coolness

It doesn't get much cooler than Emilia in a pair of sunglasses.

Though Bubby is trying hard here. (Seriously.  Is this not the cutest thing you've ever seen a 1 year old do?)

Dresses you can spin in are always cool to little girls.  This one, Nana made for her.  Coolness factor increased by 10.  Look at that face!

Nana, Curious George, and a kite

As I mentioned before, Emilia has a serious Curious George obsession. There are two kite episodes on Curious George. So of course Emilia was overjoyed when Nana brought her a kite. It was windy the next time Nana visited, so we braved the cold and attempted to fly the kite. It didn't work extremely well because the wind was pretty gusty, so the kite would go up, but then usually come down again right away. I think Emilia enjoyed it anyway. :)

Little things

You may have to enlarge this picture to be able to see the little accomplishment Emilia achieved recently. If you look closely, you can see plants peeking up through the sort-of soil. We were cleaning out our outdoor closet recently and Emilia saw the seeds leftover from my garden last year. Since Curious George (her most recent obsession) plants gardens in a number of episodes and even has a great seed mix-up, she immediately wanted to plant some of the seeds. Since it's April, my first reaction was "No, it's too cold." But after thinking for a second, I realized it was probably a great time to plant peas. So I helped her make a small trench, showed her how far apart to put them, how to cover them up, and turned the water on to fill her little watering can. She was very diligent at watering them every day. She even reminded me most days. When these poked up, she was ecstatic of course. I was very proud.

This little guy, along with about 12 others, were flying around my kitchen the other day.  We have been having ant problems lately, but this doesn't really look like an ant, if you ask me.  After a search on the internet, though, I discovered that this is most definitely an ant.  In the stage where they are trying to start a new nest.  Great.  As if we don't already have 3,000 ants invading our kitchen and bathroom that even the Orkin man is having troubles getting rid of.

See the little dark spots on Emilia's shirt? You can't probably see the ones on her skirt, her pants, her arms and feet.  She scared the crap out of me.  It's blood.  Her own.  She came running into the house covered in it.  I finally figured out that she had been trying to get off the trampoline when the chair she was using as a stepstool tipped over and hit her in the face.  Sheesh.  Quite the nosebleed, poor kid.

This little one is quite observant.  She figured out where the Cheerios were coming from, and when I wasn't watching one day, she grabbed the box and managed to get at the good stuff.  Little stinker.

St. George

This weekend we went to St. George to be at our niece Haley's baptism. She turned 8 this last month, and we were fortunate enough to be able to go be a part of her big day. Fortunately for us, all of Steve's sisters were able to come, so Emilia had lots of playmates while we were there. Mira loves being around a lot of people, so she was happy as a clam, too. Steve and I were just excited to be in warm weather. It was balmy upper 70s. I just can't understand why Steve wouldn't want to live there!

facebook treats

Taking a bath with her Polly Pocket size Ariel, Emilia says, "I like the real Ariel, but not the movie Ariel." Me: "Why?" Emilia: "Because King Triton yells and yells at her. I'm not going to watch that again."

Yesterday I told Emilia she had to wear green because it was St. Patrick's Day and if she didn't wear green, she would get pinched, but if she did wear green, people couldn't pinch her. As she hurries down the hallway to her bedroom, she says, "But I like my pinches!"

I am currently having a conversation with Emilia about ladybug poop. The things little kids worry about. :0)

I sat down to eat some leftover cashew chicken yesterday and Emilia says, "What kind of food is that, Mom?" I told her, "It's Chinese food." Her response? "Who is Chiny?"

One of my favorite Emilia-words: Moodgy. For example, "I mixed up the batter good, Momma! It's very moodgy." Or "I don't like [the frosting]! It's too moodgy!" (Insert whatever food she thinks is too mushy and sticky in the brackets.)

