Latest Pix + Vonage Schmonage

Our neighborhood playgroup visited Gardner Village recently. It was all decked out in its Halloween glory. Here is Emma with her friend Jackson.


Emma and pals surveying the stream below


L to R: Witch, Mom, Em

Gardner Village has a cool petting zoo. Emma took full advantage of the petting privileges.


These baby pigs were darling. Their tails were waving a mile a minute.


Emma is just beginning to fit into many of the darling outfits we got as shower gifts a year ago. Here is a sporty denim look.


And a chic green and white ensemble.


Emma in a beautiful coat her Aunt Boo Boo brought her from Disneyland (it has ladybug spots on the back).


And in keeping with that theme, a ladybug is what Emma will be for Halloween (we got the costume online from Old Navy).

On a different subject: Joe and I have Vonage telephone service, which comes through our computer. When we get voicemails we get them as e-mails with the voice message sent as an attachment (that we listen to). Lately Vonage has been pushing a new service whereby somebody (a human being presumably, but I'm not so sure) will transcribe the message so you can simply read the text of the message in an e-mail ("for only 25 cents a call!"). We've been getting free trial transcriptions of our voice messages and they are an absolute SCREAM. I think they must have non-native speakers, or robots, or aliens transcribing them. Or maybe it's just a machine. Anyway, check out the transcription of a message I got yesterday:

"I. Know. This is granted to me if. Dictator called me this morning and 1 good need to see if we could have been opening song. So. Could you please just choose 1 and then. I can eat anything so it doesn't happen to me but. Central not home and i have to go get the grandkids in a couple of hours. But different you would like to call me back it's 569. 1 c route 79. Thank you. Life state."

After listening to the actual recording, I discerned this is what the caller really said:

"Hello. This is Grethe, Denise. Birgitte called me this morning and wanted me to see if we could have an opening song. So could you please just choose one and then, I can lead anything so it doesn't matter to me, but since you're not home and I have to go get the grandkids in a couple of hours, but if you'd like to call me back, it's 569-1079. Thank you. Bye."

And then at the end of the transcription you read the following:

"Isn't Vonage Visual Voicemail Great! You could be reading this voicemail message even if you were stuck in a meeting. No more waiting until the meeting is over to listen to your messages."

Joe and I won't be signing up for the service, but we've had some great laughs over the nutty transcriptions.

That's all for now!

A Great Time of Year

Here are my two gals sharing a large bowl of Sunday-night popcorn

Spring training is a great time of year. It means that the worst part of winter is behind us, and rich dudes are running around on green grass playing ball. The Giants aren't in last place (yet), and there are many summer nights on the horizon when baseball can be enjoyed. October is the cumulation of all of the above, with some great games being played. Too bad about the Cubbies, I would have liked to see them give the D-backs more of a battle. I think the Rockies will do just that.

Enough about baseball, for now anyway. On to Emma, and her progress. She is talking more each week, and seems more grown up all the time. She is having a rough go of it these last few days, we think due to her last four molars finally poking through. A spoonful of orange medicine and she calms down enough to fall asleep.

We were eating out for breakfast the other day, and I was reminded of a scene from The Godfather (I). The food had just arrived, and due to Emma's wanting to leave immediately, we had to "Tom Hagen" our food. This is in reference to the dinner Tom Hagen had with the movie producer. Just after he started eating, old Woltz started in on why Johnny wasn't going to get the part in his next movie. Ol' Tom knew he wasn't in for a leisurely meal, and was going to have to get on a plane in a hurry, so he starts stuffing the food in. Anyway, that is what we had to do. Oh well. it doesn't happen all that often, and a little "speed eating" once in a while won't kill you. Kinda funny if you think about it, I think.

Another reason October is great, is that we now have "Emma Day" to celebrate. Every October 30th we will celebrate the day we met Emma. We plan on giving her a special Chinese gift and doing something special. It has been a fast (almost) year. Emma is growing up fast, and her mother is doing a wonderful job in smothering her with love and attention! OK then.

Okay, we are MAJOR blog slackers. It has been one calendar month since we updated. We were indeed having some computer difficulties, as Joe has noted, but still... We are in danger of losing our handful of loyal readers. We have been chastised recently by both my dad and Shawn Stephens in our ward (hey to Shawn) for being poor updaters.

