Just a little pre-cake testing – Yummy!

A silly story with Daddy (who is more fun to be silly with than Daddy?) – Emily and Julia were playing on Robby’s lap with a play phone. The phone rang and Emily answered it. Robby asked her who was on the phone and she said “Maeve”. Then she put the phone to Julia’s ear. I guess she has figured out that Julia and Maeve are friends and that they should talk.

Emily is an abstract artist. She kept herself entertained with a pen and discovered how much fun drawing on your clothes can be. Well, she was going to do it sooner or later. Time will tell if this was a one time occurrence, or if it will be repeated. I had to take a photo, because I wasn’t going to hang the pants on the fridge to display her artwork. There is a lot more artwork than can be seen in the photo, but this is the best we have.

Easter is on the way and we need a few colored eggs to play with. Despite the mess that can be made with egg dye and the ‘5 and up’ age disclaimer on the box, we colored a dozen eggs last night and had a blast. This is one of the things that you can’t explain to a kid, you just have to do it. Emily was a great sport about having to let the eggs sit for a while in the dye for it to take. She figured out that she could spin the eggs in the water and did that most of the time. We played with the timer, colored eggs with crayons, ran around the table, and colored eggs. I think I will get some more dye after the holiday and do it again just for the fun. Not too bad for a two year old.

When Emily sees things that she recognizes and likes, she will point them out by repeating the word until you recognize her. Egg is one of those words for her. She helped me boil the eggs earlier in the day. She picked the first egg up and immediately tapped it against the edge of the pot, just like Mommy does. She didn’t understand that we were boiling eggs instead of cracking them.

When we are drawing or coloring Emily asks me to draw Mickey Mouse for her. This isn’t too hard given that his head is three circles that intersect. When we were coloring eggs, I wrote our names on the eggs and then Emily asked me to draw Mickey Mouse on one. I tried a bow on top to make it Minnie Mouse instead. When we were done dying the eggs, I looked at my Mouse masterpiece and realized that it looked a lot like a little girl instead of Minnie. It seemed fitting for the girls.

There were cardboard colored pieces included in the kit. The only use I could figure for them was to label the dye bowls so you knew what color each was. I didn’t really think that we needed the labels, they were pretty easy to tell apart. Not to mention that Emily insisted on mixing the colors together as we played. The cardboard color pieces were very interesting to Emily. She carried them around, organized them, picked the up and put them back down over and over again. That was more interesting to her than coloring on the eggs with crayons. Go figure – the two year old strikes again.

I wish I had photos, but I was too caught up in the moment – Julia rolled over from her tummy to back today three times like she had been doing it forever. After I put her back on her tummy the fourth time, she decided that she was over it and fussed until I turned her over. I know it isn’t fair, I rewarded her monumental event by putting her back on her tummy. I also rewarded her by praising her and clapping for her. She did smile and laugh a lot during the first three rolls. She is so close to rolling from her back to her tummy. Wouldn’t it be funny if she figured them both the same day?

We put the kick-piano toy into Julia’s cradle for her to play with. Luckily, it has a off switch, or else we wouldn’t use it. She likes to kick her feet out of her blanket and that transitions to this toy well. So far she seems to like the toy and the music it plays to her. We have noticed that as Julia’s toys have gotten cooler, Emily has taken an interest in them. We are finding that Emily has begun stealing Julia’s toys more and more. The toys that are fastened to objects like the car seat are safe, but everything else, including the pacifier, has been stolen. When Julia is in her cradle and kicking the piano, Emily is just beside herself to try to push the buttons too. For as much as Emily steals Julia’s toys, she also likes to bring toys to Julia. Julia can end up with a rather full lap of toys because of Emily’s sharing.

A photo from our last trip to Florida and just playing outside.

We were all playing on the floor together one evening, and I decided that Emily should learn to do a somersault. She already loves to roll across the floor. She has been doing somersaults for a while by accident. She will crawl off of the couch or ottoman and roll out into a somersault. She couldn’t figure out what she was doing to repeat it, but she loved it.

The best way of learning a new thing is to see it demonstrated. So Mommy cleared a path and demonstrated a somersault for Emily. It was a hit. She loved it and wanted to do it herself. She can get her head down, but can’t figure out how to roll her body over. She will get it soon enough. For now, it is still fun for Mommy and Daddy to push her over. Daddy did a demonstration too to not be outdone by Mommy.

Mommy did realize that she isn’t as young as she once was. I didn’t use the proper technique, and it took my neck and spine three days to get back to normal. Call me crazy, but I’m going to do it again with her. I will just pad the floor a little and work on my technique.