AND NOW IT IS JUNE.....

I know, I have been a bad blogger lately. Blame it on F$ceB%%k!! I will try to recap the month of May. Of course, at the beginning of May we went to the beach. Had a great time. We came home and had an end of school year party with the preschoolers through 5th grade at church. It was a lock in at a place that has inflatable bouncers. She loves that kind of stuff!! We didn't stay all night, but she had lots of fun. The pic of her with the tee-ball was taken at Aunt Trudy's house. I really wish we would have signed her up for tee-ball, I think she would have really enjoyed it. We have also been riding our new big girl bike, going to the park, swimming at home and at Granny's and playing at Ch$c-F*l*. June promises to be a very bus month too. We have VBS next week, Aunt Trudy is off the next week and we will do some things with her and her children, then we have swim lessons. We have 2 birthday parties this Sat. (June 5th). I am sure we will be hitting the splash park sometime soon too. And we always enjoy our sand table. Our summer is off to a good start, hope yours is too.

H

A

P

P

Y

S

U

M

M

E

R

THE BIG GIRL BIKE

Emily was so ready for her big girl bike. There are several boys her age in the neighborhood that have bikes, so of course she has to have one too. One of the boys everytime he rides his bike with his mom and dad by our house, she knocks him off of it so that she can ride it!! Another boy has TWO big kid bikes. One with and one without training wheels. Yes, he learned to ride without training wheels before he was 3 1/2!! Emily now wants 2 bikes!! She rides 90 to nothing, and controls it very well. She has had a few spills, but we just told her that was part of it, get up dust yourself off and get going again!

LIFE'S A BEACH

Mommy, Daddy, and Granny (Daddy's Momma) took Emily to the beach. We went to Orange Beach in AL and met Great Aunt Mary, Aunt Tracy, Uncle Jerry, and cousins Levi and Carly. We had tons of fun. Emily LOVES the beach. She loves the ocean, the sand, the pool and the condo!! This was the first vacation that we have taken her on. The whole way there (Ok, it was only 3 1/2 hours), she kept saying this is my first vacation ever!! We took the ferry acrossed the Gulf in Dauphin Island. She wasn't so sure about that!! Age wise, she is right between Levi and Carly. Levi is 4, Emily is 3, and Carly is 2. You can ask her what was her favorite part of the vacation, and she says this was her best vacation ever!! By the way, we did beat the oil slick. The weather was probably about 10 to 15 degrees cooler than I like at the beach, but it really was nice.

Next up on the agenda: a big girl bike with training wheels!! We kept telling her that when we got home from the beach we were going to get her a bike. As we pulled out of the condo on the way home, she wanted to know when she was going to get her bike!! Stay tuned ....the next post will be about her bike!! I tried a different layout with the pics...sorry it looks so yucky...just enjoy the pics, that's what you come for anyway!!!

WE ARE READY FOR SUMMER!! Stay tuned. Here are somethings that we hope to accomplish this summer:

A) this weekend our church is hosting an end of school party for preschool - 5th grade at an indoor jumpy place. We won't stay all night, but we will stay late...promises to be lots of fun!!

B) Going to a water park with Aunt Trudy....Emily just loves the water.

C) Daddy has plenty of festivals with carnival rides planned for the summer. Emily is definately a thrill seeker!!

D) We will try to sneak back to the beach again. Hopefully the oil won't ruin the beaches!! I have a cousin that lives in Pensacola, and that is only about a 4 1.2 hour drive...will make a nice weekend get away!!

E) The splash park and Granny's pool. I have scheduled swim lessons for the end of June. I can't wait to see how she does...she is so not afraid of the water!!

Miss Drama Queen

Oh, she is growing up so fast. She just kills me with the things that she says!!

• the other night at bedtime, I asked her what she was thankful for, and she said "nothing." then before I could stop her she prayed, "Dear Jesus, thanks for nothing." I had to keep from laughing. She really was being genuine.
• We were going to a craft show to visit with daddy a couple of weeks ago, and when we pulled into the parking lot, she saw the big inflatable jumpy things and she said, "my little eyes are all lit up, I am so excited." and her eyes were almost squinted closed, way too cute!!
• She loves to get mail. I took her with me to check the mail and she said, " I have a big grin on my face, I hope I have mail."
• I know these are all things that she has heard me say, but it is so cute when your words come out of their mouths!! The other day she was doing something, and would not stop after I told her several times to stop. I told her I was going to spank her (yes, we do spank here!!) and she told me she was going to spank me and I wouldn't be able to sit down for a day!! Now that was daddy's words!!!
• I also think is cute and funny how literal children are. The neighbor was talking to her and told her she was going to be "brown as a biscuit" this summer. Emily just died laughing...I can only imagine what she was thinking!!
• Oh and she is such a drama queen. The other night she was being very hyper and I was having a hard time getting her to settle down and eat her dinner. I wouldn't let her get up until she ate. She begged and begged to get up, the answer was no (we TRY VERY HARD to be firm with her). She started saying "nobody loves me." Oh, it was so heart breaking, and yes, a little funny too. We reassured her that we did love her. She then said, "if you loved me you would give in to me." I just turned the tables on her and told her if she loved ME she would give in to me and eat!! You guessed it, she had an answer for that. "But momma, I am only a child!!!"

INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL

FACING OFF.....EMILY IS ROARING AT THE DRAGON!!

Here are just a few pics from our weekend. Sunday we went to downtown Baton Rouge to the International Festival. It is a celebration of all the many cultures of BR from around the world. There were over 40 nations represented. This is something I definately want to take Emily to as she gets older. She didn't have a nap and was a little grumpy (she says gumpy), but I know it will be something that she will enjoy as she gets older. They have craft and food booths, displays which include posterboard about the particular countries, stages where they preform music dances native to specific countries, and they have a parad of nations. The weather was perfect to be outside.

EASTER 2010

CONVERSATIONS WITH MAW MAW

• Maw Maw calls her bobo legs because she always has bobo's on her legs. The other day Maw Maw called her bobo legs and she called Maw Maw bobo legs. Maw Maw said I don't have bobos, Emily pointed to her legs and said there is a bobo. Maw Maw said that is an old bobo. Emily said "those are old legs."

• Maw Maw told her she loved her and Emily kept ignoring her. after about the 3rd time, Emily looked and Maw Maw and said, "Maw Maw, I DO love you, I get tired of saying it."

• Emily and Maw Maw play the "quiet game." Emily does pretty good and she grins from ear to ear the whole time she is quiet. For now she thinks it is a fun game.

• Emily loves to watch movies in Maw Maw's room. She loves to watch scary movies, storm movies (The Big Storm, Twister, ETC.), horse movies and shark movies. Her favorite parts on the shark movies is when the people get eaten!! Mean Momma has banned all scary and gory movies. Maw Maw has since bought Emily some cartoon DVD's for her room!!

I will post some pics later of Maw Maw and Emily. They have lots of fun together.

EASTER AT THE LIBRARY

We kicked off Easter Week at the library. We went to story time and sang and danced to silly songs, listened to 2 books and did an Easter craft. We made Easter baskets out of cereal boxes. Loads of fun. Then we had an Easter Egg Hunt IN the library!! Fun, Fun, Fun.

Last year, we did and Easter craft every day in preperation for Easter, and we will do that again this year. Stay tuned for PICTURES!!

BREAKFAST WITH THE BUNNY

IT'S ALMOST SPRING!!!

I told Emily that it was almost spring, then I explained to her what spring was. I told her that it would get warmer and she would be able to play outside more and there would be flowers. Everyday now she looks out the window to see if the flowers are here yet, ans she says it is almost "ping".

We haven't been up to much, it has been too wet and cold. We are finally starting to see a few nice days here and there. Last weekend Daddy did a craft show that had a carnival. Emily just loves to ride rides!!!! She rode with Azia. If you look back at last March blog posts, you will see pics of Emily and Azia at the same carnival.

I think we are in our last term of tumble for a while. The last 6 months at tumble have not been what I have expected them to be, so we have 2 more weeks left and then we will take an extended break. She is almost big enough to start doing sports. I know Daddy will enjoy that.

Some things that we would like to do in the near future:

The zoo.

Nature hike. I thought it would be fun to do a "leprauchan" hunt for St. Patricks day. We will have to see. There are several places here pretty local to go for nature walks, and I know she will enjoy that.

We are going to AL to the beach the 2nd week in May. We are excited. This will be her first trip to the beach.

We will have our first Easter Egg hunt of the season next Sat. A church that we used to go to is having a "breakfast with the Bunny" as a fundraiser for the youth. I am not excited about the bunny, but it will be fun to have breakfast then an Easter Egg hunt.

KISSY KISSY

Emily and Pappa. Christmas 2008.

Emily and Maw Maw. Nov. 2007. This is just days after coming home!!

Emily and Nannie. Christmas 2008.

Emily and Kuncle. Sorry Kuncle, no kiss for you!!

In honor of Valentines Day, here are some kissing pics of Emily and some of her favorite family members.

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!

