Ranting and raving

Today was a exhausting day all around. Emma was up at 7am, I put her back down for a nap at 9:30 since it takes her at the least an hour to settle down and go to sleep. I only put her down so early because we had a doctor appointment this afternoon and wanted her rested for it. It took her 2 plus hours to go to sleep. I had to wake her up to give her a shower before we left. She cried because Archie was feeding her lunch instead of me (because of being sick). We got to the doctor's office early, luckily because they handed me a 4 page questionnaire to fill out so they could score her apparently. I tried to fill this out while Emma intermittently played with toys or ran either back into the patient area or back out into the hallway. She had to stand in the corner at least 2x at in the waiting area. We finally got in 25 minutes after our appointment time, by then Emma didn't want to come at all when I called her, so it entailed me carrying her like a football past all the waiting patients into the doctor's office. I then undressed her all the while she is trying to stand up and grab some picture off the wall that looks like it is going to fall in 10 pieces if you blow on it (guess all the other kids had the same idea). So after the nurse hears me tell her not to touch it because it will break like 5x, she tries to take it off the wall, well someone used 50 nails and superglue to put it on so it stayed but she took off the most treacherous piece..... She actually sat still on the baby scale to get weighed, which is now 28lbs. After the nurse left, but not before she snuck in ANOTHER questionnaire, Emma ran around the office like a caged monkey. She literally grabbed the door handle and hung on it like she was tarzan... Why don't they mail the questionnaire's? Seriously people I am trying to corral a 2 year old here but you want to know if she stacks blocks and kicks a ball. Well she climbs on everything, that conveniently wasn't on there! The doctor said she is looking very good her assessment was that "Emma has great motor skill's" as she is trying to climb on the rolling stool while it is rolling across the room. She did say it was ok to start giving her melatonin at dinner to get her into a better sleeping pattern. Hopefully this will fix the midnight romper room episodes. She does have fluid in one ear and the other is cloudy so she started her on antibiotics for an ear infection. When I finally got her dressed she took off out of the office thru the maze of the patient care area and I hear one of the nurses say, "There she goes again". I wanted to say, "Bite me!"
We then headed down to the prescription area, got in line, if it was the right one I have no idea. There are 3 signs one says to stand here if you are waiting for this, wasn't us. The second one says check in here for new prescriptions or refills, ok that is us. Well no one called us or they couldn't see us so I move to the next sign 3 feet ahead which says the exact same thing. We got called right away at that sign. Lucky us the doctor forgot to put in the prescription for the antibiotics, so they will just call up there and it will be just a little bit. Well I give in and let Emma watch Handy Manny on my phone because there is no other way I can keep her still in this room and there are too many people coming and going. That lasted for about 20 minutes, then she wanted up. The room had thinned out so I let her go play with the wood toy with the beads (cringing the whole time imagining all the germs from the sick kids touching it). Well she kept going from the toy to me at a high rate of speed (ok she was running) but I was ok with that because she wasn't running out the door, until some jerk head thought he was in a quiet coffee shop and leans forward to look at me like I am not watching my child well enough. I just ignored him and went to sit closer to her, but wouldn't you know it then she wanted to go sit where we had been but now the seat was taken. Since they still hadn't called our name and I smelled a faint aroma coming from her diaper we went to the restroom to check it out. Just gas, but we sat on the toilet anyway to see if anything would happen, it's not like they were going to call our name anytime soon. Of course it was on the board when we got back, so I went to the first line I started in and people kept coming in the opposite door and cutting so I moved up to the 2nd one, wouldn't you know they called on the girl who just took my place from the first sign? She graciously let me go first, just to find out they put her name up to tell me the Dr hadn't called back yet and it would be a while longer. GRRRRRRRR. We left, went to Costco to get some stuff for Arch. When that errand was done I called to see if the prescription was now ready, it was but the lady informed me to get back in line when I got there then they would have to mix it. What? I said I will be there in 20 minutes just mix it now. "Sorry ma'am we have to wait till you are here because the shelf life starts when we mix it." 20 minutes !!!! Who Cares????? I don't. I took Emma (in the stroller) this time back in to get the prescription. I went right to the 3rd sign this time, no going to the right one, I was going to the fastest one! Wouldn't you know the prescription was all mixed up and ready to go and I think the lady that helped me was the one I talked to because she wouldn't look at me or say any more than she had to. Oh well....
Tonight was a KFC night because I probably would have thrown any dishes I picked up out the window. Emma didn't want any of it except the cole slaw but she wanted to eat it with her fingers. Then she started spitting her milk out (which she has done since we started swimming again she spits out all her drinks) I absolutely made sure to give her the melatonin tonight! Then she proceeded to run around and grab my phone, push buttons on the computer, grab her milk run into the hall and spit it out on the floor. I lost count of how many times she was in the corner. By the last couple times I would walk her to the corner and she would lean back into my hands and climb up the wall with her feet. I finally got things cleaned up and we played play dough for a while nice and quietly till she grabbed all the cutters and threw them on the floor. We then went in the bedroom to read and try to settle down, finally she did and went to sleep at 7:45. Yeah melatonin!!

