My new favorite photo of Emerson

Guess Who's Becoming a Big Sister?

Our family is growing, and Emerson will become a big sister in May 2011!

"Olivia's Dead"

As we were driving down the road last night, heading to Panera Bread for dinner, followed by grocery shopping at Kroger, Emerson piped up from the backseat with this doosie..."Olivia's dead". Followed by dead silence in the car. Olivia, by the way, is Emerson's imaginary sister whom she's talked about for the last year. She literally mentions her daily. From what I can gather, she lives across the street at 8008 XX Road, she's either older or younger than Emerson (some days she's 2, some days she's 43 and drives...who knew?!). It's unclear who her parents are, and why she doesn't live with us. Olivia gets blamed for mishaps & misbehavior and is included in most of the silly conversations shared about the happenings at school.

Needless to say, we were a little taken aback to hear she was no longer with us. After a period of silence, we finally asked Em what happened. She explained that Olivia was out walking her dog and got "squooshed by a car". We asked her how she found out about this accident, and she mentioned that Olivia was at school today crying, and told her about it. "She's dead, but she'll be better on Monday...don't worry guys."

Thank goodness! Keith and I talked about it later, and were a little relieved that Em doesn't yet grasp the concept of death. We've seen dead squirrels "squooshed by a car" on our morning walks, so I suppose this is where the idea came from last night. We are also not totally ready to have this conversation with her, as we haven't figured out how we want to present it to her yet. I want to be honest, but not go into great detail about things. I don't want to use any of the explanations like, "sleeping" or "gone to Heaven". I think being honest & sticking to simple explanations is probably the best route.

Anyone out there have any great ideas about broaching this topic when the time comes?

Halloween Fun!

We carved our pumpkins last weekend, and Emmy decided pumpkin guts were not for her. She did like eating the pumpkin seeds that Keith toasted! We did trick-or-treating tonight, and Em got to walk around the neighborhood with the girls from across the street (her big girl buddies). It was so fun hearing her chatter excitedly with them, telling stories, cracking jokes, and just being silly & having a good time. Keith manned the homefront, handing out candy to the masses. We had taken a family walk earlier, scoping out the houses with great front porch decor. There were some really neat jack-o-lanterns out there tonight! Em decided her legs were getting tired, and she had enough candy, so we headed home after about an hour. She was impressed with her loot, and got to hand out some candy to neighbor kids who stopped by later. It was a fun night!

Pumpkin Season!

One of THOSE Moms...

Yes, I'll admit it, I'm one of THOSE Moms....you know, the ones the uber-on-top-of-it-Moms sort of shake theirs heads at while exchanging knowing glances. I'm the Mom who shows up to a play date without bringing snacks or drinks (I did feed her en route to said play date, but failed to plan ahead for what she'd be like after an hour of running around in 90 degree heat). I'm the Mom who heads out to the local park with the family and totally fails to have a change of clothes available when the kiddo has an episode of diarrhea on top of the climbing equipment (not a pretty scene driving home, let me assure you). I'm the Mom who forgets to pay the correct amount for daycare (the fee was reduced months ago, when Em aged up) and so is carrying a balance, much to the Director's dismay. I'm the Mom who's kid is covered in scars, because she can't figure out a way to get her to stop picking her scabs. I'm the Mom who lets her kid watch too many movies because sometimes, I just need some peace. It's days like these that I can really beat myself up for not planning ahead more, being better organized, or having more energy for being creative with the kid. When I really want to throw a guilt-trip party, I start adding up the hours she spends in daycare each week....oh, Lordy, it's really hard to go there.

Overall though, Emerson doesn't seem the least bit affected by my mothering gaffes. She's happy, energetic, creative, and lovable. She tells me I'm a "good Mama" and pats my shoulder affectionately. She laughs at my silly jokes, asks me to sing her night-night songs, and draws me lovely family portraits. She holds my hand regularly, whispers secrets in my ear and snuggles close on the couch. She's my kitchen helper, my morning walk partner and tells me I have cute underwear when I'm getting dressed. She cracks me up, breaks my heart and thoroughly amazes me in the span of a few short seconds.

I'll have to come to peace with occasionally dropping the ball big-time, but it's nice to know I have an automatic "pass" from the one person who matters the most.

What We've Been Up To...