Again, it's hard to see in this pic but Emma took a hard fall on some concret and scraped her nose pretty good. It happened on Saturday, so at church on Sunday her nose was bright red and she looked like Rudolph!

We have tons of pics of Emma grinning with Tuan - finally one of her having a great time on my lap. Too bad I'm not actually in the pic! :o)

It's a little bit hard to see in this picture, but if you look closely you can see that Emma's face is red and puffy all over! I immediately called my herbalist and she told me what herbs to give Emma and it went away within the hour. It has come back 2 times since (I always give her the herbs before it gets this bad). The circumstances have never been the same, so while I know that this time she picked up some chemical, I don't know what is giving it to her.

Emma had lots of fun playing with her new toys!

It started out slow, but after a little bite of candle and lots and lots of frosting we had a very happy baby!

Yes - I know Emma's birthday was in Feb! Just be glad you are seeing these pics at all!

Oops! I forgot to mention who these two are! For those of you reading this who aren't in my family, the adorable girl in the wagon is my beautiful niece, Hannah. (The pic is about 9 mos old). The other adorable girl is my beautiful daughter, Emma. Hannah's mother and I are sisters. Hannah came to visit when Emma was born and when Emma started grinning like this (about 4 days ago) I just couldn't believe how much she reminded me of Hannah.

I wanted to photo-shop these pics together so you could really see the resemblance. But wow - are these two cousins or what!

Chasing boys already :o)

The other day Emma and I were waiting for Tuan to finish his dentist appointment. She was playing with toys in the waiting room when a young boy (about 1 1/2 - 2yrs) came wandering out. They played for a few minutes and then he went back to get his mom. Emma saw him leave and started to run after him! But he wasn't interested in being caught and ran faster! It was so cute especially since Emma is really pretty shy. But she loves to be around and play with other kids.

Emma is walking!

I have been denying it for a few weeks - oh she's just toddling a few steps, she doesn't let go of my hand. But I finally have to admit that Emma is cruising around on her own two feet now!

We actually had a real tree this year! (long story, maybe I'll blog it later) We decorated it with popcorn and cranberries, colored and white lights and lots of ornaments. Unfortunately it wasn't the best quality of tree and it was really (I mean REALLY) prickly! Fortunately, Emma never really got pricked and never showed much interest in playing with it or the presents underneath!

And she's off! There was a better pic of her walking with it, but I chose this one. She wasn't wearing a diaper at the time and her onesie was, shall we say, riding up. :-)

I'm gonna getcha!

A new way to burn energy

Emma has a found a new way to entertain us and we have found a new way to wear her out! When we left Arizona after Thanksgiving, Cindy had loaded us down with great Christmas presents for Emma. One was a walker. She tried it out first at Cindy and Casey's place and it was a blast watching her realize that she needed to take steps to keep up with her new toy. I stood her up behind it and she saw Tuan and started after him. What she didn't account for was that this new contraption had a mind of its own! about half way to Tuan, the walker started to vear away and she frantically watched him get farther away as the contraption took her where she didn't want to go. The look on her face was priceless! Needless to say she's getting a bit better and taking it where she wants to go. Now Tuan and I will sit on opposite sides of the room and watch her go back and forth between us - it really does keep her entertained for, well, 15 min at least!

Emma is crawling!

Ok, I realize that this is coming about 2 months after she started crawling. Tuan, Emma and I got to spend Thanksgiving in Arizona with Cindy and Sarah and their families, Dad and Grandma Great. Uncle Norm and Aunt Marlynn even showed up. Cindy and Sarah were so surprised to see Emma crawling and they chastised me for not blogging the event! :) So, here it is: Emma is crawling!! She's a regular little speed demon. If she doesn't want to get dressed she will 'run' away from us - plus she plays tag (sort of) :) She will let us 'chase' her and then she will chase us back. She gets lots of giggles out of it.

The day after the walk-around we went to the annual homecoming parade. A very nice man handed Emma her very own flag and she loved it. Seriously, she enjoyed the parade so much it was pretty much impossible to get her to look away for a pic!

At the OSU Homecoming Walk-around. Oklahoma State University has the largest homecoming celebration in the country. Every year sorority and frat houses team up to create enormous 'house decs'. The house decorations get very elaborate - it's amazing what can be done with metal frames, chicken wire and tissue paper! It was chilly, so Emma stayed curled up in the fleece carrier. It's too bad that you can't see her OSU outfit!

Emma having a ball at the playgroup Halloween party.

"Best in Show"