And now on to the Emma photos:


We went to the zoo with some friends a few weeks ago. It was splendid weather, Emma was quite well behaved, and I felt like I was on vacation it was so much fun. Here is Emma striking a pose in front of some feline (leopard? jaguar?)

I like this photo of the kids with their hands planted on the glass, observing the crocodiles (we saw the albino crocodile with the blue eyes -- "Ghost of the Bayou!") Maybe it was an alligator. I called it the wrong name when I was there and the zoo attendant briskly corrected me. (One has a longer, V-shaped snout; the other a shorter, square snout, but I can't remember which one's which anymore.)

We've attended a couple of U of U volleyball games recently. Kathryn Haynie, Andy's wife, is on the team and she is GOOD! We dress Emma in her red sweats, red Utah T-shirt, and white sneakers when we go. She likes to clap and cheer with the crowd. She also boldly approaches anyone close by, known or unknown to her, who has snack items. Sigh. It's kind of a problem.


Joe smoked some ribs recently. Emma's a big fan of the ribs.
We've been to the airport a couple of times lately to watch planes land. We walked along the bike path and the planes roared overhead. Emma mostly enjoyed it until a great big loud one came over and she got this expression on her face.

Today (September 25) is the Moon Festival, second biggest Chinese holiday after Chinese New Year, celebrating the autumnal equinox. We bought four moon cakes, the traditional Moon Festival delicacy, at the Melewa Bakery on 9th South to celebrate. They're filled with kind of a pasty, gelatinous something or other (sweetened bean paste I've heard). Not bad. Emma didn't partake, though.

Emma is really learning a lot of new words lately, stringing words together, chattering, humming a little (something she hasn't done much of until recently). She is a funny, energetic, happy soul. A joy. She'll be two and a half next month and it's almost a year that we've been home with her. The recent change in weather reminds me of getting ready to leave last year...such amazing memories.

Sorry about the long dry spell on the blog, but thanks for being loyal readers and checking in.

Technical Difficulties

We are experiencing blogger angst, and cannot log in from home. Stay tuned and we will update again as soon as we can do some reconfiguring. OK then.

It Was a Year Ago Yesterday....

A year ago yesterday we got Emma's referral and saw this photo for the first time. I don't know how old she was when this was taken. How old does she look to you?


And here's our pretty girl now. Doesn't she look grown up?



Emma made an important pilgrimage today -- to Maddox Ranch House Restaurant in Brigham City, UT. It will be the first of many such visits. Oh, the homey goodness of Maddox food. The first bite of hot roll with raspberry butter sent me to gastronomical paradise. Joe ordered the famous fried chicken; I had melt-in-your-mouth roast beef with mashed potatoes and sweet corn; Emma poked around at her child-size chicken-fried steak.

A fine point of Maddox protocol is to make your own honey butter for the cornbread; the bigger the mess you make on your plate, the tastier the product.

After lunching at Maddox, we bought a couple of baskets of peaches to take home for jam-making (it's Peach Days in Brigham right now, don'tcha know). Then we visited our friends Shawn and Calista and their family, who live nearby. They're planning to leave September 13 to pick up their daughter Sophi Li in Hubei Province.

My sister Julie was in town this past week for BYU Education Week (I went with her one day on Monday; what a blast. It's like being transported to a lovely, edifying, well-groomed, caffeine-free planet). The above photo was taken at Aunt Barbie's. From left: Yer author, niece Angie with her baby Wyatt, sister Julie and her daughter Julia, sister Barbie with Emma.

Emma and Grandpa Hiatt had a blast swinging in Barbie's backyard. Hard to tell who was having a better time.

But from the looks of this photo, it was probably Emma.

The other day Emma took one of her little bears, wrapped him in her blankey-blank and propped a pillow behind his head. I like to see her pretendy side coming out.

Our summer's coming to a close. It's been a wonderful first summer with our little girl. Thanks for checking in.

