As we were walking along the trail, my nephew said, about the waterfall we were going to see, "I hope it's turned on! " :) Gotta love kids.
Lucky for us, the waterfall WAS turned on, and was actually flowing pretty good, so it was definitely worth the walk.
Along the walk there... and back... my niece was jabbering away non-stop... she sure can talk! In fact, she never STOPS talking. Hehe. My sister says she always used to make sure to talk to her daughter when she was a baby/toddler, to encourage her to pick up speech and talking... and now she thinks she's created a monster. :p My niece is going into grade 3 and she sure does loooove to talk and tell stories. It's quite cute, but I imagine my sister much enjoy the occasional moments of piece and quiet she gets when my niece is sleeping. :p
Emma is going through a tough time right now... she seems to be teething in a big way. No teeth have popped through yet, but it looks to be close... we can see a couple of little pale bumps in her gums, so it probably won't be long. In the mean time she is quite uncomfortable, is drooling like crazy, and has had diarrhea for the last few days (the side effect of which is a horrible diaper rash).
Poor little girl. She had a doctors appointment last Thursday, which was good timing... and the doctor wasn't concerned, said it's normal... but to try to give her a bit of Pedialyte to keep her hydrated, and if the diarrhea is still around next week to bring her back.
So far, the diarrhea is still happening... so unless it stops suddenly in the next couple days, Lisa will probably make another appointment to see the doc early next week.
Other than that, Emma is doing great. She's still a light-weight for her age (on Thursday she weighed in at 15 lbs 4 oz) but she's gaining weight on her curve, so all seems to be well. Guess she's just shaping up to be a small-ish person.
Emma has gotten pretty adept in the last week or two at pulling herself up on things... the coffee table, her toy box, the side of her crib.
Just a couple weeks ago, Lisa and I started having success at putting Emma down at around a set time (7:30-8pm or so) in her crib and coaxing her to sleep (as opposed to her falling asleep in our arms). Unfortunately, she then quickly learned to pull herself up, so now putting her down is a test of wills and stubbornness as we put her down in the crib, she flips over and climbs the side... we put her down, she flips over and climbs the side... we put her down, she flips over... you get the idea... lol
Occasionally we leave her for a bit, but once she climbs up, she doesn't know how to let herself down again yet, so then she's stuck. Lisa has gone in and seen her standing there hanging on to the side of the crib half asleep... haha!
So, we can't leave her for too long, we have to go back in and set her down... at which point she rolls over, climbs again! Eventually, if we outlast her, she gets tired of the game and lets sleep take over. But, it is one situation where my stubborn streak is a great benefit. So far I've outlasted Emmas stubbornness every time... it's been close occasionally though. :p
Anyhoo, I'll wrap it up with a photo of Margaret Falls, turned on and flowing. :)


I have to tell you Shawn, from day one my kids both had a set bed time- 8 pm. Now we learn these things (I guess) from our own folks and bits of advice we are given.
Because my kids had a set bed time, they slept well no matter where we were (we traveled a lot when I was married) and I think that helped contribute to the fact they were rarely sick and neither one ever had a single ear infection.
I had friends with kids the same age at the time that let them set their own bedtimes and these kids were unruly, sick and always crying. Coincidence? I don't think so. I think kids with set bed times always do better.
So just keep being stubborn and she will stop eventually. Mine did the same thing.
I out stubborned them too and it worked. My son was the worst this way but he finally just went to sleep as soon as he hit the hay.