Emma's Animal Sounds

At 20 months, Emma has identified the start of her favorite things list. One thing she REALLY like is animals and she has learned the sounds that some creatures make. Here is a list of responses we get when we ask her...

Cats = Meow

Dogs = bark, bark

Ducks = quack, quack

Lions/tigers = Roar

Dinosaurs = choo choo train

She does really well until we get to Dinosaurs.... I think the confusion comes due to the fact that 1) trains are one of her other favorite things and 2) she likes to watch a show called Dinosaur Train on PBS.

Santa, Football, and Cookies

We had another fun and busy weekend at the end of a busy week.

On Friday night, we headed to the Promenade in Bolingbrook for dinner at Go Roma, a visit to Santa Clause, and a nice walk. It isn't very often that is warm enough in mid November to spend much time outside, so we really enjoyed it! We decided to avoid the mall this year and visit Santa at Bass Pro Shop. He was a good looking Santa, but Emma was not impressed and cried. The free 4x6 turned out cute, but so did the snap shot Dave took.

Saturday was the BIG day... Dave, his Dad, and our nephews headed to South Bend, IN to watch Notre Dame take on UConn. It was the last home game of Notre Dame's football season and they all had fun. Emma and I had a good day too. We took advantage of the nice weather and spent part of the afternoon using Emma's swing. We also did laundry, house work, and made cookies.

Sunday was a quiet, but busy day. It was Dave's turn to tackle chores around the house and he did a great job... the light post in our front yard works for the first time in a long time! Emma got to use her swing for the second day in a row and we made more cookies...

I am trying to alleviate some of the stress of the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons this year by planning ahead. The addition earlier this year of the freezer in the garage has been a huge boon to the preparing process and it now has 4 different batches of cookies in there. I only have one more to make... then before we head out for Christmas, I will make the goody boxes we share with our neighbors. We are really looking forward to the fact that Dave has a short week at work and will have a nice long break before going back next week.

Busy Bees

The last couple of weekends have had us hopping... some of the things have been normal everyday chores, others have been fun, and a few have even been celebrations.

Last weekend (Nov. 7 and 8) our biggest chore was tackling the leaves in our back yard. Some progress was made on Saturday before we had to dash off in other directions and thanks to Terry (Dave's Dad) we were able to finish up on Sunday. We ended up with 15... yes 15... backs full of leaves and twigs from our back yard. Thanks to the nice weather, the whole neighborhood seemed to have done the same thing. I felt kind of bad for the garbage guy who had to pick all of that up!

The 7th also found Emma at the pediatrician for her seasonal flu shot (they won't be getting the H1N1 Vaccine, we have to go to the county for that) and our sweet little girl didn't cry at all. I also had to go to the dentist for my six month check up, but the highlight of the day was a trip to Max & Erma's where we met up with Dave's family to celebrate his birthday.

Sunday the 8th also included my monthly DAR meeting. We honored Veteran's day by bringing items for care packages for active duty troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Dave had a rough week at work, with a big deadline at the end, but we ended the week on a high note. We met Dave's family at Maggiano's for a wonderful dinner to celebrate the conclusion of part of the case resulting from Terry's accident in February. It was wonderful to celebrate Terry being well again and a great opportunity to count our blessings.

This weekend also included chores around the house, visiting with friends, and cooking baking. This week will be an opportunity to relax a little and play with Emma. It looks life will continue being busy from now until the end of the year.

Postponed Potty Training

After approximately 3 weeks of trying to get Emma potty trained we have figured out that she probably is really ready and have decided to postpone our efforts until after the first of the year. Emma caught on to needing to "hold it" and go on the potty pretty quickly, but she never seemed to get the idea of needing to tell us she needed to go. I was having to take Emma periodically and sometimes she'd go and other times she wouldn't, but she was starting to get really frustrated with me. Dave and I talked about it and decided that it's not worth making everyone crazy to keep trying right now. We'll let Emma get a little older and try again in a few months.

Happy Halloween

While this was Emma's second Halloween, this was the first year she dressed up and went Trick or Treating. She was a Chicago Cubs Cheerleader and it didn't take long for her to figure out that the candy bowl was a good thing! Almost as soon as Emma was dressed, she went right up to the candy bowl positioned by the front door, reached in and said "trick or treat" as she grabbed a handful. We went to a few neighbor houses and each time the door opened Emma said "Hi" instead of trick or treat. Oh well!

We headed over to Julie's in the afternoon so that we could see the boys all dressed up and everyone there could see Emma. Jack went to a trick or treat party with his friends while Dave and John took Emma and Kyle to a few houses in their neighborhood. Emma really enjoyed the Halloween experience! She found a stray package of Skittles yesterday and ran up to me saying "Trick or Treat."

Saturday's Halloween festivities were just part of our busy and fun weekend. Saturday morning started with Dave and I attacking the leaves in our front yard. We filled the empty space in our compost bin and then still filled 5 yard bags... this weekend will find us tackling the back yard. On Sunday we were back at Julie's to watch the Bear's game and enjoy a wonderful dinner of homemade pulled pork sandwiches. Jack and Kyle were nice enough to bring some of their Thomas the Tank Engine tracks and toys up for Emma to play with and she had so much fun!