Happy Halloween!

There was a Halloween parade on  base today where we all dressed up our toddlers and paraded them around the main base area in strollers and wagons, trick-or-treating at various offices. We had a blast. Emma apparently loves baths now,  so after her bath this morning she got dressed in her Cat costume...she thought it was great that she got to dress up like a cat, and say "meow." Then when went parading around and people were giving her candy,  oh man, every little kids' dream! She thought it was great, except she wanted to eat the candy as we went...and snuck a couple out of her bucket when I wasn't looking. Anyway, we walked and walked, for like an hour and a half we did this. Right when we finished it started to rain. So we came home and took a nap...oh, wait, it's Halloween, doesn't that mean you can eat candy and not take a nap? Hmmm, well that is what someone told Emma, even though she didn't sleep well last night. First we couldn't find a binky, but now she is just up there chatting away instead of napping. Oh well, I guess at least today I can blame it on the candy.'

Mom, they just gave me candy...

I think I like this.

Cat, Moose, Cat

The kitties wanted to pull the wagon together.

I made her pull her load of candy...actually she just wanted to pull it.

Quick! Smile before it rains!

All done!

The only nap she had today.

Dance Class, Take 4

We did very well yesterday...got to dance class early and Emma even wanted to wear her outfit. And we have been practicing "I'm a Little Teapot" for class. However, when we got there I got to talking and never actually her dance...oops. But apparently she did good and had fun. And she got a blue sucker... which she was very excited about.

Decorating cookies

So I get these bright ideas...go to the pumpkin farm, go shopping, etc. They always work out better in my mind than they do in real life. Actually, in real life it has been more of a disaster. So today I wanted to do something fun, and I thought it would go better if we stayed at home. And I suppose it did, but some of my bright ideas are not really age-appropriate for Emma. Oh well. Anyway, today we baked and decorated cookies. I am always surprised at the things that I forget she doesn't know, but she has never decorated or made cookies before, so how would she know that you had to put the whole cookie cutter on the dough, and only once, and you have to wait to bake the cookies before you eat them.  But they are little things. Oh, and I also forgot that you shouldn't put all the bowls of icing in front of her at once. Oops. But she had fun.

'mixing' the dough: she barely touched it

except maybe to eat it

rolling was her favorite part

Emma is pushing down the cat 

that's all?

more rolling since it was her favorite.

and now the fun part....

Steven's first question? Why does it look like poop? oops.

we even got daddy to do one! he had to use his strong face on that icing tube!

if messy equals fun, then emma had a blast.

oh, and it tasted good, too

all done! (except i had to rescue the sprinkles)

see what sprinkles look like when a two-year-old does it.

Hide and Seek (Peek)

When we lived in TX, Guenie (our neighbor) liked to go outside to use the bathroom...not actually in the yard, but the location where the deed occurred...she liked to go out in the bushes. During our time outside, Emma likes to go hide in the bushes...I thought to hide, but sometimes maybe to do her business. :) Anyway, I took some pictures of her hiding.

Pretty girl

I am so glad we had a girl...I love having a doll to dress up. :) She finally wore her dance outfit to class, and she was so cute. She kept watching for us, to make sure we were watching her. She had lots of fun this time. And the last picture is from tonight. Apparently her 'dress' is a size 4T top, but I didn't know that. She and I played outside for a long time playing chase me and hide-and-seek-Emma's version (where you both hide from each other and peek and giggle. (I guess you could call it hide and peek.)

Are you watching me?

Dancing with scarves.

Climbing the tree again

Playing outside

We have been trying to be outside more for a number of reasons: 1. It is finally a comfortable temperature. 2. I am always hopeful that getting outside will improve Emma's mood. 3. Yesterday we were outside bc housing told everyone we had to weed our flower beds. It didn't go so well for me. While I was weeding Emma was being VERY obnoxious, and doing everything I told her  not to do...like being in the neighbor's yard. But yesterday even that wasn't enough, she went all the way around the side of their house and ran into the street before I caught her. Ugh. I felt like a horrible mom for letting her get in the street, so we just came inside and I finished the weeding today during her nap. Anyway, today I saw half of one of the evil teeth coming in. So hopefully this extreme behavior will go away soon. I know tantrums are part of being two, but this is just not my girl. And today is dance class...hopefully it goes better that last week! Oh,  and daddy came home today...they had to switch the schedule around, so his Kday is today instead of Monday. Surprise!

She was trying to get something. I saw her when her legs were sticking up.

Everything is a toy.

She dumped the Cheerios and Cheezits on the floor during the closing prayer of my online Bible study.

The terrible two-year-old molars.

