Piddles in the potty!!

Tuesday night, after her bath and during nakey time, Emma went piddles in her potty!!! We haven't officially done any training, but we've had the two potties out on the floor for a couple of weeks now. She sat on the potty and I reminded her that if she needed to go pee-pee she could go in her potty. She quickly got up and went back to her toy, and when my back was turned a moment later, I heard the potty playing it's reward music... I turned around completely expecting to see her pushing the button or standing in the potty to activate the music, but sure enough she was sitting down on it... and PEEING!! We were so excited for her!!! She loved all the praise and excitement, and showed us several times how to empty the pot into the big potty and flush, it was so cute! I'm sure it was a totally random coincident that she actually did it, but hey, I think we'll take it as progress ahead of the game! :)

We also had a nice visit from Nana and Tutz on Monday- they came down for lunch and got to visit with Emma Kate until her naptime. They brought along a great little playhouse with a slide, and a turtle sandbox! She's gotten a lot of fun out of the slide- she goes down by herself and can climb up it (if she has enough friction!) She's had a good time looking out the top like she's so proud to be up so high! She's also coming around to the idea of sand... she loves to play in the sandbox, sitting on the side, with her bare feet in the sand. She will fill up a bucket using her shovel, and she will kick off the sand when Mommy buries her toes! She gets so excited at Kroger now when we pass by the turtle sand boxes at the door, "just like hers at home!" Hopefully this will help warm her up to the idea of playing in the sand at the beach... or maybe even just walking in the sand would be sufficient- she's getting heavy! :)

Emma has discovered another use for the bouncer- she spins like you won't believe!! She gets such a kick out of it, she's usually got a huge goofy grin on her face, and she giggles a lot! We just wish we had a wider doorway to use it in so we wouldn't have to worry so much about that melon getting clunked!

Emma and the Giant Peach

Here is Emma and the Peach. We picked the garden and orchard and gave her a peach to try out. She ate the whole thing and another one as well!

We have just gotten back from our annual pilgrimage to the Swift Creek Berry Farm in Chesterfield! We had several great days of blueberry picking and even got to squeeze in a blackberry picking evening up the road from Mimi and PopPop's house! There were soooo many berries to pick, it was unreal! It was a little hot, but we were saved on the last day by some drizzle and overcast skies! I don't know how many blueberries we ate along the way, but I assure you, it was a lot! Emma made it out with us one morning and was a great picker!!! She considers herself a blueberry connoisseur and sampled the berries as well as collecting them! It was a great trip, and we had a wonderful time visiting- Auntie Kimberly made it for the "harvest" this year, and we were even able to manage an afternoon visiting with Uncle Maffis and Auntie Chelsea. Emma and Mommy had a wonderful time!!

Getting set for Emma's day at the blueberry field, starting out in the backpack

A glimpse from the 3 minutes she spent in the backpack... she wanted to get out and pick!!!
Helping Mommy pick berries
Picking with Auntie Kimberly
Mimi and PopPop in the bushes
Adding her collection to the berry bucket
You want a blueberry??? I have a bunch in my bucket!!!
Enjoying some of her "finds"

Cooling off in the shade, airing out the curls, still munching away at the berries!

Helping to clean at the house, please note, this took no prompting!

We spent Sunday afternoon in Richmond at Maymont park. Mommy hadn't been there in *forever* and vaguely remembered certain parts of the park. It's an amazing place, incredibly beautiful and HUGE!!!! We'll have to go back, since we didn't have time to do the tour of the old mansion, it's unreal! We walked through the children's wildlife area and Emma had a great time. She even got to feed the goats a little handful of oats:
Checking out some of the animals... some sort of odd deer I think??
We brought the "off road" wagon and pimped it out for Emma to ride in, which she loved, but I was amazed at how much she was willing to walk- she did amazingly well!!
Checking out some hawks
Looking at the owls
Stopping for a little snack break- how's this for a "cheesy (cracker) smile?"
Emma was playing with a little switch that had been trimmed from some plants... we're leaving out the picture showing her whipping it forward and yelling "Yah, mule!!" PopPop was an awesome wagon driver for the day!
On the stepping stones at the Japanese garden Koi pond. The fish were amazingly huge and so colorful, and they came really close!
Dancing with Mimi in the little rotunda area in the Italian gardens, so gorgeous there!
The fountain and stairway up from the Japanese garden to the Italian garden... if you look closely you'll see Mimi with Emma near the top on the left side... PopPop and Mommy were hefting the wagon up the steps! (Not as bad as you would expect!) :)
We got lunch at Banditos Burrito Grill up the road from Uncle Maffis' house in Richmond. Emma was very open to hanging out with Auntie Chelsea while we waited for our food, they had a good time drawing with crayons,
and Uncle Maffis even tried to get her to buy into the iPhone concept... :)
We had an awesome trip and came home with tons of wonderful berries to last through the year, (and several chigger bites too, which unfortunately seems to come with the territory... thankfully Emma escaped unscathed!) and lots of good memories. Hope next year's berry picking excursion is this great!

First pool visit

We had a late afternoon due to some difficulties getting Emma down for a nap, but after a good long nap, we decided to go ahead and try a visit to the Frog Pond Pool and check things out! The pictures came out really washed out because it was soooo bright, and the water backdrop didn't help! Anyhow, we'll be back soon and try for some more pictures!

For the 4th of July, we spent the afternoon at Smithfield Plantation on the VT campus, they had lots of activities going on, and it was a gorgeous day!

Of course Emma has no concept of looking at the camera when we're using the timer...

Listening to two violinists on the back porch of the plantation house, very nice music
Emma was thrilled to find a little dandelion flower in the grass...
And just had to smell it up close!
Playing with childrens' toys from the era, Emma especially like the "Jacob's ladder" toy and the Pick-up-sticks
Trying out the little propeller spinner
Spinning on the dance floor
After Smithfield, we went down the road to the duck pond and set up for a nice picnic lunch. Here's Emma on the way in, in her chariot
Enjoying lunch
Coming back from exploring the woods with Daddy
Checking out all the ducks!
Feeding the ducks a few leftover scraps from lunch
On the way back... very contemplative... that ball was literally holding her head up!
We decided it was time to go ahead and get some training potties so we'll be ready when we want to start... Emma thought they were great toys, she quickly figured out how to make them play the reward music! For a while there she was climbing in to turn around and sit down, like she does her high chair... either that or she's seen Daddy do this move....


Emma has been extremely helpful around the house lately, she was a big help in the kitchen getting the pizza dough worked out, and helped Daddy to make some garlic cheese breadsticks for her to dip in the sauce...
Let's just say it was a little bit messy!
But boy did she love those garlic sticks!!!
And here's one of the main benefits of being on the tiny side... you get to use your toys longer!!! A friend stopped by this morning with his 6mo old boy, and we were talking about the doorway bouncers. We pulled ours out from the closet to let him try them out, and Emma was thrilled to be bouncing again!!

Here are the "action shots" :)

She's also recently discovered how to bounce on her hopity-horse, after struggling to sit and bounce on it, she figured out that she could sit by the window, holding the edge of the window with one hand, and steady herself to bounce several times each time she tried!