Emilia eats, laughs, displays bad manners

How rude! Laughing with your mouth full of food! Shame Emmie! Shame!

Emilia @ 5 months

Emilia had quite a few new tricks to share.

1. We bought her a Jumperoo, and she goes absolutely nuts in it. We're just waiting for her to jump right out of it. She's like some Riverdance prodigy with all of her fancy footwork. A budding Michael Flatley, but better looking and without the nasty sweatband. Best of all, it keeps her incredibly happy, even when she is getting tired. As evidence, here is a video.



2. Emilia also learned how to ride a bike. We know, some would say its a bit early, considering that she can't even crawl or walk yet, but we thought we should start early. It was hard training, especially since her legs only reach about 1/10th of the way to the pedals.






3. Emilia has honed her concentration skills. We dare you to challenge her to a staring contest, because the girl won't blink. She's like some wild animal, intent on her prey. Here's a good example. The poor sheep didn't know what hit him.

Julianne and Emilia's Trip to the Garden of Eden

That's right - the Garden of Eden. I was out of town from about Oct. 22-26 at the Western History Association Conference in Salt Lake City, and from Oct 25 - Nov. 1, Julianne and Emmie went to Bellingham, WA to visit Brenden's family. That's right, Bellingham is the promised land - its the Garden of Eden. The first time I took Julianne there in Dec. 2003, she said, "I didn't know people actually lived in places like this! Its like something from a magazine." And, she was right - it is like something from a magazine . . . a really awesome magazine. I also attribute her reaction to the fact that she grew up in the barren wasteland, the veritable lone and dreary wilderness of Arizona.

We weren't scheduled to make another trip to WA until Christmas of 2009, and that would make Emmie 18 months old before any of my aunts, uncles and grandparents would meet her. So, we sent the girls up to hang. Lorinda, Jenna and Cora also came for the week. I was SO jealous.

Here are some Picture from the Trip:
(view all of them HERE)



Emilia really liked swinging with Cora and Jenna




Grandpa Pete and Grandma Linda with their favorite grand-daughter (right guys? right?)




Jenna was Snow White, and everyone else dressed up like dwarves. Cora and Emilia even had little beards drawn on.




Julianne doesn't look too good with facial hair does she . . .




Emmie with Uncle Ken




How precious. This is what I've been saying for years, the girls are always all over Ken. They just can't keep their hands off him.




Either Emmie was feeling camera shy, or her face turned into a maple leaf.




The 3 cousins. I will feel SO sorry for the first boy cousin born into this family. The poor kid - its gonna be rough.




So cute.




Emilia with Great-Grandpa Mel and Great-Grandma Lorraine and their dog Teddi.

Finally, its over! My only political blog post

Phew! What a tiring election process. I will be glad to recapture some of my leisure TV viewing time from the grips of the alluring political punditry that I have found myself all to often watching. It was interesting watching the results come in last night, and listening to the different ways that the left-wing and right-wing cable news anchors were reporting the results.

When all was said and done though, regardless of whether the pundit was Republican or Democrat, Conservative or Liberal, they all agreed on one thing: this was an historic moment for the United States and for the world, and cause for celebration no matter what your political persuasion.

I hope we don't delude ourselves into thinking that this means race is no longer an issue in American society. However, things will be forever different - all interracial or ethnicity-based issues in our society will all be forever changed. Minority parents in the U.S. can now say to their children, "You can be whatever you want when you grow up," and have it be more than a tired platitude.

I am not convinced that Obama will be able to save our country as some of the Messianic-esque hype has declared. This said, I do hope for the best. I hope America will be a better place 4 years down the road. We'll see . . .

Thanks to my friend Ryan who directed me to a great set of photographs of our President-elect. Enjoy

BR