Water Fun

More Water Table Fun

Getting ready for the pool on Saturday

One of the outfits from Grandy that Emily wore last summer

Emily and I had two unplanned days together. With the awful heat (near 100) and my un-air conditioned school, school was canceled yesterday and today. Emily and I had a couple of nice days together, we met Greg for lunch today, and got a bit of a taste of the fun that we'll have together once summer is officially here.

As a side note, I played with a new setting on our digital camera while Emily was at the water table and I think I was able to get better pictures, I'll have to play with it some more.

Bronx Zoo

Trying to beat the heat by resting on Mommy
Hot, hot, hot

Cooling off with the fan, this is the life... Emily likes to fan her neck the best

Pretending to be a turtle in the Children's Zoo

We went to the Bronx Zoo on Sunday. It was a trip that we had signed up for with the teacher's union, so the date was set. The weather here was so hot over the weekend. It was 95 and humid which is pretty hot for us east coasters. I know many of our Texas friends would think that is normal, but not for us out here. We didn't take many pictures because it was just so hot. We did have fun in spite of the heat and are looking forward to going back one day when it isn't quite so hot! The pictures really only show the heat, but Emily did a good job of cooling herself off with the silly ipod looking fan I had from a couple of years ago. She loved holding it and having it blow on her neck. We also had a spray bottle with a fan and Emily had fun trying to pour water from her sippy cup on her as well. Anything it takes in that weather!

Potty Trained and Eye Doctor

No pictures to accompany this post, but I think I am safe in saying that Emily is officially potty trained. We've been somewhat casually working on this for several months. She has been in undies during the day during waking hours at our house or her sitter's, but not when we're out since a week or 2 after her surgery, so end of April. We had tried in March, but she ended up sick and then we were going to be out of town for spring break, so we put that on hold. A couple of weeks ago we stopped putting a diaper on her for the car ride to/from the sitter's house.

The big change that has prompted me to say that she is trained is that over the last 2 days she has refused to use her diaper. Yesterday, we were out for a bit, so I stuck I diaper on her because I wasn't sure about the availability of a bathroom when she might need one. As we left dinner she said she had to go, but it wasn't easy so we told her about her diaper that was on. Well, we got home and she was still dry (probably 4 hours since she'd last gone). She went right away. Today, she had an eye doctor appointment, so I had her in a diaper so we didn't have to run out of the room mid-exam. We didn't take off the diaper when we got home and she drank a ton of water. After dinner, she started playing and then freaked out that she had to go. Once again, we figured that she had a diaper on and we would probably be too late in getting her to the bathroom, but no. So, she's starting to tell us and definitely holding it for awhile. So, goodbye diapers! Except at nap and bedtime, of course!

We also had Emily's first check up with her eye doctor since right after her surgery. It was both good and bad. The surgery seems to be successful, Emily's eyes are straight and move together. That is very good. Unfortunately, she seems to still be favoring her left eye. We haven't been patching since surgery to let the eyes learn how to work together. So, back to the patch we go. This is a little different than what we did before. This time, she needs time for her eyes to work together. She should be patched for about 4 hours, but no more. So more is not better now. If we skip a day because we're out and busy all day, that is ok, too. He said that without my asking about that. We likely won't skip at all, we were pretty vigilant about patching before, so I'm sure we'll be similar this time. Emily was not happy with the patch. He put one on her at the office because we were trying to really see what the right eye could do by itself. We did get Emily to read a children's eye chart with both eyes and with her left eye, but not with the right. The doctor said that he isn't convinced that she couldn't read it, but she chose not to. She certainly couldn't see it well, though. After we got home, we put another pirate patch on her. She was very, very upset. I think she had a hard time seeing and had to adjust for a bit to it. She went in and out of being ok with it and being upset. We left it on for an hour, until we had dinner and then took it off. Tomorrow, Emily and I will put it back on and hope for the best for 4 hours in the morning. I'm trying to come up with lots of activities for she and I to do for distraction. The early days of adjusting to the patch are one of the few times that I'll resort to the tv as distraction, but I may do that if needed. On Sunday we are going to the Bronx Zoo, so we'll patch her when we first get up and then probably take it off once we get there. It is supposed to be 95 degrees and I can't imagine the patch will be comfortable in that heat. Then on Monday it is back to the normal grind and we'll be in routine again. We go back to the eye doctor on July 15 for another check.

