Here's our evidence for future use... Yes, there was once a time when Emma did indeed like veggies- more so *raw* veggies, or even frozen peas! She was helping prepare food for dinner, and Daddy nearly had to fight her to get the broccoli back to cut up! She was gnawing a little barren place on the side...

Daddy also picked some peas (which were grown from seed from last year's garden!) and Emma not only helped shell them, but she ate several herself! She would sort of pretend she was going to drop one in the bowl like Daddy, then she would divert and eat it! Yummy!



She's been a big helper outside lately, helping to pick good blueberries, helping to eat the raspberries, watering all kinds of stuff in the garden (not always what we would choose to have watered though!), and feeding the chickens.

Another health check up!

Today is only a little more than half over, but we have done so much! We had an appointment for Emma with Dr. Barry this morning, everything checked out well- she's up to 18lbs 10oz, which is a pretty good gain, and is measuring 31.75inches in length, also good! He was pleased with her progress and we'll wait until she's 2 years old before checking again. After that, Mommy had a checkup herself, and everything was good- blood pressure, belly measurement, no proteins in urine, baby's heartbeat good, no problems! Afterwards, we went ahead and got lunch out, then let Emma peace-out in the car while we ran a few errands. We wanted to get her some finger paints and chalk to play with in Daddy's workshop, and we also got her this huge coloring book, which she has had fun with already! So here she is, officially 21 months old!

Hike and horses

Emma getting to try out riding the "moose" bareback. She had a good hold on his mane and really liked it.

Today, we went on a hike to a place off the Blue Ridge Parkway. Emma went in the stream with barefeet and played with the leaves and sticks. She had a good time and even got ok with walking on the uneven bottom of leaves, sand, and rocks.

More pictures, more berries!

Well, cherries to be exact! This is the latest haul on cherries- Daddy braved the cherry tree with his ropes, harness, and ladder, and got quite the prize for his efforts! Should have taken a picture after he was done pitting them, cooking, and canning for pie filling... you would probably have seen steam coming out of his ears and some bizzare looking purple hands...

Emma trying on hats again... what's the fascination with that? I have no idea, but it sure is cute. She picked out the dress for the day, by the way!


Showing Mommy how to apply sunscreen
Reading a book in her lounge swing while Mommy cleans up after lunch
Trying out the old bathtub as a tiny swimming pool- she had fun, but the clouds rolled in with the wind as soon as we went out, so it was a short swim!

So, is she trying to escape or just airing things out??? Nothing better than nakey time after getting out of the "pool!" (this picture has been removed due to the suggestion that there are a significant number of ridiculous idiots in our world today.)

This is the best thing I've ever found to put in my shopping cart! Emma did this on her own while I was organizing her toys and books... she just kept repeating one word/sound over and over again... I turned to see her in it! Apparently she was trying to get my attention because she wanted her sandal which was on the floor next to the cart. She's recently also developed a bit of a fascination for trying to put on her shoes- she had one on correctly this morning (usually the sandals go on backwards) but just on the wrong foot. She wore it around for probably an hour like that before I could convince her to take it off!
Just had to post a picture of the awesome flowers we received for our 11th anniversary! They are just gorgeous! They smell amazing too, and there was a balloon that came with it... I wonder where that might have gone... I think a tiny little girl may have confiscated it as soon as it made it through the door...

Seems like we have an abundance of pictures to share all of a sudden! Emma's recently been stealing cups at breakfast and has started drinking like a big girl!!!

She's become quite the pro at stabbing food with a fork and getting it in her mouth! Spoons are still a little more of a challenge, depending on how sticky the food is... a lot of it ends up in her lap!
Pictures from our Father's Day trip to Mill Mountain Zoo- here's Daddy and Emma riding the "zoo choo"
Having a little snack
The view from the mountain- it was a gorgeous day!!!
Hanging out in the aviary- it was one of Emma's favorites! She loved that she could go through the doors and flaps all by herself, she did it countless times during lunch... I was surprised we didn't have to physically remove her from it...
Emma spotted a turtle in the aviary!
Another one of Emma's favorites- the tiger statue
Emma got excited each time the zoo choo went by and would even wave to everyone
Out of order!! oops... Emma was pointing out all the facial features of the tiger for Daddy
Emma checking out what was in the boxes
The garden walk on the way back- really nice and shady
Emma had a great time in the stream- she went wading and was throwing little twigs and leaves in the water and watching them float down under the bridge


Here's the most recent haul on black raspberry picking, each time Emma tries to outdo her previous attempts at covering her entire body and stroller in berry juice... We're making a cobbler today!!!

