OMG DID I TELL YOU?

Emmy is a vegetarian (for now)! I am so proud!!!!

The neighbors got some cows, right? Like 19. So anyway, the first day they got them we totally had a field trip of course to the neighbor's house to watch cows. Well prior to the field trip we were standing on the street watching the cows. Emmy says, "Mom, this is why I didn't eat chicken today. I don't eat meat anymore." I'm like, "really Emmy? That's great. Why?" Emmy says, "Because of these cows." I drop it b/c I'm obviously thrilled and don't want to get all excited about it- you're not supposed to do that, right? So I don't .
At grandma bo's 98th birthday party Emmy eats no ribs! She packs some stuff to take home and puts a rib in a bag. I said, "Hey, i thought you were a vegetarian." She says, "Yeah, but ribs are really good, mom." I'm pouting inside, but not too devastated since I was totally expecting this.

So the next day she takes out her bag of leftovers and she's eating the fruit and whatnot. She threw the bag w/ the rib in it away! YAY! Sweet!

We go to Denney's on Thursday. Now while she typically orders a Stars and Moon combo platter (or whatever it's called) with chicken nuggets and fried cheese, she asks if she can only have just the cheese. SWEET!

I'm so stoked. Callie is practically a vegetarian. Emmy's like a 75% vegetarian since I don't cook meat or mess with it really, except she breaks into the lunch meat every once in a while and really digs in. Callie likes her lunch meat too, but that's about it. She's more my sensitive girl, I guess. Emmy has always grasped that she's eating wilbur or a whatever, but it was no matter to her. Callie though, she's never been big on meat. I was giving up hope on my girls, though, to be quite honest, and hoping that Thomas would be my little veggie. Even though I hold out no hope that this will be long term, I do see it as a step in the realization that eating meat is disgusting and bad for you.

Now we have to work on Shad. He's given up high fructose corn syrup, partially hydrogenated oils, and enriched flour (well, for the most part). What's meat? I don't know though since he has no problem eating milk fed, caged baby cows. Sicko.

Forgot to say though that Emmy did threaten me with relinquishing her vegetarian status. She was mad at me today for something or other and she yelled "I'm going to eat meat then, mom." I told her to go ahead and that she needed to make the decision to not eat meat for herself rather than for me. So she was upset that I wasn't upset. So she went on about something else. But honestly, I didn't even bring this one on. I might feel a bit more guilty if this had come after a whole "you're eating wilbur right now" barrage of comments, but it didn't. We were just watching peaceful ugly cows eat weeds. So it was a total independent decision of hers.

Bedtime Prayers

So last night our bedtime prayers went like this:

Me: Dear God, thank you for this day, thank you for our family-
Emmy: Callie bend your head!And, and thank you for each other
Callie: And thank you for Love (but "love" was sung out all dramatically and accompanied w/ a little dance)
Me: Please help us to be good to each other, love each other and respect each other
Callie: And thank you for Thomas
Emmy: Help us be nice to each other and help the ants not come to our room and crawl all over us when we're sleeping
Callie: Thomas says thank you for milk
Me: Help us respect and love ourselves, help Callie not to spit
Emmy: Help Callie not talk when I'm trying to go to sleep.
Callie : I didn't Emmy
Emmy: Keep us from getting sick, help Thomas not to get sick
Callie: And thank you for love (sung)
Me: In Jesus' name Amen
Callie: In God's body
Emmy: Amen
Callie: Thank you for love

