Happy Birthday Emmy! I mean Dorothy…. Oops, now it’s Belle.

In the past few months you’ve grown up a lot. You are following in your sister’s footsteps and have blossomed into a girly-girl. You love dress up clothes, and it’s rare to see you in normal play clothes these days. You go through about 4 or 5 costume changes a day, and your favorites are Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz and Belle from Beauty and the Beast. (You’ve been on a major Wizard of Oz obsession since this fall, when we brought you to see the play. Mama Jo made you and Abby matching Dorothy outfits, and the director of the show picked you two out of the ENTIRE audience to bring up on stage before the show. Mama Jo and I were just a teeny bit proud. No big deal. (Yeah, right!)

Even though you’re growing and changing every day, one thing has not changed. You are still an amazingly sweet, adorable, easy-going bundle of joy. You say “please” and “thank you” all the time, you are kind, and you love to share. Truth be told, I wish I were more like you!

Thanks for bringing so much joy into our family. We all love you, little monkey!

Mommy

P.S. - Here's a picture of your birthday cake.

Happy 3rd Birthday Emmy

Emmy,
What a JOY you are!! You have such an easy-going, happy personality it’s infectious. It’s hard to go 5 minutes without you making someone around you smile. Right now you are sweet, optimistic, loving and trusting – traits I hope you carry throughout your life. You and I shared a sandwich the other day and after I ate all of my potato chips, you gave me yours unprompted (and you love chips!). You are considerate and thoughtful at such a young age it’s amazing. I wish I got to spend more time with you at this precious age but I’ll take the moments I spend with you as a blessing.

OK – I’m done with the mushy stuff.

Things that make us laugh:
• 10 minutes can’t go by without a Beauty and the Beast or Wizard of Oz reference. Seriously.
• You know every word to the “Beauty and Beast” song and it especially cracks me up when you do the Peabo Bryson part “Ohh, ohh, OHHHHHH!”. It’s safe to say you don’t exactly sound like a 40-year old black man
• You’ve already worn through 2 Dorothy dresses and are about to wear out your Belle dress
• The other night WELL past your bedtime we heard rustling from your room so I went upstairs and found you sprawled out on a heap of princess dresses and stuffed animals in your closet. You had somehow put on your Belle dress and had mismatched shoes on the wrong feet. Classic.
• If we ever want to know where your right ring finger is…it’s up your nose (you get that from Uncle Erik – ha ha)

Happy Birthday little buddy. If you can’t tell from the above, we sure love you.

All my love,
Daddy

Christmas in New York

David and I have such wonderful memories of our time in New York, and we decided to bring the girls to experience the magic of NYC at Christmas time. We started planning (and saving) for this trip in summer of ’09, and it didn’t disappoint.

The girls experienced their first airplane ride¸ and as we were getting ready to leave our house to head to the airport we told the girls it was time to get in the car. Abby said “What do you mean? I thought we were flying to NY.” We explained that we were indeed flying, but still needed to get in our car so we could drive to the airport. She replied “Oh, I thought the plane would just come to our house to get us.”

Once we were airborne, both girls enjoyed looking out at the clouds from their window seats. Abby was sitting by David and said “Dad, why didn’t you ever tell me how awesome this is?”

We had a quaint hotel on the Upper West Side and had a blast doing all the fun touristy things… first stop, Dylan’s Candy Bar where I got a s’mores dipped in chocolate. Heaven. The stairs are made of candy (covered in Lucite) and there was a bathtub full of gumballs. It was fabulous.

Next stop- FAO Schwartz, where the girls got to dance on the famous piano. Abby saved her money and bought a new Barbie, and Emmy got a Dorothy doll. We had dinner at John’s Pizza, and call me crazy, but it didn’t quite compare to our Friday night pizza.

Day 2 was horse and carriage ride in central park, the Christmas Tree at Rockefeller Center (where we met up with Shannon and Mikey) and The Radio City Christmas Spectacular. We went to a late dinner at Carmine’s which was sooo good. Both girls feel asleep at the table, and then it was bitter cold and we couldn’t catch a cab to save our life. During the trip, the girls got to be pretty savvy at taxi hailing techniques.

Day 3 was a highlight – ice skating at Wollman Rink in Central Park. It was a beautiful day and it felt great to be out there on the ice with the skyline behind us. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, and I’m glad I got to experience it with my girls. We then headed out to Jersey for my cousin Kevin’s wedding, and a fun reunion with the Monahan Clan.

Emmy was a trooper the entire trip. She just goes with the flow and has fun whatever we’re doing. Abby soaked in all of the experiences and of course, took good care of her sister on those big city streets.

Special thanks to Mama Jo for accompanying us on this trip and letting David and I get a night out on our own for an incredible dinner. Here are some pictures of our magical trip.

Overheard...

I was upstairs doing something and i overheard Jill trying to coax Emmy into her room for a nap while walking upstairs. Jill said "you should take a nap becuase your little body is saying I need sleep". Emmy, dressed in full princess attire responded "No, no. My body is saying it wants to play!"