baby water park

we have been spending many afternoons playing in emma taylor's baby pool. today, the addition of a sprinkler turned a baby pool into a baby water park. she had a blast! this girl sure does love water.

summer reading

both emma taylor and i are signed up for the summer reading program. well technically she is in the read-to-me program. if we both complete it then we get $3 each off late fines which actually will pay off all our late fines! woohoo! also i get entered into a raffle for a kindle fire. so what have i been reading...it turns out that i have a specific taste...young adult (otherwise known as teen) dystopian novels with strong female leads. yes, i am not ashamed i have been reading teenage girl books which i highly recommend. they include The Hunger Game series, the Birthmarked trilogy, and most recently Graceling. if you liked The Hunger Games you would probably be a fan of the others i named.

things i want to remember

1. when e.t. was less than 6 months we learned she likes her back to be scratched (just like her momma)

2. e.t. always hands me her loveys when i go in to get her up from her nap. when i put them back into her crib she will grab them again and insist i hold onto them.

3. when a baby drops her paci e.t. will try to put it back in their mouth and in nursery when another baby drops something when they are in the baby swing e.t. will go and give it back to them. so sweet.

4. lastly, emma taylor will laugh uncontrollably when you bump her stomach with your head.

dancing

emma taylor LOVES to dance or wiggle or swing her arms. so check out this little video of emma taylor cutting loose. i can only hope this turns into something of a passion later in life. however she might need a bit more rhythm first.

little friends

today i watched e.t.'s little friend julia for a couple of hours. so for a short time i got a sense of how it would be with 2! except when i actually have 2 they certainly won't be this close in age. emma taylor loves playing with julia but doesn't always know how to be gentle. also for whatever reason emma taylor insisted on propping up her foot on julia while they played. it really made me laugh. i am so glad that emma taylor has little friends so close in age. it really makes things fun!

father's day 2012

nana, great grandmother, & cosmo

while we were at the beach cosmo's grandparents took him to their house for a little vacation. well actually he went a week before we left and came back a week after we got home. this past friday nana and great grandmother took a little trip up to columbia to see emma taylor and return cosmo. thanks so much for taking him for such a long time. i know he had a blast and will be back to visit again!

{playing with nana}

{snuggling with great grandmother}

{and reunited with cosmo}

a girl & her dog

11 months

in one month our baby girl will be ONE. what happened to last year? i certainly do not want to go back to the newborn phase...what can i say? i just don't think i am a newborn kind of girl. however, i am not sure that e.t. should be one yet. she is so fun at this stage, and i can only imagine that she is going to be more and more fun the older she gets.

she can pull up on anything now. she can reach anything you think you have put out of her reach. she has started cruising around furniture and likes to walk while holding your hands. she says dada, mama, dog, and occassionaly no. she loves books, goes to storytime almost every week, and is learning not to eat the books. she is definitely starting to really play rather than just sticking everything in her mouth. she still takes 2 naps but has proven that she can skip her morning nap and still bounce back pretty well. she is eating more and more table food but will still throw food on the ground when she doesn't want it. she laughs ALL. THE. TIME. she also loves the attention that gets.

sometimes i can't resist

...the clearance rack. the little outfit below cost $4, but even better i got 2 pairs of pants for e.t. for the fall for $1.39 each. old navy has their clearance marked down an extra 30% off and they have some seriously cute baby clothes.

the provision co.

it ended up raining 3 days that we were at the beach. so 2 of those days we ventured out and explored Southport, NC which was only 10-15 minutes from Oak Island. we found a little dive called The Provision Co. it was right on the water, had a super fun atmosphere, and yummy food. we stayed quite awhile trying to wait out the rain, and emma taylor didn't mind a bit because she was watching all the people around us. if you ever head out this way we highly recommend this little restaurant!

{crab cake burger and tuna sandwhich}

{waiting in great anticipation}

beach happenings

{this picture really reminds me of this little conversation. emma taylor is just a bit more grown up now.}

{glen can always make e.t. laugh!}

shortly after this picture was taken i realized that carrying e.t. in the baby carrier for our walk on the beach was a bad idea. she has just gotten too heavy and too wiggly. looks like she already knew it was a bad idea.

{snuggling after nap time}

{visiting the mini park where people fish and crab}

{our little cheerleader in training}

family beach photos

oh my

friends at the beach

on a whim, andrew & elizabeth decided to join us for a night. thanks for driving all the way there to hang out with us!

{cute couple}

{reading the seniors magazine. it must have been riveting.}

the beach

we spent last week in Oak Island, NC. thanks to my sister for letting us use her beach house. this was emma taylor's first real beach trip. i am not sure last time really counted since she slept through her short visit to the beach. she did great on the beach except for one day when she got sunscreen in her eye and was miserable.

if you look really close you can see sand all over the lower half of her face. she actually didn't eat much sand. she just wanted to look like sand santa.

always keeping daddy close in case a big wave came.

giant baby in sand city. next year i am sure she will think building sand castles is more fun. for now she just likes knocking them down.

we fed the sea gulls, and e.t. seemed to have no clue that there were tons of birds right behind her.

we took the dog with us a few times but she was quite a bit to handle on the beach since we couldn't let her off the leash.