SEPTEMBER UPDATE # 2

Fall Fun. These photos were taken at Heritage Days at the Rural Life Museum. Lots of Fun

SEPTEMBER UPDATE

Cousin Fun

AUGUST UPDATE

Look 2 wheels!!

JULY UPDATE # 2

More pics!! As you can see, Emily enjoys her pool

JULY UPDATE

OK, I AM GOING TO ATTEMPT TO CATCH UP!!!

We went to the zoo with a group from the church the first of July. Pictured in first photo is Emily and her best friend Marrissa, Wiley (Marrissa's brother) and Azia. Yes, it was hot, but the kids begged me to pour water over their heads!!

MY ALL AMERICAN GIRL

She is growing up way too fast. Scroll down and compare this pic. to the ones I posted in May. There is only about a month between these pics. She looks so grown!! I will post a few more pics. Granny took both grandkids for pics. I just love this one of Emily.

What we have been doing:

Not much of anything, it is too hot. Emily of course has been swimming tons. She so loves her pool.

We have been to the splash park. That is always a hit with Emily.

We have been to jumpy place. She loves the inflatable jumpies.

Emily loves to go to the mall and play in the play area. We try to do that about once a month.

I have enrolled her in a music class. It is called Little Mozarts. She loves it. It teaches 4 and 5 year olds tons of stuff about music. She has a natural love for music. Donnie and I know nothing about music, so decided it was time to get her some formal instruction. She is learning about high notes, low notes, soft sounds, loud sounds and learning how to read music. She is so funny, we started the class 2 weeks late, so she was a little behind. for 3 weeks she has acted totally uninterested. She is so competative that she can't stand that the other kids know more than she does!! I did have to bribe her for the last class that if she would participate, she could have an Icee. It worked, she answered every question, and did most everything that she was asked to do. The studio where she is taking lessons also teaches violin lessons, which is why we are taking music lessons. She was given a real violin when she was 2 and I wanted to wait till she was a little older before we took lesson. The Little Mozart class is a great introduction to music. It is a 13 week study, so should end about August. Then we will decided if we want to do session 2 with LM or move on to something else. I just hate it that she doesn't want to do tumble anymore. She says she wants to do Karate. We will see.

Last Sat Donnie and I took her to a Chinese music concert. It was a group from Houston that played traditional Chinese instruments and sang opera....in Chinese. She really enjoyed it. Donnie and I enjoyed watching her. It triggered a memory of the orphanage for her. When we got her she had this hand sign that she did when you played music or when she was happy. They told us that it was a celabration type thing. When they began playing music, she did it. We were so amazed. She did get a little freaked out at first when they sang; it was loud and the fact that it was in Chinese. She bounced back and forth between my lap and Donnies all evening, and was very affectionate to us. We got more hugs and kisses that we have gotten in a very long time. So sweet!!

PICTURES!!

Here are some pics of Emily playing on her park. She just loves it. Notice the new short haircut?

APRIL UPDATE

I absolutely love this age. Emily is becoming very independent and growing up right before my very eyes. It is kinda sad that my baby is mostly gone, but I do love my big girl. We never have a dull moment around here!!

Daddy finished her park last weekend, and none too soon. The last 30 minutes of assembly were pure torchure for her!! She could not wait for him to finish. She was also Daddy's little helper. From day one, she whined and whined that it was going to take Daddy one hundred and one years to finish. It took Daddy about 3 weekends to put it up, he wouldn't ask anyone for help, and definately wouldn't let me hire someone to help him....all man!! The wind did knock the tower part down and broke about a dozen boards, but the manufacturer warrantied them, so we will be good as new!! Emily had a picnic lunch on her park today, she loved it!!

We got her hair cut short. She looks so cute. She looks sooo Chinese with her new haircut!!

AND HERE ARE SOME CUTE THINGS THAT SHE HAS SAID RECENTLY

Daddy is out of town for work this week, and she just doesn't quite understand. Daddy told her to take care of Momma while he was gone, and her reply was "Daddy, who is going to take your place?" As her and I were leaving the airport, she said,"I guess we aren't a family anymore." I asked her what she meant. She said, "I don't have a Daddy anymore." I then explained that he would be back next week. But she still didn't understand. About an hour after we got back from the airport she asked if Daddy was home yet!! We were playing in the backyard and she heard an airplane. She asked if that was Daddy's plane. I said, what do you think? She said it was. I had her wave and blow kisses to Daddy. When Donnie called that evening, the first thing she asked him was if that was his plane and did he get his kisses. He assured her that he got all 3 kisses and put them in his pocket. She then wanted to know what he did with the extra ones. And she can't understand why her and I didn't go with Daddy. She is such a thinker.

