Emma's World

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2010-11-06T15:28:00.000-05:00

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Look who's 8 today!

2010-02-24T11:57:00.001-06:00

Yes, my little girl is now 8 years old. Unbelievable is all I can say!

Happy Chinese New Year...a little late!

2010-02-20T18:16:00.002-06:00

We attended our local FCC chapter's Chinese New Year party today. I swear, the group gets smaller and smaller every year...very few families are adopting from China now (sigh!) But we had a wonderful time, hanging with families we have known for years now. Now Emma's at a sleepover and I have an evening to myself. So what to do...

Braces no more!

2010-02-02T21:02:00.002-06:00

Emma got her braces and palate expander taken off today. She's had the palate expander for about 8 months and braces for just three months. But the orthodondist says we have to let more of her permanent teeth come in and then decide if any other orthodontia is necessary. In the meantime, she'll have to wear a retainer at night, which should be great fun for her.

I have to say, her front teeth look great...very straight and no big gap or anything (as you can see in this photo of her serenading her toothbrush!

The Pokemon girls...

2010-01-16T18:23:00.003-06:00

Emma and her good friend Jenna are both in the midst of Pokemon-mania. Whenever they get together, they huddle over their Pokemon cards and books and speak what sounds like a foreign language to those of us who are clueless about Pokemon.

Jenna's 8th birthday is this weekend, and when her mom asked her what she wanted to do for her birthday, she said she just wanted Emma to come over and play Pokemon. So that's what we did today. After a nice lunch at Pei Wei with Jenna and Kay (Jenna's mom) I dropped Emma off at Jenna's house for a couple of hours and the girls played with their Pokemon cards, watched a Pokemon movie and read their Pokemon books.

The two had a wonderful time!

Best Christmas ever...

2009-12-26T08:43:00.003-06:00

...we had such a wonderful Christmas. For the first time in like 25 years, our entire family was able to spend the holiday together. It has been so great to hang out with my parents, siblings and their families the past few days. Emma has had so much fun playing with her cousins.

We were blessed in the gift department as well...I finally got a Kindle (yea!) and Emma got a Wii, a camera and a scooter, among other things. But I think her favorite gift was the Pillow Pet she got from her grandma and grandpa...she has barely put "Bubbles the Hippo" down since she unwrapped him!

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday as well!

Seven years ago today...

2009-12-11T21:40:00.002-06:00

...I met my daughter for the first time in China. Has it really been that long? I am so priviledged to be this little girl's mommy...she has been the light of my life for every day of the past seven years!

Visiting with the big guy...

2009-11-26T22:04:00.003-06:00

Emma is getting to the age where doubt begins to creep in about the authenticity of Santa Claus. We were in the car the other day, and she asked me if Santa is real. I asked her what she thought, and she said she thought he was. But I'm sure many of her friends no longer believe.

Anyway, she still really wanted to go to the mall to see Santa, so we headed there the other day. While we were standing in line, she kept rehearsing her Christmas list so she would get it right when she saw Santa. He was a great Santa and Emma was so happy afterwards. Hope this isn't our last year for this tradition!

Ain't it the truth...

2009-11-22T10:16:00.000-06:00

Braces!

2009-11-17T17:28:00.002-06:00

Emma got braces today! Okay, they are only on her front teeth...to help pull them down a little. But still kind of a big deal. So far, they aren't bothering her a bit - but the orthodontist said they could ache a little tomorrow. Right now, she's just excited about showing them to all her friends at Brownies tonight!

Seven years ago today...

2009-11-05T21:26:00.002-06:00

...I saw my beautiful daughter's face for the first time. I can still remember every moment of referral day, just like it was yesterday...not seven years ago! It was certainly the most memorable day of my life.

The pirate, the witch and Madeline...

2009-11-01T06:51:00.003-06:00

Emma went trick-or-treating last night with her friends Sophie and Hope, and the girls had a wonderful time. It was a perfect night for trick-or-treating and we were out for more than an hour-and-a-half. The girls may not have been tired, but us moms were exhausted.

Anyway, here are a few pictures of the girls before we headed out...

Love that last picture...our little goofballs!

So now we're stuck with a huge bag of candy, which Emma has very little interest in. She just doesn't have a sweet tooth (it runs in the family - HA!) She loves Halloween...running around in a costume with her friends, acquiring candy and then trading it back and forth afterwards. But now it will just sit in her bag until I take it to work (after I pick out the good pieces for myself!)

So another Halloween behind us...hope you and yours had a great holiday too!

It's apple-picking time!

2009-10-18T08:32:00.003-05:00

Every fall, we go apple-picking with some of our friends. Because everyone has been so busy, we didn't get around to it until this weekend. It's a good thing we went, because this was the last weekend the orchard was open. Because it was so late in the season (and because we had such a cool summer and fall) there weren't a ton of apples left. But it's still more about the experience than coming home with a huge basket of apples. Here are some pics:

So this morning, I'm looking for apple recipes on the web. Last year I made an apple pie with some of our apples, but Emma is not really a pie fan. So I'm looking for some great apple crisp recipes. Yum!

A very cold weekend!

2009-10-11T21:04:00.002-05:00

We had an unusually cold weekend...the high only hit the low 40s on Saturday and Sunday. We were supposed to go on a Brownie camp out on Saturday night and (like most of the troop) decided not to go. I have been battling a cold and did not feel like sleeping outside in 20 degree weather. I feel like a wimp, but it was the right decision.

We had to bundle up when we went outside...as you can see from these photos of Emma..

These look more like pictures from February! It's supposed to warm up a bit this week - thankfully. I love autumn and hate seeing it turn to winter too soon...

Haven't felt like blogging lately...

2009-10-05T20:53:00.003-05:00

...I don't know why, but suddenly blogging seems like such a chore! I think it's partly because I've been doing it for so long, and partly because we've been so busy lately. Anyway, I guess I have enough energy to check in and post a few photos.

It was very much an autumn weekend for us. Saturday we went to the area's annual Moon Festival - it was nice seeing some new families who had young babies and toddlers recently adopted from China. Emma had a great time, digging in the dirt all evening with her friends...

Our other big excursion was to the pumpkin patch. Normally we don't go quite this early, but I honestly couldn't see a time for us to go before Halloween...we are that busy. Anyway, it was a beautiful day and we both had a great time.

Incidentally, Emma informed me this week that she was going to be a tomboy from now on! I guess she was serious - when we went to McDonald's this weekend, she wanted a Bakugan toy instead of the Build-A-Bear toy.

My daughter, the adventurer (NOT!)

2009-09-19T18:59:00.002-05:00

Emma's Brownie troop had a field trip today...they went to a nearby Girl Scout camp where they had a zip line. The girls were supposed to climb up a rope ladder onto a small platform and then they were hooked to a zip line and they glided down the line about 500 feet. All the girls were giddy with excitement, except my little Emma. She is so afraid to try new things...especially anything that is a physical challenge. All 22 girls in the troop went down the zip line, except Emma and one other girl.

I tried not to make a big deal about it, although I'm sure she sensed my disappointment. I just wish she was more willing to try new things. Of course, maybe this timidity will be a good thing a few years down the line, when other kids are trying smoking and drinking and other things I don't like to think about.

Anyway, although Emma chickened out, she still had a great time...and that's the important thing.

Equestrian camp

2009-09-12T14:59:00.002-05:00

Emma is spending the entire day at an equestrian camp. I'm a little nervous about leaving her there the whole day - I always stay for her lessons. I feel like I should be there in case something happens. But the instructor assured me she would take good care of her, so I dropped her off and left...

I've spent a glorious day grocery shopping, doing laundry and cleaning the house. I guess you could say I was at housekeeping camp all day.

A day at the farmstead...

2009-09-05T18:53:00.004-05:00

Sorry for the lack of posting of late. It seems like the first couple weeks of school are so hectic - and it's a challenge getting back into the routine. But I feel like we're settled in a little and things are getting back to normal.

Of course, that doesn't mean we don't appreciate a nice long holiday weekend to get us all out of whack again! Emma's best friend Emme spent the night last night and stayed with us most of the day today. The girls have known each other since they were one, and second grade is the first time they have not been in class together. They have really missed each other.

It had been an absolutely beautiful day, so we decided to visit the local farmstead - along with about 75,000 other folks. But the girls had a great time. The day was filled with...

Feeding the goats

Mining for gold

Eating snow cones

And just hanging out

Now Emma is over at Emme's house...I half-suspect I'll get a call soon from my girl asking if she can have a sleepover at Emme's house. She loves her best friend!

First day of second grade

2009-08-25T11:17:00.004-05:00

I'm now the mother of a second-grader! Emma had a few butterflies in her tummy this morning, but I think it was just the excitement of being in second grade...

We went to orientation last night and found out who Emma's teacher is. There was one teacher I definitely did NOT want her to get, and I was super-relieved when I saw she wasn't on his class list. I feel horrible saying that, and I'm sure it's no fun being the teacher that no one wants to get. But he has a reputation for being kind of a yeller and I know that would not be good for Emma.

