One last walk on the balance beam

Emma's had a busy week. On Monday, she had her buddy Jackson and his mommy over for dinner. They just moved into a new house at the end of our street. She had fun showing him some of her toys, and she told him that he can come over and play anytime. She even let him sit in her "big girl seat" at the dinner table, which was impressive because she doesn't usually like for anyone else to sit in that seat!

Wednesday was our exciting tunnel-in-the-family-room adventure, which we already posted about earlier this week. On a daily basis, she now not only requests that we make the tunnel again, but she also requires that one of us take her picture while she is crawling through! What have we started??

Friday was her very last tumbling class. Grandma & Grandpa H came to watch. Grandma was assigned the task of taking pictures while we went around and took our last turns at some of Emma's favorite tumbling class stations. Click here to see the whole album of pics.Grandpa took us to lunch at McDonald's afterwards. As we were getting ready to leave, she told me, "Grandpa's so silly!" That's a big compliment in Emma's book, Grandpa!

On Saturday, Grandma & Grandpa K came over with some very special presents. Grandma gave Emma a new book, which she has already read several times. Grandpa gave Emma her very own soccer ball. Emma has been absolutely captivated anytime she sees a soccer ball lately, so she was super excited to have one of her very own. The blog will surely be filled with many soccer ball pictures in upcoming entries!

Delicious!

As thankful as we are for the rain that fell over the last few days, it was tough coming up with things to do that didn't involve going outside. In a moment of inspiration, we created a tunnel between the couch and ottoman yesterday. Emma must have crawled back & forth through it 30 times before she decided it was time to spruce things up a bit. She set up her tea party set on top of the tunnel and informed me that she was eating blueberry pancakes and cereal at her tea party. All of a sudden, she takes an imaginary bite and says, "DEELISHISS!" I almost couldn't believe my ears! I couldn't figure out where she had picked up that big word! And then I realized that her talking cookie monster says it. After she did it about 3 more times, I figured I'd try to catch her on the camera.

We are all set for the college football season to start this weekend. Emma's been working on her Georgia Bulldog cheers. Here's her version of the famous "Go Dawgs" chant. (For those of you that may not be familiar, it's "Go Dawgs! Sic 'em! Woof woof woof!"

We'll have to work on some fine tuning, but that's not too bad for a not-quite-2-year-old!

Climbing to new heights

Well, it took her awhile, but Emma has finally gotten tall enough to climb up on the furniture! She managed to pull herself up onto the ottoman the other day, much to my surprise. It didn't take her long after that to figure out that she could get up on the couch by moving her little stool over. We've only had one fall so far, when she decided to try doing a somersault off the edge of the couch while Mommy & Daddy weren't looking. But I guess a fall here & there is to be expected. I guess it goes to show that even though she is a shortie, she really is growing, slowly but surely!

Here she is, in action:
We had an exciting afternoon today. We hit a few college sports stores to peruse their selection of Georgia gear...gotta get ready for football season! In the first store, the nice man behind the counter asked if Emma could have a Dum-Dum lollipop because she was being such a good girl. I normally turn them down when people offer because she really hasn't figured out what candy is yet, and I hope to keep it that way for as long as I can. But I said ok, thinking she would probably just enjoy holding it and might not even figure out what to do with it. Of course, after examining it in the wrapper for about 3 seconds, she stuck it in her mouth, wrapper and all. I figured if she was going to do that, we might as well do it the right way. So we unwrapped it, and Emma enjoyed her very first lollipop. She took one lick, after I showed her what to do, and she said, "YUMMY! ICE CREAM!" We didn't have the camera with us, but I took a picture with my phone. It was just about the most adorable thing ever. She loved it. She especially loved rubbing the wet lollipop all over her hands, shirt, pants, anything in reach. What a sticky mess!

