Just Because

Tuesday of this week, I was picking you up from school and we were on our way home and I had this overwhelming emotional feeling come over me. You were singing your new song that you learned at school (more to come on that in another post) and you were just so cute and lovable and I just wanted to eat you up. That feeling prompted me to post the following on Facebook for the entire world to know - as if they didn't know it already!

"Dear Emma: I can't even begin to express the level of joy and happiness you bring to my life. You have showed me what unconditional love is and have taught me to love whole heartily. I love you with my entire being - please don't ever forget that."

Growing Pains :(

You are growing more and more with each passing day. Unfortunately, along with the growing you are having really uncomfortable growing pains.  So much so that they wake you up in the middle of the night. You will cry and cry because you are in so much pain. That is until Mommy or Daddy gives you some Motrin. Mostly Mommy because Daddy doesn't "have his eyes in" and can't see anything without his contacts in! They have really been causing you a lot of pain recently within the past couple of weeks. It really breaks my heart to have you hurting so much - I just want to take all the pain away! Luckily it's nothing that a little Motrin can't fix. :) It just means that you are growing stronger and smarter everyday. I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings!

ABC's Of Me

I saw this on a friend of mine's blog and I decided to copy it but with an added twist. I will be filling it out on behalf of Em.

ABC's of me

A....AGE; 2 1/2

B....Bed Size; still in my crib, but hope to be moved to a toddler bed very soon...stay tuned!

C....Chore you dislike; putting my toys away when it’s time for bed

D....Dogs; just 1, my BFF Hawkeye

E....Essential start to your day; Saying goodbye to Hawkeye, Cheerios and Water

F....Favorite Color; Pink & Purple (at least that’s what Mommy puts me in all the time.)

G....Gold or Silver; What’s that?

H....Height; 35 inches; just shy of 3 feet

I....Instrument you play; whatever is in my hand that I can bang. I will make a musical instrument out of a spoon

J....Job title; Executive Director of Cuteness

K....Kids; if you count my endless stuff animals…endless!

L....Live; Grapevine, TX

M....Mom's Name; Mommy. She has a different name???

N....Nick Names; Em, Peanut

O....Overnight Hospital Stays; Just when I was born. Had to stay 3 nights!

P....Pet Peeves; when I’m trying to tell Mommy and Daddy a story and they don’t quite understand me. So frustrating!

Q....Quote from a movie; “Is he dancing about a plane crash?”

R....Righty or Lefty; Righty

S....Siblings; None. For now……..

T....Time you wake up; Weekdays – 6:45am, weekends – 8:00am

U....Underwear; going in between pull ups and big girl panties. This potty training is hard work man!

V....Vegetable you don't like; not to fond of zucchini   

W....What makes you run late; messing around and not listening to Mommy

X....X Rays you've had; None. Whew!

Y....Yummy food you make; Well, I can't cook just yet but but my Mommy does (and I help her!): Spaghetti, pizza, tacos

Z...Zoo animal; Monkey!



Little Gym Adventures

You absolutely love Little Gym. Plain and simple. You love going and playing with Mr. Nick. And Mommy and Daddy love the interaction you have with him. You run to him to give him your very best hugs. We recently moved you up to the older class and it is SO much better for you. Its a smaller class with only about 7 kids in it. The other one had almost 15 kids in it and you sort of got lost in the shuffle. In this class you really shine and are back in the spotlight where you belong! 

Your most favorite thing to do right now is jumping. You jump on your bed, on mommy and daddy's bed, on the guest bed when daddy is playing his Xbox; you name it and you will jump. One of the things that is available to you at Little Gym is the air mattress where, you guessed it, you can jump on!

Next up was the beam, which you really love as well. Except this week's lesson was to walk on it backwards which you haven't yet done. And of course you were excellent at. :)




You then played around with Daddy for a bit, on, surprise surprise, the jumpy thing!




You often will be the star example with Mr. Nick as he is explaining the skills of the week and this week was no exception. You love the monkey bars as you are a little monkey yourself!