Anyway, her new teacher is Mme. Valluett - she is from France and is super-nice.

I'm hoping Emma has a great year...she told me some kids say second grade is "really hard." Hopefully that's not the case!

PS this is the first year I didn't cry when I dropped Emma off at her first day of school...I guess the next time I will bawl will be when I take her to college!

Emma and her Biggie

2009-08-16T18:41:00.002-05:00

I know there's no one who loves Emma more than I do, but my mom comes close. She adores my little girl and Emma loves her Biggie (that is what Emma has called her ever since she could talk.)

It is so lovely...

2009-08-11T19:37:00.003-05:00

...when your child spends the day with a friend whose mother is a brilliant professional photographer. I was trying to get through a long day at work when the mom dropped me an email saying everything was going great and she attached a few photos of the girls when they were helping her out in her studio...

I love this last photo of Emma and her friend Nikita...they are such sweet and pretty girls (in my opinion!)

The expander is in...

2009-08-04T19:49:00.003-05:00

I had been dreading this day for several weeks...Emma's appointment to get her palate expander in. I have been so worried that this was going to be painful for my little girl...and I was not looking forward to having to stick a key in her mouth every night to tighten the expander.

Well, Emma was a total champ...she didn't wince or complain once as they glued the expander onto the roof of her mouth. They had me tighten the expander for the first time...it wasn't as complicated as I thought and Emma said it didn't really hurt...it just made her nose feel funny (they told me that was common and it stopped after a few minutes.)

Anyway, here's a blurry photo of her new $1600 accessory...

And not to leave you with that disturbing image...here's a photo from Emma's horse show this weekend...she got two seconds, which made me quite proud!

A couple more from the photo shoot

2009-07-30T18:26:00.001-05:00

A preview of Emma's photo shoot

2009-07-27T12:26:00.002-05:00

As I mentioned yesterday, a photographer friend of mine came out to the stables to take a few shots of Emma before her lesson. She sent me a photo she took of Emma with her favorite horse Abra...

They both look so beautiful to me! I can't wait to see the rest...

Sunday at the stables

2009-07-26T18:37:00.002-05:00

The weather here, like many other parts of the country, has been blissfully cool this summer. Normally, Emma's horseback riding lessons can be very taxing for both mother and daughter at her non-air conditioned barn. But with the cooler temps, it has been downright pleasant all summer.

Today was probably the warmest day we've had this year...upper 80s. A friend of ours who is a professional photographer came out to the barn to take some photos of Emma around the horses - I can't wait to see how they came out!

I snapped a couple photos of her too...

Emma spent her whole lesson practicing schooling patterns...she has a horse show this Saturday and she's going to compete in the schooling pattern class for the first time (up til now, she's just done walk/trot.) We'll see how she does next week!

Emma's summer playlist

2009-07-19T20:12:00.003-05:00

I have a really old Ipod that I gave Emma and I helped her pick out some of her favorite songs to put on it. So here's what she's listening to this summer...

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun - Cyndy Lauper (I think it's cool that Emma loves a song I was listening to as a teenager!)

Pokerface - Lady Gaga (this is definitely the song of the summer for us - you've never lived until you hear a group of 7-year-old girls belting this song out in the back of your car!)

Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It) - Beyonce (Emma thought this song was called Single Legs until I finally clued her in.)

Boom Boom Pow - Black Eyed Peas (I'm actually not crazy about this one, but Emma loves it.)

The Climb - Miley Cyrus (I'm pretty tired of all things Miley/Hannah, but this is a pretty decent song.)

Umbrella - Rhiannon (I love it when Emma sings the chorus...ella ella ella ella hey hey hey hey.)

Love Story - Taylor Swift (Emma worships Taylor...she even has a poster of her in her room - the only non-horse poster allowed.)

That's Not My Name - The Ting Tings (I love this one as much as Emma.)

Hit Me Baby One More Time - Britney Spears (classic Britney...I'm just thrilled it's not that horrible If You Seek Amy song.)

One World - The Cheetah Girls (In Emma's mind, the Cheetah Girls splitting was akin to the Beatles breakup 40 years ago.)

As you can see, Emma is heavy into the grrrrl power anthems...but she has pretty good taste for a seven-year-old!

Orthodontia...here we come!

2009-07-16T19:10:00.005-05:00

Emma had her first orthodontist appointment yesterday. It was just a consultation and I was hoping the orthodontist would say yes, she would need some work, but not until next year...or even later.

But no, she showed me how Emma's permanent teeth coming in are already crowded and we need to make room for them...the sooner the better. So even though my daughter is just seven years old, she is starting down the road to orthodontia (I didn't get my braces on until I was 14!) The orthodontist put in rubber spacers between her back molars, which will make a bit of a gap between the molars. That's so they can fit her with a palate expander in two weeks.

I am a bit of wreck about the whole thing - both how to swing it financially and how Emma will fare. I love my daughter to death, but I have to admit, she is a bit of a wimp. She's been complaining all day about how the spacers are hurting her teeth...I can't imagine what will happen when they put that expander on (which looks like a torture device invented by the Nazis.) And the fact that I have to insert a little key in her mouth every night and tighten the expander...I just can't wait.

Oh well, I know it's become a extremely common rite of passage for kids now - and it will be fine.

Anyway, here is Emma before we headed to the orthodontist...she looked pretty happy then!

Signs your child is growing up

2009-07-14T19:54:00.004-05:00

I've been picking up some subtle signs lately that Emma is no longer a little girl. For example:

She's more excited about going to the mall than going to the park.

Her favorite singer is no longer Laurie Berkner...it's Taylor Swift.

When we were window shopping the other day and passed Gymboree, she said "Mommy, don't even THINK about it!" But her eyes lit up when we walked by Justice.

When I asked her what she wanted for Christmas, she said a Blackberry so she can text her friends (uh, I meant THIS Christmas, not the Christmas when she's 12.)

The other night, the last thing she said to me before going to bed was "don't pick my clothes out for me...I want to do that now."

Sigh! Seven is a fun age, but it is so bittersweet watching your little girl slip away. Oh well, at least she still loves her stuffed animals!

Another sleepover

2009-07-12T16:09:00.003-05:00

It seems like 7-year-old girls are obsessed with sleepovers. Every weekend this summer, either Emma has been asked to sleep over at a friend's house or she has begged me to let one of her friends sleep over here. I don't mind it all that much, although I'm trying to limit it to a once a month thing. It can kind of wreck havoc on the entire weekend...sleepwise.

Anyway, this weekend it was our turn to host...Emma wanted her friend Tori to sleep over here. The girls were pretty good and I got them to bed by 10. We went to the park and swimming the next day. The girls were starting to snipe at each other a bit by early afternoon, so I knew it was time to take her home.

Here's a few pictures of the girls...

Happy Independence Day!

2009-07-04T18:20:00.003-05:00

Hope everyone had a great 4th of July. I snapped this photo just as neighbors shot off a bottle rocket (I think they took out a second mortgage to buy fireworks this year because they've been shooting them off for the last four hours!)

Sorry I haven't posted anything in so long...nothing much exciting to report, I'm afraid! Hopefully something worth writing about will happen this week...

Let's go swimming!

2009-06-21T21:20:00.003-05:00

Emma and I hit the pool for the first time this summer...it really has been too cool to go. But the temps climbed into the 90s this weekend and we went to our neighborhood pool. We ran into several friends at the pool and had a great time.

By the way, those of you in the Midwest may have seen a burst of blinding light around noon today...don't panic - it was just the sun reflected off my pasty white skin. My apologies...

2009-06-20T11:19:00.002-05:00

Emma had her friend Helen over last night for a sleepover. Helen and Emma have known each other for years and they are good friends, but they tend to squabble a bit when they get together. Or at least they used to! Last night, they peacefully played Littlest Pet Shop together for more than an hour and not once fought over who got which pet or whose pet got which accessory. I guess they are growing up a little...

I made the girls go to bed at 9:30, but they still weren't asleep by 11, at which point I got a bit cross with them (mainly because I wanted to hit the sack!) But they finally conked out and didn't get up until 7 this morning.

All in all, a pretty successful sleepover!

Walk for Hope

2009-06-13T18:30:00.005-05:00

Today we participated in our local FCC's charity walk for children in Chinese orphanges. It was a cool and overcast day, which is fine if you're going to be walking a couple of miles. Some photos from the day...

Here is Emma with her friend Ella and Ella's little sister Mira. The two little girls adore Emma and followed her around all morning...

This is Emma with her good friend, Sophie. They actually scootered around the park, instead of walking...

All the girls in the organization were encouraged to raise money on their own for the event. Here are the four girls that raised the most money...Meredith, Ella, Sophie and Emma. Each of the girls won a gift certificate to Build-A-Bear Workshop, so I guess we'll be going back to that kiddie crack den before too long.

And just one more picture of my sweet girl...

