An Overindulgent Weekend

As the title implies, Emily had quite the fantastic weekend. Her Aunt S & "The Godfather" (AKA Uncle J) came to Chicago for the weekend. Emily has been very excited about this for several weeks and could not wait for them to get here. They arrived very late on Friday night, and while Emily was at Grandma & Grandpa Bellock's house to greet them, she did so with her eyes closed. Aunt S didn't care, and gave her smooches anyway.

On Saturday morning, Emily had her second swimming lesson and she was very happy to get back in the water. Our official teacher was sick, so we had a substitute who told me that Emily was very cute and a "natural" in the water. She made this determination because this week Emily was actually kicking her feet in the water by herself. After our swimming lesson, we went home for a bath and to get ready to meet Aunt S & The Godfather at the Brickworld Show in Wheeling. The Godfather is a big fan of Legos, and this was part of the reason that they came out to visit. When we finally met them at the show, they were very excited to see Emily awake, and Emily was smiling ear to ear and showing off her new choppers. Inside the Brickworld exhibit, we discovered that Emily is 63 Lego bricks tall. Emily was very impressed with the detail that the Lego fans put into their creations. The Brickworld show really exhausted Emily, and she slept through lunch at Claim Jumper and as a result missed her chance at the chocolate cake. Upon our return to Grandma & Grandpa's, Aunt S presented Emily with a very special gift. She knitted her a very cute and very handsome Mr. Darcy doll. Emily immediately chomped on his hand, which we took to mean that she liked it. Mommy & Daddy had to go to a special party, so they left Emily with Aunt S & The Godfather for the evening. When we returned, we received some very disturbing news . . . Aunt S told us that after we left Emily took it upon herself to go joyriding on the fire engine (for those of you who don't know, my father keeps a 1939 Seagrave fire engine in the garage). After returning to the house, she then invited her friends over for a party. I can only assume that it was during this party that Emily hacked into air traffic control computer for O'Hare airport and forced planes to land. If that wasn't enough, she went back into the garage, souped up the lawn tractor and was having lawnmower races in the back yard. To cap off her evening, she started prank calling the White House, asking the President if his refrigerator was running! (He apparently didn't get the joke.) After all of her prank calls, she promptly fell asleep, exhausted from all of her antics. I am just happy that we came home when we did, I can't imagine the kind of trouble she would have gotten into if we hadn't.

Sunday was Emily's last day with Aunt S & The Godfather. We spent the early portion of the afternoon visiting Great Ray and Great Bob. As usual, Emily loved her time with the Greats, and followed Great Bob's every move with rapt attention. At Great Bob's she also received a lovely present from her Great Aunt Linda which she immediately fell in love with. Following our Great visit we went letterboxing and then to the Zoo to visit with Joseph's bear. We found out that he was born in the morning, so he too is Emily's older brother. Aunt S & The Godfather had a really fun time with Emily at the Zoo. The Godfather was very happy to show Emily his favorite animal, the Rhinoceros (pronounced Rhino-Saurous). After the zoo, we all went back to Grandma & Grandpa's for a yummy dinner before it was time to say goodbye. Emily was exhausted from all the fun she had and can't wait to visit with Aunt S & The Godfather again.

Having fun in the water with Daddy, and kicking her own feet. (Last week, Daddy had to do this for her.)

"OK, Daddy, now I'm going to jump in and I don't want any funny business. It's your job to catch me and make sure that I don't get a face full of water."

Aunt S helps Emily size herself up to the John Hancock building . . . the Lego John Hancock building that is.

"Wow, I'm as 63 Lego bricks tall, Daddy! Does that mean I can have chocolate cake now?"

Mommy liked this Lego creation the best. I wonder why . . .

**Deep Breathing** "Emily, he is your father." **Deep Breathing**

"Daddy, I didn't know that Auntie Mandy was going to be here."

Click on this picture to see all of the details. There was a giant Lego city, and you really had to look closely to catch all of the comical details that the Lego artists added in. Here is a car crash between a Krispy Kreme truck and a Dunkin Donuts truck. The cops are showing up from everywhere with coffee from Starbucks. (We couldn't stop laughing when we saw this part of the city.)

"Wow, My own Mr. Darcy. I love Mr. Darcy. Thanks, Aunt S, you are so overindulgent."

"Mr. Darcy, do you have any toes that you need me to suck on, or nibble?"

Smiling at Great Ray.

The two of them were having a lot of fun.

Aunt S got too close and her fingers became a snack for Emily. Emily, however, wouldn't let go of Great Ray's fingers either.

Saying "Hi" to Great Bob. (Latched onto Aunt S's hand.)

"Wow, Aunt S, your fingers are so tasty."

"Daddy, look at this really pretty stool that Great Aunt Linda gave me! I can't wait to use it to climb out of my crib at night and sneak into the kitchen to find the cookies."

Joseph's Bear

Emily gets ready to take a nap with her new friend, who has not yet been named. (Hudson, Joseph, Polar Bear . . . we can't decide.)

. . . One elephant went out to play, upon a spider's web one day, he had such enormous fun, he called for another elephant to come. ELEPHANT! (a lullaby that Mommy likes to sing to Emily)

The Godfather's favorite . . . the Rhinosaurous! (Not Rhinoceros, Rhinosaurous)

Everybody go surfing, surfing USA . . . Emily was "surfing" on Aunt S's stomach. She thought that this was BIG fun!!! Aunt S did too, until Emily kept kicking her in the ribs and the gut.

The Godfather helps Aunt S give Emily her bottle while the rest of us finish our dinner.