Appleseed Song

So we were in Charleston this past weekend visiting Nathan and Bonnie and the kids. Ben and Lauren sing "The Lord is Good to Me" as their prayer before dinner. I think we sang it twice while we were there. At any rate, tonight I was changing clothes and I noticed that Emily was singing a song. I could not figure it out at first, but then I heard her sing about "sun, rain and appleseed....good to me." And that is when I realized she was remembering, and trying to sing Ben and Lauren's prayer. So, Daniel and I sung it a few more times for her this evening and this was the result. It is just shocking to me how fast she learns. Nearly an entire song, in one night. What on earth will there be left to teach her when she is 3????

New Baby Bed for Emily's Birthday

This little clip was shot as Emily received a new cradle for her baby dolls from Grandma Heintz for her birthday. I think the video speaks for itself. The reaction was priceless.

Santa Train!

Tonight we took Emily to ride the Santa Train at the Durham Museum of Life & Science. She rode the train several times this summer and loved it so we figured if we combined both the train AND santa we would have a big hit...we were right. It was a little chilly (about 43 degrees) but it was really fun and Emily got a kick out of seeing all the Christmas lights and "going to the North Pole" to see Santa. Hard to say who had more fun, though...Emily or Mommy & Daddy.

Emily's 2nd Birthday Party

Here are a couple of pictures from Emily's birthday party at Gymboree. She had 10 friends come and everyone seemed to have a really good time...even the couple of shy, scared ones. We did not do gifts for Emily. Instead we took in toys for charity. It was nice to give back and celebrate Emily's birthday at the same time. Plus goodness knows she did not need more clothes or toys.

Here is a little clip from the party with Emily playing "freeze dance." You can see that she had a very good time. For the record, she also slept very well last night. :-)

Emily's New Kitchen

Emily got a new play kitchen for her birthday and as you can see from this picture, she LOVES it!! She has played and played and played with it. Finally, a gift with a longer life than 6 months (I hope). You will see in the video that she was also showing off the kitchen to her baby doll. So far she has cooked for mommy & daddy, Zoey, her baby and all of her stuffed animals. It is fun to watch her learning to pretend play.

Petting the Reindeer

We...uh, strike that, Daniel put up all the christmas lights on Thanksgiving weekend. Emily was very excited about the light up reindeer. I can understand that because I also like the light up reindeer. In any event, we took her out to see them. As you will see from this clip, she really liked them. She was petting them and if you listen really close you can hear her "kissing" at them...this means she really likes them. She askes almost every night to go out and pet the reindeer.

Learning to get Dressed...Still Needs Work

Emily recently decided that she wanted to get dressed "all by self." This was the result. I think she still needs a little more practice.

Trying Out Mommy's Heels

This made me laugh. I am a little surprised I was able to catch this on video. Emily has recently taken to coming into my closet in the morning and trying on my shoes...and sometimes clothes. I did not think she would actually be able to WALK in heels, but check this out! Too funny. And, for the record, she is wearing two different shoes. HA!

Thanksgiving!

Emily enjoyed her second Thanksgiving this weekend. We had turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, crescent rolls, sweet potato casserole, corn pudding, baked apples, cranberry sauce and tons of desserts too. She is really into "housekeeping" (as she calls it - I think because that is what they call the play kitchen area at her school) right now. So as you will see she was thrilled to help me cook her stuffed turkey. She had all my pots and pans and such out all Thanksgiving morning and was none too pleased when I had to reclaim them after her nap to make our feast. We had a wonderful holiday.

Holiday Pics

We went to get our annual family Christmas pictures last weekend and luckily they went really well. The photographer was great and I think she really captured Emily's personality. Stay tuned. Some will be arriving in a Christmas card near you soon.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Make a Smilebox greeting

Happy Halloween!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Top 5 Blog Worthy Quotes

I have noticed more and more here recently that Emily is doing and saying things that just cannot be captured on film or video. So, here are my top five recent Emily quotes:

5. "Soap tastes yuckie." "Shampoo tastes yuckie too, mommy." (Yes, she is still drinking bath water sometimes.)

4. Sunday afternoon:
Mommy: Emily what is daddy doing at home?
Emily: "He's watching football."
Mommy: What is Zoey doing at home?
Emily: "She's playing (p-way-ing)."

3. "It's raining outside. Get umbrella (um-bwell-la) mommy."

2. "Hola mommy. Hola says hi." (She is learning spanish at school, we think.)

