Emmett

Catching up on the goings-on in Emmett's past few months...

Emmett's Auntie Ne and her boys were in town and stayed in a hotel nearby with a swimming pool. After going for a swim, we went back to her hotel room to bathe the kids and get them dressed. I pulled Emmett out of the tub and dried him off and then went to pull his clean clothes and diaper out of our bag. As I headed back to him, I watched him begin peeing right on the floor with a big grin on his face. "Stop! No!" I screamed. Emmett's face straightened, his body went rigid, and he stopped mid-stream. We all started laughing as I wrapped the diaper around his naked bum. Silly boy! Thanks for giving mommy more clean-up work, as usual.

One day in early summer, Emmett followed Liliana into the bathroom and once she had finished her business, he said, "I want potty." Surprised, but more than willing to acquiesce to his request, I stuck him on the toilet and he actually peed. He went a few more times over the next couple of days - asking to go when he saw big sister doing her thing. Then one of those times he was overshooting the pot, so I quickly reached in and aimed him down. He halted mid-stream, turned bright red in the face, and screamed bloody murder until I took him off the toilet. After that, Emmett wouldn't go near the toilet for a couple of months. Then out of the blue, he started telling David, "I want potty" again. We are still working on it, but since he has self-started the potty training interest, we are going with it!

For Thanksgiving, we took a trip to southern California to visit Great Grandpa and Grandma Jovet. On the way down, our plane hit some very bumpy turbulence. Emmett thought it was hysterical and laughed out loud every time the plane bounced, bumped, and shook. His laughter was so loud and contagious, that he got everyone around us cracking up too!

Upon returning from our Thanksgiving trip to California, Emmett demonstrated a new-found skill...He can climb out of his crib. Great (to be read with dripping sarcasm). Because of this new ability, we have begun putting Emmett to bed in the second twin bed in Liliana's room. Since we knew we wanted to eventually move Emmett into the room with Liliana, we set the bunk beds up as two singles in our new home. We have had a few successful nights where we put Emmett down, he falls asleep, and then Liliana falls asleep in the other bed without bothering her brother. Some of our attempts have ended up with Emmett waking up in the middle of the night, waking up his sister, and then both of them traipsing into my room at horrible hours. Several nights were completely unsuccessful to start with, because Emmett was excitedly playing around in the bedroom rather than falling asleep - requiring us to put him back in his crib so Liliana could get to bed on time. At any rate, things are coming along and we will keep trying. Liliana loves having Emmett in her room and is disappointed whenever he has to go back to his old room.

Our family attended a nice Christmas party earlier this month at our realtor's office. The place was jam-packed with people, food, and fun. When our number was called for a picture with Santa, I headed over with Liliana to stand in line while Emmett and David made their way after us. David came around the corner and I asked where Emmett was. "He's following right behind me," he responded, so I stepped inside the ladies room with Liliana to fix up her hair while David walked back around the corner. When we came out of the bathroom a moment later, my realtor was there and asked, "Did he find him?"
"Did who find whom?" I asked back.
"Emmett. David was looking for him," he responded.
In a bit of a panic, i started working my way through the crowd back the way we had come, asking people if they had seen a little boy in a black suit. Everyone was shaking their heads. Then I heard the elevator beep behind me and saw David step off with a teary-eyed Emmett in his arms. David said when he walked back around the corner to get Emmett, he was nowhere to be seen. David knew he loved buttons and guessed he had gone for a ride on the elevator, so he went up to the second floor (which is the top floor). Emmett was not there, so David went down to the parking level. There was Emmett right outside the elevator, crying in the parking garage. You can only imagine how freaked out I was at all the "what-ifs" that could have happened down in that open-to-the-outside parking garage. Apparently I pulled shenanigans almost identical to this when I was young, so if you ask my mother, I am getting my just desserts. I have said many prayers since that incident, thanking God that Emmett stayed put and was safe until David could get to him. Having children can be such a stressful thing at times! If only they weren't constantly finding ways to endanger themselves.

Love my little guy!

