Emma Turns 5!

I'm a little late with this post's annual birthday interview.  (Emma's actual birthday was the last day of November... better late than never.)    Anyway, you can brush up on Emma's answers from last year's interview here.  One change for this year... some questions were video recorded, as requested by my good friend, Schlager.  Wish granted!

In the videoing of my 5 year old, I quickly learned that some sessions go well.  Aaaand other times, you have to stop recording and change locations if the picking at her toenails distracts her from even the easiest of questions. 

Emma.  Come on now.  

Take two goes so much better...

 

 

 

And take three even continues to go well... until I laugh at her and she pulls out her best evil eye.  Do not laugh at Emma.  Just don't.

 

 

Other questions that I asked weren't caught on tape, but here were some of her answers:

 

What's your favorite cereal?  Froot Loops

 

What's your favorite outfit?  What's that outfit where the shirt attaches to the shorts?  (Me:  A romper?)  Yeah!  I like my romper.  Can I put it on?  (No, Emma.  It's winter.)  Groan.

 

Who's your best friend?  Addy, Sabella, and Skyler.

 

Other questions I can't believe I forgot to ask!

What's your favorite holiday? 

What do you want to eat for dinner on your birthday? 

What do you want to be when you grow up? 

 

Shoot.  I will do better next year...

 

To make up for it, I've included a few video bloopers: 

 

 

 

This one is called,  "Please don't ask me really deep, higher order thinking questions.  I'm five."



 

 This one is called, "I have a cold."

 

 

This one is called, "Please don't talk to me right now."
 

 

 

 

In a year's time, Emma hasn't changed much in a handful of areas.  She still loves to sing:

 

 

And draw:

 

And sing some more:

 



 

 

Happy birthday to my sweet, beautiful, hilarious, sassy, tough, stinky, and dramatic little baby.  I love you muchly...

 

 

 

What a girl.

Blog Therapy

Whoa.  It's been so long since I've blogged that I'm all discombobulated.  I just tried logging into the blogger website... and I actually had to THINK for a minute about what my user name and password was. 

As you can tell, I remembered.  But just LOOK at this place.  The format for entering a post is all different.  I don't even recognize the screen.  Shaking my head.  Things have gotten all modern-y and stuff while I've been gone.  It's not like it was  (back in April--- date of last post) when I used to walk 10 miles to school barefoot in the snow. 

Geez.

At least there's still a bright orange, hard to miss PUBLISH button.  I think I can still remember how to do this.

I miss this place, different as it may look now.  I remember when I felt clever and funny, and this was the place to be me.  I could make myself laugh and laugh and laugh with posts about nothing and everything. 

I've been REALLY REALLY grumpy lately.  It occurred to me that I haven't had a "just me"day in quite awhile.  Maybe this is part of the problem.  I'm sort of that person who needs to just walk around the mall by myself and not talk to anyone for an hour in order to feel recharged.  That has not happened.  I'm trying to devote a few minutes of just sitting here, in this spot, writing.  I don't have much to say, but maaaaaybe my mood will improve if I just force myself to ramble.  I want to be fun to be around again.

School has started again.  Duh.  It's October.  I have a great class, and while we have our fun, I sure wish I could have as much fun as Emma when she goes to school. 

Or at least as much fun as that kid rolling around on the ground behind her.

Jack is loving school - but what else is new? His teacher is my best pal and twin from whom I was separated at birth (of course overlooking that fact that we look not much alike at all and... um... that we were born in different years.)  But anyway, we think it's funny that Jack is in her class.  I get to hear Jack stories from a whole new perspective.  And sometimes I get to hear that he's not at all what I imagined as a student...  and I mean that in a good way.  Well.. crap... how can I mean that in a good way when it sounds like I'm saying that I previously imagined him in not a good way? That's not what I mean to say... having.trouble.describing. 

I guess I just imagined Jack a little daydreamy and shy.  Danavee reports that he is well-liked, pretty darn with-it, and can even be a bit of a ham.  Weird.  I like hearing Jack stories though.  It's fun as the Momma across the hall.


In other Jack news, he thinks he can whistle now. 

