A Name

[Written October 4, 2010, published November 28, 2012.]

Emma's middle name is Linda.  It comes as a hybrid of Aunt Melinda Keller and Grandma Lindy (whose full name is Lindalee).  We liked the idea of naming her after these two people because they are very mild personalities that we just love and adore and would love to have Emma grow up to be like them.  There is one thing that we did not consider that Grandpa Rich pointed out below.  I was noting that I had decided Emma is an active child.  We have been to a couple of events where the other kids her age sat there at their mother's feet and just played nicely.  Not Emma, she was off exploring and walking to and fro.  She would only sit long enough to take in a few bites of food and then she was off.  Here is Grandpa Rich's response:

"Could Emma take after Grandma Lindy?  No need to panic - YET.  The best test for GL-DNA isn't a throat swab but rather to start her cleaning toilets at age 5.  If she responds with disgust as you did, no problem.  If she asks why you only have 3 toilets in your house, you will have to explain there are 5 sinks and endless floor molding awaiting her.  Your Mom's parents had to buy a motel to keep her from running off to join the circus or joining a motorcycle gang to keep her busy.  Grandma Lindy has been able to turn her active nature into a blessing to know her.  It is a good thing because someone with your Mom's talents could have made the FBI's Top Ten Most Wanted Fugitives and stayed there until she started slowing down at age 90.


"You and Aaron are blessed with 4 hands' full of wonderful child."


I had not considered Emma getting Grandma Lindy's spring-buttedness.

Dallas Ft Worth Vacation

We decided to take a small trip to Dallas/Ft Worth area to see some family and some sites around the Dallas area. We drove up on Friday afternoon and went to see the JFK Memorial. I confess that I wasn't well versed in the events surround the assassination so it was interesting to me. What I really wanted to see was the Conspiracy museum. That was a museum dedicated to the conspiracies surrounding the assassination and other world events. The blurb about the museum in our Texas book made it sound like a bunch of quack-pot theories and that means it would have made for a wonderful giggle or 500. It was a museum totally up my alley. Unfortunately, it was out of business... I am sure they had a conspiracy theory for that as well.

We also got to see a replica of the cabin that was the first "house" to settle Dallas. I am grateful we have advanced to not be living in a 10 by 10 foot cabin with no bathroom. We have 2000 sq ft and that seems tight at times.

We drove up to Plano to meet my cousin George and his wife Brooke and son Bentley. It was good to see him. It had been 7 years since I had last seen him. Bentley is a cute little boy.

The next day we went to the Ft Worth Stockyards. What are stockyards? I didn't know either. It is a historic/tourist area now with all things cowboy. We got to watch a staged cattle drive of some Texas Longhorns. Those things are big I tell you what. Emma wanted to ride one. She also saw a grown male get thrown from a mechanical bull. She wanted "to fall off a bull" too. So we let her sit on it and take her picture. She was disappointed we didn't let her get flung off of it. There were tons of museums. There was a cowboy museum. A trail rider hall of fame. And many more. I could see Aaron salivating at anything with the word "museum" attached to it. I have a theory (Aaron would say it is a conspiracy theory) that if they would just rename Nordstroms to Nordstroms Museum, I could get Aaron excited to go shopping with me. They also had a cattle/horse auction place. We got to watch them start to auction off trail horses. There were a whole bunch of men dressed up like they had just walked off the set of the tv show "Dallas." It was fantastic people watching.

We also went to the Children's museum with Rex, Mindy, Braxton, and Marisa. Emma spent an insane amount of time playing with a life size light bright. You know, where there is a light behind a black thing with holes in it and you stick colored pegs in it to make different designs. She was in love and would not budge to go see other stuff. Finally she moved on.

One thing that happened on the trip, was I became obsolete. Emma got hurt some how and kissed her own owie better. It was kinda funny actually. She had a sense of independence that she could take care of it herself, but she was still needing it to be kissed better.

So on the way home, John kept waking up and crying. When I got him out of the car, I found that he was sleeping on a lego in his carseat. Poor kid. So I mentioned to Aaron that he was like the Princess and the Pea except the Prince and the Lego. Aaron looked at me like I had two heads. He had never heard of the fairy tale. On the way up there was an article on NPR about Areosmith. Aaron asked me if I had listened to Areosmith when I was younger. Unless Areosmith went by John Denver at some point, I didn't listen to them ever. Further evidence that we had different childhood experiences.

Halloween

So now that I have been trick or treating with a kid that knows what is going on, this might be one of my favorite holidays. It is just so cute to watch kids ready to burst they are so excited. How magical it must be to them to dress up like something they like (or something their mom makes them be in Emma and John's case this year) and go house to house and get candy!