1. The number one recent quote was spoken at Wendy's on Sunday afternoon. Daddy kept tapping the french fry box on the table and then on Emily's head. After several "stop it daddys" she finally looked at him and said:
"Hear my words Daddy. No hitting Emily."

Priceless.

Ok, one more video from the beach.

Ok, so maybe one last post. I just really loved watching her reaction to the waves. If you listen you can hear her say "water" and "ocean." I can't recall whether I posted this already or not, but we also taught her about sandpipers. She chased this one poor little bird all over the place yelling "san-pie-ffer." I wish I would have caught that on tape.

Blowing Bubbles

This is the last clip from our beach trip. Emily learned to put her face in the water and blow bubbles. She thought that was pretty neat, but even better than Emily blowing bubbles in the water is watching her laugh at Daddy blowing bubbles in the water.

Especially for grandmas

I shot this little clip at the playground at Broadway on the Beach. It is especially for Emily's grandmas.

Helping with Sand

Emily really loved the sand and ocean...although she had a little trouble understanding that when you dig a hole in the sand you aren't supposed to fill it back up with more sand. This fact not withstanding, she must have made a dozen trips up and down the beach getting more sand to put in the hole. It was just such a treat to watch her little legs running as fast as they could carry her up and down the beach. I felt like I was watching her in fast forward.

Snapshots from the beach!

Counting!

We shot this cute little video of Emily on our Myrtle Beach trip this past weekend. She is sitting in her stroller at Ben & Jerry's at Broadway on the Beach. She just kept counting and counting. Finally, I got out the camera on the chance that she would count on cue. It worked. In this video she only makes it to about twelve before I had to help her, but we have heard her count as high as 20 without help. She's really catching on to counting. She is even starting to count her toys (and breakfast muffins). Fun.

Look how I have changed in a year!

I was recently traveling for work to California. It was a long plane ride and of course I was missing my little EE. So I was looking through some of her old videos. Compare these two. The first was shot in August last year. The second we shot today while Emily and Daddy were playing "I got you" all over the house with every push toy they could find. My how she has grown. Fun times.

Months & Days

Emily is practicing new words. She is working on days of the week and months of the year. My favorites are March, April and October. I was not home when Daniel shot this little clip. I am trying to decide if Emily thinks that mommy was inside the camera. You'll see what I mean when you watch. I also like how she high fives Daniel at the end. Cute.

Emily Reads Books

Emily is really into her books these days. She loves to read. Her favorite books are the ones with interactive features like sounds, buttons, or doors that open. I caught her reading to herself this afternoon and ran for the camera.

Row Row Row Your Boat

Ok, so we're still working on the words, but here is a clip of Emily singing her rendition of "Row Row Row Your Boat." The merrily, merrily, merrily part is my favorite. No fair evaluating my singing. I never claimed to be an American Idol finalist.

Emily loves to sing. In addition to this little tune, she can sing a fairly good portion of her ABC's and also "Rain Rain Go Away." Not too bad for a little one not even 20 months old yet. It's funny too, because I can look at her sing a little clip of a song and say "Emily sing" and she will try to sing the song right where I left off. It is so cute. Enjoy!

Poor Zoey

Am I a bad pet parent for letting this happen? I hope not.

Emily's New Choo-Choo

After the trip to the Life & Science Museum and the ride on the "choo-choo," we got Emily her own little Thomas the Train set. She loves it! (And daddy loves that she will play with something other than little pink baby dolls.) She can't quite reach all the way around the track (as you'll see), but she'll figure it out soon enough. If you listen really close, after she pushes the train around the track, she stops, grabs her shorts and says "poop." Indeed, right after we shot this little clip, I was upstairs changing diapers. HA! Potty training will be coming up in no time!

4th of July - Trip to Durham Life Science Center

We took Emily to the Life Science Museum in Durham yesterday for the 4th of July. She had a blast! I think the highlight (for all) was probably a ride on the real live "choo-choo train." Emily was thrilled. She is totally into choo-choo's now. In fact, we got her a little tiny Thomas the Train set at Target today. It just has 2 trains and a little circular, wooden track. More than enough for her (no more granddad miller - at least now). She also loved the music exhibit. She loved hitting the drums with the little stick. Of course, she could have hit the pretty windchimes (substantially quieter) with the stick too, but now. Loudest = most fun. We also took her to see the butterfly house. We were a little worried about that since she is so scared of bugs, but she loved it. There were a ton of butterflies. She even almost got to touch one! See pic attached. She was quiet taken. Now we look for butterflies in the yard. There were also some great exhibits just for kids under 6. She had a great time there too. There was a farmyard where Emily got to see a cow, sheep, a turkey, a donkey and pigs. There were tons of other exhibits that we could not get to before it was time to head home for a nap. But since we all had so much fun, we bought a membership before we left! Now we can hardly wait to go back. Much fun had by all and a great 4th overall!