We had a good time, but the whole thing was rather bittersweet. This was the 11th time for this walk and the sixth time Emma and I have participated. But we all have the feeling this might be the last one. Every year, fewer and fewer families attend. As our girls get older, they seem to lose their enthusiasm for these Chinese cultural events like the Walk and Chinese New Year. And because adoptions from China have crawled to a standstill, there are very few families with newly adopted children who are excited about coming. We only had one family with a child who had been adopted in the past year...five years ago, we would have had ten or more. It's just very sad. Our FCC chapter is actually considering shutting down, like a number of others across the country. I hope we don't...I've been on the board the past three years and have really loved it. But it's hard to put all this effort into these events when the turnout declines every year. We'll see what happens...

Au revoir, first grade!

2009-06-06T06:57:00.002-05:00

Friday was Emma's last day of first grade...the year just flew by. She has a week off and then six weeks of summer school (which is a blessing - it helps keep her French sharp and helps me with summer child care expenses.) Then in August, we'll take a week off to visit family and the rest of the time, we are sharing a nanny with some friends of ours.

Anyway, here are a few photos of Emma's last day of school...

Here's the class with the gift they made for their teacher.

This is Emma with her wonderful first grade teacher, Mme. Cahoon...

And Emma with her friend Emme and Mme. Cahoon...

I'm sure fall will be here in a flash!

Helen's Mei Mei

2009-05-30T21:21:00.002-05:00

Emma and I met our friends Helen and Mary at the park today. We also got to meet Helen's new sister, Amanda, for the first time. Mary and Helen got back from China a couple weeks ago with Amanda, who just turned three. I can't imagine the challenges of trying to help a three-year-old adjust to a new family, language and country. But they seem to be doing pretty well...

Amanda is very shy, although she warmed right up to Emma. She seems to understand English, but the only word she says is "mama." We're really looking forward to really getting to know her as she adjusts to her new life.

Our busy social life...

2009-05-29T13:35:00.003-05:00

Yes, WE have another busy weekend ahead. Here's our schedule:

Friday night:

Donna - nothing
Emma - sleepover at friend Raina's house

Saturday:

Donna - nothing
Emma - Playdate at the park with friend Helen
Birthday party at friend Murphy's house
Evening picnic at friend Emme's house

Sunday:

Donna & Emma - church
Emma - equestrian lessons

As you can see , WE have a very hectic life. It's so sad really...

The free ride is over

2009-05-23T20:36:00.003-05:00

Emma had her six-month dental check-up yesterday. I've been so pleased that she has never had any cavities. However, after taking x-rays, our dentist told me that Emma has a few "pre-cavities" between her teeth. I've never heard the term "pre-cavities" before. She showed me the x-rays and pointed out a couple places where there were little shadows - where cavities were starting to form. She said she would check them at Emma's next check-up to see if they need to be filled.

Emma doesn't have much of a sweet tooth, and she never drinks pop or fruit juice, but we could definitely do a better job brushing and flossing. And we will.

Also, our dentist told us we needed to make an appointment with an orthodondist. She says Emma has a cross-bite on one side and her permanent teeth are already crowded. Where I'm going to get the $$ to pay for orthodontia, I have no clue. But you have to do it, so we'll find it.

On a happier note, The Children's Place was having a sale and I dropped in while Emma was at a birthday party this afternoon. Sometimes you just see something and know instantly that your daughter will adore it. I saw this dress and just knew Emma would love it...and I was right. She hasn't taken it off all day...

Anyway, hope you're all enjoying your holiday weekend! I could get used to these three-day weekends!

My daughter...the philanthropist

2009-05-16T19:33:00.003-05:00

Our local FCC chapter has its annual charity walk for orphanages in China in about a month. This year, we're encouraging families to get their kids involved in the effort. Today, Emma and two of her friends, Hope and Sophie had a lemonade stand to raise money for the walk. The girls made lemonade, cookies and cupcakes and sold everything for 50 cents. Here are the little entreprenuers in action...

So the girls sat there from like 9 am to about 1:30 pm and raised...get this...$125! Unbelievable! We were so proud of them!

Happy Mom's Day!

2009-05-10T18:31:00.004-05:00

We had a great Mother's Day. As has become kind of a tradition for us, we spent the day at the local botanical garden, which has a spectacular Mother's Day brunch. Emma particularly enjoyed the mac and cheese because, instead of cheddar cheese, it was made with "pomeranian" cheese (I think she meant "parmesan"!) It was a kind of overcast and dreary day, but the rain held off, so we were able to wander around the gardens for a couple of hours. A couple of pics of Emma...

I wanted a photo of me with my girl on Mother's Day and asked this guy to take our picture. Apparently he had never operated a digital SLR camera before (or any other camera, for that matter) because the picture was blurry, Emma had her eyes closed and my eyes looked crossed. Definitely not one for the scrapbook!

Emma, on the other hand, took my camera for the very first time and snapped this!

Granted, even though it is a photo of me, which is no treat for anyone, I think she did a great job.

Anyway, we had a wonderful day...the only thing I wanted for Mother's Day was to spend it with my girl.

I hope all you moms (and moms-to-be) had a fantastic day too!

Ten seconds of glory

2009-05-02T07:46:00.002-05:00

At this week's lesson, Emma cantered for the first time! It's not very long, but it's thrilling, just the same!

Into the wild

2009-04-26T09:30:00.011-05:00

This weekend was Emma's Brownie troop's campout. We left Friday right after school and didn't get back until Sunday morning. To be honest, I was dreading the whole thing. I used to be a card-carrying member of the Sierra Club and have done a lot of camping over the years. But, at least for me, when you turn 40, a shower, flush toilet and other amenities become more important. This was going to be roughing it...we were going to sleep on little cots in perma-tents (great for my back!) and our facilities consisted of an open-air shower and a latrine.

But now that we've returned, I have to say, we had a great time (not that I'm not happy to be back at home with my flush toilet and comfortable bed.)

Anyway, a short recap...here is our little open-air cabin where we slept...

We bunked with Emma's best friend Emme and her mom, so that was nice. Here are the two girls shortly after we unpacked...

It seems like the majority of our time was spent building fires, preparing meals and cleaning up after meals. Here's Emma doing our dishes after dinner one night (doing dishes consisted of dumping everything in a mesh bag and dunking it in buckets of water.)

The first night there, we made a big fire and the girls roasted marshmallows for s'mores...yum!

The first night, I have to admit, I didn't get a whole lot of sleep. It was nice sleeping out in the open air, but the cot was pretty uncomfortable and I tossed and turned all night. The adults all got up at 6 am to make the girls a special "jungle breakfast" (apples, bananas and bagels, which we tied up in bandanas and put up in the trees for them to get.) Shockingly, I was not walking around like Quasimodo when I got up - my back somehow survived sleeping on a 1-inch matress.

We went on a long nature hike, did some badge work and then it was our team's turn on wood-gathering duty...

A few more pictures from the day...

I did sleep much better the second night - although probably not more than 5 hours. Then it was packing up this morning and time to head home. But time for one more picture of an extremely tired mommy (in desperate need of a hot shower!) and her little Brownie scout...

Could it be...

2009-04-22T19:24:00.001-05:00

...that spring is actually here for good? All signs are pointing that way, including Emma in shorts and a halter top!

The littlest vampire

2009-04-20T19:19:00.002-05:00

Okay, I promise this is the last tooth-related post (at least for this week.) Emma's other front tooth has been loose forever (she lost her first one a couple months ago.) It has just been hanging there all week. This morning when I got her up, she said her tooth felt funny...uh yeah, because it was gone! Somehow, the tooth had fallen out overnight. I searched high and low for it on her bed and floor, but I can't find it. So either she swallowed it - or I'll probably vacuum it up later this week.

Regardless, I have assured her the tooth fairy will come tonight (provided I remember it...as you might recall from my last post, I have a habit of forgetting these things!)

Anyway, here is a picture taken this morning of Emma without her front teeth...my little vampire!

And the world's worst mommy award goes to...

2009-04-17T12:02:00.003-05:00

...ME (big surprise!)

Emma lost a tooth at school yesterday and the Tooth Fairy forgot to come last night! Emma was crushed when she woke up this morning and her tooth was still there and no money. I pretended to find her tooth fairy money on the floor when I was helping her make her bed (so I lied on top of forgetting!)

Let's hope I do better today...

My funny kitty (and girl!)

2009-04-15T20:54:00.003-05:00

I don't take all that many photos of our kitty, Sami. I'm not sure why...she really is quite a funny feline. This evening, Emma said "Mommy, what is that pink thing on Sami's face?" I looked and Sami was sitting there with her tongue sticking out and she stayed that way for like 30 minutes...we thought it was hilarious!

It was a nice spring evening and we sat out on the porch for awhile...I snapped a couple of pictures of Emma in her new favorite dress.

She is my cute little sailor girl!

Easter 2009

2009-04-12T20:45:00.005-05:00

We had a hectic, but fun, Easter weekend. The weather was decent on Saturday, crappy on Sunday...hey, good weather half the time in spring is par for the course.

