Monday, March 22, 2010

Birthday, round 2

There was a little get-together for the three boys' second birthday on Saturday. Fun times, and I will say more about it later (I am supposed to be making a lesson plan right now, not playing with my blog), but Sarah sent along a video of Emmett that she took from the big day that I thought I would put up here...so here it is:

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Pictures, both moving and still

Finally, here are the promised semi-recent pictures...

Augie, Emmett, and Ethan in Andrea's classroom:

Emmett and Augie playing in the sink at Augie's house:

Emmett and Augie walking hand in hand (note that for each, the other hand must at all times be filled with an automobile):

Emmett at the conservatory of flowers:

Emmett working on his picture face:

Emmett celebrates his birthday with Andrea's class (note that this was just voted on by the first-graders as one of the top 5 memories of their first grade year and will be recorded in the yearbook as such):


Emmett, Belinda, and Luisa enjoying birthday cupcakes with Emmett wearing the hat Andrea made for him:

Emmett demonstrating what he has learned in day care...to stand on objects, raise his hands, and yell "tah-dah"...even if said object is a present:

Video of the presentation of the lit cupcake with accompanying voices:

Friday, March 12, 2010

Crying over spilled milk

I always thought that the saying "there is no use crying over spilled milk" was just a cliche, but after having Emmett completely break down crying over spilled milk not once, but twice today, I have realized that the cliche was invented by a parent of a two-year-old. There is some switch that has flipped with this kid in the last few days where the strangest things really get the waters flowing from his eyes. He also cried over a spilled cup of water in the hall the other day and cried on the bike ride home on Thursday because he was eating raisins from a big cup of raisins and he held one between his fingers and it dropped to the ground. At first he just said "uh oh", but then he started to cry when he realized that I wasn't going to go back and pick it up from the road.

Another incident was on Wednesday when he and I were playing on the beach next to a stream. The sand next to the stream was littered with small sticks. Emmett picked one up, threw it into the stream, and it rushed off into the bay. Emmett was not happy and cried as if that was his special, most favorite stick even though there were literally hundreds all around. I don't get this stage at all.

I don't think that I have posted since Emmett's birthday. The big day was a relatively mild affair with Uncle Darin coming into town and then a number of friends coming over. Emmett was pretty excited about his gifts (highlights included a train set, dump truck, and a bicycle), and was actually able to blow out his two candles. The night before the big day, Andrea had talked up with Emmett the fact that it was going to be his birthday, that he was going to be two, etc. He had a pretty good idea of what a birthday entailed, I think, as he had attended two second-birthday parties in the previous week. I was in the room as he awoke. I could hear him stirring but he didn't know that I was awake. There was a minute or so that he was sitting there and then he started saying "two! two!"

Emmett is definitely remembering things in a much different way than he was a while ago. When we tell him things that we will be doing after a nap or bedtime, he will wake up and remind us that we are going to be doing those things. Also, he remembers places that things have happened and will point them out and say whatever the things are (examples: seeing a train set, going to a music performance, etc.). The days of his seeing something, wanting it, and us being able to hide it from him and distract him so he forgets are definitely far gone.

I guess we are officially into the "terrible twos". The biggest, and perhaps worst, change I have noticed is that all of the sudden he is much more protective of his things at the playground. Up until a month ago or so, we could have a collection of sand toys at the park and if another kid showed up to play with them, Emmett could always be coaxed into letting them play. Now, it is often the case that he will be playing and a kid a few yards away will look at his toys and he will pull them into his arms to prevent them being played with. We can still get him to allow others to play as well, but it definitely takes a bit more effort on our part.

I am not on our computer with the pictures, so I will have to add some later.

Oh, one other thing which I don't think I have mentioned here before. A month or so ago Andrea and I were putting Emmett down and one of us asked Emmett if he wanted a pillow. He said yes and we gave him a full-size, adult pillow. He was very excited and since the pillow's addition, he only sleeps only with his head on it (maybe we are bad people and should have given him one sooner). On Wednesday night Emmett woke around midnight saying "pillow, pillow" (which sounds like a number of other words) and it was lucky that I had happened to be looking at the monitor when he woke and had noticed that he wasn't sleeping on the pillow. Once we knew the problem, Andrea was able to direct him back to the normal sleeping location and he fell right back to sleep.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Two quick things

Emmett woke up the other morning and sneezed while he was in bed and the lights were still off, then said "bless you".

As I mentioned a while ago, Emmett pronounces water "aye-yah". We have been trying to fix this by making him repeat "wah-ter", which he does pretty well if he takes his time. Two nights ago I got home around midnight and could hear that Emmett was awake in his room. He was looking for his water in his crib saying "aye-yah, aye-yah...", then I heard him pause for a second and start saying "wah-ter, wah-ter..." very slowly and deliberately.