This year Emma actually said "trick or treat" and "thank you" by the end of our outing. At first she was super shy. John just wanted to grab the bushes as we walked past. Emma would have continued on for hours had I let her but it was bed time and her pumpkin bucket had more candy in it than what I knew what to do with. Emma knows what to do with it. I am still trying to strategize how to ration the candy. Part of me wants to let her go hog wild until she wants to puke so she can get it out of her system and hopefully regulate herself. And then I remember that she is 3 years old and she might puke and ask for more candy. Then I just have a mess to clean up and still don't have a kid with self control.

So, John was a lobster and Emma a cupcake.

Last night we went to the ward trunk or treat and prior to that Emma thought that Halloween was where you go and dance to music because Aaron took her to hear the Houston symphony play "Halloween" music. She loved the idea of going around to get candy - way better!

Nine Months

John is officially nine months old! This means that the baby monitor is going off. Whoo Hoo! He is still army crawling but just this week learned to clap his hands. He isn't too consistent about it but he has done it a number of times. John still growls a lot. In fact people turn around in church to see who is growling. He won't eat unless he has a toy to play with. He will sit/lay there and play with a toy for quite a while and then when he sees something he wants, he moves pretty fast for army crawling, toward whatever he wants. Usually he wants power cords to computers, the wipes container, shoes, the bathroom, the laundry room, plastic bags, and my anti-fatigue mat in the kitchen. The sum up is that he is attracted to whatever he can't have and moves quickly when he thinks he has a chance at getting it. He loves fruit and will eat so much that he will puke. In fact that is what he did today in church on Aaron's lap. Aaron came home from church soaked and John in a onsie and shoes. We had to put up the padded chair that Aaron was sitting on at the time because it was soaked. People all around us offered blankets and burp cloths because it was that much stuff. John loves it when you sing to him. He has 7 teeth and is working on 8. And this morning he crawled with his belly up for the first time. And when I got him up from a nap, he had managed to get to a sit up position all by himself.

Emma is loving preschool and learning to negotiate playing with 3 year olds. She comes home from preschool and doesn't tell me what she learns but tells me about what happens socially. She watches people and will tell me all about who did what. Emma loves leotards and wants to go to dance class and do gymnastics and ride a bike with pedals.

Aunt Mary and Uncle Brian

Someone once said, "Everybody needs an Aunt Mary." Unfortunately for 6 billion - 6 people in the world, they don't have an Aunt Mary. Emma and John happen to fall into the 6 people in the world that have an Aunt Mary. Why does one need an Aunt Mary? I will tell you.

Aunt Mary and Uncle Brian came into town late Thursday night so when Emma woke up in the morning, the fun started early. First, Aunt Mary was a sherpa and brought a bunch of leotards and ballet shoes for Emma that Amanda was nice enough to give to Emma. Emma fell in love with gymnastics and dance leotards and ballet shoes and a dress. She spent the morning trying stuff on and taking it off and doing it 29 million times. Then we went shopping for a fall clothes for Emma and John. Emma got to try on dresses and green pants and hats and all sorts of pretty stuff. Aunt Mary was squishy and bought Emma a pink and purple soccer ball that she bounces like a basketball. Then we went to Gymboree and Aunt Mary showed some outfits to Emma and she didn't show much interest. That is when Aunt Mary busted out the jewelry. I went to run an errand at another store and left Mary and Emma at Gymboree. On my way back to Mary and Emma, I saw them walking towards me and Emma was donning about 15 bracelets and a necklace and just beaming. And just where were Mary and Emma heading to? They were heading to go get a cookie. Mary opened up a whole new world for Emma. Mary asked her what kind of cookie she wanted and her response was, "a brown one." Clearly Emma is not versed in cookie varieties. That night Mary made pumpkin cookies. I think Emma had 4 after she was not hungry for dinner. Uncle Brian was nice and played catch with Emma and attempted to teach her how to throw a ball to play catch. At one point in the evening Emma looked down at Brian's toes and noticed that a couple of them were blue. She looked up at him and asked him if he painted his toes. Just to clarify, Brian does not paint his toes, but I am guessing bruised his toes from running.

