Report

It's only Tuesday and I already have a lot to report on this week.

1. Emma is now off of the sippy cup and on to a regular cup. We still use a sippy cup at home though because frankly, I don't have the time right now to clean milk, juice and water up from our rugs.

2. Due to #1 above and doing so well in her current class, they are graduating her to the next room up. She will be going from the Wobbler class to the Toddler class starting August 27th. They start hard core potty training in the Toddler class so hopefully in the next few months, I'll be able to say that she is diaper free!!

3. An unfortunate incident happened in her classroom. Emma bit another child! I know, I know - we totally have THAT child who is now labeled a biter. In her defense though, her teacher said the other child was egging her on. The other little girl actually came up to Emma and then stuck her finger in Emma's mouth. I mean, come on...she was ASKING for it! It wasn't too bad thankfully and the other child is okay. The teacher said that she put Emma in time out for 1 minute and afterward, Emma went back to playing very nicely and hasn't done it again since.

4. As we know, Emma has not been very talkative up to this point. She says a few things like Uh Oh, Woah, Nala (our cat), Dada/Momma, and a few other small words. Up to now she hasn't had to talk. She was with me ALL the time and I knew every grunt, every point, and every look in her eye. No words necessary! We know that she understands everything we say because she follows commands and nods/points in response to our questions. But last night, as I was giving her a bath she was playing with her boat in the tub. I said 'boat'...can you say "boat?" And she just said it! It was like she just decided she'd start talking. I think she approached talking the same way she approached walking. She waited to walk until she knew she'd be safe and she could do it perfectly. She never wobbled or stumbled...one day she just took off even though we knew that she could've walked easily months before. Same with talking. In addition to saying 'boat' about 20 times last night, she also said ball, car, and earring tonight. Leave it to my little diva prissy baby girl to have 'earring' be one of her first spoken vocabulary words.

She is growing up so fast and gets more personality by the day. She always brings a smile to my face and never ceases to amaze me with her sweet and happy demeanor. Just don't stick your finger in her mouth and you won't have to experience anything but that bubbly side of her.

A Start

This weekend was the start I needed to make it through this busy season. I was able to get some much needed rest and spend some time with my family. Even though Josh has been taking care of Emma all week while I was working late, he still jumped out of bed on Saturday morning to take care of her so that I could sleep in. Isn't he the best husband ever?!

On Saturday morning I woke up to Emma wearing Josh's hat. How cute is this face?


Then that afternoon I had the bright idea that all of us should go on a walk. Emma was excited and ready to go. We opened the door and it was raining!! Of course Emma didn't care that it was raining...she was told we were going outside and she was ready to collect on that promise. I had no choice. We went outside and were soaked afterward.


Emma and Josh went out for a few errands and came back with a big bouquet of sunflowers. Josh said they walked past the flowers and Emma picked these out for me. So sweet! Here she is helping me get them ready for the arrangement.


Here are some photos that I haven't had a chance to post:

One day a few weeks ago, I was able to pick Emma up from daycare. I walked in and saw Emma and said, "Oh my! It is so obvious that mommy left early today and that daddy was responsible for dressing you." Her teacher just laughed. She clearly agreed. The funniest part is that when I said this Josh, his response was, "What, it matches!" It is blue with white polka dots and lime green shorts...really?


Last Saturday was Leah's Bachelorette Party. Here we are getting ready at Rachel's house:


The cake:


The beautiful bride to be:


Me with Leah in the hotel room:


We were so loud though that we had to leave the hotel and go to Rachel's house. It was cozier anyway!


Then once ALL the festivities were over me, Jaime and Rachel decided it was the perfect time to head to Waffle House. Who doesn't love Waffle House at 3:00 in the morning?!

The Plan

Today was supposed to be my day off. After working nearly 60 hours over a four day period, I got home last night and was exhausted. I fed Emma and put her to bed and then I was out. Josh was going to take her daycare and let me sleep late and then I was going to go pick her up after she had lunch. That was the plan, but Emma had a different plan...

She woke up 3 or 4 times in the middle of the night crying. But each time she put herself back to sleep quickly, so me and Josh didn't go up there to check on her. So this morning Josh went up there around 7 to get her up and he came rushing downstairs to tell me that Emma had thrown up all over the place. I have never gotten out of bed quicker. We feel like we deserve the bad parents of the year award for not going up to check on her!

I ran upstairs and blown over by the smell of it. She had it ALL over her...in her hair, on the crib, on the floor around her crib. I immediately gave her a bath while Josh took her sheets off and took them outside. She has never thrown up before so we were in a panic. We got the first appointment they had with the doctor. Since she has no other symptoms and has not thrown up since, he thinks it might have been something that upset her tummy last night. Or maybe she has a viral infection that made its way through her system quickly. She's been fine ever since she woke up, so I think the worst is over.

I can say this for certain though - after this week, my family is drained. We are all so tired. I'm looking forward to a weekend of spending some much needed quality time with them.

Pity Party

Unfortunatley I have no fun stories, updates or pictures of Emma because I myself have barely seen her since Sunday afternoon. After I left here on Tuesday, I had already worked 33 hours over the course of just two days (16 Monday & 17 Tuesday). I think I'm going to be able to make up for it by taking Thursday and Friday off, so I'm really looking forward to that! My very little sleep is beginning to take a toll on me. I still get up in time to help get Emma ready and then drop her off at school, so it's been a rough few days.

Josh has been amazing with Emma over this past week with me working so much. I'm sure he's ready for me to be home just as much as Emma is. With all the extra alone time she is spending with him, she's really growing more attached to him which I love. She was so used to relying totally on me that when Josh got home from work each night, she wanted him to be with us, but she really wanted to still be right up against me. She's becoming even more independent than she already was and she is such a sweetheart. Whenever she sees a stuffed animal or a doll baby, she picks it up and just hugs it tightly and smiles. It's heartwarming to see so much love in one little girl.

She has been doing GREAT at daycare. She is back to eating like a champ and napping the whole two hours each day. Each morning when I drop her off at daycare I say, "Emma, are you ready to go to school and play with your friends?" She always smiles and says yes. Even though she still cries when I walk out of the room, I know that she stops before I even make it down the hallway. I'm so happy that she's doing well, having fun, making friends, and learning so much at school.

Move Over

Move over, Heidi Klum...because Emma had her first real photo shoot and she's a natural! What do you think?

The Weekend

This past Saturday morning I helped out with a yard sale to benefit one of our friends who is going through a rough period. We made them a good bit of money, so that was great and such a blessing for them. I made a big purchase myself after it was over...somehow a karaoke machine got passed up by all of our shoppers! Now, it's all ours because I bought it. I thought Emma might enjoy hearing herself talk into it. I was underestimating her! She loves singing into the microphone and dancing around. Her favorite song to karaoke along with is Breathe by Faith Hill. We took a few adorable videos of her singing but I can't get my Flip to upload yet. Is anybody else having issues with that?

Then, after the yard sale, my dear sweat husband scheduled a massage for me. He's seen how stressed I've been lately. It was so nice to have a little time to relax. And it worked out well because afterwards, we took Emma to the pool at the resort/spa. It was the first time Josh had been with her so he was looking forward to it. Here are few pictures:








He also took her down the slide several times. She enjoyed it but one time he lost his footing and they both went under. Whoops! She was fine but it startled her.

On Sunday I had to work some, but I made time to play with Emma. Here she is...

Throwing:


Kicking:


Here she is posing with the picture that she colored for us:


So much talent!

Part Time?

Last time I checked part time was 36 hours/week for me. Apparently this was not meant to be my reality. Last week I worked 50 and this week is looking even worse. To say I feel overwhelmed is a drastic understatement. I'm trying to do my best as a mom, a wife and a tax manager and I feel like I'm failing at all of them. I'm supposed to be able to "roll" some of this overtime to another week - so in other words, in a few weeks when this is over, I should be able to take off a few days and not have to take vacation. You can call me a skeptic, but I'm not sure I see this happening.

If this keeps up, I may have to rethink my current situation. We'll see. For now, please pray that things go smoothly and that I'm able to consolidate this federal return with minimal issues.

More uplifting news: Emma has been doing so well at daycare. They said she's really starting to feel comfortable around all the other children. She is also picking up some sign language. She already knew the sign for 'more' but they taught her 'please' and 'thank you' and she uses them ALL the time. She's so cute when she does 'more' and then 'please.' Her teachers said they assumed that she already knew those signs because she picked up on them immediately.

We had a fun weekend even though I had to work some. I don't have my camera with me, so I'll have to post some pictures tomorrow. I am STILL having trouble with my Flip uploading videos. But stay tuned for an adorable video of Emma singing karaoke!