Priceless

Today is my birthday and here is how it played out...

5:30 last night Emma started with a fever (100.3) - Oh no
9:00 last night a rash appeared on her belly - Not good!
3:02 this morning the loudest thunderstorm/lightening storm began and woke me up - Ugh!
3:15 Josh has already fallen back asleep - Typical
5:30 I am still awake - Also Typical
6:00ish I finally fall back asleep - Hallelujah

7:30 Josh leaves for work and comes and sings me happy birthday - So sweet!
8:30 Emma wakes up and I feel that she still has a fever (100.4) - Aahhh
Her rash has doubled and it looks terrible - Panic!
Call the doctor, make an appointment, traipse through the rain - Seriously?
Make it to the doctor's on time - Miracle!
Copay - $30
Weight - 24 lbs 7 ounces
Amount of snot that ended up on my shirt during the appt - immeasurable
Lab work - "not the flu at least"
Verdict - Bronchialitis and a viral rash (none of it contagious) but she'll be fine
Prescription - breathing treatment for the cough and a prescription cream for rash
Quick ChickfilA before Emma falls asleep/Josh has to go back to work - $8.96

Spending your 30th birthday this way - Not awesome
50 minutes massage that Josh gave me as a present - Can't WAIT
Birthday dessert - FREE courtesy of the restaurant
Getting a kiss from Emma & having dinner alone with Josh while Jaime babysits - PRICELESS

At the end of the day, I can't complain! Here is a picture of me and Josh from tonight...

Spring has Sprung

It's officially feeling like spring time out there. And we know what that means, right? Spring cleaning! I have asked myself the same question about 20 times since yesterday...how do two adults and one baby produce this much trash? I mean, seriously this is not rhetorical. Do you know what Josh's answer to my question was? He simply responded, "Talent." I think that is where it all begins. He views this as a talent and I view it as a problem! Why does God make opposites attract? I think it proves that He has a sense of humor.

Yesterday afternoon Josh and I tackled the garage while Emma took a nap. If we're being honest, I didn't do that much except for hold up things and say, "Can we throw this away?" and I swept a lot. My main purpose was to make sure that Josh stayed focused. You probably think this is not necessary and possibly qualifies as overkill. Well, then you obviously don't know Josh. I would be going through a pile of stuff and turn around and he'd be gone. I would walk to the backyard and find him looking at trees. He claims he was looking for a good tree to hang Emma's swing on. Either way, we're not hanging the swing now...we're cleaning. This is the kind of thing that went on the whole time. He is so easily distracted. Once Emma woke up I had to leave him to it alone. After 5 minutes he was cutting the Crepe Myrtles in the backyard. So now our garage is really close to being fully cleaned out and the Crepe Myrtles are really close to being all pruned...but neither is done completely. These are the times when it is good for me to breathe deeply and realize that his priority list just isn't the same as mine and also realize how great of a man, husband and father he is. And really that is all that is important at the end of the day.

I do have a small miracle to tell you about though. We have lived in this house for over 6 years. When we moved in Josh put up a new mailbox post...but he never put the new numbers on it. We have physically had the numbers since he put up the new post. Yep, SIX YEARS. And do you know what we finally have ON the post? Hallelujah - we have numbers on it. He finally did it! No longer will I have to tell people directions by saying which house on the right we are. Now I can just say our address like a normal person. It's the little things in life that make me happy!

14 Month Update

Now that I have a minute to catch up, it's time to give an update.

Emma has been walking more and more but if she isn't in the mood to walk, then you might as well give up. She definitely knows what she wants (and what she doesn't want!). As promised, here is a video of her taking her first big girl steps.


In addition to walking, she has gotten even more fond of dancing as the days pass. This is a video from when we were shopping. First of all, please notice the car stroller...she had a blast with it! Second of all, in each store we went into they were playing different music and it thrilled her. She kept dancing to all of it.


Both Josh and Jaime commented immediately on how long Emma's hair had gotten when we got back. Apparently it grew quite a bit over the weekend while we were away. I can't wait for it to get long enough to put a bow or something in it. Won't she be so cute in a bow?

She's also getting her last one year molar in. The other 3 weren't that bad but this one is bothering her. She was fussy yesterday and some the day before. She is constantly chewing on whatever she can get in her mouth. I give her teething rings and things like that, but it just doesn't work as well as when she shoves her entire fist in there. I gave her some Motrin a few times but that hasn't seemed to help much either. I can't wait for this one to pop through!

