There Was A Little Girl

There was a little girl

Who had a little curl

Right in the middle of her forehead.

And when she was good

She was very, very good

But when she was bad

She was horrid!

Emma and I have been reading nursery rhymes lately.

This one seems to fit our little girl just right. She is a VERY pleasant child MOST of the time, but heaven help you if you are in her way when she is not-so-pleasant. Horrid doesn't even touch it.

Here are some updates and stories on Miss Emma.

• Her current obsessions are her "little plastic princesses", My Little Pony, Tinker Bell and her 5 fairy friends, and the book "You Can't Go to School Naked".
• She ran up to me yesterday, gave me a huge hug and said, "Mommy, thank you so very much for taking me to Costco and to Play Group". My pleasure, little friend, my pleasure.
• Emma refers to me as "Tam"when she is not referring to me as Mom. It is absolutely darling.
• She still LOVES LOVES LOVES reading. At any given time, on any given day, you can find her in the position shown in the picture below. Emma loves to be read to, but she also loves to read (loose use of the word) the books to us and she loves to read on her own. A girl after her Mother's heart. It makes me SO happy to see her enjoy books as much as I do.

• When she found some of her books out of order, she yelled, "why are my books messed up? I AM SO FURIOUS!"
• Emma has a very strange speaking habit of using "ya" instead of "you". It is so funny and puzzling. I am really not sure where she picked it up. We definitely do not use it in our home. But, at any given time I hear her say "Mom, I love ya", "Daddy, where are ya?", "I'll miss ya" or "Can I help ya?".
• I was sitting on our front porch watching her ride her tricycle in the beautiful Arizona weather. She came and sat down next to me and said, "I could get used to this". The line is from "Tangled". But funny nonetheless.
• Emma had a few accidents of pooping in her underwear. With a new baby, I just could not handle changing poop out of my toddlers pants. It didn't seem right. So we tried to take away her princesses as punishment, but this didn't seem to help. And wouldn't you know it? Those parenting books actually help sometimes. I decided to take the POSITIVE approach and reward her for keeping her pants clear of poop. She went in the toilet and kept her underwear clean for a week, each time earning stickers on a chart, and earned a Tinker Bell doll. Many times a day she would count how many stickers she had earned and how many stickers she had left to earn. She would come up to me and say, "Mom, do you want to count the stickers with me?" She was SOOOOO proud of herself when she earned the reward. For a solid week, she told everyone she saw that she earned a Tinker Bell for pooping in the toilet. We haven't had any problems with the poop thing since. Thank you Tinker Bell!! The picture below is Emma with her chart and reward. Her smile says it all.

• I think that she will one day appear on the "Hoarders" show. She loves to collect and hoard things. It is a bit unusual. While at play group, a friend brought some toys for all the kids to play with. Emma collected ALL of the toys, piled them on a chair, and then proceeded to become the "tyrant of the toys". Wouldn't let any other child look at, or heaven forbid TOUCH them. They weren't even her toys. It was so frustrating to have "that child" at play group. I wasn't sure how to deal with it after asking her share 10,000 times - so we just left early.
• Emma loves to learn the Arizona freeways. She knows that Greg takes the 202 to work. She was very confused when we took the 202 to Mesa - and asked if we were going to Daddy's work.
• She thoroughly enjoyed Valentines Day. She would tell everyone she saw "Hi! Happy ValentiMes day". When her friend Alex tried to correct her, she fought with vigor that it was indeed Valentimes Day.
• Emma LOVES her baby brother. She is so proud of him - and shows him off to anyone who will listen. As soon as she wakes up she wants to come and talk to Grant. She loves it when he smiles at her and says, "Yeah, that's a nice smile bubbers!!".

• Emma was diagnosed with pneumonia the Friday before Grant's blessing. It was sad because she was fairly sick the entire time my family was in town. I feel lucky that overall my children are healthy. This is one of the first times Emma has had a fever since her birth. We knew she was REALLY sick when she refused fruit snacks and Girl Scout Thin Mints. Her favorites.
• While my family was here, we sat around the kitchen table with a bag of Oreos. Aunt Laura was teaching her the "cool way" to eat Oreos, which involves about 6 steps. Emma carefully listened as Laura explained all of the steps. Then Emma grabbed her own Oreo and quickly retorted, "watch how I eat an Oreo" and popped it in her mouth. No funny business with chocolate at our house - we just SHOVE them in. :)
• While eating green peas for dinner, Emma proclaimed, "I LOVE peas Mommy... that is why you love me". I didn't realize my love was predicated on the little green veggie, but I guess so.
• We have been doing "School Time" every day (or ALMOST every day) after her nap. We do a variety of learning activities for about 30-45 minutes to stretch her brain and skills. She has started to write her letters and get so excited when she gets one right. After learning to write G, E and T - I told her she could write her first word "GET". She was very excited and wouldn't erase the board until Daddy got home to show him her letters and word.

• Emma loves to help with Grant and likes stay very involved in his feeding. If he cries, she quickly tells me that I need to feed him. This morning, she saw my nursing pads on the dresser and said, "Oh No! Mom, you forgot to put these on! You better put them on or your milk supply will get low." WHAAAAAAA??? Who knew nursing pads could increase of decrease my milk supply?? La Leche League will certainly want to know this tid bit. :) Any why is Emma concerned with my milk supply?? Not a thing gets by this little girl... she must have over heard Greg and I talking about it some time.
• She wanted the "My Little Pony" video while she was sick. I tried to get one at WalMart and Target, but it was not at either store. She turned to me and said, "Don't worry Mom. My Daddy will get it for me". Complete and utter faith in her Father. Pressure's on Greg!

Thankfully, Emma's good behavior greatly out weighs her naughty behavior...

And we are so grateful to have her funny little personality around our home.

Here are a few of the professional pics we had taken right after Grant was born.