Cedar Hills

We went to Cedar Hills again this year for the fabulous pumpkin patch. Emmy was not in much of a picture taking mood but we had a fabulous time. We were so lucky that Papa Richie was staying with us for a few days and got to go with us. We had so much fun and we were so glad to see Nana and Claudia there. What great fun!

WPS!!!!!

I told John on our way home that it was amazing how much fun we have when he does exactly what I want him to do. And the trip to Fayetteville was exactly what I wanted to do. He is so good to me. I was so excited to take Emmy Ruth to her first game and although she didn't sit still and we didn't make it through the whole game. I was so happy that we got the chance to go and we got to see some friends while we were there.

I didn't get a lot of pictures but here are a few. I hate that my upper lip was missing in the photo of me and Emmy; as Momma would say, my face looks as big as a plate. But, I love the picture of Emmy Ruth CALLING THOSE HOGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just love her to pieces

Ahh... home sweet home.

I left Saturday to go out of town for a few days for work and John stayed home with Emmy Ruth while I was gone. He has to be at work so early that it’s not feasible for him to get her to school and then to work so he just takes off when I take this trip each year. They actually have so much fun, I am jealous that I am not with them. AunTee, Lu an Jorge went to check on Emmy Monday night, taking her out to eat so that John could get a quick breather, and reported back that John was showing off all of the arts and crafts they had done. On my way into town Wednesday, I called and he only told me to stop for beer and to hurry. I guess he was ready for a break! I got there in time to scoop Emmy up and we headed to the zoo for a quick trip. I love that we have our membership and the zoo is only two miles from our house. We can go for an hour or thirty minutes and it not be a big deal. Wednesday was great at 5 pm because no one was there and Emmy could run around without me being petrified of losing her and she didn’t have to ride in a stroller. In fact, there were so few people there that as we left the elephants, a couple came around the corner and Emmy pointed and said “look, mama, people!”

 

Tonight, we are heading to Fayetteville as soon as I get off work so that we can watch the Hogs play tomorrow. This will be Emmy’s first game and to say that I am excited is an understatement. She has her adorable Razorback outfits ready, one made by me and one by LynnLynn, and we can’t wait. John is so good to me. I know that he could care less but each year, he makes the drive with me so we can see my beloved Hogs play. And of course Papa Richie rocks for sharing his tickets with us!

 

Emmy is going to be Dora for Halloween and Monday night her outfit came in. She is beyond excited and keeps asking to wear her Dora hair.

 

This morning on the way to work, she started crying and said that she didn’t want to go to school anymore. I wonder if this is how it’s going to be from now on? If so, it’s going to be a long time until we get through elementary school, junior high, high school, college, medical school and law school. Whew. I am in for a few rough mornings.

 

Little pink poodle

ER and I are discussing her Halloween choices and she told me to stop
touching her tail.

Teacher, may I?

When I was little, I played teacher ALL.THE.TIME. I loved it, and it really is amazing I didn’t become a teacher, and to be honest, it’s something I often regret. Momma used to tell the story of coming to pick me up at my precious Grandma Ruth’s house and as she walked up in the steps she heard Grandma saying “But, Tara, I don’t want to sit in the corner” and of course she was sitting in the corner anyway. Apparently she had been bad in my classroom.

 

Last night, I came in the bathroom while Emmy was in the tub and she had her toys all smushed down on one end of the tub and was “teaching” them. She would hold up a rubber duck and say “now, what’s this?” or take a little the large duck and say “is this tiny or big?”.

 

Then, this morning as we were driving to school, I said something about going to work and she said I didn’t work, that Daddy went to work. I asked her just what she thought I did each morning when I dropped her off at school???

 

“Cry.”

Mr. Sun Sun, Mr. Shining Sun, Please shine down on me!

And we have sunshine!!!! After three weeks of rain, we finally had an absolutely beautiful day yesterday. Emmy Ruth had so much fun, we spent almost all day outside. We walked to a catfish restaurant in our neighborhood and got ice-cream on the way back. When we passed the Beauty Shop, this man was laughing at Emmy’s ice cream face and I realized that it was Dr. Taylor, the doctor who delivered her!

 

Then we played in the back yard which is greatly in need of a mowing, thanks to the consistent rain! Emmy got to play with her sand and water table and kept getting mad when Luke and Anna would drink from it. She ended up taking her scooper and trying to give them water to drink. I love this picture of her in her car, honking away…

Disney on Ice

Friday night we went to see Disney on Ice with my three favorite two year olds. It was a collection of Cars, The Little Mermaid, The Lion King, and Tinkerbell and the kids loved it, and we loved watching them! Emmy Ruth, Solomon and Lucas are rarely all three together, in fact the last time they were all three together was when those people at Methodist Hospital tried to kill me the Jacksons and Salinases took care of Emmy when I was sick in April. Neall and Becca met us in front of the Forum with Sol and the first thing he said was hello to Lucas. They bonded over basketball on the way to our seats. Sol wasn’t quite sure waht was going to go on since he knows that Forum is where the Grizzlies play; he kept talking about basketball. Until Mickey appeared! The kids were mesmerized!

Of course, since AunTee was there, I was completely unnecessary to Emmy. She sat in her lap the entire time. Sol sat with me and unknowingly played with my bracelet the entire time, eyes completely on the show, and Lucas was enthralled. At one point, Sol got in Tara’s lap and I was afraid I had lost him forever, since apparently she has a uncanny effect on small children, but he came back to me shortly. Tara had asked him about Baby Rose so he had to get close to tell her all about her.

Everybody got a Disney hat for the show and they loved them. I hate I didn’t get a good picture of the three of them, I was trying to take a picture from my seat and it was not too easy.

Ah the bedtime drama

Of all the things I would do differently if I could, our sleeping arrangements top the list. I can list of all the reasons that I wanted Emmy Ruth in our bed and all the fabulous memories I have of just staring at her sleep, but I can't tell how many times I have been stabbed with guilt for having to break her of this now. We have gone all across the board in techniques for getting her in her bed, from just telling her good night and leaving, to staying until she goes to sleep and then leaving to trying to let her go to sleep and then putting her in her bed. She wakes up when we move her or she cries for two hours that she doesn't want to sleep in there or she just cries and cries and cries. More than once, I have felt like my mother when I cry out "I don't care where you go to sleep, JUST GO TO SLEEP!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Right now, you can't even get in her room because she has a Dora tent in there where she often sleeps. A few nights ago, when we checked on her at 3am, she was asleep on the hardwood floor, and I can't help but think of that poor child just calling her for her mommy and me not coming and her just giving up hope and collapsing on the floor with a broken heart, full of exhaustion. If she doesn't have the confidence to get into Harvard, I will blame it on this one incident that has marked her life forever.

She does have the confidence to tell us what to do though. There is a lot of bossiness going on here, and we are really trying to get this under control. I often tell her that she needs to ask me to do something nicely, so she says "get me some juice, nicely". Cute kid....

One step closer to her room.

She says she is going to sleep in her tent by our bed. It's one step
closer, literally, to her room!!!

My pillow!!!

After two hours of trying to get her to sleep in her bed and her
crying to get in our bed, Emmy just brought her blanket and pillow and
shut our door and got in our bed. She announced "Ive got my blankey
and my pillow!!". She just found Tigger and said "look who's here!!!"

Birthday cake

Last week, we had cake with Sol. He really liked it. There is no better present than watching them play!!! I can't wait until Rose Ryan is able to be right in the middle with them!

Happy Birthday, Solomon Clark!!!!

I can't believe our sweet boy turned two this month. We are so lucky to be part of such a special family!!

Who is this child?

Last night, I put Emmy Ruth in the corner in our room for the fiftieth time of the night and I went in the living room to tell John that he better go in there and save his child.

A little later, he was spraying cleaner on the wall and I was shocked to discover that he even knew where the cleaner was kept. I quickly realized that he was cleaning up the drawing that Emmy had made on the door frame while she was in time out!!!!!

Poor baby

Took this picture in Emmy Ruth's room the other day. Bet Baby is
squished in there. This must be worse than putting Baby in a corner.

