Recovery Mode

We seemed to have recovered from the drama of the other night. When I finally got her up Monday morning, Emmy said she was so tired because she had been up all night-she was so worried because she knew Jesus was mad at me for being mean to her. However, by the time I picked her up on Monday, she told me that she loved me "more than most". I suppose this is a good thing.

We went Sunday to a Rock and Romp and it was so much fun!!! Emmy had a blast!

Now, on to our past weekend. We got to hang with the Jacksons on Saturday after ballet. Solomon did a Small Fry Tri(ahalon) so we were so thankful to have such an accomplished athlete spend the night with us Saturday night. John even fixed him pancakes... in bed!... at 11pm! I sent Becca a text that poor Sol was wearing a Dallas cheerleaders uniform and they said that they were on the way. The next morning, Sol had to ride Emmy's Barbie bike. I knew he needed a helmet too but all I had was a Dora helmet. John said, "really? he's on a pink Barbie bike, with a Dora helmet and no pants? Thankfully, I didn't take any pictures.

I love this picture of Emmy and Rose discussing costume outfits. Rose's little fingers are spread in delight and excitement!!!

We went to Beale Street and the kids went to tip the band. Here is a picture of my peanuts....We went to get yogurt....Rose gave Emmy a pedicure....Sweet Rose in her princess outfit with her purse.My brilliant kiddos playing on the computer....Sweet girls with curls on the trolley.

OMG

I want to start this by saying that I am not happy with this behavior nor do I find it cute. But, I want to make sure that we remember these precious moments so that we may tell her about them when she is older.





Emmy was in a peach of a mood all day and no matter what we did to be the best parents ever, she was not happy, much less thankful. We went to get her new ballet shoes and then took her to Rock and Romp, this awesome kids thing held monthly in Memphis. There were so many people there with kids bands and kids independent films playing. Thankfully, there was also beer.





We got home and she was a little irky so I took her to her room and had her chill out for a while by herself. She seemed better so we kept on with our evening. On Friday, she told us all the kids in school knew how to tie their shoes and she had to learn this weekend. We were working on it tonight and she kept getting frustrated so John and I were both telling her it was no big deal but she just lost it. She yelled that we were stupid so I told her to go to her bedroom. As she was walking by me, she looked at me, stopped and picked her nose, pointed the booger at me and then wiped it on the dining room table. Moments later, I heard the shoes I left in her room being throwing down the hallway.

After I finally controlled my laughter (which she did not see), John said, "what in the world are we doing wrong here????"

I let her chill out for about thirty minutes and went to check on her for our talk. She sat in her chair "reading" and, in the words of Richie, gave me the fish eyes. I asked her why she did that and she told me she just didn't like anyone. No one. Alrighty then. I told her she could stay in her room all night then and when we got home tomorrow, she could come directly in there again all night. She didn't even budge--just that snarky look.

I am so afraid. Afraid of her being a teenager.

John said, "make sure you turn the lights off! I don't want anyone who doesn't like us using our power!"

Happy Birthday to US!

Ever since we were little, we always celebrated Neall and Daddy's birthdays at Grandma Jacksons together. Now, mine has gotten thrown in too and there is nothing more precious than these kids for a gift. Joy and Julia came by too and it was lovely seeing these monkeys play. Poor Rose, is always trying to keep up with them!!!! Sol dressed up as a Transformer and chased Princess Emmy and Princess Julia around the castle. Over and over. Emmy came over and said she was tired but when I felt her, she was dripping sweat. Poor Julia said that Emmy ran really fast and Sol was just tired of these girls! Aunt Becca let Emmy wear a maternity dress of hers once and now Emmy thinks it is her princess dress every time she is there. As soon as she walks in the house, she asks Aunt Becca for it.

I am still getting used to my new camera lens and missed a hundred fabulous shots. Very sad. :(

Forget Me Nots

A few more Emmy quotes that I don't want to forget:

--The other night, I suggested that Emmy and John have a daddy daughter date night and go watch the Smurf movie. She looked at me exasperated and said "But Daddy can't drive!"

