Miss Emberly Ann: Age TWO

I cannot believe we've gone from this...

to this...

to this...

 

 

And my baby is two years old.

 

I think I was always one of those people that just didn't quite understand when people said "it goes soooo fast!"  Duh. Life goes fast.  But when you have kids you watch time happen in a different way.  And now that I'm holding a new sweet little bambino, thinking back to when my now big girl was that tiny, it really quite literally feels like yesterday.  So many clichés, but they are all so very... accurate. 

 

In some ways, it feels like Emberly has been TWO for awhile.  She talks in complete sentences, communicates her every need, says please and thank you without prompting, and far surpasses her true age in my (not so humble mommy) opinion.

 

I wish I could just bottle up "now" and whip it back out when I realize next time how quickly it has gone... but since I can't, I will write down a few little things that just sum up "Emmy" at age "just-turning-two."  (And now if you are not a grandma or grandpa, this is probably where I'll lose you... or maybe I already have... and that's ok.  She's my heart, not yours...)

 

1. She slept in a crib up until a week before she turned two.  She sleeps 12-14 hours a night.  Hardly ever waking up in the night and needing something, but occasionally will call out for a "rock rock" or a hug.  Now she sleeps in a big girl bed, just as well and just as long.  She has only tried to get out of bed once, but for the most part loves her bed.

 

2. When she's feeling a little tired or insecure or emotional she'll ask to sleep.  She never actually sleeps, but occasionally will just take some time to rest in her bed.  It's pretty adorable.

 

3. When we put her to bed at night or at nap we read one or two books, rock for a minute, and then lay her down and cover her up.  She asks to "bounce" (we just gently bounce the mattress for a minute) and sing her Twinkle Twinkle, Jesus Wants me for a Sunbeam, Rock-a-Bye Baby, or some other requested song.  Then we leave and my sweet, special child bounces her head up and down on the mattress until she falls asleep.  :)  People who have seen this think it is a little crazy... and maybe it is.  But it works!

 

4.  She almost always talks or sings herself to sleep.

 

5.  She loves to play with her toy kitchen set and make "dessert" or "tacos" or "cookies." 

 

6.  She loves to give "Dady Pepper" kisses.  And all of her babies are named Baby Piper too.

 

7.  A phrase we hear a lot is "Emmy too!"

 

8.  She loves music and can carry a tune pretty well!

 

9.  She has strong opinions about most things.

 

10.  She asks to "play two minutes?" when she wakes up in the morning... even though we tell her that she can play for MORE than two minutes!  :)

 

11. She is absolutely driven to buckle everything she sees with a buckle.  Car seats, high chairs, Piper's swing, backpack straps... ... ...

 

12. She still signs occasionally, but mostly uses words.  Yesterday she told Grandma Go-Go, "Emmy's head stuck in bed! Mommy pushed me out.  Owie!  No no no."

(She did in fact get her head stuck in the bars of her headboard... you can read about that here.)

 

13. She uses please and thank you without needing to be reminded.  And often times she'll also add in a "welcome!" after her "thank you" if you forget. 

 

14. She climbs up on the window sill in our living room and looks at me and says "get down!" just like I would. 

 

15. Anyone that walks in our door will be subjected to a game of "Chase me!"  The more wild the better.

 

16.  She parrots everything you say.  All. Day. Long.  Just practicing her words.  As I'm typing this I can hear her in her room (she is supposed to be napping) saying "hips up!" I also just heard a string of just about everyone she knows... and then "boys! are you??" 

 

17.  She LOVES to go to the lake and go on a boat ride with Grandpa Juice.  She talks about the sand toys, lake, four-wheeler, grasshoppers, and walks often.

 

18.  Every time she picks up a toy phone she calls Papa Mike or Papa Juice.  Without fail.

 

19.  She wants to help with everything I am doing at home.  She especially loves to "dump" and "stir" when I am cooking. 

 

20.  She is a bundle of movement and noise.  Always moving and always singing or talking or telling a story.  She repeats everything over and over until you understand and acknowledge. 

 

And that is only the beginning.  I love her with my whole heart and cannot believe she is TWO.  Happy Birthday, Sweet Emberly. 

 

Sleeping in yogurt and stuff

Ok apparently I talk about sleep all the time. Because that is all parents of newborns think about. I'm fairly certain. But after I posted about Piper's great 8 and 9 hours of sleep, she woke up 17 million times the next night. Seriously. I lost track. But it was at least once an hour.

But then last night she redeemed herself by sleeping from 9:30pm to 7:15am. People. That is nearly 10 hours. Without waking up. And it's even a whole adult's night of sleep. Not like 6pm-4am or something like that that does a mama no good when she's exhausted (although we don't complain about those nights either.)

Anywho. It was lovely. That's all I'm saying.

