Emma's First Sleepover

March 20-21, 2010

The girls watching a movie on Sunday

Apparently Emilka had so much fun at Emma's Birthday that she wanted to come visit Emma again. So since we had a late evening Birthday event for a friend, Adam's parents came to baby-sit Emma and brought Emilka with them. The girls had a blast playing outside on the neighbor's swing set, running up the hill and rolling back (eventually that ended with a few tears), riding bikes, playing ball, and blowing bubbles to name a few things.

Inside they searched for the cats, played hide-n-seek, played kitchen, and watched a movie "Cloudy with a change of Meatballs". We blew up the camping matresses, put a large comforter and pillows on the floor so the girls could sleep together camping style. They both loved it. Emilka fell asleep quick, while Emma took way over an hour to fall asleep. I guess she couldn't quite find her place but refused to go to her bed since she wanted to sleep with Emilka. The next day we went to church, had breakfast, the girls had more fun outside, and we ate dinner and left. Emilka went home and we went to see an uncle of Adam's about doing a small concrete patio. It turned out he forgot a party he was supposed to go to so he didn't come over. Instead we went to see Emilka at her house. It took a while for the girls to get going playing but by the end we couldn't separate them and ended up leaving really late. We didn't get home until almost 10 PM and Emma did not fall asleep in the car although she did on the way over there. Needless to say I had a hard time getting her out of bed the next morning and we couldn't be late since Emma was starting Preschool that day. Although it was hard to get going, once we did, Emma's transition into Preschool is a breeze. Her new teacher Miss Lynda says Emma is the easiest transition she has ever had since she is so easy going. No tears or fears dropping her off for the last two days. Hope that means there really isn't an adjustment period. I am very proud of her! She is a big girl now and I am not sure I am ready...

Emma's Birthday Evening 03/09/2010

Evening of March 9, 2010

After Emma's daycare birthday cake, I took her to the library since Tata was running late at work.  She took out a few books with her own library card we got for her the week before.  She just loves going to the library and playing with the toys, puzzles, and "reading" books. 

Late in the evening to help celebrate Emma's birthday we took her to this new restaurant in town called Asado. It is South American barbecue and the food was delicious. Emma loved the grilled chicken tenders on skewer sticks. She ate two of them. She also ate the green beans. She overheard the staff sing happy birthday to someone so of course she wanted them to sing to her as well. So we ordered her a small chocolate mouse cake and she had her candle to blow out and had a nice birthday song sang to her along with birthday wished from everyone around us. She really liked the cake and the mini M&Ms I gave her to hold her off until the cake came since she was getting impatient waiting for it. We read some of the books she got at the library before dinner but it still wasn't enough since the service was a little slow but the great food more than made up for it.

Here is a video of Emma chowing down on the M&Ms and cake.

Emma cleaning off the mess!

Emma's 3rd Birthday Party

March 13, 2010

We celebrated Emma’s 3rd Birthday the Saturday after her actual birthday. We just had family and a couple of friends over. Even with just that we still had 20 people including kids. Emma had a great time running around with her cousins Daniel and Emilka. Emilka became her best friends. They kept referring to each other as “my best friend’. It was really cute. They played together, chased down the cats together and even opened gifts together. It is real nice to see them playing so well together.

Video of Everyone Singing Emma Sto Lat

She liked blowing out the candles for the cake and was overwhelmed with all the presents. Emilka had a hard time leaving and they were some tears involved on both sides. After people left, I immediately had her take a bath since she got cake and chocolate all over her. She of course had to take her new Barbie in with her. She went to sleep soon after and we were all pretty pooped the next day and the nasty wind/rain storm really didn’t help matters.

Daycare Birthday Celebration

March 9, 2010

As usual the daycare celebrated Emma's birthday with a little party and some cake. Emma had a great time, enjoyed everyone signing "Happy Birthday" to her and of course she ate quite a bit of her cake!

Aunt Agnieszka was able to join us at the party while Tata got stuck at work and couldn't make it :(  After cake Emma had fun playing with her friends. There are four children in her group now as the other group got moved to another room. Her best friend is Alexa (the other dark blond in the group and the one who is holding Emma's hand) and she also is friends with Katherine. Jacob, the only boy and part-time student in the group unfortunately often gets excluded. I guess they start early. They played dolls, Emma build a princess castle with blocks and danced a little bit to show off her "dress" of course. She did that most of the day twirling anytime someone made a comment on her dress. So cute!

