Dear Emma,

You discovered Tessa's big bin of princess dress up clothes this month, which is good because Tessa has kind of lost interest in pretending to be a princess.  I, for one, think we still need a little princess around here so your timing could not be more perfect.  Clomp around in those plastic high heels all you want!

We started a parent/child swimming class this month.  Tessa was taking swimming lessons four days each week and I knew I couldn't take you to the pool every day but never let you swim.  During class we sing a lot of songs, learn to blow bubbles in the water, learn to kick your legs, and how to "glide".   Tessa was watching you and taking pictures, and at one point she said "I'm so proud of Emma!", which totally cracked me up.  You love the water, but do NOT want to be dunked under.  About halfway through the class each child gets to pick out a toy to play with while the teacher goes around to each child and dunks them under the water and glides them over to their parent.   You are NOT a fan of this, so I told the teacher you did not want to participate.  The teacher looked at you and said, "Emma do you want to go under the water and glide to Mommy?" and you said "Sure!" and you proceeded to do exactly that.  Um, thanks a lot.

Tessa had her first class (Romp-n-Roll) at age six months.  You had your first class (swimming) at age 2 years 8 months.  Such is the life of a second child.

You don't like to be dirty, and after eating breakfast in the morning you ask to have your face washed by saying, "I got peanutbutters!" which is to say that you have peanut butter smeared around your mouth.

August 8 was a big day for you, and not because it was the first day of the Olympics.  We have been asking you every night if you want to sleep in your crib or in your toddler bed and on that day you chose the toddler bed!  So, we tucked you in, held our breath and waited.

              Awake                                           Asleep

Ya baby!  You haven't slept in the crib since.  Of course, some mornings we find this…

A week or two later we got rid of the crib and the changing table.  I am so excited about this milestone in your life, sleeping in a "big girl" bed, but I was surprised at how I wanted to cry when the crib was gone.  I can't believe you don't need the crib anymore.  I can't believe I will never again lower your feety pajama-ed self into the crib, with its soft bumper pads and sheets.  At least I still get to tuck your feety pajama-ed self into the toddler bed, and I'm truly happy about that.

School mornings this year are so much easier than last year.  You wake up happy, jump out of bed, take off your own pajamas and diaper, throw the diaper away, and ask for your clothes to get dressed.  I cannot tell you what an improvement this is over last years school mornings.  There are no words to describe the difference.  When you are getting undressed at bath time you pull on your shirt until the neck hole is stretched over one of your shoulders and then you stick your arm into the neck hole.  I hate to be the one to tell you this, but you'll never get your shirt off that way.  (Also, you wear flip flops now.  Shoes that are easy to get off and on are a mother's dream!)

You've started climbing into the car, and then into your car seat on your own, and even putting your arms through the straps (you haven't mastered buckling the 5 point harness yet).  If I forget and try to help you, you bat my hands away and say "ALL BY MYSEFF!  ALL BY MYSEFF!" which totally cracks me up.

                            Miss Independent

You also like to wear a chef's hat in the bathtub.  (?)

One thing you are not ready for yet apparently, is potty training.  We are reading the potty books, watching the potty videos, have the potty seat set up, but when I ask you if you'd like to try sitting on the potty you say a very definite "NO!"  I'm not going to rush you, all the experts say not to rush you, but I'd be thrilled if you decided you were ready.  The other day you had a dirty diaper and you announced this by saying, "I pooped my pants!"  If that isn't enough, when I was opening your dirty diaper, never a fun activity, you said, "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand, there it is!"   Nice.

Your nicknames this month are…

Runtybear

Runty

Emma Yemma Ding Dong

Munchkin

Munchski

Little Moon Pie

Crabby Patty

Emmybear

Sweet Face

Pungent One

Cruddy Face

Lovely

Lovelybear

A few days ago you were playing house with Tessa.  You were the mom, and Tessa was the baby.  You would get Tessa blankets, juice, a pretend baby bottle, a pacifier, toys.  Tessa had you running all over the house, waiting on her hand and foot, and you loved it.  Tessa loves to be waited on like a princess, and you are a good helper who likes to be the boss, so this game really suits the two of you. 

