I LOVE My BOO-Attitude!

My school got to celebrate Halloween on TWO days. The first day was on Friday Oct. 28 from 5:00 - 6:30. It's the Beatitudes Age-Link Fall Festival known as Boo-Attitudes. Clever, huh? Well, all the kiddies dress up and the parents come and there's all kinds of activities and what not. Let me walk you through my second Boo-Attitudes experience.

I should interrupt myself and tell you all that the really cool part was that my Grandpa Jim and Grandma Lynn were in town all the way from Oklahoma and they got to come to the Boo-Attitudes too! Unfortunately, silly Mommy has to wait until they get back to OK to get photos of me with them to add to my blog. So, be sure to give her a hard time the next time you see her. Once she gets the photos, I will upload them here.

Double Vision
Okay, back to the evening. As we were walking down the hall to the start of the festivities, I ran into my buddy Camden. Camden and I were pals in the infant pod area, pods b and c, respectfully. Once we graduated, Camden moved to Room 1 and I moved to Room 3. I miss my buddy. Well, you are not going to believe this, but we both showed up for Boo-Attitudes as froggies! We didn't quite know what to make of ourselves, so we just kind of had a stare down. I overheard some of the mommies laughing about how cute it was that we were wearing the same costume, yadda yadda yadda. In case you can't tell, I am the froggie on the right.


Shy Froggie Guy
Even though I love Age Link and have so much fun every day that I go, I found the evening to be a tad overwhelming. I chose to stay close to those I knew and didn't really partake in any of the activities. At one point, I even got upset and threw myself on the ground. Mommy is so proud! She says I am so advanced that I am entering my terrible twos 3 months early.

Being shy is not so bad. It allows me to look around more and take more things in. For instance, I was able to really see all the different costumes that were present. I saw a giraffe, a dalmation, two turtles, a ballerina and some other animals. We even had some celebrities in our midst. There was Ariel from Little Mermaid, Dorothy and Toto from the Wizard of Oz and even Yoda made it to our event. Rather star-studded, don'tcha think?


When Blogs and Reality Collide
A really cool part of our evening was when we ran into mommy's friend John and his wife Catherine, their son Jason and John's parents. If you remember, Jason's blog is one of my links under my Virtual Fort (left side links). Mommy and John thought it would be a good idea to get a photo of the four of us to post on our respective blogs. Cool, eh? So, here's the one we got. It's probably only minutely different from the one on Jason's blog, but you can decide. It was too bad that Jacob Rickey couldn't join us. I hear his mommy got roped into a work-related dinner. So, some other time we will have to cross paths.

All in all, it was a great Fall Festival. Thanks for reading. Until next time...

Emerson

The Golden Boy

Guess what I got! Guess what I got! GUESS WHAT I GOT!!!!!!

Mickey Mouse ears. And not just your typical, run of the mill mouse ears! But 50th Anniversary Commemorative GOLDEN Mouse Ears. That's RIGHT! Check these beauties out. You could say I got me some mousey bling-bling goin' on. Yeahhhhhh.

Golden Boy Front View

Golden Boy - Back View with Name and Everything!

I have never met Mickey and, in fact, I couldn't point him out in a line up. But I can mode my new and shiny commemorative mouse ears because mommy's friend Kari was super duper nice to get them for me when she and her family went to Disneyland this past weekend! Mommy has THE BEST friends of anyone I know. I really like wearing the hat and had fun with mommy taking my pictures.

Mr. Happy Go Lucky

So, to wrap up, I'd like to borrow something from these people called Mousekateers. So picture me whistling to get everyone gathered together. You don't have to picture me whistling - take a look below...

Okay, here we go. M-I-C...See you later! K-E-Y...Why? Because I like you! M-O-U-S-E!

Emerson

Check Out My New Winter PJs!

This is only one set of 3 that mommy bought me. But, they are awfully cute if I do say so myself. And so I will. They are cute! I will post other PJ pics as I rotate them out.

Now, in this picture you will see that I am also sporting a coordinating binky (or pacifier for you retro folks). Take a good long look at it because that's the last you are going to see of the binky. Yep, COMPLETELY UNBEKNOWNST TO ME, mommy has been plotting to take away my binky - COLD TURKEY. This photo was actually taken on Sunday night. On Monday morning, all of my binkies were gone! At bedtime, my binky returned and I was so happy. It returned on Tuesday night too. But tonight, (as I post this during my evening slumber) there was no binky. I have to say, going to sleep tonight was a bit rough, but I am coping. Writing this blog helps, because it keeps my mind off of you know what - binky! Wish me luck. I honestly think I will be binky-free by the weekend. I guess it's not so bad without it. I am talking more and that seems like a lot of fun.

