Big Girl Bed!

A couple of weeks ago, we finally bought Em's mattress and set up her big girl bed.  We ordered the conversion kit around her birthday, but it took forever to come in--her crib converted to a toddler bed and she's been in that for about a year.  Lately, she really just seemed to be running out of room, and she moves around so much at night, we knew she'd be more comfortable in this full size bed.

She loves it!  The first couple of nights were challenging because I had to go in twice to pick her up off the floor and put her back in bed--you can see her toddler mattress under the bed in this picture because I finally brought that in and put it by the bed.

Then we decided to build a wall of pillows, and that seemed to work, because she hasn't rolled out since.

Now for the job of redecorating--she told me the other day "no more butterflies."  She's decided she wants a circus room, complete with donkeys and a ringmaster.  She's very specific :).

Weekend Fun



Em has always been a pretty good eater, but she does love her sweets (has to get that from Mommy!).  We made cupcakes on Sunday--we took the easy way out and didn't make anything from scratch, because all she wanted to do was spread the frosting and add the sprinkles on top.

She was really proud of her work!

We've been spending a good amount of time at the pool lately too--the water is starting to warm up quite a bit and it's been hot enough outside to want to go over every afternoon.

I think Em's favorite part of going to the pool is the snacks--she was enjoying a popsicle before we went over on Saturday.

Collection of Cuteness

These are a few pictures I've forgotten to post over the past month or two, so I thought I'd just throw them all together to show what Em has been up to lately.

 

This one is at IHOP when Mick's parents came to visit--Em loves her sweets, and since this was a special occasion, she got cinnamon French toast with whipped cream for breakfast.  She's actually dipping a piece of bacon in the whipped cream here though...gross.

That same weekend, she went for a little trim--we're still trying to get some length on her hair, but they usually trim enough to give her some layers and make her curls come out.  She looks forward to it because she gets a lollipop!

Mick has started going in to work really early so he can pick Em up most afternoons, so it's usually just the two of us in the mornings.  She's usually very sweet and cooperative, although she's been resisting sleep a little more lately, which makes her more tired and reluctant to get moving in the mornings (and once in a while leads to a battle over everything).  She gets up a little before 6:00 a.m., and I sometimes feel like a pit crew getting her ready to get out the door sometime before 7:00 a.m.  She eats breakfast at home (and again at school!), and her favorite thing lately is cinnamon toast.  We have to make her rotate in other things or she would eat it every morning!  She gets to stay in her pjs while she eats and watches cartoons (the Backyardigans is her favorite right now).  Then it's time for potty, get dressed, hair done, teeth brushed, shoes on, and out the door!  This was one morning before school when she was in a great mood.

This was a pic we snapped in the airport as we were waiting to board the plane on the way to Boston!  We were all excited--we don't get very many pictures of all of us together, and we need to do a better job of remembering.

The last day we were in Boston, poor Em started feeling so bad that she literally fell asleep on Aunt Julie in a matter of about 35 seconds when she sat down in the bookstore.  I love this pic :).

This is every morning on the way to school--Em absolutely loves books on CD, and she's building quite the collection.  I like them because the stories are just long enough to last for the trip to school with a little extra time for our commentary.  This is her favorite thing to do in the car--surprisingly, she usually chooses books over movies--I hope she stays that way!

Last weekend, we went to a Family Fun Festival on Friday night--we got there a little late, so Em didn't do a whole lot, but did get a beautiful blue butterfly painted on her face,

and a tattoo!  There were bounce houses and other games too, but we ran into one of Em's school friends, so we had burgers at Five Guys with them for dinner, and went over where the DJ was playing for Em and Sophia to dance.

Last Saturday morning, Em and I decided to go to the library--they were having a used book sale and we've found some great kids' books at past sales, but we struck out at this one.  Luckily, there's a train table and some puzzles in the children's section, so we stayed and played for a while. 

Puzzles are another favorite of hers right now.  We found this one at a yard sale--it's a huge map of the United States.  She's been asking a lot of questions about where things are, so it's nice to show her that Aunt Jenn and Uncle Jason live at the sailboat picture, Aunt Julie is at the lobster, etc.

