Inquiring minds would like to know...

Why...

do I have a mom?

do I have a tongue?

do I have a dad?

do I have to nap?

does daddy have to work?


These are just a few example of the rapid firing squad of questions we are being asked daily, multiple times.  As soon as I enter her room in the morning, the questions begin, usually starting with, "Where's daddy? and "You go to work today?, then "What we do today?".  I need at least 20 minutes before I'm thinking and functioning as clearly as Emma is, but she goes from sleeping to getting busy with her day in 15 seconds flat!

"Hey Big Boy!"

Last night I went out to dinner with friends and Doug took Emma to Frisch's for dinner, aka Frisch's Big Boy...Emma knows the restaurant as Frisch's, but last night Doug referred to it as Big Boy.  While they were dining, an older boy walked past their table and Emma yelled at the kid, "Hey Big Boy!". 

D. was cracking up when he relayed the story and I can't stop chuckling at the imagery of her yelling, "Hey Big Boy"...I'm going to assume, since Emma usually refers to kids larger than her as "older", she has now realized big can also be used for older...or maybe the kid looked like Big Boy...who knows, but it's funny/ironic and a little weird for a toddler to be yelling, "Hey Big Boy".

Emma and I had a conversation about Frisch's just last week...we drove past the restaurant and she tried to get me to take her there for dinner.  I told Emma Frisch's was YUCK (in my opinion it is yuck) and she replied, "No, Frisch's is fun" and continued to be very passionate about the fact that Frisch's is not YUCK all the way home.  I kept asking why Frisch's was fun, but she could never verbalize why it's so fun...I'm going to go out on a limb and say she thinks it's fun because that's where someone gave hera Sprite instead of milk to drink.

Yes, I got sucked into a 10 minute debate with a toddler over why a restaurant is yucky and I'm ok with that...our car conversations are hilarious lately, it's probably my favorite part of the day because Emma has not much else to distract her and she just talks and talks.  This morning, she told me a very elaborate story about a dream she had involving a bear and in her words, "and my ears were popping right off but I put them back on".  WHAT?!  Did she dream a bear tore her ears off?  It must not have been a scary dream though because she was smiling ear to ear while telling the tale and was even laughing when talking about her ears popping right off.

First Triangle

Last night we were drawing with chalk on the driveway...Emma yelled for me to look at her drawing and I expected to see the normal, a blob of not much...she drew her first triangle!  Her brain is really firing/absorbing right now...she is asking tons of questions, wanting to know what everything is and how items work.  Emma is also drawing mostly in the lines when we color, however she will only color with one color and the force in which she colors and paints, usually puts a hole in the paper...very intense and passionate about her art.

While we were chalking the driveway, the neighbor came over to chat and view our work.  Emma demanded that he draw a picture of her, so John drew Emma's head...Emma stood with her hands on her hips and told him she needed arms too.  I told him he might as well draw the whole body, because a face is no longer good enough.  John drew a full bodied Emma, then she demanded John draw her Daddy...he said he was going home to cook dinner, Emma was too bossy and chatty, lol.

I had a dental emergency yesterday and the assistant was showing Emma how all the tools work...she loves mechanical stuff and the tools made her morning.  When the Dentist was working in my mouth, Emma was inches from my face, watching the work happen and asking questions...She was obsessed with the bib clips and suction, tried to carry the clips home with us.  There was also a moment where the dentist turned the light off and Emma told him he needed the light back on to see in my mouth...telling the Dentist how to do his job...priceless

When we watch educational shows, the cartoon/live person asks questions and Emma has starting to respond with the answers this week...I always wondered if she was really watching/absorbing, because she is so busy, even when the TV is on, so I will typically count along, say the colors etc. to get her more absorbed into what they are teaching; even when the TV is on,  her legs are constantly kicking around, she is standing while watching or dressing her babies/animals.  The other night I laughed at myself, because I realized I'm sort of the same...I can sit still while the show is on, but as soon as a commercial comes on, I'm on the move until the show is back on.  Last night Emma was running around the house and told me her legs hurt...I said that's because she needs to sit more!  When we were at the park yesterday Emma was running around, sweating all over the place and she came up to me and asked why she was crying...sweat was pouring from her head, into her eyes!  She sweats all the time, indoors and outdoors because she is always on the move. 

