What a day....

Let me start with saying that she is perfectly fine.

BUT... yesterday morning as we were going to school, Emmy Ruth and I had
a disagreement. She wanted me to carry her and I felt like she was old
enough to walk down the hallway to her classroom. So she threw a fit.
Complete with stomping feet and wailing arms and tears. I told her that
we would talk when she calmed down and I just stood there and waited. I
guess with the stomping of the feet with boots on, she lost her balance
and fell, hitting her head. At first, I really thought she had just
bumped her head and was fine. I knelt down to comfort her and she was
just quivering. When I looked at the back of her head, she was gushing
blood. Scooping her up in my arms, I ran down the hall (which must be
the longest hallway in the world) and put a wet rag to it. Her teacher
told me I really needed to take her to the emergency room to get it
checked out and I burst into tears. It has only been three months since
the horrible lip falling incident and I am still scarred and emotional
about it!!! I sat in the nursery and held her in a rocking chair as we
got the bleeding to stop, Emmy was fine, actually asking me if I was
okay. What a pitiful mommy I was.

At the ER, they gave Emmy a gown that she insisted was just too big so
she took it off. Her Little Royal Highness proceeded to walk to the
bathroom in her panties and tights only because she refused to wear the
hospital gown for very long. She delighted in telling everyone that her
birthday was coming up February 13th and all about her dogs and cat.

After a morning at the ER, we left with a tiny stitch in the back of her
head and a mommy that is so very grateful for a healthy little girl.
Momma always said that she felt like Neall and I were healthy because He
knew she couldn't have handled anything else. I know now what she meant.
I am so very thankful for our precious girl and I am considering keeping
a harness or helmet on her at all times.

"Are you coming to my party?"

Emmy Ruth is heading full speed towards her third birthday. I can hardly believe it’s been three years. Every day with this girl is a joy and a challenge… a joy because she is just so loving and sweet and a challenge because she can be so stubborn. There are no words to describe how each and every day I look at her and stop in my tracks at how much she reminds me of Momma and how much I wish Momma could see her and enjoy these precious moments. Precious moments like her using her princess phone to call each and every princess to ask if they were coming to her birthday party. “Aurora? Are you coming to my party?” Or when we were at the Chik Fil A playground and she just stopped and put her hand to her forehead and said “Oh good God!”  

 

Don’t even ask… there is this unicorn carriage thing that we have in the garage. It is supposed to be one of those ride on toys that run on battery but we got it, shall I say???, “second hand” and it doesn’t work. On top of that, the unicorn’s head is gone. Regardless, it’s been stuffed in the back of the garage and when we were playing in the yard yesterday, I pulled it out. Emmy Ruth lost her mind. John pulled her around in her new chariot forever. Through the muddy dog run, around the three dogs playing, she had a blast. It was only after about thirty minutes that she discovered the head… “oh no! My unicorn lost her head!” We have to get that fixed. Quickly.

 

And in stubborn moments, the girl has started putting her hands on her hips and saying, “I am so mad!” It really doesn’t matter what it is about, and I know she doesn’t understand, but we are working with her to teach her that she has to be careful when choosing words as some words can hurt feelings. For example, this conversation:

               

ER           I am so mad.

Me         Why?

ER           At Daddy. He hurt me.

Me         Oh no. What happened?
ER           He hurt me with that cookie.

Me         That animal cookie that you asked him for and he gave you?

ER           Yes. I am so mad!

 

It is another work in progress for us. Hopefully we can have this resolved before the super fabulous Dora party!

She's really worried about their eternal salvation

The other night, John was sick so Emmy Ruth and I went to have dinner… a girls’ night out. We had a lovely time, even when Emmy Ruth pointed at the man at the table next to us and said, “Mama, he didn’t say grace”. I quickly told her that she only needed to worry about herself when it came to saying grace but she was really, really concerned about him and his meal.