She really does a great job with puzzles, and I like them too :).  Maybe she got a nerd streak from her Mommy!

We have really had a nice spring this year--some in-between weather in the 70s and low 80s, which has been fantastic.  But it also meant that it really hasn't been warm enough for much time at the pool.  We finally went over on Sunday afternoon--Em didn't want to go at first, but I talked her into walking over with our shorts on. 

As soon as she put her feet in the water, she said she wanted to go home and put on her bathing suit!  The water was a little cold still, but it didn't stop her.

I think we're going to have a fun summer!

Strawberries!

Sunday morning, Em and I went with Tricia and Brady (our neighbors) to pick strawberries at Hall Family Farm, where we went in the fall for the pumpkin patch and corn maze.  Em and Brady are great friends--he's about a year and a half older than her, but they don't miss a beat when they play together.

 Here they are racing to the strawberries while Tricia and I didn't even try to catch up!

Ready to get started!  They decided that we'd have a competition--Brady was a ninja and Em was a pirate.

 This was our first time picking strawberries, and I know we'll go back now.

Aside from being very hot, even though it was only about 10:00 a.m. when we got there, we all had a good time.

Em's favorite part was the taste testing!

We had strawberries on the side of every meal on Sunday--they were delicious!

Rainbow Station

I just wanted a reminder here of how much we love Em's school.  She has such a sparkling personality that I'm sure she would have blossomed anywhere, but the change we made to move her there has been one of our best decisions as parents.

She learns cool things every day, and her teachers have great stories for us almost every afternoon.  One day this week, Mick picked her up and Ms. Lindsay told him that Em had gone to use the bathroom after nap time, and after a while, she walked out and all of her clothes were on inside out.  Ms. Lindsay asked her if she had changed her clothes around in the bathroom, and Em (with a completely straight face) replied "no, a cow did it!"

They learned a song one day about Tiny Tim the Turtle, and Em must have sang it fifty times that night!  Between acting like a clown and performing, it took me a while to get a video of her actually singing it.

They're working their way through the alphabet learning letters, and she can identify most of the letters of the alphabet now (they're on O).  She can tell us what they sound like and some things that start with the letter too--each week on Friday, their Show & Share is to bring something in that starts with the letter of the week, which helps her remember.  I'll tell you though, some of those letters are tough!  I've definitely googled ideas on a Friday morning on more than one occasion!

One of my favorite things is the values they reinforce--one day, Em and I picked up a pizza for dinner on the way home, and as we walked out, she reached up to help me carry it and said "Mommy, let's use teamwork!"  Mick and I have occasionally used that idea to help her understand that we need her to cooperate and act like a teammate with us.

We were playing the other night, and she had the tweezers from her doctor kit and told me she was "practicing her fine motor skills."  That one really threw me for a loop--but she listens to everything, even when we don't think she's paying attention.  She later told me Ms. Mandy told her that.

Boston, Here We Come!

We've been trying to find a good weekend to go to Boston for what seems like forever--we finally got our schedules in sync for a Memorial Day weekend trip.  We left on Friday afternoon, and Em had been talking about the trip all week--she was super excited when we picked her up from school to head to the airport, and told everyone she was going to see Aunt Julie.

 

She was such a big girl going through the airport with her suitcase--she pulled it the whole way, and handed her boarding pass across when it was her turn.



She made friends with everyone in the airport and asked them if they liked her suitcase, her shirt, her shoes...you name it!

Everyone was really nice to her, and she did a great job handling herself like a grown up!

She was so excited about taking off "so fast," so I was glad that we weren't delayed.

Still, she got tired of waiting pretty quickly, and said "I'm tired of being on the airplane.  I want to be in the air watching a move! (she abbreviates things sometimes and only says the first syllable--so move is movie)"  We waited for the two "dings" once we got in the air, and got out the laptop and headphones so she could watch "Beauty & the Beast," one of her favorites.

