Finger-licking good

This morning we had steel cut oats with apple chunks and cinnamon. It was a good switch from the standard steel cut oats and cranberry or blueberry toppings. Emma gobbled up every last bit of the mixture- willingly and without any directives from me. So there I was in the kitchen putting away my dirty bowl and tidying the place up a bit. I look over at Emma who is licking her fingers. She proceeds to tell me, "You can suck your fingers instead of you wash your hands." (That is exactly what she said; I didn't edit the grammatical errors.)

Despite my chuckles, which were no doubt encouraging, we followed standard clean-up procedures with a trip to the sink and some scrubbing. Although, I have to admit, it was much easier to clean her hands this time around!

chocoholic

Emma loves hot cocoa, especially after a fun snow day. We've had quite a few this winter. We get all bundled up and head out to the front yard. Sometimes Emma brings her baby doll and stroller and we walk up and down the sidewalk pushing baby doll through the snow drifts. It is a pretty funny sight I am sure.

Other times we build mini-snowmen because the snow is too dry to make a full-sized snowman. Other times we walk up and down the sidewalk, sitting in the drifts making "bum prints" in our neighbors' front lawns. Sometimes we make snow angels in our front lawn or go tromping through the yard making big foot prints. Or sometimes we crunch snowballs or ice chunks and watch the tiny pieces shoot off to the sides.

After one day of playing outside, we decided to save our hot cocoa drinking until after dinner when Daddy was home. So there we were sitting at the table, watching Emma scoop up the mini-marshmallows and suck up her cocoa.

Daddy asked, "Is it good?"

With a twinkle in her eye Emma replied, "Yes! It's better than milk."

If you pee-peed in the potty

shout hooray! Hooray!
If you had spent the last 2 weeks in our house you would have heard that song probably over a hundred times. It is from this great book that Emma loves, called "Tinkle, Tinkle, Little Tot." All the songs and rhymes have to do with using the potty. Thank goodness there is a limit to the number of times you can renew it from the library.

Anyway, Emma woke up Monday morning of last week and said I want to sit on the potty. I don't think she was successful until that night before bath, but at bath time she said she wanted to go potty and she did! Then, every night before and/or after bath she would go pee pee. For the first few days she would ask for sunflower seeds (her reward) and was so happy and proud to be eating them. (They are chocolate covered, candy coated sunflower seeds.) But by the end of the week she was using her potty without asking for the sunflower seeds. Yay! Also by the end of the week she was asking to use the potty at random times during the day- and having success! Some days she went 3-4 times over the course of a day. It is so exciting.

Now, just like they describe in many books, she hasn't been too keen on using the potty during the day. She seems to like the before/after bath timing. That is just fine with me. I have all the potty books memorized, too. :) Plus, our whole approach has been that Emma is the boss. She doesn't really know that, but we have not pressured her or even asked her about the potty much at all. I think it has been a much more fun process that way, and I am sure that Emma loves being in charge! Don't all 2 year olds?

This morning, Stella (you remember the Cabbage Patch kid without her pants), had some potty time and promptly filled the potty right up with pee pee and poop. I guess Emma doesn't want to be too far ahead of her friends. "Look, Tella peed and pooped in the potty! Good job!" exclaimed the queen of the potty throne.

Apricot Show- the next generation

If you search back through the posts you will discover another Apricot Show posting. Or perhaps you remember what they are all about. But it's always good to have reminders... Before Emma's bath time she runs around all nakey and gives anyone and everyone an apricot show. When she was really little, Steve refered to Emma's bum as apricots and the term of endearment has stuck around since then.

The other day Emma ran to the top of the stairs in her birthday suit and yelled, "Daddy, I have a bum!" She turned around and pressed her apricots to the bars of the gate and giggled like mad. I, of course, was laughing like crazy.
Lately Emma has been asking to see her bum. I guess she is starting to wonder what the fuss is all about. So Steve and I have both lifted her up so she can see her bum in the mirror. If she can't find a mirror (like if she is all wet and soapy in the bath) it is quite humorous watching her try to see her apricots and bum. It's like a dog chasing its tail.

The other day we were all in the kitchen area preparing for dinner. In comes Emma with some dolls, a couple of which were Cabbage Patch Kids. She laid them on her chair and proclaimed, "Apricot Show!" Sure enough, the dolls pants were all pulled down, exposing their apricots, and they were laying face down- probably hiding from their shame. (Cabbies have fairly well defined bums in case you didn't know. In fact there are some Cabbie stories from my youth that I will probably share with Emma someday....)

Again this morning, Emma paraded around with Stella whose pants were missing and whose bum was being shown for anyone to see. "Apricot show!" Giggle, giggle.