Hotdogs. That word about sums up last night's supper. It was her first hotdog and to say she enjoyed it would be the understatement of the year. Who knew? Some of my friends were talking about how they buy hotdogs all the time for their kids and it didn't occur to me until then that I should try that. Obviously I'm never surprised when she likes a new food because she likes ALL food. But this was crazy. She wouldn't eat anything else. She just kept grunting towards the plate and then pointing to it. She ate the entire thing in under a minute (not exaggerating!).

We went to Mary Lynne's first birthday party today. I forgot my camera, so I have no pictures of it but I can tell you that it was such a cute party and I'm so glad we got to go. ML is precious and I think she had a great time. I can't believe our little girls are one already. I feel like Mary Lynne's mom, Rhonda, and I were just talking about prenatal vitamins and maternity clothes!

Here are a few pictures of Emma from the other day when Jaime came over to visit. It looked like she was posing for the camera the way she had her hand under her chin.



And here she is sipping her tea. Don't you like how she already sticks her pinky finger out? She's such a lady!


I think that covers us on her updates right now. Always something new happening around here!

Back on Land

We made it back earlier this week but there was a lot of unpacking and unwinding to do. Me and Emma had a great time at Mimi & Papa's house. It always seems to go by so quickly though.

Emma had a fun time with her cousin, Jay. Now that they are both a little older, it was fun to see their interaction. Jay just turned two, so he's 10 months older than Emma. We know how Emma loves to watch other kids run around and be goofy. Well, Jay entertained her for a good while doing just that. He would run towards her and hop over something and she would cackle. If he stopped for a second, she would be upset and want him to come back and do it again. She didn't understand why he wasn't at her beckon call. They also found a great game of Emma throwing her sippy cup down and Jay going to pick it up and bring it back to her. Jay would say, "Throw it down, Emma!" and she would slowly reach her arm down from the highchair and let it drop. We would all clap our hands and say yay and then wait for Jay to go pick it up and then we'd clap again and say yay again. It doesn't take much for those two to be happy!

Our ride home was better in some ways and worse in others. The first half way great. She was so good and sat in my lap and then right after we took off, she fell asleep the rest of the duration. And then during our layover, I pulled out the DVD player and put Mickey on. To say that I think it is the best invention ever, is an understatement. Here she is watching it while we wait:


Then we boarded the second plane and it started to go downhill. Bless her heart, she was so tired and all she wanted to do was get down and crawl/cruise around. But she couldn't, so instead she screamed and cried. By the time we were able to turn on electronic devices, it wasn't enough time to watch a whole Mickey before we would have to turn them off again. And if you turn off Mickey in the middle, you wind up with a very upset baby. So I just didn't try to turn it back on during the flight. I am just thankful it was only a 30 minute flight. It was virtually the whole way home that she did this. I'm also thankful that the people around us were understanding. I think all of them had kids because they all had that look on their faces that said, "Don't worry, it happens to everybody...no judgment!" It's over now though and we've enjoyed being back home. We really missed Josh and we were so happy to see him pull up to the terminal.

The other night, Emma kept going up to him and just reaching out to touch him. Like she wanted to make sure he was real. We did Skype him once while we were there, so maybe she wanted to make sure it wasn't an image...she wanted the real thing. It was so cute!

It's a Bird, It's a Plane...

...no, it's Emma! Emma flew for the first time this week. We flew home to see my parents (Mimi & Papa) and spend some time with them since our trip for the funeral was so short and we couldn't bring Emma on that trip. We also came to attend/host a shower for my cousin Emily and her fiance Neal.

I was a little worried about the plane ride since it was Emma's first time and I had to do it by myself. Considering I woke her up at 5:00 and she had to be in my lap the whole time, she did a great job. Of course we had delays and a layover, but we made it! My arms were physically soar the next morning because I had to hold her constantly and run through the Atlanta airport with her. It was a long day but much better than the alternative which was driving 8 hours by myself with her. Thankfully my parents let me have some of their frequent flyer miles.

Here is a picture of her during the first flight...she fell right to sleep once we were in the air.


Here she is during our layover. She sat in a chair like a big girl because the airport carpet floor disgusted me.


Now that you have to pay for any baggage you check ($23 for one bag and $32 more for the next one...EACH WAY!), Josh bought us one huge suitcase so that I could put all of our stuff into one. It is the biggest suitcase I have ever owned...think of the shoes I can put in this thing!


Here is my nephew, Jay, with Emma on their couch:


Here is the happy couple, Emily & Neal, on the tandum bike they got as a shower gift from her parents. It used to be our grandparents' bike and then her parents' bike and now her dad has refurbished it for them. So cute!


Here I am with both my cousins, Emily & Nick:


And it just so happened to be Emily's birthday the same night as the party so of course my mom had to make her a cake. It was delicious!


At the end of the night, Emma came down to make an appearance and she had the whole room captivated. She put on a show of her serious face, the muscles and just being herself. She had a good time and so did we:


As a fun and exciting surprise, Emma started walking tonight!! She's so cute. She is still very cautious but she is really doing it now. She takes her time to get her balance and then takes off. When she gets to where she is going, she has her proud smile on that shows all of her teeth. I got a little video of it and I'll post it later on this week.

Changes

Changes are everywhere. Because of her Gumby arms and her curiosity, Josh had to take down the Emma Camera and move it out of her reach. She used to just poke at it, but after a little while, she would grab it and tug. She had the cord one time and I seriously thought she was pulling it out of the wall. I ran upstairs and found her with the biggest smile on her face. It was pretty cute, but not safe, so Josh put it up in the corner of the ceiling. Not only do we not have to worry about her getting her hands on it but we also have a view of the whole room now. Here she is last night after we put her down for the night.


He also mounted the television in her room on the wall so that it wasn't on the little table. She never really messed with it, but I know it was only a matter of time and now she has more room to play. It makes the room feel so much bigger.

She was very curious the other day after Mother Goose. She was really working hard on figuring out how to move all of these pieces. You can see the wheels in her head turning. She didn't move on to the next toy until she had sufficiently moved all the pieces that she wanted to.


On Monday we gave Emma some Brussels sprouts and she really loved them. It was her second time to have them so we knew she'd like them. Surprisingly, Josh and I liked them too. In trying to make sure she gets a wide palette of food, I guess we are broadening our own! Anyway, once she had filled up, she started throwing them off her tray like she always does. But this time one stuck to the wall. I'm sure it is the first of many food items to stick to our wall, but this was the first.

The War on Pillows still continues, but now once they're on the floor, she wants to lay down on them. It's so sweet. It makes me think we should put a pillow in her crib now, but she moves around SO much that I don't think there is any point. Other moms out there - when did you start putting a pillow in your baby's crib? I couldn't quite get a shot of her putting her head down because when she saw me, she perked up and wanted to come over to me.




This is just a cute one I got of her clapping. They were counting on Mickey Mouse and once they got to the end, she clapped. She loves her numbers!!


The last new thing she started doing was yesterday. I made her grits for breakfast and she did her normal "mmmmm" noise but then afterward she smacked her lips. I am not sure if it was because she discovered she could smack or because it felt good on her teething gums, but she smacked her lips ALL day long. Maybe the grits were just THAT good that she thought about them all day. haha

It's good to know that some things never change though. Here is a video of her laughing at Josh falling over. That laugh gets me every time!

We're Back

Josh and I got home from Charleston today. We left early this morning because we both missed Emma so much! It was the first time that both of us have been away from her over night...and this was TWO nights. Thankfully we knew she was in great hands with Jaime and John so we had no worries. My only worry was that she would be spoiled rotten. Jaime held her all day on Wednesday and then after that if Emma even whimpered, she'd pick her up. This is going to be hard to get her accustomed to us again. Emma had a fantastic time and we can't thank Jaime and John enough. I have no pictures or any updates from the past few days, so if you want to see what happened, you can go to Jaime's blog and read all about it.

The visitation and funeral for my grandfather were both really good. There were lots of good friends at both and we can't thank everybody enough for coming out to say goodbye and support the family. The Mayor of Charleston gave a wonderful eulogy that allowed me to hear about some of the things that Papa did before I was even born. He was truly an amazing, honorable and inspiring person and I am grateful that I can call him my grandfather. I'm so glad I was able to go and I am thankful that Josh came with me. He had to work some while we were there and I told him he didn't need to come, but of course, he insisted. What a great husband!

Thank you to everyone for the prayers and thoughts!