Grammy time

My mom came to visit for Em's birthday and for Thanksgiving. We had a wonderful time. We shopped. We went to the aquarium. We tooled around town. The best part of her trip is that we got to spend a bunch of time together and she got to bond with Emma. Every morning Emma would wake up and ask, "When's grammy be here?" It touched my heart!

While I worked, mom spent most of the days hanging out with Emma. Apparently mom and Em are fabulous shopping buddies. The phrase, "Well, Emma wanted it," followed by a shrug and a smile is something that I heard an awful lot.

I am extremely grateful for the time we got to spend with my mom. We have become great friends and she's an amazing grandmother. Thirteen days was definitely not long enough. . . and I think she should move back out west! Not necessarily Seattle. . .but close enough that we can see each other more often!

Who else is willing to get their face painted with Em?

or hang out with her on the Sea Otter? or pose in front of the seal?or open her birthday presents?

Those are jobs for Grammy Judy! Thanks mom!! We miss you tons already!

Scary Santa!

For those of you who followed our blog last December probably remember the below picture. . . Well, today we dressed Em up, dragged her to Macy's, had the long conversation about how friendly Santa is and how he'll bring her gifts, and then took bets about how she would react. Well. . . .she remains consistent. She screamed, clawed at his suit, and screamed, "Mamma, carry you!" which is how she asks me to pick her up. Poor thing. Santa was a real trooper and the staff was great.
We went to the Macy's downtown and we were super lucky that we went during a slow time. The Santa staff worked with us for over 30 minutes to get a picture we could send to family. This was the best of our many many awful options.

On Santa lap attempt #2, Em finally made her super cheese face in between tears. Check out Santa's face and death grip on her arms! I'm pretty sure he didn't want her to claw his eyes out. Santa pictures are pure torture. . .and just so you know Em got me back by taking off her poopy diaper during nap time. It was EVERYWHERE. Its been over a month since she's done this. All I can say is pay-back is a bitch a she can definitely consider herself vindicated.

Emmie Lemmie is 2

Its absolutely amazing how time flies. My little Nugget just turned two. These past two years have been the most amazing experience of my life. Em is truly a blessing and I am so honored to be her mother.

Some things about Emma.

Emma is a very serious, very cautious kid. She still doesn't run and she insists on holding my hand anytime we're out and about

Emma is very girly and loves to play, "Fairy Princess."

Emma loves the pups and every morning crawls into my bed to give Mazie and Truman a morning "snuggle".

Emma is a talking machine. She amazes me on a daily basis.

Last night my mom was giving Em a bath and asked her, "Em what's your mamma's name?"

Her reply, "Lori Anderson" This made us both chuckle. She said this for the first time about a week ago and I have no clue where she picked up my last name. . . .

Mom then asked, "Emma, what's Grammy's name?"

Her reply, "Grammy Anderson."

Wow!!

Em loves books and puzzles. She's graduated to story books and has fondness for Dr. Seuss.

Em loves being the center of attention .. .yes she is my child after all!

All Em wanted for her birthday was a pink camera and Tooey found her one! Her reaction was classic. She opened the package, she started wiggling, got up on her tippy toes and exclaimed, "MY PINK CAMERA!!!" I will NEVER forget the look on her face!

Em had her birthday party at the Children's Museum in Olympia. Several of our friends made the trek down and everyone had a great time!

Here's Em in her sparkly skirt and birthday tiara!

My mom came up for Thanksgiving and Em's birthday and I am so grateful that we have been able to spend so much time together.

Em and mom are two are two peas in a pod!
Every morning Em wakes up and asks when Grammy is coming over. We are going to miss her terribly when she leaves.

Here's me and the princess in front of our $15 Christmas Tree. Total Score and another reason to shop local!

I love this picture! Here she is getting caught crawling out of a cat tree at the store. What a silly kid!

angel or comedian?

Everyday I struggle with figuring out whether Em is my little angel or if she's a comedian. Its anyone's guess

Angel? Comedian??
Angel?
Comedian??

Emma sings

I was able to capture a couple videos of Em and I singing. Please excuse my awful voice. Em was too cute not to post.

Em's favorite. . ."Mockingbird"

Rock A Bye Baby. . . in a corn tree top.

Somebody Else's Shoes

We spend our lives wanting to live in someone else's shoes. Well Em and Surabi take this literally. These two little cherubs spent the day Friday switching shoes.

The big "swap" at Stellar's.

Just so you know, this is actually shoe swap round two. Amy and Surabi spent the morning at the store where Em and Surabi swapped shoes almost immediately. Check out Surabi's ADORABLE boots!

Em loves the bug boots!
She says walking in Surabi's shoes is a lot more fun!

Surabi disagrees.

She says that she prefers to walk in Emma's shoes!

During dinner I got some funny pictures of the girls and their alter-egos. Here's their first persona --Serious Girls!

Next, their second (and true) persona comes out -- Silly Girls!

I'm pretty sure we are going to have our hands full!

Happy Halloween Birthday!

Even though this was Em's second Halloween, it was her "first" real Halloween. Em refused her lion costume so Brian whipped together a fairy princess outfit that "her royal highness" approved. Go figure.

We went to Kara and Ryan's and had a fabulous dinner, carved pumpkins, went trick or treating, ate candy, and then hung out playing Wii. I couldn't ask for a better night!

Ryan, Brian and Emma carved the three pumpkins we picked up at the pumpkin patch.

Diggin in!

Going back for more digging after I put on her costume. Fairies love pumpkin diggin too!

Stopping for a photo op!

The final pumpkins!

We decided to take Em around Beacon Hill for her first trick or treating experience. She figured it out pretty quickly, but initially she wanted to go into each house. "Emmie go in" she shouted after someone opened the door. I never realized how weird it is to have a door opened and shut without actually entering a house. With a little prodding she would say, "trick or treat" which was followed by "Happy Halloween" or "Happy Halloween Birthday!"

When we got back she got her first taste of Halloween candy which made her a little loopy.

This is how Em plays Wii.

For the rest of the night she claimed she was a kitty and hung out in K and R's cat tree.

Prrrrrrrrrr . . . . .