Last weekend Grandma & Grandpa Overdeep came down for a visit. Emerson was beyond delighted. They had all her birthday gifts in tow, and let’s face it, grandparents, in general, just rock! While I was not quite on my game, (thanks blood clot grr) Emerson had a blast.

Unlike her typical shy behavior around Grandpa, she had nothing but smiles, giggles and hugs for him! They played tirelessly for hours. Emmie was giving him the star treatment, and I think it’s safe to say Grandpa was loving it.

And let’s not forget Grandma. While Grandpa took care of the rough-housing and playtime, Emerson filled her snuggle quota with Grandma. It’s hard not to snuggle someone who loves to spoil you. 😉 Emmie even got to venture to the mall to find new shoes for her big feet!

She’s currently running around in the cutest, tiniest little puma sneakers you ever did see. I’ll tell ya though, who would have thought it’d be so hard to find narrow baby shoes. Hello, not all babies have feet as wide as they are long! My poor girl, she’s definitely inherited my skinny long feet. Some of the shoes were pretty laughable as she looked like she could have put both feet side by side in one shoe. Luckily, we had great success with a wonderful, knowledgeable, and dedicated saleswoman at Nordstrom. Also, a balloon was key to the countless shoes being put on and taken off. Emerson couldn’t get enough of those balloons.

She ran around the mall playground, squealing with delight, waving to Grandpa Rob every time she made it to the top of the slide structure. Finally back home, she passed out.

Other adventures included going to the zoo, being snuggled & put down for naps and bed by grandparents, sneaking chocolate donut bites from Grammy and more. If that’s not summertime fun, I don’t know what is. Our girl is so lucky to have grandparents who love her to pieces. They may not be close –yet,  ( I’m looking at you Dad! ) but their love knows no bounds.

If you had asked me two years ago, how many playgrounds we lived near, I probably would have said two… maybe three. Well, let me tell you something, Baltimore has a plethora of playgrounds, and they all offer something different.

If there’s ever a nice afternoon, and we’ve run out of planned activities you can bet we’re off to the playground. The beauty of Baltimore, “the playground,” could mean any of the 15 playgrounds within a two mile radius of our house. To be honest, I haven’t even discovered most of them! 

We’ve been to Tot lots, big kid playgrounds, school playgrounds, zoo playgrounds, hidden playgrounds, playgrounds with no parking, playgrounds with lots of parking. We have been to a lot of playgrounds. And you know what? I’m really digging it. There’s something to be said about going down a new slide every time we go to play somewhere. Different things to climb, to hold, to explore. New textures, colors and sounds. 

I love that we live in this little city, where finding a new playground can turn into an adventure for both of us. I’m not sure we’ll ever play on all of Baltimore’s playgrounds, but that’s what makes it exciting.

It’s no secret that summer is my favorite time of year. The long hours of sunlight, the sudden downpours that leaves everything drenched, and the heat that makes a cold glass of water unbeatable. Yes, summer is indeed my favorite season. Perhaps one reason summer lends itself so well to me, is that I am able to enjoy being outdoors. I can breathe easy, soak up some sun, and not worry about feeling cold. Simply put; it’s summertime and the living’s easy.

With August quickly approaching and the days slowly starting to get shorter, I’m taking advantage of all the sunshine we get. Our Zoo membership is getting quite the workout already. We’ve brought friends, picnics and treated ourselves to some dip-n-dots.

My little observer is quite content at the zoo. We can count the animals, talk about color, and giggle as the cheetah opens her mouth every time she makes a loop around her favorite tree. Emmie can run free down the boardwalk stopping to check out the elk and antelope as she see’s fit.

When we’re looking at the animals together, she studies my face first. Then she holds out her hand towards the looming beasts and quietly declares, “ooooh.” She’ll study them a little while longer, then turn back to me to make sure I’m looking too.

At our last zoo encounter we witnessed an elephant nudge a big green ball into his pool, and we watched as he trudged in after. Have you ever seen an elephant wade down the steps into a pool? Neither had we, until that day. While they may be intelligent animals, their sheer size doesn’t lend it’self to gracefulness.

Our short window of time whizzes past, until we’re racing against the clock to make it home for our second nap. The house is quiet as we snuggle our sweaty heads, quietly whispering about how fun our adventure was. We read our Jolly Jungle book as a tribute to the zoo animals we watched, and we nap to store up energy for more outdoor fun.

I know I’ll miss you summer, but for now, I’m soaking up every moment of goodness you send.

My Little Love Bug,

It is so hard for me to believe that you are already one year old. Where did the time go? Wasn’t it just yesterday you were rolling around kicking my bladder?

Some days it’s hard for me to remember just how small you were. Even some of your newborn things were big for you. Now you’re this running, laughing, independent little monkey and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

At one year old you can:

• give Oliver hugs
• climb the couch & get down
• drink from a straw
• run
• follow simple directions “put the lid on please”

At one year old you love to:

• be chased
• play with the big neighborhood kids
• open the drawer to the stove
• play in the tub/baby pool
• wrestle & rough house

• holding anyone’s hand while walking
• laying still for a diaper change
• going down for a second nap
• being told you can’t get down and walk
• when we can’t hold you

At one year you are:

• 17 lbs and 6 oz
• 29.5 inches long
• blue eyed and blonde hair (that’s starting to curl!)
• adventurous
• independent
• busy. so so busy!
• smiling with 4 bottom teeth, and 4 top teeth

Oh Emerson, you make us smile everyday. You are a lovable, sweet, thoughtful person and it has been a joy watching you grow over this past year. Your giggle lights up a room, and your goofy grin always makes me smile. You find wonder in everything we do. You love to carefully observe the world and process information in a quiet manor.You continue to inspire me to be the best person I can, and I continue to love you so much it hurts. Let’s see what this next year brings, shall we?!
Love, Love, LOVE-
Your Momma

Oh the little things. I’m so glad I take a moment to jot these things down. These posts might be my favorites to go back and re-read.

