S&Ms: Taste the Rainbow

Oh, the mind of a 4-year-old. Emma made me laugh so hard today...like inappropriate-outburst-in-the-middle-of-a-pet-store laugh. Okay, maybe not so much in the 'middle' of the store as we were standing in line at the checkout.

Em was scoping out the candy selection when she spotted these:



"Hey, Mommy!!! These are S&Ms!!!!!" (you know, like M&Ms, but she saw an "S" on the candy shell)

Hilarious.

Queen of Peer Pressure

If I had to predict Maggie's future by her behavior lately, I'd have to offer up a HUGE apology to all of her future friends and their parents. This girl is relentless and after a couple conversations I overheard between her and her sister yesterday...well, she's totally into peer pressure, too.

We were traveling home from Akron yesterday. Emma clutching dear old Bob:



and Maggie with her beloved "Froggie":



Maggie offers up Froggie to Emma:

M: Emma, you want Froggie?
E: No, Maggie. I doesn't want Frawwwwwwgie! I have Bob.
M: Here, Emma. You like Froggie?
E: NOOOO Maggie! I don't like Froggie. I love Bob.
M: Emma, TRY IT.
E: I won't try it. I don't like it.
M: You'll like it, Emma!

and then she dropped the frog and that was that. "My Froggie!!! He fall down!"

After we got home, we were relaxing on the couch, watching The Soup and waiting for a commercial break to brush some little girls' teeth and get them to bed. Maggie was playing with some plastic farm animals when she took a pig and tried shoving it in my mouth telling me "DRINK IT!"

She's going to be a jerk in college...or a hit. Only time will tell, I guess! I know I'm biased, but I'd also predict that everyone will give in...based on this:



And while I'm making predictions...here's Emma in college:



Again, future friends and parents of future friends. I'm sorry!

Imagination at its best!

Between the TLC/Discovery Channel show "A Baby Story" and Emma's 3D ultrasound pictures, we've heard quite a wide variety of tales involving the births of Emma and Maggie. For the past several weeks, Emma has been extremely fascinated with her and Maggie's births. Emma's birthday is coming up in July, and with her new fascination came a great concern that she had to get back into my belly to be born again. After a few days of trying to convince her that she DID NOT have to get in my belly, we're now starting to get excited for the big day!!!

Every night before bed, Emma looks through her and Maggie's baby photo books. She calls these albums "born books". Rather than reading a story with daddy before bed, she tells the stories of how they each came into the world. Each story has its own twists and turns...for example:

Mommy press this button on the belly temperature (home pregnancy test)and Maggie was in mommy's belly. Daddy drove the car to the hospital (which has also been called the 'born store') and mommy pushed the baby out. Mommy said 'I'm so happy to see you Emma. I pushed out you sister, Maggie!' and mommy put the baby in the microwave to make it hot.

*** Disclaimer: no babies were harmed in the making up of this story...and there were definitely no babies put in microwaves!!! ***

Because of this 3D ultrasound picture that's in a frame on our end table, Emma believes that babies "grow orange" while in their mommy's belly. She also explains that mommy's belly is dark...so is Emma's and Maggie's and Daddy's too!




This morning while I was checking some emails, catching up on Facebook posts, etc., Emma was at the table drawing with colored pencils. She yells, "Mommy! It's Maggie in your belly!"





She showed me that Maggie was growing orange...and then scribbled the "darkness" that is my belly. Quite impressive if you ask me!!

Before the month is over...

(okay, this was written on May 24th...but never posted. oops!)





...I need to blog something!!!! Again, I've started to slack and I really shouldn't considering I'm usng this to document the funny and amazing things my kids do. That's daily, and I've fallen behind!

This post will not be a catch-up of the last month and a half, but here's what's up with the girls:

Emma - is bug crazy. she loves to collect 'rollie pollies' (is that how you'd even spell that?) Potato bugs, as I've always called them. Thank you 'Sid the Science Kid' for helping us teach Emma (and Maggie) how fun nature is.


We recently 'grew our own butterflies' I'm not exactly sure that's the right way to describe that process, but Grammy and Poppy helped us by sending away for caterpillars - you know, the ones you see on TV - and we raised butterflies. It was AWESOME! and we were able to witness both the building of a chrysalis and the hatching of a butterfly. After a few days, we released them so they could go out and do their job. Which is just to lay eggs and make more butterflies before dying. Circle of life, right?










Maggie - is getting smarter and smarter each day. She is counting to 11, identifying some of her alphabet: A, B, D, F, G, H, J, M, Q, W, X, Y...almost half way there. She knows about all the shapes. She surprised us this weekend by identifying what shape the moon was in. At first she was calling a crescent a present (teehehehe) but has now learned the correct pronunciation. Yesterday she called it an oval, which was pretty darn close.

