Emily has adjusted to the life of a brother completely. She introduces Andy to everyone she meets at church. We cut down on the time that uses help. So the girls only come in the afternoons to play with Emily. We are so thankful for their help. They love Emily and Emily loves them. I use Andy's afternoon nap time to cook dinners. For the mornings, Andy normally get up at 7:30am. I put him down for a nap at 8:30-9:00 and get Emily up. Andy wakes up between 11:00-12:00. Then Emily goes down for her nap at 12:30pm. Sunday afternoons David has been taking Emily to FriendSpeak with him. Emily really enjoys it. Weiting told me that Emily helps to push the chairs back under the tables without anyone's prompting. I guess she must have seen others doing that. She helps to put the pencils back in the holes pews after pews after church service also.
Emily talks in (five or six words) sentences all the time now. She loves carrying conversations or repeating what she heard from others. She likes anything sweet. I made a chocolate cake for David's birthday. Emily asked for it everyday. One day David gave her a spoonful of cake. She took half spoon in her mouth. David held the other half spoon of cake. Emily said to him "Daddy, put it on my plate." After dinner, I took her bib off. She murmured "Mommy, it hurt" because the bib caught her hair. I love her soft and sweet voice.
Emily also knows the difference between mommy time and the time she plays with the girls. In the mornings she normally plays independantly, either reading on her own or playing with her toys. She seldom bothers me. In the afternoons she gets on all her toes to play with the girls. She told them "Mommy is busy!" One morning when I was washing bottles, I saw her running after the ball saying "I'm gonna catch you, blue ball! I'm gonna catch you." Another day, Andy was crying hungry while I was preparing for milk in the kitchen. Emily ran over to her brother and put her lovey blankie on Andy to make him feel better. David used to call Emily "Sugar". One morning when I walked into Emily's room, without looking Emily said, "Hi Sugar Daddy!" Every time when we walked by Andy's room, Emily puts her finger at her mouth and says, "Shhhh, Andy is sleeping!"
It was sweet of Angela and Dawn to bring their kids to see us and play for a while. I was glad to see that Emily was ready to share all her toys with others. David's cousin Gregg and Shannon came to see Andy. David's old friend Jeff Davis and our FriendSpeak friends Mike and Grace visited us also. Leslie came over and shared his LST trip photos in Brazil. We really enjoyed their company.
Gayla took Emily out for "Auntie Gayla's Day" twice. Emily had a great time with Gayla's family and Stolte's kids. One Sunday after church, Marv (Gayla's father-in-law) came over just to tell me that everyone in his family thinks Emily was the perfect child. He's never seen a kid that well-behaved in her age. He said he wanted to thank me for her. He also waited to tell David the same thing after David finish talking with others. Many people including the girls coming to our house told us nice things about Emily all the time. But we can't take the credit for our precious girl. We thank God for giving us such a blessing that literally brightens our life every day. And we thank our friends who love on us selfishlessly so our kids have a positive and loving take on the world around them.
Besides working hard and taking care of the kids, David has been working around the house recently. Our kitchen sink faucet broke. The leaking water damaged the board underneath the sink. Our friend David North offered help. They spent two nights to build a brand new platform and replaced the damaged faucet. That saved us hundreds of dollars. Next project will be fixing the errosion at the corner of our house. There have been several new cracks inside the house this summer. We may have to do something to prevent the foundation to have more problems.
We have trouble uploading videos recently. So here are some pictures:
Like Father, like son
A little talk in the morning
I love my brother
Go out shopping with Mommy
Auntie Gayla's Day with Mary Allen
With Lexie and Ryan
Building Lego with Ziyun
Fun with Cindy
Emily loves Andrea ("an-d-wa" per Emily)
Weiting says Emily should go to the Ballet school
Weiting encouraged Emily to play with our guest Ethan
Here they played together
Emily listened to Weiting's MP3
Emily would love to live in the wagon if the garage is not too hot
Emily is busy on the phone
Emily fed Big Bird her puffs(she took out the puffs and ate them after she found out Big Bird didn't like the puffs)
Emily changes diapers for her baby the first thing in the morning after she wakes him up
Emily read books on her own when mommy was taking care of Andy
Dance! Dance! Dance! Our little girl loves dancing. I'm considering sending her to a dancing studio before long
Happy Birthday Sweetheart!
During Labor Day weekend, Grandpa Jack, Amy, Kendall, and their kids came for the holiday and for David's birthday. Emily had fun playing with other kids. Unfortunately she got a bad cold on Sunday and Andy got a bad diarrhea on Saturday. It's been a stressful week as we are trying hard not to let Emily and Andy cross-contaminate each other. Hopefully they both will get over the sickness next week. Here are a few pictures from the Labor Day weekend as well:
Reading with Grandpa
Playing with Austin
Playing with Chloe
