Strawberry picking

We are in Charlottesville right now, soaking up as much Henny and Papa/cousin/R&R time as we can. This little visit has come on the heels of the first three-day stretch Matt and I have had apart from the girls ... ever. And when it was just Emery, we only went away on two separate occasion for less than 24 hours each time.

Clearly, this trip was overdue. And is it bad to say that I wasn't really ready to come back?

Anyway, back to strawberry picking.

Poor Anna Kimball couldn't really participate since picking strawberries does require walking legs. She was a good sport, though, and was rewarded by some strawberry ice cream at the end. 

Will scoot for ice cream.

(Must credit my talented sister-in-law for these amazing pics!)

Miscellaneous

Whenever we go to Whole Foods, we try to park by the same bench that's right under a speaker. Usually there's some fairly upbeat music playing and Emery has gotten into the habit of wanting to dance on the bench while I pack the groceries into the car. I'm finding this so comical these days, especially since I know her little antics won't last forever.

Anna Kimball, well, she's been giving me a few gray hairs recently. She fell off Emery's bed a few weeks ago and it's taken her a very long time to get back on her feet again, quite literally. Just when I was about to take her in for x-rays, she started bearing weight on her left foot again, much to my great relief. She's still nowhere close to walking, so she gets her thrills in other ways ... this week, the playground swing just made her morning.

I don't have any pictures of this, but Anna Kimball is also in the stage where she points at everything. So when I go to get her from her crib in the morning or after nap, she immediately points at the door. I don't know why I find this so endearing - maybe it's because her pointing is silent, unaccompanied by whining or long-winded demands ... though let it be said, she finds plenty of other opportunities to show me her displeasure throughout the day! Maybe it's because I love realizing that she actually knows what she wants and can communicate it and that even though she still seems like a baby in so many ways, she is growing up!

Our living room has a new name

According to Emery, our living room is actually the "fairy room ballroom." She's been referring to the living room as such for a few weeks now and I can't help but laugh as I find myself quite seriously referring to it as such, too. As in "would you like to read your stories in the fairy room ballroom?" Or "go check the fairy room ballroom for (fill-in-the-blank) that is lost."

Apparently life in the fairy room ballroom is rather exhausting (as is a temper tantrum that kicked things off to a great start that morning) - Matt found her asleep like this shortly before her nap a few Saturdays ago.

Yesterday I was getting a little desperate for ways to entertain Anna Kimball, or rather ways for her to entertain herself, so I pulled out a big basket of toiletries and hoped for no peppermint oil baths on the bed, contact solution in the hair or soap in the throat. The result? No disasters and blissful baby, which makes for a very merry mama.

All I have to say about this one is ahhhh ... 

Thankful Wednesday

Lots to be thankful for these days ... here's a sampling:

Our neighbor is getting MAJOR work done on our shared driveway (so yes, we reap the benefits) and it's been a toddler boy's dream over here everyday for at least three weeks now, with every kind of truck and machine imaginable putting on a show for us outside the playroom window. I suppose if I had boys I would be even MORE thankful, because the girls are beginning to lose interest in the action, but hey, it was good entertainment there for a while.

A husband who will let his little girl pretend to curl his eyelashes.

Sister hugs ... ahhhh

Some progress, bit by bit, when it comes to Anna Kimball's gross motor skills. Apparently she has low muscle tone, which explains why she is nowhere close to walking, or even pulling up on her own ... yet, she's showing small improvements week by week and we are proud of her!

Ballerinas! Need I say more?

A dear friend who loaned us loads of clothes for Emery to wear this summer. And all of them are so darn cute!

Finally a solution to the sun being in the girls' eye on our morning walks. A tent ride!

A new cover on our wingback chair makes all the difference in the living room. (I should also be thankful for Anna Kimball's return to health, as well as Emery's - they have both been sick sick sick this last week and I am so thankful/hopeful that we are through the worst of it?!)

A little streak of free-thinking from Emery, who is normally uber-compliant ... it was actually kind of nice to see her throwing some caution to the wind and decorating herself with markers.

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.