Emmy's first day of school, and other news

Emmy started "school" last Tuesday. She is now in a two day a week Children's Morning Out program at a church nearby. She will be going on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9 am - 1 pm. She had a great first day! (And second and third.)

Why, you may ask? Well, I have decided to accept an offer and go back to work. I will be back as a contractor for MSFT in support of a recruiting team. I had the opportunity to go back to work with a former colleague and I finally said yes. The company I work through called me earlier this year and wanted to know if I was interested in coming back full time, but I really wasn't. I only worked part time for them before (I was volunteering for the FRG still when I took the job and part time was all I could handle) and I know how time consuming it was then, I really didn't think I wanted full time with a toddler around.

But, I finally decided to call them when I heard another position was opening up with my former colleague. They were super glad to hear from me and basically just made me an offer. I hear there were two teams fighting over me. :) I am excited, though nervous, to go back. The job is not a difficult one, but 40 hours a week versus 25 will be a big change. Primarily, it is so we can have two incomes again for awhile, and since Charles is home during the day, the timing seems right. He will be doing primary Emmy care during much of the day. When she goes to CMO, he will go to school and do as much of his studying as he can. Then we will probably have our primary baby-sitter come one or two days a week as needed to give him more study time.

So, wish me luck! It will be a big adjustment for all of us, but we're up for the challenge. We are thrilled that Emmy's new "school" had openings in their toddler class, so it seems like everything just fell into place. The church (not the one we attend) is only about a 90 second drive away. We know folks at our church and other Army families who have sent their kids there. My mom checked out their website and was impressed with their philosophy and objectives so that made me feel good.

My mom was actually here for Emmy's second day of school. She decided to come down for a quick visit before her kids came back to school this week, so she got to go see Emmy's room when I picked her up last Thursday. Emmy sure was glad to have her Su-Su here for a couple of days! We had lots of fun and Mom was a big help while I "worked" my other new job...party planning!! My friend Jamie loved the shower we threw for Mary Ann this summer, so she decided she wanted to hire me to help plan two parties she was hosting the end of the summer. The first was a baby shower brunch last week (some not-very-good photos of that are posted in the August Album) and then this past Friday was a retirement dinner party. I did all the table settings, flowers, and cooked some of the food for each one and helped with set up, etc. It was lots of fun, but of course if you like to entertain, you know it's exhausting! It wasn't even my house and I was on my feet a lot and very tired afterward! I loved doing it and there are probably a few more parties in my future. Probably not enough to make a career move, but I sure do enjoy helping people make good use of the items in their homes and plan a fun, delicious, and affordable party for their friends. Some of the ideas I see online are fabulous, but who has that kind of money? Well, some people, but not most people I know!

Mary Ann was kind enough to come take some fancy photos of the events, so I will have those to show you later.

Meanwhile, here are a few photos of Su-Su's visit from her camera to share with you. More are in the August Album. Happy Tuesday!

A rare photo of Emmy wearing her sunglasses...usually they are off in about one second.
(Yes, we know the diaper and shirt look is a classy one)

Su-Su reading one of Emmy's favorite books to her.

The new toy Su-Su and Big Daddy brought her from Costa Rica. Whoa, those chickens move!

How does this thing work?

Helping Mommy in garden.

Gardening gloves. (Yes, we do own pants for her)

Our well baby...er, um, toddler

I have neglected to update the blog as regularly lately, I apologize! Our week last week post-vacation was crazy busy, for reasons I'll get into later. I promise I'm trying to catch up!

Emmy had her 15 month check up the Monday after our return. She grew 1.5 inches and she is now 28 inches tall. She weighed 17 lbs, 7 oz and her head is 45 cm. Her height and weight are still less than 5% but her noggin is 50%. She has a big head!

