Baking

Apparently I get the urge to bake about once every 18 months. It hit me last night. I made pumpkin bread and pumpkin cookies. It seemed festive and the right thing to do. I learned that about 18 months is how long it takes me to forget that I can't bake worth beans. The bread was burnt on the outside and fine on the inside but a little funny shaped. Immediately when I took it out of the oven, I tried to get it out of the pan and on to the cooling rack. Apparently that only works for wheat bread. The loaf ripped in two.

The cookies didn't fair much better. They were undercooked (probably out of fear of watching my overcooked bread). And in general were just ehhh..... I put the glaze on while the were hot and the glaze ended up on my counter more than the cookies.

I told Aaron that he needs to save me from myself when I come to him a year and a half from now and announce that I am going to bake. I also told my sister that she was no longer aloud to give me recipes. I have to build in multiple defenses to save me from myself.

Hopefully Emma is ok with Happy Birthday guacamole for a while. At least Aaron hasn't complained about Happy Birthday pineapples and the sort. It is either that he is merciful or is highly motivated to keep me from attempting another baking fiasco.

Motorcycles and Rainbows

Emma has a balance bike that looks like a motorcycle. I know, not very 2 year old girl like but it was $20 verses $70.... so we have a motorcycle. She hasn't picked up on all things pink yet, so she doesn't care. Anyway, when she rides it I feel inspired to sing the chorus to "Born to be Wild," or at least what I thought was the chorus. I sang it yesterday morning and Aaron started to sing the real version of the song. I asked him how he knew the words to Born to be Wild. His response: "The same way you know songs about rainbows and cotton balls." For the record, I don't know any songs about cotton balls.

Potty Training... The Start

I decided to potty train Emma this week. She is pretty young, but the if I was going to do it before the baby comes, I had to do it this week. The awesome part is that late last week, Aaron's work told him he had to go out of town for training for the entire week. Aaron never has to go out of town for an entire week - we are spoiled like that. I decided that if Emma could wear big girl panties, so could I and do it while Aaron was out of town.

I decided to do this method where you stay in the house for 3 days and don't leave or do anything but focus on your kid and take them to the bathroom while they pee on your floor. Eventually they are supposed to get it and learn to tell you when they need to go potty. Emma did great the first day and I thought that we were in the clear. The next two days were just accidents for the most part. After not leaving the house for 3 days, and totally solo, I was getting a bit crazy. In fact, I can neither confirm nor deny that I had reached a cracking point.

The problem is, I am used to being in control. But I had to come to the conclusion that I don't have control over Emma, her bladder, or her understanding of the potty training concept. As near as I can tell, Heavenly Father blesses those who are about to crack because we had a break though the next day and I can't account for it. All I know is that she wanted to go potty, if I went. Since I am pregnant, that happens a lot. So that kept her from having accidents. She did however tell me if she had to go other than those times.

We have been accident free for 3 days now. The most shocking was today. We went to reunion of friends from our singles ward days. We show up to the park, and there is no bathroom. I had brought pull-ups just in case. So I put one on her. That was at 3pm. At 8:30pm we got home and she had never asked to use the potty. I figured that she was just so excited to have a diaper on and figured out that she could just pee at her  hearts content. When we got her home, we sat her on the toilet, and she went. I know, probably some more details, than desired. However, I checked her pull-up and the little kid held it all afternoon! She has a superior bladder to a pregnant person.

So, in the end, I got to play a lot with Emma this week. We played with play dough, which she loves. We built stairs out of Lego's and the Lego's-animals would go up the stairs and jump off and crash on the carpet. We also danced a lot, we made pretend soup with her kitchen, we wrestled, built forts, read books, colored and skyped with Grandpa Rich. Emma did surprisingly well for being couped up in the house for 5 days. She did ask to go on a walk, to the store, to church and to home depot. And, I went from stickers as a reward to fruit snacks. She loves fruit snacks.... just wait until she figures out candy. I have seen her language development grow this week. She has taken an interest in letters and can recognize the letters S,W,D, E, X. She can also recognize the numbers 2, 7, and 0. So, there have been some positive things. And, I didn't really have a carpet accident - just blankets and tile. There have been a lot of tender mercies this week. Aaron coming home was high on that list.

Wildflower Festival

We went to The Woodlands Wildflower festival. There were jumping castles, a petting zoo, and pony rides. I thought Emma would love the jumping castles because she loves jumping/active things but the concept was kind of lost on her. Toward the end, she kinda caught on, but we had to move on. Emma loved the pony rides, and in fact she has asked multiple times to ride a horse. Too bad it isn't like playing with play dough.... Emma also loved the petting zoo, but she mostly just laughed when the animals they would run around her.

 For this slide, Emma didn't slide so much as more crawl down.... go figure.

Old McDonald Had a Farm

I went with some friends to a place called Old McDonalds Farm. We had a great time seeing, petting and feeding geese, an emu, ducks, goats, pigs, sheep, cows, horses, rabbits, and deer. There was a train, cool slide, a huge pile of sand, swings, and horse rides. Emma was mesmerized by the whole thing. It was like I didn't even exists - she was taking everything in and didn't hear a word I said. That is why she has such a serious face on - she was intensely staring at everything the whole time.

Well Actually, Grandma

I have a nephew whose biggest trial as a 2 year old was having to deal with unintelligent adults.... which in his mind, that was all adults. He would sometimes say in a rather put out voice, "Well actually, Grandma..." And then go on to explain to Grandma whatever she was wrong about. We have giggled out that for years.

Yesterday morning Emma and I were reading a book and she pointed to Grover and said, "Actually, its Grover." It appears that Emma and Ben have something in common.

Rules

It appears that Emma feels compelled to follow rules. This one she got from me. It is one of the few things that she gets from me. Emma likes to buckle her stuffed dog, "Puppy," into our infant car seat or infant swing. When it comes to getting Puppy out of the seat, she will not just pull him out. He MUST be unbuckled and if I yank puppy out then she insists that I go back and unbuckle the car seat.

Emma was coloring and colored on a book cover. I explained that we don't color on books. She asked about pants, shirts, herself, desks, and a variety of objects. I explained that we don't color any of those objects. The next day Aaron participated in a United Way Day of Caring where he did some painting. He came home with some blue paint on his arm. Emma was quite bothered by the fact that Aaron broke the rules and colored on himself. She pointed it out and said, "No color blue!" She just kept saying it. Over and over and over. It was like the orange crayon incident all over again. Aaron tried to apologize for breaking the rules about coloring on himself. I just wonder how she will do when Aaron paints her new room. That may just make her brains explode.