Emma News

I just wanted to jot down a few things about Emma while I'm thinking about them. I feel like I always put Jake's milestones down and I think I'm slacking a little bit with Em.

First and foremost she finally has a tooth! She's following in Jake's footsteps here. He also cut his first one at ten months. She's got one of her middle bottom teeth in now and is working on at least one of her middle upper teeth. Our kids have a hard time cutting teeth. She was pretty miserable until that first one came in. Turns out she also developed an ear infection the week it came through which made for one sad baby girl.

She has started doing some of the most girly things I've ever seen. There really is an innate difference between boys and girls. She is such a flirt! The head tilting. The coy little smiles. The downcast eyes. My goodness! My favorite thing by far though is what I like to call her emphasis on drama move. This is such a girl thing and she only does it when she's mad, sad and looking for sympathy or flirting with someone to the extreme. She either lays down on her tummy with one arm stretched out or she's sitting and just lays over her legs with one arm stretched out. Then she either screams, cries or smiles at you all the while peeking at you under that one arm to make sure you're paying attention to her. It is so dramatic! Makes me laugh every time. She does NOT like for you to laugh at this move when she's mad. It causes even more drama.

She is just days away from walking I think. She actually took three or four unassisted steps last night. We were all cheering her on. She is a delight and is making me wish for just one more baby which I know is just crazy talk. Love you Peanut!

ANYhoo

Let's talk about my child's hair. I don't have a clue what to do with it. I think she's as cute as can be but is it a good thing that she reminds me of one of Dr. Seuss's Hooville characters? She's got the classic Flinn swirl happening on the back of her head. Just like her brother, her daddy and her Pappy. And then she's got those fine, little wispy strands in back that stick straight up. What should I do with it? Let it go au'naturale? Put a cute little barrette in it? A bow? Or maybe buy some cute hats. I don't know. What would you do?

Wordless Wednesday

I'm glad that's over

Well, turning forty really wasn't that bad. My actual birthday was spent taking the kids to church, coming home to eat peanut butter and jelly for lunch, watching football the rest of the day and having my absolute favorite cheeseburger for dinner that night. I didn't wake up with white hair or arthritus or anything.

My sweet hubby even spent over a month planning a surprise birthday party for me the night before my birthday. And he almost pulled it off. I wish for his sake he was married to someone who wasn't consumed with curiosity. If I get even a whiff of a surprise coming my way I make it my mission to find out what it is. So, I may have been a little bit suspicious about the party due to some overheard telephone conversations and glimpses of Mike's email. I didn't read his email. He just left it up on the computer screen one day and I may have seen some things I wasn't supposed to see.

Anyway, I really wasn't for sure that we were headed to my birthday party until we were almost there. It was still a nice surprise to see who showed up for the party. Thanks to my hubby for loving me enough to make a big deal over me. Thanks to all my friends and neighbors who made it there. And thanks for all of the wonderful surprise gifts! I felt very blessed to be turning forty even if Rick Springfield didn't show up for my party.

Lordy, Lordy look who's almost Forty

So today is the last day I'll spend in my thirties. Weird. Amy turned forty three days ago. When I talked to her that day she said she was fine with it until she said it out loud and then it just sounded so OLD. I said "it sure does, glad I'm still thirty nine!" We are BFF's so she puts up with me. Unfortunately, I have not heard a word from the Ellen show or from Rick Springfield himself. So, I'm afraid I might need to begin accepting the fact that at no time tomorrow will I open the door to see my idol standing there with his guitar ready to seranade me on my fortieth. Disappointing, but worse things have happened. And who knows, maybe it could still happen. Keep hope alive!

Anyway, I'm finding myself feeling a little introspective about this birthday. I remember feeling despair when I turned twenty five because I had no clue what I wanted to do with my life. That's really the only birthday I can remember affecting me besides this one. And I don't feel depressed about forty. I feel a little wistful for the past, a little uncertain about the future and very grateful for the present.

I decided to look up the meaning of the number forty. Here it is straight from the internet.

The number forty in Hebrew was written with the letter mem (water, flowing or coming from). Forty is the number of trial or probation. When viewed as a time cycle, we find that Israel spent 40 years being tested and tried in the wilderness. Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness being tested of the devil. The number 40 can be viewed negatively in terms of the full 40 days/years of trial, but it can also be viewed positively in that it is the END of the time of trial or testing. In the positive sense, then, forty (i.e., mem) speaks of Israel crossing the Jordan River (water) after 40 years in the wilderness. In that sense also, Israel came from the wilderness and flowed into the Promised Land.
Forty is the product of eight and five. Eight is the number of New Beginnings, while five is grace. Thus, forty can be seen as entering grace after a period of trial, as well as the beginning of something new. Obviously, these are both factors in the cases of Israel and Jesus.

At first, I was all WHAT? So turning forty means I get to experience trials and tribulations? Uh, no thanks! Because that was what my twenties were for. I have never been as happy to leave a decade as I was to leave my twenties. The thirties were great. I discovered a passion for teaching, got to live my dream of living by the ocean. Heck, I even got to WORK on the ocean! It was great. And I finally met the man who agreed to marry me after so many years looking. All of this followed up by two adorable kids. Maybe you can see why I'm not so excited to leave thirty behind?

But, if I stop and think of forty as a time of "entering grace after a period of trial and the beginning of something new" then it seems pretty cool too. I get to figure out what's next for me. Maybe the children's book I've always wanted to write? Who knows? Today while cleaning jelly off of every square inch of Emma's body I came up with a pretty cute song about jelly. Maybe my forties will be a decade of creativity. Can't wait to find out!

Wordless Wednesday

Just a few words. This is how Jake entertains himself when I'm putting Emma down for her nap. He covers himself in stickers!

Diet Diaries

Okay, I'm very happy to see that 8 in there. Enough about my weight. Except to say that I've been on a baking binge for the last week. First it was brownies made from scratch. For once, my family helped me eat them so I wasn't responsible for consuming the entire pan. Which is why I had to bake cupcakes yesterday. Today, I've had three. But only the tops. So my theory is that by eating only the top of the cupcakes I'm really just eating air that doesn't have any calories in it which is why I haven't actually gained weight this week. It makes sense, right? Heavy stuff sinks, so I leave the heavy calories at the bottom of the cupcakes uneaten and just make a meal of the top part with the light, airy calorie-free frosting. Works for me! Maybe I'll open up a bakery where I sell only cupcake tops so people can come in and enjoy themselves while losing weight. We'll see.

On to further exciting news. Let's look at them toes! I finally took advantage of a gift card Mike gave two Christmas's ago and went and got a mani/pedi. It was so relaxing. Thank you honey!

Wordless Wednesday

Mama's helper

Emma has some sort of built in radar for knowing when the dishwasher is open. She comes running, well crawling, just as fast as she can whenever she hears the door being cracked. This has become one of her favorite past times. The only thing she likes to do better is to unroll the toilet paper from the holder in the bathrooms. It's great fun. So now I keep the bathroom doors shut when she's awake and I only do dishes after she's gone to bed for the night.

Creepy crawlies giving me the heeby jeebies

We have fleas. We discovered this the week before Christmas when we took Brady to the groomer. At pick up time, the groomer informed Mike that the dog was "infested" with fleas. Not one or two. Not even just a few fleas. An infestation. So they treated him for fleas while he was there which cost us an extra $20. I tried not to be mad at the dog. I suppose it's not his fault he has critters. We stopped giving him flea medicine because it costs roughly the same amount as one year of college.

When we got back home after our Christmas trip we realized that the flea medicine the groomer gave Brady had not worked. He still had fleas and they had spread to the cat, Zoe. We went back to the pet store and bought Zoe some flea medicine along with another brand for Brady. We still have fleas.

We called the pest control people and asked them if they could come take care of the problem. They said "hey, no problem." We just have to vacate the premises for at least four hours when they come. All of us. People and four legged friends. Where are we going to put the dog, the cat and the lizard that live here for four hours? Also, they mentioned something about vacuuming the house every three days after it was treated, cleaning all floors and surfaces and making sure there was no laundry lying around. Yeah, right. Like that's ever gonna happen.

I had about decided to just keep treating the pets and hope the fleas would die a quick death. Then, we took Jake to get his hair cut on Friday. You know what makes you feel like white trash? I'll tell you. Hypothetically speaking of course. If you are holding your child while he's getting his hair cut and the lady cutting his hair suddenly asks you if you have a cat or a dog and then points to a flea scuttling around on your child's scalp, THEN you will feel like white trash. And be completely mortified as you catch the flea and crush it beneath your fingernails.

SO, if you happen to see a dog, a cat and a bearded dragon standing on your street corner for a few hours in the near future I would steer clear of them. They are nothing but trouble and I'm sure their rightful owners will come claim them just as soon as they have removed the flea infestation in their home.

Dance, dance revolution

Jake had fun dancing to the music on Emma's new toy Christmas day at my parent's house. The trauma of the ER the day before was long forgotten. Even a head wound can't take the rhythm out of that boy.

Give me battery free toys or give me death

For Christmas this year we bought Jake a $40 interactive WALL-E toy robot. He had been eyeing it for awhile and always wanted to play with it at Toys R Us. After we bought it we noticed there was a warning label on it that said something like "do not touch the head or he might break." Great. Try telling a three year old not to touch the head on ANYTHING much less a cool robot that talks and moves his head around.

We figured we would go ahead and give WALL-E a shot. Come Christmas morning Jake unwrapped this present and got so excited to get it out of the box to play. Needless to say, WALL-E's head didn't even make it out of the box still attached to his body. I'm not kidding you that this is the most poorly designed toy ever in the history of toys. I know there was a warning and all but really! We tried gluing the thing back on but it just didn't work. So here we sit with a decapitated robot. He still works though. He's just headless. It's a little creepy. Kind of like a praying mantis or a chicken with its head cut off running around.



It just got me to thinking that I think I would like to go battery free around here. I get so tired of buying batteries, changing batteries and trying to figure out how to dispose of batteries. You know they're not supposed to go in landfills, right? The sludge that leaks out of them is bad for the environment. You have to take them to a special place to dispose of them and I can't ever seem to find out where that special place is located. So, I'd like to go green. Give us toys that Santa and his elves would make. I'm pretty sure they don't mess around with batteries. One good option I've seen around lately is from Green Toys. I especially love the recycling truck. Of course the other option would be to just stop buying toys forever. I would seriously be okay with that. Our house is over run with them. Besides, I'm thinking the kids would do just fine making mud pies in the backyard or whacking the head off of a praying mantis.

Two butterfly stitches and a scab that looks like a spider growing out of his head...

We had a wonderful Christmas at my parents house in Amarillo. I still love going home for Christmas. The whole family is together again for a few days and I still feel a little bit like a kid when we go home. We have a few Christmas Eve traditions that I always look forward to. My mama makes clam chowder and cornbread for dinner, we go to the candlelight service at church and my dad reads the Christmas story from Luke before we open our presents around the Christmas tree.

This year was a little bit different. Christmas Eve was our first day at my parents house. Jake was loving it. They have a big living room that opens up onto a game room and he had plenty of room to run around. My niece Katie was entertaining him a lot. They played chase all over the place. Around about naptime we see Jake come flying into the living room, then we see him fall down, and then we hear him crying loudly. He tripped and hit his head on the fireplace. My sister got to him first and could see that his forehead was bleeding. I think I got there second and just saw a big open wound on his head. I kind of flipped out. I wanted to throw up. I was really thinking about what his high school graduation picture was going to look like with a big dent in the middle of his head.

Mike got to him next and picked him to have a look at the wound. He declared that Jake was going to need stitches. Great. I had just had Emma at the ER five nights before for six hours and didn't think I could handle another trip. So Mike and my brother in law Alan took Jake to the hospital.

Three hours and a six foot four inch male nurse with a ponytail holding Jake down later they came back home. My child looked like Ralph Macchio from the Karate Kid. He had this big white bandage wrapped across his forehead that had to stay there for an hour.




I felt so sorry for him. As soon as they came through the door I just held him. Then I told him he should just take it easy for awhile and rest. I put him down on the ground. He looked up at everyone and said "You can't catch me!" And he was off. Trying to get the boy not to run is like trying to get the wind not to blow. He is a force of nature. And he was born to run.

I'm happy to report that the boo boo doesn't seem to hurt him at all. The stitches are supposed to be absorbed into the body so we don't even have to go back to get them removed. I can't wait until that happens because right now he has threads sticking out of this huge scab and it just looks like a big spider crawling out of his head. Too bad this didn't happen at Halloween instead of on Christmas Eve!

Oh, and those Christmas Eve traditions? Well, we skipped the candlelight service due to the head trauma. We still got to hear the Christmas story being read from Luke with Jake's own version chimed right in over the voice of my dad. And we still had a Christmas tree although it was an actual Charlie Brown tree because my parents couldn't put up their real tree or their new cats would have destroyed it this year. And it was still one of the best Christmas's ever.

Happy 2010!

I'm in a bit of a turmoil with the year 2010. Mainly because I was born in 1970 so if my math is correct that means I'll be turning 40 freakin' years old this year. In twenty one days to be exact. I'll be saving my freaking out about my age post for later in the month though. Right now I think I'll just think about the most memorable things that happened in 2009. It was a pretty good year.

Number 1: First and foremost the most memorable thing that happened in '09 was the birth of Emma Mae. It was also the best thing that happened last year. She is the completion of our family (unless of course we're called to adoption sometime in the future). I remember her first cry in the hospital and thinking "good Lord, why is there a wild cat in here?" She is the exact little girl I prayed for in every way. God is good.

Number 2: The reaction that Jake had to Emma Mae's coming into the world. Don't get me wrong. He LOVES her. They are good friends. He loved her before she was even born. It's just that when he saw her in the hospital for the first time I think he changed his opinion of her for just a moment. He wanted nothing to do with her or me. The thing I remember most is bringing her home and having Jake wake up from his nap only to discover me back home sitting in the rocker holding Emma. His face just fell. I'm convinced that his heart broke for the first time. I could tell that he was thinking "what is SHE doing in MY mommy's lap?" It was the first time my heart broke for my child. I wanted to weep and apologize for changing his little world so radically. The memory of his face at that moment is etched into my mind forever. Ever think about how someone's life can change in an instant? How the person they would have become changes to someone completely different because of a decision either they made or someone else made for them? Jake's life changed forever when Emma was born. I'm just betting it changed for the better.

Number 3: We moved twice in a period of four months. The first time when Emma was just a few weeks old. What I remember is how our friends and family helped us out so much and we got through a very stressful time.

Number 4: We bought our first house! It has been so much fun (and work) getting everything decorated and set up. We're still not finished. Just a big work in progress.

Number 5: Okay, I know it's probably time to let this go. However, I can't seem to forget the carpet cleaner guy who asked me if I was about four months pregnant after I had already had Emma. Way to go dude. Never ask a woman if she's pregnant. The end.

I've been gone and now I'm back

Wow. I think this is the longest break from my blog that I've ever taken. I haven't even read other people's blogs in at least a week. Except for my sister's. She is a great storyteller so I like to check in on her regularly. Anyway, we had a fantastic Christmas and I will share more about that later. Right now, let me just say that I've had the most incredible shopping experience at Target! I'm so excited I just can't hide it.

Every year for Christmas I tell my parents that I just want money as a present and then I usually save that money and add my birthday money to it and go shopping. This year I didn't even wait to get the birthday money because I so desperately wanted some new clothes. I was planning on waiting until I had lost all of the baby weight and was down to my goal weight before going shopping. And I planned on going to Ann Taylor Loft and buying some more sophisticated, age appropriate clothing. However, all of that changed when I went into Old Navy the day after Christmas and saw their $15 jeans sale and their $4 long sleeved tee shirt sale. That's right. I said four dollars. I bought exactly eight of them. In all different colors. It is going to be my mom uniform until it gets too hot to wear jeans and long sleeve shirts around here. Which should be exactly four more weeks.

I have no idea how to dress myself which can be proven by looking at any picture of me from the 80's until now. I so wish I had a scanner so I could show you pictures of me back in the day. This is the girl who thought it would be a good idea to step out in a pink jumpsuit with black polka dots accompanied by a pink and black plaid jacket with shoulder pads. Wow. And pink pumps. Don't forget the pumps.

I'm just saying I'm not that good at buying clothes so I really don't go shopping very often. When I walked into Target today it was as if a beam of light shown down from heaven pointing me in the way I should go. I bought two cute dresses and a pair of stylish black pants. I also a bought a very cute bright yellow shirt but I'm thinking of taking it back because I'm worried the collar makes me look all Victorian or maybe even like a huge sunflower. I'm just not sure about this shirt. What do ya'll think?