Conversations with Emily

Occasionally Emily looks up at me with her big blue eyes and says ” don’t teach her that”. And I think you myself “why did you teach her that?” My busy little girl seems to come up with some of the strangest things to say, and she does her best to say them right infront of random people. Here’s some examples, or as my Mom would call it “Payback”!

As our landlord is walking by infront of our house:
Emily: “don’t walk by my house!!”

To her Daddy in the morning after he taught her to say disneyland burned down.
Emily “Oh no, Gilda’s house burned down”

To Daddy while Mommy is having a shower.
Emily “Mommy’s washing her ankles”

To her Mommy while reaching for coffee
Me: Dont’ touch that please.
Em: But I want to. I need coffee.

While looking at a wedding picture
Em: Mommy is a princess
Me: And Daddy is Mommy’s Prince Charming
Em: I have a prince Charming. He’s in my toy box

This one’s my fault:
Em: “Oh Crap! Oh Crap! Oh Crap!”

I keep trying to remember because daily she says things that make me die laughing. Yesterday I ran up the stairs to get something before I left for work. Then Morgan came into the office. And then Emily came into the office too. Clearly the gate at the bottom of the stairs hadn’t been shut. Emily waltzed into the room and said “Hi. I came up!” At least she’s really good at stairs now. But the best part is that my lunch was sitting on the stairs and when I went to eat it later in the day, there were 2 tiny teeth marks in  my apple. Emily had walked up the stairs and stopped for a snack before continuing up. I haven’t had a chance to post any pictures this week, but I’ll get there. Here comes another busy weekend. Fun Fun!
 

Angel Party

Every year our church has this thing called Angel Party. Its for 2-5 year olds. Which basically translates into pandemonium! This year they made an exception for Emily(cause she’s so cute) and let her go even though she isn’t 2 yet. All the kids wear wings and a little halo. It’s pretty much just a good photo op. They tell stories and play games and do crafts. Emily did so good considering she can’t sit still ever and she got up almost 3 hours early to get there on time. At one point during the story she yelled out “I love baby Jesus!” it was so cute. Way to make your mommy proud. She didn’t do so good with the crafts. So Mostly I made them, but I’m excited for many more years of strangely ugly, yet adorable crafts Emily brings home at Christmas.

I remember one year at AWANA I made this little drum ornament out of a tuna can. We hot glued some plaid ribbon on it and some zig zag string and there was my first drum. It has long been one of my favorite ornaments to hang up at my parents. Also a reindeer I made out of Clothes peg, a stained glass candle we made in grade six, and this beaded candy cane that is oh so hideous.

Christmas is probably my favorite time of year. So I’m afraid you are going to get some good walk down memory lane stories out of me for the rest of December. Here is the first:

“When I was at Jesus school I cooked my first Christmas dinner. Turkey, Stuffing, brussel sprouts, you name it… I had to phone my mom because I had no Idea what to do with the turkey. All I remember from that conversation is “You want me to put my hand WHERE???”

We also spend alot of time making our own decorations for our tree. College students seldom have oodles of money to buy ornaments. So we spent forever making popcorn strings to wrap around our tree. At one point when we were almost done making the string, one of the guys in our house was actually doing his chores for a change and decided to vacuum. He started to get pretty close to our precious popcorn sting and about the time I said “Hey Clayton, not so close to our…” He sucked the whole thing into the vacuum. It made this loud bang and shot popcorn everywhere. I think we were laughing way to hard to be upset about it.”

*I decided to save my rant until tomorrow. And I updated Emily’s page too.*

Pointing at Baby Jesus

“I love baby Jesus”

Joy to the World

Swimmin in Dare

“They Swimmin in dare?” That what Emily thinks of my snow globes. She thinks I have an entire nativity thats drowning. keen observation I might add. I would have never thought about it that way. I decorated more in my kitchen that in the living room so meal times are more of a show and tell than anything else. Em sits in her high chair and asks to look at everything on all the shelves. She especially loves “Baby Jesus, so cute, I love it, I have it, soft, mine”. Most people don’t pray much more than that to get saved. haha. More understanding is needed yet on that one. It’s neat because I bring her the ornament to look at, but she’s not allowed to touch it. It’s going to be a good thing to teach her now before she ends up like her daddy and needs to see everything in her hands. I am foreseeing shopping trips being easier in the future. Also she loves the Jingle bell dancing guys we got last Christmas. She makes me push the button about a million times during the meal. I’m going to have to go over and apologize to my neighbors for musically assaulting them. If you want to know what is a worse noise for your neighbors to wake up to read Leahs blog from today.

