Emma is 11 Months Old!

He she is, our little princess! Almost 1 year old! We can't even believe it!! Here she is smiling her cute face off on the way home from getting pictures taken (where she refused to smile even one time)! Emma is very shy and pensive around people she doesn't know very well. Plus, she had just gotten woken up from her nap, and there was a lot of activity around her. We are going to try again soon but in the meantime, this is what you get!

I am going to try to get her sweet voice on video. She has this high-pitched, squeaky voice. Her new phrase of the week is "Uh-Oh, Doggie." Well, she actually says, "Uh-Uh Dodee" which means "Uh-oh, Doggie." She says that whenever she sees Marley. She LOVES Marley, and asks for him first thing every morning.

On a sadder note, we had to get rid of our second dog, Frodo, last week. It was a heart-wrenching decision, but it became obvious several weeks into having him in our home that he had experienced some sort of trauma. He became more and more skittish and aggressive. He especially was nervous around Emma and tried to bite her several times. He did bite one of the missionaries and broke the skin. I was sad to see him go, but it couldn't be helped. :( Marley is handling being alone again very well. He is actually so much less anxious. I think having Frodo in our home for a couple of months did him some good. Please send Frodo good thoughts and prayers that a wonderful person(s) without small kids will adopt him!

More hip clothes from Grandma and Auntie Marsha for her birthday! I am officially in-love with leggings. They are so stinking cute, and they protect her chubby legs on this hard tile!

Here is another birthday present, a month early! Daddy had to do some fixes to it (bought if off of craigslist), and I have special ordered a couple parts to make it complete, but once we cleaned it up it turned out pretty cute! We have since moved it outside. Emma doesn't seem to like it as much outside. She hates grass, and refuses to sit or crawl on it. If someone puts her on it, she will lift and hold up her legs so they don't touch the blades. She can hold them up for a really long time! She has some serious core muscles!

The boys fight over who gets to take a bath with Emma. I won't let them both do it at the same time. They are too crazy.

Emma had a play date with her friend, Aurora. James and I were really surprised at how possessive and aggressive Emma acted. She kept grabbing toys from Aurora and trying to pull her hair (I guess it was pay back. Aurora crawled over to her at church a week ago and pushed her over and smacked her in the face!). Aurora handled it very well, and eventually even was able to hang onto a few toys despite Emma's efforts! Oh, learning to socialize is fun!!

Here is daddy putting Emma to bed! Her sleep training is going fabulous. She now sleeps (well, she is in her crib with no milk- some times there is still tears) from 7:30pm to 6am! I am planning to stretch that until 7am in the next week! I still wake up when she fusses, but I can't even believe how much better I feel already! And it wasn't even as bad as I had imagined it was going to be!!

Emma loves her little board books. It's so adorable to see her looking at them. I especially love it when she "reads" them upside down. :)

(There's the little tongue!)

(And, again!)

July 14- July 25, 2011