18 Months Old!

Emily is 18 months old today!!!

We went to a park this morning that has a duck pond. We had a great time feeding the ducks. They patiently waited their turn for their piece of bread . . . kinda : )



Check out this video of Emily feeding the ducks:

First visit to the GA Aquarium

Emily went to the GA Aquarium for the first time today! Joe had off work so we decided at 8:30 that we were going to go and were out the door at 9:30 to head that way . . . I was proud of us!!! We FINALLY turned Emily's car seat around so I took this picture of her chilling in the back seat with her sunglasses on on our way to the aquarium:

She kept saying "Fiiiii" for fish

I wanted to get a picture of Joe and Emily in the penguin tank but the picture didn't turn out . . . but Emily had fun waiting in line with Joe:

I don't remember alligators being here last time . . .are they new??? They were cool looking:

Bed Head again

Emily looks like she had a great nap yesterday! Here's what she looked like when she got up. As you can see she was still holding on to all of her pacifiers that she sleeps with : ) She looks like the little baby off of the Addams Family Values movie . . . (great movie by the way!)

Visiting Grandma

We hope everyone had a great 4th of July weekend! For the first time EVER Joe actually got a 3 day weekend when the rest of America celebrated a holiday! We wanted to post pictures of Emily's first trip to see fireworks but Joe spent the day in bed Friday with his head spinning from taking some pain pills for the first time for his back . . . lesson learned . . . don't take 2 pain pills the first time you try them : ) Once they left his system he was doing much better.

On Saturday we drove to Auburn to see Joe's mom. We had a great visit. Joe's brother was in town so Emily really enjoyed playing with her cousin Sidney. He showed her all his cool toys which she loved! Joe's sister and husband also stopped thru on their way home from the beach so we enjoyed lunch with them on Sunday.

Aside from being stuck in traffic on the way home Sunday and Emily having a meltdown in the car we had a great trip!

Helping in the kitchen . . .

. . . well not really . . . but Emily did enjoy putting these oven mits on while I was trying to clean up after dinner tonight. I was proud of her for getting them on all by herself!

Her bottom two teeth broke thru this week next to her 4 front teeth so she now has 18 teeth . . . all that's left to come in of her baby teeth are her 2 year molars!!!

I got excited the other day because Emily finally pointed to me in a picture and said, "mama" . . . she's been saying daddy for weeks and now finally mama!!! However, my excitement was a little deflated when she pointed to a picture of Christie Brinkley in my People Magazine the other day and said, mama . . . . I know I should be flattered . . . but hello . . . we don't look ANYTHING alike! So then I thought . . . well maybe she thinks all girl pictures are mama and all guy pictures are daddy . . . so I pointed to a picture of Tiger Woods and asked Emily who that was . . . and she said, "mama". Then I pointed to a dark haired man on the front of the Parents Magazine thinking she might say Daddy since he looked more like Joe . . . but she said "Mama" again in her sweet little voice. . .oh well!!!

Emily and Bud and more accomplishments . . .

I know this looks really gross but Emily loves sitting on Bud's pallet. Here they are hanging out together:



I also have to tell a really gross story . . . if you are squeamish then don't read this paragraph : ) Emily LOVES being outside to the point where I think we spend more of her waking hours outside than inside now. If we are inside she constantly follows me around saying "outside" over and over (but with a big southern drawl). Well the other day she was walking around in the yard as I was going thru the mail. I saw her walk towards me with something in her hand other than her normal sticks and leaves. She was bringing it to me . . . guess what it was!!!! It was Bud's poop . . . AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! I just about died. I had her throw it on the ground and we went inside and I washed her hands about 5 times and kept digging under all her fingernails in case some was in there . . . that is so gross!!!! My mom said, "at least she didn't put it in her mouth" . . . which is so true.

Her poor little knees are so scuffed up where she keeps falling on the driveway . . . but she gets up and keeps going. She has also figured out how to get in her chair herself so she spends most of her time now getting in and out of the chair. The second she finally gets turned around and sitting correctly she hops down to do it all over again.

She has been saying several new words as well instead of just grunting for what she wants . . . which I'm very pleased with! She says: milk, up, grapes, hon-bees (for honey bees snack), fiiii (for goldfish snack), doggie, phone, and she can say the sounds for these animals that we point out to her: pig, cow, duck, sheep, dog, cat, lion, snake, and elephant. She likes to point to our nose, eyes, teeth, mouth, ears, hair, hands, and toes and say each one. Bud hasn't figured out yet when she says "eyes" and sticks her fingers at him that he's supposed to close his eyes . . . she's poked his eyes a few times . . . he'll catch on eventually : ) She also said her own name for the first time last week: "Emy". It's so fun to hear her! She tries to say anything you ask her to which can be fun : ) She also loves to give us high fives. When it's time for bed she lays her head on my shoulder and rubs my arm and pats it . . . I guess because I rub and pat her back . . . it's so sweet!

She has also discovered her belly button after reading the belly button book over and over and now wants me to take off her shirt most of the time so she can see her belly button. She pulls on her shirt and says "off" and keeps looking down to try to find it . . . what a hoot!

Happy Anniversary!

Joe and I celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary today! We look like such babies in our wedding picture!!!!

This past weekend we went to Greenville, SC to get away for a couple of days and had such a wonderful time. We stayed at Pettigru Place Bed and Breakfast. Our hostess was so nice and we really enjoyed eating breakfast each morning with the other guests. Joe and I have stayed at several bed and breakfasts over the years and love them! If you have never stayed at one we recommend it. The food is always fabulous and it's so fun to meet the other people that stay there. Our hostess gave us several books on running a bed and breakfast because we had such an enjoyable time asking her how she came to run a B&B. The downtown area of Greenville is really nice and there were lots of neat stores and restaurants that we enjoyed. We also pampered ourselves Saturday morning with a spa package . . . very nice!!! We also got to enjoy a few pre-parent activities like going to dinner at 8:00 p.m. instead of 5:30 p.m. and going to see the Indiana Jones movie. Here are some of our pictures from this weekend:

Pettigru Place

We met a professional photographer in the park Sunday so he took our picture.

Here is the park in downtown Greenville:

And of course because I love animals here are the pictures we took of the hawk, ducks, and turtles at the park:

And here's my crazy husband! He bought some science gadgets to put together and they came with these lovely goggles :

Like father like daughter . . . Emily enjoyed the goggles we gave her when we got home: