Second Easter '09

We celebrated a second Easter with Great Grandma R the weekend after Easter. It was a lovely weekend complete with Easter ham, lamb butter, an Easter egg hunt and delicious desserts.

You might notice that Emma is wearing the same dress as in Easter '09; it was a gift from Great Grandma R so we made sure to get a lot of use out of it.

I kept waiting for Emma to say "Gamma" again, but she did not oblige. Instead she patted her head for Grandma and wanted to be by Great Grandma's side most of the time.

Emma and I headed outside to do some exploring (and energy expenditure adventures as a pre nap tire-you-down scheme) while Steve and G-Grandma hid some Easter eggs inside. Emma loved opening the eggs and eating the candy, but she needed help finding the eggs. Still, we think she had fun. Smiles and a candy-smeared face were all we had to go on. :)

Language Explosion

Emma's 18 month doctor visit on Monday went really well. Her new doctor is very patient and nice. Emma did not seem to mind him at all. Plus, they give out books to their patients as part of a reading program. That made Emma happy!

The doctor told us that between 18 months and 2 years kids go through a language explosion where you can't keep track of the number of words they can now say. Having front teeth aids pronunciation and enunciation. Just to prove his point, when we got home, Emma clearly said "book." Not just "buh." The K sound was clear as a bell. And sure enough, she repeats more words accurately and is just a happily bubbling chatty Kathy.

Here are the stats: weight, 29 pounds (90th%tile); height 35 inches (100th%tile). Yes, her height is at the 100th%tile. Off the curve in other words! She got a tetanus shot, too. The nurses (and doc) commented on her nice, chunky thighs that are perfect for sticking with long, sharp needles. Emma tensed up and stuck out her bottom lip but she did not cry or shed a tear when they stuck her. She is such a brave girl!

The Apricot Show

Ever since Emma was a baby Steve has fondly referred to her tushy as "apricots." It is an endearing adjective that I am sure one day will embarass the heck out of her! (As will the following post.)

Lately, Emma has been fond of running around naked ("nakie") upstairs before her bath. When she runs by the top of the stairs she yells out for Mama, and Steve asks her if she wants to give Mama an apricot show. I, of course, indulge them (and myself).

At the top of the stairs I wait behind the closed gate for Emma to come running by. She smiles and giggles and jiggles on by. I reach through the bars to tickle her and she lets out a little scream and keeps running. Watching her run away is just the cutest thing. Steve and I watch and chuckle. Emma keeps coming back for more! It has become quite a ritual that we all look forward to I think. Someday I know she will learn about modesty and not want us to see her apricots,and I suppose her apricots won't stay apricots forever either. But until that day comes bring on the apricot show! ( Sorry, this show is an exclusive event. You will have to wait downstairs.)

Easter '09

We had a great Easter here in Madison with just the 3 of us (oh, and Porter). We went to church, and Emma was quiet through most of the service. Before her morning nap Emma got her Easter basket, which was filled with grass and chocolate. She pulled out all the grass and chomped down on some jelly beans and M&Ms.

After her morning nap we had our brunch. Emma did not care for deviled eggs or ham, potato, spinach crepes. But she loved the fruit crepes! Then we went out back for an Easter egg hunt. The eggs were pretty much in plain sight on the deck and in the yard, and Emma had to be prodded to "find" each one. She really liked shaking them up! Once we showed her that there was candy inside she stopped looking and worked on trying to open them up. We all enjoyed the sunshine and then it was nap time again.

The crowning moments of Easter were 1) the cookies (Magic in the Middles- chocolate and peanut butter) with ice cream. Yummy! 2) Emma knows what the word "candy" means. This might not be so good. :) We ration the candy to her. She might still be eating her candy in a month! 3) Watching her shake the eggs. It really made me all warm and fuzzy inside as we video taped her doing these Easter things. It all goes by too quickly!

1-2-3 Go!

When Steve or I say "1-2-3" Emma says "Go!" It is too funny! Steve apparently taught her this latest trick over the weekend. And her articulation is great. I thought the "G" sound was supposed to be hard to say!

Down and dirty

This is the video and a picture to go along with our outside time yesterday. Emma's fingernails got so dirty; it was kind of cute actually. I think that might have been the first time for that.

Yes

Emma (like most kids) grasped on to "no" very quickly. She can say no, shake her head no, and point at things that she shouldn't touch and say no. Aw...

Yes has been more difficult. I shake my head and my fist (the sign for yes) and say it all together really slowly and all the time. Just a few days ago she decided to try imitating my hand gesture. Her lack of coordination made it hard to tell what she was doing, but I could tell. :) It was the look of concentration on her face that made me stop and really look at what she was doing. Then sometime after that she started trying to move her head up and down when I said yes. This is too funny because she has to try so hard. Her bottom lip juts out or she moves her mouth in a strange way and moves her head mostly up and down. It sort of rocks side to side as well. Some times her whole body moves as well. You can practially feel her brain trying to control her muscles. I can't really explain all that well. You just have to see it. Thankfully, she does it a little bit in the Hamming it up video. Check it out!

Hamming it up

Emma knows what the camera is used for, and the other day she kept pointing at it and grunting. (She grunts when she wants something or to get our attention. What a little piggy! :)) We won't let her play with it of course so I turned it on and told her I would take her picture. Well, she was being so cute I had to video tape her instead. Did I mention that we were eating lunch at the time? You'll soon see what I mean....(watch video please)

On another note, we stood Emma next to her giraffe wall hanging with the measuring tape to see how tall she is. (I was swearing (not literally) that she is much taller than the last trip to the docs. And....she is almost 33 inches tall! Holy cats. With her "new" height she can now climb on and perhaps more importantly off, of her rocking horse, reach higher on the counters, and has an easier time on the stairs. She also has a new tooth in just yesterday. It seems that the final lateral incisor (the one that has been missing for 2 months) decided to join the others! Soon Emma will have 8 teeth. And counting...

I love this age! She is still so sweet and independently dependent. For no reason what so ever (that I could tell) she ran up to me the other day and bear hugged me. Yesterday she climbed in my lap with Snoopy and snuggled for a few minutes. She says Mama and my heart melts. I love that little bear!

Today we went outside and played. It was so sunny and warm! Emma had such fun getting licked by the neighbor's puppy, interfering in another neighbor's soccer kicking fun, trying to run in the neighbor's back yard, etc. She cried when we had to go in. Then we came back out the back with the dog and had more fun! Here Emma discovered dirt, leaves, and grass. Grass is especially fun to pull out of the ground and dirt has a good smell. :) Plus, plastic glasses make great containers for organic material. Stay tuned for video action at a later date.

"Gamma"

We went to visit Great Grandma R for a few days (3/17-3/19 2009) while Steve was out-of-town for work. We left Tuesday morning, arriving in time for lunch. Grandma R always cooks up something delicious- always with meat and always accompanied by dessert- for every meal except breakfast. Oh how I look forward to breakfast after a couple days. :) We had a nice chicken salad with buttermilk biscuits and cherry jello salad and for dessert we had a yummy, dense, chocolate cake with cream cheese and cool whip frosting. You should have seen the slice of cake Grandma cut for Emma! I only gave her small bit of it (a decent toddler size piece I think), but that meant that I had this absolutely mondo-sized piece to eat myself. Of course I ate it, and I didn't complain. Emma loved her piece, too, especially the tasty frosting, which she sucked right off.

For some reason Emma does not sleep well at Grandma's. I on the other hand, usually sleep really well, as long as I am not sharing the room with a toddler. So, I haven't slept well at Grandma's in 17 months! :) Despite having slept for a little of the drive down, Emma was about falling asleep at the table so I promptly put her down for a nap, hoping that this would be the trip when she finally would sleep great at Grandma's. She screamed and carried on for about an hour and then finally dropped off to sleep. (I was just about ready to rescue her. Good thing I didn't go in the room!) She only slept for 45 minutes, but I was happy with that. More importantly, Emma seemed happy with that.

This whole time, Porter was outside with Grandma's dog, Sandy, chasing lights and shadows. Since it was a gorgeous day (in the 60s), we decided to take Emma to the park, which is just down the road. Seriously, it would take 5 minutes to walk there, but we drove. I was actually worried about Grandma having to walk. She has slowed down quite a bit this past year or so, and I didn't want to push her too much. So I told her that it would be easier with the diaper bag and all of that if we just drove. I think she bought it! :) Emma, of course, had no opinion one way or another.

At the park, Emma was the happiest little girl! She cruised all over the place, examining old leaf piles, practicing climbing up and down the curbs, trying to climb up the slides- anything and everything was a delight to her. We put her in a swing where I think she could have stayed all afternoon if we let her. She loves to swing! Instead of pushing her for hours on end, I put her back on the ground to do more exploring. It took a bit of convincing, but Grandma and I helped Emma figure out how to go down the slide. It was a short enough slide that I was able to hang on to her from the ground for the whole ride down; I did that the first time. From then on since she didn't go fast at all, she went down by herself at least 3 or 4 more times! She smiled the whole time. Grandma helped situate her from the top, and I kissed her at the bottom.

