The zoo by our home has a holiday light display every year and Emma and I went last week. There were a few stations where children could do activities. One station had a reindeer that you could get your picture with. Emma did not like the reindeer at all. I hope this isn't an indication of how she reacts to Santa.

Fourth of Four Halloweens

No pictures from the third Halloween. It was at her Little Gym and there were a lot of people in a small space, so she was a little overwhelmed. I ended up holding her most of the time.

After swimming today we went out to lunch with Grandpa. All of the waitstaff was dressed up in costumes. Our waitress was a witch with dark make up. Emma first commented on her hat then told her that, "No color on your face, color on paper."

We started our trick or treating by going to downtown Puyallup with two families from Emma's old childcare. Emma quickly caught on to the concept of saying "trick or treat" then receiving candy and was so happy each time she got a candy. Emma loved the bouncy house and band playing at an empty lot. Two things Emma loves, jumping and music. She was rocking out.

After dinner we went around the neighborhood. Again, she got so excited when someone gave her a candy. She was very good about taking only one candy. One man told her to take a handful after she took one, so she took one more. As we were crossing the street his wife came running our of their house with a huge handful of candy and said that she was so cute and that she should have more candy and pretty much filled Emma's bucket up.

Another woman said that she was so cute and took her picture. Luckily Emma doesn't truly understand the power she has over people.

Second of Four Halloweens

Today Emma and I went to a pumpkin patch with another Army family. The weather was cool and dry, which was nice since our weather has been pretty wet lately. And Emma got to see animals, which she loves.

Emma liked the goats. She didn't want to feed them or touch them, she just wanted to watch.

First of Four Halloweens

My dad and I took Emma to a Halloween event at the zoo. As you can see, she is a doctor. When we were choosing her costume we were looking at her options. The girl costumes consisted of bugs and fairies. She doesn't like bugs and doesn't know what a fairy is, so she didn't like those options. The boy options were community helpers such as police, doctors, firefighters. Since she has the most knowledge about doctors, that is what she chose.

Emma loves to "look amals" (look at animals) and she got to ride a camel. She was so excited.

She also liked the shark tank. My dad called them fish and Emma corrected him, "Shark, silly Gagu."

Swimming Lessons

Emma has started taking swim lessons by herself. (She had been taking Parent/Tot classes with Jake.) She did great! Emma loves mimming, as she calls it.

She also loves riding her tricycle. Actually, she has outgrown it and needs a bigger one, but I think we will wait until Spring time so she doesn't outgrow it during the Winter.

A long overdue update.

Since I am sooooo behind at updating I will just do a review in pictures.

June

gymnastics show

July

Life is so rough! ;-)


at the zoo

our cutie

August

Emma's first manicure. (She chose the colors.)

At the beach with friends.

another day at the zoo

Snoqualmie Falls

Four Month Anniversary

I can't believe that Emma has been home for four months! We celebrated in Florida with Jake. Emma and Baba had so much fun together in the sun and sand.

Just some of Emma's great milestones:

Emma has completed physical therapy. She had physical therapy for a whopping six weeks. She will have a check up in three months to make sure she is continuing to progress.

Emma has grown a little over three inches and has gained four pounds since she has been home. We have had to buy a completely new wardrobe since she has outgrown everything. Luckily I don't buy her expensive clothes. But, I think she is about to have another growth spurt. All she has wanted to do the last few days is eat and sleep which is exactly what happened before her last growth spurt.

Emma started speech therapy two weeks ago. She is doing great and we have very high expectations since she did so well in physical therapy.

Since Emma turns three on May 20th, I met with the school district last week to see if we should write an Individual Education Plan for her. The Speech/Language Pathologist was impressed with her progress and concluded that she is a English Language Learner and does not have a speech delay. The school district Physical Therapist said that since Emma's private Physical Therapist says that Emma doesn't need therapy anymore she obviously doesn't qualify for the school district. We were given the option of having Emma be a "model" in the classroom. The school has a couple model students in each Early Childhood Special Education classroom to model for the children with special needs. This is a way that Emma can participate in preschool in a much more cost effective way and we can keep an eye on her proress. Now Emma just needs to be completely potty trained and her language needs to be closer to age appropriate. We have four months, so I am not too worried.

We feel so blessed to have Emma in our life. How could you not love this girl?