The Big Little Guy

Merry Christmas

After opening a generous pile of gifts, vast majority for the kids, we headed to the beach. Our nearest beach is Honeymoon Island State Park beach and when we got over our shock that state employees work on Christmas so that it can be open (365 days a year!) we jumped in the car and headed over. It was a perfect day for it and though the pictures suggest otherwise, we were far from the only people there.

Merry Christmas! (Florida style)

Me with the littlest E

We had a wonderful visit from Sarah, Rob and Scout on Christmas Eve. Sar took this shot of me with the littlest guy after giving me and then teaching me use the Moby wrap, my new favorite way to carry him around.  Thank you Sar!

Ol' blue eyes

Brothers

Emerson's first official haircut

I have cut Emerson's hair several times but it was beginning to need professional attention.

By professional, I mean SuperCuts.

Here is Emerson looking unsure in the chair. He sat still long enough that Eric no longer says he looks like a Beatle.

Ethan, day 5

The new guy

Eric with brand new Ethan

Ethan is here, Emerson is a big brother

"Groucho," aka Ethan Stewart Freundt, was born at 2:09am on December 14th. Ethan weighed in at 9 pounds, 5 ounces, measured 21 inches long at birth and seems to like Florida just fine so far.

After going a few days past his due date, he was suddenly in a hurry and arrived just 15 minutes after the midwife got to our place. Emerson, who was sleeping upstairs, woke up just as Ethan was born and got to come down and meet him right away. So far he seems fascinated by Ethan and likes to point out to us that he has toes and is wearing a hat.

Ethan's arrival means Emerson will have to share some things that have been his alone so far. One major one: his blog. Starting today, "It's Emerson" will be called "Emerson and Ethan," at least until I can think of a better name for it. For now, we're just going to keep it simple.

Before Emerson becomes a big brother

I don't think Emerson is really prepared for the change that is coming in the next week or so. (Sometimes I'm not sure I am either.)

Before this big event changes Emerson's life as he knows it I wanted to give a special All About Emerson update here on his blog. Here's what he's been up to lately:

I know when Emerson has woken up in the morning and from naps when I hear him shouting a very demanding sounding "Mom! Mom!" or sometimes "Bear!" which usually means he has thrown his bear overboard and wants him back. When I go in to get him he will say "Blanket! Right 'ere!*" and indicate where the blanket hangs while not in use.

Emerson loves reading and regularly demands that we go to the library to get more books. He is getting quite capable with shapes, colors and counting (1-2-3-4-9!) and pretty quickly learns the books so well he can essentially read them to us.

Lately, just reading the books is not enough: as we settle in to read a book, Emerson will quietly demand: "Sing." So then Eric or I will either put the words to music on the spot or, if the book is mostly pictures, improvise both lyrics and a tune. I will admit, I take a special delight in hearing what Eric comes up with. 

Every so often Emerson will take the binoculars we keep by the kitchen table, hold them up to his eyes (backwards), aim them at the pond and say "Alligator!" He also sometimes thinks the alligator would enjoy his food more than he does.

Emerson is a big hugger right now. Many times every day he will open his arms wide and say "honk" which means hug. Sometimes while Eric is at work Emerson will say "Dad" and then open his arms and say "honk" to tell me that he is going to hug dad when he comes home. Emerson will also occasionally hug other children at the playground, most of whom are confused by it and run off at the first opportunity.

Emerson helped us decorate the Christmas tree and insists that we have the lights on all the time. He loved the process of putting the ornaments on the tree and was disappointed when we came to the end. Several times a day we go through each ornament and say what it is. Emerson has become familiar with Santa and recognizes him in pictures as well as on the tree, though I don't think he understands exactly who Santa is. (Does anyone?)
I know that Emerson will be a wonderful big brother. He is such a sweet guy and clearly already has a lot to teach his little brother.


*"Right 'ere" is something Emerson says a LOT. It has a funny cockney sound to it and sounds more like a very punctuated "Rah air!"

"Big bear"

We parked near this enormous blow-up monkey the other day and Emerson insisted on going up to touch it, though he was pretty sure it was a big bear, not a monkey. Here's Emerson happy as a clam sitting on the monkey bear's foot.

The slide

Front yard fun

One of our neighbors is pretty handy with a digital camera. She snapped these while we were hanging out with her and her family in the front yard yesterday. I would like to hire her as the official blog photographer. The girl in the photo with Emerson is her daughter Adelaide.

To get Emerson to smile for a photo we ask him to say "monkey!"

Zookeeper

At the gym

We'll have some better photos from this weekend I am sure, but in the mean time here's a silly photo of the little guy at the toddler gym we have been going to nearby where he gets to climb, jump, bounce, roll and run around, sometimes in structured classes and sometimes just in free play. He LOVES it and it is probably good that they are only open certain hours because otherwise we would probably have to bring a sleeping bag over there.

