Mommy Kahdib

Dear Emerson (24 months!!!)

June 11, 2008

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Dear Emerson Grace,

I cannot for the life of me understand how you just turned two years old yesterday...you are growing and learning and changing so fast before I know it you are going to be begging me for the car keys and $50 to go out to the mall with your friends...and sadly I bet that $50 will just barely cover a movie and a snack with the way prices are rising. We had a couple of gatherings for your birthday, on Sunday your grammyand papa came over with Nicholas and Kevin. They brought balloons and we had bugers and cake and you got to swing on your new swingset....oh the joys!!

Then yesterday your aunties Becky and Emily came over with Momo and again you got to swing your little heart out....you got a beautiful blue sleeveless dress with white polka dots from your aunt Eileen who you share a birthday with promptly muddied it all up in the garden with your new gardening tools....then after your nap Sarah, Noah, Del and Josh came over quickly followed by Mike S. and grandma....we had grilled stuff and cake...again...and you got to swing on your swingset--pure bliss! Noah got you two blueberry bushes and a book--what a cool present!!!

Grandma brought you your own little picnic table and you loved it! It is so fun to see you interact with Noah now...you are so cute together. At one point you wanted another freeze pop but Grandma wasn't going to give you one so Noah came over and gave you the sweetest smile and the rest of his green freeze pop--I'm not sure if you said thank you but you are usually super polite when recieving things. You are, however, very vocal about things you are not happy with and shout, NO without holding back or THAT'S MINE in typical two year old fashion, but each and every time we talk about your swing set or go out to your swingset you say, "Thank you Mommy for my NEW swiiiingset, I love it!" Too funny.

Mommy made a pretty bad attempt at cake in ice cream cones on Sunday.....they didn't cook long enough and ended up as just batter....yuck....so we bought a cake with pink roses. Then yesterday I made you another cake and I was going to decorate it like Elmo....until I realized I didn't have any black food coloring and you can't make Elmo without red and black....and my red cake dye just looked super pink so instead I frosted a hot pink cake with a big white "E" on the top and sprinkled it with your favorite--fruit snacks...blech! Baby Chase was a basket case yesterday after a couple of hours of company so Daddy and I were in and out of the house trying to get him to sleep so that we could both focus on you....I don't think you noticed because you had friends and a new swingset!!

Speaking of the swingset--it was supposed to come on June 4th, but it was raining that day and the truck it was on was stuck in traffic...you kept asking for it....luckily it came the next morning bright and early. I think you thought it was going to pop off the truck all made and put together and ready to swing...no such luck, little chicken. So you stood out there in the drizzling rain in your little purple crocs and watched the men take all of the pieces out of the truck. Every few minutes you would say, "They're DONE, Mommy, can I swing!?"

It was sad to tell you that in fact they were not done and had more work to do. At one point of the men had a few huge boards up on his shoulders and you looked at me very serious like and said, "Mommy, that man is strong in the shoulders..." and indeed he was. Three hours after they arrived your swingset was ready--sadly you were sleeping. I went in to wake you us after you had been napping for about 2 hours and I knew Chase would be down for a while longer and I told you....your new swingset is finished. You hopped right up and out we went.

At first you wanted nothing to do with the slide or the castle part, you only wanted to swing and swing and swing...now you like it all and the only parts you are too little to use are the rock wall, the bioculars because they are too high, and the bouyee ball because it takes a lot to hold yourself up there and you get nervous. I think your favorite is still to just sit in the bucket swing and get pushed--this is where you will often sing and sing and sing. You love to sing the ABC's, the Itsy-Itsy spider (who you say climbed up the rain), the Wheels on the Bus, Where 'O Where has my Daddy gone, Happy Birthday to Emmie, and a few more that I can't think of right now...you sing a lot.

You still love love love signing. I can't believe it is such a big part of your life. You will often now put your fingers in a funny position and say, "What am I signing, Mommy?" sometimes it is an "F" or another letter, but often it is nothing I know of and you don't understand why I am not fluent in sign like I am in English. We had to look up some signs for you that you were insisting on like lemonade and doctor, nurse and hospital when we were bringing Chase to the geneticist.

You love love love your baby brother as well. Sometimes your still a little evel with the smacking and pinching and hair pulling, but for the most part you are just looking for attention when you do that and a couple hugs and tickles sent your way will make it stop. You love to kiss him and hold him and talk to him and you think it is hilarious when he laughs at you. You often want your picture taken with him and demand that I put him in the bumbo. When it gets later in the day and you get tired, though, you tell me to put him in the swing and hold you.

You are such a big girl, but such a little girl who still needs mommy loves and snuggles all at the same time. You continue to make me laugh and smile. You still like to be rocked to sleep, but on a few occasions you tell me to sit in the rocking chair while you go in your crib-ey and you amaze me when you fall asleep all on your own. You still like to be worn and often ask to get in a wrap to go out to the grill with mommy or daddy. You love dirt and mud and cars and dresses. You love animals and water and dandilions. You beg for ice cream and twizzlers but still love blueberries, strawberries, broccolli and peas. You love it when Mommy and Daddy play Wii Fit and you beg us to hula hoop or do the running game. You no longer want a cover on your sippy cup and you rarely ever spill...you are in big girl undies all day, through your nap, and sometimes even at night unless mommy knows you had a lot to drink in the bath tub. You like to take a bath but you hate for me to wash your hair....which is slowly getting longer--you even wore pig tails yesterday!

You are such a sweet, kind, caring little booger...I had a mosquito bite on my leg the other day and I told you what it was and that it was itchy...you said, "BAD skito," and then scratched it for me. You often put an arm around me or pat my back and say, "I love you mommy," which melts my heart every time. Some mornings you like to snuggle in bed a little longer with us and others you are up and out of bed and ready to play. You continue to amaze me in how smart you are and how intuitive you can be....if this is how I feel about you at age 2 I can't imaging how proud I am going to be of you when you are 22! You're my little girl, you will always be my baby....the one who taught me about pregnancy, about birth, about being a mommy, about nursing....you are perfect in every way that I want you to be and for that I will be forever grateful!!

You love to shout, "I'm SOAKED" when we play outside with the hose...or when you just can't hold your peepee anymore...which is why I just had to include this picture!! I'll do pictures from the actual party on your birthday in a little while!

Love always,

Mommy