Christmas 2010

We had a nice, quiet, and white Christmas! Apparently the last time it snowed in Atlanta on Christmas Day was in the year 1882. Wow, that was a few years ago! We got up and had breakfast first. I needed my coffee and Emma needed to eat. We fixed fried chicken with jezebel sauce and biscuits. My grandmother had the tradition of making fried chicken on Christmas morning so we wanted to do that too. After breakfast, we took Emma Kate into the den to see what Santa had left for her. We had all her unwrapped gifts there with her stocking. She seemed a bit overwhelmed by all that new stuff just sitting there but she soon warmed up to it and started exploring. The chair was something that both her grandmothers bought for her. She just LOVES that chair. I think she feels like a big girl sitting in her chair. After Emma Kate’s morning nap, she opened some of her presents with our help. Opening presents was an all day activity for Emma. Everyone was so generous to her. Here some pictures from our holiday!

Emma Kate in her dress that Stephanie, Brian and Sylvie gave to her. We went to a Christmas party so this was the perfect thing for her to wear. Of course, she was the hit of the party.

Christmas Eve posing for the camera.

Emma's Christmas loot.

Not sure what to think of all the stuff!

She LOVES her new chair

Looking at the stocking that my mom, Carolyn knit for her. We each have the same stocking that my mom has made for us. We treasure them!

Emma loves her pillow dog.

Opening presents.

Outside in the snow with daddy. She was not sure what to think of those white things falling from the sky.

Our house with the snow fall before it got too dark.

Still snowing. I had no idea that the snow flakes would show up like this in the photo.

We hope that you all had a wonderful holiday! It is still hard for me to believe that we actually have Emma Kate as part of our family some days. We are so happy that she is and we look forward to many more holidays with her.

That's it for now. We will everyone a Happy New Year!!!

One drum, one shoe, one spoon and one baby girl!

Well, here are some videos I have taken recently of Emma Kate.

Playing the drums with daddy!

Trying to put on her shoe-

it is really cute when she tries to pick up her foot with her hand and put in in her shoe.

Here is a video of Emma Kate using a spoon to feed herself some mashed potatoes. She was pretty proud of herself!


We are just about ready for Christmas around here. We are expected to get some snow so I am glad that we will not be traveling. We can just stay inside, keep warm and watch the snow. Merry Christmas to you all!! We love you and look forward to seeing you soon.

Kathy, Cal and Emma Kate

Fun in December

Well, I have not posted in a while so I thought I better get my act together and post something. We have been busy getting ready for Christmas and trying to stay warm. We are having an unusually cold December here in Atlanta. BRRRRR! We have not been out and about too much because of the weather. We did venture out to the Midtown area one Sunday. It was a cold day and Emma Kate needed to bundle up. The warmest coat we have for her was actually a birthday gift from Brian, Stephanie and Sylvie! It is a light brown color and has little ears on the hood so Emma Kate looked like a little bear. We went to some shops that were set up in vacant buildings in Midtown for about 4 days. It was called Pop Up Midtown. We also went to lunch at Gordon Biersch. It was yummy. Here are a couple of pictures of Emma Kate in her coat.

We went to see Santa in our little town. I had a friend, Joan, that was the photographer the night we went. I was curious at how Emma Kate would respond to Santa. Joan told me that this Santa is in a much more relaxed atmosphere than at the malls and they won't hurry us through. Emma Kate surprises me almost everyday. She was not as frightened of Santa as I thought she would be. We got her up from her afternoon nap, fed her dinner, got her dressed in her pretty dress and went off to meet Santa. Here are some pictures from the night.

Meeting Santa!

Trying to get away from Santa.

Curious about Santa.

Thinking about crying.

Crying.

Rescued by mommy!

We have ventured out a few times in the cold just to get out of the house. We went to Babies R Us one cold windy day. It is amazing that Emma Kate was in the wind for a short amount of time ( and I did have her bundled up) but that amount of time was enough to chap her cheeks into a bright red. While inside the store shopping, she was being silly with a bib we found.

