Quotable Kiddos

Here is another installment of what will know be known as "Quotable Kiddos!"

One day the girls were playing with their new washable (thank goodness!) markers. Sara was holding up various markers and saying different color names. She would occasionally get the correct color with the correct name but I'm getting off track. She picked up the gray marker and Daddy said,
"That's gray."
Emma replied,

"Just like Grandaddy's hair!"

Later that day, they were playing with the markers again. Emma picked up the gray and said,

"It's Granddaddy's gray. And Grandpa's gray!"

The hills are alive
with the sound of Emma! Ha ha!


From Emma:

Here you go Sara. It's all yours. (handing Sara the cell phone)

I spilled on my place map! (instead of place mat)

Why are you cutting my feet nails?

Would you take off my tear? (after waking up crying in the middle of the night)

Well, color me impressed! (something she heard from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse)

Mommy, I think my fingernail is tangled! (after finding a hangnail)

Here you go, Sara. This will cheer you up!

(after supper one night) Do you have anything else in the oven?

(sitting at the little table) Would you like to join me?

Mommy: Emma, you're not in trouble. Who put you in the naughty seat?
Emma: Jesus.

Mommy: Are you going to be a friend tomorrow at school?
Emma: I don't know.

I don't want any coffee medicine! (during her recent coughing fits)

These slippers (her new Sunday shoes) fit me just enough!

From Sara:

French fry! French fry! (whenever we pass McDonald's)

Duck, duck, deuce! (guess she's been watching too much tennis)

I love you, Daddy. I'll try.

Thank you much.

There. All finish. (after cleaning her supper plate)

What doing Daddy?

Hold hand. Hold hand!

I need milk...please! (which came out more like "pweeze")

Where pwetzels (pretzels)? Where pwetzels?

First Day of Preschool

Today was Emma's first day of preschool. We went to Open House last Thursday and met Emma's teacher, Ms. Louise. We also picked up all the various "parent info" sheets. Call me crazy, but I took a picture of all of it! I'm used to being the one getting all those papers together so I appreciate the work put into it all!

One of the papers was an "All About Me" sheet. It included questions about favorites, siblings, birthday, etc. Here are some of her more humorous answers:

Favorite game: golf
Favorite toys: screwdriver and hammer (no, we don't make her do carpentry in her spare time)
Favorite song: The Hot Dog Dance (from Mickey Mouse Club House)
Favorite book: Jesus

Here's our big girl posing with her Disney Princess backpack. You might recognize the princess on the middle right as our very own Princess Emma!

Emma had a tough weekend battling a cold. She got sick Friday night but has been recovering ever since. I didn't want her to miss the first day of school but I also didn't want her to get anyone else sick. So, yes fellow teachers, I was "that" mother who sent her child to school with a river of a runny nose! I talked it over with her teacher before I left her but if it's still the same on Thursday, she might have to miss school!

The runny nose explains the expression on Emma's face here. That is not a normal smile, but here is Emma and Ms. Louise. Ms. Louise is from England and I just love listening to her talk! I keep telling people that she reminds me of Mary Poppins. Hopefully she won't get the children interested in jumping into chimneys.

First Day Artwork!
Ms. Louise said she was impressed with Emma's coloring. I wasn't sure that this paper belonged to Emma because she never colors like this at home. Her coloring usually consists of a bunch of different colored rectangles all over the place. I kept making sure it was really her paper but you can see some of Emma's signature coloring to the left side of the apple.

We'll keep medicating Emma and, hopefully, she'll be able to go back to school on Thursday!

Thought for the Day

I received this as an email but I thought I would put it on the blog instead of forwarding it. It's very fitting since we have had a ton of thunderstorms lately here in Florida. Hope you enjoy!

A Child's View of Thunderstorms......
A little girl walked to and from school daily. Though the weather that morning was questionable and clouds were forming, she made her daily trek to the elementary school.

As the afternoon progressed, the winds whipped up, along with lightning. The mother of the little girl felt concerned that her daughter would be frightened as she walked home from school and she feared the electrical storm might harm her child. Full of concern, the mother quickly
got into her car and drove along the route to her child's school.

