"Stop it crying!"

Emily's funny phrases are always evolving. A couple weeks ago she started to sometimes announce when she was going to cry, or instead of actually crying would say "Cried". Last week she picked up on a phrase I use often with Cheney and said "Stop it!" all the time--usually when I was changing her diaper or when she didn't necessarily agree with whatever I was doing. This was a little embarrassing when I was chasing her down in the middle of Target last week and she was yelling, "Stop it!" at the top of her lungs as I hauled her back to the cart. :op Well, this week she decided to combine the two and now says "Stop it crying". Basically she's ordering herself around now, although sometimes she directs the command towards her bear and his imaginary tears. I almost laugh every time. :o)

Small Group BBQ

On Saturday night we had a family BBQ with our small group. It was great food and Emily had a blast playing with all the other kids (& dog) in a new backyard filled with all sorts of fun toys!

Pumpkin Pollination

As you know, I am a novice at growing pumpkins. I have 2 experimental pumpkin hills in the rocks of our wild back landscaping hill. I recently pulled out a bunch of ground-cover weeds and discovered a single pumpkin starting to grow. I was excited about this, but also quite baffled how we could have flowers blooming like crazy for the last 4 weeks and only have one actual pumpkin. So I turned to one of my favorite inventions: Google. After only 15 minutes browsing some pumpkin web sites I learned some very interesting things. Did you know that pumpkin vines have both "male" and "female" flowers? The pollen from the male has to be transferred to the female in order for a pumpkin to form. The males usually start blooming first and far outnumber the females. That explains all the beautiful flowers that have just dried up after blooming. Another factor is the rapidly decreasing honey bee population. I got some tips on hand pollination to increase the chances of pumpkins forming. Now I'm on the look-out for blooming female buds to help the process along. Who knew? I'll still be happy with at least one decent-sized pumpkin to set out front and maybe carve, but I'd love to share some with the neighbor kids, too. :o)

Car built for two?

I'm not sure Emily is convinced her Cozy Coupe can fit two squirmy toddlers, but she & Wendell Hunt had fun being squished together for a surprisingly long period of time. (We're talking 5-10 minutes here!)

Diaper Duty

So Emily has recently developed an irritating new habit. For the last 4 nights she has decided it would be fun to make a huge dirty diaper approximately 30 minutes after taking her bath and going to bed. This has happened irregardless of the actual timing of her bedtime. At this point I don't think it's an intentional stall tactic, but I'm starting to wonder... ;o)

Along the same line--after completely ignoring the straps on the changing table for over 21 months, Emily now insists on "buckling" herself in almost every time I change her diaper. Of course, she buckles everything in sight these days. Sometimes I think it actually helps hold her down, or at least occupies her for a little bit, so I'm not complaining!

Mommy's Kitchen Helper

Emily not only wants to "watch" Mommy in the kitchen, she now wants to "help" Mommy in the kitchen. :o)

Happy Birthday Austin!

Today was Austin's 29th birthday. Emily helped me make an angel food cake. She poured the water into the bowl and "helped" it spin. We also joined Austin as he door-knocked our neighborhood in Denver. Emily lasted a couple blocks. Once she climbed up to each doorstep she didn't want to leave, and then she just wanted me to carry her. No way. Austin is much more efficient without us!

Lorenzens in Des Moines

Emily & I just got back from a fun visit with Austin's family in Des Moines. We took off right after the Tripoli parade. Austin's cousin, Shannon, got married in Des Moines on Saturday afternoon. We didn't make it in time for the wedding, but we went to the reception. That was quite an event. I think I sweat more chasing Emily around the West Des Moines Sheraton than I did during the parade that morning! All she wanted to do was look at the 7-story waterfall between the twin glass elevators. (She enjoyed riding the elevators, too.) Both she & Asher had fun when the dance started, but the DJ's computer crashed after a couple songs and the music stopped, so we called it a night by 8:15pm.

On Sunday Emily didn't even make it through the first worship set, but had fun in the nursery at Valley Church. Then we all took Dave & Cheryl out for brunch to celebrate their 30th anniversary. I quickly remembered why we rarely go out to eat in restaurants! Emily didn't want to sit, eat or even color.

It was scorching hot on Sunday & Monday, but Emily & Asher had a blast playing in the little blow-up pool on Grandpa & Grandma's deck. They had quite a few opportunities to learn how to share. ;o)

On Tuesday morning Grandma Lorenzen, Brandi & Asher and Emily & I went to the Clive Public Library. They have a really fun children's play area. Then we got a McDonald's lunch and had a picnic in Union Park. There was a nice carousel to ride for $.50. The fearless Emily all of the sudden decided that she was too scared to actually sit on any of the animals--even the giraffe that didn't go up and down. So we went twice with me holding her standing next to the animals. :op The park also had a wading pool. We didn't know this, so the kids didn't have swimsuits on, but they walked around and had fun anyway. The last highlight of the day was when Grandpa Lorenzen got out Brandi's old snare drum and bell set. Copper (the dog) sure didn't appreciate that one!

On Wednesday it was finally cool enough to go to the Blank Park Zoo. This was Emily's first zoo experience. It's pretty small, and many of the animals were just laying around, but it was perfect for her age/attention span level. We got to watch the trainers feed the sea lion. When we stopped to have a picnic lunch we were entertained by the gibbons swinging and "singing". Emily's favorite part was probably feeding the goats, watching the koi and riding the little train.

It was a lot of fun to spend some extra time with Grandpa & Grandma Lorenzen, aunts & uncles and Cousin Asher! However, despite her constant pestering, Cheney missed Emily. Austin said Cheney kept vigil next to Emily's crib the whole time we were gone. Then when we did return I had to haul a baby gate out of the basement to prevent Cheney from barging into Emily's room and setting up camp while she was supposed to be going to sleep. Crazy dog!

Tripoli parade

Saturday was a beautiful day for a parade in Tripoli. The theme was Mardi Gras, so Emily fit right in with her shiny red bead necklace. We walked with the Bremer County GOP elephant float. Unfortunately, the parade route was pretty long and it started to get hot. I just missed getting a picture of Emily with 2 suckers in her mouth at once. I think she knows I'm to the point of bribing her to be good during every parade with candy. We made it, but her brand new white skirt was covered with sticky purple drool spots from the large Blow-Pop sucker she was working on, not to mention her face, hands, hair, etc. :op One more parade to go!

Corn-on-the-cob

Emily got her first taste of corn-on-the-cob. She hasn't quite figured out how to take bites of things, so she mostly just licked the butter/salt until I cut off the kernals. I tried to give her a second piece (b/c she wolfed down the corn off the first one), but she saw me break it in half to make it more manageable and threw a fit because I couldn't put it back "'gether". We had corn on the floor, the walls and everywhere. That was the end of that.