Oh, Emma!

Emma.  Emma, Emma, Emma.  Emma has definitely tested our patience this month.  It's a good thing she is cute, because there have been times where all I could say is "Oh, Emma!" in exasperation while throwing my hands in the air.  The other day a friend of mine couldn't think of what Emma's middle name was but knew with certainty what Lucy's was.  Apparently when Lucy tests my patience I say (yell), "Lucy Anne!" but when Emma tires me out it is simply, "Oh, Emma!"  I guess Emma Elise sounds too sweet in times of frustration.  Either that or Lucy has worn me down to the point where there is no yelling at my second born daughter, just quiet desperation.

I know you will find it hard to believe that the cute comedian below would ever entice me to feel anything but love.  But this almost three year old definitely is capable of eliciting many emotions from her mother, on all ends of the feeling spectrum.

As a matter of fact, it comes as a sort of relief that Will has also been exhibiting Frustrated Parent Syndrome when it comes to Emma's antics.  Lately our routine when Will comes home from work is to take the girls outside to play in the snow while I collect my sanity and maybe even start to make dinner.  The other day Emma refused to put on pants, socks or boots.  In a final act of desperation, Will told her, "Fine, Emma - go outside."  Emma looked at Will with shock on her face, then she looked down at her bare legs and feet, and then back up at Will.  At which point Will asked for the last time, "Are you sure you don't want to put your pants, socks and boots on?"  Emma gleefully yelled, "NO!" and ran outside.  Upon hearing the door open and close way too fast for what I know to be the timeline of getting Emma ready to go outside, I curiously went to the window and saw Emma pausing, barefoot in the driveway, before cautiously and then happily running through the snow-filled backyard.  Shocked at what was taking place and concerned about frost bite I got on to Will for being mean.  He nervously reassured me that she would figure it out and come back begging for shoes.  We both watched with our mouths hanging open for a second (which felt more like ten minutes) and then I started hounding Will to go get her, for clearly she must not be able to feel her feet at all.  Why else would she seem uninhibited by bare feet in the snow?  Will's resolve was fading fast, but he kept telling me she would learn.  Fortunately for us, seconds later Emma slipped on a patch of ice and fell on her underwear clad bottom.  Finally, tears and crying!  Will rushed outside, scooped her up and brought her in.  His message of wisdom to her: "If you had your shoes and boots on you wouldn't have fallen on the ice!"  I would like to say that she has gotten dressed to go outside without a hassle from here on out, but alas, that is not the case.  It appears natural consequences are not the mode of learning for this child.

The other day Lucy came crying to us that Emma broke a bed in her doll house.  When I asked Emma how it happened, she said, "I climbed in for a nap and it went snap!"  A bit of super glue later, the bed was fixed but our sides definitely still hurt from laughing.

Emma was a very shy baby and can still be quite shy.  Lately, we have been surprised by her socialness.  She is always referring to her classmates in dance class as her best friends, and when class is over can be seen being silly and giving hugs to them.  Lucy and Emma started an All By Myself Science Story Time at our library this past month and the other day as I was peeking through the one way glass to see how the girls were faring I saw Emma sitting in the back of the class giggling and whispering to a little girl next to her.  Will and I are both shocked by how she has come out of her shell, and very pleased as well.  Will mentioned that he felt strange that he was proud to hear that Emma was talking during class!  I told him that I felt the same way, and that maybe we are just relieved to see signs of Emma being socially comfortable.  Speaking of socially comfortable, Emma apparently has a boyfriend.  I am happy to report that he comes from a good family and that his mother has already assured me that he loves cooking and cleaning.

Oh, Emma.  She is fast approaching three years old and is known around our house as a wild comedian with a carefree attitude whose favorite thing when she isn't harassing Lucy is to snuggle with her mama.  We are currently trying to get Emma to sleep in her own bed through the night and so I am trying to increase our snuggle time during the day.  It really is bittersweet to finally take a stand and not allow her in our bed as I really do enjoy our cuddles.  However, with my growing belly and Violet's arrival less than four months away, it is time.  So for now, it feels like I have a newborn with the constant sleep disturbances of bringing Emma back to her bed in as gentle a way as possible.  Thank goodness though, that unlike a newborn needing to nurse, Will can and does take shifts with Emma.  Hopefully by the time I write her next blog post we will have made some accomplishments towards this goal.  Here's my little snuggle bunny below, helping me make muffins.  Oh, Emma, you really are our little sweetie!

December

December was a busy month at our house as we did our best to prepare ourselves for Christmas.  It has been particularly cold and snowy which provided us with plenty of opportunities to put our holiday to do lists aside and enjoy some crisp air and exercise.  The girls built the little snowman pictured below in the top right hand corner with my hands-off tutelage one afternoon.  Will then came home from work and out did us with the snowman he built in the bottom right hand corner.  He's a competitive kid at heart and also enjoys the workout of pulling nearly eighty pounds of dead weight in the form of two giggling girls on an orange sled.  The girls also experienced their first solo cruise down a hill near our house and loved it so much they convinced Will to drag them up hill on the sled multiple times so that they could experience the thrill with no work on their part.  Maybe I'd like sledding more too if I had a ski-lift named Will to pull me back up the hill too.  I have been more of a sideline spectator this winter with my belly making it uncomfortable to bend low and roll snow balls and unsafe to pull sleds or ride sleds down hills for that matter.  Fortunately the girls are a bit older and can still find fun in the snow without me joining in.  They definitely love the rare occasions when Will gets home before dark and can play with them in the snow.  I am excited that from here on out the days will be getting longer and they will have more opportunities to play in the snow with Will on weeknights.

Charlie has been a great incentive for Lucy to go outside despite the cold, multiple times a day, if even just for twenty minute bursts at a time.  We have a fairly predictable schedule when Lucy goes outside and Charlie will come to the front window and meow if we are behind.  Charlie went missing for a little over 24 hours this past month and definitely gave us a scare.  We experienced first hand the disadvantage of having a pet with free range of the outdoors.  It was super cold the day he went missing too which added to our worry. He is only four months old, still a kitten.  He showed up the following day soaking wet and looking very grateful to be home.  We immediately smothered him in love then grounded him to the garage and made an appointment that very week for him to be fixed and micro chipped.  We also got him a collar, which he has already lost.  He's lucky he is so darn cute and lovable and we are happy he hasn't wandered far since his long night out.

Our holiday preparations officially started with decorating our Christmas Tree.  We usually put up our tree Thanksgiving weekend, however now that we have someone come in to clean our house, we decided to wait until the following weekend, right after our house was cleaned as we didn't know if we could pass off the dust as a fine layer of snow.  Will and I pride ourselves on our low maintenance holiday decor.  We have two Rubbermaid bins plus the box our Christmas tree is stored in.  We usually have everything out and decorated within two hours - and that is with two extra sets of kid hands helping.  Last year our pre-lit artificial tree started giving us trouble but Will was able to find the lights that had burned out and replace the faulty bulbs individually.  This added on an extra hour to our set up and was mildly irritating but promptly forgotten.  A year later and our tree didn't light up at all.  After several frustrating hours of Will trying to find the problem bulbs we decided it would be in every one's best interest to just buy a couple strings of lights and wrap them on the tree and call it a day.  Unfortunately, this set back sufficiently took away any Christmas spirit we were feeling as the kids had spent the last several hours getting into the decorations, fighting and whining about when they could put the ornaments on the tree.

Also on our holiday preparation list was building a play kitchen for the girls.  I found an image online of what I wanted it to look like and Will took it from there.  He spent about three weeks out in the garage in freezing temperatures with Charlie for company.  Charlie loved being a part of the building and even left his muddy paw prints on it on multiple occasions.  I contributed to the project by taking pictures, sewing some basket liners to store the play food in, and making a set of tea bags out of fabric and wild rice accompanied by a new tea set and a little wooden pot with a honey dipper.  Oh, and I anxiously hounded Will about his timeline and if he really, really thought he could finish in time.  If Will was worried about the deadline, he never let on and he finished with about a day to spare.

The girls and I made pine cone ornaments for our friends and family and enjoyed the simple process with beautiful results.  Will also utilized the paints being out, and gave baby Jesus a face lift by covering up missing paint chips and scratches for our Nativity scene.

We also continued our annual family tradition of decorating a grave blanket for Luke with homemade Christmas ornaments.  This year we painted wooden angels.

Will was quite busy at work this past month, wrapping things up for the end of the year.  The picture on the left shows his serious, hard-working side ready for a long day at work.  The picture on the right shows his fun, hard-working side, ready for an ugly sweater contest at work.  He found the sweater in the women's section at the Salvation Army complete with shoulder pads.  He's a winner in my book.

There are so many great family Christmas events in the town we live in that it is hard to fit them all into our social calendar.  This year we kept it simple and only went to what was our favorite event last year - our church Christmas party.  We had a great time, and the girls even mustered up enough courage to tell St. Nick what they wanted for Christmas.  Lucy asked for Barbies and a teddy bear, and Emma asked for Barbies.  I love the picture in the bottom left of the girls folding their hands to pray before lunch.

Christmas Eve we attended the Children's service at our church.  Last Christmas we were sick and didn't go, so it came as a surprise when we showed up a half hour early and there wasn't a single seat left in the place.  As I was trying to resign myself to an hour and a half of standing in shoes that were too tight while holding Emma, a kind older woman stood up and offered me her seat.  Under normal circumstances I would have never let an older woman give me her seat.  Pregnancy changes all of that.  To say I was relieved and thankful would be an understatement.  I immediately started crying and thanked her.  As I sat down with both kids on my lap - Will was still parking the car in a nearby subdivision - I still couldn't stop crying.  Blame it on pregnancy hormones or blame it on the fact that I was seriously relieved about being able to sit down despite the fact that the entire service was about a woman who gave birth in a stable after riding a donkey all day.  One of the many reasons I was not asked to be the mother of God I suppose.  Either way, my emotional display resulted in two kids who were slightly nervous of my emotional stability and as a result were super well behaved.  Here we are below after the service.  A kind family that we sat/stood next too during mass took our picture and we took theirs.  When they asked if we knew the gender of the baby we were expecting, I told them a girl and must have looked longingly at their family, who clearly had only sons.  The grandmother of the family who didn't speak English told the mom of the family to let me know that she had three daughters and was very happy.  She thought that I would be very happy too.  This really touched my heart and you guessed it, I started crying again.

