Patterson's Farm 2010

Saturday we took Emma to Patterson's Farm and she had the best time. There were a lot of firsts for her. She rode a pony, went on a hayride, went to the pumpkin patch & picked her own pumpkin, petted 1 goat (yes only 1 goat, he licked her fingers & she was done), attempted 2 corn pits (major disliking, but no tears were shed - too noisey with all the other kids & "too hard" her words) and played/ran for 3+ hrs. I can not tell you how much fun she had. We may just have to make this an annual event.

Warning, there are a lot of pics.

Fleeing the scene, she was so excited to be at the farm.

First time riding a pony

Her goat friend, until he licked her hand

Riding a tracker

Trying out the mini corn pit, she was not a fan.

Horse swing, Mama was not a fan of this swing.

It was too hard to hold her on it.

Emma & Nana in the corn maze

Emma & Nana riding trikes

Driving the pirate ship

Trying out the big corn pit, still not a fan.

She wouldn't move or play in it.

Going on a hayride to the pumpkin patch

"This one"

"How about this one"

This was after it was all over & we were heading to the market to pay for our pumpkins.

If you look closely you can see Emma with her pacie in her mouth while its still attached to my jeans.

Creeper Trail 2010

We went on the Creeper Trail in Damascus, VA Saturday and had a great time. Its a 14 mile bike ride (or at least the part we did, I am not sure how long the actual trail really is) which is mostly down hill. Their peek time of year was this past weekend and it was just beautiful. I wish we had taken more pics, especially since there are none of Emma, shame on us.

Emma had a great time, except for the ride to & from VA. She is not much for traveling but what toddler is, especially since we don't have a DVD player in the car. Thankfully Nana went with us & entertained Emma has much as possible which kept the crying/whimpering down a great deal. I can't imagine what it would have been like without her in the back seat with Emma.

Anyway, Emma loved riding in the trailer behind Chris's bike. She was so excited she wouldn't even eat her lunch, all she kept saying was "ride bikes, lets go ride bikes". Every time we would stop while on the trail, we would hear a tiny little voice say, "ride more, ride bikes more." She has been asking ever since we got home to ride bikes. We just might have to either find a used trailer for Emma, or ask Santa to bring one.

This picture doesn't give this view justice, it was breath taking.

Us on the trail

Emma is actually in the trailer behind Chris's bike, but you can't see her

Here we go

Adoption News

No we haven't been matched, but we do have some news. We have monthly check-ins with our adoption coordinator & last week she had some news to share with us. She said a birthmother inquired about us from seeing our website profile http://www.lifetimeadoption.com/families/detail.php?ID=398. This is the first bite we have had, so we are excited but trying to not be too excited. There is still a lot that needs to happen before this process can proceed.

She isn't a birthmother who is contracted with Lifetime, so they don't have any info on her yet, except maybe an email address. So now Lifetime will send her a birthmother packet and hopefully she will want to contract with them and want to speak with us. Lifetime has told us many times that they get a lot of birthmothers from their websites (they have 100s of sites) to give themselves and adoptive parents the exposure they need to be successful in the adoption process. Maybe this is our birthmother reaching out to us. Please keep us in your prayers as we continue down this journey of adoption & for the birthmother or birthmothers we may meet that God will guide her/protect her (and the baby) through this decision and process.

Just on a side note, we have been asking Emma for the last week or so if she wants a baby sister or a baby brother and she is saying, "baby sister". Chris of course thought I couched her into that answer but she came up with that answer all by herself. Of course having another girl, would be much easier since we have all the clothes already but a baby boy would be great too.

23 months, almost 2

Last week Emma turned 23 months which means she is only a few weeks from being 2 yrs old. Our baby is almost not a baby anymore. She is talks, sings and dances all the time. One of her favorite things to do right now is "Ring Around the Rosie" which her aunt Beverly taught her. She is also singing songs from Bible Class but not the traditional songs, these are made up ones from the Cradle Roll Class. I plan to move her up to the 2 yr old class next month. I just didn't think she was ready in August when they had the class promotions.

She is crazy about Mickey Mouse right now. In fact that will be the theme of her birthday party. He ranks right up there with Elmo, which is a big deal for Emma. I really thought we were going to have to have another Elmo party.

Emma is trying new foods, especially if we are eating it, she asks for a bite. She has tried mashed potatoes, squash, meatloaf, tuna, peppers, pizza, pork chops, grits and she has actually liked most of these. So maybe her diet is going to broaden after all. Now she still has her staple favorite foods (hotdogs, she requests them at every meal) but she is at least trying new ones.

Emma is also in love with tenna shoes (aka sneakers to some). It started getting cooler so I put her in them & she doesn't want to wear her flip flops anymore, which she loved. She has found a new love, tenna shoes, but of course she won't keep them on her feet just like any other shoes we put on her.

Lunchtime Fun

One of Emma's favorite things to eat is PB&J & for whatever reason she feels the need to open up her sandwich to eat it. So that creates a lovely photo opp with jelly all over her face. I really should have taken these last week, she literally had it from head to toe.

Sorry for the blurriness, but I wanted to share one of her new poses, crossing her arms.

15 & counting

Emma is cutting a new tooth & I totally missed it, again. She has been acting like she was cutting one for a month or so & we kept looking but never saw anything. We were not looking in the correct place. We treally thought the next tooth would come in the front vacant spots but no. She is cutting one of her top back molars & it looks sore. I finally found it yesterday morning brushing her teeth after she had her hand in mouth all morning. This makes #15.