Emma's Half Birthday

I am happy to report that ALL of Emma's teeth are finally in!  She has returned to her sunny little self, and peace and harmony has been restored once again at the Timmerman house.  Now if Emma could conquer her fears, maybe she would sleep through the night in her own bed.  The other night when I was tucking Emma in I asked her what she was afraid of.  She told me, "Garbage trucks and 'wood chips'."  It took me several questions to figure out what about 'wood chips' are so scary.  I mean, I for one cannot get the image from Fargo out of my mind, but I know for a fact she has never seen that movie!  Finally, she told me that 'wood chips' are in the Puff the Magic Dragon song book that we read regularly.  The light bulb went on for me then - pirate ships!  Emma is afraid of garbage trucks and pirate ships.  Fortunately for us, the pirate ships do not come by once a week like the garbage trucks.

I'll tell you something that I am afraid of - being caught unprepared in the midst of a mothering moment in public.  These fears came true last week after story time at the library.  The girls needed to use the bathroom and our library has a pint-sized toilet just their size that usually makes potty time in public a breeze.  Lucy used the potty without a hitch, and then it was Emma's turn.  Usually I hold her on the regular sized toilets so she doesn't fall in, but I let her take care of business this time, since she could get on this child-sized toilet all by herself.  No sooner did she sit down, then her pee shot straight out of her onto her pants, underwear, shoes and the floor.  I am embarrassed to admit that I tried catching the stream with my bare hands to avoid her pants getting wet.  That's the funny thing about liquid though - it's hard to catch.  I was left with a problem on my hands in more ways than one.  I had no diaper bag with a set of spare clothes.  I couldn't very well put the wet pants on her and yet I couldn't let her walk out of the library with nothing but a shirt on either.  In a moment of inspiration I noticed Lucy was wearing a dress with leggings... we left the library giggling with Emma wearing Lucy's leggings commando and Lucy looking none the less fashionable in her dress.  Here the pair are below, after Lucy rescued the day.

Emma's big sister is always looking out for her, even when it comes time for picture taking.  It may look like Lucy is choking Emma, but I assure you, she is just making sure Emma looks at the camera.

Emma doesn't get away with much with Lucy around and I have been trying to figure out how to encourage Lucy to keep Emma safe but to not be a tattletale either.  It seems Emma is always in to something.  Here she is below before I caught her with my phone taking pictures.  According to Will the former art teacher, the below picture has a very nice visual flow to it.

 I found Emma by following the paper trail to this...

I have heard Emma ask me for something, and then when she doesn't like the answer, go ask Will.  The other day I overheard this conversation:

Emma: "I want a donut."

Will: "We just ate dinner.  We can have a donut in the morning."

Emma: "But Daddy!  The donuts are going to melt!"

Happy half birthday to our funny, curious and sweet girl Emma!

Ah, September

The learning curve of our new life seems to be leveling off.  The transition of summer into September was relatively painless.  It helped that we had already adjusted to Will being back to work for quite some time and that the girls really are becoming quite independent.  That's not to say that Will's first day of school wasn't without it's hiccups at home.  Don't get me wrong, it was nothing like Will's first day back to school last Fall.  However, it did have me mopping and cleaning up after my independent girls for a good part of our morning.  Why is it that the moment I am on the phone, Lucy and Emma devise all sorts of new and creative ways to get into trouble?  I needed to answer a call regarding the sale of some of our math posters and the girls were ignoring my wild hand gestures to be quiet and leave me alone.  So naturally, I locked myself into the office closet where they could no longer see me and I could no longer hear them.  I emerged no longer than five minutes later to a quiet house.  Suspicious, I found the two of them in the kitchen, standing on chairs pulled up next to the counter cracking eggs.  Emma turned when she saw me and proudly told me, "Mom!  We're making scramble eggs!"  My heart sank as I realized that they had discovered the full basket of about two to three dozen fresh eggs on the counter.  My heart slipped and splatted on the ground when I saw the egg yolk dripping off the counter, the bowl of scrambled eggs with finely shattered egg shells and the pile of cracked eggs on the counter.  They had even added milk to the eggs.  The below picture does not do the mess justice.