Sweet dreams sweet friends.

I Told You So, Didn't I?

A few weeks ago, I went to the Science Center for the Sesame Street Human Body Exhibit. My parentals planned poorly and no photos of the experience were taken. Well, I reported that I would be going again, and indeed, I did! And I have proof this time! Check out my photo journal right here! See, there's the entrance sign to the exhibit. Right there, on your right!

Elmo is on the main signage and he figures prominently throughout the exhibit. Right after we got there (I went with mommy and Grandma Kathy) Elmo was scheduled to make an appearance - how cool is that??? So, we got in line and I was the second kid that got his picture taken with the star of the exhibit! Elmo was super nice and I wasn't scared at all. I just wasn't too sure what I was supposed to do with my hands.

After giving Elmo a hug, I got to onto Sesame Street and see the door where they always sit and talk to Big Bird, right near Oscar's trash can (look to the right). I went up on the steps and rang the doorbell, but nobody was home. Well, actually people were home and they answered through the speaker but they couldn't come out to play. So as you can see, I was a little unsure. Despite waiting a few minutes, I decided at mommy's urging, that we ought to continue on through the exhibit and see what else there was to offer.


When I realized no one was really going to answer the door, I went into the main area where there was a cool obstacle course. The course had tunnels, walls to climb over, swinging doors and all kinds of cool things. The part I liked best was the slide. There were tons of kids there, but I got to go down the slide a couple of times. The slide was a lot of fun!
The rest of the exhibit is all about learning about the human body and different things we can do to take care of ourselves. For example, there's this whole section on the digestive process. There's these big displays a with giant muppet sized mouth that you can pull this lever and it shows how you chew. Then there's a part that look like the inside of the tummy and you spin this steering wheel and all the peas in the persons tummy swim around like they do when you are digesting them. Then there's the part about waste. On the display there's a big button and when you push it, it makes a yucky sound (like a fart!) and talks about how all the food turns to waste and leaves your body. It was all muppet-like but informative. I am sure it would have made all kinds of sense to me it I was old enough to understand it all. I just liked spinning the steering wheel at the digestive display.

Once I had my fill in the stomach area (get it? full stomach! ha ha) I went over to the Ernie display where he was teaching us all about washing our hands, brushing our teeth and hair and what tools we needed to perform each task. Ernie was on the televsion above my sink and I was able to watch and learn. It was a lot of fun! I really like washing my hands. I couldn't answer most of the questions yet, but mommy helped me through. Even though there wasn't any water coming out of the faucet is was a pretty cool display.


There were a few more displays I went through. One was Elmo's World. They had these magnetic Elmos on the wall and you could pick and choose the outfits and accessories for Elmo to wear. This was also the place we made a pit stop so Grandma Kathy could put my shoes back on me (I had to take them off to play on the obstacle course). Well, the last thing I wanted to do was sit still. So, in typical toddler fashion, I made putting my shoes back on quite a chore for Grandma. She was a real sport though, and sure enough, I got my shoes back on before going over to Mr. Hooper's store.

On the way to Mr. Hooper's store, I got sidetracked by one of my most favorite things in the world - a phone. I love telephones. I don't think mommy has done my love of telephones justice on this blog, but be assured, I love them. I have been playing with phones for months. And if they are real phones, all the better. Well, as you can see, I definitely got sidetracked. And the funny thing of it is, I can't even tell you who I was talking to! Go figure.

I am having trouble posting more photos, so I am going to make this the end of part one and start part two under another posting.

Thanks for hanging on! Stay - tuned!

Yep, I Am Still Telling You So...

I am not quite sure why I couldn't finish my story in that original post, but perhaps I had too many photos in it. Oh well. No worries. On we go.

Mr. Hooper has a general store and in his store I was able to do a lot of things. First of all, never one to shy away from hard work, I
aproned up and started re-stocking produce and other perishables. Those carts get awfully heavy when filled to the brim. But I was a trooper and not only pushed it but did it with a smile!

