Bye Bye "K K"

Our good friends and neighbors moved this week. We are so sad to see them go. They have a girl only 3 months older than Emily and a 5 month old boy. It has been so nice to have them so close by. Emily and Katelyn played together a few times a week. Emily called Katelyn "K K" and Katelyn called Emily "La La" and called me "Sie." They spent the majority of this week with us while the movers were packing up their house. Emily had a hard time sharing and was pushing Katelyn ALOT. But I am just telling myself it was because she was upset about her moving... hopefully she won't be a bully. I know everyone thinks she is too sweet for that, but trust me, she has a mean side to her. Anyways, we are looking forward to some trips to DC to visit them.

I am a little worried about the next few weeks. I think we are going to have a few meltdowns as I try to explain to Emily that we can't go play with KK. She isn't really going to understand, she is just going to think I am a mean mommy. Hopefully we will be able to go up to DC for a visit soon!

These 2 I just posted because I think she looks so dang cute!

Friends

Emily has such good buddies that she enjoys playing with. And by playing with, I mean just running around in circles. That is her idea of playing. Oh, she also likes to wrestle now. She learned that from her her cousins Nick and Noah. Thanks boys! She tried to hold Simon's hands and dance with him, but Simon had no interest in that. One day he will learn!

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23 months

My baby girl is almost 2.... I can't believe it! She is at such a fun age. I think I have said that many times at other ages, but she is really fun. She is still quite the girly girl and loves anything pink. She can identify things that are pink and green. She has also started saying letters and singing her ABC's. Some other things she loves are Elmo, coloring and painting, playing with and feeding her baby and music and dancing. Her favorite songs are "Wheels on the Bus," "If you're Happy..." and "Itsy Bitsy Spider. She has a CD player in her room and has figured out how to turn it on and does so often. I can already see her as a teenager with the radio blaring - oh no! I need to get a good video of her dancing, it makes Andy and I laugh. She gets so excited when Daddy gets home and loves for him to throw her up in the air and tickle her. And as you can tell from the pics, she has started posing for the camera and loves to look at the pics/videos on the camera. Most importantly, I think she will make a great big sister!

29 weeks

I haven't really posted much about the pregnancy, but there is not really much to post. Everything is progressing normally. I will be 29 weeks tomorrow. My last appointment was 2 weeks ago and had to drink the "yummy" glucose drink, but passed the test. I have gained 17 lbs and am measuring right on schedule. I go back next week and think I have to get the Rh negative shot (in my bum) then. Then I will start going every 2 weeks. I feel like I haven't really had many appointments so far but I guess that will change as the countdown begins.

Andy has to go Asheville the first week in November and has convinced me to go too. It will only be for 2 nights and he is reassuring me that they have hospitals in Asheville in case I go into labor. I double checked with my doctor and she thinks it will be fine and suggested an internal exam the day before I left just to be on the safe side. I haven't decided if we are going to take Emily or not. Andy thinks it would be a good early anniversary trip for us since we will definitely not be going anywhere with a newborn, so he wants to leave her home. But I am probably more attached to Emily these days than she is to me, so we will see if I can do that.

My friend Michelle gave me these adorable goodies for the new baby. Aren't they the cutest? There is a pink/green soft blanket with tags, a pink/green diaper and wipes case, a bib, pink/brown burp cloth and then a pink/brown snuggly with tags (my favorite- pictured by itself on the right). I am so lucky to have such a talented friend. She has got some stuff for sell on Etsy
Thank you Michelle!

However I started to panic when I got these because I realized this baby was going to be here soon and we have done NOTHING to get ready for her. So today I made a list of things we need to be doing. Thankfully this list is much shorter than the one we had to get ready for Emily. Hopefully we can get these things done BEFORE she arrives.

Pictures! Pictures! Pictures!

Here are some random pictures of Emily from the past few weeks...

My Aunt Barbara picked up this cute kitchen for Emily. Emily loves it and it is so cute to watch her imagination at work while playing.

Here she is playing on the back porch with Daddy.

I built a little "house" for her one day with her foam letters. She loves sitting in there reading to her baby. However now she will let me take it down... I wonder if I could sneak in there at night and tear it down.

Picking the first tomato from our plant.

Playing with jewelry... one of her FAVORITE things to do.

At Pullen park with Katelyn

Walking on UNC's campus with Daddy. We are working on holding our hand when out and about. The other day I let her walk around at Old Navy and she got mad when I let go of her hand to look through some clothes. What a good girl!

You may notice in the pictures that it looks like Emily's left eye goes in sometimes. I was a little worried since one of my eyes turns in and have had to have a few surgeries. Anyways, we got it checked out and everything looks OK. The doctor thinks it just does that when she is trying to focus and she will grow out of it. Good News!

Girls Weekend!

I did it.... I spent a weekend away from Emily... and everyone survived. I was a little worried about Emily and Andy making it on their own, but they did great. Granted I got a few phone calls from Andy wondering what Emily was trying to tell him, (only a mother can understand her babble!). I also had a wonderful time at the girls' weekend celebrating my mom's 60th birthday.

My mom, her sisters and mom, my sisters and cousin all got together at my aunt's house in Virginia. The highlight was that my mom's mom (aka Mom Mom) flew up from Florida to surprise my mom. It was a great surprise even though Mom Mom thought we forgot about her and had left her hiding upstairs. We stayed up late chatting Friday night and then Saturday spent the day shopping, eating a yummy lunch, shopping some more, getting ice cream and then watching Mom Mom and Mom buy some beautiful jewelry.

Saturday night we stayed in for a fun luau party complete with homemade Hawaiian pizza, pina coldas, bunko, hawaiian leis, and dancing with shower caps (I am not sure how the shower caps fit with the theme). Anyways, my mom, Mom Mom and aunts busted out the electric slide and were ready to party all night long. However my sisters, cousin and I could barely keep our eyes open. By the way, check out Mom Mom dancing... can you believe she is almost 80??! She is a riot.

I hope Mom enjoyed her party. She deserved the celebration since she does so much for everyone else. I think she spent everyday of her summer break doing something for someone else. She cares so much about each of her grandchildren and works hard to develop a special relationship with each one of them. Emily sure loves her and talks about her throughout the day. At dinner on Friday before the trip. Emily kept leaning over and hugging on Nana. I am sure it helps that Nana always has a small gift for each child every time she sees them. Just kidding Nana, I am sure Emily would still love you without the presents.

Happy Birthday Nana! You don't look a day over 30!