The prelude to "why?"

Emery hasn't hit the "why?"stage yet, but I'm almost wishing it would come and save us from this:

Emery - "What are you doing?"
Me - "Scrubbing the stain off this shirt."
Emery - "What are you doing with scrubbing the stain off the shirt?"
Me - "Huh?"

Emery - "What are you doing?"
Me - "Moving the stroller upstairs."
Emery - "What are you doing with moving the stroller upstairs?"
Me - "Huh?"

Emery - "What are you doing?"
Me - "Trying to fix __ (fill in the blank with whatever is broken)"
Emery - "What are you doing with _ (fill in the blank with whatever is broken)"
Me - "AHHHH!"

***

On an unrelated note, though also comical (and messy), Emery's favorite activity in the kitchen these days is to play with the garlic. She peels off all the little shreds of papery garlic peel, puts them in cups and serves them as tea, soup, you name it. Or places an entire bulb (with a small potato for good measure) in Anna Kimball's empty water cup, insisting that she bring it with her in the car.

Though I do get a bit aggravated at seeing the garlic peels everywhere I turn in the kitchen, the germaphobe in me is glad to to see that she's found a kitchen activity that doesn't contaminate our food (she never seems to make it all the way down to the actual garlic clove) and the chef in me is happy to see that she's making herself at home in the kitchen.

Anna Kimball, on the other hand, might just prefer water to garlic next time.

Emery is three!

This past week we celebrated Emery's third birthday and I made the sacrifice of all sacrifices by baking her a "banilla" cake with "banilla" frosting (banilla as in vanilla, not some combination of banana and vanilla, instead of chocolate as I would have liked). Because let's be honest - who's going to be eating the leftovers, Emery or me?

Well, to my great surprise, Emery declared the cake "too yummy" and barely made a dent in her piece, while I developed a newfound appreciation for the true flavor of vanilla unsullied by the distraction of chocolate. Not that I'm going to be requesting a banilla cake for my birthday or anything, but let's just say I have definitely enjoyed the leftovers.

See here the birthday girl digging into her turkey meatloaf and broccoli, which I guess aren't "too yummy."

Backing up a bit, our morning started with some present opening at the breakfast table and the jewelry box from her cousins was quite a hit.

As was the Cinderella carriage CD player from Henny and Papa ...

Not to mention the real Cinderella movie, her first full-length movie to sit through! It came as a nice break amid the chaos of a birthday morning ... as well as a nice way to cap off the chaos of the day itself.

                                 

Later we headed over to Volkswagen to have lunch with Daddy and Emery proudly marched through the parking lot with her new butterfly cage / purse. It's pictures like this one that remind me she will only be a little girl for a very little while!

Our valiant attempts at a decent family photo ...

Back in the car with the butterfly catcher / Emery catcher ...

The cake that was "too yummy" and definitely screams homemade, which we shared with some neighborhood friends in lieu of full-blown birthday party ...

 Ta-da! Emery is THREE!

Some comic relief

Though every day has its share of frustrations (one being the wail that is coming from Anna Kimball's room after a mere thirty-minute nap), here's what's been making me laugh recently:

• Emery has finally become brazen enough to start tossing items in the grocery cart as she sees fit. A few weeks ago we were at Fresh Market and when we had just about finished checking out I realized we had paid for smoked salmon, pine nuts and Japanese fish sauce and were about to pay for a Ritter chocolate bar. All great ideas, yes, but not in the budget. The cashier was none too amused when she had to refund us for said items. Today we returned to Fresh Market and this time I watched Emery toss in the same smoked salmon, arrived at the checkout line to find the same pine nuts in our cart, and once again, almost scored a Ritter chocolate bar. I'm not shocked that she's doing this, but what does shock and amuse me is the repetition ... so maybe her 3rd birthday dinner will/should involve these ingredients?

• Emery got a haircut a few weeks ago and for the few hours that followed, she repeatedly asked us, "Where's my haircut?" (probably because everyone kept saying to her, "Emery, did you get a haircut?") Even now, three weeks later, out of nowhere she will inquire "Where is my haircut?" When you try to explain to her that a haircut is something that happens to you, well, you don't get very far and you begin to empathize with her confusion.