As she did, she saw her little girl walking along. At each flash of lightning, the child would stop, look up, and smile. Another and another flash of lighting followed quickly and with each, the little girl would look at the streak of light and smile.

When the mother's car drew up beside the child, she lowered the window and called to her
"What are you doing?"

The child answered, "I am trying to look pretty because God keeps taking my picture."

May God bless you today and everyday as you face the storms that come your way.

Dancing, Chatting, and Singing

Dancing around our house is more like "Ring Around the Rosie." Emma requested a spin around the floor with her Daddy after supper the other night. It was so sweet!

Sara is quite taken with wearing Daddy's shoes. They are often on the wrong feet but it doesn't seem to bother her.

Sara also loves to call up people and just jabber away! Watch that caller id...you might be next!

We had a little rain shower yesterday afternoon so Emma sang out on her rendition of "Rain, Rain Go Away!" (complete with "little Duffer wants to play!)

Potty Training Trail Update

The trail has certainly had it's up's and down's but I think we can finally see end! Emma has moved from using the "little potty" to putting the top of the "little potty" on the big potty...which makes clean-up so much easier for Mommy and Daddy. Emma has also used the big potty without any seat assistance twice! She still won't use the potty at church but she did use the little potty at our friend Ali's house a few weekends ago. That was huge! And 9 times out of 10, Emma wakes up with a dry overnight diaper!
Mommy has even gotten brave enough to go on errands with the girls without the extra assurance of a Pull-Up over Emma's underwear. So far, so good! I just hope she will actually use the potty when she starts Pre-school in a few weeks!

Silly Sara's Growing Up!

For several months Marcus has hinted here and there that we needed to change Sara's crib into a toddler bed. To be perfectly honest...I wasn't in favor of this furniture switch-a-roo. First of all, changing the crib would be another visual reminder that my baby is growing up! Second, Mommy needs rest time just as much (if not more) than the girls do and I wasn't looking forward to using "my time" replacing Sara into her bed every three to five minutes . Selfish, I know...Well, Monday night we decided to bite the bullet and change the crib. We called Sara into her room to check out her new bed. Just as we thought she climbed in and seemed to love it! Just look at the joy on that little face!

Almost as soon as she was in the bed, she was out of it again...just as we had imagined...or feared depending on how you look at it. Anyway...

I took one more picture of Sara enjoying her bed before I went off to walk with a friend. Marcus was left in charge of changing clothes, brushing teeth and putting the girls in their beds. When I came home an hour later, Marcus said Sara had not gotten out of her bed at all!

What?

More than that, he said she hadn't moved since he put her in her bed and she hadn't gone to sleep either. I went in to check on her and she said "hello Bommy" (that's Mommy with a stopped up nose) even before my eyes had a chance to focus on her in the semi-dark. She was laying there, with her spine seemingly glued to the back of the toddler bed, with her huge blue eyes focusing on the fact that the bars that once contained her were now gone. She looked petrified yet cute at the same time! I asked her if she liked her new bed and she said yes. I asked her if she was ready to go to sleep and she said yes again. I gave her a kiss and a hug and left the room feeling so sorry for her! After I got out of the shower, we checked on her again and she was peacefully sleeping!

Like I said, that was Monday night and she still hasn't gotten out of her bed on her own. She stands up and calls out for Mommy or Daddy to come and get her after she gets up! It's like we have some invisible force field across the front of the toddler bed that Sara is afraid to come in contact with. I'm sure it won't be long now until she will be getting out of bed on her own!

I was trying to get a video of Sara singing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" but while I was filming she wanted to look at the back of the camera so she could see herself. Looking at the video, I found it really funny! Hopefully, we'll get that song on film for everyone to see soon! Hope you enjoy it!

Emma and Sara Update

I am sorry it has taken me so long to update the blog. Our "big" computer isn't recognizing the drive that I use for my camera memory card so I'm updating on the laptop...which takes f-o-r-e-v-e-r to boot up so...okay, there is my excuse!
Emma and Sara enjoyed time at Grana and Grandaddy's house while we were in NYC. Their bubble machine was and is quite a hit!

Sara enjoyed a watermelon snack with Grandaddy. She would take a bite of the tip and then lick the juice all around and say "all done." I think she did this with a least five different pieces of watermelon.