We're Growing Weary of JoJo's Circus

Take a good look at the picture above. You can see the top of Emma's head as she is holding her balloon (from her sister Janie), and watching another episode of "JoJo's Circus." Most days when Emma wakes up, the first words out of her mouth are "JoJo." It doesn't matter if it is 4:00 AM or 7:30 AM. She is a JoJoaholic. As bad as that sounds, it could be worse. She could be a "Dr. Philaholic" or "Little Womenaholic." With the magic of Tivo, JoJo's Circus can be played in all of its 1/2 hour glory whenever it is deemed necessary or acceptable. Our Tivo library now sports a selection of about 15 episodes.

Emma used to be hooked on "Go Baby." There were two problems with that offering. They only made seven episodes, and they only last five minutes. We would go through the whole series in one sitting. She still says "Baby" when she wants Denny to call up the Disney Channel website, but will seldom ask to look at the actual "Go Baby" url. Emma really likes to look at the computer screen, and the stuff Mom can
make it do. I think she is going to be a natural on the computer.

Back for a moment to the 4:00 AM comment. When she doesn't sleep the whole night through,she will wander in to the front room and kick me off of the couch, which is where I sometimes end up sometime during the night. She will then go back to sleep. We are hoping that it is because of the warm evenings we are experiencing, and cooler nights will help her sleep the night through. We can hope can't we?

We were noticing a few days back that she is not as hyper as she was nine months ago. Her attention span is longer, and she now has the ability to amuse herself. We just hope it doesn't have anything to do with the dog and/or sharp objects.

Emma freely gives hellos, bye-byes, high fives, and headbutts, so she is adding to her inventory of social skills. She's a sweetheart.

Ok then.

Dog Days of August

My two girls on the merry-go-round


Emma on the "Speedy Turtle"


I asked for a natural smile


                 Sophi

We have had a very busy summer so far. Emma has made a few trips to the old neighborhood and visited Liberty Park to take in a few rides and shaved ices from our good friend Nicolai. She seems to enjoy the orange cream flavor. The fourth picture in this post represents the referral photo of our friends Calista and Shawn's new daughter.  They will be leaving sometime in the next few weeks to pick up their new daughter from the Hubei Province. That's right, another "spice girl" will soon be in Utah! We are excited for them and are anxious to meet Sophi.

Emma is growing taller and faster. She had a cold two weeks back, and may have lost a pound or two because of a lack of interest in food, but we think she has gained it back. We didn't feel right in taking her to the nursery at church for two weeks, so I had to make the supreme sacrifice and stay home with her.

Emma helped me pick two tomatoes from our garden last week, and I asked her to take them inside to her mother. Mom only got one, because Emma bit into the other one and ate the whole thing...just like her great-grandpa Foster. I remember grandpa driving me up to a tomato field, getting out with a salt shaker that had somehow appeared from the glove compartment, and eating tomatoes al fresco right off of the vine.

We went to the annual picnic of our adoption agency and met many of our old friends and their little girls from China. Emma fit right in, and played hard with them all. She enjoys mixing it up with a crowd. Last Friday Kathryn and Andy held a party at the house for friends who are getting married this week. Emma arrived on the scene about 9:00 PM, and started to work the room. She went around and said "Hi"to everybody while eating and drinking. She was kind of wound up later that night when she had to go to bed.

She is making great progress with her language skills, putting words together, and expanding her vocabulary. Advances are being made on the potty training front as well, but I will leave those details to Denny. She has discovered the subtle beauties of bologna, and 
would eat it at every meal if we would let her.

OK then. 

Summer Days....

Emma and cousins Josh and Jonah on the 4th of July.


And the rear view....

Emma had her first visit to the dentist a couple of weeks ago. All went well and she was a hit with the two dental assistants, who plied her with stickers and plastic jewelry. The dentist, an earnest fellow, gave us many helpful pointers. He stressed the importance of proper nutrition and looked genuinely taken aback when he asked what Emma's diet consisted of and Joe answered, "Mostly Slim Jims and Mountain Dew." "Well, YOU get the Father of the Year award," he retorted. (He's a kidder, doc...)

Good thing the dentist didn't see Emma on this day, post-grape sucker.

