Emmeline is the boss and other random facts

Emma and Grandma Judy on a walk

I'm going to blame Blogger going and reformatting how we post blogs for the lack of posts lately.  I have a few drafts, but it took me a while to get the hang of inserting pics.  Good thing I never claimed to be a diligent blogger who records everything--it's doubtful that you'll ever hear about Christmas 2011.  Not that it was a bad Christmas, just one that I didn't attempt to record.

Yesterday, I picked up Emma from Kids' Club at the gym, and my friend said, "I didn't know Emma could talk."  I replied she doesn't really...she mostly speaks in inflections.  My mom is better at understanding them than I am. Her favorite inflections is, "What is that?"

My friend said, "Oh, I heard her telling a baby to go."  And, then, I realized Emma does have a few words.  Her favorites being, "No, Mine, Go." She continues to call her dad, "Nate," and unfortunately, she's mastered the inflection I use when I'm irritated with Nate--wait, not that I'm ever irritated with Nate.

Emma finished with her walk

She hates the car, and that's totally my fault.  She's so much easier to take out than her toddler brothers were that I do 3-4 errands at a time.  I never dared to do more than one or two with Asher and/or Luke.

And, I love the fact that when I say, "Don't, that will hurt," or "Hot!" or "Be careful!" she's the first kid I've ever had who actually thinks I might be telling the truth.

Emma's puddle

So, Emmeline managed to find the only puddle of water in the whole dry, dusty park today, and played in it for about 15 minutes.

She managed to get the top of her head wet while she did one of her favorite things...looking at the world upside down.

We all had a good laugh when she stood up and kept looking around, trying to figure out why water was dripping on her face.

I had to stop her when she resorted to drinking the water, but she did it a few times. I figure at least we know where the dysentery came from.

(Thanks, Jessica, for taking the pictures!)






































"Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya..."

Things Everyone Enjoys

Food:
green noodles (pesto penne)
Costco teriyaki chicken and rice (the silence that descends around the dinner table when I serve this kind of breaks my heart--why don't they like anything I make that much?)
"chinese" noodles, which is any noodle with chicken and a sweet brown sauce, so pretty much, it combined the first two favorite meals in one dish

Shows:
Curious George (really, it's the #1 favorite)
Backyardigans
though, Emma and Luke love Baby Einstein and Olivia

Outdoor activities:
jumping on the trampoline
chalk (some like to eat it, some like to draw with it)
bubbles

Too bad these favorites will have fallen out of favor by summer. I hope we'll find as many new favorites by then.

Even Her Poop Doesn't Smell

My lovely friend, D'Arcy, took these pictures long ago.  Aren't they awesome?

Phoenix friends, she'll come down to do photo sessions if we can get enough people to book her :)

And, the title of this post conveys a significant problem I had with Emmeline until a few months ago.  The girl's poop didn't smell, which was great until she got a diaper rash because I didn't know she was poopy.  This used to happen pretty frequently until she was about a year.

Once she became a year, she started getting all this attitude--she'll roll her eyes, I'll often hear her say, "No, no, no, Yuke," when Luke has been at school for a couple hours, and she insists on bottles of milk in the middle of the night.  I can't stop thinking about her teeth.

Did I mention all this coincides with her poop starting to smell?
Coincidence?

(Sorry, D'Arcy, your photos shouldn't be linked to a post about poop.)

"Gum"

For the past couple days, Emmeline keeps saying, "Gum."

Now, as evidenced by the doughnut/ice cream debate, I'm not a mom who's above bribing her children with sugar, but I haven't ever given Emma gum.

She said it a lot when we would be handing each other things (one of our favorite games--have you played it? Where you hand someone something, they say, "thank you" and you take it back. Ask Emma, it'll blow your mind!).

This morning, I realized it's a shortened, "You're welcome."

Love figuring out a baby speech puzzle. (Did I write about the months it took me to figure out that when Luke kept asking about the "mangoes," he was actually referring to the "flamingos?")

In the Middle of the Night...

So, Asher and Emmeline inherited the freaky Curtis characteristic of being able to wake up bright-eyed early every morning.

