Sniffles

Having the sniffles are NOT fun when you are NOT allowed to blow your nose.  Boo.   

Toys

My little punkin head loves everything that is not a toy.  I'm not kidding....mail, keys, shoes, remotes, wallets, her food containers, water bottles, cameras and phones!  I wish I could get some more pictures of her getting into these kinds of things, but the moment she hears the camera it's like she hears Rupaul's "Supermodel (work it girl)" in the background.  She turns directly to the camera and starts smiling---which then leads to crawling toward it to play with it.  Anyway---here's my cutie pie. 

Why sit when you can stand?

My growing baby

Here is a short video of Emily's early attempt to crawling.  She does this pretty much all day long nowadays so I figured I would get a little of it for you to see.   I think I may have done too much yoga when I was pregnant because she does the "downward facing dog" position a lot too.  I got that on another video clip, but it was a much longer clip and you probably can't really see from the angle the video was shot in.  So, for now--enjoy this little clip.

More Florida thoughts

I feel like I am still recovering from our trip in Florida.  I am really glad that we went the first week that I am on break, so that Emily and I have time to get back to our "schedule."  She has been fighting me on every nap.  I think that mainly has to do with the fact that she pretty much only took one per day while on vacation and being the mean mom that I am, I am making her take two.  I know she is tired, she'll put her face down on the floor and close her eyes in the midst of play time, but SCREAMS when I put her in her crib.  Anyway, I think we still have some adjusting to do.  

That wasn't the point of this blog.  I wanted to talk about my Grandma Sewell.  I feel like I have to write about it so it will hopefully not consume me as much.  Maybe you read it on my sister's blog that we visited my Grandma's home during our vacation.  This was extremely hard for me.  I was ~32 weeks pregnant when my Grandma passed away and I made the hard decision not to go to the funeral, so I hadn't walked on that soil since 2003 when Brian and I visited her during our honeymoon.  My dad grew up in that home, which meant that every time we went to Florida, we would make a visit out to his parents' home.  I don't know why we did it, but we always took a picture outside their door every time we left.  (As a kid, it felt like every time, but maybe it wasn't every visit.)  It was really somber taking a picture, holding Emily, in front of their home, but not having my grandma or my grandpa there.  The grass was really overgrown so we didn't take pictures in our "normal" spot.  We took them on the sidewalk.  I told my dad that I wanted to brave the grass and take a picture---so we walked up to the front and then boom---all the tears came rushing down my face.  I won't show you 

the picture that we took there---mainly because I don't have it, it's on my dad's camera.  It was official, this was the last time I was going to walk on that soil.  I am still dealing with it---I guess I just wish I had that time to give a proper goodbye.  

Florida

 We had a great vacation!  Emily was a trooper through the entire trip.  She had a couple of crying episodes on the plane, but they didn't last too long.  We visited all 4 Disney parks and she only took 1-2 short naps through the entire day, but was visually stimulated through the rest of the day to keep her from being too upset.  Haley and Lexi did a great job at keeping her happy too.  Lexi gave her so many kisses and snuggles and Haley would rush over to her anytime she started to fuss and clap in her face.  I know that sounds funny, but for some reason anytime Haley would clap, Emily would smile.  We also learned that Emily likes to smile and laugh when Haley and Lexi would cry.  Hmmm...something is not right with that.  

Some of my favorite moments:

1.) Hanging out with the family.  We haven't done that in a loooonnnnnggggg time.  

2.)Watching Emily enjoy Lion King at Animal Kingdom

3.) Haley, Lexi and Emily snuggling.

4.) Going back to Timpano's and Emeril's---went there during our honeymoon.  

5.) Visiting with my Grandma/Grandpa and my Uncle Dan/Aunt Angie and cousin Nathaniel

6.) Taking Emily swimming for the very FIRST time!

7.) Emily's first fourth of July

8.) Lunch at Cinderella's Royal Table where Emily got to have pictures with all of the princesses. 

9.) Air conditioned bathrooms.  yeah, it was HOT HOT HOT and I loved walking into air conditioned rooms, oddly enough, the bathrooms were air conditioned. 

10.) Going to Cracker Barrel twice!

more pics...