2009 ends

As 2009 ends, the terrible, terrific twos are beginning. Emma has been practicing the art of tantrums, screaming, and trying to get her way every single time. Although we do our best to avoid trigger situations, sometimes the fits are unavoidable. Our catch phrase these days is: it's hard to be little. Emma has validation that sometimes life is difficult for her and a reminder to us that being grown up can be the "easier" way to be.

Thanksgiving was a grand feast with Aunt Susan and our friends, Agathe, Henri and their kids, Gustave and Cleophie. Gustave is a picky eater so while he ate plain pasta, Emma chowed down on turkey, wild rice, sweet potato casserole, homemade Parker House rolls, and pumpkin pie. It was a sight to see her eating alone, completely contentedly at her snack table. At Great Grandma's the next day she turned in a similar performance. What can I say, the kid likes to eat!

Aside from eating, reading "tories" is Emma's next favorite thing to do. She is becoming quite the reader, too. She surprised us early this month when she started quoting Snow White and then later repeated to Steve the first few pages of the story, turning the pages at the correct moments. She knows that the letters on the page are the words that we need to see to read her the story. Even still, she has a knack for covering them up and waving the pages of the book around while trying to hold the book for us to see. Oh, the joys of limited dexterity and muscle control. :)

With that in mind, Emma has been working hard on making her fingers contort to make numbers, bunny ears, play thumb wars, give the thumbs up and say i love you. She busted out I love you in the bath last week and I went nuts. Her cousins and family all joined in these last couple of days. I think seeing her older cousins doing it was extra incentive. Emma waved I love you to them all as they drove away this morning.

The other morning I went into Emma's room to "set her free" for the day. Upon opening the door, Emma said, "Good morning, Mommy, I love you." My smile lit up the dark room- no need for lights that morning!

When Nanie gave Emma a bath last night, she sang Little Drummer Boy. Emma chimed in with "pa, rum, pa, pum, bum." Apparently she giggled and giggled over the bum part. As Nanie told us the story at the breakfast table this morning, Emma reached around during the "rum, pa, pum, pums" and patted her bum. Too funny.

Steve and I love singing and making up songs to tunes we all know. Emma usually giggles and adds a line or two that sometimes fits but likely is an example of how her mind works. (She will insert the word poop into any riff, for example.) Anyway, lately she has been trying to rhyme and make up songs with us. Raffi's Willaby Wallaby song is a current fave. Imagine her saying this: "Willaby Wallaby Wommy, an elephant sat on Mommy." Only Willaby Wallaby usually comes up Kawillaby, Kowallaby.

Santa brought Emma an awesome trike for Christmas. Although she can reach the pedals, she is still working on making the bike move by herself. Her cousins, however, gave her a break from trying. She sat on the back while they took turns pedaling her around the table. The younger cousin isn't as strong, so she helped by pushing with her feet. Later, they all gave us an impromptu dance show to the 3 short Peanuts tunes that the Hallmark Snoopy stuffed musical "toy" plays. The oldest cousin kept hitting the button to play the songs over and over again so they could dance. Emma didn't even need to be prodded to join in. She just starting twisting and wiggling around. But she would also then run really fast and jump into the couch cushions. I guess the bright lights of stardom can be too much sometimes! Nanie tried suggesting different music, perhaps songs that last longer than 30 seconds, but they only wanted Snoopy rocking out on his super mini piano.

Tom and Karen, our neighbors across the street gave Emma some Magic Reindeer Food to sprinkle on the snow on the night before Christmas. By morning it looked as if Rudolph had trampled the snow to eat the oats that he saw because of the sparkly green glitter mixed in with them. Santa had also eaten the cookies that Emma left out for him and all that was left of the carrot was a stub. Emma seemed impressed by all of the magical elements, and especially happy that Santa brought her what she asked for- candy.

The family gave Emma some new dolls and doll accessories that have kept her quite busy. She loves rocking them to sleep in the cradle that my godfather made me when I was little, feeding them bottles or cereal, pushing them around in the stroller, or swaddling them in the numerous blankets that can be found in any room of the house. When any one asks Emma what her baby's name is she always says, " Baby Doll." I think she currently has about 5 Baby Dolls.

Emma will sleep right through New Years and tomorrow will be 2010 by the time she wakes up. (Please let that be later than 7 am!) A new decade will be dawning with plenty of time for kicking and screaming, laughing and singing, reading and memorizing, dancing and sleeping. (Please let there be lots of great sleeping.) Happy New Year, Emma Bear!