Well, that is about it for now. I will post at least one more post this year. I can't believe that this Christmas we will have our little Emma Kate with us. When Calvin and I started this process in December of 2005, we said to each other, next Christmas we will have our little girl with us when we celebrate Christmas. If we only knew at the time how untrue that statement would be! The wait was really difficult on us as we saw month after month and year after year pass us by without Emma Kate. Someone told me that once our wait was finally over, we would forget about how long the wait was. Part of that is very true! I have forgotten how difficult it was to say goodbye to each month and year knowing we were still so far away from Emma and to try to carry on with our day to day life. Another part of me does not really want to forget that part of our journey. The end result of becoming a family with Emma Kate was worth every second of our wait but the time we spent waiting and anticipating our life as a family made the end result with her so much sweeter to me. I am not sure it that makes sense to anyone but it does in my mind.

Emma Kate continues to grow and learn each day. She is so close to walking on her own. She will stand without support for longer periods of times and loves to walk with one hand held. She is feeding herself some each meal which she loves. She is also becoming fairly helpful with getting dressed and undressed. She will help take her pants off and raises her legs to help with putting pants and shoes on. She will now put her hands into her sleeve holes which is great for getting dressed and putting on her coat. She is still not saying too much more than babbling. It will be so fun to see what her first official word is. She has said mama and dada. She anticipates what will happen next on her routine. She picks out her books to read at bedtime. She loves to give kisses and hugs. She is working on blowing kisses.

As we approach the holiday season, we want to wish you all a Merry Christmas! We cherish and love all our family and friends and thank you for your continued love and support!

First Birthday Celebration- November 28, 2010

We got back home from our trip to Nashville on Saturday.  On Sunday, we were all a little tired but it was Emma Kate’s birthday so we had to celebrate!!! After Emma Kate’s morning nap, we went to lunch and then to Toys R Us. We bought some birthday toys for Emma Kate. After her afternoon nap, we ate dinner and had another cupcake. She was like a pro with this cupcake but I did remove some of the icing so she would not get overwhelmed. She really seemed to like it and enjoyed eating some of the cupcake. It was a great day and we just can’t believe that she is 1 year old. We are looking forward to celebrating many more birthday’s with our precious little girl! Here are some pictures.

Emma Kate with her birthday loot!

Emma Kate ended her night by playing and walking with her dinosaur. She loves this guy and gets so excited walking around the house with him. She will be walking on her own really soon. I predict she will be walking by Christmas.

Thanksgiving & Pre Birthday Celebration in Nashville

It is amazing to think that Emma Kate has been a part of our life now for over 4 months. We waited so long for her and now she is a part of our family. She is such a perfect fit for us! Every year at Thanksgiving, I have always thought about how lucky I am. I have a wonderful immediate and extended family, I have a wonderful husband, we have a great life, we live in a great house in a wonderful neighborhood, and I have wonderful friends. This year is different with Emma Kate. I am still thankful for all those things but the fullness in my heart for all those things now that Emma Kate is with us is just magnified. It is hard to explain but I am sure that many of you know what I mean. I probably don’t say it enough but I love and appreciate each and every one of you!
For Thanksgiving this year, Calvin, Emma Kate and I went to Nashville where my brother, sister in law and kids live. Usually my mom and stepfather come to Nashville on Thanksgiving for the day and we have a wonderful feast and enjoy the day together. This year was a little different. We had one Thanksgiving meal in Nashville on Wednesday night cooked by Erica and Douglas. It was wonderful!! The next day (Thanksgiving Day) we all drove to Memphis to spend the day there with my mom and Bob. We all went to lunch at the Dixie Café for our Thanksgiving meal. We all sat around this big round table and enjoyed the food and each other’s company. After our meal, we all went back to their house and visited some more. It was also Bob’s birthday so we celebrated that too. This was mom and Bob’s first chance to meet Emma Kate. Emma Kate was quite the charmer and really seemed to enjoy the day and visiting with everyone. We had to get back fairly early due to a big rain storm. It found us and rained on us for most of the trip back to Nashville.

