On this week's episode of The Scarlett Show...

Scarlett gets a visit from her Great Gran, Grandad, Mormor, Uncle Jonathan and Aunt Katrina who were all down for the long weekend to attend Aunt Stephanie and Uncle Craig's (awesomely fantastic) wedding. Scarlett has not seen these relatives since our visit to Canada last November (to read about that, click here). We had so much fun! Aunt Katrina and Uncle Jonathan even stayed with us in our guest room!
When Great Gran, Mormor and Grandad had gotten settled into their hotel room, we went to meet them all so we could go out to dinner. Here is Scarlett sitting like a big girl next to her Aunt and Uncle. Within five minutes of seeing them again, Scarlett must have remembered who they were because she jumped right into Katrina's arms...
And Jonathan's lap.
Heck...she even jumped into Jonathan's shoes! The reunited Adams clan.
The Adams guys hanging with the Bubs.
Aunt Katrina and Uncle Jonathan with Scarlett - who, by the way, had two toy cell phones with her that night, direct lines to both Cinderella and Elmo, and yet she still managed to swipe Jonathan's phone to play with. The next day we visited the outlets...and Scarlett visited Bob the Builder. She swiped his bulldozer and took it for out a spin. He did seem pretty pissed about it too. He clung onto the side of the bulldozer while she tried to speed away. She even poked him in the eye to try and get him off. The bulldozer eventually ran out of gas (quarters).



Scarlett practiced holding hands while walking with Grandad. She needed the practice so that she would hold the other flower girl's hand while walking down the aisle at Aunt Stephanie's wedding. Luckily, this is a skill that was mastered by the wedding on Sunday...thanks for the help Grandad! The next day we went to the wedding rehearsal and the wedding rehearsal lunch. Bridesmaid Aunt Katrina was a huge help, as was Groomsman Uncle Jonathan, because, in addition to being the mother of a very active toddler who needs constant monitoring, I was the Matron of Honor and had obligatory responsibilities to Aunt Stephanie...most of which were met...hopefully. Aunt Stephanie and Uncle Craig gave Scarlett and the other flower girl, Erin, t-shirts announcing to the world that they were the flower girls. I'm seriously having this shirt framed when Scarlett outgrows it. Until then...she's wearing it everyday...or at least once a week. It's so cute!
They also gave Scarlett a "Mo" book complete with Sesame Street finger puppets. In addition to the fact that Scarlett absolutely loves this book, it proved to be a lifesaver at the wedding too. It was the "break glass in case of emergency" toy. We can always count on Mo. Fruit Loops also saved the day. That kid ate so many Fruit Loops I'm surprised she didn't poop an orange the next day.
Here are some good family shots...
Aunt Stephanie, Great Gran, me and Scarlett.
Mormor, Uncle Jonathan, Aunt Stephanie, me, Aunt Katrina, and Grandad.

Then we threw Great Gran and Scarlett into the bunch...not literally, of course. And here's Uncle Craig, Aunt Stephanie, Joe, Scarlett, me, Nan, and Larry
Yay family! It was so great to see everybody, and, as always, it flew by way too quickly. Sigh.

Sooooo...there is a ton more to come, including the wedding itself. But right now I'm exhausted after a crazy crazy weekend. And...I'm waiting for the professional photos to be ready. They should be done in a few days. I can't trust my own unprofessional photos to represent the utter cuteness that was Scarlett, and the utter beauty that was her Aunt Stephanie on this day. On the next episode of The Scarlett Show (spoiler alert) we'll meet Aunt Jane and Al, we'll walk down the aisle as a flower girl, we'll get down on the dance floor...but wait, I'm spoiling it. You'll have to wait. What? You don't want to wait that long? Okay, okay...geez. You folks sure are pushy. I can't blame you for not wanting to wait a few days to see how cute Scarlett looked as a flower girl, so I'll leave you with this. That should tide you over for a bit.

Till next time!

Rocketship Run

Scarlett got a new CD recently. She loves it...obvious to tell by this video. I love it to. Laurie Berkner has instilled in me the hope that Scarlett's favorite song will not, in fact, remain the "La La La La, Elmo's World" song forever. God bless you Laurie Berkner. God bless you and your Rocketship Run. Oh...and tonight I witnessed Scarlett's repertoire of dance moves grow slightly larger than my very own. "That girl's got more moves than an octopus in a wrestling match." She puts her mom, and her mom's solo maneuver, to shame.

Bubbles bubbles everywhere...

Scarlett signs "milk"

I taught Scarlett this sign all by myself. Admittedly, I find this "milk the cow" sign slightly disturbing. But hey, what can you do.

Taylor's birthday party

Saturday we went to Scarlett's friend Taylor's birthday party. She turned a very exciting four years old. Taylor had a moon bounce at her birthday party. How cool is that?! (Seriously...how cool?) Scarlett loved it! I, on the other hand, was petrified. I have a subscription to Parents magazine, and a moon bounce incident was featured in their "it happened to me" section. The point of this section is to explain to parents that no matter how innocent a situation may seem, something horrible can still happen to your child. Yeah...thanks Parents, thanks for instilling in me the ever present fear that Scarlett will break a limb, lose a finger, or melt the skin off of the bottoms of her feet at the playground. Like I don't have enough to worry about. But back to the moon bounce. Joe played the role of moon bounce bouncer and carded toddlers at the gate to make sure that they were under 3 years of age before he would allow them in the VIP jump room.

Ethan's i.d. checked out, and he was the only toddler permitted to accompany my daughter in the moon bounce.
The experience was short lived.
Happy birthday, Taylor!

Scarlett signs "more"

Okay...this was all my friend Val's work. Credit is definitely due.
As you've seen in recent posts, Scarlett picks up stuff fairly quickly - usually by watching someone else, and then mimicking what she sees them do. While sometimes this isn't such a good thing (i.e. "no!", hitting, and - most recently- sticking her finger up her nose) in this case, it's good. Val taught Scarlett to sign the word "more." I abandoned the idea of baby sign language because I don't spend that much of my day with Scarlett. I thought that this stuff wouldn't stick in her baby brain if she wasn't asked to sign all day long. I was wrong. To give you an idea of what the sign looks like, here is an image of a little boy signing the word "more."
And here is a video of Scarlett signing the word. When she had originally learned the sign, she had to see someone actually doing it in order to mimic them. Now, all I have to say is the word "more," as you'll hear, and she does the sign for it all by herself. I very much prefer the sign language version of "more" to her whiny grunt finger-pointing request that precedes it. Thanks Val!

Washing our hands...and armpits.

Okay...so I understand that Scarlett would imitate us lathering soap up in our hands. She sees Joe and I do this all the time. But where the heck did she get the armpit thing from?! It cracks me up. She does it every time. We haven't bought the "Elmo Washes His Armpits" DVD yet, so I can't blame Sesame Street. Well...I guess I can't complain about her having good hygiene.

Now this is what I call making an entrance...