Emma's Walking!!!

Many of you have continued to ask "Is she walking yet?" and now the answer is finally YES!!! After much testing of patience from the question, and calmly telling people, "We don't want to rush her, she'll learn soon enough," she decided today to take off and now apparently there is no stopping her. We just got back from Charlotte yesterday and my family there has decided to 'thump her on the head' (Carol) next time they see her since she waited until the day after getting home to begin her new skill. As for me, I'm thrilled but unfortunately I'll have to wait until tomorrow to see it. My grandparents are keeping her today because my Mom is sick, and Cody is picking her up because I have a late meeting and won't be home until well after she's in bed. So I've given Cody a request to make a video of her (almost) first steps, and then I'll try to get something tomorrow and see if I can figure out how to post video clips. To borrow what I hear is Carson's favorite phrase, "YAY!"

My little Cutie

Way down upon the Suwannee River......

The future Mr. & Mrs. Shawn Banner (and Bobby Case keeping things interesting as usual). Emma's going to be a flower girl! Let's hope she learns to walk by then! Just kidding - the wedding's not until January.

Holden (Bobby's son) kept filling up this beer bottle with river water and drinking it - I had to get a shot - too funny! He's a trip to be around.

Emma and Daddy playing on the beach. It took her forever to quit being afraid of the sand, but once she finally warmed up to it, there was no stopping her.

There was a manatee at the sandbar just up from the cabin. We had never seen one there before until now. He kept coming up for air, and we finally got a good shot.

Emma finally zonked out and slept about a half hour on the boat at the sandbar. She was exhausted, but after her power nap she was up and ready to go again!

Itchetucknee Trip

One of the great things about the river being up so high lately is that we were able to take the boat up the Itchetucknee much farther than usual. We took Emma with my Mom and Dad and had a great day. Here are some of my favorite picks from the boat ride.

Happy Earth Day!

I didn't get around to posting this yesterday, but I hope everyone had a great Earth Day!

River Time!

Here are a few pics from our first family boat ride of the year. Many thanks to Thomas for letting us continue to borrow his extra boat! The weather was not the greatest, but Emma had a great time, and so did Sunny. Can't wait to go again!

Why kids and cats can't share toys.......

Birthday Girl

A few weels ago Emma turned one. I can't believe she's already almost 13 months now! She's changing more and more every day. She took a step the other night from me to Cody and will stand up on her own every now and then when she doesn't realize it. I think in the next month she's just going to take off and there will be no stopping her! We're having a great time, and dying to get out on the river with her. I think she'll enjoy it even more this year. Here are a few of my favorite pics from her birthday.

Teeth

Our little ham was being silly this weekend and I thought this was a good showing of her teeth, (or lack thereof). Right now she's only got four on the bottom and you can barely see one peeking through on the top. Her gums are pretty puffy across the front and at her one year checkup her doctor said it looks like she's getting all four at once. She's been pretty agreeable, so I guess it hasn't bothered her too much. It's been a blessing that she didn't have teeth on the top and bottom so we could stick to breastfeeding (she was just weaned last week and is doing great), but I can't wait for her to have top teeth now because it will help with her eating. She still can't bite into harder things very efficiently, but is ready to try everything. She's starting to want to feed herself with a spoon (sometimes successfully, sometimes not) and is doing great with softer finger foods. I would love any tips on introducing veggies. She loves them as baby food, but is not at all interested in the real thing. She just spits them out. She does great with fruit, bread, meat cheese, crackers - everything but veggies. I've tried green beans, squash, peas, carrots - all seasoned and unseasoned - and it doesn't seem to make a difference. But she's healthy and growing like a weed, so I'm not worried. She'll figure it out sooner or later.

Emma's new apron

Emma was cooking in her kitchen yesterday and was not in the mood for any clothes. So I suggested she put on her new apron that her friend Gavin gave her for her birthday (handmade by his mom Wrenda). She was too cute to pass up on the photo op!