Princess Emma

Let me introduce you to Princess Emma or so she thinks in her 2 year old mind. One day, while wearing her princess dress, she looked at me and said, "I have princess dress, Mommy no have princess dress". Ah, so true but that is because I am the Queen! I believe that Emma thinks that Mommy, Daddy and Josh (to some extent, i.e. hold my cup, hold my cookie) are here to do her bidding. Emma also believes that things should be done as asked nicely commanded by her. Case in point, she must descend the stairs first and once she reaches the bottom, she looks up and says "Mommy, come now". These delusions of grandeur will, of course, be sorted out once she accepts that she is out-ranked by the Queen and King of the castle but for now, hats off to my little Princess!

Things I Like - By Joshua

A few of my favorite things as interpreted by my Mommy include:

1) My playmat - I love to lay there and bat at the fish and the mirror when my sister isn't busy ripping them off even though I'm playing with them!

2) My jumperoo - I love to jump and this entertains me for quite a while.

3) My seat, which will one day become a booster chair for the table. Emma also loves my seat and often makes me hold her cups and other various items.

4) The swing - I have only been in here once due to the lack of warm weather but I thoroughly enjoyed it and will definitely want to spend lots of time in it once it gets warmer. Thankfully my sister is good about sharing.

5) The links that are attached to this turtle - I have more that are just linked together and they are great for chewing and making noise. I do like the turtle as well.


6) Finally, my sister's hair - Oh, it is just so tempting; when her head gets within striking distance, I just can't resist myself and have to grab a handful. Emma is not so happy when I do this but right now I can play the "I'm just a little baby, I don't understand card". I better make as much use of that card as possible.

Closer, closer...

You might notice that other than the playmat, most of my favorites involve sitting up. I love to be on the same level as everybody else and check out everything that is happening and on that note, I'll conclude my list!

Pudding Paint

A few weeks ago, I thought I would mix things up for Emma and see if she wanted to do some painting. Rather than using real paints, I made some paint out of vanilla pudding. I first came across this idea sometime last spring and thought it sounded great especially since there was no need to worry if some paint found its way into or around her mouth, which I knew it would. The first time I tried this last summer, however, was a disaster whether she just didn't want to get her hands dirty or due to the fact that I took her shirt off and she wanted to leave it on. Either way, pudding paint was a no go and the idea was shelved until recently. This time around, major hit! Emma dove right in and couldn't get enough as demonstrated in the following pictures. One lesson learned from this experience is that I may want to limit the color choices and make sure that whatever colors I choose blend well together because mixing blue, red, green, and yellow together on the paper...need I say more!

One of Many Paintings!

"Les Plus Mignon"

Psst Linda!

What Do You See?

What do you see when you look at this picture?



The simple answer is a sweet little girl sitting on the brick wall and posing for Daddy after she had obviously been playing with her sidewalk chalk as noted by the residual chalk on her right knee. The picture is also obviously post-nap as evidenced by her crazy hair. Is it bad that I do it once a day no matter how it ends up looking by evening but I digress? What you can't see from this photo is the big girl who finally gave up her pacifier without any fight at all. In fact, it was so easy that I need to pinch myself to make sure that it really happened. Brad and I had avoided this "fight" for so long because we expected it to be a battle of wills and hers are strong. However, after a couple of recent trips into our room during the wee hours of the night to ask where her paci had gone, we decided it was time and to our surprise, there was no crying, wailing or gnashing of teeth by any of us. Emma asked for her paci maybe once or twice at bedtime this weekend but when told no, she didn't pursue it any further. We are so proud of our big girl for giving up the paci cold turkey! Now it is time to conquer potty training!

I'm A Little Teapot

Yesterday afternoon, Emma and I were lucky to go visit with some friends of ours. Emma and Charlie are great friends and love to chase each other around when they're not too busy doing their own thing. At one point yesterday, Emma was running from Charlie's room to the living room and Charlie was in hot pursuit. At some point, Emma went down either from being pushed or from tripping. Either way, there was no harm meant and no harm done. The only reason that I am even relating this tale is because of what happened when we got home last night. Over dinner, Brad asked Emma if she had had a good time playing with Charlie to which she responded with an emphatic "Yes" (in fact, she tried to get me to leave and let her stay there!). She then tacked on "Charlie pushed me" and here is the funny part (to me at least), she went on to say "He tipped me over and poured me out".

We Need a New Title

This blog needs a new title that reflects both Emma and Joshua! Any suggestions?

It's Me, It's Me!

Yes, it's me, I am still here but I have to tell you, I am one tired mommy right now. A little sick boy means a lack of sleep for this mom and me being tired has led to me being lazy and me being lazy has led to me being neglectful of this blog at least. There you have it, my excuse! No pictures today although I promise, there are new ones of both little darlings. Instead, I'll just steal from Mary Beth and post a few things that I have heard lately.

From Emma:

The other day, Emma was helping me put clothes into the dryer. She was busy with one pile and looked up to see that I had another pile in my arms. She looked up at me and said "Hang on".

Yesterday on the way home from daycare with Brad, Emma was running through her song list. After she finished up, she said to Brad "What's next?".

This morning I asked if she wanted to get dressed first or if Josh should go first. She decided that Josh should go first so I got him dressed and after I was done, she said "Josh is pretty" (Daddy quickly corrected her that Josh is handsome, no pretty). She also told me that she was pretty after she got on her dress for church last Sunday.

When Emma leaves the room for a minute to go grab something, she'll look at you, point her little finger and say "Right back".

Whenever it is time for breakfast, lunch, dinner, bath, bed, you name it, Emma tries to defer by saying "Play a little bit?".

Not that any of these do her the proper justice as written, but they are just so funny coming out of her little 2 year old self!

From Josh:

"Dada". Of course, he was sickly and crying and not actually using it in context but it was clear as day and heard by both Brad and I.