On a Break

I haven't taken many pictures with the new camera. I've been sick. Plus, I have to upload new software and read the instruction manual and I just don't have the energy right now. Here is a picture of Emily after her haircut taken with the old camera.

I believe the photo speaks for itself...

Somebody needs a haircut

Two guesses who it is.

Cave Woman

Chloe and The Pink Thing

One day, Emily and Chloe were in the same room at the same time. This pisses Chloe off. She doesn't like noisey, wet humans. Chloe likes Emily, from a distance, so the proximity of the baby makes Chloe on edge.

"Oh great. Just great. Here comes that loud pink thing."
"I will ignore it. I will pretend it's not right.next.to.me...."
"Did it just TOUCH me? Eww. Ick."
"Okay, gotta go bathe. Dude! I literally JUST finished bathing like five minutes ago. You annoy me, Pink Thing."

Pictures

Emily woke up with the hair flu yesterday.

She likes to move the chairs in the kitchen.
Awww!

Tickle Tickle

We Were So Poor

Oftentimes at family gatherings we talk about fun times we had when we were kids. We talk about the annual Modoc County Fair, Surpise Valley Elementary School and our favorite teachers and not-so-favorite teachers, the SV Hill, and the Brumbaughs and the Gooches.

But it never fails that we dig up memories about how poor we were. I don't think it was that we were poor (or were we?), I think it had to do with the fact that we didn't have video games or more than three channels on the television. We grew up using our imaginations and learned to be resourceful with our environment and make the most of what we had. Here are some examples of how poor we were:

Disclaimer: this is by no means a dig at how our parents raised us. I think I speak for each of my siblings when I say I am grateful of how I was brought up and I have no regrets.

*We bathed in the same bath water. Usually the last child bathed in cold, gray water.
*Speaking of cold, gray water, when Michael and I would do dishes (did we really do the dishes?) we would play with the leftover chunky dishwater. We called this "Talatta". We pretended it was our secret recipe. Recipe for what, I don't know.
*We didn't have a basketball hoop until we moved to Texas. Before that, when we'd play basketball in the driveway, we'd put a frisbee on the roof and pretend that was the basket. We'd call an official time-out when the frisbee would fall off the roof.
*We played with dirt. There was this dirt pile in our back yard. We played on it daily in the summertime. We sledded down it in the wintertime. We lost lots of tools and utensils in the dirt. We even tried digging our own secret underground tunnel.
*My friend Pascha and I would roller skate in the middle of the street. We only had one pair of skates between the two of us, so she'd wear one skate and I'd wear the other and we 'd roll around skateboarder style.
*Speaking of the middle of the street, we could spend countless hours popping tar bubbles. The heat of the sun in the summertime would cause bubbles to form in the tar that was in the middle of the street. We popped them like pimples.
*This doesn't really fall into the "we were so poor" category, but one time when our septic tank backed up, we had to keep the toilet flushing to a minimum. To help us remember not to flush unless it was necessary(ie poop), Dad came up with a little ditty: If it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown, flush it down. To this day, it's one of my favorite poems.

I'm sure there are more "we were so poor" moments, but I can't think of any. Can you guys think of any more that you want to add?

I'm Dreaming of a White Groundhog Day

It's snowing right now. Big flakes. Emily likes snow, but only from inside the house. We went outside for a couple of minutes. I was showing her the snow and talking about how each flake is different and she was just watching those flakes fall out of the sky. I caught one and I showed it to her and she opened her mouth like she wanted to eat it. So I fed it to her. We did this for a couple of minutes and then she decided she was done.

A girl's gotta eat, right?

My camera isn't downloading pictures to my computer, or to any computer right now. I don't know what's going on. I'll blame it on Emily. She does wave my camera around by the strap. I wanted to post some funny pictures. I was feeding Emily dinner in her highchair and she kept dropping her food on the floor. So, after all her food was either A) eaten, or B) on the floor, I put her on the floor so she could finish eating because I was not going to play the "Let's See How Many Times Mom Will Pick This Up" game. So, I snapped a couple of pictures of her eating her scraps. Am I a bad mom? I look back and I feel like a bad mom sometimes. I mean, Emily was eating off the floor. Like a farm animal.

