Emma's First Birthday

We celebrated Emma's first birthday a few weeks ago with two parties, one with Dave's family and one here at home with a few close friends.

Emma's first experience with cake was less than monumental. In fact, cake was the last thing she wanted and made it very clear to all of us to get that thing away from her. The candle and cake looked cool at first and even smiled for the camera, but within seconds you could tell she wanted no part of the celebration.

We tried again after her nap, this time with a smaller less frightening cake, but still, the cake thing didn't fly. So, we gave up and opened presents.

A week later and the day before her actual birthday we had some friends over and tried the cake thing again. Mom got creative, maybe a cake shaped like an ice cream cone would clear her mind of the traumatic cake experience from the week before.

Wrong.
Maybe next year.

Emma wants to say thanks to everyone who celebrated her birthday with her and for all the nice presents. She got books, clothes, puzzles and lots of fun new toys. Also a big thanks to the grandparents and aunts and uncles who sent a donation for her new car seat, her old one was getting a bit too tight and big girls deserve big bright yellow new car seats!


Since the momentous day she's decided that crawling is a thing of the past, cupboard opening is the next best thing to playing with phones and remote controls, Cooper's food is yummier than hers and drinking from a bottle is for babies.

She's now walking about 90% of the time, with periodic falls of course, climbing in cabinets to fetch containers and hidden toys, nabbing Cooper giblets when we're not looking and drinking solely from a sippy cup. Wow what a difference a few weeks makes in the life of a child.


Cooper is doing great as far as his leg is concerned. He's still not doing stairs, but he's getting around much better. Bad news is he still has to wear his lampshade, poor guy has a hot spot above his eye that he won't stop scratching. If he would only get healthy we'd take the plunge and get pet insurance.... dang dog keeps getting sick!!!!

Other big news is that we finally broke down and got a new car. It's a Dodge Durango which we lovingly call Big Red.
It's so nice not to have to cram into the Nissan with a 70lb dog, car seat and luggage for the weekend.... this one even has a DVD player which Emma is already a fan of. She gets in her seat and immediately looks up to it. Long car rides here we come!!!!

Well, it's a snow day here, almost 7 inches outside and I've decided I'm taking the day off. Emma, daddy and I are going to play in the snow after lunch so check back for some "little girl in puffy snowsuit" pictures!

ta ta!