Charleston Trip

Mick's Valentine's Day present this year was a trip to Charleston--I booked our hotel on a golf course and reserved an early tee time for him on Saturday morning.  We took Friday off and drove down that morning (only about a 3 hour trip).  Mick decided that he'd rather hang out with us than play golf, so we had a great time as a family :).

 

The weather turned out to be a lot colder than we expected, but we spent Friday afternoon eating seafood and exploring downtown, including the Market Street, which I love.

We took a horse-drawn carriage tour of downtown, and Em decided it was a good time for a little snooze.  Mick lucked out because he had a built-in heater with this sweet girl on his lap!

On Saturday morning, we headed to the Children's Museum of the Lowcountry.  It was incredible, and Em could have spent all day there easily.  There was a castle set up with little mini stations set up--dress up clothes, furniture, secret passageways to explore.  It was right up her alley.

They had a water play room that was by far her favorite--we went back at least three times. 

This little table had canoes that you could race down the rapids, and rocks to move across and change the direction of the water.

This room was full of golf balls, and all kinds of ramps and chutes you could explore, rolling the golf balls and seeing what happened.

She got a butterfly painted on her face,

and put on a puppet show (which was my favorite thing to watch).

These pictures are so funny to me--she didn't get the concept of holding her hands up over the "stage,"

but she was totally into the conversation between this turtle and lobster.

There was a huge art room with play dough, paper, glue, scissors, etc.  She made some Dr. Seuss-like trees with a little help.

And of course she needed no help to paint a beautiful masterpiece.

The grocery store was a hit--if you look closely, you can see the big smile on her face (and her wet sleeve from racing canoes).

It was set up like a Publix, except for the fact that they had people handing out shopping money when we first walked in.  Too bad the real ones don't do that!

She was very responsible, and put her cart away as her groceries were being bagged.

Receipt in hand, and reusable shopping bag on her arm.

Outside, there was a huge fire truck to play on,

and even clothes to dress up like a fireman.  The museum was worth the trip, even if we hadn't done anything else!  She loved it, and I think we'll go back.

We ate more seafood for lunch, and Em took a nap in the stroller as we walked through downtown and to the Aquarium.  We sat down and rested for a little while, waiting for her to wake up so we could go in.  When we did, she jumped right in--one of the first things she found was some animals to touch--I didn't catch the picture of her touching the snake, but she loved this little crocodile!

This was her "jellyfish are yuck-ay" face.

 There was a cute little play area that she enjoyed.

The nap had come at a perfect time and gave her plenty of energy to power through the whole afternoon.

This was our favorite part of the afternoon--the Madagascar wing had these lemurs that Em really liked.  She found a little underground tunnel to crawl in that led to this up close and personal viewing area.  A couple of lemurs flew over their heads, and I think this little boy is covering his ears because of Em's screams.

They both ended up laughing and screaming, and were hilarious to watch.

When we left, Em took the opportunity to put on one of her shows for us--she's quite the little performer.  There's a cartoon that she's watched a couple of times called Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood (on PBS, and based on Mr. Rogers)--one episode had Daniel's teacher singing a song in class about showing something special that each kid in the class could do.  We've somehow picked up that song after hearing it a couple of times--it's "Hi Daniel Tiger, how do you do?  Show us something special that you can do!"  We of course have replaced "Daniel Tiger" with "Peter Pan," and Em always shows us something silly, like this little pose.

We all have to take turns doing something--she'll sing Tinkerbell and Captain Hook, and we all do silly poses.  One afternoon, I got to school to pick her up and the kids were all in a circle taking turns doing something special and singing this song--yes, she had taught her teacher the song and gotten everyone involved in the game.  It was great :).

We were walking into a restaurant for dinner Saturday night, and Em tripped and bit her lip pretty bad--we ended up going back to our hotel, getting seafood at the hotel restaurant, and getting in our pjs to watch Peter Pan.  Sunday morning, it was time to come home!  It turned out to be a good Valentine's Day trip for all of us.