Teeth Brushing

Who would have thought brushing teeth could be so much fun? I guess Daddy just makes everything fun.

18 Months

Emily turned 18 months old this month and we took her to get some pictures done. Amazingly, the studio even gave us a CD with all of the images. Here are our favorites. She is getting so big and is looking less and less like a baby and more and more like a little girl. I love it and hate it all at the same time. She is climbing up on everything, trying to jump, and singing all kinds of songs. She can't get a lot of the words yet, but if you listen, you can make out the songs pretty easily. She is even counting to 10. That cracks me up...even more so every time she misses 8. She is such a joy.

Too fun not to share

This is really more "grandma" than Emily, but I jsut can't resist posting it. I can't believe I caught this on video.

Beach Trip!

We took Emily to the beach this weekend for her very first vacation. She absolutely loved it!! We knew she liked the sandbox at the park and from the time she was born she liked the bathtub. Plus, she loves the swimming pool too. So we figured the beach with endless sand and water would be a big hit. We couldn't have been more right. She absolutely loved it. All of it. She loved the sand. She dug in the sand. She crushed Daddy's sand castles - "Boom". She loved the waves. She laughed and squealed every time another rolled in. She loved the seagulls. She chased them at one point. She loved the airplanes that flew over with the little banners. She kept yelling "Eh-Pain" everytime another one flew by. It was too funny. I'll post all the pics on Kodak later today. In the meantime, here are a few of my favorites. Enjoy!

Sunday Fun!

Here are two new little video clips of Emily taken today.

One is of her playing with her baby wipes. We got a big box at BJ's a couple of weekends ago and she LOVES dumping out all the packs and playing with them. Not sure why we buy toys when she likes things like baby wipes!

The other clip is of Emily discoverying something new in the bathtub. I swear you can see the little wheels turning in her mind. It is funny.

In other news, Emily is talking up a storm. New words include mailbox, airplane and counting from one to five. She is also working on "excercise" (from "The Going to Bed Book"). Today in Target she tried to say "umbrella." It was funny. You need the context to really understand her new words, but she is getting close. These are really fun days.

Not a baby anymore!

I was watching Emily this weekend and thinking to myself "Gee, she really isn't a baby anymore." She has gotten so big. She is talking. She understands sooo much of what you say to her and ask her. She is putting words to some of her baby signs (eat, more, etc.) She wants to do big girl things (brush teeth, wash hands, put clothes in laundry basket). She has shown great interest in pushing her stroller around in the driveway so this weekend we got her baby doll a stroller. Uncle Nathan proudly assembled it with Daddy. I guess I can't say I have a baby anymore.

Visit to Martinsburg

We visited Martinsburg, West Virginia this weekend to celebrate Daniel's birthday and visit Grandma & Grandad Miller, Great Grandma Gamble and Great Grandma & Great Granddaddy Miller. Emily had a blast...especially exploring the orchard. I have a feeling that by the time she is 3 we are going to have a hard time getting her out of the orchard! She really loved it. Emily also loved the swing that Granddad Miller hung in the backyard and she got a special evening walk in her PJ's with Grandma & Granddad on Saturday night. Mommy even got a trip to the outlets on Saturday afternoon! We had wonderful weather and it was really great to get to visit with family. Enjoy the pics and the little video clip of Emily in the swing!!

What a difference a year makes!

I could not resist posting these comparison pictutres - two from Easter 2008 and two from Easter 2009. What a difference a year makes for a baby turned toddler!

Emily's First Easter Egg Hunt

We took Emily to the neighborhood Easter egg "hunt" this afternoon. She had sooo much fun. Her Easter basket is pretty big so we could not take it, but we did have this cute little bag that she carried all over. She must have collected, dumped out and recollected the eggs a dozen times. Then Daddy showed her that the eggs came apart in the middle. Wow! Was that a big find. Emily would pull them apart and then hand them to Daddy to put back together. She had a great time! Then as soon as the hunt was over we took her for her haircut. See below!!

1st Haircut!

Emily FINALLY got her first haircut. She did a great job! Here is a little video clip. We took her to Snip-Its. It is a place especially for kids. They had a little booster seat for her to sit in, a little TV she could watch during her haircut and at the end she got a little toy and a certificate for her first haircut. We took several pictures (ok, like 12 but who's counting?) and it was fun. We'll definitely go back.