I also got to sweep, which is such an enjoyable activity. Thank goodness I had so much practice at home with the Swiffer. I look pretty official with that store apron on, don't I?









In addition to re-stocking and cleaning, I was able to use my mathematical skills (with the aid of a cash register) to check people out and I was also able to go to a special seminar on scanning food items. I did very well with the training, I might add. All in all it was a very fun afternoon. I learned a little bit, played a lot, laughed a lot and only threw one temper tantrum. So, really, not too bad.

Well, I think this is quite possible my longest stint posting. With all the typing about my trip to the Sesame Street Body exhibit, this body is tired! I hope you enjoyed reading about my adventure. I sure had fun going there.

Until next time,
Emerson

Tank Kooo, Yah, Bay Bee, Uh-oh, Cah, Daw

Say what??? Well those are all my new words! Here, let me translate for you:

Tank Kooo - That's thank you.
Yah - Means yes.
Bay Bee - Duh, that's baby. (Mommy is trying to get me to say Yah bay bee, but that's a bit much. It would be pretty cute if I said it, though).
Uh-oh - Duh again. But it was out of play for a few weeks and is now back in my vocabulary.
Cah - You drive these around town. And when you are done driving around, you have to pahk the cah and go inside.
Daw - This means dog. I just haven't figured out that there's a 'g' on the end, or what a 'g' even is.

Waving bye (because I don't say bye yet),

Emerson

Weekend Update

This weekend I have been a little under the weather. A fever struck on Saturday evening and I was pretty crabby most of Sunday. This was a shame because my dear, dear friend Owen (the son of one of my mommy's best friends) is in town and I was to meet him for the first time today.

Well, we met. While he's super cute and all, I have to admit, I wasn't to fond of sharing the spotlight. I kinda liked being the only super-cute boy in town with all the women ooohing and aaaahing over me. After our first meeting, we went over to Aunt Claudia's and Uncle Scott's. I can't say I fully warmed up to Owen, in fact, I pouted quite a bit. See, Grumply Old Man photo below.

I only really lightened up after Owen went down for the night. And once that happened??? Watch out! I was into all kinds of things. Aunt Claudia and Mommy read with me...

It was super fun reading with them. I don't really remember what the book was about, except that there were lots of pretty colors on the pages.

After reading, I played giddyup, using Mommy as my horse and her hair as the reigns. I think she had fun. I know I did. Why don't you be the judge?

I actually think Owen is a pretty cool kid, for a six-month old. Once he and his mommy and Daddy get back home to Connecticut, they are going to get us some photos they took of us together and I will be sure that mommy, uhm, I mean I, post them to my blog.

Toodles!

Emerson

It's About Time!

Howdy Gentle Readers,

I apologize for the delay in my postings. I have been a super busy toddler! Life is grand without my NG tube and my tummy tube is great. I am also experimenting with more solid foods. Here's a list of some of the newest things I have tried and my rating.

• Hot dogs - Yummy
• Chicken Patty - So-so
• Fish sticks - Yummy
• Tortilla with a little bit of refried beans spread on it - Yummy

I am going in for a weight and length check this week and then mommy calls the nutritionist to see how I am doing. If I am doing well, then we will increase my solid food intake by an ounce (and decrease my liquid by an ounce). Keep your fingers crossed that I am doing well. I will also likely get my flu shot this weekend.

As I mentioned, my tummy tube is great. Some of you have asked what it looks like, how it works, etc. I have decided to post a picture so you can see. It's not gross, by any means, but I understand if you don't want to look. This is the head's up so that you don't scroll any further, if you don't want to. But if you do want to, by all means do. The picture is an extreme close up. You can see that the tube sits above and to the slight left of my belly button. This allows the food to go directly into my tummy.

The part next to the yellow dot opens to the right and then an extender tube is snapped in and that's how my liquids are fed to me. It's pretty simple actually. This picture was taken about a week after the procedure. I had my follow up with Dr. N. and he said that all looks good. PHEW!

Because I don't have all the tape associated with it like I did my NG tube, it really is out of sight out of mind. Of course every now and then I like to check it out.

Dr. N said it's really hard to remove it, which makes everyone really happy. It was a little different at first, but now it's no big deal. Next step is to see how I do at my next swallow test which mommy is working to get scheduled. More to come real soon - I promise!

Emerson