14 posts tagged “emory”
Anyone who knows Emory knows we use many words to describe her zest for life...passionate, intense, energetic....she is a child of extremes, and we wouldn't have it any other way. This doesn't always make things run so smoothly when our personalities collide, but she can turn on a dime and make us laugh out loud, despite our frustration.
The other morning, we were getting ready for a bath, and she was sitting on the potty when I pulled her bandaid off her knee. This infuriates her as she is gets extremely upset whenever she can see a scrape on her body anywhere. i've been trying to convince her for days that it really wasn't necessary to wear a bandaid. So while she cried, I told her something like "Emory, your scrape looks so good....I think it's just a scar now. I think you don't really need a bandaid anymore." She looked me in the eye, turned beet red and screamed/wailed "Come on!!! Don't Frustrate (fuswate) Me!!!" I couldn't suppress my laughter, but I tried to stifle it quickly.
I wish I could always keep a sense of humor about her passions!
Picking up from yesterday afternoon: Emory woke up very grumpy from her "nap"...so I asked her if she wanted to put underwear back on, and she declined. I knew if I pushed it we would have an all out screaming fit, so I decided to end the potty training on a positive note for the day.
So we jumped back in this morning, and she told me every time she needed to go without any accidents, except for once when I made her mad, and while she was crying she had a little leak. And still, she held the rest and made it to the potty. She stayed dry all day and.... ****STOP READING HERE IF YOU AREN'T USED TO/INTERESTED IN DETAILS**** .....even asked to poop on the potty three times. Not only that, but when we went to Maggie Moo's for a treat to celebrate vacation time with Daddy, she interrupted the festivities to let us know she needed to go. THEN, on the way home she said she needed to go, and she held it 3 minutes until we got home!!!
Yay for Emory!!!
Emory practiced wearing underwear for a little while the last couple of days, and today we decided to jump in with both feet. She has done fabulous so far, staying dry from 7:30 to 1:00. She asked to go potty a couple of times, once she caught herself just in time to make it to the bathroom without having a major accident, and I only prompted her to go before I got in the shower and before lunch. We'll see what the rest of the afternoon brings and how things progress over the next few days. We may be a diaper-free family in a few days (with the exception of sleep times when we use pull-ups.) Now that is excitement!
Anyone who knows Emory knows how expressive she is, and how passionate. I have never caught this on video, but it always makes me laugh. Some people talk with their hands...Emory talks with her arms. I tell ya, whatever she does, she does enthusiastically...taking it to the next level. So as she tells us something, no matter how mundane, she might wave her arm out to the side in a very Vanna White-esque manner, with her hand positioned as if she is presenting something. She reminds me of the cantors at church, when they spread their arms to signal the congregation to sing. Her voice is so expressive too, with so many pitch contours. She could probably tell me the most boring story in the world and make it seem fascinating, or at least hilarious because she gets so excited. Plus, she has facial expressions to match. Drama Girl.
On a side note, Jason returned tonight before taking off for Rome tomorrow. He had been in Dallas attending a conference with a rodeo theme. Apparently, they gave pretty nice cowboy hats to everyone and even had someone on-site to steam them into just the right shape. So Jason popped into our bedroom as I was getting the kids ready for bed, with a silly grin and a black cowboy hat. The kids loved taking turns trying it on! Jason even tried his hand at a mechanical bull. Never would've guessed that. :)
So Emory totally surprised us with moving to the big bed. It has been a seamless transition, and she was not at all the jack-in-the-box I was expecting. I underestimated her again! She loves it and hasn't seemed to have an ounce of difficulty with the change. Yay!
On a side note...I got to go to a Duran Duran concert! It was SO MUCH FUN! I was a huge fan for many years, though I haven't had any idea what they've been up to since the mid-1990's. I had low expectations, especially after some friends told us they saw a horrible show a few years back. I have to say, if Simon Le Bon hadn't had a few pitch breaks here and there, I would've thought it was all pre-recorded. It was actually a great show, and they did a lot more old songs than I expected. (Hungry Like the Wolf, Save a Prayer, A View to a Kill, The Reflex, Planet Earth, Girls on Film, Rio, Ordinary World, Come Undone, Notorious....but not New Moon on Monday, my first D2 song!) I liked some of the new songs, some not so much. I'm so glad I went...plus I got to dance, dance, dance....which I have barely done at all since our wedding reception 6.5 years ago!
Tonight is Emory's first night in the big girl bed. We talked it up today, and I think Aidan was more excited about Emory sleeping in a big bed than Emory. She seemed pretty psyched though. After the bed was delivered, I made it up, and she climbed up and laid down, rolled around; she looked pretty pleased with her new bed.
I anticipated that when bedtime rolled around, she'd put up a fuss. Jason took her to bed, and he said she looked pretty excited. We didn't hear a peep from her, and I wondered if she might be quietly entertaining herself with her new found freedom....maybe trying to look at books on the floor or something. I peeked in about 20 minutes after he put her down, and she was sound asleep. She didn't look like she had moved a muscle from when he had walked out. I know she was exhausted from missing her naps yesterday and today, so maybe that helped.
We'll see how the night goes!
This weekend we bought a big girl bed for Emory! Oh my gosh, where has the time gone? I cannot believe we are about to be without a single crib in our home. It is hard to believe just over a year ago we had three cribs, and now we will have none! There are many things that are wonderful about reaching this point...we can go places entirely stroller-free...our children can communicate (most of) their wants and needs...but I just can't help but be sad to see time passing by so fast!
