Slide and Fairy Wings

Little fairy princess helping daddy vacuum the new tile. Isn't it pretty?

Showing off her new swinging skills that she learned from the other little boy at the park. Swing then slide.

Daddy and Emma.


Quick video of the slide.

Over the last couple weeks I have realized how fast Emma is growing up. She usually takes showers with me on my late days and days off, I used to have to hold her under the spray to rinse off, now she stands there on her own and won't move. She is a shower hog! Last night I gave her, her own shower and she did wonderful. Earlier in the day we went to the park and she watched what the other kids were doing and immediately copied, like grabbing the plastic overhang on the slide and swinging first then sliding.

Then when I brought the fairy wings home today for her she was estatic. She preened in front of the mirror and twirled and twirled. My little fairy princess is growing up way too fast !

Our Spaghetti O girl

I found out early on that Emma loves Spaghettio's. I was eating them one day last year and she yelled and fussed till I gave her a bite then she ate almost the whole bowl. Since then I have learned to buy the family size can just so I can have some too.

Pumpkin Patch

Happy to have the hay out of her boots
Playing on the hay mountain with mommy
Kings of the world !!

Kaylee and Emma at the top of the mountain, pretty blue sky!

On Sunday Emma and I went to visit Kelly and Company. We decided at the last minute to go to a local pumpkin patch. It was funny we rode the tractor out to the patches, we were one of the last ones to get off the tractor. As we were just entering the patch, taking our sweet ole time, this woman who had been on the tractor with us was speed walking clutching her pumpkin, yelling hurry up guys lets go, get back on the tractor. I looked around dumbfounded and asked her if there was a time limit, she said no you can take any tractor back they run in shifts. It is still a mystery to me that someone would pay $6 to ride a tractor less than 1 city block to a field and pick a pumpkin that is right up front, picked over, and run right back. Might as well go to the grocery story for that price!

Anyway after that we let the kids go thru the blow up obstacle course, Kelly had to jump in and help Emma up the ladder so she could go down the slide. Kelly opted out of the slide portion. After that we went in the barn and visited the animals. They were extremely friendly animals that let all the kids pet them. Emma even kissed the cow, she is very affectionate when she wants to be these days! When we were done there we headed to the hay mountain and they all scaled it like it was Mt. Everest. They all made it thru the hay maze, even Em. She was a real trooper and had a great time!! After we met Greg for dinner which was a much better experience than the day before, no painting the walls and mommy with ranch !

