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Emma called me at work this morning to see if...
December 30, 2008 by Adam in Emma
Emma called me at work this morning to see if I was feeling better since I was so sick yesterday. It was very sweet, and evidently she did it all on her own. When I talked to Jamie afterwards, she had no idea Emma had called me up.
Emma's been a treat this winter vacation. We've drawn together, pretended to be assorted creatures, and spent a long time playing in the snow. For some reason, her voice sounds different to me these days. I can't tell if it's deeper, or if her conversations are just more intellectual.
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Emma's struggling with a cold, having been ou...
December 09, 2008 by Adam in Emma
Emma's struggling with a cold, having been out of school since late last week. She has a red eye too, probably some kind of secondary infection. Other than the occasional headache, she seems to be doing okay. Yesterday she was looking like she'd fall asleep at dinner, then afterwards was doing Kung Fu flips in the basement.
Emma's reading and writing are improving immensely. She watched High School Musical and made a Wildcats! sign for her bedroom. She needed a little help with spelling, but otherwise did just great. Of course, later she tried to get me to dance like the High School Musical people, but I wasn't quite able to pull it off.
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Emma's at fun age
October 28, 2008 by Adam in Emma
 Emma's at fun age. She's still a little kid in many respects, enjoying playing pretend and having me carry her around the house. At the same time, I see her as being on the cusp of turning into a big kid.
Lately she's been working hard at reading and writing, voluntarily practicing her skills when she has a few minutes. Last night I was giving her a bath, and we broke out the foam letters. I'd put up a word and see if she could read it. Eventually it degenerated into her randomly arranging the letters and making me pronounce the bizarre outcome.
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Emma had growing pains again last night
September 30, 2008 by Adam in Emma
Emma had growing pains again last night. I climbed into bed with her around 4:30 am, but she couldn't get back to sleep and so I did all the things my mother did. The muscle massages helped a little, but mostly the warm bath and Tylenol did the trick. Eventually I'd like her to try stretching, but it always seems to hurt so much. Poor girl.
In any case, Emma gave me a call this morning, asking for pizza for breakfast. All is well again.
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I took Emma to the fair last night, along wit...
August 14, 2008 by Adam in Emma
 I took Emma to the fair last night, along with my coworker Summer who's been down to help with the hospital move. Emma was completely excited, as she's become enamored of Summer. I think Summer was less maternal to Emma and more wanting to be a five year-old again. The entire time I felt like I was chaperoning a play date between the two.
We started by looking at the animals. The mama pigs are always fun, and Emma liked the baby pigmy goats. I personall liked the chickens that were giant puff-balls, with no eyes visible. I decided they moved about purely with their sense of smell.
Later on we went out into the junk food, carnie games, and monster trike rides. It was all fairly overwhelming, and we finally wandered over to the kid ride section. We very quickly blew through twenty bucks for three rides. Emma went on the balloon ride all by herself, looking occasionally nervous but proud of her bravery afterwards. There was also a pig race and someone juggling with fire. Summer spoiled her the entire time. Eventually I declared it was time to go home and we wandered back, Emma often holding Summer's hand.
While Sam's been going on play dates non-stop this Summer, poor Emma has only had a handful. I'm glad she was able to finally have one, even if it was with someone a couple decades older.
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We rearranged our bedroom last weekend, pushi...
July 24, 2008 by Adam in Emma
We rearranged our bedroom last weekend, pushing the bed up against the upstairs window. It made for a great view and the kids love it, though we made a rule about not ever jumping on the bed.
This morning I was headed off to work, when I heard "Daddy!" coming from the heavens above. I looked up and saw a smiling, naked Emma looking out the window. She wished me a good day and said that she looked forward to seeing me in the afternoon.
It's made me happy all morning.
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Emma's transitioned nicely into Summer
June 26, 2008 by Adam in Emma
 Emma's transitioned nicely into Summer. She's currently going to cooking camp at the Little French School. Every night she's been bringing home assorted goodies for us to munch on. Though it's often challenging to get her out the door, she seems to have a good time with the other kids and her teachers.
She's also been doing her "summer school", which involves going through some Hooked on X books. They seem relatively good, and she's pretty excited about them. She finished her writing book, practicing her letters. She's got addition down and can recognize her numbers. Now I want to start in on reading, as she's just about ready to figure out letter sounds and put them all together.
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Emma was a rock star for her doctor appointme...
June 09, 2008 by Adam in Emma
Emma was a rock star for her doctor appointment this morning (I'm using the term "rock star" because "great" doesn't come close to it).
She was excited to see Doctory Jimmy, and answered all his questions with great humor and enthusiasm. She cheerfully followed directions and did a great job copying symbols, writing her name, and drawing a picture of herself.
When it came time to get her four shots, she sat quietly on my lap as I read stories to her. She didn't cry, flinch, or anything at all. Even the nurse was amazed, saying that everyone cries when they get that last shot (which was the most painful one).
