Emma being silly this afternoon, with PB&J all over her face haha!
Monday, July 31, 2006
Friday, July 28, 2006
Life goes on
Emma is having a busy week. We have gone swimming, done a lot of dancing (which she loves to do) and she has really taken to mothering her little baby dolls. NeNe got her a doll stroller and she puts her babies in there (buckled in) and pushes them around the house. She holds them and pats them on the back and gives them kisses. It's amazing to see her blossom before my very eyes.We were leaving the other day and she wanted to bring her baby along with her, she said, "baby go"! She's really starting to have a verbal boom and it's so fun to watch. It is so satisfying to watch her learn and grow.
She continues to love being outside. Since it's been so hot we try to go out in the mornings. She picks flowers and chases our three-legged cat. She chases him down, sits on him and gives him kisses and lovin'. He's so good, he just lays there and takes it. She also loves to run down the sidewalk. She's very good about not going past the sidewalk, as we have established that as the boundary for our yard. Our new neighbors have a boy one week younger than Emma and she loves to try to go over and play with his toys when they are not there. Ha! She always gets mad when I tell her it's not for her and we have to go back home and play with her things.
Well, time for her nap. Speaking of which, we'll be buying her her own twin size bed to put in her own room soon. We certainly think she's ready and I know that Travis and I are ready for her to sleep in her own room too. Although, I'm sure we will probably always have an "open door" policy in the event of a nightmare or whatever else. Who can refuse some snuggle time with an otherwise busy and self-involved toddler? Not me!
I'm off... maybe I'll get an hour and a half to myself!
Sunday, July 23, 2006
Uncle Brett and Emma
I took this picture when Brett came for a visit last Sunday. It turned out really great!
It has been another hot week. Nothing too much going on. Emma is growing by leaps and bounds. She is acquiring new words almost daily. As you can tell from the picture, her hair has really grown. She now has enough for a "big girl" pony tail. As I'm looking at it, her hair in the picture is very Farrah Fawcett-esque, hahaha.
Monday, July 17, 2006
120 degrees
That's how hot it was in Vegas! Oh sure sometimes it got way down to 112, but still HOT nonetheless. We had a really great time though.
We stayed at the Golden Nugget, in downtown "Old Las Vegas". It was a nice place and I think we would stay there again. Here is a picture of our hotel:
Just outside our hotel was The Fremont Street Experience. It was amazing. It is like watching a digital television the length of three football fields and on the ceiling. Really fun to watch. Here is a video of one of the "performances":
We went to a traditional Las Vegas revue on Thursday night when we got in. It was fun, lots of "T &A", but aside from that, very entertaining. Ha! It was Jubilee at Bally's.
Friday we went shopping at the Forum shops in Ceasar's Palace, we had great fun looking at expensive things we could never buy and we also enjoyed picking up some things we could afford. We had lunch at the Mesa Grill which for you foodies out there is Bobby Flay's restaurant. It was really great food too! Then we raced back to our hotel only to change and go back to the strip for our dinner reservations at Joe's Seafood Prime Steak and Stone Crab. I had literally over a pound of these delicious HUGE king crab legs. I thought I was going to turn into a crab by the time I was done eating! It was a lovely anniversary dinner. We followed it up with going to see Elton John in his show The Red Piano. It was fun! He is a great performer and you know, much shorter in person than I ever thought he was. We had good seats and enjoyed ourselves. Here is us waiting in the taxi line after the show, at The Belaggio with Paris' Eiffel tower behind us:
After the concert we went to The Burger Bar and had a chocolate dessert burger. It was the coolest thing and was so good! It was a doughnut with a "burger patty" made of chocolate and had strawberries as the tomato and had this passion fruit mixture that looked like a square of cheese. It was yummy and unlike any dessert I've ever had. Here is us (a self portrait) at The Burger Bar:
Saturday we got up early and went to the Hoover Dam. We took a tour so we got to find out lots of "inside information" about the areas we drove by. We saw Desi Arnez Jr.'s house, Tom Seleck's house, Sammy Sosa's house and "Mr. Las Vegas" Wayne Newton's porperty Casa de Shanendoah. We finally got to the dam and got to tour the inner workings of it. It was really cool. Here are a couple pictures and a video:
When we got back on Saturday we shopped more and walked until we thought we were going to die. I literally was having trouble breathing it was so hot. So, we waited in line for the bus to take us back to downtown. Boy, was it worth the wait! We climbed aboard and the netertainment began. There was a gentlemen (term used very loosly) in the front of the bus who was drunk and very loud and very outspoken. We missed the best part but Travis thought to use the camera to record him (knowing JohnCarl would think it was hilareous.) So without further adieu,
Our flight home on Sunday was quite yucky and after 5 1/2 hours on the plane we were very glad to be home, even if that meant another hour in the car. Emma was already asleep when we got there to pick her up. Travis said he hadn't seen me smile so big the whole trip. I did really really well though. I had a good time but wasn't distraught over leaving her. Don't get me wrong, I missed her but we were able to see her with the web cam while there so it wasn't so bad. So, that's it. That's our trip, in a nutshell. I hope you enjoyed all the pictures and clips. It was a lot of fun but I am glad to be back home amongst only 6,000 people instead of well over 2 million. And, our bed never felt so good as it did last night.