There was nothing to do but start cleaning and of course heat up the eggs.  We had scrambled eggs for lunch and neither girl commented on the crunch.  As I was cleaning up, I couldn't help but have this deep thought about parenthood - there really is no free ride.  A quiet phone call is paid for in egg yolk counters, cupboards and floors.  A kid-free night out is paid for with both kids waking up the minute we come home and spending the rest of the night in our bed.  Distraction-free time to pay the bills is paid in double by the destroyed house, toys and household items strewn everywhere.  Ah, parenthood.

But then there is Ah, childhood.  And watching Ah, childhood definitely helps equal out the Ah, parenthood parts.  Kids sure know how to let go and live in the moment...

They know how to embrace joy from the smallest of things.  And watching their excitement over each new thing learned is an amazing feeling.

Their silliness...along with their dad's...

...as well as watching their imaginations unfold is something I wouldn't miss for all of the uncracked eggs in the world.

Since this is Lucy's last year before going to Kindergarten, I have been reading lots of books (big shock, I know!) about kids, how they develop, and their natural curiosity and love for learning.  It's not so much about me teaching Lucy, but more about me providing the environment for learning to naturally unfold for her.  I am keeping my mind open to all possibilities for next year, including the wonderful public school three doors down from us, private school options and homeschooling.  In the meantime, I am trying not to take having Lucy home with me for granted, even between the time-outs, sassiness and her being over naps.  It is also nice that Lucy and Emma have each other as well.  Their relationship is as follows - Lucy is constantly practicing self-control and the consequences from losing said self-control when Emma doesn't follow Lucy's directions on how to play, and Emma is constantly rebelling and then minutes later doing whatever it takes to make Lucy happy again.

We were able to find a dance studio that let Emma join, despite the age range of most beginner studio classes being for three to five year olds.  We are really happy with the studio we found, and Lucy and Emma's good friend is also in class with them.  Emma is so proud to be in a class with the big kids.

I have been trying to find practical applications to various skills that Pre-K kids should learn and fell into embroidery this summer.  The girls love sewing with yarn through burlap, which has enough holes evenly distributed throughout the fabric to make pushing the needle in and out doable for their little hands.  It is amazing to me how fast Lucy went from random stitching to being able to follow a pattern and sew in backstitch.  I am thinking this could be a good way for Lucy to learn her alphabet - through stitching.  Emma enjoys being along for the ride.

Friends of ours invited us to a Family Fun Day at a park by their house this past month, and we had a great time.  Here the girls are below after getting their face painted.  Lucy was super excited about having lipstick for the first time, but found out that there must be an art form to eating a hot dog while wearing lipstick because when the hot dog was gone, so was her lipstick.

We also enjoyed live music, wagon rides, cricket catching and t-shirt painting with our friends.  It was a great morning.

Our fall harvest is in full swing and I have to say that I am ready for the garden to be done.  I am at the point where I am OVER green beans, pears, tomatoes, apples, potatoes and anything else our garden seems to be tirelessly producing still.  Will is going to be hard-pressed to find me running out to cover the crops before a frost this fall.  A frost will be nature's way of letting me off the hook of all of this food production!  Canning, freezing, drying, fermenting...I'm over it!  This is an important milestone for us to remember next spring when we ambitiously plant our garden.  We have reached our maximum capacity!  The below picture I am most proud of is the crock pot of stew in which all of the ingredients except the beef were from our garden.  That is a really nice feeling, despite my exhaustion with homegrown produce.  Also, I must note that the apples are not from our yard, but from the courtyard at Will's school.  Our apple trees didn't do so hot this year so I think we are going to give them one more year before we decide if we should pull them out and plant something a bit more hardy.  The five apples from each tree were delicious, but too little for the space they are taking up.

Ah, September!  We are already enjoying October and looking forward to the first frost!

Emma at 29 Months

Emma has been working on her last pair of two year molars and as I type this, they are about 50% through.  I am really hoping for a complete mood turnaround when those teeth are finished ripping through Emma's gums.  She hasn't been sleeping well and has been clingy and cranky as well.  Yesterday I took a shower while she stood outside the curtain tearfully repeating, "Mama, I need you, Mama, I need you" over and over again.  When I ask her what she needs, she just says, "I need you."  Emma has little tolerance for Will, and even less tolerance for Lucy.  All she wants is me, which is hard to do 24/7.  With that being said, the following pictures and stories of Emma this past month will reveal her good moments and the fact that she is still our sweet, funny and cuddly little girl.  Here she is below baby-wearing her doll much like I think she would like to be attached to me.

