It’s been four years! January 30, 2012

Emma turned four years old today. She was standing on her stool in front of the mirror this morning, and as I was brushing her hair, I asked her, “Emma, how does it feel to be four years old?!? Yesterday you were three, and today you’re FOUR!”

She thought about it for a moment and said, “It feels good to be four. I didn’t feel good when I was three, two or one. But I feel good because I’m four.”

A little bit later, when she was getting into the truck to go to school, a bit of grumpiness had settled in. “I don’t like being four!” she exclaimed, arms folded.

But by the time she walked in the doors of the JCC a few minutes later, Emma was back to being excited about her birthday — not that it’s been confined to a day.

We had her birthday dinner — and dessert — with Papa and Asa on Saturday night. She got to open some presents. Then her friends helped celebrate at a bouncehouse-tastic birthday party at Pump It Up (and can I just go off on a quick tangent here and say how NICE it was to have everything taken care of at a party place, as opposed to the 2.5 days Ashley, my mom and I spent last year preparing for Emma’s 3rd birthday! We may go creative again, but a respite this year was wonderful…). When we got home, we opened more presents.

Today, Emma got to celebrate her birthday with her friends at school. They had a fresh berry medley served it special cupcake tins. And word has it that her Asa was making special birthday smoothies for the afternoon. And when we got to school today, we found more presents in her cubby. So there will be yet more unwrapping this evening…

Quite a few days for our favorite four-year-old!

 

(Pictures to come, I promise!)

Post-dinner rug cuttin’… July 28, 2011

After dinner, Emma decided to do a little bit of interpretive dance to indie rock band Spoon. Check it out HERE.

 

Emma Baugh a.k.a. Super StripeGirl July 28, 2011

Emma picked out her own outfit today, from top to bottom…

Revenge of the Phones and Our Little Contrarian… July 24, 2011

When Emma left for Marshall earlier this month to visit her grandparents, she got a new DVD for the car ride there: Tarzan, which had been in our collection only as a VHS until the trip. When she returned, she brought back with her Tarzan II. I asked Ashley about the movie, and she briefly explained that it filled in the gap between Tarzan’s birth and his meeting Jane.

I said, “Oh, so it’s a prequel.” But Ashley disagreed and explained why it didn’t qualify as one.

“Eh, sounds like a prequel to me,” I quipped. But Ash continued to disagree. It was an argument that wasn’t going to be settled, so I looked at Emma and said, “Sweetie, I think your mother’s a bit of a contrarian!”

She looked at me and smiled.

“Emma,” I said, “I think you’re a bit of contrarian, too.”

Quick as a whip, she said, “No, I’m NOT!”

Ashley and I laughed — hard.

Emma really is a chip off the ole block. She’s probably equal parts me, equal parts Ashley, and when she does something that emulates one of her parents’ less-awesome characteristics, the other is always quick to call her “your daughter.”

For example, when Emma is having what Ashley has come to call her “DEFCON 10 meltdowns,” she’s my daughter. When Emma digs in her heels and refuses to listen and is stubborn as can be, she’s definitely “Ashley’s daughter.”

When it comes to electronics, Emma takes after me. In the short time that our household has had iPads, Emma has surpassed her mother’s ability (OK, well at least rivaled) to use the device. It’s pretty amazing to watch her open the Smart Cover, push the button, unlock the device, find her folder, open an app and start playing a game.

Yesterday, though, I’d had it with electronics. Emma was over at Papa and Asa’s house after lunch. I’ve been having A LOT of early mornings lately (which is just par for the course for Ashley) and decided to capitalize on the free couple of afternoon hours before me. I popped out my contacts and got into bed. As I drifted off to sleep, my cell phone rang. It was my mom. We had a short conversation, hung up and I began to drift back to sleep. A few minutes into the slumber, the house phone rang. It was my dad. Short convo and back to sleep.

Then my cell rang again. It was Ashley, who was just getting out of her event. She wanted to inform me that she was headed to the paint store to get some samples (so she can re-paint the dining room, even though we painted it a beautiful shade of green when we bought the house). We hang up, and I begin drifting back to sleep. But this time I wasn’t even there and Ashley called again to inform me that the paint store was having a 40-percent-off sale.

Again, I attempt sleep. Then another call from my parents’ house. ARGH!

