Emma Is 3!

We spent the last two weeks before Christmas in a flurry of birthdays (hurray for Emma and Daddy!) and sickness (boo for ear infections and fevers!). Alas, the birthday stuff is but a memory; this damn illness, however, just lingers and lingers. Just when I think we've kicked it, it seems to flair up again, and the girls have another day where they are in pain and attempting to hack up a lung. Sigh.

On to happier times: We had a Pinkaliciously Fancy Nancy tea party to celebrate our wonderful Emma. To keep our shy girl from being overwhelmed, we kept the party small. (How'd she do? Well, she spent most of the night hiding out in the kitchen, stealing the hummus toasts from the tea party setup. But I'll still count that as a success: She wasn't clinging to me the whole time. That's a step in the right direction!)

Martin and I curtained off the dining room and surprised the girls and our guests with a Fancy-Nancied dining room. Thumbtacks, construction paper, and some cheap garland worked miracles!

The girls made Froot Loop necklaces as part of their getting "fancy."

Have I made it clear on this blog how colossally silly Emma is? You'd never guess it by her outwardly shy, clingy nature, but she has a clownish streak a mile wide.

My Pinkalicious cupcakes. I was so proud of how well they turned out! Just like in the book!

The birthday girl, all blinged out. (Notice the frilly toothpicks in the brownies? We fancied up anything that didn't move.)

 

Now that's a tea party!

Libby, taking a turn at the pinata. (Notice the big clip-on earrings?)

More of Our Busy October

October is one busy month in this household. We love it!

The girls went on a field trip. Here's Libby with our beloved Sophie and CeCe.

Emma and Libby stay classy with our much-adored Anna.

Sophie's birthday party was then on her cousin's farm up in Wisconsin. Farm-girl Libby gathered eggs from the henhouse.

Emma, suspicious that this tiny pumpkin didn't really grow in this "pumpkin patch" after all.

The girls got to ride a pony. A pony with a fancy mane, no less!

The girls, hanging out with several of their favorite cuddly friends. Is Emma really showing a pretend something simply so she can emulate her sister? Yes, yes, she is.

Outside our friend Isi's birthday party. (See that damned little dog next to Libby? Same dog as the last picture? We can thank Aunt Kimmy for that @#$%ing tiny little dog that goes everywhere with us. Oh, Pinky, how I DESPISE you.)

Headed up to the Fairy Tale Trail in Evanston. Libby wore her wings to the Halloween event. We got lots of oohs and ahhs on the street, especially because Emma was wearing ...

... this. (Cute, yes? Be cuter if she smiled some. Kid is not big on getting her photo taken.) 

"Mom, I'm Rudolph the Reindeer Nose!" (That's a french fry with ketchup on the end.)

Pinkalicious and Little Bo Peep went ice-skating on actual Halloween.

Daddy skipped the costuming but enjoyed the skating nonetheless.

And then on to a party at our friend Katie's, where we got to catch up with old playgroup friends who we hardly get to see anymore (much to our chagrin).

How We've Been Hangin'

Yes, it's been more than two months since my last post, but I vow to be better in the future -- or at least as equally bad. Let me amend: I vow not to slide any further. Yes, I will not exceed more than 2.5 months between posts in the future!

The girls both have fevers and congestion today, so we are hunkering down and boob-tubing it for the day. Which leaves Mommy some time to blog!

Here's how we spent our fall:

Libby had a costume party for her birthday. Pinkalicious Emma and Little Bo Peep Libby (I didn't get a single picture with her bonnet on!) had a ball.

Some of Libby's gang of friends.

Cupcakes on her actual birthday. She's a big girl of 4 now.

We went apple-picking. Why are we so flushed? Because it was unexpectedly a 95-degree day in mid-October. Score one for global warming!

The "apple orchard" was pretty much a mini-amusement park, complete with jumping pillow. 

The climbing on hay bales rocked!

We went with our most wonderfulest friend Evelyn (or, as we like to call her, the Artist Formerly Known as Baby Evelyn).

How much times must I tell you.

So Libby woke up this morning and crawled into bed with us.  The last few days she's been getting up before she's supposed to so we asked her why.  She said it was because she had to go potty and then broke out with a "how much times must I tell you?!? ERRRRH!"  She's apparently picking up on Mommy and Daddy's frustration a little too much.