This, of course, was my worst fear when I started having kids. When Asher started doing it at about 9 months, I was told that these 4:30-5:30 am wake-ups were probably something he'd outgrow. He hasn't, and now, Emma has joined in the fun.

But, I had a brilliant idea about a month ago. The rule before a month ago was that Asher had to stay in his room until 6 am doing something quiet (so as not to wake up Luke), and then, he could leave his room and find some quiet toys to play with. He'd always get antsy by about 6:30, and I'd have to get up with him.

With Emma waking up so early, I told Asher that he can go get Emma when she wakes up, and the two of them can go down to the play room. He can watch TV or play XBox as long as she's happy.

The first few weeks, Asher couldn't keep her happy for more than 15 minutes, but now, Asher and Emma hang out in that room for a good hour or um, sometimes, an hour and a half.

I don't know what he does to keep her happy and frankly, I don't much care. I'm delighted to wake up around 6:30 or 7 most mornings now.

Gardening in November

Nate got me an early Christmas present this year when he laid out the other half of our garden (on the left).

I had high hopes of Emma being able to hang out with me while I planted the garden this morning. Alas, she was as helpful with this home improvement project as she is with every other one I try to do with her.

And, our dirt must be really tasty because all of my kids seem to really enjoy eating it.

Happy Halloween from Emma the Bumble Bee

Rachel, my sister, had the cutest ladybug costume I could have borrowed because she's generous like that, but for some reason, I had it in my head that Emma had to be a bumble bee. Poor thing hated getting put in the car seat because of the full scratchy skirt, and I didn't get it together to get her antennas. Still, with that smile, I think she pulled it off. (And, yes, that's a toilet seat in the background from Nate's 2008 Halloween costume when he was the economy at the beginning of the recession. I don't know why I don't just throw it away.)

We're transitioning from 2 to 1 naps right now, so I'll need to keep these pictures around for 4 pm every day when she's so, so tired and miserable.

We went to see the grandparents, and then, the boys went trick or treating. I expected Emma to go to bed, but she was perfectly happy to sit on my lap and hand out candy. Except that she never did figure out to let the candy go. She'd pick up some candy, hover over a trick or treat bag, and then, just put her hand and the candy back down.

I think we'll be in trouble when she actually figures out what's IN the candy bags.

Crazy Kids...

Asher was thrilled about our church's General Conference last weekend. He's been asking every Sunday since April if we could "just watch Church on tv like we did that one Sunday."

Luke informed me today that "the green ones are going to destroy our world." I can't get him to be anymore specific than that. Sorry for the bad news...

Emma is learning a few words: mama, dada, up, woof, and uh-oh.
Of course, if you ask her what a doggy says, she says, "Uh, oh."

(In these pictures, Emma really hopes someone will rescue her after a Monday evening of fun, but no, we just kept taking pictures of her.)

Bright and Early

Emma has this great new habit...like her brother and her dad, Emma likes to wake up early. About 5 am to be exact.

Of course, this means that by 7 am, while I'm trying to get things up and running in the morning, Emma is ready to go back to bed, crawling around the house crying.

But, at 5 am, she's just as pleasant as can be. At 4:30 am, we usually pull her into our bed, give her a bottle, say a little prayer that she'll go back to sleep. She does, for a bit.

On Monday (Labor Day--holiday--hello?), Emma woke up at 5 and was all wiggly in the bed, so I put her on the ground. She promptly crawled to her brothers' room and squealed as she climbed up on their bed to "pat" them awake.

Sometimes, I feel like our children plan assaults like this on us just to let us know who's in charge.

The End of the Line

With Asher in first grade and Luke in preschool from 9 to 1 pm, 5 days a week, it's just Emma and me at lunch now. We like to have scrambled eggs together since one brother is allergic and the other just wishes he was.

As I look at this picture, I have to admit that it still amazes me that I ended up with 3 children with brown hair and brown eyes. I was sure #3 would have my eyes at least. And, how did 2 of those children get dimples? And, 2 with olive skin, and 1 who loves math and computers?

Genetics is a strange game, I guess...

Baby Asher/Baby Emma giggles