A giraffe, a dog and a pig

Emma likes dressing up, you know the usual, princesses, dresses, oh wait, make that ladybugs, pumpkins and giraffes. I can't get enough of it. I love seeing her dressed up in all her costumes and think she just looks so squeezeable!
And I most certainly did NOT curl up on the couch with this giraffe costume after Emma went to sleep...
It was just so snuggly and she looked so snuggly in it...

Anyway, Emma was a giraffe yesterday morning. Jarrah is a lion dog. Rhodesian Ridgebacks are also know as "African lion dogs". They chase lions. We have often joked that Jarrah wouldn't know what to do if she saw a lion and would most likely think it wanted to be her best friend. However, I have a little more faith in her as a lion dog. She did, after all, know to chase the tiny giraffe we had in our house!

Emma thought it was a blast and tails swinging, they ran all over the house. Then Jarrah got her toy pig into the mix and I couldn't help but think it was turning into a line from a joke, you know, "a giraffe, a dog and a pig walk into a bar" type of thing.

Emma decided she wanted a "snack" and I asked her what giraffes eat. She said "HAY!" and then went running to the snack cupboard. Knowing we didn't have any hay I wondered what she'd come up with to eat. She requested "choclit puddin" but I turned her down.

This is picture proof that giraffes, in fact, don't eat hay, they eat Wheat Thins!

Can you guess?

Can you guess what this is??It's the bag that holds my new knee brace!!!!
What a blessing! I was able to get a custom knee brace that will hopefully allow me to walk and work out pain-free! (Even if it's ALMOST pain-free, I'll take it.) The little numbered stickers on the straps seemed a bit elementary when I was sitting in the doctor's office ready to put it one for the first time. However, I quickly realized that I need those stickers. There are six different adjustable straps that must be adjusted in a specific order. That specific order seems quite random, that is, unless I have those blessed number stickers to hold my hand and help me do it correctly. So for now, I will be relying on those little things to make sure I have it right.
Feel free to post comments on this vision of beauty. What? What is that you say? You don't think it's a gorgeous piece of orthotics? Hmmm, I guess some people have no taste.

Ready for church

All I can say is that she's a cutie. And by the time we got home from the church lunch-in she looked nothing like this:)

Perfect playmates

We had the privilege of getting to have Hannah spend the night with us Tuesday night. We picked her up from school and had the afternoon and evening to play.

Here's the evidence of how much fun the girls had! Even Jarrah and Eyeore joined in on the fun.

We all had a great time. I bribed the girls with chocolate chip cookies in order to get them to finish their dinner. That worked like a charm. Well, they ate a pretty good amount. I'm not the type to insist on a clean plate at meals. So we all enjoyed cookies and milk after supper. Hannah has such a great imagination. She made up lots of fun games for her and Emma to play and Hannah was so patient to try and explain the "rules" to Emma.

I had an air mattress in Emma's room for Hannah to sleep on and they got along great having a sleep over together. The only glitch was that Emma wouldn't stop chattering once I put them to bed. I checked in on them after a little bit and Emma was still talking away but Hannah was out like a light.

Wednesday morning was just as smooth. The girls woke up and were both in great moods. We got breakfast started and I did their hair while they ate, I got teeth brushed, clothes on and got them loaded them into the car and we got to Hannah's swimming lesson on time!

The only bad thing was that we couldn't keep Hannah longer. We definitely vote for a longer visit next time.

Brownies and a box cutter

Emma and I had a great day together. We got her a new car seat for Jon's car (at a great price I might add!) and "Lowlee" took us to lunch. Tonight after supper we made some brownies and ate them while we turned Emma's car seat box into a playhouse with a box cutter and some crayons.

















Good stuff! Emma, you make my day everytime I get to spend time with you. I love you kiddo!

A Three-ringed surprise

Several weeks ago Nick emailed me and asked if Jon, Emma and I could leave Oct 23rd open on our calendar. He said that he and Rachel had a "fun day" planned for us and that it was a surprise. i LOVE these kinds of surprises and after making Jon take an oath that he would leave the books behind for the afternoon and evening we marked our calendar.

We got to Nick and Rach's about 1:30 yesterday and piled into Rach's Civic (go Hondas!) and we were off!

Literally!

Nick practiced his racecar driving all the way there.

When we approached the Cleveland-ish area Jon asked where we were going and Nick said "We're going to the circus!!!" Jon thought Nick was playing around but once convinced that Nick was serious he, like Emma and I were very excited! I haven't been to the circus since I was a little smunchkin. I remember it fondly and was so pumped at the idea of having new memories with Emma.

Emma loved it! She was a little chatterbox with her "ooo's" and "here they come!" and lots of clapping. There was some confusion about why there weren't any pigs. Once I explained that pigs are at the fair and we were at the circus she was golden. And she immediately moved on to being excited to see elephants.

