US Figure Skating Championship

Emily and I were invited to go to the US Figure Skating Championship with some friends today. 

 It was fun to see it in person.  Emily enjoyed the skaters and told me at one point that she wants to be a skater when she grows up, but I think she enjoyed the cotton candy just as much!  She was also happy to be there with her friend Ada Noel.

They had a thing called Fanfest set up in the special events center.  They had a bounce house and an inflatable slide.  Emily tried the slide but it was really steep and the little ones were having trouble.  She tried several times and kept falling down before she could climb to the top.  Bless her heart, she kept asking to try and she finally got it.  She was so proud of herself and she went down that slide for at least 30 minutes.  She had a blast!  

Emily had been asking for ice cream and I promised her some but we kind of ran out of time because I was trying to let her tummy digest the cotton candy before giving her more junk.  So we decided to go to Ben and Jerry's for ice cream so we could enjoy being outside (the weather was amazing today).

Fun was had by all!

 

Do We Have A Picture?

My mother passed away in 2001.  I have always talked to Emily about my mother who we call Gran.  My mother once told me that when she was a grandmother she wanted to be called Gran so it was nice to know what she wanted Emily to call her.  Anyway, Emily knows that she is my mommy and that she lives in heaven.  She also knows that God is in heaven as well.  Today she asked me if we had a picture of God.  I told her no we didn't have a picture of God.  She said, "Gran lives in heaven with God."  I said yes.  She said, "Because we have a picture of Gran in Mommy's and Daddy's room and she lives in heaven so...do we have a picture of God too?". 

Later today she said she wanted to tell me a story.  She said "Once upon a time there was Emily's mommy and she had a daddy but not a mommy.  She was sad and then she was happy...Beeee end" (that's how she says "the end").  I've told Emily before that when my mommy went to heaven I was sad because I missed her but I was happy because she was in a wonderful and happy place with God. 

I love the way her little mind works and how she tries to understand all of these very complicated things.  Priceless!!!!

Dr. Emily

When you ask Emily what she wants to be when she grows up she will usually say a doctor, dentist or a nurse.  Sometimes she wants to be all three:)

She likes to play doctor and last night she was Dr. Emily, Jeff was her assistant/receptionist and I was the dentist.  It was so funny.  She has this phone that rings every time you close it so Jeff was busy fielding calls to the office and making appointments.  She kept yelling, "Next" and Jeff would bring in the next patient and explain their medical issues to Dr. Emily.

Fashion Show

Emily put on a Fashion Show for us the other night...music and everything.



Accessories can make an old outfit fresh.

 The audience consisted of me, Jeff, Callie, Barney and these guys...

The Big Show

Last night was Emily's "Big Show" at The Little Gym.  This was her third recital.  Last year in the 2 year old class they only did a ballet dance.  This year they did tap, ballet, a balance beam routine and bars.

They are all so adorable.  Emily is one of the youngest in the class this year.  Some of the girls (and one boy)  were very nervous to do their skills on the beam and bars.  Emily was the first in her group willing to do her forward role on the balance beam however, she was not willing to do her "pull over" on the bar.

At the end they have a little awards ceremony.

Emily's Aba (my dad) came from Raleigh for the recital.  He was a few minutes late because Nana was sick at home.  He walked in during Emily's ballet dance.  When she saw him she got so excited and told us all that Aba was here.  It was priceless.

Emily gave her teachers flowers and she got flowers and a ballerina doll from Mommy and Daddy.  Aba brought a turtle puppet.

Emily and Ms. Ellen

Emily and Ms. Carly

It was a great night.  After The Big Show we went out to eat dinner!

Here are some video highlights:)

Practice Makes Perfect

Emily has a wonderful vocabulary.  As a toddler, she went from saying a few words to complete sentences almost over night.  We  couldn't wait for her to start talking and now sometimes we long for a moment of silence:)  Emily loves to talk.

She has a few expressions and certain ways that she pronounces  words that is just adorable.  Here are some of my favorite examples.

Perfect:  Emily loves this word and she also loves to say "practice makes perfect" but she pronounces it "PERFTIC".

