Emma Lou...Who?

More and more lately, I've been seeing Cody in Emma, just with different coloring. But look at some of these old Cody photos, and then Emma. Same face! Many of the same expressions. 

And look at Ems:

Twins! :)

CML, meanwhile, looks just the same. :)

Father's Day

Every February, Cardinal hosts Father's Day. The lucky dads get to spend the morning working alongside the kids (or bouncing back and forth between classrooms). The kids in Mr. G's class write essays to describe their dads, and they post them on the hallway bulletin board for the general amusement and heart-melting of their paying customers. (This year, one of Cody's buddies talked about how his dad is so amazing that he makes $150,000 ... a month. Ha! : ) The guidance for the essay seems to be something along the lines of, "Describe your dad." Here's Cody's effort. It's just -- adorable. (It's two pages so forgive the slight overlap.)

I love him too, Cody, and he's also my hero! (And yes: a ludicrous jester.) 

Cody and His Pen(i)s

Most of you know that Cody has been obsessed lately with pens. He has a huge and growing collection. His favorite Christmas present was NOT the nerf gun, but the Pilot Precise V-5 Rolling Ball pens that appeared under the tree, in a variety of colors. When forced to use wood pencils, he is much less happy. The Rolling Balls are king.

He's also obsessed with editing. It comes from his deep, relentless need to correct people. He'll take piles of my freelance stuff and just edit away, mostly nonsense stuff, sure to let me know how many mistakes he caught that I must have somehow overlooked. (An aside: he actually seems to be a somewhat intuitive line editor, which is kind of awesome.) Anyway, he's now learning proofreading marks, so he can really add value.

Like he did this morning, when he took hold of the hard copy of JVL's opening essay to the new book and whipped out his pen (I hope you're enjoying all this, JVL).

I have nothing more to add. 

Winter Performance 2015, continued...

As promised, here are the backstage photos from Cordelia's class. As usual, Emma finds a way in ...

No More Noodles!

Back in June, Emma got acutely sick with ... something. No one could figure out what, exactly, but the docs narrowed it down to some sort of intestinal issue, possibly just a really persistent virus. Nothing showed up on tests (which is both encouraging and frustrating). The majority of the symptoms gradually receded, but the Poop Situation, as it is known here, has never been the same. Because she is so healthy otherwise, we haven't been too worried, but just watchful. At her two year check-up, er, last week (I was so on top of it with Cody and Cordelia but Emma's visits aren't quite as calendar-perfect) Dr. Caplan was concerned that despite her healthy appetite, she is now losing weight -- dropped to 10th percentile. So, something's up, but again -- it's unclear what. Could be a persistent bug. Could be Celiac. Could be a parasite they didn't find last time (ew). Most likely, say the People Who Went to Medical School, everything will come back negative. Which is good! But also -- not good. Anyway, he ordered some bloodwork for her to rule some things out. I took her this morning, and it was -- gothic. Her veins "look great!" but they couldn't get blood out of them. In either arm. For, like, 10 minutes. They dug around while she screamed and writhed and I just tried to keep her still and pray with her. By the time they got what they needed, we were both crying. 

So far there is only one down side to having a two-year-old who speaks like a five-year-old, and it was this: "Please! You are hurting me! You are hurting my arms! I don't want those rubber bands on me! Please take them off! Please get those noodles OUT OF MY ARMS! You are hurting me! Please stop it! Please let me go home! I am all done all done all done! Let me be all done! I want to get out of here! Let me out of here! This is so scary! I am so scared!"

Finally it was done. When I said the magic words, "You're ALL DONE, Emma!" she turned around, buried her face in my shoulder and cried for a moment. Then she sat up and shuddered, "I am all done. I did a GREAT JOB with the noodles! I was so brave. You had to hold my arms! I forgive you!"

The two techs did not know quite what to say, except: "She's ... two!?" And then we went to get a treat. She chose a "PINK CAKE POP!" and then told everyone at Starbucks how big her brave was, and how she got two stickers, and how she does not like needles. Or, noodles. : )

When we came home, she was super sore. She started to tell Cordelia all about it and got sad all over again about the noodles. Then, Baby Go-Go had to get some needles. And a band-aid. That seemed to help. : )

Here are a few recent ones of my little love bug. It's hard to get photos these days that don't feature here "robie" or her "Anna Tostume."