It's just a fish...

Emily Grace has a goldfish, Goldie is her name; just like Emily Grace has a baby doll with a pink outfit with the name Pink Baby, not too original but eerily accurate. Goldie eats everything that we put in her bowl, food, plants, occasionally fingers. So we went to Petsmart today to once again buy new plants for Goldie. Emily Grace wanted to know if they sold poisonous plants to put in the bowl. No, not to hurt Goldie, but Emily knows that animals don't eat things that are poisonous to them so she thought maybe Goldie would leave the poisonous plant alone. I didn't explain that last part to the sales clerk at Petsmart and you should have seen the look on his face when he found out that a five year old wanted a poisonous plant for her fish. Sometimes it is what you don't say that makes all of the difference....

Love,
Dad

p.s. We went with plastic plants. What could be more poisonous than that?

just a matter of time.....

Well it has been quite a summer already. Mountains, tide pools, hiking, climbing, roller skating it wasn't until Emily went to gym class that she got hurt, a broken arm; the gym is a giant padded room for God's sake. Oh, well. I told her that I was going to write about it in her blog and she told me that breaking her arm wasn't very interesting. Emily wasn't following directions at the gym and jumping off of some large cube and ended up jumping on top of her cousin. The cousin started screaming so loud that the staff thought that she was the one who was injured until they saw Emily's arm. No tears, no complaining just one brave little girl. She was "fine" of course, until Mom and I walked in and then the waterworks started. Off we went to the doctor's office where they confirmed it was broken and then to see the Orthopedist. We had two hours to kill between doctors so we went to lunch, Emily's favorite, Red Robin. I will have to say that the staff at the restaurant were fantastic. They came to see how she was doing, a "get well" message on her balloon, the manager even stopped by and comped Emily's lunch. By the end of the meal, tasty as always, Emily was in much better spirits. The Orthopedist's office was a mess, we had a forty-five minute wait, even with an appointment and they had some horrible movie showing on the TV that we couldn't escape. Torture. The doctor was great. He spoke directly to Emily Grace and asked her what happened, quickly establishing a bond with her and she was willing to go along with all of his directions. One bright pink cast later, Emily is home and asleep for the night, we hope. Emily Grace is a very active little girl and mom and I often joked that it would only be a matter of time until Emily...

Love,
Dad

Emily Loves Mommy and Daddy

Emily Grace loves to write. If we have one note that says "Emily Loves Mommy And Daddy" we must have a hundred. We also have a bunch that say "Emily Love Mommy and Daddy" four year old's just aren't writing like they used to in my day. That would be my dad talking.............

Love,
Dad

George time

Emily Grace is learning how to tell time using Curious George. Emily doesn't get to watch much TV but one show she enjoys is Curious George on PBS. Emily has figured out that each story/episode (2 per show) is approximately 15 minutes in length. So, now when she wants to know how long something is going to be she'll ask and if the response is "not too long" she'll ask "Is that like one George or two?" And on it goes, a long time might be five or six Georges; this system is actually helping us keep track of our monkey business....

Love,
Dad 

They're just a bunch of sticks

We decided to plant a rose garden in the front yard and Emily Grace was a big part of the process. She helped mark the area for the new bed. She watched as I sprayed Round-Up to eliminate the grass. She helped dig up the old lawn. And, she helped to order the roses from Jackson Perkins Nursery. Of course, Emily wanted to do all of these things on the same day. Once the roses finally arrived Emily was disappointed that it was a box filled with a bunch of sticks (bare root roses).
     A quick side note on Jackson Perkins. They're slipping. You used to get a little metal tag on each rose identifying the variety, only three out of seven plants had tags. And the bigger issue is that the most expensive rose arrived the size of a miniature rose. It's so out of place it's funny, except for the fact that I paid the most for it.
       I explained about shipping live plants and that they were "sleeping"/dormant. She was away when it came time to actually plant so I did it by myself. when she got home her first question was to ask why I had planted a stick garden. So much for the lesson on dormant roses. It's good to be four.

Love,
Dad

Community Service

Emily Grace will be 5 in July and by that time she will have already done two years of community service... I hope it's bankable. It would be hard to overstate the impact she has had in the classroom the last two years. She has made friends with the friendless. Given voice to the speechless. She has really helped bring these little kids to life. I have no idea what we are going to do next year when she's in kindergarten. But I know what she'll be doing....