Liliana at Church...and Emmett, too

Sundays are always full of fun when you have Liliana at church with you. Chances are good that she will say or do something that will either make you laugh, grit your teeth, or want to cry. A couple of recent examples follow:

Liliana was asked to give the closing prayer in primary several months back when we were in our old ward and she was attending sunbeams. Everyone bowed their heads and waited patiently for her to begin. I began to wonder what was taking her so long, so I peaked at her from the back of the primary room (as the secretary, I was normally sitting back there working on paperwork of some sort). I saw one of the primary leaders step up to Liliana and whisper an offer to help her know what to say. "No," Liliana responded loud enough for everyone to hear. "I only do that at bed time." After a couple more attempts to convince her to pray, the leader gave up and said the prayer herself. I tried to remind Liliana after church that we also pray for our meals and any other time we feel the need, but she still said she didn't want to pray in primary. The other leaders teased me about that one for a bit.

When the congregation is singing during sacrament meeting at church, Liliana likes to hold a hymn book on her lap and sing as well. The only problem is, she doesn't know the words to most of the songs yet, so she makes up her own words. A few weeks ago she sang out at the top of her lungs, "Oh, Tinkerbell and Rapunzel..." and continued to sing loudly about them, even during the pauses in between verses! I didn't know whether to hush her or encourage her to keep singing. I guess we will have to pull out our hymn cds and play them more often to try and teach Liliana more of the songs.

Today our opening hymn was Far Far Away on Judea's Plains. When the song's title was announced, Liliana loudly said, "They said planes. Where are they? I want to get on the planes!" I tried to explain that plains and planes were not the same thing, but she was set on the idea of going for a flight and didn't want to hear about flat-lying lands or any other non-airplane related topic.


Back in the ward we attended when we lived in Renton, I was working in the primary. Emmett was not old enough to attend nursery yet, so he usually went with David to Sunday School. One Sunday, about halfway through Sunday School hour, a sister brought Emmett to me in the primary room and told me she had found him by himself in the women's bathroom...playing with the toilet! Grossed out - and a bit annoyed, I left the primary room in search of David. I found him down some hallway chatting with someone. "Oh, there's Emmett," he said with a guilty look on his face. After I told him where he had been discovered, David's response was, "Again?" Needless to say, David was not on my good list that day!

Oh no - please tell me she didn't!

Imagine my surprise when I walked in to the nursery on Sunday to ask Liliana if she needed to go potty and was flagged over by the nursery leader to be asked, "Are you having a baby sister?"
"No," I responded.
"I didn't think you looked like you could be, but during our lesson on families today, Liliana told us that she was going to have a baby sister," the nursery leader explained.
"Liliana has been stuck on this baby idea for a few weeks," I told her, wondering how many of the other kids and adults in the room thought that Liliana's announcement had some merit. The nursery is huge - with over 20 kids in it - and has about 4 to 5 other adult helpers in it at any given time. Chances are that Liliana's news was heard by most of them and who knows how many people believed it?! I partially blame David for Liliana's baby fixation because he's starting to get a bit of baby fever and has encouraged Liliana's discussion about when she'll get more siblings. In fact, the other day I was setting Liliana up with a reward chart for going to bed without hopping back out of her room for this, that, and the other thing. I told her for each nap or night that she follows her "sleep rules", she can have a sticker on the calendar. After she gets five stickers, she can pick a movie to watch. David, who was standing by during this explanation, added, "And when you get ten stickers, you can have a baby sister!" Well, Liliana didn't forget that and now that she has more than ten stickers, she wants her baby. I made David go talk to her and tell her that these things take time and that mommmy isn't growing a baby in her belly right now, but after the nursery announcement, I don't know how effective that little discussion was.
I guess I can at least be grateful that Liliana is claiming that I'm pregnant, rather than asking other non-pregnant women if they are!

Fun moments

Emmett and Liliana like to wake up early on weekends while David and I would rather not. A normal Saturday usually involves me rousing to one or both kids calling out to us to let them out of their rooms. I stumble out, change a diaper, take Liliana to the bathroom, close the gate so the kids won't go downstairs unattended, and then lie back down - though I know I won't actually get anymore sleep. Liliana and Emmett run back and forth between their bedrooms, the playroom, and our bedroom, dragging toys and making plenty of noise. This past Saturday, Emmett climbed over me and in between David and I in bed with a book. He sat "reading" for a couple minutes and then all on his own he leaned over and planted a big slobbery kiss right on David's mouth. It was too adorable - although a little slimy for David! I guess Emmett liked our awwwws because he kept doing it to David (and then one to me with David's encouragement) after that for a few more rounds. Who can turn away such sweetness...even if it is accompanied by large amounts of drool?