• Anna Kimball, well, she doesn't need to do much to make me laugh. Black bean soup became finger paint last night, I can't get enough of how she swings and kicks her legs in crazy mad frustration when she sees Emery running off to do something potentially very fun and she's still stuck in the highchair, and experiencing the slide at the park today was none other than hair-raisingly hysterical.

A sweet day

On Valentine's Eve though all I really wanted to do was crawl under the covers as soon as the girls went to bed, I told myself it's worth it to make the day special and exciting for the little people in this house, especially Emery. So I headed out to the craziness that is the Dollar Tree on Valentine's Eve (seriously, almost all of the junk was gone! and the lines were crazy long!) and grabbed two ballons and a Valentine stamp set, knowing full well we'd have our share of sugar the next day.

As expected, the ballons and stamps at the breakfast table were a huge hit, as was the money Henny sent, with instructions to go have a treat! Off to the donut shop we went, which also had been hit by the craziness that is Valentine's Day. All that was left were a few lonely apple fritters, a handful of glazed donuts, a potentially very messy cinnamon twist and some gnarly-looking pumpkin thing. 

A girl after her daddy's heart, Emery selected the apple fritter and I secretly was thankful that it looked huge enough to share without anyone feeling like they'd been shortchanged. Anna Kimball was openly ecstatic to participate in any kind of donut/fritter eating at all.

Then we visited with a friend at a coffeeshop and she so kindly took our picture ... while the girls so sadly didn't cooperate with their best smiles.

The rest of the day was spent delivering some Valentine's treats to friends, napping, enjoying the warm weather and sun and forgetting to take pictures. BUT, the day's sweet finish did earn a picture - my Valentine got me my very favorite dark chocolate malted milk balls, also referred to as "grown-up candy that you wouldn't like very much" to inquiring toddlers.

A day without Baby Einstein,

is a good day indeed. Not that I have anything against pulling out the screen-time card when the going gets tough, but when you're going on day nine of at least one person in the house being ill and in no shape to do anything but stare at a screen, you're pretty elated when you can make it through a day without Caillou humming in the background.

I'll spare you the juicy details, but we've been through and the stomach bug, RSV and of course what would all of this be without a token ear infection ... thankfully I've managed to bleach my way out of catching any of the germs and I do not take this for granted.

Emery at a low point ...

We had a high point when Emery was recovering from RSV and Anna Kimball hadn't quite gotten the worst of it yet ... we celebrated by escaping to a coffee shop where none of our friends go so that we wouldn't be caught breaking quarantine. Considerate, I know. But we were going BANANAS cooped up at home. (and truthfully, the doctor only told us to stay away from young children and the elderly, and nary a carseat or cane did I spy at the coffee shop)

A daffodil emerging in our front yard ... maybe a symbol of health and renewal just around the corner?

Anna Kimball at a low point ...

And the requisite cake pop while we wait for our prescription to be filled ...

Here's to many more Baby Einstein-free days to come, right? We can only hope!

Anna Kimball is one!

Yesterday was Anna Kimball's first birthday. I had to laugh, because I woke up yesterday morning after barely having slept at all, thanks to Emery getting sick in the middle of the night, and thought, well, this is exactly how I felt a year ago today! Exhausted from barely sleeping, thanks to labor pains, but also so very thankful.

We are SO very thankful for Anna Kimball and the brightness she brings to our family. Her glee is contagious, the way she lays her head on your chest is divine, her love for Emery makes my days even easier, and more fun, and wow, I really love the fact that she's given up her 5am wakeup calls!

Enthused by some birthday eve cake ...

One member of our family was more interested in cake than making a memory ...

And gladly took care of Anna Kimball's leftovers ... (strangely, neither of my girls were into their first birthday cakes very much. Oh well, more for us!)

So proud to be sitting on her riding toy (and I'm so proud to have thrifted it for $12) ...

Getting to know one of her new dollies ...

Here's to another bright and beautiful year!

She's getting a drawl

It's happening. Our Michigan-born girl is getting a Southern drawl. I started noticing a few weeks ago that Emery would draw one-syllable words like "hand" or "there" into two syllables. At first I thought she was just being funny, but now I'm starting to think this drawl is for real.

All I have to say is this - I promise she's spending more time with me, who doesn't have an accent, than with our angel neighbor and her family, who sure do know how to draw out some vowels. Maybe there's just a little My Fair Lady action going on over there that I don't know about!