Cheers to the terrible "2's" may they be short and easily forgotten

As my friend with twins the same age as Emma pointed out the other day, the terrible "2's" have started. We tried a new Mexican restaurant for dinner last night to celebrate Archie's birthday, it didn't end up being much of a celebration. It started with their 10-15 minute wait that turned into over 30 minutes, by that time I feared Emma's dinner would consist of crunchies and apple juice (the only two things I had in the diaper bag). We finally got seated and I ordered her dinner before we even looked at our menu hoping that would ensure a peaceful dinner. I ordered her a cheeseburger and side-salad, both her favorites. This was also one of those restaurants that serves chips and salsa while you wait. Well for some reason Emma chokes on any kind of corn chip there is, always has. (Starting with the "plane" incident last year when I deboarded in sub zero weather with only a tank top on, for those of you that remember) Anyway we were leery of letting her have any because of past tries, but of course it was the only thing she wanted and her dinner wasn't there yet. So we let her have some chips, she ended up with the bowl in front of her sharing "her" chips with us. Her dinner arrived and she was only interested in the salad, wanted nothing to do with the hamburger. But let me tell you had Archie and I been having burgers too she would have wanted nothing more! Our appetizers arrive , just as the fire alarm in the restaurant becomes the accompaniment music instead of the upbeat salsa music they had going. Of course I send a text msg to a friend at work wondering if I am going to see the local fire department soon....to my visual dismay they were not coming, alarm was canceled during the call into dispatch. When it did stop sounding everyone in the restaurant started clapping and cheering, that I did find odd. During this time while attempting to try the queso dip that looked and smelled amazing, trying to watch the "live" guacamole making, Emma wants me to put salad on her fork for almost every bite. Putting salad on her fork entails her not looking and aiming the fork in my direction, saying "Hap" (help), if I wasn't looking said fork ended up rubbing against my shirt, face, pants etc. By the time dinner arrived I was wearing ranch dressing. After that Emma decided it was more fun than eating to wipe her fork on the wall, dressing and all over and over. So there I am holding her left side to prevent more wall painting, trying to eat dinner, watching the appetizers get cold, and have a conversation with Archie that doesn't involve Emma and her dinner, not a chance! I had one piece of my dinner when I hear Emma starting to choke, of course on the corn chips that she has now consumed a whole basket of. I do the mom thing and hold my hands out, dump the contents on a empty plate, grab a napkin , Emma and look for the restroom. I ask a hostess where it is, she says let me seat these people then I will take you, forget it I can look for a sign myself. We both get cleaned up, head back to the table, I switch seats with her (wall painting prevention) which entails moving all the plates around so Emma can't grab it all and make more of a mess, then try to eat again. By this time it is futile, I have lost my appetite because puke plate is still sitting on the table, Emma is now trying to hang out into the aisle and Archie is beyond having fun at his birthday dinner. Emma then decides to try to feed me her hamburger bun, not my food of choice considering all we had on the table, she wasn't very happy I didn't want to eat it. After a 5 minute round of "Up, please" which slowly gets louder than the music we give up, Arch takes her to the car and I have our dinner packed up to go. For my friend that was sending me text messages during dinner telling me how much she wanted to be a stay at home mom with her 10 month old, wait till next year! I do wish I could stay at home with her everyday, but there are some days when I am grateful to go to work for a break, just as I am sure Arch will miss us when we leave today for 5 days. I bet he is silently doing a cheer he won't have to hear, No, No, No, say No, No, No, witness the newly erupting tantrums with arm waving and screaming, Emma proofing everyday and dirty diapers. It all does seem to melt away when she gives kisses and big hugs that are also in abundance these days!

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to my best friend and love of my life, Archie !! Love you xoxo

Sharing

"Scoop" this was her favorite
"Lofty"
"Muck"

Driving the ambulance
Learning to multi task
Playing in the water room

Meeting "Bob"

When we signed Emma up for swim lessons I also signed her up for a class called Messy Munchkins, where she can play with all the messy craft stuff and have someone else clean it up. I thought it was on Tuesday, at the end of the day on Monday I looked at the calendar and realized it had been that morning and we missed it. So we went today back to the Children's museum, in addition to all the fun things they usually have they also had a "Bob the Builder" exhibit. Emma thought it was pretty cool!! We did try to do the disco dancing session but it was cut short by an older girl who didn't know how to share. It drives me crazy when parents or grandparents are right there watching their kids not sharing or giving turns. The little girl about 5 had been waiting while Emma was, then she got her turn and never gave it up. At one point she did go up to sit by her grandma (who was on the phone the ENTIRE time) so Emma ran up and went to sit down. It is a little control booth for a theater with buttons and lights that really work with a director chair in front of it. There was a teddy bear in the seat, unknown to us it belonged to the little girl, apparently she was 'saving' her spot and when Emma turned her back she edged her back out again. Again no intervention by the grandma who heard me tell Emma multiple times she had to wait her turn. After well over 20 minutes of waiting we went and had our snack and found something else to do which ended up being more fun at the BTB exhibit.

1st Swim Lesson

Since Emma is a little fish and loves the water we signed her up for swim lessons. She will be going on Saturdays while I am sleeping from working graveyard. I stayed up today to go watch her first lesson. She did great, the only thing she doesn't really care for is floating on her back. Her and daddy had a great time in the pool today. The amazing thing was there were way more dads than moms participating in the class, I think this made Archie feel a ton better about being the parent in this class. He did mention that the pool employees sent 2 dads and kids back to the showers to rinse off before getting in but 3 mom's in the class were bone dry and they didn't say anything to them, wonder what that means. Be sure to watch the video's attached, you will see what happened when Emma decided she was tired of learning to jump into the water, pretty humorous. It will be just a glimpse of what we get to do every day !!