Grandma and Grandpa visit

Emma loves her exersaucer now! She is starting to figure out how to make it spin so she can play with all the pieces. There's lots of things to chew on and drool all over, so it's exactly what she needs right now!

My parents spent several days in Charleston and then stayed the weekend with us. We went for a walk and played at the playground at Jetton park on Saturday morning. Drew RAN on the trail for about the first 1/2 mile!! ....and then Chad had to carry him the rest of the way (and it's a 1.5 mile trail)! On Sunday we went to IKEA - none of us had been there yet. That is an amazing store with amazing prices! Here's my parents with Drew and Emma just before they headed back home Monday morning.

We did a little bowling in the hallway with Drew (and then the adults did some bowling on the Wii after the kids went to bed).


Here's Emma watching the bowling action.


We had a lot of fun during their visit, and we look forward to our trip to Indiana coming up over Labor Day! Drew keeps telling us, "Ben might shoot fireworks!" My brother always does a fireworks show on the 4th of July, and he wasn't able to do it the past couple years - so it's in the plans for Labor Day weekend.

Drew has started helping out around the house...or at least we're trying to encourage his participation. He always helps Chad gather up the trash for trash pickup. Now he gets excited to help me with the dishes too! He mostly just plays in the bubbles and fills/dumps out the containers and cups. But we're gonna call it "doing dishes" and keep it fun so he'll eventually do it the right way!

Emma is strong on her belly and pushes her head way up and looks around. Sometimes she'll even get her knees tucked up underneath her and push her bottom up. We've been helping her practice sitting up some too. Here she is wobbling around and working on her balance.

Drew still loves baseball. He likes to watch the Little League World Series on tv. Here he is practicing with Chad. He hits it about every other pitch. He swings up at the ball - must be going for homeruns! Either that, or we've played too much golf.

Emma's 4 month dr. visit

Emma had her 4 month well visit today and did a great job! She is 25 1/2 inches long (90th percentile - tall little thing!) and 13 lbs 15 1/2 oz (55th percentile). Her head is 41 1/2 cm (65th percentile. She was so wiggly and active laying up there on the table. And when the doctor put her on her belly, she was pushing up tall and looking all over the place. The doctor said she's very active and seems really strong. She was impressed that she rolls both ways and moves around so much. I told her about how she drools so much, but she said she didn't see any teeth coming through, but that it may not be long. Emma got some shots and an oral vaccine. She only cried for a minute and then we were on our way and she was happy as could be! Drew likes her bandaid! :) He was a good boy and told the doctor that "Emma is growing so fast. And I'm getting big TOO FAST!" haha!

Parents Night Out and Emma's giggles

Once a month, the Y has a Parents Night Out event on a Friday night where the kids get to play for several hours and we get a kid-free evening. We signed the kids up this past Friday, and went out to eat, walked around Davidson and got ice cream - a fun, relaxing evening. It was Emma's first time at Parents Night Out, and they said she did great. She was asleep in their little swing when we picked her up a little after 9pm. And apparently Drew had a blast!! They even had some water activities, which we weren't informed about - that's why he's in a swim diaper that they put on him!! haha! Here are the pictures that the coordinator of the event took:

I can get Emma really going giggling and cooing! She's very ticklish!

One of the really wealthy families that used to have four girls on our gymnastics team that I coach gave me a onesie for Emma before she was born. It is a Ralph Lauren onesie - with ruffles on the rear and all! Seems so funny to put a drooling, spitting up, possibly diaper exploding baby in a onesie that costs at least $30! But it is very cute!

Emma is starting to really like her exersaucer. She is drooling a ton, and loves to put all the different pieces in her mouth.

4 month pictures and Lenoir visit

Several people have recently told me that Emma is looking more and more like Drew...but I don't see it! Here's Emma at almost 4 months.

And here's Drew at almost 4 months.

I got the high chair out for Emma - I think she likes it!

Drew first sat in it at the same age.

Chad and Drew went out and caught lightening bugs! Whenever it starts to get dark, Drew wants to go catch them.

This Monday, I took the kids to Lenoir to see their grandparents. We went to Alan's shop so Drew could see where Granddad works. Here's Emma with her Grandmom.

And Drew with his Grandad.

Then we went out to lunch and to Nana's. And, before we headed back home, Drew got to ride on Granddad's new 4 wheeler! Here they come!

And a big wave!

Thanks Susan and Alan for a fun day! Drew was asleep in the car within 10 minutes of leaving!

Potty trained and rolling over

This has been a big week for the kids!! First of all, Drew is now a BIG BOY!! I think it is safe to say that he is fully potty trained! He hasn't had an accident in a week now. He's not completely trained during naptime/nighttime, but that will come later. We are just so proud of him for figuring things out this fast! He does great at the Y (their staff is awesome!), so I will be curious how he'll do when we're out and about. We've been to the store, but he goes before we leave and holds it until we get back. We promised him the Cars movie if he started using the potty, so we had a movie night Friday night. He was soooo excited when he came downstairs after getting his jammies on and saw that I had the blankets and pillows set up to watch the movie!