 

She also has this adorable new thing of throwing her hands in the air and saying, “oh never mind” or “it’s fine”. Last night, her shoes were on the wrong feet and when I told her and asked if she wanted to fix them, she said, “nope. They are perfect”.

 

BOUNCE!

Emmy loved the bouncey thing that Santa brought her. She and Lucas had a blast diving in and out of it. Thankfully, it got a tiny hole in it before there were any broken bones.

 

I hope I never forget....

Emmy Ruth still hates washing her hair. There are always tears when we have to rinse so I save it until the last thing before getting out of the tub. She will drain the tub water and then turn around for me to wrap her up in a towel and then I carry her into the living room to watch a little more Dora the Explorer. When she is sad like this or when she first wakes up and I am carrying her, she wraps her arms around my neck and will gently drum her little fingers on my back. I hope I never forget how very precious it is.

 

Or how she doesn’t have her daddy pretend to be a horsey when she climbs on his back… he’s a tiger.

 

That child is never as precious...

…as she is when she is sleeping in her own bed!!! After going through a setback with Emmy sleeping in her bed, we got her a twin bed for Christmas and Nana Alice got her a Dora comforter and sheets and we are working again towards her sleeping in her bed. She does fairly well but it’s never easy getting her down for the night. She has this great nightlight that shines an image of KaiLan on the ceiling and it seems to be helping a lot. Usually, John or I will lie down with her until she sleeps, but John is really bad about lying in there and talking and playing. I sometimes think he is worse than she is. I, on the other hand, am the bad guy. I will count to three and if she isn’t lying down trying to sleep, I leave. Last night, I left and I could hear her on the monitor crying, “Mama! I am closing my little eyes!” What a goof ball she is. The night before, I let her cry it out and when I heard her stop crying, I looked at John and said, “I think we finally broke her spirit!”  I do know that the tough bedtime ritual is so worth it as she sleeps better and John and I sleep better. It’s not nearly as hard to wake her up in the mornings when she has slept in her room and John doesn’t wake up complaining of her foot being in his neck. It’s a win-win … we just have to keep it up.

 

Emmy’s school has this really long hallway to walk down and two small flights of stairs to go up in order to get to her classroom. She loves to tell me to wait at the bottom of the stairs until she gets to the top and then she lets me take my turn. This morning, she made me wait at the end of the hallway and she ran all the way down to her door. She kept turning around to see if I was waiting, as I was supposed to, and if she caught me moving out of turn, she yelled at me to stop. I was a little nervous because I didn’t know what she was going to do when she got to the end… try to escape? I can just imagine me losing her in that huge church and trying to hunt her down all morning. When it was finally my turn, she stood at the end of the hall, cheering me on, “Go Mama! Go Mama!” and jumping up and down, doing spirit fingers and waving for me. I wish I could have THAT on video to look at each and every time I need a pick-me-up!

 

Funny Christmas stories

Emmy Ruth calls Mickey and Minnie Mouse “Mickamouse” and “Minamouse” because she says them so quickly and so closely together. Santa brought her a Minnie Mouse vacuum cleaner and she immediately picked it up and started vacuuming the floors and said “sh!&, sh!&,  sh!&,” as she pushed it along. I know that only I can take blame for that one.

As we were preparing to leave for Arkansas on Christmas Eve, we were trying to pick out a movie to watch in the car and Emmy spotted a Shirley Temple movie on the shelf. She immediately said, “that’s mine!” and wanted to watch it. I figured she wouldn’t enjoy it much but she watched it all and even exclaimed “look, it’s me! on TV!” So many people have commented on how she looks like Shirley Temple, because of the hair, and she agrees!

We have a little issue with her picking her nose now too. I keep telling her that princesses don’t pick their nose and tell her each time I catch her to stop doing it. Sometimes, she will then run away and hide so she pick her nose in peace. In the car the other day, I told her to stop so she held her hand up in front of her eyes, as if I could not see her if she couldn’t see me, and continued on.  This is a work in process.

