On tractors and tiaras...

So Emmeline is into two things right now: riding on the lawnmower and princesses.  I'll get to princesses in a minute, but first... tractors.  A few weeks ago, David took her for a ride on the lawnmower and now it is her favorite thing to do at home.  "Tak-tuh?" (tractor) she says.  Everyday.  Usually first thing in the morning.  Always when she gets home.  Before we leave for school everyday, she has to hug the tractor.  "Aww, tak-tuh, aww."  ("Aww" means hug, because that is what we say when she gives us hugs.)  Yup, she hugs the tractor everyday before she will get in the car.
 
David found her this Emmeline-sized John Deere at the Thrift Store the other day.  It has no charger and the wheels are shot, but she climbs onto it and off of it and onto it and off of it about 100 times.  But it doesn't replace riding with Daddy.  When she isn't on the tractor, she carries around a picture of them riding the tractor.  Sometimes, she will take the picture to bed with her and I'll hear her talking on the monitor about the "taktuh."

Now, on princesses, "pinsess" as Emmeline calls them.  I woke up on April 29 just in time to catch most of the Royal Wedding.  Emmeline got up in time to see the Prince and Princess leaving Westminster Abbey.  Her favorite part: the horses.  "Husses, giin.  Husses, giin!"  (Horses, again.  Horses again!)  Then she saw the princess in her tiara waving at the crowd while sitting in a carriage pulled by huge horses.  Emmeline turned and looked at me like, "How come we don't ride around like that!"  And then she started waving back at the Prince and Princess.  She smiled and waved all morning.  If you ask her to, she will smile and wave like a princess.  Somehow, the receptionists at her dentist knew she was a princess, which made the first visit there better.

Last week, I took her by the recital rehearsal for Steeple Arts, my old dance studio.  My mom's cousin teaches there and we wanted to stop by and say hello to her and some other friends.  Emmeline really wanted to go home and ride the tractor, so she was fussy-butted all the way there in the car.  Finally she calmed down when I told her we were going to see some dancing princesses.

Once we got there, I took her into the theatre and she saw the girls dancing on stage.  "Pinsess, aww.  pincess, aww."  "We will go give them a hug in a minute, Emmeline.  The are doing their Princess Dance right now."  "Pinsess, aww.  pincess, aww."  This went on for a while.  Finally, they were finished with their dancing and pictures and we went on stage to see them.  This sweet class of 12 little 12-year-olds were so flattered to be thought of as Princesses, but I wish I had had my camera to capture Emmeline's face!  She positively lit up when those girls gushed over her.  She cried when it was time to leave.  "Pincess, aww.  Pincess, aww.  Pincess, aww, giin, ginn!!!"  One lonely Princess in the parking lot waiting on her queen mom to pick her up got one final hug from Emmeline and then we were on the way home.  No amount of telling her that the Princesses were all night-night in their castles would console her.  She wanted more hugs from the Princesses.  She cried and cried and cried...

Until we pulled up at home and she saw the tractor.

Ahhh, the attention span of the toddler mind.