Taste of spring

It was a gorgeous weekend! On Saturday it got up to the mid 60s and at one point, we were even walking around outside without coats and eating ice cream! Here’s what kept us busy this weekend:

After gymnastics, we ran a few errands to kill time before our hair appointment -- that is, Emilia and my hair appointment. The last time I got my hair cut, we brought Emilia in to my hair dresser, Andrew, to trim her bangs. He has openly said he hates cutting kids’ hair, but he was willing to try as long as she didn’t move a muscle. Well, she didn’t – she was perfectly still and he did a great job! So, we brought her back this time to clean up the mullet that was growing in the back of her head. She again was as still as a statue. By the end of her haircut, Andrew was giving Emilia kisses and showing her off to his colleagues. Emilia was trying to climb back into the chair for “more, more!” While I finished up with my hair cut, Eric and Emilia walked to McDonald’s so that daddy could get a snack and Emilia could get the happy meal toy.

After our hair cuts, mommy and Emilia were now hungry so we went to Nielsen's Frozen Custard in Old Town Vienna for yummy sandwiches and yes, even custard! We walked around the Old Town and then headed home for naps.

After daddy and Emilia finally woke up, we pulled out the swing for some mid-winter "weee" time. Then, we broke out the jogging stroller and went for a walk on the trail that backs up to our neighborhood. The bridge over the creek has washed out many times, so we had to do a little bouldering to get across. Here is out little hiker-to-be scaling the rocks. Emilia saw lots of doggies and we even took a pit stop at a playground on our journey.
Hurry up, spring!

Not quite Dominique Dawes yet

On a recent post, I said that I thought Emilia was ready for gymnastics. Well, it just so happened that a new session at Loudoun Gymnastics was starting up two weeks ago, so we took the plunge and enrolled her.

This past Saturday was our second Mommy, Daddy and Me class. Why are you only hearing about this now, you ask? We brought our camera to the first class and had every intention of capturing Emilia displaying her raw gymnastics talent. However, there was not even a second to snap a photo because it took both Eric and my full attention to keep Emilia somewhat in line during the class (BTW - she was the only kid in the class to have both parents there... can you say overkill?!). Five minutes into the first class and I was ready to ask for my money back – not because the class wasn’t good, but I just felt like Emilia was way, way too young. After all, the class was for kids 18 months to 3 years, which is a big age group. And, she had just turned 18 months five days earlier. But, after a disastrous start where we didn’t follow any of the instructions, we moved on to some things Emilia could sort of do (and I’m being very generous here… mostly it was mommy and daddy picking her up and and pretending she was jumping). Anyway, they had the kids run through an obstacle course type thing that even included bouncing in a bounce house and sliding down (the highlight). We moved on to trampolines and more obstacle courses and then jumping into the foam blocks. We left having mixed feelings: Eric thought it was the best thing for her and I was already dreading week #2.

In the spirit of setting a "never-give-up" example for our daughter, we returned for week #2. We're not exactly banking on a gymnastics scholarship just yet, but this week was definitely an improvement. The beginning of the class was still a joke. Each kid has her own jump rope which starts out being in a circle on the ground. The kids have to jump in and out of their jump rope, make their jump rope look like a smiley face, walk around shaking their jump rope like a snake, etc. -- disaster.

But after we moved on to a new obstacle course and jumping exercises, it got better.

Emilia doesn't know how to jump yet, so basically we were throwing her off a platform into a pit of foam blocks. I'm sure we looked like great parents as Eric tossed her off and I snapped some pictures. We've got eight more weeks of this!

A new hiding place

Last weekend, we were over the Hills’ house with the Vaughans and Nathan and Clara were playing hide-and-go-seek with Wendy (poor Wendy). Emilia didn’t really get what was going on, but later as I was spending some time in her room cycling through her next round of clothes, she managed to climb into her tall dresser to “hide.” This kept her entertained long enough for me to reorganize her dresser, so I was excited about that.

18-month antics

Emilia turned 18 months old yesterday! I waited until today to post so I could include the official report from her 18-month check-up today.

• Weight: 26 pounds 7 ounces
• Height: 32 inches

Sounds like she is growing and developing on track!

Before we went to the doctor, she kept saying, "doctor, doctor" and was really excited. That wore off very quickly and she turned really shy when the doctor came in to examine her. I'm sure he thought we were exaggerating when we told him about all of Emilia's vocabulary because she barely said a word! The visit did not end well, as she got one shot and had blood drawn from her finger. This was the most hysterical she has been after a shot. Even milk and a sticker couldn't console her. Can't wait until next time!

