Our Girls

Katie in the swing is like oreos being deep-fried: it brings happiness to all. Katie LOVES her new swing - well new to her I guess, it's already got like 10,000 miles on it from Emily but she should get used to handmedowns right? Anyway she has a constant smile when you push her in the swing, but when Emily starts swinging right next to her: hilarious. I have never heard Katie laugh so hard as when she watches Emily swing. Katie just giggles uncontrollably. It's infectious. I start laughing and then Katie looks at me like 'Why do you think this is funny' and then she'll turn, see Emily swinging again and just bust up. Just thinking about it is making me laugh. In the grand Ringo tradition Katie is amusing others by amusing herself. Print Page

We GOT A DOG!!!!!!!!!!! We are all super-psyched. Actually only Jessica and I know about it (of the people who live in our house that is). Tuesday morning, Aunt Mary emailed out a post from a friend of hers who had a dog available. Andrew didn't get this email. But he DID get a forward from Aunt Nancy who included the post about the dog as a Joke. Clearly, she did not realize that when one lives with Emily dogs are no laughing matter. Also we'd reached a whole new level in Emily's pining for a pet: on Sunday BT got a dog. You'll be pleased to know that its name was Kirteen. Not to be outdone, by Emily's imaginary gang, Andrew and Jessica decided upon getting Nancy's forward to check out the dog. We met Archie (who for a day or two had gone by the alias of "Benny" in case any of you knew him from those days) and decided to make the leap into puppy parenthood. He's a 1 year old Wauzer (a westie and a schnauzer - a wauzer), he's house-traine...

Coming to a runway near you. These stylish ruffle-flare pajama bottoms are accented by a makeshift blue belt consisting of a headband. The well-tailored pajama top completes the ensemble. The color blue and ladybugs command both a viewers attention and a certain sense of whimsy that says - I may go to sleep in these pajamas, but I will sleep looking good. Which is all to say that Aunt Tracy sewed Emily pajamas and she was very excited about it. We may be nominating Aunt Tracy for Amish person of the year soon. We're hoping she next turns her attention to barn-raising or butter-churning . Print Page

Katie got her first indoctrination into the ways of the Tigers last weekend. We got free tickets to the Mizzou Volleyball game and loaded the entire clan into the car for the event. And quite the event it was. Katie met a certain gigantic Tiger named Truman As you can see she was ecstatic. Daddy and Katie bonded during the match. Katie might have been more interested in the flashing lights of the scoreboard than the actual game, but I'd like to imagine that every time she put a finger in her mouth it was her way of saying M-I-Z! It's that giant Tiger again! He's everywhere! Emily - it is fair to say- is mildly obsessed with the Truman. When we go to MU events she is like a Truman GPS. 'Truman's up there now Daddy....Now he's with the cheerleaders...Did you guys see what Truman did?" Emily's near constant updates mean that someday she will be a Twitter superstar. She was very excited when she got to give Truman a High 5 and get a picture. Please als...

Katie may have been laying low from the blogosphere lately, but she has been working miracles lately. She crawls all over the house - all over- and sits up and climbs. In another month she'll be cirque du soleil material. She's incredible. She is constantly smiling her two-toothed grin. When we aren't fearing for her life as she scales a piece of furniture - we're cracking up. Why do I try to climb this staircase? Because it's there. What do you want? Why are you interrupting my scurrying across the slick and dangerous hardwood floor? Do I look scared to you? I laugh at danger. Print Page

Yesterday morning I gave Em some stickers to put on paper while I took a shower. When I got out of the shower, she was standing there with a HUGE grin on her face. She was so proud of herself:) "I'm all Stick-er-eeee!" she said. And that she was. Print Page

Earlier this week our baby got her first taste of a puff. What is a puff (for all you readers without children)? A puff is something Gerber created that tastes like cereal with no flavor. It dissolves VERY easily. There is no nutritional value...but it does help her learn to chew. We could hear her 2 little teeth crunching ... She wasn't a fan at first - but by the time the third one came around she knew right what to do! And the week 23 picture is a preview of their Halloween Costumes. We don't have a real dog, but our 2 pretend ones make pretty good pets:) Print Page