Anyway, our Easter weekend was filled with bike riding...

Painting Easter eggs...

And then church this morning with Emma in all her Easter finery...

We also managed to squeeze in a showing of "Hannah Montana: The Movie", which was surprisingly not that bad. All and all, a pretty nice holiday...hope everyone had a great Easter too!

Bubble fun!

2009-04-08T18:37:00.003-05:00

Who says a 7-year-old can't still love bubbles?

It's party time!

2009-04-06T18:50:00.005-05:00

Emma attended two birthday parties this weekend...I swear, it's feast or famine with these things. The first party was a cooking-themed party, which was fun.

The second party was at one of those huge inflatable play places. All the girls had such a good time. This is a group of girls who have known each other since they were a year old, in daycare/preschool together. They all go to different schools now and, in the case of the birthday girl Paci, live in a different town. They only see each other a few times a year, but they just pick up where they left off and are still the best of friends. Here are Paci, Logan, Maci and Emma at the party...it's hard to believe they are all seven now...

In other exciting news, it snowed AGAIN this weekend...good lord, will spring ever come? This is getting a little depressing. We were supposed to go to an Easter egg hunt on Saturday that got snowed out. Emma couldn't believe they wouldn't just hide the eggs in the snow!

Anyway, just one more picture I took this weekend of my girl...I think she looks so pretty (but I'm a little biased!)

My little Jane Austen fan

2009-03-31T15:26:00.005-05:00

Over the weekend, Emma and I were surfing channels, trying to find something other than Animal Planet (her favorite channel) to watch, when we came upon the 2007 film of Pride and Prejudice with Keira Knightly. Jane Austen is my very favorite author, so we watched a bit of the movie. I told Emma that my favorite film version of Pride and Prejudice was the BBC miniseries starring dreamy Colin Firth (although I told her it starred the guy who plays Harry in Mamma Mia - that's where she knows him from.) I have it on DVD, so she asked if we could watch it. Geez, it's like five hours long, but since we were snowed in over the weekend, I let her start watching it.

Well, to say that she absolutely loves it is an understatement! Over the past several days, we've watched all but the last hour of it. Every day when she gets home from school, she starts pestering me about "when can we watch more of Pride and Prejudice?" She also wanted me to show her the book - I got out all my Jane Austen novels and pointed out that one of them is entitled "Emma", which is one of the reasons I picked that name for her. She asked if I could read her some of the books sometime - HECK YES!

I didn't start swooning over Jane Austen until I was in college...I'm getting such a kick out of the fact that she's become a fan at such a young age.

Seven-year-old checkup

2009-03-25T11:33:00.003-05:00

Emma had her annual check-up yesterday. At age seven, she's 45 inches tall and weighs 37 pounds (she's gained 3 pounds in the last year.) She finally made it to the 10th percentile on the American weight charts - double digits! She is definitely a skinny little girl, but our pediatrician was raving about how healthy she is. She's had one cold in the past year and we had to go into the doctor one time this year for a rash thing. But other than that...smooth sailing.

Must be all those veggies I make her eat (HAHAHAHA!!!)

Spring break '09

2009-03-21T19:54:00.008-05:00

Well, we made it back from our brief spring break trip to Minneapolis. We hit the road Tuesday morning and made it to the Twin Cities in just under seven hours. The weather was surprisingly mild for March and we had such a great little vacation.

Wednesday was our American Girl day...we went to the Mall of America American Girl store. I let Emma pick out a doll...her second American Girl doll (she got Julie two Christmas's ago.) She said she wanted one of the Just Like Me dolls...so she chose a doll with long black hair. So meet the newest member of our family...Gwen!

After getting Gwen's ears pierced ($14!), we had lunch at the American Girl Bistro. It was quite lovely and they brought Emma a little bag with AG goodies because we were celebrating her birthday (a little late!)

I just have to inject here...I am pretty sensible about money, but something happens when we're on vacation...money suddenly has no meaning. I somehow felt it was necessary to spend $24 on a little backpack for Emma's new doll. I would never spend $24 on a backpack for Emma, but somehow spending $24 on a teeny tiny backpack for this 18" doll is not a problem! In my defense, the backpack did come with a teeny tiny cell phone and a teeny tiny three-ring binder and a teeny tiny day planner. So really, it was a bargain.

Anyway, after the American Girl doll experience, we wandered around the Mall of America for a little while and played a round of mini-golf at the course there. After playing one hole and shooting in double-digits, we wisely decided not to keep score and had a good time...

We did a bunch of other stuff while we were in Minneapolis...we went to the aquarium and the Nickelodeon theme park (Emma's first ride on a rollercoaster!)

We were so excited that we got to meet up with Julie and Tess one evening while in town. I've been reading Julie's blog for like five years - it was so fun to finally get to meet her and Tess in person. We tagged along with them when they were getting Tess' pictures taken. After awhile, the photographer asked if Tess wanted to take a few with her sister (Emma!) We thought that was hilarious, since the two girls had met for the first time like 5 minutes earlier. But Emma jumped in and the two girls had their picture taken together...

They were quite adorable, I have to say.

Anyway, that was our nice little spring break...we had such a fun time. At one point, Emma said "Mommy, this has been the best day of my life." That makes it all worth it!

Our Great Wolf Lodge adventure

2009-03-15T13:18:00.005-05:00

Well, after being postponed once because of the weather, we finally had Emma's little birthday celebration at the Great Wolf Lodge this weekend. She invited her two best friends, Emme and Sydney...we left about noon on Saturday, stayed all night at the GWL and came back early Sunday afternoon. There were a few dicey moments (about two hours after arriving at the lodge, Sydney starting sobbing that she wanted to go home.) But we got through that and everyone ended up having a good time.

Here are the girls outside the T-Rex cafe where we had Emma's birthday lunch...

We hit the water park at the GWL shortly after we got there...here are the girls right before they jumped in the water...

It was so incredibly crowded there, it was not too enjoyable for me - although the girls didn't seem to mind. The water was nice and warm and they had a good time running around. That place is so loud, I had a splitting headache by the time we left.

For dinner, we just ordered a pizza and I actually got everyone in bed by 10 and after a little giggling, they were out like a light and no one woke up until 7:30. Everyone wanted to go to the water park again before checkout. It was so much less crowded first thing in the morning and everyone (including Emma) had a much better time.

Then it was time to pack up and check out...the girls were starving so we made a quick McDonald's run before I dropped everyone off. Emma and I are both tired, but she has horseback riding lessons later this afternoon. Thank goodness next week is spring break. On Tuesday, we'll be heading to America's spring break playground...Minneapolis (most people head south...we head north!)

The tutor

2009-03-06T18:47:00.004-06:00

For the first time ever, Emma is struggling in school a little. She's doing well in all her subjects except one...reading, which admittedly is a big one. Part of it is that she goes to a French immersion school and is taught all day in French, with the exception of one hour of English reading every day. When we enrolled in the school, they told us that many parents panic because their children aren't reading well by the end of first grade and that almost everyone would catch up by second grade. And, of course, I am now panicking because Emma is not reading all that well in English (she actually reads better in French.)

I talked to her reading teacher and she said although she was sure Emma would catch up next year, if I was that concerned, she could recommend a reading tutor who works with a lot of the kids in our school. We met with the tutor last night and after evaluating her, she said Emma is obviously very bright, but that she was having some problems with long and short vowels and some consonant combinations. So we're going to start going twice a week and the tutor said Emma would almost certainly be reading at grade level by the time school starts next fall.

I'm sure some will think I'm overreacting. But I would rather be proactive and not take the chance of her falling further behind. I just want her to love reading so much.

On a more positive note, here is what Emma wore today...because it was 80 DEGREES OUT!

Of course, it's not going to stay that warm (I wish!) It's supposed to be about 60 tomorrow and rainy. But that's sure better than snowy and 20, which is what it was last Saturday!

The best laid plans....

2009-02-28T19:52:00.002-06:00

Today was supposed to be Emma's birthday celebration. I had reservations to take Emma and two of her friends to stay one night at the Great Wolf Lodge so they could play at the indoor water park there. But then this morning, we woke up to the biggest snowstorm of the winter here...nearly six inches! The snow was at its peak when we were supposed to head out to the hotel, which is about 15 miles from here. There were accidents everywhere and I did not want to take the chance, especially with such precious cargo. Fortunately, I was able to change our reservation to March 14th, so we still get to go. The girls were all disappointed, but took it in stride.

So we stayed pretty close to home most of the day. Eventually the snow stopped and I spent about a half-hour shoveling out the driveway, with my little helper...

After digging out, we made a run to the grocery store and I let Emma pick out any restaurant to eat dinner. As I feared, she chose the world's worst Chinese buffet, which is her very favorite place to eat. Tons of deep fried food that has sat under heat lamps for hours...what's not to love? Well, she was in heaven.

Now we're watching the Spiderwick Chronicles movie, which is Emma's current obsession...we have read all the of books and she wanted to see the movie. I find the movie really intense...but Emma says it doesn't scare her. Hopefully she won't have nightmares tonight!