Say Hello to Our Little Friends

OK, it must be late because I can't stop laughing at the title.

We have been some lucky, lucky baby-lovers here at this household lately. We have lots of our own, live-action dollies to play with now! My friend Jo gave birth to beautiful, bewitching Annabeth Fe at the beginning of August:

Honest to God, this is the only picture I took of her alone. Wailing her eyes out and with her drawers all open and whatnot. Sorry, Annabeth.

You're right to look skeptical, Annabeth. That blonde bomber in the plaid dress really doesn't know how to hold a baby safely.

And as if that wasn't awesome enough, my friend Kari popped out (and I do almost literally mean "popped out" ... both Jo and Kari have ridiculous "Wow! I only pushed for two-point-one seconds" type of birthing stories) beautiful Abigail just a couple of days later.

She's not fresh out of the oven here, but I couldn't resist this little half-smile from a pic the last time we saw her.

Libby can't wait to babysit Abby. I think Libby really believes that this means Kari and I will be leaving Abby alone in Libby's care and not that she'll be helping me care for the Abster. Libby is beside herself with joy at the thought that she could be in charge of a real, live baby! (Don't worry, Abby, if you're reading this. I won't leave you alone with her. I'll make sure Emma is here, too.)

See? Emma will take good care of her, too. Kari and I could totally leave them alone while we go out and grab a few drinks.

And while those new, fresh-baked babies are great and all, we still just really, really like Linus and would like more time to nibble on his gargantuan thighs and delight in his gorgeous smile.

This is such a Linus expression. You would not believe what a sweet dumpling of a boy this is!

First Day of School!

Emma and Libby both started school last week. Allow me to repeat: Both girls are now in school. Friends, I have three mornings a week to myself now. Can I get a Hallelujah?

We somehow got very few pictures of the girls at the school on the first (meet-n-greet) day. Here's Emma on the playground on her kinda-first day of school!

And here's the Libster on the playground as well.

Emma and I going into her classroom. And then a few days later on her real first day of school, imagine this same scene but with me peeling a screaming and protesting Emma off of me.

We went to Hot Doug's to celebrate! Side Note: Libby insists on putting her barrettes in by herself most days. See the final result? (But doesn't she look so old and so positively adorable here?)

Madonna ... I mean, Libby ... picked out this outfit all by herself. 

Heading off for Libby's first real day! (Em's MWF, so she didn't have to go yet on this, a Thursday.)

Emma's thinking, "OMG, Libby going to be so embarrassed by this outfit when she's older!"

And then Emma's first real day! Sure, she looks happy enough here. The reality starts to set in in the car, and I start hearing, "I'm not going to go to school today, Mom."

Schoolgirl! (Looking increasingly nervous, you'll notice.) I'm glad to report that today, after her first full week, we had no tears when I dropped her off. Hurray!

We had some school friends over to celebrate the start of the year. It had to be seen to be believed. Absolutely amazing what a bunch of kids can do. (And also amazing how you can pull it all back together in the matter of an hour or so.)

Eat Me

Emma has the metabolism of a hummingbird and never stops eating. Never. Stops. Eating. She is a hobbit and insists on second and third breakfasts. She will often have a FIT when we are out because she's soooooo hungry. (Never mind that we just ate a meal at home an hour ago.)

As you saw from her last (mostly) naked picture on the blog, she's skin and bones; I have no idea where all of the food goes. (Apparently whining burns a lot of calories because that's what exercise she seems to do the most of these days.)

Here, a year of Emma with her beloved food.

Last year about this time. Look at how deliciously chubby she was!

Last year. Yummmy.

Who would sled when Goldfish could be had in the nice, warm car?

I took a picture of Libby and Ale celebrating their candy from the Memorial Day parade, and Emma then insisted on a picture each time she got a new piece of loot.

See what I mean?

I could go on (it was a very fruitful parade), but I think you get the idea. I especially liked how serious she was: "Please mark this as Exhibit R on why this parade ROCKS."

Chocolate is a favorite. As are strawberry and vanilla. And cherry. And banana. (Anything Aunt Kelly makes -- as with these cupcakes -- is sure to be a winner.)

This is a serious matter: We don't joke about ice cream.

Bonus: She's not the neatest eater you've ever seen.