Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Mermades

I found this today and had to share.
I guess this was from Rachel's "Little Mermaid 2" phase.
I love the bubbles of what they're saying: Ariel says "I will find you my darling", and Melody's quotes the song she sings, "for a moment just a moment I'll be free!". If you have seen the movie, you'll recognize the lyrics.
I also particularly like her first couple attempts at writing the name "ariel", down at the bottom of the first half of the page, as well as the details of the mermaid - right down to the belly button and seashell bikini top.






Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Rest In Peace Slinky

We experienced a death in the family. Our little Slinky. Best we can figure, he must have been sick or something. We took him out to feed him (and of course when I say "we" I mean "ME"), and - well - let's just say he didn't make it. I actually picked up a dead snake. Who would do that voluntarily? It was sad, but on Saturday after going to tell the builders to start our house, we went to our new backyard and had a little burial ceremony.

Emma has handled it pretty well. Of course the death of Slinky only means that Slinky No. Two will not be far behind. She is even looking at the bigger versions of the same species...and wants to get one that's significantly larger and eats live rats instead of dead pinky mice. Well, we'll see about that, but we decided not to get another snake until after we move into our new house in February or so. This will save poor Gramy from having a snake in her house. It actually will work out better, one less thing to move. And more time to look for a replacement snake, I guess. :)

Emma is quite the artist, as many of you know. The following two drawings have been on my refrigerator for the past couple of days and I must post them. The cage picture shows exactly what was in there, from the little log he hid under to the water dish (water included) with the little ramp that went down into it. He used to climb the tree thingy and then slither up onto the temperature and humidity dials. Funny.

Enjoy!




Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Tired, Hungry, and Bored

On Saturday night we had a meeting to draw up the offer on our house. The girls of course were with us, and brought things to do while we did our thing. They were so patient, but by the time we were done, they were definitely ready to go. I think Rachel brought this note over to me on behalf of both of them. You can see that they specifically told us who was feeling what, and Emma's little drawing of the house is cute. You can see the playset in the back, and even the basketball hoop and a ball. Funny!



Use Your Brain

Rachel brought home some finished math homework the other day. She got all the correct answers, and at the bottom was asked to elaborate; here is the exact wording of the question:
"Explain your thinking. Tell or show how you found your answers."
A note from her teacher in red below her answer says: "Tell me how using words, numbers, or pictures." Apparently her answer wasn't exactly what they were looking for.

And Rachel's answer? Here it is...

"I used my brain, got a little bit of help, but not much. Any way, I just used my brain."



That's my girl.

Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Emma's Drawrings

Emma drew these pictures - One yesterday, and two today. Alas, she didn't draw them in the bathtub. Sorry to break it to you, Simon.







Rachel-isms

The fun things Rachel says (again, the documented ones)

Her birthdate is 10/28/01, for reference...

§ 9/23/08: “I like working with littler kids so I’m going to be a teacher [when I grow up]”.

§ Sometime in the year she was 5 (2007 or 2008): we were eating dinner with Jim & Daja, and Rachel gave the excuse for something she did, or something she couldn’t do…I can’t remember the exact thing, but what she said was so funny… “but mom, I’m only 5…”

§ 3/09/08: After practicing her jump-roping for quite a while, Rachel came in and said, “oooh my legs really hurt!!” So I told her maybe she should quit jumping rope for a while if her legs hurt. She replied, “I can’t quit, I have to fight heart disease!”

Wow, I skipped, like 4 years here. Oops. When I remember any of them I'll have to add them.

§ July or August 04: We were getting out of the car at Dana's and Rachel showed me her doll and said, "This is hideous." I said, "What?" and she showed me her doll again - it was apparently the dolls name. I laughed and said "That's not a name, that's just a word." So she looked at her doll and then back at me and said, "Her name is Sally."

§ 6/10/04: Rachel is still learning the word "my". She has some medicine to take from Dr. Jared and the pills are quite large...she told daddy tonight (with some coaxing from me, of course), "Daddy, I took mine horse pill." Basically, any place you would normally put the word "my", she puts "mine". "Mama, mine cup spilled" or whatever. It's SO cute.