We were SHOCKED to hear she only weighed 17 lbs 7 oz!! We were sure she was 20 lbs, or at least darn close to it. Dr. J is not worried about her weight, although she would like to see her get closer to the curve, but she is growing and that's what counts. She's a healthy weight for her height, too. Dr. J said she is surely burning even more calories since she's walking. She almost wishes she wasn't walking, but it's great that she is! The nurses laughed to see her toddling around the office...Nurse F said "she's too tiny to be walking!" Developmentally she is right on track for her actual age, so that is great news! Hopefully by the time she is two she will be caught up physically to children her age.


The biggest change this time was Emmy was NOT happy to see Dr. J. She didn't like to let her touch her, although it's not Dr. J who gives her the shots! She was even less happy to see Nurse G come in to give her shots. :( Man we hate that. We have altered the vaccination schedule a bit so she gets the more spread out, so she got 2 at 12 months, 2 at 15, and she'll get 2 more at 18 months. One of those will probably be a flu shot at 18, so we'll have to take her back for one more later on. Dr. J has been great about helping us work through this!

I just cannot say enough good things about Dr. J and her office. While I wouldn't say the care we would have gotten on post would have been bad, there's just so little consistency of care, I feel much, much better having the same doctor follow her. Plus, some friends of ours recently had a VERY bad experience with their son who is a few months younger than Emmy. We're talking a nasty doctor filed a report with social services on them, which included her falsifying reports. Needless to say the claims were baseless and they took their son, Emmy's pal Ryan, to Dr. J and that made all the difference. We will definitely continue to take her off post for care, no matter where we are, for a few years.

So, we have a happy, healthy 15 month old. Yay!

The Sand Covered Pickle

We spent a lovely, relaxing week at Edisto last week. It was fabulous to be at the beach! Meredith came down the night before and we managed to cram all four of us (Charles, Emmy, Mer and me) in the car along with all our stuff. Hooo boy, did we have stuff! We thought the car was packed full on the way home from Ohio (we brought home the bride and groom's extra stuff, wedding clothes, and their canine), but we were just as crammed, if not more so, this time. We had planned to eat in most of the week so we took a lot of food stuffs, which of course takes up lots of space! I wish we'd taken a picture of the car, but alas, there is not photographic evidence. There are, however, lots more photos of the week in the new August Picasa Album, so check them out!

People keep asking "what did you do?!?!" Um, well, we went to the beach, we went to the pool, and we watched TV. That really about sums it up. Edisto is quite remote, there isn't a lot to do there, which is partly why we like it! We didn't go shopping, we went out to eat only once (although we did get takeout the last night because we didn't want leftovers and we had to get pizza on our pizza night because the crust we brought along wouldn't rise), we didn't take boat tours or rent bikes, although those are surely lovely things to do. No, we went to relax, and relax we did!

Emmy of course spent some time at the "lake beach" on Lake Eerie, as I shared with y'all earlier, so we knew she'd enjoy being back at the ocean. We took her down to the beach every day but one, and we also took advantage of the condo's pool area every day. She got quite good at walking on the sand and she was okay with us taking her in the water, although she didn't love putting on her life jacket. She really preferred to be on the shore, splashing in the water at the edge, or playing in the sand.

Speaking of sand, oh my, was there sand. Those of you who frequent the Carolina coasts know this type of sand: teeny tiny shells. It's larger than "regular" sand and it sticks.to.everything. We found a delightful sunblock called Super Goop that I have been happily applying to Emmy's fair skin every day. It's light weight, not super greasy, but as it turns out when combined with sand it's like GLUE. We've been home, what, 6 days? And I'm still finding flecks of sand in her hair. Plus, when you pick up the sand covered pickle, you then get more sand on you in places you didn't mean to get sand. Especially if she likes to hang onto your bathing suit and oh, say see if she can find that shell she dropped down your front! Thanks Emmy! Charles, Meredith, and I all had to scrub ourselves down hard with a washcloth every day to remove said sand!

Emmy added "bird" (BRRRRIIRRR) and "peaches" (chuz) to her vocabulary while we were there. She loves birds and the beach was of course full of sea gulls and pelicans. I think it was our first full day that she was suddenly hollering "BRRIRRR" and pointing and I realized indeed, there were several sea gulls nearby. She loved walking along and trying to get close to them!

