Beeg Gore Potty!

That's right! Emma's been all about the bathroom lately and figured out that if she sat on the potty she'd get a treat! How fun! So we took her on a special trip to pick out a big girl potty. The whole way to the store she kept saying "beeg gore potty!" with a proud smile. Once we got down the potty aisle, she seemed more interested in the baby toys on the other side and couldn't concentrate long enough to choose one herself.....that is until she spotted the Dora potty! So now she sits upon a throne of Dora and Boots and is excited to do so! We weren't expecting much from this not-even-two-year-old, but she surprised us and went potty! She was really excited to get a Dora sticker and a treat, so hopefully this will work for her! Selfishly, I would enjoy having only one in diapers!!! The funny part is that she likes to have us "weed Queeford doggie" (read Clifford doggie), so we have to sit and read a book to her while she tries her very hardest. And in the meantime she pops up every two seconds to see if she's done anything. It's quite a sight really!
Emma has also taken to saying grace with us before meals. The evolution of her language is really funny, and I see now why Jesus liked kids so much- because they are hilarious! I'm sure he's up there laughing every time she prays. It started out as "Amover son, oh man!" but has recently turned into "Amover son, a speer, amen, time to eat!" (In the name of the father, and of the son, and of the holy spirit, amen, time to eat). It's difficult not to snicker when she's seriously praying like this.
At the bank this morning Emma was in toddler heaven because there were dozens of deflated balloons. Although she was a good listener and stayed right by me, she kept voicing her wants, saying "touching boonoons". The nice bank manager told her she could have one if she wanted, so her daddy picked out the big shiny floating one (the only one not lying dead on the floor), and attached it to her wrist. The whole time we were opening our account, she sat on the chair and said "Datoo" (which is "thank you" in Emma's terms) over and over. We were so proud of her polite behavior, and then she got all excited and pointed at the manager's hair and said loud enough for him to hear "Gwampa hair". All I could do was pray he didn't understand her perfect pronunciation. She repeated herself and then her voice got a little louder as she said "Gwampa, hold jew?" Oh boy, this poor guy was no more than 30, and he DEFINITELY heard that clearly enough, but he pretended not to notice. Braden and I wanted to melt, but we realize this is only the first of many things to come that Emma will say that will embarass us. Isn't that our job? Oh well, she's a handful, and she sure does like to chat!
In other recent Emma news, she has aquired herself a parasol. Well, that's what we call her new umbrella since it doesn't seem to rain here and she loves to use it all the time. This southern belle has a Bob the Builder parasol- real feminine we know- and loves it so much that she takes it everywhere! But she refuses to hold the little action-figure handle because she just wants to look at Bob the whole time.
Bela is having a rough time lately. The poor baby is sick with a terrible cold (as are Braden and Emma) and has become the central figure in "Operation Crib Bootcamp". That's right, she got booted from our bed last night and won't be returning, and boy is she hopping mad. She's got the French Canadian stubborn-ness and spent the better part of last night absolutely refusing to sleep, but finally relented long enough to catch a brief snooze. Today is going a little better I suppose. Here's hoping we can get this down before Braden and I collapse from exhaustion. Don't worry- Emma's doing great- running around as usual of course!

PICTURES!!

Braden figured it out!! WOOHOO!

settling in and living it up

We got our first taste of home just a week after moving in when the Grupp clan stopped over for a quick trip. GG and Papi and Great Grammy Peace are doing great and got to see Bela and Emma for a couple of hours on the way home from their vacation in Florida and Savannah. We are so glad that they did- it was nice to see a little family for sure! And they were all a little tan too :) And Emma is still enthralled with her little toy- she loves her grandparents!
Aunt Nancy and Uncle Sig stopped by too, a few days after the Grupps to visit and take us out for a really yummy dinner! Really, how many people would look us up on Google Earth satellite (since we had no phone and couldn't be located on mapquest) just to stop by for a visit?! I can't tell you how much it meant to us that they went through all they did just to give us some wonderful company. Emma especially enjoyed the "treat milk" that they got her at dinner! Thanks a million for the wonderful evening out! You both are so sweet!
We also got to see Grandma and Grandpa Cobb on the big screen (we have our webcam hooked up to our tv so Emma can run around while watching them!). Emma was so wound up- she gave her monkey, her purse, and all sorts of toys to the tv. How funny! Now, instead of requesting George 300 times a day, she only asks about 250 times, the other 50 she reserves for "Gwampa tv". How funny! We'll have to figure out why it's not working as well with the Grupps, once we do, we'll chat a lot with them too!
As for our South Carolina experiences, we're really settling in (finally) and slowing down a little. We FINALLY have a phone and internet! WOO HOO!!! And the boxes are slowly being emptied and put away. We have found the local farmers markets and parks (which we visit usually once or twice a day at least), and have made approximately 300 trips to Target (Aunt Nancy has informed me of the fact that the South has Supertargets-I will be on the lookout for these). Can you believe people do their GROCERY shopping at Wal-marts down here? They are HUGE MEGA-Walmarts! And we're scoping out fun things to do every weekend. There are plenty of festivals, historical sites, beaches, paths, mountains, zoos, museums, botanical gardens, and so much more, all within day-trip driving distances!!!
We checked out the South Carolina zoo (can't remember the name of the one we went to) on Saturday and Emma had a blast. The entire hour drive home she listed all of the animals she saw, without stopping for breath. This was the highlight no doubt of her little life. It sounded a little like this:
"and animoes(animals), and girapps, and animoes, and elphents, and animoes, and quee-ford (Clifford- no the big red dog did not make a special appearance, Emma just added him in!), and animoes" She was so excited about the whole thing. Now, she requests "zoo" CONSTANTLY. Too bad it's an hour away.....
The park however is only a minute away, and she requests this also (about 100 times a day). We go quite a bit, but the funny thing is, this little jumping bean uses almost NO energy at the park. Instead, she puts her little sunglasses and hat on, climbs up the stairs and "drives" for hours, literally. Yes, they have a wheel that she likes to twist wildly while saying "beep beep" and "vroom". This whole park thing is getting slightly boring to mom and dad, especially since the park is SoOOOOOOO huge and nice and could be way more exciting if the toddler actually moved once in awhile. Ah well, hopefully it'll lose its luster pretty soon.

