Wordless Wednesday

Grandpa

Once again, I find myself playing catch up for a couple of blog-less weeks. A lot has been going on and I just haven't had a ton of time to sit down and update. Emma has been sick as a dog. She caught some sort of "virus" that included several days of a fever and then turned into the runny-nose-that-never-ends. She literally had a runny nose for 3 weeks straight. I decided that Gymboree might be partly to blame because the child has never really been sick before, so we opted out of the last 2 sessions. I'm glad I only paid half price for it!

Aside from her being sick, we had been having a good couple of weeks. All of that came crashing down on Saturday. We were at Brad's parents house having dinner and had just told them that we were leaving the following morning to go visit my Grandpa in Thomson. No sooner did we mention that, then I got a call from my mom, letting me know that my Grandpa had passed away. He wasn't feeling well and laid down for a nap, but didn't wake up. I was crushed.

I've always been very close to my grandparents. They lived next door to me for a majority of my life and I have so many good memories of times spent together. I'm so glad that I have those. I'm also glad that we have so many pictures and memories of taking Emma to see him. When I was pregnant with her, I was so afraid that he would never get to meet her and devastated that my Grandma never would. His health has been slowly declining over the last couple of years. When Emma was about 6 weeks old we put her in the car and drove the 2 hours to Thomson, with her screaming the entire way - she HATED the car. I'm so glad that we did that. My mom put Emma on my Grandpa's chest as he slept and he woke up to Emma snuggled up with him. I will never forget that moment. We went back to Thomson as often as we could - traveling with an infant is tough. Grandpa has a few pictures of Emma that my Aunt Claire took and had framed that he used to look at and talk about her all the time. I'm so glad that he got to know Emma a little bit and that she brought some sunshine into his life. She does that for all of us. My Grandpa was an amazing man and he will be missed terribly, though I know in my heart that he's right where he needs to be - with my Grandma holding his hand.



Just as we were mourning my Grandpa, we got some more bad news. My Dad went in for his annual PET scan that he gets yearly now that he has had cancer. He and my mom went yesterday to get the results. It wasn't great. There is another spot in his healthy lung, which is inoperable because of his diminished lung capacity because they removed 1/3 of his other lung previously. His adrenal gland, which had been swollen for some time (not sure why) is now lighting up as possibly cancerous. He also has a lymph node that wraps around his voice box that is lighting up. We're not exactly sure where we stand. He has to have a biopsy of his lung next week, and we should know more then. He also has to set up an appointment with an oncologist and talk about treatment. There has been talk of chemotherapy.

Needless to say, we're having a tough time. We're all trying to stay positive until we know more. He's beaten cancer once, though it took a huge toll on all of us as a family. We're trying to remain strong and hopeful that this can be taken care of and that he will be victorious again. I'll keep you all updated as soon as we know more.

Please keep us all in your prayers. This is a really tough time for us and we need God's grace to walk this road one step at a time.

Catch Up

I've been informed (thank you, Aunt Claire) that I need to put some more Emma pictures on here, so let me play catch up!

For my birthday we met Brad's sister, Stacie, and cousin, Madison, at the Georgia Aquarium! It was Emma's very first trip and she was mesmerized! She loved it! She was in a stupor for most of the trip - all she could do was stare! It was a good thing that we took separate cars from Stacie and Madison - Emma decided it was time to meltdown about an hour and a half after we got there, so we took the express route in expectation of that. We hit all of the big attractions that we knew she'd love and be able to get the closest to. It was SO much fun, as you can see! This picture was just as we walked in - the first fish she saw. She kept pointing and looking at me, and pointing. She couldn't believe her eyes!

Checking out the stingrays and the sharks. And yes, I DID touch a stingray, despite being stung by one a few years ago. And no, I didn't pinch him as I had told Brad I would. ;)

Looking at the otters with Daddy.

Unfortunately, we've been pretty sick around here lately. Brad had bronchitis, which he gave to me. Emma came down with a runny nose on Friday and woke up Saturday with a fever of 100.7 and a cough. Having only had one cold before (when she was 4 months old) and seeing as this was the first time she had a runny nose AND a fever, her overprotective Mama packed up and went to the pediatrician. We're SO lucky that our pediatrician's office has Saturday hours. We were only in the waiting room for a minute and the doctor was pretty quick to diagnose Emma as having a "virus." She said that it would likely last 7-10 days, with days 5-7 being the worst and most congested days. She also said we'd likely be dealing with the fever for 3-5 days. No prescriptions, no meds. Just a lot of liquids and the humidifier. The whole time she was talking I was sitting there thinking, "Didn't we JUST do this?? Didn't she JUST have 5 days of a fever???" The kid can't catch a break. Neither can her Mama.

Even more unfortunately, I now have a lot of sinus congestion and am still on the antibiotic for bronchitis. Hoping it goes away soon - it's no fun to be taking care of a sick baby when you feel like crap yourself. Ick.

Brad started back to work last Wednesday for 3 pre-planning days. His students start tomorrow. I think he's excited, but he'd never tell. ;) He gets really, really stressed out near the first day of school, and always has. He's been a little hard to live with the last few days, so Emma and I are looking forward to seeing the first day of school go ahead and get over with already!

Here are a few pictures of Emma from tonight. She was about to take a bath, hence the nekkidness. Brad was dropping her crib down for the last time because she's getting to be a big girl and we wanted to put in her crib wedge while she's sick (it elevates the head of the mattress so she can breathe better). With it in, she could likely have crawled over the top, so we lowered it. She was a good helper for Daddy! She pulled out plenty of books to read to him while he worked.

Gotta love the big old diaper butt!

Have I mentioned that she's walking???? She'll take up to 7 or so steps on her own! She doesn't have a ton of confidence with it yet, so it's not consistent, but she's getting there! 2 more sort of random pictures. I love this first one. It's Amber, just about 60 seconds after finding out she's pregnant again! Yay!!
This last one was created by Amber's mom, Penny. She's Emma's other "Nana!" Isn't it incredible???? Thank you Penny!!

Gymboree

Well, Brad's back at work. Emma and I were on our own again for the first time today. It's been a great day, but the little monkey is going to have to get re-accustomed to being sat down every once in a while! She's been spoiled this summer having both of us here to entertain her and she hasn't been in "the pen" or in her crib very much. Now with Brad back in school, if I have to fix her lunch, go to the bathroom, wash my hands, etc. she has to be put somewhere, which she doesn't like. She was absolutely fine with that before the summer, and I'm sure she'll get back in the swing of things again soon. ;)

I had a great birthday. Amber and Jason came and spent the day and we had a great dinner while Emma played at her grandparents house. Amber gave me the most incredible gift ever - a scrapbook of Emma's first year (and my pregnancy). It's gorgeous beyond words and had me in tears by page 3!

Brad has been dealing with bronchitis, which he then passed on to me. I'm now working on getting over it and praying that Emma doesn't end up being the next victim.

We decided at the last minute to go visit Amber and Jason in Carrollton one last time before school starts back up. Brad and I really needed to de-stress and were really happy that they don't mind us inviting ourselves over every few weeks ;) Emma loves their house because it's like going to a petting zoo - they have chickens, roosters, ducks, cows, and a goat. Oh, the goat. She has looked at him from a distance before, and even gotten quite close. This time, however, she was scared to death! He is really friendly and was in his fence. He came over and started "meeeeehhhhing." He kept wanting to give her kisses and as soon as he'd get close, or LOOK like he was going to get close, she'd grab onto me REALLY hard and yell! It was hysterical! I'm a horrible mother :( After some gentle coaxing, she was much better with him.

We had a lot of excitement on Monday. Amber found out that she's pregnant! Seth is SO excited to be a big brother! I'm so excited for her. Maybe it will be us soon enough. It was so awesome to be there with them when they found out. In fact, she told me before she told Jason ;) Just had to brag!

We also had a few firsts this week. Emma gave my mom a black eye for the first time! She's got quite a temper (Emma, not my mom) and has really gotten into stiffening up and throwing her head back when she doesn't get her way. Well, my mom's face got in the way when I told Emma that it was time to go. I feel horrible - she's on vacation this week and I'm sure my Dad's getting the side-eye because it looks like he beat her. Wow.

We went to Gymboree for the first time today too! She had an absolute blast! As soon as we got in and I was sitting our stuff down, I sat her down as well. She made a beeline and was across the room with the other kids before I knew it! She loved climbing on the fun equipment and playing with the other kids. It was so much fun! Every 5-10 minutes the "teacher" would have a different group activity that the kids could do in the middle of the room (banging on a big drum, pushing a huge padded "log," etc.) There was lots of singing, bubbles, and dancing too. Emma loved it, but after the last 15 minutes of sitting down and singing, she was almost over it - but she held it together nicely! She was so funny. She didn't want to have much to do with me once we got there. She was too busy playing with other kids, taking their toys, throwing balls, and climbing through tunnels. Once they pulled out the parachute, she was a mama's girl again! They had us all get under it and make a big tent. She enjoyed that, and crawled over to the teacher (across the group from me). As soon as she got over there, the teacher had the adults get out of the tent and make it go up and down over the kids. Emma freaked! She found me and I got to hold her for the rest of the class. Poor baby. She did SO well, especially considering that it was during her nap time. We're going to try to go this weekend when they have Open Gym so that Brad can come play too - it was SO much fun!

Once we got back from Gymboree we ate lunch and Emma had another first - she signed "more" for the very first time! I tried signing with her a few months ago and she really just didn't get it. She would watch me do it, but make no attempt to imitate. Today she was doing it over and over again - even when I just would ask her if she wanted more! She's getting so big!

Sorry there aren't pictures to this post. I'll try to upload some soon, but it's quite a chore and I just honestly didn't have the energy this afternoon. I'll try to catch up next week!

Hand, Foot, & Mouth, oh my!

We've had quite the exciting week this week! We went to Carrollton to spend a few days with Amber and Jason. We had a great time and Emma was an angel - she slept well, and even liked Jason this time (she's always been terrified of him for some reason!). We had a really funny moment. Amber and I were at her mother's house visiting with Amber's brand new niece when Brad called. I had apparently forgotten to pack bibs and he was feeding Emma dinner. I told him to go ahead and use a dishtowel and that I would run to Walmart later to buy some bibs. This is what I saw when we got back to Amber's house! Please notice the CHIP CLIP!


Jason brought out his guitars and played for Emma. She had fun playing too!


When we got home on Thursday morning, Emma felt really warm. I took her temperature and it was 102! I immediately called the pediatrician's office and we made an appointment for right after her nap. I gave her tylenol and put her down. By the time that we got to the pediatrician's office, it was down to 99.5. However, her cheeks and arms were bright red. Dr. Hutson said that that's her body's way of ridding itself of excess heat. She was miserable. He did a quick exam and noticed one small sore in her mouth and determined that she had the coxsackie virus, commonly known as "hand, foot, and mouth disease." It's basically a really common summer virus that causes 2-5 days of a high fever and often sores in the mouth or on the hands and feet. He recommended Motrin because it has a longer half-life than tylenol. We came straight home and gave her Motrin. She was a sick little puppy.

We had a good 4 days of fever and general miserableness. She never did get any more sores (she may have had more in her mouth, but none that I could see). By the time that she was well, we had completely screwed up her sleeping schedule. I had gotten back in the habit of going in her room everytime she fussed to make sure her fever wasn't too high. Often times I would take her out of her crib, give her more Motrin, and nurse her again before putting her back down. It took 2 days of sleep training to get her back on track, but she's as good as new now! In fact, she's recently discovered the joys of sleeping late in the morning. Yesterday, she didn't get up until 9:30! It's nice.

One bad thing may have come out of her little illness though. The "fussiness" that seemed to come with it, has turned into a screaming, yelling little monster that won't go away! Emma started arching her back and throwing herself backward whenever she would get mad, upset, or generally not get her way (picture someone being touched by a faith healer - exactly). Well, THAT started a few weeks ago. NOW she's screaming and yelling when she doesn't get her way. If we're at dinner and she wants something other than what she's been served, SCREAM. If she wants to go into a room other than the one we're in, SCREAM. You get the picture. We're working on ignoring it at the moment, but it's tough! Brad actually had to take her out of TJMaxx the other day because of it. There was nothing wrong - she just didn't feel like shopping right then. It's way too early for the terrible 2's!

This is her fake "I'm mad!" screaming. As you can see, she keeps her eyes open just enough to be able to see us and tell if it's working. If it's not, she can turn it off just as quickly. She's a mess.


We've had a pretty relaxed week, aside from all of the above. I finally got to go to Spa Sydell and use a gift certificate for a facial and manicure that Brad's parents got me for my last birthday. My 29th birthday is on Wednesday and we're planning to celebrate with Amber and Jason on Tuesday night. Emma's going to be playing with her Grandmother and Grandpop and Aunt Stacie while we all go to Carrabba's for dinner! It will be nice to be able to go out for my birthday this year. Last year I had a one month old to think about, and restaurants weren't in our vocabulary. With her little attitude these days, she won't be seeing another restaurant for quite some time either! Keep us in your prayers!

I'll leave you with one more sweet picture. This is Emma's first "lovey." My Aunt Barbara gave it to me for my baby shower and Emma has fallen in love with it! She goes to sleep each night holding it and burying her face in it - it's the sweetest thing I've ever seen!

Kissin Cousins!

We've had a nice week or so just hanging around the house. Nothing too new or exciting to report, but it's been fun nonetheless!

Here are a few pictures of Emma and her cousin, Luke, from their visit. They were SO cute together - they really seemed to like playing together this time. When they've seen each other in the past, they've been so young that they didn't really pay each other too much attention. It was sweet to see them playing together. Luke even gives Emma some sugar! There's nothing like kissin on your cousin in front of the bear pt


Emma's now OFFICIALLY unswaddled!! PERMANENTLY! Like I mentioned previously, it was a long time in the making, but pictures like these make it all worthwhile.

It's taken her awhile to get used to her new found freedom. She's been taking shorter naps because she'd jump right up and start singing and jumping up and down. Luckily, that time has hopefully come and gone. She's now taking her usual 1.5 hour (sometimes longer) naps twice a day. She sometimes likes to lay in her crib and play with her seahorse for awhile before she falls asleep, but she eventually crashes. In fact, this morning she slept until 9:15!! I thought I was in heaven! Emma also had another big "first" this week. She had her first Chick-Fil-A kids meal! It was "Cow Appreciation Week" at Chick-Fil-A, and Emma got dressed up in all of her finest cow-inspired apparel. She even had on a cow diaper cover that you can't see in the picture. She got her meal for free. She LOVED the nuggets! I gave her some veggies rather than the fries, but she HAS had them in the past. She had been having a few days of eating nothing but crap, so I felt like it was a better move to try to sneak in something healthy with her chicken nuggets. She didn't mind ;)

Emma also took her first step this week! She isn't walking yet, but has taken a step here and there. As soon as she's a little more stable when she's standing, she's gonna be off! I'm NOT READY!!

Speaking of cow diaper covers, you all probably know by now that we cloth diaper Emma. We have since she was about 3 months old, though I now wish we had started earlier. We primarily use prefold diapers (see picture) with Thirsties diaper covers (also in picture). We've NEVER had a diaper blow-out!



This week we actually did the math. I've spent approximately $600 total on cloth diapers. They will take Emma from when we started to potty training. That's approximately 2 years of diapering for $600. Had we used disposables, we would have easily spent $2,200 for those 2 years, not including wipes (we often use re-usable wipes). Can you believe that?? AND, the diapers that I have purchased for Emma will EASILY last through another child using them for another 2 years. So, $600 rather than $4,400! Why would you NOT use cloth?? I truly don't mind the 2-3 extra loads of laundry per week, and it's really not that big of a deal. I'm considering doing a cloth diapering post sometime soon and I will show you exactly what's involved and how easy it can be.

For now, I'd like you to click this link and head over to the blog post that a friend of mine recently posted. She saw a facebook status update that I made when I was talking about the new Pampers Dry-Max formula and the chemical burns that it's causing on babies behinds and how glad I was that we didn't have to worry about that with Emma. She emailed to ask me some questions and I gave her the run-down of the different options available and linked her to some great informative websites. She completely converted from disposables to cloth for her second child! I'm so excited about that! Check out her post here.

We're heading back to Carrollton for a few days to spend some time with Amber and Jason. Brad heads back to school pretty soon :( and it's the last time we'll get to go for awhile. I'll post pictures of the trip when we get back!

Busy, busy, busy!

There has been so much going on lately that I feel like I've been in a whirlwind. I've been meaning to stop for a minute and write a new blog post, but I haven't had much spare time. So, here's a couple of weeks worth of blogging in one.

Emma's birthday was wonderful. We spent the day doing fun stuff - lunch with her Aunt Stacie and Grandmother at a Japanese restaurant. It also happened to be the same restaurant where Brad and I had our very first New Years Eve dinner - 10 years ago! My, how times have changed!

We went from there to Emma's favorite store - Petsmart. Emma picked Lucy out a few new toys and treats and headed home. After a big nap and a big dinner, we turned her loose on a slice of her smash cake that hadn't been touched from her party. She made short work of it! We put it on her special Birthday Plate that she will eat her birthday cake on each year. She did so well! Her Grammy even got to watch her tear it up via webcam. We went straight from the highchair to the baby pool - she was a mess!

We spent most of the week recovering from all of the fun festivities. Brad celebrated a nice first Father's Day. It's so hard to believe that last year on Father's Day, my water broke at 10:30 at night and Emma was born the next day. I like to say that she WAS his first Father's Day gift! This year, Emma gave him a grill light and a sweet card. Whenever I think of them grilling, I think of these pictures. So the gift was very appropriate! At least now, when he grills at night, he can see the grill before he throws her in! :)


We took a short trip to Carrollton this week. Only one night away from home. We had a great time, but, as always, it was too short for my taste. Emma slept ok - though she didn't think it was time to go to bed until around 11:00!

This was Emma eating lunch - think she was comfortable at Amber and Jason's house?? Hehe!

Speaking of sleeping, we have big news. Emma is sleeping UNSWADDLED for the very first time in her life! We've tried unsuccessfully several times to unswaddle her. We've tried to slowly loosen the blanket, leave one arm out for several nights in a row, gradually setting her free. It's never worked. She'd scream inconsolably and we'd eventually give in - after all, she was sleeping mostly through the night, so we chose to pick our battles.

Well, it finally became a battle I was ready to fight. She's one year old. I can now say that it's purely out of habit that she needs to be swaddled. AND, she was waking up 1-2 times a night when the swaddle would become loose from her moving around and have to be re-swaddled and nursed back to sleep each time. I was over it. So we did it. One arm free for about 5 days, then both. She's now in a sleepsack (a wearable blanket that zips up, sort of like a potato sack with arm holes). It's awesome. I'm SO proud of her! It was not easy. She screamed the first night or 2, and we swaddled her arms back in. Each night we'd try again, just getting her used to the idea. Eventually she was ok with it. Now if I can just get her to nap a little longer! She used to start to fuss a little and I'd put "pass" (her pacifier) back in and she'd fall back to sleep for awhile longer. Now she bolts right up onto her hands and knees and is ready to roll.

Tonight we left her with my Mom for a little while while we went to dinner. Mom called to let me know that she was refusing to play because all she wanted to do was curl up and go to sleep! Hopefully she'll be completely comfortable with her new-found freedom soon and will sleep a little sounder.

We spent the afternoon at the Yellow River Game Ranch today with Brad's parents and sister and Emma's cousin, Luke. Luke's parents are at an out of town concert and so he's spending the day with his grandparents. We had the best time! It was hot, but lots of fun! Look for lots of pictures of the trip in a later post.

They babysat Emma and Luke together last night so that the parents could all go see Eclipse and have Mexican food for dinner - a nice treat! Apparently, Emma ate her grandmother's meatloaf like it was going out of style, and even tried to eat off of Lukas's plate!

I spent this morning preparing my blog for printing. I ordered Emma's hardbound copy of all of the blog posts from the first time that I announced my pregnancy to her first birthday. It looks incredible online and I can't wait to see it!

Emma's got a new trick - she can make the "rooster sound!" It's the cutest thing in the world. It all started with a Little People farm that my parents got her to play with at their house. She loves it and started making the sound on her own, imitating the toy and my mom. She REALLY got to practice it today at the Game Ranch - we heard LOTS of roosters. I tried and tried and TRIED to get it on video, but she'd quit everytime she saw the camera. Maybe I'll catch her soon! She also sings along with music now - one of the sweetest things you've ever seen. I promise. I'll try to catch her doing that too.

We have a birthday party to attend on Sunday (July 4th) for Emma's friend Juliette. It should be fun! Guess what we have planned for next week?? NOTHING! We need to rest!!