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!

Where has time gone?

Life has been busy here in the Hilman household....in November we went to Gpa and Gma Kingma's for Thanksgiving. After thanksgiving we were supposed to go to the State High School football game, but Em had a fever so instead we headed to Gabe and Sarah Beth's for the night before going to a funeral. Sat. morning everything seemed fine, so we figured it was a teething fever.
Monday she went to her 1st day of preschool at Kids and Company (which she loves by the way!) At about 2:30 I got a call at school saying she had had a great day, but had a rash that had been quickly spreading all day long. I call the dr. and they agree to see her that afternoon. Diagnosis--Fifth Disease--starts out with a fever, then a very tell-tale rash a few days later. Completely harmless at that point.

December has been lots of Christmases (with more to come). On Dec. 12th we celebrated Christmas with the Hilman side of the family---


Hanging out with cousin Garrett and the doggie that cousin Allen got...it's almost as big as Emily! At Hilman family Christmas Emily also got a kitchen that took lots of people a long time to put together, but well worth it. She also got a Leap Frog tag jr. reading system that is way cool! And of course lots of clothes...a girl can never have too many clothes!


Christmas Eve Gpa and Gma Leader, Uncle E and Aunt Mar came over for dinner, church and we opened presents with them---

This is the dress Great Gma Kingma and Gma Leader made for Emily and dolly to wear for church


Opening presents with Gpa....Gpa and Gma Leader gave Emily an OSU sweatshirt, a new bookshelf, and a stool (that serves as a side table to the Elmo couch).

Christmas morning we opened presents from Santa and from us--

Christmas morning in new pajamas and Elmo slippers!

Lounging in the Elmo couch Santa brought...this is definitely a favorite present of the year! Santa also brought some new books.

Showing off some of the new clothes

Lounging with the puppies

Emily very quickly figured out the present opening gig--the only problem was she wanted to stop and play with each toy--present opening easily could have turned into a several hour project.

During Christmas week Em developed a snotty nose and cough, Sunday after Christmas a fever. I kept her home from school Monday and we went to the dr. to find out she had an ear infection and and bronchitis, so we have an oral antibiotic an oral steroid and a neubulizer treatment (that Em hates) that we get to do for a week. Because she hasn't been feeling good, she also hasn't been sleeping...most nights she is up at least once if not 2 or 3 times. We are hoping that it is just the sickness and nothing else causing this!

This weekend we are going back to Indiana for Christmas with the Kingma's. We will be cheering on OSU in the Rose Bowl and hopefully making a trip into Chicago to go to the aquarium and get Lou Molnoti's pizza.