Two Words: ROCK WALL

This next video is pretty funny. Emma wanted to do the beam all by herself but at the same time she didn't want Daddy's help what so ever. It's kind of hard to hear her but she keeps saying "Go Away." She is in this stage right now where she only wants a certain parent to do things for her and if the other parent is in the room, she will yell, "go away!" 

And last but not least, one last star pupil - she really is a shining star, isn't she? :)

Snow, Snow GO AWAY!!

The past 2 weeks have been really awful in terms of the weather. Last week we were all held captive for 4 days in the house due to the snow and ice that hit us. It was pretty bad. But, of course, you being such the great little girl that you are, you took it all in stride and were the very best little girl that a Mommy could ask for. Mommy still had to work so you played with your computer, next to Mommy, played with your games and watched Curious George (your new favorite show at the moment) while I worked. We were finally able to get out on Saturday, just in time for Little Gym. Which you really needed! Here are some pics of the snow. You can barely recognize our front yard!

Please Mommy, No Pretties In My Hair

Mommy wanted to get a few pictures of your hair in pigtails before we had your first Haircut (more on that in a bit) but in true Emma fashion, you don't like anything in your hair.

Not even for a second.

You will sometimes let Mommy play with your hair. This night was such the night. I was playing with your hair and thought, I should try and put pigtails in. Just to see what you would do. Took Mommy a couple of tries, but finally got two pigtails in. No sooner did I finish putting the second one in, your hand shoots up and immediately tries to pull them out.

WAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTTTTTT! Pleeeeeease don't take them out Em. Mommy wants to get a picture. Please? This is how the entire process went when I was trying to put them in. I would get one in, start working on the other one and you would reach up and try to take them out. Mommy was pleading and begging with you to leave them in so that I could take pictures. 

Then Mommy was trying to get you to smile in the pictures. This was the best I could do.

The back side. Mommy has to practice a little more.

You were being such a good sport about it that Mommy of course had to do crazy hair. Practicing for those Cheerleading days to come....

This entire photo shoot lasted maybe 5 minutes. Maybe. Maybe it just seemed like 5 minutes because all I was doing was begging you to leave your pretties in so that I could get a picture.

I'm still holding onto hope that she will one day wear "pretties" in her hair.

A Mom's gotta have dreams.

The family that cleans together...

... stays together!

Em helped us clean up a couple of weekends ago. I'm just now getting around to uploading the video. As you can see, she had on her special cleaning outfit!

Enjoy!

Airplanes = Nana

The following conversation took place between Emma and I yesterday morning on the way to school:

Em: Mommy - AIRPLANE! (screaming it because that's the only way she knows)

Mommy: yes, it's an airplane.

Em: Mommy airplane!

Mommy: Yes, airplane is going bye bye. I wonder where it's going?

Em: airplane go Nana

Mommy: Airplane going to visit Nana? Could be! Wish we were going to, huh?

Em: yeah

Em: airplane Papa

Mommy: yes, going to see Papa too

Em: yeah

Em: and Doobie

Mommy: yes and Dobbie too. Airplane going to see Nana, Papa and Dobbie?

Em: uh-huh

 

I just love you my peanut!

Tea Time

You received a tea set for your 2nd birthday and you will spend a good hour playing with it. Sometimes you play with it the right way, other times you will play with by putting coins in one cup and them transferring them into another one. Back and forth, back and forth. A couple of nights ago you got Daddy to play tea with you. I can't wait until you are old enough to play dress up and make up with Daddy....and Daddy will go along with it 100%!

You are most definitely Daddy's Little Girl!



Spoiled Much?

You have got to be the luckiest girl in the entire world. When I think about the amount of people who love you, I smile from ear to ear and my heart does back flips. Your Nana and Papa really do like to spoil you and, frankly, I wouldn't have it any other way! You love airplanes, we all know this. So what is the first thing your Nana does when she learns this? Goes out and buys you, not one but TWO airplanes of your very own. Do you think she loves you? I would say so! Here are a couple of videos of you opening the box and playing with your new favorite toys!