I am continuing to wash, dry, and present the princess with her princess outfits over and over. She must have one on at all times when she is at home. It’s quite funny.

 

 

 

Merry Christmas!!!

Oh what a fabulous Christmas. Emmy must have been a very good girl because Santa was really good to her. He brought her all kinds of toys but she and Daddy loved playing with the Hungry Hungry Hippo.

John's sister and her family gave her a chest of Princess dress up clothes and shoes and she has been giddy ever since. She got lots of dress up clothes and jewelry and she couldn't have been happier.

We had so much fun with the Jacksons on Christmas Eve. I was so glad that Sol liked his teepee I made him. Eastern Arkansas was overwhelmed with rain... some places got 10 inches in 24 hours! I was hurrying to get gifts in the house and I forgot Sol's presents to go with the teepee!!! I guess with all the excitement I just didn't think to grab them. Thank goodness he loved the teepee and now, I get to be the cool aunt that gives him great New Year's Day presents. Aunt Becca gave her a jewelry box with her name on it and Emmy didn't stop playing with it all day. She carried it around the whole time and wouldn't let anyone else touch it. She got lots of bracelets too and was so thrilled to wear them all. She also had an accident so when her clothes were in the washer and dryer, Aunt Becca gave her leg warmers to wear. What a silly goose.
Emmy Ruth and I made these carollers last week out of cardboard tubes and lost socks. Saying WE made them is quite generous, but....

Ah that girl...

Every time we get in the car now, Emmy announces that she wants to go to Mars. I told her that the drive time to Mars would be around 14 days, not counting stopping for potty breaks, but she is still insistent. I asked what we would do there and she told me we would hunt for rocks.

 

We made little gift bags last night for all of her classmates (complete with PlayDo) and this morning she asked to make sure we had bags for her friends in the car. She then announced that we weren’t her friends, we were her “mama and daddy and I love you!”

 

She has been calling John “Maddy” and this morning she called me “Dammy”.

 

Every so often as we are playing, I will hold Emmy like a baby and sing “hush, little baby don’t say a word, Mama’s gonna buy you…” and Emmy pipes up with “a toy!!!”

Football princess

Sunday evening Emmy was lying around in her PJs and had to put her ballerina outfit on as well. Then she started playing football in the house. Since I made her and her daddy go outside, I just put her rainboots on her. We noticed later that John was still wearing the broaches that she had put on him from an earlier play time.

Alpine Village

Last week we went to the Alpine Village at Trinity Baptist Church. They put on this really neat Christmas festival for the kids with a live nativity, puppet show and all kinds of little activity booths. The kids loved it.

 

The picture with the nutcracker makes me laugh. I have Momma’s collection of nutcrackers that I have added to on my piano. This year, we have a 4 ft inflatable nutcracker that I put by the piano as well. Emmy loves that thing. When it’s unplugged and deflated on the ground, she gets so sad but is giddy when it comes back to life. Now she has started hugging it when we leave and telling him good night. It’s hysterical.  When she saw this nutcracker at the Alpine Village, and the one at the Enchanted Forrest, she was amazed that they are everywhere! Not just at home!

 

Enchanted Forrest

Lucas and Emmy let me and Tara tag along with them to the Enchanted Forrest to have cocoa and cookies with Santa and see Santa vs. the Snowman on the IMAX screen. I think Emmy Ruth is going to have to improve on her technique if she wants Santa to bring her anything because the falling out on the floor in front of him and screaming for her life might not get her the “Barbie girl” she has been asking for.  Lucas, on the other hand, hopped in his lap and said he wanted a “bowling alley, balls and pins” and Santa told him that he agreed, one did need pins with a bowling alley. Later on, Lucas told Tara that he asked Santa for a bowling alley and all he gave him was a candy cane.

 

In other related holiday shenanigans, we have to work with the girl on the advent calendar and how that you get whatever is in the pocket for that day, nothing more. I walked by the calendar last night and realized that day six’s gift was gone and had been replaced with a chicken nugget.

