Emerson and The Parrot

Monday we had snow day although we didn't actually have snow. The schools here closed in anticipation of a snow event and therefore the kid's daycare was closed, absurd I know! That meant that I had to find some place for the kids to stay yesterday since I didn't get the day off. Oma and PaPa graciously offered to let the kids stay there in the morning and Aunt Judy (renowned animal rescuer!) came to visit with her new friend. Emerson has consistently said for several months that she wants to be a veterinarian when she grows up although the child is more of an animal observer than an animal lover. So you can imagine my surprise when I see this picture! At first glance you may be thinking that she looks just like a future veterinarian but if you really look at it I think you will see that look in her eyes that is shouting "I am brave. . .I can do this. . .this bird is creeping me out. . .oh goodness, don't move bird. . .wonder how long I'm going to have to smile for this picture. . .I hope this is almost over. . .what was I thinking when I said I wanted the bird to sit on my shoulder?" thought process that was truly going on behind the toothy smile! However, I'm pleased to say that according to Oma Emerson really was brave and admired herself in the mirror, let Oma take a picture and at that point she was, as Oma put it still "unbitten innocent". Can guess what happened next? Yep, the bird thought Emerson's fingers looked like a good snack and OUCH! that was the end of the bird interaction! Looks like Emerson's going to have to look for a different future profession.

Good morning

This morning, like most, I was nestled close to a warm little 2 year old lump of sugar when I woke. Cullen wakes up most mornings around 5am and climbs in bed with me. Thankfully he does go back to sleep for an hour or so! This morning he woke up around 6:45am started wiggling around, got up and walked around the room, I closed my eyes again and then I felt 2 little fingers prying my right eye open. When I focused on the chubby little face just inches from my own face I saw Cullen's bright eyes and long eyelashes looking intently at me. Without taking his fingers from my eye he smiled and said "It's a magical morning, Mama". Now if that doesn't make for a good morning, I don't know what does!

Alive

Yes, I am still alive. I'm sorry for the recent lack of posts but sometimes inspiration is hard to come by. However having 2 adorable children means inspiration is only an tiny hug away. I think that I will start to try to blog again although I'm not sure what the content will be yet. I'm sure that most of it will continue to be silly stories about life with 2 young children though. And I promise to get some new pictures up soon. Sorry for keeping everyone out of the loop for so long.

Okay so on to updates on the kiddies. I enrolled Emerson in Pre-K starting in August. This was really hard for me and really exciting for her. I know most people say that letting go of the last child is the hardest but with Emerson being dubbed the NICU baby she is the hard one for me to let go of. Emerson continues to be my "girly" girl wanting to wear high heels, jewelry, dresses and most importantly lipstick! She loves her teacher at daycare (what a blessing!) and loves all things school related. She has continued to come out of her shell and plays with several children now and even has a boyfriend, yikes!!! She is my typical 1st child enjoying structure and routine and I love her for it. I love her sheer determination and stubborn streak although it makes parenting difficult at times. One of my most favorite things about her is that she really does love all things girly and isn't afraid of what anyone else says. She is confident in her cuteness and will not hesitate to agree if complimented. I love being a mommy to a frilly little princess much more than I ever could have imagined. Cullen is Emerson's complete opposite as a boy in every sense of the word. He loves to be rough, pretend to be a monster, jump from high places and do anything remotely dangerous. He also is my quirky child carrying around and sleeping with a silver slotted serving spoon as long as his arm which morphs into anything his mind creates. . .sword, gun, baseball bat, golf club, etc. He also loves money and was recently carrying around his "pigga" bank as he calls it until it had a tragic accident and broke spilling it's pork bellies all over the floor of Olive Garden. Now his "monies" are contained in a plastic 1 cup measuring cup which he tells goodnight each night and wakes in the morning to immediately retrieve even before he snuggles in the bed with me. I love that he has such a fun personality. He is the jokester of the family always making us laugh with his extreme silliness. I love that he is such a "boy" he cracks me up with his constant activity but wears me out too! But my favorite thing about Cullen is his kind heart. Although he can be quite a difficult, very strong willed child he is my most sensitive child. He is genuinely concerned if someone is hurt or upset and he loves to show his love with words and hugs. He is unashamedly honest with all of his emotions and will immediately tell you if he is upset but in the regard he is just as expressive when he is happy. He truly is a mama's boy!