Emma speak…

crocodiles/alligators are called dragons

scared is called scary, as in "I'm scary."

vitamins are called vita-nims, as in "Vita-nims, please!"

Each day you seem to pick a different toy to adore, and that makes it hard when you inevitably lose that toy.  I cannot tell you how many times this week I heard "MY PIGGY!" or "MY MONKEY!" or  "MY FISHIES!".  What this means is I get to spend some quality time searching for a lost toy, and if we are about to leave to go somewhere it morphs into frantic searching.  Good times.

You are, for the most part, such a happy kid.  Even when we were hurrying so we wouldn't be late for Tessa's first day of school, and you fell down the two steps into the garage and skinned your knee, cheer still came bubbling up out of you.  (In this picture you can still see the tears in your eyes from that fall, and yet you are joyful at the same time.)   Your good humor spreads to the rest of the family.  We are so lucky to be your family.  I'm so blessed to be your mom.

I love you,

Mommy

P.S.  Grandpa came every single day to Tessa's swimming lessons (that is 20 lessons!) to babysit you while you played so you wouldn't have to just sit on a bench and watch Tessa's swimming lesson.  You two had a blast together!

Our cousins Myronie and Sam and their two adorable kids Kai and Kiera moved close by recently.  Okay, not to our actual neighborhood, but it only takes an hour to get to their house, so it seems close-ish. 

We got to spend last Saturday afternoon at their new house.  We had a yummy lunch and the kids had a blast playing all over the house, including the coolest home schooling room I've ever seen. 

Myronie wrote about it on her blog (click here).

Thanks for the fun afternoon Myronie and Sam!  We'll do it again soon. 

Eating lunch…

Kiera eating watermelon…

Kai peeking through the trees…

Kiera's beautiful curls…

I started the Couch to 5k Running Program again. 

(I started but didn't finish it last year.)

(Shut up, you didn't finish it either!)

If you want to follow my progress (or learn about the program) click on the link in the sidebar. 

(Over there —>)

We went on my family's annual pontoon boat trip to Detroit Lake yesterday.  I do love swimming, but always wonder what is lurking under the surface of the water.  I have to specifically not think about the fish and who-knows-what is under there (my niece is worried about dead bodies under the water) or I wouldn't be able to get in the water.  My nephew Braden knows this, and thought it would be pretty fun to swim a long way underwater and pop up when I was not paying attention.  When I first saw him all I noticed was bleached blond hair and goggles emerging from the deep and for a split second I thought it was a shark/robot/piranha/zombie/all-my-nightmares-are-coming-true type of thing.

(He managed to scare me a dozen more times too.)

Oh yes, Christmas is going to fun this year.  For me. 

Smitten Kitchen posted a recipe for Blueberry Crumb Bars recently. 

(You should go check out her recipe and her photos, they are outstanding.) 

I had some blueberries from the farmer's market. 

So I decided to make some.

Best. Blueberry. Cookie. Ever! 

Then she posted a recipe for blueberry pancakes.  So I had to try that too.

And lo!  It was excellent.

Luckily Jen from Amazing Trips solved the riddle of which griddle to buy (electric? cast iron?  one burner?  two burner?) and also posted an amazing pancake recipe (which I personally tried and it was so good). 

My mom found the Nordicware 2 Burner Reversible Grill Griddle at Costco and it is AWESOME! 

We made pancakes and fried eggs at the same time!   I cooked pancakes so fast that I actually got to eat breakfast with the family.  Usually I'm stuck at the stove.

What goes with blueberry pancakes?  Blueberry banana smoothies!

Yum!

Who likes blueberries?  Me! Me! Me! I do! I do! I do!

Hold me…

August 1, 2008

Dear Tessa,

I'm not sure what you do during afternoon "quiet time", but it sounds like the United States Women's Gymnastics Team is trying out for the Olympics in there.  I hear the pitter patter of your feet running up and down the hallway even though you know you aren't supposed to be out of your room.  You seem to know if I'm trying to get in a quick siesta while Emma is napping, and these are the days you make the most noise.

