Reunion

We just got back from a great visit to Indiana. It was the first ever Nelson family reunion! We all met at the beach lodge to eat, swim and talk the day away. It was so nice. Even at the holidays there are always some people missing, so this was a great opportunity for us all to be together - almost 30 of us! We missed the boat on a big family picture - we were too busy having fun. But the girls wore their matching outfits, courtesy of Grandma Kitty, and they were so darn cute I had to snap a pic.

And now...bring on Monday!

It Finally Feels Like Summer!

We went to the pool today. We've been jonesing all month to go, and today we were determined not to let lost wallets, storm clouds, or missed naps stop us. We tried a new place, which we really liked. They have a zero-depth pool, an infant pool area, a water playground, a lawn for picnics, and even a giant water slide for older kids. Very cool. Emma was in heaven from the moment we arrived. Sophie tolerated the water when she was in my arms, but the minute I gave her to Emma she wasn't so happy.

Emma is a bit afraid of sprinklers, so even though they had this really cool jungle gym thingie right there in the middle of the pool, she could only be coaxed up to the second step.

Our friends Gen and Sam joined us, and the kids had a great time rollicking together in the water.

We will definitely be spending a LOT of time at the pool this summer. Not only did we have fun, but apparently we need to cram in all the kid stuff we can before November hits - Emma informed me this morning that by Thanksgiving she will be an "add-dult." Hopefully before she reaches drinking age, she'll muster up the courage to tackle the playground's third step.

Mommies

Em's baby doll Lis (like Liz, but with an S) needs some milk, so Em is going to nurse the baby from her "breast-isses." She pulls up her shirt, looks hard and asks, "Where are they, Mommy? Where are my breast-isses?" I point them out, and Lis does her thing. After Lis eats, Emma tucks her into bed and says, "Good night sweet girl, see you in the morning!" She asks how many kisses Lis wants, and then gives her 10 plus 1 for good luck. She turns on ocean wonders & sound machine, turns out the light, and shuts the door. Then she tells me, while running her hand across her forehead, "Whew! She's finally asleep. That girl sure is stubborn." About two minutes later, Em gets the baby up because she is crying. She holds Lis tight, rocking her and crooning "shhh, it's okay, shhh, it's okay" over and over again. I ask Em if she wants any help, but she assures me, "I've got it under my control." She lies Lis down on the living room floor, stretches out beside her, and sings her the Emma Bloom song until the baby falls asleep. I tell Emma she's a very good Mommy, and Emma replies, "You too, Ma-ma. You too." "Where did you learn to be such a good Mommy?" I ask. "Grandma," Em promptly answers, and then she runs off to draw a lizard umbrella as I think to myself, "Me too, Emma. Me too."

Sophie Video

Here is a great video of Sophie that shows how well she's sitting up and interacting with toys now that she's the ripe old age of 7 Months! Plus you get to see her laughing, which is just about the cutest thing ever. And on a side note, I must declare Babies 'R Us's plastic stacking cups the best (and definitely most affordable) baby toy I've come across. Emma was obsessed with them, as is her little sis. Sorry about the TV sounds on the video...Sophie and I like to watch Jon & Kate Plus Eight sometimes during the day. :)

Sophie Patrice

Sophie had her third physical therapy appointment today, which went really well. She was in a great mood and responded positively to everything our PT Katie introduced. Katie seemed really buoyed by her progress, and we've already been upgraded to bi-weekly meetings instead of every week. Yippee! We got a lot of new homework for the coming weeks, but we are up for it. Sophie is just doing so beautifully with everything. She picks up on things very quickly, as babies are known to do. Both of the girls' capacity for knowledge constantly astounds me. They just absorb, absorb, absorb. I'm feeling much less worried about the torticollis now. Soph still has a ways to go, but I feel we will get there.

When we got home, Sophie discovered our stuffed dog Coney for the first time. (He'd been hiding under her crib these many months). It was total love at first sight. Watching her lounge on him with a look of pure joy on her face was awesome. I think he is definitely her new best friend.
But then Daddy came home, and Coney was put aside for a bit.
And of course, once Emma arrived, Sophie only had eyes for Big Sis.
Sophie is changing a little every day, and she's growing into such an amazing little lady. We all adore her, and I think the feeling is mutual. Today was a great Sophie day.

