Life's A Beach

We are headed to Hilton Head soon and Emma is SO excited about going to the beach.  When we talk about vacation, she always asks, "Today!?".  Yesterday I pulled out luggage, trying to decide how we are going to pack and Emma was 100mph with the suitcase out, jumping all over the bed and trying to wheel the luggage around, while I was trying to put items in and fill travel size bottles.  Emma asked for her own suitcase, for her clothes.  I explained we are going to share a suitcase, but she could use her suitcase to tote her toys in...yes, she really has her own kid-size suitcase and it's adorable!   I was selling this toy suitcase idea hard but she is not willing to share luggage space with me, is how Emma ended the conversation, lol.  I put the suitcase away to calm matters down, so looks like I will be packing while she is sleeping and while her Neeney comes to play.

The 10 hour or so ride should be interesting...we are packing lots of snacks and hope to have good weather so we can let her burn some energy out at a rest stop after a picnic lunch.  She is very excited to use her new headphones on the car ride...we are excited to not have to listen to Caillou or Barney for 10 hours...chuckle, chuckle.  All kidding aside, Caillou is a snake charmer when it comes to Emma and we hope it still remains magical in the car.  The other night, she was so engrossed in Caillou, Doug and I were yelling, "Snack, cookie, ice cream" to get her attention and the kid didn't even turn her head to look at us!  If Caillou wasn't on, she would have been beating it to the pantry thinking we were really going to give her something. 

The Help

Emma is such a helper right now!  I try to let her clean when she wants to, as long as it's safe and won't cause more mess.  She LOVES the Swiffer mop, so while I'm cleaning up the kitchen, I give her the dry cloth mop and let her go to town on the floors.  Crumbs are abundant with toddlers, so I will take any assistance I can get! Sometimes she does have to be reminded that carpet doesn't need to be swiffered.  ;O

Last night she wanted to help so bad, but I was cleaning with vinegar and water.  I let her smell my hands to show her how yucky the smell of vinegar is, but she was adamant she was going to help and a melt down ensued.  I tried to divert the situation by handing her a duster, but she said no bueno and there was a Mexican stand off over the bucket of vinegar water.  OLE!

Down on the Farm

We met up with Emma's friend, Livi, also from China, for a play date at a local farm.  The farm had a Farm Babies Festival, but I think the girls had more fun running, jumping and following one another around than petting the animals.  Chickens are scary!  Emma kept saying, "eww, yuck" when it came time to pet the animals, but she told me, "I want to ride that horse", which was a huge Dart horse...riding the horse was not an option and I'm pretty sure she would not have ridden.  She did pet a bunny, but was more intrigued by bunny's water bottle and how the water bottle worked.

The girls are growing like weeds and it's a lot of fun to see them together.  We are lucky to live only 45 minutes away from one another, especially the way China adoptions have slowed; what used to be a huge network of families with children from China has disappeared for the age of children we have.   Of course the girls can be fickle with one another, as toddlers do.  There was one point in the day where Emma didn't want anything to do do with any of us, but when I asked Emma what her favorite part of the farm was, she said, "Livi!". 

Castles and Water Towers

In Emma's eyes, anything that is tall is a Castle...this includes cemetary headstones (yikes).  Every Thursday, we pass the Warren County water tower, aka castle.  I explained previously it is a water tower and that is where the water in houses comes from.  This morning, we were stuck at the light by the water tower and Emma said, "I don't drink that water tower!" 

 

Imagination

Emma's imagination is in play.  She makes me pretend that I am Emma and that she is the mommy, or she tells me I am Josh or Mary from daycare and we are riding the bus to school together.  The other day, she was having a "conversation" with a babydoll, letting baby know she was putting her bathing suit on because they were going swimming etc. Emma was parenting her baby, as we parent her, letting her know why we are doing things before we do them.  We love watching and listening to her talk to her babies and animals, she gets very involved and animated.  Emma pretends that she is a baby again, states she is hungry and asks me to feed her a bottle, with a doll bottle...she pretends to suck on it and just stares up at me, smiling with her eyes while she pretends to eat.  I have read this is very common to want to recreate the baby and bottle scene.  Parents are encouraged to go along with it, no matter how old they are, as it's probably one of their first memories of feeling safe and secure.

Pretending to drive is probably Emma's favorite pretend game and sometimes we are told to sit on the couch so she can drive us, then she makes us pretend to drive, which includes engine noises and gear shifting.  Hopefully she doesn't try to really get into a real car and drive!  She has several sets of faux keys and a set of real keys, to a car that no longer exists, so given the opportunity, I'm 99% sure she would try to put them in an ignition.

Emma's recognition of family and relationships has blossomed in the last few weeks (we have been going over who is related to who for a few months now).  She will ask where family members are and what they are doing (i.e. Pop-Pop Bill is at work, John the neighbor is walking the dog)...sometimes Emma even asks about people she has only seen a few times, so her memory is Fort Knox.  Emma has even picked up on the fact that she has never seen my Dad beyond pictures (he passed away years ago, for those who follow the blog, but don't really know us).  Last week during lunch, Emma said to me, "Where mommie's Daddy go?".  Uhhhhhhhhh.  That was a tough one to explain to a 31 month old.  A few days ago, she asked, "Is mommie's brother coming to my house?".  She took me by surprise with the use of mommie's brother vs. Jeff and I chuckled aloud...we were watching Caillou, so not sure what spurred this question.  The timing of these questions is so random...we will be eating lunch, watching a TV show, riding in the car etc, not even talking about the people she inquires about.