2nd Birthday

Emma turned 2 on Monday. We started the day by going to IHOP for brunch. Emma had pancakes with blueberry syrup on them. We stopped at home to get some benadryl because she was getting a cold. Then we were off to the aquarium in Seaside, OR. Well Emma had no interest in the aquarium.... Arch says it is because it was pretty dark in there and the seals were not very active because it was close to breeding season. Next time we will go to Newport to the nicer aquarium. After that we hit the beach, Emma loved it. If you notice in the pictures she holds her hand up that is not holding the shovel. She didn't like the feel of the sand, she did the same thing when we first put her on grass. If she tipped over she would hold up her hands so she didn't touch it. She loved running up and down the beach, she would have loved running in the water but it was too cold. After the beach we went to an indoor mall to look around. In the center there was a huge merry go round, I thought Emma would love it. Turns out she is not a fan, could be the combination of sick and no nap but who knows. We went into a cool toy store that had toys set out to play with. One of them was a shopping cart, Emma pushed it around the store taking toys off the shelves and filling it. After that we got some saltwater taffy, chocolate dipped Twinkies and Tillamook Ice-cream (nothing like it!). We only ate the ice-cream and took the rest home for later. We headed for the Spaghetti factory for a birthday dinner. When we walked in I got really excited because they had a huge poster advertising they were rated in the top 10 by parents magazine for birthday's. Well the problem with that is that apparently you have to sign up ahead of time online.... guess who didn't know that? They wouldn't let her have the birthday deal because I hadn't done it online. She still got ice-cream with a candle in it while the wait-staff sang to her. Emma enjoyed her birthday especially grandma and her gang and sissy and her gang both singing to her on the phone.

We gave her, her Nemo and Dory cake on Tuesday because we didn't know what time we would be back on Monday. She was excited and loved making Nemo and Dory swim in the cake.

Terrible 2's

I took Emma to get her 2 year pictures yesterday. It went fairly smooth for only having one parent present. I bought shoes especially for this photo shoot and couldn't find them anywhere before we left. Of course those shoes showed up later on that evening in the middle of the kitchen next to the electric saw behind the cabinet shells, why didn't I think to look there? During the shoot when they would change backgrounds she would take off running to the Lego's in the lobby. I always feel like I am the only parent who's child would do that take off running instead of sitting quietly like a good little girl. Seriously the people at the photo studio and even most stores look at you like they have never seen a child misbehave in public ever. Then to get her to smile the assistant would throw the animals in the air, when that didn't work he gave it to Emma to throw. Wouldn't you know at swim class today all Emma wanted to do was throw her toy just like she did yesterday and it was funny then?

It has definitely been a terrible two day with fighting me holding her in the pool. I was very tempted to let her stand to show her it was the deep end and she needed me to hold her. Tempted but obviously would never. Then the instructor kept telling me how I should hold her, I was ok till about the 5th time. I wanted to shout "Are you blind?, Can you not see her kicking and pushing with all her might against me but please let me put my hands just like so??" For those of you that don't know I used to be a swim instructor way back in the day. I am very familiar with how to hold a child in the water to learn different skills, except it is not an option always when said child is not cooperating. After class came the running away thing except this time it was after we are fully dressed lets run in the showers and slip so our pants get soaked. Then I got to watch as some old guy laughed his butt off while I attempted to get my child away from the drinking fountains, pay phone and play boat they have so we could walk out the door. When we got home I gave her some turkey and cheese. After playing with it for a while she threw the turkey on the floor, as I was picking it up I feel the cheese hitting me in the head...... Thank God for nap time! No time for Mommy though had to go to work for a meeting, then I came home to a wonderful surprise my neighbor wanted Emma to come over and play. Usually this ends up with the neighbor girl crying because Emma is invading her space. Fortunately this time all was well no crying, no fighting. We even went over and ate pizza. Emma was very good over there. The minute we came home though.... I said lets get in the shower, she climbed in with all her clothes, coat and shoes on. Then came washing time and it was definitely a battle of wills. I was done when she started yanking the shower caddy and then throwing toys at me because I told her not to yank on the caddy. This is not every day but oh Lord, she is not even 2 yet!!!