Later on she said, "It was just like being pinched. A really hard pinch!" Even Sam didn't do as good as Emma when it was his turn years ago. What a trooper.
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Perhaps she is greiving the fact that she wil...
May 21, 2008 by Jamie in Emma
Perhaps she is greiving the fact that she will be five soon, and no longer able to legally avoid school, frolic naked at the beach, or pass gas and have people say, "Oh, isn't that cute!"
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Just to document that Emma isn't made up of s...
May 21, 2008 by Adam in Emma
Just to document that Emma isn't made up of sugar and spice and everything nice, I thought I'd quickly relay a temper-tantrum she had last night.
She was yelling and destroying things and kicking. We tried everything, even carrying her around outside like when she was a baby. Not much worked and eventually she got tired and went to sleep.
It was quite surprising to me, though. Normally she's such a sweet girl. I can tell she'll be fun as a teenager.
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Emma just told Jamie that she had "sensationa...
May 02, 2008 by Adam in Emma
Emma just told Jamie that she had "sensational motherness".
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I just got this e-mail with the subject "From...
March 27, 2008 by Adam in Emma
I just got this e-mail with the subject "From Emma" in my InBox:
dad
dear dadda emma loves you with all her heart. even mom too, and so does jamie love you with all her heart
and sigh i was a poop for you
emma
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Emma's been really excited about Easter this year
March 23, 2008 by Adam in Emma
 Emma's been really excited about Easter this year. Throughout the week at school, they've been making eggs and drawing pictures of bunnies and chicks. Yesterday we spent hours working on Easter-themed projects. There was a paper bunny named Lucy that became our table's centerpiece. I took the "Happy New Year's" off a party thingie and turned it into bunny ears. We made and colored paper eggs and taped them on the kitchen door.
This morning Jamie had to keep Emma in bed until seven o'clock, as she was up early. She came down the stairs and was all smiles as she went looking for eggs and opened them up. At this point, she knows that we're the ones hiding them, but it doesn't seem to diminish the magic all that much.
After the egg hunt, we did a Peter Rabbit puzzle and I read the story of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle in a British accent.
Now she's watching Barbie Mariposa, a fairy-themed Barbie video. She opened up the little marketing brochure inside the DVD case, filled with cross-promotional advertisements for dolls and such. Her first words were "Can I have these?" We laughed and replied, "All of them?" Later on she looked over all her Easter goodies and said, "I didn't get very much."
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I don't seem to talk about Emma all that much...
February 19, 2008 by Adam in Emma
I don't seem to talk about Emma all that much, unless she's feeling under the weather. Let's see if I can remedy that.
I pulled into the driveway from work yesterday afternoon. Emma waved at my arrival, then went back to looking for lady bugs in the shrubbery. It was a bright, crisp day and all the kids were running around outside. Jamie went in and I kept an eye on Emma. She decided to water the planter box, so I helped fill a watering can for her. She watched Sam and the neighbor boys climb our cherry tree, then eventually decided to head inside.
We went down into the basement and ended up playing miniature golf. Emma, Sam, and Jamie had played earlier that day, so Emma was excited about recreating the experience in our basement. She had the score card and a pencil, and pretended to be the shop keep. She had me write down my name and she explained the rules. After a couple rounds, she decided I should be a robber who stole something. I stole the recycling away, which she didn't think was all that amusing.
We wandered upstairs where Jamie was watching Gone With the Wind. I'd never actually seen it, and both Emma and I decided the costumes and overly dramatic Scarlett were pretty neat. Eventually dinner happened, and I pulled her away. Emma was unhappy with her dinner, so Jamie ended up feeding her noodles.
Afterwards we literally ran around in the basement for awhile. I'd chase her, trying to tickle her, and we'd go in repeated circles. Emma thought that was hugely amusing. Later on she went upstairs and Jamie gave her a bath, read her stories, and got her to sleep.
That's a pretty typical day in the life of Emma. She's a great kid and a wonderful daughter. I'm a lucky man.
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Poor little Emma is sick again
February 03, 2008 by Adam in Emma
 Poor little Emma is sick again. Yesterday she was sleepy all day, perking up only after I gave her Motrin. She woke up again this morning, moaning and rolling around, so I gave her some more. Unfortunately it didn't do well with her stomach, so she was soon throwing up too. Poor girl.
She's now on the couch watching Peter Pan while I do laundry and get ready for the day. I had hoped to go grocery shopping, but we may just take it easy.
Despite it all, Emma managed to do quite a bit of projects and playing yesterday. We got into Sam's Christmas presents and opened up the model airplane kit. Soon we had a psychedelically painted balsa wood plane, covered in stickers. We also put together a Fairy puzzle and played pretend in the basement. Hopefully today we can do more of the same, though perhaps a little more slowly.
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Older Posts
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City of Emma
Emma's Stats
82 lbs
clothing: 10-12
Shoes: 8
Emma's Birth Announcement
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