Here's what Emilia is up to at 18 months:

• She is all about pictures, or "pitures." She had a complete meltdown this morning because we didn't have time to let her go into our office and look at photos on the computer. Now I have to fight for time on the computer with Emilia, too?!?
• The good news: Emilia can and does respond to questions now with something other than “no!” The bad news: the response is almost always “yeah” instead of “yes.” I guess our terrible habits are rubbing off on her!
• Even though she hardly watches TV (I promise!), she now hands us the remote control and says "Elmo!" Apparently Elmo is the only thing on TV.
• I see beauty school in her future. She is obsessed with brushing her hair and everyone else's hair, not to mention the hairdryer. The only thing she doesn't seem to love are these new barrettes daddy bought her. We're still working on those.
• Am I creating a germaphobe? Emilia loves, loves, loves to Purell her hands. If she sees me reach for it, she runs over and says "hans, hans." I guess that's not necessarily a bad thing during flu season.
• She has started to carry a tune. She roughly knows the start of the ABCs and chimes in “e-i-e-i-o" during "Old MacDonald. Her best singing arrangement is "Jesus Loves Me," which goes something like “Jeshush Jeshush Jeshush Jeshush Jeshush…” throughout the entire song. Click on Our Videos to watch.
• Favorite foods: eggs, rice, cous cous, chicken ("bawk, bawk!"), "patta" (pasta), yogurt ("gogurt") and most fruits and vegetables. But really, there's not much she won't eat.
• Favorite pastimes: roughhousing with daddy, eating, sliding ("weee!"), bouncing ("buntz!")dancing on command, reading books, (finally, she can say "book" instead of "gook"), going to "chuch," and playing with her stuffed animals and baby doll ("here ya go, sissy" she says to her baby doll as she puts a hat on her, of course).
• Things to look out for: She's starting to run, attempt to open doors and climb onto things more (like a chair, which she used to climb onto the kitchen counter. Great.).
• Her growing vocabulary: open, outside, go, church, friends' names, body parts, clothing and accessories, food, dinner, stuck, animal crackers... new words every day!
  

Here was Emilia at 2 weeks old:

And on the same chair and with the same lamb at 18 months:

Crazy how fast time flies!

As a side note, we woke up to snow this morning! It wasn't a ton, but it was the most we have had all season. Emilia spent a long time staring out the window saying, "no!" (that meant "snow"). And, she also learned the color white.

She's electric

After church on Sunday, we went to meet up with our friend, Steph, at Coastal Flats in Tysons Corner for lunch. Right in front of the restaurant was a furniture display from Crate and Barrel or something. I’m sure Crate and Barrel intended for it to be an advertisement and not a jungle gym, but nonetheless, Emilia had a great time rolling around on the couch. She generated so much static that her hair looked like a porcupine! See below from my phone:

Free and fabulous

The play area at Dulles Town Center mall is a great, free place to spend a morning in the winter. Even though it was super crowded when we went on Saturday morning, Emilia burned some energy climbing and sliding around in the airplane-themed playground. After that wore her out, we took a ride on the mall’s train. We bought a 10-ride pass for $10. I guess I know what we'll be doing the next several weekends! Here's our fearless girl sliding head first!

She's an animal

Couldn't pass up posting Emilia stylin' in leopard print...

With gratitude

Last week at small group, Wendy planned for the girls to spend some time making gratitude journals. These books are intended to record all of our many blessings -- or else we quickly forget them! Here is the Korsvall family gratitude journal. First item: thanks for our great small group!

Get this girl into gymnastics

Recently Emilia has been doing this move where she puts her head down on the ground and basically makes a triangle with her body and the floor. It looks like she wants to do a somersault, so finally, Eric just helped her do one. That was a big hit (“gen! gen!”). We’re looking into little gymnastics classes for her, where I think she has that natural, fearless instinct to do great!

Sweet tooth

Emilia takes after her daddy in almost every respect, but I finally found something she can thank (or blame) me for: my sweet tooth. She has had very limited exposure to chocolate, but it sure has left an impression on her. We’ve had some dishes with candy in them since the holidays, and even though she hasn’t had any of it, she constantly points to them and says “teat” (treat). I am pretty sure I heard her say “chocolate” a couple of times. And, well, this photo says it. I made Megan’s phenomenal banana chocolate chip bread over the weekend and let’s just say Emilia was a big fan.