Pre-K Field Trip

Emi had her first of what I have been told will be quite a few field trips.  I was told by Emi's teacher last year that the 2 Pre-K teachers really like getting the kids out of the classroom for learning experiences.  As summer is wrapping up, they are teaching them all about summer activities, things to do during the summer, etc.  Just the other day, the kids were talking about the ocean and the beach.

Last Thursday, the class went to a splash park and a local beach to participate in summer activities.  The parents are always welcome to participate but I was kind of disappointed that I was the only parent that was there.  Oh well.  I had fun anyhow.  The kids had a good time too.  Although they went to the splash park 1st and the water coming out of all the fixtures was not very warm and Emi was shivering after only a short amount of time playing.  I think it would've been a better idea to go to the splash park 2nd not only because it would've been hotter in the day but then the kids could've rinsed off all the sand from the beach.  Emi enjoyed playing along the beach more than she liked going into the water.  She's not really fond of going in water where she can't see the bottom very well.  I have no idea where she gets that from.  I too am not a fan of swimming in places I can't see the bottom.  I'll do it, but I'm not completely at ease doing it.

Enjoy the photos from her 1st field trip!

State Fair Time!

A few weeks ago we took Emi and Eriks as well as my niece L to the state fair.  The weather was fantastic that day.  It was warm and sunny but not hot.  My kind of weather.  Edite, my sister went too so that we had 3 adults and 3 kids.  My sister was going to go with us that day and that morning, L was with my sister and was begging to go with us. Edite told L she had to call and ask us if she could go.  It was so cute to hear L's little voice on the phone say, "Can I go to the state fair?"  How could you say no.

The kids loved the animals, the food and especially the rides at the Midway.  I think their favorite of all the rides though was the giant ferris wheel.  We got to the fair about 3 pm and left 7 hours later.  All the kids fell asleep on the way home and slept late the next day.  Here are the pictures of our fun day.

Insert Foot In Mouth Moment

While Eriks was in Texas with grandma and grandpa at the end of July, we had a bunch of time with Emi all by herself.  It's amazing how differently your children behave when the other one is not around.  Don't get me wrong, Emi had her moments and there is the possibility that being by herself without her brother for 10 days helped turn her into a sassy little diva (more on that in another post), but Emi was a well-behaved and fun kid to be with.  Not the normal whiny, clingy kid she tends to be when her brother is around.

Anyhow.  The insert foot in mouth moment actually happened with my daughter when I had some time with her all by myself.  Lane left the house for some alone time and Emi and I were playing.  I unfortunately was cursed with cuticles that are dry, brittle and tend to rip easily.  That's exactly what happened while we were playing and I started bleeding.  Because I'm on blood thinners, I tend to bleed easily so I went to the bathroom to get a band-aid.  Here's the conversation between Emi and me and the insert foot in mouth moment.

Emi - What's that? (She's watching me take the band-aid out of the package)
Me - It's a band-aid.
Emi - What's that?
Me - It's a band-aid for mommy's owie.
Emi - Oh.  What's that? (Pointing at band-aid)
Me - It's a band-aid.
Emi - Ban day?  Owie?
Me - Yes.  Band-aid for mommy's owie.
Emi - What's that?
Me - It's a band-aid.  Mommy hurt herself.
Emi - What's that?  (And I'm guestimating she asked me about a dozen times total before I finally said...)
Me - It's a BAND-AID.  What are you deaf?  (Insert foot in mouth)

Of course she's deaf.  She hears nothing without that very expensive hearing aid on her head, which she did have on her head at the time.  I realized later on, she's at that age where they're gaining independence and really grasping onto things and now that her new hearing aid is processing sound better and amplifying it better, her brain is processing the information more and more so she learns sounds, names of objects, etc.  All things that were harder for her to recognize with the old piece of garbage she had for a hearing aid before.  She had just had the the new hearing aid for about 6 weeks when this incident happened.

I laughed hysterically at my gaffe.  Everyone who I tell the story to laughs at it.  This morning when I ran into her teacher from last year, I told her the story and she laughed harder than I think I've ever seen her laugh.  She herself is the parent of a hearing child and a deaf child just like me and she says all of us have done stuff like that.  Sometimes we work so hard to ignore the disability and treat them like the average kid, we forgot and so the insert foot in mouth moments happen.

We'll see what else life will bring us as she continues to hear better and her vocabulary continues to grow.  One of these days I'm hoping to get her saying the word, annoying on video so I can post it here.  She does have her I'm going to be a complete pest moments with electronic objects like her play cell phone, her leap pad, etc. and she's pushing buttons over and over again and I have to say, "Emi please stop pushing the buttons.  It's annoying." She in turn says, "Annoying?"  Yes.  Totally.  Utterly. Annoying.  Hearing her say the word is so cute and funny.

And with that.  I will leave you with a photo of our cute, sassy, diva on the rise, Miss Emi.

Unintended Hiatus

I took an unplanned break from blogging.  A few days after my last post, my in-laws arrived in town to pick up Eriks for his 10 days of fun with grandma and grandpa.  We went out of town every single weekend between then and the 1st weekend of this month.  So for 3 straight weekends we were in Michigan with my family at their summer place.  What's nice is next year we will have our own summer place around the corner from my parents thanks to their help.  After our last weekend in Michigan it has been a frenzied few weeks getting everyone ready for school.  Emi went back this past Monday.  Lane starts this upcoming Monday and Eriks starts school on Tuesday.

So here's the last thing we did before we took off to Michigan.  We met up with grandma and grandpa, as well as my sister-in-law and her 4 girls - L, B, A, and I for some fun at the Indianapolis Children's Museum.  They had a blast playing and exploring.  They spent most of their time Hot Wheels exhibit.  They did explore the dinosaurs, and an interactive area where they could play with water and other things.

 Diamond encrusted Hot Wheels Car.  I don't remember the value of it.