§ 4/8/04: They’re playing in the bedroom and I hear Emma say “Don’t tell on me!” and then Rachel says “grrr! I’m not! I’m telling on me!”. Rachel then comes and tells me “I’m telling on Emma.” And then goes back in to the bedroom! (I never did know what either of them did)

§ 4/6/04: The girls got out of bed and came into the kitchen and Rachel said “Mama, I’m sick. I have a frog in my mouth.”

§ 3/13/04: Rachel was getting in bed and she didn’t want to go to sleep. One excuse was “I want to sleep with Emma” (they sleep in the same room), and another was “Mama, I’m scared of the dark!” so I put a night light by her bed.

§ 3/18/04: I was getting her spoon for applesauce at breakfast. I asked her what color the spoon was (it was green) and she said “white!” And then I asked her again, “what color is the spoon?” She said “pretend it’s white, ok?” It was so funny! Then I asked her again and she said purple and laughed (she liked to kid, and knew the right color). Finally, I said “Come on, Ra Ra – what’s the real color? Then we’ll pretend it’s white.” So she said “GREEN!”

§ 3/something/04: While in the car, Rachel said that Emma did something to her, so I asked her what she did. Rachel then went into detail about how Emma hit her with an empty water bottle, and when Emma said she didn’t do it, Rachel said “Emma, don’t interrupt!” and proceeded to finish telling me what Emma did. Again, Emma cut in to say she didn’t do it, and Rachel again said “Emma, don’t in – a – wup!”

Emma-isms

The Fun things Emma says (at least the ones we've documented)

Most of these have dates, but the ones that don't are when she was probably 3 or 4...when she was learning to talk, read, write, etc. For reference on dates: she was born 5/18/99.


§ Note from Emma, actual spelling of words: I love you mama beekas you aer my mama.

§ A post it note with a globe and a sun: “The erth is tiny ckumpared to the sun.” p.s. I found the picture of this one! Here it is:


§ Not sure when this was, but sometime in early 2004 I think. Emma was saying her prayers and she had recently had a cough. We had talked about how sometimes when you're sick it makes you stronger so you don't get even more sick later. She prayed, "thank you for my cough that makes me strong so I can carry my desk or something."

§ Dec. 30, 2004: Emma asked me, "Mama, does Santa know us?" and I said "what do you think?" She replied, "yes...but if he knows us, then why did he put chocolate in Rachel's stocking?" (she knew Rachel shouldn't have stuff with milk in it)

§ Brian told Emma, “I’m pooped.” Emma said “daddy, what does “pooped” mean?” Brian told her it meant that you’re tired, and Emma said, “daddy, you should just say ‘tired’.”

§ 3/16/04 When asking Rachel to play outside with her: “Rachel, let’s play Toy Story! You be scud the dog, and I’ll be Sid, the happy child.” (There's a line in the movie where Buz says “what, that happy child?”)

§ October 2003: Riding in the car, Emma was singing the wise man/foolish man song. In the middle of the song, she stopped mid-sentence and said, “Rachel, rain is water dripping from God.” And then she continued singing where she left off.

§ 1/26/03 at Bennett’s house for superbowl: Emma, after pulling out all the dress up clothes and half-clothed herself: “Abby said a bad word to me.” When I asked her what it was, she said “she told me to CLEAN UP.”

§ 10/22/02 Emma walked into my room all dressed up, and when I saw her I said, "You're beautiful!" She said, "I know." I said, "Sweety, if someone says you're beautiful, you need to say thank you." So she said "Thank you, I know I'm beautiful." A few minutes later, she asked "Mama, can this beauty-ful girl have some lipstick?" And then later, “Can this pretty girl have a drink?”

§ 10-18-02: Emma's tummy kind of didn't feel good so she said she was sick. I told her if she was sick, she'd have to lay in her bed all day. She said "I'm not sick anymore. I went to the doctor yesterday and he checked my feelings."

§ Same day: I turned up the music in the car, and Emma told me to turn it down: "Mama, when it's louder it makes me yawn! I don't want to be yawned!"

