Card carrying member

Emma became an official Multnomah county library card holder today. We have been frequenting the library this summer, and joined the summer reading program they sponsor. For reading 15 minutes each day, Emma was able to pick out a couple of prizes and even earned her summer reading tee-shirt today. Today at the library, Emma picked out a few books, carried them over to one of the tables, climbed up on one of the chairs, and sat down to "read". Okay...so she's wasn't really reading the books, or really even looking at them much, but rather she was intently watching the two elementary-age boys doing (as far as I could tell) math and spelling homework in Chinese. She seemed pretty interested in their every move, and they seemed pretty annoyed that a little girl decided to sit at their table and stare at them. Luckily, Emma's attention span only lasts about 5 minutes before she is on to something new (which in this case included tearing around the library pulling every Easter book she could lay her hands on, off the shelf).

Sunday parkways

We just found another reason that Portland is a pretty darn cool place to live. Today, the city closed 6 miles of streets in NE Portland to cars, and opened them up to all modes of non-motorized transportation. It was quite the site to see thousands of families biking through the streets. There were a couple of parks along the route that had music, food, and lots of playful, happy kids. Emma and Cash were certainly two of those happy kids toddling around the park, and climbing all over the playground. Emma also decided she could not possibly pass up a quick dip in the swimming fountain at Alberta Park. Luckily, I had a change of clothes along, so she didn't have to ride home all soggy. Of course, I did manage to forget the camera, so the only photos of this wonderful day are in the driveway when we arrived back home. Thanks Shelly and Todd, for taking us along for the ride today.

Playing it cool

Emma and Elias enjoyed a little fun in the sun on Saturday while the adults tried to sell a few of their things at a yard sale. The water was ice cold, and even after 3 tea kettle pots of boiling water were added--it was still pretty chilly. Elias learned it was just as fun (and warmer) to splash in the water from outside the pool. Our sweet Emma decided it was more fun in the water, and just muttered a "Burr" every now and again to remind us that the water was in fact cold.

Studying hard

In addition to the English and Sign Language Emma is learning, she decided to also devote some of her time to learning cat and dog. She is actually mastering the latter quite well. She hollars back at our neighbor dog, Heidi, when she is out in the yard. Their conversation is as follows:

Heidi: "Ruff"

Emma: "HiiEee"

Heidi: "Ruff, ruff"

Emma: "Ruff, ruff, ruff"

Emma has also just begun having conversations with Darby as well. This mornings conversation at 5:45 am went a little something like this:

Darby: (persistent) MEOW, MEOW, MEOW...etc

Emma: "KiTteeee, KiTteeee"

Darby: (persistent meowing continues from previous line)

Emma: "Maho, Maho, Maho"

Anyone interested in taking cat or dog language lessons from Emma--just text her at my cell number. Yep---she's figured out how to send texts already. Whomever received the picture text of Grampy is the recipient of Emma's first text. (Is there a spot in the baby book for that one?) :)

DJ Emma is in the house!

We have an apparent DJ on our hands. Emma LOVES her music box, which plays classic hits such as: Row, Row, Row your boat, Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes, and many more (Daddy's favorite seems to be Apples and Ba-Nay-Nays--as I catch him singing that one from time to time, even when Emma isn't around). She was having a little jam session before school today, and showed off a few new dance moves to accompany her new found vocals!

School Girl

Emma graduated to her new classroom at daycare this week. Today is her second day as a Bunny! She has been learning so much lately, and her vocabulary seems to be exploding. Lets see...for example, last night at dinner she was eating her spinach and artichoke nuggets and saying "Mmmm" with every bite. I tried to sneak in a piece of watermelon to which she responded, "Booo", and threw it back at me. All that learning during the day makes for one sleepy girl at night too (No--still not sleeping the entire night...but not getting up every couple of hours at least), and when I was putting her back to bed at 1am this morning, she was laying limp in my arms, but mustered up enough strength for a weak "bah-bye" (this is what she currently says when saying good night). It was pretty cute.

Family photos

Just a few family photos from our summer midwest trip.