Toast!?!

My daughter really loves toast.  Like, a lot.  In the morning, she is occasionally grouchy, as she tells us that she doesn't want to "go schoo,'" she doesn't want us to "go work," and she would rather sit and watch "monkey george," all day.  Some days, we just have to remind her that she is going to see her friends at daycare.  "Do you want to go see Ms. Debbie?  What about 'Kenzie?"  Sometimes, that's enough.  Sometimes, to coax her downstairs, we have to offer her breakfast.  "Emmy, would you like some toast?"

And no matter what mood she is in, cinnamon toast (cinnamon and raisin swirled bread, toasted with a light spread of butter) cheers her right up.  "Okay, daddy."

After one particularly rough morning, where she wrestled me as I got her dressed, then again while I put her hair in a ponytail, I was beseeching Tom to take over (he makes breakfast while I get Emmy dressed and ready), because Emmy was wailing at me about how she didn't want a ponytail, or shoes, or that shirt (Want pink, mama!)-- and he asked her if she wanted toast.

And just like that, the tears disappeared.  "Toast?" she asked, her interest peaked.  So, she took her seat at the table and Daddy handed her the toast, which she exclaimed over and started eating.  Then, she looked at Tom and said, "I happy, Daddy."

And Tom, in his ever-present wisdom, sighed.  "I wish there was something in this world I loved enough that it could turn my mornings around like that."

Me too, honey.  Me too.

It must be her age, but when Emmy loves something, she LOVES it.  There are certain activities that we really have to gear ourselves up for because Emmy loves them so much that she doesn't ever want to stop doing them.  And when she is forced to stop, there will be tears.  There will be SOBS.  (And for mom and dad?  There will be guilt.)

Here is the list of things that my daughter LOVES:

Winnie the Pooh (the movie is only 62 minutes long, and as soon as the credits roll, she bursts into tears until you start it over)
Elmo and "Grober" ("Another monster at the end of the book" interactive storybook on the iPad, which she has read over and over and over)
Painting (finger paints, tempera paints, watercolors, etc)
Riding horses/ponies
Toast
Chocolate milk
Watermelon, blueberries, tomatoes, strawberries (she can eat her weight in each of these foods)

In fact, she loves watermelon so much, that when we bring it home from the store (wrapped in plastic) she can't wait to get at it.  You can see in the photo above, she took two bites while it was in the shopping bag, before I could get it put away after the shopping trip.

I know this level of loving things won't last forever, but I wish it could. 

Swimming

Emmy seems to really enjoy water, though when we took her to the beach at 8 months, she also seemed utterly terrified of the ocean.  She loved the sand, but she wasn't fond of the ocean.  She didn't want me to hold her in the waves, and she certainly didn't want to let the water wash over her at the edge. 

So, remembering that, we were concerned that she would fear the ocean again when we go to the beach in August this year.  Well... are concerned, would probably be more correct, I suppose.

So, we've been playing in the wading pool, practicing putting our faces in the water, and trying to blow bubbles.  So far, we've not had a lot of success with that.  She'll drop her face really really close to the water, but not really in.  And the bubble blowing is not happening at all.  She just blows at the surface of the water, the same way she blows to cool off hot food.

But we also wanted to get some experience in a real pool, with water that would be over her head.  Tom and I are having some fundamental disagreements about floatation devices, but I finally agreed to a speedo swim vest (NOT FOR USE IN BOATS, says the label). 

Vandy offers swim lessons for toddlers, but they are... inconveniently scheduled (weekdays? weeknights?!? Come on, guys.)  But, of course, Grandma and Grandpa Smith have a community pool in their subdivision, so this weekend, we headed down and gave it a try.

Emmy loved the pool!  She desperately wanted to try it by herself... not to mention the deep end.  "Lea' me 'lone, mama!"  She called out as I held her in my arms.  We compromised with me holding on to her swimsuit as she flopped and paddled around the shallow end.  Whenever she got a couple mouthfuls of water, I would pick her up and put her back on my hip and let her breathe for a moment.  She's absolutely fearless. 

She was jumping off the side of the pool into Tom's arms, which was clearly resulting in full submersion head dunking, and she kept climbing out of the pool and going right back to jump in again.  Fearless.

When she saw some older kids jump off the diving board into the deep end, she decided she wanted to do that too.  But, alas, that dream could not be achieved on this trip.  She was also obsessed with getting to the "other side" (the other side of the blue rope that separates the shallow and deep ends of the pool) but refused to hold onto a parent when she got to go on the other side of the rope, so that foray didn't last long.

We're definitely looking forward to another trip to the big pool.

Mother's Day (Late and out of order, whoops)

The week of Mother's Day, I went to pick Emmy up at daycare on Friday, as usual, and was pleased to see a bag on the counter labeled "To Mama."  I picked up the bag and the rest of Emmy's things and then went to get her from the playground.  I showed her the bag and asked her who it was for.  She told me it was her present.  I asked if maybe it wasn't for mama, and she said, "No, mama, it's Emmy's present."

Then she told me she wanted to show it to Daddy, so we got in the car and went home.  I had to work pretty hard to keep her from ripping the bag open to get to "her" gift.

Once we got home, we went up to Tom's office and showed him the present.  Tom told her how nice it was that she brought Mama a present, and Emmy informed him that, no, it was Emmy's present.  Tom tried to convince her that it was for Mama, and asked her if they had talked about mother's day at school.  "No, Daddy.  This Emmy's present."  As she started to open it, poor Tom had to take it away from her (I wouldn't have cared if she had opened it, but, c'est la vie) and that lead to tears. 

By Sunday, however, she had forgotten all about it, and I was able to open my gift and see what I got.  (A potholder with a handprint).

Toddler Bed

This post was originally started on 5/23, but I guess I got busy.  Emmy switched to a toddler bed.  I wasn't sure we were ready, but Tom wanted to transition well before our scheduled trip to the beach in August, so that we didn't have to take the pack and play with us.

The first week was a little rough.  Emmy seemed to have some trouble adjusting.  She kept waking up in the middle of the night and crying until we came and talked to her.  She would stick out her tongue and tell us her "mouf hurts," and ask for medicine.  Since this coincided with a sinus/eye infection and antibiotics, I'll admit that we fell for it for the first couple of nights.  But it became clear rather quickly that the tears would stop long before any medicine could have kicked in.  This will also mark the second time I've been convinced that her second molars were coming in, and as yet, we have seen no additional teeth beyond the first set.  (One might think that I actually have no idea what I'm talking about...)

Before I agreed to the switch, we had to install a gate at the top of the stairs, which, so far, has been great.  We actually put it in the hallway perpendicular to the stairs, and it's working really well.  We only use it at night, when we leave her door open, so she can come visit us if she needs to, but can't get to the stairs. 

Since she can get to us now, she comes to see us every morning on the weekends, as soon as she wakes up.  Then she climbs into bed and we watch Sesame Street or whatever other show she requests.  So far, (and knock wood) she hasn't come to visit us during the night.  She will occasionally wake up and cry, but she hasn't ventured out of bed yet.  We know that she has gotten up because we'll often find her in the morning with toys and books she didn't have when she went to bed, but, so far, no night time visits.

I have lots more things to post, but if I tried to put them all in one post, it would run dangerously close to novella length, so....