I left my tripod in my living room last night and as soon as Emilia saw it this morning, she ran and got her camera so she could take pictures. She aims the camera at me and snaps a picture of my makeup-less bedhead. Then, when I wouldn't let her take any more she says, "But, Mom! I need to take your picture for the dinosaur museum!" I think she thought that would help her cause. Ha!

I must have attention issues. I made cupcakes this afternoon and somehow Emilia ate 6 of them without me noticing.

Emilia is constantly making up words. Most of our conversations throughout the day consist of her saying something and then me saying, "I don't know what that means." Often it is frustrating, but sometimes it's quite amusing. For example, tonight. Emi: Nanchi, Momma. Me: What's a Nanchi? Emi: A goodie. Me: Are you a nanchi, then? Emi: No-o. Me: You aren't a goodie? Emi: No. Me: Are you a baddie, then? Emi: *laughs* No. Me: What are you then? Emi: Uhh...a girl? (like, "duh, Mom")

I think lawyers should turn to 3-year-olds for tips on arguing their point, stall tactics, and dodging the issue. For example, tonight--Steve: Time for bed, Emilia. Go use the potty. Emilia: NO! I'm too old to use the potty.

Emilia has apparently watched Tangled a few too many times. Today I asked her to please finish her lunch. Emi (putting her hands on her hips and shaking her head): No! Me: why not? Emi: Because it's MY decision, mother! Me (laughing): No, because you're not 18, like Rapunzel. When you're 18, you can decide whether you finish your lunch, but you're 3. And Momma says you need to finish your lunch. Emi (with a big grin): OH!! Okay, Momma.

first year pictures

Okay, I put the pictures from the photo shoot up on my photo blog. You can see them here: http://blog.sabrinawattsphotography.com/2012/04/sweet-garden-princesses.html

Mira is 1!

Mira turned one on the 28th of March. I made cupcakes for the day of her birthday, but the real celebrating happened Friday, and again Monday. Friday night we invited our families and non-church friends over to Nick and Wilda's house for a party. I love crafting and decorating and a first birthday party is the perfect opportunity to do both, so I went all out. I decided on a bird theme because I thought it could be cute without being as overdone as say, ladybugs.

If you want to look at the pictures larger, just click on one of them and it goes to a slideshow.  I was too lazy to do collages, so you get lots of pictures.

Here is the dessert table.

Another view of the dessert table with the posters I made.

We had nest cookies, kindly made by my visiting teacher.  And I dipped some strawberries and decorated them with blue chocolate stripes.

My talented sister, Megan, made the birthday cake.  Didn't it turn out cute?

I made some gluten-free cake pops in the shape of chicks.  I was happy with the way they turned out.  Especially since I wasn't even sure they would bake up and stick together being gluten-free.

We also had jelly beans, chocolate and reeses eggs.

I put the party favors in the big nest I have for doing newborn pictures.  They had chalk eggs, chocolate eggs, and sour gummy worms on top of a bed of Easter grass.

We also had appetizers like strawberry salsa, fruit and veggie trays, and spinach and artichoke dip. In the background there (in the bucket) you can kind of see the picture holders.  I had one picture from each month of Mira's life displayed.

On Thursday afternoon, I did a photoshoot of both Mira and Emilia.  I printed some of the pictures and had them displayed as well.  I will have the pictures up on my photography blog soon.

The biggest picture went behind the birthday presents on the hearth.

Grandma and Grandpa Watts were there, Nana and Grandpa Frohlich, Alison, and 4 of the Childress girls.  The Atwaters came near the end as well.  While the older girls were occupied playing downstairs we played a couple rounds of "Sabrina's game" as it is called in the Watts family. (It's kind of like the game "Things" if you've ever played that.)

Before game playing, though, Mira opened presents--with a lot of help from Emilia.  Her favorite of the evening, I think, was the box of stuff from Nana.  It was just noisemakers and large Easter eggs with necklaces inside them, but when your favorite things to do are make noise and empty things, this is the perfect gift. :)