We stayed at the Golden Nugget, in downtown "Old Las Vegas". It was a nice place and I think we would stay there again. Here is a picture of our hotel:
Just outside our hotel was The Fremont Street Experience. It was amazing. It is like watching a digital television the length of three football fields and on the ceiling. Really fun to watch. Here is a video of one of the "performances":
We went to a traditional Las Vegas revue on Thursday night when we got in. It was fun, lots of "T &A", but aside from that, very entertaining. Ha! It was Jubilee at Bally's.
Friday we went shopping at the Forum shops in Ceasar's Palace, we had great fun looking at expensive things we could never buy and we also enjoyed picking up some things we could afford. We had lunch at the Mesa Grill which for you foodies out there is Bobby Flay's restaurant. It was really great food too! Then we raced back to our hotel only to change and go back to the strip for our dinner reservations at Joe's Seafood Prime Steak and Stone Crab. I had literally over a pound of these delicious HUGE king crab legs. I thought I was going to turn into a crab by the time I was done eating! It was a lovely anniversary dinner. We followed it up with going to see Elton John in his show The Red Piano. It was fun! He is a great performer and you know, much shorter in person than I ever thought he was. We had good seats and enjoyed ourselves. Here is us waiting in the taxi line after the show, at The Belaggio with Paris' Eiffel tower behind us:
After the concert we went to The Burger Bar and had a chocolate dessert burger. It was the coolest thing and was so good! It was a doughnut with a "burger patty" made of chocolate and had strawberries as the tomato and had this passion fruit mixture that looked like a square of cheese. It was yummy and unlike any dessert I've ever had. Here is us (a self portrait) at The Burger Bar:
Saturday we got up early and went to the Hoover Dam. We took a tour so we got to find out lots of "inside information" about the areas we drove by. We saw Desi Arnez Jr.'s house, Tom Seleck's house, Sammy Sosa's house and "Mr. Las Vegas" Wayne Newton's porperty Casa de Shanendoah. We finally got to the dam and got to tour the inner workings of it. It was really cool. Here are a couple pictures and a video:
When we got back on Saturday we shopped more and walked until we thought we were going to die. I literally was having trouble breathing it was so hot. So, we waited in line for the bus to take us back to downtown. Boy, was it worth the wait! We climbed aboard and the netertainment began. There was a gentlemen (term used very loosly) in the front of the bus who was drunk and very loud and very outspoken. We missed the best part but Travis thought to use the camera to record him (knowing JohnCarl would think it was hilareous.) So without further adieu,
Our flight home on Sunday was quite yucky and after 5 1/2 hours on the plane we were very glad to be home, even if that meant another hour in the car. Emma was already asleep when we got there to pick her up. Travis said he hadn't seen me smile so big the whole trip. I did really really well though. I had a good time but wasn't distraught over leaving her. Don't get me wrong, I missed her but we were able to see her with the web cam while there so it wasn't so bad. So, that's it. That's our trip, in a nutshell. I hope you enjoyed all the pictures and clips. It was a lot of fun but I am glad to be back home amongst only 6,000 people instead of well over 2 million. And, our bed never felt so good as it did last night.
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
I feel bad
For not posting in a week, so here are some pics from this past weekend. We went swimming at JC and Sara's house in Miami. Emma had fun!
Vegas Baby
I am hopping on to let you all know Travis and I are going to Las Vegas.... alone.... and will be back on Sunday. Emma will be staying with Ne Ne. I promise to have updates and pictures when we return!
Love you all!
Love you all!
Thursday, July 06, 2006
My Role as Daddy
First of all, I want to acknowledge what everyone already knows: Shana is Supermommy. It constantly amazes me the effort she is willing to put forth in order to groom Emma into a pleasant, well-adjusted little person (not the vertically challenged kind, the young kind). Speaking of little people, how many of you are aware that the term "midget" is offensive to little people? How many of you are aware that OK Kids uses "midget" as a classification for baseball teams consisting of 11 and 12 year olds? I wonder what other pejorative terms we could use for other sporting groups?
