On a much happier note, today was our first soccer practice. Check out our girl learning foot action!

I’m really excited. Emma is starting soccer tomorrow! Neither Doug nor I know a thing about soccer but Emma has shown a great affection for kicking balls and running. What a perfect time to introduce soccer to our girl! She loves being outside and the weather here is finally improving. I’m sure you’ll be getting a ton of new pictures and videos very soon!

Happy Father’s Day and Birthday Doug! We love you more and more every day!

After Mom finally got pigtails in her hair for the first time, she wasn’t too happy about it. But seriously, we’ve been having lots of fun with Emma lately. Despite showing us her mean face every once in a while, she’s getting sweeter and sweeter. She’s starting to mumble new words every now and then, which include blue, butter, yellow, purple, and poop!

Emma is also revealing newfound compassion for Jackson. Our dog has a minor injury on his neck, so Emma points to his neck, does the sign for “pain”, then gives him a big hug. It’s really cute.

She’s no longer into Baby Einstein, and refuses to watch any of the sign language stuff from them we had. She’s now into Mickey and Minnie Mouse, and Pluto and the whole clubhouse gang. Her doll is still a big hit, and often needs to come with her wherever we go.

As I type this, she’s sitting in her room, playing with one of her toys, singing a song to herself. Cam can’t believe our little girl is closer to 2 years old than to 1 year old now.

Christmas was so much fun this year. Emma loved opening and tearing the paper off the few gifts she received. Santa brought Emma a new retro pink kitchen. She loves making the kitchen part of her daily routine. She spends hours each day cooking up who knows what, but it sure is good! Ask her for a treat, and she’ll bake you a fresh cookie each time.

We’ve been fortunate to see lots of family over the past month and a half. Grandma Bowman visited from Ohio over Christmas. Soon after Christmas, Emma’s Nana and Papa Bowman visited from Florida. Both times, we went to the Bay Area Discovery Museum, one of Emma’s favorite places to play. By far the best place to take little ones under 40 inches! Emma loves it there.

The weather in San Francisco hasn’t been great lately. Lots of rainy days which match the many sick days both Doug and Emma have had lately. Poor Emma had it rough most of January. She had Roseola for a week, then she was better for a week, then sick again. Doug thinks Emma got him sick, I’m thinking he got her sick. To top off the sickness, Emma’s molars have been coming in. Four new teeth are coming in as we speak.

We recently bought Emma her first baby doll, which was a huge hit. She carries it wherever she goes, gives it hugs and kisses, and pushes it around and around the house in a tiny stroller. This doll is the first toy over which Emma shows a little bit of possessiveness. This is a good thing considering she usually gives away her toys to other children, and rarely keeps them long enough to play with them herself. We love he giving nature – but a girl’s gotta have some things she keeps for herself.

We’ve had several play dates with her friends Charlotte and Tessa. Emma really misses her friends down the peninsula, but we’re finally getting involved with some of the children around our neighborhood. We have a big playgroup a block away from our house on Tuesdays. Then one here at our house with about 4 other children on Wednesdays. Makes for busy weeks, and gives us something to fill our days until Doug gets home from work each day.

Emma has come a long way in the last two months. She is signing like crazy. She really wants to communicate, but she isn’t speaking much yet. She’s very quiet and shy around new people, not surprising if you know Doug’s quieter personality. But you should hear Emma’s laugh – it’s the best sound in the world. She loves to be tickled by the “tickle monster” and will gladly let you chase her around the house. Hide and seek is becoming a regular activity around here too. As for her relationship with Jackson (our dog), it’s much of the same. She now puts his ear in her mouth. In return, he puts his tongue in hers. Yuck! We don’t encourage this, but this is how they choose to grow as friends.

Now that we are finally settled in, we really love our new home. The location couldn’t be better. We have a park a block away, play groups for Emma, and friendly neighbors. As an added bonus, we can walk less than a half mile to coffee anytime we want. Definitely an improved situation compared with when we first moved back to San Francisco. We’ll take it.

Happy 18-month birthday, Emma. We love you very much!

Yep, we’re skipping month 13. It’s unlucky anyway right? Our girl is now 14 months old. I can’t even begin to tell you all the changes that took place over the last two months. But I’ll try to cover a few of them.

Emma is finally walking. She walks and walks and walks, then walks some more. Back and forth, round and round. When she gets really excited, she almost runs. It’s so much fun watching her waddle around aimlessly. We ask her to bring us things and she does. Usually she’ll fetch her socks or shoes that she took off and left laying on the floor somewhere. She loves carrying things around. She has a purple ball that’s almost as big as she is, and she’ll carry that ball around everywhere.

One of her latest discoveries is something we’ve been calling “giddyup.” We’re still wondering how she suddenly found this joy of riding on our backs or our laps as we bounce her up and down. Her love of giddyup confuses us sometimes though. Just when we think she’s coming to one of us for a hug, she’s actually looking for a lap or a back to climb on to get in a little giddyup!

We’ve had some really fun times this month. Doug and I took her to the California Academy of Sciences (a museum in nearby Golden Gate Park) one weekend where she ooohed and aaahed over tons of fish in the aquarium downstairs. She also got to see her favorite animal so far (penguins!) swimming and diving right in front of her face. She also proudly demonstrated for Dad how she knows to climb down stairs by backing down them feet-first.

I’ve been trying to use the video camera as much as possible. I managed to catch a fun moment the other day. We now know that Emma can say our dog’s nickname. Even though his true name is Jackson, we often call him Bubba. I asked Emma what the dog’s name is and she turned to me and said “Buh Buh” clear as day. Judge for yourself:

Not only is Emma starting to say a few more words. She started signing too. We took two different sign language classes, but Doug and I haven’t been the best with our followthrough. Out of the blue, she started doing the sign for “more” at dinner one night. Ever since that day it’s more of everything. More blueberries, more cheese, more giddyup!

She also loves books. She has three or four favorites. Each afternoon when she wakes up from her nap we read several books together. But we always read them over and over again. Just when I’m able to put one book down, she picks it right back up, signing “more” for me to start over again. Her never-ending quest for more always makes me laugh.

We still haven’t made many friends in the City yet. We’ve been going to both Gymboree Classes and My Gym once a week. I’m starting to see a few familiar faces, so hopefully we’ll get to know some new friends at one of those. Emma and I also starting a new playgroup on Wednesdays, where there will be about 7 or 8 other kids the same age as Emma. We still go to our Monday play date down on the Peninsula with our friends there. We sure do miss them.

Even though we’ve been on a roller coaster the last couple months, with the move to San Francisco and getting our new home established, Emma has been our constant. She is amazing. We look forward to each new day with her. As she learns new things, we get to experience them with her all over again, seeing them through her eyes.