This Past Weekend

On Monday Emma went on her first date with Matt to Chuck E. Cheese's. He told her that that is what they were doing and she said, "Just like you and mom!" Matt said that she wanted to with Chuck E. Cheese in the booth while they are their pizza. She was so excited to be there (for the first time), and a little kid kept bugging her to play, so she only ate 1 piece! Matt also said that she liked the singing robots. Personally, those things always freaked me out when I was little. I get skeeved out just thinking about their jerky movements and annoying songs; a little like a side show at Coney Island.

This picture is Siri playing by herself on Tuesday. I tried to give her 'roomtime' when she was 12 months old, but she wouldn't have it. I started 'gating' her in her room again just last week, and she loves it (except today 'cause she is sick). Its always very quiet in there, and one time when I peeked in she was behind the door reading books, another time she was playing with the dolls. I am so glad that she's learning to play by herself. I think its a great quality for them to learn, and Emma did it so well, and still does. I was worried that Siri wouldn't get the same experience. The only difference is that Emma was talking by the time she was Siri's age, so she would be babbling away to herself, but Siri just squeals, and that's why she plays silently! :)

The Gingerbread Experience

Emma and Siri's Nana (pronounced correctly with a Long Island accent) brought them a gingerbread house kit and we decided to attempt to construct it yesterday since I thought it was going to be too chilly to take a walk (it turned out that my weather info was incorrect). Emma did a great job waiting and watching while I piped the frosting onto the pieces to put the house together, and she even occupied herself while we waited the obligatory 15 minutes for the house to stabilize. However, when it came to decorating with the candy pieces frustration set in. I let them each eat one gum drop, and for Siri this was just the beginning. Her hand became a magnet for gum drops, and her mouth the dumping zone. Emma barely put any candy on the house, and I just couldn't figure out why this was not an activity that she wanted to participate in. I told her that she had to keep decorating, or else we would be done, but she didn't want to quit, so when I let her stay at the table she just stared at the candy and at the house. Fifty percent of anything that did make it onto the house was pulled off by Siri...that part was very hysterical, and I found myself laughing a little at how fast Siri was at either pulling candy off the gingerbread house or putting gumdrops in her mouth! When I was nearing the end of my rope of frustration I realized that Emma was just scraping the nasty packaged frosting with her fingers off the house and eating it. Needless to say, that was when the activity ended. Not that the girls were disappointed or anything...maybe my loss of control of my emotions ruined the fun...I don't know. I'm sure its my expectations in an activity that bring on disappointment, which is manifested into frustration at my kids lack of cooperation with my expectations. Just another lesson learned on the parenting front! The afternoon ended with prying candy from Siri's clenched fists and cleaning their blackened hands.
And today we're going to go for a walk.... :)

Faux Wallpaper

This is my accent wall. Matt and I finally finished it yesterday. It was my first attempt at painting with a humumgus stencil, and it was harder than I expected. It's fairly simple to line the stencil up and keep it level, but my walls are textured, so there was quite a bit of leaking behind the stencil. If you were to look up close it would look a little messy, but I'm pleased at how it came out!

Sunday Night With the Rosenbergs

Target is evil. I spent more money at Target than I would care to admit. And, luckily there are many Targets here within close proximity to our new apartment so I can just continue to feed the monster! There are hours of fun to be had at Target! This trip the kids enjoyed the deck furniture, watched the cart travel up its own escalator next to ours, and tried on the new hats for the spring! If you hadn't guessed, Siri is saying, "Whassat?!" in a screech barely audible to canines!

Reward for Eating Peas

After Emma had taken her own sweet time to eat her peas and hot dogs she helped me make chocolate chip cookies! I've been looking forward to the day that we could bake together, and she was a great helper, even though I was a little nervous that the ingredients may end up on the counter. This was another opportunity for me to practice releasing control; I really tried my hardest to not worry about spills!
More than once Emma reached in the to touch what she had just put in. It's funny that it doesn't cross her mind that that would be unsanitary to touch all the food. It is hard to remember that these little kids don't know all these unwritten rules of society and unfortunately most of them get taught when I freak about what they are doing instead of realizing that they have never encountered that situation before. I sometimes expect her to know more than her mere 3 1/4 years of life experience. I also took this opportunity to tell her about more appliances that can never be touched unless Mom or Dad is with her. (It must be so confusing to be a little kid!) Siri had a great time practicing her climbing skills while there was space on Emma's chair!






Our finished product!

Fun at the Mall

The mall near us has this great play area that my kids love. None of the other malls in my life have ever had anything like this, its pure genius. Sure its old and the paths in the play area don't always connect and they are taped together in spots with black electrical tape, but the 20 year old carpet is really clean because all users have to remove their shoes, and all the objects are made of this amazing material that holds shape but is still soft and squishy; shiny, yet not slippery when wearing socks.
Emma tried over and over to get on this log; very frustrated when older and bigger kids would just jump right on. Siri runs around with no fear. And I was comfortable watching her from a distance, until a little girl tried to pick her up and dropped her so that she hit her head on the rock-infused wall.




Emma made a little friend, who as it turns out was born in the same month and year as her. They were running around together, holding hands and sitting in the logs with other little girls. It was very sweet.

Lovies

Siri loves her blanket. Ever since she has been able to breath and make sounds, when tired she has put her two middle fingers in her mouth, hugged her blanket and said, "Gully, gully, gully." It is actually very funny, and when we ask Emma what Siri says, she replies, "Gully, gully, gully." I have tried to get her to become attached to a stuffed animal (so I could get some use out of at lease one of them!) but she has stuck to her blanket. If I allowed her to she would walk around with it all day and I'd have my own little Linus, however I don't want her to become TOO dependent on an inanimate object. Perhaps my hesitation is what kept Emma from attaching to an animal. Well, she actually did attach to 2 animals, but we lost the sheep and then I took away her bunny rabbit. This rabbit actually wasn't hers to begin with. I had purchased it in college, when I still gave into my fetish, and then our cat played with it and bit it. When Emma was small I had put on top of the trash, intending to finally get rid of it, but she liked it, and I thought it was cute that she liked it, so I let her have it. The fact that the cat had played with the rabbit always sceeved me out a bit, but the final straw was that Emma sucked on the rabbit's face. I know that this is what kids do, but this was really unpleasant for me, and the smell of the rabbit was unpleasant as well. Not knowing how to break her of this disgusting habit, I just eliminated the problem. Now the rabbit lies comfortably in Emma's box of memories, that she won't actually remember.