David worked from home the other day and took a break long enough to come out and teach the kids how to fall down when he pretended to shoot them. He called me over and with a triumphant look, pointed his finger at Emmett and Liliana as if it were a gun and shouted, "Bang! Zap!" and laughed with great pleasure as they slumped to the ground with convincing death-giggles. I'm so glad they have such enriching learning moments with Daddy.

We went to drop David off at the bus stop the other day and as we drove away, David stepped onto his bus. Liliana suddenly sounded quite upset as she cried out, "I don't want to be alone with not Daddy. I want to be a family!" It was so sad and cute at the same time. I explained to her that we are still a family even when Daddy goes to work and that his job was to provide for our family so we'd have a home to live in and food to eat. She seemed to calm down a bit, but she has talked a few times about how Daddy should only work at home.

Out of the blue while running errands in the car, Liliana asked me, "Is your body growing another baby now?"
"No," I answered.
"Why not?" she asked.
"I want to wait until Emmett is older," I responded.
"Why do you want to wait until after the birthdays?" she asked precociously.
"Because I am trying to get healthier first."
---Where does she come up with this stuff?

A few days later, we had another conversation about babies after hearing something on the radio about a woman who had 11 kids. That converstation went something like this:
"Mommy, I want 11 kids."
"You want me to have 11 kids, or you want to have your own 11 kids?"
"I want to have my own 11 kids, but I want you to grow them in your belly."
"Do you know how many 11 is? Let's count to 11." After counting I simply said, "Not gonna happen."
"But why?"
"I couldn't handle that many. You can have as many kids as you want when you grow up and get married. I doubt you'll still think 11 is a good number."

Emmett is parroting a lot lately. Liliana thinks it is a fun game to have him repeat whatever she wants him to say. He's getting pretty good at remembering some of the phrases Liliana says and he will use them at the right time, just before Liliana is likely to say them. For example, we were getting loaded into the car and he asked Liliana's usual question (but in simpler words) "Where we going?" I can't believe how un-baby-like he is becoming. His size probably has something to do with that as well. He is eeking out of most 24 month clothes and wears some 2T and a lot of 3T now. According to my bathroom scale he is about 35 pounds - what a whopper! Liliana only weighs a few pounds more than he does and he has outweighed his 3 year old cousins for months already. He is wearing size 7 to 8 in shoes - sizes Liliana was wearing earlier this year. His face even looks bigger than Liliana's to me. This kid is going to be huge, I can just tell. Luckily he seems to be a rather gentle-natured boy, so he'll probably be one of those guys who never realizes he could use his size to his advantage.

So Silly

Emmett is full of fun little phrases now: So silly. I see you. Where Daddy go? Wuv you. I want water, please. Night night. Where Yaya (Liliana)? Wuss Da (what's that -while pointing at anything and everything)? Dass chair (or other item while pointing to pictures in books)... and several other.

David took Liliana to the restroom at church and then came snickering into sacrament meeting with her. The meeting was starting so I had to wait to find out what little joke he was enjoying. It turns out that when Liliana got to the restroom doors, she pointed at the picture on the women's bathroom door and said, "That's the girls' bathroom." Then she pointed at the picture on the men's bathroom door as David took her in and said, "That's the naked girls' bathroom." I got a good laugh out of that and could definitely see a 3 year old looking at those pictures and seeing one as a girl in a dress and the other as a girl in no dress - especially since she, as a girl, was going into that bathroom.

We went camping in Seaside, Oregon for the Fourth of July. David and I slept in our tent with Emmett. Liliana got to sleep in the cabin/trailer with her Grandma and Grandpa Hernandez. One morning Emmett woke up early and we were keeping him entertained in the tent so that Liliana could continue sleeping in the trailer. It was nearing the end of our week of camping and David hadn't shaved all week, so he had a somewhat fuzzy chin. Emmett grabbed a dryer sheet (which had been stuck to some of the clean clothes in our bag and which he though was a Kleenex or wipey) and crawled up on David's chest (he was still lying in his sleeping bag) and began to attempt to wipe the hairs off David's chin. After a good minute of solid effort, Emmett gave up and found something else to do, but David and I were still chuckling.

