Songs on Mommy's Phone

Since adding Harrison to our family I've made a few compromises as a mother. I cut back my showers to what seems like only weekly, my toilets get cleaned a little less frequently, and my floors.. let's not talk about those.

Of course I've had to make a few compromises with Emerson too. She's had to be a little more independent, she's had to be a little more patient and she's had to entertain herself a little more. Overall, Emerson has handled becoming a big sister very well. She's great with Harrison (or rather, she's great about mostly leaving him alone, save for about one billion kisses, some hand holding and a few lullabies) and hasn't shown any behavior regression (you know, except she's two). The compromise with Emerson has been mostly minimal since Harrison sleeps so much but being up late and up more at night makes mornings pretty rough. I mean, mornings aren't my friend anyway but lately they've been rough. My sweet girl gets up between 6:30 and 7:30 regardless of when she went to bed the night before. My saving grace has been Pandora.

I knew I didn't want to start letting the TV be the babysitter, we've been pretty strict about no screens until she was two and still we don't let her have her own screen time but we don't try so hard to distract her when screens are around. I like to have music on throughout the day and sometimes we listen to "Emerson's songs" (aka the Raffi station) on Pandora. So when I need more sleep (so almost every morning) when Emerson says from her bed, "Mommy, is it morning time for Emerson?" I say, "Yes, but it's not morning time for mommy or Harrison" (to be fair, Harrison has usually just eaten and has just gone back to sleep). So she climbs into my bed, does various things to entertain herself and inevitably asks for 'Songs on Mommy's phone'. It's super cool for her because she actually gets to touch mommy's phone. She only gets to have it on the lock screen and she can only push the home button to turn it on to see the picture. It goes like this:

(Song comes on)
Emerson: "Oh! What this one?"

Pushes button, looks at picture: "Mommy, what this one called?" (if she doesn't recognize it) - shoves phone in my face... sometimes dropping it. Ow.

I tell her and she goes back to reading a book, playing or whatever she's doing when I'm trying to sleep until the next song comes on.

Repeat.

She's always been a musical girl. She's the type of kiddo that sings what she's doing to any random tune (e.g., to the tune of Are You Sleeping: I am painting, I am painting, yes I am, yes I am). Now she's also singing 'Emerson's songs' all day long. Random bits of different songs or the same lyrics over and over. It's stinking adorable.                                                                

Here are a couple of examples of her singing. It's hard to capture the real ad-lib ones. Either my phone isn't handy or the surroundings are too embarrassing to immortalize.

There are a few songs that come on her station that are nostalgic for me and some that I genuinely like. This one in particular, I love what it says.

You & Me
Frances England

You and me happy as can be
Flying through the park on our bikes
On a Sunday afternoon
You and me rolling on the floor
Practicing your somersaults, your cartwheels
Your donkey kicks and more

How did you grow so big overnight
How did you get so smart and bright
Yesterday you were asleep in my arms
Today you're growing off the charts
I'm so proud of you

You and me drawing pictures wild and free
The paint flying, your smile brightens up the room
You and me reading books in bed
Your head on my shoulder
Your eyes on the pages ahead

How did you grow so big overnight
How did you get so smart and bright
Yesterday you were asleep in my arms
Today you're growing off the charts
I'm so proud of you
I'm so proud of you

I mean really, how did she get so big overnight? It's true though. I am so proud of her. She's two, yes, but she is also so sweet and dare I say it, smart. I love to see her brain working away, figuring out how to say what she's thinking and how to share her ideas. This is the sweetness that makes it okay that she's not my baby girl anymore, she's just my girl. And while I'll always treasure the memories of her asleep in my arms, I'll treasure these memories too and look forward to making more.

Babies

It's not too surprising given our life circumstances and her age but Emerson is pretty into her babies lately. She's gone through a few spurts of packing around a baby, a day or two at the most but this time she's going on weeks. It's. Adorable. 

She'll stop mid-activity and exclaim that her baby has woken up, needs a nap/bottle/diaper etc., rushing off to take care of it. She comes back and reports how baby is doing or brings baby to me to hold or help. 

She's so sweet with them, so gentle and tender. She kisses their tiniest owies, wraps them in blankets, talks to them in her high-pitched sweet voice. You can tell she's been around a few baby lovers ;). She's similar with real babies save for a slightly shorter attention span when they wiggle and kick. 