Emma is our little thrill seeker and likes to swing with her head upside down.  It scares the heck out of me, but as you can see below, she loves it.

 Emma likes wearing her fairy tutu everywhere she goes...

...and enjoys playing dress up with lots of jewelry.

However, when it comes to getting dressed in the morning, she really doesn't have a preference about what she wears and is fine with me picking out her clothes.  This is a change for me, as Lucy has been picking out her clothes as soon as she learned how to open her dresser drawers and would sooner stay in her room forever than wear something I picked out for her.  Emma would really rather not be bothered by outfit coordination and is happy to have the decisions made for her.

She's definitely a goof-ball.  Here she is below after she discovered the cold-air vents Marilyn Monroe style while we were shopping.

I've noticed that when she is hanging out with the older kids, which happens more than not, she pulls out all of her comedy tricks.  Here she is below with her friend Grace who Emma refers to as her "best friend."  Grace is Lucy's age, but that doesn't stop Emma.  In fact, all of Emma's friends are her "best friends."  She talks about being best friends all the time and when she is fighting with Lucy will yell, "You're not my best friend any more!"

Emma likes to help.  Well, let me explain with an example that shows her mood this month combined with her underlying desire to be a big girl and her lack of tolerance for Lucy.

Me: "Emma, can you please get the ketchup out of the fridge?"
Emma: "NO.  CAN'T.  I'm too busy."
Lucy: "I'll get it Mom!"
Emma: "NOOOOOOOO!  I GET IT!  "
Lucy: "Mom!  Emma hit me!"
Emma: "Lucy not let me get the ketchup!  I get the ketchup!  I get the ketchup!"

The below pictures will make the above scenario seem impossible, but here they are anyways.  Below, Emma is happily helping me whip cream for some homemade, you guessed it, whipped cream.

In the next picture, Emma wanted to help Will push the stroller.  She ended up just hanging from the handle bar.

Finally, in the next picture, Emma took it upon herself to help keep the chickens from going through the fence into our neighbor's yard after we let them out of their pen to graze on the bugs and grass in our yard.  Here she is below, keeping guard with a rake.

I asked Emma the other day why she didn't like sleeping in her own bed, as she keeps sneaking into ours in the middle of the night.  Emma responded with, "Because there are no people in my bed!"  I had no response for this.  Here is Emma below, sleeping in her bed so sweetly I had to take a picture.  I'm sure two hours later she had climbed into our bed.

Let's hope by next month's post those molars will be done wrecking havoc on our poor girl!

Do You Wanna, Ship Ship Shewana

One of the last weekends in August we took a trip to Shipshewana, Indiana to pick up our built-in dresser and to have a little bit of rest and relaxation.  We have been to Shipshewana several times before and usually average about one trip a year.  You could say that Will and I have a weakness for solid, quarter-sawn oak furniture and this town has wood craftsmen at every turn.  Here Will is below, loading up a nightstand and our built-in dresser.

We usually stay at a locally owned hotel in Shipshewana that has a homemade Amish breakfast each morning, a pool, and the best Amish restaurant in town for dinner.  This year however, since we had furniture sitting in the back of an open trailer we decided to look for different accommodations that could house the furniture so that we could stay longer.  We found a great camp ground that had mini cabins available complete with two full-sized beds, a bathroom and all of the linens we would need.  They agreed to house our trailer in one of their over sized sheds until we left on Sunday.  Here are the girls below taking a giant drink after our long car ride while Will and I set up "camp".

 Will and I have been dreaming for a while now about buying a pop-up camper, however have been held back by not only our budget, but the fact that our car really can't pull one and where would we store it.  After our little cabin trip in August, we have revised our dreams.  In a matter of minutes we were set up for the weekend and could start relaxing.  Since Will and I aren't the best at relaxing to begin with, this type of vacation was perfect for us - we were still close to nature but without all of the packing, unpacking, setting up and taking down.  We sat on our porch swing on the cabin's covered porch and watched with great interest as the campers nearby painstakingly set up their giant jet stream and another family spent several hours setting up their tent.

One unfilled item on our summer bucket list was in fact to go camping.  Our last minute decision to try out a cabin at a campground was the perfect solution.  My toe was still not completely healed at this point, so I was nervous about public restrooms and couldn't even think about lakes and swimming pools.  I was able to bring all of my wound care products and soaked my foot twice a day in the comfort of our cozy and clean cabin with indoor plumbing.