Sweet Little Emmy

Next year at some point Emmy will be moving up to a new class at her school. She's been telling me she doesn't want to go to Emily's class for whatever reason (I think it's b/c there's a girl who used to be in Emmy's class who moved up to that class and Emmy thinks this girl is mean/doesn't like her, but anyway....). She's been pretty emphatic about not wanting to go to this class. The other night when I was reading to the girls, Emmy started talking about her day at school and she told me "I want to go to Emily's class." I asked her why she had changed her mind. She said "Well.... I shouldn't be talking to you about this." This, of course, peaked my curiosity. I bugged her some more about it and she said, "Well, today at school I wanted Joan to check my stamp game (a math thing) and so I went up to her and said, 'Joan, will you check my stamp game work?' and a boy from Emily's class was sitting next to her and he turned around when I said that." So I asked her what this boy had to do with her wanting to go to Emily's class an she said, "Well, I need to apologize to him." I asked why and she said very ashamedly "I need to apologize to him." I asked what she did and she said, "Well he had a kinda funny face." So I asked her if she laughed at him, or said something to him, or made fun of him or talked about him and she said she didn't. So I told her that she really didn't need to apologize to him since sometimes thoughts pop into our head that we can't control, even if they're not nice, but that it was good that she didn't make fun of him or say something mean. She lied down, still concerned and said "Well I guess I just need to apologize to myself."

My God, I hope my little girl stays so nice. She feels guilty for having a thought pop into her head that a boy looked funny. She is so aware of her feelings and the feelings of others. She is quick to stand up for her sister and knows when she's wrong and actually cares about it.


On a lighter note, my little guy took a pacifier for the second time in his life. Thank God- I hope it continues. The boy refuses to accept anything plastic- he likes it real. But seriously, it is very rare that he sleeps for more than 45 minutes at a time during the day. Maybe he'll be able to take a bottle too. I was thinking I was going to have to hold off until he would take a cup. He also sat down for several seconds on his own to watch TMX. Any other time i prop him up, he might sit for a few seconds before he goes over, but he'll sit up nice and straight (for a few seconds anyway) for Elmo.

The girls started Circus on Friday. They're doing very well and having a great time. They love performing and the crowd loves them. I'll post pictures later- they are both very darling.

Tommy is 4 months old already!

Tommy is 4 months old. he's still a happy guy who loves attention and loves to talk. He gets attention wherever he goes due to his bright red hair! He loves his blankie and loves to chew on it. He is grabbing with both hands, can sit up on his own for a few seconds, and I'd say before he turns 5 months he'll have 2 bottom teeth, we'll see if I'm right :) He's 16 pounds on the home scale, that's 4 pounds heavier than Callie was when she was FIVE months old :) He's about the size Callie was at 9 months. He's 2 pounds heavier than Emmy was when she was 4 months old.

San Antonio

The most memorable part of San Antonio- Ronald.
Happy Thomas (Scarface) he had three different scratches on his face that week. Finally we got his nails trimmed.... Callie at the San Antonio Zoo in the butterfly garden. She caught one!
Callie feeding the lorakeets (sp?). I was freaked out in here. She had no problem feeding these birds. It was like a horror movie to me though. I guess I have a bird phobia. I was keeping Thomas away from the birds, ready to block his eyes. I just feared birds diving at our eyes. Some crazy folks had birds all over them- I was freaked out. We got rid of our food stuff and got the heck out of there. I had to explain mommy's nerosis to Callie. I told her I just wasn't a lot of fun and that some things scared me. She thought I was funny.

My happy little guy in his cool shirt.

All of us at Riverwalk. Emmy remembered the boats from two years ago when we visited. Thankfully we talked Papa into going again b/c it sure is beautiful and we had a good time.
Callie, Tommy & Mom at the Zoo on the fun train. We went on the train before and after leaving the zoo (the train is in a park outside of the zoo). Emmy stayed back at the range to play with Sam (she's mad now that she didn't go).
Emmy, Callie and Sam, the girls' shootin' buddy. Sam is 10 weeks younger than Emmy and they've known each other since birth. Sam recently moved to Utah for the good weather. Luckily the girls get to see each other every few months at shoots.
Cadence, Emmy, Brielle and Callie. Another moved away set of friends. Cadence and Brielle moved to Austin last year. Emmy wants to move to Texas now to be close to her. So sad.

