Spring is here

It's officially spring and Emerson is officially a Texan. It was beautiful day!

Welcome to Emersonville, TX

My great boss, Benita, gave this to Emerson. It used to belong to her nephew, who is now 11 and much more interested in video games and learning to drive the jeep. Emerson loves it!!! She has buildings, cars, animals and people who come to live, work, play and mostly drive here - her version of Sim City. Barbie has even been known to make an appearance. Emerson will happily play for hours in Emersonville. As you can see, there is lots to see and do.

BUBBLES!!!!

Gymboree Party

Emerson is lucky enough to be invited to lots of birthday parties. A few Saturday's ago, we went to Gymboree to celebrate Emerson's classmate Michelle's 3rd birthday. This was our first trip to the Gymboree 'gym' and it was a lot of fun. I can see the value of such a place for kids that stay home with their Mom's. It was a lot of fun and we all enjoyed ourselves.

Pink and purple cupcakes.....who can resist?

Playing with the bubbles. There was something special about these bubbles. They had some serious hang time and seemed harder to pop. We gotta get some of those bubbles!

Balancing on the log. Emerson had a great time with all the small, age appropriate equipment.
Thanks Michelle for including Emerson in your celebration!! Happy Birthday!

Emerson's POV

Emerson the amateur photog is at it again. I think she's actually getting better, read: she doesn't put her finger over the lens anymore. Rather than random photos, she actually finds objects to photograph; she's of the realist leaning. Take note, these may end up in a gallery someday! ;)

"Lone CROC"

"Toys"

"Horizontal Daddy"

"Monique with Kleenex box pillow"

Great Olympics, eh?

I am a bit of an obsessed Olympic fan. I get so caught up in all the competition, personal stories of the athletes, the sportsmanship. I become so inspired by their talent, dedication and sacrifice.

I can't help it, it happens every time. These winter Olympics were a bit more special to me because they took place on 'my home and native land'.
If you know anything about Canada, then you know that hockey is the national pastime, the national game, the national sport, the national pride. Hockey is VERY IMPORTANT to Canadians. Emerson was wearing her team colors with pride, the jersey given as a gift for her 1st birthday by her wonderful Tio Blanco (Uncle Tim, or Tio Timmy as Emerson calls him) in anticipation of the final gold medal game between the 2 biggest hockey rivals since the USA/USSR game of the 1980 Olympics. It was an awesome game and we were on the edge of our seats the whole time. Of course, we were thrilled when Canada won. CANADA WON!!!

Of course I have to give a shout out to Justin Olsen, the San Antonian who was part of a 4 man team that pushed USA-1 Bobsled to their first gold since 1948!

The games were all around awesome in my opinion; I loved every moment of them. And as always, I feel a sense of let down, mixed with relief when they are over. What am I going to do until London 2012????

Back seat driver

Anyone need help driving? Which way to turn? What the lights on the stop light mean? What color ALL the cars are? Because Emerson is available and she is tireless. Does anyone else experience this with their small child/ren?
She knows that green means "Go" and red means "Stop" and that orange (I tell her it's yellow, she insists it's orange, I don't argue) means "Slow Down". And she is very good at telling me what the current condition of the light is. What she hasn't grasped is the timing of such actions in relation to the color of the light. The other day, we were driving and approaching an intersection. The light turned yellow and my driving advisor informed me that it was "Orange, Mommy, slow down". She was right and I began to slow down. Then the light turned red and Emerson began to yell "Red, stop, Mommy, red, stop, Mommy". Yes, the light up ahead at the intersection was indeed red, but since we were still a bit away from said intersection, I didn't stop. Well, let me tell you, that my driving advisor did not like this one bit, because red means "stop". Right here. Where you are. No matter that you are still a block away from the intersection. Red means STOP!
There were a few tears. That went away when I went "this way, Mommy" to make her smile again.