The kids had a lot of fun at Seaside. We went swimming, played at the beach, watched fireworks, rode the carousel, rode the mini train, took several bike rides, checked out the shopping center, watched the parade, and visited with their cousins, aunties, and uncles. On the way home - right as we were pulling into our neighborhood - Liliana said, "I want to go back to Seaside now and play in the sand." I believe we can ascertain from that comment that the trip was a success!

This past week we had to say goodbye to my sister, Sylvie, and her family. They moved out of state for school and Liliana is sad that her best buddy, Mason, is no longer a convenient distance from us. I hope they make their way back to the Seattle area sometime in the future so we can all be close to each other again.

On Sunday we attended a celebration dinner in honor of my cousin, Natasha, and her husband Derek. They were sealed in the Seattle temple on Saturday. Liliana and Emmett found older distant cousins to entertain them and Liliana and Emmett had a blast monopolizing their time and attentions. My kids also had their first experience on a giant trampoline at that dinner party. It was so cute to watch Emmett trying to jump up and down with his little chubby legs while reaching both arms way up into the air. I don't think he realized that his feet were barely clearing the jumping surface, despite all the energy he appeared to be exuding in an attempt to get some air.

I've got to run - my kids are ready for more fun and I don't want to miss it!

Gibber-talkie

Emmett has begun combining words into short phrases recently. A couple weeks back we dropped David off to catch his Microsoft Connector bus to work. As he got on the bus, Emmett cried a little and I tried to talk to him to calm him down. I told him daddy would be back later after he went to work. As we drove out of the parking lot, Emmett said, "No Daddy. [a bunch of gibberish here] Go wer." He accurately expressed that daddy was not there and that he had gone to work! I'm not sure what his other unintelligible comments were on the matter, but he had successfully put together a complete thought in words. A few mornings ago Emmett came into our room and picked up a cup off the nightstand while saying, "Drink water." I can't think of the other examples I wanted to share now, but it is fun hearing my little guy express himself more and more with words. Each time he does it, he seems less and less like a baby, though. Bittersweet!

