Our trip to Dallas and other going ons

We had a great trip to Dallas to visit Aunt Jill and Uncle Nathan and Frisco over one weekend of my spring break. The flight to and from big D was relatively uneventful, in part because Emily was in her car seat in her own seat. We put her food on a plate and held it for her and she ate well at mealtime on the plane, it was really cute. Emily always seems to take a good day to get used to a new place to sleep and Dallas was no exception. Once she got into the swing, she did well, but we were fortunate that the time change was only an hour.

I worked hard to find warm weather clothes for Emily in her current size. She hasn't grown quite as much as I had anticipated early on when I shopped ahead for summer clothes so they are still a bit big right now and I don't have any summer stuff in her current size. Thanks to the goodwill of a few neighbors and friends, I pulled together a few summer outfits for Emily so we could bask in the Dallas heat of springtime. Well, Mother Nature was out to get me, it was cold when we were there. One day the high was 45 and the others were just a few degrees warmer. We might as well have been home where it was warmer most of the time (except we wouldn't have gotten to see Jill and Nathan). Fortunately I had seen the weather forecast and brought appropriate clothes for Emily, but the stuff that I borrowed was really cute and now she likely won't wear it!

Emily and Frisco got along, but Emily generally was nonchalent about the dog. She did say doggie when she saw her outside. She was a bit timid at petting Frisco, but with Greg's help she did it and thought it was funny. We loved the top picture that Greg took of Emily and Frisco looking outside. Look at the size difference between my little 13 month old and the big dog!

I think the highlight of the trip for Emily was playing on Aunt Jill's drumset. She loved sitting on the stool and dragging the drum sticks across the drums. It was a hazardous activity for us because we had to look out for when she waved the sticks around. This could be a loud hobby, so hopefully as Emily gets older she gets her drum fulfillment when we visit TX.

We've been back to work this week. Emily re-transitioned back to daycare without a problem. Her teachers always comment on how she never has a problem starting back after a vacation.

Other Emily developments: Emily loves to say ball, block, book, and mama. She said monkey a few mornings ago when we got her up and asked her about her monkeys in her crib. She hasn't repeated that agan, though. Emily really likes to try to repeat what we say, but it is only a one time thing and we don't hear most of the words again (or we can't understand them when we hear them again, which is probably more likely). Emily still talks up a storm all of the time. Emily really understands what we say and will pick up a toy that we ask for or give it to the right person. We can ask her to splash in the bathtub, too. It is usually Greg who asks her to make big splashes and then I get all wet.

Emily is continuing to crawl around a lot. She has pulled up a few times, but isn't doing it consistently. She also is much more content to be on the floor than standing. She used to prefer to stand all of the time. We're still waiting on those first steps, but I have a feeling we still have some time.

Emily feels that she is an equal to us. If we eat something, she has to eat the same thing and it needs to come from one of our plates. If I get the same food ready for her on a separate plate and put it on her high chair tray she won't eat it! She whines and points to our food and then happily eats that. If she starts a meal before we sit down, she gets upset in the middle because she needs food from our plate. So, we all either sit down together and give her food from our plate (though, we're starting to get good at faking her food from our plate) or she eats before we sit down so there is no problem. We went out for seafood on Saturday night and Emily tasted some tilapia.