Emma loves to get a reaction out of Lucy and knows exactly how to infiltrate Lucy's high sense of order and create ensuing chaos. The other day Lucy came running to me complaining, "Mom, Emma is eating books again!" Although I try not to respond to tattling from either daughter, I just had to see for myself what Lucy was talking about.
"Rooaarrrr!" says Emma. I know it is hard to believe that someone so cute and cuddly could be responsible for such chaos. But that is actually part of her tactic I believe. Here she is below snuggling Aunt Jane.
Emma is very affectionate and loves to give multiple kisses in a row and snuggle with whoever is willing. We blame Emma for several highly contagious sicknesses we've experienced over the last month. First she had a horrible stomach flu. A day after Emma recovered, Will woke up in the middle of the night to a strange feeling - someone was plastering his face with wet kisses. When he was fully awake he realized in horror that Emma had essentially given him the kiss of death. Not even 24 hours later, and Will was stricken with the worst stomach bug I have ever witnessed. Lucy and I avoided both of their kisses like the plague after that.
About a week later, I spent an entire Sunday service trying to keep Emma's fingers out of her nose. At one point, we exchanged the sign of peace with our fellow parishioners and the people around us were charmed by Emma's sweet "Peace be with you" and tiny hand shakes. They were then equally appalled when they witnessed Emma pick a giant booger out of her nose and hand it to me as soon as the sign of peace was over. About 24 hours later Emma came down with a fever of 104 for several days as well as a bad cough. Subsequent family members fell to the same bug one after the other in the week that followed. I've decided that Emma's chronic nose picking is to blame for one of the sickest winters in our family's history. Now I'm trying to figure out a way to keep Emma's fingers out of her nose and the best solution I have come up with yet is to staple her gloves to her coat and not allow them off in any public setting. Who knew that I would actually tell my child, "You can pick your nose when we get home. Please do not pick your nose in public!"
Emma isn't all trouble fortunately, and has taken a shine to cleaning this past month. It has become increasingly difficult for me to bend down because of Violet, and Emma gladly comes to my rescue. Here she is below vacuuming up crumbs after a meal. She is really good at it, and besides needing help turning it on and off, finds more crumbs to suck up than I would have.
She also enjoys washing dishes and playing in the water. I've found that if she is harassing Lucy, the simple request of a job needing her attention is enough to distract her and restore her golden halo to a more upright angle. She loves to be helpful and is my little domestic diva, working with a smile on her face wearing her pink ruffly tutu.
If Lucy isn't around, Emma is able to play independently quite peacefully. Without buttons to push, she is content for long periods of time on her own. Here she is below playing doll house without the doll house.
Emma's most used phrase is, "I'm hungry." This line is used mostly when she is bored and has her eye on a treat, not actual real food. Here she is below eating the icing from an oreo cookie. She prefers the icing off of donuts, cookies, cakes and even between oreos to the actual cake parts. Once the icing is gone, she is done with the treat and I make my move. I don't mind cookies and cake without icing!
Emma loves practicing ballerina and yoga poses. Here she is below balancing in a pose she calls "dancer".
In the below balancing pose, you can see that Will did her hair for the day. Will follows Emma's style requests to the last detail whereas when I do Emma's hair, I only allow one accessory per day, as I am tired of the trail of accessories she inevitably leaves all over the house, car and the outside world in general.
For Emma, less is definitely not more and she throws every ounce of her being into whatever she is doing from germ catching, sister pestering, helping and having fun. Her enthusiasm is contagious and we love our little girl!
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