Sleepwalker

Last night around 11:30 Jill heard Emmy come downstairs, which was odd since she went to sleep around 9:30. So Jill called out "Emmy, is that you? Everything OK?". No response from Em. But Jill did hear the door to the garage turning.

Jill: Emmy, what are you doing?
Emmy: I'm going outside
Jill: No, that's not a good idea. You should go back to bed
Emmy: (turns away from the door, heading back to her bedroom) I thought i could go outside
Jill: (immediately puts chairs in front of all doors in our house)

Emmy had no memory of this incident this AM!

Rooms Are For Dance Parties

Emmy recently moved her bedroom from the a small room to a larger room, our former guest room.  We moved her in about 1 month ago and tonight I asked her how she's liking it. 

Me: So kiddo, how are you liking your new room?
Emmy: It's great.  I'm having a lot more dance parties now.
Me: Well...good.  That's important.
Emmy: Yes, it really is.

Family Videos

We weren't total slouches in recording your childhood during these last couple of years.  I can't directly upload the videos to this site given the file-size but click on the below links for a couple of family videos.

Video Link #1 (Uploaded Spring '15)

Video Link #2 (Uploaded Spring '17)

Well, This is Awkward

It's been about 5.5 years since we've last posted.  This little, new upstart website called Facebook came along and in combination with smartphones...sharing photos, stories and videos of friends and family became much easier to share and publish than uploading to a blog.  So instead of trying to remember stories and anecdotes and writing them a few times a year, it became much easier to share real-time.  At any rate, here we are and it's 2018 ya'll! 

Abby is in 7th grade at Wakefield Middle and her appetite for books is amazing.  She reads ALL of the time and might be the most well-read person I know, adult or child.  She's also a brilliant writer and won't let us read all the stories she creates although she may one day when she's a published author.  She's playing volleyball on the weekends and recently started an acting class which she is loving.  She has a sharp sense of humor and is a deep thinker. 

Emmy is in 4th grade at Abbots Creek Elementary.  She's at DRMT as I write this (8PM on a Friday night) and that's symbolic as she is OBSESSED with music theatre.  She also is enjoying gymnastics and spends a lot of time on her gymnastic bar.  We always know when she's home as her singing fills our house. 

We'll try not to let another half decade go by before posting again 👍.

Mommy to the Rescue!

First of all, it's crazy we haven't blogged in almost a year.  I'll get better about that.  But i thought i would share a story of a child's love of her stuffed animal and a mother's love of not wanting to hear that child cry all night. 

The other night we finished dinner and as we do every night before Emmy tuck-in, we asked where Bunny was.  Outside of food, water, and family, Bunny is the most important thing in Emmy's life and has been since she was about 6 months old.

Well Bunny was nowhere to be found and with a grave look on her face, Jill said "the last time i saw Bunny today was at Target."  Apparently they went shopping and unbeknownst to Jill, Emmy brought Bunny inside the store.  Not good.  Well we continued to look and also tried to convince Em that her other stuffed animals needed attention but that failed miserably.  Finally Jill called Target - no luck.  So then she drove 15 mins to the store and looked in all the indoor shopping carts and on each aisle they visited earlier.  I received a text that read "no luck".  But then, Jill checked the carts outside and Haleigh, Bunny was alive!  See photo below.  Jill delivered Bunny to Emmy and she was asleep within 10 minutes. 

Compared to Mother Teresa or Superwoman, this may not be big.  But to one Emmy Dykes - it was huge.  Nice work Mom.

Funny Little People

So Abby has said two pretty funny things in the last week and i thought i would write them down so Grandma can get a laugh while reading this at 5:30AM tomorrow morning :)

Last night i was laying down with Abby at bedtime and she said "I'll be glad when you never have to work again." I responded with "Well, that will be quite a while but keep in mind your Mom and I work so we can afford food, our cars, the clothes you're wearing and this great house in this awesome, safe neighborhood." She responded with "well....it's not THAT safe. Caroline got stung by a bee today AND there's a fox here." Clearly not safe.

Then last weekend she was running around outside when i heard her scream so went to the front door to see what was going on. She was running in circles holding her ears. And i said "what's going on? Why are you holding your ears?" She said, "there's a bee chasing me and they are attracted to flowers!!" It took me a minute to figure this out but she thought the bee was chasing her b/c her earrings are flower shaped. I guess we forgot to tell her bees are attracted to the SMELL of them, not sight. Much less fake ones. I told her not to worry but she doesn't believe me.

Six Going on Sixteen

Happy belated birthday to our little lady. These past few weeks it seems you’ve grown before our very eyes. One outward side of your newfound maturity is the fact that you got your ears pierced – quite a big deal in our house. You are so proud. You counted down the days until we could go, and when the day finally arrived you were calm and confident. That is, until you stood at the counter waiting your turn and watched up close and personal as someone else had their ears shot with the piercing gun. You turned pale and asked if we could go for a little walk, then you said “I still want to do it, just not quite yet. In a few minutes.”

We walked over to the mall play area and you climbed on some rides meant for younger kids – babies really – and it was strange for me to see how you had outgrown them. Seeing you looking so big in comparison to the other kids was striking, especially considering the reason we were in the mall in the first place! After a few minutes we walked back to the piercing place and the next thing I knew, you had sparkly blue flowers in each ear. You didn’t cry, just let out a little whimper as you squeezed my hands.

In addition to the outward sign of your new-found six year old maturity, you’ve been ACTING differently lately. Very helpful around the house… not much whining… just a cool KID.

We are so proud of the girl you are growing into. But don’t grow up too fast, you have the rest of your life for that. You’ll always be our little pumpkin.

Love you,
Momma