The girls were so excited about the cabin that they were literally bouncing off the walls.  The first night Will and I had intended for the girls to sleep in one bed with us in the other.  At about 10:30 that first night, Will and I threw in the towel on having a nice evening on the porch while the kids slept.  We literally bear hugged each kid into separate beds and held them until they finally fell asleep.  I'm not going to lie - this was NOT our idea of a vacation.  I tossed and turned all night next to Emma, the great sleeping somersaulter.  The following night I had an idea.  I had wanted to watch a foreign film for quite some time but hadn't been able to convince Will of it since he isn't a fan of subtitles.  Given no other options, he decided that subtitles weren't so bad, and downloaded it onto our laptop.  Once the girls were in bed - still awake mind you - Will and I snuggled up to watch the movie.  Since neither girls understand French or could read the subtitles they were asleep in no time and Will and I were able to enjoy a nice and relaxing evening together.  I slept much better that night and so did everyone else.

It was nice waking up each morning (early, thanks to the kids!) and stepping outside to the cool quietness of the farming community.  We enjoyed the peaceful setting and even found a giant turtle by our cabin.

Shipshewana also boasts some yummy Amish food.  It really is quite ridiculous that we write notes to ourselves for future visits that state things like, "Do not waste a single calorie on pointless food.  Make every bite count."  There is a certain bakery with amazing cinnamon rolls, a food wagon with fried pocket (a.k.a. greasy goodness) pies, a hot pretzel stand, popcorn, and of course an all you can eat Amish buffet complete with chicken, potatoes, gravy, buttered noodles and all the fixin's.  The good news is we have learned how to sample all of that rich, tasty food without getting too sick and bloated.  First off, never let Will order the food.  He has a complex where he is afraid there won't be enough and as a result always orders way too much.  I order, and only one of each item we are craving.  Then we split it four ways and move on to the next treat.  We do not waste stomach space on any food we do not like just because the other person likes it.  Also, we throw balanced eating out the window - with no guilt.  Shipshewana businesses have limited hours, so we insanely plan out each snack and meal based on which day and what time each is available.  To say that we have become food connoisseurs of Amish food would be snobby, but to say that we have been there a time or two and know good food when we see it would be accurate.

To give you an idea as to how focused I was on not wasting calories - the ice cream shop on the campgrounds that we stayed at didn't even tempt me - the kids had ice cream both days we were there but for once in my life, all the amazing Amish food I was saving my stomach for trumped ice cream.  I think it was the first time Will had ever seen me say no to ice cream.

We had a wonderful time on our mini-vacation and it was a nice end to an otherwise busy and stressful summer.  It was just what we needed.  Good food, good furniture, and good family times.

August Work and then Play

August was jam-packed with what felt like more work than play.  Here is Will off to work as "King of the School" as Lucy tells people.  He is really enjoying his new position and we are hopefully riding the tail end of the learning curve as we adjust to Will being gone more.

This King has another kingdom to run when he gets home, and he will be the first to admit that behind every great King is a marvelous Queen.  Ahem, ahem.  Here he is below changing the breaks on his Queen's chariot.

He also put in a new royal bathtub for the princesses.

Finally, he installed a built in dresser in our bedroom to save on space.  Our upstairs is actually built into the roof and has dead space in the walls where the roof slopes down.  There are three more "dead spaces" in our upstairs that I am excited to create more built ins as time and money permit.  Here is Will below prepping the space for the dresser.  First, he cut a whole in the wall in our closet between the studs to make sure there were no hidden skeletons.

We were relieved to find out it was empty.  We found two pennies, one from 1981 and another from 1995 so the wall hadn't been closed up as long as we had thought.  Next we had to move the new dresser up the stairs.  This was the most difficult part of the entire project and I prayed fervently as my brother helped Will get the solid oak furniture up our narrow and winding stairs.  I kept promising them that they would never have to bring it back down!

The dresser made it up with only a couple of nicks on the wall and some sore muscles for Will and John.  It fit quite nicely into the wall, so that was a huge relief!  We designed the dresser through the mail and over the phone with an Amish furniture producer in Indiana who had never seen the space himself.

