Trains, Trains and Trains...

 

Midway Fall Festival

 

This day also included an onion blossom, corn dog, picking out some tiny pumpkins and riding a Thomas the Train tram ride. She was both intrigued and afraid of Thomas the Train, but took the ride like a champ, even waving. There was some goat petting, sheep baa-ing and little donkey seeing as well. Low key fall fun - and I got to wear long-ish sleeves to boot - what more could you ask for? And it's pretty much October. Love.

 

 

Pin-Interesting

So y'all know about Pinterest by now, right? If not, I want you to at least be aware of its existence. It's a personal decision to join the masses. I distinctly remember a friend, Ashley Logan, asking me if I was on Pinterest and telling me I needed to be. She was very adamant that I join. I checked it out and joined up. Now I'm a moderate user.

Pinterest is certainly interesting. It's like being able to browse through magazines for the pictures without ever stopping. I, by the way, rarely read articles in magazines but mostly look at the pictures. I probably won't make a dish if only the recipe is listed, but if there is a shot of the final product, I'm much more likely to make the attempt. Therefore, pretty pictures catch my attention via Pinterest.

Now, as with literally EVERYTHING, Pinterest is good in moderation. Definitely not excess or obsession. You will find yourself in WANT with many things that are impractical, unreachable, impossible, sold out and/or outrageously expensive. You will find yourself questioning why you didn't think of that, why you haven't organized every inch of your house, why you are still buying premade food, clothes, and/or cleaning supplies. You will find yourself committing to more craft projects than you could imagine starting, much less completing. At least completing AND sleeping a reasonable amount of hours in a night. What I'm trying to say is that you may find yourself discontent. And if you can't control your exposure to Pinterest and maintain proper perspective, then yes, you should avoid it all together. Count your blessings instead of how many holiday DIY gifts you can pin.

My cautionary tale is done. Moving on to some good stuff. I wanted to pass along some things I've gleaned from Pinterest that were helpful and/or delicious.

 

Shredding Chicken with your Kitchen Aid Mixer - I personally did this, in like 30 seconds. Literally.

 

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles - Made these. They're pretty good, better warm for sure. But the ingredients are those that you usually already have in your pantry. My finished product is below.

 

 

Magical Magic Erasers - I already used it to get scuffs off walls and clean up tennis shoes. I want to try the trick for cleaning the toilet with it by letting it float over night!

 

I, too, have pinned many a craft or activity I want to try but haven't yet. I tried some Pumpkin Frozen Yogurt tonight, but will have to let you know about it tomorrow. It didn't get as firm as I hoped for in the ice cream attachment for my Kitchen Aid mixer. However, I used frozen pumpkin so not sure how that plays into things. Next on my agenda is a popcorn & candy corn snack mix, perhaps a chevron painted pumpkin, and some activities for Em. I'm really looking forward to the Thanksgiving items I've saved because it sort of gets lost in the action between Halloween and Christmas. I'm sure I'll be partaking in more Halloween items because it's not even October yet, and we'll be celebrating Em's birthday in Lexington around Halloween. Which, so far, she is saying she wants to be a pumpkin for Halloween. Creative, eh?

Lounging

 

Mommy: "Em, how old are you?"

Em: "Almost (almosht) two."

Mommy: "Whose birthday is next?"

Em: "Emmy!"

 

Daddy: "Emersen, what do you want to be for Halloween?"

Em: "Pumpkin."

 

Daddy: "What are you going to ask Santa for for Christmas?"

Em: "Halloween."

Daddy: "It doesn't work that way."

Em: "Toys."

Daddy: "That's good! What kind?"

Em: "Choo choos. House. Halloween."

Daddy: "No, remember, not Halloween."

Em: "Just toys."

 

Em is learning the words to all her favorite songs. I never imagined a 2 year old could remember the words to stories she read or songs she sings. She'll start singing, and try to sing the whole song, on her own for:

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star

Jesus Loves Me

Itsy Bitsy Spider

Row, Row, Row Your Boat

ABC's

Happy Birthday

Clean Up, Clean Up

 

Her shows are:

Caillou (she LOVES this show!)

Thomas the Train

Boo! (Though we haven't watched this as much)

Wheel of Fortune (letter show, she asks for)

 

Her favorite activities:

draw/color

play dough (makes babies, school bus, taxi, truck, food)

reading books (over and over)

build house or build church (blocks)

 

What she loves to pretend:

eating - herself and feeding her babies

change your diaper - her babies

sleeping/night night - her, her babies, mommy/daddy

basketball

take a picture with her play cell phone -she holds it up and says "smile" and "cheese"

 

Books she loves to read:

an old hand-me-down book that is old and is about letters - calls it her "i" book

halloween books - can complete each sentence herself

lift the flap letter book

Thomas gets stuck - Thomas the train

chicka chicka boom boom

 

Favorite phrase: "Mommy, hold you."

I wish I could say I love this. I knew when she was younger that though I wished for a cuddlier baby/toddler, I knew it was better that she was miss independent. And I was right. She wants me to hold her if something happens she doesn't like, if she is told no, or gets in trouble, or is bored or is breathing.

 

While we're pretty used to the whole stay at home mom thing now, with a toddler, phases and preferences change on a regular basis. So, learning how to handle the "mommy hold you" has been an adjustment for me because Emersen has always been able to entertain herself and play by herself. And she still does for the most part, but she does need more to entertain her. And she can ask for it now. She is still getting stuck on certain things - like waiting for lunch or for someone to come over - and she repeats it over and over again, even though she knows the answer.

 

Having an impressionable kiddo around all the time, especially one that talks and can repeat everything we say, if she so chooses, has challenged me to examine my own words. Are there things that really would be better left unsaid? Could I use my words better? More positively? Words that aren't really "bad" words for adults sound worse coming from a babe - could I choose more carefully? Scripture commands not to let any unwholesome thing come out of your mouth. Am I really holding myself to that standard? Now that I have a "mirror" to reflect my words back to me, its something worth considering.

As are most things once you're evaluating them against God's word and whether you want to pass them on to your kid.

Icky Prayers

Last week, I took Emersen to the library story time, on a play/walk date with a friend/baby, and she had another play date with two little girls. Those children-filled times were sandwiched between weekends at church in the nursery. Therefore, and of course, Emersen got sick last Saturday night. She spiked a fever during the night, making her restless. So I checked on her and she wanted mommy. I took her temp, then delivered some Tylenol. She had been coughing a little bit, with a little gag. And of course, then she threw up like 5-10 minutes later. The worst. Thank the Lord, it was only one time. She was acting "okay" as far as Emersen would at midnight. She wanted to read, but not be apart from me. We tried setting up camp downstairs, but I guess the fever which had gone down but not away, prevented a good sleep. Finally, she fell asleep on me around 4am and slept a couple hours. I slept zero hours. We spent Sunday on the couch and being lazy. We alternated between Grey's Anatomy and Caillou for Em on TV. She slept 4 hours later in  the day, and slept great that night. She did spike a 102 fever again Sunday, but I gave her ice to suck on to keep liquids going in and that seemed to help bring it right back down. After Sunday night, she was snotty and coughing, but no fever. We slowly introduced all the foods and milk back in since she had thrown up. Monday and Tuesday weren't good for napping because coughing kept her from going to sleep quickly and staying asleep. Yesterday was better. Monday night and last night she had coughing fits that didn't seem to wake her up, but woke me up and lasted about 30 minutes or so. She had been sleeping later too, but today woke at normal time. I think she is slowly on the mend, which I hope helps her "deal" with things a little better. But she is almost two, so it might just be the age. Comparatively to fits and whining I've heard elsewhere, it's not too bad, but compared to Emersen's disposition, it will be an adjustment.

I do know that sickness is the thing that so quickly brings me to prayer. I mean what can you do for a two year old at 1:30am when she is coughing? Nothing. She wasn't awake, and it's better for her to get good sleep to get better. She can't have cough syrup. So I prayed and prayed and prayed. With kiddos, there just isn't much you can do for them medicine wise. Obviously, prayer is the biggest and best thing you can do for them, but when they don't feel good, you want to treat them as you would yourself and eliminate pain and sickness with medicine. I can quickly turn anxious during Emersen's illness, especially that which includes throwing up. But I know that I have to turn to God, because I'm not in control. And He doesn't have to stop what is happening either; sometimes kids are sick. And I lay in bed begging for coughing to stop, that he would please calm her body so she could relax and sleep quietly. But somewhere there is a parent begging for their babies LIFE, because of an accident, because of genetics, because of cancer. This is just coughing. However, I'm her mother and so I pray. It's what she deserves.

Sitting Pretty

 

She put her couch on our couch, and climbed up on it, all by herself.

 

Rocking at Cracker Barrel.

 

And of course, 'Bucks, having a fancy water.

 

Emersen had her first sucker yesterday. We were at Kroger, and the cashier offered her one. She got to pick the color and picked red. And then she ate it as we drove home. She said "yum-mee!" And then she said, "thank you Kroger." She's hilarious.

 

Obviously I had been using the blog as a bit of a distraction while I was still working. And now I have a harder time stopping and focusing and working on it. I will have more pictures soon of Emersen at the Midway Fall Festival. Yay fall!

Big Shoes to Fill

Daddy's shoes

 

Mommy's shoes

 

We are just over a month away from Emersen's second birthday. That is crazy! And so fun. We feel so blessed to have her little face in our lives.

 

Em's vocabulary and speaking abilities are expanding exponentially every day. She's remembering stories and wanting to tell us. She is able to identify the person she is speaking to or needs something from and tell us what she wants us to do. And usually she says please and thank you. Now she's shortened it to "thanks." Today, she said "excuse me cups" as she walked over her cup on the floor. Hilarious.

 

Her favorite things to do are to play with play dough, draw, read, push her baby around in her stroller, watch Thomas the Train, and if she really had her way, to watch Caillou. However, Wes & I find Caillou's voice extremely whine-y so we're going to try to retract the freedom. She doesn't really watch tv for very long, so Thomas works best because the stories are about 10 minutes long.

 

Emersen still amazes us with her "people" skills, in that she remembers so many people that she has met. She randomly brings them up to say she misses them. And we pray for them of course. Sweet girl is starting to remember her friends in the nursery at church so hopefully she'll be able to call them friends.

 

Other favorite things include singing Itsy Bitsy Spider (she likes the "washed the spider out" part), You are My Sunshine (she fills in the words as we go), and Jesus Love Me (she likes the "He is strong" part). She is loving chips & salsa and most recently taco dip. And candy corn. Which is already gone, despite the fact it's not even a week into September.

 

Based on my lady and her enthusiasm for her Halloween books as well as pumpkins, I'm thinking the seasonal obsession I have is genetic and Em is going to make me proud. But thus far, all she has to do is smile or laugh or hug or say her version of "I love you," & we're proud of that little person.