Another first

So yesterday there we were in the front room just goofing around. I was sitting on the floor while Emma was wiggling around, singing I think. Then she put her head to the ground like an ostrich, which is something she has been doing for a long time. Sometimes she tries to flip over herself, but a lot of the time I flip her over herself. It's fun. But anyway, she was doing a great version of downward dog (a yoga pose) and then over she went. Aside from the fact that her foot hit the piano bench it was a success! It was perfect somersault form! I think she was so shocked that she did it that she didn't do it again. In fact she was purposefully ignoring my encore requests.

Potty Time, excellent

Emma's world..... I have been pretty easy going with the whole potty thing. Emma has been even more so. Sometimes she asks to sit on the potty (her own, plastic version). Sometimes that lasts for 40 minutes. Sometimes it lasts for 2 minutes. All of the time it has led to nothing ending up in the potty. Twice she sat for a little bit (okay, one of those times was for 45 minutes) and then ran away only to pee on the carpet or in her pants. I think I need to elaborate...

A few weeks ago now Emma asked me in the afternoon to sit on the potty. So we took off her pants and diaper and down she sat. I had to sit in the room with her of course, reading her stories. She was so content on sitting there that once boredom settled in I ran the water, used the big potty (sorry), stuck her hands in warm water, gave her a full sippy cup and encouraged long drinks. Nothing worked! I was hoping that she would at least tinkle a tiny bit since she was there for so long. Around the 40 minute mark she began trying to put her pants on, which is something she had been trying to do by herself. It took a lot of tries but she finally got both legs through separate pant legs. (Although it would have been funny to watch her try to walk with both legs crammed into one pant leg, I didn't want the potty experience to scar her or anything. This needs to be fun!) As soon as she managed that feat, she stood up, yanked up her pants and ran away. (It is so much easier to pull pants up over a diaper-less bottom!) I new that she was going to pee now that she was not on the potty. So I tried bargaining with her. "If you are on the carpet area I am going to put your diaper on you." It only took a couple of times before the gleamy-eyed girl made a beeline for the basket of clean diapers on the hardwood floor. She was digging in the basket doing who knows what. I grabbed the camera to document the first successful pants-on-by-herself image. Click. First picture taken. Then right before I could snap number 2, she got a weird look on her face and looked down. Sure enough, there were dark spots spreading on her pant legs. She proceeded to try to climb in the clean diapers, but I wouldn't let her. So we had a nice chat about peeing on the floor and all of that. I hope I was as calm as I felt. Although she did cry because she wanted to sit with the clean diapers.

The second incident happened with Aunt Susan. Emma said she wanted to go to the potty so Aunt Susan made that happen. Emma only sat for a couple of minutes before she took of running to the front room. Aunt Susan caught up with her to put a clean diaper on and then came to tell me the story. I told her what had happened about a week before and then went to the front room to check for wet spots on the carpet. Sure enough, there was a wet spot right in front of the couch! Silly little Emma!

The doc says that it is perfectly normal to go through this stage of peeing outside of the diaper but not in the potty. If it were summer I would really consider letting Emma go around all nakey so she could practice. Oh well. She's the boss when it comes to potty time!

So on Monday, November 2, 2009, Emma took it to the next level. She said she wanted to sit on the potty so we stripped her down and began reading. Just then the phone rang. It was Aunt Susan calling from campus to see if we needed anything else for the cookies we were going to make for Aunt KA. That required a trip to the cookbook in the kitchen to find out. Emma was in the bathroom all alone. I heard the potty bang against the door so I hoped she was okay and listened for tears or sobs but all was quiet (from my spot in the kitchen). A couple minutes later I went back into the bathroom to find Emma standing next to her potty with a very odd expression on her face. Then she stammered out, "Emma peed in potty." I looked down and said, "You did?" It was hard to tell so I wiggled the potty and sure enough there was some liquid in there! "Emma peed in the potty!" we both cried out. I gave her a huge hug, probably a high-five, lots of kisses and more hugs. I wished that I had a little treat to give her. Then I realized that the weird expression had been partly fear so I asked if it scared her and she said yeah. So I said that sometimes the first time is but it takes practice. OR something like that. Then more hugs and kisses! "I am so proud of you!" (They say that you are supposed to be conservative with the potty praise but I couldn't help myself!) Emma helped me dump it into the big potty, and then we washed her hands. Later in the day she would randomly say with a big old grin on her face, "Emma peed in potty."

