I knew it was a good school.

"My teacher said we don't eat grass or pretend apples. Or lamps."

Little Nothings

To start the week off, I was mortified at what Emmy said/did. At Rose's party, she greeted a well wisher with a big 'pfffffffffffft'. It was one of those moments that I wish I could have seen my face. And what exactly do I do when she does that? Spank her or put her in time out in the middle of the party???? I could have just melted into the pavement.

Thankfully, some other quips she had this week were somewhat amusing.

I have been looking for a church and finally found one I really like. I plan to take her this Sunday for the first time so I have really been talking it up to her. We did (attempt to) go to church last weekend with the Jacksons so when I mentioned it to her, Emmy said, "But we went to church last week!"

We went to Walmart this evening to get a few things and Emmy Ruth exclaimed no fewer than a dozen times, "OH MY GOSH! Back up! That is adorable!!!!!!!!!"

We were checking out the bikes and found this really awesome Barbie bike, complete with a mini bike for Barbie. Emmy really liked it, until she saw the motorized car. Then she told me she wanted the car, Barbie could have the bike and she would drive the car over and pick up Lucas at his house.

As we were checking out at Walmart, I saw a mom and dad and a little boy who was obviously a patient at St. Jude's. This is something I see a lot in Memphis, especially in Midtown (or West Memphis as it were today). It always makes me stop and want to slap my forehead as I say to myself "MY GOD, WOMAN! SLOW DOWN! How amazingly lucky you are to have a healthy child!" As I was getting her out of the shopping cart, I kissed her and told her I was so thankful to be her mommy and she wrapped her little sticky arms around me and kissed me and said she was thankful to be my daughter. It doesn't get much better than that.

Happy Birthday, Baby Rose!

I think she will be 30 and will still be Baby Rose to us. Papa Richie and LynnLynn did a wonderful job with her birthday gift—a playhouse. I am not sure who loved it most, Emmy Ruth, Solomon or Rose, but it was a hit. Baby Rose especially loved the door bell!

 

I love the pictures of Emmy Ruth and Baby Rose in the playhouse with the toy birthday cake; Emmy would sing to Rose and Rose would clap and laugh. She is such a precious baby and we are so thankful for her.

 

And one day… one day… she’s going to let me hold her without crying! I just know it!

 

 

 

Tomato!

Giggy shared lots of tomatoes with us and Emmy loves them. It's pretty
funny that I ate tomatoes directly from daddy's garden when I was her
age.

A Morning in the Life

635         Wake up with Ze Fronk and the Little Einsteins.

637         “Emmy put on your clothes.”

640         “Emmy put on your clothes” followed by “Mama, you have to be patient”.

645         “Emmy put on your clothes.”

647         “Emmy I am turning the TV off if you don’t put on your clothes.”

650         “Emmy put on your clothes.”

655         Emmy has on no underwear. “Emmy put on your clothes.”

656         “I don’t want to wear panties” to which I reply “you have to wear panties” and we have an argument discussion on why panties are required for school and work.

657         I turn the TV off and tears follow. Sobbing tears.

700         “Carry me!!!!!!!!” while sobbing. I hold her hand and we go to the bathroom and I hold her on my lap while I brush her teeth. “Hold me, Mama!”,“I am holding you, Emmy”,“NO! Hold me like this” and she jumps up and imitates me holding her on my hip.

703         “WHY IS THIS BACKPACK IN MY CLOSET??????????” “I am not sure, Emmy, but you can put it in your room” so she throws it on the floor in her room. “Emmy, pick that up and hang it on the hook”, “NO!”, “Okay, I will give it to some other little girl…1…2…” ,“baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!” but the backpack goes on the hook.

705         Sitting on the floor to put on shoes and she doesn’t want to wear socks. “I wanna put them on myself”, “Fabulous! you do it!”

708         Still telling me how she wants to put her shoes on herself. “Fine! Put your damn shoes on!”

708.5     “They aren’t damn shoes! They are shoes!” I feel horrible.

709         “You are right, Emmy, I am sorry.”

710         “I want to take my crayons for show and tell {you know, because no other kid at daycare has crayons}, are they still in the refrigerator?” Yesterday, she took them in the car but not to school and I forgot to take them in the office with me and when I picked her up, there were some slightly molten crayons in the carseat so we put them in the fridge. “Nope! I got them out and ready for you!”, “BUT I WANTED TO GET THEM OUT OF THE FRIDGE!!!!!!”, “I am sorry, would you like me to put them back”, “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!”

711         “Put the crayons in the backpack and let’s get in the car.”

713         Walking out to the car, she goes all the way down the sidewalk to the sidewalk near the street then decides she would rather use the sidewalk near the house so she comes back up. Then, gets to the car and sees that the Velcro on her shoes isn’t fully engaged. Trying to fix it. “Emmy can you do that in the car?” Silence “Emmy, please get in the car” Silence “Honey, we really need to go” Silence “GET IN THE CAR!!!!!!” I like to think this was my good deed of the day—waking anyone in the neighborhood whose alarm didn’t work properly this morning.

713.25   Tears.

715         I crank up the CD of Revival Hymns and sing “On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand” as loud as I can.

716         Apologize to Emmy for getting upset and yelling. I tell her that was not very nice of me and I am sorry and I will work to do better. “Emmy, can you help me some in the mornings too?” I get a big “no”.

718         Arrive at school. Walking down the hall, the whining starts “Carry me, mama”. I remind Emmy that she is a big girl and doesn’t need me to carry her but if she will walk to her room, put her backpack in her cubby and ask me nicely, I will carry her back to the room where all the kids gather.