At 4-days shy of 11 months old, here are the little things you do that I’m enjoying.

1. Snuggling:
All right, so I may have had to “teach” you how to snuggle, but now that you’ve learned it may be my favorite thing ever! When you get tired and we’re on our way up to nap-time, or bed-time, you rest your little head on my shoulder. You feel so small, so secure, so loving when you do this that it just melts my heart into a puddle of gooey mommy love. I also love seeing you snuggle other people and things. You’ll snuggle Big Bunny, you’ll snuggle Daddy and once in a while you’ll try your darnedest to snuggle Oliver. Keep on snugglin’ little buggie, keep on snugglin’.

2. Stuffed animal lugging
You’re in a stuffed animal phase. I believe it started with Pink Bunny (can you tell we’re creative with our stuff animal names around this joint?). Pink Bunny was an easter gift from G.Auntie Kathy. Pink Bunny was so soft, and since you had just started taking steps/learned to snuggle, it was an instant attraction for many reasons. Then it moved onto Big Bunny. I grabbed him out of desperation for a particularly difficult diaper change, and it was love at first squeeze. We’ve been letting you nap with him since you just love to cuddle him. He’s also so super soft, that I like to snuggle him too! Then, you discovered an oldie but goodie! Winston! The first stuffed animal/present your Father ever gave to me. (Back when we were 14!!) You love poking his plastic nose, and tugging on his heart. All these animals combined with your new found love of walking has led to stuffed animal lugging. You scoop a stuffed animal up in your tiny arms and waddle forward with them. They’re the size of your tiny body, but you’re determination sees you through and off you go lugging around big stuffed, cuddly animals.

3. Excited dance:
You have a special excited dance, although I’m not sure dance is the right term. Usually this happens when Daddy is threatening to rough house with you on the couch. If he’s “coming to get you,” you squeal with delight and get all giddy and do a little jig! Your feet go, your little arms wave around, you don’t know which way to look. It looks hysterical and tiring all in one!

4. Standing up from squatting
When you first started taking steps, and those steps became more and more frequent I knew as soon as you learned to stand up without holding onto anything you’d be off like a rocket. I was right. But what I didn’t anticipate was just how darn cute your standing up would be. We’re talking wide stance, for balance, flat palms ready to push up, and the fluffy diaper butt high in the air. While I probably should feel badly when you fall down, in reality I get a little excited since it means you have to stand back up, and it’s just so darn cute!

5. Running instead of falling down
This one gets me every time. You’ve been honing your walking skills and with that comes the risk of walking faster. A little quicker stepping, a little longer stride, and a lot more attitude. But what happens when the rush from the thrill of walking faster starts to turn against you? There’s no way you want to stop since that means you’ll end up falling. When pushing your limits of speed seem to get away from you, you embrace the adventure and you end up running. Your little legs going faster and faster until you inevitably fall down with a little thud. I think it’s only a  short matter of time until you’re running on purpose.

Hi Emerson,

You’re 11 months old this week. Excuse me while I go find a box of tissues. Where did my baby go? You’re this walking, opinionated, sassy little monkey.

I think this month has been exceptionally hard for us. For you and me at least, we all know Daddy usually handles everything in stride. We’ve had some tough, long days. You’ve been testing limits, boundaries, and even your own body to see just how much you can do.

There have been some days where I needed a time out. Between napping purgatory, teething hell, and setting a world record for falling down and getting up… this month has been exhausting. While we may have had some really low lows, we’ve had some amazingly high highs to balance it all out. And isn’t that just what growing up really is? Dips and peaks, highs and lows, disappointments and surprises. But no matter what our day was like, every night as you went to bed with that blonde hair tickling your eyes, I thought, “I love her so much it hurts.”

We’ve enjoyed countless morning walks, afternoon park dates, evening impromptu block parties. And it’s been good. It’s been really good. You’ve gone from wobbly steps to practically running. You love to be outside and your favorite activity is to pull up fistfuls of grass.

You love eating, and at this time I’d say your favorite foods are: cheese sticks, crackers, kale, Greek yogurt, vegetarian sausage, and pasta. Oh wait, can’t forget the frozen veggie medley of peas, carrots, corn and lima beans! And blueberries, you love those too. Anything we’re eating, you love to steal it from us. Hmm, maybe I should amend my stance and say you basically love anything we’ll let you have!

You’ve also mastered drinking from your straw sippy cup this month. Talk about looking like a toddler. And speaking of toddler, you’ve begun tantrums when you’re unhappy. You’ve learned to sign “all done,” albeit you do it infrequently, and only at the table.

Now that I’m writing all these accomplishments down, it’s no wonder this month has been a time paradox. It’s been so incredibly long, but at the same time so incredibly short. Look at all the amazing feats you’ve mastered in just a few short weeks. Oh little Lady Bug, you are inspiring.

I can’t wait to see what these last few weeks of your first year of life hold.

Love,
Your Momma

Life is moving so quickly with all this warm, lovely sunshine we’ve been having! Here is our life according to my phone. Pictures include: blueberry face, Oliver pretending to be Emmie, fooling Mom so you can really climb on her, running with objects, lots of walks and parks, lunch on the porch and more!