Here are some of the girls newest quotes!
Sara: Feed me more! (She wanted more pancakes!)

Sara: Thank you, buddy. (to Duff, after he licked her fingers)

Sara: Night, night. I love you, Daddy.

Sara: Manny! Tools! (She loves Handy Manny)

Sara: Where Daddy at? There he is!

Sara: Oh, boy. Oh, boy. Oh, boy!

Sara: Oh no! Ball away!

Sara: Be careful, Mommy.

Sara: This taste good!
Mommy: It does?
Sara: Yup.

Sara: Where's GaGa? Mommy: At her house. Sara: Aw phooey!


Emma: That's good thinking Mommy!

Mommy: What's your name?
Emma: Emma deLaura Kolmetz.
Mommy: What's your sister's name?
Emma: Sara Grace Kolmetz.
Mommy: What's his name? (pointing to the dog, McDuff)
Emma: Duffer deLaura Kolmetz.
This continued through Mommy deLaura Kolmetz, Daddy deLaura Kolmetz and so on.

Daddy: Emma, are you finished? (eating her supper)
Emma: I sure hope so!

Emma: Sara's got blondes in her head.

Emma: Oh, a licker! (after seeing a lollipop)


Daddy dropped a french fry onto the floor during lunch one day and said, "I missed my mouth."
Emma looked at him with a very confused expression on her face and said, "We help you find it, Daddy."

Emma: Look! It's Sleeping Booty!

Daddy: Emma, you're a tattletale.
Emma: No, Daddy. I don't have a tail. Duff has a tail.

Hope you enjoyed this installment of Emma and Sara Quotations!

Emma the Artist and Sara the Southerner

Usually while I'm making breakfast, the girls are playing with Duff or getting reacquainted with the toys that had to put away the night before. Friday morning, Emma decided to write on the easel. Usually she draws lots of long straight lines or short fat blobs but on Friday morning she drew her first real picture! She said, "Mommy. Look what I drew!" I knew immediately what she had drawn and so did Sara. Sara looked at it and said, "It's Key!" (for some reason she only uses the last syllable in Mickey's name).

Look out Disney Animation Department...here comes your new intern!

Meanwhile, Sara's interests have been in the home, garden and cooking arena. She really enjoyed the articles on heirloom tomatoes and crepe myrtles in the August issue of Southern Living.

Back from the Big Apple

We successfully moved Uncle Brandon, Aunt Lauren (Lolli) and Cousin Cooper back to Panama City. I shouldn't really say "we" because I didn't really do much of anything helpful except fly back with Lauren and Cooper. Everyone else packed, cleaned, and continually climbed up and down the stairs in the apartment to get everything moved out while I played with Cooper. Anywho, here are a few snapshots of our quick trip to NYC.
After a harrowing taxi ride from LaGuardia, we finally made it alive but a little shaky (or at least I was) to our hotel. This was the view from our hotel window in Times Square. Our hotel lobby and first floor was under renovation so there was only one elevator (which was the size of a telephone booth) working during our stay. If it happened to be occupied (which was most of the time) we had to hoof it up five flights of stairs to get to our rooms. The rooms were nice but not what you would call roomy. The queen bed just fit in the room, though I'm not sure how they got it in there. Our room seemed a little larger since we were lucky enough to have two windows.
Here is our room. There was about two feet between the wall and the foot of the bed and the wall with the windows.

We met up with Uncle Brandon, Aunt Lauren and Cooper and toured some of the Times Squares sites (M&M store, Hershey store...are you sensing a theme?) before stopping for a late lunch/early supper at ESPN Zone.

We attended Spamalot Wednesday night and it was hilarious! Stephen Collins (the dad from 7th Heaven) and Drew Lachey (98 Degrees and Dancing with the Stars) were great in it. Our seats were so good it felt like I could just reach out and give the performers a high five! Afterwards, we pigged out on Junior's Cheesecake! Yum!

We also made the trip to the top of the Empire State Building. The last two times that I went up were both during Thanksgiving holidays (1990 & 2002) and the building seemed to sway in the gale force November wind which didn't help my fear of falling off tall buildings...long story short, I didn't really get a good chance to look around. This time was different!