Love,
Dad

P.S. In case anybody wonders why I suddenly have all of this time to get caught up on my writing. I crashed my bicycle last Saturday 5/19/12 and fractured my pelvis.

How long has it been???!?!?!!!

I started this post on 3/28/10 it went to a draft and never got finished, until now....

I guess I've missed a few holidays along the way, a birthday or two, perhaps a milestone here and there. But what catches me the most is the things that don't happen any more.

shower doors: it's been so long ago I can't remember what she used to do to the shower doors

red trucks: every time she would see a red pick-up truck Emily Grace was always sure it belonged to her sister Katie. You'd be surprised how many red pick-up trucks there are on the road when you are really looking.

tickle monster: the tickle monster has come and gone several times throughout the years. Now at age four and a half Emily Grace is very strong and the tickle monster has his work cut out for him even trying to roll her over to tickle. The tickle monster is starting to think it would just be easier to tickle the mommy tickle monster...and a lot more fun.

Love,
Dad

"I need a tissue..."

Every time there's a problem, crying, trouble, boo-boo's, stalling for time, this is always the go to answer/response from Emily Grace. I don't know why but it always reminds me of the TV character Laura Petrie from the Dick Van Dyke show. Laura, "Oh! Robbbbbbb..." Emily, "I need a tissuuuuuue...." I guess it's all in the delivery. We fixed a lot of the drama when we just put a box of tissues in Emily's room. CBS fixed Laura's problem by cancelling the show.

Love,
Dad

The Little Things That Just Go Away

I'm not sure how long ago this happened but I just noticed it recently. When Emily is done talking on the phone to someone she's close to like me or mom, Nan-Na or Pop-Pop, her sister Katie, even Aunt Amy or Auntie Sue; Emily would always end the call by blowing us a kiss before hanging up. I felt especially lucky because I also got a hug with my goodbye kiss. If you wonder what a hug sounds like on the phone go find someone you love and give them a great big hug. Listen to the sound you make and that is the sound that Emily would make for me. She came up with this sound and ritual on her own. Sadly, these rituals have faded away. I can only guess that as Emily has begun to speak to more and different people on the phone even she recognizes that not everyone gets a kiss and telemarketers don't deserve hugs.

Love,
Dad

It's all in how you say it

Driving home today Emily Grace asked me a question that had no good answer. "When will we be home and can I watch Curious George?" Well, Curious George was already on and traffic wasn't moving very fast, so my answer was "maybe." Emily's response from the backseat? "I don't like the sound of maybe. I like the sound of yes." Where do they come up with this stuff? Don't point your finger at me.

P.S.This picture is a self-portrait, using the timer on her camera.

Love,
Dad

What's a "dick?"

Emily Grace and I were driving home from Lowe's today and Emily was reading Maisy's Wonderful Weather Book by Lucy Cousins;Emily is working very hard, self taught, to read. Out of the blue from the backseat comes the question "What's a dick?" After managing not to swerve off the road and into a tree I said "Excuse me?" She said "A dick, what's a dick?" I told her I didn't understand what she wanted to know. She tried to show me the book where she was reading and then told me it said "A hot dick." Once again, managing not to swerve off the road and into a tree I asked her to spell the words for me. She had "hot" correct, did I mention that Emily is four; but the second word was spelled "d, r, i, n, k. She still has a lot to learn.......... Thank God.

Love,
Dad

Was It Something I Said?...

Mom has requested this entry.

After talking to Emily Grace about who knows what. Emily turned around and announced "Sometimes I just don't know what my dad is saying." This is from the child who would like "cream of the ice" or "berries of the straw" for ice cream and strawberries. Consider the source. By the way, Mom says she knows where Emily gets it from; but she won't tell me.

Love,
Dad

P.S. The boycott of the cat lasted fifteen minutes.

The lion roars.........

Emily Grace is not one of those kids that listens to my good advice, or suggestions or even pleas for sanity. I guess that makes her just like me. I was the kid with his head, hands or feet stuck in something that required the jaws of life to free. Thank God my dad was a doctor.

Emily thinks her cats are little people and she's constantly in their faces talking to them and being pushy. Cats being cats, Tigger took a swipe at Emily Grace and left her with two scratches across her face, including a good one on her eyelid.

After the tears and guilt from me Emily agreed to stay away from Tigger for four days until Tigger learned to be a better friend.

Look for a repeat of this story in five days.

Love,
Dad