birthday traditions

In just a week little Emma Grace will be turning 2. I have been thinking of starting some sort of special tradition on her birthday. Wether it be waking her up with a cake or special trinket or getting her flowers on her birthday. Is there any traditions that you treasured as a child or do for your children that you care to share? She does have a minimal collection of waterglobes I could add to... Just looking for ideas.

day to day

So I bribed Emma to let me put pigtails in her hair today, not that you can tell in the pictures but it was cute. It obviously takes longer than normal with her hair but we got thru it with her mangling my new phone and me going as slow as I could so we did it without tears. She is also getting better about letting me change her earrings but I do have to tackle her and sit on her pretty much with only her head showing but she thinks it is funny. We have been experimenting with the potty too with pretty good results, she actually asks to go every once in a while and they way she says potty is super cute. My goal is by the summer to have her potty trained, well maybe. We found out she can do puzzles pretty well, the wooden kind that have animals or shapes that fit in certain spaces. We have 4 that she does all by herself. She has also figured out who is walking by her bedroom door by their feet either mom or dad (by peeking under it when she is supposed to be in bed). It is also a matter of time before she climbs the dresser, she has figured out she can put her foot on the little ledge of the drawer and pull up on the top. We have managed to escape injury for the last week so hopefully we will be able to get her pictures taken next week. It is hard to believe she is going to be 2 in a matter of days, time has flown by so fast since we brought home such a little tiny baby.

Emma G

Little Emma has been up to alot lately. Apparently this week her goal is to make to the emergency room one way or another. She started out by tripping over the rug and smacking her head right on the corner of the crib. Not even 24 hours later she fell again this time eye first into the corner of the couch, hence the black eye. When I went to check on her at nap time today this is how I found her. The first day we gave her the highchair I had zip tied the tray down so she couldn't sit in the chair since that is the only thing she wanted to do. I figured if it was stuck in the down position she would forget about it and not try to climb in it. Guess I was wrong, it is now sitting in the hallway so she can't fall out of it and break her arm. I am getting ready to duct tape foam around her and put a helmet on to keep the bruising to a minimum. So anyway 2 year pictures are going to be put off while face healing is occurring.

The picture of Em asleep is her new favorite place to go to bed. She loved playing on the dog couch at Vickie's so much we bought her one. She loves it and no she doesn't share with the dogs, it is all hers. The other picture is her playing dress up.

Missing Alabama

I haven't posted anything lately because I have been missing my friend and not wanting to much of anything since she said she was leaving and now that she did. Don't misunderstand I am very happy for her to finally have found what everyone looks for their whole life, happiness. If there is anyone in this world that deserves happiness, it is definitely her. I am just sad she found it across the country. To me we have a very special friendship that has weathered storms and lots of sunshine. She is one of those very special people in life that once you meet her she treats you like you are family. I wish I was like her in ways that she pays attention to details about people, knows that someone is feeling down even when sometimes they don't realize it. She was a great force at work because she was the glue that held us together, in such little ways; decorating the Christmas tree, decorating for other holidays, organizing fundraisers, or even just pj and potluck night. Those are the things that kept morale at work up and I know we will still do those things but it won't have the same class that she always added to everything she did. If she had a party or a bbq, everyone wanted to be invited because you knew it was going to be amazing from the food to the decorations. She did work very hard to make them amazing but each one was worth everything she put into them.

I am going to miss shopping with her, she always knew where to find the best stuff for the best bargains. Emma is going to miss that too, she always got so excited when we met up at the stores.

Just today I had to go to one of our favorite stores and all I thought about was it wasn't the same without her. I thought it would get easier but so far it hasn't. Talking to her today just made me miss her more. I am glad that she does have a great support group back home and they will all help her get settled and take care of her, I just wish I was there too. I miss you Vick, more than you know.