Emily’s favorite toy right now is a nativity scene puzzle that my Gramma sent for her to play with before Christmas. I think I may have already done it about 100 times. She loves to throw the pieces everywhere and then collect them one at a time and help me put them together. I thought the puzzle would be way to advanced for her, but she loves it and she’s not really that far off being able to do it. I’m going to have to get her some puzzles for Christmas.

I can’t decide what to get her for Christmas. There is so much to choose from for kids. I don’t just want to get her some misc toys. I want learning things and creativity things and books. I don’t really think all those “learning things” they sell in the store are really that helpful. I’m sure some of them are great, but seriously like a video game is really going to help a toddler. Emily doesn’t even watch T.V. ok well she does sometimes at a friends house, but it’s not part of her routine. We read books all day. I know I want to get her more books. Mostly so mommy doesn’t go crazy reading the same ones over and over. There is a newer series kinda like veggie tales that’s called Boz. You can get a whole pack of their board books for pretty reasonable. Or Robert Munsch books or Dr. Seuss. Or oodles of other things. Don’t get me started on Ebay. But would she even care…probably not. She has oodles of toys already. I wish we had a busier freecycle here. I would totally get more stuff from there for her and not spend a dime. Christmas is just one of those dilemmas hey. I just know I want to beat the statistic and not go into debt just so Christmas morning is fun.

I think my rants of late are mostly caused by emotional eating. haha. Emily is teething so bad right now she is making her momma crazy. If only we had some gypsies living near by. For the cutie she is Em has been so bad lately. It’s one of the hardest things I find as a parent to not respond in anger, but to discipline fairly and with mercy. I started a new thing this week and so far it’s working pretty good. Em has been royally grumpy lately and so for no reason she is being really whiny. I’m afraid this mommy doesn’t do so well with a whiner. So instead of giving her 500 time outs in a day just so she will calm down we started giving “quiet times”. I ask her is she needs a quite time and I take her hand and we choose a book and she sits in her little chair and reads to her self while looking at me and saying “Shhhhh”. She seems to calm down right away. I’m sure it wont work perfect every time, but I think it’s a good thing to start now and then when she gets older it will be good for her to have some down time and some peace and quite for mommy. It’s alot better than punishing her just because she’s in a bad mood. I started to write out how it made me feel but I decided it was too long for today so I’ll set it up for tomorrow. g’day.

Happy Hokey Pokey Day

On average I say one dumb thing a week. Morgan might disagree, but I’m talking really dumb not mildly dumb. Sometimes it’s just something thoughtless or something inconsiderate without thinking. Mostly its excruciatingly “Dumb Blond” of me. Today’s was a perfect example. At church Emily had been running around and playing with the other kids and I wasn’t even paying attention when she asked to get picked up. About two minutes later I looked over to Roxy and asked this utterly amazing question “Wheres my kid?” The look of horror that crossed Roxy’s face, plus the look of sheer enjoyment joined together with the pointing finger and this phrase “In your arms” added up for an overall special effect. For the most part I’m not easily embarrassed, but on this one I quickly realized there was no “Just kidding” to be had. I was in on the “dumb dumb” hook line and sinker. Sad moment for humanity. Sad moment because it will go down in history. Note: Roxy pretty much always has to be standing there for me to say something dumb. I think its a rule or something.

Emily’s ocean wonders crib hangey thing is dying. She reaches up to adjust it, but the song it’s singing is going out of tune. Reminds me of a certain Walkman incident in a canoe not to many moons ago. That’s right I said it. Walkman! It’s hard to even describe the sound of batteries dying and a barenaked ladies song playing slower and slower until it finally stops. If you never had a Walkman you missed out on a good many humorous events. I’m going to have to remember to get batteries for the tiny ocean for Em.

I decorated for Christmas!!! I couldn’t handle it anymore. between our Christmas movie fest and the Christmas music I needed to decorate pronto! It was weird to decorate this year with the notion that Emily could reach pretty much anything under 4 feet. I ended up decorating my bathroom and my kitchen more instead. I hung stuff up in the living room though. I did most of it while Emily was having a nap. The fist thing she said when she got up was “OOO Pretty…mine…I hold it….have it…pretty…..mine have it” It was really cute. I have a couple of Christmas bears that I put at her level and a nativity puzzle my Gramma sent that she loves.