We didn't end up buying anything in the first store, so we headed over to the mall to look some more. In the next store, we found a baby-sized Georgia baseball cap. We'd been looking for one since Emma loves hats so much, but we hadn't been able to find one that fit her tiny melon. So when I put this one on her and it fit, we took off to find Daddy and show him. After we found him and both talked about how cute it was on her, we decided that maybe we should look around at the other stores in the mall first before dropping $15 on a hat for her. Daddy took it off her head to put it back. And that's when we witnessed it: Emma's first successful attempt to manipulate Daddy with her crocodile tears! As soon as he took it off, she started up with the most adorable whimper. "Daddy, no! Put Georgia hat back on! GEORGIA HAT! WAAAAAAH!" We both looked at each other, and Daddy sheepishly took it up to the register, knowing he'd been beat. I hated that she got us both, but on the other hand I was so proud of her. Every girl needs to know how to win her daddy over in a time of need!

So here she is, proudly displaying her new favorite hat. The tongue was her own idea...we didn't tell her to do that! Perhaps she is sending a message to those of you who are college football fans cheering for the wrong team. You know who you are...

This little piggy

Once again, Emma attended a birthday party this past weekend. And once again, we forgot to bring our camera along to capture the festivities on film. This time it was her friend Asher's 1st birthday. She looooves to talk about Asher all the time, so she was super-excited to be able to say, "Happy birthday Asher" when we arrived. There were lots of little kiddies, including her buddies Jonah and Sophia, and also cousin Alex. Once Uncle Mike was finally able to free Emma's kung-fu grip on Mommy's hand, he took her over by Alex, where the big guy gave her four big hugs! She just stood there, but at least she didn't shove him away and start crying like she usually does when someone invades her personal space!

I fear that we may be starting to see a bit of the Terrible Two's creeping into our daily routine. Lately, anything that doesn't go Emma's way is a major, meltdown-worthy crisis. Where did our easygoing girl go? She changes her mind constantly, and then she gets so upset when you can't give her what she wants right then and there. Maybe this is just a quick phase? Is that wishful thinking?

Some of this behavior comes out when we are listening to music. No matter what song you put on, it's, "Different song!" "Different CD!" "No, Mommy, not that one!" Even if she tells you what song she wants on, halfway through she'll decide she doesn't want to listen to that one anymore. We've started saying, "Too bad" or "Mommy and Daddy like this song" instead of changing it for her, and boy does that go over like a lead balloon! "NNNNOOOOO!!!" I did convince her to give Stevie Wonder a chance yesterday though, and after she got over her initial complaints, we had lots of fun dancing around together. Anything that's not a children's album is a plus in my book!

She insisted on wearing her "fancy shoes" (which are too small, by the way) all around the house yesterday. Here she is, showing off her fancy shoes, with her finger firmly planted in her nose. Daddy summed it up in one word: classic.
And finally, we leave you with Emma's favorite nursery rhyme: This Little Piggy. She especially loves the part where "this little piggy had roast beef," so in her version, two piggies in a row get to have roast beef. So much for the piggy that had none!

Dramatic interpretation

Emma had a blast reading the latest issue of High Five Magazine the other day, thanks to Grandma H's gift subscription. (It's made by the Highlights people, but it's for ages 2-6. Those of you with kiddies can read more about it here.) There was a poem about different moods, and they had a picture of a little boy showing each of the moods. Emma was fascinated and tried her own version. Here they are for your enjoyment!

Happy

Mad

Scared/Surprised

Sad

She's such a ham! I also managed to capture something on camera that those of you with young kids will probably recognize. Her very favorite part of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse -- the hot dog dance! They play this silly song at the end of every episode, and she has to drop what she's doing and run to the tv so that she can watch -- and try to do -- the hot dog dance.

Fun at the park

We've had such nice weather lately that we've ended up at the big park (the one where Emma had her birthday party) several times over the past few days. Of course, we always forget to bring the camera. We hadn't been to that park since last fall because we moved further away and because it's been SO hot this summer that it's not really fun to play outside. Now that Emma is much more self-sufficient than last time we were there, she enjoys it even more.

