I can almost reach it...

Big Day Out

I know Emmy didn't understand that it was her b-day but I was not about to drop her off at daycare on her big day. So, I took the day off of work so we could spend the whole day together. We had a fun filled, busy day that started with pancakes for breakfast, a test drive of her new "big girl" car seat and another trip over to Balboa Park. I took her to the Kids Zone in the Science Museum. It was cute with a little grocery store set-up, blocks, magnets, etc. She kept trying to put everything in her mouth which was pretty gross so I decided to head next door to the zoo. Of course we had to visit the monkeys and then my camera batteries died.... Then we took a cruise in her new buggie and then headed out to dinner. We took her to her favorite restaurant. Somewhere we can show up at 5:15 and leave cheerios everywhere. Yes, that is right, we went to Chilli's. Thank you Uncle John and Aunt Karen! I decided that I am going to take a vacation day every few months just to spend the day with Emmy. It is not as though we are going to take a "vacation" anytime soon!

Somehow we got talked into the BMW of car seats but she sure does look comfy!



Playing at the kids museum



She went crazy when the big monkey rolled by



Me and my girl



Does that toy bring back memories or what?!



B-day present from Daddy a bean bag chair!



Just cruising the neighborhood

One Year Old

Happy Birthday Monkey!!!

It seems like yesterday Josh and I were patiently waiting for the hours to pass before we headed over to the hospital for our 9pm check-in to be induced 11 days pass my due date. Who makes an almost 2 week over due woman wait until 9 o'clock at night?! We had no idea what to expect or how our lives were about to change. We posted up in a little room trying to get a good "last nights sleep" while Josh slept on a chair and I was already hooked up to machines. A restless night, non-eventful morning and one does of petocin and we were on our way! If it weren't for our doctor I would have had a c-section but instead it took 2 hours of pushing and over 15 minutes of vacuuming for our little bundle of joy to finally enter this world at 8:09pm. I never imagined I could love something or someone so much. I swear we bonded right away, nursing was as easy as could be and she was so alert we made eye contact immediately.

Oh, Emmy, you have already affected so many people's lives with your personality, determination and smile. You have taught us all that the simplest, smallest things make you the happiest. Watching you love even your first bath, that first smile and giggle, that professional sitting position, text book crawling, listening to your constant chatter and those drunken steps have been the greatest moments of my life. Leaving you to go to work has been one of the hardest things I have ever had to do but watching your face light up at the end of the day has been the greatest reward. We are only going to have more and more fun together. I am taking the day off to celebrate the big day with you and boy are we going to have fun!

Considering we've taken almost 3,000 pictures since she was born I think I did a pretty good job choosing a few favorites :)

It's My Party and I Will Cry if I Want to

Yesterday we had a little b-day party for Emmy and a few of her friends. We ran around town making sure we had matching Sesame Street decorations, plenty of balloons, food and drinks. All the meanwhile, Emmy was having a rough day. Not sure if it was her 11th tooth coming in or the multiple bruises and scrapes she has on her face from a few tumbles this week. Nonetheless, she had lots of fun with her friends and kept the fussy moments to a minimum.

She loved the balloons, kept calling the balls. Fortunately, none of them popped....



All her buddies lined up. It was a success, no crying!



Playing with her bestest bud, Finn



Checking out Lola's lip gloss



Little Ava was so excited to hang with the b-day girl



Opening some presents - thank you everyone!



Yummmm cupcake. This was attempt #2. We had a little "incident" with the candle on the cupcake the first time around.....



Doesn't she look like such a big girl?

Cradle Cap

Now that Emmy is almost one I thought I'd attempt to finally get rid of her cradle cap, or as her Uncle Marc puts it "the poop on her head", once and for all. . So, I used some of that cradle cap shampoo. First of all the stuff smells horrible, after 2 days I can still smell it on my hands. Secondly, despite the fact it notes"non-greasy" the stuff was as thick as glue and like oil on her hair. I washed it 3 times but could not get it out. We thought it was funny to mold it into a mohawk until we realized it was not just wet but disgustingly greasy. There was nothing we could do to fix it, she looked like an old man with a bad comb over. I took the poor kid to daycare the next day and prepped her on the way there to not let any of the kids make fun of her. As soon as I got there I let her teachers know what I had done so they didn't think I was testing out product on my child. I gave it a good srub again tonight, using regular shampoo of course :)

Babbling Drunken Sailor

This video was taken over a week ago. It is amazing how well she is walking now! Not much crawling from this little lady, she is walking! And talking! Her newest word - Whoa. She says it all the time. I am trying to get a good video of some of her newest words. Stay tuned...

Does the Weekend Really Have to End?

This past weekend was one of those you never want to end. Well, not that I ever want them to end but this was especially great. First of all it was a 3 day weekend and was 75 degrees and sunny. How can you not enjoy the weekend?!