Just thought I'd share some of the pictures of our upcoming fruit harvest! A few of the trees really hit their stride this year and we even had to thin the fruit from the branches, there was too much!! The green gage tree continues to decline in health although it's such a tiny tree I can't believe it's terribly old... but the remaining healthy branches seem to have really tried to produce heavily this year- hope it's not the last hurrah! Also got a nice handful of early raspberries from the garden, and we're watching for more ripe blueberries to come along!

Some grapes coming along nicely!

Pears:
Peaches!!!

Green gage!

Ok, so today you could call this blog "the life around Emma" since I don't have any Emma pictures to share... just thought you all might want to get a glimpse of how Emma's little sister is coming along! I apologize for the silly head-cut-off picture, I've been posting pictures every couple of weeks on a forum with other ladies due in October, and I didn't want my face up there... By the time I thought about posting the picture here for the followers to see, I had already uploaded the images and was too lazy to go back to take more... :P

Blueberries!!!!

Well it appears we're in blueberry season here!! Emma figured out really quickly which ones are the best to pick, and I have no idea how many she ate!! In addition to her intake and a few for mommy as well, I got a huge handful of ripe berries!! Most of our plants don't have berries on them, not sure if they're later season berries or if the plants just need another year, but I'm majorly impressed by the ones that are producing- it's awesome!!! YUM!

Emma and mommy went out for a really long walk this morning and got many wonderful things! First, a huge bouquet of daylillies (Emma had a great time dissecting one to see what was inside the bud!)

And, we came home with a huge black raspberry face and hands! Mommy found a few handfuls of nice ripe berries along the way and didn't even touch the poison ivy! Emma *loved* the berries and scarfed them down as soon as Mommy could put them on her tray!
Emma was very proud of her purple fingers and face!

Emma's new favorite new past time, washing dishes! (Well, mostly it's the clean dishes already on the drying rack)

Well, we've finally gotten a little information gathered, and we're scheduled to go to Wake Forest August 10 to get Emma checked by the pediatric ENT specialist. Until then, we're just doing the same-ol, same-ol, and as long as no problems develop, we'll be set. Sounds like we're likely to get an appointment to give a thorough history, have her examined, and possibly repeat the flexible scope Dr. Prussin did up her nose... not pleasant, and not looking forward to that one, but depending on what he sees there (if he does feel the need to repeat it), he will tell us either it's minimal enough to just monitor, or it's significant enough to go on and examine her under anesthesia. If we end up with the latter, we'll probably have to schedule another time to have that done. So we'll see what we come home with!

Otherwise, Emma's doing great, she's blazing around the house like a little race car, coloring in her coloring books, playing with her puzzles, and reading her books! We're still trying to get her talking more- she's continuing to do the same "guh" sound for just about everything, but we've managed to get her to make a few new sounds with a lot of prodding! Hopefully there will be more soon- she gets so excited when we show how happy we are she did something so great!! :)

Today was mostly a day out, doing errands- for some of them, Daddy dropped Mommy and Emma off at the library and they had fun playing with the toys, watching the children, and reading a few books. Emma especially liked a little game of chase through the book stacks on occasion, and she would sometimes squeal really loud all of a sudden! Luckily she was not the loudest person in there!

Drum roll please.................

And Emma is having a

Sister! Well, we think... the U/S was not NEARLY as clear on gender as it was with Emma, but the U/S tech told us he was 90% sure. He said when he's really sure he'll say 99%.... so does this mean he's not really sure?!?! Anyway, here is the image he used to determine the gender (not quite as clear an indicator as I would have liked!) and a profile image! Baby is healthy and normal, and right on track for growth!

Emma riding the glider ram

This is one of the playsets at the Collington Harbor playground on the sound- Emma figured out how to make the glider go- she had lots of fun and liked going from one swing to the next.

Beach trip!

We just got back home from a week at the beach and had tons of fun! Turns out Emma's not really into getting her feet in the sand... :) We did enjoy a nice swim in the sound on our last day on the beach, it was so mesmerizing that Emma fell asleep in Mommy's arms. There are a ton of pictures, here they go!

First day on the beach- Emma fell asleep in the car on the short ride to the beach, and was a little overwhelmed by all the wind and noise of the waves... she warmed up to it after about 20 minutes of laying on top of Mommy

Having fun trying on all the hats:

When asked if she wanted to get down to walk, she would grip my waist with her legs like a little monkey- I took it as a "No, absolutely not!"

Touching the giant frog at the NC aquarium
Oops, out of order- our little "town" on the beach
At the touching tank in the aquarium- if only her arms were a foot longer!!
Watching the sharks swim by
Riding the gilded turtle


Eventually she did have some fun digging in the sand at the edge of the blanket, or she would play with a bucket of sand while sitting on the blanket.
Hanging out with cousin Adam
Going for a paddle-boat ride with Mimi and Auntie Jamie in the canal
Can you imagine any better place to take a nakey nap?