Not quite, buddy.  But... almost.  Maybe.

In Emma news, she's learning to read some very early beginner books.  That's so fun.

 

In cat news, Cookie was locked in this closet for the entire day today.  Her meows even sounded hoarse from what I imagine was her calling out "I'm in here and shouldn't be!"  to an empty, empty house for 10 hours straight. 

Cookie had an awful day.

In fish news, Blue is feeling blue.  He lays on the rocks at the bottom of his tank most days,  refusing most food and interaction.  I can't quite figure out what's wrong with him.  The Internet says he may have something call fin rot.  (The medicine I administered did nothing to perk him up, unfortunately.)  So I consulted the Internet again, and another suggestion says that maybe he just needs a fish lady friend. 

Come on, Blue.  This house can't take a fish death.  Not allowed, young man.

While our pets have seen better days, Emma's Bill Cosby impression has never been better.



No.  Emma is not imitating Bill Cosby.  But I'm onto something, right?  Right?!

Jack.  Holding a 2012-13 school picture of Jack.  This kid's cute.

I'll wrap up now.  Maybe I'll just tell Blue that he needs to take up blogging.  It makes ya feel better, I'm tellin' ya.

Valentine's Day 2012

Jim and I turned to each other somewhere in the days before the big V-day this year and said, "Have we been married long enough now that we can... not.... do Valentine's day?"  This cracked me up.  I love it. 

Other things I'm loving right now:

www.pinterest.com and the super cute (and easy) valentine box idea it provided for Jack.

This little thing

Bird tracks in the driveway snow

Stumbling upon weird and sort of nerdy photo ops at the local theater. And then internally chuckling at the way the ewok guy is constantly mothering over the soldier guy at left during picture taking. "Your chestplate isn't straight, honey."

The pretty ingenious compromise I witnessed when two siblings can't agree on whose turn it is to slide. 

And random showcasings of baseball enthusiasm.  Learned at school.  During the off season.

I hope you had a terrific Valentine's Day!



Bedtime Stories With Emma

Welcome to "Bedtime Stories with Emma".  I'm thinking of making this a regular entry.  What do you think?

Dance For Your Papi

Saturday is 'cleaning day'.  Music gets turned up loud at our house, and people go to town on their respective chores. 

Everyone's busy, in theory.  Jim's paying bills.  Jack is groaning upstairs about not wanting to clean his room.  I'm elbow deep in toilet-scrubbing-land somewhere in the house. 

And then there's... Emma.  NOT doing chores when she thinks no one's looking. 

Dancing for her papi.

This girl doesn't feel accountable...

The Musicals

Emma was recently in the church nativity play.  She was the donkey.  You should know that she was not donkey-like at all.  I've never seen a donkey steal baby Jesus's thunder.  The pictures below show it well... getting right up in front of the microphone, making googly eyes at Mom and Dad the entire time.  A wave or three thousand.  It was cute. 

She looks like a gangsta donkey.  I'm just saying...

Anyway, it's because of the donkey performance that I feel compelled to post the next - a preschool performance the next night. It's slightly better in the way of "singing" and "saying lines" and "acting like you have some sort of assigned part in a show."  And it's less, "I'll be here all night. Tip your waiter." 

Jack also had a musical moment about a week back.  It was less public but oh-so-equally wonderful for his mother. 

It was the "first day of Christmas" for additional 51 seconds after that, but I did some editing... 

Merry Christmas!

20 Questions, Emma (Age 4)

Emma will be four in four days!  Wow!  How did that happen? 

This week I asked Emma 20 questions.  I hope to remember to ask these questions every birthday and see how her answers change.  But here are her words at just four days shy of turning 4 years old. 

1.  What is your favorite color?  Pink, purple, and orange.  And blue.

2.  What is your favorite toy?  Boots, Dora's monkey.

3.  What is your favorite fruit?  I don't know what my favorite fruit is.  Maaaaybe it's bananas.  I like banaaaaaaanas.

4.  What is your favorite show? Astro Boy

5.  What is your favorite thing to have for lunch?  Ham and cheese sandwich

6.  What is your favorite outfit?  My leggings and black boots.



7.  What is your favorite game to play?  Super Mario Galaxy when I be Yoshi or Luigi. 

8.  What is your favorite snack?  One cheese sack.  No, that's not what it's called.  It has squares on it.  (Me:  A cube?)  Yes!  One cheese cube.