I'm seven!

2009-02-24T08:40:00.002-06:00

As Emma explained to me this morning, seven is a BIG birthday. Because when you're six, you're still a little girl, but when you're seven, you're just a regular girl. I'm afraid she's right - WAH!

My little gap girl

2009-02-22T21:46:00.002-06:00

Well, Emma has FINALLY lost one of her top teeth. This tooth has been loose for six months - and I am totally not exaggerating. Some children, when they get a loose tooth, wiggle and twist it until it falls out. Emma is not one of those children. She would run away in terror if I even suggested she wiggle it or if I asked to take a look at it. "It will come out when it's ready," she would say.

It was hanging by a thread this week when, as she was chewing a piece of chicken, it fell out. Emma was actually very excited!

Her other top front tooth is also loose now. So, according to my calcuations, it should be coming out around Halloween (or Christmas, if Emma has her way!)

Emma and D.J.

2009-02-18T20:49:00.004-06:00

This weekend we met my parents in St. Louis for a short weekend getaway. They had in tow my niece and Emma's cousin D.J. Emma and D.J. have the same birthday, so it was also a bit of an early birthday celebration. D.J. will be 16 next Tuesday and Emma will be 7, but even though they are 9 years apart, they still love hanging out.

The hotel had a pool and the two girls had fun splashing around together...

We had such a nice time...D.J. is such a wonderful girl (really, she's a young lady now!) We are so lucky to have her in our family.

Back at last

2009-02-14T14:48:00.004-06:00

I can't believe it's been two weeks since I posted anything. I guess it's been a combination of things...we've been busy, we've been sick and I haven't had anything interesting to say (I know...that has ever stopped me before.) I've also been in a terrible photography slump. I mean, I can't seem to take a decent photo these days. My lighting is wrong and the focus is off...and I know it's me, not my camera. It's probably due in small part to the fact that the sun hasn't been out forever and there's not much natural light to work with (I hate using the flash.) But I suspect most of it is me and my lack of inspiration.

Anyway, we're still here...trying to survive the winter blahs. I always look forward to spring, but never more so than this year. We're just counting the days...

Tomorrow we're heading to St. Louis for a day to meet up with my parents and Emma's cousin DJ. Both of the girls were born on February 24, so we're celebrating their birthdays - a little early.

Here's one unexceptional photo of Emma...maybe the sun will actually come out this weekend and I can snap a decent picture!

We are the champions, my friends!

2009-01-31T20:18:00.005-06:00

Emma was in her second horse show today (she participated in her first this past November and finished second in her class, which was thrilling.) I was not optimistic about her repeating her good showing this time around...she had been bumped up from beginner class to intermediate and she hasn't ridden very much the past two months because of the cold weather and being out of town.

Anyway, this will give you an idea of how she did this time around...

First place in her class!!! I couldn't believe it...she beat a 15-year-old and an 11-year-old, among others. I was worried because at one point, one of her feet came out of the stirrups and she had to bend over to get her foot back in. But I guess the judge missed it because when they announced the standings, she had won!

The mother of the 15-year-old, who finished fourth, was not thrilled. After the class was over, she said in a loud stage whisper "Well, of course she won...she's so tiny and cute." Sarah, our trainer, overheard her and said "The only reason she won was that she rode better than anyone else today." The woman looked a little chastened but gave me a couple more glares. I swear, some equestrian moms can give pageant moms a run for their money.

But it was a wonderful day. It's kind of bizarre how excited you can get when your child performs well at something. It's not like I did anything...except pay for the lessons!

The home fires burning...

2009-01-25T20:59:00.002-06:00

A few weeks ago, a fellow mom and I were discussing when it was that kids stopped having big birthday parties. Last year, it seemed that Emma was invited to some huge all-class birthday party every other weekend. This year, I think we've been to two parties so far. My friend and I agreed that it was in first grade that most kids (or more likely, their mothers) decided to forgo big birthday bashes in favor of much smaller affairs or no party at all.

So, of course, Emma promptly gets invited to two birthday parties this past weekend...so much for my theory. She went to a slumber party Friday night and then went to another party Saturday afternoon at one of those big gymnastics places. Needless to say, she was pooped by Saturday night. She went to bed at 8 and didn't wake up until almost ten this morning. We skipped church (since she pretty much slept through it) and ended up going to see "Hotel for Dogs" (really cute) since it was too cold to do anything else.

When we got home, probably because of the cold, on total impulse, I decided to build a fire. I haven't used our fireplace since adopting Emma. Fire and young children just didn't seem to mix and making and tending a fire is a lot of work. But much to my surprise, I got a fire going in a short time and Emma was thrilled. I snapped a couple photos of her in front of our blazing inferno...

Unfortunately, we didn't have any marshmallows to roast...but it was still fun. Now I'm sitting here waiting for the embers to die down so I can close the damper before I go to bed. This is the part of having a fireplace I don't like!

Oh, Happy Day!

2009-01-20T11:53:00.001-06:00

Horsey pants

2009-01-19T09:26:00.002-06:00

I bought Emma her first official pair of jodhpurs for Christmas. I somehow tracked down a retailer who had a pair of size 4's. Emma was supposed to be in a horse show on Saturday and was saving her new horsey pants for that special occasion. But the show was postponed because of the cold weather. So Emma decided to wear her jodhpurs to her lesson on Sunday. They're a little big, but I think she really looks cute in them...

She really looks like a real equestrian in her pants. Next, she'll want an expensive pair of tall riding boots (not until her foot stops growing two sizes every year!)

The "b" word

2009-01-15T21:31:00.003-06:00

Emma has used the word "bored" several times in the past week or so. Last weekend, after we spent the day running errands and just hanging out, she told me she was bored and wanted to go over to a friend's house (not any particular friend...just any friend.) Then the next day, when I asked her if she wanted to go to the park, she asked if we could ask a friend to go too.

She used to be content to spend all her time with me, but I can see that time is coming to an end. I think I'm still her favorite person to be with, but I'm no longer the ONLY person she wants to be around. And I know a few years down the line, I will be the last person she wants to be with. Her friends are taking an increasingly bigger role in her life.

I understand that this is normal and it's a good thing. But it's really making me a little sad. It's the first sign that she's gaining some independence and that soon her life will not be my life. It's one of the most difficult thing a parent has to deal with. You love this little person so fiercely, but all too soon, it's your job to start to let them go and become their own person. I just wish I could hold her so close to me forever and never let go, but that is not the right thing to do.

Anyway, here's a photo of my squeaky-clean, not-so-little-anymore girl.

My award-winning daughter

2009-01-09T19:21:00.004-06:00

At Emma's school today, they had a little awards ceremony for the kids. In every class, the teachers named a number of students to be recognized for being outstanding school citizens...kids who were kind and helpful to their fellow students and who did an exceptional job of following school rules. I was so happy that Emma was one of four students in her class who were given the award.

Here she is with her friend Emme, who was also recognized...

The girls also got special hall passes that mean they can go get a drink of water or go to the restroom whenever they want. That doesn't sound like a big deal, but it is to a first-grader.

Anyway, I was pretty proud...I'm glad that Emma is a smart little girl, but I'm even more pleased that she's a NICE little girl!

Okay, enough shameless bragging for now...

Mini-Christmas report

2009-01-01T20:43:00.003-06:00

Because of the break-in, I haven't really had a chance to post anything about our Christmas. Outside of becoming crime victims, we really had a nice holiday. We spent several days at my parent's house - Emma loves being with her grandparents!

As is the case every year, although I try to keep it reasonable, Emma had quite a haul when it came to presents. But one gift was clearly her favorite...

Yes, despite my insisting to her for the past year that we would never be in possession of Butterscotch, the three-foot tall robotic horse, we are now the owners of Butterscotch, the three-foot tall robotic horse. I don't know if any of you have ever seen this horse, but it really is quite amazing and LARGE! My parents got an incredible deal on this thing, so it was hard to say no. And, of course, it is right in the middle of our living room, depsite my efforts to keep it in the playroom. Emma absolutely loves Butterscotch, though, so it is worth it. And it's cheaper than a real horse, which we will never own - unless I win the lottery or something equally unlikely!

Sorry for the absence...

2008-12-29T09:29:00.003-06:00

...we had a wonderful Christmas, but not so much after that. When we got home this weekend from spending the holiday with my parents, we discovered our house had been broken into (along with several of our neighbors.) My computer and a bunch a camera stuff was stolen. They also slashed the phone and cable lines, smashed our motion detector lights and crow-barred the window open so that it's damaged and we can't close it now. All out drawers were emptied on the floor and there were muddy footprints all over, so that was a mess too.

But we weren't there, for which I am grateful, and are safe now, which is the important thing. The possessions can be replaced. The only thing I am heartbroken over is that nearly every picture I have taken of Emma was on my computer. While I have printed many of them and have some saved on CDs, most are gone forever. It's sad...