SNOW DAY

This was the 3rd snow in Louisiana in 14 months!! Almost unheard of....WOW. Emily is gonna think this is a normal occurance! She really doesn't care much for the snow. I helped her build the snowman. She rolled the snowballs just a little, she didn't like the cold feel of the snow. Beings we live in the south, she didn't have gloves (puppets as she calls them), we put socks on her hands!! It really was too wet to play in. We have had tons of rain and our ground is saturated, so I didn't take her out till it was almost over. The temp. never got below freezing either. It started snowing about 7:00 this morning and snowed until 10:30 and we only had about 1/2 in of accumulation. In fact most of the snow had melted by 11:00!! As soon as I finished taking pictures of our pathetic snowman he fell over!! Oh well. We had fun. Enjoy the pics.

UNTITLED

This is a referral picture. She was about 6 months old in this one. Too cute!!

This is me and daddy in China. One of my fav's and probably one of the last of just him and I.

Christmas 2009. Helping to decorate the tree.

Haven't been in the blogging mood. I have been suffering with a sinus infection for a week now and just don't feel like doing anything. I know it hasn't been THAT cold, but between the wet and cold, it has felt miserable, and my mood has matched the weather. Yuck!! Spring come quickly, I can't take much more!!!!!

These are just some random pics that I don't think I have posted, or it has been a while. For your veiwing pleasure!! ENJOY.

January - February What we did and what we have planned

Just a quick update. No photos....

It has been cold, and wet. I haven't felt like doing anything. I am so ready for spring!!!

Some things that Emily says:

• "Momma, why do you eyes look like that." She says this when I am really mad and fussing at her!
• So many times when I discipline her she laughs at me!! She will say, "Momma, why are you mad, I was only having fun." She is definately a discipline problem!!
• She loves to wear Maw Maw's lipstick. The other day I was explaining to her that she had to be a grown up before she could wear lipstick. and she answered, "but my lips hurt if I don't wear lipstick!"
• Poor thing, she doesn't understand that her uncle is gone forever. She keeps asking when he is going to come home from heaven.

Here are some accomplishments for January:

• We are now potty trained!!! and to think it only took 18 months!!
• We are now in the big kid tumble class. we have had 2 classes and poor little thing looks so lost. You can definately tell that she is an only child and I stay home with her. She really struggles socially with children her age.
• We have had several playdates at Chic*Fila. She loves to go there and play.
• Emily and mommy are doing preschool at home. She really looks forward to this everyday. I have been getting worksheets off the internet and I have several dry erase workbooks. The basic things that we have been working on is cutting, shapes and colors, sorting, which is bigger, letter sounds. I have been working a little with putting the letters in alphabet order, but I think I am too early for that skill. We both are getting less frustrated with one another than when we started. Neither one of us has "quit," so I guess that is a good sign!!

What we would like to do February:

• More playdates.
• Find a Mother's day out program. I really am rethinking this one. I would like to do it only 1 or 2 days a month, but I don't think that is enough for the socialization that I am looking for. I think I just need to be patient, the socializing will come as she gets older.
• Go to the zoo.
• Chinese New Year and Valentines Day. Both are the same day this year. I had hoped daddy and I would go out for VD, but a family night out for CNY sounds more fun!!
• better weather and trips to the park!!
• Both Emily and Daddy are in a wedding in Feb as well. Stay tuned for photos.

SPRING, SPRING PLEASE COME QUICKLY!! I CAN'T TAKE MUCH MORE OF OLD MAN WINTER!!

PINK BABY

Emily has a pink blanket that is silky on one side and extra soft on the other. She calls it

Pink Baby. She calls all of her baby blankets baby, but Pink Baby is special. Pink Baby happens to be the first thing that I bought for her once her paper work went to China and the buying frenzy began. It was my prayer that this blanket would be special to her, and it definately has been. As far as calling it Pink Baby, that was Emily's doing. The dog loves his blankets and we call them his bankies, so we knew we couldn't call them bankies. But in true child fashion she decided what she would call them.

Now that she is 3 she doesn't "need" Pink Baby as much. But when she was younger, She could not go to sleep until she had Pink Baby. Her other blankets she named Flower Baby (pink with flowers), Polka Baby (pink with polka dots), Mommy Baby (another pink blanket), and White Baby (you guessed it, white blanket). In the height of our baby dependence, she would make sure that she had all of her babies. It was so cute, frustrating, but cute!! She still sometimes wants to be sure her babies are in bed with her. She puts them at the foot of the bed, "In case I need them," she says. She also used to drag poor Pink Baby around all day!! Still when I wash it, she panics a little, but I just tell her that Pink Baby is getting a bath and fluffed and dried!!

Here are some random OLD pics of Emily and Pink Baby. I know it isn't Tuesday, but you get the Idea. I saw a picture on the computer of Emily and Pink Baby, and I have always ment to Blog abut PB, so here it is.....Enjoy!!