While Emmy was napping or down for the night, Mer, Charles, and I watched trashy TV. Well, some of it was Trashy (True Blood, Season 1, thanks Mer!) and some of it was a bit less trashy (The West Wing, Season 1). Mer is now in search of the 2nd season of The West Wing and we have already had Netflix deliver the first disc of the 2nd season of True Blood to our home.

The condo we stayed in was very nice (loved the decorations!) but pretty small. Definitely only a place for 4 people! We were on the marina, so we had a nice view of the water, but we had to walk to the beach. The walk was not so hospitable, so we ended up driving. We all agreed that in the future we'd rather be closer to the beach and definitely not in a condo. There's just too much noise if you have sleeping children. The first night there were a gaggle of drunk rednecks hollering at each other from one of the boats to the balcony next to us, and Charles had to ask them to keep it down. It was pretty nice and quiet (the complex was very empty) for much of the rest of the week, until people started showing up closer to the weekend and a herd of elephants who bowled all day/evening moved in upstairs from us on Wednesday night. This affected Emmy's napping on both Thursday and Friday, but we are just grateful that it was quieter early in the week and that she slept through the night all week. She did wake up a little earlier than usual each day because we were unable to completely block the light so when the sun came up, she was up not long after!

Mer and I were glad to visit Edisto again. We hadn't been in, oh 15 or 16 years. We grew up going with Dad's family every year and we had lots of good memories. Of course it has changed a lot...a lot of houses have been torn down and replaced with much bigger ones, the road has been widened (we think), there are new restaurants and shops, but overall it still has the same feel...it's small, quiet, and there aren't any high rises or lots of commercialism to it. We were a little taken aback at how much the beach is sloping from erosion, and one family we talked to said that they had noticed a big change even in the last 2 years.

So now we are home, still a little sandy, a little more relaxed, and a little more tan. Well, Emmy is tan (how did I give birth to a child who tans??), Charles' tan is peeling and mine never really existed except for on my feet. :) We had a great week and can't wait to go back!

Home again, home again

We are home and settling back in after a week away in Vermilion, OH on Lake Eerie. Our best Augusta friends were married there on Saturday in a lovely, small ceremony in a chapel of the park where the bride, Mary Ann, has vacationed all her life. Her parents continue to rent a cottage there each summer and graciously invited us to stay with them for the wedding festivities.

We headed up last Monday, the 26th, caravan-ing with Mary Ann and Joel and their dog Lucy. 4 adults, 2 dogs, one toddler (there's no doubt about it, folks, Emmy is walking. She has made a lot of progress in the last 10 days...more on that later) and a LOT of stuff! We took two days to get there because the notion of driving 12 hours with Emmy in one day made me want to stab my eyes out. It was a wise decision because by the end of Day 1, we were all ready to be out of the car! We stopped in Charleston, WV, which made the next day's drive much shorter, so we were at the lake by 3:00. Yay!

Tuesday evening before supper we took Emmy down for a quick walk on the beach (I call it the beach because they call it the beach and while it often does resemble the ocean, in my heart it will never be the beach!) and when we put her down so she could feel the water on her feet, she promptly sat herself down in the surf and started playing in the sand. Whoops! It was hilarious, but it was clear that the excitement she showed back in May at Ocean Isle when she saw the water had not waned.



We spent the next few days doing lots of wedding stuff (okay, Mary Ann and I mostly), eating delicious food, playing in the water and on the beach, and visiting with Joel and Mary Ann's families and friends. It was so much fun to spend time with Mary Ann's parents and see friends from her hometown that we'd met on our first trip up there three years ago. The wedding was small and simple and so, so perfect. Vermilion is a cute down and we ate pastries from their favorite bakery, yummy fudge and chocolates from the candy store (who also did the wedding favors!) and just enjoying being away. Here's a photo of the arrangements we made for the rehearsal dinner, with mostly flowers we cut growing in or near the park!

