Michael Jackson

Steve put Emily in her Jumperoo this evening, and turned on some Michael Jackson, and she just started dancing along and doing all these moves....I had to run and grab the camera - not video camera, my regular digital camera, so the quality and light are not ideal, plus for some reason the video blurs in and out....who knows. But, I just had to capture the moment(s). The King of Pop would have been proud!! :)

11 Months

Hard to believe but our little girl is 11 months old, she'll be one in a couple of weeks! She continues to learn, grow, and explore. She can now say "juice" and "what's that?" in addition to "mama", "dada", "hi", and "bye-bye" (oh, it sounds more like buh-bye when she says it :)

Emily absolutely loves books. Here's her pointing out a baby in one (babies are probably her second favorite thing in the world after books)

And she likes to get them off the shelf herself!

Playing with blocks & links:

She was giving her Pooh bear a nice ride in the swing but by the time I came in to take the picture, the bear was thrown off the swing - I guess she was over it ;)

Emily's new favorite entertainment is digging in the kitchen cabinet that has all the plastics - tupperware, containers, etc. Here's a whole series of her enjoying that new activity.

Bananas - a favorite food (and a crazy pigtail on top :)

This dress was given to Emily by her aunt Anya, my cousin from Russia.

These next 2 pictures are fuzzy but I had to post them. Emily thinks the phone is a great invention and always gets excited when it rings. If she sees my phone, there is no claiming it back - she will just sit there, put it to her ear, and babble, trying to imitate "hello" and our conversation.

Uncle Stan was in town last Saturday and he stopped by. Emily and Stan had SUCH a great time together. He got genuinely involved in all her games and activities, and she really appreciated that. They developed quite a bond!!

Ahhhh.....what can be better than an ice cold DP in the summer? (Don't worry, I washed out the can and she didn't even get a taste of it - all in due time!! :)

Monday June 22 Steve and I had to go to Houston to take care of some of my Russian paperwork. Things went well, and I will have my new passport in 3 months. The trip was long and tiring (we drove) but I really liked Houston from what we saw. I had to take a picture at the Minute Maid Park (see below) and some of our hotel because it was so cool - we stayed at the Magnolia downtown. I'd like to return one day for fun and not have to rush anywhere. But, even with the rushing and the stress of dealing with government officials, Steve and I both enjoyed our little getaway.

And finally - VIDEOS!! I don't know why they uploaded side to side like this, but who cares.....one is of Emily blowing kisses, and the other - playing. You can tell she gets excited when she sees the camera and reaches for it, and your video is gone at that point....but when she was playing, I managed to catch her for a few seconds before she "spotted" the camera so I like how candid it turned out. Enjoy!!

Shower

This past Friday, we had a baby shower at work for Jennifer - she is due July 3rd, one day before Emily's first birthday!!  Jennifer and her husband Daniel are not finding out the sex of the baby, so we tried for a generic "baby" theme and I think it turned out cute!!

Jennifer's cake:

And here's our mommy-to-be:

Some of the guests at the shower:

Some of our group (this picture is horribly out of focus, I didn't take it, we asked someone to do it and I guess they must have shaken the camera....I tried very hard to get it back in focus, but even iPhoto couldn't do it!!  I am a little disappointed because I don't have any other pictures of my team.....well, next time.)

I loved this Tiger blanket that was attached to one of Jennifer's presents - creative!!

Happy mommy-to be:

And of course, no blog post is complete any more without at least a couple of pics of Miss Emily!

Out in the back yard picking up rocks with Daddy:

At the mall, helping Mommy make her bottle:

At the Apple computer store -  check out the feet on the stroller table ....silly girl :)