Ive been working on a collection of Christmas ornaments that I call my bathroom band. I’m up to six of them already. Every year I look for different ornaments that have instruments with them. It’s cute. They ended up the bathroom band because I ran out of counter space to put them so now they are happy while I brush my teeth. It’s surprisingly hard to find little animals or people that are all Christmas-ey with instruments. My favorite is a moose with a drum and you can put a candle in the drum. Kinda nerdy, but I love Christmas I cant help it. I’m sad that people cant say Merry Christmas anymore. Im going to keep saying it even if nobody else does. Seasons greetings sounds silly. And Happy holidays is supposed to go with Merry Christmas. If you don’t celebrate it then don’t celebrate it. I just don’t think I should have to change my holiday because someone else doesn’t like it. If you celebrate “Happy Hokey Pokey day” then celebrate that, but leave Christmas alone. oops I ranted…Merry Christmas! Happy Hokey Pokey Day!

Je t'aime cafe

I didn’t mean to but I guess I took another blog holiday. Last week was pretty busy.

Emily is cutting all 4 molars this week. Ahh. I was trying to figure out why she had been such a whiner last week and now I have my answer. Roxy is cutting her wisdom teeth too so her and M can be whiny together. M was up for almost an hour today before we put her back down. She was so tired and drooly and unruly and whiny and make-your-momma-crazy!
So now I’m back to enjoying my quite morning and my slightly cold coffee.

I wore my bangs down again yesterday. Now that totals 2 times since I got them forever ago. I think they are finally long enough that I can have the pretty, swoopy sideways, bangs instead of the emo short, stick out of my head, bangs that remind me way to much of my mushroom cut from 1992. It’s almost enough to give me flashbacks.

We finally remembered to pick up m our camera from the church. Its been there for several weeks, so no new pictures for right now. It’s so stinking cold out right now too so playing with M outside is not likely to happen. I’m hoping to take some pictures this week. M is changing so fast I have to keep up with my pictures as they soon become outdated.

I had my third French Class last night. It was really fun. We played a guys against girls quiz game. Out team was called “Les Singe mauves et grosses”. It means “The purple fat monkeys”. So we have a limited vocab to make a name up from ok. Our motto was “Je t’aime cafe”. “I love you coffee!”. I messed that up once and now I cant say it any other way.

I did good at my French, but the part I had a problem with was spelling an English word with French Letters. Seriously I spelled “Wednesday” WRONG! Who does that after grade three. I didn’t say the French letters wrong, I actually spelled the word wrong. I can spell pretty well if I can write it down first, but nope. Straight out of my head onto the board. Coco wrote down what I spelled. “W E N oops”. Cause thats what I said. It was pretty funny. So there you go Roxy. Just one more reason you can bug me about my spelling.

I’ve been saving money for Friday. It’s Midnight madness. I’m hoping to get some Christmas shopping done. At least stocking stuffers and stuff. Probably some stuff for Emily too. Ooh I need to get a paper today. It will have all the sale times and stuff. Ain’t nothing like a good sale.

Danielle and Coco and I are having a Christmas movie Marathon. We’ve been watching classic Christmas movies and the new ones too. I was going to put them up, but I think they will be tomorrows Thu13.

Your mom goes to college

Emily’s mom goes to college! I jumped the last hoop! No more poodley Courtenay. I start December 1st. Morgan let me get some school supplies at staples yesterday to celebrate. And I found a cool French Vocab list and dictionary there too. So now I am good to go.

Morgan was teaching Emily to sing O Canada this morning. She sang “O Canada, our home and nakey land”. It was so funny. Either that or she sings “O Canada Mommy!!!”. We’ve been teaching her the provinces too. Her best is Manitoba. She like saying “Alberta-ta-ta-ta”. Just like her daddy she turns everything into a song.

Last week Emily was at Nathan and Danielle’s for a couple hours and she learned something mommy probably wouldn’t have taught her until she was older. Danielle let her walk around with their digital camera. She would stop and look at the screen and take a picture and then look for something else to snapshot. Danielle said most of the pictures turned out really well. SOO cool. I want to get her that kids camera you can chuck down stairs without recking it. I think it’d be really cool to see from her perspective what shots she’d take.

We are going on a mission trip to kamloops in a couple weeks. I dug through our toques and hats and jackets and found lots to give away. Next comes my closet. I’m taking pop cans in today and tomorrow Georgia and I and the kidlets are going to go get some sox and mitts and stuff to donate for the trip. I really love when we get to go and help people out. If you live in huncity or near it and you have extra stuff to give away you could let me know and I could even come get it to take to kamloops when we go.

Off I go to the bottle depot. Courtenay the Student!

MILK

I took Emily groceries shopping last night. She was being her usual friendly self and saying hello to everyone we came in contact with. It was really cute. I said “Are you being nice, Emily”. So then the very next person down the aisle is a Stock guy with on of those electronic stocking devices. Emily pipes up, in all friendliness “BE NICE”! He was like “Oh..Hi”. It was really funny. She’s been killing us with her comedic timing lately. Her most common one is switching Uncle for Auntie. “Auntie Nathan” is one of her favorites. Or she puts them both together and it becomes “Hunky Nathan”. Nathan doesn’t mind that one as much.

