Emma's Language

Emma talks non-stop (wonder where she got that from - ha).

Here are some of her words that need translation:

Bah - Bath
vrrooom vrroom - Car (yes car would be much easier to say but what fun would that be)
Guck Guck - Duck
Paark or Paarka Paarka - Park
Beets - Beach
Nanana - Banana
Nack - Snack
Coast - Roller Coaster
Mere - Come here
There Go - there you go
Sah-ey Mommy - Sorry Mommy
Bawnee - Barney (the guy who has been staining our soon to be installed stairs)
Uh-wnee - Ernie (from Sesame Street and Papa)
Dipe - Diaper
Tuuwbo - turbo
Turto - Turtle
Nette - Miss Jeanette at PlayGym
Nat - Cousin Natalie
Augsh -Cousin Audrey
saux - Sauce - and everything must have this (ketchup, bbq, ranch, whatever it is good)
rockeen chair - rocking chair
fffog - frog
sop - Shop (and anytime she says she's going to "sop" I ask her what she's going to buy. The immediate reply is "shoes". That's my girl!)
Eggie - Egg

I can't list all the ones that she says clearly. She will pretty much repeat anything you ask her to say, and some days she downright surprises me in what comes clearly out of her mouth (in a good way)!

It's amazing the things she remembers, too. She gets so excited when we pass Chik-fil-a. "Moos Cows! Cows Moos!" And usually, the cow isn't around, so we have to tell her the cow is in the barn. We are Tuesday Night - Kids Eat Free - regulars. I know that sounds bad, but the kid loves the nuggets and fruit. She knows exactly where her grandparents live as well as where we buy groceries. She knows as soon as we get near a Cracker Barrell that we're going to sit on the rocking chairs and can this kid spot a park!! She gets excited when we get to 4-corners in Collegedale, just knowing she's going to the Parka Parka. Last weekend, we visited Dusty's Mamaw for Easter lunch. Her apartments have a putting green. Emma and her Uncle Pete played "ball". This weekend, any time we had the Masters on, Emma was searching for "Peeet".

What a wonderful kid! She is full of such energy. I love her so much! I'll post pictures soon!

Spring is Coming!

The sun has been shining. The weather is getting warm. We are ready for spring! We have been playing outside, going to the zoo, and to the "parka parka" every chance we get!

Year End Review

I have found that it is becoming increasingly difficult to find time to write. A three day weekend sure does help!

Here's a little photo catch up on the past few months.

Emma walked in her 2nd Race for the Cure.

One of Emma's favorite things to do when the weather was nice was riding in her wagon. She always insisted on bringing along a few extras. On this day, it was her new lawn mower.

In October, we took a trip to Sanibel Island. It is one of our favorite places to go for a relaxing vacation. My family took Dusty along to Sanibel years ago on a family vacation, and he fell in love. This was Emma's second trip, and I think she is in love. We couldn't spend enough time on the beach, gathering shells and playing in the waves.

Emma was our little monkey for Halloween. We went with the McKennas to Boo in the Zoo. Emma and Owen had fun riding together in the wagon.

Burt's Farm for some pumpkin picking.

Out with our cousins!

We got to enjoy snow in early December. Emma was a little timid at first, but loved it once she started playing!

Christmas with the Cranes

It's Christmastime at the Cranes! What a wonderful season it has been. There's nothing more special than sharing this time with a 17 month old. I just know it's going to get better and better each year. This year Dusty and I decided not to exchange gifts, and as he put it last night, it has been the best Christmas ever, watching Emma run all over with joy.


Emma has really gotten in to all the lights and music of the season. Her favorite CD that has been playing for the last month in the house is Muppets Christmas. She especially loves Miss Piggy's singing and the Little Saint Nick song. She loves Christmas lights. When we drive down the road we hear lots of "ooohs" when she sees the lights, and "ho ho" for Santa.


We kicked off the season with the annual Nutcracker performance. I returned to dancing this year, dancing in the corps for snow and waltz. Emma came to the dress rehearsal and LOVED it (other than the house lights being turned off and the curtain closing). She wouldn't sit - she just stood and bounced along as the girls danced and said...(of course) "mowre, mowre". Dusty was in the sound booth and I was on stage and she kept saying to Dusty - "Daddy!" and to me on stage "Mommy!" - looking for both of us each time.


Last weekend, we headed to Nashville for the 2nd Annual UTC Gang Christmas party. My how our gatherings have changed, but in a wonderful way. I just love all of our little ones. We missed the Straits at our gathering, but we still had lots of kiddos running about. The next day, we headed to the North Georgia mountains for Dusty's family gathering.

Emma looking for "moos!" (aka cows) on the way to the Whitakers


The UTC Gang - two newest additions - Gabbie and Melina
Emma and Owen in deep conversation.
Snowy mountain on the way to the Denise and Michael's
Aunt Robin

Grammy Natalie crawling around

We always spend Christmas Eve with Dusty's family. We attended the early candle lighting service at Christ United and then headed to Dusty's mom's for a breakfast dinner. Emma had a blast with her Grammy, Papa, Uncle Spence, Aunt Lish, Mamaw, Audge, and Nat. We lost count at how many times she flew around the house. Audrey got a kick out of watching Emma pass by her while she was crawling around. We opened lots of presents at the end of the evening. I think Emma's favorite was her pink ride on from Papa and the cars from Grammy. Once she figured out the seat of the ride on had a storage compartment for her cars, she was set!