Crazy Day

Today began as most Sundays, with a nice family breakfast, some play time with the kids, showers and dressing for church, and then putting the kids down for an early nap before church. We had to go in a little early today to meet with the bishop of our new ward, so we had to cut the kids' naps a little short and bring some lunch for them. After our interviews, David stepped outside to make a phone call. Liliana and Emmett were trying to find ways to entertain themselves while we waited for church to start (which wouldn't happen for about 20 more minutes). Emmett began turning the hall lights off and on - which I didn't particularly approve of, since many other people were using the hallway at that time. I grabbed his hand and started walking away from the light switch, but he decided he wanted to continue playing with them and became a dead weight as he dropped to the floor and tried to twist away from me. As soon as he hit the floor, he started screaming and I knew immediately he had pulled his elbow ligament out of place. How did I know, you ask - because I used to pull my elbow very frequently as a little girl, as did my brother and one of my nephews, and I could see Emmett instantly hold his arm to his side and stop moving it. To test my theory, I pulled out a granola bar and held it out to my little crying boy, while holding his right hand. He wouldn't even attempt to reach for it with his left hand. At this point Liliana decided to start flipping her dress over her head and asking for her own granola bar very loudly. I was worried about Emmett, who was still bawling and I hadn't seen David in awhile and I was feeling a little less than patient with Liliana's shenanigans. After several more minutes, Emmett had only slightly calmed and I was certain he had nursemaid's elbow. I went outside in search of David, with a sad sad boy in my arms and dragging Liliana behind me. Emmett began to calm down, but was still very clingy and refused to move his arm. He would whimper and cry if anyone bumped or moved it. Once I spotted David in the parking lot, I frantically flailed at him to come over. I explained what had happened and asked him to help me locate some medical professionals that we knew were in our new ward. The only problem was, neither of us knew what they looked like. After some time and several attempts by various ward members to help us track down someone who could help Emmett, we began looking up urgent care and walk-in clinics in the area on David's phone. Of course his battery was low, so we didn't get very far with that. We started asking around and received a few suggestions for clinics to try that might be open on Sunday. We were standing in the nursery watching Emmett eat snacks one-handed and trying desperately to figure out what to do. I was supposed to be speaking in sacrament meeting in about 45 minutes, so I wasn't going to be able to take him. David plugged his phone in to the car charger and got enough "juice" to try calling a couple of the suggested clinics. One was closed, another one said they couldn't help and we'd have to go to the ER. Finally a chiropractor in the ward who had experience with nursemaid elbow was tracked down and he attempted several times to "pop" Emmett's elbow back into place, but it didn't work. David was about to try driving to some other clinic when we got stopped by a member of the bishopric in the hall and were asked if we had a few minutes. We explained the situation and he said he'd keep it short. I was asked to be the compassionate service leader for the relief society. I accepted the assignment, although I felt overwhelmed at trying to help meet the needs of people in the ward while knowing very few individuals or resources in the area. It was now minutes before sacrament meeting and I had to run grab Liliana from her class, grab my scriptures and notes for my talk, and get on the stand. As I walked into the chapel, the same brother from the bishopric who had extended my calling came down from the stand and asked if I needed someone to sit with Liliana while I spoke since David was taking care of Emmett and possibly leaving any minute. I gratefully accepted and he quickly arranged for Liliana to sit with a nice little family while I took my place on the stand. Needless to say, I was more than a little distracted by the time it was my turn to speak, but several people told me that my talk went well. Church was over and I collected Liliana and found David and Emmett - still there - waiting for us. A few people stopped to chat with me about my new assignment and then I was invited to be set apart. By the time we were headed out, church had been over for about 45 minutes. I felt so bad for Emmett. We stopped at the first walk in clinic we saw, but they said they don't see kids under 10. They told us to go to the ER. Having suffered with frequent pulled elbows as a kid, I knew that it was a quick fix if we could find someone with experience doing it and I hated to make Emmett wait for hours more in the ER. Emmet fell asleep on the ride home and once there I ran in and called a nurse line. They recommended a few more clinics in the area, but one of them was closed and the other was the third clinic to tell us to go to the ER. A sister from the ward had tried to call twice while I was making these other calls, so I quickly listened to the messages she had left. In the first she said she had heard about our son and wanted to know if she could bring us dinner. In the second message she said she was making a double batch of dinner and wanted to know when she could bring it over. I was so surprised and grateful. It was getting late and I was still dealing with Emmett's crisis and hadn't even thought about food for my family yet. I quickly called her back and thanked her and gave her our address. I told her about our dilemma with the clinics and she told me of one not too far that she knew was open late and that took young children. I called them immediately and they said to come right down. David hurried over with Emmett. They hadn't been out the door more than a moment when my phone rang again. This time it was the Relief Society President and she was putting me to work in my calling already. A sister in the ward needed a ride to Seattle for a doctor's appointment the next day. I hung up with the president and called the sister to get the details on the time and location of the appointment and while I was talking to her my doorbell rang. I asked her to hold a moment while I answered the door. It was the other sister delivering dinner. I thanked her profusely and then returned to my phone, to find the call had dropped. After several attempts to call the sister back who needed a ride, I gave up and sent her a text message, which she eventually responded to. I fed Liliana the delicious dinner we had been given and got her ready for bed. Emmett and David came back from the clinic and Emmett was back to his old self. In fact, it seemed as if he was trying to make up for a full day's missed playtime in the 10 minutes we let him run around between eating his dinner and putting him to bed! Now it is late and I'm exhausted from this overwhelmingly crazy day. I am so thankful to the members of our new ward who tried so hard to help us with our trials today, and especially for that special sister who reached out to a total stranger in our unexpected time of need and provided us with a meal and the solution to our problem. God really does answer our prayers - even before we have time to utter them - but it usually happens through someone else. Whose prayer can I help answer tomorrow?

