I can't very well say, "Happy seventeen months, Emilia" when in a few days she will turn nineteen months old, can I? Instead, I'll just dump my favorite photos (who says I can't have nearly 100 favorites??) from March 1-30 and try to shock my memory into working order via these visual cues.
On several Fridays during lacrosse season, Emilia and I met Taylor at a centrally-located restaurant for happy hour/early dinner. That way, we got to see him earlier than if he had to fight traffic after practice to get home. Plus, who doesn't love happy hour?? Here we are at Maudie's - yum.
Playing outside with Daddy: "Ta-da!"
Emilia loves loves loves to sit and look at books, but her favorite book is the Bible! Before you think she's super-baby (or worse, that I'm super-mom), I'll confess: she doesn't really love to sit still and hear the stories we read her from the Bible each night - she's much more interested in the pictures and pointing out things like babies, boats, and sheep. She also likes to say "night-night" to Jesus when he's sleeping during the storm.
Playing on the porch with Dadoo.
I mean, is she a kid or what?
I love this dress Aunt Catie made for Emilia. I also love that sassy baby!
We have had a really beautiful spring in Austin this year. We have tried to take advantage of the great weather by doing a little yard work. Here Taylor was coaching Emilia on digging up weeds.
E loved getting dirty!
She also loved carrying the trowel all around the yard.
During Spring Break, we hosted a block party along with a few of our neighbors. About ten of us pitched in for a keg, then we rolled our grill out to the front yard and put flyers in people's mailboxes. We called it SXW55th (you know, since we live on W. 55th and our party was during SXSW week), and we actually had a pretty good turnout - maybe 40-50 folks.
The early crowd.
Emilia playing corn hole.
Grillmaster.
Mommy and baby kid.
Brenda and Justin, our across the street neighbors.
Justin came up with the name for our block party and helped distribute flyers.
He brought out his binoculars so everyone could get a better look
at the owl in the tree across the street from us.
The Katzes, who no longer live in our 'hood, made a special trip back for the party.
Here is sweet Jacob with a very, very sleepy Emilia right before I took her in to put her to bed.
"Don't leave me hangin', Jacob!"
Almost...
Spring Break in Slidell, Louisiana:
Unfortunately the Leachman Spring Break did not coincide with the Lee/Rusch Spring Break this year. For the overlapping weekend, though, my parents rented a house on Lake Pontchartrain and we met them there (with a quick stop in Houston on the way, of course!). The views were beautiful and the weather was perfect - nevermind the poisonous snakes, spiders and alligators ;). Thankfully the only critter to attack was a tick (and we actually never did see an alligator). The tick's victim was sweet Timothy, but his daddy saved the day and removed the tick, head and all, with some excellent coaching from the locals.
Next to the house was a big concrete pad - the sight of a former restaurant that was blown away during Katrina. The munchies and Emilia had a grand ole time riding their plasma cars (thanks for sharing, munchies!) and racing up and down on the concrete. Emilia was thrilled any time a boat came by.
Cousin "B" and Emilia
Emilia and Dee
Aunt Mere and Emmy (and coming in July, baby Richard!)
Copycat cousins
Watching for boats in Slidell with Pop
Playing airplane with Cappy (or, as Emilia calls her, "Bappy")
More boats!
Reading with Aunt Hea-doo. I went to Half Price Books
before our trip and loaded up on new animal books to keep E
entertained in the car.
Bonnet time!
For some reason, several of my photos from our Louisiana trip feature Emilia's belly,
like the one shown above. Blending in with the locals?
Pier walk with Cappy Bappy.
Ditching the bonnet for Mommy's sunglasses.
The Rusch family drove in on Saturday for one night only.
Here is E reuniting with Aunt Cay-Cay at a local restaurant
(and the site of the tick crime). Emilia was a little shy at first,
but she warmed up in no time.
E was fascinated by her munchie cousins.
Here she is straining to get a glimpse of the boys.
Playing in the rocks back at the house.
Sweet girl!
Plasma pile. And about the only picture of Gracie I got all weekend...
Emmers decided maybe a solo ride was better.
Also, she thinks she's like, 15 years old.
Those munchie cousins will wear a baby out.
And, as Aunt Cay-Cay says, "They'll wear a mama out, too!"
Rusch family photo
Rusch family candid
Daddy kiss
A beautiful sunset over the water!
Leachman family photo (notice E's belly?)
Back on the plasma car
Daddy tickles
Aunt Heather and PJ baby
Reading in the morning with Bappy
And then quickly outside to play with Uncle Matt and the boys
Our best attempts at a cousin photo
Almost...
Kissy kissy
Brother love!
The best attempt at a kids and grandkids shot
Another attempt at a Leachman family photo just before we hit the road for Texas
Aunt Heather came back to Texas with us for a few days, since it was her spring break,
and Emilia was so excited to have her in the car that she wouldn't take a nap until
Heather pretended to go to sleep, too.
and Emilia was so excited to have her in the car that she wouldn't take a nap until
Heather pretended to go to sleep, too.
One day on the way to drop off Emilia at daycare, I looked in the rearview
mirror and saw this movie star
Blowing kisses to Dadoo, who was in Dallas for a staff meeting
One of Emilia's favorite activities for the past few months
is looking through our Christmas cards for babies and dogs
She also loves to look at pictures of herself on our phones or the iPad
A few days before Easter, I pulled out the Easter eggs and a bucket for E to play with
A hat!
Is she gorgeous, or what?
One beautiful Sunday afternoon Emilia and I met
Ruth in downtown Austin for a free Heathens concert.
Emilia loved the music, but she especially loved watching
all the kids and dogs who were there, too.
Ruth loaned E an egg shaker so she could keep time with the band
Emilia loves to look at this picture on my phone and say, "Ruth! Ruth!"
Kissy kissy! Topless dining
A hat!
Riding her go-go backwards
This photo needs no caption
E loves to "unlock" the door with my keys
Mimi and Dee came to visit for Easter weekend,
and they accompanied us to the Triangle Easter egg hunt
This photo is possibly one of my all-time favorites!
Waiting patiently for the Easter egg hunt, which turned out to be a total disaster.
See all those people waiting to hunt eggs? Turned out there was only about one egg for every
15-20 people, which the organizers would walk around and drop, one at a time,
in front of a group of kids. You can imagine how well that worked out...
Thankfully sweet Emilia was just happy to be a part of the action!
Dee protecting Emilia from the scratch-and-grab crowd
The end of the hunt...
Thankfully, I brought an egg from home, which I was able to drop in E's basket during all the chaos
I know, I know - there are hardly any bluebonnets,
but we were all dressed up on Easter Sunday and I hadn't gotten
the requisite bluebonnet photo yet.
Easter Sunday family photo
We saved E's Easter basket for after church
Raisins!
Yum.
Blue goldfish!
E loved finding all the "treats" in her Easter eggs!
Lunch crowd at our third annual Easter Feast
Teej got attacked by a crowd with cascarones
Thankfully she's a good sport
Mommy and baby
Emilia wasn't into helping me play hostess all day, and I was having trouble
multi-tasking, so I told her to go read in her room for a bit. Sweet David Breeding
came to the rescue and read to her and kept her entertained so I could have a bit of a break.
Emilia and Evalyn Sharp, who is just three weeks younger than Emilia.
This photo was captured about 0.5 seconds before Evalyn flipped that plate of crackers
into the air. Thankfully, David Breeding came to the rescue again and caught the plate
before it hit the floor. Evalyn's mama and I could only stand there and watch.