Witty Little Sayings

Em is really taking this Peter Pan obsession to a whole new level--she wants everyone to refer to her as Peter Pan, to the point that if someone asks her name, that's what she tells them!  Daddy is Captain Hook, and I'm Tinkerbell.  Her grandparents are Wendy and John (both sets), and Gracie and Bella are Mr. Smee and one of the Lost Boys.  It's a little crazy, and we keep expecting it to fade, but it hasn't so far :).  One of her favorite sayings from Captain Hook in the movie is "Swoggle me eyes, it is Pan!"  She's a silly girl.

Some of her "trademark" sayings are so endearing to us--she'll ask us to share something with her (food usually), and when we offer it, she'll say "can I have all that I want?"  I don't know why, but it just sounds so sweet.

She'll also say "I'm am" instead of "I am" if we ask her to do something that she's already in the middle of, which is cute.

I have this thing now where I'll ask her to get rid of her "mean girl attitude" whenever she's not acting nice--most of the time, she'll cooperate.  It seems to resonate with her when I can compare her attitude to a mean character (like Cinderella's stepsisters).  Sometimes, she'll physically throw her attitude it in the trash, or tell me "I'm not in a crabby mood anymore."  Other times, she reminds us that she can pout and cry with the best of them.  Her tears are really convincing, and she can turn them on and off like a switch!

We have a chair in our dining room that we use for her time out--she doesn't spend a whole lot of time there, but she knows what it means to sit in the chair for sure.  She was throwing a little fit one day recently and I told her to go sit in the chair--we had cleaned up a little earlier, and the chair wasn't pushed up against the wall where it normally stays.  She turned around (crying dramatically) and said "there's no chair for me!"  I couldn't help but laugh, and just told her to come sit in my lap.

Whenever she's having a particularly tough time with something, we'll ask her if she wants to take a break--her favorite spot for that is our bed, and her mood instantly improves when we do that.

I think our biggest challenge is still brushing her teeth--she really makes it tough sometimes in the mornings, and that's when I'm usually by myself, trying to get the two of us out the door.  Needless to say, we usually leave later than I'd like in the mornings.  What's most frustrating is how deliberate she is--sometimes she's perfectly cooperative, and sometimes she just fights every step.

What a roller coaster she keeps us on all the time!

Snow Day!

We've had such crazy weather lately--it will go from 70 degrees one day to 40 three days later.  Our area was predicted to stay cold all day and get snow on Saturday--we had given up on it since it rained all day, but the rain changed to snow around 5pm.  Em had taken a late nap, so we got suited up and headed outside.  The wind was blowing pretty hard, and the snow was pouring down.  In no time, the ground was covered, and there was several inches in a couple of hours.

We stayed out long enough to build a quick snowman, but came in after that to get out of the wind.

We went back out later that evening after the snow stopped, and everything looked so pretty all covered in white.

Em had a great time stomping around in the front yard.

On Sunday morning, it was nice and sunny, but still so cold that nothing melted, so we went back out.  Em took her beach and garden tools to play.

She shoveled snow for a while,

and then decided we needed to build another snowman.

This one turned out bigger, and then became a snow teddy bear.

Em was pretty proud of our creation!

This was her first attempt at a snow angel--she needed some help understanding how to move her arms and legs,

but once she got on a roll, she didn't want to stop!

It made for a pretty fun weekend!  We stayed out all morning and played, and then watched Em's new favorite movie, Peter Pan, that afternoon.  She'll watch this any chance she gets now, and has decided that she's Peter Pan, I'm Tinkerbell, and Mick is Captain Hook.  She'll often decide not to answer to anything but Peter Pan!  This has been going on for a couple of weeks now, so we keep thinking she'll change her mind, but it hasn't happened yet.

