Odds and Ends

Apparently Emma's little green wooden chairs are not comfortable enough for her! She decided that her leather recliner would be a better choice and pulled it up to her table. I love that her ankles are crossed! I hate that her hair is in her eyes!!! Where is that bow? Ahhhh...relaxing and coloring in a comfy chair. She sat her for quite a while, stopping occasionally to gaze out the window.

Is she going to be a teacher?!?!? She loves drawing on her chalkboard.
Emma went to a birthday party this weekend. It was a pirate pool party. She had a lot of fun seeing some of her friends from Wanda's. These are 2 of the other kiddos at Emma's sitter's house. The 3 of them are within 4 months apart---Em being the youngest. It is funny to see them interact and order each other around.
We took Em to her first ballgame this summer. She was not particularly interested in the game, but liked the music and seeing the silly things happening on the field.

Do you know the muffin man?

Emma helped me make banana nut muffins this morning. She did a great job mixing and putting in the paper cups in the muffin pan. I do think she liked eating the muffins more than the making them :)

New iPhone App

My friend, Erin, showed me this app today over coffee...which led to me buying THIS fun app today :) I took the following pictures with the Hipstamatic app on my iPhone. I am already super giddy about it and I have only taken about 8 pictures. It transforms your iphone into any type of camera that you want. You can change the film, lenses and flashes. I am sure that I will have SOOOOOOO much fun playing around and will probably be uploading many more pics from my new found toy :) THANKS, Erin!!!!!!

Read, Read, Read!!!

Emma LOVES books---I have posted this numerous times. It has put many a smile on my face when I see her "reading" to herself. I get a kick out of her retelling a story she has heard MANY times, or requesting books by their title---and rejecting those books she does not really want to hear. I have decided to put a basket of books next to her carseat, because she loves "reading" in the car. When she reads, she does not just flip through the pages, but she studies each one before she goes on. One of my goals for her is that she is a READER...that she devours books and that she knows what it is like to truly get lost in a story and not want it to end. Travis is not a book reader---more like a TIME magazine, Sports Illustrated, newspaper reader. I am the book reader. I LOVE having the book in my hand and turning each page, I can't wait to finish books so that I can start on the next one on my list, I can sit for hours...and hours reading, and find a certain calm and excitement as I enter a book store or a library. I wish this for Emma, too!

We have started going to the library to pick out books every couple of weeks. She does not quite get it yet, but I am sure she will soon enough. The Round Rock Library has a toddler area with shelves of board books. They are in no particular order and I can just let Emma loose and not worry about books being put back in the wrong place. Emma sitting outside of the library with her choice of books.

She could not wait to crack open one of her books. After I got her buckled in, she dove right in.

Notice the slight head/eye movement.

Oh...back to the other page to get another look before she turns the page.

The Austin Zoo

My sister and I took the girls to the Austin Zoo last week. The Austin Zoo is not like a traditional zoo---it has many rescued and rehabilitated animals and visiting it is more like going on a hike in a forest...with encounters with lions, tigers and bears :) We had a great time watching Emma and Mia interact with the animals...and with each other!!!Emma and Mia holding hands.

Emma's first experience with feeding goats. I was definitely more nervous that they were going to mistake her finger for a carrot than she was :)

Hmmmm....which one should I pick to feed? Mia's bag of food got stolen from Mia's hands and the lamb yanked into their pen. This GREATLY disturbed Emma and she cried and cried at the injustice...and was mad at us for not fixing the problem.

That's right...go ahead and lay the food right on the goat's tongue.

Camie with Mia and Emma

Mia and Emma watching the tiger sleep. There were quite a few tigers at the zoo. They have a lion, but it was not out.

Emma loves turtle and this was a BIG one :)

We had a great time with the Fillpot girls! I am definitely going to head back to the Austin Zoo soon! Maybe next time we will take Trav! He sounded a little bummed that he missed the trip!