my voice is back completely! 

i hurt my neck :( i might have to make a trip to the chiropractor.

we had a great long weekend with dad home. great weather too! abby asked me today: "is daddy going back to work tomorrow?", "yes" said i. "uuuuuuuugh! i don't like it when he goes to work. i like to play with him!" me too sweetie, me too. 

this weekend i took all the car seats (4) and cleaned them. wow! pretty gross stuff under there.

i also got abby's seat and took all the straps off it so she can use the seat belt like a "big girl". 

i had promised we would do that for her 5th birthday. she is so thrilled!

she has been using 5 point harness all this time. 

we have two huge problems with her: she is skinny and she is long. 

so when she turned 4 she was old enough and tall enough but definitely not heavy enough to use a seatbelt. when she was 3 she was too tall for the toddler sized car seat so we bought one for tall kids that she could use with the 5 point harness. this one will last her (thankfully) till she doesn't need anything.

so now, she is 37 lbs not quite the 40 lbs she needs to be able to use the seat belt but i figured she was close enough.

emma is super close to walking! my friend gave me some german shoes that are good for babies who are learning to walk. i was a bit skeptical that they would actually "help" any more than any other shoe. but they do! they are sturdy but soft and come high on her ankle. they remind me of orthopedic shoes. she is quite sturdy when she walks with them.