Emma's new potty

Emma has been very interested in the potty lately and even telling me when she goes potty in her diaper. So we got a potty just for her. She is only interested in playing with it right now, which is completely fine with me as I am in no rush.
She sat on it and read a book.

She sat on it and held the handles.

Even "bear" tried out the potty. Fortunately the potty has never been used because he fell in.

Side ponytail

Emma looks so cute with her hair like this. I wonder if she'll cringe in about ten years and say "mmoooommmm, why did you do that to my hair??" And like every mom, I'll say "because you were so cute and you couldn't tell me that you didn't like it".

Tunnel of fun

Jon and Jarrah and Emma enjoyed playing with Emma's tunnel today.

Snowman

After about ten minutes of bundling Emma up we headed outside and I thought she'd just love playing in the snow. Instead I put her down but she couldn't walk due to the deep snow. So she just sat down and watched while I made a little snowman. In the background Jarrah was racing around sniffing deer tracks and ignoring my calls to come back. I ended up keeping Jarrah on her leash attached to my arm and she came close to knocking over my snowman several times. From the look on Emma's face you can tell she really just wanted to go back inside and get out of all those layers.

Emma, look at mommy please

Emma has been testing her boundaries and my follow-through lately. I have had to smack her little fingers and I don't like it. I do like that she is developing and testing and trying and learning. I know that discipline is necessary and that I am blessed to be her momma and that includes correcting her. It's just hard to see her crying and know that I caused it. But I do it calmly and not out of anger and love on her as soon as I correct her. She seems to be understanding what "no" means. She just chooses to see if I mean it when I tell her "no" and that "if you do it again, I am going to flick your hand/smack your fingers". So I have started asking her to "look at mommy" when I tell her what I want her to do or what I don't want her to do. When she looks at me while I talk to her, I have her undivided attention.

I was thinking about that today and it occured to me that it works the same way with God. When He has to correct me, it's not His favorite thing to do. He does it because He loves me. And I "get it" better when I look at Him when He talks to me.

Random facts

I am writing this blog via our wireless laptop!!!!! How fun is that??! We were blessed with a new laptop this Christmas and my generous parents had an extra wireless router that they gave to us to use. Not only can we do without the internet cable but our laptop is able to actually hold a charge and we only have to plug it in to recharge the battery.

I love the new background on the blog. It makes me happy every time I log on.

Jon starts his class tomorrow.

Emma says "ello" instead of "hello" and almost sounds british when she says it. I ask her to say it all the time because it's so fun to hear.

I don't like the movie "Avatar" but I love spending time with the girls so it was still worth the price of the movie ticket.

Emma has mastered getting on and off her rocking horse and rocks so hard that I wonder if she will flip the whole thing over.

I start my "tax season" hours tomorrow. I'm glad for the job and even more glad the longer hours still aren't full time and that they only last for about 3 months.

Emma sleeps through the night. My body is remembering how to do the same.

Our pastor reminded us today that "God is near, which means here. He is for me; He will never leave me, He will never forsake me. God loves me." I hope to own these statements in 2010!

Happy New Year!