Just a Big Kid at Heart

I had orchestra practice today for our Fourth of July program that we are doing at our church tomorrow night. I was only gone three and a half hours.

This is what I came home to:

A grin slowly appeared on my face as images of my own childhood played in my head. My sister and I used to do the same thing....except with bed sheets instead of blankets. Awww, you made a tent for Emmerson?! How sweet is that!! I thought. Obviously he had built many of those when he was younger. Except I bet you a million dollars that he pretended he was in an airplane cockpit. Whatever it was, he probably had just as much fun (or more) as we making tents and wanted to introduce her to letting her imagination run wild.

You see, Saturday mornings have become a traditonal "Daddy/Daughter Day" in our house. Steve takes Emmerson to one of our local eateries for breakfast while I get to sleep in a little. It gives me time to myself and also for them to have special bonding time with each other.

I LOVE that they do that.

Their plan today was to go eat breakfast and then go back to the house, play, and hang out until I got home and Emmerson woke up from her nap. I called Steve on on my way home and asked him what they did while I was gone.

"Oh, we went and had breakfast. Then we came home, played a little bit, and watched Sesame Street. We played outside and then ate lunch. Played some more. And now she's taking her nap."

He left out the part about making a tent. I guess he wanted to see what I'd think of it.

I went into the bedroom where he was folding laundry. "You made a tent?" I said laughing. "Yep, and she loved it. We watched a little Sesame Street in there...until her ADD kicked in five seconds later. She would crawl up on the ottoman and then fall down into the pillows."

I went and checked the camera. I hoped he took pictures. He did. And he got video too! What a genius!

I'm glad they got to spend time together. From the looks of it, it seems they had loads of fun today playing in the tent. Man! Why didn't I think of that?!

I guess he's the bigger kid at heart.

I Like It, I Love It

...I want some more of it. Corn, that is.

Our 15 month old daughter, Emmerson, absolutely LOVES vegetables. Green beans, peas, carrots...you name it and she probably likes it. But her MOST favorite veggie is corn. And it's best if it's "on the cob."

The first time she had corn on the cob was when she shared it with her daddy. I had a picture of that, but I think I deleted it because it was fuzzy.

The next time was a night or two later and I had reheated a leftover piece for myself. Emmerson was eating her own dinner and then saw mine. I actually had two, what would I call them? Cobs? That just sounds weird. ANYway, I ate mine and left some pieces on there like I always do. It gets in my teeth and I get all weird about it, okay? So I gave her what was left of mine and she STILL wanted more. I reluctantly handed over the other cob.

She tore it up. Really.

Here is the proof.

Gnawed down to its "innards." The girl can go to town on some corn on the cob. I told you she loves her vegetables.

We ate at Chili's last night for dinner. We decided to order cheese quesadillas (case-a-dillas, as Steve likes to tell the waiter. It was only funny the first two times time.) and corn on the cob, even though she had it just the night before.

Now if you've ever been to this restaurant and have had the corn, you KNOW how big it is. Now imagine a toddler eating it. Correctly. We only had to show her one time that her hands were supposed to go on the sticks to hold it and she did it right every other time.

So do you think we were surprised that Emmerson ate almost every piece of corn off that one cob? Nope. Not.One.Bit.

It's About Time!

Well, it's official. I've entered the addicting world of blogging. I think I truly am the last one in America that doesn't have a blog. Wait. Scratch that. The other two families left would be my parents and my in-laws. But they can READ blogs. Does that count?

Anyway, here's how it all began.I was talking online to my friend, Cindy, the other night and she said, "You should get a blog." and I said, "Why?" and she replied, "So we can read it every day." Good enough reason, I guess.

So the next night, my family came over for dinner and I told my sister (who already has a blog), "I think I'm going to start a blog." She looked at me and replied (paraphrasing here), "What are you going to write about? 'Today on Lifetime, I watched True Life: The Claire Smith Story'." I stared at her for a second, rolled my eyes, and said matter-of-factly, "It's 'Moment of Truth.'" We both laughed because we both know I watch way too many Lifetime movies to actually know that.

I told asked her tonight when I called to come up with a good title for my blog, something catchy. She came up with Childress Chuckles or Childress Chuckleads as an alternative. As you can see, I've changed the blog title, but kept the web address. Thanks, sis! She wrote the first post. So in response to that one...ummm. Sorry. But I do want to thank you for getting it started for me! I just hope this is not one of those "start but don't finish" projects I always get myself into. I just have to learn more things about it. One night at a time.

Post One

My amazing sister made this blog for me. I should pay her for her time. Probably $500 would do it.