Fun Saturday

We've had a lovely day. One of our playgroups that meets every month had an extended get-together today because several of the families in the group had traveled together and were celebrating their gotcha day. We all met at this private country club pool where one of the moms is a member. It was nice to go somewhere new, but honestly, I like the public pool we frequent much better. Regardless, all the girls had a blast. Emma discovered the fun of floating around on a noodle and was in heaven. Here's Emma with her friend Allison, who just turned seven the other day.


After the pool outing, we all headed over to one of the mom's homes for a cookout. All the girls put these big bows in their hair and we took a striped couch photo (as opposed to the famous red couch photo.) Here are Laini, Laura, Rachel, Allison, Emma sitting on Elena's lap and Erin. They are all such beautiful (and tanned) girls!




We didn't get in until 9:30, which is obscenely late for Emma, and pretty close to my bedtime as well. Emma's sound asleep already and I'm afraid I'm not too far behind...

Christmas in July

Before I got Emma, I was pretty much a wait-until-the-last-minute Christmas shopper. But that has changed in the past several years. Now, I usually start looking around for possible gift ideas and bargains as early as summer.

Yesterday, I bought Emma's first Christmas present for this year. It's a Disney Mix Max video/mp3 player. It's pretty small (the video screen is like 2.5 inches) but it plays movies and video and mp3 files. You can buy what are called Disney Mix Clips - movies and music that look like little memory sticks and just insert them in the player. But you can also download sound and video files from your computer.

The one I got Emma is the High School Musical Mix Max, with her favorite movie (HSM) included. This thing retails for $120, but I got it for less than $50 on Ebay. I think it will be a nice thing to have to entertain her on car and plane trips, when I don't want to drag a portable DVD player around.

I've already decided Emma's big present this year will be an American Girl doll. Part of me totally rebels at the idea of paying nearly $100 for a doll. But Emma has suddenly become doll-crazy and loved it when we went to a special American Girl doll exhibit at a local museum a few weeks ago. I also like the philosophy around American Girl, unlike Bratz or, even to a certain extent, Barbie. Emma likes the AG Kit doll, so I think that's what she'll be getting from Santa this year.

Anyway, it's nice to kind of get the Xmas shopping underway. Do you have your shopping done yet?!!

One of the big talks...

Yesterday after running a few errands, Emma and I were eating lunch at our favorite local sub shop and without warning, our conversation took a philosophical turn:

Emma: Momma, when I'm a grown-up, will you be dead?

Me: (trying not to choke on Sun Chip) Well, I hope not. I'm a grown-up and my mom is still alive.

Emma: When you die, do you just float up in the sky?

Me: (now wishing I had bought book on how to talk to your child about death) Well, no one really knows. The only people who know that are dead and they can't tell us. I don't think our bodies float up in the sky, but I believe our spirit does.

Emma: What's a spirit?

Me: (starting to sweat a little) Well, it's what's inside of us and what makes us who we are.

Emma: Inside of us, like our brains?

Me: (I'm blowing this) No, more like our personalities and our thoughts and the people and things we love in life...that's our spirit. I think that's what goes to heaven.

Emma: Can I have one of your pickles?

End of conversation (thankfully) But I'm sure the topic will come up again, so I better do a little more reading on the subject. I'm a firm believer that you can learn everything there is about parenting in a book or magazine (I WISH!!!)

Anyway, other than discussing matters of life and death, it's been a pretty laid back weekend...we hit the pool yesterday and I took a picture of Emma and her friend Cassie.


Just trying to get revved up about the week ahead...it's a busy one for both of us!

Woe is me...

I might be biased, but I have to say that I have been blessed with a very sweet and well-behaved child. But that doesn't mean she doesn't have her moments.

On the rare occasions when Emma does decide to throw a little tantrum, she always does the exact same thing. She marches down the hall (usually with blanket in tow) crawls into the stairwell that leads upstairs, and closes the door. This is meant to be her official sign to me that she's really mad.

