Memmett & Momma

Emmett and I get to spend a lot of time together, but this fall we went on some extra special dates.  I'm lucky that my two year old is such fun to hang out with.  He impresses me with how much he knows and learns and keeps me laughing every day.


After living in Durham for 5 years,  we finally checked out the Eno River State Park just a few miles from our house.  We took a 1.5 mile trail through the woods, the last portion of it following the Eno River.  We hardly saw another soul and very much enjoyed this retreat into nature.  Emmett loved spotting turtles and, of course, throwing rocks into the river.  Emmett demonstrated great hiking (walking) stamina and I rarely had to carry him.

Emmett insisted that he get to take a picture, too.  Not to shabby for a toddler!

Later that same day we both had our very first circus experience.  I'd felt deprived that I had never ever been to a circus in my entire life and had been bugging Clark about going for the last few years. When I saw a visiting circus with free children's tickets, I was intrigued.   So off we went to the circus.  A semi-ghetto circus, but a circus none the less.  It was no Barnum & Bailey Circus (you get what you pay for, right?); but it had animals and acrobats, and Emmett was entertained.  He will still tell you today about the clown on the trampoline that threw his "dress" (pants) up so high that they got stuck in the ceiling.  The biggest disappointment for me was that we had to leave before the elephants came on stage!  Glad to have these memories of our small-scale circus.

 Thankfully to help fill our time at home, Emmett finally discovered the art of coloring.  He spends significant time each day with his crayons, giant paper and coloring books (which he has nearly completely filled). He was so proud of this picture (one of his firsts) he colored.  Dracula has been on our fridge for months.  Emmett's also been working on writing some of his letters.  His E's are my very favorite, though he's already started to convert to the more "standard" E with only three horizontal lines.  :(

Every Thursday morning we go to the library for Music and Movement and Drop-in Story Time.  Emmett loves it, and it's been fun to see how is comfort level has grown over the past few months.  He used to sit on my lap and maybe do some of the actions but not sing until we got home.  Now he dances and sings all over the place and just comes to check in with me every now and then.

We are sad that this awesome story time teacher is leaving.

Emmett and I got to experience Durham's public transportation system for the first time after dropping off the car at the shop.  It took a good 45 minutes to get home, but the dollar it cost was worth Emmett's excitement about riding the bus.  I think he mostly just liked not having to ride in his carseat.

Our dates to Costco are not infrequent by any means but its not often that we splurge and actually buy food (we generally stick to free samples).  This particular day we shared a hotdog and ice cream; though when Emmett tells it, he got ice cream and mom got a hot dog and he just had a bite.  :)