Our Little Helper

Lately Emma loves to be whereever we are and doing whatever we are doing.  She has become quite the little helper.  Here are a couple of videos, the first is of Emma helping Melissa rake leaves.  In the second, she is happily loading the dryer for me :)  She also loves to help us unload the dishwasher, she will grab a couple spoons and forks from the dishwasher and walk them over and hand them to us so we can put them away in the drawer.

And for being 17 months old, she does a very good job of cleaning up after herself.  If her sippy cup spills a little milk she will walk over to the paper towels and grab one then head back to the floor and wipe up her mess.  Well, she has learned that if she holds her tippy cup upside down and bangs the opening against the floor a little milk will come out.  So she will spill, clean, spill, clean, repeat.  Where she may be very good at cleaning up her milk, she is not so good at pulling off just one or two paper towels!  It only took 3 or 4 times for her to come running out the kitchen door with a ribbon of paper towels flying behind her for us to figure out that we need to take the roll off the holder and put it up where she can't reach it anymore. :)

Here is the video of Emma helping Mommy rake.

And one of Emma helping with the laundry:

She also is very helpful when it comes to search and rescue missions for lost and tossed pacifiers:

A nook has been positively identified.

I'm going in!!

That last photo cracks me up!  Her arms can barely reach over her head yet she still digs right in :)  What a joy.

With love from Minneapolis,

Jason, Melissa, and our little helper - Emma.  

Video Archive

I was going through my phone to clear out some photos and videos to make space for more of the same and found this gem.  It's a video of Emma shot on June 29th, 2012, which makes Emma just past a year old, in which she tries to eat everything (including her mothers finger) except for the yumminess that she's holding in both hands.  You have to see it for yourself to appreciate her persistence to get food in her mouth without using her hands despite all ten of her fingers being wrapped around delicious banana bread :)

Enjoy!
Jason, Melissa, and Emma

Halloween 2012

Another Halloween is in the books!  Last year as you may recall, Emma was an adorable cow.  This year we tried to stick with the barnyard theme so we decided a duck would be fitting.  Some of you may be saying, "Jason, a duck is not a barnyard animal."  Well I, along with Old MacDonald, disagree. ;)

Before Emma donned her duck costume we needed to take care of some pumpkin business.  In case you've never carved a pumpkin before, there are certain steps you need to take.

Step 1: Pick your pumpkin.

Step 2: Clean out the innards.

Step 3: Mark out your plan.

Step 4: Cut it out and enjoy the end result!

Step 5: Set them out for display.

Step 6: Light 'em!

Once the pumpkins were set out and ready for the night it was time to get Emma suited up for her ducky debut.  We loaded her in the wagon and took a stroll around the block stopping to say hi to our neighbor friends.  Emma loved it!  She was very curious to know what the heck all the people were doing out and about and why we were going for a wagon ride after dark.

One of my favorite Emma pictures of all time is from Halloween 2011.  It is a picture of Emma in her cow cos...well here it is:

I posted it in the blog with a caption that read, "moo bitches".  Well, Emma took that same sass and channeled it into her duck portrayal this year.  So I give you Emma's impression of Diva Duck:

Quack Bitches!

Happy Halloween :) 

Jason, Melissa, and Emma

p.s. There was a problem with a video on my last post, "A September to Remember".  That has been fixed so please click this link to go back and check it out.