Anyway, I'll be having a fun couple of days on the phone with insurance folks, the phone and cable companies, etc.

I'll try to post some of our Christmas photos from my work computer when I get time. Hope you all had a fun (and safe) holiday!

Snow day

2008-12-16T13:17:00.004-06:00

We got four inches of snow dumped on us last night, so Emma's school was closed...our first snow day of the winter!

I, of course, still had to get up at 6 a.m. to see if school was cancelled. I let HRH Emma sleep until 9 a.m. We puttered around all morning, cleaning house, baking cookies, making art projects, watching tv. Then after lunch, out to shovel the driveway (the fun never ends in my life!) While I was shoveling, Emma took advantage of the snow and the small hill in our backyard to do some sledding...

The snow has pretty much stopped now, so we'll no doubt have school tomorrow. But the forecasters are predicting an ice storm on Thursday (ugh!) so this may not be our last day home this week.

Hope everyone else is staying warm!

Six years ago today...

2008-12-10T14:55:00.003-06:00

...I was in a hotel meeting room in Changsha, China and a woman handed me a scared little 9-month-old baby...

Honestly, has it really been six years?

Emma has been the most wonderful blessing in my life and I can't wait to see what the next six years will bring!

Just when you think your child is over being a girly-girl...

2008-12-06T16:22:00.002-06:00

...you go to the store and she picks out an outfit like this...

It is pretty cute, but a TUTU?! Where are we going to wear this? I'm usually the most practical of mothers and would have said no. But she was twirling around in the store and who can resist that? Not me, unfortunately.

We're meeting friends for pizza tonight and she's dying to wear it. I'm sure she'll get some attention in this get-up!

The first snow of the season

2008-11-30T21:18:00.003-06:00

Last night we got our first dusting of snow. Fortunately, it was very light and didn't stick to the roads. I am not a big fan of winter AT ALL...but I have to admit that the first snow always makes things look so pretty outside (at least until it turns all slushy and muddy!)

Emma was very excited to see the snow but she was disappointed when I told there wasn't enough to make a snowman. I'm sure that snow will come soon enough...

Flashback Friday

2008-11-28T08:51:00.002-06:00

This has always been one of my favorite photos of Emma...she was about two and a half. She loved this little kitchen and looks like such a little homemaker in this picture. I love that she has the oven mitt on!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-27T11:02:00.001-06:00

Hoping you and yours have the best Thanksgiving ever!

There are so many things I am thankful for, but none more so than...

The cardiac kid

2008-11-24T10:21:00.003-06:00

Well, we had a little too much excitement at Emma's horseback riding lesson yesterday. After taking lessons for about 10 months, she got thrown from her horse for the first time. Back in February, she slid off her horse onto the ground while riding bareback, but the horse was barely moving. What happened yesterday was a whole different experience.

Her horse, Cinnamon, was a bit sluggish yesterday, probably because of the cold weather. But she just wasn't in the mood to trot. Emma had a crop and was using it, but Cinnamon would still slow to a walk whenever she thought she could get away with it. Emma's trainer, Sarah, went and got a whip...not to whip the horse, of course, but just to snap it to get her moving. It did the job pretty well for awhile, but then Cinnamon slowed to a walk again. Sarah walked a little closer to the horse and snapped the whip and apparently Cinnamon knew she meant business, because she bolted and started cantering at full speed.

Emma had never cantered before...the poor girl hung on as tight as she could while Sarah ran after them, but Emma eventually just flew off the horse and fell flat on her back on the ground.

I was screaming at this point. From where I was standing, I thought the horse had stepped on Emma. Sarah got to her first and picked her up. She was fine, although she had the wind knocked out of her. She wasn't crying - probably because she couldn't breathe. The older girls must have heard the commotion (aka me screaming) and ran in and chased Cinnamon down.

Anyway, Emma was fine and when we all got calmed down, she got back on Cinnamon and finished her lesson (no more cantering!) It was kind of sweet, because the older girls all made a big deal out of officially welcoming Emma to the club - because you're not an official cowgirl until you've been thrown from your horse.

Still, I would have been happy had she not become a member of that club for a little while longer. Hopefully she won't fall off again for a very long time...my heart just can't take it!

Emma and Santa 2008

2008-11-22T18:52:00.002-06:00

Emma and I made a trip to the mall today (a place I usually avoid like the plague) with the express purpose of seeing Santa. We only had to wait in line a few minutes and I snapped a couple pictures while Emma filled the jolly guy in on what she wanted this year for Christmas...

A few of Emma's friends are already skeptical about Santa, which saddens me. Emma said one of her friends at school told her there was no way Santa could visit every house in the world in one night. Emma said she explained to her friend that when it was daytime here, it was dark in Africa and China and that's when Santa went there. Then when it's dark in China and Africa, he comes here. Which is an entire day...totally do-able, in Emma's opinion.

I just hope she believes for a long time...

Emma and her horsey friends

2008-11-16T20:32:00.003-06:00

We spent another long day at the stables today. We usually get there at 2:30 or so, Emma has her lesson at 3 o'clock, but we seldom leave before 6. After her lesson, she always wants to hang out and help the older girls feed and water all the horses. I don't mind and I just sit in the lounge reading.

Emma absolutely adores these girls and they love her too. They are all much older than her...Katie is 10, Sophie is 11 and Nicole is 16. But Emma seems to feel these are her peers and likes nothing better than running around the barn with them. I normally would not let Emma hang out with girls this age at school or anywhere else. But all these kids have a common love (horses) and would spend their entire lives at the barn if they could.

I snapped a quick photo today of Emma with her posse...

I just love this photo...it's just a weird thing that what little light there is in the stable is shining on Emma. What I love more is the light shining in her face because she's having fun with her horsey friends. You can see she is in heaven.

Emma...child model

2008-11-12T13:12:00.006-06:00

Some of you might recall that a couple months ago, I was contemplating whether to let Emma sign with a modeling agency. A photographer friend of mine, who works with a number of really good agencies in town, had suggested it after seeing a picture of Emma.

Anyway, long story short, Emma and I met with three of the agencies that Gabe (photographer friend) recommended and we ended up signing with one of them. I know...I can't really believe it either. But Emma says she really wants to try it. And it would be a nice way to add to her college fund or pay for her rather costly love of all things equestrian.

So last week, Gabe took some photos of Emma for her composite card (a big postcard that the agency sends out to clients.) Here are some of my favorites...

Even though there was no obligation to do so, I've signed Emma up for a couple of modeling classes with the agency so she can learn more about photo movement, acting, runway, etc. I know...RUNWAY! How hysterical is that? I guess kids are booked for a lot of bridal shows and stuff. Her first class is tomorrow after school. I'll let you know how it goes...hopefully this won't end up being a colossal mistake on my part!

Lord, please let this be true...

2008-11-09T19:16:00.001-06:00

...at least for a few more years!

Flashback Friday

2008-11-07T06:24:00.002-06:00

When Emma was just about 2 1/2 years old, we decided it was time to tackle potty-training...as you can see from this photo, she had a little trouble with the concept at first.

Fortunately, she caught on pretty quickly and was potty-trained in less than two weeks!

2nd!

2008-11-01T15:43:00.001-05:00

Happy Halloween...

2008-10-31T17:27:00.002-05:00

...from Minnie Mouse and her mommy!

Emma's first horse show

2008-10-30T11:53:00.005-05:00

Emma is entered in her very first horse show on Saturday. I was not really keen on her participating, to be honest. She's been riding less than a year and she's so much younger than the other girls in the competition. But she really wanted to do it and her teacher said she thought she was ready. So I was overruled.

She'll just be riding in one class...a walk/trot class for kids 10 and under. I don't even know if I can watch. I honestly don't care if she wins (she won't) and she says she knows she probably won't. My only concern is that she'll make a mistake and feel horrible about it - she's such a perfectionist.

I know it's a valuable lesson for kids to learn that they aren't always going to win and always excel. I'm just hoping is she does her best and has fun, whether she wins a ribbon or not.

Wish her luck...I'll let you know how she did!

It's apple pickin' time!

2008-10-26T08:30:00.003-05:00

Saturday was a glorious fall day and we went apple picking with some of our friends. We had never gone apple picking before and I have to say, it was just wonderful. We traveled to an apple orchard about an hour away. Here are the girls (Emma, Jenna, Christina and Kimmie) just before we set them loose to pick apples and run wild...

Here's Emma wielding the apple picker...frankly, with four six-year-olds running around with these, I can't believe there weren't a few serious injuries...

Here are Emma and Kimmie...I love this photo, even though the girls were squinting into the sun...

We were out in the orchard for nearly two hours, picking apples and eating apples. Even this late in the season, the orchard had like ten varieties of apples still on the trees. It is amazing how different they all taste. Emma pretty much liked them all...

I don't know if it was because we were outside in the crisp fall air, but the apples tasted better than any I've ever had before. Of course, that's probably a good thing because now I have a bushel of apples sitting in my kitchen and we can't possibly eat them all. Looks like I need to break out the applesauce and apple pie recipes!