Emily and MawMaw play like they are talking Chinese. It is so funny. You would think they really were carrying on a conversation. And she is just a moving her hands....so funny. And they go on and on for 20 to 30 minutes at a time!! I have explained to her that it is a funny game, but it would be very rude if she were to do that in front of someone Chinese.

I asked her today where babies come from. Her answer, "China."

We have always told Emily the truth about S#nta and the Easter B#nny. The drawback is that she thinks G#d isn't real either. I tell her He is and I know because he lives in my heart. So then she she said there must be lots of gods to live in everyone's heart. I told her he is one BIG G#d. You could tell she was really thinking about that one.

PRESCHOOL

Emily is reading and recognizing more and more words. I know she can recognize way more than what she wants me to know. She has figured out what numbers to push into the remote to watch her favorite channels. She recognizes about 20 TV shows, some that we don't even watch!!

Emily can count to 100 now. She won't do it on her own, but she will do it if I say a number, she will say the next. She starts getting a little confused after 30, but I help her work through it. She can also recognize double digit numbers. I had a $20 in my hand yesterday and I asked her what number, and she first said 22, then 20 -0, then she said 20. We were out paying a bill today, and she wanted a quarter for a candy machine, and I kept telling her no. (she was asking for coins) I finally told her if she could tell me how much she needed, I would give it to her. She said 2 5. I said what number is that and she answered twenty five.

WHAT WE HAVE BEEN DOING

We really haven't been doing much of anything, just hanging out at the house.

We have 2 more weeks of tumble left, and I think we are going to give it up. She just doesn't seem to be interested, and won't listen, and she just isn't progressing. She keeps saying she wants to do Karate, We will have to see about that one.

EASTER

We had a good Easter. She dyed eggs at Granny's the Thursday before Easter. We went to Aunt Donna's for Good Friday and had an Easter Egg hunt with her grandsons. She had a good day. Then we picked Daddy up from work and went to Bu#ld A Be$r for a bear. I let her get an accessory for it (she got the green Panda Earth Day Bear) and she got the styling accessory with it (hairdryer, brush and mirror) What is the first thing she does when she gets him home.....Cuts his HAIR!! I asked her why she did it...."To make him look piddy." Then I got it....the styling kit!! She didn't ruin him, thank God!!

OK, I think this post is long enough. I know I don't really have an ending, but.....

I will try to post some pics in the next couple of days

MARCH UPDATE

Ok, I guess I need to just start doing a monthly update. Sigh. I really would like to blog more, but it just isn't happening...Oh, Well.

PRE-SCHOOL AND PRE-K

We registered for Pre-K at the public school accross the street from us on the 18th. I hope that she gets in. They take 20 students and I was number 23 when registration was 1/2 over. They take all the applicants and test them (testing will be in May) and also go by income and who knows what else, then choose the 20. I have also thought about sending her to a Montissori school for Pre-k, but it is about 20 miles from the house, and that's a little too far.



Emily is almost reading. The other day she was looking a the grocery store flyer that came in the mail and she was "reading" it out loud. She was saying "buy one get one free" and the ad did say free. I asked her to point out the word free, and she did!! I asked her to point out the word sale, and she did!! We have now started going through some of her books, and I choose a word and have her find it on every page and have her spell it when she finds it. She loves I-spy so this is a fun game for her. So far she can recognize Dad, Daddy, Mother, Nemo, Mom. I do know that at this point she is just memorizing the words, but that is part of reading...it won't be long now and she will be reading. I am as excited as she is.



Emily has also started writing her letters. She has been asking for new preschool books, but I told her I wasn't going to buy any more until she started writing her letters. Lo and behold she started writing her letters!! I have seen her write most of the alphabet, both lower and upper case letters. I knew she could do!! She loves to do the word puzzles where specific symbols stand for certain letters and it spells words. I need to get her books that have these.

WHAT WE HAVE BEEN DOING

We really haven't been doing too much. We did go to the Swamp last weekend. They were having a big geology thing going on. They had a treasure hunt in the trails, they were cutting open geodes for the kids, a rockwall (Emily did "climb" she was a little scared, but she loved it!!), the kids got to hunt for [fool's] gold, and many other educational type stuff. It was really fun. I just love the Swamp.

