Happy Halloween, part 1

Emma had her Halloween celebration at school today, complete with trick-or-treating and old-fashioned freeze dancing. Here are some highlights:

Hi

Yesterday my sister Cara sent an adorable video of our nephew Cadin bouncing away in his Exersaucer. On the audio, you can hear Cara repeating "Say hi, Cadin, say hi!" Cadin never does say hello, but as the four of us plus Aunt Jayme sat huddled together watching the video, Sophie suddenly said "hi" as clear as day. Everyone paused for a second before whooping in excitement, sufficiently shocking Sophie into never saying the word again.

Babies are such a mystery. I mean, that's all we had to do to get Sophie to talk? Just ask her? Who knew?

Bath Time

We've begun letting the girls take baths together. I believe tonight was the second or third time. They really enjoy it.
I used to hover over Sophie her entire time in the tub, convinced she'd lose her balance and fall forward or back into the water the minute I took my arms away. So I've been hesitant to bathe them together b/c my focus is split between the two. But as Sophie's gotten stronger at sitting up, I've gotten a little more relaxed. Tonight, I actually sat back and just let them play. My favorite part was shaping their hair with shampoo and then watching them make silly faces.
But of course, wouldn't you know...one second we're giggling away, and the next second Sophie is flat on her back. It happened so fast that I don't really know if she slipped or just decided to flip herself, which she is prone to do at the oddest of times. I just yanked her clear out of the tub, and after a bit of sputtering she was totally fine. She didn't even cry. I, however...not so fine. I held her, dried her off, dressed her, nursed her to sleep, and then sobbed for a good 5 minutes before laying her in her crib. I realize that Soph probably swallows more water when we rinse out her hair than she ultimately did tonight when she fell - heck, the whole incident only lasted a few seconds - but still...to look down and see your baby completely submerged in water is nothing short of terrifying.

So, I think this is the last time we're gonna bathe them together for awhile. Nothing wrong with solo baths and constant hovering for a little bit longer. Perhaps we'll try joint baths again when Sophie's 10.

Halloween has begun

Em had her first Halloween event of the week tonight at her school. She still has two more parties and trick-or-treating between now and the 31st, but today was the official debut of Emma Bloom, a.k.a. nice black cat! Behold, her Meow-ness!

Rhyme

Lately Emma has been semi-obsessed with rhyming. She doesn't always get the concept right, but she sure does try. At any given point in a day, she is apt to shout out "Jen rhymes with hen" or "Fleenex rhymes with Kleenex" or "off rhymes with on." (That last one was from yesterday, and no matter how I tried to dissuade her otherwise, she remains utterly convinced that "off" and "on" rhyme.)

Anyway...Em just woke up crying b/c there is a thunderstorm outside and the lightning scared her. I rocked her and sang to her and snuggled with her until she was calm. Then I turned on her moon nightlight, gave her a kiss, and reminded her that I was in the next room if she needed me. She told me goodnight, finally ready for sleep but still doing that hiccup-breathing-gasping-thing that comes after someone's sobbed themselves silly.

Just as I was closing the door, I heard her whisper in this tiny, tear-filled voice, "Lightning rhymes with Lightning McQueen."

Photos & Stuff

Sophie in her new, big girl car seat. She digs it.
A drawing Emma made of her aborted mission to the sun that I referenced a few days ago in the blog entry The mind of a 4 year old. (Sorry about the letters in the background, she did it on scrap paper.)
A video montage of fun Sophie moments.

And I thought I'd end with the cutest picture ever.

Horrible Housekeeper

I woke up this morning to Emma methodically removing things from my bedside table, one at a time, and laying them on my stomach. I asked her what she was doing, and she said she was cleaning. As she wiped down my table, Chris's table, and our full-length mirror with baby wipes, she explained to me that cleaning was her special invention. The doctor told her to find a special invention and then he gave her a shot, and the shot made her want to clean and so that is her invention now.

You can imagine my embarrassment at my 4-year-old's efforts to tackle the chaotic mixture of strewn clothes and dustballs that pervade our bedroom. Not to mention what it says about my housekeeping skills that my daughter views cleaning as an "invention." Our apartment certainly isn't a pigsty, but more often than not it isn't what you would call "orderly" or "tidy" or, um, "presentable" either.

I asked Emma if the doctor could give me a shot that would make me want to clean too, and she said sure...but I had to pay him 27 and 40 hundred dollars and ask for a Spongebob band aid or it won't work.

Needless to say, I'm calling the doctor first thing tomorrow.

