely, but she does a pretty good job.

At Ive's Request :)

Emma's first pedicure...light pink paint on her little piggies :)
She saw my polish and said "toes". It made me smile and I thought...why not? So, Em sat SOOO still and I painted her bitty toes.



















This is a picture of Emma putting her head down b/c I am cooking dinner instead of playing. It was clearly an act. She would look up every once in a while and see if I was watching.




















1st ride on a carousel. She picked her horse and held on tight. I thought that the carousel went a bit faster than I thought it should for a kiddie ride :)




























Em dressing up like a princess.

The San Antonio Zoo

Today, we got up early and headed to San Antonio to go to the zoo. I was REALLY excited to take Em to see all the animals and was hoping that her reaction would be priceless. I think Em had a good time, but T and I were pretty disappointed with the zoo. The last 2 zoos that T and I have been to are the San Diego Zoo and the Bronx Zoo. Both of which have way more funding and as a result better facilities. It was not that we had a bad experience, we just had REALLY high expectations. Em's got really excited about the turtles, the fish, the monkeys, birds and butterflies. Those were the things that moved around and interacted with her the most. I am guessing that as she gets older, the bigger animals will be of more interest to her. Today---bless their hearts, they were all being quite still because of the heat. Wow...This was a bronze of a Komodo Dragon. It was pretty close to the size of the KD that they had at the exhibit.

We went into the butterfly house and Em sat on the bench and was tickled when she realized that there were butterflies flying all around her.

I LOVE daddy-Emma behind shots!

Emma watching the monkeys play.

Emma the Butterfly

It was HOT and we needed to stop and take a drink break.

We stopped at the petting zoo, which was really just a goat petting zoo.

Ahhhh...Look at all the "Bubbas". Em's sitter has a turtle named Bubba. So....Emma now sees turtles and says "Bubba Turtle".

The toddler area had a fun fish tunnel.

The 3 of us were ready to head home after seeing all of the animals!!!! Em was asleep in a matter of minutes

Silly Girl!!!

The fluffy pink hat has found its way out of Em's closet for another appearance. I have said it time and time again...Em loves to dress up. Her first stop is to look in her mirror and then off to play around the house.

I asked her to pose for this picture. She DEFINITELY gets the idea that she is supposed to turn, look, and smile at the camera.

But of course, the hat should come off for breakfast :)

Such a sad face!!!! She wanted the hat back on and was not able to do it herself. Notice the bow after MANY pulls and yanks trying to get the hat on.

After breakfast, Em went to go sit at her table. This is a picture of her reading outloud to herself. I should have taken a video so that I could capture her story telling abilities.
When I was making dinner, I gave Em a mask to color. She likes to dress up and I thought that it would be fun to have her make her own mask. Emma usually colors with the Crayola Color Wonder markers that only mark on special paper. Knowing this, I set Emma up with a deep cookie tray, taped her picture to the tray, and put on a bib before I handed Em the REAL markers. This is what happened.

Her hands were COVERED!!!!

She had a great time!!!

School's out for Summer!!!

So, we have successfully completed another school year! We are soooooooo excited about all the fun we are going to have with sweet Em this summer!!! Sprinkler parks, free kiddie concerts, the beach, the pool, etc. We kicked off the summer fun with the Hyatt FANG-tastic Family Festival. It was HOT, but it Emma had a good time.

This was just a cute picture from earlier this week.

Emma got to spray the fire hose at the family fest. She got into it! She also got to sit in the fire engine. Do we have a future fire chief among us?!?!

The fest had a lot of free things for the kiddos---face painting, popcorn, slushies, balloon animals, concerts, etc. Emma enjoyed her butterfly balloon for a whole 5 minutes :)Dusty from the Biscuit Brothers---Em liked their music and went out and danced with the other kiddos.

Whew...it was hot and her face shows it!!!

Stopping for mommy kisses!!!!

Em was fixated on this cover on the ground. We have been going to the sprinkler park and the water comes up from a similiar cover in the ground. I wonder if she was waiting for the geyser to come up :)