Try as I may, I always fall short of Shana's abilities. I have decided that it is okay for me to be a little less able, I have other roles to play. I tend to be a little more lenient, but I try to provide discipline as neccessary. In the world of good cop, bad cop I am probably the good cop. Sure it is a little unfair, but hey, I'm Daddy.
It was funny to me early on when Shana didn't want to leave Emma for even an hour, because I had to get up every morning and leave Emma for eight to ten hours each day. I missed out on a lot, but that's the way things seem to work out. Someone has to bring home the proverbial bacon. I don't get to spend nearly as much time with Emma, but I have heard it said that all time spent with your kids is quality time. When Shana started working overnight on Fridays, it gave me a chance to have time with Emma on Saturday morning. I would have to make her breakfast (I am a pretty good cook but she usually prefers a few Eggo waffles), get her dressed (I usually chose comfortable play clothes instead of prissy dresses), and occupy her time with activities (and the occasional Backyardigans show). I called it babysitting, Shana called it parenting. Sure it made it nearly impossible to do many other things I would like to do on a Saturday morning, including sleep in, but looking back it was time well spent. I took the above picture during one of our Emma and Daddy adventures last week. She thinks it is fun to clean up the garage and I am not going to turn down the help.
Tonight Shana went to a scrapbooking get together with some of her friends. I encouraged her to go, it gave me a chance to hang out with Emma for a while. We played in the backyard with the animals, I gave her a bath, and put her to bed. When I put her to bed, I had a similar experience to what Shana has posted on here before with Emma wrapping her arm around my neck as she drifted off to sleep. It's those types of things that make me appreciate being her Daddy. I know when the time comes and we have another little one around the house my role as Daddy will take on a new meaning and I will spend more time taking care of Emma. I think we will get along fine.
Try as I may, I always fall short of Shana's abilities. I have decided that it is okay for me to be a little less able, I have other roles to play. I tend to be a little more lenient, but I try to provide discipline as neccessary. In the world of good cop, bad cop I am probably the good cop. Sure it is a little unfair, but hey, I'm Daddy.
It was funny to me early on when Shana didn't want to leave Emma for even an hour, because I had to get up every morning and leave Emma for eight to ten hours each day. I missed out on a lot, but that's the way things seem to work out. Someone has to bring home the proverbial bacon. I don't get to spend nearly as much time with Emma, but I have heard it said that all time spent with your kids is quality time. When Shana started working overnight on Fridays, it gave me a chance to have time with Emma on Saturday morning. I would have to make her breakfast (I am a pretty good cook but she usually prefers a few Eggo waffles), get her dressed (I usually chose comfortable play clothes instead of prissy dresses), and occupy her time with activities (and the occasional Backyardigans show). I called it babysitting, Shana called it parenting. Sure it made it nearly impossible to do many other things I would like to do on a Saturday morning, including sleep in, but looking back it was time well spent. I took the above picture during one of our Emma and Daddy adventures last week. She thinks it is fun to clean up the garage and I am not going to turn down the help.
Tonight Shana went to a scrapbooking get together with some of her friends. I encouraged her to go, it gave me a chance to hang out with Emma for a while. We played in the backyard with the animals, I gave her a bath, and put her to bed. When I put her to bed, I had a similar experience to what Shana has posted on here before with Emma wrapping her arm around my neck as she drifted off to sleep. It's those types of things that make me appreciate being her Daddy. I know when the time comes and we have another little one around the house my role as Daddy will take on a new meaning and I will spend more time taking care of Emma. I think we will get along fine.
Tuesday, July 04, 2006
Emma Learns the Chicken Dance
This weekend when we were at Carnegie, Emma learned the chicken dance from her cousin Andra. NeNe got her a Dora book that plays music and the chicken dance song is on there (thank you NeNe!). Emma now has learned the dance and loves to do it especially when she sees she gets applause for doing it. It's hilarious. Well, you can see the video.
It's Potty Time
We are starting the long journey of potty training Emma. We have begun today and bought training pants and a travel potty chair. She has had one success and three "accidents" so far. So, Emma has now "pee-pee'd in the potty". I'm sure I'll have some pictures to post of her later, just don't have any right now. Give me a break, we just started this. Ha!
Happy 4th of July
Well, we are back from my Mom's and we had a great time. We spent Sunday down in Carnegie with all of Renee's family (hi guys, we had a great time!) and then spent Monday with my mom and Mark and Brett (a surprise, I didn't know he was coming) and Mark's mom. We all got sunburns and ate hot dogs and swam in the pool. I think we accomplished all of the things you are "supposed" to do during a 4th of July celebration. By the time we saw any fireworks, Emma had fallen fast asleep.
Here are a couple pictures highlighting our weekend. Emma, of course was sporting her stars and stripes and looked so cute!
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