Snuggle time

Every member of our small family has been sick on and off for weeks now. Emily is suffering another ear infection, Robert and I had a little virus that set us back a couple of days this week. Even Bo the Dog has been moping around the house lately. Em's infection or new medication has made her more tired, she has been participating in a lot more cuddle time than usual. I snapped this picture earlier this week. I think they are both having a little rest!

Cookie Time

Emily is getting more interested in daily tasks, and less interested in her infant 0-12 mo. toys. I would say on a daily basis we now play the most with her blocks and read books. Perhaps that is because they bore me less than her other toys, I try not to influence her decision to much! On Saturday during our second snow/ice storm of the season, Dada had to zip off to meet a client so we decided to make some cookies to bid time. I wanted Chocolate Chip, but we didn't have any brown sugar, so we switched to cutout cookies. It was pretty fun baking with Emily. Perhaps we need to get her an apron. She had the most fun with the dry ingredients. She was pretty mad at me when I finally had to mix them into the cookies, I ended up giving her another scoop of flour to play with. My biggest concern was keeping Emily on the counter, but soon she will be able to help on a stool.

City Tree lighting

We kept Emily up past her bedtime (6:45) to see Santa parade down main street to help light the Ames Christmas Tree. After the tree was lite, we went into Everett's Flower shop to see their festive decor. Everything was so pretty (I am trying to teach Emily to say pretty). Of course much of tree trimming and Christmas decor is ball shaped, so Emily said "ball" about a billion times when we were in the store. All in all a very quaint evening.

Leaves, leaves, leaves

Can you guess what I have been up too. I have raked leaves during every nap (the days we were home) that Emily has taken in the last week and a half. You can also see, as noted in the pictures that most of our leaves have yet to drop. I raked and Robert loaded them up to take them to the free leaf drop off day (every Sat. in Nov). I also wanted to mention to all of you eco-minded persons, that these are biodegradable bags. The city of Ames requires that you use these, unless you are not bagging at all. They do actually biodegrade, I opened the box of bags I had left over from last year and a fine powder was all that was inside. They are kind of spendy, they come to about $0.64/bag. But Emily did not enjoy any bit of the process. She likes to play right beside you, so me being across the yard bagging made for one sad little girl!

To the Dr.

Today Emily stayed home sick. She played with me in the morning and we went in to see if she had an ear infection like we suspected. Sure enough she had what the Dr. pronounced as a "raging" ear infection, they also deduced that Emily must have a high pain tolerance. Daddy came home to spend the afternoon with Emily, as he can use sick time for kiddo care as well!

Emily is adding many words to her vocabulary.
She currently says
- open
- more (she also signs)
- book
- bubble (perfectly)
- hot
- Bo
- dog (and she barks at anything resembling a dog)
- meow
- dada
- momma
- bye
- ball
- nah (which means milk, also signs)
- umpin (pumpkin)
- bebea (baby)
- no
- uh-oh
- uh, uh, uh... while pointing is everything else

-she signs light on/off, all done, more, fan, milk

true Happiness

This is Bo the Dog's kind of weather. Crisp, cool 50 degree days. Doesn't he look good!

Father and Son

KSU vs. ISU
Purple vs. Cardnial
Willie vs. Cy

Iowa State 31, Kansas State 20