719         Tears and crying and general fit. Refuses to put her backpack in the cubby and says she is going to wear it all day.

720         Of course I am wearing a knee length dress today as I am squatting on the floor to try to reason with a hysterical 3 year old.

722         Emmy has to potty, still wearing a backpack, and I am on the floor and asking if she remembers the Llama Llama book we read last night about Llama getting mad at mama and how she sure is making a lot of llama drama this morning. Recite as much of the book from memory as I can.

724         “I don’t want to wash my hands!!!!!!!!!!!”

725         “I’m gonna put my backpack in my cubby” so we go back down the hall to the classroom and then back to the gathering room.

727         “I’m not hungry, I want to go to sleep”. I usually set up her breakfast for her at the table but sometimes she is tired and would rather lie down on the little beanbag and getting a little more rest.

728         “I’m not sleepy, I am hungry.”

730         I go home to go back to sleep stop at Circle K for a Thirst Buster coke since I am already late for work.

 

 

 

Mud Island

Sunday afternoon, we had brunch at the Arcade Restaurant and then hopped on the trolley for the Riverfront Loop. We ended up at Mud Island and did the Riverwalk (the miniature replica of the Mississippi River). I didn’t realize that she would get soaking wet, apparently all the other parents did as they all had their kids in swimsuits! This poor little brown dress has been nothing but wet when she has worn it… into this exhibit, into Lake Catherine.

 

A little girl named Sophie was there too and she took an interest in Emmy Ruth. She kept calling her “little one” and telling her to be careful. It was adorable. When we were walking off, I called out to Emmy, “come on, Turtle, let’s go”. I am not sure why I call her that sometimes, but I have for a while now, maybe because she’s so slow when I am in a hurry. Sophie said, “Turtle! Your momma wants you!”

 

Then we did the peddle boats and Emmy was not nearly as amused as I had hoped. We rented them for 30 minutes but were out there for about 5.5 minutes. Emmy was done and wanted out, so John and I peddled our little hearts out to get us back to the starting point, me with an Emmy on my lap. She was so tired that she fell asleep on the trolley ride back to the car!

 

Bathroom humor

I don't know why but Emmy is really concerned with what everyone is doing right now. At school last week, she asked her friend Omaida's dad what he was "doing in there" when he came out of the bathroom. Then at lunch yesterday, she asked this elderly lady what she was going to do when she walked in the bathroom stall!

This can fall under bathroom humor too, I think... each morning, I let Bill out in the backyard to go potty while we are getting ready for school. Emmy likes to help out so she gets to go call Bill back in the house. I usually do something along the lines of "Bill! Come on! Hurry, we're late!!!" Emmy prefers to speak to Bill in her native language and says "Ruff! Ruff, Ruff!!" And Bill always comes running.

Our little fish

I really wanted Emmy Ruth to take swimming lessons this year. It wasn't so much that I wanted her to be swimming as just not as skiddish around the water. Thinking this would be a great idea and she was so excited about lessons, I was shocked when she cried and cried. I eventually left class on Tuesday and sat in the driveway but Emmy jumped out of the pool and came running down the driveway to me. So, on Wednesday, I left and ran to Home Depot and when I returned, again, she jumped out of the pool and came running down the driveway in tears.

Thursday when I picked her up, she was excited and Miss Allison said she had done wonderfully and didn't cry at all!!! Her Friday class was postponed due to rain and she literally cried because she was so excited. When we went on Saturday, John and I were amazed to see her loving the class and putting her face in the water with no problems. She even SWAM a few feet. I couldn't believe it!!!! She was so proud of herself--especially since her daddy was there this time.

I am so proud of her. And a little, tiny bit proud of me for not caving and taking her out when she was so upset.

Hot Springs Trip

Because of all the oil in Gulf Shores, we decided to wait on our usual beach trip this year and went to Hot Springs instead over the Independence Day weekend. We had so much fun!


We visited Mid America Science Museum. This was super special for me since I remember doing this as a kid. I had to get a picture of the kids in front of the astronaut's ice cream. Lucas was cheering Emmy on in the rocket blastoff!I love this picture of her running, obviously in a walk zone. They loved this exhibit where they tried to land the spaceshuttle. The Energy Ball.

We stayed at a cabin at Lake Catherine State Park. It was wonderful, right on the lake. The kids had so much fun playing in the water and we got some great pictures of them.

This one is my favorite.

I think she was really trying to keep her dress dry.

Realizing it was futile to do that when standing in the lake...

Ah to heck with it and just loving the water.

We spent all day Saturday at Magic Springs and had so much. The water park was wonderful and we spent most of the day there. Lucas and Emmy Ruth loved, loved the water, especially the slides. Tara and I snuck off for a bit and did the giant water slides. Emmy saw this giant Scooby Doo and had to have it. John set out to win it for her. I don't know how he summoned the power within him to win it in only two attempts but we are so glad that he did!!! She carried it the rest of the trip and is sleeping with it every night now.

They loved throwing rocks in the lake. JORGE! tried so hard to catch a fish. It was hysterical. We laughed that he used everything in the cabin for bait--even Scooby Doo gummy snacks!

We visited the downtown area of Hot Springs. The kids were amazed that the springs were really hot!

We also went on a hike. The book said there was an amazing waterfall so we walked and walked and walked but the waterfall was all dry. The kids loved the hike but we were a little nervous as it was pretty rocky and steep in places. We must have a different standard of "kid friendly".

This is the Burton Family Photo for 2010. It's not the beach but it was a fabulous trip! We can't wait to go back!

Swimming

Emmy is so excited about starting swimming lessons this week that she
wore her goggles when we ate lunch downtown yesterday.