Out back

Forgive the blurry photo - I like to think that the soft focus adds to the mischievous feel of this shot. Emerson and I were just hanging out in the lanai (on our new patio furniture) being silly and I had to capture the moment. 

 

Our fun weekend included another bike ride for Emerson with Eric, an exploration of a local nature preserve and a local hiking trail, a haircut for Emerson and lots of time just playing and shooting hoops at home. Shockingly, Emerson showed a complete lack of recognition for the time change in spite of Eric's careful explanation that Emerson should feel free to sleep an hour later. 

(When I showed Emerson this photo and asked him who it was he said "Boy!")

Happy Halloween!

 In a nod to Emerson's current obsession with basketball, Emerson was a Chicago Bull for Halloween (thanks Mykael for the uniform!). We decided to make it a whole family theme and Eric was the hoop and Groucho was the ball (one of many, in this case).

Emerson got really into the Halloween spirit of candy distribution, handing out candy to trick-or-treaters as they came by, and redistribution, going and getting candy from one neighbor and giving it to another neighbor (everyone was sitting out in their driveways with their bowls of candy). Maybe we should have dressed him as Robin Hood.

The evening could not last long enough for Emerson and he was sad to have to go to bed while other kids stayed out trick or treating. As I was putting him down to sleep a group of kids rang the doorbell and shouted "Trick or Treat!" to which Emerson responded with a pitiful wail of "trick or treat! trick or treat!" as he tried to escape my arms and get downstairs.

Bike ride

Eric took Emerson out for his first bike ride today. It took some convincing to get Emerson to wear the helmet but once they were on the road, he was hooked. They cruised around our new neighborhood, stopped at the park to play for a while and got a wholesome froyo snack on the way home. When I asked Emerson about their adventure he said "Hat! Fast! Dada!" and was so excited about this new experience that he had Eric take him out again later in the afternoon.

Emerson and Lucy working the Florida orange grove

Emerson and I joined Dianna and Lucy at the Orlando Science Center yesterday for a fun and educational morning. Thanks to Dianna for these great pics showing Emerson and Lucy working together to bring Florida orange juice to the people (and for photographic evidence of Emerson sharing).

A gathering

With some friends at our new public library. These stuffed animals actually sit on various shelves around the library and it was all Emerson's idea to gather them together for a meeting of the minds.

Basketball in a diaper

A year and a half old

Emerson has now officially been on the outside twice as long as he was on the inside. In honor of the 18 month mark, I thought I would share a little bit about who Emerson is today.

Here he is in his special "chair," also known as his new big boy forward-facing carseat, sporting his 18 month haircut. 

One of Emerson's favorite things right now is basketball, which when he says it has about six syllables and sounds something like "go go bah go ball." There is a basketball court in the condo complex where we are staying and Emerson is not satisfied with anything less than three trips there a day. "Up!" he shouts as he throws the ball and then runs in circles around the court. This happens many, many times.

Not to be confused with basketball, another of Emerson's favorite things is football, which he calls "go ball." Apparently somewhere on that Y chromosome is the idea of "go long" because the moment Eric picked up a football at the toy store and told Emerson to "go long" Emerson knew exactly what to do. Now when he wants to play catch with the football, Emerson will bring it to you and say "Go go go go go go!" and then take off running so you can throw the ball to him.

Emerson has loved balls for a long time now, but it has only been in the last month or two that he has insisted on having his favorite balls with him in his crib while he sleeps, along with a stuffed bear wearing a diaper. (He has recently started insisting that all of his stuffed animals wear diapers at all times.) When he wakes up from sleeping, there is the tricky but necessary juggling act of picking up Emerson, the bear and the two soccer-ball sized balls and carrying all of it out into the living room. If I have to drop something, it is usually one of the balls.

Emerson's non-ball interests include driving (anything round-shaped is a wheel to drive, plus Gama bought him a Nemo riding toy with all these sound effects including one which just sounds like a toilet flushing), drawing (left to draw unsupervised Emerson draws exclusively on his own skin, but does also enjoy drawing on paper when he has to), and playing in the pool or the water spouts at the zoo or the aquarium.

Yes, Emerson is excellent company and I am excited to spend even more time with him when my work project wraps up in the next few weeks.

Emerson juggling

Eric showed Emerson how to juggle and Emerson has been determined to do it himself. (He gets very disappointed when he asks me to juggle and my juggling looks a lot like his.)

Emerson seems to be enjoying Florida

And he got to pet a goat afterwards.

In a shell at the aquarium

More New Smyrna Beach

New Smyrna Beach

We had a wonderful Labor Day weekend adventure with our Orlando-based family (Bill, Mary Lou, Brett, Diana, Lucy, Katie and Matt) plus out-of-Florida guests my aunt Barbara and brother Andrew. Here we are frolicking on the beach

Emerson and the Florida goat

Best grocery cart ever

Nap on a hot August day

Rainy day aquarium trip