EMILY NOW HAS HER OWN PARK

Daddy and I finally got Emily her own "park" as she calls a swingset. We had been eyeing this particular wooden set for a long time. It has a clubhouse, rockwall, monkey bars and swings and slide. She is so active and loves to climb we felt if we were going to buy her one, it had to have all of the above. Last Friday night Donnie and I had a datenight and went to the toy store and bought her park!! Just before we went out, I checked my e-mail and I had a sale notice from THE toy store that had this set on sale for over 45% off. I am so excited on the deal that we got!!



We also got Emily a pool. Our church youth pastor just accepted a full time pastor job at another church. They are moving and offered their pool to us for dirt cheap. it is a little one - 2 1/2 feet deep and 10 foot round, but it will be perfect for her for the next 2 summers.



Between the park and the pool, we are set for the summer. Summer, we are ready for you!! Emily also has the basketball goal that Granny got her for Christmas. Emily still loves her sand table too. Mom just needs to get her a big sun umbrella, I am sure we will spend the summer outside!! Emily hates to sweat, so this will be interesting.

OTHER SUMMER ACTIVIES

Here it is, Spring starts tomorrow, and I am already talking about summer. We really don't have much spring-like weather in the south, so looking forward to summer is pretty easy to do.



We of course will be spending a lot of our time at home with our park. There are several children in the neighborhood that we plan on spending time with this summer. Some of them we already know and she plays with, but there are some that we haven't met and we plan on meeting them and playing with them.



I want to do another Swamp Tot program at the Swamp.



The zoo. zippity Zoo days is next weekend.



The next town over has a new waterpark. It is a step above a splash park and has a big waterslide. The fee to go is very reasonable, so I hope to take Em atleast 2 or 3 imes this summer.



The beach is only about 3 hours from here. I would love to go to the beach atleast for a weekend this summer. We are'nt planning a big vacation this year. we have paid off 4 of 5 credit cards in the last 18 months, and should have the last one paid out in the next 18 months. We are making a big push to get out of debt, and stay that way, so we are going to saccrifice the vacation to do it.

Emily and MawMaw

Okay, I am very technologically challanged right now. Our computer and internet are so behind that I am not able to post pics. We are working on getting out of the techno hole that we are in, but it won't be anytime soon!!!









What we have been up to:

• The weather is finally getting nice enough to go outside. Granny got her a basketball goal for Christmas, so we have been playing on that and have been to the park.




• Emily "failed" her hearing screening at her 4 yo well baby check up, so I took her for a hearing test. She passed will flying colors. I was concerned because she has always had a hard time saying words that had two constenant sounds together, and I thought maybe she couldn't hear them. Well, her speech has bloomed in the last couple of weeks, she can say almost all sounds clearly now!!

• She has also become very verbal. It is amazing some of the things that she comes up with!! And she doesn't forget anything.

• For Valentine's day, we took her to Bu*ld*Bear. She picked out the Valentines Ladybug that they had out for VD. She wanted a recordable sound in it, so I had her say "Happy Valentines Day, I love You." It so melts my hear!! We put together little goody bags for her Sunday School class, and what was left over she wanted to hand out in the sanctuary at church. So sweet.

• We didn't celebrate Ch*nese N*w Year this year. We had planned to go to see the Dr*gon Dance, but I kept checking the paper, and none of the resteraunts had it advertised. Oh well, there is always next year!!

• We don't spend much time doing preschool. I had tons of preschool books, and she has mastered almost everything in them. She still won't write her numbers and letters. I decided to back off and stop pushing her. It has just become a battle of wills, and I don't want to frustrate her to the point that it isn't any fun. She wants to read so bad. Sometimes she just cries and cries because she wants to read and can't. I do have several books and we get books from the library to help her learn to read. She likes to do math and will get frustrated when she can't do certain math problems. We tell her she will learn those things when she is big enough.

• She loves to play her Le*pster and V-M*otion video games. We only have educational games for these, and she loves them. It is amazing to watch her master new skills. She loves I-Spy things, and is very good. I got her an ISpy for her Le*apster, and it is a 5-9 year old level, but she does very well.

• We started in gymnastics again in Jan. She likes it. We are at a different place, and she is older, so it is harder. We still have some lazies to work out from the last place, but the last couple of weeks, I have really seen some improvements. This too is an area where I have to learn not to push too hard.

AND NOW ALMOST 6 WEEKS LATER......

YOU guessed it, I am now almost 6 weeks behind. So much for catching up. Oh, the story of my life!!!!

November was pretty boring. Thanksgiving of course was the big highlight. I did take some good pics of Emily with her Pappa. She also got to ride on Pappa's 4 wheeler. Her uncle let her steer and press the gas. Might I remind you what a thrill seeker she is. I was about to have a heart attack.

