And now comes talking!

Yes, Gretta is talking now too! Or at least I think so... :) She is saying Mamamama in a precious little gravely voice! She usually does it at random times or while she is crawling, sometimes when she wants a bite of food... but always excited to see the reaction it gets! I also failed to mention that she has been open-handed pointing for a couple weeks now- where Emma Kate held her hand up, palm out, to point to things, Gretta uses her hand palm-up, which makes it looks like she's saying "seriously though, what IS that?" It is really cute, and I can't ever seem to get a picture of it! She is loving to blow raspberries on bare skin- usually knees and shoulders... and only occasionally does she give a little pinch with her teeth- OUCH! She thinks it is hilarious... She is eating well, pretty much eating along with us- we put our food into the little food mill and it makes it a good texture for her to eat. Certainly not exposing her to everything yet, but she's pretty well accepting of most things so far.

Emma Kate has progressed to using the big potty now, with the little seat from her potty chair on top so she doesn't fall in... it is so wonderful! Part of the selling points was that all she had to do was FLUSH IT DOWN!!! No more cleaning out the little pot each time! It makes it so much faster, and she is really excited about it! Accidents have been very few and far between. We even used a big potty at a restaurant! It's much easier to carry the little seat with us instead of the entire potty setup.

Emma Kate accompanied me to the dentist today (long overdue since our winter ordeal...) and sat on my lap while I got my cleaning. She was a little uneasy at first, but the hygenist (who happens to be the wife of one of the dairy clients at my old job) was really open and friendly with her, and she soon warmed up. She even got up close to see her polishing my teeth and thought the sound was funny! She has been a really good girl lately, and we have been enjoying some incredibly mild weather for mid-August!

We'll be heading to the beach later this week to visit with family and a couple friends from Vet school, it will be a packed house full of little ones!!

Here are just a few pictures... the camera hasn't been out in action much lately... I have a few videos I wanted to post, but I keep getting error messages from blogspot... hope to figure it out soon.

Here the girls are helping Daddy get snow pea seeds hulled to saved for next year's garden

And here is silly Emma Kate- she was taking her shirt off and it was just a little snug coming over her head, so I positioned it and told her she had blue hair! (Must have been all those blueberries she ate!) She kept it like that for a while afterwards, and then later tried to do it with another shirt that didn't work quite as well, but she still kept it like that.

Gretta is cruising

Gretta was cruising this morning (standing up and moving from one thing to another while supporting herself on the couch). Walking is only a short time away. We got the facia trim put up on the addition, tomorrow is library day for us, and maybe we'll take a trip to Mill Mtn Zoo sometime soon also. Everyone is eating well and jolly most times!

Finally, a picture update... we still have some videos that I will eventually try to load, but for now, here are some pictures to satisfy you... :) Everyone is doing great, Emma Kate weighed in at 26.3lbs on Aug 1, which is great, and Gretta has popped out another tooth on the top! Gretta has also started cruising a bit, and is getting herself into even more trouble now... She is hilarious though, she will find her way over to my bare legs and blow raspberries on them, sliming up my leg! She thinks it's great when I laugh really hard, and it seems to egg her on. A few weeks ago we went back to Caboose park/Hand-in-hand park in Blacksburg and had a great time playing, what an awesome playground! I wish I was smaller.... :)

Um, yeah, these things aren't made for adults of average height... :)

At the top but still not interested in going down!

Doing "gymnastics" on the balance beam

Gretta and Daddy under a gorgeous shade tree

Gretta, offering to share some of whatever she picked up off the ground...

The little jollikins

"But this stick tastes soooooo yummy!!"

"Oh, wait... you mean I've been missing out on all this MULCH?!?!?!"

"If only I had longer fingers, I would stuff my face with this good stuff!!"

Emma Kate helping to feed Gretta- they both seem to get a kick out of it!

Happy girl!

Happy girl!!

Sophie was sitting on the sofa with Emma Kate, Emma Kate had to sit funny to allow Sophie the room to lay there... it was so cute, and of course when the camera came out, she moved!

A recent sunset... these are the kinds that need a sunset party!!!

If I were a betting mommy, I'd bet money there are going to be curls... but some days it's not this certain!

What a smile!! I had to get a picture of the little curl in front- it was such a tight little tube, and before we had been out in the humid weather, it was stretched down onto her forehead, like we had put it there on purpose... :)

Gretta was in for her 9 month checkup on Thursday and she's doing well- She was 17lbs 15oz, and 26.5in long. She was *not* happy about her checkup, or the pokes she got, but she recovered quickly! Emma Kate still seems to be afraid of the doctor's office once we get past the waiting room... :( The girls are doing well, despite some rough nights recently, and I have to get some new pictures posted! Life is moving along too quickly!!

Man, time flies by... we've been staying busy here, with most of our days spent outside playing (or lately, inside during the hottest parts of the day, watching "Angelina Ballerina" which I now have officially memorized...). The girls are both loving the little pool, which I've figured out a great way to set up- it's nearly all in the shade, except right in the middle of the day, and it even boasts a shallow end we call "the beach" and a deep end that is for the more adventurous ones. Gretta loves hanging out in the beach but will also crawl into the slightly deeper water (only up to maybe her elbows when crawling) to get a good toy or if a leaf/piece of mulch catches her eye. Her other favorite past time is to bend over the inflated edge to reach down to the ground and sift through the mulch. It must taste pretty good, as she is always wanting to eat some more... the girl is CRAZY about putting the most god-awful stuff in her mouth. I'm getting a complex about how many times I have to distract her or yell "NO!" because she's putting something to her mouth. Yep, mulch, leaves, grass, sticks... all a "go" for her apparently. I still find myself saying "Emma Kate never did that!!!" It's much more complicated this way. Maybe I could design a baby muzzle or something... hmmmm..... Just kidding. But seriously.... well, no. ok. no.