On Saturday we went to Galveston to see the Bishop's Palace. It is a mansion that was built in the late 1800's during the time when Galveston was a high and mighty place. It was a beautiful mansion and cool to see some of the history. Then we went to eat some BBQ and Aunt Mary was squishy enough to buy Emma a lemonade. Then we went to the beach. It felt a little wrong to take two people who somewhat live in California to Galveston to the beach. Mostly because what do you see at Galveston on the beach? Pretty palm trees? Beautiful rocks? Surfers? Nope. Oil Tankers waiting to dock. It might warm the heart of an oil executive, but hard to say that it will do much for out of town visitors from California.

Emma however, was in love - with the beach, not the tankers. She braved the water and eventually settled down and played in the sand. She could have stayed there forever playing in the sand.

After that, Aunt Mary and Uncle Brian took Emma to the mall. On the way there, Emma kept asking if Brian was a sleep. Brian was driving, so no, he wasn't. Emma repeatedly asked him though, so Brian eventually said,  'yes.' Emma then asked if they were going to go bonk with the other cars. Brian asked her if she wanted to go bonk with the cars. She said yes so Brian (just joking of course) said, "Hold on here we go!" Emma got excited and braced for impact. After that she kept asking to go bonk with cars. At one point she said, "Ready, set, go bonk with cars!"

Before they got to the mall, Emma (who had a lot of lemonade from lunch) piped up and said, "I need to go peeps in the potty or I will pee in my car seat." They pulled over quickly and Mary carried Emma into a CVS sans pants and shoes (because they were wet from the beach) to take her potty. Again, everybody needs and Aunt Mary to fill them with 32 ounces of lemonade and carry them pantless into a public restroom to go potty! At the mall Emma found "very special" Jimmy Choos shoes that were a mere $800 that they needed to try on.

We had a great time visiting and laughing with Aunt Mary and Uncle Brian and Emma was exposed to a whole new world of treats and fun things that her curmudgeon mother does not do with her. And who doesn't love to have two grown adults dote on them?

Oh, and at one point during the trip Emma turned to me and said, "[Some object, I don't remember what] isn't cute, it is fantastic!" Evidence of her love and admiration of Aunt Mary.

Things to Remember

There are some things that I want to remember but mostly random.

When we ask Emma for a kiss on the cheek, she asks if we are going to get an owie there. Apparently that is the only reason for a kiss. This happens just about every time so that tells me this is a hard concept.

When John sees Emma after naps he moves faster than at any other time and just about jumps out of his skin giggling trying to get to her. He just loves to see her.

Milestones - John started army crawling at 7.5 months and is just now starting to sleep through the night. It turns out that he was starving and now that he is fed, is fat and happy and sleepy at night. So by virtue of writing this, he will start to wake up in the night..... curses.....

When I get John up from naps or in the morning he will invariably have a pacifier or two in his mouth and one in his hand. The little guy just  hoards pacifiers. It is sad and funny all at the same time.

John growls a lot. There are happy growls and frustrated growls. Mostly he growls when he is done eating. That is how he lets me know.

We introduced John to standing up next to things like the couch, etc. He just laughed and laughed with delight at his new found world.

John has an M.O. for getting something he wants. For example, he was sitting on my lap while I was eating breakfast. He sat there quietly and very still with his eyes fixed on my food. He sat there like this for several minutes and then out of no where his quickly and accurately grabs my bowl and pulls it to him. It always takes me off guard. He studies his target and makes no move for it until several minutes have gone by and then grabs it fast.

Here are some pictures:

Emma has fallen in love with this leotard. She goes grocery shopping at the house with her belle shoes. She puts her favorite treasures in her shopping cart. It dawned on me that she reminded me of a homeless person walking around with all of her treasures in a shopping cart.

Aaron took Emma to Hocus Pocus Pops. That is where the Houston Symphony plays movies from Halloween or scary movies. Now Emma thinks that Halloween is when you go to hear music. She hasn't quite grasped the concept of it yet. She had fun until she got sick in front of a sushi restaurant in the higher end shopping area of The Woodlands. In case it isn't obvious, Emma is a cupcake for Halloween this year.

We were trying to teach John to pull himself up on the couch.He tried to employ the same technique that Emma did at his age - when the arm muscles give out, use the mouth.

Eventually, John figured out that he didn't have to go to all of the effort of pulling himself on to the couch but he could just reach up and get the toy he wanted.

And it is Only Breakfast

This morning Emma told me that she had a wedgie hiding in her bum. I think that is a pretty good description. After she took care of that, I asked her what she wanted to get at the grocery store. (Yesterday she said she wanted to try green apples so we told her we would get one at the store today when we went grocery shopping.) She apparently didn't remember our conversation because she said cereal first and when I asked her what else she said sushi. She does like sushi, but she clarified that she wants to watch the sushi chefs at the grocery store.