Talking

Emma refused to say "Yes" until today. I asked her if she wanted a piece of candy and she shook her head yes, as I usually do I said say yes, and today she finally did. Yeah!!

Her other funny words are :
pappake - pancake
piple - pickle
tia - candy
shoe - phone (tia and shoe have us baffled just like yes I am sure the right words will come soon)
Handy many - me with her nose scrunched up
showee - shower
Mori - Morgan our dog
Meow - for the cats

I find that alot of times when we show her flashcards of pictures especially animals she says the sound instead of what it is, when you ask again what it is she tells you the right word. She does say many other words but she says them correctly and learns more every day.

She is doing great on the potty for her age. We put her on several times a day and she goes pee-pee almost every time now, the other is hard to get consistent results. That is where Handy Maney comes in we let her watch the short episodes while she is sitting there but then she doesn't want to get up... sigh. We tried the rewards instead but so far no go.

Out of this World Pizza

We wanted to go to the park today but the big black clouds scared us off. So we decided to try this pizza place I had just heard of from where else but Facebook! As we were leaving we were talking to our neighbor telling him where we were going in case they wanted to go they declined but then he reached in his wallet and hands us a gift card for the place we were going to for $50. He had it for about a year and didn't think they would ever use it so he said here you go.... We had a great time and dinner on them. Here are some pictures from playtime.

Creative ways to entertain a 2 year old

Emma got finger paints from sissy for Christmas. I kept looking at the bucket of paints and gearing myself up to try it with her. Just knowing Emma I know in 60 seconds flat she would lose interest in the paper to paint on and see what else she can paint with since I have seen her do this with her Aqua doodle pen which thankfully is only water. Her favorite thing to do with that is "color" her one expensive doll's face. Anyway I decided one day to stick her in the tub and let her paint the tub walls. It worked out perfect! She paints the walls, fixtures, tub, even herself.. and it is all washable. So when she is done, we turn on the shower wash the tub and then Emma. This is so much better than chasing her around the house and having to wash whatever the paint brush my touch and even though it is washable I don't quite trust it on my newly primed white walls.

The other 2 pictures are from her birthday party with Archie's family. She got a tricycle and toddler scooter which are both parked in front of the TV with her rocking horse. Apparently Archie and her play drive in. When the weather improves they will be moved outside so she knows not all toys belong in front of the TV. On a side note I made Arch get rid of the Backyardagin's DVDs for now. This show completely pulled her in, she wouldn't engage with anyone when it was on and would throw a huge screaming temper tantrum when you even walked toward the TV or control because she thought you were going to turn it off. So we did permanently! Hopefully TV will be less of a issue in a month when I go to day shift and Archie doesn't have to try to keep her quiet so much, bless his heart for being so good at it!

The downside of graveyard

Caught a ride on the way home.

Fascinated by Mommy jumping.

Jump.

Exploring nature.

(Pictures are from Monday, family walk before work. We all had fun, jumping off the curbs over and over at a Church nearby.)

Tuesdays are very hard for me, it is technically considered my first day off. That is hard to do when you work the night before, come home at 6 am, everyone else gets up at 9 am and you try to also. 3 hours of sleep just doesn't cut it especially when dealing with a 2 year old. Today was a little different I stayed up to read a little when I got home and right as I was heading to bed Emma woke up so I stayed up with her so Archie could get some sleep since apparently she was up and down most of the night. She didn't want french toast or yogurt, she wanted a cookie (said while bringing me the package). I said ok but she had to eat one of the other things first, she didn't want to so it was just oj for breakfast. She basically didn't want to do anything except the one thing I said no to, the computer. (only because Arch has been having problems with his and I have never used the plug in she wanted to play with) So eventually the no issue for the computer sent her into a meltdown so we went to her room to try a nap.

She didn't take a nap 3 days this week, yesterday I got her to take one. Today I knew was going to be a challenge after the first 30 minutes. She is absolutely tired, yawning, rubbing her eyes and crying over nothing. What she does is lay there if you hold on to her (so she doesn't get up and run around ) and she stares at the ceiling or wall. Her eyes will start to get heavy and almost close and she kicks her foot, heavy eyes moves her hand, heavy eyes shakes her head, heavy eyes other foot, you get the picture. The absolutely frustrating part is this can literally go on for well over an hour. After about an hour and a half of this today I got fed up and held her arms with the top half of my body, using my head to anchor hers from shaking it and my leg over hers so she couldn't kick. The only thing she could move was probably her toes so after 10 minutes of this she was out.... finally. Then I crawl into bed, Arch looks like he is getting up and I told him if he woke her I would kill him, he laid back down. I slept for about 2.5 hours and went and laid on the couch to wake myself up because it is now 2:30 and I haven't done anything at all on "my day off".

Emma and I finally head outside around 4, we deal with the garbage for garbage day and then head out for a walk. We didn't make it 5 houses and she wanted to let go of my hand, then lay on the cement..... I carried her back home. I tried to get her to play with her 4 wheeler but she was more interested in running to the street. It was definitely one of those count to 10 days. (I think I made it to 1 million by bedtime). We then tried kicking balls in the front yard, lasted about 10 minutes then she wanted to watch me kick it only. When she wouldn't stay in the front yard anymore we went in. She headed for the step ladder, climbed to the top for the billionth time today, I said no for the billionth time today (after counting to 10). I finally folded it up. Then we tried reading, play dough, flashcards, kitchen, v-tech, she just didn't want to do anything without crying. I really wanted to cry with her today. Basically after that it was dinner, pjs and bed. She was asleep before I closed the door. I then asked Archie how long he was staying up..... He looks at me like I am crazy and says it is only 7:30! I hate Tuesdays.

The Monkey pjs were right attire for the day's activities

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.