Stinker

Emma's a quick study.  It didn't take long for our friend Holly to teach Emma to call her hubby, Rob, Stinker.  And Emma sure hasn't forgotten it.

Happy 4th!

As we do every July 4th, we celebrated at church.  For your viewing pleasure, a small collection of my own pictures as well as couple others from our loving church family:

Patriotic Emma

Wondrous Emma (even though the fireworks weren't all that wondrous themselves)

Loving Emma

"Fwim. Wah-TERRR. Git in."

We took Emma to the lake for the first time last weekend, and she had a great time.  We went with our friends Matt and Caroline, who she loves.  Oh, and how could I forget their dog Charlie?  In Emma speak, we went with Matt, Ca-wine, and Chawee.  Friday night she was practicing how to wear her sunglasses on her head in preparation for Saturday:

Nosy britches only slept for 8 hours Friday night, and she woke up Saturday morning saying, "Daddy.  Phone.  Matt.  Ca-wine."  Nothing about Mommy sleeping in the other room.  No concern for me whatsoever.

When we got down to the dock on Saturday morning, Emma said over and over and over: "Fwim.  Wah-TERR.  Git in."  (Fwim = swim)  I was so proud of our little doodlebug.  Here are the things she wasn't afraid of:
(1) being dangled over the edge of the dock to be put in her float

(2) wearing a life jacket

(3) floating in a big huge lake

(4) being on a boat

(5) going fast on a boat while Daddy tubes
and finally....

(6) TUBING LIKE A BIG GIRL!!

Thanks, Matt and Caroline, for Emma's first weekend at the lake!

Boundless

As a January baby myself, I was always so jealous of those kids who got to have fun outdoor birthday parties.  Sadly, Emma will be able to have outdoor birthday parties in March, but they won't be quite as fun for her as for other children.  Swimming, running, riding bikes, climbing playgrounds, even plain old recess games will be almost impossible for her. 

The bright side?  We live in a great city with The Boundless Playground.  It was built to accomodate children with handicaps, and it's the first one of its kind our state.  It just so happens that our friends' son recently celebrated his birthday there!  We got our first little taste of this neat playground, and Emma thoroughly enjoyed herself!  George the Train was a big hit, too.  Riding the train went much better this time around.  The last time we rode a train with Emma, it derailed under her and Russell.  Thank goodness Russell had a sense of humor about it.  I'm pretty sure that any woman would have had a weight complex about it for weeks.

And here is the more successful train ride:

And some other fun shots from the day: