Tag Archives: Emma

Emma Grace: 2 Years

7 Apr

Emma is 2 today! Since we celebrated her birthday with a party a few weeks ago, today will be a pretty normal day. Emma’s at daycare and I’m home with Annabelle. But I did let her have fruit snacks for breakfast and I’ll make her some of her favorite foods for dinner — probably macaroni & cheese with fruit. She’s been sick lately so her appetite is kind of unpredictable right now.

Here’s what been happening this past month with Emma:

* She now has 2 of her 4 2-year molars (the bottom ones). I am so ready for the other 2 to come in and for teething to be over!

* Emma still has problems with getting nasty coughs that linger for weeks (she has one right now). It’s the worst at night, and over the past month, we’ve (well, mostly Travis) “camped out” in Emma’s room by sleeping with her on a mattress on her floor. We’re talking about bringing up her toddler bed so that it would be easier to lay with her while she falls asleep and then sneak out, but we haven’t yet. She just flops around so much in her sleep that I don’t know if she’d be able to stay in the bed. We’ve talked with Emma’s pediatrician about the possibility of asthma but she hasn’t been willing to confirm anything yet.

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* Emma is still obsessed with shoes and socks, and has now added hats. She changes her socks several times a day, wears shoes around the house for fun, and points out when Daddy’s wearing a hat, when Baby Annabelle is missing her hat (and runs to find it), and always need to find and put on her hat before going outside.

* Emma’s vocabulary is increasing exponentially. It seems she has finally figured out how to attempt to say words that she hears us say. A few new ones since last month are: “hockey”, “purple”, “papa” for grandpa, “ucky”, “poopy”, “peepee”, “pease” for please, “chew” for juice, “ba” for bottle or ball, “da” for down, “up”, and “hop”. Her favorite words by far are “mommy”, “daddy”, and “baby”. She says them all day long at random times.

* Emma still has practically no interest in TV. The only time she will sit and “watch” a show is when she has just woken up and wants to cuddle, or is sick. While I kind of wish she would watch a show every once in a while, I’m glad that Emma is more interested in reading books and playing outside. She has taken a liking to playing games on our tablet or smartphone though. I downloaded an animal matching game and she has gotten really good at it! She plays it for 5-10 minutes before getting bored.

* She still loves making messes (this was helping mommy make her birthday cake):

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* Emma LOVES being outside. It doesn’t matter if it’s cold, rainy, windy, or nice outside. She enjoys swinging and going down slides, but she also loves just walking around picking up sticks and rocks, pointing out dog poop and ice, and “driving” the car. I can’t wait until the weather warms up and it’s also enjoyable for mommy to be outside! I am not as gungho as Emma is.

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* Emma still loves dogs and gets really excited about our dogs, as well as any other dogs she sees, even if they’re on TV. Whenever we go play downstairs, Emma wants the dogs to come with us.

* Emma can jump with both feet off the ground, run like the wind, spin in a circle and dance. She loves bubbles too (what kid doesn’t?) and can sometimes blow bubbles with the wand (not without ingesting some of them though).

* Emma loves her baby sister (though she doesn’t love to share mommy) and gives her kisses, hugs and pats on the head. She has been gentle with Annabelle for the most part, but is too rough every now and again. Emma will also give hugs and kisses to those who ask her (at least most of the time).

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* Emma loves looking at pictures of herself and people she knows on Facebook and my computer.

* She loves when we sing her songs and has started to sing the melody of ABC herself (as a request that we sing the whole thing). Her favorites are ABC, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Wheels on the Bus, Choo Choo (a song from ECFE), and Baby Blowing Bubbles (from a CD that her speech therapist has).

* Emma has started to love wearing “jewelry”, as well as pointing out and inspecting other people’s jewelry. She points to my earrings and says “E” for ear and/or earring.

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* Emma is OBSESSED with drawing, especially with markers. She has a little table in a corner of our kitchen/dining room with her crayons, markers, stickers, paper and coloring books, and she spends hours there doodling, covering things with stickers and drawing on herself (mostly her hands, which I think is really her trying to trace her hands like her grandmas have helped her do). She also loves drawing in the tub with special markers and crayons made for bath time. She has been pretty good about only drawing on paper, though she has doodled on some of her toys, gotten marker on her clothes and accidentally made marks on some furniture. The washable markers come out of almost everything though, which is good. She has also decorated many things in stickers, including the floor, sliding glass door, dishwasher, books, other people and herself.

* Last but not least, it would be remiss of me if I didn’t mention anything about what a strong-willed, determined little girl Emma is. She is very curious and busy, and gets into a lot of stuff she shouldn’t (not dangerous things, just things we don’t want her to play with like our camera, cords, phones, chapstick, wallet, etc). This is even worse now that I have a baby to nurse several times a day. Emma has also started to be aggressive when told no (throwing toys and hitting) and throws tantrums frequently over seemingly small things (like being told that we can play in the car later but not right now). I realize that this is pretty normal toddler behavior, and that it’s a phase that we have to coach her through and have patience with, but man it is hard! I frequently find that I lack the patience I need to respond well. There are days when I feel like all I do is tell Emma no and listen to her throw a tantrum. On those days, I try to take a break from whatever I’m doing and just spend time with Emma, either playing with toys or cuddling with her before she goes to bed. I need those positive interactions to keep my heart from becoming bitter.

Anyway, that’s Emma at 2 years!

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Emma Grace: 23 Months

7 Mar

In just a month, Emma will be TWO years old! How is that possible? This past year went by really quickly. It’s amazing to compare Emma now to pictures from her first birthday — she was still such a baby then! Now she is full-blown toddler.

Emma’s favorite things this month have been:

  • Reading books on her own

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  • Wearing winter gear around inside

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  • Wearing adult shoes (still) — this actually seems to have improved her balance a lot!

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  • Painting and drawing

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  • Playing with clothes, whether hers or mommy’s

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  • Being held by mommy for naps

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  • Eating fruit snacks (she has a 2-pack-a-day habit)

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  • Playing with all the baby stuff that mommy has been getting ready

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  • Stickers!

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  • Drinking bath water, and other water-related shenanigans

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  • Making messes, of course

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  • Starting to show more interest in playing games on the tablet and phone

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  • Being crazy! She loves running around our basement, chasing the dogs, spinning in circles and jumping.

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Emma has continued to make great progress with her speech. She can now point to almost every body part we ask her about. She understands increasingly more complex requests, like when we ask her to find the matching sock or put the red block away. She has started to say hi and bye often, especially when we prompt her and sometimes even when we don’t. Her favorite words right now are “knee” (because she got an owie there a while ago), “ice”, “puppy”, “mom” or “mommy” and “uh oh”. She also says “wah wah” for water, “shoes”, “daddy” or “dada”, and “nye” for bye.

Just in the past week or so (I think), Emma got her first 2-year molar! Her sleep habits haven’t really been any worse than normal (though she has by no means been sleeping through the night every night) so I didn’t even realize that she was getting another tooth.

We bought Emma the Fisher Price Healthy Care Booster Seat to replace her high chair and she loves the seat so much (because of the buckles!) that she will voluntarily climb up into it for meals and buckle herself in all on her own. My parents have the same booster so we knew she liked the chair. Money well spent. Though when we take Emma out to eat at restaurants now, we don’t even ask for a high chair. We request a booth and let Emma stand or sit as she desires. This was learned after a particularly hairy dinner at Olive Garden back in January. She is just go-go-go all the time!

Emma definitely has the typical toddler behaviors of throwing things and hitting when she gets mad. We’re trying to coach her to ask for help instead of getting frustrated, and that we don’t ever hit or throw toys at people or dogs, but it’s a challenge. I’m sure other parents understand this. After a playdate this week, I realized that we should start teaching Emma how to say “I’m sorry” so that she can apologize to her friends when she either intentionally or unintentionally hurts them. She does get concerned when one of her friends is upset — though she doesn’t know how to communicate that with words.

20150306_115530Last but not least, Emma got a new cousin this month! My oldest brother and SIL had their baby boy yesterday. Such a cutie. Can’t wait to meet him! I’d be planning a trip down to visit if I weren’t expecting a baby soon myself. They’re a 13-hour drive away so it’s a little far to go at 36 weeks pregnant! Hopefully sometime this spring or summer though.

We’re having Emma’s 2nd birthday party about 2 weeks early so that we don’t have to worry about Bisky Junior crashing the party (since my due date is the day after Emma’s birthday, and the weekend right before her birthday is Easter). I finally sent out evites and bought Emma’s birthday shirt today. We’re doing a puppy theme and keeping things fairly low key with pizza, fruit, puppy chow and cupcakes decorated with paw prints. We invited our immediate family, a few of Emma’s friends and are planning to have the kids decorate paper dog ears that they can wear. Other than that, it’ll just be letting them play and eat! Should be a good time.

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Learning to Handle Sleep Deprivation Graciously

23 Feb

As my due date approaches, I feel like I’m staring down the barrel of a gun. Whenever Emma has a few bad nights of sleep or takes a few short naps, I’m quickly reminded of how horrible sleep deprivation is – and how horribly I deal with it.

I’m panicking just a little thinking about taking care of both a newborn and a toddler, especially when Travis is traveling for work. WHEN WILL I EVER SLEEP?!?!

I want to learn how to deal with sleep deprivation in a gracious, accepting way. But that would require me to be gracious and accept it. And that’s exactly what I can’t get myself to do.

Instead, I slide quickly down into the pit of self-pity and anger. I find myself countering the misery of a too-short nap with sweets and impulse eating. I let Emma get away with stuff I normally wouldn’t because I don’t care enough to fight her on it (hello fruit snacks for breakfast). Or I snap at her for little things because I don’t have “the patience to deal with this.” I don’t spend time in the Word because I’m either too tired to concentrate or I’m attempting to not be a complete and utter zombie by using the time to sleep – and that lack of time shows in my attitude.

From there, the self-pity deepens into: I don’t have time or energy to exercise. I don’t have energy to clean my house. I resent having to make dinner (almost) every night. I feel guilty for not planning fun and creative activities with Emma. I silently mock Travis for mentioning anything about being tired – like he even has a CLUE.

Some parents seem to handle being sleep deprived rather well. They continue functioning and enjoying life. I go into self-destruct, wallow mode. I go into THE WORLD COULD BE ENDING BUT I’M SO EXHAUSTED I WOULDN’T EVEN CARE mode.

I know that to handle sleep deprivation well, I have to stop demanding to NOT be sleep deprived. I have to accept it as a fact of life with a toddler and soon, a newborn. I have to stop digging in my heels and throwing a mental tantrum over the fact that I was up every 3 hours during the night, and my toddler did not take a nap like I expected her to, and she got up after ‘resting’ with 0-to-60 energy while I can barely hold an eye open as I stumble to the pantry for some chocolate.

It is times like these that I am forced to think out the full implications of my faith in God. If I truly believe that He provides ALL the grace I need in EVERY circumstance, He’s providing sufficient grace right now. Even though it REALLY doesn’t feel like it. Because I’d prefer His grace come in the form of some shuteye.

And you know, sometimes it does. But if it doesn’t (and it often doesn’t), what am I going to do about it? What happens when God’s grace comes to us in a form OTHER than what we’re yearning for? Thinking bigger than sleep, what happens when God DOESN’T heal us of cancer? What happens when God DOESN’T provide the answer we prayed for? What happens when God doesn’t take away the dirty mess of life, the pain, the sorrow, the frustration, the challenge? Do we go looking elsewhere for the answer that we do want? Do we act like Jonah, and sit sulking under the blazing sun, convinced that we do well to be angry, angry enough to die because God has given us something OTHER than what we wanted?

I am often like Jonah. I often reject God’s grace and make myself miserable because I want what I want, period. I wish that knowing joy comes from accepting the circumstances God allows would make It easier to accept those circumstances. I wish my desire for joy in the LORD was bigger than my fleshly insistence on having my own way. I wish that I could relinquish my need for sleep as easily as I relinquish my need for a shower, or that simply drinking a cup of coffee could make it feel like I got a solid 8 hours. I wish that I truly trusted God to provide sufficient grace in whatever form in the midst of sleep deprivation.

I don’t yet. And I can’t get myself to the place of graciously accepting sleep deprivation on my own. I am asking God to do it in me. Like A.W. Tozer says, I must insist upon the work being done, but I’m not actually the one to do it. My part is to focus on God and on what Christ purchased through His death and resurrection. As I behold Him, at 2 a.m. or 5 a.m. or while bouncing a swaddled baby on an exercise ball with a toddler tornado running rampant around my house, I will be changed.

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Valentine’s Day Weekend 2015

17 Feb

Our Valentine’s Day weekend didn’t really pan out as we had planned, but it was a nice weekend anyway.

On Friday night, some friends were going to watch Emma while Travis and I ate a Papa Murphy’s pizza at home, played Scrabble, drank beer/sparkling cider, and chilled. But our friends ended up being sick, so Emma stayed home with us. We still ate pizza but we played with Emma and watched hockey on TV instead.

Saturday, I made Overnight Blueberry French Toast Casserole for breakfast. I had had it for the first time at MOPS and it was amazing. Sadly, my version did not measure up completely. Considering how much work it is (I hate prepping things the night before), I probably won’t make it again.

For most of the day, we just hung out at home, playing and picking up after Emma. After lunch, Travis headed into town to run some errands and worked a bit. I honestly don’t remember what I did while Emma napped, but I’m guessing it was some version of tidying up, reading and napping myself. After Emma woke up, we went out to eat at Buffalo Wild Wings. We figured that was a safe bet on Valentine’s Day, since it’s always a madhouse in there anyway.

Sunday, we went to church in the morning. During Emma’s nap, Travis put the pulls on our kitchen cabinets (only 8 months after moving in):

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I read a bit and fell asleep. About 1.5 hours after Emma had gone down, she woke up and I held her while she slept for another 1.5 hours. I used to get frustrated when that happened, but when I plan on taking a nap myself anyway, I really don’t mind. I don’t sleep that well holding her, but it’s better than chasing her around!

Emma finally woke up around 5 pm and we got all our gear together for checking out one of the local indoor waterparks (there are 3 in town, plus the YMCA). Unfortunately, we totally spaced that it was President’s Day weekend and all of the waterparks were closed to the public. Whomp whomp. So instead of swimming, we went to Target and let Emma run around (this is what you do with a toddler when it is 10 below outside). We thought of several things we “needed” and ended up spending $120 before we got out of there. #targetvortex

So the weekend wasn’t very ‘romantic’ you could say, but Travis and I are getting away for a night at the end of this month, so we weren’t too bummed.

On a side note, I have never really gotten into decorating or doing stuff for Valentine’s Day beyond getting Travis a card and eating lots of chocolate. But now that Emma is old enough to kinda/sorta notice as well as participate in crafts, I had her make Valentine’s Day cards for her grandparents, her 3-year-old cousin, and Travis. Here was her Valentine for daddy:

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I used the scraps and extra hearts to decorate our kitchen:

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I also took a blank canvas, wrote the word LOVE on it with masking tape, and let Emma go to town with paint. It took some coercion to get her to paint the whole thing, instead of just paint and repaint the same 6-inch square, but I think it turned out well. Kid-made Valentine’s Day decorations!

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The last thing I did was check out a few books from the library about love and Valentine’s Day, and I bought Emma a new book called How Do I Love You? Even sappy holidays are more fun with kids! Now on to Lent and Easter…

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Emma Grace: 22 Months

7 Feb

Emma’s obsessions this past month have been eating yogurt and wearing adult shoes around the house. She also loves wearing Mommy’s socks instead of her own. The ‘water play in the kitchen sink’ obsession has mostly run its course, which I’m thankful for. It was getting old!

Emma’s still holding strong with naptime around 2 and bedtime between 8 and 9. She does sleep in until 7:30 or 8 on a regular basis now though, which is nice. Her eating habits are mostly back to normal and she will sit in a booster seat at the table (as we discovered at Grandma and Grandpa’s house) so we plan to buy one of those and put her highchair away until Bisky Junior needs it.

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Emma is babbling up a storm now, and trying to use words at daycare. The things she says most often are “Ah na” for all done and “Meh meh” for more while signing. Other words she has said at least a few times are “Bubble”, “Emma”, “hot”, “on”, and “off” (osh). And her favorite non-word thing to say is “Ah dubba dubba dubba dubba.” Her little voice is SO CUTE, it makes me melt every time.

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Our schedule is finally back to ‘normal’ after the holidays, which has been nice. It helps me to have places to go and things to do. During Travis’ most recent work trip, Emma and I went down to Rochester and spent the week with my parents. It was nice seeing them.

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Emma got to push her very own shopping cart around the People’s Coop — making it the most exhausting, chaotic grocery shopping trip I’ve ever been on! She loved it though.
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Emma also found a balance disk to bounce on, which she thought was extremely entertaining. Little girl wore grandma out!

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I forgot to bring Emma a sippy cup so she had to drink juice and milk out of her bottles. I think she actually prefers that… so it probably goes without saying that weaning her off her bottle was a no-go. She was just cranky all the time so I finally caved. We’ll try again later.

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Emma and I went to the Children’s Museum on Saturday, and she had a blast running around and ‘playing with’ the other kids. She dressed up like a mailman for about 30 seconds.
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After I unpacked from our Rochester trip, Emma discovered that playing in my suitcase was lots of fun! (And in that picture, you can see that she’s wearing some of my socks.)20150202_171424

Playing with grocery bags and wearing Mommy’s socks. That’s what we do.20150205_192818Emma got her 3rd haircut this past week, and even though we went to the same lady as we did the 2nd time (and she did a good job then), Emma totally ended up with a bowl cut this time. I think she looks like a Friar. Oh well. At least it’ll grow back out, right?

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Emma Grace: 21 Months

12 Jan

Emma was 21 months back on January 7.

This past month was still a little rough in terms of Emma’s sleep and daytime whiny-ness — and she got the flu and an ear infection for the first time — but this is still such a fun age. I love watching Emma learn new things, even if they’re things I sort of would prefer she didn’t know how to do… like climb into the bathtub on her own, open and close doors, and flush the toilet.

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A sick Bisky

Emma is still a water fanatic and would seriously take a bath 5 times a day if we let her. Often this month, the first thing she does when she gets up is push one of the kitchen table chairs to the sink for playing with water. We give her a bowl, some spoons and small dishes, turn the faucet on a trickle, and she plays for 15-20 minutes at a time — always ending up soaking wet.

A couple other things Emma loves to help with now is doing laundry and feeding the dogs. She’ll go get dirty clothes and bring them into the laundry room, then push a chair over so that she can help put the clothes in the washer. When they’re done in the washer, I hand them to her and she puts them in the dryer. She still doesn’t understand the concept of putting clothes away though — she’d rather take all her other clean clothes OUT of the drawers instead. And with feeding the dogs, we fill the measuring cup up for her and she pours it in the dogs’ dishes. Someday she will inherit this chore in full!

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Emma gets on certain “kicks” where she is obsessed with something for a while, and then moves on. It used to be “brushing” her teeth (and she still does like sucking on her toothbrushes) but now it’s washing her hands (especially the whole soap thing) and putting on lotion. What a silly girl.

After Travis’ and my trip to Denver, we had a couple of VERY rough nights with Emma (one during which she screamed and thrashed around like a mad man for over an hour) and discovered that she does better going to bed when she’s been awake for around 6 hours. So this means her naptime has been pushed back from 12:30 to about 2 pm, and her bedtime is now often 8 or 9, instead of 7 or 8. She hasn’t really been sleeping that much later in the mornings (still gets up between 6:30 and 7:30 most days) so it just means less time for Mommy and Daddy.

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But on a positive note, Emma is finally taking naps on her own again! We’re still not sure if she has been teething — no teeth have appeared but my friend who is a dental hygienist said it can take months for the 2-year molars to come in. My suspicion, though, is that her problems with napping and falling asleep at night were caused by separation anxiety. I make sure now to tell Emma every time that I will still be there when she wakes up, and I’ll see her after naptime/in the morning. I also encourage her to be a big girl and sleep in her crib on her own. Who knows if it helps, but anytime I get a break during naptime, it’s amazing! Funny how small things like getting a break can really make a big difference in your outlook and mood.

A couple other recent, challenging developments with Emma have been that she now refuses to sit in her highchair to eat anything, and she refuses to eat most things (even things she has gobbled up in the past). This started when she got the flu, which is understandable then, and maybe it’s still after-effects from her being sick, but she has gotten better, and these behaviors have not. Travis and I are going to probably give her another week or so, and then be more adamant about her eating sitting down (we’re thinking about buying a booster chair for her to sit in at the table) and eating what we give her (especially when it’s food we KNOW she likes). If you’ve had either of these issues and found a solution, please share!

We’re also attempting to wean Emma off her naptime and nighttime bottles, which has had limited success. I’ll update you next month on how things have gone and what, if anything, worked.

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As far as language goes, Emma is rocking the sign language, and doing much better trying to imitate words when we ask, and even saying the words that the signs mean (like “more”). She calls me Mama and Travis Dada when trying to get our attention, and will say things like her version of Bye Bye without being prompted. She also babbles like she’s having a conversation with herself a lot more, which she didn’t really do before. It’s exciting to see progress!

Emma also loves looking at and touching my belly, and I think she kind of understands that there’s a baby in there. I took one of her baby dolls and held it up to my belly, and said that I had a baby in my belly. Emma is absolutely infatuated with babies, so hopefully she will love being a big sister and not struggle too much with jealousy.

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And that’s Miss Emma at 21 months! Time to start thinking about plans for her 2nd birthday party (which we’re probably going to have a few weeks early, just so Baby #2 doesn’t make an untimely appearance and steal the show).

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New Year’s 2015

8 Jan

We were planning to host my whole immediate family for 4-5 days around New Year’s (giving everyone a chance to see our new place) but the day my family was supposed to make the trek from Rochester to Brainerd, my mom ended up going to the ER for some health issues (which I won’t go into here). She ended up staying there the whole day, so even though Travis and I were a little disappointed, we decided that it would be better to pack up our stuff and head to Rochester instead of having our family come up to us. It was a little tricky fitting everything in our car, since we had bought a ton of food at Costco the day before! We made it work – but only after jumpstarting our car for the 2nd time in a week (apparently we might need a new battery.)

We left Brainerd around 9 am on New Year’s Day and made it Rochester a little before 1 pm. Emma had lots of fun playing with her cousin Jensen.

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We had our big family celebration that day, since it was the only day we would all be together (stupid work schedules). Before dinner, we took group photos. Usually, we put it off and then totally forget about it!

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My SIL Jen is due March 7 – almost exactly a month before me!20150101_IMG_0234

After dinner, we opened presents. The past 4-5 years or so, we have drawn names and then when we’re opening the presents, we guess who the present is from. This year, people guessed about 80% accurately! Travis got YakTrax and I got a serving dish from Crate&Barrel, dish towels and a book. Emma got an easel/desk and shopping cart from G&G, a cute sweatshirt from Brian and Jill, an awesome lumberjack hat from Chris and Meg, and a Melissa & Doug doll and book from Jeremy and Jen. She is spoiled for sure!

We bought my nephew Jensen some cap guns complete with sheriff badge and holster for Christmas. I’m not sure who enjoyed them more – Jensen or Travis and Jeremy!

The next day (Friday), it was just us, my parents and Jeremy, Jen and Jensen so we decided to do something fun for the kiddos. We checked out the Children’s Museum of Rochester for the first time and were very pleasantly surprised! Jensen and Emma had a great time. The whole place was Clifford-themed, but apparently they switch out the exhibits every 4 months. We will definitely be back!

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Unfortunately, that night we discovered that Emma was running a pretty high fever. Looking back on it now, I can tell that she had probably started feeling out of sorts Thursday night because even Friday morning, she wasn’t herself. She woke up a couple of times that night, and since we didn’t want to make anyone else sick, Travis and I decided to drive back up to Brainerd a day early.

So late Saturday afternoon, we hit the road again. Even though it was a bummer to leave early and miss out on Jensen’s 3rd birthday party the next day, I’m ultimately glad we did because that night was a doozy! Emma developed a really bad cough and (now we know) an ear infection (her first!), so she was pretty miserable. It was nice having our big, comfy recliner to rock her in, since we were doing that for many hours that night. Now almost a week later, Emma is finally getting back to her normal self. We’re pretty sure she got the flu (influenza) because she has been tired and clingy for days, which is very unlike her.

All in all, our New Year’s plans didn’t quite turn out how we had planned but it was nice seeing everyone for the time we could anyway.

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A Day in the Life {12/22/14}

23 Dec

I always think it’s interesting to get a peek into other people’s lives, so here’s a peek into my world yesterday.

5:00 & 6:00 am – I hear Emma cry/moan a little, but it’s too early! So I wait to see if she goes back to sleep, and she does.

7:00 am – I hear Emma again and it’s time to get up anyway, so I go get her out of her crib and try to rock her in the glider for a bit while I wake up. She’s raring to go though, so I change her diaper and let her play.

7:30 am – I get Emma breakfast (yogurt, raspberries, oatmeal squares) while I drink coffee and eat a yogurt. I go wake Travis up too.

7:50 am – Travis is up with his coffee and we do our morning Jesse Tree reading (we’re behind, so we do 2/day).

8:00 am – Wash Emma and let her down to play, while I finish the Jesse Tree script for the remaining days (nothing like the last minute!)

8:45 am – Emma wants to “cook” with water in the kitchen (which she lets me know by pushing one of the kitchen chairs over to the counter), so I set her up and move my computer into the kitchen.

9:00 am – Done! I get Emma dressed, then I get dressed, do my makeup and put my hair up. It’s a no-shower day.

9:20 am – Tidy up our bedroom, change our sheets, start a load of laundry with the dirty ones, do the dishes

10:00 am – Eat a bowl of oatmeal squares with banana while Emma draws at the kitchen table, talk to Travis a bit while he gets another cup of coffee.

10:30 am – Head out to run some errands at Costco (gas), Walmart (a zoo!!) and Office Max.

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12:05 pm – Arrive back home; Emma fell asleep in the car. I plan to wake her up for lunch and have her down for a nap around 1:30 but she is OUT so I carry her in and rock her back to sleep.

12:30 pm – I attempt to put Emma down in her crib, but she freaks out, so I end up holding her for her whole nap. Travis brings me my phone so I read blogs and Facebook, and work on a blog post.

2:15 pm – Emma wakes up. Lunch time! Emma and I both have leftover tacos from the previous night.

2:50 pm – I call my mom to chat a bit about plans for our family celebration happening next week while Emma entertains herself by looking through what we bought at Walmart.

3:20 pm – I pop into Trav’s office to say hi and tell him about what I talked about with my mom.

3:30 pm – Emma and I go downstairs to play and she ends up taking a digger into the wall while playing on the guest bed (poor girl), back upstairs for ice and laundry, then we read books and play with her toys.

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4:30 pm – Emma wants to play with water in the kitchen again, so I wrap a Christmas present while she’s occupied.

4:50 pm – Emma and I make her Christmas presents for Grandma and Grandpa (her participation is supplying the foot and hands for paint).

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5:30 pm – Travis is done with work! I keep working on the gifts for G&G while he entertains Emma. Then we all go on a family walk to the mailbox (yes, it was pitch black outside).

6:15 pm – Travis starts making dinner (elk burgers for us, leftover mac & cheese for E, sweet potato fries for all).

6:50 pm – We eat dinner and do our evening Jesse Tree reading.

7:15 pm – I clean up dinner and do the dishes while Travis gets Emma ready for bed. He gets her bedtime bottle and starts her bedtime routine while I pick up toys.

7:45 pm – Emma is acting like she’s not tired, so we let her play for another 15 minutes.

8:00 pm – Emma’s bedtime! She’s still NOT a fan of the idea, so she cries for 20-30 minutes. I hate it when that happens. But we know she is tired.

8:15 pm – I leave for my women’s Bible study at a friend’s house.

10:30 pm – I’m back home and sooo ready for bed! But I’m also hungry so I eat a bowl of oatmeal squares and watch the end of a Blue Bloods episode with Travis.

11:00 pm – Bed!

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Emma Grace: 20 Months

6 Dec

Emma is 20 months today! I feel like 24 is going to be here before we know it. (And with it, a brother or sister for Emma!)

This past month has been somewhat of a doozy with Miss Emma (and a mostly undocumented doozy at that – I took hardly any pictures!). We have been convinced that she’s getting her 2-year molars and then no teeth appear. She’s had many rough nights, won’t  nap without being held, is sometimes ridiculously picky about what she eats, seems to be in pain often, is drooling a ton, sucking on her whole hand and often whiny and clingy. But still, no teeth. (Lots of ibuprofen though.)

I think at least part of the problem is that her separation anxiety with mommy has increased exponentially over the past month. She used to just run off at MOPS or daycare to play with toys but now she has to be pushed through the door and held sobbing by someone else while I say goodbye and leave. Breaks my heart. But she gets over it pretty quickly.

People often remark on how busy Emma is and it’s true – she’s a little tornado. I’m going to do a separate post on the messes she makes but suffice it to say, leave her alone for 30 minutes and every room upstairs will be torn apart.

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Favorites this month have been:

* Emptying all the clothes out of her dresser, especially socks
* Being pushed around in the laundry hamper
* Wasting toilet paper, tissues, Q-tips and napkins by ripping them into little shreds
* Sitting on the dogs, or even daddy’s head
* Being rolled up like a burrito in a blanket
* Playing in a fort (under a blanket)
* Sitting in mommy’s closet
* Going down slides all by herself
* Eating applesauce and yogurt (the 2 foods she requests almost everyday)

 

We found out that Emma does qualify for ‘speech therapy’ or whatever they call it. She is in the 6th percentile for language development, which was the cutoff for aid. (But she’s in the 95th percentile for cognitive ability! I’ve always said she has an engineering brain like her daddy.) So that means we have a special education teacher and speech clinician come to our house once a week for the next year to play games with Emma, with the focus of increasing her vocabulary. They also work with us as parents to give us ideas on how to help Emma start communicating, even if it’s just by using sign language. So we’ve started learning more signs and teaching them to her. She’s a lot more receptive to them now than she was even just a few months ago. We’re seeing progress!

It’s funny – this is the kind of situation that seems like would be hard to not feel like a failure as a parent or wonder why Emma isn’t more like other ‘normal’ kids. But neither Travis nor I feel like that at all. Sure we’re complete amateurs at this whole parenting thing but we love Emma for who she is and she just happens to be behind in speech. It’s nice to have ‘experts’ help us help her. So if you have any questions about our experience, ask away!

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What Emma lacks in speech, though, she makes up for in facial expressions and friendliness. She loves other kids and is so goofy and silly. She’s started walking backwards and spinning in circles. She also does this thing where she flaps her little hands (like a wave) close to her face – pretty much the cutest thing ever. She’ll also open her mouth really wide with a shocked expression on her face while she tickles my head/hair with both hands. Even though this age has its challenges, I love seeing Emma’s personality. It still amazes me that she’s only 4 months from being 2!

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Emma Grace: 19 Months

11 Nov

Emma’s favorite things at 19 months:

  • “Cooking” in the kitchen with water20141006_175336
  • Playing outside (but not riding in the stroller, or walking when she’s supposed to)
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  • Playing in the car20141021_122013
  • Eating pickles… for breakfast20141024_074543
  • Jumping! This was in the bouncy house at the fall festival but she loves jumping on her toddler bed (the only thing she does on it right now) and on the trampolines at ECFE.20141024_194211
  • Helping Mommy and Daddy with whatever they’re doing (this was taken while cleaning out a cooler from elk hunting)
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  • Making messes! Specifically with towels, dishes, paper, and balls.20141027_092235
  • Finding water outside while playing in the rain. Water!!!20141027_171959
  • Other things that Emma loves (and I don’t have pictures of):
    • Coloring
    • Getting messy with finger paints, mud or food
    • Dogs
    • Playing with other kids
    • Looking at books by herself
    • Riding in the ‘race car carts’ at the grocery store
    • Climbing on things she’s not supposed to, like our side table or entryway bench

Since I said I’d mention it, we had the first of Emma’s evaluations for a speech delay, and their conclusion was what we had known – she’s on track in every area except speech. We’re going to have 2 more evaluations done, and then I’ll post the ‘results’ or what ‘treatment’ we’re going to do.

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