Aunt Julie met us at the airport and we took a cab to the hotel so we could drop our stuff off and change clothes (our shorts and flip flops weren't quite warm enough for the 49-degree rainy weather).  We walked across to meet up with Julie's boyfriend Erik (who Em quickly dubbed "Prince Erik") and had dinner at The Barking Crab.  By the time we got back to the hotel, we decided it was time for Em to turn in for the night, so we parted ways.

The next morning, our alarm clock (Emily) woke us up a little earlier than Julie and Erik, so we went walking downtown to Faneuil Hall where we could be out of the rain and grab some breakfast.  Em enjoyed looking at all the tasty treats!

We walked from there toward the Boston Children's Museum.  Julie had a connection to get us free tickets, and we spent most of the day there.

I'm sure it's crowded every weekend, but the weather seemed to push everyone inside.  Em tried out every exhibit, and we all had to jump in and try too :).

She liked this one where she got to crawl up under the turtles and see them up close.

Prince Erik liked helping her out with some too.

The water exhibits are always some of her favorite--she will play with water for half a day and be totally content.

This lighted drawing table was neat--she loves puzzles, and this was a little like a puzzle since she got to match shapes on the drawing.

We all took advantage of the kitchen area to stop and rest while Em busily prepared food for us.

There were lots of things to climb on and through.

Erik found her a construction worker vest and hard hat,

so she tried out the heavy equipment.

When we left there, we knew Em needed a nap, so we headed back to the hotel.  Mick and Em went upstairs to rest while the three of us stayed in the hotel restaurant and had drinks and snacks.  It was really the only way to spend a cold, rainy afternoon!

When Em woke up, she and Mick joined us downstairs.

She was much more cheerful after some sleep.

She made the rounds with everyone!

Mick and Erik decided to have some oysters.

And then we headed to Chinatown for dinner!

We went to a place called The Best Little Restaurant, and the food was great!  We ordered a bunch of appetizers, thinking we weren't that hungry, and it was way too much food. 

We headed back to the hotel and realized that Em wasn't feeling great.  She took a bath and wrapped up in a hotel bathrobe.  She woke up in the middle of the night with a fever, and threw up around 1:00 AM.  Mick had to get a cab to a 7-Eleven for some Motrin since I didn't have ours.  We gave her some of that with crackers, and she finally got back to sleep around 2:30

The next morning, she woke up and seemed fine.  We met for breakfast and she ate some pancakes and bacon.  The weather was still chilly, but it wasn't raining, so we were determined to take advantage of our last day there.  We walked through Boston Common by the frog pond,

and straight to the carousel!

There were thousands of flags displayed for Memorial Day--

it was really beautiful.

Em was fascinated by the street performers we saw--you can tell a child isn't from the city when she wants to watch street performers and pigeons all day!

We took a ride on the Swan Boats,

and then continued our walk.  We really regretted forgetting Em's stroller, because when she got tired of walking, we took turns carrying her.  There was nowhere to be found that we could pick up a little umbrella stroller.

Some of the more sobering things we saw were the multiple memorials to the victims of the Boston Marathon bombings.

The sites of the actual bombings were really close to Julie's office.

There was everything from origami to tennis shoes to baseball caps and stuffed animals that people left in memorial

The finish line for the marathon--on Saturday morning when we woke up, we saw runners outside of our hotel finishing the last mile.

Em got to feeling worse during the day on Sunday.  We spent some time in the bookstore and then ate a late lunch before we headed back to the hotel and then to the airport.  You can tell in this picture how bad she was feeling :(.

But after a little more Motrin and some food, she was making friends in the airport!

We knew she was okay when she started doing tricks for us.

Luckily, she wasn't still feeling bad when we got on the plane.

We got home late on Sunday night with one very tired little girl!

We were off on Monday for Memorial Day, and Em kept a 102 fever and wasn't feeling well all day.  I stayed home with her on Tuesday and we took her to the doctor--she had a double ear infection!  One week after the all clear from the ENT specialist!  She's been a little congested, and her pediatrician said the pressure on the plane could have just forced the congestion into her ears.  Even though she had made it since before Christmas without antibiotics for anything, the doctor recommended treating this one since the fever had been so stubborn.  Mick stayed home with her on Wednesday, and she was back to normal on Thursday and ready to go to school!