E & A Updates

Emma:

1) She's getting very close to tying a bow. She can make the first loop and brings the other string around. It's pulling the string through to make the second loop that's getting in her way. When Danny had her show me her new talent, I was amazed!

2) She's getting much better at coloring in the lines. She's very proud of this and should be. I can't believe how she's growing up.

3) While watching "Rock Star: Supernova" last Wednesday night, she said something that would have made me pee myself if I hadn't fallen asleep on my hard wood floor while getting Allison to sleep. Supernova was playing one of their songs with one of the contestants. During the song, Emma said to Danny: "That there, that's not music." Now don't you know she's making her popa proud!

4) After struggling hard to watch a movie other than Wallace and Grommit or Lady and the Tramp, I finally convinced Emma to watch Mary Poppins with me. She absolutely loves the movie. It makes me happy to pass down my love for Julie Andrews to her. The Sound of Music hasn't caught her attention yet, but she did watch a good portion of it with me before she found a dead bug behind the futon more interesting.

5) We're trying to break Emma's habits of calling us a "meany" or telling us that "you're not my friend" or "you're not coming to my party" when she gets frustrated. I've been anticipating "I hate you" or "You're not my real mommy" for a long time. I think that I might handle those better. I have found out that it's not just me. Usually Emma will kick it in on our way to pick Allison up. Now, I just walk away from her. I'm trying to react to that as I would one of Ally's tantrums. A couple of other mothers have said to me that they were glad to see that Emma wasn't always perfect. There's that silver lining. No matter how she takes her frustrations out on Danny and me, she is a very polite, happy and warm little girl.

Allison:

1) When you've peeved Ally off, boy howdy do you hear about it now! Most of the time you can't understand the exact words she's using to call you on the carpet. You just know that you're being cussed out. Today she was telling me that Emma hit her with a horsey. Afterwards, she stepped back into the hallway and yelled in Emma's general direction, "Not nice, EEEEmmmmmaaa!" I could die laughing!

2) She is a natural form of birth control. If she ever catches her parents sitting too close, touching each other or - God forbid - hugging and kissing, she's right in our business. "Not nice, Daddy!" And I thought colic was a mood killer. The same holds true for me paying too much attention to Emma or another person. I got cussed at on Saturday (see #1) while visiting a friend who just had a new baby. Was I holding the baby? Nope. I was mearly admiring her from across the room - while Allison was on my lap no less. Silver lining - she loves me dearly and doesn't like to share me with anyone.

3) She's becoming a more colorful character all of the time. Let me tell you - that girl can goof around with the best of them. She's so animated and cute, too. I love to watch her when she gets into one of those moods. No other entertainment is required. Watching the Wiggles with her is such a blast! For those of you in the know, you'd die to see and hear her "do the tiger."

4) She's currently cutting three of her four 2nd year molars! She's been waking up crying off and on during the night for that past three or four nights. Danny wondered out loud this morning about teething. I hadn't given that a thought because Emma got hers pretty late into her second year. Ally let me check and both molars were erupting on the bottom and her upper right as well. Maybe we'll be done with teething before her birthday. What a gift for Mommy and Daddy!

5) Allison no longer tolerates my singing. Remember way back in the day when I marveled at her asking me to sing (sorry, it's too long ago and too late for me to make a link)? Well, the tides have turned. Within one line of one verse of any song that I attempt to sing I hear, "Stop it, Mommy!" I've heard that in one form or the other for the past 34 years. I usually keep singing. As I sing, the "Stop it, Mommy!" gets more forceful and high pitched. I'm cave long before she would.

6) Allison can count to 7. I knew that she had 1 - 4 pretty down pat. This weekend Emma counted to 4 for some reason. Ally chimed right in with 5, 6 and 7. I was pretty pleased with that. She also knows random portions of her ABCs in sets of three. QR and S seem to be her favorite grouping of three and G is a stand alone hit for her.