Gretta's top two teeth have officially broken through, thankfully. We'd had a few really tough nights as they were coming in, and it seems to be better now that they're erupted. They're only in a couple millimeters, but it seems more comfortable for her. She's starting to do the open-hand-pointing gesture, similar to what Emma Kate did, which is really cute. I love the way she holds her hand and fingers so gracefully when she does it. As if she is trying to be graceful... :) haha. She's also "talking" a lot, mostly saying "cuhhhhh" and "Bffff" or "Pffff" but it's so funny because you can totally engage her by making one of her sounds, and she'll look at you and start a conversation back and forth! It's hilarious. She also had a complete mental episode this afternoon with hysterical laughter and spastic crawling/lurching on the floor in response to Daddy being a little bit silly... it was over the top! I tried to get a little on video, but it didn't do justice to the craziness that preceeded the camera coming out! She's been a great little eater too, taking pretty well to all that has been offered, and we're amazed at how much she will take! Seems like so much more than I remember Emma Kate being interested in as a baby... And Emma Kate absolutely loves feeding her- it's so sweet. She was even putting O's in her mouth for her this afternoon... just as long as it's the right thing to go in her mouth- it's very cute!

Emma Kate is doing excellent!!! She seems to have mastered the potty and in nearly 3 weeks she has only had one, recent, accident, and I'm not exactly sure what happened- I was distracted at the moment and she was going to get undressed by the pool to get in the water, and as Greg and I were coming through the door, she was sitting there peeing with her pants halfway down... ??? Anyhow, she's done awesome with it, even playing outside and telling us she needs to go potty in time for us to get her inside to use the potty- we don't have to set it up outside anymore. She even does a great job with it when we're out in town too! I am LOVING having less diapers to wash, and I'm a little bit bummed that this progress coincides so closely with Gretta progressing to some solid food... I had hoped for a little vacation from swirling diapers in the potty, but yet, here we are still... :)

Our little chicks are doing well- they are nearly 3 weeks old, and it's amazing how fast they grow. We've enjoyed getting to watch them, and I still think it's amazing to see the mama hen scratching in the dirt, with complete disregard for where the babies are- nearly every time, there's a baby caught up in her scratching, a little squeal is let out, and no one really pays it any mind- they just continue about their business. You'd think the mama would be more careful (but they're not... all of our mama hens have done it!) or the babies would learn to get out of the way... guess they're not all that smart after all. The chicks we have in the brooder still are getting field trips every day, which is fun for all of us, provided the cats aren't around... :) Here's a picture of the mama hen with 15 of the 16 chicks she was taking care of at the time. The little yellow chicks seem especially fond of playing "king of the mountain" on her- once we saw three chicks all piled on top! Too funny...

Miss Gretta, caught mid-squeal. This girl has a set of lungs on her. Seriously. It's amazing. Add to that the volume of air she can put out- it's just astounding! She can holler and 10 seconds later she's still going, on the same breath! Sometimes it's funny, but not in the middle of the night when she is half awake... it's truly impressive... you have to hear it for yourself!

Emma Kate and Gretta teaching Daddy how to work in the kitchen :) hehee

The girls and I have been going to "the little park" at the church up the road, pretty much daily, for the last couple of weeks. Emma Kate has really enjoyed it, I think partly because we essentially have it all to ourselves the majority of the time, so she can do whatever she wants and she doesn't have to be shy about it. Often we pack our lunch or dinner if Daddy is working, and we have a meal there, picnic style. I must have really worn both girls out this day- they fell asleep on the way home and slept in the stroller for a good 45 minutes before dinner!!

Yep, there's Gretta again, yelling at the milk... don't know what it did to deserve such harsh treatment, but it's likely that it wasn't fully deserved... just how G rolls. :)

And last is a picture taken by Emma Kate- I thought it was awesome that she got Gretta in the picture, and I love that Gretta is so smiley and curious about what Emma Kate was doing! We get a LOT of random pictures on the camera, and this one was just too cool!

Here are some pictures I loaded up really quick, will have to comment on them later. It is time for bed!!!! :)

Almost 2 weeks with dry panties!!! Emma Kate is doing awesome!! It's still quite a celebratory event when she uses her potty, and she is quite proud still!! She did awesome on a day-long drive to the beach, staying at the beach house and on the beach, and another day-long drive home with NO ACCIDENTS!!!! She's doing incredible!!! :)

Gretta, at just a little shy of 8 1/2 months, is getting in her two top middle incisors- one day there was just a little hint of white under the gums, and the next morning, there was no doubting it!! They're well on their way to being little teeth now!! She is speed-crawling, standing up on everything, and has even climbed a couple stairs... (agh!)

We had an awesome week at the beach with perfect weather, enjoyed a day on the ocean beach and the rest on the sound, with lots of time on the playground. Emma Kate got comfortable enough in the water to stand on her own and walk around quite a bit (it stays shallow way out into the water), and had fun walking to the swim bouys and back to the beach all by herself. We had a nice morning ride in the paddleboat, and spent a morning at the aquarium. We did make it to the fireworks in Manteo- Gretta was quite amazed by them and really enjoyed watching them, Emma Kate was a little caught off guard when they started (plus she was obviously tired, she's never up that late!!) but she did watch them secretly over my shoulder... :) She later said that she did NOT watch them, they were NOT pretty, and they were NOT loud. Hmmmm. No still prevails as her most common response to any and all questions... :) Lots of pictures to come hopefully tonight!