Sleeping Beauty

Emmy fell asleep on the way home from Wynne today and I put her in her
bed when we arrived home. When I checked on her her she was sleeping
like this. I promise I didn't put her in bed this way!!!

Birthday cake

I think making your own birthday cake with a two year old is a lot
harder than just making it yourself. But making it with that two year
old is a whole lot sweeter.

Must be more specific.

I was preparing potatoes for dinner and as I peeled them, I out the
peelings in a bowl. Emmy wanted to help so I asked her to throw those
away.

After cleaning up, I went to throw something else away and found my
bowl, full of peelings, in the trash can!!!

I like Stuff

I really like stuff. I don’t like the way stuff looks a lot of times, but I have so many things, I have to get past that. In a perfect world, I would have little clutter with all my stuff put up properly. But for now, I have a lot of stuff…. like the half empty box of gift enclosure cards that bear “Ruth Daniels” on them or the postcard from Momma that reads “to my favorite daughter”… things that I just can’t get rid of. I also have the blankets that were made by Grandma Jackson and the boxes upon boxes upon boxes of photographs.  Poor Emmy has so many toys in her room (and the living room) that she couldn’t decide what to paly with if she was forced to make a decision. I didn’t really buy all these toys; most were hand me downs or gifts, there were lots that were mine when I was a kid, and the ones I did buy, I got at yard sales. And then the things I bought on sale… such a good sale that I bought three of them!

 

I admit… I am a hoarder.

 

It all slapped me in the face when Emmy Ruth has recently started carrying four or five things at one time and saying she wants to take “my stuff with us”. Or she says “I need my stuff”. How many times have I said, “I might need this stuff”? Momma kept things that were special of Grandma’s and now here I am doing the same thing with Grandma and Momma’s things. Good heavens, what am I doing to this child of mine? Seeing a blanket isn’t going to tell her how special they were to me.

 

So, now I have boxes of stuff in the living room that are going in a yard sale and the leftovers promptly being taken to Goodwill. My biggest problem now is keeping Emmy Ruth from taking things out of the boxes as I put them in there!!!

That Girl...

I am not saying I miss changing diapers, I just find it slightly odd that Emmy will stand up and announce, “I have to go potty” and walk into the bathroom, shut the door, and come out when she is finished. Granted, she is usually underwear-less, but she refuses to have our help in the bathroom.

 

Every day when we drop John off at work, she gets a kiss and I call out from the front seat, “call me if you need me”. This week, Emmy has told her daddy to call her as he gives her a hug goodbye.

 

I am so very proud of all the things she is learning!! I really think she is getting into the groove at her new school. She has made lots of new friends, and they all know me as “Emmy’s mom”. It’s still so strange to hear. As kids walk out with their parents and I pass them in the hallway, they point and say “there’s Emmy’s mom”. I can’t help but smile. Me. A MOM! I am way too young to be a grown up—much less a mom!  As we were reading our Strawberry Shortcake book, Emmy Ruth counted up to 15 strawberries. I was so proud of her. Last week when she sang her ABCs absolutely perfectly, I started cheering before she finished the “and now I know my ABCs…” and she told me she wasn’t finished yet and to stop cheering too early. Oops. I was just so proud.

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways...

Me:        Emmy, do you know how much I love you?

ER:          Yes, ma’am. {ok, sometimes she says the ma’am and sometimes she doesn’t, but for this illustration, let assume she did say it}

Me:        How much?

ER:          Two.

 

Two is a lot of lovin’.

A visit from old friends.

I wasn’t sure if it would happen, but our friends Amanda and James were in town with their kids and stopped by the house last night to visit. It is always so good to see old friends and their beautiful kids.  There was a lot of soccer played in the front yard (until the rain came), Emmy threw the ball under the car a dozen times, and four kids in Emmy’s tiny room makes for a disaster… thank goodness, she doesn’t sleep in there….

 

But, if we ever hear that these four are hanging out together when they are older, we decided we will all be a little terrified. Yikes! I don’t think the world could take a round two of Kauts, Salinas, and Burton!

