Entertaining Emma

It takes a lot of patience and close supervision to keep up with a toddling 1 year old.  I have found that I can't get much done around the house if our energizer bunny is on the move.  Today, I decided to try putting a bunch of toys in her room, so I could go through her clothes, and put away those that no longer fit.  All was going well, with Emma deciding to pull stuffed animals off the shelves in her room, and play a rousing game of "throw my shoes in the garbage can", instead of play with the toys I set out for her.  This was followed by some time playing (read eating) with the chalk that we have in her room for her chalkboard wall.  At this point, I remembered Emma has been signing the word "hat" a lot lately (not quite sure why...as she usually signs it at the dinner table), so I put on my clever mommy multitasking hat and decided to play "dress-up" with all her hats (and a sweater too.  No, it's not that cold in our house that she needs to wear 3 layers of clothes on purpose!).  I think the first fashion show/photo shoot was a success, as I did complete the clothes sorting process, and keep Emma entertained/out of trouble. 

Step away from the cat food!

Emma has taken a liking to eating the cat's food, and splashing around in the cat's water bowl.  Given that she likes to get into everything nowadays....we need to keep her in the same room as us at all times.  So, in order for us to be able to cook a meal, we needed a distraction from the cat's chow while Emma is in the kitchen with us.  She first took a liking to the glass bowls (now placed elsewhere), then it was the bottles of vitamins (our little health nut is going to have to search a little harder for those now), then it was the drawer full of plastic storage containers (thought that might work...but man did that make a big mess/obstacle course in the kitchen).  Finally today, I gave her the set of measuring cups, and this kept her attention span long enough for me to boil some water and make some macaroni and cheese.  Who would have guessed that trying to figure out how to stack the measuring cups back together would be such a brain teaser!

We've got a climber on our hands

Emma is showing off some of her upper body strength with this trick.  She reaches to the back of the chest, pulls herself up, and then plays a lovely beat (aka...banging on the windows).  She is quite proud of herself.  

Emma's not the baby anymore...

Emma and I went to Minneapolis last week to visit the newest addition to our family...Isabel.  It was so nice to have a new baby around...but I'm fairly certain having the 3 girls under the same roof (Haley, Emma, and Isabel), sent waves of fear through all of us at the thought of having more than one child.  Emma was a little sick on the trip, and also decided it would be a good time to cut her molars.  We saw a lot of "the look" from quite a few fellow passengers as we waited to board our flight home, as Emma was sharing the pain with everyone!  It was a great long weekend we spent in Minneapolis though,  visiting Grandma and  Grandpa, and aunts, uncles and cousins.

Cousin Time

Higher Grandma, Higher!

Forestry lessons with Grandpa