--I do love the start of school with all the new school supplies. I have an obsession for pens and pencils and notebooks; I am sure it get it from Patricia. :) I got Emmy some new crayons and as we were coloring, asked "is there anything better than new crayons?" She thought for a minute and then said, "yes, princesses".

--As we got in the car yesterday for a day that hit 107 degrees, Emmy said, "it's crazy hot out here!"

The Girl's Gotta Rock

John played a show last week at the HiTone, a club near and dear to our hearts. Not only do we know almost everyone there but it was an all ages show that started at 8ish. I was seriously tempted to take Emmy Ruth to see her daddy (with ear plugs of course) but decided to take her to visit him as he loaded in instead. The girl with her favorite rock star in the world... Daddy.John says this picture reminds him of every show we went to as a couple. Me sitting on that turqoise couch ready to go!

Then we headed to swim lessons. We are so glad Emmy go to take from Miss Allison again this year. Its a far cry from the little girl last year that jumped out of the pool and ran down the driveway!!!!

One of those conversations I had to fight crying

Pat and Paul gave Emmy this little Bible storybook for Christmas one year. It’s really a neat book with pictures (of course a necessity) and has several stories that are only a few pages each. One night we were reading a story about how the people tried to build a stairway to heaven. Emmy knows her grandmothers are in heaven so when we read that story about how the only way to get into heaven was to believe in God, she very quietly asked me, “did my YiaYia believe in God?” Oh yes, Baby, she did. It was one of those painfully precious and heartbreaking moments. It is only appropriate that she asks a question like that when she is reading a book that Patricia gave her.

Who knew?

Emmy:  “Mama, why do you like the Razorbacks?”

Me:        “They are my favorite team.”

Emmy:  “My favorite team is the Hogs.”

Me:        “The Hogs and the Razorbacks are the same team, just different names.”

Emmy:  “So we have the same favorite team?”

Me:        “Yes”

Emmy:  “Who knew you were so smart?”

 

Yes, who did know???

 

In other backseat conversations, she mentioned the other day that her legs now looked like daddy’s because they have hair on them and she wants that gone. In the past few months, I have been thinking of how now I know she is a little girl and not a baby anymore because of her little legs so to hear her mention it even brought the point home more.

 

 

 

Awesome article about my church

http://elaineblanchard.blogspot.com/2011/07/first-baptist-church-in-memp
his.html

Two Year Old Girls with Curls

When I saw this picture of Rose after her birthday party, I immediately thought of this picture of Emmy on her second birthday. Eeeeek! I could scream they are so cute!

Princess Baby Rose

 

This weekend we celebrated the precious princess’s birthday. Not only did the Fairy Godmother come to read stories, but Cinderella and Snow White both came to wish her a happy birthday. Rose was delighted and squealed with excitement. I left my camera at home so I am stealing these pics from my wonderful sister in law.

 

 

 

Fun times in BurtonLand

Oh we’ve been so busy! Where does all the time go? Let’s see… Emmy saw a bedroom that she wanted so we did a few things to try and copy it for her.  We did a few tweaks here and there; instead of a cameo of Sleeping Beauty on the wall, I made a silhouette of Emmy Ruth; the castle isn’t quite as grand scale as the one in the picture and I made the bed—complete with storage cubbies on both sides. I am so proud of myself! I worked all day one Saturday and did everything on my own!

 

Emmy is doing such a wonderful job of sleeping in her room; even if it is with one of us going to sleep with her. I know I shouldn’t do it, but my goodness, I just love snuggling on her so much. One of these days, she won’t want to snuggle with me and I am going to desperately miss it.

 

This weekend, Emmy stayed with Nana while I went with Leigh to visit our friend Courtney. It was so good to see long time friends and spend some good quality time together. Nana called to see if I had packed Emmy’s swimsuit but Emmy told her it was okay if I hadn’t, I could just email it to her. When I picked her up, she was quite sad to leave, she ended up turning around and saying, “just forget it, I am moving in!” I think her daddy would have a tough time with that!

