Aila, after lunch, "mom, my hands are clean because I licked them off."
Emerson. 9 mo: standing up to the tub. Loooooves bath time!
All I had to do to get "you're the best mom in the whooole world" was to help Abram make a leopard mask out of paper. :)
Abram: "mom, emerson's warm-blooded today. Feel him, he feels warm."
Aila, master staller/manipulator/etc, during her typical bedtime antics...comes out and says, "mom, I'm cold..." "Ok let's put another blankie on." "No I just need the van (fan)." "The fan will make you colder." "....well actually I'm hot...." "Aila, it's time for bed." "Ok" and runs back to her room, only to turn around and run back to me, "mom, I'm gonna close the door, ok?" "Ok goodnight."
Aila, "mom, my leg is 'sword' and I need ice on it!" (sore)
Aila, "mom, can Em eat rice?" "Yes." "Okay, well I put some on the floor for him to eat."
Feather-brained Monday morning--had ballet for Aila and swim for Abram and Aila at the Finley center. Halfway there realized I forgot Aila's swimsuit ("Aila I think you'll have to miss your swim class today" "that's okay mom")...and a couple min later, realized I also forgot towels...and my phone. Parked and opened the trunk to find it empty--forgot that we had taken out the stroller the day before. So I put emers on my hip (along with all our gear)...so after ballet class, we used Aila's leotard (sans tights) for swim lessons, the picnic blanket for a towel, and we all survived. And when we got home and I realized my t-shirt was on backwards... (???!!!!) at least it was just a plain colored crew neck.
Abram got out a cutting board and requested that he have lunch on it instead of a plate, "because i might have lunch on something like this at kindergarten. I saw it in a berenstain bear book."
Aila runs up to me with a huge Costco bag of pistachios. "Mom, can I please have some mustache-ios?!"
Em tries to escape every time I want to change his diaper. Looks back at me and grins, then turns and speeds away (army crawling).
Abram and Aila always want to go get in Em's crib with him after his nap.
Camping at grover hot springs: we had been saying, "we're going camping at Grover's" for days...when we got there, Aila kept saying, "but where's Grover?" And "where's Grovers' mommy?"
Abram: "mom is there anything smaller than 1/4?"
Emerson full out crawling at 10 months. Mamas boy--I came in to Sunday school late; as soon as I walked in, Emerson (on Ben's lap) couldn't stop making anxious noises and when I sat down, he literally jumped on me and started laughing and making loud, happy noises. :)
Abram to Aila, "because I'm a big kid and you're a little kid." "I'm not a little kid!" "Well, you're just kind of in-between."
Abram asked, "what's more than 1/2?" "3/4" "oh, because a half moon is 2 quarters..." "Yes...."
Abram asking lots of questions about the earth and Gravity..."don't the people on the other side of the world feel like they're upside down? Are they hanging from their heads?"
I took the kids to frozen yogurt today! I was cracking up because as they watched the cars drive by (as we so often do ourselves), Abram said "I bet the kids in those cars are feeling sad because they asked their mommies if they could get frozen yogurt and they said no." 
Abram beginning French immersion school next week--I've been pulling out all the words I remember from 7th grade French class and teaching them to the kids...today aila said, "mom, how do you say 'bonjour' in Japanese?"
Images of summer...piles of sand in the entryway, Popsicle-stained cheeks, sunflowers in our garden inches taller every day, baby legs kicking kicking kicking out of the baby swing, Abram waving at me and giving a "thumbs up" during his swim lesson, Aila's hair bun bobbing up and down as she attempts to blow bubbles in the pool in her little pink suit...
Abram likes to ask lots of math questions. Me, "wow, how did you know that?" "Well I just like to think about math a lot while I do Legos. I just think about math every half second!" Aila pipes in, "who's math???!!"
Today at Abrams violin lesson he played his favorite song...and you could tell it was his fave because he played with feeling. It was wonderful and beautiful and his teacher was amazed and I wanted to cry. He's growing up and maturing so fast.
My favorite with Emerson--at bedtime in the rocker, he lays his head on my shoulder while I sing. Periodically, he lifts his head up to look at me and sometimes plants a little slobber "kiss" on my face, then lays back down and tucks his arms in. So so sweet. I also love watching him eat Ben's face when he gets home from work.
