Project 365 - Week #4

This has been a crazy week for our family. Between long hours at work, running all over town, and visiting family at the hospital, we have not been home very much. I'm happy to report that Emily's new cousin, Logan, and her aunt, "My Shelley," should finally be going home from the hospital today. Woohoo!

Here's the rundown of what we did this week:

Saturday, Jan. 21 - Art class. This is E making a treasure box - she loved the glitter

Sunday, Jan. 22 - Sweet baby Logan

Monday, Jan. 23 - Emily "swinging like a monkey."

Tuesday, Jan. 24 - Nonie made a tent for Emily in Shelley's hospital room. Emily wanted Peepaw to join her.

Wednesday, Jan. 25 - We had to wait in the family waiting room at the hospital for a little bit. Emily had fun playing with the coke machine.

Thursday, Jan. 26 - We made a trip to the park and Emily had so much fun playing in the puddles. By the time we went some she was soaking wet and a happy girl.

Friday, Jan. 27 - M & M time. We are trying to potty train, but Emily isn't really that interested. We are using M & Ms as a reward.

Week #3 - 365 Challenge

I'm still going strong with this challenge! I'm having fun with this challenge, but it makes me really, really want a better camera. Maybe on day. . .

This week there was a lot of good stuff to take pictures of. It's been hard to pick just one (or two) pictures for each day.

Jan. 14 - We spent some time at the park. Emily wanted to push Brad on the swings. This is her attempt.

Jan. 15 - Sketch photo of the yarn wrapper letters on our mantle.

Jan. 16 - Brad doesn't think all of my photos are funny. He was seems a little annoyed with my photo taking :)

Jan. 17 - Cuddling before bed. Emily loves to get in our bed. She'll often just go back to our room and climb in bed on her own.

Jan. 18 - Shelley, Brad's sister, went into labor Wednesday evening. This is Emily hanging out with "My Shelley" before her baby cousin arrived.

Jan. 19 - Logan is here! Logan arrived at 3:59 a.m. Thursday morning. We went up to the hosptial Thursday afternoon to hang out with the family. We had to wait downstairs for a little while and Brad kept Emily busy by throwing her up super high.
The other pictures are baby Logan and our family. Emily, while acting excited for Logan, gets very shy when she's around him

Jan. 20 - We hit up the stock show Friday afternoon. Emily had fun feeding the goats in the petting zoo.

Week #2 - 365 Challenge

Two weeks down, fifty more to go. There were a couple days this week I took a lot of pictures. And there were also a couple days I almost forgot. I've had fun playing with the settings on my very simple point-and-shoot. And I've also enjoyed using picnic to edit the pictures.

Here's week #2:

Jan. 7 - Emily put her animals in time-out. She told us they "weren't listening" to her. Guess what she has to go to timeout for?

Jan. 8 - Brad (in red) playing basketball at our church. He's playing in a 3-on-3 league. The second picture of the day is Emily and one of her friends at church "watching" the game. I'm pretty sure they had more fun running around the gym and playing with the camera.

Jan. 9 - Eating her cereal before school. She requested that Pelly and the basketball sit at the table with her.

Jan. 10 - Banjo just begging for me to get Porky. Basically she just wants to prove that she has faster reflexes.

Jan. 11 - Time for Banjo to get a bath. Banjo pretty much hates it. And Emily is trying to get Banjo to play with the bubbles during bath time. Banjo wasn't really interested in the bubbles.

Jan. 12 - Emily received a camera for Christmas. She LOVES playing with it and she takes it almost everywhere with us. This is on our way to school one morning - she wanted to take a picture of her school, so I took a picture of her.

Jan. 13 - Banjo waiting for Brad to get home.

Project 365, 2012

Yep, it's been quite a few months since my last post. I can't promise I'm going to be better about posting, but I'm going to try. I've decided to take the 365 challenge. Hopefully blogging will keep me more accountable for my pictures. And taking the pictures will encourage me to blog a little bit more.

So what is the 365 challenge? It's simple - take one picture everyday for a year. My goal is to blog 2-4 times per month, post the pictures, and any comments that go with them. Let's see how it goes.

Week #1. . .

Jan. 1 (this one was actually taken on Dec. 30, it's too cute. And I forgot to take one on Jan. 1)
My brother is a high school basketball coach. His team got to play at the American Airlines Center before a Mavs game. Emily wasn't really interested in the game, but she had a good time!

Jan. 2
We took Emily to the zoo! Nonie and Peepaw joined us. Emily had a great time feeding the birds and checking out all of the other animals. Brad made friends with this bird.
Emily is the photographer in photo #2 for today

Jan. 3
Learning to be a cheerleader.

Jan. 4
E got her first game for the Wii. It's still a little old for her, but anything that involves Elmo makes her happy. You can also see four pictures of Emily on the wall behind her - newborn, 6 months, 9 months, and 1 year.

Jan. 5
Good morning! I took this right after waking her up Thursday morning. She's usually all smiles in the morning.

Jan. 6
We spent a lot of time at the park today. It's 70* in January - love it!

I promise all of the pictures won't be of Emily. :)

First Stitches

Friday morning Emily had another first and this one wasn’t much fun!

We were having the best morning – playing around the house, pretending to try on all of her new summer clothes, dancing, and watching Mickey. Emily picked up her little toy drum and wanted me to get the drumsticks inside the drum. She started to carry the drum to me, but next I know she’s on the ground screaming. At first I tell her to get up, but then I saw all of the blood. Nope, she wasn’t fine this time.

I picked her up, ran to the kitchen and grabbed some paper towels. I wrapped the paper towels around her left, index finger and took a look at the damage. She cut the tip of her index finger pretty bad. I put a band-aide on her finger, put her in the car and we were off to the local Children’s hospital. I called Brad along the way to tell him what was going on. I told him not to worry about meeting us at the ER. It wasn’t life threating – just a cut on her finger (right?).

Emily was so good in the car. She cried some, but not as much as I expected. She knew not to touch her finger.  Once we arrived at the ER I checked in, changed her diaper, and we were called back.  Emily was scared and hurting, but so brave and tough. The first nurse we saw was so sweet. She took good care of Emily and got us back to a room quickly. We chilled in the room for a little bit and learned how to use their fancy, made for kids, TV system – Emily loved it! The doctor came in and we talked about what happened. He wanted x-rays just to make sure the cut didn’t get down to her bone. No worries, the cut didn’t get down that deep.

I talked with the doctor again and the only thing left was to stitch up her finger. The doctor recommended waiting for the Wound Care Tech to do the stitches. So, I called Brad to give him an update and I used the phrase “stitch it back on.” Apparently I didn’t do a good job explaining how bad the injury was the first time I called him and this was his cue to come to the hospital. Brad arrived a couple minutes before the Wound Care team got to our room. By now Emily was playing with all of the toys in our room and happy as could be. Once they started getting everything ready for the stitches, I decided it was time for me to leave the room. I couldn’t stand watching her cry while she got her stitches and Brad was there to take care of her.

Ten minutes later Emily had 10 little stitches in her finger – two holding the nail back on and eight on her finger tip. We left the ER with instructions to call a plastic surgeon and a big bandage on Emily’s finger. On the car ride home she ate every snack I packed and smiled like nothing was wrong. However, she was fascinated with her bandage. You can see the sock over her hand in the picture to the right. We finally had to put a sock over the bandages so she would stop messing with them. The bandage covers her index and middle fingers on her left hand.

Friday evening all the grandparents came over to spoil her a little bit and she played and played and played like nothing ever happened. But that all changed when Brad brought the drum back out. We were trying to figure out how Emily got cut (still can’t figure it out). The second Emily saw that drum she froze. And then started bawling. She knew that drum hurt her and she didn’t want anything to do with it. The drum is now in the garage.

Today we saw the plastic surgeon. Everything looked just fine. She’s going to lose her nail and it will take about 3 months to grow back. We’ll keep it bandaged for another 1-2 weeks but then she’s good to go. I think I was more traumatized by the whole thing than she was. Kids are tough.

Lessons learned – if we ever have to take Emily to the ER for anything, we are going to the Children’s Hospital. Everyone I dealt with was amazing! They were so sweet and took such good care of our little girl. I know that this was a minor emergency compared to so many other things that come through that hospital everyday. But it was a big deal to us. They took such good care of all of us.

18 Months!

Yep, Emily is 18 months old. She's quickly going from baby to little girl. It's so cute, so much fun, and so challenging.

She has started talking more and more. Some of it I understand and some of I haven't the slightest clue. Some of her words include:

Moe (more)

Baby (baby)
Baby (Pelly - her stuffed pelican)

Baby (her blanket)

Baby (Banjo - our dog)

Eaa (eat)

Peas (please)

Tant Tou (Thank You)

Cracker
Ice
Mimme (mickey - means she wants to watch Mickey Mouse)
Mama
Daddy
Nonie (Brad's mom)
Pawpaw (Brad's dad - his "name" is Peepaw)
Mimi (my mom - her name is "Gumi")
Shelsh (Shelly, Brad's sister)
Bike
Par (park)
Bed
Soe
Book
Daw (dog)
Bahh (bath)
Cheee (cheese)
Phay (play)
Waffle
Wawa (water)
Cookie
ou-side (outside)
bye-bye
....and more that I'm just not thinking of.