Turning 2- part 2

Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday dear Emma. Happy birthday to you! Emma was singing this almost every day after our trip to Great Grandma's. Actually, most of the time she would sing about someone else. Aunt Susan, Sleepy Joe, Baby Doll, Daddy- all favorite birthday people.



On Tuesday of the week before Emma's birthday, Aunt Karen Anna showed up for the rest of her fall break. We had a fun few days of making preparations and playing with Emma. Friday night (October 16th) Emma opened up her presents from Aunt Susan- a beautiful brown flowered dress and a pink "birthday girl" shirt. After Emma was already asleep, Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Mark, Uncle Paul and Aunt Lauren showed up at the house. We all had some cupcake and cookie snacks before heading off to bed. Grandma and Grandpa stayed at the Country Inn and Suites, but Uncle Mark, Uncle Paul and Aunt Lauren stayed with us. Aunt Susan joined Aunt Karen Anna in the back room for a night of couch sleeping while Mark crashed on the front room couch. It was quite the flop house!



Saturday morning we were all up bright and early. Aunt Susan whipped up some Puffins (pancakes made in a mini-cupcake pan) that were scrumptious. It was obvious that Emma was soaking up the extra attention; she knew that they were all there just for her. Emma opened up a present from Grandma and Grandpa- a nappy wrappy for baby doll (so Emma and Baby Doll can both wear diapers).

Emma had fun playing and hanging out with the family while everyone pitched in to decorate and make the food. We had streamers and balloons artfully hung by Uncle Paul and Aunt Lauren. Some of the early birthday cards were hung on the walls. The pin-the-candle-on-the-cupcake game was hung on the family room wall. Aunt Karen Anna cut out the Jello "gigglers" that she had created the day before. These things were awesome! 6 Jello flavors and colors made into a 12 layer giggler creation and then cut into hearts and stars. She even filled two champagne flutes with the layers. Aunt Susan, Aunt KA and I decorated the cupcake layer cake. Just look at the picture for a description. They were so delicious!

Around 3 pm Aunt Darcy, Uncle Steve, Madison and Jared showed up, followed closely by our neighbors, Tom and Karen. Aunts Susan and KA churned out delicious cheese and nut twists for snacking while mingling. Emma got to ride on Madison's old bike (that was brought up here just for her), which was one highlight. She also had fun running around with Madison and Jared and reading stories with anyone who would read to her! Madison, Jared, and Emma had fun taking turns playing the cupcake game, although Emma insisted on playing without the blindfold step. They all played for about 15 minutes and laughed whenever some one's candle was upside down (like mine!). Yes, they "made" me play, too. It was fun!



At about 4 pm we gathered everyone around for present time. There were so many! Lots of books and clothes. A Bryn Mawr sweatshirt from Aunt Karen Anna. A fluttery shirt from G-Bugga. Daisy Gets Dressed from Tom and Karen. Bath time baby (from Aunt D and family) was an instant hit. It distracted Emma so much from the other wrapped gifts that Uncle Steve had to take it out of the room to take her out of the box. He delayed the process until the end of the "opening ceremony." (hee hee) Uncle Mark made Emma a xylophone out of wood that is absolutely gorgeous. Aunt Lauren and Uncle Paul gave her a carved pumpkin with a card for a savings bond stuffed inside. Grandma and Grandpa gave Emma a home-made fleece purple bag with a whole slew of art supplies tucked inside along with Harold and the Purple Crayon. Mommy and Daddy gave Emma a tea set, letter blocks, and Carl's Birthday. She really had quite the haul. Once she was all done, she went straight for the tea set and bath time baby.



After presents we had a feast (that Aunts KA and Susan had been busy with during the opening ceremony) of mac and cheese, gigglers, twists of three veggies, lasagna rolls (made the night before), and cheese and nut twists. Then it was cupcake time! Aunt Darcy let Emma stick her finger in one just for fun. Then we sang the Happy Birthday song, and I think Emma sang along. :) Emma got the top cupcake and everyone else grabbed the flavor that sounded best. (There was white and chocolate swirl and red and white swirl. (The triple swirls were left overs and enjoyed throughout the weekend!) We didn't notice until Sunday morning that we forgot to serve Babcock ice cream with them!



After that we all hung out and watched Emma play with her new toys. She knew right what to do with the tea set! She poured tea and passed out cup fulls the whole evening long. "Grandma drink tea." or "Aunt Darcy drink tea." I think everyone had tea that night!



