Emmy, two years 9 months

Mmm...sweet tea from Pete's!

Emmy will be three years old three months from today. How did that happen? So here is a long overdue and overly informative update on The Pickle, since this IS the Pickle Jar, after all. I'll include a few photos, including a few of Emmy's new room in our house.


This age is hilarious. She is always saying something (or repeating something) that cracks us up. In a word, she's sassy. Here are a few highlights from the past few weeks (and a few from the fall that I failed to post):
To Charles after he'd shaved after having grown out his beard for a few days: "Daddy, where did your crust go?"

There was a new kid in the class named Storm. Miss Sherry said Emmy kept asking all day "what's his name again?" The kid left a little early and Emmy asked "Where's Thunder?"

Reading in her room. When she wakes up,
she turns on her light and reads for a while.

"Emmy, where does Aunt Sarah live?"
"At Aunt Sarah's house!" (Of course she does, why didn't I think of that?)

"Mommy, I'm serious."
"You're serious?"
"Yes."
"Well, what are you serious about?"
"Are you kidding me?!?"
(I figured out she will hear us say "Are you kidding me" and then "I'm serious." and she must have reversed the two. Hysterical)

When we ask her to do something (like pick up her toys) she'll sometimes reply, "Um, no thank you." (EXCUSE ME?)

Yes, it looks very much like her old room. I was going to redecorate,
but that involves a lot of furniture switching and purchasing we just
aren't ready for, so we have some things purchased for a new room
so that will happen eventually and we hope these pillows etc. will be
used for a new baby one day.

Anytime she's not ready to do something (like take a nap or get out of the bath) she'll either say "just a couple more minutes" or lately "just four more minutes", which she gets from one of her Veggie Tales videos. She'll also ask for, say, more milk and if we say no, she'll hold her fingers apart and squint her eye and whisper "just a tiny little bit of milk?" Clever, kid, but asking me in such a cute manner won't work. I'm (almost) immune to your charms. I do have to bite my tongue to keep from laughing.

To the server at a restaurant as she stopped by to check on us: "I'm fine, thanks."

Lately whenever we give her something to eat she compliments the chef, "Good job, Mom/Dad, good job!"

She wants to do everything herself, so we hear a lot of "I want to do it by.my.self" or "Can I do it?" (which sounds like "Camma do it?")

We will ask he why on occasion when she tells us something or asks for something and she'll say "because" which sounds like "p-cause".

She still loves music and singing. She knows lots of her Kindermusik songs and Rafi songs. She does an excellent rendition of "I've Been Working on the Railroad." She loves the Glee soundtrack, particularly songs sung by the Warblers, she is into Adele. The other day we were running errands and she started singing "when your heart beats, next to mine," which is a line from Madonna's "Like a Virgin," which is on one of the Glee soundtracks. HA! At least she has pretty good taste in music, if you like Madonna, Adele, Rafi and the Wiggles.

She also makes up songs. All.The.Time. I have been trying to capture some of her tunes on camera, but true to toddler form, she tends to stop singing as soon as I pick up the camera. The other morning she was singing about Christmas morning. The primary lyrics were "Christmas morning, Christmas morning," but hey, I give her props for her creativity. It is highly entertaining.

The biggest news about Emmy is she is now potty trained during the day! Yahoo! We are thrilled and just like everyone said, she just decided she was ready and it took no effort on our part. Since around Christmas she had started telling us every so often that she needed to go but it was still unpredictable. Then, seriously, the day we arrived on post, we went straight to the housing office to sign in and she told me she needed to potty so I took her and she pooped on the potty for the first time! We had a major celebration and really since then, it was like going from zero to 60. She wears big girl undies all day, even during her nap, and she only wears a pullup at night. YAHOO! Of course this means we have become familiar with the restroom in every establishment we have patronized lately.

Also, let's talk about how self-flushing toilets are a potty training toddler (and parent's) worst nightmare. Especially for Emmy, who is easily startled by loud noises. We have to warn her if we are turning on something loud to keep her from practically jumping out of skin! She's just now able to handle the garage door, poor kid.

With her best pal Emma at the zoo in October.

She definitely misses the only home she has known. When she plays, she pretends to go to school and church a lot, so I know she misses both. She asks about her friends and teachers. She was very tired when she went to bed one night last week, and a little emotional (she's her Mama's girl). She asked me "Mama, when are our friends coming to our new house." She said she was sad and cried a little bit. Another night I told her to have sweet dreams about all the things she loves and she said "like playing with Emma!" Poor girl, I know how she feels. But she has LOVED playing with our new friends next door. She and Sophie and Clayton get along very well and she loves having an older girl to admire. I know kids are adaptable and she is fine, but it makes me sad for her.

Holding Henry for the first time.

The child loves babies. Seriously, she loved, loved holding Micah and Henry, and she's really good with them. She would pat them and say "it's okay, don't fuss, you're fine," and kiss them and love them.  She told me she wanted to hold baby Nora and rock her (Nora was born to our dear friends Eric and Erin right before we headed west).  I didn't tell her that Charles and I went to see Nora because Emmy was sick and we didn't want to spread her germs.  She told me a couple of times that she had baby Nora in her tummy (um, no, pretty sure she was in Aunt Erin's!) and just tonight she told me that when she gets big she will have a baby in her tummy. I made her promise me she'd get married first. She is a good mommy to her doll babies. She changes them, feeds them, and prefers to keep them naked. We might need to work on some of her parenting skills! 

Back in October the Paci Fairy came so she has been paci free since then. If I'd known it was so easy, we've have done it ages ago! Selfishly, we just weren't ready to deal with the potential sleepless nights that we feared would be a repercussion. However, it went better than we could have hoped. First, a couple of the pacis were "broken" suddenly when we got home from our weekend in Atlanta and Rome. After a few nights of only one whole paci available, it disappeared. Seriously, we had no idea where it went so that night, she had to use on of the broken ones (we had cut off the tip). She stuck it in her mouth, pulled it out, and fell asleep holding it instead. A few nights of just wanting to hold it, and I suggested that if she was ready, she could put them in a box and the Paci Fairy would come and bring her a special toy. So she did on her own, and the Paci Fairy brought her a diaper bag for her baby (full of diapers and other accessories). Yay! She asked for her paci for a couple of nights but no tears, no fussing. I've noticed in the moving craziness and when she was sick she has asked for it a handful of times, but probably not surprising.

Emerson Elizabeth is this whole little person who is increasingly independent and smart and funny. Her hair is getting so long, diapers and pacis are a thing of the past, she's gotten taller, she looks grown up. She is hysterical, delightful, frustrating, and exasperating all in one. We are so proud to be her parents and we love her so much!