.

Scaling the wall

Emma can now officially climb into her crib, by herself...however she seems leery of climbing out, which is good, but I'm sure that won't last long.  Last night Emma said she was going to put herself to bed, so I told her to go for it, then clicked on the baby monitor real fast to see what would happen when she entered her room.  Emma scaled the crib like she had been climbing in forever and had the biggest grin on her face at the accomplishment.  I normally cuddle/rock her for 30 seconds before tucking her in the crib, so last night I just rubbed her back and told her and all her stuffies good night since she changed the order.  She didn't ask me to rock her, but she did demand, "cover me up!".  Over the last week she also yells, as I'm exiting the room, "don't let the bed bugs bite".  Emma gets the biggest kick out of me tucking all of her animals in and telling them goodnight, so that is also a new routine.  I've watched her on the monitor re-enacting my putting everyone to bed, and usually in the morning she has all the stuffies in a row, covered at least 3 blankets deep and tells them goodnight, one by one.  Taking herself to bed carried on into nap time today, so it looks like this might be the new routine...growing independent too fast!

Yesterday we went to the zoo and there was a big realization of how much of a little girl Emma is versus the baby she was last year.  She asks so many questions about the animals and landscape and yells out "hi" to the animals.  In the Children's Zoo, she went into the goat pen and brushed them, which she would have never done last year.  Doug said I needed to watch out, she might try to put the goat in clothes if given the opportunity...most of her stuffed animals wear outfits, so I'm pretty sure she would try and dress a goat!

Sequences

Emma likes to discuss the sequence of anything...it could be what is going to happen today, i.e, Emma was asleep, mommy woke up, mommy showered, Emma woke up and now we eat breakfast.  The other day, Emma wanted to walk on some landscaping rocks, but I wouldn't let her because she had flip-flops on, so she decided since I was wearing gym shoes, I should walk on them.  I said I would probably fall too and Emma came up with quite the sequence of what would happen if I walked the rocks..."mommy walk on the rocks, you fall and hurt your knee and there be blood all over your shoes".  Blood all over my shoes?! 

We have been working on the days of the week, what days I go to work and when her birthday is, so I'm sure the love of sequence stems from these conversations and the fact that we always tell Emma what we are going to do on a given day so she knows what to expect to  lessen meltdowns during transitions.  Emma can now tell you her exact birthday and her Daddy's, plus her address, our names, family associations etc.  When I asked Emma a few months ago what she wanted for her birthday she would only reply "a gift", but yesterday, she replied, "a dinosaur".  Caillou has a dinosaur, so I think that's where she came up with that idea.  I'm not sure what she is getting for her birthday...she has plenty to keep her busy and we are popping at the seams with "stuff", so we are thinking about a "big girl bed" for her birthday. 

The last few weeks have been hot, hot, hot but we still manage to get outside for a little everyday...our temps have been hovering at 100 degrees!  Emma is a pro on her tricycle now and the other night she rode almost a mile in our neighborhood while I walked along, trying to keep her from darting into cars.  About 3 houses from home, Emma gave up, and said she was hot...it was hot...about 90 degrees and 70% humidity.  Now that she can ride her bike, Emma is rebelling against the bike trailer and gets squirrelly at the idea of being strapped in, even with the bribery of snacks and ipods.

Since it's been so hot, I created an indoor sandbox for Emma.  The "sandbox" is a plastic tub filled with "squirrel food", a mixture of corn, peanuts and bird seed.  I bought a bunch of measuring cups, spatulas, and spoons from the Dollar Store, for Emma to dig with and fill up other items.  We also used some of her beach toys and a dump truck to add to the fun.  The sandbox has been great, we bring it indoors on hot days and evenings when it cools down, we take it outside in the shade.  One day, we left the box unattended to water flowers in the backyard and when we returned, a squirrel was on the edge of the box, chowing down, which Emma got quite a kick out of.