Finally, still in bed trying to slip in a nap, I was roused once more by another call from Ashley, who wanted to make sure I still wanted a Coke Zero from Sonic. And that was it — no Saturday nap for me.

 

She just wants to be freeeeeeeeee……!!!!!! July 21, 2011

Emma and Mamma just wrapped up a week in Marshall with Honey and Papaw, during which time the Little One made history, at least in my mind. It’s one of those stories that we’ll tell long into Emma’s adulthood, something with which we’ll regale Emma’s future children. It’ll probably grow over time, to boot.

So, here’s the story as I recall it (from Ashley, who told me what had happened the other night after I’d drifted off to sleep…)

Emma was having what Ashley deemed was a “DEFCON 10(!!!) Meltdown” that began when the Little One chunked her dinner across the kitchen. That led to a trip to time out, which led to another meltdown and some more time out — so on and so forth. When it was bath time, Ashley put Emma in the tub in the guest bathroom at Honey and Papaw’s house. Now, for those of you who’ve never been to Honey and Papaws, this is one of those tubs that has the sliding glass doors. Those doors can either be fully closed, or they can slide to either side leaving an opening — but there’s never full frontage to the tub.

So standing there in the tub, Little Miss Emma did not want to be bathed. She fidgeted and screamed, letting her mother know she’d have none of that. Emma moved to the left side of the tub, protected by the sliding glass door. So Ashley moved the doors to the right so she could reach Emma. With that, Emma shot back to the right, once again defeating her mother’s advances. This apparently went on for a short bit until Ashley had had enough. Mamma rolled up her pants and stepped into the tub and finished the washing — setting off another meltdown…

Once they finished the bath, Emma bolted from the bathroom, seeking shelter from her oppressive mother. Ashley captured her and returned to the guest bedroom to get Emma dressed for bed. As soon as her two feet were back on the ground, Emma headed toward the door with an intent to thwart her mother’s plans. But Ashley got there first and locked the door so Emma couldn’t leave. The two were now locked in the bedroom safe from attempts of fleeing.

Ashley returned to her spot in the middle of the bedroom and was gathering Emma’s stuff — her nightgown and such — when Emma returned to the door and tried feverishly to open it. The door wouldn’t budge.

“OPEN THE DOOR!!!!” Emma screamed. “LET! ME! OUTTA! HERE!”

She banged her fists against the wooden door.

“LET ME OUTTA HERE!” she continued. “I JUST WANNA BE FREEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!”

 

Emma and bluegrass… July 6, 2011

We keep about a half-dozen episodes of Austin City Limits on our DVR and Emma watches them every so often. Usually, she asks for Spoon, an indie rock band, but last night she picked Steve Martin’s bluegrass episode from a list of offerings. Here are a couple videos of her watching and dancing…

The family… June 1, 2011

Here’s a photo of us at my sister’s wedding…

Emma and Daddy at Brown Coffee Company… May 23, 2011

On Saturday, Mommy had to work all day, so Emma and I went to a wonderful little coffeehouse. We met our friends, John Tedesco and his son Pete. John’s ALWAYS got his camera with him — more so than I ever did or do — and he shot a bunch of photos of the two of us. It’s great because I’m very rarely on the other side of the camera, so I cherish these random photos I get of Emma and me.

A friend said earlier that photographers should edit — and not put up 50 photos of the same subject. But I beg to differ in this forum. If you’re here checking out this blog post, my bet is that you want to see all the photos.

So without further delay, click HERE to see the gallery.

PS: I really am outing myself here. Mommy doesn’t know I let the Little One have a tester sip of some of the best coffee in town. But, hey, Mommy’s been known to let Emma sip her chai tea, so there!

Daddy and Daughter May 21, 2011

Mommy was working today so Daddy and Emma went to have coffee with a friend. He had his camera with him and snapped this photo. I love it because I’m always the one behind the camera so there aren’t nearly enough photos of Emma and me together…

Emma’s First Dance Recital May 16, 2011

When Emma turned 3, she became old enough to begin participating in enrichment classes at the JCC, her school. This semester, she took two classes — Yoga/Nia and dance class. On Sunday, weeks of classes culminated in a dance recital. Emma LOVED it. She seems right at home up on a stage. I could go on about how cute she was, or how talented she is. But instead of my going on and on, we’ll just let you take a look-see yourself.

Click HERE to see the photo album from the recital.

Click HERE for a video of Emma’s dance.