We're walkin, yes indeed!

All over town. If you live in Peekskill then you've seen us because we are out, and we are about! 

All about this painting of an orange cat in the window.

All about how great and comfy this new back carrier is.

Especially all about these intense yellow flowers, she dropped her peanut butter and banana sandwich! (Hi, Pony Boy!)

"Bvvvv!"

And all about the playground! We tried the playground at Depew about a month ago but Emma's new legs meant stumbles and falls, and landing in the mulch. We put playground on hold until we were invited to join our friends to play on Monday. Emma was walking, confident and sure footed, all over the playground. We had such a nice time that we went back the following morning.

..for swinging! Emma wasnt fond of the few times we have put her in the swings, but yesterday she walked up to the swings herself and asked that she be helped up. With a point and a "Baa?" I lifted her into the seat and buckled her in... And she enjoyed it :)  

 

Digging in the sand.

We're getting in a habit, here... Went back to the playground this morning at 830, had the place to ourselves then made some new friends, and enjoyed playing in the shade and cool morning air. Just wonderful way to start the day.

The view from the top of the tall spiral slide that Emma loves to crawl up to. We slide down together!

Emma at the top with me. Featuring her latest scrape :(

After an hour on the playground we took a little walk on foot up a hill that led us to what used to be a kiddie pool. Emma had to sit in the leaves and poke them with a stick. Since we've been giving her a fork with her meals she has been testing the forklike poking capabilities of many different things, sticks especially.

Don't poke me! 

(Why does her little finger look so strange?)

At the top of this hill there was a beautiful view of Lake Mitchell. I was taking it in but Emma was pulling my hand to head down the other side of the hill, eager to go down here:

Do you see the geese? I didn't either at first. But Emma spotted them like she had planned on it all morning, and she wanted to go say hello.

Hellooooo!

Come back here!!

And heading home, with spilled peas and bare feet. All in a morning's work!

One year photos at the studio

Monday.

After a change while I was washing my hands, Emma sat up on the changing pad. She pulled a book down from the shelf and opened it up, looked at the pictures, "read" to herself, flipped the pages, pointed at the pictures, "read" aloud. Afraid I'd disturb her, I didn't say a word. Didn't join her, didn't even walk behind her out the door. Just stood there silently in the bathroom, watching her reading Harry the Dirty Dog. I hope this is a love of book developing! We read to Emma each day and though she has access to her books she will usually wait for us to initiate a story time. She's now starting to pick up the books and go through them herself.

We headed to the waterfront to catch a train to the city to visit Patrick at work. Being early, we had time to follow the herd of geese (yes, a HERD) as they flocked to the shore. Emma was delighted by all these geese, especially when the flock passed right around us. Geese all around!

Playground before the train:

On the train:

Pictures from our trip to the studio:

one

What a busy busy birthday weekend we had! Emma's birthday was on Friday, Patrick took the day off and we celebrated Emma's very first birthday together. We took a trip to stepping stones, stopped at whole foods for her birthday cake and party food, and even found time to play in the park before bedtime. A full day indeed!

Saturday was early, and hectic, and long, and special. It was Emma's first birthday party, it was the first time Patrick and I have really hosted a large group, and a lot of other first. Like the first time I have hung streamers! It was Emma's first time climbing onto the picnic tables- imagine my surprise watching her casually climb up on to the seat and then the tabletop, sitting cooly like it's something she does regularly. My decorating was often interrupted by spotting Emma going up or down the tables but I had to let her climb. She's so interested in scaling everything around her that there's no stopping her. "Choose your battles" I suppose!

I made Emma's cake earlier that morning. It was a simple recipe of flour and banana with a cream cheese icing which didn't work out so well- at least not as well as in the pictures from the recipe! It was still a cute cake that Emma tore into and enjoyed. 

(http://www.fitmamarealfood.com/babys-first-smash-cake-healthy-no-sugar-banana-cake/)

Above is the $15 cake we got from whole foods. We found this cake as we were disappointedly brainstorming what to do with the $40 cake we just picked up for the bakery that was not what we wanted:

I think ours turned out much nicer! 

Lazy Sunday: Playing in the front, A walk through Depew, and the Annual Firefly Festival. 

Look how dry it is in the woods compared to a month ago. We need more rain! 

Emma received lots of love the entire weekend from everyone around us. It was certainly a very special first birthday. Here's to many more!