Emma is really into saying "hi" to everyone. And if they don't hear her, she keeps on trying, getting louder, and LOUDER, and saying "HI PEOPLE" until they acknowledge her. I guess it beats the awkward staring stage she was in for awhile, but it is still embarassing. What's more, she thinks all little girls with dark hair are Dora the Explorer (and mentions this to them) and any little kids with darker skin (and we're in South Carolina where the sun darkens everyone's) is Curious George. Now this can get really embarassing and make for some pretty awkward situations, so we're trying to fix this.
Emma also got a new flashy tricycle, but enjoys using it as tv atcing seat more than anything! I'm sure she'll get the hang of it soon enough.
Bela is still a crier, but our tiny thumb-sucker is such a lover! She snuggles, and talks, and is starting to learn how to laugh!
Emma met and then became Cinderella the other day. We took a trip to the park and she spotted a little girl in a dress. Immediately, she froze and said in awe "Cindawewuh!" Okay, maybe the girl needs to wear a dress once in awhile so she doesn't just think they are a thing of princesses on tv! Later on that night, we got a special package from Grandma and Gramdpa and in it was a pair of brand new monkey slippers! She shoved those things on and strutted her stuff, saying "I'm Cindawewuh!" Nice. I'm sure Cinderella wears monkeys! And you can bet she wasn't going to bed without taking the slippers with her! But after being unable to keep her feet perfectly still enough to keep them on, she settled on hugging them like a stuffed animal and falling asleep that way! HAHAHA! Cutie!
The pictures are from all sorts of things: Grandpa and Great Grandpa at the going away party, the Grupps when they visited, Emma in her last timeout in Westland (yes, our house was totally empty and she STILL managed to sneak one last visit in), our trip to the zoo, and Bela just being cute and sucking her thumb!

Sowf Care-whine-a

Six states, 100 Bottles of Beer on the Wall, 5 stops at Burger King for treats (our solution to the toddler who won't sit still was to actually feed her sugar, makes sense right?)and 2 seasons later (yes, we watched the seasons change during the drive!), we made it!!! WHEW!!! In the first few minutes of driving, Braden and I looked at each other and wondered if we were out of our minds-- the cat was whining, Bela was bawlimg, and Emma was meowing back at the cat and laughing hysterically. This was pretty much how the trip went. By the time we made it to Mineral Wells, West Virginia (the halfway point), we were all too eager to get into our suite hotel room (we splurged to prevent the toddler from thinking it was playtime all night). Right, did they say suite? Try a 15" wall that "divides" the couch from the rest of the room. Ah well, consider us even- we snuck our cat in for the night (those "pet friendly" ones are always gross!). Day two went about as well as day one, but a much prettier drive through the mountains and foothills. Did I mention I was sicker than a DOG and had no voice? I'm still actually getting over that cold! Anyways, we stopped at a truck stop and, while I fed Bela, Emma came barrelling up to me with a collection of these giant jelly looking balls which her daddy had won in the claw game. She was so proud, throwing them all over the place! What a sight she was (along with her spaghetti-stained face). Seriously who actually orders the spaghetti on a children's menu?! I guess just us fools. But at least we did have a dvd player on day two (we blew a fuse on day one, so no moobies for emma- hence, 100 bottles of beer!). Too bad she couldn't listen though, and she quickly lost her movie privelages. So, back to singing songs and lots of whining :)
Somehow we made it. And Emma was thrilled to be in "Sowf Care-whine-a" since she had been begging to "play bikes" (we had our bikes on a rack on the back of the car) and we had told her we could not until we got to South Carolina. First thing she said was "play bikes" of course. Why does she have such a good memory? So I guess we'll have to start tricycle shopping for her birthday since she continues to ask to "play bikes".
Luckily the bunny found us as well. Emma and Bela got a princess shower curtain and sippees, some clothes, a few treats, and swim diapers! Woohoo!
We were a little spoiled (okay a lot) by grandma and grandpa for the three days we spent over there before the long drive. Emma is still asking for them and thinks every door opening is one of them. We miss them like crazy!
Funny story- we have a poor unfortunate couple living below us (thank God they are nice and patient!). Emma was scared of their noises- hammering and drilling one day- so I told her that Bob the Builder was down there fixing things. That bit me in the butt because she now wants to play with him every day.
More continued later (Emma just got home from the store!)