Strange morning

Earlier this week when Emma woke up she asked me to snuggle with her. So I hopped on her bed and she crawled on my lap. I sat there with my arms around her, snuggling her close.
Emma: "Mommy, if you died... and we stuffed you...you would make a great Halloween decoration."
Mommy (trying hard not to laugh or focus on the died part): "Um, OK... don't you think it would be creepy to see me stuffed all the time?"
Emma (giggling): "yeah I guess so, but you'd make a great Halloween decoration."
Mommy: "What made you think of that?"
Emma (giggling): "It came from a monkey's tummy."
Mommy: "A monkey's tummy? That's silly."
Emma (still giggling): "Yeah- that monkey!" and she points to the monkey on her dresser drawer knob.
We both started cracking up and that was that.

Preschool Pictures

Stair Master

Emma has never been super coordinated, which we think, is because she is always growing. It's hard to be comfortable in your own skin when it keeps changing. When she was just 2 and a half a great aunt (who happens to be a preschool teacher) gave us some tips and advice for encouraging Emma to climb down stairs like a big kid. Alternating feet as she steps down, only touching each stair once. In other words not doing the step, together, step together motion. It wasn't something that we worried about or even gave much thought to until recently.
Emma turned 4 and she was still going down the stairs with the step-together pattern. Every once in awhile I would say, let's go down the stairs like a ballerina. We would point our toes and reach for the next stair. She liked it but not enough to keep it up for non-ballerina descents. Two days ago I realized for the very first time that Emma was descending the stairs by alternating her feet!  Of course an accolade was out of my mouth before I could stop myself. Emma smiled and thankfully didn't go running away saying, "No! Don't look at me!" I wonder if she had been walking down the stairs like that for awhile before I noticed.

Boys and Girls

Last week or the week before I was commenting to Steve that Emma hasn't started asking about how boys and girls are different. This weekend all of that changed!

Steve usually gives Emma a bath at night and reads her stories. While they were going through this process Emma asked, "Do all boys have a penis?" Steve asked how she knew about that word (or something like that). Emma said that she asked what is was at preschool when she was looking at an art book. (They had been studying Michelangelo so Steve and I assumed she had been looking at "David".) Steve started to sweat balls while waiting for her to ask the next question. "Daddy, are you a boy?"  So it wasn't the worse case scenario, yes was the easy answer. And Steve was most grateful when she didn't ask him if he has a penis.

So the days are upon us when at some point I am sure Emma will want to know what parts Daddy and all other boys have and why us girls are different.

Telling Jokes

Emma has been using language creatively lately by rhyming and making up words and songs. The other night at dinner we were all talking about the dog and how since Chloe has lost some pounds she isn't as content to sit still.

Emma declares, "Is she a lost and pound dog?"

For some reason this absolutely cracked me up, which had Emma laughing until tears rolled down her cheeks.