Tonight we met up with some friends to take the kidlets bowling. I was thinking Emily was a bit to young…and I was right. after about 30 seconds of realizing she wasn’t going to get in trouble for throwing the ball she had had enough. She kept saying all done and wandering off. It was pretty cute though. I think she is a better bowler than I am. Ga.

We went to Nathan and Danielle’s for dinner. Yay pizza. AND spinach salad, I might add. AND sweet potato fries too. mmm. Emily favorite meal is pizza. So she enjoyed that. Emily kept calling Nathan “Auntie Santa”. OH and I just remembered. Emily learned to say MILK! no more nuk or nilk. MILK MILK MILK! yay. It was a weird one because she could say lots of other M words, but it always came out with an N. Her R’s are getting alot better too. Still not as good at L, but we are working on it.

We got our picture in the paper again this week. It was for dressing up like pirates for last week . Emily was super cute in her piratey suit. I borrowed this pic from Coco at Walking in the Light.

Psycho. Psycho. Psycho!

My blog has been getting neglected lately. Between a toddler, Facebook and learning French I’ve been a bad blogger. I got so mad at my computer that I stopped even using it for a bit. So now I feel like I have oodles to write and nothing at all at the same time. grr.

*Finally remembered the stupid bathtub plug! About time!*

I’ve been Quasimodo for the last 3 days. It’s been kinda funny.  I woke up on Friday unable to move my neck. It happened last Christmas for a few days too. Remember, Leah? It sucked so bad. I didn’t wait to see if it would just get better though this time. I downed the limit of Back pills and smelled mentholated  all day from a patch. I stood in hot water until my feet looked like lobsters. Finally by today I am mostly back to normal. My firsts night sleep was awful. I wish I new why my neck did that. Its not like when I sleep on it funny. That feels bad, but way different.  I look like a gibble. Which is a perfectly acceptable word to use thank you very much Morgan!

I making a roast beef for dinner tomorrow night. I’m all excited because I haven’t had roast beef for several months. I really like it. Crock pot style. Easy and Tasty. Morgan thinks all my crock pot meals taste the same, but I can’t complain. They are still better than eating toast for dinner.

Emily keeps dropping “F” bombs. I’m not sure what she is trying to say. Maybe fork or frog. I don’t know. Maybe she listens a little to closely to my neighbors when they get a little crazy.  She also told her baby sitter “My daddy’s a psycho! Psycho. Psycho. Psycho! ” Awesome hey. I guess I must say psycho. But she did learn like 5 new songs this week. and all of them old church songs I sang in Sunday school. Like “Jesus loves the little children” and “Rise and Shine and Give God the Glory” and “He’s got the whole world in his hands”. Her favorite is  “This little light of mine”.

I should go to bed. I have a couple of extra kids to look after tomorrow. Should be pretty interesting. or crazy. Whichever comes first. I can’t remember when they are coming, but I’m sure I’ll be sleepy. haha. Maybe I’ll work on my French for a bit then sleepy time.

Je ne suis pas grosse. Je suis mince. Wishful thinking!

Never wake and eeeping baby.

Emily has been getting up so much earlier this week. Mostly our fault, but I’m trying to fix it all the same. She is currently, as Morgan and I call it, “Eeeping” in her crib. I’m hoping she will go back to sleep for a bit or just play a bit longer. Now she is saying “all done”. She is so silly when she first wakes up.

*still haven’t remembered to buy the stinking tub plug. Gaaa.*

Still no stupid picture software. Im looking for a not-pirated program. Sometimes the things God calls you to do are hard. I’m trying to think long term here.  So here we go. Saying it out loud. I am not a Pirate anymore. ok! well I am a pirate for pretend still. All ninjas get keelhauled! But no more music pirate.  Calling sin “Sin” isn’t easy at all, but I want to look more like Jesus. Without the beard and tunics aren’t the right cut for my body type. So characteristics it it.

I had this really randomly awesome dream last night. I was in a reality TV show. One like America’s Next Top Model. Even the thought is funny. I knew I was going to win to because I found this black dress that was really “classy”. I cant even describe its “Not- classyness” I guess it was in league with lots of the other girls. We were about to go on stage and I noticed my dress was on backwards. So I didn’t panic I just turned it around and walked out on stage.  There was more about a bad guy coming, but I don’t remember all that well. I guess it was “Miss Congeniality-esque”So funny. Me…on a reality beauty contest show. hahahahahaha.

Well I think that’s all Im going to get to for now. Em needs to get up. I’ll be back soon with another cartoon.

love you!