Early onset manipulation

"But Mommy, yoooouuuuu'rrrrre the best cleaner in the whole wooorrrrrllldd!"
Emmy age 3 - said after I asked her to clean up the Pirates Booty she just made "rain" over Rosa's head.

"Oh was I speeding Officer...Pretty?

 

                       *10 points if you can name that TV show reference.

On lockdown at Target

Know what's worse than being stuck at Target with 2 kids in the dark due to a freaky rain/wind storm that knocked down a nearby power line?
Having your potty trained 3 year old tell you she's "gotta go now!".  Yep, holding your 3 yr. old over a toilet in one arm with your 1 yr. old in the other arm in a dark creepy public restroom stall at Target.

On the upside, we had to dash to the store because we have been "Boo-ed".  We found a cute little Halloween basket with tons of toys and treats outside our door this morning, with a note basically saying to "pass it on" to 2 other neighbors who do not have an "I've been Boo-ed" sign on their door, like we have now.  Have fun is that???  Our neighborhood rocks!!!!!  Totally worth navigating a public restroom in the dark.

Frozen sausage popsicle

Takers?  No?  Really?  Alrighty then, more for me.

Almost every day while I have the freezer door open for meal prep Rosa stealthily slides in and grabs the box of Applegate Farms chicken sausage (an Emmy and Rosa fave), pulls out a sausage or two and then happily scoots around the house licking her delicious meat popsicle while I am cooking (don't worry, they're fully cooked).  Gross, yes.  Effective entertainment, absolutely.  Yes, I could perhaps move the box higher up in the freezer to avoid this situation, but I'm not going to for the following reasons:
1.  Sometimes whatever keeps her occupied while I'm cooking (short of knife juggling, which I'm sure  is not too far down on her to do list) is just fine by me.
2.  I'll admit it, it's always entertaining to me. 
Mange!

Reasons why I don't bake with Emmy very often anymore

Exhibit A

Baking cupcakes without the dry mix is surprisingly challenging. 

Pumpkin Patchin'

The other weekend we got our spooky on and started prepping for the big Trick or Treating weekend (I would call it Halloween, but it's really all about the candy, non?)!  Drew and I aren't super into excessive holiday decorating (hi Mom!), but now that we own 2 littles, and are new kids on the block (oh oh o-oh oh) in a neighborhood that is totally into decorating, we had to step it up.  We went to a Pumpkin Farm not too far from us called "Blooms and Berries".  They had all kinds of festivities (corn maze, sunflower walk, egg toss etc...) but the girls were only interested in playing among the pumpkins.

"Okay, these are the ones we want!"

 

"Oh yes, now I see...that is a fine looking pumpkin"

It's called quality control people

Emmy preferred the pumpkins to be single file.

At home,Emmy wanted to decorate the pumpkins rather than carve them, which was fine by us, less work less mess.  Sort of.

2 small children plus 2 black markers...genius!

Oh wait, you have just a little something on your...

We hung a few decorations.  Behold Disco Skeleton.

Umm...because he's AWESOME.

 Emmy and Drew made some ghosts filled with berries from her "berry picking tree".

A well fed ghost

And we got some costumes.  SNEAK PEEK...

Emmy only likes costumes when she can make this noise. RARRRRR!

"You look like a pink nightmare!"  

 

Looking forward to Saturday night!!!

"Meee, I waaant a huuuula hooooop"

Alvin, Simon, Theodore...doo do do doo do do doo

Genealogy

1 born and raised Hoosier + 1 born and raised Buckeye x 2 Hoosier alums does not = a Buckeye fan.

Oh come on, you didn't really think I'd post that, did you?

Sorry Grammy, E's not jumping on your bandwagon;) 
                           

"Once upon a time there was a boy named Mom"

That is the first line of the story Emmy "read" to me from the book she snagged off of Drew's dresser (The End of Poverty) this morning.  I still couldn't make out the second line, even after making her repeat the story dozens of times ("Mommy this is the LAST TIME OKAY?!"), but it ended with "and then she had a big sister named Rosa.  The end".  Awesome.
She insisted on bringing this book to the mall when we went to run errands later, and sat in the stroller "reading" quietly as we walked around.  A lot of people would watch her, then look up at me and I was all "ya, what's your kid reading...Goodnight Moon?"

Heatin' up the neurons

On high alert

Look out world.  As of this morning Rosa "the rebel" Lloyd has started cruising all over the house.  She's also climbing on couches, cuddlers and coffee tables (oh my!) and flailing herself off of them with sheer abandon and the wild look in her eyes of an adrenaline junkie, or someone purposefully trying to unnerve their mother.
Consequently, and on a completely separate note I'm sure, I noticed this morning that she might have my Mom's smile. 
Lil' Bill with a lil' bit o' Betty mixed in?  That is trouble my friends.  T. R. O. U. B. L. E.

Casing the deck for dangerous activities later.

 

 

Practicing triple side somersault dismount, with a grin to distract you.

PS - why are my kids always in pajamas?

I mean, really?

In the amount of time it took me to pour myself a bowl of cereal for lunch today (I know, I'm a total foodie), Rosa consumed an entire banana and 1 slice of Kraft Singles.  Really.
Is that even normal??
I wasn't watching, so for all I know she shoved the whole banana down at once a la the freaky hot dog eating competitors.  I think I will give her a belly massage before nap time to try to smush it up a little;)

Sometimes I make her do tricks for seconds.

Workin' it off baby, workin' it off

Oh dear

So, last night mid-dinner, Emmy got up to go to the potty and returned buck naked running into the room yelling "surprise!".  She followed up with a little dance, a modified twist if you will, with a little extra booty shaking.
I put a blanket around her for the rest of dinner as she had no intention of getting dressed, and later was asked (in the strangely monotone voice of someone you might meet in a dark alley) "hey...wanna see my body?" Blanket opened.  "TA DA!"
She followed this act up with a session of licking everyone in the room.  Rosa got it the worst, much to her enjoyment, with a full on pulling out of the ear to get the crevice behind. 
Drew and I agreed that this does not bode well for her college years.

"Yes officer, we'll pay the bail...this time"

Aspirations

This morning during an errand run, Emmy informed me that she would like to be a "truck driver when I'm older".  I commended her for her early work ethic, and then asked her what the rest of us should be. She said that "Rosa can be a mailman", "Daddy can be a whale fisher" (really?) and "Mommy, you can be a ghost!" 
I'm pretty sure I got the short end of the stick there...on life insurance policy alone.

"Oh, I'm delivering...delivering STYLE"

"My good friend Harrison"

That's what Emmy calls her cousin Harrison when she talks about him...which is always.
Me:  "How about we go to the duck pond this morning?"
Emmy:  "Okay...is my good friend Harrison going to be there?"

"Yeah that's right.  The ladies loves me..and I loves the ladies"

*Disclaimer* If you are over the age of 12 and/or over 100 lbs.,  don't even consider riding that slide.  I still have unspeakable injuries.

Who can blame her really.  I mean, check out that mug!  We are coming to play at your rockin playground soon!!!

I told them to smile...fake laugh...love it.  A paparazzo's dream.  And then there's Posh Spice.