We took time for a brief snack, and then Emma continued to run around in the warm sun. There were some kids playing in the adjoining school yard, and she was enthralled. She climbed over the curb to the grass and proceeded to head down the hill. If I hadn't stopped her she would have tried to join their game of football!

When it was getting close to dinner time we loaded up and headed back to Grandma's. In honor of St.Pat's we had corned beef sandwiches, leftover jello salad and gigantic pieces of cake. (Grandma told me that we had to finish the whole cake (9x13 pan) by the time we left. I think my arteries squeezed up at that point.)

Bath time was fun. Sandy tried helping by licking off the water spots when she could. Emma splashed and tried drinking water out of the mini pail Grandma had given her to play with. Back in the den, Grandma and I took turns reading stories to Emma. Since she was doing her best to disguise her tiredness, we spent a long time hanging out on the bed. Then we put her in the playpen, shut the door, and tried to ignore her cries for the next 20 minutes.

Emma had a rough night, therefore I had a rough night. I think she was uncomfortable in the play pen so she rolled over a lot and made a lot of noises. At one point she was awake and babbling (once she stopped screaming), and I was afraid that we were going to be up for good at 2 in the morning! Thankfully she fell back asleep. I think she woke up happy at around 6 am. Not too bad for Grandma's.

Wednesday was a much colder and dreary day so we stayed in. Emma loved her cheerios, blueberries and strawberries for breakfast. I ate only enough to stop the rumbling of my tummy in anticipation of the cake fest sure to come (twice). I think Emma took a decent nap after lunch, and when she woke up we headed to the mall.

Stratford Square is farther (I think) than Woodfield Mall, but it is way less crazy and not as big. It is still two or three stories and nice, but if you have ever been to Woodfield you know the craziness. Anyway, I wanted to check Kohl's for toe less pantyhose and a dress for Emma. Grandma and I had fun trying to find a dress that we both liked (she decided to buy it). When I let Emma out of the stroller to try the dress on her, she would hardly stand still. She ran off to disassemble the stacks of jeans as soon as the ordeal was over. Did I mention that she was shirtless? Here was my half naked girl cruising around the toddler section, very close to melting down if I came to close to her. I remained calm and tried some corralling tactics to no avail. I finally had to scoop her up and lock her in the stroller.

Emma resigned herself to the confines of the rolling chair, and we headed to the play area that Grandma had told me about. On the other side of the mall we found the play area already swarming with kids. It took Emma a little bit to warm up to the idea of exploring, but then she was off. The play area had all kinds of climbing things- flower patches low to the ground, a giant tree with a ramp up and through it and a tunnel underneath, a car (miniature), a bridge, a giant mouse reading a book, etc. It was pretty cool. We were only there for about 10 minutes when the cleaning lady showed up and politely asked us all to leave. What a bummer!

Emma had a quick ride on the merry-go-round ride just outside the play area. She enjoyed the first partial ride (we joined in after it had started going), but she was not happy about the second one so we left.

As I was taking Emma out of her car seat back in Grandma's driveway, Grandma was walking around the back of the car. Emma was patting her head (her sign for Grandma that she picked up with Steve's mom) and I said, "Yep, Grandma is walking around the back of the car. You'll see her is just a minute." Then to my complete surprise and amazement Emma said, "Gamma," softly yet undoubtedly clear. I burst with praise and kisses and brought her out to tell Grandma. That was so cool!

Dinner that night was leftover chicken salad, homemade chicken fingers, salad and lots of cake. No wait. Grandma didn't want to serve us the cake again because she was not happy with the recipe. (I think she knew that from the beginning.) Anyway, she brought her tin of cookies and we ate them covered with cake frosting. Yummy.

Bath time was just as fun, and book reading just as precious. Emma fussed for a minimal amount of time before falling asleep. And she had a better night of sleeping. Or I was just so tired that I slept through any noises- who knows! Wake up time was right before 7 am. Nicely done!

After a delicious crepe breakfast (Emma loved her fruit, yogurt, and crepe plate) we packed up and headed back to Wisconsin. It is always so hard to say goodbye to Grandma, but Emma tried making it better by uttering "Gamma" again near the door. Too cute!