Update: Looks like I fixed whatever was wrong with the camera/computer. So, here she is eating off the floor.

Not much to blog about

It's relatively quiet around here. But, I'm sure my fans need to see a new picture of Emily. So here it is. Nothing new to report.

She cracks me UP!

Emily was playing in the kitchen under the table and I thought I'd capture some cute photos. She jabbers so much now. I swear, it sounds like she's talking to someone. This time it was one of her spoons that she had found on the floor. So I snapped some pics while she was talking to the spoon.

Did you catch the poo face? Mid photo session she dropped a deuce. And the face! When will she stop making a poo face? Will she always make a poo face when she goes yuck? I want to kiss her poo face. So I kiss her poo face, then I remember I have to wipe her poo butt in a minute. Yuck.

I can't wait to get my new camera!!!

I decided to take some pictures of Emily. They didn't turn out as good as I would like. I can't wait until my new camera gets here, which should be mid-February.

My Name is "Ah".

And it's all my fault. I've been answering to it. Emily will call for me and she'll holler "Ah". Oh well.
Here are some pictures...
Here she is, going on a treasure hunt, looking for just the right toy. She climbed in there herself.

And she climbed in her toys again. She likes it in there. She's silly.

Emily has gotten a little picky about the food she eats. It has to have chunks of something in it. The other morning I was giving her cereal with chunks of pear and I gave her a couple of bites without any chunks in it and she threw a fit. So, I took pictures of her throwing a fit. Am I mean? I don't think so. If I didn't make the hard times fun, I'd throw a fit, too. And my fits are not as cute as Emily's fits.

Silly Girl

Emily learned how to click her tongue today. I showed her how to do it yesterday and she would watch and stick her finger in my mouth to feel my tongue clicking. Then today, she clicked. So cute.

Oh, and she's recognizing more sign language. I wonder when she's going to start actually signing. She recognizes "more", "ball", "eat", "milk", and "bath". I just taught her "bath" so she's still learning that one. I'm teaching her "cheese" because she LOVES cheese. It's so fun to see her learn.

Robeez

Nope, not a nickname for Rob. It's a brand of shoe for babies. They look comfy, and as an added bonus, they stay on Emily's feet! Yesterday we had a hard time keeping socks on Emily's feet and her little toes were like little tiny ice cubes. I remembered these shoes that Joy, a good friend of mine, had sent to Emily. I'd never heard or seen these shoes and I didn't see the value until yesterday. They're awesome. I wish they made them in grown-up sizes.


The shoes are pink with little white kitty faces. They're made of leather and they have elastic around the ankle so they stay on.
I like this picture of her because her belly is all hanging out. I was feeding her applesauce and she plopped down beside me with her legs under her. It was cute.

Emily's Favorites and Not-So-Favorites

Danielle's post got me to thinking about Emily's likes and dislikes, so I thought I'd post them. It's just after 3:30 AM and she's awake (crying in her crib) and I won't sleep until she does. So, I'm posting on my blog since I live to blog.

Emily's Likes:
bananas
apples
pears
peaches
pasta
rice
crackers
fruit/veggie poofs
yogurt
chewing on things
the remote control
the phones
my computer
rob's computer
dolls
dancing
eating
eating whatever is on your plate
being thrown on our bed
the vacuum
crawling
sippy cup full of juice
books
daddy reading the books
testing gravity with her food and/or sippy cup
walking with her walking toy
toes
bathtime
getting naked for bathtime
the dishwasher
catfood
grandparents
Elizabeth
the cat

Emily's dislikes:
bedtime
her crib
putting clothes on, especially after bathtime
putting a diaper on
the vacuum (she has a love/hate relationship with it)
being strapped in
Elizabeth trying to tackle her
peas (she doesn't hate them, but she's not a huge fan of them)
having a poopy diaper while sitting in the highchair (can't blame her on that one)

Snow

I opened the back door to let the cat outside and I saw that it had snowed! Isn't it amazing what a blanket of pure white snow can do to the junk in your back yard? Snow makes everything pretty. Snow makes everything peaceful and quiet. I took Emily outside to check out the snow and I spoke to her in a hushed voice. I didn't want to interrupt the reverence that the white dust had created.
See, even our trash bins look pretty. We were outside for about three minutes when Emily decided that she had had enough of the cold. Maybe if we had a huge hill with lots of snow she would like it better!

