We were playing play-doh together.
Emma: How about you be the Mom and I will be the Sweetie.
Me: Ok.
Emma: (After she realized there wasn't much change there.) Ok, How about I be the Mom and you be the Sweetie.
Aaron and Emma have been playing a lot of games together. The Russell genes have truly kicked in to full gear. They even played Monopoly. The day after teaching her Uno Aaron asked her if she wanted to play Uno again. She asked if they could play "Dos" together.
We went to the pool yesterday and I took some video of Emma doing a somersault off the diving board. When I was done I told Emma to stay out of the pool so I could put my phone back. I was in a hurry just in case her impulse control was lacking and she would try to get back into the pool. So I walked fast. Across the pool Emma yells, "Mom! Walk! Mom you need to Walk!" So I called scolded out loud in public by a 4 year old. I walked. I kept getting scolded out loud by a 4 year old.
Sunday, September 15, 2013
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
Marriage
Aaron was explaining to Emma how she was going to get married to a boy some day.
Emma: What is his name going to be?
Aaron: We don't know yet.
Emma: I am going to name him Chip because I like Chip.
She went on to say that she loves Chip and how that how we have 3 boys and 3 girls in our family: Aaron, John, Chip, Me, Emma, and Avrin.
I should add a side note that Chip is Emma's imaginary blue monster who does everything exactly that Aaron does. Avrin is a girl who sometimes is Emma's age and sometimes is a baby. Lately Avrin has been more like John's age and is very naughty and exasperates Emma when Emma has to discipline her.
One time we were pulling out of the parking lot at the pool and it was flaming hot outside. Emma tells me that I left Avrin in the trunk of the car and I needed to stop the car, get her out of the trunk and buckle her into the front seat so she could be safe. The nice thing about imaginary friends is that the are imaginary so I can just say that I already got Avrin out of the trunk and that she is in fact sitting in the front seat. Emma just missed it when I got her out of the trunk. There isn't anyone to contradict me... except Emma of course.
Today when we were getting in the car, Emma told me that I shut Avrin's had in the car door and she was crying.
Emma: What is his name going to be?
Aaron: We don't know yet.
Emma: I am going to name him Chip because I like Chip.
She went on to say that she loves Chip and how that how we have 3 boys and 3 girls in our family: Aaron, John, Chip, Me, Emma, and Avrin.
I should add a side note that Chip is Emma's imaginary blue monster who does everything exactly that Aaron does. Avrin is a girl who sometimes is Emma's age and sometimes is a baby. Lately Avrin has been more like John's age and is very naughty and exasperates Emma when Emma has to discipline her.
One time we were pulling out of the parking lot at the pool and it was flaming hot outside. Emma tells me that I left Avrin in the trunk of the car and I needed to stop the car, get her out of the trunk and buckle her into the front seat so she could be safe. The nice thing about imaginary friends is that the are imaginary so I can just say that I already got Avrin out of the trunk and that she is in fact sitting in the front seat. Emma just missed it when I got her out of the trunk. There isn't anyone to contradict me... except Emma of course.
Today when we were getting in the car, Emma told me that I shut Avrin's had in the car door and she was crying.
Friday, August 23, 2013
18 Months
John turned 18 months.... a month ago. I am a little behind. He has developed a deep love of trucks. We were reading a book and it had pictures of trucks in the book and he just cried when we turned the page away from the trucks. He lives for trucks. He even makes the engine noises when he plays with the trucks. I recently bought him a small digger (I actually don't know if that is the right name - they all look alike to me). He cuddled it for days and would not let go of it. Personally, I don't consider trucks as cuddle worthy. I guess you have to be a little boy to understand.
He started talking at around 17 months. Right now he can say the following words:
Mommy
Daddy
Emma
doggy
cat
truck
bye
hi
more
milk
thank you
here you go
baby
no
mine
stuck
duck
please
bonk
beep
moo
oh man
I took him to nursery and he saw toys and didn't even turn back to see if I was behind him... and I walked out with a smile on my face. I happily enjoyed Sunday school and Relief Society. When I picked him up he seemed happy and apparently he only pinched one kid. So at least he didn't bite any one??
John sometimes cleans up his toys all by himself. He loves to be outside and dig in the dirt. He loves swimming and will jump in the deep end if he has watched Emma do it for a little bit. He attempts whatever he sees her do. He loves to go down the slide at the pool. John loves to sit on Emma's lap and have her or anyone read him a story. He can't resist someone reading him a story even if it means he will ultimately get a diaper change or have to go to bed. He loves Aaron and asks several times a day where daddy is. John isn't good about sitting in a shopping cart. I can turn my back for a second and he is out of the seat belt and standing up. He and Emma laugh the loudest and hardest when they are destroying things.
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
Giggling
Today I was getting ready in the morning and listening to my kids giggling in my closet with the door closed. It was such cute laughter - down right stinking adorable. I was enjoying it for quite some time when it dawned on me the last few times this happened, it meant destruction of various kinds in my closet. There frankly is no toy that elicits that kind of happiness. Only destruction. So my next thought wasn't "I should go find out what is going on." It was, "I don't have it in me to look and find out." So like a good ostrich, I didn't.
Aaron called from work and Emma had wanted to talk with him earlier in the morning so I ventured in the closet. Turns out that they found packing peanuts and were shredding them. On a previous day Emma had said that John had eaten a piece of one so I asked if he ate one.
Emma: "No but he put one up his nose."
Me: "Is it still there?"
Emma: "No, I took it out."
Good thing for big sisters. While all of this was going on I had been holding my eye shadow in my had and didn't notice that I had tipped it and some dark brown eye shadow spilled on the carpet. As I tried to clean it up Emma says, "Mom, you need to apologize to yourself." So I did. As a side note, vacuuming isn't effective for eye shadow - makes it worse. So Emma and I spent an hour cleaning up the packing peanuts together. From now on I will be using plastic grocery bags to pad any boxes I need to mail. Those bags are safely locked away.
Aaron called from work and Emma had wanted to talk with him earlier in the morning so I ventured in the closet. Turns out that they found packing peanuts and were shredding them. On a previous day Emma had said that John had eaten a piece of one so I asked if he ate one.
Emma: "No but he put one up his nose."
Me: "Is it still there?"
Emma: "No, I took it out."
Good thing for big sisters. While all of this was going on I had been holding my eye shadow in my had and didn't notice that I had tipped it and some dark brown eye shadow spilled on the carpet. As I tried to clean it up Emma says, "Mom, you need to apologize to yourself." So I did. As a side note, vacuuming isn't effective for eye shadow - makes it worse. So Emma and I spent an hour cleaning up the packing peanuts together. From now on I will be using plastic grocery bags to pad any boxes I need to mail. Those bags are safely locked away.
Sunday, July 7, 2013
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.
Thursday, July 4, 2013
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."
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!"
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