Welcome to Emily and Andrew's Website!

11/1/09 - Happy Halloween! We never knew Halloween could be so fun. Emily dressed as a bee and Andrew was a giraffe. Emily had a little parade at school and then the children sang songs for the parents. Andrew loved riding in the wagon for trick or treating, and he kept unwrapping a tootsie pop and sucking on it. Emily went out with Daddy for more trick or treating later and she has been trying to persuade us to let her have candy ever since.

This past Friday, we took Emily to the Disney on Ice show. She loved it, but I think we had just as much fun! First we took her out to dinner and she amazed us again by her willingness to try new foods. I had french onion soup and she tried a few little spoonfuls. When I had enough, I passed her the bowl and she loved it. I couldn't believe how she ate the big pieces of onion! Of course her favorite part of the ice show was seeing all the princesses. We had great seats in the third row, so she was mesmerized when the characters came close. Emily is loving school. I think the highlight so far this year was the day she got to be snack helper and put out cups for all her classmates.

Andrew is running around now and getting into everything. His favorite thing to do is throw things in the garbage. He will empty out my pantry and throw everything in the kitchen garbage. I am usually right there to pull the things out, but apparently I missed it one day because I have noticed some things that are missing. Needless to say, we now have a lock on the garbage cabinet!

4/3/09 - We are so glad that it is finally spring! Now we just need some warmer weather. When we do have a nice day, we love to go outside and take walks or play on the playground. Emily and Andrew both love to go on the swings.

Emily is three and a half and she is growing up so fast. She is going to start soccer next week which Mommy is very excited about since it was my favorite sport. I hope she likes it! When we kick the ball around at home, Emily always uses her left foot. It will be interesting to see if she sticks with that. Preschool is winding down for the year and we are so proud of all Emily has learned. She can write her name and most letters and she can tell you what any word starts with by sounding out the first letter.

Andrew is nine months old and he is learning new things every day. He crawls all over the place now and stands up at furniture. He is starting to cruise around the furniture a little too. Daddy just took Andrew for his first real haircut at the barber shop. Andrew sat on his lap as the barber used a comb and electric cutter. We couldn't believe how Andrew didn't mind at all. He just kept turning his head to look at the barber. Now Andrew looks like such a big boy. Andrew also cut his first tooth this week. Luckily it doesn't seem to be bothering him too much.

We are looking forward to all the fun activities we will do this spring and summer. Emily will get to go "practice" golf with Daddy and ride in the golf cart and we will all go swimming this summer. We are also really looking forward to Nana and Pop-Pop's anniversary next week. It is their 60th wedding anniversary!!! What an amazing accomplishment and we are so happy for them.

12/24/08 - It's Christmas Eve and this sure is a fun time to have a three year old! Emily is very excited for Christmas and asks a lot of questions about Santa. She wondered how he will get down from the sky so he can get in our house. We explained that he will land on the roof. Our first attempt to sit on Santa's lap did not go well. We were at the mall and Emily asked us if she could sit on Santa's lap to tell him what she wanted for Christmas. When we got close to Santa, she did not want to get near him. Andrew sat on Santa's lap, but Emily wouldn't even go near Santa with Mommy. A few days later we had the Turf Valley Christmas Party that Santa comes to. We were shocked that Emily went right up and sat on Santa's lap and told him she wanted games, toys and a little trampoline for Christmas. We have since had to tell Emily that a trampoline might not fit in Santa's sleigh. At least we got some great pictures of the two kids with Santa!

Andrew just turned six months old. He is such a good baby and he is growing so fast. He is now 18 lb 8 oz (70th %ile) and 27 1/2 in (75%ile). He is now eating cereal, veggies and fruits and loving it. Although he gave us some funny faces when he had peas for the first time. He is getting better at sitting up and loves to play with all the baby toys and some of Emily's things. So far Emily is really good at sharing her toys. Mommy is thrilled that Andrew is now sleeping from 8pm-7am without a feeding! Sometimes we have to go in to give him his paci, but a few nights he has slept straight through. I say it is my Christmas miracle!

Emily loves preschool. We like to see all the crafts she makes and she can write her name really well now. Emily was very excited that Daddy volunteered in her class last week. Daddy also went with Emily on her school field trip to the fire station. Now Emily is very concerned about the smoke detectors in the house. We think she is worried they are going to beep. Emily also enjoys her gymnastics. Although it takes some coaxing to get her to go into the class, she loves it once she is there.

We really enjoyed getting everyone's Christmas cards and we wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

8/26/08 - Obviously a lot has happened since I wrote four months ago. Our precious baby boy Andrew James was born on June 19. It's hard to believe he is already almost 10 weeks old. He had his two month doctor checkup yesterday and he weighs a whopping 13 lbs, 8 oz. He is in the 90-95 %ile for weight. He is 23 3/4 inches long which is the 75%ile for height. He is getting big so fast! We are lucky that Andrew seems to be a good sleeper. He loves to take naps during the day and now he usually sleeps from about 9pm-3am and then after he eats he will sleep again until about 7am. Emily still loves to hold him and she tries to kiss him constantly.

Emily just had her third birthday. We can't believe she is already three years old. She will start preschool in two weeks on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Mommy can't wait and we know Emily will love it too. She will also start gymnastics again next week. Now that she is three, she will be in the class with just the other children and the teacher. The moms wait in the waiting room.

We had a wonderful beach vacation in August with Daddy's whole family. Grandma and Pop-Pop rented a huge house in Fenwick Beach for everybody. Emily loved playing on the beach with her cousins all week. Daddy took Emily miniature golfing and she got a hole in one! Unforturnately, we could not convince Emily to go in the ocean. The crashing waves scared her too much. One time the water did come up and touch her feet when a big wave came, but that was the only time she touched the water. Ironically, when I asked Emily what was her favorite part of the beach trip, she said "going in the water". She is such a liar! We are hoping to get her to go in the water more when we go to the beach with Mommy's family in September.

This has been one exciting and overwhelming summer. We think about how next summer Andrew will be running around. Then we will really be busy!

4/26/08 - It's Spring! Emily is loving all the fun stuff we can play outside now that it is warm outside. Mommy says the swingset was worth every penny because we play on it every day. Emily also loves the sandbox. She will sit forever digging and making pretend cakes. The only problem is that sometimes Mommy forgets she has sand in her shoes when we come in the house and then we end up with a pile of sand wherever Emily takes her shoes off. Oh well, there's always a vacuum. Emily has also learned to peddle a bike really well and she can race around on her scooter too.

Emily loved painting Easter eggs this year, but she liked eating egg salad even more! She would help crack open the eggs and then slice them in the egg slicer. It didn't take us long to eat all of our Easter eggs.

Emily has been going to a gymnastics class for the last few months. A parent must participate with the child and Daddy usually takes Emily which has been great for Mommy! At first, Emily was a little timid with some of the activities such as flipping over the bar, but now she loves it all.

Emily is still anxiously awaiting the arrival of her new brother or sister. It is a long wait for a two year old! Emily went with Mommy to a doctor's appointment recently and got to hear the baby's heartbeat. Emily's face was so serious as she was mesmerized by the sound. We have about seven weeks until the due date now. Mommy just can't wait to see how excited Emily is when there is actually a baby in our house!

12/13/07 - Emily has some exciting news that she is going to be a big sister! She says that "Mommy has a baby in her tummy and it's going to come out in the summer". (The baby is due June 16) Emily likes to lay on Mommy's belly and say "Goo Goo Gaa Gaa". She's really going to think it's amazing when my belly is big and she can feel the baby move!

The second piece of exciting news is that Emily gave up her pacifiers at the end of November. We said that we were giving them to our baby cousin Katherine. The first few days were a little difficult and Emily woke up really early in the morning, but now she doesn't even ask for them. We are so glad that is accomplished. Next is moving to the big girl bed!

Emily continues to amaze us with all of the foods she likes to eat. This week she had chili with sour cream, new england clam chowder(she called it "chowda"), and crab cake. She kept asking for more crab cake. I guess she is a true Marylander. Everyone says this next baby won't eat a thing!

Emily loves her little school she goes to once a week. Her favorite activity at school is to play playdoh. Of course she loves snack time too. She always has an adorable craft to bring home to show Mommy and Daddy. Another new activity we have been doing is going to the library to pick out books. Right now Emily is into Dora books and we read the same two books all week, which gets a little tedious for the readers!

We had breakfast with Santa at the B&O Railroad with Grandma, Pop-Pop and all the cousins. We couldn't believe that Emily sat down right next to Santa and then later sat on his lap. She loved the little candy cane he gave her. She said it tasted like toothpaste! We are looking forward to a wonderful Christmas!

9/20/07 - We have had a lot of excitement the past few weeks. First, we took Emily to the Sesame Street Live show. She absolutely loved it and sat on our laps the whole time. She kept saying all the character's names. When Elmo was behind stage, Emily would say "Where did Elmo go?"

Emily had her first day of "school" this week. When I dropped her off, she sat right at the table and started playing with play-doh. She didn't cry when I left and was happy when I picked her up.

