Emitt's Bits

Ahhh, Emitt. Nothing I could say about him could explain the joy... and the pain... this child brings into our house. Luckily, it is much much more joy than pain. Anyway, he has something highlight worthy to record pretty much every day and of course I always say, "I should write that one down," but I don't. So here are some of the ones that actually made paper and I will try a little harder in the future.
One day we were eating lunch and after quiet for a couple minutes, he said, "Mom, did you know that food goes all the way down to your feet and toes? Yeah. That's what is gonna make me longer than Tyse." Sorry little dude, I don't think it is in your genes, but in his daily sing song words, "mom, I am getting big-gah!"
He has stopped allowing me to give him kisses. He told me one night at bedtime when I requested a kiss, "But mom, you are a girl!" So I said, "But Emitt, I am your mom!" to which he replied, "but mom, you're still a girl."We were preparing the other day to give the boys their annual summer haircuts. I had just asked Tyse if he wanted a buzz, to which he replied, "I will be ready for a haircut on friday, mom." Well, ok then. So then I asked Emitt if he wanted a buzz. He replied, "no, mom, I want a woody."
A couple weeks ago after church, I asked Emitt what he had learned in primary that day. He was so excited to share- he said, "let me show you! Put out your hand. Now, we high five, and then bump!" So glad stories about jesus are sneaking their way in there.

Also on the primary note, during singing time they played a game where you had to identify and sing songs that were chosen. I don't know if they were program songs or just your standard oldies but goodies, or what, but he knew and sang pretty much every song on the list- more than even the 6 year olds in the primary!
Emitt loves swimming and has absolutely no fear of the water. He has been fished out of swimming pool at least 5 or 6 times (more than once by the lifeguard) after just jumping right in off the side and not being able to swim. Unfortunately,he considers himself a proficient swimmer more than able to swim in the deep end with his brother. He now declares, "I am NOT a baby swimmer. I am a big boy swimmer and I won't go if I can't go in the deep end. Now he wears his lifejacket all the time, no matter how many adults are watching, and swims in the deep end all the time- kicking and paddling as much as his little body can. It takes him a good 10 minutes of all out kicking to get across the pool but he does it! Unfortunately, that same stamina does not carry over to emptying the dishwasher.On sunday we were walking to church. It was 10 am on the first mid-80's day of the year. We live 1/2 block from our church house, but poor Emitt couldn't make it. We made it 2 houses when he had to sit down and said, "Mom, it is just TOO HOT! Can't we go somewhere that it is freezing?"

Emitt is getting to be a better eater. He has started to actually eat some of whatever I make, of course after giving me the intial "ewwwww." His new favorite thing? Chip sauce. Not salsa. Chip sauce.

Tattling

My boys have sure been on a tattling streak as of late. It seems as though some days all I hear are "Mom, Emitt's..." fill in the blank. Usually it is that he has gone swimming in the fishtank or he is dumping litter out of the litterbox or he is climbing the shelves in the pantry... or any of the other 2 year old isms that I so love.
If it isn't about Emitt, it is "Mom, Tyse..." followed by pushed me, hit me, spit at me, said poo poo, etc. We are trying to crack down on the potty talk.
Anyway, the other day I had had it. I could not tolerate another tattle. I st down with the boys and tried in my best nice mommy fake voice that if they tattled again, they would spend the rest of the afternoon upstairs in their room. I think I scared them a bit because it was silent as I got out some snacks and we sat at the table listening to the radio.
The other thing about my kids is their strange obsession about the radio and who sings what song. Tyse has been doing it for years and now Emitt is doing it right along with him. So they are pretty rehearsed as to what is on the radio and who is singing it.
So we are sitting at the table eating a snack in silence. All of a sudden out of the blue, Emitt says,
"Mom, Taylor Swift just said stupid" in his best tattling voice. Yup. She does say stupid in that one song. And he caught her. And I didn't follow through with the afternoon in the room- I was laughing too hard.

Stuffies

Emitt LOVES his stuffies. Especially horses, dogs, and ducks. Tyse wasn't really into them, so this whole stuffed animal thing is new around here. When we go to the toy store Emitt can spend hours on end in the stuffed animal aisle hugging every one and climbing on them and using them for pillows, etc. So they are all over the house! The other day he woke up from his nap and came downstairs carrying the duck (on his right) and the monkey (on his left). He spent a long time making them sit just right on the floor next to him so they could watch Star Wars with him. I thought it was so cute I had to take a picture. Of course he heard the click, so he had to then give me a little personality...

That poor duck is only one eyed- thanks to the late RED who also had an affinity for stuffies

- just ask our niece, Ellie. She LOVED Red and his affinity for stuffies!

Future player....

I was really just cleaning the kitchen one day and finally started wondering where Emitt had wondered off to. Well- he was ready to get to practice.... unfortunately, it wasn't his practice coming up, but Tyse's- only 2 more years to go!

Emitt tribute at 2

So my little boy has turned 2. I am trying to quit calling him my baby because, well, I guess technically Ollie is my baby, but I do call them "the babies" quite often. It seems like 10 years ago we were in california and then in the hospital having him, but he also seems like he should only be Ollie's age. Hmmm. For those wondering about the songs we have on for the month, theya re Emitt's favorites.

Emitt is such a sweet and mischevious little boy! I have really started to wonder why the second (and I am sure the ones following from there) child learns all the things you want them to learn slower, but all the things you don't want them to learn faster. How does that work?