Double Rainbow Moment

We were at Great-Grandma Thompson's house for dinner on Sunday and Liliana needed to go potty. I sent her down the hall to the bathroom, but she popped her head back out just a few moments later and said, "Mommy can you come help me?" I went down the hall and followed Liliana into the bathroom. She pointed at the toilet - which had a large elevated seat on it with handles because Grandma had surgery on her heel recently and this made it so she didn't have to get down too low or get back up from the low toilet seat. Liliana stood staring at the toilet seat and as she pointed to it, asked, "What does it mean?" I laughed heartily before explaining that it was just a temporary potty seat to make it easier for Grandma to go potty while she was healing from her foot surgery. I told Liliana that it was kind of like the little potty seat she used (and occasionally still uses) to make it easier for her to use the grown up potty. She wanted to try it, rather than have me remove it, so I let her. I thought her little bum was going to sink clear down inside it and she'd be stuck up to her armpits, but she managed to balance and make it work. She came running out of the bathroom ready to tell everyone else about the big funny seat and I chuckled as I shared her "double-rainbow" reaction. What a funny girl!

New House

Well, we closed on our new house on March 31st and moved in on April 9th. We're still slowly unpacking boxes, but the things we use on a regular basis are unpacked and organized. I still need to decide on how/what I will decorate with - and then wait until we have the time and money to decorate. Liliana and Emmett love having a playroom and more space to run around. Emmett's first nap in the new house started out well, but when he woke up he was NOT happy. I think everything was just too unfamiliar for him. Also, Liliana was still napping, so she wasn't around to lighten the mood for him. After about 30 minutes of melting down, David suggested we give him a bath. When I started singing his little bath time song, he began to calm down. But when he saw my big triangle tub instead of what he was expecting, he became upset all over again. Once we got him in the water and added bubbles, he was doing pretty well and when Liliana woke up from her nap and joined him, all his worries seemed to vanish. After a couple days in the new place, Emmett was doing just fine. I was worried that he wasn't going to understand about the move and that it might upset him, but it was short lived. Liliana had understood all our discussions about buying a new house and getting a new bedroom and she was really excited, so we weren't surprised when she stepped through the door and acted like she owned the place.
I took the kids on a walk around our new neighborhood and they were excited to see the horses and mini-ponies in some of the yards. We're definitely more country than city out here! David is happy with his new commute and our new ward is full of kids around my kids' ages. I hear good things about the local school from the parents I have talked to, so that is yet another thing to be happy about. We also have a fully fenced back yard that is easily viewed through the kitchen window and slider, so I'm loving being able to let the kids go out and play while I work in the kitchen and still keep an eye on them.
Liliana is surprising me every day with how much she remembers. Just yesterday she was singing a song to herself about how she was going to make purple paint for Bess to put in her art studio. Bess is a character from one of Liliana's Tinker Bell stories but I hadn't read that particular story to her for at least a few weeks and it was never one that she regularly had me read.
Emmett keeps trying to speak and is such a sweet little guy. Today he tried to say pineapple - which sounded more like "paw po". He has also gotten into the habit of saying, "no no no" and shaking his finger at me whenever I tell him he's stinky and needs a diaper change. Silly boy!

More Words

Emmett is adding to his verbal arsenal. He is saying monkey, What's that (sounds like, "sssah?" as he points to different objects), no no, yeah, yay, and a few others that I can't remember at the moment. The flood of words is beginning! Emmett definitely seems more and more boy, rather than baby, with each word he says. My oh my, time sure goes by quickly when you're having fun.

Protective Instincts

For those who haven't heard, we are in the process of buying a house and are hoping to close by the end of the week. I went to pick up some boxes to use for our move at a Wizards of the Coast store (a gaming company) with Liliana and Emmett in tow. When we got off the elevator and walked into the office's lobby, we were greeted by a giant dragon (at least 9 feet tall) hanging from the ceiling. Emmett was so excited that he wriggled out of my arms and started running toward the dragon. Liliana let out a yelp and ran after him. She yelled, "No!" and grabbed the back of Emmett's shirt and started pulling him back. "I don't want it to eat you!" she cried out. I laughed and explained to Liliana that it wasn't real, but she still didn't trust Emmett anywhere near it. It was quite adorable.

