Here is Emily picking up her pumpkin and walking very carefully with it. She didn’t really understand what she was picking and picking up, so Mommy made sure that she picked one that she could handle. She was proud when she got it.

We had a surprise today when we went to our appointment. Granddaddy came to the appointment with us to watch Emily in the waiting room. When we arrived we found our friend Ashley in the waiting room. She was having a test and had to wait for a while in the waiting room. She hung out with Granddaddy and Emily while they waited for Mommy’s appointment. We are so grateful for the people that God has put in Emily’s life that love her. Today was just another reminder of that! It will be such a joy to see God do the same for the new baby.

Mommy doesn’t always have a camera handy when Emily is playing with her Granddaddy. She misses a lot of really cute photo opportunities. Just this week I missed two cute playtimes that I wish I had photographed.

• One was while Emily was watching Dancing with the Stars with her grandparents. She went over to Granddaddy and got him to stand up. They danced together while the pretty people on TV were dancing. It was so sweet to see them dancing in a circle holding hands.
• The second was just yesterday while Emily, Granddaddy, and I were visiting on our front porch. Emily came and took Granddaddy’s hand and had him stand up. She then ran out to her swing and ask him to push her. She didn’t ask to get out of the swing until Granddaddy needed a break.

(20 months) One of the other moms at church put together a field trip for the toddlers at church to explore a pumpkin patch. It turned out that 5 little girls went. Emily had a blast playing out in the beautiful day with the other little girls. Our first stop was to feed some goats and one sheep. Emily was a little unsure of herself and only once offered her hand with food to a goat. Most of the time she was quite satisfied with handing the food to Mommy to feed to the goat or just tossing it into the pen for the goats. The next stop was at the pumpkin patch to pick our prize pumpkin. Emily really just enjoyed walking in the patch and looking around. Once she had crossed the patch she just wanted to keep going, I had to bring her back so that we could make our selection. I made sure to pick a really small one so that she would be able to carry it all by herself. The next stop was at the farmer’s corn maze. We let the ‘big’ little girls pick the path with a few suggestions from the mommies to help us have success. The girls had fun wondering around the maze. The last stop was back at their shop where they all enjoyed cool apple ciders and got coloring books. The whole event was a huge success and all of the girls had a good time!

Emily’s hair is now long enough to fit into a ponytail. With her curls it doesn’t look to be as long as it really is. She is pretty good to leave her hair up in a ponytail when put up, but that doesn’t stop loose hairs from falling. I’m afraid the photo doesn’t do her justice for how cute it looks and how it seems to fit her personality. When I took this photo she was opening and closing the door as a game.

(20 months) Emily likes to act out the things that Mommy does. In this case she is laying on the couch like Mommy does with her pillows and blanket. In this case, she is also watching TV. We play “nap” and then “wake-up”.

Emily loves her Daddy! She will roam the house while he is at work and if she wants him she just starts yelling out “DA”. I’ll tell her that he is at work and will be home later. This week when she did this I called him on the phone and let her talk to her Daddy on the phone. She sat on the couch, held up the phone up to her ear, and just jabbered to him. After a few minutes she slowed down and I told her to tell Daddy goodbye and give Mommy the phone. She told him “bye-bye” and gave me the phone.

We have been making some home improvements in expectation of our next little one. On Saturday, Emily went to play at Grammy’s house so that we could get some concentrated work done. Robby said goodbye to Emily on the back porch when we left. When I brought her back she looked up at the porch to see her Daddy. When she didn’t see him she called out to him by calling out “DA”. She put her two hands on either side of mouth to amplify herself and called a few times. He didn’t hear her, but we walked around to the open window where he was working and she saw him inside. She got so excited and called out again. He came to the front porch and met her as we came in.

It is such a joy to watch her excitement and expression of love for her Daddy. I pray that she will always have such unabashed love for her father and will be willing to show it. I also pray that my heart will call out to my Heavenly Father with the same excitement and love as Emily is demonstrating.

We knew it would happen we just didn’t know when. Today Emily told Mommy that she was hungry and ready for dinner by taking Mommy’s finger and leading her to the kitchen. While I was fixing dinner we were busy and not watching Emily as well as we usually do. Then it happened . . . I turned to look for her and I saw her climbing up her high chair. She was standing on the foot-rest holding onto the small fixed tray and about to climb into the chair. She had climbed up a piece of furniture. Normally the only indication of climbing comes with her trying to take a shortcut to a toy by getting off of furniture incorrectly, but that isn’t what she did today. She was just ready for dinner and she was trying to help us get it to her faster. Mommy is going to have to keep both eyes on her as much as she can.