schumthing schtinks!

sleep-over results

after church on sunday, we went to pick up the kids from gram and pap's (refer to previous post). i was eager to see emma and find out how she did on her first overnight sans parents. well apparently, she did great. she went to bed without a hitch and took her nap on sunday with no problem. in fact, she was still sleeping when we got there. we found out that she managed to unbuckle the shopping cart seat belt (ack!), enjoyed playing the piano (especially playing the high and low keys), sang, tried to open the door to the backyard, ate a bunch of food (big surprise), and picked out her own pair of shoes (see...she is a budding fashionista).














we had lunch there, and seeing emma's face light up when she first saw us just made my day (i know eventually that face or running to us with open arms will be non-existent). after stuffing our bellies with delicious food, we took a short walk while tyler biked. then we helped gram put up a huge cleveland browns blow up "doll" (??) in front of their house and then just bummed around for a bit more before we headed home.

while the kids are away, mom and dad go and play

yesterday afternoon, tyler and emma headed off to gram and pap's so mom and dad could go out on a date. it was emma's first overnight trip without me or aaron, so of course when that idea was first suggested i was a bit apprehensive (a night apart from my baby girl...what if she needs me?**). but a date night with my husband?? i don't even remember when we had the last one. so we said our good-byes to the kiddies and began to prepare for our night out on the town.


















we had dinner with scott and kristin at sakura and i stuffed my face with sushi (i LOVE sushi...really, i do). fortunately, before i had time to think about comfy pants and letting my food coma take over we headed off to ohio theatre to watch the opening night of the comedy arsenic and old lace with corrie and andrea. we had a great time watching the play and going to the opening-night party, but by midnight we were both ready to exchange our party attire for t-shirts and jammy pants (getting old, eh?).














while it was a fabulous night out with my dear husband, i'm ready to pick up the kids. it's just too quiet around the house without them.
**she didn't even bat an eyelash as we loaded her up in gram's car...i think she was ready to go

beautiful...

as i was finding movement inspiration for next week's hip-hop class i came across this video. it's a collaboration between NDI and the asia society:


on a side note, emma likes to "follow along" to the moves when i go through my lesson plans. today as i went through my hip-hop lesson, she watched me spin around and started doing that over, and over, and over until she fell to the floor (usually butt first). it was so funny to watch. every time she fell, she would get right back up and do it again...around, and around and around until *plop* on her bum she'd land then back up again. pretty soon she'll start dropping it like it's hot.

great achievements...

after about 7 months of just 2 bottom teeth, emma finally got her 2 top teeth! they are both coming in at the same time (yikes!), which was how her 2 bottom teeth came in. i'm really excited for her, because i know how much she enjoys eating and pretty soon she'll be able to bite off chunks of food. plus now we have 2 new teeth to brush at night before bedtime...hooray!

other unbelievable achievements...(drum roll please) tyler changed his 1st poopy diaper! it actually happened a few weeks ago, but i had been so busy that i hadn't had the chance to post it yet. isn't it amazing news? i remember when emma was first born, he was very adamant about not changing ANY poopy, stinky diapers. now i know that he can do it, i may enlist his help changing diapers more often.

fashionista

emma enjoys adding accessories to her outfit when she can. here you can see she is using a lovely polk-a-dot fabric as a scarf. other accessory favorites are hair clips, shoes (these are one of the first things she goes for at the store), and hats. notice, the last photo she is sporting her brother's baseball cap.

go, go, go

my apologies for not posting in a week. i didn't even realize i hadn't blogged in that long. i started work at the Y last tues. and haven't had time to even blog once since then. i was initially just supposed to teach 3 ballet classes on saturdays (which actually started today), but then i got roped into working at their childwatch/babysitting service tues. and thurs. mornings for 4 hours. what's nice about that is that i can take emma with me to work if need be. but now i'm also teaching a thurs. night hip-hop class (the original teacher pulled out the day before!) so i've been swamped the rest of the week. planning for that hip-hop class did a number on me...i know, me teach hip-hop, unbelievable, huh? anyway, hopefully i'll be a little bit more organized about doing my lesson plans for next week so i'm not so backed up. it feels weird to be working after not working for almost 2 years, but at least i get to do what i enjoy :).

meanwhile...here are some photos of 2 little sleepyheads to tide you over.





















































oh, i also forgot to add, i just finished two more embroidery pieces last week for a pregnant friend. i forgot to take a picture of the second one, but it's the hula girl pattern that i did for stella's onesie.

cleveland air show

tyler really wanted to go to the cleveland air show to see the jet planes do their stuff at the lakefront airport. at first, we thought it might be a good idea-you know, something fun and different to do as a family-but we were shocked when we found out we would have to spend $50 on tickets! what the??? how does getting into an air show cost almost $20? obscene!














good thing aaron and i have super smart genes because we figured out we can still see the air show without actually being at the airport. how? edgewater park is the answer.














so off we went, along with everyone else who didn't want to pay $20/ticket, to edgewater park to see the USAF perform some pretty spectacular tricks in the sky. we showed up towards the end of the show, so i think we only saw the thunderbirds...but that's okay, because i think an hour out in the hot sun is long enough.

dance anyone?

for you mamas and papas with babes and toddlers...i came across a couple of interesting articles from the creative dance center relating to dance/movement and neurological development.

this one is by anne green gilbert. she's published some great books relating to creative dance.

this one is by terry goetz. i think she used to perform in the same dance company i was in (but before i was in it) while i was still in seattle.

for our friends in the seattle area, i highly recommend the creative dance center if you're thinking of putting your child in dance classes (they offer some great creative movement classes there). i have worked with a number of people who are or were in the faculty, and they're awesome! check them out!

good-bye...

we're sad that you're gone, but thankful for the wonderful memories. we'll miss you but will always keep you in our hearts.