December has proved to be pretty busy. I feel like a slacker, we have not done near as much activities this year as last. We have done a few crafts, but I didn't take pics. Oh well, I will try to highlight them here.

• We made a foam gingerbread house
• we have made a few Christmas ornaments.
• Emily was a little sheep in the church choir program...she was the talk of the night!! She echoed the song when she was supposed to sing, wouldn't wear her hat. At one point she looked back and saw the angel had a play candle and asked her, "Where did you get that?"
• The preschool choir went on the road with the handbellls to a nursing home to preform. Emily called it a "nursery home." The old people made her a little nervous, but the elderly talked about how the children made their Christmas, so that makes it all worth it.
• We went to the zoo at night to see the lights. It was really neat. They did have unique lights, but it was also cool to shine a flashlight into the animal exhibits and see them sleeping.

NEXT UP

We still haven't been to the park here in town that has lights. Will probably do that next week or maybe after Christmas.

Emily has also expressed interest in riding around to see Christmas lights. I have tried to do that for the last two years, but she has shown no interest. Guess we will do that this year.

Emily's birthday is next week. Hard to believe my baby will be 4. Where does time go!! We are having her Birthday party at a Jumpy place. She wants it at Ch*ckie Cheese. We are going to take her there as a family the night of her birthday.

Granny has yet to make cookies with her. That will probably be the week of Christmas. Daddy is taking 2 vacation days before Christmas, so he will be off for 5 days. YAY!!

Christmas Eve we are going to Granny and Pappa's, then to church. We are staying home all day Christmas day.

CHRISTMAS BLOOPERS

and of course, what would a Christmas post be without adding some of the things that she has been saying. The only funny things she has said this year is "Rudolf the Red Hot Reindeer."

I need a new cardreader to upload pics. Think that's what I will get me for Christmas. So for now, you will have to endure without pics!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS. JESUS IS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON.

ALL CAUGHT UP ON POSTS

OK, I am now caught up on posts with pics. The quality of the download isn't the best, I may try to fix it later, but I atleast have it all documented!!

It is 4 or five posts, just scroll down. I think the first one is pics of her and I and grandma and Emily.

GOTCHA DAY

Happy Gotcha day anniversary number 3. Can you beleive!! I like to do a picture to show how much she has grown. and what was our Gotcha day activity? I am glad you asked. We told Emily we would do whatever she wanted to do. We had in mind to take her to Ch#ckie Ch##se, but she wanted to play M$noply with her family!!

FALL FESTIVAL

PUMPKIN CARVING

SWAMP TOT

These are from the Bluebonnet Swamp tot program that we did every Wed. in Oct. It is very unusual for us to have this much color in changing leaves. Usually don't get this until late Nov. or later, and it is very little. Because of Hallow**n, they stapled glow in the dark eyes on the trees for a night hike. We will definately do that next year. See the chocolate bunny? That is a cypress knot (root).

PUMPKIN PATCH

My favorite picture is where she is standing beside the scarecrow stick!! I loved her outfit too. It says "cutest pumpkin in the patch."

Corn Maize

Okay, finally able to post pics. I think the problem is my photo card is a higher quality than my computer, and I need to get a faster card reader. What ever.

I went to walm$rt and put them on a disc. not very good quality, but you get the idea.

These pics were taken at the Rural Life Museum's corn maize. It was really cute, and Emily enjoyed.

WHAT A BUSY OCTOBER!!

ok, evidently my car-reader for the photos is not working. Sorry no pics, I will see what I can do to fix it and get pics up.

October has turned into quite a busy month. We have had tons of fun!! I had a bunch of things planned. We did about half of them, plus other things.

Here's a quick bullet list and I will try to get pics up soon.

• Pumpkin Patch. I had her dressed in a cute little pumpkin outfit. It was long sleeved and the shirt said "cutest pumpkin in the patch." Keep in mind it was long sleeved and it was almost 90 degrees....and my girl hates to sweat. But mommy got great pictures!!

• We did a mini corn maize. A local rural life musem in Baton Rouge had heritage days with a pumpkin patch and corn maize. Emily and I went with Maw Maw, and we all had a good time. Emily was too little to be interested in the demonstrations of what life was like 100 years ago, so we just did the corn maize and pumpkin patch. Again great pictures.

• Daddy and Emily carved pumpkins. She of course wanted something scary. We used a pattern book and Daddy let her pick it out. On a difficulty level of 1 to 5, this one was a 4. It is a real scary looking owl. She begged and begged to help. Well, we adults know that it is the kids' job to clean out the pumpkin. I knew she would hate the slimy stuff, and she did!! It was funny to hear her beg to help, then discover she didn't like how it felt!!

