Kicked out of Relief Society

I took John out of Relief Society for being adorable. Yup, not naughty, like most weeks, but for being adorable. This is the second week that it has happened. Both weeks John has been playing very nicely with a little girl who is 3 days younger than him. They share with each other happily and of their own accord. The first week, a lady in the ward has a wide brimmed straw hat and she let them play with it. They decided to sit right in front of the room and practiced putting the hat on one another. Today, they talked very loudly and nicely to each other in the front of the room. It was really cute babble. John also followed her around giving her hugs/sleeper holds. The problem is that it is so stinking cute that I looked around the room and nobody was paying attention to the lesson. These two kids stole the spotlight. So I decided that to be courteous to the teacher, John had to go.

A New Era

The last few months have marked a new era for Emma and John.  Emma started reading last week on June 28th.  It was such an exciting moment when the light bulb clicked.  She started writing her first letters last year, then memorized the sounds that each letter makes.  But it wasn't until last week that she has been able to make the mental leap from individual sounds to combining the sounds into words that she knows.  Emma was thrilled and I was even more thrilled.

Emma is also improving in math.  Recently we have been telling her interactive stories about kids who wanted to go on an adventure (e.g., play in the park) but who have been detained by a "math troll."  The math troll asks a math question, such as what is 3+4?, and we ask Emma to step in to help the child out in the story.  With prompting and some minor help, Emma is able to do the simple addition and subtraction on her hands and answer the questions.   She's happy to help the child in the story.

Emma also made a big step in swimming.  She completed her one week swim lesson where she learned to dog paddle and take a breath.  She can now swim nearly 25 yards across the pool.  She can also float on her back for nearly a minute. 

John has also advanced.  He said his version of "bye" while sort of waiving his hand and acknowledging his friends were leaving.  John loves to play outside and says a few more words now, including, "her-haw," "hi," "Emma," and imitating several sounds that we make.  He is also dabbling with some sign language, including "milk," "more," and "all done."

Try Again!

Emma asked me a question yesterday and I don't remember what it was, but it was something that I would have no possible way of know the answer to. It was something like, "What is that stranger's name?" So I responded, "I don't know." To which she replied, "Think again and try harder!"

Father's Day

All About My Daddy

By Emma 2013

What is Daddy’s name?

Aaron

What color is Daddy’s hair?

Brown

What color are Daddy’s eyes?

Green

What does Daddy like to eat?

Pasta

What does Daddy like to do for fun?

Go on Dates

How long have you known Daddy?

A couple years ago

How old is Daddy?

34

Where did you and Daddy meet?

We meet Chris too

What does Daddy do for work?

He works for food

How tall is Daddy?

Just about short

How much does Daddy weigh?

35 years ago

What do you like to do with Daddy?

I like to play with him

What makes Daddy the best?

Playing hide and seek

So I asked Emma these same questions last year and did a comparison. Her answers are a lot less random this year and she actually knew some answers. The one that surprises me the most is that Aaron has green eyes. They are brown - the same brown that Emma and John both have but that answer has been consistent over the year. 

This year I asked Emma what she wanted wanted to give Aaron for Father's Day. She said a computer. Since we have one and another is outside of the price range I was thinking of, I told her she could draw a picture of a computer if she wanted to. She didn't want to. Then she said that she wanted to give Aaron a book that he already had. I loved the idea! She recognized that Aaron loves books, it didn't add to our enormous book collection, and the price was hard to argue with. So Emma picked out "Europe since Waterloo." I thought it was a great choice. I asked her how she wanted to wrap it and she chose silver paper with pink and silver ribbon. I giggled to myself. Some day Father's Day will be about Aaron, but not this time! Emma had Aaron read a few bits to her. It was thrilling.

