Gone to the dogs. . .

I'm starting to believe that living with three dogs and being around dogs all day long have had an effect on Em.

Lately I've been joking that Emma is feral. She still doesn't walk and is content to scoot around on the floor. She doesn't sing to the music, she howls. After tonight, there's no question. Emma thinks she's a dog.

Tonight she started howling during dinner.

and then she decided to lick her bowl.

Yep, she's definitley feral.

Grrrrr!

she may be feral, but she sure is cute!

Growing up is hard to do!

Em has become quite a character.

Some of her favorite things to do are giggling, making mischief, and hanging out with Truman.

Every night as we pull up to the house Em starts yelling, "Noo Noo! Noo Noo! Noo Noo!" This melody continues until we enter the house and let Truman out of his crate. As soon as I open the crate he jumps up and greats Em with a lick smack dab in the middle of her face. This is usually followed by hysterical laughter from Em. Ahh. . .a girl and her dog.

Two buds hanging out on the couch
Truman trying to will Em's oatmeal into his mouth. Look at the intensity in his face. This photo cracks me up everytime. Em also appears to be quite amuzed by his gaze.

Em's language development has exploded. She's a magpie and tries to repeat anything you say. Her comprehension is even better. This morning Brian was cooking bacon and she informed us that she wanted some by pointing to the pan and demanding, "Bake!" . I told her that we had to cook it first and she responded,

"Why?"

I almost hit the floor. I then informed her that bacon was slimy if you don't cook it.

Again prevoking the response, "Why?" At this point all I could do was laugh.

Apparently we've enter the "why" phase of toddlerhood.

The trick of the week is Em can now tell you how old she is!




Em's still not walking but she has been practicing standing on her own more and more each day.

We're not actively potty training but Em has now peed in the potty twice. The first time I thought it was a fluke, but she proved that she was capable of doing it a second time. She now announces before she soils her diaper, so I'm thinking potty training is in our near future.

Here she is posing on her potty.

My mom would be so proud!

As Em gets bigger, her hair gets longer.

This past week I've taken it upon myself to try out some new styles.

"Little Cindy Loo-Hoo"

The infamous pigtails!

The other thing that has developed in the past couple weeks is Em's need for accessories.

Leaving the store with her very first purse.

Here she is turning Diane's watch into a necklace.Necklace .. dog collar. . . either way, she shows promise!

Since my collection of accessory items is limited, Em decided to improvise.

Today it was my underwear as a necklace. Who knows what it will be tomorrow.

Gone to the dogs!

Mazie likes to howl. She howls when she's happy.



She howls when she's sad.



Most of all she howls while dinner is being prepared.



Tonight Em decided she'd join the chorus.

Rogue Pooper

Picture this:

The store is super busy. Customers are coming and going. Everyone needs help. In the commotion the store baby disappears.

All of a sudden, while you're in mid-transaction you hear an off key grunting noise coming from the front of the store. You continue checking the customer out trying not to draw attention to the new background noises.

The grunting gets louder.

The customer then starts looking around as if to say, "what is that?"

Out of the corner of your eye, you see said store baby crouched behind a shelf trying to be "inconspicuous."

Just as the transaction completes, the king of all grunts is emitted and you just can't keep it back. . .both you and the customer start laughing. You both knew what was going on but neither wanted to admit it.

Today her "secret location" was wedged between the clearance treats and the front window treat shelf. After we stopped laughing I decided I would take pictures. . .

Instead of "Where's Waldo" we play "Where's the pooper?"

Gotta love the look. ."hey mom, I'm stuck. . . can you help a girl out?"
and the gratuitous, "I see a camera, smile"

Lady in red

Emma looked so cute today all decked out in red that I thought I'd take the opportunity for a little photo shoot.

Right on queue she smiles pretty for the camera!

She wanted to sit in my desk chair. . .and she was so tickled with herself after I helped her up.

Leaning in for the gratuitous forehead shot!Then out of no where she decided she'd try her art as a flasher.
Demonstrating the art of taking control of her outie belly button. ..
get in there you!

Baby Dragon Slayer!

Emma loves bubbles. "Bu-ba" was one of her first words and is frequently heard throughout the day. If you pull out that magic bubble wand she just can't get enough.

Emma loves baths. Every night after dinner she demands her nightly bath. She often declares, "A-Da, Bath!" while signing all done and pointing to the bathroom before she's even eaten any dinner.

Because Em is such a bub-a-bath-a-holic I decided that I would introduce her to one of the finer things in life. . .bubble baths. I thought there would be nothing better than having her two favorite things together.

I went to the store and searched for the perfect baby bubble bath. . we were going to do this in style. What a lucky girl!

That night, I drew up a nice, foamy, warm bath. I got her undressed and plopped her into the tub. Sounds heavenly right?

The second she hit the bubble water she let out an ear piercing scream. She started clawing the sides of the tub trying to escape the baby eating bubbles. It was as if I had put her in a cauldron of hot oil! I pulled her out and she refused reentry into her bubble paradise. Bath was done. She wouldn't go back in.

The following night as Brian was finishing feeding her dinner and I drew up a bath. This time sans bubbles. I asked her if she wanted to take a bath. Brian removed her from her chair, put her on the floor, and she scooted into the bathroom. Just like normal. The second she motored up to the tub it was as if a light went off in her little noggin, she turned around and hauled butt out of the bathroom. . .all the while screaming, "No Buba, no buba!" She got to Brian and started climbing up his leg pleading, "No Buba, no buba!" I tried to reason with her, "Emma there are no bubbles in your bath. There will be no baby sacrifices tonight." all the while laughing so hard it hurt.

She did take a bath that night. .. . . .and there have been no bubble baths since.

A dragon-slayer Emma is not.