Partners in Crime

I see your baby.

And I raise you one.

Summer Festival

Emma's pre-school had a fun Circus party for their summer break celebration. (School is on break for 3 weeks starting Friday).

It was so fun, and the best part was seeing Emma around so many other children! She is such a social butterfly and afraid of nothin'. It's amazing to see this inner strength in a child so young.

Emma was the "assistant to the magician" for her portion of the show. She was amazing. She pulled the rabbit out of the hat, and promptly threw it into the audience with a smile on her face!

Below you can see Emma's two besties, Lily & Mattia. They all have a serious love/hate relationship, says the school's teachers. They have formed their own "Fight Club" of sorts. They wrestle and play so hard that Emma comes home with bruises & bite marks...and I'm sure the other two do as well! One minute they're fighting with each other, the next minute they're taking on a row of 1 year olds - well, they probably had it coming! :)

Emma & Mattia

Mmmmm, popcorn!

Lily & Emma

She rides

So, Miss Emma is now mobile in a new way. She has her first bike - well, kinda.

Emma has been expressing interest in bikes since she stole Giosue's bike at her birthday party and took it for a spin around the lawn. She also says, "Emma's bike" to absolutely every person and/or bike we see on the street. Some (german) people are not amused.

So Christian decided safety comes first and bought her a helmet. Nice, right? WRONG. You see, her bought her this nice helmet...BUT NO BIKE. So when she put this nice helmet on and immediately asked her Papa with beautiful hazel eyes gazing up at him, "Where's my bike?" He had a big, UH OH moment. Mmhmmmmm.

So, we called that nice friend that Emma stole the bike from before and asked if we could borrow it. She obliged since her guy is now on a regular bike. **In Germany, most kids start on bikes with no pedals, so they have to learn balance - then they graduate to pedals and skip the whole "training wheels" thing because they have already learned to balance!

Within two hours of having said helmet, it already had taken some beatings...

She loves to ride her bike and feels like such a big girl. She IS in so many ways. She's only two and yet I already hear my parent words echoing in my ears, "it goes so fast". It sure does!

Proud (emma) Mary keep on rollin'!

Oh yeah, and sometimes she has to sleep & eat at the dinner table with the helmet or all hell breaks loose. Normal? Yeah, probably....

4 years ago today...

I was marrying the most handsome, smartest and perfect man for me.

Happy Anniversary, bubby!

We're starting to tackle the toilet

So we have begun the challenge of potty training.

Let me tell you, with 2 newborns squaking around the house, it has been easier to put it off than to get started. However, now I truly feel that she's ready to take it on.

She knows when she has to go potty before, but it's just teaching her how to hold it. She hates wearing a diaper if it's wet and can take it off herself and lays down to change it. (See previous post about how good she changes her own diaper!)

We haven't gone hard-core just yet. I think when we're in France for 3 weeks in July I will just put her in underwear and work on it then. It will be much easier when we're in the Garden or water all day to do it, I think.

She has a little Frog Potty (see below) and a Kinder toilet seat (see below below). She prefers the Frog more because she can still multitask while on it - sound familiar?! We've tried reading books to her when she sits on the Kinder toilet seat, but she just doesn't like to sit still! And obviously by looking at the photo, she doesn't truly "get" it's use just yet! :)

Hello Froggy!

Watch what I can build!

Just call her Minnie Mouse!

So, here's my plea to all my Mommy Friends...what can I do?? Any ideas would be appreciated, please send them ALL to me! Thanks.