The world according to Emma

Sample nuggets from Emma on the way to school this morning:

• "Maybe we'll have a sub-tute at school today. Hey, sub-tute and toot rhyme! Sub-tute like a teacher, and toot like the sound your butt makes when you poop!"
• "Yesterday at school someone went potty on my blanket. Someone just snuck on up on their tippity toes and went 'pee pee pee, pe-pee pee pee' on Dora's face, and then I had to sleep in it with my snuggly and I got all wet." (Note: Do not be alarmed...apparently someone did pee on her blanket, but she most definitely did not have to sleep in it.)
• "Gabriel doesn't wear panties or pull ups when he goes night-night or has naptime. I wear a pull up on my vagina so I don't have an accident, but he just wears his pajamas and nothing on his peanut!"
  

The mind of a 4 year old

I picked up Em from school today, and her teacher report said that she spent a good part of the morning building a spaceship to fly to the sun. After donning her special heat-resistant suit and prepping for launch, she suddenly called off the mission b/c she forgot to take her vitamins.

Bad Mommy Moment

This morning, as I was trying to rush us all out the door so we could get Em to school and Sophie and I to the gym on time, Em started whining that she needed help putting on her coat. As I was nursing Sophie, lacing up my sneakers and eating a banana at that moment, I explained to her I had no more hands and she'd have to do it herself. I told her that she is a big girl and big girls put on their own coats. She said she didn't want to be a big girl, she wanted to be a baby. I snapped back that I already had one baby and didn't want another - I wanted one baby and one big girl, so since Sophie was a real baby, Emma couldn't be a baby today too. Then I shouted, "Now put on your coat so we can GO!"

Emma slowly started putting on her coat. Frankly, I was amazed she had obeyed without histrionics, and when she finished I told her thank you. She calmly replied, "Mommy, I love you even when you're mean."

NOT a Manic Monday

Today was a really dreary weather day here in Chicago, and it seemed to sap the energy out of all of us. We went to the gym in the morning, and then we checked out a renovated playground nearby afterward. But we were home by noon, and I could tell by our mutual lethargy that we were in for the day.

After naps, we basically just hung out on the floor together and played. Here are some snaps of the kids just being. Sophie decided to see if it was possible to actually inhale an entire water bottle, and Em had a one-woman slumber party on our stuffed dog Coney.
I guess maybe we have a bit of the Monday blahs. But hey, at least I got some cute pics out of it.

Best Laid Plans...

Today was "Surprise Day" at our house,which we have every once in awhile. Surprise Day is when we do something special, but I don't tell Emma (or Sophie) what it is. Today I was taking the girls to see a play and then out to lunch. I was really excited b/c it's been awhile since the three of us have gone out and done something fun and new. Emma got all dressed up and even insisted on wearing her tiara.
We got to the theater, and Emma was so pumped when she realized we were seeing a play (If You Take A Mouse To School, based on the book). And she seemed to really enjoy the show. A little too much, actually. B/c after curtain call, things went horribly wrong.

A woman came onstage after the actors left to explain that there would be an audience q&a soon, and we were invited to stay if we so chose. Many people started to leave, and I decided we should leave too b/c a) Sophie had really reached her limit and was pretty fussy, and b) I wanted to have time for our nice lunch. Emma wanted to stay, and didn't understand that the play was actually over. There was a long line of people behind us, waiting for us to make our way down this curving, rickety backstage staircase, so I told her quickly that the play was done and I'd explain in the lobby why we were leaving. When we reached the lobby, I sat a whining Em down and began to spell out for her what was next in our plan for the day. But Em, being someone who needs everything explained before it happens, decided that instead of listening to me she would lose her mind. Which she did. Loudly. In fact, she started screaming and crying so loudly that she scared her sister into wails as well. The concession guy literally jumped so high he spilled soda on the floor, every member of the lobby stopped what they were doing to stare at us, and I've no doubt they heard her from the stage. I was so stunned by her extreme and highly embarrassing outburst that I did the first thing that came to mind - I ran. I pulled a kicking and screaming Emma behind me to the car, threw both girls, coats, bags, etc. in, and announced we were going home and she was going straight to bed.

And that's what we did. Of course, Em cried and screamed the entire way home. I sat silently fuming the entire way home. And Sophie alternately laughed and whined the entire way home. (Soph often thinks Em is playing whenever she's having a tantrum, which I point out to Em is a clear example of just how silly she looks, although Emma doesn't seem to see it that way.)
I did relent and give Em an apple when we first got home b/c I have this ridiculous problem with guilt at depriving my child of a meal, as if she'll starve to death before afternoon snack time. But then it was straight to bed, and Emma must have (accurately) sensed how incredibly angry I was b/c she didn't even put up a fight.

I was furious for a long, long time at how badly our initially promising outing had ended, and I swore I would never do Surprise Day again. But after I calmed down, I realized that Em's awful behavior didn't cancel all the fun we had prior to "The Tantrum." The show was really cute, Sophie behaved really well, and Emma laughed at all the funny parts and seemed to really enjoy and understand the play. I loved seeing my daughter appreciating and relating to theater, since it is such a big part of my life, and I also got a kick out of just watching her watch the show. I saw how much of the plot she comprehended - even a lot of the subtleties. Maybe that's why I reacted especially strongly to her bizarre fit in the lobby - because just before that moment I'd been thinking how mature she's becoming. In the span of one hour she proved to me just how much she's growing up, and just how far she still has to go.