Questions, questions

Emma asked if we were bringing the snacks to school today, and I told her we wouldn't be doing so for awhile because Daddy volunteered to be school treasurer for six months and officers' families don't have to provide lunch. Then she asked what a treasurer was, and I gave her a simplistic explanation about Daddy collecting money and putting it in the bank. After about 15 seconds of silence, she finally asked, "So...Daddy gets to use a treasure chest?"

Crap days, beautiful moments

My poor, poor husband. He's had quite an adventure today, trying to find his way home to us. On the way to the Dallas airport this morning, his cab driver rear-ended another car. This delay caused Chris to miss his flight, setting in motion hours and hours of arguments, finagling, pleading, etc. with the lovely employees of American Airlines. Chris was supposed to be home at 11:50am. It is now 8:05pm, and he is still stuck at the airport. After such a fun evening last night, he has had such a crap day. We are hoping he will be home before midnight, but we don't really know for sure. All I truly care about is that he gets home safely, but I also really wish he was here with me right now.

I've been holding down the home front as best I can, but with the one-two combo of a now-canceled trip to Indiana and no Daddy all day long, I've had a rather sad four-year-old on my hands. Combined with a teething, crabby infant and my own increasing disappointment, the day has been pretty long and miserable. After approximately the fifth despondent phone call from Chris saying he was still at the airport and had been denied a seat on yet another plane (flying standby is So. Much. Fun!), I finally grabbed the girls and ran for the car, desperate to be anywhere but home. So...we headed to the mall.

As we pulled into the parking lot, Emma immediately got very excited. "The mall and the 'quarium are my two favorite places!" she screamed. We got out the stroller, went inside and just wandered around. I let Em ride the "escavator" all by herself, and it was a gas to see Sophie start crying as Emma headed up, up, up and away, and then quickly switch to ecstatic giggles as Em came back down, down, down the stairs to us again. Em was so proud of herself, and she gave Sophie a kiss on the nose and said, "Did you miss me? Did you? Did you?" in her best baby-talk voice as Sophie just smiled and smiled. I was reminded once again of how easy it can be to please a child. A whole day of disappointments wiped away with one ride up and down an escalator. Poof!

Sometime later - after a silly phone argument with my sister, a grocery store excursion that did not go nearly as smoothly as the mall, and the continued uncertainty of whether my husband was making it home tonight - I hit my wall. I'm never proud of these moments, but I actually sat down on the bed and had a minor pity party for myself. Em asked why I was crying, and I told her that I missed Daddy. She climbed on my knee - the one not already occupied by Sophie - and said, "It's okay, Mommy. Daddy's going to be home at 9 of the o'clock and he's going to tiptoe in and give me a kiss while I'm sleeping and I'm for sure that he will give you a kiss too." Then she gave me a hug and told Sophie to give me one too b/c "Mommy is sad and she is so nice to us."

So I got up, made spaghetti, snuggled in with my girls, watched Dora, and luxuriated in the knowledge and appreciation of how wholly, utterly, completely loved I am. The girls are in bed now and Chris just called, having (finally!) secured a seat on a flight. And so I wait to greet him at the door with a big hug and kiss (and maybe a drink in my hand - he's earned it), and you can bet the first words out of my mouth are going to be all about how incredibly special our daughters are.

Missing Daddy

Chris is in Texas today, having a much-deserved night on the town at his friend Dana's surprise 40th birthday party. They are having dinner and drinks and dancing, which all sounds like a lot of fun to me. But I was most envious of the two hours of downtime he had in his hotel room this afternoon before the party began. Two hours, by yourself, in a hotel room, with nothing but silence for company? I wouldn't want days of that, but a couple of hours sounds heavenly. I'm sure he enjoyed it.

Anyway, Chris is kicking up his heels right about now, which I'm really glad about, but his girls are all missing him. Sophie and I picked up Em from school today, and immediately she asked about her Daddy. She seems somewhat comforted to know he is in Texas because, as she was quick to point out, that's where Sandy is from. (For those of you as intimately acquainted with Spongebob Squarepants as we are in this house, you will know to whom she is referring.) But still, we were all a bit down. So we came home and had a dance recital, one of Em's favorite things to do. Emma is truly a natural-born dancer. I don't know where in the world she comes up with some of her moves, but she can really break it down when the mood hits her. And Sophie thinks Emma's dancing is hysterical...she laughs and waves her arms in the air the entire time. Here are a couple pics of Em groovin'.