 

I really like the old original Disney movies--they're short enough to keep her attention, and the plots are always things she enjoys.

Another Playdate

A friend of mine from work has a daughter almost exactly one year younger than Em, and we've been wanting to get together for a while, so we made it happen on Saturday. We went to Sports Connection, where we've been before--at Em's request.

Since Emma is younger, I wasn't sure if she'd enjoy it as much as Emily, but they had a good time together.  Guitars, basketball, bounce house, and bowling!

We finally got them to slow down enough for a snack, and Heather and I were able to catch up a little.

Now Em can't stop talking about Emma and Ms. Heather!  I love watching her make friends, and she does it so easily :).

Growing Up

There's nothing about Em that looks like a baby anymore--she's so tall, and agile and talkative--no denying that she's a little girl now.  Here she is as Snow White.

 And painting--one of her absolute favorite things to do!

 At least she'll normally ask before she paints her hands, face, feet or other body parts :).

It was Spot's birthday, so we had to make party hats one night after dinner.  It turned into everyone needing a hat, until I just gave up and said it was bath time.

Her babies need to go almost everywhere with us now.  We were heading to dinner one night, and she needed Chicken and Lucy wrapped in blankets.  They went in, sat at the table with us and everything.

We love Friday nights, because Em stays up a little later, and the rules don't apply...this pic was after having a scoop of chocolate ice cream before bed!

Her hair still hasn't grown out to where it cascades over her shoulders, but it always seems healthier (and curlier) after a little trim.  Em looks forward to haircuts now, because she gets a lollipop and watches herself in the big mirror (all while driving a fire truck)!

Em still loves bath time, and always wants me to make her a unicorn horn when we wash hair.  Then she wants a mirror so she can see how funny she looks.

She also loves bubble beards--she'll put bubbles on her chin and then tell us she's Santa, and ask us what we want for Christmas.  The little basketball goal behind her in these pictures is also a favorite--there are three balls, so we each get one.  At her direction (and only when she says so), we each take turns trying to make the basket.  She hands out pretend candy if we make it :).

 

The Circus Comes to Town

The circus came to town for a few days and we decided to get tickets--it was Em's first time, and the first time that Mick and I really remember.  When we got there, a few people were gathered outside protesting with signs claiming that Ringling Bros. mistreats the animals.  I would love to believe that's not true, but as we watched the show and saw all of the tricks these wild animals were performing, I started to wonder more and more.  There's plenty of information to find that supports both sides, so let's just say I'll be doing some more research before we decide to go back next year.

This year though, Em loved it.  She really enjoyed the show, and watched intently the whole time.  The only thing she stopped for was popcorn and hot dogs!

It was tough to get good pictures of her during the show because it was so dark, but I tried to get some shots of the action.

The animals were of course her favorite part.

She saw Dumbo and Ms. Jumbo!

And she loved that she could use her outside voice inside.

The theme of the show was Dragons, and this dragon came out at the end, breathing fire and all!

It really is a spectacular production--it was about 2 hours long with a 30 minute intermission, which fell right at lunch time.  It worked out well for us.

There were plenty of human tricks too, in addition to the animals.

This was my sad attempt at getting a picture of Em smiling with the Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey sign behind her.  We were leaving at the time, so I guess she just wasn't feeling it.

Important Stuff

Some days, I think of a list a mile long of things I don't want to forget to document--Emily is such a magical, joyful little person.  I'm pretty sure I don't deserve to have such a sweet girl, but I'm certain she'll make up for it in challenging times to come :).

She's going potty now all the time--we do still have to pick up on her cues sometimes and remind her to go if she's playing, but most of the time, she'll stop and go on her own.  She has stopped looking for rewards every time now too, which is nice, because M&Ms were usually what she wanted :).  She was consistently staying dry at nap time too, so just in the last week, we've been skipping the pull-up during naps, and she's doing great.  She even stayed dry overnight one night, but I think it was an accident, because most nights she doesn't.

