More Fun in the Sun

This afternoon Shawn blew up Emily's whale pool for the backyard.  She liked splashing from the side, but wanted nothing to do with getting in it. 

Memorial Weekend BBQ and Swimming

Yesterday afternoon we headed over to my parent's house for an afternoon of swimming followed by dinner.  This was Emily's first time to really swim this summer.  She definitely has no fear, which is a bit scary.  She even scared Shawn and I to death when she was walking outside after dinner and walked right into the pool.  Luckily Shawn was right there and jumped in after her.  Next summer, I think we'll start swim lessons.

She put her sunglasses on herself

Lauren and Nattie playing telephone with the noodles.

Mr. J, Kevin, Dad, and Shawn

Lauren and Papa

Papa and Nattie

Papa and Emily

Emily had a blast dancing and playing with her cousins.

On a side note, our downstairs air conditioner went out yesterday.  Of course it had to happen when we are having 100 degree weather.  Luckily though our upstairs one still works and that's the more important one since that's where all the bedrooms are.  As of right now, our home warranty company can't get someone out here until Thursday, but we're hoping it ends up being sooner!

Sprinkler Fun

For the past month or so, I've been wanting to buy a sprinkler for Emily to play in.  We decided today was the perfect day to go get one.  At first, she didn't want anything to do with it.  But once we moved it to be underneath her swing, she loved it!  I see us using this sprinkler many times this summer.

Warning. . .Picture overload. . .I couldn't choose, so I posted them all.

Happy 19 Months!

Here's what's happening with Emily at 19 months:

 - She's wearing 12-18 month clothes, size 4 diapers and a combo of size 4 and size 5 shoes.

 - No more paci!  She's weined herself totally off her pacifier!  That was way easier than I expected it to be.

 - She has 12 teeth - 6 on top and 6 on bottom.

 - Over the last several months, she has been learning her colors at school and she's starting to point to colors at home now and say which color it is.

 - She's so funny!  I know I'm biased, but even her teachers at school tell me all the time, how funny she is.

 - Just in the last week or so, she has started to say Mama more and more.  For the longest time, all I would hear is Where's Dada.  I'd say now she asks for whoever is not there.  If it's just me at home, she constantly asks for Dada and vice versa. 

 - She still does really well at bedtime.  We've moved her bedtime back a little.  She now goes down closer to 7:30 or 7:45 instead of 7:00.  She still goes down easily for me, but in the last few weeks, she doesn't fall asleep right away.  Instead she plays in her crib and chats up a storm.

 - We've made huge strides with brushing her teeth!!  We can get throught it now without Emily in tears (and Mommy almost in tears too)

 - She's doing so well at drinking out of a regular cup.  She now gets her milk at meals in regular cups.  When she's playing, she still uses the sippy cup.

 - She's continuing to talk more and more!  Each day her communication gets better and better.  I think her favorite words right now are "more" and "no". . .oh and "dada"

 - She wants to do everything herself.  Rarely does she want us to carry her up and down the stairs.  Instead she wants to do it herself.

 - She's very girly.  She loves to wear necklaces (actually any jewelry) and loves carrying around purses. 

 - She doesn't like it when her hands are dirty.

- She is so strong-willed.  She knows what she wants and gets frustrated when she doesn't get her way.  She continues to test her limits on everything.   Every so often we are getting a glimpse at the terrible 2's.

 - She loves to be outside (and swinging outside is her favorite).  She could stay outside all day, if we let her.

 - Her naps are getting shorter on the weekends.  :(  They used to be 3 hours, now they are consistently only 2 hours. 

 - Her appetite changes constantly.  Some days she will hardly eat at all, other days she won't stop eating.  I guess that's just part of her being a toddler.

- She's sensitive.  She cries easily when you raise your voice at her.

 - She's so sweet.  She loves to give hugs and kisses.

- She's starting to let us know when she has a dirty diaper.  She'll start pulling on it and if we ask her if she needs to be changed, she'll sometimes shake her head yes (although other times she'll say no even though she is).  I'm hoping this means she's becoming aware that she doesn't like sitting in dirty diapers.

I feel like she has made huge milestones in the last couple of months.  She's turning into a little girl now instead of a baby!  In some ways this makes me happy, in other ways it makes me sad to realize that she's getting older. 

Flashback Friday . . .Easter 2007 (Our Engagement)

After a year and a half of dating, Shawn and I had started talking about marriage.  We'd looked at rings a couple of times, but it was more just for fun than anything.  Shawn pretty much gave me no indication of when a proposal would come.  I remember Easter weekend so well.  We went out to eat dinner on Thursday that week to one of our favorite places, Plano Tavern (it's since closed).  It was rare for us to go out on a weekday (besides Friday), but I think I had off the next day, so we went.  I remember Shawn acted weird (like really happy), but I had no idea why and really didn't think anything of it.  Come to find out he had gotten my ring that day and went over to my parent's house to get their blessing.  Saturday rolled around and for some reason I had the urge to go look at rings.  Shawn was reluctant but agreed to go.  So off we went to look at rings.  Again, I felt like we weren't really looking seriously, more just to look.  That night we went to a Rangers game with Kevin and Julie (I remember they were playing the Red Sox and it was soooo cold!) and then met up with several friends at the bar.  Apparently, everyone knew he had gotten the ring and was planning on proposing the next day (everyone except me).  Shawn jokes that everyone was celebrating (just without me knowing).  It ended up being a late night.  Sunday was Easter and we had plans to go to Easter brunch at my Aunt's house.  After being out late the night before, we both slept in.  I heard Shawn get out of bed and go downstairs and was rummaging around in the dining room.  I had no idea what he was doing, but decided to go down and check it out.  When I walked downstairs I saw an Easter basket.  I thought "that's sweet, he got me an easter basket."  He told me I needed to open all the eggs up.  So slowly I went through each egg.  I got candy in a few and then I came to a gold egg.  I opened it and couldn't believe what I saw. . .an engagement ring.  I honestly don't remember much of what happened next.  But he tells me he got down on 1 knee and asked me to marry him.  Of course I said yes.  We headed over to my parents house to share the news with them and then on to my Aunt's house to share the news with the rest of my family.  It was such an exciting day that I'll never forget.  There was no big production or anything like that, but to me his proposal was perfect!

Just Because. . .

she's so darn cute in pigtails!