 

Emmy Rice

On Saturday, John’s family came to town and for some reason, I thought we should go shopping at Wolfchase Galleria. We never, I repeat NEVER, go out that way, so I am not sure what got into me. Saying it was crowded was a bit of an understatement and we were miserable. There were so many people there that they couldn’t get the place cooled off. Thank heavens for the carousel. Emmy loved it and while she was riding the train afterwards, I went to get the car to pick everyone up curbside. As they all piled in, John’s nephew said, ‘Oh Emmy just ran off’. I turn around, terrified that she has run into traffic and can’t find them anywhere. She ran back into the mall and was halfway on to the moving carousel when John caught her. He said that people were trying to help him catch her and she would psyche them out and get past them. By the time he got her and got back out to the car, he was a basket case and alternated between calling her Emmy Rice for Jerry Rice or Emmy Smith for Emmet Smith. I think he was slightly and secretively a little proud of her mad skills.

 

Saturday night, we headed to the drive in to see GForce with the Salinas family. I am not sure why we continued to watch a movie about hamsters while the kids played with cars on the pavement. But, we did. I took off to get popcorn and was assaulted by a wire coat hanger on the way back. Obviously it was dark, and I was walking back with a large of popcorn and the next thing I knew I was skidding across the ground on my right side. My arm, foot and knee hurt but most of all, I was mortified when this lovely man said, “ma’am, let me help you up”. Ma’am?! Get away from me!, I wanted to scream, but I got up with my half bucket of popcorn and the kids promptly spilled the rest. And I got a tetanus shot Monday afternoon, since I am pretty sure I got my last one when I was in first grade.

 

Then Sunday we got up and went to Wynne to celebrate Uncle Neallio and Papa Richie’s birthdays. Baby Rose was just precious and we didn’t even get to see Sol, he was asleep the whole time!

Like you, mama!

Lately, Emmy Ruth likes to add “like you, mama” or “like you, daddy” after things. I must admit to getting a little blushed when she sees Cinderella and says “Like you, mama!” or the headless models at the mall, I always thought it was because I was so thin like they are. This morning as we were driving, Emmy saw the bus with the Grizzlies players on the side and said, “like you, daddy” and we all got a big kick out of John being a large basketball player. Not nearly as amusing was when Emmy asked what something was and I told her it was an old building and she replied “like you, mama!” Cute kid.

 

Emmy-isms

Here are a few of Emmy’s latest comments:

 

“I want an ice”—a popsicle, we hear this about every hour on the hour. We bought one box of Dora popsicles and I have just kept refilling it with the cheap popsicles and she wants them all the time. I figure this is better than ice cream.

 

“Mama, did you poopy?”—any time I change clothes, she automatically assumes that I have had an accident. And no, I haven’t. Yet.

 

“Daddy, do you have a boogie nose?”—the girl has had a cold every six weeks, so she thinks about boogies a lot.

 

“I don’t want to go to school, I want to go to AunTees”—she loves her AunTee. A lot. I am seriously considering staging an intervention as she really, really talks about her.

 

“I can go see JORGE! he isn’t sick”—last week, AunTee had a cold so I told Emmy she couldn’t visit her and she tried in vain just to get into their house.

 

“Like Baby Rose”—any time we see a baby.

Trolley and Gibson

Since we were downtown, we rode the trolley, which was great fun. in one picture, you can almost hear Emmy saying, “where is that trolley????”.

 

After the show, we went into the Gibson store so that John could show Emmy and Lucas the guitars that he makes. Emmy was obviously impressed.

Dora LIVE!

AunTee and I decided that if those Dora LIVE! tickets had been $1,000, they still would have been worth it. The kids had so very much fun. It was amazing to see them just so enthralled is something. I am somewhat of a sap and I literally started crying at the end when she and Lucas danced in the aisle. It was so amazingly precious. And I can’t believe that I am lucky enough to be her mom and do this with her.

 

Wow.

Emmy Ruth has this lovely habit of getting in my “tupperware” and playing with all the bowls and lids. I am not sure where she found this though and I am really not sure why it was on her princess vanity this morning when I woke up.