 

This morning she asked me when we were going to have another baby. I tried to tell her that we were probably going to have only her and that we loved her so much. She went on to tell me how it wasn’t fun to not have anyone with whom she could play or share her room. I am pretty sure she’d feel differently with a little sibling but…. She specifically wants a sister so I asked what if we had a boy and she told me that was fine, we could have one of each.

Oh my sweet monkeys at the zoo!!!!

We got to go to the zoo with the Jacksons this weekend again. OH MY GOSH. I cant say how I love these babies.

Those curls on Rose remind me so much of Emmy at that age.

And Rose is mad!!!

eeeek!!!!!!!!!!!! those curls. I could just scream!

All of our monkeys in the stroller.

If you look through the waterfall, you can see Emmy and Sol hugging. LOVE IT.

Strike a pose, there's nothing to it... Vogue, vogue!

It's hot!

I have a habit of saying that Emmy is so “stinking cute”. The other day she said “it’s stinking by God hot”. I told her that we didn’t need to use the Lord’s name in vain and she said, “but Mama, it’s more than just stinking hot”.

 

Now that Emmy is able to buckle her own seatbelt, she usually hops in the car through my door and then climbs back to her seat. The other day we got in the car after church and she stopped in the middle of the car and raised her dress over her head to let the vent cool her off. I couldn’t say much because I would love to do the same thing.

 

This weekend we were in the backyard and as she was swinging on the tire swing, she cried out “JAPANESE!” I asked her why she was saying that and she said, “Japanese is how you say ‘wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee’ in Chinese”. Obviously, we need to work on her foreign language skills.

 

But, she has learned how to write her name. She is having some trouble with the M’s but I think that is a tough letter to master. She’s so proud of herself!

 

Her imaginary friend Lucy has really been getting her in trouble lately. When John or I get on to her for something, she says that she didn’t do it, Lucy did it. Then we go into a whole other issue of her telling stories. Last night, she woke up in the middle of the night and when she came to our bed, she told me that Lucy kicked her out of bed. I told her we were going to have a big talk with Lucy this evening and she would have to spend some time in time out.

 

 

 

 

It's gone too far

Emmy Ruth and I try to do crafts every Friday night. It’s fun for both of us and I hope it’s helping her little mind to spin. We have made a lot of things, especially around the holidays, but this one is one of my favorites. It’s a flower picture made from toilet paper rolls. She is so proud of it and it hangs over her bed now. (You know, the bed in which she is sleeping these days. The one covered with pillows and stuffed animals and pillow pets and just general pinkness.)

 

The Girl also has a love for shoes. I am pretty sure that she got this from AunTee, along with her hair. When we to Jonesboro to visit with Tara and Lucas, she picked out a pair of sparkly Hello Kitty shoes to wear because she said that Auntee would just LOVE them. All day at school, however, the shoes were not so kind to her feet and they gave her some pretty bad blisters. She has vowed to never wear them again.

 

This morning as we were searching for shoes to wear, she saw the Hello Kitty shoes and said “oh no, no way am I wearing those. But wait! Let’s keep them and we can make a decoration out of them!”

 

Apparently she is OC’d—OverCrafted.

So proud!

I have been a bad mommy and not been consistent with Emmy Ruth sleeping in her bed. She will do well for a few days and then I get weak in the knees and put her back in our bed. Either I am just so tired that I can’t argue or she doesn’t feel well or I just miss the way she feels and smells when we cuddlebuggle, and I let her sleep with us. This week, however, she has not only slept in her bed all week, but she has gone to sleep on her own! I am so proud of her!

Emmy Tales

--Emmy asked me what Solomon’s last name is and when I told her “Jackson”, she replied, “oh like Michael!”

 

--“Mama, why doesn’t my butt jiggle like yours does?”