9.  What is your favorite animal?  Kitties.  Orrr you could call them kittens.

10.  What is your favorite song? My rock n' roll Christmas song.  (More commonly known as Trans Siberian Orchestra's  Christmas Eve in Sarajevo).

11.  What is your favorite book?  The bad baby who unrolls the toilet paper (More commonly known as No, No, Yes, Yes by Leslie Patricelli.)

Emma's drawings of people in her family.  Reliably the same.  Reliably cute. Every time.



12. Who is your best friend?  Skyler, at school.  He's really little.  I'm bigger than him.  He's always hitting me.  And telling on me.  I do nice things for him and HE TELLS ON ME!

13.  What is your favorite cereal?  Froot Loops

14.  What is your favorite thing to do outside?  Play on the playground

15.  What is your favorite drink?  Orange Julius

16.  What is your favorite holiday?  Thanksgiving and my birthday.  I'm so excited for my birthday.

17.  What do you like to take to bed with you at night?  I want to talk about my birthday.

18.  What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?  I just said it.  Froot Loops!

19.  What do you want for dinner on your birthday?  Cake.  Cupcakes.  And cake.

20.  What do you want to be when you grow up?  A space girl that goes in space.  All the way up.  To Mars...  I mean, the moon.

Emma sings this ALL. THE. TIME. 

What is this song?  Anyone?

Problem Solved

Sometimes it's hard to decide whether you're going to eat your blue sucker or drink your delicious Sprite first.  

Unless you're Emma.

They Both... Well... Um....?

Jim and I were laughing just the other day as we sat at the table and challenged ourselves to think of any... I mean ANY... similarity between our two kids.  And here's what we came up with:

"They both like the queso and chips from Chili's." 

Yes.  That's it.  (And that was hard to think of, by the way.)

 Just look at them.

You're Deluded

This morning Emma asked me for jellybeans for breakfast.  This is not uncommon.  This summer I've noticed that it's a daily conversation that I have with her.  "No, Emma.  We don't have jellybeans in the morning."  Her response is typically, "But can I have them?"  And then she usually throws in a shrug and a smile.  I wonder what Grandma feeds her for breakfast during the school year.  Her resolute thinking that candy is appropriate morning "food" leaves me feeling a little uneasy. 

I was pretty pleased with myself when, this morning, she actually asked for a cereal bar.  An improvement! We're gaining ground here!   "Sure Emma.  I'll get it for you."

I shouldn't have been so happy with myself though.  I came out of the shower to find only two bites taken out of it.  The rest was laying there on the table next to the wrapper. 

She approached me.

"Mom, can I have pizza?" 

I shook my head no, motioning toward the proof that she hadn't eaten her cereal bar yet.

"But mom.  I don't like it."

I stood my ground.  "Emma, you can't have anything else until you finish your cereal bar. I don't like it when you waste food."

And so, I went to dry my hair.

When I came back, the barrage of food questions resumed.  "Mom, can I have a waffle?" 

"Sure, Emma.  But first let's check to see if you've finished your cereal bar like I asked you to."

And then... THEN...  I found THIS.  (I realize that pulling out the camera and making a show out of her poor behavior is probably not the best course of action here.  But for all of you people who swear she is the cutest thing on Earth, I wanted to give you a little snippet of the "other side".  It's for your own deluded sake, you know.)

After I stopped recording, she told me that she was "really sorry that I did that."

"Can I have some cheese?"

Hmm. 

She IS pretty much the cutest thing on Earth, isn't she?  Let's be deluded together.  :)

Summer Fun Has Just Begun!

Summer is in full swing!  And we've been gettin' our fun on.  I love summer.  Being an elementary teacher sure has its perks... and summer, you are the biggest one of all.  Here's what we've been up to lately.

