Art and Apples

While in Chicago in August, we enjoyed a wonderful trip to the Art Institute. This has always been one of my favorite places and it was truly a treat to share it with Emi.


In September, Emi started school. It has been wonderful to drive to work each day with her. We say, "Good morning river!" as we cross the Mississippi. The commute is long, but the thrill of seeing her thrive makes it all worth it. She has started wearing cotton underpants at home while moving towards independence in toileting. She buses her dishes and puts her things, generally speaking, back where they belong when she is done.

Also in September, it was unseasonably cold for a spell. One of those days, the Roe Family Singers were playing at an apple orchard and Emi and I decided to join. She really loved watching Rob play with his friends and could often be found jammin' to the beats. She also became thoroughly enamored with the orchard's animal area as can be seen below.

More...

"Ma" is how Emi says more. So here comes some "ma"updates about about our time in Minnesota so far. In July and August, we spent a lot of time traveling. We went to Bemidji for the 4th. As you can see Emi loved her time in the boat, before it quickly put her to sleep.

Then we spent a weekend near Brainerd with Rob's friend Amanda and her family. Emi really loved climbing up and down the stairs outside. Unfortunately she face planted it once after deciding to clap for herself upon the completion of a particularly tough set. Luckily, the bruising didn't stick around too long. On the drive home, Emi discovered her musical talent.



In August we drove North of Duluth to our friend Adrienne's cabin. It was a beautiful weekend full of good food and lots of raspberry picking for Emi.

Then a few weeks later we drove to Chicago to help Rob's brother Evan, albeit a bit late, celebrate his 30th. Emi loved the fountain and bean in Millennium park. But it clearly wore her out.

On May 6th, Emi, Rob and I moved back to Minnesota after spending some time in Germany. We have not been so great about blogging since returning in part because it was hard for us to blog on a site previously dedicated to our German experience.

So now, we have a new blog...for recording some time in Minnesota. To catch up on the past, almost 5 months....

We returned to our condo that we owned prior to our move and thus also prior to Emi's appearance in our lives. The transition of making our one bedroom a 3 person home, was a struggle at first but has worked out well.

While we were transitioning, Emi has continued to show connections to Germany, including working on her German puzzle that was given to us by friends before the move.




Near the end of May, Emi starting walking. At first, she was a bit unsteady, but we got out as often as we could so she could enjoy the sunshine. Rob started working 2 weeks after we arrived.


In June, I started working and thus we had our first experience of trusting a stranger to care for Emi. We found 2 fabulous nannies. Also, and more importantly, we celebrated Emi's first birthday on June 13th with a trip to the beach. Emi loves sand and water so the day was wonderful. In particular she enjoyed her cake.

Emi started playing independently a lot in June. One of her favorite things to do was to wrestle and snuggle with her horses.
More about our summer to come soon.