Emma and Biggie

2008-10-24T12:07:00.003-05:00

This past weekend, we traveled to St. Louis to visit my parents. Emma loves her Biggie and Papa so much. Yes, "Biggie" is the name that Emma somehow came up with when she was a baby to call my mom. I think it has something to do with the fact that my mom's oldest grandchild, my nephew Ryan, called her Gobey. And Emma, hearing all the other grandkids calling her Gobey, somehow got it turned around a little and has called her Biggie ever since. It's quite a source of mirth in our family.

Anyway, it was a nice weekend with my parents...shopping and eating and eating and shopping. We did manage to make our annual fall pilgrimage to Grant's Farm, which is always great fun.

Here's a picture of Emma and her Biggie at the farm...

We have a lot of exciting things going on right now...too much to write about in this post. I'll try to fill you in sometime this weekend when I have a bit more time.

Have a nice weekend, y'all!

Flashback Friday

2008-10-17T06:39:00.003-05:00

Some bloggers on their Friday posts have started posting pictures of their children from years gone by, so I thought I'd take my turn. Here's a picture of Emma taken four years ago right around this time.

This was taken outside a hotel in St. Louis where we had met my parents for a fun fall weekend. We're meeting them at the same hotel this weekend...hopefully it will be just as much fun!

The pumpkin patch

2008-10-12T18:51:00.002-05:00

This weekend Emma and I made our annual trek to the pumpkin patch to get our pumpkins. We've gone to the same place every fall since Emma was two. I don't know if it's tradition or if I'm just too lazy to scope out a new place. Either way, it was a lovely day and we had a nice time...

Excuse the crummy pictures...the battery on my good Canon camera is having trouble holding a charge and I had to order a new battery...so I was stuck with the old point-and-shoot. Hopefully I'll get the new battery this week and will be back in business soon!

Zoo camp

2008-10-08T14:56:00.004-05:00

Nothing of great importance going on here...busy weeks and busier weekends it seems.

Emma and her friend Amy spent part of their Saturday this past week going to a day-long zoo camp. They got to learn a lot about animals and rode camels and the zoo carousel about 30 times. A lot of fun, but probably not enough to inspire a career in zoology.

Here's a picture of the two adorable girls (taken by Amy's mom)...

I bet this is probably just about the GREENEST picture you've ever seen! They are just so darn cute, though, it warms my heart!

Little Emma on the Prairie

2008-09-30T14:54:00.003-05:00

Emma's Brownie troop had a field trip yesterday to this historical museum. The girls had such a blast dressing up like children 150 years ago. Here's a picture my friend Beth took of Emma with her friend Madeline...

I didn't get to go on the field trip, unfortunately. But last night, Emma regaled me with facts and tales about life in the 1800's. She told me that the parents ate dinner first and then the children. She also mentioned that the children were often responsible for emptying the chamber pot. She said "Boy, kids had it rough back in the olden days!"

A girl and her kitty

2008-09-24T21:45:00.004-05:00

I really don't have anything spectacular to write about. All I have is a picture of Emma with her beloved cat Sami...she loves her kitty so much! And despite the rather pained expression on her face, Sami loves Emma too!

Catching our breath...

2008-09-21T20:43:00.002-05:00

Ever since school started in the fall (or late summer), we have been insanely busy. I mean INSANELY busy. It's not that I have Emma signed up for 100 activities or anything. It's just that the few things she is involved in have swung into high gear.

This weekend was especially crazy. We started off with a Brownie meeting on Friday night. Saturday morning, we had to get up early to participate in the ALS charity walk (my employer was a corporate sponsor.) Then we rushed off to catch a big youth horse show downtown. We left that early so we could make it to our local FCC chapter's Moon Festival by late afternoon. We left home at 9 am and walked in the door at 9 pm, both exhausted. Today was a little less hectic...just church, going to a big local art fair and horseback riding lessons. Next weekend looks slightly less hectic, but only slightly.

Emma and I both like being busy, but this is a little too much...I hope it slows down a bit. But looking at our calendar, I don't see it - at least for the next several weeks.

Anyway, here are a few pics from the weekend. This is Emma at the horse show, indulging in one of her favorite activities...

Here she is at the Moon Festival, hanging with her friend Hope...

And this is Emma deep in the creative process while painting at the art fair today...

So because we've been gone all weekend, the house is a mess, the lawn needs mowing, and I only got about half the laundry done. I did manage to squeeze in a trip to the grocery store so we wouldn't starve this week. But that was about the extent of my accomplishments. Better luck next week, right?!

It's homework time!

2008-09-09T20:41:00.002-05:00

When your child enters first grade, suddenly there is this thing called homework. Emma received her very first homework assignment today. She was very excited at first. Then reality kicked in...as you can see from these photos!

She only had about ten minutes of work to do...just some vocabulary words she had to copy. They give the kids homework on Tuesdays and Thursdays which isn't too bad. But if she's this exhausted from doing ten minutes of homework now, what are we going to do a few years from now when she has two hours of homework every night?!

Emma, Emma, quite contrary...

2008-09-02T20:26:00.003-05:00

I don't know if it's being in first grade, if it's just a phase, or if I'm just a lousy parent, but Emma has developed a real attitude of late. Could it be that she is coming to the realization that her mommy is not a dazzling genius who knows everything about everything? I was hoping she wouldn't find this out until she was like 30.

Anyway, we're going through a rough patch. Maybe it's just adjusting to the start of the school year or something. She's always been this incredibly sweet and compliant child - we didn't even really have terrible twos - but she's been so whiny and pouty all week. Nothing horrible, but a lot of contradicting me and arguing over every little thing. It's wearing on me.

Plus, it took her all of four days of school to get in a little trouble. She got put in time out in school today for talking. Emma had a real problem in kindergarten with talking in class when she wasn't supposed to. We had her pretty well back in line by the mid-year point. But I can see now that we (meaning her teacher and I) will have to keep on her. So I told her she couldn't play on the computer the rest of this week...and if she got another time out, no computer this weekend. She really loves playing games on the computer, so I think this got her attention. We'll see...

I don't want to make it sound like I've got a spoiled brat on my hands...she's still very sweet like 90% of the time. But that other 10% is testing my patience right now!

Anyway, here's a picture of my little angel...let's hope our week gets better!

First day...first grade

2008-08-27T11:57:00.004-05:00

Today is Emma's first day of first grade. Here's a picture of Emma with her friend Amy in their new clothes and maryjanes on the first day of school...

And here's my happy little girl...she's so thrilled to be a first-grader at last!

I indulged in my usual first-day-of-school ritual...I dropped Emma off in her classroom and then burst into tears on the way back to the car. Even though you go through this year after year, it's still hard to believe how fast your child is growing up. The first day of school just brings it all into focus for an intense moment.

UPDATE: Just to reply to a couple of the comments...yes, Emma does go to a French immersion school. After one year of kindergarten, she's pretty fluent...it's amazing to someone like me who struggled with through three years of high school Spanish and still never really was comfortable with it!

Summer's last blast...

2008-08-26T20:22:00.005-05:00

Emma starts school tomorrow (finally!) I wanted to spend a little time with her before the official end of summer, so I took the afternoon off and we went to visit one of our favorite places, a local farmstead. I don't have anything spectacular to report...we had a nice time on a beautiful late summer afternoon. I did take a few pictures, of course...

This evening we went to the school's open house to see who Emma's teacher is and who is in her class this year. Much to my relief, her best friend Emme is in her class again this year. I met her teacher briefly. She is a new teacher from Belgium...I hope we end up liking her as much as Emma's kindergarten teacher.

Teething again

2008-08-23T20:43:00.004-05:00

The older your child gets, the more you seem to forget about her baby years. For example, I know I changed Emma's diaper thousands of times, but she's been potty trained for so long, I really don't remember the dirty diapers. She sat in a high chair to eat for at least two years, but I don't have any real tangible memory of it and I don't even know what happened to her high chair (we probably sold it or it's down in the basement somewhere.)

I also have only a vague recollection of Emma cutting her baby teeth. I mean, I sort of recall the drooling and fussiness and low-grade fever. But she's had all her baby teeth for so many years, that memory has faded as well.

So when Emma complained yesterday that her mouth was hurting, I thought maybe it was a cut or a sore or something. So imagine my surprise when I looked into her mouth and saw a tooth way in the back of her mouth peeking through her gum. It was pretty inflamed and even bleeding a little. But a little ibuprofen seemed to help and she hasn't complained about it since.

It sort of slipped my mind that kids cut more molars at around age six and usually another set around 12. I do think Emma's dentist is correct when she said there just wasn't going to be enough space in Emma's mouth for those additional teeth. I can't imagine two more sets of molars fitting in that tiny mouth. Orthodontia is definitely in our future, I'm afraid.

The good thing is that Emma has become kind of obsessed with oral hygiene of late. She brushes her teeth diligently and swishes her mouth with fluoride rinse. Then she spends about five minutes flossing her teeth (just like her mom - HAHAHAHA!) I am glad she wants to take care of her new teeth...let's hope she keeps it up!