Anyway, this is what it looks like...






As you can see from this last photo, pouting can get to be mighty boring if no one is really paying any attention to you (which is my general reaction to all this drama.) Usually she sits in there for a few minutes, and when I fail to appear, she'll come back into the living room or kitchen or wherever I am and just pretends the whole thing never happened.

I guess after watching a few episodes of Supernanny, I can't really complain about Emma's version of a temper tantrum!

Give me an "E"!

Some of you might recall my dismay at Emma's growing fascination with cheerleading. I'm sure there are some very nice people out there who have been cheerleaders...but I remember when I was in high school, the cheerleaders were the most egotistical and shallow girls at our school.

But you can't always choose what your child becomes obsessed with...and Emma's interest in cheerleading has even surpassed her love of all things princess.

Gymboree has had a cheerleading outfit for sale for a little while now. Every time we have been in there the past couple months, Emma has BEGGED me to buy her that outfit. I haven't caved in (a) because it's never gone on sale and probably never will and (b) I secretly kept hoping she'd forget about it. One night last week, I was on Ebay looking for something else and I typed in "Gymboree cheerleading oufit 3t", hoping 0 matches would come up. Alas, there were several. In a moment of weakness, I made a ridiculously low offer on the cheerleading outfit Gymboree sold last year (I actually think this one was cuter.) Shockingly, the seller accepted my offer.

The outfit got here today, and to say that Emma was in heaven when she opened it would be an understatement. She does look pretty cute in the outfit, especially with the pom-poms the seller threw in...




I told Emma that this cheerleading outfit is also going to double as her Halloween costume and she seems cool with that (at least until fall when she sees the Disney Princess costumes, no doubt.) But she seems to love being a cheerleader right now (sigh!)

The constant gardner

Earlier this week, we were at Target (big surprise there) and they had all their kids' gardening gear marked 50% off. Since it was pink and cute, suddenly Emma had an interest in gardening. Hey, at least someone in the family has the potential to grow things...when it comes to gardening, I have zero ability!

So today, Emma ventured out into the yard to water the new little shrubs we planted last weekend. She seemed to know what she was doing...




Of course, as always with Emma, just because you're doing a dirty job, there's no reason you can't be stylish...hence the high-heeled sandals and ankle bracelet.

Balloon heaven

We had to attend a rare weeknight birthday party for one of Emma's friends tonight. It was actually a bit of a drag. Emma was the only child that wasn't in this girl's class, so all the other kids knew each other and pretty much ignored Emma, who is on the shy side anyway. She finally seemed to hit it off with one little girl. And, of course, except for the birthday girl's mom, I didn't know any of the other parents - who all knew each other very well. So they pretty much ignored me too.

The highlight for Emma was that the world's greatest balloon animal maker was the featured entertainment at the party. I kid you not...this guy is a balloon animal genius. We've seen him at a number of events around town and he can create just about anything with a balloon. He made Emma this incredible princess crown and she was in heaven...


Balloon crown aside, I was relieved when it was finally time to go...I was pretty cranky by the time we got home and put Emma right into bed. I'm probably not too far behind.

I'm so glad tomorrow is Friday!

Happy Independence Day!

From Emma and baby Annabelle!

Mission accomplished

I know...no posts for more than a week. I'm a pathetic excuse for a blogger. It's been such a busy week, with getting used to the new job (I think I'm really going to love it, once I figure out what the heck I'm doing) Plus, my parents came for a visit this past weekend, so we were on the go quite a bit.

I know many of you are probably dying to know if I EVER finished putting together Emma's new kitchen. I'm happy to say, with a tremendous amount of pride, that I put attached the final piece last week. It is no doubt the most complicated thing I've ever attempted to put together. But it looks great in Emma's playroom and she loves it!


Needless to say, I'm going to try to avoid any home improvement or assembly projects involving screws and drills for a little while!