Ode to the Toad

I have a buddy,

My buddy's a toad.

My buddy is muddy,

He's flat on the road.
But he is my buddy,

My buddy to stay

Until he's peeled up

And sailed away.

-Jim Davis

She's Okay.

Each time Emily falls, toots, or poops, I ask her if she's okay, mostly to just distract her and make her laugh, because I'm goofy like that. "Youokayyouokayyouokayyouokay?" At first she'd just grin. Now when she falls, toots, or poops, she looks at me and she says, "K". I don't even have to ask anymore. A little while ago she tooted and she looked at me, grinned and said, "K". Good to know, Kid. Good to know.Okay, so this picture doesn't really go with this post, but it made me giggle. I think she takes her modeling classes from the same place Travis took his classes.

Please don't wake the bear!

Oh wow, she is so cranky! I think it's her teeth. I felt the tip of one of them today. It's not the top front, it's the top incisor, so she's going to look funny if those front teeth don't hurry up. Today she was crawling and bawling all over the place. I was getting kind of tired of her following me and crying, so I went into the kitchen and before she could see me, I got up on the sink and climbed over the bar and back into the livingroom. Oh, stupid, stupid mistake. She got so mad when she didn't see me in the kitchen! So, I guess you can learn from that, Kelly. Don't try to run away from an angry bear. Just play dead.

So Emily is asleep now. It's so hard to believe that just six hours ago I was running away from her. She so angelic when she's asleep.

9 months

She got a new tooth today.

She clapped her hands on her own for the first time last night.

She growls when she talks. She sounds like the devil child when she calls for the kitty.

She loves to dance.

She loves her dolls.

She loves her walking toy.

She has started to spit her food out in all directions. We both have lunch in our hair.

The Red Dress

See how sweet I was? So cute in my little red dress. I look so dainty and feminine. Quiet and reserved. Was I, Mom? Was I quiet and dainty and reserved? I mean, I know I wasn't after I learned about my brothers' hand-me-down blue jeans and shirts and dirt piles in the back yard and tackle football. I know I was a tomboy, but look at that sweet girl in the red dress. So dainty and feminine. The reason I'm asking is because...

...my daughter is not quiet and reserved. Dainty and feminine? Mmm, not really. Sweet? Yes. It's the same red dress. She is a doll, though. My doll. My real life Emily doll.

Poor Elizabeth

I'm sure Elizabeth didn't do anything to upset Emily. They were just playing and Emily started crying. It must be frustrating for Elizabeth. She looks so confused in this photo. Come to Momma. I'll save you from that nice girl. In Emily's defense, though, she is getting some of her top teeth and they're really bothering her. It's sort of hard to be around her. Just ask Rob. Today he's really grateful for his job.

I resolve...

I'm scared to put my resolutions in writing. It would mean I'd have to keep them. I'd be accountable. Maybe if I make them really easy, they'll be easy to keep. Yeah, that's what I'll do. Okay, here goes...

I resolve:

-to not eat M&Ms for breakfast anymore. I'll save them for brunch.
-to get dressed before noon.
-to take a shower at least every other day.
-to dust my mantle once a year.
-to update my blog at least once a week.
-to take tons of pictures with my new camera (whenever it gets here).
-to get food on my shirt, whether it be my food or Emily's food.

Well, I've already broken one of these resolutions. M&Ms are evil. You can't eat just one handful. What are your resolutions?

Happy New Year!

It's 3:25 AM and Emily is WIDE awake. I guess she wanted to see what 2007 looked like. Emily, dear, it's dark. You can't see anything. Go to sleep. Please. It'll still be here in the morning.