The biggest excitement was today when we got our new swingset. We loved watching them build it all morning, and it was so cute to see Emily run out to it all excited when it was done. So far, Emily's favorite parts seem to be swinging and playing in the sandbox.

9/4/07 - Now that summer is officially over, we are ready for a beautiful fall. Emily had a blast at her second birthday party. She opened her gifts by herself and kept saying "what is it" as she opened them. We were shocked that when we put the cake in front of her she sat nicely and didn't even try to touch it. She was very excited to blow out the candles.

Emily got to go to her first Orioles game this summer. She sure got lucky for her first game because we had seats in the third row! Emily sat between us and was so good. First, she shared some peanuts with Daddy. Mommy would crack it open part way and then Emily loved to open it and pick the peanuts out and eat them. It kept her busy for quite awhile! Later Daddy got a hot dog and Emily tried that. Then Mommy got a soft pretzel and Emily really loved that. She even dipped it in yellow mustard! After all these great snacks, Emily can't wait to go back to a baseball game!

Emily has been wearing her big girl panties for about a week now. We hope that continues to go well. Emily's new favorite character is Dora. Mommy has a Dora doll waiting as a reward for being potty trained.

In two weeks, Emily will be starting a one morning a week "school". Mommy hopes it goes well, because she can't wait to have some free time!

7/25/07 - We are having a great summer so far! The most exciting part was the birth of my new cousin Katherine Emma. I got to see her when she was just two days old! This past weekend I got to hold her for the first time. I kept trying to lift her and I said "pick up". She is so cute and I love her so much.

I have been enjoying the pool, but I prefer to play on the steps of a big pool rather than play in a baby pool. One of my favorite things to do is go to playgrounds. Lucky for me, there are many to choose from and Mommy takes me to play at them a lot. Mommy and I went blueberry picking last week. At first I did a great job at picking the berries and putting them in my container. Mommy was so proud. Then I started to mix some dirt in with them and Mommy wasn't so happy. We had to dump them out and start over. Finally I realized I could just stand there and pick them off the bush and eat them. That was much more fun! I would hide behind the bush so Mommy wouldn't see me eating them.

I just got back from spending a few days alone at Gram and Grandpa's. Mommy surprised Daddy with a trip to Atlantic City for his 30th birthday, so I got to stay with Gram and Grandpa. I had a great time. In fact, on the car ride home, I said I wanted to go back to their house.

Mommy and Daddy are very happy with how well I'm doing with potty training. I still wear a pull-up, but I'm going on the potty almost all the time.

5/16/07 - We're back from Hilton Head! We all had the best time, and it was extra special because we celebrated Mommy's 30th birthday while we were there. The weather was perfect for the beach and pool because it was almost 90 degrees! We went on bike rides, played tennis, played on lots of playgrounds, and spent a lot of time at the pool. My favorite thing to do was play on the steps of the big pool with Grandpa. Daddy got to golf a few times and Mommy and Daddy got to go out to a nice dinner together. On Mommy's birthday, Daddy and I went out to get a cake to surprise Mommy, but I ruined the surprise because as soon as I walked in the door I said "cake, cake!" Mommy thought I was so cute!

In the last few weeks, I have started to talk more than ever. I string two and three words together now and it surprises Mom and Dad every time. The other day when I was playing outside I said "watch me hit ball". Mommy and Daddy looked at each other so amazed. This talking thing is pretty great because now I just tell Mommy what I want.

3/19/07 - I got to go to the circus! Grandma and Pop-Pop took all of their children and grandchildren to the circus. Best of all, Pop-Pop got us seats in the front row! It was perfect for me because I had room to dance around to all the loud music. I was mesmerized by the horses and elephants. I even thought the clowns were funny. Grandma and Pop-Pop surprised us by having us get to ride in carts in the actual circus. It was all so exciting! At one point I sat on Daddy's lap and clapped and said "Yea!"

Mommy and Daddy are very impressed by the fact that I now know all of my colors. They are not so impressed by the fact that I am very close to climbing out of my crib. A few days ago I learned to stand up on the ledge on one end of the crib. Mommy caught me doing it when I was getting up from a nap, and now I like to do it all the time. Now Mommy and Daddy are talking about what kind of bed to get me. It probably won't be too long because I'll learn how to get out of my crib soon!

10/31/06 - Happy Halloween! Mommy decided that I would be a chicken for Halloween. I got to wear my costume many times, and I actually like wearing it. I can't wait to go trick or treating tonight!

A couple weeks ago Mommy and I went to Hilton Head with Gram and Grandpa. We had so much fun! I had my first plane ride, and it was the first time I got to ride on a bike. We went to the pool and the beach and many different playgrounds.