Now that we're all updated I'll make sure to post a silly story soon!

Strange Dream

Emerson has recently realized that she is having dreams. Obviously she's had them before but she's never vocalized what they were about until now. Most mornings she gets up and comes to see me while I'm putting on my make up and she tells me about her dream from the night before. This morning was no exception. She comes and plops down on the rug in the bathroom and says:

"Last night I dreamed that my kids (she thinks she's a teacher) got tattoos. They all took their shirts off and put them in their cubbies and got tattoos on their backs. I painted (she did her raised eyebrow 'wow' look and said it with added inflection) the tattoos on their backs and they had to wait for them to dry."

Is it just me or does that seem a bit odd? Emerson is a 4 year old aspiring teacher/tattoo artist. If this is what she's dreaming at 4 I shudder to think what 14 will bring!

Goodbye Nemo

Last week I started to notice that our beta fish was looking a little pale. I thought maybe he was cold or old or a combo of the two. A few times I noticed him hanging out in his bowl sort of catywompus (as PaPa would say). I would get his attention with a gentle nudge on his bowl and he would start swimming. Then finally the other day I came home from work and was getting supper ready when I reached for the fish food to feed our dear friend only to realize that his little grey body was resting peacefully on the bottom of the bowl. I just left him there for the time being not wanting to have to address it with the kids. I thought I had made it through the evening without anyone noticing when all of the sudden I see Cullen pulling a stool over to the counter for his daily fish feeding time. I rushed over to him as he was dragging the bowl towards him. He was looking for Nemo and kept repeating his normal request "I wanna feed the fish, I wanna feed Nemo". I grabbed the bowl and told him no and of course he cried. I told him Nemo couldn't eat right now. Thankfully Emerson's hearing is affected to the point where she didn't hear me and no questions were asked. After our normal bedtime routine I tucked the kids in and sauntered back to the kitchen where I knew I would have to address the bloated fish. In a very brave moment I poured the fish into the net, did a quick exam, why I don't really know? I guess I thought I was working for the fish CSI lab or something. No, there was no internal exam given! I wasn't about to fillet a beta fish the size of my finger. Anyway, I didn't know what to do with him and I actually briefly thought about putting him in a box and letting the kids bury him. Then I pulled from my own childhood experiences with fish deaths and remembered exactly what we did. . .send him to the big toilet bowl in the sky! Yes, I flushed Nemo! But just like the movie I told him "all drains lead to the ocean, go be free!" Not really, I actually just held my breath and flushed. The next morning rolled around and no mention of the fish. Whew, I thought I had dodged a bullet. Then after work we got home and about an hour went by and Emerson came up to me and asked:
"Where is my fish?"
Me: "huh?" complete avoidance, I thought this tactic might work
Emerson: "You know, my fish, the one named Nemo?" which means "duh, Mom, the same darn fish we've had for a year"
Me: hesitantly "well, Emerson, actually Nemo died"
Emerson: "What did you do with him?"
Me: "ummmm. . .(I was really searching for something but I'm not a good liar so I just said it) I flushed him down the potty" oddly enough I sort of chuckled, how morbid?! Maybe it was one of those "not supposed to laugh at death moments"?
Emerson: "You flushed him down the potty? Which one?" Not sure why that's important?
Me: "mine"
Emerson: "okay" she turns to walk away and chuckles and says as she's walking into the other room in her growny nonchalant way, "You should have just put him in the trash."

Lesson learned: Don't sweat the small stuff, just put it in the trash!

Cullen turns 2!

Cullen turned 2 on October 2nd. I really cannot believe that 2 years have flown by. It has truly been a blur. I hope that the next few years slow down a little so I can have time to soak it all in!

Cullen is amazed by the candles!

Blue icing is the best! Playing with the loot. . .Go Diego Go!!!

Better late than never

I finally took the time to upload a few new pictures. These were taken about a month ago. Here it is 2 weeks into November and I'm just now getting around to posting pumpkin patch pictures. At this rate maybe I'll have up Halloween pictures by Christmas, Thanksgiving pictures by New Year's and Christmas pictures up by Easter!!!

Emerson does this silly smile that cracks me up!

My favorite pic of the day!