I was recently in Philadelphia for some training and talked with some coworkers with kids around her age--they mentioned a show on PBS called Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood--it's based on the characters from Mr. Rogers, but it's animated.  We decided to try it, and Em loves it!  Daniel Tiger has a nifty little song for a lot of useful lessons like "find a way to play together" or "get dressed, eat breakfast, brush teeth, put on shoes and off to school." I've learned if we can make a song about something, Em is usually more willing to cooperate.  Her favorite things to watch are still Dora and The Backyardigans, but she's much more open to watching any cartoon now, and a little variety is nice for us :).  We are pretty strict about only having the TV on for a couple of cartoons in the morning, and then it goes off.  Mick and I don't usually watch anything until after she goes to bed--instead, we'll turn on music most of the time, including during dinner.  It seems to make our time together a little less distracted.  She asks to watch TV more often now, but is fine when we suggest doing something else, and is happier helping with dinner or making "a project" anyway.  It makes it more special when we bend the rules for a movie or something on a Friday night or the weekend.

Em's vocabulary continues to impress us, and most people we meet make comments about how well she talks for her age.  Some of her favorite things to do right now are making up songs and rhyming.  We sometimes don't even listen to music on the way to school--she'll sing her own made-up song the whole way there!  She loves to rhyme, and when there aren't real words that rhyme with something, she'll make up her own nonsense words, and totally understands how silly she's being.  She's really got a great sense of humor.  She also likes to abbreviate everything now--she'll call cupcakes cups, or popcorn is pop, and she'll laugh and correct us if we say it the wrong way.

Em recognizes most of her numbers now, and some letters--they're working through the alphabet at school starting with A, and focusing on one letter each week.  We play games at dinner some nights to see who can come up with the most words starting with a particular letter, and she loves those (and will occasionally throw in a nonsense word too).  This week is E, which she loves, because Emily and Elmo start with E :).  She recognizes her name when it's written, and will often pick out E on signs we see.  I've picked up a lot of little "brain games" with dry erase markers for her when I see them on sale, and she'll sit and play as long as I'm willing to sit with her and give instructions--circle 5 monsters on this card, or draw a line through every green thing on this card, or trace a number or letter--stuff like that.  I'll have to post some pictures of her favorites.

I'm sure there's other important stuff I'm forgetting, but I'll try to keep these up!

Good Ear News!

We took Em to the ENT specialist on Wednesday, and were prepared to hear she needed tubes in her ears.  We met a couple in the waiting area with a 14 month old daughter--their appointment had been earlier in the afternoon, and they said the doctor saw her and scheduled her surgery for the very next day!  They gave us a lot of information to read over while we waited, and there were some puzzles to keep Em busy.

We got in to see the doctor, and Em had to lie down on the table and be held down for him to look in her ears.  Poor little thing was so scared when she had to stretch out and everybody pinned her down--she started crying, so I held her hands and we all sang Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer together.  It was actually hilarious, because both nurses in the room joined in and sang with us.  I keep reminding Em that Christmas is over, but she just loves that song!

Anyway, after the traumatic exam, she got a Cinderella sticker and all was forgotten.  He said there's fluid in both of her ears, but neither was infected.  He asked us about the effect on her quality of life, the frequency and severity of the infections, and when they started.  She rarely ever says they hurt and wants medicine to make them feel better--she usually just says it feels like there's something in them, but goes about her business and seems fine.  He also looked in her nose, which has been constantly stuffy this winter.  He gave us a prescription for Flonase, and wants to see her back in a month.  He thinks we have a few things in our favor, including the fact that she's almost three and might be close to growing out of the ear issues.  The hope is that if we can get her nose cleared up, the fluid will be able to drain.

On our next visit, he'll also do a hearing test, just to make sure there hasn't been any temporary loss of hearing.  It was great news for us, and we're glad that Em won't have to undergo surgery at this point!