She is riding her trike now! She finally "gets" the pedaling thing. She hasn't mastered it yet, but pedals enough for me to consider her "getting it" in my book!

Aaaand, Maggie talks our ears right off. O-F-F, OFF. When she starts storytelling, she mumbles and spouts off words here and there and all you're left to do is nod and smile and give her a couple "oh really" "what else" "uh-huh"s and she's satisfied. It's really cute!!

As a team, they of course have the typical sibling spats, "that's mine," "GIMME DAT," and high-pitched screaming, but then there's a moment like this morning when Em first woke up. Maggie heard her upstairs and climbed up as quickly as she could.

"Good morning, Maggie!"
"Good Morning, Emma."
"What's this, Maggie?" (pointing to a flower on her blanket) "Maggie, it's a pink flower!"
::hugs::
"I yub you, Emma."
"I wuv you, too, Maggie."

Mommy melts.

Cereal Logic by Emma Hamric

"Colored Apple Jacks means Froot Loops"

Today I am Super Mom

Because who can resist this???



Maggie decided to draw on a dining room chair this morning. She KNOWS she's only allowed to draw on paper. So when I caught her, I scooped her up off the chair and put her in time out. She never made a peep, but decided to serve to me the longest minute and a half I've ever had to endure. (okay, maybe that's an exaggeration, but really...if you reading this think she looks pitiful, how do you think I feel?)

When the torturous minute and a half was finally over, I sat in front of her and asked her to stand up so that I could talk to her. Before I spoke another word, Maggie said, "I sorry, Mommy." ::MELT::

She righted her wrong and all is well.

What do you see?

Maggie, 18 months, will draw circles in circles in circles in circles any time she picks up a marker, crayon, pen, etc. I find it pretty amazing that she doesn't just scribble, she DRAWS with purpose. It's awesome to watch.


Poor Emma has a cold...she's rarely sick, so a cold is a big deal to her. Today she and I munched on some 'cheesy puffs' and then she got tired. Since the bag was in her way, I told her I'd move the bag away if she was going to fall asleep. Well, she claimed she wasn't done eating and asked (okay, whined) that I not move the bag.



Feel better, Em!

Dirty PB

Emma often likes to eat peanut butter in a little bowl with a craft stick.

She and Maggie shared some this afternoon. Later in the day, she was sittin at the table painting when we had this conversation:

Emma: I want some peanut butter.
Mommy: There's some peanut butter right there. (pointing to the cup of peanut butter with two craft sticks in it that she and Maggie had earlier)

Emma: Noooooo. That peanut butter's dirty!

RIP Shark

Dang...how disappointing. I know it's just a fish, but he was a big guy...ruler of the tank ;) Our tank is sick. Shark got sick, wouldn't eat, was totally pissed, and finally kicked last night. That sucks.


Now back to bragging about my kids:

Maggie celebrated her 18-month birthday yesterday. What a big girl! Right now she's counting to 10, sometimes she skips 8, but generally she's pretty good. And now that she finally "gets" what orange is, I can say she knows all her colors! That's not too surprising, though. She -- and Emma -- are very artistic. They draw and paint A LOT! We've gotten them some bathtub crayons, too, and by the end of a bath, our tub is a gallery full of colorful scribbles!







I love that the girls are so creative...and I really love when they tell me what they've drawn. Their imaginations -- both of them -- are really starting to blossom! Maggie's advantage to having an older sister is she picks up SO MUCH from her! She's way more advanced at her age now than Emma was. She's exposed to so much more! Sometimes it makes me wish I could start over with Emma, but shoot, she's so smart...and the age she's at now, she makes up all kinds of things and it's hilarious!

For example, on a trip to Wal-Mart, just mommy and Emma, we have this conversation:

Mommy: We need to get a card for Papa's birthday, and a gift card, and hamburger buns.

Emma: and cheesecake.

Mommy: Cheesecake? Did you just say cheesecake?

Emma: Yeah. I get cheesecake yesterday.

And now she just told me that she and Maggie are going to be cowboys. Gotta go.

Yeehaw!

Sticking with it!

Every day I tell Ryan about something hilarious that Emma said during the day, or something amazing Maggie learned...and every day I say, "I should write that down so we don't forget about it later."

So I'm giving this blogging business another shot. This time I'm sticking with it! (Right now, I'm reminded of my dad...because when the title of a movie is referenced within, he always points it out 'They just said the title of the movie!')


The girls come up with crazy, hilarious, amazing, horrible, wonderful things each day and a lot of times I can't just pick up the phone to tell someone -- anyone -- about it.

So welcome. Laugh, cry, roll your eyes, whatever. I hope you enjoy the stories about Emma and Maggie, they are quite a pair.