Emily traveled really well on our trip. She was happy playing with her toys and books in the car. She was completely potty trained for the ride there and back. She took at least one nap and fell asleep after the sun went down each way. The only car issues we had with her was her desire to steal blankets and toys from Julia. Luckily at this point Julia doesn’t seem to care. Emily asked to hear her favorite song, Banana Phone (thanks Elena and Ashley for the introduction), a bizillion times. She didn’t get to hear it every time she asked for it, but we did indulge her a lot if she was willing to say please. I think the best part of the trip for Emily was that everytime she arrived someplace there was new to her toys to play with, fun people to play with, and some cousins to play with.

I wonder what Emily was thinking as she looked out over the ocean.

Our family took a trip to Florida to do some visiting. We took the opportunity to go out to the beach and play with the girls one afternoon. Julia wasn’t very interested in the cool breeze that hit her once she was ready for a nap. Shortly after this photo she got bundled up and took a snooze. Emily had a blast both playing in the sand and splashing in the ocean. We let her wade in far enough to get her shorts wet. She wanted to go in further and stay in the water longer than we allowed her. The beach was a place of exquisite freedom and play for her. Who knew that sea gulls ran when you chased them? Touching the sand was awesome, but do you want it piled on you? What did the ground feel like under the water?

Mommy put the girls in red to celebrate Valentine’s Day and then tried to get photos of the girls. Neither were interested in posing for photos. So we have what we have. Emily stole her Granddaddy’s hat and consented to look in the direction of the camera. We thought that she looked like a rock star with the hat, arms, and attitude.

One phrase I hear all day long is ‘Help Mama’. Emily is so sweet to ask, isn’t she? I think it is her way of involving herself in my life and spending time with me. Often, if she isn’t moving fast enough or in the right direction I can use the idea of helping mommy to hurry her up. This is not an exhaustive list of ‘Help Mama’ stories, but it will give a good idea of what we do.

• Help Mama with Julia’s diaper changes involves getting a new diaper down, fetching the wipe container, setting up all the things mommy needs on the bed, throwing away the dirty diaper, loving on Julia while Julia is getting her diaper changed. We change Julia in our bedroom a lot because Emily is napping in the room with the changing table so all of the supplies float around the house as needed. Emily never does all of these things at one time, but given the opportunity she would help with every diaper change.
• Help Mama with cooking involves standing on the step stool and touching everything in reach. Actually, she is really good to not touch the stove or pots on the stove. She stays away from the oven when told. But we have had the percussion section of the kitchen with the clean dish and chopstick instruments, stirring fun with pancakes, washing dishes which is just a lot of bubble fun, and just hanging out with mommy.
• Help Mama with setting the table. Actually, it is funnier to hear the interchange between Mommy and Emily over this one. I will hand her each thing to carry to the table and I repeat several times where it is to go. I can hear her repeating me as she goes. Then I go in to see the table and everything has been placed somewhere, but rarely where it is to be put. My favorite is putting napkins out, I will say “One for Mommy, one for Daddy, and one for Emily”. Then she will repeat “one for Mommy, one for Daddy, and one for Emily” and put them all at her spot. I guess she knows how messy she is.
• Help Mama clean up the table. This is the one that concerns me the most, but I am working through it. I don’t want all of the leftover food hitting the floor on the way back to the kitchen. And for the most part it hasn’t, but I don’t give her the things that are in most danger. I love the syrup, butter tub, empty glasses, empty plates, trivets, and dirty napkins.
• Help Mama with the trash. As I have mentioned several times, she will throw things away for me. She has a fascination with the trash can. If I have anything that needs to go to the trash, I just give it to her and send her on her way. She always puts it in and most of the time leaves it there. Regularly it is diapers, napkins, mail, dryer sheets, and miscellaneous trash that has been made by our activities. There are a few stories of things coming back out of the trash, but the funniest is the pancake episode. We had pancakes for dinner and Emily hadn’t finished all of hers. She expressed that she was all done, and we got her down and threw away the remainder of the food. About 30 minutes later, Robby noticed her chewing something. He asked her what it was and we figured out that she had taken the pancake bites out of the trash. For my germ panic state, I am going to believe that the germs weren’t too bad because it was on the top of the trash and all the trash under it was mail. After we got done instructing her that you don’t eat food that was in the trash can, we had a really big chuckle.

It’s not all perfect, she does a fair share of not helping Mommy. Especially when it involves moving faster, cleaning up toys, or doing anything she isn’t interested in. We are both growing into our new options and responsibilities. Robby and I have discussed working Emily into her own responsibilities because of her interests in helping Mommy. I think setting the table will be one of the first ones for her.

What a character! Emily is eating her lunch in a big person chair and reading a sale flier at the same time. She has found the shoe section of the sale flier. She consented to look up at the camera for a photo, but I think she took the opportunity to tell me about the pair of shoes she wanted me to buy her. She’s my daughter!

We have started to eat lunch in the kitchen where we can look out the window and watch for birds on the bird feeder. Today was a warm sunny day and the birds weren’t hungry, so Emily had moved on the sale flyer. I have lightened up a little and I am letting her stand on her chair to see out the window. The height is perfect for her to stand and rest her elbows to gaze out the window.