Here Comes Emaline

In 1926, the song "Here Comes Emaline" was a hit in speakeasies and jazz clubs. Little did swingers know, the song would also sort of inspire the name of my sweet daughter.

If anyone knows of a song with Keillor's name in the title, pass it along to me. Otherwise, I will have to post a slideshow of photos accompanied by Prairie Home Companion.

New Table

A new table arrives. Great for eating fruit outside, but not so great for sharing.

Backyardigans

The backyard has become our children's favorite place. While Aimee and I are excited that we finally have outside children, they never want to come in. Still, we're happy that they are happy out in the wild. As luck would have it, our future next-door neighbors donated a plastic slide. Coicidentally, my dad gave me an ancient rubber boat that I used to love as a kid. Ironically, we have found that the boat makes an excellent slide collection pool. Slide + Pool = Nonstop Schmookie Excitement.

Keillor scales the ladder to the slide.



Emaline on her maiden voyage down the slide into the icy water




Keillor takes the easy way up



Emaline lays seige on Keillor's castle

It becomes Emaline's castle

Emaline in her garden helper

Keillor finds that the space under the slide is fun also



A fun pasttime for our kids: eating dirt

The poison ivy, mosquitoes, spiders, rocks, and other dangers of our backyard are little adventures to our children. Emaline picked up a spider, brought it over to me and said, "Daddy. Spider." It's going to be a long summer.

H Two Ohh!

The warmer weather has the Schmookies wanting to be "outside, outside, outside" all the time. They could spend hours in the backyard and still want to go back out the second we drag them back in the house. Outside means bruises, scrapes, dirt under every nail and in every orifice, and water: in puddles, in the pool, from the hose, in the water table. And, yes, there are plenty of drops to drink.

Dispatches from Mautucky

Since we are only blogging once a year now, I thought I'd update the family about the recent developments in the world of the Mau Schmookies. Life just gets more and more interesting. The twins are singing, counting, saying some of their ABCs, pulling hair, and wanting to spend every waking hour outside. Yesterday, digging in the flower bed, they discovered worms. Emaline is fascinated. Keillor likes to look but not touch. He doesn't like getting his hands dirty.

Mommy and Emaline enjoy fake food at the Explorium.

We are at the stage where we could begin potty training or not. Emaline is ready, and will try to go potty by herself. Keillor treats the toilet like an electric chair. We are considering just doing away with diapers and letting them feel what's it's like to soil themselves. Since it is getting warm, and since we do spend a lot of time outside, this could prove to be the best method.

Keillor practices his climbing skills.

Their vocabularies have grown so much that there are fewer words they don't know than they do know. Emaline will pretty much repeat whatever we say. Keillor will just stare at us like we are idiots if we say words he doesn't understand. This weekend, they learned that the brush fire in the backyard is hot and that it will burn them. They keep repeating this over and over again: "Fire will burn babies. Hot. Hot. Burn babies. No, no, no."

Emaline gets locked out of GaGa and GeeGee's house

Our adventures in meal time have calmed. Our take it or leave it attitude has not created more adventurous eaters, but they aren't starving either.

The Schmookies pay homage to St. Francis.

While they did not understand Easter this year, we tried to explain that because of Jesus, a giant bunny brings chocolate. Emaline said, "Thank you, Jesus." Keillor just looked at us like we are morons.

Keillor dyes eggs with GaGa

Speaking of saying "thank you," they are developing manners. Both have started saying things like, "please, help," "thank you," "more, please," and "excuse me." Now we just have to work on training them to clean chimneys.

Emaline dies eggs with GeeGee

Driving Lessons

A rare occasion when they are not fighting

Emaline models her new sunglasses

They roll the garden caddy up the hill and either try to ride it down or run after it.