She can also be a big goof ball - as long as she very comfortable with whom ever is in room. She'll dance, run in circles, make silly faces, and just make you (and herself) laugh. It's a completly different story if she's not comfortable with someone in the room. - then she's so shy.  However, no matter how shy's she is she will always say bye-bye and blow kisses when someone leaves. So adorable.

She also has quite the temper. We've had a peek into what is coming with the "Terrible-Two's". These tantrums aren't going to be fun. Emily has thrown a couple all out-kicking-screaming-laying on the floor-crying fits. Ignoring little Emily, like most kiddos, has been the best way to get past them. Most of them are short and sweet, but those that's aren't...wow! Brad looked at me during one of them and said, "Make it stop!"

She LOVES being outside. She stands at the back door saying "ou-side." Anytime a door opens, she trying to get out there any play. The park is her favorite place. She like the playground, but would rather walk around, splash in puddles, and enjoy the outdoors.

I love our little redhead and I'm so excited to see what the next 18 months have in store for her and our family.

The Great Ice Storm of 2011

Yeah, I know it’s been a long time since I’ve updated this blog. I have no good excuse – I’ve just been lazy. However, we’ve been stuck inside for three days now (stupid ice storm) and I figured now would be a good time to update.
We got struck with ice, snow, sleet, rain, and some record low temperatures early Tuesday morning. Our backyard is white, our front yard is white, and our driveway is a thick sheet of ice. There are rolling blackouts happening. All of the schools in the area are closed. North Texas has shut down. Yep, just in time for the Supe… I mean, National Football League Championship Game. Being stuck inside with an (almost) 18 month old who loves to be outside – yeah, it’s tough. So what have we been doing?
OutsideWell, Emily begged and begged and begged to go outside, so we let her. She played outside in the white mix for a little while and was very happy. However, a few minutes later she took off her hat. Then, she demanded that Brad take off her jacket. Brad decided this was a good time to “teach her a lesson” about being cold. So, he took off her jacket. About fifteen seconds later she came running inside screaming cause she was so cold.
Lesson learned?


PaintingI set up the kitchen table, put an oversized shirt on, and let Emily paint away. Emily picked out the colors: pink, purple, and blue. She was so happy and very focused on what she was doing. She painted two pictures and is very proud of them. She’ll pick one up and bring it to me with a big smile on her face. It’s so cute.  


Taking Banjo for a WalkEmily loves to hold Banjo’s leash. She found it laying around yesterday and brought it to me. I figured why not, I put the leash on and let Emily take Banjo for a “walk” around the house. Banjo wasn’t too thrilled, but Emily loved it. She walked Banjo all around the house.


Bike RidingEmily received a trike from her uncle for Christmas. We put it together and let Emily play with it around the living room. She loves riding it and pushing her stuffed animals around. She loves it so much that we have to hide the trike. If we didn’t all we would hear is, “Ride, ride, ride.”


Play doughI found a very simple homemade play dough recipe and made a batch (with some help) for Emily. When I asked her what color she wanted, she answered, “purple”. So, purple play dough it was. Emily wasn’t sure about the play dough at first, but with the help of some Christmas cookie cutters, she had some fun.

In case you are interested, here’s the recipe:

Ingredients:1 cup flour
1 cup water
1/2 cup salt
1 TBS cream of tartar
1 TBS oil
food coloring

Directions: Heat all ingredients in a saucepan, slow to medium heat. Stir continuously. Once dough is at the consistency you want, remove from heat. Cool before using.

Sitting on the CounterEmily loves the sit on the kitchen counter. That’s where she eats her breakfast every morning. Yes, I know it’s not the safest place, but oh well. The drying rack for all of her cups is right next to her spot on the counter. She loves to take apart her cups and put them back. It keeps her busy long enough for me to unload the dishwasher.


SweepingThe little one loves the play with the broom and dustpan. Heck, if she wants to clean under her table, I’ll let her.

 
That’s what we’ve been doing around here these past few days. I’ve loved being home with Emily. It’s been a very nice break and unexpected week at home. I wish I would have been a little more productive, but I’ve had a ton of fun playing with our little girl.
I’m going to try to update on a more regular basis.