§ 10/15/02 Another Emma Dialogue: At dinner one night, after Emma had been playing with glitter glue earlier that day (and I had been helping her), I said, "Oh, great. I've got glitter on my shirt." Emma said "I didn't do it." I said, "I didn't say you did, silly." She said "I know, I was just talking to myself.''

§ Driving in the car, listening to music: I asked Emma, “did you like that part?” she said, very politely: “I’m busy right now, Mama,” while playing the keychain-flute to the music.

§ 8/1/02: I was sitting at the computer, and heard “MOMMY!” (I had just put Emma to bed, she had said her prayers, I gave her kisses and hugs, I turned on her music and turned off the lights…). I opened the door, and said “WHAT…” in that “what-in-the-world-could-you-possibly-want-now” voice, and she says (are you ready for this?) “my kiss is coming off.” I turned on the light, and said “What?” again (the voice was different this time), and she said “my kiss is coming off” and pointed to her cheek where I had just kissed her. Of course I went over and gave her another kiss… (and of course I won’t go for that twice in one night…)

§ 7/25/02: “Mama, you’re so proud to me!”

§ 7/25/02: She wanted more cereal: “I want some out with [without] milk.”

§ 7/23/02 Emma did a somersault (kind of), and said to watch her while she did a “tatersauce”.

§ Another 7/23/02: (in the car) Rachel was making faces and opening and closing her mouth, Emma thought it was funny. I said, “Don’t you have a cute little sister?” And Emma said, “Yeah…I miss her.” I said, “She’s sitting right beside you!” And she said, “No…I missed her when she was in your tummy!”

§ 7/12/02: My friend Angela was over with her daughter Sarah. Emma and Sarah were playing by Rachel’s saucer with her in it – I saw Emma wave Sarah away – when I told Em to be nice and share, she said, “She was trying to take my bottom off!” (or "taking my bottom off") … we laughed so hard. She had her swimsuit on, so we figured maybe Sarah pulled on it or even just touched it?? It was so funny.

§ After leaving a friend’s house or somewhere she’s been playing with friends or grandparents, Emma says “Mama, I didn’t have very much fun!” Translation: I didn’t have enough fun. (The first time we heard her say that it took us a little while to understand what she meant, but we got it after she would say something else like "I need to have more fun".)

§ In the car, just getting off the blue bridge toward Kennewick:
Emma: Mama, where are we? Are we on the bridge?
Mama: We just got off the big bridge, and now we’re on a little bridge.
Emma: Oh, is it a little baby bridge? Can I hold her?

§ Parting Emma’s hair for ponytails (pigtails) I told her I needed to make a straight line. She said, "Don’t make a line, I’m not a grocery store." (NO LIES!! She really said this)

§ After I gave her some gum – Daddy was getting her out of the car for church and she says “Daddy, I got some gum!! I’m so yucky!!” (lucky, l’s = y’s)
p.s. we *still* say this, all the time. "I'm so yucky."

§ After she was tucked in to bed one night she came back out in the hallway and asked me to “give her a favorite”. I told her to get back in bed and she said, “No, will you give me a FAVORITE”. So I realized she meant ‘do her a favor’ – so she said, "Yeah, Mama, give me a favor – get me a drink of water.”

§ While driving on the freeway on a very windy day: “Stop driving crazy, Mama. I’m trying to read.”

§ Other times Emma used to be concerned that we would "fall off the road" while we were driving places. "Mama, don't fall off the road!" I'm not sure where she got this, or maybe she remembered a time when we were on a mountain road on a hill, so there was the possibility of "falling off"? Funny.

§ Emma, when told she needed to take some medicine: "I just like the grape kind. I don’t like the icky kind, it’s gross and dangerous.”

Overheard...

...in the grocery store:

"If Luke Skywalker's new fake hand looks just like a normal hand, with skin and everything, what's the point of always wearing a glove over it?"


Good question.



...on the radio, quoting a campaign sign seen somewhere in the US:

"Vote for Jesus...All of His Campaign Promises will be Kept."


He's got my vote.