We went yesterday with Daddy, and she must have gone down the slides at least 10 times. Each time, she had a look of sheer terror plastered on her face the whole way down, but at the end she'd yell "WHOA!" and start laughing. She also loves crawling through the tunnels. It just so happens that they had a little tunnel to crawl through at tumbling class on Friday, so as soon as she saw the big tunnels at the park, she knew what to do. It's so fun to watch her eyes light up as she explores everything at the park.

Speaking of birthday parties, it hit me recently that we will be having her next one in less than three months! Where does the time go? She has already mastered how to do "2" on her fingers, so if you see her, ask her how old she's going to be -- she would love to show you!

Emma has been watching the Olympic coverage, and so far it looks like swimming is her favorite event. She looks at the tv and says, "Pool!" "Swimming!" She hasn't seen gymnastics yet. It will be interesting to see if that catches her attention, since she's been doing some of the basics in tumbling class.

Chatter box

Emma has been talking up a storm lately. She's using 3- and 4-word sentences, and she's pretty observant! She's starting to remember things and bring them up later too -- that'll be interesting, I'm sure. She says something precious every day, but I always forget them by the time I am sitting in front of the computer to do another entry. Here are the latest ones I can remember:

As usual, she is still captivated by looking through pictures ("peechures") of family & friends and pointing out the people she knows. Her latest twist is that if she sees someone she doesn't know, she will point to them and say, "Who is dat?" She has taught herself to recognize relatives she's never even met before -- yesterday, she was all about Great Uncle Bob!

She is getting very good at repeating what you say, but some of the sounds just aren't there yet. For instance, recently I told her to say "Emma's smart." She has trouble doing "s" with another consonant. So "Emma's smart" came out as "Emma fart." Oops!


Emma bumped her noggin pretty good the other night on the window sill. She got over it pretty quickly, as you can tell from the picture below, but it looked pretty painful! The red is mostly from the cold cloth we held on it for a few minutes, but she had a nice purple bruise for the next couple of days. Still, her smile here was too cute not to share...
Today is our third tumbling class (we were off last week). In the fall, we are going to do an art class. I think she will really enjoy that one too. The age range is alot smaller, so it should be mostly kids her age, instead of 2 & 3 year olds like the tumbling class. She can't do everything in tumbling, but she still seems to enjoy going every week.

Cake, ice cream, and black olives...Emma's favorite foods

It's been another busy weekend at our house. Grandma & Grandpa K came over for dinner on Friday night. Grandma was nice enough to empty her loose change into Emma's piggy bank, and now Emma has a new line everytime we go into her room: "More money, Gramma!"

On Saturday, we went over to Jonah's house to help him celebrate his first birthday. Emma's been fighting a cold, and she was sort of under the weather all day. We weren't sure it if would be a good idea to go, but we figured we would make an appearance and see how long she would last. Turns out it was the best thing we could have done. As soon as she got to eat some of the cool cake that looked just like a 3-D firetruck and some ice cream, she was a happy camper. Her goody bag with stickers, a fireman's hat, and a hydrant-shaped sippy cup sealed the deal, and the rest of the day she was just fine. Thanks Jonah (and his parents) for saving the day!

Here she is, modeling some of her "Emma" stickers from Jonah's goody bags, which she decided looked best on her toenails. You can always count on Emma to know the latest fashion trends!

Tonight for dinner we had a chicken dish that called for black olives. These are one of Emma's favorite foods. She calls them "ah-viffs". Here's an action sequence...before:
And after:
Those of you who have little ones may be able to relate to this story that happened recently. Emma and I were driving to Miss Sarah's one morning, and I was getting ready to go see George Michael in concert in a few days, so I popped in a CD and said, "Let's listen to some George." Emma got all excited. "George! George!" I played the first track, and she said, "No. George, Mommy!" I told her, "This is George, honey." She said, "Something else," which is what she says when she wants you to play a different song. I put on the next track, and again she was frustrated. "No, Mommy! George! George!" After a few seconds, I finally realized why she was so upset. She was thinking of a totally different George -- Curious George! Guess that's what I get for trying to play something besides the Train Song in the car!