What's been happening?

Steve made Emma a sandbox out of a piece of our deck, and we filled it with deluxe sand from Menards. Emma loves it! I taught her how to bury our feet and make caves when we pull them out. Aunt Susan and Steve had no idea when we were talking to them about looking in caves one day at dinner. It was like our little secret! :) Our neighbor across the street gave Emma some toys that used to belong to her grandkids, which made the sandbox so much better. Emma likes to make fish and star molds and then promptly destroy them. Like most kids, tearing down the castles, molds and caves is one of the most fun parts of playing in the sand.

Emma has also discovered the fun of hiding. She likes to hide behind doors, under cushions and beneath blankets. We were bored one day so we built a fort by laying a large blanket over the space between the ottomans and the couch. We crawled in with a flashlight and scores of Emma's plush toys. Then we read a couple of books, made shadow puppets and watched our fingers turn red when you cover the light with them. When Daddy came home I tried to get her to stay hidden, but she was so excited to show him the fort that she bounced her way right into the kitchen. Dinner had to wait until Daddy crawled in the fort to check it out. On a different day Emma was inspired to put her rocking horse in the fort. Clearly this was not possible given the dimensions of the family room fort so we brought the blanket to the rocking horse and made a much larger fort with the rocking horse as the corner stone. It was tall enough for Emma to sit up underneath it, which made her day. After dinner later that night in her haste to crawl quickly through the fort Emma rammed her head right into the other corner stone- the table leg. The tears and pain quickly "brough the fort down." (As a side note: Emma likes to run around like a mad girl after dinner and after bath time. We think it might have something to do with the euphoria of freedom from her highchair and the delirium of near-sleep, respectively.)


Emma also went to two birthday parties. At the first party, Emma bounced in a bounce house and actually sort of participated for the first time. Her and one of the birthday sisters exchanged hugs and fruit snacks. Emma laughed and rolled around the bounce house for quite awhile. When it came to present time Emma pretty much stayed focused on the swingset/play structure. But boy did she have fun! At my godson's birthday party, Emma only crawled through the sea creatures belly once (it was a giant blow up play tunnel); I think it was too confining for her. After that Steve and I took turns chasing after her, but she did swing at the pinata and eat cake. She also had her first Tootsie Roll. :)