There is also a picture of Emma with her teacher Traci. Traci has been Emma's toddler teacher since Emma was 18 months old and moved to Toddlers. She is just great with Emma providing her with warmth, support, discipline, and kindness whenever she needs it. She has also been instrumental in helping us keep Emma bilingual. Traci will truly be missed when Emma moves to Preschool soon. She starts her transition to Preschool on March 22, 2010. Too soon for Mama! My baby can't be old enough to enter Preschool although I know she is more than ready. She will be missed by Traci and especially Alexa.

Here is a video of Emma cutting the cake!

Emma Turns Three Years Old!

March 9, 2010

Emma my "Birthday Princess" as she called herself.

I can't believe my baby is 3 years old already. How could time go by so fast. I am very proud of her. She is very bright, sweet, and loving child who is pretty good at listening most of the time. She likes to test us once in a while but what child that age doesn't? She can speak pretty well in both Polish and English, is a master of 24-piece puzzles, loves to play mother to her stuffed animals and dolls, and really enjoys books. She is also very good at saying please and thank you and is genuinely really affectionate although she is really independent and has been since birth really. Any task she learns to accomplish on her own, she no longer wants help with. It's always "Emma Sama" which means Emma will do it herself! That's my girl! Of course she does ask us to do things for her to get attention or is she wants to be sweet or manipulative. Again, that's my girl! I love her to pieces as does her dad. There is nothing like getting a hug from her and hearing her say she loves me "This much" as she spreads her arms wide...

Here is a few pictures of us celebrating her birthday outside the daycare.  We stopped off at the library after we got home from the daycare party to pick up some books.  Emma picked out three books which I read her yesterday over and over again.  Then we went out to dinner at Asado this new amazing South American grill place they opened recently in Southington.  I had the filet mignon which is one of the best I ever had and Adam had the ribs which were also excellent.  Emma had the grilled chicken fingers which she loved.  The portions are a bit small but it was excellent.  Emma heard them sing Happy Birthday to someone else in the restaurant and wanted them to sing to her too.  We got her this chocolate mini-cake with various chocolate mousses on top for dessert and she got her birthday song.  She was very happy with the song, the well wishes of everyone near our table and the cake.  She alternated between eating the cake and mini M&Ms I gave her to hold her off until dessert came as she was getting restless.  Needless to say the dinner was a great success and we all walked away happy.  Emma opened her small presents when she got home.  She got giant floor puzzles, a Dora regular puzzle, and some foam flower bath toys which she promptly played with in bath a little bit later.  After reading her some book I put her to bed and myself as well as I ended up falling asleep...

Great day!

Ahh can you feel the Spring in the air? 03/07/2010

March 7, 2010

Sunday was another real nice day out so I took Emma to the local park.  It was nice to see her have so much fun going down the slides, swinging on the swings, and basically running around and getting her energy out.  Winter can be difficult due to the short days and cold temperatures although we try to get out as much as we can.  We stayed there almost two and a half hours and probably would have stayed more if it hadn't been for some very rude ladies who started smoking at the playground right downwind from all the children playing on the playscape.  I walked up and kindly told them there is no smoking in the playground.  Unfortunately their answer was that they did not see a sign and proceeded to smoke and two more ladies lid up.  Nice example they are setting for their children.  If I was staying longer I would have called the cops but really didn't want to deal with it and it was after 5 PM and time to go anyway so I restrained myself.  Emma did enjoy her first "Dora" ice cream off the ice cream truck though.  Of course she took a few bites and left the rest like she always does but I guess I will have quite a few ice creams in my future since that darn ice cream truck rides in my neighborhood non-stop in the summer.

Fun in the jacuzzi 03/06/2010

March 6, 2010

Once in a while I left Emma take a bath with me in the jacuzzi tub in our bathroom.  She loves it because she has a lot more room and can "swim" as she calls it.  Here are a few photos of her enjoying the jacuzzi.