Friday was a fun day! Since Emma Kate’s official birthday was coming up but we would be back home then, we decided to celebrate her birthday with everyone in Nashville. My niece Katie is learning Chinese in school and learned about a great thing that is a custom in China to do on a child’s first birthday. You pick out a number of items that represent various professions, put them all out and then let the child pick one. The item the child picks could be their chosen profession in life. We knew about the activity but Katie planned it with Erica. Friday night, Katie and Erica put all the items in a big circle. We went up to the room and Katie told us what each item was and what profession it represented. There were various professions like chef, accountant, sports related, law enforcement, insurance, business professional, and writer. Emma Kate was put down in the middle of the circle, she took a quick look around and headed straight for the paper money which represented the business professional. We will have to see if that comes true later in life for Emma Kate’s profession. Next, we decided to let Emma Kate enjoy a birthday cupcake. We took her top off and put her in the high chair. We sang Happy Birthday and gave her the cupcake. She has never had anything like that before and thought it was fun at first. When the icing was on her hand, she decided she did not like it. She loved everyone singing to her though! Thanks to the Nashville crew for Emma’s birthday celebration!!
Here are some pictures from our trip!

Mom and Emma Kate hanging out!

Playing at Grandma's house

Circle of career items for Emma to choose from.

Katie putting Emma in the middle of the circle.

Emma making her choice...business professional!

Getting ready for her cupcake!

Just getting started with the cupcake

Yummy!!

She was not sure about the icing because it stuck to her hand.

 
That's it for now!

Crackers and Dinosaurs!

What do crackers and dinosaurs have in common you may ask? Emma Kate, of course! I wanted to post a couple of videos and pictures on this post.

The first video is of Emma Kate holding and eating a cracker. We took this video while on our trip to Alabama. We stayed at a new casino and were eating at the buffet. I went off to get some food and came back and Emma Kate was holding a cracker and taking bites of it. I almost dropped my plate!!! We have been working on her picking small items up to eat (like goldfish and cereal) but she has had some difficulty with that. Calvin just decided to hand her a cracker and see what she would do! I have to say that she was really proud of herself.

The second video is of Emma Kate using her brand new push toy to walk. She has only had this for 2 days but she really loves it. Tonight, her walking was much more controlled. I think she will be walking on her own very soon. The dinosaur also turns into a riding toy. Sylvie has the same toy too!

Here is a picture of Emma Kate with her dinosaur too.

I will post again after Thanksgiving. We have so much to be thankful for this year. So much has changed since last year! I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe holiday!

Much love to each of you from Kathy, Calvin and Emma Kate

Sylvie came to visit us!

Well, of course, Stephanie and Brian came too! Emma Kate was so excited to have them come for a visit! It is amazing to see how much both girls have changed. Sylvie's hair is so much longer and looks so cute with her little bows. She is so close to walking by herself. She will walk with one hand held and she is constantly on the go. We did lots of fun things while they were here. We went shopping at the outlet mall (the girls always need new clothes!), met some of Brian's family for lunch, ate some yummy food at our local restaurants and played around the house. The adults even went out for a nice dinner while some friends of mine (Thanks to Joan and Nell) kept watch over the house. We put the girls to bed before we left. It was my first time away from Emma Kate with Calvin since we have been home. We had a great time during their visit and vow to get together a couple times of year so the girls can grow up together.
Here are some pictures from the visit!

Stephanie and Sylvie

Emma Kate

Too cute...sharing toys

Sylvie's turn on the ladybug

Emma's turn on the ladybug

Sylvie reading...she LOVES her books!

Waiting for our food

Playing with Sylvie

Kisses

It is incredible to know that Sylvie and Emma Kate have this bond together and we will work hard for them to foster that bond and friendship. We feel so fortunate to have traveled to China for our experience with people who we know we will be forever friends with! We love you Stephanie, Brian and Sylvie!!!

First Family Trip

We took our first official trip as a family at the beginning of November. We went to Alabama for a friend's wedding but made a trip out of it so Emma Kate could meet her grandmother, aunt, uncle and cousins (Calvin's mom, sister, brother in law and their children). Emma did a great job on the trip but had some difficulty getting to sleep at night. She stood in the crib and cooed and babbled trying to get our attention. She is not used to sleeping with us in the same room. One night, she did not go to sleep until 11:30 or so. We did not sleep well either because we heard every move or sound she made in the crib. Other than that, we had a great trip!
Here are some pictures from the trip.

with cousin Taylor

with cousin Trent

with Taylor and Trent

with her grandmother Nell

with Taylor, Aunt Connie, cousin Dalton, and Calvin

playing with Taylor's cell phone

joy riding