The summer is flying by. It's hot. Our electric bill is high and 'twill be higher yet next month. Emma is growing taller; her head barely clears the underside of the kitchen island counter and I plan to note in my journal the day she bumps into it. (Ouch; poor honey)

We've had a busy and social couple of weeks. Two of Joe's out-of-town siblings and families have been in town recently and we've had lots of family get-togethers. Was fun to have Uncle Mike stay with us for a night last week. We ate chocolate Dunford donuts and watched a DVD about 9/11 conspiracy theories. Good times.

On the 4th Emma experienced the Kaysville 4th of July parade. She was equal parts bewildered and fascinated. What in the world are all these people marching down the street for...? Then the fire trucks drove by and sprayed all the kids with water. She hung on to me tight but didn't complain; it was hot and the water felt good.

Aunt Laurie and family are now in town and it's fun to see the Illinois cousins.

Last night my folks treated my sister Barbie and me and some of her kids to a night at the theatuh -- Les Miz at Pioneer Memorial. A half hour into the show -- pop! the lights went out -- right in the middle of the brothel scene! The actors froze on stage, then scampered off. The power outage lasted for about an hour; the director came out and gave us periodic updates and said if the lights didn't come back on by 9:00 we'd all go home. At 8:55, bing! they came back on, to enthusiastic applause. Oh goody. I saw Lez Miz about 20 years ago and very much wanted to see it again. Great production. Thanks, mom and dad!...

Emma is doing great. She had an assessment by the DDI Vantage early intervention folks last week to see if she's eligible for speech help (because of her delayed start with English), but she tested too high. She's either at or above her age level in every developmental category except expressive speech, which they estimated was only about 3 months behind a native-born speaker, so that ain't bad. Way to pick up a new language, Em.

Thanks for checking in. Sorry we're not frequent posters, but we'll still do the periodic updates.

Out and About with Missy Em

Emma walked through the raindrops during our wet weather a week or so ago. Isn't the raincoat cute? (A gift from Cindy Sweat.)

We went swimming on Memorial Day weekend with Uncle Matt and Aunt Erin and their boys.

Emma helped Mom plant some flowers last weekend. Unfortunately, she also likes to pick them.

Last Saturday we drove up to Brighton to eat our dinner. Emma had a blast in the great out of doors. The mountain fresh air was wonderful.

Haven't posted in a long time....so sorry. Discretionary time is scarce, and it seems we tire easily in our advancing years, but we're having so much fun with our little girl.

* We're trying to teach her how to say "I love you." Emma says "I lah..." We're still waiting on the "vyou," but are happy to hear it however it comes out. She also says "I lah" when she wants to go outside.

* Emma has turned into a persnickety eater. I remember how much she ate in China and can hardly believe she's the same girl.

* She likes playing on the computer. I found the coolest website, http://www.poissonrouge.com/. Has all kinds of nifty games for little kids. So creative and colorful.

* Emma has a good sense of humor. Sometimes we listen to Primary CDs when we're lying down for a nap. One of them has a scratch in it and always gets stuck in the same place. ("Can a little child like me thank the Father fittingly.") It always gets stuck in the next part, "Father, we thank thee." It'll go "Fa-wa-wa-wa-wa," but if you tap on the CD player it'll jump over the scratch and keep going. Anyway, Emma can be almost asleep, but if she hears that song starting she'll sit up and grin at me and can't wait for the skippy part to come. Cackling with mirth, she'll whack the CD player and then say "Gin?" (again), so I start the song over and we do it again...and again. She gets a huge kick out of it.

* When she's finished eating, she'll stand up in her chair, booster seat still strapped on, and start reaching for everyone else's dinner and any drinks, condiments, or utensils she can find. She is compelled to grab, dump, shake, pour, and squish everything within her reach. A great work of civilizing our youngster lies before us. In the meantime, we scoot things farther down the table.

*Emma is a great helper. She helps unload the dishwasher, sweep the floor (she holds the dustpan), do the laundry (I lift her up to put clothes in the washer, and she's good at cleaning off the lint trap in the dryer), and cleaning the mirrors, although she squirts on somewhat more Windex than is really necessary.

