Lord, please let this be true...

...at least for a few more years!

Flashback Friday

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!

Happy Halloween...

...from Minnie Mouse and her mommy!

Emma's first horse show

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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...

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!

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...

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

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...

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

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!

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

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?

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

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

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...

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!

Flashback...

During the long wait for Emma, I used to play the song "Waitin' for a Sunny Day" by Bruce Springsteen over and over and over again (I'm a major Boss fan.) I probably played that song at least 20 times a week during that long 13 months. It just made me feel better to know that better days were coming.

I hadn't heard the track for years and I was in the car this morning when it unexpectedly came on the radio. Tears immediately came to my eyes and I just starting bawling. It just brought back all the memories of that wait and made me think about how it had all been worth it because I now have this amazing little girl.

Anyway, Bruce, thanks for getting me through the rough spots...

Holy cow...

...for the first time in two years, my daughter is taking a nap! She went to friends house for a sleepover and apparently they stayed up late and then got up at 6 am (WAAAYYYY earlier than my sleeping beauty usually gets up on the weekend!) I was making her some lunch and when I went in the living room to get her, this is what I saw!


She's been snoozing for more than an hour now. Aahhh, this brings back fond memories of the afternoon nap, when I got so much done. I know it's a one-time thing, but it's sure sweet.

Coolest toy ever...

We've had a pretty quiet week. The big excitement is that I got Emma this really cool toy.

Well, it's not really a toy...it's a Live Butterfly Garden.


We had seen a commercial for it on tv a little while ago and it looked so neat. Well, it totally is! It was on sale at Amazon so we ordered it. It comes with this expandable butterfly house and a certificate which we mailed back in. Two days later, we got a plastic jar with five little teeny tiny caterpillars in it. The jar already has the food in it and everything.

Every morning when we get up and every afternoon after school, we rush in to see how much our caterpillars have grown. They've gotten like 10 times bigger in just five days. They're already attaching themselves to the top of the jar to build their chrysalis (sic?) When they become cocoons, you transfer them to the butterfly house and wait for them to turn into butterflies. It's really a lot more fun than playing with Polly Pockets, let me tell you, and more educational!

Emma had a sleepover at her friend Emme's house last night and she had to call me before she went to sleep to see how the caterpillars were doing (me, she didn't care so much about!)

Anyway, here's a photo of Emma watching over her caterpillars, which she has named Fluffy, Muffy, Buffy, Scruffy and Tuffy.

My little barn rat

Emma continues to improve her equestrian skills every week. I'm so proud of her and so happy she has found something she loves so much (even if it is bankrupting me!)

Emma's lesson is from 3-4 pm every Sunday. But lately, we've been spending a lot more time at the stables. She wants to go early to watch whoever's lesson is going on and then she wants to stay after to help tack up the next horse and to tag along with the girls doing barn chores (watering and feeding the horses, cooling the horses down, etc.) So far, no mucking out the stalls, but I have a feeling she might not even mind that!

So we are spending more like 2.5 hours at the stables instead of just the one hour for her lesson. She just wants to hang out there all the time. The stable is too far out in the country for me to go anywhere else, so I've just been bringing a book and sitting in the lounge reading while she helps out. I can think of worse ways to spend an afternoon.

Anyway, here's a (sort of blurry) photo of Emma riding this afternoon...she is so totally comfortable on her horse, it amazes me!

Vacation completion

We just got back from the family vacation...exhausted and poorer...but we had a great time.

First of all, a belated happy 4th of July from us!


We spent the 4th with my parents, who live south of Chicago. My sister and her family were there as well and we had a really good time swimming, shopping and eating. Emma loves hanging with her cousins!

Emma and I then headed to St. Louis for several days, where the temperature rocketed from the low 80s to high 90s on the day we arrived (naturally!) Fortunately, our first day there was spent at a water park, so we stayed fairly cool...


Here's Emma, post-water park, rockin' in her ultra cool mode...


The following day, we headed to the world-famous St. Louis Zoo. Now I love the St. Louis Zoo, but I have to say, I have never been there when the temperature hasn't been at least 95 degrees. It's a huge zoo and the trudging around in the heat can be pretty brutal. That said, we lasted about 3 hours and had a nice - and very sweaty - time.

Here's Emma at the zoo entrance, just a few moments before I noticed the huge "DO NOT CLIMB ON THE SCULPTURE" sign!


Here she is on the carousel...


And last but not least, an almost perfect photo of my girl, if a man hadn't wandered into the frame at the last second (sigh!)


We also hit a couple of museums in St. Louis, some of which were hits with Emma (City Museum) and some of which were not (Art Museum).

Anyway, back to reality. I have ton of things waiting for me at work and a broken toilet to deal with at home (trust me, you don't want to put that off!) Oh well, it was fun while it lasted!

And we're off!

Emma and I are leaving today for our summer vacation. We're not going to Disney World or the Grand Canyon or anything fancy...just heading back east to visit family and maybe hitting a couple theme parks or zoos. The important thing is getting away for awhile (yes!) and spending time together.

Have a happy 4th and we'll be back soon!