The Difference in a Year

Emily 11 months ago

Emily last week

Wow, the difference in a year! We often look at the progress Emily makes at birthday time. Last week, I pulled out her water table for the first time since last summer. We bought the table last June so it seemed appropriate to compare where she was at the beginning of the summer last year. Emily couldn't walk. She couldn't be left alone at the table at all because she was using it for support. She didn't have the coordination (or really the height) to pour water into the container for the water wheel. She is a pro at that now. She's a running machine now, she is constantly moving around the table, not staying in place like she did all last summer. I was able to set her up on our deck and run into the kitchen to grab a drink for each of us (I can see her out of the window) without concern that she is going to fall on her bottom and not be able to stand back up. She had so much fun playing at it again so I'm thrilled that we have the rest of the summer to use it. It was a staple of our summer fun last year and I'm sure it will be again this year.

Last year I took Emily out to it in her diaper. It worked perfectly, there was no need to get her into a bathing suit for our backyard. This year, she is just about potty trained. We don't wear diapers during the day except for sleeping. I decided to get Emily a 2 piece tankini type suit for the water table, but I really intended for her to just wear the bottoms since we will be in our backyard. Well, Emily wanted nothing to do with that, in showing how much she's grown, she demanded a top to her "baby suit." Last year she was thrilled to be able to run around in just a diaper. So, at least the 2 piece suit will enable me to take her to the bathroom easier than a 1 piece would.

Cooking and Chilling

Emily helped Grandma make a pie crust. Emily loves helping to cook, so both Grandma and Emily were right in their elements!

Memorial Day Parade

Spur of the moment on Memorial Day morning we decided to take Emily to our town's Memorial Day parade. It is a small town parade, all of the emergency vehicles come out, the senior citizen buses drive past, the nursery school kids walk with the girl and boy scouts. Everyone throws candy and we weren't crowded with others, so it was great! And we saw a few neighbors marching along, too. Emily loved it. Before the parade started, the police had come through and passed out American flags to everyone. We weren't there yet, but the police gave extra flags to people to give to people who weren't there yet. So, we each had flags to wave. Emily loved waving her flags and watching everyone go past. Since then, she's had several practice parades around the house with her flags. She loves to give a flag to each person and tells them to wave it!

After we got back from the parade, we gave Emily one of the lollipops that had been tossed our way. This was her first lollipop and she loved it. She got to sit next to Grandma and Grandpa while she ate it and she didn't even finish the whole thing, which made me happy.

The Zoo with Grandma and Grandpa

We took Emily to the zoo while Grandma and Grandpa were visiting. It is the little zoo that is somewhat close to us. Emily loved it, of course! When we got there, we asked her if she wanted to take a pony ride or a train ride because we only had time for one of them. She chose the train. We had to wait in a bit of a line, but had a fun little ride. Of course, when we got off, she wanted that pony ride, but the ponies had already shut down for the day. When we got up near the farm part of the zoo, she remembered everything that she had done before and wanted to look for the ponies and wash her hands since she'd done that after the petting zoo. We didn't say for super long because we got there later in the day, but we had fun showing Grandma and Grandpa our little zoo.

Corn on the Cob

This was Emily's first time eating corn on the cob at home. She had tried it earlier in the week at Kay's house. Emily loved it! She was so excited to see it and loved eating. And she did a pretty good job of getting a bit of corn off of it, too! When she first got it, she thought it was hot, so she left it on her tray and leaned down to eat it. That was really funny, but I wasn't able to get the camera out quick enough. I think she must take after Grandy on this is and is set to be a real corn lover!

Castle Park

Greg's parents came out to visit for Memorial Day weekend and had lots of fun playing with Emily. We decided to take everyone to a new park that just opened up a couple of towns away. Castle Park was awesome, it had a great play area for toddlers and another really neat one for older kids. Emily had plenty to entertain herself with while Grandma and Grandpa watched her playing. We had told Emily the name of the park, so the next day, Emily kept asking to go back to Castle Park! Hopefully we'll be able to go back in the next couple of weeks.

Dress Up

Emily had a lot of fun running around the house playing with a bandana that she wrapped around herself in different ways and pretended it was a jacket, shirt, and hat. She also like running into her room and getting the strawberry hat that Aunt Jill sent her at the end of last summer. She has so much fun with pretend play these days!

Surprise Grandy in St. Louis

We flew to St. Louis the weekend of May 16 to surprise Grandy a few weeks past her birthday. Grandy wasn't expecting us at the airport, she thought that Jill was flying in so we were able to sneak up behind her and give her a good shock! Jill flew in early the next morning and Nathan flew in that afternoon. Emily had a lot of fun playing with everyone and we all enjoyed our short visit together. We hadn't been in St. Louis since last summer, so it had been awhile for us.

Emily can now look at pictures and point out Aunt Jill (used to ask if that was Mommy, I guess Em now knows the differences in us), Uncle Nathan (she says his name nice and slow, it is long), Grandy, and Poppy. Emily also likes to talk about Nonnie, she was a big hit with Emily.