How do you like your (goose) egg?

Around here, they are big and purple. Poor girl ran into the play structure at school last week. Her bruise has progressed and is now a lovely shade of yellow.

Port Aransas 2009

We were lucky enough to spend a great weekend at the coast in late August. Before Emerson was born, we were regulars at the coast. This was Emerson's first weekend there and she LOVED it, as we know she would. After we arrived, we went straight to the ocean. We didn't care that we were wearing our clothes, we hopped right in.

Making sand castles with Daddy.

Napping after trying to empty the Gulf of Mexico one bucketful at a time. This girl earned this nap.

Beautiful beach bum!

The beach and water were so clean this trip. Normally, the beaches at Port A have some garbage from the ocean or plant debris. However, this weekend the beach was spotless, no garbage, no dead jellyfish, no plant debris. And the water was crystal clear. The folks at the condo were speculating that it was because there hadn't been much hurricane activity in the gulf this year, so everything was able to settle. Also, if anyone is interested, the house behind Emerson on the right is for sale for $1M.

Splashing in the pool with Daddy.

View of our condo and the umbrella we set up several times a day and never sat under because we were too busy playing in the water and making tide pools for the hermit crabs.

Another bright spot....Ana Nicole was with us. We were lucky enough to share the beach with beautiful shore birds, who would run in the surf and try to catch something to eat. All the birds had beige and white feathers. Except this one, who was white, black and orange. Ana was a cat who loved water, so this makes sense. We were happy to see the new her and know that she is happy. We said good bye to the coast and Ana and headed home after great weekend. Can't wait until next year!

Fun at Pump it Up!

Emerson was recently invited to celebrate the birthday of a classmate at the super-fun "Pump it UP!" We have been to bouncy places before, but not one with such high slides. Emerson's dad went with her the first few times, but after that she was climbing up and sliding down an her own, huge smile all the way. As soon as she'd reach the end of the slide she immediately sign for and say "More". She would have happily slid and bounced the rest of the night.

But while sliding and bouncing are fun, CAKE is a big hit with this girl. She had chips, juice, cake and ice cream for dinner this night. She had the best time it's possible to have!!! We so enjoyed going to the birthday party and getting to know some of the parents of the other children in Emerson's class. Even some of the teachers showed up, so it was just like a regular day for the kids....just funner!

Rapunzel

College Style

We are trying a new solution to Emerson's new sleep challenge: mattress and box spring of the double bed on the floor, ala college/first apartment style. So far, so good. She is staying in bed for longer stretches of time, but is still getting out of bed and coming into our room at least 2x per night. Usually one of us gives up and ends up laying down with her and falling asleep. And right now, we're OK WITH THAT. Our thought process: get used to bed then get used to sleeping by self in bed. There is a method to our madness.

Big Girl Bed, Update

Oh, I am beginning to wonder if going to the big girl bed was such a hot idea. Emerson did fine the first week, sleeping her normal hours in her bed. But the last week, oh, the last week has been awful. I guess the fact that she can get out of bed is irresistible to her. After going to bed at her normal time and sleeping for a while, she magically appears at my side of the bed multiple times a night. On Tuesday night I was so sweetly awakened a minimum of 15 times....in the space of a few hours. It's like an episode of Super Nanny around here. She get up, one of us leads her back to bed. Over and over and over. Pray that she becomes more comfortable in her big girl bed and starts to sleep through the night again. We all need it very badly.

It's been a while

It's been so long, we'd all forgotten what rain was. We have been fortunate enough to be reminded this past week. It's rained every day, lots and lots of rain. Life giving rain. We have been experiencing the worst drought in over 50 years in south central Texas. Now, lets hope our grass recovers!