Emme Belle and Myrna Belle

To Soph and Emme- this is Grandma Myrna. To me, she's one of the most special people in my life. She was a friend of my mom's when I was young and we just kindof clicked right away. I grew up calling Myrna every Thursday night- begging her to let me spend the night with her on Friday and spend the day with her on Saturday. And most of the time, she gave in and let me come over and play... and talk her ear off... even if she had more important things to do. Myrna always made me feel so special. I remember some friends, The Knights, would throw a birthday party for me each year and they would tell me I could invite 1 friend... only 1. Now, I had a lot of friends my age, but the one friend that I wanted to be there, more than anyone in the world, was Myrna. Weekends with Myrna were so much fun! I got to go to bell choir practice, go to Jefferson and Grand Junction, go out for ice cream, split a subway sandwich :), be a clown in a parade, visit her neighbors and friends, go on walks in the cemetery to see Jack and Jill (the swans), and ring all of her bells in her house-- probably driving her nutty. Christmas parties were a ball at her house-- guessing the gifts and singing Christmas carols together. So many memories... man, I looked forward to visiting Myrna. Myrna never missed a concert, graduation, or party. If I was sick at school and mom couldn't come get me... Myrna came. I can't even express how much Myrna means to me (and my family). She is just as wonderful now as she was back then... still making me feel special and loved-- whether it's calling just to check in on me, letting me count the items in the "guessing jar" or throwing me a suprise half birthday party lunch. We love her so much... and she "sorta likes us too." :) And that is why Emmersyn Belle was named after one of my very best friends, Myrna Belle Henderson.

Dressing like a grandma

Grandma Gus gave Sophia a few of her sweet little dresses from when she was a little girl. Sophia and I had so many giggles playing dress up with these outfits and the bonnets. Here are some of the pictures from our fun.

human sponge

Just an update on what's going on around here.

Sophie's doing great! She is 15 months old now and continues to "wow " us everyday with all of the new things she has learned and picked up. She is like a sponge-- everything we do, she does. Everything we say, she tries to say; facial expressions, body language, moods... everything.

She is also beginning to have quite the little vocabulary.
Here are the words we've heard her say so far-- although they may not be understood by anyone else: :)
dada, daddy, mama, papa, nana (meaning both grandma and banana), hi, cookie, eyes, nose, mou (mouth), cracker, sit, up, done, please, no, yesssss, book, puppy, gog (dog), belbow (elbow), ear, shoes, socks, pop, juice, wawa (water), bop, bonk, kiss, ni-ni(night- night), suit (swimsuit), Oh no, oh my, hum (ho hum), n-ter (Hunter.. her cousin), Ella (her friend), watch, whasat (what's that), thereyar (there you are), peek, boo, gurt (yogurt), ish (fish), bye-bye, uh-oh, saya (Sarah-auntie), bubbles, ball, gitcha (get you), and I'm sure I'll think of more as soon as I post this.

We have also been working on animal sounds; Sophie can now make the animal sounds for the following animals: lion, monkey, sheep, horse, cow, cat, dog, bird, chicken, snake, duck, and occasionally a donkey-- although I've yet to actually get her to do all of the animals on video and she refuses to do it for people when I want her to... especially Jacob.

Hi Mama

I think this rates about a thousand or so on the adorable scale. :)

And yes... I know. I shouldn't tape her while driving... but technically I was just holding the camera behind me hoping that I actually got her on camera. So, it's okay, right? :)

Rock-a-bye teenager

I've been working really hard on transitioning Sophie to putting herself to sleep at naptime, rather than me rocking her to sleep. It's hard for me because that's my favorite part of the day (well, when she's not grumpy of course). That's our time to snuggle and giggle and tell secrets... :) but I don't want to be rocking a 16 year old Sophia to sleep some day, so we've got to change it sometime. :)
Well, in my previous post (the video), you'll see how I found her the other day sleeping. She was like this for about 10 minutes before I could even find my camera. Sweet baby.

giggle fritz

After the art festival we all went out for ice cream. Ice cream hypes her up. This is the fun we had. :)