Sunday morning we had waffle sundaes after sleeping in until about 7 am. Grandma and Grandpa came by earlier to find the house dark; they came back after Steve called them. That's Emma for you! She sleeps in when you expect her to wake up early and vice versa. Emma continued to love the attention of the family! Uncle Paul and Aunt Lauren read some of the new stories to her when Emma and Grandma weren't having a tea party. There were pulled pork sandwiches for lunch with cupcakes for dessert. After lunch some of the family went to the Arboretum while the rest of us stayed home while Emma napped.. Emma had to say goodbye to Uncle Paul and Aunt Lauren when they came back so that was sad. The birthday weekend was winding down.



On Monday we had happy birthday cinnamon twists that Aunt Susan had made and frozen earlier in the week. They were delicious! Then Aunt Susan and Uncle Mark caught the bus to campus where Grandma, Grandpa, Mommy and Emma met them later in the morning. We did a driving/walking tour of the parts of campus that Aunt Susan sees on a daily basis. Near Goodnight Hall we walked beneath the fall oak trees to the walking/biking path that runs right along the lake. Emma sat on Uncle Mark's shoulders for a better view. Then we headed off to Babcock Hall to pick up lunch.
While we waited for our sandwich orders to be fixed, Uncle Mark shared his ice cream cone with Emma. Before leaving we headed upstairs to the viewing deck to watch ice cream being made. Emma really seemed to like watching them hose down the floors on one side and watching the machines fill the tubs with ice cream on the other.
Back at home Steve was waiting for us. We enjoyed our sandos, cupcakes and ice cream, and then Emma got to open another present from Mommy and Daddy. It was a play kitchen! Emma checked out the small pieces (wooden knives, forks and carrots) before heading up for a nap. She also had to say goodbye to Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Mark. As if she understood what would happen, she asked for Grandma and Grandpa to both read her stories and tuck her in. When she awoke she predictably asked for the missing guests and then supplied her own answer. "Grandma and Grandpa on plane." The kitchen was waiting for her downstairs and she dove right in. I think it made the empty house a little easier to bear. She focused on cutting the carrot in half with the knife until she could do it quickly and completely on her own. (The carrot is held together with Velcro tabs, leaving a space barely wide enough for the wooden knife.) It is pretty cool!

So now Emma enters her third year as a healthy two year old. On the 20th, we went to the doctor for her 2 year appointment. She was too shy to talk at all with the doctor. He had to take my word for it that she has exceptional language skills. :) She weighed in at 34.4 pounds and was measured to be 38 inches tall. That's the 95%tile for both categories, folks! Everything is A-Okay! She received the regular flu shot and the second of her hepatitis A shots. She cried and said that they hurt, but she got over it pretty quickly. What a trooper!

Turning 2- part 1

Last weekend we went to Great Grandma's house to celebrate Emma's second birthday. We drove down on Saturday and got there in time for a delicious Swedish meatball lunch. It was complete with spaetzle, cheesy, bacon garlic bread, broccoli and birthday cake. Emma successfully blew out both candles, one at a time. That was cool!

Nap was an interesting time. For one thing Emma actually slept for about 1.5 hours (a record for Great Grandma's house). For another thing she refused to sleep on the cushion on the floor. I know this sounds weird but lately she has been sleeping on a blanket on the floor of her bedroom so this was a step up! Where she wanted to sleep instead was on the big bed- the big bed that Steve and I would be sharing later that night. But we let her do it.

When she woke up we opened some presents. Great Grandma got her some fun squirty bath toys, numbers and letters for the bath, and a drum set. It isn't what you are thinking. She didn't get a drum set that has a bass drum, snare, cymbals and the works. This drum set has sticks, a tambourine, a harmonica, and a carrying strap. Plus everything fits in the drum for easy storage. What fun! There was also a box of presents that Nanie and Papa had sent. Emma got some shorts, a red and black outfit, washable markers, and a savings bond. Emma had a great time making dots with the markers.

We had a delicious scrambled egg and leftover dinner and then it was bath time! Emma loved the numbers and letters. They stick to the walls! Predictably, when it came time for bed Emma would not even consider the cushion bed on the floor. So we surrounded her with pillows and Steve tucked her into the big bed. Meanwhile I made him a little pile of blankets on the floor. It was a terrible sleeping night! Emma rolls and kicks and steals the covers. Plus, she woke up for a looooong time in the middle of the night. She sat up, laid down, rolled over and fidgeted all while chatting or singing. She did use her cute whisper voice most of the time, but I still wasn't able to sleep. At one point I woke up to her throwing her arm over my middle and then draping her top half over my stomach. It was cute and snugly until I began to lose feeling in my arm and leg. Thankfully she did not wake up when I gently moved her back to the center of the bed.