By the time the wedding was over on Saturday and everyone had gone home and the bride and groom were at their hotel, we dreaded the thought of having to pack up and leave the next morning! While it was a fun few days, it was also tiring because we were on the go, and when we were home at the cottage there were usually extra people around. I think her parents were going to be sad to see us go, too and encouraged us to stay an extra night, but, alas, we had appointments and things to get back to at home. So, on Sunday morning we loaded up and headed to Bay Village, just outside of Cleveland, to have brunch with one of my friends from, well, forever. His parents and my parents became friends while in a Lamaze refresher class while expecting his younger brother and my sister, so I can't remember a time he wasn't a part of my life! We spent countless weekends, vacations, etc. with them and of course as we've all moved and spread out I don't get to see them much any more. We had a fun time with Christopher (okay, he goes by Chris now, but see above statement about knowing him forever, I just can't call him that!) and his lovely girlfriend Anne Marie before we hit the road again.

We stopped in Charleston again, this time early enough to venture out a bit for a nice dinner in the hills of WV in an area known as South Hills. We found a specialty pizza place that was open on a Sunday evening and had a delicious meal. Traveling with 2 dogs (Joel and Mary Ann's dog came back home with us while they are on their honeymoon) and Emmy and just the two of us was a little challenging at times, but it all worked out. Plus, we were loaded down with extra baggage since we brought home the bride and groom's wedding clothes, leftover wedding supplies, and everything else they didn't want to take with them to Germany. You should have seen our car!

Finally, we made it home about 5:45 Monday evening and boy we were glad to be home! However, we were sad to leave the cooler OH weather behind!

Emmy did as well as we could have hoped on the trip. She had her moments while we were in the car, but who doesn't? Over all with four full days of travel, I can't complain too much. We hooked up the DVD player a couple of times and since she was a captive audience, she seemed to enjoy it. We'd bought a few things we wouldn't mind having to listen to or watch with her, like the Muppets' Follow That Bird and Finding Nemo. If I remember correctly, Meredith loved Follow That Bird, so we'll have to watch it with her when we see her soon.

It was a great trip and we're so thankful to the Turners for hosting us again. We were up there in 2007 and it was so nice to be back, particularly for such a special occasion. Mary Ann and Joel are so important to Charles, Emmy, and me and we are SO glad we were able to be there to celebrate with them. We love you guys!! We are missing them while they are on their honeymoon, but they will be home soon so we can resume our weekly Mexifeast, plus all the other "trouble" we get ourselves into on a regular basis.

Here are a few more fun pictures from the week, and lots more are in Picasa.

Emmy fell asleep in "Aunt" Mary Ann's arms one morning before her nap. So sweet!

Here Emmy and I are with Tiz and Emily "Emmy". Tiz is one of Mary Ann's best friends from high school and Emmy was born May 24th, so she and our Emmy are just a few days apart! Isn't she adorable?

A rare moment when I could catch Emmy looking up AND smiling! She LOVED the sand!


P.S. FYI, I will always try to post after we get back from a trip with fun pictures and details, but I don't like to publish on the internet (or even on Facebook) when we'll be away, just for safety reasons.

Stupid Spammers

I have recently been getting a lot of spam in the comments. Stupid spammers, don't you know that I (and I'm sure a lot of other bloggers) monitor their comments and delete your messages as soon as possible, and then we report you??

If you see a comment that looks suspicious, do not click on any link in the comment. Most of the ones I have been experiencing list the name as a number of Asian language characters (Chinese? I have no idea) and then the comments are short and pointless and have a bunch of periods after them. The comments are links to some sites (who knows what...I don't want to know) and they want you, dear readers, to click on them and give their sites traffic. And if you click on the name it takes you to their blog where more links will take you to these sites.

So, be careful, don't click on these links!

In the meantime, I think I will go ahead open up comments so that anyone (not just registered blogger users) can comment, but I will require that they be approved before they post publicly. So from now on anyone can comment, but just be aware your comments won't appear until I approve them.

Thanks!

And I promise pictures of what we've been up to the last little while are coming soon. We've been having so much fun!!!