The video we've all been waiting for!!...

Emily started walking this past week! She's taking more and more steps every day.
We had actually gotten a referral for ECI (early childhood intervention), just to make sure there wasn't anything wrong. We didn't think there was - Emily is just a very cautious child. And the way she scoots on her bottom allows her to carry things, so there wasn't any "need" for her to walk. But, we also didn't want to keep assuming there wasn't anything wrong and eventually have a 2-year-old who couldn't walk!
The OT came for an "intake meeting", which was just gathering information. But she couldn't do the eval until January! So she gave me some tips on how to work with Emily until then. Those few little tricks was all it took!

Miss Independent

Emily has taken quickly to self feeding; it's been a surprisingly easy transition. She seems so much more independent now! I think I'm still somewhat in denial that we aren't parents to an infant anymore. I have to catch myself all the time to stop doing things for her...Like carrying her from room to room or immediately taking the lid off of a container she's playing with before letting her try. I know those days are over, but it's not easy to accept.
She still needs a lot of help with feeding though, b/c her hand gets tired or she just gets distracted and starts playing with her food. So I guess I'm just being overly dramatic about the whole issue. :)
This video was shot last week.

Welcome Cason!

On Tuesday October 20th, our family welcomed Cason Aaron Allen Alpert into our arms. He is a perfect, beautiful little boy! We praise God for answered prayer.
Emily is very excited that she has a new cousin to play with. She has been so sweet and, for the most part, very gentle with him. We are looking forward to them growing up together!
Congratulations Uncle Seth & Aunt Devon! We love you!!

Balloon Fest '09

We went to the Plano Balloon Festival again this year. What a difference between last year's photo and this year's!

And my favorite pic from the evening:

Job Update

We have great news! Kyle was offered a job with a local engineering firm on Thursday, and he accepted today!
It's a company that he interviewed with back in April, but they weren't able to hire at that time. They have somewhat kept in touch over these past months. A couple of weeks ago Kyle received an email from the manager he had interviewed with, wondering how things were going. When he found out Kyle was still searching, the ball got rolling pretty quickly.
Kyle will be working downtown, so that will be a bit of an adjustment. But, what am I talking about?..Any commute will be an adjustment. Emily and I are used to him being home 24/7 now!

We are so thankful to everyone for your thoughts, prayers, and kind words during Kyle's unemployment. And we are thankful to the Lord for answering our prayers!

13 Months!!

Yes, I am going to be one of those annoying moms who says the age of her child in months until she's almost 3 years old. I'm sorry, but it helps me feel like she's still a baby when I say it that way.
Emily turned 13 months old on Monday. Time really is flying by these days; this year has gone by in the blink of an eye! Our biggest advances over the past month have been with language development. I've heard several people say that a child will either walk first or talk first. Emily is definitely a talker...and that is just fine with me! :) She really doesn't seem that interested in walking lately, since she's started "crawling" (she still scoots on her bottom).
But she is saying so many words now that I've lost count. They're all approximations of course, but her articulation is surprisingly good on some of the words. The funniest word that she attempts to say is "cheese". She compensates very well for the fact that literally every sound in that word is too difficult for her to articulate. I'll let the video explain...

Not Much New

We're still cruising through these hot summer days, over here at the Bennett Household. Not much new to report...well, except that I'm super excited about the Divine Consign event tomorrow and Saturday!! We're hoping to find a stroller, as the one we currently have is borrowed. I'll have to post pictures of whatever finds we score. :)

Emily's latest adventure is getting into anything and everything that she can find/reach. For example:

Mommy left the package on the floor, so they're free game, right??

Another, not so pleasant, discovery she made the other day was a dead june bug on our window sill. She was playing contentedly in the livingroom while I was in the kitchen, when it became very quiet (which of late does NOT bode well). I walked over to where she was sitting by the window, and she so sweetly held up half of the june bug, all the while chewing and crunching. Thankfully, the rest of the bug was extracted before it was swallowed!