Well, here she is. It took both JC and I, after some frustration on my part, but between the two of us I think we made an awesome Barbie cake! And Emma's party was a huge success. If you're ever in the Altoona area, head out to Bianci Boys for some Italian or awesome pizza. It's such a great place to eat and they were gracious enough to open their restaurant 2 hours early for our party!
Emma has been asking for an American Girl doll for quite some time now. They are so expensive!!! Instead of getting her a brand new one, though, I decided to try Craigs List. Much to my surprise, I found a Just Like You doll from the American Girl collection and guess what...she looks just like Emma!! Okay, kind of. Let's just say she looks just like the doll that we would have picked had we gone online and picked out a Just Like You doll for her. And she wasn't $120!!! It was definitely a good find, and Emma loves her new doll, whom she named Kit.
It's hard to believe Emma is 5 years old. Time has gone so quickly. She is still my baby girl, but she reminds me every day that she is actually a big girl. Seems like yesterday we were bringing her home from the hospital. Now in a couple of short months we'll be bringing her baby brother home!
Emma is so excited to become a big sister, and she's going to be a great one. She's been giving me name options left and right, and they've now gone from cartoon names to real, and very cute I might add, names. It's fun to include her in the naming process, especially now that we've gotten past the suggestions of Spongebob and other cartoon figures she's into at that moment!
We've been working hard to include Emma in a lot of the planning for the baby, as well as taking special outings, which I will plan on continuing after the baby is here. Over Thanksgiving we took her to the water park, and we're planning another trip there sometime before he arrives. Emma has also asked if we can go to Adventureland and the zoo this summer, so those will both be good outings just for her, Mommy and Daddy. We all know that the baby will take more attention than she will, so we're going to do our best to make sure Emma doesn't ever feel left out. And who knows, maybe she won't! It'll still be fun to have Emma time every now and then!!
