February Update

Pete is still really enjoying his acute rehab rotation and thinks he would enjoy working in this setting someday, if he had the opportunity. His current rotation ends March 15th, and he's been working hard on getting a big school project done. I'm thrilled that he's being proactive and getting this done now (before baby #2 comes)! Between clinical, his calling in Young Men's, and the project, he's had a busy month! One of my favorite times of the day is dinner, when Pete gets home from work and we get to be together as a family for a little while before Emery's bedtime and nightly studying starts. Another exciting thing for Pete included the fact that he managed to wake up early and exercise on quite a few days this month. This is pretty awesome considering how much of a morning person he ISN'T. :)

Pete and Emery's new thing is laundry basket rides. And fake, cheesy, smiles, apparently.

February was Emery's last month as a 1 year old! She loves to help me set the table for dinner recently. She surprised me one day by climbing on top of a dining room chair, placing napkins at each place setting, and putting the silverware on top of the napkin, without any guidance. Another exciting event for Ems this month was a fun little V-day party with her friends! We basically just turned one of our weekly play groups this month into a cookie decorating activity. Emery was in heaven, squeezing copious amounts of frosting onto sugar cookies and putting sprinkles and M&Ms on top. She's my little artist---loves coloring, play dough, painting, and chalk. I think we have our best conversations when we're doing artsy things together...those are the times she says funny things to me, like "Hey, crazy mama!", "I'm being silly!", "is there a brother in your tummy? It's growing up in your tummy!", "I miss my daddy. He's nice. And cute."

I didn't get any photos at our V-day party, but here's a photo of one of our many cookie-making adventures. Isn't that apron darling? It's even reversible! My mom made it for Ems and it's the perfect gift, considering she loves helping me in the kitchen

A not so fun part of our month was being sick for weeks. However, Emery napped everyday those two weeks (albeit in random locations like my bed or the couch). Her nap schedule has been SO off ever since January (like she naps sporadically or usually  not at all) and now she's starting to fight bedtime just as badly. It's kind of a major source of stress for me these days. Any ideas, all you moms out there?

She loves her little perfect-sized picnic table which we bought from the Scouts in our ward.

February flew by for me! It seemed even the occasional quiet days of staying home all day went by so fast. I had a fun Bring-Your-Own-Craft night with some friends. I also went to a fun, girls Bunco night, and did a RS activity where we made little valentines cookies-in-a-jar gifts for our Visiting Teachees. The little boy growing inside me preoccupies much of my thoughts these days. My mom sent me my first baby boy item...a cute blanket! It's gotten me excited about boy colors and boy stuff. I'm not making much progress in the name department, but may have come up with two that I'm excited about. Also contributing to my baby boy excitement is that I started babysitting a 3 month old little boy, once a week, and that has been fun. Overall, Emery is a good helper, and I think it will help in a small way to ease the transition of her little brother coming (although, if she doesn't start napping, I think she and I both will have a hard time surviving those days).

Assembly line set-up for our cookies-in-a-jar

refreshments I made: fruit tray plus some fun heart-shaped rice krispy treats on a stick. Wishing I put something fun in the bottom of those vases now that I see this photo. Thanks to Marie for taking pictures!

My almost-2 year old!

Since taking on a little babysitting, I got to pull out my baby swing and bumbo from storage.  The first time Emery saw the bumbo, she sat right down and exclaimed over and over again, "Another potty seat!"