Goodnight, Sweetheart

Dear Emerson,

You are growing so fast, and becoming less and less a toddler every day. I have to remind myself that you are supposed to be stubborn and independent because you're growing up...not because you are trying to frustrate your mama. I love it when you want to help me set the table, and empty the dishwasher. I love to put your hair in a ponytail, and watch it bounce as you run away. You amaze me with your vocabulary, your funny stories, and your concern for others. If only band-aids really did fix everything. You are a dare devil and a tomboy, but you insist on wearing Minnie Mouse undies and a dress while you skin your knees. You giggle often, and make us laugh until our sides hurt too. I love when you ask me to rock you at night, and want to be wrapped in your blankie...I hate that you barely fit on my lap anymore. I enjoy singing to you, and watching your eyelids get droopy. It makes my heart sing when you give me the "I love you" sign, and say "I UV YOU, Mommy!". You're the best thing I've ever done, and I'm so grateful to have such a sweet baby girl.

Love, Mommy

Tiny Dancer

So, one of my new coworkers gave me a big bag of dress up clothes for Emerson. Included was a Snow White outfit, a cheerleader outfit and a dance costume. For the last 2 nights, Emerson has slept in the cheerleader costume. She's eaten her dinner in the dance outfit the last 2 days as well. Dance classes might be in her future if she continues to enjoy dressing up this much!

Fingerpainting Adventures

Emerson finally decided that fingerpainting wouldn't kill her. Although she did insist on having paper towels handy in order to wipe her fingers off before she changed to another color. After about 5 paper towels, I told her we would wait until she was ALL DONE paiting to use another one. She actually made about 7 or 8 different drawings. When I asked what each one was, she told me: an alligator, a backpack, a bird, a dinosaur, and sunshine. What a creative little girl! I labeled each drawing with her description & the date. Will send some artwork out to grandparents when I get some time to hit the post office!

Fun & Silliness

I haven't uploaded photos from my camera for a couple weeks, and wanted to share some here. We enjoyed a trip to Duke Gardens about 2 weekends ago to feed the ducks. The ducks literally swarmed us, and even jumped out of the water to walk up close to us! Of course, Emerson was all glammed out to hit the park. She's been wearing her hair in a pony tail recently, and it's so adorable! She's been hanging out in a ratty pair of rainboots that I got from a nice gal on Freecycle. I just couldn't cough up the $20 for a new pair that she would outgrown so quickly! (Yep, call me cheap!) I painted Em's toenails for the first time this weekend. She initially wanted a bright red color in the store, but I talked her down from that one. Then, she set her eyes on a shimmery lilac bottle, and declared, "I need sparkly purple, Mommy!". So, sparkly purple toes she now has! She was so tickled to have Mommy "use a paintbrush to paint my toenails!".

Why we keep her around...

Emmy is such a hoot...here's a samplin' of some of her recent cuteness:

If she tastes something she doesn't like, she says "I can't like that anymore, Mommy!"

Some deer came up on our deck overnight at ate almost every last one of my lovely summer flowers! I showed Emmy, and explained what happened...she said, "naughty deer!". On our drive home tonight, she told me she was looking for doggies, chickens and deer. I asked her if she thought the deer had eaten the rest of our flowers while we were gone today. She said, "Naughty deer...they need to go sit on the naughty spot!"

I was wiping up her hands after dinner last night, and told her she had dip between her fingers. She explained that she had ladybugs between her fingers too. I asked her if they were sticky, and she said, "Yeah".

She sang Happy Birthday on the phone last night to her 85 year old great grandma Jarrett. Then she said, "I love you, Papaw". Hmmmm....

When she wakes up in the morning, she yells, "I had a good nap. I'm ready to get up!"

She's crazy about rain boots.

We got up early on Saturday to do the Race for the Cure...it was still a little dark out, and when she was getting up, she told Keith she "needed a flashlight".

Seriously, Kid. You're Killing Me.

Yesterday morning, Keith left for work, and Emmy was happily dressed and eating some breakfast while watching PBS cartoonage. I hopped in the shower, and just as I was about to turn the water off, she ran into the bathroom and announced that she had to go potty. She's done this routinely, and makes a big deal about getting essentially all the way undressed again, only to produce nothing. So, I told her to go ahead and pull down her pants and sit down. She sat, for about 30 seconds. By this time, I was stepping out of the shower and starting to dry off. She hopped up, and ran out of the bathroom with only a shirt and shoes on. Being naked, I didn't run after her. I asked her to come back in so we could put on a diaper, and heard her yell, "NO!" from somewhere in the house. Not 30 seconds later, she appeared at the bathroom door, and said sheepishly, "Mommy, I pooped!". When I looked at her, I was a little taken aback, as she was literally COVERED with poop! Her hands, her legs, her butt....ugh! I asked her WHERE she pooped, and she said, "the kitchen, but don't worry, Daddy will clean it up when he gets home". Oh, really, wouldn't THAT be nice! I asked her to sit on the potty, and NOT to put her hands in her mouth. At this point, I'm still dripping wet from the shower. Quickly dried off, wrapped up in the towel and tried to find the poop, which was somewhere in my house. Couldn't find it, and ran back to start getting the little shit cleaned up. So gross. She kept saying, "don't put poop in your mouth, Mommy! It's yucky!". Thanks, kiddo. Once she was cleaned up, I dressed quickly and went poop hunting again. Found a mountain of it in front of the fireplace, followed by a trail when she started to run. NOT a good way to start your morning. I had to call Keith at work to let him know what a little crapper his daughter was, and what he missed out on. Oh man, this potty-training is going to kill me!

My 2 new Favorite Pics