One terrific Two!

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Wow! How amazing is it that we have a two year old now. And at two Emma can do so many amazing things, more every day. But first off....

Let's talk about Emma's birthday. What a full, busy, eventful day. Both sets of grandparents were there, many others from Patricks family, most of Emma's friends, new friends from our neighborhood plus a friend from Winnipeg who happened to be a few hours away for work. We got all the food done but not all of it out, it was much less organized than I hoped it would be and it was missing a few things I was looking forward to, BUT. It was a very special day bringing everyone together to wish Emma a happy birthday. She got her own slice of the cake (we usually share one) made a new friend, and felt the love from all around her. Thanks to everyone, near and far, who was a part of it!

And now some stuff as a Two or just-about-two year-old.

Picking berries! We have dozens of wild berry bushes in our yard. 

Emma's new make-believe game that she brings everywhere is to have a bug in her hand. I was surprised by how in depth her imagination was this weekend, at the poolside of my parents hotel in Tarrytown. Emma scooped up a bee from the water then laid it down on a towel. She said the bee was shaking off the water! Then she scooped up a worm.

..which was wiggling, see? She also brings over imaginary ants to read Effie, a story about an ant with a thunderous voice. She shows me bugs and lizards and turtles she has in her cupped hand pretty often. Very cute

Emma received a rocking chair from a very thoughtful 9 year old boy from our neighborhood. 

Meeting a neighbors cat at a friends house. Not our friends cat but potential friends for Emma, as all animals are. 

Testing out her new tempera paint sticks from our friends Helen and Millie. They're so smooth on paper, easy for her to open and close without assistance and virtually mess-free. So this mama is sold! 

More of these delicious berries. We can't stop!

Running through the garden hose!

And from this morning, Emma sitting in 'meadow flowers' trying to eat them like the friendly cow in a poem we read often. Emma recalls what must be hundreds of poems and stories in her play and has a deep interest in new vocabulary, characters, themes, and the all sorts of ideas portrayed through writing. Reading and recreating books is one of our favorite things to do. I will post next about her favorite books and the ways she lives them.

One last thing before signing off here and getting to work during Emma's nap.. Yesterday I was able to make a very special duvet and cover for Emma, as she has a new room and needed her own blanket to go with it. The fabric we picked out at Joanne's, it took a few simple stitches and some snaps and it was completed in two hours. 

And here it is in use:

I think it did the trick, because Emma slept through the night in her new room until I woke her the next morning, for the first time. My big girl!

(And I slept pretty well, too ;-))

Making lemonade

New room and new discoveries

Emma's room all set up. This is during naptime, see little Emma in her bed? The shades for the other windows are on the way, hopefully it will make it a little darker in there for naps.

Where's the fireworks? 

Our first cherry tomato was just ripe enough to be plucked off and sampled

Approved!

Found stars in an apple core

View of Emma's wonderful, wonderful room from her bed. So much room to grow!

Emma's Castle

Emma's room is DONE besides minor things we can work in while the room is filled with all her belongings. She has a few new pieces of furniture which came with the house, I changed them up a little to better fit the room. My favorite is this low table (or is this a bench?) that I sanded the top of to the bare pine wood. It's light and natural but the dark stained legs give it a nice contrast. Emma uses this table for cutting her fruit and making food for her animals. 

This fruit cutting set was given to Emma by CoCo, and the fruit for the most part were packed away until now. They were too comfortable for Emma to throw so we thought we'd reintroduce them a little later. 

Today it is the first thing Emma went for when we went to her room after breakfast. She cut all the fruit into pieces then exclaimed, "Emma work hard, like Daddy!"

So right, little girl! 

Emma zips about her room to wherever inspiration takes her.

These shelves in the last two pictures came with the house, they were dark wood and mounted on the livingroom wall. I sanded them and painted them to match the wall color.

Emma raining animals down on sandwich toppings- of course!

Her table has five wooden toddler sized chairs I found on craigslist for $2 each which will be perfect for when we host play dates. That open wall between the windows could house a couple shelves for art supplies but I have to be sure this is where the table and chairs are staying before we start drilling into these walls- we had so many to fill when we were prepping for paint!

Putting her babies down for naptime c:

So that's is so far! We think Emma's bed will be moved in this weekend and the transformation will be complete. Very excited!!