Mom, can you buy me more dresses?

Emily is now four and half years old and she is definitely our girly girl.  Every morning when we are getting ready for school I will pick out the girls' outfits for the day and usually don't get any complaints on what I choose, until now.  Emily recently became upset that I didn't pick a dress out for her and demanded she wear a dress that day.

At the moment we are between winter and summer,because in Texas our spring season is about a month or two long with weather varying from 50-80 degrees at any given time.  Emily is also growing like a weed and I am in the process of buying new clothing, so I didn't have a dress for her on that 80 degree day, especially since I still had all winter clothes out in their drawers.  "Mom, can you buy me more dresses?"  Yes Emily I will buy you many dresses so I do not have to struggle with you every morning on what you are going to wear.

We are working on Emily getting used to her dogs and the backyard.  We received a request to get a playground but will not buy one until Emily learns to play out back with the dogs present.  She is just starting to request going to play in the backyard, but will only play for about 10 minutes before coming back inside.  That is great progress but we aren't quite there yet.

At this age whining is bigger than ever and drives us nuts.  Emily tries to use whining as a way to achieve what she wants with us and her sister.  Avery doesn't pay attention and will ignore Emily but I can't stand to hear her whine.  I don't give in to her whines and tantrums but I can't wait for her to get out of this phase.  Discipline is being enforced in new creative ways so the girls follow directions and do what they are asked of them.  Emily has a difficult time doing what is asked of her and will immediately start to complain that she is too tired to complete the task, this is especially done when asked to put her toys away.  I have come up with the hands on rule, which is, if mom touches the toy it goes in the trash.  That usually gets her going although I have thrown toys away so she knows I mean business.

Aside from tantrums and whines, Emily is really coming along at school with her learning.  As a preschooler is subject to assessment tests and both so far have come out with her doing great.  She is fantastic at vocabulary and letter recognition but still needs help with number recognition.  Counting is no problem and she seems to be doing great a simple math.  She still loves to paint and create art with her crayons.  She has a big imagination and loves to pretend play.  The biggest aggravation to her is when Avery doesn't listen to her instructions.  She has become a little bossy!  I still am amazed at her memorization skills especially when it comes to music.  Emily can memorize lyrics to a song after hearing it only twice.

Emily is great at observing people and listening.  We have to watch what we say around her because she will use it later when she is pretending.  I have heard her use my phrasing when disciplining her dolls.  Sometimes she will come home from school and use phrases she has learned from her teacher or her friends.  Lately she has been using the phrase "nuts and berries" when she is denied a request.

 "Mom, can you buy me a candy?"
 "Not right now Emily."
"Oh, nuts and berries."

I can't wait to see what the summer will bring.  Emily has already requested some beach action and I am researching some gyms to take them to start gymnastics class.  I can't wait!

We're Off to the Circus!

The Al Amin Shriners circus comes to town a couple of times a year and we thought it was the right time for the girls to experience this great show.  We got tickets from Valero who sponsors the event, we would like to thank Apa for getting them for us.  We went prepared with ear plugs for both girls and an extra pair just in case.  After the movie theater incident with Emily I wanted to make sure we didn't have to leave early because of the noise.

As we were arriving Emily was greeted by her friend Macy from school who just so happened to be going to the same show.  They gave each other a hug and we went our separate ways only to later coincidentally find each other when taking our seats, so both girls got to sit next to each other.

The show first began with the Royal Bengal Tigers doing tricks in their cage.  We were all amazed at how beautiful and how big these tigers actually are in size.  They even had white tigers among the normal orange coated ones.  Next came the aerial trapeze performers and then the clown who made the audience interact with him, he was the funniest clown.  I missed the camel performances because the girls needed to go to the bathroom, but we made it back just in time to see the elephant performance.  There was an intermission during which you could ride the elephants, horses, or camels.  The girls weren't interested in riding the animals, which was great because the line for the rides were too long.  What they were interested in were the huge balloons and the glow wands.  We all snacked on popcorn and cotton candy, thanks to daddy and Apa who couldn't help but buy their babies anything they wanted.  By the end of the show we all ran out of money.

After intermission Avery was tired and wanted to go home.  She was a trooper and let us stay to finish the show.  I am so happy we stayed because we were able to see the motorcycle team perform flips in the air and the best part of the show which was the human cannonball.  Although this part was really loud, Emily didn't seem to mind and she was having a great time.

The girls loved the show and are ready to go back for another one.  I think next time we will wait for the Barnum and Bailey's circus.  One hilarious moment we have to remember is when one of the Al Amin members who was dressed as a clown stopped by to say hello to friends who were sitting behind us.  Emily suddenly looked fear stricken and turned to tell her daddy, "Don't let him take me!"  Don't we all feel that way when we see clowns?!?  So funny!

Texas Bluebonnets in the Spring!

Every March the bluebonnets and wild flowers bloom in Texas bringing a wonderful violet color to the landscape.  We decided to stop alongside the highway and show the girls what those wonderful flowers were and take a couple of pictures.  Stopping along the highway to take pictures with the bluebonnets is a tradition among most Texans and now that the girls are older, I thought it would be great to start this tradition with them.  Some people think that picking bluebonnets is against the law, but I recently found out that it is not.  What is against the law is tying up traffic so you can pick the flowers, so watch where you stop and make sure it is a safe place away from traffic.

Happy Valentine's Day

Day at the Museum of Science and History

Emily came up to us one day and decided she wanted to go to the museum after watching an episode of Peppa Pig.  She and Avery have been before with Nonna and Alyssa and she wanted to go back to see the dinosaurs.  So on a free weekend we went to the Museum of Natural Science and History.  The last time I was there I was in grammar school and was expecting it to be as big as I remembered but to my surprise it was rather small.

When we arrived we went to the rock collection and reptile exhibit.  I was very happy to see the girls being open minded and putting aside their fears.  Nonna said they wouldn't dare go near the reptile exhibit when she took them but this time they even tried touching the different textures.

After skipping the gun ammo exhibit we came across the dinosaur exhibit which was all of two skeletons on display.  Apparently the museum is working on their dinosaur exhibit but at least we have something to look forward to next time we visit.

We got around to the place where they keep the ships and explain how Corpus Christi was discovered and founded.  Emily thought the ship was the Jolly Roger, which is Captain Hook's ship on the show Jake and the Neverland Pirates.  I'm glad she could relate somewhat.

I showed her what the first people to reach our coast looked like and she took one look at the man and said, "It's Jesus!"  Not quite, but I can see the resemblance.

I couldn't avoid the children's section because it is right in the center of the museum.  I had planned on leaving that for last, but we got to be hands on with all the neat puzzles.

I managed to get them away for a little bit to take them on a tour of the rest of the museum.  We learned about our local native Indians, the Karankawa Indians.  We also saw what our local cowboys used to ranch in our area.  My favorite part of the whole museum are the replica items from the early 1900's, which Emily and Avery thought was a big dollhouse.  It was hard to get them not to try and go behind the glass.

Before the museum closed we went back to the children's place and played our hearts out.  It was nice to have the place to ourselves.

Where to go after a great time at the museum, the park , of course.  We always have fun at the park!