The kids and I went with Grandma and Papa to San Antonio for the Southwestern Grand. We had a great time. Callie, Thomas and I went to the San Antonio Zoo. We had a great time. Emmy stayed behind to play with her longtime friend, Sam. The girls had a visit from their Texan friends Cadence and Brielle. We went and visited the Riverwalk again where Emmy fell in the river. Luckily she didn't get hurt and she didn't fall all the way in. She was walking too close to the boat and fell between the boat and the side of the river, just getting her leg wet. When we were at the Riverwalk, we met a lady from Texas and were talking to her about where she was from. We were walking and talking to her. When she told us she was from Texas Emmy said, "Well we're from Vermont" and just kept walking. It was hilarious. The girls also did their first Build A Bear and they loved it. Emmy created a pink and white bear named Polly Emersen and Callie created a green dino named Sara Elizabeth. They dressed them in princess costumes, Callie's as Tinkerbell and Emmy's as Ariel.

On the way to Texas I learned that Emmy knows the location of more states than I do. I say this both proud and embarrassed. Geography has never been my strong suit and I vowed that my kids would learn their states. We play state games on their big state rug, play Great States Jr., they eat on a US map placemat, etc. So I'm happy to say it appears to be working- Emmy's picking up her states very well. All the ones in the middle that look the same confuse me, but she corrects me and lets me know which one is Kansas, and such.



We all had a great time. Thomas was great. He is certainly an attention getter. Everyone wants to talk about his red hair and how sweet his smile is. He is very charming. The girls sold targets here, what Emmy calls "doubles". They didn't do so well, certainly not a successful venture that the rock selling in Phoenix was. But they had fun. They made new friends and got to play with old ones. Emmy is ready to go back to school to play with her friends, Callie doesn't want to go back. Her buddy Emmett is apparently running around chasing her and yelling "blue blueberry" so this has her mad at him and she doesn't want to go play with him.

Update!

When going to pick up our tax papers today, we saw a big water truck and a guy w/ big water bottles on a dolly. Emmy saw that and exclaimed, "Oooh, I wanna do that when I grow up." So she wants to be a water delivery person today :)

Yesterday at Emmy's tball game, Callie was in the stands and yelled out to Emmy, who was running onto the field, "Emmy, you're still running like a princess! Don't run like a princess, run like a girl, Emmy! C'mon.... When I say something, you listen!"

Emmy was mad at her teacher today for not letting her go back into class and hug everyone goodbye. Callie told Emmy, "When we see her again, I'll lock her up for you Emmy. I'll put her in jail." They went on to talk about how long she'd be in jail, what she'd have in jail (no clothes, only underwear), and such. A few minuets later the girls were telling the tax guy how much she and Callie love school.

Thomas is now in size 3 diapers. He's my little cholito in 6-12 mos shorts, esp when he's sporting white socks pulled up :) 3-6 mos pants are too tight around his chubby little waist. He's doing scrunches though, trying to sit up to see everything, so he's working on his chub. He's still very talkative and stuff.

The girls are getting ready for circus, which will be next month. They can't wait.

My sanitary Callie.
Emmy, who came out of the bathroom asking,"Who just came out of the bathroom lookin' like a movie star?", and Callie all ready for school, posing for a quick picture with Dooc and Thomas.
This is how my kids watch tv.... Morningtime is so much fun. Thomas is lively and happy and the girls are too (most of the time), so the girls take turns handing off Thomas and entertaining him. Thomas has a favorite show already (I know, bad mom)- Jack's Big Music Show. When that show comes on, his arms and legs really start going. It's so cute!

My Kids making cupcakes :)
My babies ready to go to Easter Saturday service :)
Thomas and Callie ready for bed and looking cute!
My little guy in his crib (for the first time). He likes his friends on the mobile.
Emmy and Thomas having a conversation.

Since Gretchen had her baby a few days ago, I just couldn't believe that Thomas was ever as small as little Natalee, let alone SMALLER! So I went back to look at pictures taken shortly after his birth and stumbled upon this one. It's precious, taken on Christmas Day, soon-to-be 98 year-old Grandma Bo with her 4 day-old boy.