It's no surprise that she takes good care of her babies, she's my little helper. She brings me the broom and holds the dustpan, sprays the cleaner while I mop, stirs when we bake and sits next to me 'helping' anytime I'm cooking. She's such a little mother and nurturer. When I hurt myself she rushes over to blow it kisses and bring me oil. She'll say, "Oh momma, owie? I sorry momma. Where your owie? Here? {air kiss} {air kiss} {air kiss} All better now momma." (She air kisses her own owies too with a similar narrative). That's just one example that comes to mind, she's always rushing off saying "I go get it momma (I do det it)" if I mention I need something, laughing with me if I forgot something, "ha, silly momma!" and randomly encouraging me when I do anything from go to the bathroom to find her missing toy or say that I've finished a task, "Nice job momma!! Nice Job!" In general, she just keeps life sweet with her little supportive or obvious comments as she narrates our day. How I adore her. 

Anyway, back to the babies. On Monday, she brought one of her babies to me and told me how baby was crying. She was hungry. "Baby need milt, momma. Poor baby." and then you could see this lightbulb go on in her head. "Oh!" She said, "I have Ma ma ma!" (Ma ma ma is what she said for mama milk or nursing) and she lifted up her dress and nursed her baby. "I nursing baby, momma!! I have ma ma ma!" 

I figured at some point she'd nurse her babies, but up until now she'd always given them bottles, which struck me as funny since she nursed for so long. But then she mostly saw other babies getting bottles (you don't really *see* babies nursing as much because most moms wear a cover). I thought for sure once she saw me nursing baby brother she'd start nursing her babies. I didn't expect it Monday but it was priceless to see her revelation. She sat down and asked for a pillow for baby as she explained how hungry baby was, "baby need yots of milt, mommy". 

I'm not saying she'll be perfect when baby brother comes but I'm sure she'll be sweet (mostly) and I look forward to watching her with him. 

I'm sure she'll love this in 12 years. ;)

It Happens

This is one of Emerson's favorite sayings.

"It happens" or "It is happens. Ya, it does. I sink so." 

She spills something, drips paint, pees her underwear, breaks something, falls down, draws off the page onto the table/couch/floor, toots or sneezes on you... It happens! She has unmeasurable grace for herself. 

The thing is though, you dropped something, forgot something, tripped, broke something? It happens! She has unmeasurable grace for you too. 

A few weeks ago she grabbed for a glass in the cup holder of the car door as I was putting her in. I didn't realize it until the glass was bumped from her hand and shattering at my feet. I was less than enthused about picking up shards of glass in the middle of a parking lot, under the car, on a 100 degree day whilst 7 months pregnant. I wasn't exactly happy about it but couldn't quite figure out how to tell her she was in the wrong and while I was pondering it she said, "Ohhh no! I broke the glass! It happens, momma. It happens." I (kind of begrudgingly) said that yes, it does happen but we need to be careful. 

I was feeling like she had no sense of responsibility or caution and could just blow things off with 'it happens' until.. 

Less than a week later we're at a park picnic table and she falls trying to climb up. In my hurry to help her, I knock my glass off the table. I feel a little silly for having a glass cup on concrete as people are helping me pick it up (but we're just glass kind of people and oddly enough, we've not had any breaks before these). After Emerson recovers from her fall trauma she sees that I broke the glass. And in he sweetest, most reassuring voice a 2 year old can manage, she said, "Ohhh, momma broke the glass. {sad face} It happens momma. It otay, it happens."

Silly as it is, I realized how nice it is for someone to quickly reassure you that that accident was just that, an accident. No reason for extra guilt. 

We are working on saying sorry in conjunction with 'it happens' because some accidents happen to other people's stuff and, two or not, sorry is the social rule. But I don't really restrict the 'it happens' because I'm sure it's just a phase and I know I sure enjoyed being the recipient of it when I was the one at fault. Why not let her make herself feel a little better if that's how she processes her accidents. 

"It happens momma" (sneezed food on her arm) 

Emerson Lately

I saw someone post an entry from their kid journal on FB and while I love the idea, I also know it's a lofty goal. I thought I'd try to get a few thoughts down from time to time via the blogger app.

Today my girl is a paintaholic. After breakfast she sat quietly at her desk and painted four pages, and now after nap she's at it again. She has just recently become more independent with this. She used to 'paint' with water and maybe mix  a color or three and then ask for an adult to come help (aka basically start and finish it). She loved it either way, but she needed a lot of prompting to use all the colors and paint more than just the main object on the page. I'm not criticizing, she's only two, but it's been fun to see her advance and become more independent. Even more so, it's sweet to see her take such pride in her work. She is so focused and talks herself through the parts of he picture she wants to paint and talks out loud about using each color, "Oops. Forgot yellow. Yellow grass I think. Ya. Yellow grass. Okay, there we go. That's better!" And my favorite part, when she's all done, the most excited and proud, "YOOT (look) momma!!" As she holds up her finished work. 

It's so sweet to watch her :). Her little mind at work, her methodical way of getting every corner of the paint square wet, the way she taps the water drops off her brush. I just love it.