 

--We saw this really pretty blue car and Emmy told me “When Lucas and I get married and have a baby, we are going to have a car like that.” I asked her what she was going to be when she grew up so that she could have that car and she told me she was going to design jewelry.  Should be interesting.

 

We had such a fun weekend! Neall and Becca chaired FarmFest this year again and we headed over to enjoy the festival and hang with our super cool kiddos, Rose and Solomon. I love love love spending time with them. As much as I love Neall and Becca, I like spending time with the kids alone because they actually spend time with me!!! It’s lovely. I love that Rose is talking more and more and is such a princess. It’s quite funny since Becca really isn’t so girly; I am not sure where Rose gets it. She reminds me so much of Momma. There is nothing quite as precious as her taking my finger and leading me wherever she wants to go. She also has to have her fleece Disney princess pillow and blanket whenever she sleeps. It is so funny. One of Neall’s best lines at Disneyworld was “I know right now I really want some fleece” as it was 100 degrees and Rose was wrapped up in her blanket and lying on her pillow.

 

And Solomon. He is just Neall made over. I love his little mischievous smile and his fabulous imagination. He wanted me to play Star Wars and I tried really hard but he said I was doing it wrong. Then, we were sitting at the fountain at Farm Fest and I told him he could his feet in but not his body. “oops. I slipped” he said as he got right in there. He wanted to sleep with Emmy and I and of course we wanted him to sleep with us. He kept being silly and putting his head down at the bottom of the bed, under the covers, and Becca told him he couldn’t do that because Aunt Tara poots all night in her sleep. WHATEVER! John was never supposed to have told that. I love that Sol calls me TaWa. This picture cracks me up of Sol. LynnLynn made him this super cute outfit and he has on his cowboy boots and his Star Wars helmet and gun. I love a man with a sense of fashion and adventure.

 

 

Dear Emmy Ruth

Obviously, Emmy is not able to read or understand all the things I have on my heavy heart tonight. But, if I could write her a letter, it would say this:

My precious Emmy Ruth, I hope you know that when I call you Ruth, it's because I am being especially sentimental and fond of you. It's the most precious name I know, the name of my precious grandmother who loved me more than life. I love you that way. When I look at you, I sometimes have to catch my breath because you are just so beautiful. There are not a whole lot of traits of mine that I am proud of, but the few that I am, you got 'em. Sadly, I must admit there are a few you have that I wish we didn't have. I hope that you have all the happiness that I have had in my life, but I know realistically that there will be some heartache along the way; I pray that you have more grace and strength than I did when I was faced with tough times. I hope you get the grace and strength that Grandma Ruth had.

I very vividly remember Momma threatening to leave me when I didn't hurry. I was in the 8th grade or so, busy with too much hairspray and reapplying makeup for the fourth time that morning. She finally had had enough and drove off. I chased her down Crabb Lane screaming and she stopped. What was I thinking? I should have just said "the heck with it" and gone back in to the house. But what would I have done? There wasn't the DVR or the Oprahs and my friends would have all been at school. Of course, you are much younger, but this weekend, you would not come on so Daddy and I got in the car and backed up about three feet before you came screaming to get in the car with us. I know that one day you will learn to call my bluff. I hope you have the guts to do it well.

When I was in second grade, Mrs. Weeden was my teacher and everyone loved her. I would come home at night and cry that no one liked me at school. Momma went to talk to Mrs. Weeden and she laughed at her! She said "What? she is always surrounded by kids on the playground!" Last night when you told me that Kristina wouldn't let you play with Jillian at school, my heart broke and I remembered being that second grader. You cried that Kristina always stood beside Jillian and that it wasn't fair and she needed to let you take a turn to be Jillian's friend too. There were tears, real tears, that your best friend in the Koala room was no longer your bestie in the Penguin room. And my heart cried with you. You have said that you miss Layla, your other best friend, because she's been gone for a while. I don't have the heart to tell you that Layla moved to Oregon. Her mommy graduated dental school and got in with a practice and it was last minute and they packed up and her last day was while we were at DisneyWorld. I can't tell you that. I just can't.