After dinner every night you try to negotiate for some dessert.  Even if we say no, you don't give up.  One night you were really being persistent, so just for kicks I made you say "I'm having a sugar fit!" to get some dessert.  (I'm having a sugar fit is what your Grandpa and Great-Grandma say when they need some dessert, so this is a long time family joke.)

For your birthday one of your friends gave you a ten dollar gift card to Target.  You picked out a High School Musical Sharpay doll and paid for it yourself with your gift card.  When you were done at the check stand you said, "I got to buy something with a credit card all by myself for the first time!"  So we had to have the credit cards = evil and gift cards = awesome chat.

One day you were playing waitress, and we had this conversation…

Tessa:  "Would you like some 100% apple juice?"

Me:  "No, I'd like some 100% obedience!"

Tessa:  "I'm sorry, that is not one of our delishes (dishes)."

 Me:  "No kidding!"

We started a two week swimming summer camp a few days ago.  You took swimming lessons once a week in Kindergarten but suddenly you are really taking off and it is amazing to see how fast you are progressing towards being a full fledged swimmer.  I may have said this before, but it is really fun to watch you learn to swim in the same pool I learned to swim in.  The pool looks the same, the locker room (sadly) looks the same, the place even smells the same.  I had such happy memories of swimming in that pool, and that happy feeling comes back to me every time I take you swimming there.  I hope you are making some of your happiest childhood memories there too.

When I ask you to pick up your toys you like to complain loudly about how tired you are, or how EMMA GOT THAT TOY OUT I SHOULDN'T HAVE TO PICK IT UP!  I used to try to reason with you but it never worked.  I've been trying to lead by example and lately when I clean up your room we have a conversation that goes something like this…

Me:  Tessa, did I get these toys out?

You:  No

Me:  Why am I picking them up?

You: (weary tone of voice) Because we are a family, and we help each other out, and we take care of each other.  (If you were a teenager you'd roll your eyes here.)

I guess maybe I've been lecturing too much?  BUT, it is working because you are helping out more without complaining as much.

Auntie Shanell gave you the book Little House in the Big Woods for your birthday (Thanks Auntie Shanell!) and we've been reading a chapter or so every night before bed.  This is our first time reading a chapter book with hardly any pictures, and it is going great, you are very interested in the story.  I loved the Laura Ingalls Wilder books as a little girl, but I didn't remember how frightening and grisly the stories are.  So far in the book they've butchered a pig, made head cheese (shudder!), blew up the bladder like a balloon and played with it, roasted the pig tail over the fire and ate it, slapped a bear, described in detail how afraid they are of wolves, and listened to numerous stories about how their father got spanked by their grandfather and/or was nearly eaten by a panther or bear.  Good times.

It is so wonderful being able to watch you take these first steps in reading.  You read entire beginning reader books to me in the evenings before bed!  We have to keep going to the library for new books because you finish reading them so fast.

Auntie Shanell and I took you and Emma to the zoo for the first time.  Here you are peeking through the trees to see the elephants.

You got to spend a week in Canada with your cousin Rianna who you still refer to as your "best friend".  I think that will probably be the highlight if your summer, right up there with Vacation Bible School and swimming lessons.

At Daddy's company picnic you rode a pony for the first time ever.  You have always been afraid of the ponies but this year Emma wanted to go, and I don't think you could handle the thought of her going for a pony ride and leaving you behind.  I was so proud of you that you overcame your fear and enjoyed the ride.

We hung the banner from your birthday party on the wall next to your bed so you could enjoy it for a little while.  (See photo.)

The next day we noticed that you had written a couple of things on the banner.

(Tessa's ooh la la.)

(I'm 6 naw.)

(I love me and me.)

Apparently there is nothing wrong with your self-esteem.

The last few days in the car we've been singing a song from your Vacation Bible School that is called "Romans 16:19" and it goes like this…

Romans 16:19 says

Be excellent at what is good

Be innocent of evil

And the God of Peace will soon crush Satan underneath your feet.

I hope you always remember those words, and that I love you so very much. 

Love,

Mommy