Random Photo's/Emily Update

I feel like we haven't "done" much since the holidays so most of my pictures of Emily are just random, hanging around the house pictures. She is doing very well and I think at this point we've all adjusted to being a family of 4! She is ALL OVER THE PLACE, that's for sure!! She's a girl who knows what she wants, when she wants and she'll figure out a way to get it!!! I'm pretty sure that we're going to have to make sure that we actually lock the cabinets now because she can get from the family to kitchen in no time flat and she is VERY curious!!!(we never had to bother locking them with Brady as he just wasn't very interested in them) She isn't walking yet, but she is definitely cruising along any and all furniture she can get her hands on, so I think it's only a matter of time before she takes her first steps. She did well at her first doctors appointment and was on track growth wise (she was in the 25% in both height and weight) and development wise. I'm pretty sure the doctor was surprised/impressed that she was already pulling to a stand at 7 months. She is eating baby food and so far seems to like everything and she's also loving bread and mashed potatoes. She is really wanting to eat other table foods, but with only 2 teeth that's kinda out of the question so she'll just have to wait!!! :-) She's still waking about once a night, so I'm hoping with more baby food that will come to an end shortly....I could really use a night of uninterrupted sleep!! :-) Here's what she's been up to lately:

hanging out playing with her toys

playing with the kitchen

snack time!!!

sleeping peacfully in her car seat!!

getting some brotherly love from Brady!!

Family Visits

Sometime over the holidays all 4 of us finally made it up to Baltimore to spend some time with Alan's parents. It was a short visit, but it was nice!! Later that week Alan's cousin Michael, from L.A. was in town and we were able to get together with him for lunch. It was SO nice to see him again....we hadn't seen him since April 2007!! We did miss seeing his wife, Paula, but she was busy visiting with her side of the family!!

Alan, Po Po, Gung Gung, Emily, me and Brady

Emily, at lunch at Peking Gourmet

Brady with Alan's cousin Michael...Brady was a little shy when he first met Michael, but you can see that he definitely warmed up to him!! :-)

a family photo!

Christmas Day

Christmas Day was spent with my family and it was a busy day!! The morning started with the kids checking out all the goods Santa left. The best gift Santa left, by far, was a kitchen and lots of accesories! Brady plays with the kitchen everday and makse some pretty awesome food!! Once we were finished with Santa's presents we started opening the family gifts, which was pretty much a whirlwind to me! Somehow I was in charge of passing out the gifts as well as opening my gifts and Emily's and of course whenever Brady needed help, it was always, "mommy"!!Once all of that ended my Aunt Nancy, Uncle Ranny and my 2 cousins and their families came over for the "white elephant" exchange and dinner! It was a nice day but I was certainly exhuasted when it was all done!!

our tree, which was overflowing!!

The gifts Santa left for Emily (on the left) and Brady (on the right) and the kitchen, which is for both of them!

Brady checking out the kitchen!

playing with kitchen accessories

OMG, he LOVES this microphone!!

playing with a stacking snowman

Emily with her Holly Moose from Bui!d @ Be@r

me with a serving plate from my brother (Brady took this picture!)

Emily with my cousin Steve and Greg

Pop Pop and Emily

Christmas Eve

We had a nice time on Christmas Eve celebrating with Gung Gung, Po Po, Uncle Eric, Aunt Pam, cousins Preston and Ashley and Pam's parents!! This was also the first time any of them had met Emily, so she was pretty much the star of the night. I was a little nervous about making the 1 1/2 hour trip with Emily since she's not as easy going as Brady was and I had already experienced two cry/screaming filled rides with her when we were only 15 minutes away from our house, but I am very happy to report that she was absolutely perfect on the way there and on the way home!!!

Emily with cousin Ashley

Emily with Gung Gung and Po Po

I LOVE this picture of Emily and Gung Gung!!

I LOVE how Emily always inspects a persons face when she meets someone new!

Brady opening his moose from Ashley (she used to be called "moose" when she was little)

Ashley helping Emily open a gift

Brady with his really cool firetruck puzzle from Joe and Evelyn (Aunt Pam's parents). When the puzzle is completed the sirens go off!!! Brady LOVES it!!!

Brady opening a train set from Uncle Eric and Aunt Pam

Preston opening his gift from us...a Be$t B*y gift card

Gung Gung and Po Po with the picture of Emily we gave them

Po Po with her favorite chocolates!

Uncle Eric and Ashley helping Brady with his train set

I'm not sure who's having more fun here?? LOL

Gung Gung and Po Po

On Tuesday December 22nd Alan and Brady drove to Baltimore to spend a little time with Gung Gung and Po Po. They had a nice time visiting, having lunch and playing Y@htzee Junior!

Alan's parents (Po Po and Gung Gung)

Brady with Po Po and Gung Gung

Three generations of Suans!

More Snow!

We had an incredible amount of snow the weekend of Dec 18/19, which was nice on one hand, but boy did it kinda put a crimp in our holiday schedule!! My parents were supposed to fly in Saturday the 19th and ended up not getting here until Monday the 21st, so we "lost" 2 days with them and being able to get things done. Alan's parents were planning to drive down from CT on Saturday, but they, too, had to wait til Monday. Not to mention that all stores were closed on Sunday so we lost a day of shopping and then when the stores did re-open there was so much snow in the parking lots it was hard to find somewhere to park!!! On the flip side, Brady enjoyed playing in it, so I guess that makes it all worthwhile. I decided it was just too cold to even both taking Emily out, so there are no pictures of her in the snow.

All ready to go play in the snow!

A view down our street...it really was pretty!!

Alan did a good job of shoveling!!!

having fun

sitting on a snow mountain

watching me from inside....I think I went out to measure the snow!

Chelsea LOVED all of the snow!!

that reads just about 7 inches and I think we got at least another 5 before all was said and done!

Potty Training

We've been working on potty training here, so that's my excuse for not keeping up with the blog!! Things are going pretty well, especially considering this all started shortly after returned home with Emily and then of course had all of the holiday distractions to contend with. We very rarely have accidents in the house (unless he's in timeout, b/c of course he won't get out of time out for that, but yet he'll get out for a million other reasons!!) and we're working on being better when we are out and about. I guess I should confess that we have had to try and "go" outside on 2 separate occasions! The first time, we were on our way home from T@rget, one that is further away than our usual one, and when we were about 1/2 way home Brady decided he needed to "go". Well, it was SO SO cold out that the thought of getting both Brady and Emily out of their car seats and into their coats and then into a restroom didn't exactly thrill me, so instead I found a parking lot of a restaurant that was shielded nicely with some trees and I pulled Brady out, pulled his pants down and told him he could pee outside!!! LOL. Poor kid, I think it was so cold that he couldn't "perform"! He made it home and was able to do his business then! The second time we were at a playground at a park and there was no bathroom open near us, so again we used a tree for protection and tried, again with no luck. I figure this is a life lesson he needs to learn sooner or later!!! LOL

"Red" even uses the potty!!!

He's even cute on the potty!!!