"It's Christmas!!"
Audrey wiped out from the excitement of the day.

Emma has been picking up cameras and saying "Cheese"
Emma and Audrey discussing their new presents.

Dusty and I got to experience the joys of parenthood at Christmas once we got home. After Emma was in bed, we hurried back downstairs to put together Emma's special Christmas morning!

Emma's toys waiting for Christmas morning.


Christmas morning, Emma slept in, as usual, unaware of the excitement that was about to take place. We left most of her presents unwrapped, so she could hop around and play with everything. First she ran to the new table and chairs, until she realized the gate was no longer around the tree. It immediately became the excitement - all of those ornaments!

Exploring her new tent
Trying out her new cookware

Do you think we can fit more stuff in here?
Maybe a mommy....


Mom and dad came over for breakfast and of course had gifts for the Divine Miss Em. Here's her favorite - need I say more? She is our daughter!

To wrap up the day, we headed to mom and dad's for dinner with Omi and Poppop. My brother's old room is Emma's play room. Whenever she walks into their house, she makes a b-line to that room!


Hanging out with Omi and Poppo


What a wonderful Christmas season. I am so thankful and blessed for my wonderful and loving husband, my sweet daughter, and all of our family and friends. God is good.

Words have escaped me...

I'm not sure where time has gone. I'm not quite sure where the days or weeks have gone. We thought we were busy when we had a newborn. We were very wrong. Our little 16 month old toddler is everywhere and into everything. We didn't cherish those tummy time days nearly enough! I can only imagine how quickly the months will fly once Emma is in school and joining all sorts of activities.

It has been over two months since I last posted. Two months since I felt like I even had a few moments to sit down and craft up some thoughts about our lives. On top of the daily busyness, we've loaded up our computer, with only about 2GB left of space. Needless to say, I haven't been able to upload any pictures since before our trip to Florida (which I haven't written about either).

Emma is getting to be such a big girl, learning new words and sounds every day. Her favorites lately are:
"moor" - more (while still doing the sign for it which has been her favorite for months now)
"dah" dog
"shoos" - shoes (this girl loves shoes)
"joos" - juice
"cheese" - cheese - whether it's dairy or smiling for the camera
"guck" -duck (not sure where the g has come from"
"bah" - bottle
"bal" - ball (which she loves to throw and kick)
"bzzzzzzzz" - emma what do bee's say?
"mooooooooo" - emma what do cow's say?
"eeeeeeeeeear" - ear
"b-bo" - Bebo - or Belly Button if you haven't read the book
"baaaaabeee" - babies, or pictures of just about anyone

In addition to her "words", Emma is constantly making noise, and mimicking whatever we do. She loves to sing. She loves to dance even more. Dusty will sit and play piano, and Emma spins and spins. She loves music. She also loves to come to the studio with me. She finds it so intriguing to watch the big girls dance. I so hope that she too will treasure the art of ballet as I always have.

I feel like there's so much to write about Emma, yet words have escaped me. She's changing so much. She is such a big girl. She loves to read stories. My favorite is when she brings me books and crawls into my lap. She will follow short commands, like bring me that ball, or throw this away (she loves to throw things away). As I said before, she's into everything.

We're still working on the house - maybe, just maybe, one day it will be done. We halted some projects to work on a special place for Emma. She now has half of our downstairs dedicated to her toys. We call it Emma's Playland. We bought 4 bookshelves and lots of baskets for organization. It's the perfect spot for her to play tea, knock down the blocks that I build, or just cruise back and forth with her toys.

I hopefully will purchase additional space for pictures soon, because I'm sure you'd much rather see pictures than listen to my rambling.

Busy Days

Life has been very busy at the Crane House. I feel like time has gone into warp-speed since Emma's first birthday.

We've had some exciting events since my last post. Emma officially started walking about 3 weeks ago. I came home from work that night and Dusty was like, look at this! There she was, toddling after a cell phone. Three weeks later, she's into everything. She's a fast little walker. She's getting more efficient every day! She has gotten quite a few bumps and bruises since she started walking on her own. I guess that's why they call them toddlers. Emma and Dusty went to the Nashville Zoo last week. When they picked me up from work, Emma had a bruise and scratches on the side of her cheek. I was appalled! "What happened to my baby!?" I asked. "She was running from a goat." Ahh! Life with a one-year old.

One of Emma's new favorite things to do is pile things. She loves to open the bathroom cabinet and one by one take the washcloths, towels, and handtowels into the living room. She does the same thing with diapers out of her diaper caddy downstairs.

Emma's verbal skills have been increasing. She loves to try and mimic words we say. One of her favorite words right now is "Baybee". She also says - "hi" and "hiya" and "eeeeeeeeeee" (that's ear if you didn't know).

Here's a few of my favorite pictures from the past two months. She's growing so much!