Now for a confession (after an explanation). I like to pick out cards but only funny ones. If a card isn't funny, it doesn't have any value to me. This year, the pickings were very slim. So slim, the best I could do was about different animal fathers' toots. I read the card to Emma and oh man! She was just about crying she was laughing so hard. She was particularly fond of the cheetah toot. That made the card worth it. I was so excited for Aaron to see Emma laugh at the card... and she was stone cold sober. So disappointing!

Just as a note for the future, when I don't remember any thing any more. We did get Aaron a gift besides "Europe since Waterloo." 

Crazy

John is getting rascally. He climbs up everything and is into everything that he shouldn't be on top of and into. There are some days where I feel like I just chase him around getting him off of and out of things. I thought I had child proofed my home but I can tip over so many chairs and shut so many doors. I forsee an ER visit for John at some point in the near future.

On Thursday I was helping Emma take a shower and could hear John screaming downstairs. I could tell that he was stuck somewhere but figured that Aaron could help him since he was downstairs. Turns out we had let the door open to the bathroom and John climbed up the stool and climbed into our pedestal sink. This is a tall sink with no counter. He had figured out that he couldn't get out and was just screaming. Unfortunately we didn't get pictures because he was so upset and just wanted out.

On another note of crazy, Emma has a pink and purple "credit card." It came in a play purse that she received as a gift. Emma is a mimicker - whatever I do, Emma wants to do. Once she figured out what that pink card was about, she wanted to take it where ever we went and swipe it herself or have it swiped by the cashier.So far everyone has understood what is going on when I ask them to swipe the pink and purple card that doesn't actually fit in the credit card slot. They smile at Emma, laugh to themselves and comment on how cute she is.

I went to 5 Guy Burgers this week and asked the lady to swipe my card and Emma's since there was not a terminal for the customer to use. The lady apparently only saw Emma's card or something even though I was holding up both cards. She looked at me like I was two ways to crazy. I could tell what she was thinking - that I was asking to pay with a kids pretend credit card. So I tried to explain. She was so hung up on what she thought was happening that she didn't hear my explanation. I have never had such an awkward conversation where I felt like I should be looking over my shoulder for men to take me away in a white jacket. It took several very long minutes to get her to understand what I was asking. She laughed when she finally understood and I was happy to get out of there.

The problem with my explanations is that Emma was standing right there and I am not entirely sure she understands that her card is pretend and so I was trying to explain what the pink card was without hurting Emma's feelings. It is apparently a conversation that we need to have but in the middle of 5 Guys was not the time.

Where Was I Born?

Emma was asking where she was born as we were looking at a map of The Woodlands. So we pointed to where the hospital is. Aaron pointed to the general area of Tomball, TX to show where he was born. So Emma assumed that I was born in Texas. I tried to show her that I was born in a place far off the map. Shortly after that I tickled her in her arm pitty.

She wasn't grasping the concept of somewhere off the map so I took her into the study where we have a huge world map. I pointed to Rochester, NY and she responded with, "You weren't born in my arm pittie?" Good thing we cleared that one up.

Skunks

Emma has a fascination with skunks. They scare her but she is fascinated by them at the same time. She thinks that there are essentially hoards of skunks outside as long as it is dark outside and they just roam around all over the place.

One morning she woke up way too early for my tastes and came down stairs. I told her it wasn't morning yet and to go back up stairs to her room. She countered with, "Mom it is light outside. The sun is up." I countered her counter with, "It isn't all they way up." Then she asked, "Are there still skunks outside?" I have never been so tempted to lie to her. I couldn't do it so I quasi-lied to her (which might be the same thing as a lie but I didn't want to get into an indepth conversation about skunks at that hour) so I told her "I don't know." That satisfied her and she went back to her bedroom to play.

Tonight we went to a friends house for a BBQ and we left late, just as the sun was setting. As we got close to the car Emma said, "Mom we got to go, the sun is setting! Are the skunks coming out?" I don't remember how I responded mostly because it would most likely be a lie. I have tried to explain that the ground isn't saturated with skunks at night and she isn't catching on. So I have given up and just go along with it and figure some day she will figure out that skunks aren't a significant population.