Breakfast:  She says "BREAKFIX".  In the morning I hear, "Mommy, I'm ready for my breakfix".

The other day I was just randomly dancing and Emily said, "Mommy, stop groovin'."  Seriously...groovin'...too funny:)

I am a big nickname kind of person.  So we all have a lot of nicknames but one thing I have called Emily since she was born is "Little Bit".  The funny thing is that she calls other children "Little Bits".  For example, "That class if for little bits."  She was surprised the other day that an adult she met didn't have children so she said, "you mean she doesn't have any little bits?"

Jeff works in the WAV Technology department and has many shirts with their logo.  Emily calls them "WAV Technogery" shirts:)

Emily counts from 1-29 perfectly put then gets a little off track.  This is how it goes...28...29...100!

When we use a public restroom that has an automatic potty, Emily used to call them "necta" potty.  I guess she had trouble saying automatic.  Now she can say automatic but likes to still say "necta".  She says, "I say necta potty because I can't say automatic".

Emily loves to got to Chick-fil-a but she still calls it "Chick-a-la".

There are more I am sure but these are some of the things I hope to never forget!!!

Meet Ellie

Have you met Ellie?  If you have been around Emily you may have met her and you don't even know it.  Next time you see Emily ask her who Ellie is.  She will tell you that she is her imaginary sister.  She says, she is imaginary because she is pretend.  Ellie has been in our family since right around when Emily turned 3.  She is very small and stays in Emily's bed most of the day.  Sometimes I carry her in my pocket.  Her age keeps changing but her birthday is August 3rd, just like Emily'.  Sometimes she is two or three or a baby but she is a constant in Emily's life...too cute:)  It cracks me up that she doesn't have an imaginary friend, she has plenty of friends, but this only child has an imaginary sibling.

Sleeping Silly

Emily makes us laugh all the time.  She really is a funny girl.  I went in to check on her the other night before I went to bed and this is what I found...so funny to me!

She begged to wear her Christmas PJ's and I love the bear on her head:)

Finger Painting, Markers and Sock Puppets

Emily loves art.  Really any kind of art but this child loves to finger paint.  Really she loves to just feel the paint on her hands and in between her fingers.  Even when she starts to paint with a brush using separate colors most of the time she ends up putting down the brush and smearing the paint all together with her hands making what looks like a mud painting.  Here she is making a letter E for Emily. 

We have a lot of art between what we do at home and other places.  What I normally do is hang up the art for awhile and then take a picture of a group of art and then get rid of most of it.  I keep the special things, like her hand/foot print reindeer for her scrapbook but there is no way I could keep it all. Here is some of her December and early January art.

This is Emily's sock puppet who is named Crystal.

Two Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed

I'm okay...

Emily is a very active three year old girl.  Most days, if not everyday, she falls or trips or stumbles in some way, many times because she is so busy talking that she is not paying attention to where she is going:)  Most times she is just fine.  In the last few weeks every time we hear a huge thud or crash it is always followed by Emily's sweet little voice saying or yelling, "I'm okay" or "it's okay".  I guess this comes from us always saying, "Are you okay?".  It is hilarious to hear. 

Sometimes, however, she is clearly not okay.  These are pictures of her latest boo-boos in which we did NOT hear, "I'm okay" after they happened...poor baby! 




December 31, 2010
Emily vs the doorway in between the livingroom and kitchen

  


January 14, 2011
Emily vs the coffee table








 What a way to end and start off the New Year.  I seriously think I might start making her wear a helmet around the house.  At least we aren't having family pictures taken or something:)

Emily's Detective Agency

We had a situation the other night.  We had a mouse in our house.  This is a first for us.  I think they stay away because we have a cat but the other day I found Callie up on the kitchen counter, not a normal thing.  She didn't want to leave the kitchen and kept looking up toward the counter.  We started listening and looking.  We found a space in between one of our cabinets and the wall that a creature could possible find it's way in so Jeff fixed it immediately.  We moved everything off the counter.  He did his work and then I wiped down the counter and put everything back.  Later we heard a clicking noise in the kitchen.  We went to look and listen.  It was coming from the stove.  Jeff lifted up the stove top and there was a mouse on the stove!!!  Yes, that's right the stove.

