Our Girls

Emily asked to have a bite of my yogurt for lunch and I agreed to share with her after she finished what was already on her plate. 45 minutes after the start of lunch time she was still working on her lunch. It was just a slow lunch day and that was ok, because there wasn't anything pressing on our schedule. So I decided to throw in a load of laundry while she finished up. A few minutes later, I leaned out from the laundry room to check on her and she wasn't in her chair. She was in MY chair finishing MY yogurt. Mom: What are you doing? Em: Eating your yogurt. (big smile) Mom: I thought the deal was you had to finish your food first - then you could have my yogurt. Em: I asked you. Mom: You did? When? (I know I'm sleep deprived, but not crazy!) Em: While you were in the laundry room. Mom: I didn't hear you ask. Em: I know. That's why I answered for you. I said, "Can I eat your yogurt?" And you said nothing. So then I said "Yes Emily you can!". ...

Brigitte, I know that I e-mailed you that Emily LOVED her music card. I'm not sure you know how much she LOVES it! She sings it all the time! I had never heard this Disney song before, but we found the entire version on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jccfUirgQK4 Thanks Brigitte!

Our conversation today at lunch: Mom: Em eat your hot dog. Em: I need more ketchup. Please pass the ketchup. Mom: You already have some on your plate. Please use what is there. Em: You are not giving me what I asked for. And I said please. And I think you are bossy. No one likes it when you tell them what to do. Mom: Well, when you are a mom, you get to tell your kid what to do sometimes. Em: I am a kid and I am telling you that you are bossy. Mom: You are right. I am the boss. You are a kid and are not a boss. Now, eat your hot dog please. Em a few minutes later: When do I get to be the boss? Mom: Just please eat.

Kate is way to young to be doing these big tricks. But here she is. All of 5 months. Her latest trick is going from this "all 4's" position to sitting.

Here are my beautiful girls all dressed and ready to go to a party. Emily is such a good big sister. Always wanting to give Kate toys, hugs, and lots of kisses. And Kate just adores her big sister! She watches her every move. No one can make Kate smily like Emily:) Lots of kisses from big sister!

Emily does not enjoy doing arts and crafts on a regular basis like I do...however, every now and then I can get her to have some fun painting. Last week I just set out the paints and brushes and this is the project she came up with. I have found that I am more successful if I don't guide her along the way. I just supply materials and she decides what to do with them. A girl with a mind of her own - making her own choices. Her paint smock was a gift from Great Grandpa Dick. It actually was one of his old work shirts. And it is well loved:)

Emily: Daddy your teeth are so clean and sparkly. How do you get them clean? Daddy: I brush them. Emily: Hmmmm. What do you think about my teeth Daddy? (HUGE cheesy smile) Daddy: Your teeth are beautiful Em. That's why you have to brush them. Emily: I don't need to brush them because you just said they were beautiful right now.

Every time we go to St. Louis it seems like we go to the zoo. So this time we decided to shake it up a bit and headed off to Grant's Farm. Emily LOVED feeding the baby goats. She will tell you that one goat drank it all! Kate enjoyed a snack in the privacy of a little pavilion tucked away from the heavily traveled path. Emily had her first ever snow cone. Guess what color? Mommy and Em comparing their blue tongues. We also saw the elephant show while we were at Grant's Farm. Emily's favorite part she will tell you is when the elephant walked on the balance beam backwards! "It's just like I do it at Tumble Bees!" she said.

Here is Kate just chillin' in the hotel room with Em's friends Donald and Minnie.

Here we are at the top of the arch. Emily thought it was really cool going up in the "train". She also enjoyed looking out the window for a few minutes. (As a side note: We have no idea who the little boy is next to her. But they had a great conversation about what was outside.) Kate didn't really enjoy looking out the window much, she was really just along for the ride:) A cool picture of the arch's shadow - taken from the top of the arch. Out the other windows you can see cardinals stadium. Emily immediately recognized it and said, "Hey! That is where we went to watch the Cardinals play baseball!" We were amazed at not only her memory, but the fact that she actually looked at the stadium when we were there. We thought all she paid attention to was Fred Bird:) Kate and Mommy at the top of the arch waiting to go back down.

As parents, Andrew and I normally get an average score of 7/10 for patience (on good days). We try not to rush our 3 year old because we know it just won't work. And most likely it will make things worse. One morning, as we were leaving the hotel, our patience was GREATLY tested. Emily has this little toy dog (Fluffy) that walks on a leash. She wanted Fluffy to walk (ever so slowly) all the way to the car. She would let it take about 5 steps and then stop to push the button for it to bark. Then she would have it walk again about 5 puppy steps (which equaled about 5 inches). It literally took us more than 10 minutes just to get off the elevator. When we got close to the front door, Andrew finally convinced her that Fluffy had walked so much that he was tired and needed a rest. Emily happily picked him up and carried him the rest of the way to the car. Maybe you had to be there. But this was quite an event. We figured it took such a big part of our vacation time that it should have a...

So Fitz's in St. Louis is no where as cool as Fritz's in Kansas City, but we had to try it to compare. Emily enjoyed a kids meal that was brought to her in a little paper car. If we had gotten there earlier in the morning we would have seen them bottle root beer. That may have been kinda cool - so I think we will go back:) First taste of root beer:) She said it made her mouth bubbly. Kate wanting her first sip- but Daddy and Mommy said "no".

Em touched a static electric ball and Em's hair went nuts. We stood in a big bubble. And played with air and balls. Kate played with her toys.

Still at the Magic House (which really doesn't contain much magic, but is more rather a glorified children's museum), Emily pretended to be President. She was making phone calls "Hello Barack?" Then she went to work where Daddy works. At the court house. And then off to a construction site. Emily was into dressing up at each station. And she got to sit in a front loader. Luckily she didn't have the key.

We took a family vacation to St. Louis this year. We intended to head farther south to Memphis, but it took us 3 1/2 hours to get just to the 'lou. So we decided that Memphis would be there another year. As it turned out, St. Louis is a GREAT place to take kids. Emily had a wonderful time. The first stop was the Magic House. They had an exibit of all the Fairy Tales. Emily's favorite was of course Cinderella. Here is a picture of her climbing the bean stalk. and riding in Cinderella's coach. Em said, "I need a prince. Where's my daddy?" So Daddy climbed in and was her prince. The glass slipper fit just perfect.

Katelyn could not get enough of her first taste of rice cereal.

The Bible School at our church starts at age 4. But the age requirement for our cousins church is much younger. SOOOOO, Emily got to attend all 5 days and absolutely LOVED it. She came home telling stories of the crazy professor, and couldn't wait to go back the next day. That Sunday Andrew and I attended their church service and got to watch her sing and dance with all the other kids. We can't wait till next year!