1.  Last year, my big projects were Jack and Emma's bedrooms.  This year, it's all about me, folks.  I want a beautiful bedroom too.  Be gone, ugly tattered bedspreads.  Be gone, laundry piles in the bedroom floor.  Be gone, permanent ironing board set up that I never put away.  Be gone, ugly, ugly place.  Hello, dreaminess.  To start with, I dabbled in the art of antique shopping with my ultimate antique expert of a gal pal, Danavee. 
We found some great things...

 A beautiful trunk for the foot of the bed.  Check out the inside color!  I love.

 A hodge podge of mirrors/ and an old shabby window for over my dresser.  See that black mirror?  Spray paint is a girl's best friend, it turns out.  Just wait and see...  Thanks for the expertise, Schlager!

TURQUOISE!  Yes.  Yes.  And yes!

                         A new duvet cover.  I love the colors.

                                       A collection of my favorite photos.

See that rose?  That's the first flower I ever received from a boy.  A sixteen year old boy... named Jim.  Pretty special.  My bedroom is officially BEAUTIFUL.

2.  Playing outside has been fun, particularly if a water balloon fight is involved...

                                       Ammunition?  Check.

Competitive stance? Check, sort of.  Emma looks a little unprepared.

Action?  CHECK!

3.  Beautifying the rest of the house in preparation to host a fun and festive bachelorette party/personal shower for a Mrs. Ashley soon-to-be-Boschen! 

 New front porch plants!

 Incidentally, Jack grew this one from seeds.  He knows something I don't.  Hmphf.

 New rug for beneath the office chairs!

And another great antiquing find with Danavee!  A pair of shabby farmhouse-y windows for over the kitchen mantel.  I love them.  So much. 

4.  Other great things not pictured because, like an idiot, I didn't bring out my camera for them: 

Backyard pooltime at great-grandma and pa's  and a quick visit to see mom down in Arkansas. 

I love me some summer!  Yahoo!!!!

Assignment: "Emma, Tell a Story"

I don't often get blogging assignments, but I have decided they are pretty fun.  I once played a prank on Jack that resulted in an assignment issued by my mother that was one of my favorites... um... ever.  But today?  Today, I've been given a blogging assignment by my hilarious friend, Schlager.  And Schlager, I accept. 

I am to "make a video of Emma telling a story."  Okay.  Well, I tried really, really hard.  The end result below, you'll see, lacks most things characteristic of a story.  There's definitely no rising action, climax, or resolution.  The characters are only superficially described.  And does there have to be plot at all?  Hmm...  Well, there's no plot.

I may have failed in the challenge.  But here's my attempt anyway.  It turns out it's more like an Emma interview.  We'll work on the storytelling, Schlager.  She clearly has no concept of it, BUT...  at least she knows *what to do if a stranger tries to take her.

* "Mom, I'll just kick them and punch them in the neck."

These Faces

"What are these faces about?" I hear you asking.

Yes, well.  There IS a story here.  One face is freshly tear-splotchy, glum, laced with disgust, forlorn, and pitiful.  The other?  Smug.  Oh yeah.  Reeeeal smug.

But before I get to that story, I can hear my mother over all of your voices.  Yes, Momma.  Jack's lips are blue, but it's only because he's just had a bluer than blue lollipop (given to him by Grandpa before dinner... sigh) and NOT because he has a disease or is low on oxygen, needing to be examined by the nearest hospital.  (Jack always seemed a fragile and especially vulnerable infant, and so my mom worries still.)

So.  The faces.  Notice that Emma is wearing a batting helmet and holding a badminton racquet?  Yeah, well, there's just been a major argument.  See, Jack wore this helmet and held the racquet on the way to school while riding in the car this morning.  (No, I don't know why, but that's unrelated to the story.)  Unfortunately for Jack, Emma got into the car this afternoon FIRST, immediately seizing both items and declaring that it was HER TURN for possession of both.  Jack was HIGHLY irritated that things went down like this.  So.  A brute wrestling match ensued over the said items.  Yank.  Pull.  Yank.  Scream.  Pull harder. 

