Emilie's First Steps!!!!!

Tried to recreate the moment at home for the camera

Emilie took her first steps today!

The girls and I went to a retirement party for the director from Marin's school.  I was talking with my neighbors, Deb and Kristy, while holding onto Emilie's hand.  Emilie let go of my hand, stood for a few seconds and then took three steps right to Deb!  True to my subtlety, I screamed at the top of my lungs and made a huge scene.  Woops. 

SO proud of you, Emmie Cakes!!  Better get my running shoes out.

Emilie Mae- Eleven Months!

Miss smiles-all-the-time, happiest-baby-ever Emilie Mae is eleven months old.  Other than charming and smiling, here's what she spends her days doing.   

* She has four teeth, and more popping through.  What a trooper.  She got them all at once.  

* She is cruising all over the place and really doesn't like to sit down.  The girl wants to walk to badly, but isn't quite confident enough yet to let go.  I think it will be a few more months.  

* She is starting to assert herself a little bit more.  When Marin takes away her toy, she puts up a fight.  Most of the time Marin is good about asking her, "May I please have this Emilie?"  But since Emilie can't say,  "No", Marin assumes the answer is always "Of course, please take my one toy that was making me happy!" :)  We'll see how this shakes down when they want to share clothes one day.  

* She is making a little "eh! eh!" sound when she wants something.  We're continuing to work on her sign language to help her communicate.  I have to say, "eh! eh! eh!" wears on my pretty quickly. 

*Emilie loves storytime and she loves to wave and clap! She loves to read books and sing songs and "socialize" with the other children in her class.

* Emilie loves to dance.  She bops up and down and shakes her right little leg.  She and her sister have the moves, man!  

*She's obsessed with phones.  She wants to push every button and pretend to make a call.  

* Emilie is getting better at eating people food.  I stuck my neck out there and gave her bites big enough that she can actually taste, and she seems to be doing a little better.  We're still doing baby food, but introducing more and more "real" food too.  She loves black beans, bananas and quinoa.  By far her favorite!

* She's still sleeping like a champ.  When she wakes up in the morning she's standing up in her crib waiting for us to come and get her.   Marin loves to go wake her up as well, and Emilie always reaches for her with a giant smile.  The two of them are thick as thieves.   

Emilie is a sweet little snuggler and my little love bug.  Her smile warms our hearts instantly, and when she leans in for an open mouthed kiss, it's the very best!  I can't believe that she's going to be one.  That is just insane to me.  Wasn't she just born?!  She's a true joy and I'm loving ever second with her.  

Pappy's Beach!

Jason's parents have a house in Miramar Beach, Florida, near Destin, in an area called Sandestin.   That's the mouthful I ridiculously spew to people when they asked where in Florida we went.  It's crazy to most everyone, unless they've been there, and then it seems to make perfect sense.  Marin just calls it "Pappy's Beach" and so we all followed suit. 

Bill headed there over Easter and invited us to join him for the week.  We jumped at the chance at white sand between our toes and the rhythmic sound of the ocean for seven straight days!  The beach was absolutely gorgeous.  White sand as far as the eye can see, and shallow water for yards and yards, making the water both warm, and safe for Marin to run into.  Emilie and Marin both loved sitting in the sand and playing with it.  We built a giant sand castle every day, and everyone left the beach each day covered head to toe with sand, but burn free and happy.  (Happy Mommy Dance!)

The Sandestin area is huge, beautifully landscaped with lush tropical plants, and best of all- completely navigated by electric cart.  The electric cart was so fun, and so convenient, it nearly pained me to have to go back to using a regular car.  Everyone drives them, pimps them out, and just pulls them up to small parking lots.  We were in love. Emilie and I often rode on the back, and she literally waved to everyone we passed. 

We loved eating delicious sea food, and more than our fair share of ice cream.  Marin entered an Easter egg hunt on the water the first full day that we were there, and discovered every playground in Sandestin.  We rented a bike and a burley  for a few bike rides, and Jason and his dad got in a round of golf one morning.  The Easter bunny found Pappy's house and left a huge Easter egg hunt in the backyard, with both eggs Pappy and Marin dyed the night before and plastic eggs filled with candy.

We especially loved exploring the Baytowne Warf area, or as Marin called it, "The wurf".  They had the single greatest and biggest playground ever, that I swear after the third day there, I was still discovering more of.  They also had restaurants and shops, and a Carousel which rode twice, but asked to ride 45 times.  One night, after the girls were in bed, Bill offered to watch them so that Jason and I could go the warf to listen to live music and have a few topical drinks.  Heaven. 

We had a great time, and spent a lot of quality time with the four of us.  There really is nothing better.

Miramar Beach on Dwellable