Emmett is saying more words now - though they often require parental interpretation. He says Hi, bye, ball, outside, cracker, dirty, and - my personal fav - no touch. That last one is usually repeated over and over as Emmett removes the little plastic covers from our electrical outlets. It is also occasionally stated when he starts playing with the handle on the diaper pail or pulling on my shoe rack, knocking all my shoes to the ground. He attempts to say Liliana and banana - which both sound the same coming from him - but needs a bit more practice before we can really claim that he says either. He still uses a lot of sign language and does rather well with communicating his wants/needs that way. What a big boy he's getting to be!

Tutus and Tiaras

Liliana and Emmett don't want to be held down by was is considered "normal" behavior for their sex.
Example 1: Liliana comes out of her room in a princess dress and runs down the hall yelling, "Peeeew Peew - I got you!" When I asked her what she was doing she said, "I'm dying the bad guys so they don't die me."
Example 2: Emmett finds one of Liliana's tutu's in the toy box and brings it over to me to put on him. Once he's wearing it, he happily returns to playing with the other toys.
Example 3: Emmett brings me Liliana's princess tiara and holds it up to me. Thinking he wanted me to wear it, I put it on my head. He reaches for it so I lean over and let him pull it off of me. He holds it up to his head and I realize he wants to wear it himself. I put it on his head and he smiles happily and starts playing with other things. He returns to me for help in putting the tiara back on several times as it slips down during play.
Example 4: Liliana borrowed Emmett's Lightning McQueen Pajamas that he received for his birthday (they were a little big for him). When I asked her why she took her brother's pj's, she responded with, "They are for boys, but that's Ok. I like Lightning McQueen."
Example 5: The other day Emmett found his nice Sunday shoes in his closet and brought them to me to put on him. He proudly wore them around the house for over an hour.
Liliana has only boys as 1st cousins and only one girl second cousin who lives in the area, but is much younger than her. There is only one little girl at church close(ish) to her age (about 9 or 10 months older) and all the other kids in her age group are boys. It amazes me the kinds of things she picks up from all those boys.
I find it fairly interesting to think about society's role that tells us what is or isn't acceptable for girls or boys to do. I wonder how things would be if my first born was a boy and my second was a girl. Emmett is more than happy to mimic his big sister's behavior and unless someone told him so, he'd never know that there was anything different about when he wears his sister's tutus and tiaras than when she does. If a little sister copies her big brother's behavior, she's a tom-boy. Tough girls are much more readily accepted around here than boys who copy their big sisters. I wonder why "acting boyish" -whether you are a boy or a girl - is alright, but doing girly things is looked upon in a more negative or weak light. Well, someone else is going to have to break the news to my son that he's not supposed to wear tutus and tiaras because I think it's cute and he's having too much fun for me to rain on his parade.

Potty Tales

Liliana: "Mommy, I'm going to do poopy."
Me: "OK. Go get on the toilet and call me when you need me to help you clean up."
Liliana: "I'm going to do a big HUGE poopy. Big big huge that will break the toilet."

Where does she come up with this stuff???!!!!

Mean Mommy

In a rush to get out the door to pick up David from his bus, I was nagging Liliana to get socks, shoes, and either a coat or sweater on. Emmett did a last minute diaper fill, so I was trying to deal with that at the same time. Once finished with Emmett's clean up, I was annoyed to discover that Liliana had not moved one step closer to being ready to get out the door. "Liliana!" I said in a stern voice, "Are you going to wear this sweater I set out for you or not?"

"Mommy!" She responded tortly, "You are mean. I am going to put you in the garbage and I will drive to pick up Daddy by myself."

Baaaahahaha - I couldn't hold back the laughter. I ended up tossing her in the car without socks and shoes, but at least we were giggling together. I wonder what fun things she'll come up with next...

Things to remember

Liliana is officially three, as of last Wednesday. This past year she has really become great at speaking in clear/understandable ways and has been using increasingly complex language. She also began giving "bubble kisses" which are basically non-spitty raspberries and kisses at the same time. She came up with them and named them on her own.