Happy Birthday, Julia!

Sweet Julia Jean had a fabulous birthday party and we are so grateful that we get to share these precious times with her.  Happy birthday, Julia!

 

My favorite elf.

So thankful for this crazy kid

Emmy Ruth was so funny today that John and I said all day we had to hurry and write these things down or we would forget. I am sure we forgot a lot but here we go:

- We watched the Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade and I asked Emmy if she wanted to be a Rockette. She told me she couldn't because she didn't have a fuzzy costume.

- Emmy was running and I told her to quit, I said "what would Daddy and I do if you got hurt?" Her reply: "Cuss". We can't figure out where she learned that word, but she's probably right. :)

- The babies had to ride with us to Wynne and when she asked us to hand her the blue one (she has a set of twins she got last year for Christmas from MiMi), I told her I was getting her baby doll. She said "no, it's my kid".

- As is our routine, any time we see cows, we all roll down the window and yell "moooooooooo". So glad we got the chance to do that today.

- Emmy has started saying "ohhhhh, yeahhhhhhhhh" to things so we heard that a lot.

- We were watching the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving special and she started dancing like Snoopy.

- As I was getting my laptop, we are all piled in bed watching TV and she crawled on Daddy's back and kept calling him a zebra. I asked her why and she said, "because he's my best friend". When I got my laptop out, she was afraid I would hit John's head with it and she grabbed him and said "watch out, zebra!!!"

- "One more thing". Everything is one more thing... either one more toy or one more show or one more ...

- The sweetest was when she told Aunt Becca and Mary Margaret that she was thankful for her daddy today.

We are so thankful for our precious time with this amazing child. She drives us crazy sometimes but we know how lucky we are to have her as our daughter. John and I are beyond smitten with her and we are so thankful for the family and friends that are pretty sweet on her as well.

The Zoo (and of course the Buddha picture)

Saturday we went to the zoo with the Burtons and Rogers. Emmy Ruth officially exhausted her daddy and Aunt Cathy. She ran and they chased her all over that zoo.  It wasn’t very chilly Saturday but Aunt Cathy brought Emmy a Dora hat and mittens set so we had to wear that some of the time. Of course we got her picture made with the Buddha as well. And I think it’s safe to say that this girl was meant to be in parades. When she was on the carousel, she loved to wave each and every time she went around. I moved once to try and get a better picture of her and she was distraught trying to find me so that she could wave.

 

The Pampered Chef

I got this really neat cake pan to make letters so I figured this was a good way for Emmy Ruth to learn what the letters look like to go along with knowing the alphabet song. Last night we started with, what else?, the letter E. Emmy was delighted to help with the mixing and putting the cake batter in the pan, and she couldn’t wait to ice the cake. So after her bath, we started icing the cake and she did one whirl at it and promptly sat down to lick her spatula. She’s really not much help in the kitchen yet.

Best Friends

My absolute favorite thing that Emmy Ruth is doing lately is to wrap her little arms arounds John and I and cry out "best friends hug!!!".

It's time to turn on the heat...

I guess it is time to turn on the heat when Emmy went and got scarves,
hats and gloves to wear while watching The Muppets. I used to pride
myself on how long we could go without turning on the heat (and how
low our heat bill was!) but those days are long gone!!!!

Papa Richie

We went to visit Papa Richie on Saturday and Emmy Ruth got some quality time in running in his yard and playing with the ducks. She had so much fun with the ducks and loved feeding them. We tried to show her how to tear off little pieces of bread to give them, and she tore off the tiniest little bitty crumbs that no duck could see without his binoculars. It was hysterical. Because it was a Saturday, she wore her Razorback gear. After she got dressed, she jumped up and down and said, "I feel like a Razorback princess!!!"

Being the ultimate in two year olds, Emmy Ruth is running and climbing all the time. And it seems that she is always falling. So, we've decided to just keep her wrapped in bubble wrap.