So, with a bit of distance on the incident, I now know I will continue Surprise Day. Hopefully next one will be more universally successful. But either way, they are important learning experiences for the girls...and for me.

Mommy in training, part 2

Em has been in fierce Mommy mode today. She announced that all of her snuggles were sick, so she gave Leah the dinosaur, Pinky Louie the giraffe and her baby doll Charleete Motrin. Then she gave Charleete a bath while Leah and Pinky Louie slept. (At first Em gave the bath in the sink, with real water. I gently suggested she do a pretend bath in the bathtub instead while I mopped up the huge puddle of water that overflowed from the sink onto the bathroom floor.) She was very excited to report that Charleete "loves the bath. She isn't crying or screaming or whining - she's being a good girl!"
After bath, she tucked Charleete in for a nap and told her a story before she fell asleep.
Now she is hovering over Charleete, concerned that she is having bad dreams. Sophie is eating Cheerios, impervious to it all.

I must go now. I have food to prepare and pack. We are going to have a picnic on the living room floor b/c it is raining outside and I promised my girls a picnic, so I picnic we will have! (I'm even going to grab some ants from Em's Ants in the Pants game, b/c what's a picnic without ants?)

Mommy in training

This morning I walked in on Emma in the living room, cradling her doll Charleete and crooning quietly in her ear, "Just you wait and see, just you wait and see, soon we'll be together, like a fam-i-ly." (Did she make this song up? Is it a song from school? Who knows...but anyway, I digress.)

She explained that she was singing Charleete to sleep and asked me to be quiet. I started to tiptoe out of the room, but I tripped on the TV trays and knocked one down. Em just glared at me as I apologized. Then she leaned in and whispered to her baby, "That's your grandma. We love her, even when she's noisy."

Betrothed

Em asked Chris and me if she could get married when she grew up. We told her yes, of course, and that we hoped she would find someone that loved her very, very much and that she loved equally in return. Then she excitedly declared, "Ooh, do you know who I love very, very much? Grandma! I'm going to marry Grandma!"

Sophie on a Wednesday

Here's a little video montage of Sophie moments today...

Sophie gets irritated

Sophie is driving all of us a bit batty lately. After months of solid 12-hour snoozing, she has apparently decided to stop sleeping through the night. I have been up with her anywhere from 1-3 times each evening for the last couple of weeks. And during the day, her neediness is through the roof. She spends the majority of her time following me around from room to room while either whining, crying or screaming (depending on how long I've dared not to hold her). Today she took it to a new level - she would sit on my lap facing me, grab my shirt in both fists and bury her head in my chest, as if she actually wanted to burrow into me, like she'd decided to just hang up her hat, say goodbye to this crazy world, and return to the womb where things make a lot more sense. And it doesn't get much better when Chris is around - tonight she spent most of her time with Daddy searching desperately for me and screaming if she happened to catch a glimpse. It's weird - yes, she's always been a Mama's girl, but this is extreme, even for Sophie. We don't really know why she's acting like this. I've no doubt she has her reasons, and I feel like she's trying SO HARD to tell me, but unfortunately I only know a few words of baby and she has yet to master English, so we are both really frustrated at our mutual inability to communicate.

The only time today she seemed truly happy was when the three of us danced to the Indigo Girls in the living room. I kept twirling Emma in circles, which cracked Sophie up. Except for an accidental head butt between Em and Soph during a particularly aerobic dance section, fun was had by all. But once the dancing stopped, crabby Sophie returned.

I just hope Sophie's behavior is a simple phase of cantankerousness that, much like Republicans in the White House, shall soon go bye bye. B/c I tell ya, Mama is tired.

Family

This is my family. They are goofy. Thank god they belong to me, and I to them.
I am feeling very thankful today for how full my life is. I'm a lucky, lucky woman.

Retainers

Emma is fascinated with the permanent retainer I have behind my lower front teeth. I told her that the retainer helps keep my teeth from moving when I eat. (A somewhat simplistic answer, I know, but hey - she's 4. I feel the specifics of orthodontia can at least wait until kindergarten.)

So tonight, she called me into her bedroom after lights out to tell me, "I need a retainer for my neck to keep my throat from moving when I drink water. Please call the teeth doctor and make a point-ment. Tell him I want one just like yours, except a necklace. And no shots, please."

I don't know at what age kids stop wanting to be just like their parents, but I suspect it ain't gonna last long. So I'm gonna enjoy it while I can...it can sometimes be annoying, but mostly I find it super-cute.