Abram, talking about earth and space, "so...where does gravity and no gravity connect??"
Very proud mom moment: Abram came home from school and said, "some kids in my class say 'pitcher' when they really mean 'picture'."
Aila to me, after first day of preschool, "I was so excited to see you. I was a little bit nervous." (Contrasted with Abram when he started preschool, "I wasn't nervous one tiny bit. No, I didn't miss you at all.")
Aila: "I'm 'exciting' for Emerson because he's turning one soon!" (Excited)
Abram: "mom, does counting ever stop? Or does it go on and on?" "Nope, it keeps going and going and going..." *he thinks deeply* "...so how does....whoa.....WHOA!!"
Emerson loves waving. The first time I saw him do it was when we were at a restaurant and he was looking out the window and turning his little wrist. And sure enough, I looked and there was a lady out the window waving at him. Now he does it when I lie him down for bed. He looks up at me and waves both hands and jabbers "die yie" (night night) while smiling, of course.
Emerson bday. We played a couple simple games and made him the center of attention, which he loved. He seemed to know we were celebrating him and just babbled and babbled and babbled. So sweet. Then we (Abram and Aila) opened presents while Emerson climbed on the boxes, we sang to him, and he even got a little taste of (decreased sugar) zucchini cake. He felt special. We feel so blessed to have him in our family! For me, and I dare say the rest of the family, he has been a manifestation of God's love.
Emersons first words (10-12mo): da-da, ma-ma, die-yie (night-night).
"Aila, what did you do at preschool?" "Painting, painting, and more painting!!"
Abram had his first soccer game last week (and two more this week). He had been waiting for months!! He was so excited he was literally jumping and leaping around the field the first 10 min but not really touching the ball. But after that he decided to get aggressive and scored 4 goals!
Aila, "mom, I just put a booger in my hair." I love her honesty.
Had my first solo-with-kids soccer game tonight. Thought it would be a piece of cake because last time Emer basically stayed on the blanket and picked grass while Aila was content with half a stick of gum. This time, however, I spent most of my time removing Em from the soccer field, keeping a bee away from Aila, and asking Aila to stop throwing grass in my hair, while simultaneously doing a terrible job keeping a conversation with a couple of nearby parents...who watched in humor and also thought Emer was a girl. Haha. Meanwhile, I saw Abram dribble the ball down the field a couple times and he finished sweaty so I think he had fun.
"Abram, what's your favorite thing about kindergarten?" "Racing with my buddies at recess." "What's your 2nd favorite thing?" "Playing soccer with my buddies at recess." "...what's your 3rd favorite?" "Playing freeze tag at recess!"
Aila "mom, can I wear goggles when I get baptized? Cause I don't want water in my eyes!"
Aila "mom, watch this!!" (Throws up a ball and catches it) "I very catched it!!"
Abram, one morning after practicing violin, "mom, I just looove May Song! I want to practice it aalll day! Like 5 hours a day!" I actually had to coax him away from practicing to get his shoes on for school. *THIS IS NOT AN EVERYDAY OCCURRENCE*
Abram, "I'm learning 3 languages. English, French, and baby." (He frequently 'translates' Emerson's babbles...and also tells me what Em's babbles are in French--"Mom, he just said a French word!")
Aila: "there's an excellent girl in my preschool class." "Oh really? Why is she excellent?" "Because she makes excellent fairy houses."
Aila, to a woman at church, "I can't imagine where my mommy went!!"
Aila, in the car with windows down: "mom, emer's hair is like a ball of fire!" (wind blowing his hair)
Out in the garden with the kids and I put a zucchini and single cherry tomato on the wooden railing. A minute later I turn around and emerson has chipmunk cheeks and the tomato is missing. Abram and Aila can't believe he would actually eat a tomato! Then we go inside and he happily eats four more.
October 2016: Emerson's first steps!
Traveling to Texas for Ben's family reunion....Had a stressful day of traveling including almost missing our flight in Oakland due to crazy, crazy traffic and Emerson pooping everywhere during the flight...and the (large) lady next to me appeared to be taking a nap so I tried to quickly change him on my squished lap and she woke up halfway through...whoops...Ben was rows away from us and poor Abram was next to me with messy diaper basically in his face..."Mom, I wish I was sitting with Daddy"... But we made it alive!! 
