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Emily never fails to entertain us with her latest developments. Here’s a peak into our world.
I was invited to a sushi bash, to give a fond farewell to my old boss Andy Brazelton. He was just offered a promotion and is headed out to corporate town in Colorado. The party included Andy’s current and past co-workers. It was great fun to be with everyone again. Plus I got to take a shower, put on a dress, and drop Emily off with her Bamie. It was a real grown-up lunch, something I used to take for granted. I even joined in the fun and ordered All You Can Eat Sushi: Yellow Tail, Salmon, Tuna, Spicy Tuna Rolls, Philadelphia Rolls, Lobster Rolls, Tornado Rolls, Crunchy Rolls, something with albacore on it, something with a delicious sauce, and a few more Crunchy Rolls to top me off. Completely full, but totally worth it.
Congrats Brazel. You and the family will be missed.
Emily and I put on our Sunday dresses to attend Eric’s soccer game. Don’t you love November’s 90 degree weather? We looked lovely, had some great fun, and Eric’s team won 4-1. Pretty good day, I’d say.
My sister’s best friend, Emmy, planned a 30th Surprise Party for Brooke’s big day. She gathered 15 of Brooke’s nearest and dearest for an afternoon of wine tasting in Temecula. Enjoy the pics:
The Surprise
The whole gang
Our beautiful and delicious lunches
Cheers to Brookie
Intoxicated?
Friday equals Fun! And what’s more fun than a night of friends, desserts and board games.
I think Eric and I tend to play logic games, which challenge your ability to: follow instructions, or get things in order the fastest, or require math skills…lending to clear cut winners and losers. So, I was altogether excited to play a new variety of game which requires creativity and ingenuity, not to mention a little wit and sass.
The Games:
Beyond Balderdash Apples to Apples
The thing about these games, is that they are all subject to opinion. You win, if other people at the table think you should win. There’s no black and white, there’s no right answer…these are my kind of games!
The Players:
Eric Natalie Pat Beckey Ty Rhea
Ty is a Designer/Brand Developer/Excellent Joke Deliverer and has the keen ability of making something sound much better than it is. So in Beyond Balderdash he was the clear front runner. Although the best answer of the night went to my husband with “Pirates, Parrots and a Shit Load of Pearls”. You had to be there, but I’ve found myself laughing at random times just recalling it.
I like how this group plays Apples to Apples. I’ve played before and thought “this game drags”, but Pat and Beckey play that the last person to submit their card doesn’t get to play. So people make quick/impulsive decisions, the game moves a lot faster, and you get way funnier answers. Unfortunately for me, Pat beat me out at Apples to Apples. I was on my game! It was like I was getting the synonym of each word: Spiritual/Going to Church, Industrial/Chicago…Yeah, I’m pretty sure he cheated.
The award goes to the ladies, though, for making the evening happen altogether. Great fun!
And if anyone’s looking for something to get me for Christmas, I’ve put Beyond Balderdash at the top of my list.
Emily watches the same episode of Sesame Street every day. It started one day when Emily was maybe 2 months old. She was up early in the morning crying, and Eric was working on soothing her. Finally he turned on the TV, and it was like a baby sadness off switch. What was on, was a segment on Sesame Street of a man singing a song called “I Believe in Little Things”, while various colored animated ribbons swirled across the screen creating pictures of flowers, bumble bees, rainbows, and the like. Eric pressed record and saved this mini masterpiece of baby happiness.
I believe in little things That you can hardly see Like honeycomb and spider webs and starfish in the sea. I believe in little things Like icy drops of rain That melt into the morning mist When winds are warm again. I believe in little things Like colors in the sky And noticing the waves roll in And how the flowers die. Knowing they’ll be back again Whenever it’s July. I believe in little things Like you and me, And just how big Little things can be.
So, it became our go to. When Emily would become inconsolable we would turn on this little 2-minute clip. She would re-collect herself, consumed in the pirouetting colors; then the TV would turn off, and we would go about our day.
Then we started letting her watch a little more.
The following segment is of Cookie Monster, dramatically devouring a cookie of the letter L. At first it scared her, as Cookie Monster’s googly eyes and loud demeanor would naturally startle a 3-month-old. But then she would start smiling. So her 2-minute-fix, got extended to 6-minutes.
Naturally, it wasn’t long before we were all curious of what came next:
A 1999 Alicia Keys singing “I Keep on Falling”, with the lyrics changed to “I Keep on Dancing”, for an ever cheesy exchange between her and Elmo. Emily loved it. So we let her watch a little more…
Next Global Grover came on and did a little segment about Yak’s milk, which is used in Yak’s Milk Tea, which is a common drink in Tibet. Loved it! A little more…Rosita and Oscar’s worm, Slimy, teaching the kids the Spanish words for big and little: grandé and piqueño. Emily LOVED this! And I concluded that any exposure to another language had to be a good thing. So we added it to the daily repertoire – 20 minutes and counting.
Then they taught us about the #7 (Click here to watch). A middle-aged man in a super hero costume as the number Seven, who is being questioned by the FBI because they heard that Seven ate Nine. Fortunately, Eight and Nine show up in the end and clear up the whole issue because clearly Nine is alive and this myth just came about by the way you count – Six is afraid of Seven because Seven Eight (ate) Nine. What a relief! We figured if Emily was learning a letter than it would probably make her well rounded to learn a number too. Let’s watch some more…
Finally, the show wraps up with Elmo’s World (another 10 minutes) and she learned about hands: washing them, clapping them, counting with them, tying shoes, playing patty-cake, etc.
So, Emily is now addicted to her 35-minute morning fix of Sesame Street. She LOVES it! She lights up with joy, smiles, laughs, she rocks back and forth, she moves her mouth trying to mimic the words that she (probably) has memorized…it might be her favorite part of the day.
So imagine my horror, when I read an article today that said “Children under the age of 2 should not be watching any television”, as apparently their brains cannot handle the quick moving images. A) I feel like a horrible mother who has exposed her daughter to visual Mountain Dew, and B) I don’t know how I’m going to withhold it from her now that I know how much glee it allows her each day.
Oh, how we will miss you dear friends! Thanks for the good times. We will be back in about 16 months.
Emily was a lady bug for Halloween.
She loved her costume, so we scooted her around town to see dad at work, cousins, aunt and uncle, grandparents and great grandparents. She had a great time!
Her enjoyment of Halloween was a relief to me, because I have hated Halloween since infancy…literally. My first Halloween I was a duck. My parents took pictures to document the event and I am screaming in every picture. That has been my attitude toward Halloween ever since. So, I have loved the fact that I’m now an adult and free of the expectation of celebrating and dressing up on this unfortunate day.
Just when I thought I was free and clear, we got invited to a kickin’ Halloween Bash. So the plague came back upon me. Eric talked me in to going, as we concluded that this is probably our last opportunity for a while to do anything adult on Halloween, as the next 15 years will likely be dedicated to our kids’ costumes, trick-or-treating, candy hording and counting, and finally passing out on the couch from over stimulation and the inevitable sugar high crash.
So, naturally it came to the day of and we didn’t have costumes. Parents-in-law to the rescue! Eric and I raided their costume trunk: dresses from the 50’s, wigs, jewelry, hats, glasses…Emily was a little worried. But fortunately we were able to concoct some costumes from the array…
Obviously, we ended up going as a 50’s couple…on our way to the Symphony…who died in a car crash. We had a great time. Great party, Johnsons (Part I)!