Come morning she slept in until almost 7. Yay! We had a simple cereal breakfast with yogurt, strawberries and blueberries. We left right around 8:30 so that Grandma could get off to church without a fuss. Emma fussed in the car on the ride home from lack of sleep and hunger. I headed off to my soccer game around lunch time, and when I returned home Emma was awake. Her overtired self was not able to take a good nap apparently. But the little frustrations were well worth the joy that Emma gave to Great Grandma. Those are sweet memories to be cherished.

What's been happening?

Steve made Emma a sandbox out of a piece of our deck, and we filled it with deluxe sand from Menards. Emma loves it! I taught her how to bury our feet and make caves when we pull them out. Aunt Susan and Steve had no idea when we were talking to them about looking in caves one day at dinner. It was like our little secret! :) Our neighbor across the street gave Emma some toys that used to belong to her grandkids, which made the sandbox so much better. Emma likes to make fish and star molds and then promptly destroy them. Like most kids, tearing down the castles, molds and caves is one of the most fun parts of playing in the sand.

Emma has also discovered the fun of hiding. She likes to hide behind doors, under cushions and beneath blankets. We were bored one day so we built a fort by laying a large blanket over the space between the ottomans and the couch. We crawled in with a flashlight and scores of Emma's plush toys. Then we read a couple of books, made shadow puppets and watched our fingers turn red when you cover the light with them. When Daddy came home I tried to get her to stay hidden, but she was so excited to show him the fort that she bounced her way right into the kitchen. Dinner had to wait until Daddy crawled in the fort to check it out. On a different day Emma was inspired to put her rocking horse in the fort. Clearly this was not possible given the dimensions of the family room fort so we brought the blanket to the rocking horse and made a much larger fort with the rocking horse as the corner stone. It was tall enough for Emma to sit up underneath it, which made her day. After dinner later that night in her haste to crawl quickly through the fort Emma rammed her head right into the other corner stone- the table leg. The tears and pain quickly "brough the fort down." (As a side note: Emma likes to run around like a mad girl after dinner and after bath time. We think it might have something to do with the euphoria of freedom from her highchair and the delirium of near-sleep, respectively.)


Emma also went to two birthday parties. At the first party, Emma bounced in a bounce house and actually sort of participated for the first time. Her and one of the birthday sisters exchanged hugs and fruit snacks. Emma laughed and rolled around the bounce house for quite awhile. When it came to present time Emma pretty much stayed focused on the swingset/play structure. But boy did she have fun! At my godson's birthday party, Emma only crawled through the sea creatures belly once (it was a giant blow up play tunnel); I think it was too confining for her. After that Steve and I took turns chasing after her, but she did swing at the pinata and eat cake. She also had her first Tootsie Roll. :)

What's that?

As already noted on more than one post, Emma's language has exploded. From Emma-rise to Emma-down (her wake-up and goodnight times are completely non reliant on the sun) she chatters away, asks questions and parrots what we say. One of the more common repetitive phrases is "what's that?"

I have to think that part of the reason for using this phrase is because we have used it so regularly with her. Every time we read we ask her what she sees in the pictures. Outside we ask her to tell us what she sees in nature. You get the point. Now it seems that the tables have turned! When she really gets going it is astonishing how many times she can ask "what's that?" in just a couple of minutes. Sometimes she asks the question even though she knows the answer like when she points to an elephant in her library book. She has known what elephants are since before she could talk and when she would trumpet instead.

But "what's that?" is more than just a rote line. She uses it when she wants to know about something, like the "new" pictures and faces in her library book Can You Say Peace? by Karen Katz. The Eiffel Tower or young native Australians are novel scenes and pictures for her. It is pretty cool to watch her learning, especially as she chooses what it is that she wants to learn.

Sometimes her curiosity has not been for the best. She has learned about boobies for example and has embarrassed not just us but other family members as well when she points at their boobies and says very loud and clearly, "So-and-so's boobies!" Hee. Hee. Silence as an answer to her question does not always work either; she figures out the answer and boldly proclaims it to the world. Just the other day we were out shopping and Mommy had to use the bathroom. Since Emma had to come with me into the stall, interesting things were bound to happen. The other patrons heard all about the whole process even though I calmly ignored the "what's that?" line of questioning spewing from Emma's mouth. She would ask "what' s that?" and then supply her own (correct) answer. For example: "What's that? Mommy peeing." I had to keep from chuckling so as not to encourage her further. What's that indeed.