Aidan has been very sensitive..moreso than usual. He saw me with tears in my eyes after taking all the sheets and things out of Emory's crib. His face got so serious, and he looked like he was holding back tears. The same thing happened the other day. I was transferring our wedding video from VHS to DVD, and I stopped to watch a clip of my late grandfather wishing Jason and I a wonderful marriage. I started to cry, and Aidan saw my face and started to cry, too.
Alanna has been really interested in the wedding video, and she has decided she can't wait to marry me when she grows up! :) Somehow, I think she'll change her mind! She loves watching the reception and keeps asking to watch everyone dancing. Toward the end of the video, there is a clip of everyone doing the Hokey Pokey (this was just a funny thing the DJ did after the Murray-Sanderson clan did the Rock Lobster). Anyway, Aidan and Alanna started doing the Hokey Pokey, and Alanna started striking these poses that just cracked me up every time she sang "That's what it's all about!"
This morning we did a grocery store run, and luckily for the kids, there were three kids' shopping carts available! It is hilarious watching them push their carts around. One of the carts is really hard to steer...the wheels barely turn at all. Aidan and Alanna get frustrated with it, but not Emory. I don't know if it's her persistence or brute force that she uses to maneuver that thing around. She's the only one of the three who can handle it! We got to the checkout line with only a few things that weren't on the list...which we caught, thank goodness!
Today was "one of those days," but we made it to the end...at which point I was ready to fall into bed.
Emory is giving me a run for my money; today she decided she was going to test me at every turn. I handled things calmly for a good portion of the day, but ultimately, I failed...miserably. And yet, no matter my level of frustration, she was happy as could be. At nap time (and bed time), she has been slowly getting aggravated that she can't get her blanket just right. She wants it covering her shoulders and her toes, and it is just barely long enough to do so. Once I get her covered just right, she moves, and all is lost! So she struggled with this problem for quite a while this afternoon; I tried to help her, but as soon as I "fixed" it, she moved, and it wasn't right anymore. I tried helping her fall asleep, so that she wouldn't notice the imperfection...but to no avail. Not knowing what else I could do, I let her cry about it (or more accurately, scream about it) hoping she'd wear herself out, which she didn't. Unfortunately, this meant she'd keep Alanna (and Aidan, supposedly) awake with all the ruckus. I have offered bigger blankets on several occasions recently, and today it sent her into orbit...she didn't want them in the room with her, let alone in her crib. She turned beet-red, tears filled her eyes, she screamed at the top of her lungs and pointed vehemently at the door, and though I couldn't understand all the words coming out of her mouth, the message was clear. "THERE WILL BE NO SUBSTITUTE!!!" (or even a supplement, for that matter!)
I called Jason to blow off some steam, and we agreed that we would need to get her a bigger blanket that she would accept. I sat down with Emory, and I "informed her" that she would be getting a bigger blanket that she would need to take to bed with her. We talked about her being a big girl, and she could still hold her (precious) purple blanket, but she needs a big blanket. So, she looked up at me with her chin on her chest and frowned as she agreed to this new scenario...clearly not happy about it. "Okay," she said, so very dejected. So after Alanna finally woke up, we all went off in search of a blanket for Emory. I can't take another day of this...as it's been slowly escalating over the last few weeks. I gave her three choices of blankets that were the softest and coziest I could find, and she chose a pink blanket with a big ladybug in the middle. (I chose not to direct her attention to the Lightning McQueen fleece throw as we walked past it, and no one else saw it! phew!) She wouldn't let it out of her hot little hands until we got home.
So at bedtime, I had thrown her new blanket (that she was so excited about ) into her bed. She looked down, pointed at it and said "I want that out my bed" or something like that. I reminded her about our conversation, and she acquiesced. She actually looked so pleased as I tucked her in with a blanket that covered her all up...I couldn't believe I'd been at my wit's end with her. Sometimes I feel like I'm crazy!
Fortunately, Aidan was an angel all day...save for the few times that he and Emory got into a tussle over a toy. Alanna had a few meltdowns, but was fine for the most part. After everyone had gone to bed, I checked in on Alanna, who "had to go to the bathroom" I don't know know how many times. I apologized for being grumpy...she apologized for her meltdowns...and I told her I would pray for patience (as I do daily...and nightly.) She then told me that I should pray for patience at breakfast, lunch and dinner. I asked if she would help me, and she agreed to...and with all that praying, it just might be enough! :)
From The Loop:
Aidan and Alanna's first use of symbolic language were proto-words, not true words...animal sounds that they used as labels when they saw those animals. So they loved ducks and fish, but the fish sound we made (a little popping sound with your lips) was something they "said" whenever they saw fish for quite a while. Jason wouldn't let me count it as their first word. For the two of them, there were so many things coming out of their mouths that seemed like word attempts a few times, but then not again for a little bit, that I don't really know what word was their official "first," though I kept a list of their first 150 words in their journal.
Emory, who makes no bones about anything, was much clearer when it came to her first word. It was early December of 2006...she wasn't quite 10 months old. I thought I'd heard her say "no" earlier in the day, but I figured I was just hearing things. Then I was getting ready to go somewhere while Jason fed her, and he came upstairs to tell me Emory just said "no." (I hadn't mentioned anything about my experience earlier that day.) She didn't want whatever he was trying to give her, and she emphatically said "no" a couple of times as she turned her head away. I went downstairs to see if we could elicit it again, and sure enough...a vehement "no" when I offered her some baby food. I couldn't believe it, and yet it is so "Emory" to have "no" be her first word. She knows exactly what she wants (and doesn't want,) and she has never been shy about letting us know what that is.
As I recall, this was the beginning of her complete and sudden strike on baby food. Just after I'd bought a big package of baby food from BJ's, she decided she wouldn't have anything to do with it.
