Baby Talk

Old and New Friends

Last time we were up to visit Greg and Kelly, her high school friend was passing thru town. We all met up for dinner. They adopted a biracial baby that was born one week exactly after Emma was. Her name is Destiny. It was alot of fun seeing them interact, they have quite similar features, very different personalities and very similar skill levels, all that combined made for a very entertaining mixture.

Learning new things

It is amazing how fast kids pick things up. I was worried Emma wasn't learning things fast enough because we don't spend alot of time working on Academics. It is not like there is a playbook that says hey you need to teach them this now.... So anyway one of Emma's favorite songs has been the ABC's mainly because it is one of the only one's I sing to her since birth. Archie has a more expanded repertoire of songs than I do. I realized the other day she is starting to chime along here and there saying ABC, P, W and so on when she wants. She also picked up "ring around the rosy" pretty quick and of course loves it. She wants to play it till I am almost getting sick from spinning, luckily I am in better shape these days for the falling down and getting up endlessly parts. All in the same week I decided to start counting to 5 and using my fingers, and she started doing it too! She already had the "2" down whenever I would tell her to do something and then have to say "1, 2", now I only have to say "1" my echo says "2" for me. Needless to say that doesn't work anymore because I end up laughing when she says 2.

The pictures are from my weekend, I gave her a bunch of kid dishes to play with and it kept her busy forever, feeding herself, her baby and me. Only she didn't like when I pushed the baby close to her, she had a little tantrum till the baby was returned to her original position. Always fun times !!

Happy Girl

Saturdays are always hard for myself, Archie and Emma. They are like a limbo day, is mommy going to be tired or not? Usually it is yes. Today, like all Saturdays I was optimistic that I could go full speed ahead the whole day. I knew Arch and Em were still sleeping when I got off work at 8am so I decided to go shopping at Kohls. 2 1/2 hours later I headed home. At this point Emma had been up probably about an hour so I had a 2-3 hour window to do some errands, the problem with that though is I am very hesitant to drive especially long distances after working all night. I used to think nothing of it and drive straight thru to Hermiston, but having someone else in the car who is totally dependant on you makes you think twice. So I attempted to recruit a couple friends to go shopping with me, no go that late on a Saturday morning. I needed something to keep myself awake and wanted to spend time with Emma, what came to mind was move her room around. Had I not been to the point of exhaustion I would have remembered why I couldn't do this. I moved the bed, then the changing table and went to move the big dresser and it wouldn't budge. I didn't remember it being this heavy, usually her furniture just slides around. I looked behind it and duh! It is strapped to the wall so that if my little monkey figured out how to climb it, it wouldn't tip over ..... So I left the bed and changing table where they had ended up on opposite walls and fed Em lunch and laid down for my long awaited nap. She wasn't having it, if I was in her room laying with her I felt like a gym mat, if I wasn't in there she was crying. Finally after removing all the toys from her room (because she kept playing with them) and putting the furniture back, 2 hours later she crashed. I could finally go to sleep, till she woke up 1 hour later. Ahhhhhhhhhhh. The rest of the story will have to wait, I need to pass out now. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Locked out

I have been meaning to post this for almost 2 weeks now. It was the unfortunate theme in our family for a week running. First it started on a Thursday at our house which happens to be a 12 hour day for me starting at 6pm. I had gotten up early to take Emma out in the backyard and play before getting ready for work. We went out our sliding glass door and I had decided to leave my cell phone inside, which is usually attached in one way or another. A few minutes later Archie joined us out back. I went to run inside to get something and the sliding glass door was locked, I turned around and asked Arch which door he came out of, the sliding door he answered. Hmm, it was locked. I must not have flipped the latch all the way up when I unlocked it. So here we were in the backyard, Arch had keys but not to the dead bolt I lock on the front door every morning when I get home. (only I have that one, who knows why only one came with the house) (before you say it, we tried to change the locks when we first moved in but have a funky door and couldn't get the new lock to fit). Arch had left his cell phone inside, which again is unheard of. So I went next door to call my work and try to get ahold of my friend (because all my phone #'s are in my cell phone !) that lives 6 blocks away and has a key. After I left her messages I realize she doesn't have a deadbolt key either. So Arch ends up breaking into our house in time for me to go inside and get ready for work.



That weekend Kelly (Archie's 2nd youngest daughter) went to her new house to wait for the carpet cleaners to come. She went back outside to get a pen out of the car and when she went to go back inside none of the doors would open. She had to get to know her nearest neighbor in a hurry to use their phone and wait at their house for a locksmith to come get her back in the house. What the problem at her house is every door is a "safety" door. You can always get out, but if you don't check the outside knob prior to walking out you won't know if it is locked or not. So the locksmith sold her a hide a key rock for next time.



We were at Kelly's house the following weekend to help move and unpack. On Sunday night Archie, Emma and I had run out of clothes. We usually don't pack very much cause I just wash them while we are there. I washed a load and hung them outside because the dryer wasn't hooked up yet. In the meantime I had set a timer on the stove as a reminder for something else. While I was in the other room I heard Arch and Kelly go outside because the clothes I had hung were falling down from the whipping wind outside. I walked outside to help them, yep you guessed it "safety" doors!!! Mind you, it was 12:30 am! As I stepped out the door the timer on the stove had started beeping. When I went to go back in the door was locked, we tried them all, all were locked !! We pounded on the doors, windows, rang the door bell over and over, even tried the 1 cell phone we had to call the others and wake Kaylee or Colby. No such luck all 3 kids were sleeping like the dead, Emma didn't even wake up. We tried all the windows but they were locked, we did have a nice view of the hide a key rock sitting on the decorative cabinet in the dining room. The only keys Arch had were to the trailer they had loaded all the shop stuff into, he was able to get a ladder out and find a window unlocked on the second floor and drop in from several feet up. For several days he sported window ledge rash on his wrists displaying his heroic effort.

Since then we have all tried to be vigilant to have our keys and phones with us before we walk out of a door, not checking after!

Children's Museum

Playing receptionist at the Dr's office
Playing in the water.
Phoning home from the play pay phone
Shopping for the groceries

Today Emma and I went to the Children's museum, it was a first for both of us. We had alot of fun. Emma liked it because there were so many things with buttons to push. She had 3 favorites, the Doctors office, the Grocery store and the Water works. There was also not one place in the building that was off limits to kids so Emma was in charge, that made for a very happy little girl. After we wandered over to the zoo across the parking lot and re-visited some of our favorite animals, then rode the train around the zoo. It was a wonderful day and I am grateful I have such a special daughter to spend it with.

Emma wanted to send an email

We have been sick for the last week, 1st me and Emma, now Archie. Unfortunately he gets it the worst. Other than that nothing much going on. I think I figured out why most mom's start calling their husbands dad after a while, Emma has started calling Archie Babe. I must say it funny because for her it comes out Beb. Guess it will be daddy for a while till she knows the difference. She also wanted to show off her pig tails and her computer skills.