Emory Walking...again

Since my last post about Emory walking, I've caught her testing her new skills more often.  Now she will walk without our prompting when she is confident she can let go and make it to the next object in just a few steps.  Tonight at church Scott and I were able to encourage her to walk a little bit further than she is normally comfortable with.  I was so impressed!  This video is much better than the previous and really shows off her new ability :)


Even though I am so proud of her, I have absolutely cherished the amount of time she has spent scooting.  When Liberty started scooting we thought it was unique to her.  We had no idea until Emory starting doing it that it was actually a Haas family trait :).  I'm so glad I actually had the opportunity to enjoy this wonderfully unique characteristic this time around.  I guess this is true of so many things about Emory.  How precious to have my eyes truly opened to all the wonderful things I might have taken forgranted had it not been for my sweet Lilly.  I cherish the opportunity to take in so much more of both of my girls because I know how special each smile, each laugh, and each milestone truly is.

Thank you Lord for all three of my girls!

Just in case you haven't seen Emory scoot.  This is an older video though and she is much faster now!

The Orr Family Farm

Even though I hate the idea of winter, I love our Fall traditions.  The girls and I always go to a pumpkin patch in the Fall.  This year I wanted to go before it got too cold.  It was pretty easy this year considering our unseasonably warm weather.  This past Wednesday we visited the Orr Family Farm.  I was certain we had been before, but when we pulled up, I realized we hadn’t.  What a fun surprise.  We had so much fun!  The first thing we did was visit the petting zoo.  Emory loved it.  She wanted to kiss all the animals .

Liberty was so cute and festive in her pumpkin shirt and pink boots.

I love this one because it looks like she is just standing beside the sheep.  She is actually leaning against the stall wall.  So Sweet!

Liberty always loves the carousel.  I decided to ride with Emory as well.  Emory looks like such a big girl.  She is growing so very fast!  She thought it was very fun as long as I was standing with my arms around her.  Liberty also looks like such a big girl here. 

Next stop—pumpkin patch.  This is always one of Liberty’s favorite parts of Fall.  She loves getting her pumpkin.  She had in mind what the perfect pumpkin should look like.  She walked over the patch and then came back to the front where there were already cut pumpkins and found exactly what she was looking for.  Emory was also very excited about her little pumpkin.  You can’t tell in this picture, but I found Emory a very “special” pumpkin.  It is actually two little pumpkins that grew together.  Liberty thought this was so cool.

The jumping pillow was quite possibly the coolest thing I have ever seen.  We had so much fun.  All three of us jumped on it until we were too hot to jump anymore.  It was a blast!

I love these beautiful girls!

Emory is Walking!

She still isn't very good and she will only do it if we prompt her, but she CAN walk!  She has been able to make it half way across our dining room.  She can also stop and start going again.  When we are playing with her and walking her back and forth between us, she thinks its so funny.  She is still very unsure of herself and doesn't really attempt walking unless we are  with her and encouraging her.  Nonetheless, I am saying that at 15.7 months old Emory started walking :).  This video isn't great because I was trying to video and be prepared to catch her :).

Emory Ayn 15 months...ish

This update comes at a random time since Emory is 15.3 months old.  However, she is doing so many cute things lately that I just had to share.  One of my absolute favorites is that she has actually started trying to crawl.  I just think it is so funny and cute.  She actually started doing this a couple of months ago and practices randomly.  She is getting better and better but always reverts back to her "crawl" when she is tired of practicing :).



So, that brings us to the fact that she isn't walking yet.  I joke about it alot, but truly I am not worried at all.  I know she will do it when she is ready.  She is getting so much better and much more confident.  Just recently she has mastered pushing her train and grocery cart around.  This is quite an accomplishment since we have wood floors, which tends to make all of her toys roll much faster than she can walk.  It is oh so cute!



She is still just as funny as ever.  I think she really likes to hear herself laugh.  She is always doing things to make us laugh.  She has started playing peek-a-boo with us.  It is hilarious because when she yells "boo" she actually just screams at us.  Again, this leads us to the fact that she is also not talking.  She communicates with gestures and grunting (and sometimes a lot of screaming).  This leads me to believe she is very smart.  She knows exactly what she wants and how to tell us without using words at all.

She is sleeping much better these days.  She takes two naps a day and sleeps for at least an hour each time.  She is also sleeping better at night.  Even though she wakes up multiple times, she is usually able to put herself back to sleep and she rarely sleeps with us anymore.

She is also eating better than she has been.  She is completely off baby food (pureed stuff).  She refuses to eat it.  She primarily eats things she can feed herself.  This makes all of us happy :).

Her hair is growing so fast all of a sudden.  I can pull it up in little pig tails that are just too adorable.  Its almost too long for the one ponytail on top of her head.  It's starting to look a little crazy :).

She is still in a copycat phase that I'm sure will last a very long time.  She wants to do everything her big sister does.  She has also started pretending, which is priceless.

She LOVES stuffed animals.  Her favorite is a stuffed horse named Pig (I have no idea, Liberty named her).

She still LOVES her binky.  I have tried to limit how often she has it, but it has been a total failure.  She points and grunts for me to follow her until she has lead me to where it is and then "asks" me to get it for her.  She is so smart and cute I just can't resist.  I know I will pay for it later.

She is such a joy--perfect in every way :)!

Who made God?

This is a discussion that I have been having with Liberty lately.  The most recent conversation went like this...WARNING:  the following conversation contains highly intellectual and scientific content as well as deep spiritual and biblical insight!

Last night we were laying in bed and Liberty turned to me and said...

Liberty:  "Mom, I'm very confused."
Me:  "What are you confused about?"
Liberty:  "Well, I just don't understand who made God.  I'm mean, did someone else make him and if so, who made that person?"
Me:  "No one made God.  He has always existed." (See, deep spiritual insight).
Liberty:  "That is very confusing"
Me:  "You're right it is confusing." (Feel free to use that one on your own children if you find yourself in a similar conversation).
Liberty:  "Well, I just don't understand what everything was like before the Earth was made."
Me:  "It was all dark and God was just hanging out by himself." (Seriously, even I'm impressed with this answer).
Liberty: "I just don't understand."  (You can really see that I'm truly making a difference at this point).
Me:  "Maybe God was just sitting in Heaven before he created everything."
Liberty:  "But Mom, God CREATED Heaven.  The bible says so!"  (Ok, so she got me there, but can I at least take credit for teaching her the story of creation in school.)
Me:  "You're right.  You are very smart."

This seemed to be the end of the conversation because she didn't ask anymore questions and fell asleep.  I would like to think it was because she was deeply satified with my enlightened responses.  However, it is more likely she figured she could come up with something better on her own!

I love the my inquisitive little girl keeps me thinking and growing.  I don't always have the answer (or even a good guess), but we can figure it out together.