Sunday we decided to head over to Balboa Park. I always forget about how great the park is, we will definitely be going more often. I didn't dawn on me that half of San Diego probably had the same idea until we got stuck in traffic there and spent 45 minutes looking for parking. Once we got there, it was well worth it, we had so much fun!

Emmy took a ride on the Carousal and took it very seriously. Watching her sit on that horse, holding on tights was the highlight of my weekend :)





Dog dogs galore! Emmy was in heaven petting the dogs. She is pretty gentle but tried to pull on the bulldogs tongue. She is fearless.



We had a few drinks and an appetizer at the Prado. She is so good at restaurants. As long as we
keep feeding her she is good to go. She ate a container of grapes, a bag of fishies and some cheerios. Yes, we are not those people who leave behind all kinds of food on the ground. The kind we used to clean up after when we worked at a restaurant. Yes, we have accepted the fact that servers are now trying to avoid waiting on our "2 + a highchair " table.



As I have mentioned, she loves the water so naturally she wanted to run into the fountain. She could not get enough.





Today we helped Daddy plant some flowers and then hit the beach! Boy, is she going to keep us busy this summer....

Happy Valentines Day!

We had the best day ever! More pictures and stories to come...

Then and Now...

July 2009



February 2010

I LOVE the Olympics

I remember watching the Olympics as a little girl and wanting to be good enough at sport to go. In the summer I wanted to be a gymnast and the winter an ice skater. My dad taped the ENTIRE 1988 Olympics for me because I didn't want to miss a thing. Back in the VHS days that took about 10 tapes. There is something so incredible about watching these amazing athletes be so committed to their sport for the love of the sport not necessarily the money. It was interesting watching the opening ceremonies. As a Canadian you can't help but feel proud when hearing about the country. Tom Brokaw made a comment about how the USA always chants and cheers for their country and the Canadians had to be told not to be too modest and encouraged to cheer out loud for their country. That comment explains so much.....

Positive Thinking Post #2

Back in July I wrote a post about consciously thinking more positively. I did a pretty good job until recently. My whole goal for 2010 to stop stressing about the future lasted about a day. Well, the time has come to again stop concentrating on the negative and difficulties we face but remember what is good. Thank you to those of you who listened to me bitch and complain over the last few weeks, I am sure I sounded like a broken record. I plan on changing that around. I consider myself more of a spiritual person than religious, my family is very much the same. However, my Grandma used to have a saying that my Mom repeats as well "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change what I can and the wisdom to know the difference". Definitely words to live by. Now I am excited for the start of the Olympics and a 3-day weekend. Wahoo!!

One Year Ago...

Little miss Emery Jean was expected to join us exactly one year ago today. I worked up until a few days before I was due and had everything ready. Of course she decided to come 12 days late so I will not be writing about her first b-day for a few more weeks. Thank goodness I did work until I was due because as soon as I finished working I just waited and waited and waited. So crazy to think this is how I looked one year ago.

Wednesdays

A few weeks back I shared the sad news about me having to go into the office on Wednesdays. Next week will be my first week having to head out in the morning but I was able to work out some good arrangements, as good as it gets anyway. I will be heading into the office from 8:30am - 2pm and we found a sitter to come to the house. That way it is one less day I have to drive into PB to drop Emmy off and she can stay in her jammies :) Our sitter is great! She has a ton of experience looking after kids (a lot more than I have!) and even taught swim lessons like I did! She is a long time friend of our good friend's nanny so she came highly recommended. She came over yesterday to hang out with Emmy and they seemed to hit it off. Jessica took Emmy for a long walk to the park and Emmy ate half of her banana. I think they are going to be great friends. Now me on the other hand am going to have to get used to changing out of my jammies and leaving her at the house....

Lucky Seven

Yes, that's right, Emmy now has 7 teeth with another one about to pop through! I don't have much to compare to but I am pretty sure she is pretty young to have 7 teeth. The kid is going to be eating steak before we know it. No wonder she has been up so much in the night, she cut almost 4 teeth in a month.

We laid low for the Super Bowl this year. Well, Josh watched the game and I ran after Emmy. SHE IS BUSY! She is into EVERYTHING and lets you know if she doesn't like something. She always wants to eat whatever I am eating so when she was trying to pull the tortilla chip with bean dip from me I thought what the hell. She enjoyed bean dip and chips with us (in small pieces of course).

This is what I was dodging as I was trying to eat. I swear she would reach inside my mouth if she could.



She has started shaking her head and it is so damn cute. She shakes it yes and no at the appropriate times so I think she is finally learning no. Still the little bugger will not listen when I say it!

Weekend with the Family

Josh's parents came to visit last week. We all had a lot of fun. Jill and Craig got to look after Emmy Thursday while I went to work and Friday Josh and I actually went out to dinner - just us! We have only been out to dinner 2 other times since she was born so it was much needed. We hit our favorite restaurant, Lamont Street, stuffed ourselves and were still home by 8p. Oh, have things have changed :)

Look, a picture of the two of us!



Emmy hanging with Grandma



Kisses for everyone!