Below is the before and after.  If you look really close, you will notice that my toe is finally better!  From the fourth of July (when the before picture was taken) to Labor Day it was badly infected despite various efforts to help heal it.  After the last official holiday salute to summer, it is finally better.  But I digress.  

Will is very thorough in his demolition and installation but has a hard time remembering the clean up.  He didn't tarp anything when he cut into the wall - which was a double layer of plaster and drywall - and as a result every stitch of fabric in our room had to be washed - all of our bedding, and every piece of clothing we own.  After I got over my anger about the work Will had created for me, it became a really good way for us to weed through a ton of clothes to donate when the question came down to not, "Will I ever wear this again," but, "Do I really want to wash this?"

The most exciting project we worked on this past month was for our new educational poster business.  We had our first shipment of posters come in and were faced with the job of collating 7,000 pieces of paper into 1,000 poster sets.  We hired my teenage brother and sister to help collate and my parents came along and volunteered their time to the cause.  It took two solid days and several serious paper cuts, but we got the job done.  Lucy and Emma had fun helping as well - their job was to put caps on the mailing tubes.  Only mild panic set in when I realized that they were capping ALL of the tubes and we had to go through each and every one of them to find out which had posters in them already and which ones did not.  Minor set backs!  We are feeling very fortunate for the over sized garage and good weather to house our assembly line and inventory.

By the end of August we were feeling quite burned out and forced ourselves to make some time for relaxing.  Fortunately, our time spent in the garden is fun for us.  Below is a picture of our garden this past month, the rhubarb bed we planted this summer, and our peach tree.

Below are the sunflowers Lucy and Emma planted this past spring.  They really make the garden beautiful and the girls are so proud of them.  Next year they want to plant even taller ones!

Lucy got a little creative the other day when she found herself in the garden with lots to harvest but no basket on hand.

August's harvest included a dozen peaches from our peach tree, the last of the season's blueberries, pounds and pounds of green beans, peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes and pears.  Oh, and of course eggs.

I suffer from a disorder that sees baked good and other processed foods whenever I look at fresh produce.  I wish I could just eat the produce unprocessed and be satisfied, but my mind immediately wanders to the pancakes and muffins fresh blueberries will make, the cheesecake and oven-puffed pancakes and sauces the pears will enhance, the three bean salad and dilly beans the green beans were made for and of course the peach cobbler God clearly intended peaches to be used for.  Not to mention the zucchini that should only be eaten in muffins, the kale that can only be eaten as chips and the plums for plum buckle.  Oh, and I almost forgot about the luscious strawberry rhubarb cobbler!  If I could just get over this disorder, then maybe I could lose these last 15 pounds!  Below is a picture of the blueberry pancakes and muffins, ginger pear cheesecake (heaven!) and a mason jar of my first batch of freshly brewed kambucha (a fermented sweet tea drink stocked full with beneficial probiotics).

 Lucy has been very helpful these days.  In the below right picture, she stocked the toilet paper in the downstairs bathroom for me.  It reminded me of a quote by George S. Patton that says, "Never tell people how to do things.  Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity."

In the above middle picture Lucy is helping me babysit a friend of our's baby.  She absolutely loves helping me with babies and is looking forward to the day when she is old enough to go babysitting on her own.  The left bottom picture above is of Emma putting her finger in the ringlet of curls cascading from Lucy's forehead.  At least someone looked good in the humid weather we had this past month!

I bought some beads and string on clearance at the local craft store this past month.  Lucy and Emma were excited to try their hand at jewelry making and did an amazing job.  Lucy made patterns all on her own and Emma was able to string the tiny beads with no problem.  It was fun for me to sit back and watch their little minds creating.

It has also been fun to sit back with my feet up in the yard and watch them play.  This is possible a bit more now that Lucy has learned to swing herself this summer and fortunately Emma is content to do "belly swings" as she calls it and use her feet to kick off and swing herself.  Here they are below laying on a blanket, watching the clouds go by.  Lucy has been interested in clouds and the proper names of them so we are learning all about cumulus, stratus, cirrus and nimbus clouds with help from some library books.

 Lucy told Will the other day after she came inside from an afternoon of running around the yard barefoot, "Dad, I think I have your feet."  When Will asked why, she responded with, "Because they are dirty."

Thank goodness for the little girls in our life to help us balance out all of our hard work with giggles, play and someone to help me eat all of the baked goods!