I could tell you that I remember being that girl who wanted to be friends with Leigh and Nicki and Christy and Courtney and Teresa. I could tell you that I wished that someone had gotten out of the way and let me sit by one of them sometimes. And I could tell you that when I was in college, I thought I was a dumpy stump on a log that no one wanted to be around.

Instead, I will tell you that to this very day, if I don't talk to Leigh at least once a week by email, I threaten to drive to her house and check on her. I will tell you that I think I might still have scars from the mosquito bites I got when being a server at Nicki's wedding because it was outdoors at her parents, near the farm. I will tell you that I only talk to Christy twice a year, but when I do we laugh about everyone and everything and it's as if I saw her just yesterday. I will tell you when my precious Momma was living her last days in a hospital, Courtney came and sat with me. I will tell you that Teresa and I got in a lot of trouble along the way, but if there is no one else that would get here from Colorado if I needed her.

That one girl that was actually mean to me in Mrs. Weeden's class, she moved a year later and no one has heard from her, that I recall. I bet if I asked 10 people in our class if they remembered her, there might be 1 that did.

And, Emmy Ruth, I will tell you that for someone who felt so alone so often in college, I have a lot of friends that I would not trade for anything in this world. I have sorority sisters from my college campus and the entire country that I could call right now for a good chat. I have math friends that I would love to see-just to get our precious girls together. My roommate college even lives down the street from me now!

That's not even going into the others that I am friends with as I have become an adult. It is pretty good being a grown up but, baby, you have a lot of fun times ahead of you in the next few years. You are four! FOUR! How awesome is that??? Just think of all the learning you get to do now!!!!

So, please, sweet girl, don't think you aren't loved and don't think for a second that you don't have any friends. For every girl out there that you are wanting to sit beside at lunch, I bet there are two others who are thinking the same thing about sitting by you.

I love you so much,
Mama

Wonderful Weekend

Yesterday, I was thinking, “this has to be the best weekend ever” and then I remembered that I called our trip to Disneyworld the best week of my life. I am either turning into Rapunzel (in the movie Tangled, she comes swinging down from the tower and cries out “THIS IS THE BEST DAY EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”) or things are just really fabulous for Team Burton now. {I love that Emmy still likes to do family hugs and sometimes we put our hands together and cry out “Go Team Burton!”}

 

Saturday we got to play and shop all day and then I went out with some fabulous people to dinner. The fun really got going on Sunday when we played with the Jacksons and took a quick trip to the zoo. I had gotten Emmy a new above ground pool and she loves it. We spent some time in there and then went to the Redbirds game with the Jacksons. Uncle Neall was nice enough to invite us to join them in the box seating he had. Emmy and Sol had a great time playing with Uncle John and we got to just unwind.

 

On the Memorial Day holiday, we did nothing and just played in our pool and yard. It was great. We put a slide going into the pool and Emmy wants someone to catch her, but of course she doesn’t need us to do it, she just wants us to grab her. She said, “I know! Let’s make a pattern! Mama then Daddy then Mama then Daddy.” John didn’t do a very good job of catching her and she went underwater so she said, “Um, let’s make a new pattern, Mama, Mama, Mama, Mama”.

 

She loves to tell us jokes and they are absolutely awful and make no sense but she cracks up every time. I told her the knock knock joke with the banana and orange.

-Knock knock

-Who’s there?

-Banana

-Banana Who?

-Knock knock

-Who’s there?

-Banana

-Banana Who?

-Knock knock

-Who’s there?

-Orange

-Orange Who?

-Orange you glad I didn’t say banana?

 

She is slightly confused on this and now says something like

--Knock knock

-Who’s there?

-Princess

-Princess Who?

-Aren’t you glad I didn’t say apple?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Princess

I found this picture and thought of a funny Disney moment. Everyone was lined up waiting on a parade to start but we were passing thru to get to Buzz Lightyear. As we walked down the street, Emmy was waving to everyone on the sidelines as if they were waiting there to see her.

 

Disney pictures