Grampy's 60th, Ear Check, Walkin' and Talkin'

Time to play some more catch up.. Brian, Emma and I flew up to New Hampshire two weekends ago to surprise Grampy Farrell for his 60th birthday. The plan had been in full effect for about 3 months (little did Grampy know just how sneaky his family could be!), and it went off without a hitch! We flew up Friday morning, ended up going back to Grammy and Grampy's for a quick nap, then headed off to Bertucci's to meet for lunch. Grammy told Grampy that she wanted to grab some lunch with him, but when we walked over to the table....SURPRISE!!! Brian, Emma and I were sitting there waiting. Emma gave Grampy a nice big smile when she saw him, and kept them coming all weekend! We had a great time at Grampy's second surprise of the weekend, a luncheon at Villa Banca that Grammy arranged. It was great food, all 5 grandchildren did well, and it was all followed up with cake. For the rest of the weekend Emma was able to play with her older cousins, Lily, Will, and Jocelyn. And we finally got to meet the newest cousin, 8 week old Michael. He's so cute and tiny! Here are a few pictures from our visit:


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Emma's follow up appointment with Dr. Ferguson (a.k.a. Beaker) went very well. Her ears "look perfect" according to Dr. Ferg, and we don't have to come back for a follow up until November. He'll just keep checking to make sure that the tubes stay in place and that we don't need any new ones. He also said we don't have to worry about keeping her out of the water when we go to the beach in September. Apparently there has been recent research about avoiding submersion in water with ear tubes, and the only water to avoid being submerged in is lake water. Ocean, bath and pool water are all apparently fine. So.... beach, here we come!

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Yesterday marks the first "official" day of Emma walking! She'd been taking 3-4 steps at a time for a little while, but her confidence just wasn't there. I think her friend Harper has been teaching her some tricks at school, because yesterday Emma just decided to go ahead and walk about 20 feet by herself. After that it was go, go, GO!!! We've been trying to capture some video and will post it as soon as we can! Emma's other new "trick" is to say "Hi, Dada!" She doesn't do it consistently yet, but she's pretty clear when she does say it. We've also noticed she's starting to use some of the same sounds for things like doggy, Kaya, and ball.