Here are some things about Emitt:

1. He still sleeps terribly! I don't think he has slept through the night once in his entire life. Now that he is in the bunk beds with Tyse, we have to close his door and put a baby lock on the inside to try to keep him in his own room at night. Not that he sleeps with us because he doesn't want to. He just wants us to carry him back to bed. But just last night he appeared in my room at 2 am and the lock was on the handle- we may have to revamp.

2. He lives almost solely on fruit. Doesn't eat much else- which probably explains why he hasn't made 22 lbs. yet. He is negative on the charts in weight and I can't get him to gain weight, no matter how much butter I put on his toast.

3. He is an instigator! He loves to wrestle, tackle, jump and just maul any unfortunate soul around. Unfortunately for Ollie.

4. His favorite word is NO! I am sure you are all surprised that my quiet little observer has a good little 2 year attitude behind it as well. Shocker.

5. He is ALMOST potty trained. I am done buying him diapers and I am ecstatic about it. About half the days we go the entire day in the same pair of undies, and half the time it is a bit of a disaster. I never thought I would ever say "thank goodness for elmo". But thank goodness. He doesn't like to pee on elmo. Thank goodness also to jellybeans, marshmallows, and nakedness. What bribery!

6. He is really starting to try to talk a lot more. He is working on figuring out how his tongue works to make different word sounds and so it looks like he is panting almost every time he speaks. When he says "milk" it sounds a little more than "mel(slurp)k". I vaguely remember when Tyse did this (I think more around 15 months, not 2) and I still think it is hillarious!

7. He LOVES going to target (or any other store where he can climb under the basket and wreak havoc).

8. He LOVES his brothers. Every time Tyse leaves the house he bursts into tears and asks constantly "tyse? Tyse?" until he comes home. He loves holding ollie and walks around singing "Ollie, ollie, ollie" and gets so excited when ollie wakes up from naps.

9. He has developed into a daredevil. One day Kent took him to the pool and finally got him to jump off the side and now he climbs and jumps off everything! He climbs the bunkbeds and stands up there with his arms straight out at his side and says, "Woah! Woah!"while he looks like he is walking a balance beam or something. He also climbs up the bunkbed and then stands backwards at the top and lets go to land on pillows.

10 . He loves music and singing, except he doesn't really say the words, he just blah blah's through it until the token word comes along (ie. blah blah blah blah little STAR!) in perfect tune. Sometimes he wanders around singing the new sugarland song, some Steve Miller, or the brady bunch theme.

That is just a bit of info about our little guy. He has topped the charts at 21.6 lbs- a hefty 2 oz. heavier than he was 6 months ago, and is now negative on the charts. I wish I was told by the doctor to double my butter intake. Me and Pop Secret would get along famously!

Happy Birthday, buddy!

Emitt is 2!

This week we celebrated emitt's 2nd birthday. He is such a sweet looking, two-year old acting crazy boy!

FOr his big day, we had grandmas and grandpa up for "nana pie". He loved it and smeared it all over. He blew his candle out first try before we even sang, so we had to do it all over again and he thought it was so great!

He made quite a haul this year- a Thomas movie from brothers,

a new trike that is just his size from grandmas and grandpa,

a swing to hang from the basement rafters,

and a fishtank! we pulled it back out of storage and got 4 little fishies swimming around in it. It has been a SWIMMING hit thus far! Those poor fish have already endured enough fishy stress for a lifetime! He has only been up to his elbows twice that I know of.... and hopefully we have cured the slapping of the glass. We will see how long they last. But we are all loving having a pet in the house again- especially one that doesn't pee on the carpet or eat food off the counter. I was too busy keeping him out of it to take a picture.

We also had a little party for him with neighbors and friends. We had a beach party up at our lake beach here and did a bunch of Emitt's favorite activities....we played in the sand and then blew tons of bubbles and chased beachballs around the grass.

Emitt got cold and spent most of the time hiding under a blanked in the grass.

We had beachball cupcakes and opened a few more wonderful gifts- all of which helped get us through today, so thanks, friends!

It was such a beautiful evening- so sad to think that they will soon come to an end!

Just another day in paradise...

Emitt has decided it is time be potty trained. I feel lucky that my kids have had so much ambition on their own to do this deed- I am truly blessed when it comes to this. I told Kent when we got married that if he would handle the poop, pee, and puke, I could handle the blood, guts and gore. So potty training is something I have somewhat dreaded. Tyse was so easy that I was sure that Emitt would be terrible- but he has been asking for a couple months now to use it, and I kept telling him no because I wasn't ready to drop everything to take him. Well, we have gotten down to a half box of diapers remaining and it occured to me that if I went along with this, maybe I won't have to buy him diapers ever again, so we have been starting to accomodate his 4 or 5 times an hour requests for "poo poo". He has been doing so great- up until yesterday I hadn't changed a stinky diaper from him in 5 whole days! (poor kid now has nasty teething poo)
Anyway, sorry for the long intro and on to the main event....
The other day he had to go "poo poo". So I went in and sit him on the toilet and then went back into the kitchen (10 whole steps) to take some meat out of the freezer for dinner. Came right back- less than one minute later- and found him off the toilet, with the pee trap removed from the potty seat (the one covering the family jewels in the above picture), dipping it into the toilet and filling it with water, and then drinking it. MAN, I love my job.