AHHHH!  Apparently, he was in the wall and found his way out and then Jeff blocked his way back.  He must not have been in for long because I used the oven and both sides of the stove that night.  What if I had cooked him!!!!   So now we had to catch this little guy.  He was cute but he couldn't stay in the house.  Jeff and I both took a plastic container and tried to catch it so we could take it outside.  This little guy was fast and kept running back and forth on the counter.  Finally, he climbed into the spice rack:)  Jeff put his container on one side and I put mine on the other.  Jeff picked the spice rack up and we carefully carried it to the deck and left the spice rack on the deck.  After he jumped out, I had to bring it back in and clean it and clean the counter again. 

The next morning I told Emily what had happened.  Her room is close to the kitchen and her door was open and she slept through all the excitement.  She wanted to see the mouse.  I told her that he was just as cute as the mice at Petco but he got lost and came inside the house by mistake and we helped him find his way out.  We went to the children's museum and when we came back she told me she was going to look for "mouses".  She was walking around the house looking all around saying, "Emily's Detective Agency".  How cute is that???  I am happy to report that Emily's Detective Agency found nothing.  Apparently, our mouse friend was alone...at least let's hope so:) 

Snow Day

We had more winter weather on Monday into Tuesday.  It wasn't the pretty snow we had on Christmas but it was a snow, sleet and freezing rain event.  We only got about an inch all together at our house.  We didn't have enough snow to make a snowman and it was covered with ice so instead we went sledding in our backyard.  I'm pretty sure that Jeff and I had more fun than Emily:)

Emily had the best time sliding down her wet, snowy slide.  We kept putting snow back on it everytime she went down the slide.

Barney loves to eat snow and ice.  We kept finding big pieces of ice for him to eat out of our hands.  He really loves the  snow.  It makes him act like a puppy again.

What else do you do on a snow day?  Well, we played dress up and made a tent.  It such a fun family day!!! 

Hippity Hop

Emily loves to watch Max and Ruby.  She likes to say, "I'm a Max and Ruby Fan".   On one of the episodes, Ruby and her friend are trying to remember the steps to the Hippity Hop Dance.  Emily learned it along with them.

Here is Emily's Hippity Hop Dance.

Tangled Dreams

On New Years Day we went to see the movie Tangled.  It was a cute movie and Emily really liked it but she was scared in a few parts of the movie.  This was only her second movie, other than Dora movies.  She is used to her Nick Jr. shows so the fighting in the movie surprised her a bit. She was also disturbed that this baby girl was stolen.  I can understand how all of this could be a bit much for a three year old.  I was just sure she would have a bad dream that night but I was wrong.  No bad dreams until Thursday night.  She dreamed that someone was taking her away from us...poor girl.  I went and layed down in her room and with her and she went back to sleep just fine.

The next night I was putting her to bed and I always lay down with her as she falls asleep.  This was our conversation.

E: Mommy I'm going to keep my eyes open.
M: Okay, I'm going to close mine.
E: It's good you are not scared of dreams.
M: Sometimes I am but I know that dreams aren't real.  Let's pray that you won't have any bad dreams.
E: Okay
M: Dear God, please help Emily to sleep well and help her not to have any bad dreams.
E: Thanks, Mommy.  I'm still going to keep my eyes open because that way I am sure I won't have any bad dreams.
M: Okay

She did keep them open until she could fight it no longer (about 3 minutes).

Ringing in the New Year

Happy New Year!

We ended 2010 with a wonderful white Christmas.  Emily spent Christmas day with her Aba and Nana and her Grandpa.  Then she was able to spend the New Year with her Grandma and Grandpa Fran.  They arrived on New Year's Eve. 

Emily and I made a big cookie and decorated it to look like a clock at the stroke of midnight.  So we rang in the New Year (about 7pm) with a yummy cookie and sparking grape juice.