Eventually, as is almost always the case with any tug-of-war episode, someone let go.  It was Emma.  The racquet then came hurtling at Jack's eyeball, smacking him right in the face. 

Then crying and blaming happened.  Lots and lots of both. 

Aaaaaand... hence, the faces.

Jack's New Pet

Well, we've done cat number 1, and cat number 2.  We've also done pet ants .  Gosh, we've even inherited some tadpoles and killed plants a'plenty at the Hoodenpyle house.  Remember?  So now, we had quite a decision to make when it came to Jack's newest idea:  getting a new pet.

We decided on a fish.  (a.k.a.  something super easy for mom...)

Jack, Emma, and I all piled into the car today to go and do the pet purchasing. Jack nervously chattered from the backseat, "Mom, I'm starting to get nervous about this.  Will Cookie eat my fish?  Does Cookie ever go into my room?  Should I shut my door whenever I leave for school?" 

Emma, of course, piped in too.  "I want a fish too.  I want a fish too.  I want a fish tooooooooo.  Mom?  Can I have a fish?  I want a fish."

This continued on until we reached the pet store where I was quite overwhelmed by all the fish choices and fishy paraphenalia.  I don't know a thing about fish and certainly don't know what to get and what not to get.  So, we looked around for awhile.

Mom, can we keep the fish in my room?

Mom, can we get this one?  He's colorful.

His name will be "Blue."  Mom, I named him that because he's blue.

Alright, Jack.  You already look smitten.  Get your money out that you've saved up.  Let's go pay for him, and take him home.

Drive as slowly as you can, Mom.  And don't hit any bumps.

Welcome home, Blue. 

Braids



 Emma's new favorite hairstyle is the braid.  These braids are definitely cute, but they take no less than 20 minutes due to the fact that she's three and prefers wiggling over sitting still.  But she looks so dang cute... so I braid away.

Jack was lingering around in the bathroom during one braiding session recently.  He watched and was clearly curious. 

Jack:  "HOW are you even doing that, Mom?!"

Me:  "This is braiding.  I learned to do it when I was little."

Jack:  "Do all girls know how to do that or something?"

Me:  "No, I don't think so.  It takes lots and lots of practice.  Do you know how to do it?"

Jack:  "Uhhh, Mom?  That seems like kind of a girl thing to know.  I don't think I have to worry about that."

Me:  "Yeah, you're probably right.  It is kind of a girl thing."

(Jack starts to walk out of the room.)

Me:  "Jack, what if you grow up and get married and have a little girl one day?  What if she asks you to put some braids in her hair?"

Jack:  (shaking his head and sighing over his shoulder)  "I'll just tell her to go ask her mother."



New Young Fashion

Sometimes my parents like to bring Emma new clothes when they visit.  They like for her to model them.  Sometimes she cooperates.  And sometimes she doesn't. 

Apparently, this last visit was a "doesn't" day.  I received this from my stepdad and had to share.



Staring Contest

I win.  HAHAHAHAHA!

Naming Your Toys, the Quick and Easy Way

These are Emma's Littlest Pet Shop toys. 

Meet (from left to right) Matricia, Matricia, Matricia, Matricia, Matricia, and Alex.

Wii Bowl

It's another snowday off of school! At least a foot of snow is keeping us all indoors today, and so we decided to have a Hoodenpyle Family bowling tournament. I was bent on winning, but quickly fell behind when I got distracted with moviemaking. These were worth the sacrifice, in my opinion.

Sweet, funny, and proud bowling.

Aaaand the more obnoxious approach. (Yeah, you only thought you knew Jack.)

Emma's Babies

These are Emma's babydolls. Each of them came with a cute set of clothes and accessories. They came with diapers, baby beds, strollers, pretend baby monitors, pacifiers, bonnets, little plastic bottles with fake milk in them, onesies, you name it... the babydoll regulars.

But then Emma became their mommy. And now they look like this. They've been stripped of their clothing. Their accessories have been discarded. They look freshly sprung from the babydoll institution, one step away from a baby straightjacket. This is how she wants them. Don't mess with the babies. She's serious.

I'm a little creeped out.