• We took her to a fall festival at the first little church that Donnie and I attended after we got saved. It was great to see so many people that we had't seen in years.

• Emily and I did an educational program at the Bluebonnet Swamp. It was every Wed. morning from 9:30 to 11:30. It was called "swamp tots." I thought it was only for Oct, but it is a year around program. They have a weekly theme and do crafts, a nature walk, story time, snack time, pet an animal, and a movie. We really enjoyed it. The themes were turtles, the wind (they made pinwheels), skunks (she called them kunks, and the animal that they got to pet that day was a bearded dragon that she called a baby dinosaur!!), and bats. We will definately do this program again, probably in the spring.

• All of this, and we still have the fall festival at church. What a fun time October has been!!

THE FAIR

Yes, I am way behind on blogging....again. These are a few pics I took at the fair at the beginning of the month, Oct. 6th . This was the first time we took her to a fair. She is a thrill seeker, and has been talking about riding, "scary big kid rides," for a long time now!! She had tons of fun. She rode her first roller coaster, another thing she has been so anxiously waiting to ride. And how fitting, the roller coaster was a Chinese New Year Dragon. Emily and I rode the bumper cars, a Bee ride, and her and Daddy went into a fun house type thing. She rode the car and motorcycle kiddie rides by herself. Don't tell anyone, but she was a little afaid on the motorcycle ride. It would pop little wheelies as it went around the track, and I think it took her by surprise. I wanted to ride the ferris wheel with her, but I chickened out. It was one of the great big ones, and Daddy hates ferris wheels, and I was very leary about taking her by myself. She also was very excited about getting cotton candy...the highlight of the night!!!

EMILYISMS

Oh, the things this girl comes up with. She just cracks us up!!

• "Grips" on socks are "groups" according to Emily. She loves them, they help her climb!!
• She calls the handbells at church "dingbells." Emily says that is the sound they make.
• Donnie and I love to play sudukio...she calls it "toy oak e o."
• The other day I washed her favorite blanket. It upset her terribly. She cried and cried (yes, most of the tears were D.R.A.M.A). I asked her what was wrong. "I miss Pink Baby." Emily she was stinking and dirty. Her reply, "That's my business. I am your business and you take care of me, Pink Baby is my business and I will take care of her!!"
• Wednesday when we went to church for Children's Choir, she didn't want to wear long pants. She hates to sweat, and she was afraid she would get too hot. I told her she would be fine, I wanted her to wear the long pants. She said all her friends would tease her and call her "Long Pants Emily."
• The other day we were going to go kidnap Daddy and take him to lunch. I of course had to explain to her what Kidnap meant. While I was at it, I explained ransom as well. So we went into Daddy's work, and she told Daddy, "you have to come with me and Mommy." Then she went over to Daddy's boss and told him, "You can have daddy back if you give us 300 bucks." It was too cute!!
• The other day I was brushing her hair out and it was in knots. I asked her where she got all the knots. Her answer, "mouse." She meant rats!!
• She is extremely (and always has been) observant. She notices the slightest thing. and she always says: "something is different." Like the other day she said "Mommy shaves in the bath, and Daddy shaves out of the bath." Our neighbor got a new car 3 days ago. Today she said look Ms. Anne's car is a different color. She had a white Corolla, she now has a silver Corolloa. Daddy likes to drink from a 32 oz. plastic cup, and I like to drink from a 16 oz. cup. For no reason the other day I had the bigger cup and Daddy the smaller...she noticed and commented on it!!

I am still having quite a time with her hiding things!! She loves to hide keys, cell phones, library books and movies, anything that she can, she hides!! I know one day when she outgrows this phase, I am going to miss it....maybe!!

Children's Choir and pics with momma

Emily is loving Children's Choir at church. She just loves to sing!!! The choir teachr had them sing for the Wednesday night prayer group. There is only about 10 or 15 people there. The kids did well. on the way to church, Emily started telling me she was nervous. I kept telling her she was going to do fine, it wasn't anythig to be nervous about. She kept saying she was nervous and that I didn't understand. Finally, I asked her to tell me what she was nervous about. "I am in long pants, and I am afraid I am going to sweat before I get to church!!" The girl HATES to sweat!!!

The other 2 pics are pics of her and I together, all dressed fro fall. Notice, Momma has new glasses. I am enjoying being able to see!! Didn't realize just how much I couldn't see. Emily overall likes my glasses. She does say that she doesn't like my glasses because now I can see her getting in trouble!!!

Where does she get these things!!!