We Now Have a Two-Year-Old

Some Party Shots

Notice the jaunty angle of the party hat.

Last Thursday it became official. Emma turned two, and we had a party (since we missed out on her first birthday.) We may even have another one in a couple of weeks. We went to Grandma and Grandpa Hiatt's exclusive party room, and had cake and Caffiene-free Diet Coke floats. Mmmmmmm, floats. The cake was delicious, and made by Emma's mommy.

Many wonderful gifts were presented. I am hopeful the batteries will die soon. Have children's toys always been so noisy? I think the noisiest toy I ever had was a cap pistol, with the caps that came on a tape roll. They weren't that noisy, because only two out of every five lined up good enough to fire. I kinda liked the smell though. But I digress. Emma sure loves playing with her new toys.

With the weather warming a bit, Denny and Emma have been getting out a little each day. It helps to break up the day, and get them into the sun and pollen. One of our earlier posts showed Emma in a swing at the park. I think that is still her favorite activity. She will swing as long as somebody will push her. She likes the feel of the wind through her hair and 16 teeth. Can't blame her. Denny planned a trip to a local fire house with about 15 kids last week. They took a picture in front of the fire truck. I would post that too, but Emma would have nothing to do with the big red truck that made all of that racket. Nice picture, no Emma.

It's almost 10:00 PM, and she is asleep after a busy day. She is sleeping well in her own room, thanks to her mother, who has trained her well. If she wakes up at all, it is only for a short while, until she is asleep again in her own bed. I wish I did that good. Time to turn in. Thanks for tuning in!

An Eastery Update

Emma having a blast in Aunt Barbie's backyard (click to enlarge to see the great expression on her face)....

...and hunting for her purple Easter eggs

Emma in her Easter finery (she had blue and pink bows in the back of her hair to complete the ensemble).

Emma in the souvenir Baba brought her from his trip to Washington, D.C. This was about 10 minutes after his return. She was so happy to have Baba home, she curled up in his arms and went to sleep.

Hello...we're submitting our monthly blog report. Things are going well on Planet Emma, despite a bout of bad cold/flu the week before last. Emma's much better now and is adjusting to life sans crib (maybe it's more of an adjustment for us). After a couple of weeks of multiple gettings-up in the night, crying at the gate blocking her egress from the room, falling back to sleep curled up in a ball in the corner by her door, and general weeping/wailing/gnashingofteeth on the part of pretty much all family members, Emma slept the whooole night through, in her big girl bed, just last night. Oh joy and rapture unforeseen, as grandpa would say. So that's progress.

Emma had a happy Easter week. A high point was Aunt Barbie's splendid Easter party, complete with egg hunt, deluxe goody bag, fun games, and scrumptious warm cheese dip and crackers. Mmmm, warm cheese dip. It was fun for Emma to be with her Hallstrom and Sweat cousins. Thanks, Aunt Barbie.

On Easter Sunday Emma enjoyed an egg hunt in the living room and showed moderate interest in the contents of her Easter basket. She looked very pretty when she went to church, and just as pretty when Joe brought her home a half hour later (she hadn't had a nap...behavior was spiralling downward...I anticipated total meltdown by nursery time; this church thing---it's a problem).

Emma's saying a lot of words. She even said "purple," or a reasonable likeness of it, when she was hunting for her purple eggs at Aunt Barbie's. She can now say her complete name (and a more charming sound I've never heard). She's a bright little girl and is picking up new things every day.

Emma's current favorite thing in the whole wide world is to watch "Go Baby" on the Disney channel. It's a little quasi-animated 4-minute show featuring two babies and the hijinx in which they engage. We have about seven of them recorded and Emma would probably watch them continuously at the expense of food, drink, and sleep if she had her way. Grandpa and Grandma Hiatt took part in the whole "Go Baby" experience when they stayed with us a few days when Joe was gone. They probably couldn't wait to leave...

So things are going generally great. Emma's birthday is Thursday. As brother Andy said, she'll be the "big 02." Our goal is to make it a happy day for her.

That's it for now. Thanks for checking in!