Who Says TV is Bad For Kids?

You constantly hear how terrible TV is for kids, but you never hear that it can be good, in moderation of course. Tonight when I was reading books to Emma we came to a picture that was labeled “reeds”. Right away she told me, “They are also called bullrushes”. I am not familiar with the term bullrushes so I said, “birdwatches?, bullwatches?, birdrushes?, billrushes?, and as I kept guessing what she was saying, assuming she was mispronouncing the word, she kept saying, “No, bullrushes”.

When Mark came to the room, I told Emma to repeat the word to him. Same conversation as above occurred as Mark tried to guess what she was saying. Finally I said, “bullrushes?” and she said, “Yes, bullrushes”. That’s what she was saying all along but as neither one of us knew the word, we were guessing everything else but that. It’s not like any of my other guesses made any sense either, I was just trying to repeat what I was hearing:)

Now, Mark at age 40 and I at 39 have learned from our 3 year old what bullrushes are. If you knew….I’m proud of you too:)

Here is a picture for those who don’t.

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A little “Maggie and The Ferocious Beast” never hurt anyone….and in our case, it’s helped to build our 3 year’s old vocabulary (and her parent’s vocabulary, too)!

Emmalina Ballerina

Emma began ballet classes this week. Although she isn’t 4 yet, she is in the four-year-old class as her previous teacher thought she was ready. She will be doing a little bit of jazz in this class as well. Her new teacher is Ms. Ashton. She is a beautiful young lady who is very sweet. Emma seemed to really enjoy her first day. Here she is following Ms. Ashton’s instructions:
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Emma with Pigtails

Every once in awhile, Emma requests for her hair to be picked up in pigtails. Because we cut her hair shorter than usual this summer, her hair wasn’t really long enough for pigtails. However, we were able to make some “low-hanging” pigtails to satisfy her request.

She is very much a girly-girl. Loves everything princess! Loves jewelry, purses, barrettes, nail polish, lip stick, etc. Here are a few pictures of my girly-girl all decked out with her pigtails and her jewels:)

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Don’t let the sweet little angel face fool you….she’s a tough cookie:) I love you my tough cookie!

Daddy & Emma

Emma adores her Daddy but she doesn’t always show it. Sometimes though, if she knows something special might be coming, like a trip to Goodberry’s for custard, she is EXTRA sweet to him. Daddy of course, won’t complain….he’ll take it when he can get it:)

Here’s proof of how sweet & loving she can be:

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Our Little Jumping Bean

Emma LOVES to jump around. Here is a picture of her jumping in her playroom:

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Emma’s First Day of Preschool Art Camp

It’s tough to think that Emma is so big already that she is ready for Preschool. It seemed just a little while back, that this day was WAY in the future. Well, it’s here and Emma couldn’t be happier:)

Although “real” preschool doesn’t begin for another 2 weeks, the preschool that Emma will be attending, mandates that the kids complete one week of summer camp so that they become familiar with the school, teachers, classrooms, rules, etc. So today was that first day for Emma. She had been counting down the days. When Mark and I went into her bedroom this morning, she was still sleeping like a little angel. We looked at each other and realized that our “little baby”, wasn’t a baby anymore. She woke up with a big smile and excitedly got up and was ready to go. Obviously we had been prepping her for this day by reading books about preschool and what to expect, as well as talking to her about all she would be doing.

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When she first walked into the classroom, she was a little bit clingy and shy, but that only lasted like 2 minutes. As soon as she saw the classroom centers with playdoh, paint, dyed-colored water, and mini-furniture, she knew she was in a FUN place. We helped her put her backpack into her cubby and she let us know she was ready to paint. She has 2 teachers- Ms. Sandy and Ms. April. We got our hugs and kisses and let her know we would be back in a little while and she let me Ms. Sandy put a smock on her as she prepared to paint a beautiful blue picture.

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As Mark and I watched from the door, I could see her talking Ms. Sandy’s ear off and laughing as she had a conversation with her. I could see just how HAPPY she was and how ready she was to finally begin preschool.

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At 1:00pm, we picked Emma up. She was at the reading center looking at “The Very Hungry Caterpillar”. She saw us standing there, smiled, and quickly got up to come and hug us. She had sidewalk chalk all over her pants, so right away, I knew she had had a wonderful first day of preschool.

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Ms. Sandy and Ms. April both told us that she had a great day. They said Emma was the only one that knew that the bowl in the story, Mouse Paint, said- Cat. They were very impressed by her and said she was very “advanced”. They definitely thought she was prepared for preschool.

Emma didn’t give us too many details about her first day but she seemed to really enjoy herself. When we asked her if she played in the playground she said, “No, we played in the sandbox instead because it was too humid outside”:)

July 4th Celebration

We had a wonderful 4th of July with our great friends and neighbors, Ted, Lisa and their daughter Emma. My sister, Anamarie, surprised me and came up for a few days to visit and my Mom also showed up. It was great catching up with my family and our friends. Emma LOVED watching the fireworks but was frightened by the loud exploding sounds. Although she had seen the fireworks once before she didn’t remember it. We were fortunate to have a great view. Here are a few pictures of our day.

Emma and I going down the slide:
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Self-Portrait

Emma loves to draw and paint. Most of her drawings are scribbles at this point but she enjoys herself and is always so sweet to make one picture for Mommy and one for Daddy. Recently she drew me and actually did a pretty nice job….I mean it had a circle for a head, eyes a big smile and even some blue bangs. Alright, so my bangs aren’t blue, but she drew them in there, showing attention to detail:) I was impressed that it actually looked like a cartoon person vs. the usual scribbles.

On Wednesday, she wanted to use her easel so I set it up for her and to my surprise, she drew herself. She even drew some blue bangs on herself to match the ones she had drawn on me. This is the first time she attempts to draw herself so I obviously made a big deal about it and we hung it up in her playroom along with all her other drawings and arts & craft projects. For 3 1/2 years old, I think it’s wonderful!

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Meet Snaily….Emma’s New Pet

On Sunday Emma was helping me water the plants when all of a sudden, we noticed a large snail in one of the flower pots. Right away she asked if she could keep it as a pet. I thought about it for half a second and then answered, “Sure”. What could I say? I never thought of a snail as a pet, but really, it can’t get better than that. A snail is pretty much hassle-free. Emma was SO excited to bring Snaily (that’s what she named him) in to show her Daddy. She eagerly showed him her new pet and told him that Mommy said we could keep it for a pet;)

On Monday, we went to Target to get a home for Snaily. We found a bug park from Fisher Price. It’s so cute. You can actually control the Ferris wheel and teeter totter by turning the wheel that is located on the outside. So you can assist your bugs when they decide to ride:)

Today, I went to the garden to pick some fresh leaves for Snaily and guess what? I found Swingy. Now Snaily has a partner. So far so good. They seem to be getting along very well. Swingy swings her entire shell from side to side when she walks- kinda like Ursula the Sea Witch moves her hips, in The Little Mermaid. So, there you have it….Snaily and Swingy, our pet snails.

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A Visit to the Farm

Emma loves animals so I planned a visit to a local farm.  We went with Emma’s friend Alex and her mommy, Erica.  The girls had so much fun.  They played with 2-week-old mallard ducks, fed the goats, emus and pony, walked around the 10-acre farm, and even rode the tire-swing at the end of the tour.  We were lucky to have the farm owner, Mary, to ourselves as we toured her farm.  This particular farm had 2 emus, 2 llamas, a bunch of goats, 1 pony, 1 sheep, 4 baby ducks, and a bunch of chickens.  We had a wonderful time!

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