Happy Birthday Miss Em!

Hey little one,

Sorry this is a bit late, but the month of January has truly been a whirlwind. Your dad beat me in the "birthday blog department" and took all the stuff I wanted to say! So, forgive me if this note is a bit repetitive.

Em, you are truly the sweetest little baby in the world. You are mellow, easy going, and full of love. You get all that from your dad. In terms of looks, people say we are clones. Total strangers laugh when we're out in public and say things to me like "No one will ever mistake you for the babysitter. Your daughter is like your twin!" It's kind of ironic really - Abby looks like your dad but has my personality, and you are the exact opposite.

But the coolest thing of all is how you have perfectly completed our family. You make us laugh every day, and Abby loves you more than anything in this world. She is an awesome big sister, and you girls are so lucky to have each other. And I am aware everyday of the fact that I am one lucky mom.

Thanks for being such a sweet, happy girl. We love you. Happy 2nd birthday (belated!).

xoxo

Mom

Happy 2nd Birthday Em

Well it’s your birthday (ok, shortly after) so I wanted to write a note totally devoted to you. First of all, below are some things you are in to these days:

• Barney - I don’t know how many times you say “iwuntBaaaaaarnie” throughout the day but it is A LOT


• Stuffed animals – Mama Jo gave you a giant bear stuffed animal (that you call a dog) that you insist on sleeping with. Between the two blankets, your bunny, that dog, Cocoa the bear and the Curious George monkey in your crib, sometimes I can’t find you when I come to wake you in the morning!


• Abby – I know we’ve said this before but we feel so lucky that you two get along so well. Nothing makes me feel better than the laughter coming from the other room when I know you two are playing together. And STILL, no one can make you laugh like Abby.


• Singing/Dancing – You love singing along to “You are My Sunshine” and dance any chance you get. It’s pretty funny as your dance is really more of a hop on one foot. We call that the Dykes Shuffle because Abby did the same thing and Papa Sonny said I did that when I was a little one.

You also like jumping in rain puddles, sleeping past 8AM (thank you!), playing with dolls, pushing your toy stroller, grapes, being tickled, hugs and a million other things that make you so fun to be with. I actually thought you were turning 3 this birthday. This is not because I’m a bad father or really bad at math but I just couldn’t believe that you had been in our lives LESS than two years. You’re such a funny, pleasant and HAPPY little girl that it’s hard to imagine that you haven’t been in our lives longer. Happy Birthday little one. We love you lots.

Dad

Emmy's First Time Out

And second... and third.

On the week of Emmy's second birthday, she got her first bad report from school. She and her buddy Marshall were just running wild, causing a raucous in the classroom and not listening to their teachers. Since our sitter Jessica picks the girls up on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I received this information second hand. David and I were both stunned and amused - how could our sweet little Emmy possibly get put into time out THREE TIMES? I emailed her teacher for more info, here is her response:

Hey Jill,

Don't know what was up with Miss Em on Monday either. She was so full of herself. A good full, but a handful nonetheless. Her and Marshall were having a field day running in the classroom and that just can't happen for obvious reasons. I spoke to her about it and she was just in another world. (The Two's World) ha! ha! Understandably so. I think the cold weather has kept our age group inside for such a long time that they are getting restless. Can't say that I blame them. Hopefully, the nicer weather will shine down upon us so we can resume our outside scheduled times. Really and truly though not a huge problem. Just the terrible two's coming out. She accepted her time outs like a big girl and we spoke about running around in class and how they could get hurt. Makes sense to us, but we're not two years old. I am sure she will be fine tomorrow, and if not we will talk about running in class and how we could get hurt and all that good stuff. I think if we keep reminding her that no running is allowed she will be fine. We'll let Jessica know for sure how she was behaving. Please do not worry about this one time. She needs to keep testing the waters to see how far she can go and what she can get away with. Good thing she is so darn cute!!!!
-Miss Pat

Christmas and New Year's '09

To commemorate the 2009 Holiday season, I thought I would write a list of the Top 10 things I enjoyed most during this nice long break in no particular order.

1. Having family and friends over to the house Christmas Eve for a big Italian feast
2. Having Emmy grab “baby Santa” and lay next to him every time we change her diaper. Both hilarious and strange at the same time. (picture below)
3. Spending $30 on a cupcake maker from Santa (for Abby) that generates one cupcake at a time and makes a huge mess of the kitchen and anyone near it in the process (picture below)
4. Going to Mamma Jo’s house in Martinsville and climbing “the mountain” (hill in the woods behind her house) with Abby and Jill. And mostly hearing them both giggle anytime one of us fell in the snowy ice.
5. Playing cornhole in our living room with John and Diane on New Year’s Eve
6. Beating John and Diane in cornhole which included a 5-15 comeback with the next morning’s bagels and coffee on the line
7. Stepping on, tripping over, finding in random places the 200 little plastic balls we bought Emmy for her Elmo gym
8. Going to Uncle Erik’s twice for a much needed break from our house for Christmas dinners
9. Laughing at the fact Mom gave Erik and I size 16 socks and the majority of gifts for Erik were IOU’s (which is good but doesn’t beat her giving him the same VA Tech wristwatch 3 consecutive years in a row!) ha ha
10. Seeing Abby brave record breaking temperatures (28 degrees!) to drive around in her new “car” (picture below)

The holiday break was great and we’re so lucky to have such wonderful family to make it special for the girls. Here’s to a great 2010!!