After a long, icy walk back to our car (did I mention I was wearing black heels that were too tight?) I finally stopped crying and was able to experience the hush of the outdoors on Christmas Eve.  I love being outside on the night before Christmas - it always feels like we are the only people for miles around and everything is still and quiet.  I wouldn't have experienced this outdoor calm voluntarily on a 12 degree night if our car wasn't parked so far away.  The blessings come in such unexpected packages.  

We made it home and enjoyed a quiet evening of just the four of us.  The last thing we told Lucy before she fell asleep was that she couldn't get up until she saw the snowman (8) on her clock.  At 7:30 she finally tip toed into our room and told us, "I've been waiting and waiting, but the snowman just isn't coming!"  7:30 was a completely doable time to start our Christmas day, so we all happily made our way down stairs.  In the top left picture Lucy and Emma are excitedly waiting at the top of the stairs while I went ahead to turn the Christmas tree lights and Christmas music on.  I also snapped a picture of our tree laden with gifts before the storm hit.  The bottom two pictures were taken after the craze of gift opening had subsided - the calm after the storm if you will.

Santa brought exactly what Lucy and Emma had hoped for, as well as a yoga mat for Emma and stockings full of goodies.  Lucy got a box of new underwear and socks from us, and as soon as she opened the box said, "ugh, underwear" and tossed it aside.  Minutes later we found her stripping in front of the Christmas tree, happily trying on her underwear.  Emma enjoyed the distraction of her family and ate all of the chocolate from her stocking while wearing her new tutu.  Will seemed to enjoy his new pajama bottoms, gloves, a silver coin and heirloom seeds as his favorite gifts.  Highlights of what Will got me included a new pair of sunglasses, a wind chime he made himself, beautiful glass jars for storing my kombucha, a cast iron skillet and a kit to start growing my own edible mushrooms.  What can I say, my husband loves me just as I am, and knows exactly what gifts to get me.  

After breakfast the girls had already taken several photo shoots of their new Barbies and had even convinced Will to help put some outfits on their Barbies.

Around this time, Charlie came to the front window meowing.  On a regular morning, Lucy would have already been outside to give Charlie some love and attention.  As soon as the girls saw him, they opened the front door and told Charlie they would be out in a minute.  After quickly getting their winter gear on, the girls went outside and gave Charlie his Christmas presents.  In typical kitten fashion, he loved the wrapping paper more than the gifts.

For Christmas dinner we went to my parents house and the girls were excited to spend time with their cousins.

After Christmas we enjoyed lots of time with friends as well.  We went downtown with friends and timed it so that we would be on Main Street at 5 o'clock when all of the Christmas lights turned on at the same time.  We played "find the pickle" on the Christmas tree with friends, the girls put on a variety show complete with jokes, songs and dancing with some older friends, and they bonded with a new friend (the daughter of my longest time friend) with the cleanup of spilt M and M's.

The girls also had plenty of time to play with their new Christmas presents, their favorites being play silks and wooden clips for making forts, their play kitchen, a new instrument set, Barbies, and Play Doh.

For the last couple of years Will and I have enjoyed a quiet New Years Eve at home.  There is something to be said for bringing in the New Year in the peaceful comfort of your own home.  For a fun family activity on New Year's Eve afternoon, we tried a science experiment where we filled up balloons with water and food coloring and set them outside to freeze.  By evening they were mostly frozen and looked like beautiful crystal gems ready to herald in the New Year on our front porch.

When evening rolled around, we had a picnic dinner of various appetizers while watching a movie and afterwards cuddled on the couch.

Will and I did stay awake until midnight, but our peaceful night was shattered when the neighbors started sending off fireworks that sounded like cannon balls causing both girls to wake up screaming at the stroke of midnight.  After a quick Happy New Year's kiss, we scrambled up from the couch and climbed the stairs to calm down our frightened kids.  Emma wouldn't be comforted until we let her sleep in our bed (normally she slips in when we are sleeping so it was a big deal for her to have conscious agreement) and Lucy finally fell back asleep after we turned her closet light on and promised that the fireworks were done for the night.  As I tried to get comfortable with Emma breathing my air and hogging the covers, I couldn't help but reflect on 2013.  It was a year of huge emotional growth for me, from how I react to and view the world, to overcoming anxieties and launching a new business as well as Will accepting a new job and me overcoming some health issues with determination and new insights.  2013 was quite a year, and I definitely feel older, wiser and grateful as a result.

Even with the rough start to the first couple of minutes of 2014, I wouldn't have chosen to spend it with anyone else.  It is a wonderful feeling to bring in the New Year with the people you love most in the world in my most favorite place in the world and I am looking forward to 2014 and meeting the newest member of my favorite little family.

Here's to a happy and healthy New Year to all of my friends and family.  May your 2014 be filled with all of your favorite people and places too!