Goin' Shoppin'

You received a birthday gift from a very dear and old friend of the Miguel Family; Kimmie. Kim used to live with your Nana and Daddy when he was really young, he was about the same age as you are now. She watched your Daddy grow up into the handsome, lovable man he is today. When she met you for the first time, the first words out of her mouth were how much you looked like Daddy. And of course how beautiful and precious you are! Your gift from her was a shopping cart and a brown lab puppy dog stuffed animal (to match your Hawkeye). Below is a video of you playing with your shopping cart.

Happy Heart

This photo says so much to me. It says happiness. It says sacrifice. It says dedication. It says love.......

It says Family.

I never thought in a million years that my life would be the way it is this very day - so happy and full of joy. When we made that oh-so-big decision to move to Texas from California, I knew that what we were doing was going to benefit us, I just never knew how much the impact was going to have on my happiness. I am thrilled beyond words at the amount of happiness my life now brings me. My family is everything to me, would do pretty much anything for them and Emma has certainly brought that into the forefront. She reminds me everyday of why I was put on this earth and why I made that painful decision to uproot my family of 2 and relocate to a foreign state.

Not a day, no, scratch that, not a moment goes by that I am not thinking about Emma or thinking about how my actions will affect her either today or in the years to come. I'm out at a store and I see some little trinket, I think, Emma would love that. I see a new book that she doesn't have and I think, Emma would love to sit in her chair and flip through the book and listen to Mommy or Daddy read to her. I can't wait for her to grow up and to experience with her all the things that a little girl gets to experience. She reminds me everyday that its the little things in life that we should get excited about, that life is too short to worry about this or worry about that. Live in the moment. 

Emma - you are the center of Mommy and Daddy's world - thank you for allowing us to love you and thank you for being the best thing that Mommy and Daddy ever did. I love you with all my heart and soul.

My Very Own Chair

A couple of weeks ago, Mommy bought you your very own Lazyboy type of chair, only Emma size. However, the chair and the cover had to be purchased separately and it took Mommy a couple of more weeks to buy the cover. She finally did and low and behold, your new, PINK chair! Because every girl has gotta have at least one pink chair in her life. 

You absolutely love your new chair! You were so excited when Daddy was putting it together. So much so that you were already trying to climb over and on top of it before we could even put it together! After everything was said and done, you just plopped right down in it and stayed in the entire night.

Although, you couldn't quite figure out how to sit in it and get out of it at the same time....

Hmmmm....maybe I'm just supposed to stand on it......?

Nooooope, this is the way it is meant to be used!

Awwww, this is the life.....!

D'plane, D'plane!

You absolutely love airplanes right now. Ever since we returned from our trip from California you are obsessed with them. You look for them every time we are out and about, screaming at the top of your lungs, "AIRPLANE!!!" every single time we see one. You will even do that if you hear one going over our house. Last night we searched for videos of airplanes taking off and landing, and what do you know, there are thousands of them! You watched this one video for over 20 minutes - it was a great way for Mommy to get some stuff done around the house! And every time we replayed it for you, you would get just as excited as the first time you watched it!

Sunday Family Day

Today we had such an awesome family day. You were in the best mood; giving Mommy and Daddy both equal love. You were running around, screaming and laughing, playing with Daddy. That is my most favorite sound to hear. Mommy LOVES your laugh, it's the prettiest laugh in the world. You also got to go play around on the Dallas Cowboy's home field. Your cousins, Katherine and Matthew had the chance to play football and cheer on the field and we went to go see them. It's pretty much a once in a lifetime opportunity, so we took advantaged of it! You loved playing and running around. So much so that you kind of put up a fight when we were trying to go home. Here's your Daddy and you on the field and in the locker room!

You playing on the field

Readin'

You love to read and this morning, you just weren't quite ready to stop reading. You looked at your Franklin the Turtle book the entire way to school. That's Mommy's Girl! :)