Anky's golden!

2008-08-19T15:42:00.013-05:00

Emma and I have been completely enthralled by the Olympics...we have both thoroughly enjoyed the swimming, diving, gymnastics and beach volleyball. But the sport we have both been looking forward to the most is the equestrian competition. Unfortunately, it doesn't get a lot of coverage, but the Oxygen network has been playing the highlights every afternoon, so I've been DVR-ing it and we've been able to catch the eventing and jumping competitions.

Emma's very favorite is dressage, though, and her heroine is Anky Van Grunsven, the brilliant equestrian from the Netherlands. Emma has spent countless hours watching videos of Anky and her magnificent horse, Salinero, on You Tube.

Well, I was so thrilled that Anky came from behind to win her third consecutive Olympic gold medal in individual dressage today...I can't wait to tell Emma and watch it with her when we get home.

I'm sure this will be of interest to about zero people out there, but here is Anky and Salinero's golden performance at the Olympics today...maybe this will be Emma in 20 years? You never know!

A little housekeeping

2008-08-17T16:05:00.005-05:00

Since she was a little girl, Emma has always been eager to help me around the house. She was always begging me to let her dust the furniture or sort the laundry. She would beam with pride when she had straightened her room and put all her toys away.

However, I am beginning to think her enthusiastic attitude toward house cleaning is waning. I came to this conclusion on Saturday morning when, as I was furiously scrubbing the bathroom floor, Emma yelled from the living room, where she was watching TV, "Mommy can you stop that long enough to get me some juice?" GGGRRR!!! You can imagine what my answer was. Instead, I snapped off the TV, ordered her upstairs to clean her room. After about three minutes, she came downstairs and said she was done. I went up to check and found that she had merely moved one pile of toy clutter from one side of the room to the other. I strongly suggested she give it a little more effort and eventually her room met my not terribly high standards. Needless to say, I know one child who will not be getting her allowance this week.

We did have some fun this weekend, however. On Friday, we went to see Momma Mia! Emma absolutely loves Abba, but I was hesitant to take her because it was a PG-13 movie. But I checked on one of those movie sites that reviews films for parents and they said with the exception of a few "Oh my God's" and a shot of a man's bare behind, it was pretty tame. Needless to say, Emma loved every minute of it - she had a big smile on her face the whole time. I'm so glad we went. I downloaded the soundtrack on ITunes when we got home and we've been listening to it all weekend.

On Saturday, Emma went to her friend Macie's 6th birthday party. Their good friend Pacey, who moved away a couple months ago, came to the party too and it was so wonderful to see the girls together again - they've known each other since they were 1-year-olds in preschool...they seem like such young ladies now!

And we squeezed in a trip to the pool this afternoon - I suspect our last of the summer. The water was really too cool for me, but Emma had fun perfecting her cannonball jump into the pool.

Hope everyone had a great weekend as well - enjoy your week!

Notice anything different about me?

2008-08-11T18:27:00.003-05:00

Need a hint? Look a little closer. See those tiny golden balls on my ears? Yeah, my mommy let me get my ears pierced this weekend! Can you believe it?! I never wanted to get my ears pierced before, even though a lot of my friends have pierced ears already. But last week, I decided I DID want pierced ears and asked my mommy. She said I really needed to think about it for a week because it's a big decision and that I would have to use my own money to do it. So I thought about it some more and still really wanted to do it. So on Saturday, we went to Libby Lu (my favorite place in the world!) and these two nice girls pierced my ears (they do both ears at once.) I didn't even wince a little! The girls said I looked 10 times cuter than when I came in (I think they have to say that!)

So I love my pierced ears and I'm always looking in the mirror at them. I can't wait til I get some new earrings in six weeks!

Between my mommy letting me do this and her actually considering letting me do some modeling, I pretty much think she's lost her mind - but I like it!

My dilemma

2008-08-08T09:14:00.002-05:00

Sorry I haven't posted anything in awhile. Like so many of you, I have the late-summer blogging blahs! Sometimes you just need to take a break.

Anyway, I am really struggling with something right now. First, a little background...

I am a magazine editor and work with a lot of very talented professional photographers. One of my favorite guys to work with is Gabe. He's a great guy and a super-talented photographer. Last week, Gabe and I were hanging in my office before we went out to do some location scouting and I showed him a photo I had taken of Emma. He really praised the photo, which made me feel so wonderful...I really respect his opinion. Then he said "You should really think about letting Emma do some modeling." I just kind of laughed and said "Yeah, right!" I mean, I know Emma is cute, but modeling...come on! Gabe said there are thousands of adorable kids in the world, but you can be cute and not necessarily photogenic. He thought Emma was extremely photogenic. But I just kind of laughed it off.

So a few days later after we wrapped up a shoot, Gabe asked if I had thought any more about the modeling thing for Emma. I said I really didn't think it was for us, that I didn't want to put Emma in the position of going to cattle calls and being judged by a bunch of strangers for her looks. Plus, I thought modeling agencies were just scams to make people pay for modeling classes and expensive portfolios. He said he understood that completely and there certainly are a lot of scammers out there. But he said he works with a couple of agencies in town that he would totally vouch for and they never ask for any money from their clients. He suggested when it gets a bit cooler that he could take some photos of Emma and I could submit them to these reputable agencies and see what they thought. I told him I would think about it.

So now I'm starting to think...is this a totally insane idea or would it be a good experience for Emma? I made the mistake of asking her what she thought about it and, of course, she's thrilled about the idea (I guess I shouldn't let her watch Project Runway with me!) I don't know...I mean one of the things I can never fathom is mothers entering their kids in those idiotic child beauty pageants. Is this all that different? Am I being a total hypocrite? Would I be exploiting my child? Is this communicating to her that looks are more important than anything else?

Plus, there's the money. Gabe says some of the kids he has worked with get $500 or more a day for print modeling. The idea of stashing more $$ away in Emma's paltry college fund is appealing. I'm never going to be able to afford Stanford at the rate I'm saving now!

And I have to be perfectly honest...the idea of her being rejected is devastating. I would be so distraught if I did decide to pursue this and had Gabe take some photos and submit them and then have the agency turned her down.

So I'm not sure what I'm going to do...any advice is welcome. I'll probably have Gabe go ahead and take the photos...at the very least, I'll get some really cute photos of Emma from a great photographer for free.

Anyway, here's a photo of America's Next Top Model...maybe!

My little guppy

2008-07-27T20:20:00.009-05:00

I have been worried for some time now that Emma could not or would not learn to swim. She loves going to the pool and splashing around, but has steadfastly refused to put her head under water. We took swimming lessons last summer and they were a near-disaster, and Emma has gotten hysterical when I've even broached the idea of taking more lessons. Truthfully speaking, a little bit of my concern is that all of her friends know how to swim and it's a little embarrassing when you see all these two-year-olds fearlessly leaping in the pool, while your six-year-old can barely dog paddle. But I was more freaked out about the safety aspect. Your kid needs to know how to swim so they don't drown - HELLO!

Anyway, I had pretty much given up - at least for this summer. So on this beautiful and very hot weekend, we headed to the pool yesterday. Imagine my shock when Emma told me she was ready to try to put her head under water...and she just did it. Even more amazing was that after dunking her head under a few times, she starting swimming all over the pool. I had to stop her from going into the deep end by herself! We were both so excited! Sorry I don't have any photos, but I'm not inclined to take my expensive camera to the public pool...too risky, I'm afraid.

It probably would have served me well to remember that children do things when they're ready to and not one minute before. That goes for walking, talking, potty-training and now swimming.

The other big excitement today was that our caterpillar cocoons hatched and we have these four beautiful butterflies in our butterfly house. Emma was so excited and I have to admit, it was really cool. One other member of our household has taken a keen interest in the new butterflies as well...

I had to hang the butterfly house on a hook from the ceiling so Sami, Queen of the Jungle, wouldn't maul them. We are going to free the butterflies tomorrow so they can enjoy the remainder of their 3-week life span in the great outdoors.

Words of wisdom...

2008-07-24T18:46:00.005-05:00

Generally speaking, Emma is a fairly quiet child. But for some reason, she turns into a little chatterbox on our evening walks after dinner. She keeps a running stream-of-consciousness commentary on life going the entire 20-25 minutes that we walk. Here are some of Emma's observations from tonight's amble:

"The reason I use so many band-aids is that I need my blood to survive."

"I don't think I would like to wear a straw hat because I'm worried a bird might think it's a nest."

"If A-Rock (Barack) Obama becomes President, the first thing he should do is get rid of all the mosquitos."

"We need smoke detectors because our noses don't work at night."

"Cars don't get bigger like other living things."

"Don't worry, Mommy, I can hold it til we get home." (uh-oh!)

I could go on and on...she says the most hilarious things while walking. I need to start bringing a tape recorder or something.

Anyway, here's a pic of Emma on our walk tonight...in a rare moment of silence!