Help her Obi-wan Kenobi, her father is a geek

Happy Halloween, 2007.

May the Force be with you!

Lighting the Night

This past Saturday, we went out to walk for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society at Sunken Garden Theater. Me, Emerson, Rico, Amy and Alex went and walked 2 miles to show our support. Because we were supporters, we got to carry red flashing balloons. These balloons were a BIG HIT with Emerson and Alex. We had a nice time walking and enjoyed the wonderful fall evening with a lot of other like-minded people.

A lot of kids were in their Halloween costumes, including Emerson. Can you guess what her costume is? Once you guess that, you also get one guess on who picked it out! :)

Date Night with David

Last Monday, Rico and I went out for a date night without Emerson. We went to the Majestic Theater to see David Sedaris. For those of you who are unfamiliar with David Sedaris, he is an autobiographical author of the humours sort, and one of both mine and Rico's favorites. His essays and stories are frequently featured on NPR. David was available to autograph his books before the show, but unfortunately, I didn't think to bring my copies of his books, so we didn't get to meet him. DANG! The reading was hilarious, David shared some stories for his upcoming novel, and we spent the entire time laughing.

After the show, we walked down to Acenar to eat. We had a great meal and I really enjoyed my Tuna Margarita.

We have to thank Grandma for coming over and taking care of Emerson so her parents could go out and enjoy an evening on the town.

Book Party

Last month, Emerson and I attended a book party hosted by Dena. The books are awesome and we bought 3. I wanted to buy more, but it's hard to shop sometimes with Emerson around! We got 2 Spanish books and a Princess Kit and I can hardly wait to see them. Emerson loves books and often reads to herself or one of us reads to her. Her dad speaks to her in Spanish and the books will help reinforce what she is learning. The books are very high quality and all of some educational value for all ages. I plan to do some Christmas shopping here! Check out Dena's website at Usborne Books at Home.

We had a wonderful time at the party and I really enjoyed the time out (& the mimosa's!) and Emerson enjoyed playing with Parker and checking out all the books.

Feeling Better

Emerson is feeling better after her long, tiring, miserable weekend. She slept really good yesterday, as did her parents and we are feeling somewhat normal. Emerson even felt well enough to sport a new 'do!

Tired and Frustrated

Emerson has not been feeling so hot the last few days. I took her to the pediatrician on Thursday because she has been coughing a lot. I had tried to wean her from her respiratory meds, but the coughing started - the hallmark sign that she needs the meds - so we started them back up. Other times when we have tried to wean her and had to start back up, her cough would clear up within a few days. Not this time. So the pediatrician finds that besides the cough, she also has an ear infection and recommends a flu shot and some additional respiratory meds. Since her visit, Emerson has been running fevers, has been CRANKY, fussy, crying like she hasn't cried since she was a newborn trying to deal with her reflux, not sleeping and just generally being a bear. Poor girl...she's having a bad weekend and it's wearing her and us out. Last night she was up from 10pm-1am pretty much crying non-stop. So for the 2nd time in her life, her and I slept together on the bed in her room as that is the only way she would sleep. This situation makes me VERY NERVOUS, so I didn't sleep much, just mostly dozed. She's in bed right now after a false start an hour ago. I hope she stays down. Some sleep would do all of us a world of good. OH, and I guess the teething isn't helping matters! Pray for us!

11 Months

Emerson turned 11 months old on Tuesday. Her father and I just shake our heads and wonder where the time went. Seems like we just brought her home from the hospital the other day. This is a really fun age. Emerson is jabbering away, VERY mobile and busy. She is all over the place backwards and forwards. At baby school, they are always having to drag her out from under things.

Emerson is such a happy baby. She laughs and giggles and smiles most of the time. Just like when she was a newborn, she only cries when something is wrong and only for as long as it takes to fix it. She is good natured and well-behaved, if that is possible for a 11 month old. I guess she is just really laid back and has the great ability to go with the flow, so not to much upsets her. She is more curious than anything, so when something different comes her way, she's to busy checking it out to get upset.

This past month, Emerson has learned to wave "bye bye" and is starting to pull herself up on the coffee table and the jumpa-roo. Still only her two bottom teeth, but lots of drool and her finger is always in her mouth, so I think more are on the way. She is still in her helmet and doing great. Her last appointment was on Monday and she has made more progress. Because we started late in the helmet, her head will never be perfect, but it looks A LOT better than it did before she went into the helmet and we are very pleased with her progress.

Emerson continues to eat like it's going out of style and sleep like a teen-ager, which we think is particularly AWESOME!

God has smiled on us. Emerson is the best gift we could have ever wished for and we are thankful. AND hopefully He will forgive us for crashing the pumpkin patch at Helotes United Methodist Church...the sign clearly said "Open 12-8"....and it was only 9:30!

Happy Thanksgiving

On Sunday, we celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving. Canadian Thanksgiving always falls on the first Monday of October, so we usually celebrate the Sunday before, because for some reason we don't automatically get the day off. I guess the fact that we live in the US may have something to do with it :). The food is the same as US Thanksgiving and the pumpkin pie was exceptional this year (I made it!)

Anyway, we always have friends over to help us celebrate-Canadian and honourary Canadians. Emerson was lucky enough to have a friend over to play with. Dena and Bryan came over with their sweet, beautiful daughter, Parker. Parker is so sweet and gentle with Emerson and likes to make sure that Emerson has all she needs.

Emerson wore her new red and white outfit in honour of the day, and if you look closely, you can see her new teeth.

We had a great time and look forward to when we can all get together again!

(PS There are a few "Canadian" touches to this post. Let me know if you spot them!)