That's Right! The Women Are Smarter!

The women are smarter, that's right, that's right! If you don't already know, this is a great Grateful Dead song (Man Smart, Woman Smarter), and this is me singing through the keyboard! It's a peppy little catchy little number, and seems appropriate (at least tangentially) to my brief topic of the day. This morning, my little gal figured something out that neither her dad or I could. On one of our recent road trips, we stopped at Cracker Barrel (of course, about the only place you can get away with taking a wild 1 year old on the road) and we ended up buying BG this groovy little fire truck. We thought it was cool because it is the kind that you pull backwards, then it propels quite a distance on its own. This morning she was playing with it in her car seat and I suddenly hear sirens and see lights flashing. We had no idea the toy could do that! She figured out what we could not, I'm embarrassed to say. Might have to change the song to Man Smart, Baby Smarter!

Little Ms. Firecracker

The 4th of July is a family favorite, and we had a great holiday. We spent the 3rd downtown with some of our dearest friends and their baby who is also super-awesome. Baby J and Em seemed to enjoy the parade and the downtown spectacle, and they didn't even complain about the heat! To top it off, we decided to have a late lunch at Dudley's and the toddlers acted like they ate in nice restaurants every day of the week. They are both superstars, I tell ya. Then, on the actual 4th (don't know why Lexington decided to celebrate on the 3rd instead, rather odd really), we enjoyed a street party with our neighbors. Em ran around like a crazy girl, and loved every minute of it! She was so happy that she just ran around squealing in delight. She liked the fireworks too, which thankfully weren't very loud. She didn't even wake up for the big fireworks that went off in the night. G and I were grateful for that!

One last thing, I can put Em's hair up in pigtails now! It is silly, I know, but her little piggies make me so happy! She looks very cute in them. I put her hair up in two messy little buns, which my friend Rach said looked like fireworks on her head! This pleased me to no end, as that was actually the intended effect! So cute...

Excuses of a Delinquent Blogger

Hello, my name is Adrienne and I am a delinquent blogger and poor documentarian of my baby's life. I can't believe it has been 6 weeks since my last post, but this spring/summer has been off with a bang! Also, BG keeps me hopping and requires quite a bit of my physical and mental energy these days, leaving me with little stamina for hobbies such as writing or anything beyond survival for that matter. Here is a typical day in my/our life:

Toddlerville: A Day in the Life...

• Wake at 7
• Shower very quietly so as to not wake up Sleeping Beauty
• Dress self, dress BG
• Feed her breakfast while trying to finish getting ready and fending off dog from eating baby's breakfast (this is hard because she is always attempting to feed the dog, which makes her giggle uncontrollably)
• Try to get out the door by 8 without burning self or baby with necessary travel-vat of coffee, or dropping self or baby to the ground
• Drive delightful BG to school while singing Old MacDonald and pointing out favorite points of interest along the way (i.e. trees, men on the street who remind BG of Daddy, the horse or "neigh neigh" statue in front of the Chase building, firetrucks, trucks that aren't firetrucks but we pretend they are, etc.)
• Bring BG into her classroom, give her teachers copious notes on what I perceive to be her special needs and/or issues of the day
• Try to simultaneously reassure her that I will return for her later while also disappearing without her noticing because separation brings much anxiety at this time
• Drive to work like a maniac without harming pedestrians or other drivers
• Work hard at saving the children for 8 hrs while running errands to help save my own children on my lunch break
• Leave at 4ish to go pick up BG
• Go home, take care of Bobby and then have outside play time, which she demands by crying at the door, screaming "outshide! outshide!")
• Cook dinner while fending off dog and keeping an eye on the BG
• Then, around 6:15 or so, Daddy mercifully arrives home and we all sit down for dinner
• I then alternate between feeding myself and BG, which usually goes pretty well though sometimes takes some wrangling, coaxing and bribing with animal crackers
• Then, we have a little more playtime, a walk or family bike ride (we love this! just got Em a seat for the back of G's bike and it totally rocks!)
• Then it's time for playing with "bubbles" otherwise known as bathtime
• Then a book and some milk, real quick, then time for "night nights"
• By now, it is 8:30-9:00 and I always have big ideas about exercising, cleaning, reading, writing, etc. I manage to fit some of these things in here and there, but never as much as I hope to.

As you can see, blogging and nearly everything else gets a bit neglected in my rush to keep up with Ms. Em! It's hectic and may sound awful to others, but I love it all! My only regret is that being this busy makes time go by so fast...

Developmental Update:

• Em sings along with or sings parts of songs (Old MacDonald- obsessively!, Wheels on the Bus, Down in the Jungle)
• Is saying probably 50 words or more (hard to keep up because there are new ones everyday! My current favorite is her frequent, and correct, use of the word "happy." Por ejemplo, yesterday when we arrived at the pool, Em stopped and got a little grin on her face and whispered to me, "happy!")
• Can practically sprint, tries like crazy to swim (wants to go underwater, which is definitely off limits since we've already had 2 sets of ear tubes!)
• Knows and names most body parts (favorite is "bellybutton"), animals, animal sounds, articles of clothing, modes of transportation (bike, truck, car, choo choo, boat, etc.)
• Walks up stairs while holding the rail, rather than climbing up
• Can feed herself with utensils somewhat- it is pretty messy and we have some more progress to make, but she really wants to and tries very hard
• Recognizes all of her family members in pictures and seems to have a longer ability to remember people that she doesn't see every day (this makes Granny and Papa very happy!)