Baby Mama Photo Dramas!

Okay, so I realize that it has been 4 months since I've blogged. I am a delinquent blogger! The summer just kept getting busier. We traveled to Florida twice, New Orleans, St. Louis, and Maine this summer. We also renovated our kitchen, painted the outside of house and did some other home improvements. It was kind of crazy to say the least! Then the fall has been even busier, but fortunately with lots of fun fall events. This summer was hot and sunny every day, and the fall was warm and bright as well. We have had the best weather, and lots of fun times to enjoy it. Winter is arriving fast, however, so I should have more time to blog. While I have been terrible at finding time to write, I have kept up with taking pictures. For the next little while, I am going to try to do more photoblogging and see how that goes. Here is our weekend in pictures! Emmy went to her first UK footbal game (Go Hats!), we did some bike riding, painted and played with lots of play-do. This was our first weekend spent mostly around the house in a while and we really enjoyed it!

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!)

Working Model

For the last 11 years, I have spent my working life evaluating families and trying to understand the complexities of the parent child relationship. One of the procedures that we do at our clinic to help us understand these relationships a little better is called the Working Model of the Child Interview. I just did one with a mom this afternoon that made me think of what I would say about Emmy. One part of the interview involves picking 5 words to describe your child's personality. Another part has the parent select 5 words to describe the relationship. These likely change all the time. Here are mine, right now, about my little 14 month old darling:

Personality:

1. Big- as in you have a big personality for such a tiny girl and you are already a force to be reckoned with; you also think you are so big already and can do things on your own (you will be getting your own apartment next week)
2. Fun- you love to have fun and you make everyone around you have fun; you have a very playful nature
3. Busy- you give your old Mom and Dad a good run for their money! you are definitely on the active end of the spectrum and you get the most out of every moment
4. Curious- you are so smart, curious and interested in everything; like your father, you want to know what everything is and how it works; you are fairly patient in your attempts to figure things out for being such a little one
5. Free spirited- you laugh like a hyena and as your Tiny Tots teacher says, you really like to "shake your stuff!" You will get up and dance in front of a crowd or just to yourself and sometimes the music is only in your head!

Honorable mentions: intense, joyful, beautiful, loving, nature lover, animal lover, feisty, smart, confident, generally awesome:)

Relationship:

1. Bliss- our relationship is characterized by such happiness right now with the hard times being so small
2. Entertaining- I think we both entertain each other quite well! It could just be me and you in a room and we would find ways to have fun and laugh for quite a while!
3. Loving or affectionate- I kiss you so much that you probably think I am trying to eat you and you give wonderful hugs, kisses that often resemble nibbles, and snuggle like none other!
4. Constant-we are together a lot and you definitely are my girl. This mother-daughter thing is 24-7 and I wouldn't have it any other way.
5. Intense- the mother daughter bond is everything they say, with intensity being a 10 out of 10! (or as they say in Spinal Tap, "these ones here go to 11!"). What a close and wonderful relationship- I'm so glad I get to experience it, especially with you.

Tiny Tater Tots

Emmy has moved into the one year old room, where she is now a scrapper. There has been an incident report every day. Every day she bops herself on the head with a toy, walks into a door, gets bitten or bites someone. Every day she leaves home looking like a living doll and comes home with filthy black clothes (from playing on the play ground), with multiple food stains on her shirt, adorning a new minor injury, sticky with sunscreen (which leaves her smelling like the beach, mmm....), and with Sweaty Betty dreadlocks where her curls and hairbows used to be. I must say that she seems happier in the Tiny Tots (one year old) room, and she seems like such a big kid. She walks with authority, talks more, uses her paci less and seems like a kid on a mission. When I arrived to pick her up yesterday, she was standing on top of some toys, with a sensory-play scarf flapping in each hand, squealing with glee and wearing a huge smile on her face! The tater tots teacher said Emmy is spunky, happy and isn't intimidated at all by the older kids. Little Ms. Firecracker. Should've been born on the 4th of July!

A note to 1 year old Emmy:

Dear Ms. Emmy,
You are funny! You crack Mommy up with your constant talk of dogs, babies, balls and "wha dis?" questions. You are absolutely too fun. Please, however, stop growing up so fast. You are breaking your old Mom's heart. Seriously, what have you done with my tiny little baby girl? Ah, scratch all that. You keep up the good work, kiddo! You are doing great and my heart bursts with pride. Just one thing, please don't bite your cousin Lucas anymore at school. I know you little tater tots are into the biting thing, but just don't bite your cousin! He is such a sweet boy! I love you, munchkin.

Love always,
Mommy

Blackbird

I have been a delinquent blogger and documentarian of the life of Em. This month has been super-duper busy, which is way more intense than just super busy. Birthdays, work, the seemingly endless dragging on of the legislative session, spring outings, Easter planning, vacation planning etc. The list goes on and on! Things have been busy but good. Em has literally learned to run in the last few weeks. We went for her one year old check-up and the doc said, "Well, Mom, I don't have to ask if she has started taking her first steps yet," as she ran circles around him like the Tasmanian Devil. We're still speaking mostly space language (actually, Em has about 10 real words she says with consistency, though she prefers to loudly babble on like an alien), but her motor skills are advanced, I think. Actually, her "motor" is a highly revved machine! She is a whirlwind of activity, which is great, except her nearly middle-aged parents can hardly keep up! Em is curious and into everything. She is so excited about the world around her, which is delightful to witness. In the evenings, we have been having trouble settling down for bedtime because there is just too much to see and do. My current secret weapon is singing. I've always loved to sing and was in choirs and choral groups throughout my youth, though I am no soloist. Em doesn't seem to mind. The soothing song of choice these days is Blackbird by none other than the Beatles. She also is partial to (G, don't laugh) a "Bret song" by the Grateful Dead called I Will Take You Home. The music of my college years is all I can actually remember the lyrics to, so I try to pick what seems most appropriate. Oh how I love singing to that sweet little girl!