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!

Did You Hear That?

Yep, that was the sound of my heart breaking this morning as I walked away from Emma. I dropped her off this morning and she was pitiful. She stuck her lip out and gave me the sad eyes and then started in with the wimpering. Then her teacher came over to her and Emma went to her all the while looking over her shoulder at me while she teared up. I thought it was a good sign that she did immediately go to her teacher, but it is still enough to break a mom's heart!

On a brighter note, she had her best day yet yesterday. They said she did great and was so happy. She had a really good time coloring and they told us they were impressed with her coloring ability (I'm sure they say that to all the parents!). She ate a little more lunch than she has been but still no breakfast. Josh picked her up for me yesterday because I had to work and they were able to have some good daddy/daughter time. Josh said she was really playful and happy all night. The only bad thing is that she woke up at midnight and was up for about an hour. She finally did go back to sleep and never made another peep afterward until I gently woke her up this morning.

Until Further Notice

...Emma is on a hunger strike and she wants everybody to know it! All she ate at school yesterday was some corn. But again her teachers said that she had a great day and was in a good mood. She just didn't want to eat. We tried to go out to eat for dinner but she wouldn't eat anything. Instead she just threw tantrums and we had to get our stuff to go and come home. She never does this when we go out. I think since she hadn't eaten all day it threw her off and every little thing was upsetting her. I know I'm grumpy when I don't eat, so I expect her to be no different. So, also until further notice: this family of 3 will only be dining in!

When we got home, we tried to feed her some of her food and she did eat some but not as much as she normally would have. I think it's a combination of the adjustment period along with that toddler appetite that can spike up and down.

I never could get the video of her twirling to upload that I mentioned yesterday. I hope that fixes itself soon. In the meantime, here are two pictures from last night with her holding her two new favorite toys (a little whisk and a plastic knife):

Twirl

Yesterday Josh picked Emma up from daycare and he said she looked pretty happy. But then he looked at the board - which tells you how much they ate at each meal/snack, how long they napped, and how often they had wet/dirty diapers (all MUST know stuff). The board said that she had eaten nothing all day! WHAT?! Seriously? He was so astonished that he forgot to even look at how she napped. The teachers said that she was really good all day but that she just didn't want to eat. And the crazy thing is that they had french toast for breakfast and fish for lunch. She loves both of those.

Of course I think she's going on a hunger strike but I know she's just adjusting and she'll eat when she wants to. Apparently dinner time is as long as the hunger strike could last. She ate two eggs, some fruit and some of a whole wheat tortilla that Josh made.

She was in the best mood all night though. She gave us kisses left and right and smiled and laughed all night. She also danced and twirled for about 10 minutes. Since I haven't done a video in a while, I thought I'd put one up of her twirling:
{looks like the videos aren't uploading right now - I'll try again tonight}



On another note, we have a small victory! She did not cry at all when Josh dropped her off this morning! Thank God for small miracles. :)

Times Have Changed

I remember the days when I would wear high heels shoes 5 days a week for 8 - 12 hours at a time. Oh how times have changed! Those days are far behind me. This past week has been a rude awakening to my feet which are used to flip flops. By the time Thursday rolled around, I had blisters forming on both feet in several spots even though I had switched to flats. At least Friday was jeans day and I could wear sandals! I think shoe shopping for some comfortable shoes is in my very near future. I'm sure my feet will toughen back up soon enough, but for now, it's miserable.

Minor Panic

I had a minor panic yesterday. Emma did not do as well on Tuesday as she did on Monday. She didn't eat breakfast at all, only ate some of her lunch and took less than a one hour nap! When I picked her up she looked so sleepy. I was in panic mode because all I could think was that Monday was a fluke and she was now miserable all day long. In my mind, it was like she thought Monday was just a one time thing and then it would be over. But then the next day when we dropped her off again, it sunk in that this was her new reality.

I realize now that this scenario is probably not realistic because I'm not sure an 18 month old could go through this thought process (although you never know!). Instead, she was probably just trying to adjust to getting up earlier, eating and napping at different times and being away from her mommy most of the day. I think that is much more likely. And that was reinforced today when I picked her up and her teachers said that she did so much better. She ate all of her breakfast and most of her lunch and took almost a two hour nap on her nap mat. Her demeanor was playful and sweet and she interacted well with other children. Yay!

I know some days will be better than others just like they were when she was with me all day long. My panic has subsided (for now) and I'm so thankful she did well today. I'm praying she continues this trend!