5 years

yesterday was emma's 5th birthday. i can't believe that she is five years old already. i still remember the day she arrived - after 11 weeks of bed rest (8 in the hospital) waking up at 5 am not feeling right. After a few hours when the dr was able to come back to my room, she examined me and i was 5 cm dliated!! She said, "You're having a baby today." i started crying knowing i was only 33 weeks, and tom had left the hospital, and just plain being scared. all turned out fine. emma was born at 3 am, 7 weeks early. she had to stay in nicu for a day and in the special care nursery for 2 weeks. you would never know that she was a preemie when you see her today!

anyways, back to today . . . we had a great celebration for her 5th birthday. emma and mommy went to starbucks for a juice and then headed to sweet & sassy where emma got a mini-makeover. he was made over into a snow princess. later we met pappa and isabella for lunch at red robin. sthey sang "happy birthday" to her and brought her a fruit cup and fruit smoothie (to accommodate our food allergies.) :)after lunch, emma went with pappa to build-a-bear where she made a hello kitty stuffed doll and rode on the carousel. they also visited the disney store, and then they went to the park to "hunt for bears." they headed home for dinner, cake, and presents. emma kept asking, "are there more presents?" hmmm, i think i used to ask the same question at that age!!


we are so thankful to having emma in our lives. she is a light in our lives, and such a joy. she is so sweet, independent, creative, funny, and so loving. yes, i have to admit, the 11 weeks of bed rest were totally worth it!

tea party . . . in the bathroom!

today i went into one of the bathrooms upstairs and happened to walk in on a tea party that emma had set up. it was so funny and cute . . . she had set up several of her animals and had given them all a "treat" as emma explained to me. (the treat was a stacking cup from the bath filled with some of her hair bows!) and, i'm not sure if you can tell or not, but several of the animals have some of her headbands on . . . she got them all dressed up for the tea party. it was adorable!

dance recital

emma has been taking ballet and tap this year. and yesterday was her dance recital. the girls were so cute. here are a few pictures of her in her "princess dress" and at the recital.

Painted faces

today we went to a local festival. they had several kids' activities - emma loved jumping in "her castle" and sliding down the big slide, and she had a great time with the different crafts. she also really enjoyed face painting. she got her face painted twice. at the second table, the man painting faces was being funny when emma sat down and started telling her what he wanted on his face. emma laughed, and he kept going a little more. he was, of course, being funny, but . . . when he asked her what she wanted on her face, she looked at him totally serious and said, "no, i want to paint your face." the gentleman was so sweet and continued to play along with her and let her paint his face. of course, he had started out joking about it, and i laughed and said, 'you've asked the wrong person that question (about painting his face).' this is emma . . . i knew she was taking him literally. in the end, they both ended up with painted faces. it was very funny!

oh, and i was given a new list for tomorrow:
1. emma wants juice for breakfast
2. emma wants rice milk in the morning
3. put the swedish cinderella book in her backpack for swedish class

Black Eye

so, looks like we'll have a black eye for school pics at preschool tomorrow. i'm guessing it's not going away before then. what do you think? do i cake on the coverup tomorrow?!

3's at 4

emma had her four-year checkup the other day. this appointment was so different and kind of made me a weepy mom as i realized my baby is getting to be such a big girl. she had to answer so many questions about things she can do, different things she knows, and more. she also got to do a hearing and an eye test.

she weighs 33 lbs now and is 39 inches (or 3 feet 3 inches). makes it easy to remember with all the 3's! so cute that she's still in the 25th percentile for height and weight . . . always our sweet little peanut.

still just amazed how quickly these four years have flown by. they've been so wonderful. and sometimes i think that i can't even remember what life was like before we had emma!

celebrating 4

here are some pictures of emma celebrating her 4th birthday ...