Summertime Continued

There's nothing super exciting to report, but I thought I'd post something about this month anyway.  Dan's school year is going well so far.  They are on a modified year-round schedule, so the summer break was only 6 weeks long.  It seems like they were back in school before he could blink and everyone is already looking forward to fall break, but overall, he's happy with the way things are going.  My job ebbs and flows, and recently I've had to work extra days to meet deadlines. Things have slowed down again, and I'm thankful to be back to my typical three-days-a-week work schedule.

It's been hot in the afternoons, so on my days off, I've tried to think of places for Emma to play indoors.  We've gone to the library, friends' houses, Chick-Fil-A's indoor playground, and the beach during the cooler morning hours.  Another of my favorite indoor places to take Emma to "play" is Babies R Us.  They have most of their products out on display, and of course everything is for babies, so it's not like a typical store where there are breakable items within reach.  I just follow her around as she looks at and touches everything she sees!  It's okay if she plays on the display beds and cuddles with the stuffed animals and reads the board books.  I make sure she doesn't damage anything and that we put everything back where we found it.  It's a good way for me to see what she's interested in and what we shouldn't waste our money on.  She has no idea that we could potentially take these toys home and her attention span is still very short, so there really hasn't been anything that I felt like I just "had" to buy for her.

In other news, Emma caught roseola this month, a common virus for infants.  She had a mystery fever for two days, and then broke out in a spotty rash afterwards, which explained the cause of the fever.  It took her about six days to feel 100%, so it was a pretty exhausting week with her not sleeping through the night and being whinier than usual. She wouldn't eat anything for a few days, but would drink milk, so at least I knew she was hydrated and was getting some nutrition. She's all better now and we've been appreciating anew what a great kid she is!  Anyway, here are some photos from the month.

One exciting thing did happen, actually. One of our friends, Aimee Anderson, was on The Next Great Baker T.V. show with her teammate, Jose Barajas. They had viewing parties when the episodes aired, and we got to attend one. We caught the rest of the episodes online at home - they did some amazing work on the show!

Emma and I pick Dan up for lunch every day I'm off from work.  Chick-Fil-A is a favorite lunch spot since she can play on the indoor playground.  Once, we didn't realize we had gone on "dress like a cow day," and ran into some of Dan's former students. Emma got a kick out off all the "cows" she saw that day.

Our bay has a nice park and beach area that we visit regularly. 

Riding the dolphin at the park

We were excited to receive this homemade step stool/chair from Grandma and Grandpa in the mail a few weeks ago!

Emma was ready to try it out right away.

We've become friends with another mom (Jackie) and baby (Jemma) from our church who live a couple of miles from us. We try to meet somewhere local for a play date every two weeks or so. 

The girls had fun playing together at the beach. Look at those cute tutu bathing suits!

Aww, they love each other! Actually, I think Emma was trying to steal a rock out of Jemma's hand in this picture. Heh!

We've also met up at the library, where the girls went nuts over all the board books.

We were given this fun water/sand table.  I set it up with water inside the house so we could keep cool while she played. There are lots of benefits to having hard wood floors with a baby.

One of Emma's church friends, Norma-Jean, turned one this month and we went to her party. Her smash cake was incredibly pink and her birthday crown was so fun!

I got to attend a baby shower for our friend, Ann, who is expecting a baby girl in September.  It was fun to meet Adessa's baby girl, Adelynn, who was 6 weeks old. Lots of new girl friends for Little Miss Emma! 

A photo of Emma's roseola rash.  There were tiny red spots all over her torso, arms, neck, and cheeks.  They didn't itch or seem to bother her, but she definitely didn't feel well again until the rash disappeared.

Emma has developed quite a passion for this guy! We watched a lot of Elmo while she was sick, since it was the one thing that always made her happy.

We were playing at the park and I thought she looked so cute in all her pink glory. She's at such a fun age - we're really enjoying it!