Summertime!!

It's been 2 weeks since I finished school and we seem to be busier than ever! Our 1st summer activity was signing up for the summer reading program at the library. I figured since Em loves reading it was the logical thing to do!
We then spent a week at church camp with the big kids and had a great time! Em loves hanging with the high schoolers, and they seem to love hanging with her. She went swimming multiple times, rock climbing, and puddle jumping among other things. She also learned some new dance moves! I'm pretty sure we have video, I'll have to see if Chuck can get it posted.
We're also continuing our speech lessons, at least for a little while longer. I think they may end up ending the services sooner than planned because she is doing so well with her talking! Some of her favorite phrases are "I do it" and "I get you". She is also counting in both English and Spanish! (thanks Dora!)
A funny talking story that happened today. We were at DQ after camp and she was running around jumping with everyone, and kept saying a word that sounded like santa. We were all confused and couldn't figure out what she was trying to say. When we got home we were watching Dora and discovered the spanish word for jump is "salta". Our 2 year old is smarter than us!
We also love playing outside, Emily has a slide, swimming pool, and water table that are her favorite activities. She is also still a big fan of the swing. We've taken a few walks to the park in town to play as well.
Hopefully I will get a picture post up soon...we have lots of pictures, they are all just sitting on the camera waiting to be uploaded. I am sure we will have lots more summer fun to share!

Busy, busy...

Lots has happened since our last post--most importantly, my laptop crashed and therefore my picture organization has fallen apart. We have pictures on both of Chuck's laptops, on the camera and who knows where else, so it makes it hard for me to get them posted. So for now we'll just do a quick recap, with pictures to come later.
March--We celebrated Easter with Gpa and Gma Leader and Uncle E. The day before we went to an Easter Egg hunt at the nursing home and then to the park to play. It was a great day for both and had lots of fun.
April-In early April Emily ran her 1st "race" at the St. Louis Marathon. She completed the 50 yd. dash, and even passed a couple of kids. She got a medal and everything. The next day Aunt Martha, Nick and I ran the 1/2 marathon...we didn't do quite as well as Emily, but still had fun.
May--In May, Emily finally started receiving speech services--she was originally tested in Nov. and didn't quite qualify--when she tested again in Feb. she qualified due to her lack of 2 word phrases and unintelligibly (did I make that word up??) She's had one session so far and is already making great progress! Her 1st phrase has been "I get you" she loves to say it when jumping on daddy's back :) We also finished up another semester of Kindermusik--she continues to love Miss Adrienne and playing with all of the other kids there.

I think that is it for now-we are looking forward to summer with camp and 2 VBS's and music class and hopefully some swim lessons thrown in there--it should be a great time!

Spring has sprung!

It seems as though spring is just around the corner and we are definitely enjoying the warmer temperatures! Emily's swing is hanging back up and she is constantly going to the door and asking out? out? Once she is out it usually takes a bribe of a bath or Diego time to get her back in. She has recently discovered how to open doors, so we are keeping all doors to the outside locked now, to keep her in!

She has continued to enjoy going to story time at the library with Papa (see artwork below). This weekend Mama and Papa Hilman came to visit and we went to the Children's Museum and had a wonderful time (more pictures below).

We are back in the midst of a speech eval. This time it seems as though she will qualify to receive some services due to her noninterest in speaking understandable English. She loves to talk and throws in some English, but likes her Emilyisms quite a bit still. On the flip side, the children's therapist evaluator said her gross motor skills are definitely not lacking, some of her favorite activities are jumping off of things and climbing. Wrestling with daddy is also way up there! Reading books continues to be a favorite activity, Mama and Papa H. just bought her a pop-up tent that I'm sure she will spend many hours hiding in with her books. She refuses to go to bed without a book and will often be heard reading her stories to doggy before falling asleep.

And now--the pictures--






These are both pieces of art created with Papa's help at story time. Emily enjoys coloring with the markers the best, and makes papa do a lot of the other work!









These were all at the Children's Museum. Emily had a wonderful time playing and painting!


This is just a very random picture, it was the 1st time Emily drank out of a milk carton--such a big girl!

Emily's 2 year appt

Emily had her 2 year appt. today at the dr--the big "surprise" of the day--double ear infection! Antibiotics and ear drops for the next week.
In other information-28lbs and 34 inches tall, so growing but still a peanut! She still loves her baby food veggies, which I'm still convinced she'll be taking to school in her lunches. He had us start her on Vitamin D to hopefully boost her immune system and get rid of the winter yuckies we've had. He did comment that she has great speech skills--just that we can't understand any of what she is saying. I'm still on the fence whether to have that checked again, we'll see.
Other than that a pretty boring appointment, no shots which is always a bonus!

Welcome baby Shea!

Last week our dear friends Andy and Mattie welcomed their first baby into the world--Shealynn Michelle--we were very excited to go visit them, but worried Emily wouldn't be able to join us because of hospital policies. Luckily nobody seemed concerned and Emily got to meet baby Shea with us! She was a little leary at first but warmed up very quickly and enjoyed giving Shea kisses and making sure she had her stuffed animals at all times!

Emily's artistic side

Emily started preschool in Dec. and with that has discovered an artistic side that Chuck and I aren't really great at fostering--it's a good thing she has Uncle E in her life! Here is a sample of her artwork thus far!






This one was done with Papa at story time at the library--hopefully a new weekly activity for them!

Happy 2nd Birthday Emily!

Emily turned 2 yesterday! We celebrated with family a couple of weeks ago and had a great time! Both sides of the family were here, Great-Gpa and Gma Hilman, Great-Gma G, and Great-Gpa and Gma Kingma were here, as well as Gpa-Gma Leader, and Gpa Hilman. Aunt Kathy, Garrett, Aunt Martha and Uncle Ethan, Great-Aunts and Uncles--Hildy, Dave, Sissy, Doug and Karen, Myrna, Lyle, Ted and Rich and Cousins, Jenna, Lilia and Garrett all came! (I think that was everybody!) Our house was packed but everyone seemed to have a good time--here are some of the pictures from the day!