*One of her favorite words right now is "Beh," which means "Back," as in "Stand back and let me do it myself." She pushes on my thigh and says "Beh!" and I have to back up a couple of feet so as not to invade her personal space as she performs some task.

*Emma is a charming, smart, independent, loveable little girl.

So Much For the High Chair

It's a nice night to be bloggin', so here we go. This missive is brought to you by the rock stylings of Neil Young and Pete Townsend (as Crow would say; "I now know how the world sounds to Pete Townsend" but I digress even before I get started).

Our little girl has straight-armed through another milestone in her short stint at Chez-Haynie. She made it clear that her days of sharing family meals in her high chair are a thing of the past. We knew that those days were numbered, as we had already resorted to keeping her in the chair with shoulder straps. She was strapped in so good that she could have been on a Nascar track making left-hand turns. The problem was that it took the two of us to get her in there. We gave up the fight. Her cousin Josh had given Emma a booster chair for just this occasion, and Emma was VERY pleased and thrilled to be sitting at the big table with us, as noted in the photo above. The dog must be disappointed because less food now hits the ground.

Denny took Emma to the Fairmont Aquatic Center today, and they both had a blast! Emma loves the water, and all of the accoutrements they have at the pool. It is going to be a regular stop in the future. Emma was so tired afterwards that she took a three-hour nap. We don't have any photos of the pool, but perhaps later. I think it wore out Mamma too, because she is asleep now as well.

With the weather warming up here (last week), we purchased one of those wading pools for the back porch. I have pictures of that, but have not been given permission to post any of those, and will not do so until such permission is granted(no dummy me!).

Our little Darlin' is growing up so fast. She looks older each week. We are just going to enjoy each day to the fullest and not look back. Her vocabulary is growing, and there are signs that she is trying to put more than two words together at a time. She will be able to call in sick for me in no time! OK then.

Sorry Mom, It Was an Eggsident

Uh-oh, guess these weren't hardboiled after all.Probably best to just keep moving.


We used to worry about the dog jumping up and getting food off the counter, but turns out Emma is just as crafty. Joe brought home a dozen eggs from the store and left them on the kitchen island...too close to the edge. Emma's been on a hardboiled egg kick lately and probably couldn't wait to unpeel them.

When we rounded the corner and saw the mess, all we could say was "Get the camera!"

Our 2-Year-Old Cutie

We took Emma to Kiddie Kandids the day after her birthday for her 2-year-old pix. Was hard to get her to stand still and smile for more than a millisecond, so we didn't get many smiley photos, but we think she still looks plenty cute. Aunt Julie got her the delectable jumper.

Emma had her 2-year check-up with the pediatrician this past week. She has gained 3 pounds and grown 2 inches in the last five months (she's now 24 pounds and 35 inches). That's 13th percentile for weight, 75th for height -- a tall and slender young lady. Emma opened every drawer and cupboard in Dr. Havlik's office, multiple times. I spent most of my time heading her off. She got her hands on some little packets of ointment where you have to peel back the wrapping, so she started picking away at it. Dr. Havlik said, "Well, I was going to ask about her fine motor skills but I can see they're very good; I have a hard time opening those myself." Dr. Havlik said she was very "busy." "Busier than most?" I asked. "Well, yes. I'm kind of exhausted watching her."

Emma's language skills are really starting to take off. I told the doctor I thought she could say about 50 words and he said "Five-oh?," kind of surprised. I said, "Well.....maybe 30." But then I went home and started listing all the words she says and got up to 41 in no time. Sometimes I'm the only one who knows what she means, but she's giving it the ol' college try and really doing well. Bright, bright little girl.

She loves "Goodnight Moon." We look at it every night. I never read this when I was a kid and when I first started looking through it, it seemed kind of boring -- same dang picture over and over again. But it really grows on you...it's kind of magical with the moon coming up and the stars getting brighter and the room getting darker. Plus, Emma likes pointing at all the little things in the room...kittens, mittens, comb, brush, bowl full o' mush, little old lady whispering hush, etc. I'm glad she's starting to pay attention to books.

Things are going great. Days are long, but the weeks fly by. Just like on a mission. I feel like I'm on a mission again, actually. Guess I am.

Thanks for checking in!

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!