We can thank Emerson and her 4:30am wide awake chat session for this early morning post. While she has since settled back into a nice slumber, I am, of course, now wide awake with coffee and Morning Joe. Tired but enjoying the quiet. Anyway, I have random photos sitting in my iPhoto library that haven't been blogged (some are out there on Instagram) and some videos I'm trying to upload as well. Get excited.....27 (yes, twenty-seven + a video!!!) photos for your Wednesday morning enjoyment. How's that for a little 5:45am productivity?
Grant as a wee babe.... I see Emerson, anyone else?
He still poses like this after a bath...
Best buds...
Baby cheeks......and no, I'm not nursing mom:) She may or may not have thought I was emailing around a cute pic of Emerson while I was feeding her. That would be my arm.
Christopher was here a few weeks ago and he and Reesers did what they do best. Fight and be naked.
Ryan got some fun sprinkler/water toys for her birthday....Reese particularly liked the hop-scotch mat. I particularly liked watching her try to keep her balance, the darn thing was slippery as heck but Reese got a kick out of it. And thankfully no broken bones.
We have some nice neighbor friends down the street who have two older girls so lucky us, we are often on the receiving end of some really nice hand-me-down toys. This time around, a cute puppet stage. Reese gave us a show while Ryan and "Sparkles" watched and/or heckled.
Brown eyed girl.
Swimming is going well....love, love, love Mr. Chuck and Infant Swim. Reese on top, Ryan on bottom here.
Emerson even got a turn this week.....she'll get her turn for real next spring.
Ryan giving Sparkles a roller-skating lesson while Emerson and pile-o-Barbies patiently wait.
Dog on baby. Funny?
iPad viewing
New talent....
Goggles are key to success...
Smiles
Dad's car wash dates. Please keep in mind, these gals dress themselves. So Ryan's choice of neon orange ribbon-serving-as-belt is all her. Same with Reese's ruffle overload.
A little video to accompany the car wash....
Emerson and I went out to my folks awhile back for a slumber party, so Grant had a cross-off-the-St.Louis-bucket-list evening with Ryan and Reese and drove them over to Belleville, IL for a drive-in movie.
Killing time before the movie started...
Sisters helping sisters steal boatloads of paint chips....
Buds
Ms. Ryan
This girl, I tell ya.....she randomly came in with her swimsuit and goggles, got on the floor and proudly pronounced that she was practicing her swimming for Mr. Chuck.
After bath mirror admiration...
That's it! The girls did just start dance camp this week which is beyond precious so I'll have to get back to you all with some photos and videos.
Who doesn't agree that a Thursday 4th of July is the ideal day? Your loooonnnng holiday weekend can start Wednesday afternoon, you get Thursday (and in most cases) Friday off and next thing you know....bam it's turned into a mini vacation at 5 days with dad off work. Granted, dad is ready to get back to work come Monday morning after having spent the better part of the last week with all his crazies at home. Anyway, we had a fun little holiday - started off Wednesday afternoon with a pool party at a friends house, followed by fireworks up at Algonquin Country Club. Thursday morning we packed up and headed down to the Lake of the Ozarks for a few days (taking the back roads this time - highly recommend!), came back Saturday still with plenty of time to tackle projects around the house.
This was Emerson's first time to the condo and the girl was into it.....sunsets, wall to wall carpet to roll around on, hanging with dad, the lady was lovin' lake life.
Mom of the year got to the condo only to realize the bag with all of Ryan and Reese's clothes was sitting back in Kirkwood next to my bed. So the girls with about 15 bathing suits between the two of them, added two more to the arsenal. Have you ever tried picking through the Wal-mart little girls bathing suit section? Tough pickin's, to say the least. Whoever designed some of those options should be committed. Needless to say, holiday wear for 2013 provided by Wal-mart.
Plenty of ice cream trips were had....
Eating fake doughnuts...
The girls were told they would be going to see Despicable Me 2 with dad after breakfast.....Reese = very happy. Ryan = numerous followup questions mainly centered around exactly which Despicable Me it would be (not 1 dad, I've already seen it) and if this would cut into her coveted swim time. Which, PS, in order to not screw up all the work we have done with Mr. Chuck (our Infant Swim instructor) we were water-wing-less for the first time the entire long weekend. And the girls did great! Sadly the pool water was just a hair above freezing so swimming was limited this visit.
Driving home the fact that she does NOT want to see Despicable Me 1 again.
How is this even possible? Six months???? Emerson has been quite the little godsend lately - keeping spirits up when they are down, smiling, cooing and her newest trick, clapping. She will take any food I throw her way, she's struggling with teething so we've had quite a few late night wake-up-calls lately (although last night was cry-free), and no one (and I mean no one) can get her belly laughing as hard as her sisters can (mainly Ryan). We haven't really settled into any solid nap routine since we always seem to be on the go somewhere but when allowed she can pull out a super long afternoon nap for me. While she's not sitting up on her own unassisted or crawling yet, she is starting the always-adorable baby rock when playing on the floor. And she is one helluva hair-puller. I've basically had to keep my hair in a ponytail the last two months. Thankfully the girls haven't lost it when she's gotten a grasp of their locks, instead Ryan laughs and Reese usually gives a very stern "Emerson, you stop that!!!".
While I'm not in much of a blogging mood this evening, we don't want Ryan to look back in 30 years and wonder why the heck her mom didn't post about her 5th birthday party. Forgive me please, for the lack of narration, and instead enjoy the pics.....
