Yeah so I'm emptying the camera before we leave for the beach and realized I still had two pictures from earlier this week... They're both basically the same, so I'll just show you the one. The other one is the June album, along with all the other pictures/albums and videos at www.theswaderfarmily.shutterfly.com if you want to chatch up. :)
In the meantime, this is my little trendsetter in action. I expect this look to be all the rage in daycares everywhere soon!!
In the meantime, this is my little trendsetter in action. I expect this look to be all the rage in daycares everywhere soon!!
Yeah, that's all her. She actually opened the packages and put them on herself while I was getting the travel size wipes. And yeah, you see how things are stacked up to make a little seat for her? How about that little place to rest her feet? Again, that's all Emersyn. She gets up to take whatever out of your hand and then place it in a specific spot that works for her. It keeps her happy, so what can you do?!?!
On a separate note, I just have to brag for a minute. Emersyn started to get a little bored and tired at the end of our shopping trip. She wanted out of the cart so when we were checking out I let her get down. Being a curious, young toddler, Emersyn instantly went behind the register of the next station (it was empty) and started trying to play with whatever was in her reach. Of course I correct her and direct her back to the cart... But the older woman in front of us was apparently watching the many exchanges and attempts to get Emersyn to stay at the cart with me. She very nicely told me that she "just had to say what a wonderful mother" I am and "how nice it is to see a mother being so good with her daughter". The woman was just very friendly and raving about how gentle and patient I was being with Emersyn, what a wonderful mother I am to be treating my child that way... Needless to say that I was pleasantly surprised and extremely pleased to be portrayed that way! I guess it's just natural as a mother to always think you're not good enough or that you could do just about everything better when it comes to your baby, so it was just wonderful to hear that I am doing something right. Especially with the last 2 months, I guess I really needed to hear that too.
We did finally convince her that the bibs should come off while she was playing though. Lego's are Emersyn's most favorite thing... It's the only toy besides Boo Bear that she'll really play with for more than a second. Although, she's too good for the big lego-type blocks that she used to play with. Now it's only the real legos... Of course she doesn't have the "normal" size, hers are still bigger but, yeah, she's too much of a big girl to deal with the huge blocks! I don't know where she gets her love her blocks from though... Ha ha ha!!
Of course this year we were expecting our family pictures to be different... I'll admit it was really hard for me to do the pictures when we were so obviously missing (in every sense of the word) one of our family members. Still, another year had come around in our marriage and these pictures are to celebrate the bond we have as a family because of everything that happened in that year... So we did them.
We did decide that we'd bring along Brinley's steiff bear kind of in memory of her. It's a new piece of our tradition now - including "Brinley Bear" in the pictures so that in some way, she's included too. Maybe it's stupid or ridiculous, but it's our daughter's spirit we're keeping alive so that bear will be forever a part of our pictures.
There's a ton more pictures at 
Emersyn looking at her freckle.
Big smiles. (Also practice for this weekend.)
Um, yeah, see this is what happens when you forget to use the zoom and just lean into Emersyn. She mimics you (yeah - suprise) and leans in too. This is the result...
Chris and I spent the majority of the day at Body Mod Tattoo in Annapolis... we decided that as a Mother's Day and Father's Day present to ourselves, we would get the tattoos that Chris drew up for Brinley. Carlos was our artist and he redid the drawings a little bit, making them more suitable for a tattoo... mine was altered drastically since my wrist is so small. Chris' turned out exactly like he thought, just with a little bit of baby blue in the wings to soften it up. Yes, we got blue since that's what color Brinley's room was going to be... My tattoo turned out gorgeous, just much bigger than I pictured in my head. I'm really glad though. Seeing it this size just makes me realize that I would've wished it was bigger anyways. Once they heal up, I'll post a picture of both of them... They really did turn out fantastic. Hurt like you wouldn't believe, but it was well worth it.
Emersyn got to spend a couple hours with Maw Maw, Pop and Cameron. My mom got a couple pictures so once I get them I'll post them too... Apparently Emersyn has gotten even more daring since last week and "I do it" was the theme of the day. It was a great day though and Emersyn could have cared less when we got there! She was excited that we brought her cake and, after dinner, we all got enjoy Chef Emersyn's first cake! It was really good (kind of surprisingly) and everyone thanked Emersyn for the cake...
Overall, it was a really good day... I mean, minus that we celebrated the day by getting our Angel Baby's tattoos, it was a good day. The proof is in the little one crashed out... (Yeah, I made that hat too. It's much better than the first one but Emersyn was so excited she didn't give me a chance to make the little flower that I was going to attach to it. I can't complain though - at least it's a huge sign that she likes it! That, and you know, the fact that she insisted on wearing it for the ride home too.)
We weren't a fan of the mixer since it's so loud, but we had one very quick attempt at holding it. It didn't even last long enough for Chris to snap a picture though and I ended up looking like a sterotype with a child on my hip while baking in the kitchen.
We were uterally amazed with this step though... who knew that simply pouring the batter into the pan would get such a memorizing reaction?!?!
After the cake was done baking, Emersyn and I made a quick run to Joann Fabrics to get a couple skeins to make some hats. I made one real quick last night just to see and Emersyn's a little excited with it. It didn't turn out exactly like I hoped and I'm not a fan of the yarn itself, but Emersyn insisted on wearing it for a bit in the store and again on the way home. Can you tell that she put it on herself this time?
Once we got back home and had lunch, we were ready to frost the cake. Emersyn was very happy about "mah cahk".
Yup - I am that brave! I really did give Emersyn a butterknife and let her do the icing...
Aside from attempting to make the cake have some filling by shoving the knife full of icing into the cake, we did really good. Until we tried to help spread the icing with our fingers and then realized that the icing tastes good!
Then it was just a matter of keeping her from licking the knife.
Still, Emersyn had a blast... =D
Since the cake is for tomorrow, we compromised on snack and had a couple oreos instead "mah cahk". There weren't really any complaints.
There's seriously a ton more pictures from our baking experience at 