Sophie didn't seem to want to go to bed, so I let her stay up a little later than usual..."let" being used loosely here since I really didn't have a choice after she cried so hard she vomited the first time I tried putting her down. She was my helper during Emma's bedtime routine, and she had a ball pretending to go to sleep like a big girl in Em's bed. Two hours past her bedtime, below is the face of a girl who knows she has Mommy right where she wants her.

Chris comes back home tomorrow, but even one night without him is a lot for us. We are a tight quartet. When one of us is missing, the rest are just out of tune. Case in point: I'm up right now writing this blog instead of going to bed like I should because I know I'll sleep horribly without him here. Hurry home baby, we miss you!

Sisters

Em and Soph have been having a lot of fun together today. Sophie's been a bit of a grump, and Emma seems to be the only one who can distract her from her bad mood. Just for the heck of it, here's a video of the girls goofing around this morning.

Emma on a Monday

• Wakes up very, very proud of herself b/c she has not gone pee in her pull up at all during the night. Hooray!
  
• Kisses her sister on the head while she nurses and declares, "She's a lovely baby."
• Tells me that her new canvas shoes - which she calls her tap shoes b/c she likes to make sounds with them on the floor - hurt her feet when she was 3 but no longer hurt because now she's 4. However, after wearing them to the park today and getting another blister, she tosses the shoes across the room and screams, "Stupid shoes." Then under her breath she says to herself, "You're not supposed to say stupid."
  
• Brushes my hair with the straw from her cup. When I ask her to stop b/c she's getting apple juice all over me, she says, "But juice makes your hair squeaky."
  
• Sample Emma dialogue on the way to car this morning: "Oooh, I'm going to pick a dandelion for Daddy. Daddy will be so snuggly and happy when he sees his dandelion. Dandelion rhymes with lion. Dandelions need lots of water. After lunch and our naps, Dandelion will be very thirsty and I will give him water. He will drink the water and say 'thank you' and I will be his Mommy. Cats love ice. I can do magic. Supermagic. Fairy magic. Grandma is my family. Dandelions are soooo beautiful."
• Goes potty at the gym's nursery and comes out of the bathroom with her skirt off. When a teacher asks Em where her skirt is, she says "I'm hot" and then runs off to play in her Ariel panties. The teacher finds the skirt in the bathroom trash, digs it out and makes Em put it back on. As the teacher tells me this story, a totally unperturbed Emma looks at me and says, "I have to whisper you something." Then Em asks quietly in my ear, "Can I take my skirt off now?"
  
• Breaks out various kung fu moves throughout the day that she learned last night from Kung Fu Panda. She always ends each round of kicks and punches with, "That. Was. AWESOME! Can we do it again?"
• Cooks up some sugar water in her kitchen and informs me I must drink it all because I am sick and only sugar will make me better. This, as much or more than anything Emma has done in the last four years, confirms to me that she is truly her mother's daughter.
  

A Nice Weekend

Em's party went really well, and I think everyone had a good time. There were some hitches, of course...including one of those please-no-this-isn't-happening moments when I went to pick up the cake and the bakery was like, "What cake? We have no order for a Mathews cake" and then proceeded to decorate a fresh one right in front of me as I stood there watching the precious extra minutes tick-tick-ticking by. But it all worked out in the end. The weather was gorgeous and many of Emma's friends stopped by throughout the day to play and celebrate with her. Em seemed to have a lot of fun, although more than once I found her hiding inside because the sun was too much for her. Once Grandma, Grandpa, Grifin and Callie arrived after the official party ended, Emma transformed from the somewhat shy, reserved party girl into the crazy-manic-happy girl she usually is around her cousins. Em opened all her gifts (SUCH inventive presents, thank you EVERYONE!), and I think it was universally agreed upon that Brother Bear was the biggest hit. We had a great visit with our family, and it was so nice to spend Father's Day with both my husband and father. Chris liked his gifts and LOVED sleeping in, and then we all went out for breakfast while Mom watched the three youngest kids. And tonight we are taking Em to see Kung Fu Panda while Aunt Jayme hangs with Sophie. So all in all, I very cool weekend. Here are some pics:

Emma blowing out the candles on her cake - which eventually melted in the sun

Emma and her friend Leo

Two of my favorite girls in the world - Gen and Sophie - having a conversation

A party shot - birthday girl in the middle

Grifin, Sophie & Emma lounging

Sophie with her Grandpa

Em and Callie attacking Grifin (yes, that's his leg) and Aunt Jayme

Emma's Birthday Party Prep

Emma turned 4 years old on Monday. I am now the mother of a 4 year old. I have a daughter who is 4 years old. Hmmm. No matter how I say it, the concept is still pretty weird. I haven't quite wrapped my head around it yet. Maybe it's because I just haven't had the time. We just got back from St. Louis, and anyone with kids knows the amount of preparation required before any type of road trip. After returning, I jumped right into plans for her birthday party this Saturday. Thank god for Aunt Jayme, who has so graciously agreed to host the party at her house in her awesome backyard. We are expecting anywhere from 20-40 people, and for the first year we agreed to invite just Em's friends. In the past, we've basically had Emma, her cousins, and a whole slew of adults. This year we anticipate many 2-5 year olds, and I am a little nervous.

Since I'm not sure just how many people are coming, I'm over-preparing, of course. This week I have spent many hours shopping for food, toys, cake, etc. My lovely husband helped me put together 20 goodie bags for Emma's friends to take home. Tonight I will be cleaning my sister's place and hauling in all the food and supplies while Chris stays here to clean our place because we have house guests. Tomorrow morning will start very early b/c I have a long list of errands to do before the party starts at 11am. And I'm doing all of this knowing full well that Emma will have no inkling or appreciation for all the hard work her parents have put into throwing this party for her. And...that's okay. I mean, you only turn 4 once, right? She's growing up and she actually has friends her own age now, and seeing her (hopefully) have a good time is most definitely all the thanks I need. Perhaps, as a Christmas baby, I'm overcompensating a bit b/c I never really got to have birthday parties myself, but even if I am, who cares? Birthdays are the one time of year that it gets to be all about you, right? (Although it often feels around here like it's all about Emma, but I digress...) And even though my parents always tried really hard to separate Christmas and my birthday, the fact is that my birthday has never been all about me, so it's really fun for me to do this for my kids. Now I just hope people actually come, the weather stays nice, the cake turns out well, the kids play well together, we don't run out of food, Sophie behaves.... Come Saturday night, I'm gonna have a nice, strong drink and sit on the couch for at least 15 minutes thinking about absolutely nothing, but for right now you'll have to excuse me - I have a lot of worrying to do.

St. Louis

We just got back from a lovely trip to St. Louis. We stayed for four days - two days with each set of grandparents. Perfect. Sophie had a major car meltdown on the way home and Emma was crying for Grandma when we finally reached Chicago shortly before 1am Tuesday (which Grandma wasn't clear--I think it was just a plaintive plea for all three of them), but that's all part of travel. We still had a wonderful time, and to top it off, both our Geminis had birthdays over the weekend! How lucky we are to have such loving family in our lives. Thank you Greg, Con, Pat & David for making our visit so special. Here are some pics from the trip:

Emma with birthday cake #1

Emma & Chris with birthday cake #2

Emma splashing her cousin Micah

Emma and Grandma Kitty at the Science Museum

Emma with her birthday Build-A-Dino, Hommer

Grandma Connie & Sophie

The girls with Grandma and Grandpa Kitty

The girls with Grandma Connie & Grandpa Greg

Emma on the trip home - about 3 minutes after we started driving

See, Sophie DOES Smile!

After our day at the Picture Place, I wanted to prove that Sophie actually CAN smile if someone she loves is taking the pictures. Who needs professional photos when you have a digital camera and Mama?

The Influence of Spongebob

Emma has been bouncing off the walls today. She ate half the frosting off of one cupcake, and apparently that was enough sugar to send her around the bend.

She is currently sitting up and saying "I'm bushed," then falling backwards and saying, "Still, I'm warm" over and over and over and over again. Once in awhile she takes a break to tell me, "Mom, I'm suds."

It's going to be a long day.