Mommy: Em, it is bath time. Let's go! Emily: Why do I always have to take baths? Mommy: Because otherwise you will be stinky. No one likes stinky kids. Emily: Smell me. Do I stink. Mommy: (I pretend to smell her arm) EWE! Stinky, Stinky, Stinky! Emily: (Laughing) Let me smell...mmmmm, my arm smells like blueberries! Let me smell my leg. MMMM! My leg smells like strawberries! My feet...(she sniffs) just like bananas! What do my hands smell like? (she sniffs) PINNAPPLE! I smell so yummy I don't need a bath! Mommy: You think you smell like fruit salad! Who wants to smell like fruit salad? And by the way, your feet do not smell like bananas! Emily: Fruit salad smells so good that I don't need a bath. I'll just wait till I'm stinky. Mommy: Nice try - get in the tub. Print Page

We were off to Miss Pat's this morning when Daddy astutely noted the massive line of traffic to his left. Accordingly, he turned right. But this was a grave error in the eyes of Emily. "Daddy this is not the way to get to Miss Pat's. You have to go the other way." In Emily's world there is only ONE way to get anywhere. There are routes that you take and you simply do not deviate from the routes. Robert Frost's poetry will likely be entirely lost on Emily..."and sorry I could not travel both and be one traveler, long I stood". At any rate, I had to think fast. "Emily, we're going to take a different way.... as an EXPERIMENT!" I was opportunistically preying upon Emily's love of Sid the Science Kid and his constant experimentation. So we drove the alternate route that was admittedly longer, but completely free of traffic. About three minutes later as we traveled through unfamiliar roads: "Daddy the experiment didn't work. I ...

It was time to clean up the other day and Emily was a GREAT helper. She put all the Little People in the Little People tub, all the dress up clothes in the dress up bin, the blocks in the block tub, etc. However, she had all her dishes piled in the sink of her play kitchen (not in their tubs). When I came in I was pleasantly surprised at how much she had cleaned up and I asked about the pile of play dishes in the sink. She said that was the last thing she had to do. Dishes. She then preceded to stand at her sink and scrub her dishes with the play dish cloth. When she was done scrubbing, she rinsed them, and then set them out (as pictured above) to dry. "We can't put them away tonight Mommy. They aren't dry yet. And I'm too tired to dry them tonight." And so we left them out to dry. Print Page

Most kids would call it dance class, or ballet lessons. Not our girl. It is ballerina lessons. Here are actual photos of her first day of class. Print Page

Emily went to her first ever dance lessons this last Wednesday. To say she was excited is an understatement. The minute the lesson was over, she was asking when she could come back. The studio where she is taking classes has a strict dress code: black leotard, pink tights, pink shoes, and hair in a bun. Dance Diva Showing off her ballerina arms:) Print Page

Emily doesn't normally have the patience for puzzles. She starts one, does about 3 or 4 pieces and then decides to put it away. A few days ago though, our little girl did not only one, but TWO puzzles. She was very proud of her work. Print Page

Trouble in the imaginary world today. BT was in timeout. It was all the talk among the imaginary friends. You see it all began when BT hit Peppy (Peppy is the nickname of long-standing imaginary friend Peh-Peh). So you see BT hit Peppy and "we don't hit, we just don't. hit." And naturally there were consequences. BT had to leave our house and go to timeout somewhere else. I don't know if Peppy was injured, but that wasn't important to the story. Later on, Emily went to go get BT out of timeout and to make him apologize. She told him that she was "very upset about BT hitting Peppy." And it's true - we were all very upset. We all know that once imaginary friends turn violent they go the way of Old Yeller. Except of course that Old Yeller was a rabid dog and even though we might like to "put BT down" he would probably just come back. He is not going to leave without a fight I'm sure. As it happens, BT came back from timeout a changed m...