Emma lasted about 5 minutes of the movie, and then she wanted to eat and go to bed! She is still sleeping 9pm until about 6:30 or 7am, which is wonderful! Here's the kids sitting together for a picture.

Drew was excited to hold Emma for this video. He loves to give her kisses and tells her (as well as me and Chad) that she's his best friend - so sweet! But after a quick video, he says, "Okay, put her back." HAHA!

Emma loves her moose toy! She now holds, studies and plays with her toys.

Here's Emma in her Cinderella dress. Now she just needs a party or fancy ball to go to!

I was changing Emma's diaper, and I hear Drew yell (panicking), "Mommy, I'm stuck! Help me, Mommy!" I saw him stuck in the bench and burst out laughing. He was confused at first and then realized how funny it was - we had to get a picture before I rescued him!

Everyone says Emma looks like me...I think she's got some Chad in her too!

New best buddies. Charlie likes to sleep under Emma's crib during the day!

Emma in a pretty outfit.

And for Emma's big news for the week...she rolled over for the first time (that we saw)!! She had actually rolled to her belly in the night last week, but I didn't want to count that as her official "roll over." She's done it a whole bunch now, and I got it in a video!

Emma's on the move and Drew's on the potty!

I splurged on a fancy sling before Emma was born, but it hasn't been quite what I wanted. As it ends up, she loves the Baby Bjourn carrier that I already had! I carried her in this for a long time today, and she was completely content and happy!

She hasn't rolled over yet, but that doesn't mean she's not mobile! Here's Emma relaxing on the floor.

...and then about two minutes later...

...and another two minutes...

And if we don't strap her into her bouncy seat, she tries to escape!

So, Emma is working on these early milestones, and Drew is working towards his most important and hardest milrstone of all...POTTY TRAINING!! We started on Friday evening and stuck with it all weekend. He knows when he's gotta go and starts doing the dance, holding on, and panicking...so it was a little stressful. We got candy to help encourage him to just sit on the potty and relax. He had several accidents on Saturday and three successes. On Sunday he kept holding it and not going, or he'd just go a tiny bit each time. We had another three successes though. I'm nervous what this week has in store for me w/o Chad's help during the day! And I'm working a few hours everyday, so he'll be in childwatch!

Here's Chad and Drew taking a break from the potty - his natural ability with the baseball bat is quite impressive:

Beach trip 2010

We went on our annual beach trip with Chad's family this past weekend. We got there late Wednesday night and then on Thursday it was a stormy day. So, we all went to Wal-Mart to pick up some odds n' ends. Here's Drew and Olivia being cute and holding hands in the store!

It cleared up enough in the evening to go out on the beach for a little bit. Here's Chad and Drew coming in from playing in the water.

And me and Emma sitting on the beach. The wind was blowing so hard the entire trip - and it seemed to put her to sleep every time we brought her outside.


Then Friday and Saturday were beautiful, sunny days! Drew loved the ocean and sand! Here he is with Chad getting a mouthful of salt water!

What a cute father-son picture!

Drew posing with his spelled out name. He now recognizes his written name and will sometimes say "D-R-E-W" if we ask him how to spell his name.

And here's me and Drew playing in the water.

Drew and Olivia in the sand.

Chad and Grant playing with the kids.

Drew swam on his own with swimmies! He went around and around the lazy river.

We brought Emma down to a shady area right next to the baby pool and she'd sleep in her stroller. I got her out a couple times and we even dipped her feet in the pool. It was SOO windy (see the nice wind blown hair!) and it just put her to sleep!

Here's Drew pulling himself out of the water and cheesing!

On the last evening we all went to play putt putt. The kids did really well until about the 15th hole - then they'd had enough! There was a train, tunnels, bridges - Drew was in heaven! Emma was awake the entire time and liked watching all the action. I even gave her a bottle between shots and held her a little. It all went much smoother than I thought!

Here's Drew "teeing off!" He actually had some good shots, but he also liked to pick it up and put it a couple inches from the hole so he could hit it in and hear us cheer!

Here's the whole clan taking it easy as we let another group play through so we wouldn't be rushed.

We had a great time and the vacation was TOO short! Each night we stayed up until 12:30 or 1am playing cards, and then Emma would wake up around 6am, so I think Chad and I are a little tired! But it was all so worth it. Drew loved every minute of being in the pool or at the ocean. The kids were so well behaved each evening when we went out to eat. Thank you Susan and Alan for a wonderful vacation!

On a side note - Emma has been sleeping through the night EVERY night for the past couple weeks. She goes down around 9:30pm (same time as Drew) and gets up around 6am or so (when Chad is leaving for work). It is so wonderful! She can roll to her side and often sleeps like that now. And while we were at the beach she discovered that she can put her hands together - and she stares at them and puts them in her mouth and makes really loud smacking sounds. If we just look at her and say something silly she smiles right away and will laugh. She's starting to develop a little personality!