Valentine's Day & a Little Ditty

Caleb and Truman.

Meet "Melba."

Melba is my grandmother's name (Emma's Nana). I often wish Nana could be here in TX to watch Emma play...she definitely reminds me of how Nana was when I was growing up and hanging out at her house on 16th Street. And since Nana is in KY and can't be here for playtime, I thought I'd list a few reasons why Adam and I have affectionately called her "Melba" more times than we can count.

1. She loves to cook, both in her play kitchen and in the real kitchen with me. She can whip up a meal in no time. That is just like Nana. She could bring out 10 or so "Tuppers" (aka, Tupperware) filled with all sorts of yummy food from the fridge at mealtime.

2. She loves to clean. I mean LOVES it. There is a strange bond between Emma and a cleaning rag that I will never begin to understand. According to "my little Melba," something in this house could always use a little cleaning. Give her a dust rag and watch out!!! She's unstoppable.
I can't remember a time when I was over at Nana's house where something wasn't considered "filthy," she'd say. This was her opinion...to me it looked clean as a whistle. :)

3. She's always painting her fingernails. Ever since I gave Emma that bottle as her big girl gift a few weeks ago, she keeps painting her fingernails. They've been painted blue, magenta, yellow...every color of the rainbow. While Nana usually prefers to stick to the more sensible colors of clear or pink, she always has the most gorgeous nails you've ever seen.

We miss you Nana and wish you lived closer so you could come over and watch the 2-year-old version of yourself!!! It's pretty cute. :)

Emma thought Mallie needed a friend to sleep with.

With Daddy!

"Caleb, I cooked for you. You like it???"

Awww.

Look...
...at that...
...sweet boy.

Funny story: We gave Emma and Caleb some fake food for Valentine's Day to use in the play kitchen. (Did they NEED more fake food? No. Even the chewed-in-half fake hamburger we have (thank you, Caleb) didn't warrant such a purchase. BUT after watching Emma almost lose her marbles, concerned because she couldn't find the tomatoes a few days ago... searching high and low for them, we thought it might be an appropriate gift to ensure that our daughter stays sane in the future (and that our son has a new plastic hamburger to destroy). It was as if Emma put out an APB for those tomatoes. No one could rest til the tomatoes had been found. So, $2 well spent, in my opinion).

Below: A video for you...Emma wanted to serenade us the other day. She pulled out all the stops and rattled off a few songs right in a row. Enjoy!