Emma Crawling

Emma started crawling the week before Halloween. I finally got a video of her crawling almost two weeks ago thanks to Barry's dad. I really wish I'd been able to post it then. At least it's better late than never.

She started doing a crawl I've never seen before and I got such a laugh watching her. Owen started crawling doing an army crawl where he'd propel himself with his arms. Emma kept her legs closed and used her feet to push herself on up onto her knees. Then she'd move her knees forward as one and flop onto her belly. It was like she was a fish doing a tail flip to propel herself. LOL. After watching her, Barry's dad said it wouldn't be long until she'd have it down pat. He was right and not only is she cruising but she also finding new things like bookshelves and the AV Receiver downstairs. Steering her interest, once something has caught her eye, is challenging so we are currently in the process of baby proofing our home.  

Emma has a pretty bad case of separation anxiety. She won't play with her toys when we put her down next them unless we sit down next to her. Even if she can see you she starts whining/crying and crawling toward you. Funny thing is that when she gets bored she is perfectly fine to go into the next room without you.

She is also pulling herself up on everything even when there isn't anything to hold onto like walls and doors. She has gotten plenty of pinches, scratches, bruises, and bonks for this reason. This Christmas will be a new experience for us since Owen wasn't crawling or pulling himself up yet his 1st Christmas. I can already picture her trying to pull herself up using one of the branches on the Christmas tree. We'll have to use twine to secure it to the banister so it won't tip and decorate only half of it. We did this for Owen's 2nd Christmas. He was 18 months at the time. LOL.

Yesterday she stood for 5 seconds after she let go of Barry's knee. She sure knows no fear and quite likes to have us scare her. Owen, on the other hand, started crying yesterday when Barry jumped out and scared him with a boo.

Emma has 4 teeth now, 2 on bottom and the 2 new ones on top. She has the same amount of teeth that Owen had at 15 months.

Halloween 2012 - Emma's 1st Halloween

I learned my lesson from last year and waited until 2 weeks before Halloween to have Owen decide who/what he wanted to be for Halloween. Owen was introduced to Lego Star Wars last year. We'd play it and our other Lego video games together before Emma came. Anyway, Owen has been playing Lego Star Wars again so he wanted to be a Jedi knight. We decided on Obi-Wan Kenobi. 

The Friday before Halloween was Owen's Halloween celebration at school. They do a Halloween parade and invite all the parents to come. Here is Owen as Obi-Wan Kenobi after his Halloween parade at school. He didn't have his light saber since toy weapons are not allowed at school. 

Following the tutorial here (sleeve length modified by measuring a shirt of Owen's), 
a $5 dark brown twin sheet from Walmart (cloak),
a 1 yard of khaki broadcloth (tunic),  and
2 brown felt sheets fastened around with sew-on snaps,
here is my young Obi-Wan Kenobi! 

I made his costume again this year. I remember my mom making my costumes and how loved I felt because she took that time. I hope Owen remembers the same. Unfortunately I didn't realize how little time I have currently so I had to wait to work on it after the kids were in bed. Next year I am going to buy them for sure!! Barry told me he'd let me spend $50 on just one if it didn't mean 5 nights (2 of which lasted after midnight) measuring, pinning, cutting, sewing, etc that resulted in a cranky, tired mom.

I was thrilled when I realized Emma for her 1st Halloween would be able to fit into the pumpkin costume Owen wore on his 1st Halloween! Here's a now and then to show my babies on their 1st Halloween!

On Halloween we went to a trunk-or-treat at our church. Normally a trunk-or-treat lasts 10 minutes. This year we combined with the other ward (church group) in our building and it took us 45 minutes! Owen got a great stash. Everyone thought Owen was so cool and recognized his costume right away. They all loved Emma and thought she was so cute. We got asked a lot if she could have candy and I told them to just put it in Owen's pumpkin bucket. LOL! Mom & Dad got their own stash! Here are some pictures from trunk-or-treating Halloween night. Afterward we drove to Idaho Falls to trick-or-treat at Grandpa & Grandma's house.

The Friday after Halloween there was trick-or-treating at my office. Owen was very confused about it. He'd say "But mom it's November!" He just learned about the months a couple weeks before. I don't know why they didn't hold it the Friday before either. We joked at work, "Well it was decided by corporate." I felt we were living an episode of "The Office." 

Family Pictures

In the hallway that leads to our rooms we have our family picture hung up. Obviously that hall gets a lot of traffic, and ever since we brought Emma home, there hasn't been a day that either Barry, Owen, or myself haven't mentioned how we need a family picture that includes Emma. Thanks to Barry's talented cousin we finally have a new family picture and updated pictures of Emma and Owen. Megan did such a fantastic job! Hope you think so too. Enjoy!

Pink Days

For 3 days in a row Owen has come home from school having a pink day! What is a pink day? I'll explain in a minute so continue reading on...

I'm sure anyone that read my post about Owen's 1st day of Kindergarten may be wondering how school is going for Owen now. I am happy to report that the second day of school, third day, fourth day and every day since have been good days for Owen. And thankfully Owen has successfully gotten home on the bus ever since that hiccup on the 1st day. For a while Owen had to hold his teacher's hand while he waited for the bus. Now she just keeps an eye on him, and his classmates who ride the same bus (they happen to be all girls, LOL) help him stay put too.

I took my Wolf Cub Scouts to a pumpkin patch for a den meeting.
Owen loved it and insisted I take a picture of him holding the pumpkin he chose. 

So, what about these pink days? Owen's teacher uses a chart of 7 colors where each color represents their overall behavior that day. Pink = Outstanding, Purple = Great Job, Blue = Good Day, Green = Ready to Learn, Yellow = Think About It, Orange = Teacher's Choice, and Red = Parent Contact. Each student has a clothespin and it resets to green each day. Throughout the day, acts of good behavior move their clothespin up and acts of bad behavior move it down. They record the color for that day onto a calendar that goes to and from home. 

I've been so happy to see Owen coming home having blue and green days. We visited with his teacher at parent conference mid-October. She said academically she had no worries about Owen and they are working on his behavior issues with the behavioral management team. I had accepted that he may not ever have a pink day but boy was I surprised to have him come home having a pink day for the 3rd time! 

His first pink day Owen was so excited that he called at work on Skype to tell me about it. His second pink day was on Halloween. Apparently all the class got pink that day but I figured that really didn't matter when compared to how proud Owen was about having yet another pink day.