We saw these men on stilts during the pre-show. We went down to the floor and got close enough for Emma to see just how tall they really were. She looked at them and then looked at me as if to say "what kind of freak-show did you bring me to mommy?" Uncle Nick bought hot pretzels, pop and lemonade and shared his pop with Emma. I think she probably had more there than she has the rest of her life all added together. (Which, by the way, helped keep her awake on the way home so I could get her bath and get her ready for bed. So thanks Uncle Nick! You think of everything... I mean, that IS why you let her have so much pop right? Not because she worked her toddler charm?)

They had all the wonderful acts that you think of when you think of the circus.
My favorite act was the "bending beauties". They were incredible! It was three ladies, one in blue, one in red and one in yellow. They contorted their bodies in so many impossible ways.
One formation they did Jon, Nick and I all looked at each other and asked where the blue girl's head went! Seriously! We couldn't find it. Fortunately, the blue girl found it just in time to suddenly stretch back into a human form. I was so enthrolled that I forgot to take pictures of them. I did remember to take pictures of (or at least hand my camera to Rach or Nick to get pictures of) most other acts.
They had a whole cowboy themed act which was so fun. Emma enjoyed the animal acts the most.

The tigers were really neat to watch too. There were five HUGE tigers in that ring with a guy with lots of pieces of meat and only a little stick to defend himself. The tigers obeyed and did several tricks, all for treats of ribeye that is, and I kept thinking how beautiful and powerful the tigers were. All it would take is one tiger having a bad day to make that trainer his next snack!

Speaking of tigers...

After a little while Emma needed down to stretch her legs and Rachel said she would take Emma for a walk in the hallway so she and Aunt Ray-Ray were gone about 10 minutes.

When they came back Emma was holding a stuffed tiger in a little stuffed pink purse and had a huge smile on her face.
She said "look mommy!" and showed me. I asked her what she had and she said "Tiger. Ray-Ray." Apparently that is all I needed to know because she was immediately absorbed by the current act in the show.

Rach sat down by me smiling and told me the story. She said:
"We were walking by the souvenir table and Emma saw a stuffed elephant. The lady at the table showed Emma the tiger and how it fit into the purse. Emma looked at the tiger and purse, turned to me and said:
'I want to take it home with me". So I said OK!"

Thank you Aunt Ray-Ray! Emma loves her tiger and named it "Roar". I practically had to pry it out of her hand for her bath and of course she slept with it.

We enjoyed the rest of the show, as did the families both directly in front of us and behind us. The family in front of us made it until intermission. They had two kids. The little girl was about 3 and the little boy was about 2 years old. They had their share of circus food and souvenirs and then the little girl said the words every parent hopes to hear from their child when they have just shelled out $12 for cotton candy: "Daddy, I want to go home". As I said, they left at intermission.

The family behind us had a couple of small kids too. But this must not have been their first trip to the circus, either that or they just knew it would be a touch and go situation with keeping their kids happy. They moved into their seats and got situated all the while drinking their beer.
Beer? At the circus? Really?? COME ON!

Anyway, the elephant show was awesome! They look so gentle and obliging. They did all kinds of tricks and they even had a baby elephant there!
After the elephant show they cleaned up (BTW, we didn't see any elephants poop the whole time! It must be a record) and set up for the grand finale. While they did that there was a motorcyclist riding on a highwire with a girl hanging below on a trapeze. The picture didn't turn out well enough to post but it was really breath-taking!

The finale was everything you could think it would be, complete with shooting confetti into the air!

We had such a wonderful time. We can't thank Nick and Rachel enough for treating us to a very special family memory. We love you both!

End of story

There isn't anything new going on at our house...I clipped my finger nails. I didn't think I could have near the drama as Jarrah so I just clipped them and moved on. End of story.

Jon studies all the time. End of story.

So if I am going to blog about anything today it will have to be about Emma. I figure not everyone wants to hear the details of Emma's life. But this is my blog so deal with it!

She loves to dress up and reminded me of the "Unsinkable Molly Brown" in this getup.

We go to the park ALL THE TIME. Emma loves to be outside and the walk, sunshine and fresh air are good for all three of us (Jarrah goes along too). We do the same things while we are there. Emma plays in the sandbox. She stops every few inches to pick up leaves, sticks, rocks and some bugs. However she won't touch catepillars. She thinks they are "ucky" and won't even look at them.

Then she moves on to the "big slide" area and loves to walk across the bridge on the play set. Of course she had to make a few stops to pick up a leaves, (the other two are in her coat pocket.)

Then we walk over to the swings and she swings on her belly. I swing the traditional way, on my bum and I love to hang my head back and look at the sky.

Then we go past a large step that she hops off of and then we stop at an orange construction cone that she likes to go over and touch and the orange cone reminds her of the ice cream cones we got at the park this summer. So she asks me where the ice cream cones went. I explain that they are closed in the winter. "Why" you ask? Good question. I know the answer to that because Emma asks me that all the time! Most people aren't like Emma and I and they think it's too cold to have ice cream in the winter.

Then we walk across the little bridge and Emma throws all the leaves, sticks and rocks she has collected into the little creek. We watch them float down the stream and then we go home.

She's my kid. I adore her. End of story