11 months old

Emma turned 11 months old over the weekend and wow has she changed. She is now feeding herself by hand (yes even sometimes with her cups) and with a spoon. She can now brush her hair and she brushes her teeth every night (all 2 of them). She is standing all of the time and pulls up on everything. She started using a walker that she pushes across the room to assist her with walking. She has learned sign language in daycare and knows several words. And the biggest thing...she said her first word a couple of weeks ago, "duck". She says it all of the time now and she has started saying "daddy" or "dad". She is definitely like her mommy and daddy, she talks all of the time and she is loud! She recognizes a ton of words, but she is still learning how to say them. We can't believe she will be 1 in less than a month...time flies.

Pictures from her 11 month birthday...

Emma at Caitlin's baptism, here she is being pulled by Aunt Angie in the red wagon. She loved being in the wagon with her friends Caitlin and Lara.

I love this group photo...

Our little ladybug at our neighborhood Halloween party. (don't worry there will be plenty more pictures of her in this costume from this coming Friday)

A common pose, standing in the crib when she doesn't want to sleep.

Here are pictures from our newly renovated bathroom (fresh paint and new accessories). We are also working on Emma's playroom. As soon as we have the playroom complete we will post pictures of that as well (they both have an ocean theme).

10 Months Old and more...

Emma turned 10 months old on September 25th. She is now pulling up on furniture and toys like crazy. Emma is still loving daycare, but unfortunately she is sick all of the time. She is now getting over her first ear infection.





Here she is on her 10 month birthday. She is getting very good at walking with support.



Here she is in her new BUS. I found this at a church children's sale, she loves this thing. She crawls in and out of it like crazy. She is now crawling out the front (over the steering wheel), it is really funny to watch.Here is Emma with Uncle Carl and Aunt Loretta. (more Eagles influence for Emma-notice Emma is wearing a Phillies outfit)




How cute...

Lots of New Pictures

Well, we have had some changes here at home. Emma started daycare this week and I have returned back to work. Emma did a great job in daycare, her teachers said she had a great time. I am really lucky because her daycare is on-site where I am working, it couldn't have worked out better. It has been horrible leaving her, but it is a relief to know that she is enjoying herself. And we finally (after 2 months of trying) got Emma to take a sippy cup, thank goodness.

Here are some pictures from our recent trip to New York. Emma loved playing with her cousin Aiden.

Emma is so happy to have friends. Here is a picture of Emma with Naomi and her daddy Eric and a picture of Emma with Lara, Caitlin and Matthew (watching football).

We took Emma to the carousel in the mall and she loved it!!!

And we are all very excited for the return of football season. Go Eagles!!! (Gus doesn't like this picture too much, but she has no Giants gear, so too bad)

9 Months Old

Emma is now 9 months old and moving all over the place (Gus had to install the baby gate this weekend). Here are some pictures of her playing with her kitchen and pull-toy giraffe.

We finally took her to the pool and she loved it! She loved her float and loved splashing her daddy in the pool.

I finally got her on video crawling. She has her own kind of crawl and luckily doesn't go too fast yet. She usually loves to crawl for something she knows she can't have, like the video recorder in this video.

Back in the USA!!!

After many hours of flying we are back in the US. Here are some pictures of Emma on the plane. Just like before, she was great on the plane. She loved that we had individual tv screens on this plane. We put cartoons on for her to keep her amused.

Emma loves being home and being able to play with all of her toys. She didn't have much in Ireland so she doesn't know what to play with first.

We have a great playground here in our neighborhood and Emma loves the swings! (she's sporting her USA clothing just to show how happy she is to be back)
We set up the pool for her on our back deck, hopefully we'll get to the big pool in our neighborhood soon.

Goodbye from Ireland

This is our last post from Ireland. We are flying back on August 8th and are now packing to go home. We will continue to update the blog page when we get back to NC so family and friends from far away can see Emma grow, so be sure to keep checking back. Below are some of our more recent favorite pictures.

Emma started crawling this weekend!!! It is really exciting to see her moving across the floor! We'll try to catch her on video soon.

She is standing much better now, but makes me completely nervous, so I don't leave her side.

She loves to clap her hands!

Here is Daddy's girl supporting NC State!

She loves her xylophone.

So for now, bye-bye from Emma. (she snaps her fingers at the end of her waves)

Interesting Facts about Ireland

1. Drive on the left (this is a given, but it was hard to get used to, luckily Gus did all of the driving here)

2. No screens on windows or doors: this is a problem b/c there is no air conditioning, so the windows and doors are kept open quite often, we have had bees, flies and other bugs in the house b/c of this.

3. Water in the house functions on a pump: if you don’t know this and your pump isn’t on, you can’t take a shower (we learned this the hard way)

4. No thermostats for heat, it functions on a timer (dumb method and it would be really hot and then really cold in our apartment)

5. It rains A LOT, doesn’t get very warm and they have very long days in summer and really short days in winter. (in summer it gets bright around 4:30am and get dark around 10:30pm)

6. Different terminology: Lift=elevator, Rubbish=trash, Toilet=bathroom (that is my favorite, right to the point), Chips=french fries, Crisps=potato chips. “Cheers” is said all the time and if something is good or great then it is “Grand!”

7. Sheep are smart. Somehow they always get out of their fenced in areas and end up on the side of the road, or a golf course as we have seen.

8. Men don’t wear shirts when it gets semi-warm. No matter what age, men go topless if the weather gets close to 70 degrees. Especially our neighbor across the way. I don't think he owns any shirts!

9. Potatoes are everywhere! You will get fries with lasagna here! Also they tend to serve 2 potatoes with a meal, so you order fries with a meal and they bring you boiled potatoes as well. When I asked Emma’s doctor what to start her on for solids, he said “Potatoes”.

10. “Guinness is Good for You”: this slogan is everywhere and when you live here, Guinness is what you drink. Gus and I both really like it now and hated it before we got here. I think they brainwash you.

Beautiful Weather!!!

We have had some gorgeous weather with temps in the 70s, so we took advantage of it and hit the outdoors! (we are really going to have a hard time adjusting to the 90 degree temps back home)



Here we are in an area of Dublin called Merrion Square. This features a beautiful park and brick homes with Georgian style doors.




We visited a stud farm (horse racing is HUGE here) and a beautiful japanese garden. Emma loved watching the horses.

There is a small park close to the apartment, so Emma and I have been going there daily. She loves to be outside and watch the trees.

Her hair is blowing in the breeze...