Emilyisms

She just cracks me up! Here are a few things that she says:

Gomeups = grown ups and yes she says it as if it is one word!!
The dog talks "dog english."
I made the mistake of calling her prissy missy. When she says it it comes out "p*issy missy."
Her and I were talking last week and I asked her what my last name was, and she said "Harry Garza." And then just died laughing. I don't know where she came up with that, but you can ask her what mommy's last name is and that is what she will tell you.

Emily's ability to communicate is just amazing. If we don't understand what she says we just tell her we didn't understand, and she tries until we finally get it.

Her sense of humor is also incredible, and always has been. She is too funny.

WE HAVE JUST BEEN HANGING AROUND

This is Emily's latest trick. Since she saw the big kids do headstands at tumble, she has been trying to do it. It is almost scary to see her try to do it on the floor - looks like she is going to break her neck!! But it is scarier to see her try to do it off the coffee table. She figured out that she could do it in the chair and use the chair back for support!! I like this method much better!! Next week she starts the "big kid" class at tumble. The 3 year old class is just the child, where under 3 is the mommy and me. She is so ready. The last month or so I have pretty much been just stepping back and letting her do. I think the toughest for her is going to be the listening and accepting help.

Preschool is going really good. It is a learning process for both of us. We both get a little frustrated at times. There are times that she just plain walks away. I wish I could too!! LOL. I try to show her how to do it, and she wants to do it her way. I have to keep reminding myself to not frustrate her, it has to be fun for her and whatever she learns now is laignape (something for nothing French saying used alot here in south). So far we have done worksheets that I have found on the internet. The other day I wrote her name and she traced it. It was amazing!! We have been doing worksheets on squares and circles. She loves to do mazes, but she just doesn't have the concept of how to do them.

Emily also loves to play games. She got several board games for her birthday and Christmas. Her and Daddy played M#nopoly last weekend. She was determined that she was big enough to play!!

I am also tting to get her in a Mother's Day Out program. I am looking for a place that I can just drop her off 1 or 2 days a month instead of the 2 days a week. My main objective with the Mother's Day Out is to give her playmates and an opportunity to play with kids her age. I have looked into 1 place so far, I need to get out the phonebook and see what I can find. It has just been so cold that I haven't felt like doing anything at all.

WE ARE READY FOR SPRING!! WE WANT TO GO TO THE PARK AND ZOO!!!!!

I'M A BIG KID NOW

Emily is truly growing up so fast. She was so excited to turn 3. She now considers herself a big kid. We did have a little bit of a tough time with the transision. She would have days where she acted like a baby all day long. I recognized it as a transisioning period, and just let her. The last "baby" hurdle to jump over was potty training. Oh the will of a two/three year old!! But, I am proud to say, that we have been in pretty panties for 3 days now!!! This is the longest we have been. In her defense, I started way too early. I started when she was 20 months old. My goal was to have her potty trained by the time she was two. Oh the will of a 2 year old!!

it has been cold here, so we haven't done much of anything. I am also battling the winter blues...yuck!! We have started on some preschool things. She is so excited. She recognizes all of her letters of the alphabet, so now we are focusing on their sound and putting the alphabet in order. We have also learned our phone number!! It took her all of 3 or 4 days!! I set the goal of her knowing it within 6 months.

I know I have promised pics from birthday and Christmas. I will try to get up soon. Just haven't felt like doing it.

FELL OFF THE POST A DAY WAGON

WEll, I did almost half of the month!! I had good intentions. I thought I could fight the holiday blues by blogging, but they caught me anyway!! I am OK, just a little depressed. I knew I had to make the holiday season fun for Emily, and I knew she would be lots of fun this year and I really wanted to enjoy it.

We really did have a good Christmas. Emily was loads of fun. The comments that she made as she opened her presents were priceless. Her favorite gift from us was a soccer set. She also loved the scooter and the VT*C V M*tion that Uncle Jeff and Aunt Angie got her. Granny got her a dollhouse and that was a big hit as well. One of her favorite things from Grandma was a tent. Her wish list for Christmas was a blue camera, a flashlight and games and that's all. That is what she would say when you asked her what she wanted for Christmas. I will try to post pics from Christmas and her birthday before the New Year.

HAPPY NEW YEAR. MAY YOU BE BLESSED IN 2010

THE GINGERBREAD HOUSE

2nd ANNUAL COOKIES WITH GRANNY

Granny loves to make Christmas cookies and candies. She is thrilled to have a granddaughter to share that tradition with. Last year Emily was all about the flour. This year it was taste testing!! I forget what little ones will do and how unsanitary it can be to cook and bake with a toddler. But as Granny says what you don't know won't hurt you.

Tomorrow Granny is coming over and they are going to decorate a gingerbread house. This ought to be very intresting. STAY TUNED......