Emma is such a sweet girl. She is usually pretty reasonable, has a good routine...loves to brush her teeth, and even floss. She loves to help me cook or whatever I am doing. We like to play...Mr. Potato Head, MegaBlocks, Night-night, whatever. HOWEVER...We have discovered the two-year-old molars. They have turned my sweet little girl into a very strange version of herself...cranky, unhelpful, unkind, crazy, and very exhausting. Some days it can take hours to calm her down after naps. I call these teeth her evil teeth. I have a couple pictures and I would have had more but my camera battery is dead. Between Emma's evil teeth and my allergies, I am exhausted, so I haven't been super motivated to deal with my slow computer. Thankfully Steven got me a new one so I just need to get it set up and I will upload a real blog...I tried to upload all this yesterday but my computer wouldn't let me. Please be patient with me...I am so tired I can hardly think straight, but hopefully soon it will all settle down.

Getting (un)dressed

So she just took her clothes off right there.

I asked her if she wanted to get dressed....

At least she took her Jammies to the laundry room. 

Climbing the tree

So last night I had the bright idea to go to the mall and look for jeans...let's just say a constipated and hungry toddler does not enjoy shopping of any kind, unless it consists of her running around wherever she wants and being chased, or getting her way at all times. Ugh. I guess I will go shopping when she is 5? Anyway, we went out for dinner, which also sounded like a good idea at the time. Thankfully there was a pet store across the street where we could look at cats while we waited on our food. Afterward I just told Steven that the next time I get the bright idea to go out shopping or doing anything out of the house with Emma, just tell me "no." Anyway, when we got home we just hung out in the backyard with Pepper, and enjoyed the sunset. Oh, and Emma thinks this is 'climbing the tree.' She does this every time we go out now.

This is climbing the tree.

Smiling for the camera.

Chillin' with Pepper.

Dance Class

What you have all been waiting for....
So after our fiasco at the Pumpkin Farm, and knowing that Emma has been waking up inconsolable, I was a little nervous about taking her to dance class right after nap time. However, she did ok. We just let her wear her normal clothes this time, to see if she liked it. I was worried we would have to hold her the whole time, but once she got there she loved it. She kept looking at us to make sure we were watching her, and then coming over very excited...we kept having to take her back to the group. She seemed to really enjoy it, event though she kind of just watched half the time. I figure after a couple times she will be a pro. The one time she did something dance-like that the group was doing, I got very excited, and looked at Steven, who gave me a smile and a nod as if to say, "Yes, I saw, she turned around in a circle." Anyway, at that moment I was very proud and happy that she was learning to do big kid stuff...in the cutest way possible. :) They did things like doing full-body dance moves to songs like Itsy-bisty spider, etc. They learned to walk 'like a teddy bear'...which apparently means walking on your hands and feet while keeping your knees off the ground. They did some jumping, shaking, dancing with scarves in the 'dark,' with colored lights, etc. I will try to take a video or something next week. Oh and if anyone runs across 18mos dancewear (leotard, tutu, etc) I would love the help...they don't really make dancewear for petite two-year-olds.

Shaking the circular tent thing...Emma didn't want to hide under it with the other kids.

See Mom? Are you watching, Daddy? I'm dancing!

Bishops Pumpkin Farm, Take Two

Emma has had a weird sleep schedule, on top of being inconsolable when waking up from naps. Yesterday she only slept 8 hours at night, and by 11 was begging me to bring her home for a nap. Last night she thought it was time to get up at 4:30...to which I said, no, it is still time for night-night, and put her back to sleep....this girl didn't get back up until almost 9 AM. So we all got to basically sleep in, and I thought, perfect time to go to the pumpkin farm! WRONG. Although I tried to feed Emma breakfast, she didn't eat much. And for some reason she was super clingy to me and fussy the entire time, except when we found the petting zoo area. (I should have expected this when she didn't even want to get in the car, but tried to snuggle instead.) She was just one wrong look away from a major meltdown the entire time, and there were a ton of kids there this time. We thought about eating there, but the food was super expensive, $7 for a thing of nachos or a pb&j meal. Anyway, it wasn't the fun family outing I had imagined, and we all quickly ate lunch when we got home. Emma also went to sleep right after lunch. So these pictures are of the best of our trip. She did really like the petting zoo, which we didn't visit last time. She kept going around to all the animals and waving and saying hi. And she only wanted to touch their faces and mouths, not where we told her to pet them. We bought a bunch of tickets, so maybe we will try to go back again...or maybe we will save them for next year...you just don't know what you are going to get with a two-year-old.

Happy girl...it all went downhill from here.

She BEGGED to go on the carousel again....

And then screamed when I put her on.

Once the music started she sat there real still at least.

She did love those piggys!

She kept calling them like the cat, so she could touch them.