Last night, after we put the kids to bed, David and I were watching a movie (Despicable Me) downstairs. More than halfway through the movie we heard a strange noise down the hall and went to see what it was. Liliana had not fallen asleep, but had quietly come downstairs without our realizing it and had been watching the movie for who knows how long! It was going on 9:30 at night and she's usually in bed by 7:30. We asked her how long she had been there, but she really doesn't have any concept of how much time has passed (especially when she gets "sucked in" to a movie - which is why we don't let her watch movies more than about once a week at most), so we have no real way of knowing. We laughed and put her back to bed and she fell asleep pretty fast after that. Silly girl!

More, please. Thank you!

Saturday we celebrated Liliana's 3rd birthday. She was a little confused when I told her that she wasn't actually going to be three until Wednesday. "But I thought I was three years old at my party," she said. I explained that we were having her party on a day when more people could come and celebrate, but that her actual birthday was on the 19th, which is Wednesday. I'm not sure she fully accepted my explanation.
On Saturday Emmett started signing, "more". This morning he started saying, "thank you," in sign language. So now he can say, "More, please. Thanks!" with his chubby little hands.
Emmett also continues his climbing fetish. As I am typing this, he has climbed onto the coffee table and from there, stretched over and crossed the small gap to get onto the piano bench. This week he has learned how to climb into his high chair without assistance and makes me nervous each time he does it. He also regularly tries to follow his sister's lead and climb up the end of the bunk beds, since I took the ladder down to prevent him from constantly getting on the top bunk. I foresee a possible career in spelunking in his future.

Puzzles and Patience (or lack thereof)

Liliana received a little boxed Winnie the Pooh puzzle for Christmas from her Uncle David. She has been able to do puzzles that have little puzzle board trays with the outlines of the pieces for nearly a year now, but she has never tried puzzles without the form tray. She asked me to open the puzzle box and then went quietly to her room. After a few minutes I went to check on her and she had already assembled a couple of the characters. I was fascinated by how she was putting the characters together rather than starting with the flat sided pieces from the outside in, like most of us do. I called David over and the two of us watched her assemble the entire puzzle with no assistance from us.

Today I was getting ready to take a bath with Emmett and he came running when he heard the water running (as usual). I had just stepped out of the bathroom to grab a few items of clothing for Emmett when I heard a loud thud and splash. I came running into the bathroom to find that Emmett's enthusiasm for bathing had caused him to open the shower doors and climb into the tub - fully clothed! He had a surprised look on his face, like he wasn't sure how I was going to react. Once I started cracking up, a big grin spread across his face and he started to laugh and splash around. I called David in to snap a couple of pictures and then I got to strip off Emmett's soaked pj's, onesie, and diaper. I think patience is a virtue that Emmett doesn't have time for (at least when it comes to something as exciting as a bath)!

Walker says, "Please"

It's come to my attention that I never wrote about when Emmett really started walking. He has been able to walk and would take various steps at a time for awhile, but it wasn't until the Wednesday before Christmas that his walk-crawl ratio tipped more heavily into the walk side. Ever since he's become more and more of a walking champ. I love watching him waddle walk in his penguin-like way! That same day Emmett also "said" his first word in sign language. He said, "please" to Liliana to get her to share some toy with him. He has attempted a couple other signs since then, but always goes back to "please" when he wants something. My little guy is definitely getting to be more of a boy than a baby.

In the words of Liliana

The other day Liliana was sitting on the toilet and she said, "I'm going potta." "What's potta?" I asked her.
"Potta is potty in Spanish," she responded matter-of-factly.
I have been teaching her some Spanish vocabulary ever since she was very little and occasionally she'll ask me how to say something in Spanish or she'll say a Spanish word and ask me to remind her what it means. This, however, was the first time she had created her own Spanish word. I taught her the correct word for potty, but she still likes to use "potta" for now.

As we were driving home from church today, Liliana asked if she could have a cookie after she ate her lunch. David and I said that would be alright. Then she said, "Actually, I need two cookies because I'm two."
"How many cookies will you need after your birthday this month?" I asked her.
"I will need three," she replied, "because I will be three years old."
"Do you know how old I am?" I asked her.
"No."
"I'm 28. So does that mean I get 28 cookies?" I asked.
"Yes. How old are you, Daddy?" she asked.
"I'm 27," David answered.
"Daddy is an old man," I interjected.
"Daddy is old so he has to go in the garbage," Liliana said.
[*Insert peels of laughter from me here]
:)