Oh. And today was the first day of Exhale at Bethel, and Miss E got to play in a room of two and three year olds. She thought it was the bomb. She talked about it all day. She was apparently so excited that she decided not to take a nap (even though we tried for nearly two hours). And then Papa Juice took her to the park for almost two hours. Two year old heaven. She was so tired that she fell asleep while eating her yogurt for a bedtime snack at 6:30. Yup. Straight up asleep in her highchair.

Now this mama just fed Miss P and is putting her down and praying for another long stretch of sleep. Oh would that be lovely.

Goodnight :)

Grandparents

Grandpa Juice just called and asked if he could take Emberly to the park for a little bit. Uh... absolutely!

Last week Grandpa Mike and Grandma Tracie called and asked if they could scoop up Emberly and take her to Dino-land at the mall for a few hours with her other cousins.

My mom came and helped me with the bedtime chaos while Jordan was at work last night. (And several other nights!)

And I'm pretty much just overwhelmed with gratitude! My children have the best grandparents ever.

And now while Grandpa Juice and Emberly are swinging at the park, I'm rocking a sweet baby and drinking in her irresistible little smell, breaths, coos, and smiles.

Stroganoff

I make stroganoff once every two or three weeks and have yet to get Emberly to like it. Or try it for that matter.

But tonight I attempted once again. I may or may not have turned on "Caillou" while I was finishing up dinner as fast as I possibly could and once it was over scooped Emberly up and excitedly told her it was time to eat and boy oh boy was she lucky because we were having stroganoff!

She didn't buy it. In fact, she threw a nice little tantrum shouting "no hungeeee."

But I put her in the high chair and gave her her plate with stroganoff, blueberries, tomatoes and cucumbers. And then gave her this little sob story about how I had worked so hard on dinner and how nice it would be if she tried just one bite of her pasta.

And she did.

And then she looked at me with giant big eyes and I almost thought she was going to spit it out. But she swallowed it.

So I asked her what she thought of stroganoff. Her response?

"Amaaaaazing!"

"Amazing, Emmy? You liked it?"

"Yeah mommy! Soooo tasty!"

And if that doesn't make you feel good about your pretty average dinner, I don't know what would.

And then she ate 3 more helpings and all of her blueberries, cucumbers, and tomatoes.

Bam.

Happy Birthday

Bedtime Bologna in full force tonight...

(Upon entering her room for the 3rd time...)
Me:  Emberly, it is time to go to sleep.

Emberly:  One song, mommy? 

Me:  OK.  One song.  "Twinkle twink..."

Emberly: No mommy, no twinkle twinkle. 

Me:  OK.  What song would you like me to sing?

Emberly:  Uh... um... uh... uh...  Happy Birthday.  To EMMY.  Please.

Lil' update...

I feel like life is happening so fast.  Suddenly I have a two-month old and a two-year old and I feel like I only just blinked.  Yeah, yeah, yeah... I know, you've heard it all before.  But some days I feel a little panicked, like I haven't had enough time to just sit and enjoy my children.  (Which seems utterly ridiculous, considering I spend every waking moment with them all.day.long.every.day.) 

Anywho - I started a post on my now sweet two-year old last week and never finished it.  I just want to bottle EMBERLY: AGE 2 up and save it nice and neatly in my memory forever and I can't seem to capture all that is Emberly on paper.  That post needs a little more work.  But she's just as vibrant and life like as always.  Tonight we went for a walk while Grandma Tracie held Piper, and we just had fun.  We ran and we walked backwards and we picked up rocks and we found letters of the alphabet in signs and noticed all of the grasshoppers and held hands.  It was perfect. 

And then after sweet Emberly went to bed, Piper came to life and cooed and talked and babbled at me and was just very sweetly content and happy, which unfortunately isn't her normal when she's awake.  We went to the chiropractor last week to see if that might help her seemingly constant tummy ache.  Although we haven't noticed any change yet, we hope we will soon. 

BIG news in our house though, is that that Miss Piper Elizabeth, who will be two months old in two very short days, slept 8 hours through the night on Thursday night, 8 hours through the night on Friday night, and NINE glorious hours through the night last night.  GLORY BE!  I am just barely holding my breath that this will be the new trend.  I was so excited.  Now I just need to figure out how to get myself to sleep all of those hours and not be worried that she is not breathing.  For real.

 

OK - I think that's all for now.  I must find some sleep quickly.  Tomorrow I have a giant load of laundry to tackle and lots of loving to give to my three honeys. 

Oh the life :)

Walking through Walmart today and Emberly is belting out "potty potty, wipe wipe, flush flush, wash wash!"

Can you guess what big two year old adventure is next in our house?

Oh and I went through three outfits today thanks to Miss Piper Elizabeth. Considering I'm not pregnant sized and not back to pre-pregnant size, that's pretty much my entire wardrobe. Just saying. And when I went to get ready for bed I glanced in the mirror and found a glob of spit up in my hair. Wonder how long that had been there...