Poor Tatum

While we were driving today I mentioned to Cody that his friend Tatum was going to have a new baby brother or sister soon. His response..."Oh, poor Tatum! I hope she gets a baby brother, cause baby sisters are loud." Aaah, feelin the love.

Watch Me Grow - 8 months

At 8 months old Emma is really blossoming into her own very distinct personality. Though she remains very happy and easy going, she is beginning to show a new, more mischievous side. She is now totally a crawler, and can often be found heading for wires, power outlets, errant dog hairballs, or anything else dangerous or disgusting. On her way to a forbidden destination she likes to turn around, make sure mommy and/or daddy are watching, grin that irresistible grin, and then continue on her merry way - as if to say, "I dare you to try and stop me." This 8th month has also brought the addition of 2 new teeth, frequent chanting of the word mama, lots and lots of giggles, and my favorite - the totally heart melting open-mouth baby kiss. Brother and sister also continue to be quite enamored with one another - though Cody recently exhibited the first glimpses of dissatisfaction. (See post "Poor Tatum" for details.) The kids spent a ridiculous amount of time just giggling at each other for reasons that Jay and I do not quite understand. Overall, 8 months has been a blast. We are loving our little girl and are enjoying watching her true self begin to take shape.

quote of the day

This may be in the top 10 of my all time favorites:

"Stop laughing Mom! I'm trying to be sad."

Our 44th President

Cody came home from school today really excited about our new President, "Tarack Mobama." When I asked him why it was so exciting he responded, "because Mom, he's the man with brown skin that talks a lot of nice words, and lives by my school." Well, 2 out 3 ain't bad.

On the move - Part 3

Houston, we have a problem! Now that Emma is crawling forward she is into everything. We knew the day would come, but we were complete unprepared for what a little trouble maker she would be. When Cody learned to crawl we would gently tell him "no" when he came too close to something that we didn't want him to have, and that would be the end of it. He would literally not return to that spot. (Incidentally, whatever spell he was under at that time has completely worn off - but that's another story.) So, I admit that we have been a bit surprised by Emma's "defiance." She seems particularly attracted to cords, wires, or anything else that could potentially electrocute her - go figure. So far our excellent parenting strategy...distraction. It seems that as long as one of us is constantly building a tower for her to knock over, she is happy as can be to NOT eat the cords. So, for now, we build towers. But, I tell you what, we are really beginning to worry about the upcoming toddler years, and we are not even going to think about the potential issues of the teenage years!

what a beautiful day

We have had some gorgeous weather the past few days, which isn't often the case in Sacramento, in January. In order to make the most of these warm sunny days, we have been busily soaking up the sun whenever and wherever we can. Emma and I have been taking long morning walks. The boys have been out playing basketball and fishing. And today we ventured to the park for some climbing, sliding, sandcastle building, and swinging. Emma took her first ride in the swing and giggled non-stop for the better part of an hour. Cody ran around like a wild man, making sure to swing from each and every bar and to slide down each and every slide before the dreaded 5 minute warning. It was a fabulous day. I think we'll do it again tomorrow! (knock on wood)

I make me laugh...

Well, I'm newly addicted to facebook. If you know me at all, you know that I love "scoop." I love knowing other people's business. It's why I love reality TV, it's why I can't seem to leave work on time, and it's why I secretly stalk peoples blogs. I know, I'm a freak. I just love drama - of course, not in my own life - but I love to watch things unfold in other people's lives. So, I'm newly addicted to facebook as I mentioned, and I've spent the last few weeks reading comments from old friends and people from high school, and I've often found myself laughing at the ridiculousness of it all. I mean here are people that could not stand each other in high school and now they are chatting amicably on facebook - boggles my mind. Fast forward to early this week... my phone buzzes, signaling that someone "wants to be my friend." (Love it!) So, I check, and who is this elusive friend, but none other than the girl who wanted to beat me up all through junior high and high school. I literally begin to shake just from reading her name. What do I do? I accept her as a friend of course! (I'm STILL too afraid of her not to.) Sad, sad, sad. I hope my children are not as spineless as I am.

girls are nicer than boys

While I was putting Cody to bed to night he offered up a bit of his wisdom to me. He said," Mommy, did you know that girls are nicer than boys? That's because girls use nicer words than boys. That's why I have lots of friends that are girls. They are nicer." And then my favorite part... "Just like you are nicer than Daddy. Daddy's really nice, but he can't be as nice as you, cause he's not a girl." I love the logic of the 4 year old mind.

The key to a good night's sleep...

When Cody was a baby he was completely addicted to his binky. It got to the point where if he did not have a binky in his mouth at night he would wake up and be inconsolable until a replacement was found. The nighttime binky search often happened several times a night until I came up with the genius idea to completely surround him with binkies while he slept so that at any time he could reach out and find what he needed to put himself back to sleep.

Fast forward 4 years...

Can you count all the binkies within her reach?

Now, Emma is not as addicted to the binky as Cody was - she mostly likes to chew on them with her new teeth. But, I am not taking any chances that her (and my) sleep will be unnecessarily interrupted in order to search for another binky.

mama

When I went in to get Emma from her nap this morning, she was babbling away in her crib as usual. As I got closer and she saw me, she very clearly said, with a big smile on her face, "mama." I didn't actually believe that this was in reference to me at that point, but a few minutes later while changing her diaper she looked at me and said it again. Jay was also in the room at that point, and he looked at me quizzically and said, " did you just hear that?" So, until further notice, I am going to believe that my little monkey was indeed talking to me. Yeah!!!