I'm not sure which side of the city we are facing but here we are at the top!

I always think of Annie when I hear about or see the Chrysler Building...you know...when all the orphans are singing It's a Hard Knock Life. ("You'll stay up til this dump shines like the top of the Chrysler Building!") I was a little obsessed with Annie as a child but that's another story.

We went to Carmine's Restaurant on Thursday night. It is a family style Italian restaurant that we have heard about for years from Lauren and Brandon. It was great and we stuffed ourselves silly! Cooper enjoyed it too!

Grandma and Grandpa had been to Carmine's before so they were able to help us out with what to order. I should have taken a picture of the table full of food that we had.

This is one of the entrances to Macy's. I was able to visit each of the 8 floors and the cellar in under an hour and a half. Guess you could say I'm a speed shopper. I bought myself a shirt and a Christmas present for my cousin Rachel...hope you can wait until December to find out what it is! The guys were busy moving back in Queens but we did go back to Macy's later in the day so they could look around too.

We walked down to the formed site of the World Trade Center but everything was fenced off so we couldn't see anything. We did go into St. Paul's Chapel which was across the street from the towers. Miraculously, not a single window was blown out of the church and it was used as a site for recovery workers for 8 months after the attacks.

This flag inside the chapel (I don't have a picture of the actual chapel for some reason) has the names of everyone who died on September 11.


In FAO Schwartz, they had the greatest Lego sculptures. Here I am with the crew from Hogwarts.

I had to get Marcus' picture with Darth Vader!

We also went into St. Patrick's Cathedral. Wow! Was it breathtaking! Marcus has some beautiful pictures of the stained glass but his memory card didn't want to cooperate with me this morning.
I thought the flickering candles would make a pretty shot but I wasn't sure if it was disrespectful to take a picture of them. Since I'm not Catholic I don't really know what the significance is but I did see some other people taking pictures and then continuing into the church so I thought it was okay.

Mission Accomplished!
We safely arrived in Fort Walton Beach on Saturday afternoon with Cooper! Brandon, Marcus, Grandma and Grandpa arrived in the late afternoon with the U Haul and Brandon and Lauren's car. They drove 11 hours each day and probably don't ever want to hear the term "road trip" again.

Cooper and the girls have already had a little "get to know you" session. I think the poor guy was scared to death for a bit! He and Sara did have a bonding moment though. I think he feels he can relate to her more than anyone else maybe.

Emma decided to love her cousin from afar. Don't worry, Coop. She'll be bossing you around in no time!

It was an exciting trip and are very glad to be home!

Fourth of July Fun

This year we decided we would brave the heat and enjoy our local Fourth of July parade. We had to walk all of 10 seconds down the road, which was a great thing since we had to send Daddy back to the house for wet wipes.

Emma was excited to see what a parade was all about and I'm not really sure if she was impressed or not.

Sara was happy that juice was involved in the waiting. The first part of the parade was all political floats, which was a little boring. Our little group started getting pretty whiny even though we were given several Vote For So and So fans and lots of balloons.

The morning really turned around when the Husfelt push up pops came by! Good thing we wore those t-shirts! Emma became a different person!
(Note to self: stock up on these. There's lots of hot weather still to come.)

Sara really enjoyed her push up popsicle and you could really tell by the front of her shirt. Amazingly enough, all that red dye came out! Thank goodness for Spray and Wash with Resolve Power. I've even gotten permanent marker out of a shirt with it, but I'm getting off track...

We left the parade and walked back home when the magical effects of the popsicles wore off. We rested a few minutes and then went to Grandma and Grandpa's house. The fish were so glad we came to feed them and poke sticks into the pond.

Sara enjoyed stomping on the ants and showing off her Super Star shorts.

More fun with bubbles!

Sara was brave enough to walk over and get the Mickey sprinkler spinning again.

Emma even took a turn!

We had a great day. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

Happy 4th of July

We want to share one of Emma and Sara's favorite songs on this Fourth of July. We hope you enjoy American Kid by Go Fish.

(Just double click on the purple words "American Kid" to see the video on YouTube.)

God Bless America!