Ballerina

Grandma & Grandpa K bought Emma some new PJ's last week. They have sparkly ballerinas all over them. We showed Emma how to dance just like the ballerinas on her PJ's, and she's been twirling around ever since!Let's hope she doesn't inherit her mommy's grace (or lack thereof), or else there won't be much ballet in Emma's future...

Also, we had another successful piggytail day yesterday! I think the idea might be growing on her. We went out to dinner with her hair up, and she got so many compliments from everyone at the restaurant! Although, who could blame them? She is pretty darn cute.

Footballs, ponytails, & animal snackers

Busy days have gotten in the way of our regular blog posting again lately. Sorry, loyal readers!

We have had some beautiful spring weather lately, so we've been spending some quality time outdoors. The other day, we decided to take a family walk, and Emma requested that she wear her "football hat" to keep the sun out of her eyes. She pointed right at the "G" logo and said, "Mom, that's a football!" Hmm...we'll have to work on that one...We tried to get a nice mother-daughter pose, but we couldn't seem to get one where she was both looking at the camera and keeping her finger out of her nose!Now that her hair is actually growing out, it's long enough to pull back. The problem is, she's gone so long with it being too short to pull back that now she doesn't like to have barrettes or rubberbands in her hair. She refuses to keep them in longer than 5 seconds for me. Today, Miss Sarah tried putting a little ponytail. Not only did she keep it in all morning, but she left it in until bedtime! When she woke up from her afternoon nap, the first thing I heard her say was, "Oh no, I can't find my ponytail! MOM!" When I went in and reassured her that it was still right there on top of her head, she felt around and said, "Oh good. Now I can show Daddy when he gets home!"Emma & Daddy had fun sitting at the table on the deck tonight after dinner. If you look closely, you'll see that her shoes are on the wrong feet. She has become very insistent that she put on her own shoes, and about 1/3 of the time, she gets the feet backwards. You can tell her until you're blue in the face, but she could care less if they are on the wrong feet, so we've given up worrying about it. Of course, later on today I realized that we had a nice lengthy chat outside with some neighbors this afternoon who probably think we don't know how to put our child's shoes on the correct feet! Oh well.On top of all of this excitement today, she also renamed a favorite kids' treat. We spotted these at the store recently and broke them out for snacktime today, for the first time: When she finished the ones I had put in her little cup, she said, "Mom, I need more animal snackers!" It was so cute that we have decided from now on they will officially be known as such. Grandmas & Grandpas take note -- be prepared to stock some animal snackers next to the goldfish crackers in your pantries for Miss Little Mermaid Princess Emma!

Hot and cold

We've gone from one weather extreme to the other in the past week. Last Sunday brought snow and really cold temperatures. Unfortunately, Emma was taking her nap the whole time it snowed, and since nothing stuck, she really had no idea what she'd missed! She did enjoy snuggling in the big chair with a nice warm blanket, though.Still showing off that Princess crown!On Thursday, Emma & I went over to visit Big Sister Audrey and Baby Bridget for a bit. Emma displayed a level of excitement usually reserved for the most exciting events - like seeing a real live dog or cat! This was a big deal! She got SO excited when the baby woke up. "Mom! She's waking up! Mom! She's saying hi to me!" When I got to sit on the floor and feed Bridget a bottle, Emma was right there in my lap, "helping." She was so sweet, very gentle, and even gave Bridget a few soft kisses on her head. It was an exciting afternoon that she still talks about, 5 days later.

On Saturday, the warm weather started rolling in, so we took a family trip to Webb Bridge Park. Emma had a blast going down the slides, climbing the stairs, and running from place to place. Each time we take her to the big park, she can do more and more of the things on the playground, which makes it a new adventure every time we go!It's been really warm here for the past few days, which reminded Mommy that Emma doesn't have any shorts that fit anymore! We improvised and threw on a sundress today, and Emma then informed us, "I'm soooo cute AND beautiful!" Can't say she's wrong!

Little Mermaid Princess Emma

During church yesterday, there was supposed to be a childrens' message, where all of the young kids come up to the front and sit for about 5 minutes to listen to the preschool director talk about the day's message in terms they can understand. Well, when the pastor announced for all of the kids to come forward, everyone was either absent or feeling shy, so no one went up front. I asked Emma if she wanted to go, and she said, "Yeah, I want to go sit up there!" Poor Ms. Nancy was about to have to preach to the adults as if they were 5 year olds, when Emma came forward (dragging Mommy along too) and became the sole member of the childrens' message audience. Ms. Nancy was so thankful to have a child up there to talk to, even if she looked around the whole time and had no idea what was being talked about!

For a special treat, Ms. Nancy had pretty crowns to pass out to all of the kids who came up -- just one in our case, but hopefully more at the late service! So afterwards, we followed her to the back of the church, and Emma was custom-fitted for her bejeweled crown.

It was a huge hit! She proudly took it off and put it back on through the rest of the service and asked me several times, "Do you like my crown, Mom?" I told her I loved it. She walked through the church with it on after the service and got many compliments. On the way home, she couldn't wait to see Daddy and show him what she'd gotten. She said, "He is going to think it's beauteeeful!" We got home and showed Daddy, and then she modeled it for the camera.
I asked her if she was Queen Emma or Princess Emma. I was quickly corrected. "No, Mom. I'm Little Mermaid Princess Emma!" Later in the evening, she was playing by herself, when she put the crown on and said, "Captain Emma is here!" Tim and I had a good laugh at that one!

And a cute pre-bedtime snuggle for good measure: