Chicken & Cheese Noodles

Emerson has been so very good lately about brushing her teeth. I know a lot of toddlers typically put up a huge fight about it, but we’re going through a lucky phase right now. She lets me brush her whole mouth, and then she “helps” for like 3 seconds, doing it on her own.

She found this “X” on the sidewalk this morning, and stood perfectly on top of it like this, all on her own. I was very proud of her “X marks the spot” photo shoot locale idea, and she was happy & proud of herself too, I think 😉

And then she was off and running into daycare! She’s just the happiest little toddler-girl.

And you know she was excited about this muffin!

Since I finished my Elton John book last night, of course I started another audio book this morning. Don’t know too much about this one yet, but it’s been pretty popular lately.

We had a special Thanksgiving luncheon for work today, for my Bureau, plus a few others. And since it was such a large group, they hosted it at the Wakulla Correctional Institution training center (remember, I work for the Department of Corrections Central Office), so we got to go on a little field trip for lunch today! It was yummy food, and Dr. Pepper Cherry always feels like a treat. But my work friends and I forgot to take a photo together this time – maybe the tryptophan was already making our brains too sluggish to think about it…

Somehow, we made it through the rest of the afternoon at work, even though we all wanted a nap. (I gotta say, I love my comfy jeggings for post-meal comfort, haha!)

Emmie had a good day at school, but she only napped for 17 shorts minutes! 😳

After work I picked up my Tater Tot, and let her run around in the grass for a few minutes, because she was hyped up. The trees in the background are so pretty, and these portrait shots turned out so good! I honestly want to take her back tomorrow, in a cute fall outfit, and take more photos here!

And since she had only slept for 17 minutes at school during nap time, she fell asleep on the ride home for the first time in forever. She got really quiet after a while, and I assumed she was probably asleep, so I drove around the neighborhood for a little bit, just letting her get a few more minutes of rest. When we got home, I opened and shut two or three car doors, and she didn’t wake up. And I even took this photo with the flash on, and she still didn’t wake up! Girlfriend was exhausted.

Jeff picked up some stuff from CVS, and he picked up Guthrie’s for dinner. I had planned to cook, but I was just too stinking exhausted and didn’t feel like it, so we opted to just, not. Emerson specifically requested chicken and cheese noodles, so we figured, why not? Jeff got us chicken strip meals, and I shared mine with Emerson, and then we made her a little cup of cheese noodles.

And this girl went to TOWN on her dinner tonight! She ate the entire chicken strip, a few fries, some of my bread, and all but like 1/2 a bite of her cheese noodles. And then she finished off with a cookie!

We got cleaned up after dinner, and both of us girls put our night gowns on. We read a few books, and colored a little bit, and watched some of “Kung Fu Panda.”

When it was time to get ready for bed, I told her to pick three books from her giant stack to read. I was so impressed when she did actually pick just three! She’s the smartest!

She was being a little crazy at bedtime, and just flopping all over the place while we were listening to her lullaby songs. She wanted me to hold her like a baby, so I turned her sideways and cradled her in my arms, but she was being so crazy. Then she was reaching up and touching all over my face (like you see blind people in the movies feel people’s faces). She was touching all over my cheeks & chin & eyes & forehead & mouth & finally she was lightly holding onto my throat (her hand in a position as if you were choking someone), but she was just resting it there very lightly. During all of this, I was trying so hard not to laugh and giggle, because not only did I think it was funny, but it also kinda tickled!

I finally got her calmed down, and then we ended up listening to the final lullaby on repeat three times, and then she was finally ready to lay down in her crib.

I’m thinking it’s now time to find a Christmas movie on Netflix (that we’ll only watch half of tonight & then finish tomorrow), and make a cup of hot tea, and I think maybe I’ll go to bed early again tonight.