Sunny and 60 degrees

This little activity entailed Emma to have her head vacuumed and then washed in the shower to get all the pine needles out. They did it again later after the helmets were off. Apparently it is alot more fun than all the expensive toys sitting around them.

Making a funny face trying to say cheese. Waiting on her bike to go outside.

Riding her scooter outside and down the driveway.

Another funny face, she was very entertaining today.

Of course she liked Jada's 4 wheeler better than her own.

Hanging with Jada.

Day to day

She climbed in this chair the other day and pretended to go to sleep. Kept saying nigh nigh and doing a fake snore. She almost has Archie down pat.

Emma playing on the computer with her link machine. The little people go in the slot and it goes to that website. She can't get out of the program without a password. Very cool, it satisfies her need to play on the "forbidden" computer.

Talking

Emma refused to say "Yes" until today. I asked her if she wanted a piece of candy and she shook her head yes, as I usually do I said say yes, and today she finally did. Yeah!!

Her other funny words are :
pappake - pancake
piple - pickle
tia - candy
shoe - phone (tia and shoe have us baffled just like yes I am sure the right words will come soon)
Handy many - me with her nose scrunched up
showee - shower
Mori - Morgan our dog
Meow - for the cats

I find that alot of times when we show her flashcards of pictures especially animals she says the sound instead of what it is, when you ask again what it is she tells you the right word. She does say many other words but she says them correctly and learns more every day.

She is doing great on the potty for her age. We put her on several times a day and she goes pee-pee almost every time now, the other is hard to get consistent results. That is where Handy Maney comes in we let her watch the short episodes while she is sitting there but then she doesn't want to get up... sigh. We tried the rewards instead but so far no go.

Out of this World Pizza

We wanted to go to the park today but the big black clouds scared us off. So we decided to try this pizza place I had just heard of from where else but Facebook! As we were leaving we were talking to our neighbor telling him where we were going in case they wanted to go they declined but then he reached in his wallet and hands us a gift card for the place we were going to for $50. He had it for about a year and didn't think they would ever use it so he said here you go.... We had a great time and dinner on them. Here are some pictures from playtime.

Creative ways to entertain a 2 year old

Emma got finger paints from sissy for Christmas. I kept looking at the bucket of paints and gearing myself up to try it with her. Just knowing Emma I know in 60 seconds flat she would lose interest in the paper to paint on and see what else she can paint with since I have seen her do this with her Aqua doodle pen which thankfully is only water. Her favorite thing to do with that is "color" her one expensive doll's face. Anyway I decided one day to stick her in the tub and let her paint the tub walls. It worked out perfect! She paints the walls, fixtures, tub, even herself.. and it is all washable. So when she is done, we turn on the shower wash the tub and then Emma. This is so much better than chasing her around the house and having to wash whatever the paint brush my touch and even though it is washable I don't quite trust it on my newly primed white walls.

The other 2 pictures are from her birthday party with Archie's family. She got a tricycle and toddler scooter which are both parked in front of the TV with her rocking horse. Apparently Archie and her play drive in. When the weather improves they will be moved outside so she knows not all toys belong in front of the TV. On a side note I made Arch get rid of the Backyardagin's DVDs for now. This show completely pulled her in, she wouldn't engage with anyone when it was on and would throw a huge screaming temper tantrum when you even walked toward the TV or control because she thought you were going to turn it off. So we did permanently! Hopefully TV will be less of a issue in a month when I go to day shift and Archie doesn't have to try to keep her quiet so much, bless his heart for being so good at it!

The downside of graveyard

Caught a ride on the way home.

Fascinated by Mommy jumping.

Jump.

Exploring nature.

(Pictures are from Monday, family walk before work. We all had fun, jumping off the curbs over and over at a Church nearby.)

Tuesdays are very hard for me, it is technically considered my first day off. That is hard to do when you work the night before, come home at 6 am, everyone else gets up at 9 am and you try to also. 3 hours of sleep just doesn't cut it especially when dealing with a 2 year old. Today was a little different I stayed up to read a little when I got home and right as I was heading to bed Emma woke up so I stayed up with her so Archie could get some sleep since apparently she was up and down most of the night. She didn't want french toast or yogurt, she wanted a cookie (said while bringing me the package). I said ok but she had to eat one of the other things first, she didn't want to so it was just oj for breakfast. She basically didn't want to do anything except the one thing I said no to, the computer. (only because Arch has been having problems with his and I have never used the plug in she wanted to play with) So eventually the no issue for the computer sent her into a meltdown so we went to her room to try a nap.

She didn't take a nap 3 days this week, yesterday I got her to take one. Today I knew was going to be a challenge after the first 30 minutes. She is absolutely tired, yawning, rubbing her eyes and crying over nothing. What she does is lay there if you hold on to her (so she doesn't get up and run around ) and she stares at the ceiling or wall. Her eyes will start to get heavy and almost close and she kicks her foot, heavy eyes moves her hand, heavy eyes shakes her head, heavy eyes other foot, you get the picture. The absolutely frustrating part is this can literally go on for well over an hour. After about an hour and a half of this today I got fed up and held her arms with the top half of my body, using my head to anchor hers from shaking it and my leg over hers so she couldn't kick. The only thing she could move was probably her toes so after 10 minutes of this she was out.... finally. Then I crawl into bed, Arch looks like he is getting up and I told him if he woke her I would kill him, he laid back down. I slept for about 2.5 hours and went and laid on the couch to wake myself up because it is now 2:30 and I haven't done anything at all on "my day off".

Emma and I finally head outside around 4, we deal with the garbage for garbage day and then head out for a walk. We didn't make it 5 houses and she wanted to let go of my hand, then lay on the cement..... I carried her back home. I tried to get her to play with her 4 wheeler but she was more interested in running to the street. It was definitely one of those count to 10 days. (I think I made it to 1 million by bedtime). We then tried kicking balls in the front yard, lasted about 10 minutes then she wanted to watch me kick it only. When she wouldn't stay in the front yard anymore we went in. She headed for the step ladder, climbed to the top for the billionth time today, I said no for the billionth time today (after counting to 10). I finally folded it up. Then we tried reading, play dough, flashcards, kitchen, v-tech, she just didn't want to do anything without crying. I really wanted to cry with her today. Basically after that it was dinner, pjs and bed. She was asleep before I closed the door. I then asked Archie how long he was staying up..... He looks at me like I am crazy and says it is only 7:30! I hate Tuesdays.

The Monkey pjs were right attire for the day's activities