Where we are

Or where I am at least. Sorry folks, I've slacked more on giving you the good stuff you are looking for: fun pictures! Emmy stories! There are plenty of those to share and I promise I'll eventually get around to giving you that.  Coming back here to write is proving harder than I thought.  I'm also lazy and getting pictures edited and formatted can be a tedious process, especially when you're as behind as I am, so bear with me!

We have had a busy fall with visitors, which was tons of fun, and lots of yardwork and house projects.  We had a party for Charles' shop this past weekend so we had a big crowd of Soldiers and family members over.  People stayed well past the official end time so I'd say it was a success. It's the first big to-do we've thrown here, besides Emmy's birthday party. And now Thanksgiving is just around the corner and we'll have more family coming to visit for a few days to celebrate with us, which will be great. Charles loves to entertain almost as much as I do, and we enjoy getting things all ready together. Well, maybe not the cleaning part of getting ready, hehe.

But I'm feeling sort of stuck. A failed fertility cycle after weeks of doing all the "right" things to get myself healthier, physically and mentally. There are lots of new babies and pregnancy announcements in my Facebook feed. And I'm mad, I shouldn't be here, dealing with fertility drugs and such. I should be done. I don't want to want to be pregnant again. I want my baby here now. I want to know what she would have liked, how she would have slept, when she would have smiled. I feel like I'm seeing broken pieces that I was able to ignore for awhile and so it sometimes feels so freshly overwhelming.  All Saints was emotional. And now Christmas looms, and I'm excited to decorate this year and Emmy will have a ball, but baby's first Christmas ornaments and such will be on my mind. Santa should have two little girls to shop for this year.

I'm not wallowing in it, don't get me wrong. But it's not something you just get over.  I miscarried before Emmy and that was hard, oh man that was hard. I would never diminish anyone's pain from any sort of loss, but I'm telling you for me this is different.  Everyone processes differently, I know that, but this was not a miscarriage. I suppose medically speaking it is classified as such, but this was a baby I held, I felt move for weeks and weeks. I could already make guesses about her personality just based off how she acted and reacted. I think it is easier for me to accept with the early loss that something was wrong, the pregnancy and the baby would not have been healthy and able to continue.  I still think about that loss around the time it happened, and around the time the baby should have been due (and plenty of other times).  That piece of me will always be missing, but this time, a huge piece of me is gone, and other pieces are still broken.  And losses on top of infertility, well just go ahead and kick me while I'm down.

And, there are surely moments of grace. Emmy talks about SH from time to time, more frequently lately. Maybe she's just now able to identify those broken pieces in her, too. Instead of laughing when I cry now she kisses me, tells me it'll be ok.  I've been asked to share my story for the new edition of the Hypnobirthing book by the founder, Marie Mongan. I firmly believe that my Hypnobirthing training helped make SH's arrival into this world as peaceful and blessed as it was, and if my story can help someone else, then I'm all for advocating for what I believe in.  The wonderful nurse who took care of me those two days in the hospital just found the blog and commented that it impacted her greatly, and that means so much to us.  We were very lucky to have such great, compassionate care. Every mother should be so lucky to have her wishes respected during labor and delivery like mine were.

SH's tree will also be planted this month.  Charles' Soldiers collected money after her birth to plant a tree in her memory, in the location of our choosing.  It took us some time to be ready to deal with that, but finally we decided to inquire about having one planted at Wofford. It seems a logical place since it carries meaning for both of us and it is already a national arboretum.  The cost was going to be higher than we'd anticipated, and while we weren't sure how much they had collected, we knew it wouldn't touch was was needed, but we were committed and knew we'd just pay the difference.  Some of our friends found out about it and an email started circulating.  Within a a few days the full amount had been sent in to the college on our behalf. What a gracious, touching gesture this has been from people very dear to us, and from the Soldiers who support Charles.

So here we are. Probably not the update you came looking for, but an honest one. We are all ok, still struggling and aching along, but perhaps with less of a limp now.  Thanks for all your prayers and support. And wish wish each of you love and joy in Thanksgiving.

Fun Emmy quotes

I started this post right before Emmy's 4th birthday and I'm finally getting around to finishing it, and adding some more fun quotes and stories that have come up since then.

• "We're moving to HomaHoma Joe's!" (She told my mom this after we found out we were moving to Colorado. Oklahoma Joe's is our favorite BBQ restaurant back in Kansas City and Emmy does love to eat there. Since we moved, this has been one of her favorite pretend activities, we go on a road trip to Oklahoma Joe's, sometimes I have to be the waitress and serve her and Charles when they get there.)

• On the way to school one day this spring she said, "I didn't bring Mary (her baby) with me today because she was being a whiny hiney, so I made her stay at home."   I almost died laughing.  I asked who was baby-sitting Mary and she said, "my stuffed animals."  Later on when we got home, I asked her if we could leave her at home when SHE was being a whiny hiney, and she said, "No because then you would go to jail."  Fair enough. 

• She asks a LOT of questions. All. The. Time.  She asks me "why" about 400 times a day, and her recent most favorite question/phrase is "how about you tell me about it?"  She's so inquisitive, and I know it's a good thing, really, I do. But sometimes silence is golden.  We recently had to have our furnace replaced and the HVAC guys were here for 2 days working on it since we also had AC installed.  The 2nd day one of the guys (who has grandchildren about her age) had been working upstairs installing some vents above the bedroom doors, and she'd been particularly chatty all morning with me, talking, asking lots of questions.  He had been back downstairs in the basement working after awhile and came upstairs just after I'd put Emmy down for a nap. He paused as he started to head outside and looked around, noticing how quiet it was, and asked good naturedly "where is jabber jaws?"  That has become our new favorite nickname for her, jabber jaws! 

• She really likes rolling the windows down in the car, and the other day we told her we needed to roll them up because we were getting on the highway and the wind would blow too much. So she said "but we can roll them down on the low-way?" Who could argue with that?
  
• This past weekend she told me that she wants a cat.  She was very insistent that she wanted a cat and I told her that no, we are not getting a cat and a big reason is that Daddy is allergic. She asked me if I was allergic, and I told her no, so she said, "well you and I can have a cat." So I asked her did this mean we should send Daddy away and she said "yes." (Which is a total lie because she is a MAJOR Daddy's girl these days.)
  
• Emmy loves her "Aunt" Sarah, as you have probably gathered from other posts on this blog. During a recent visit, she told us that "Aunt Sarah always says yes". Oh my! Well, yes since Aunt Sarah only gets to see you a couple of times a year, but if we stayed a whole week, that would not be the case! Haha. 

Pictures from Emmy's 4th birthday palooza

Hello again internet.

Sorry it's been awhile. As you can imagine, we have been taking some time for ourselves.  Coming back here to blog has been on my mind but is still a little painful.  We are doing ok, though, and I can post more about that later.

But I thought you might like something fun for a change.  The computer is still a slow mess, but I'm just uploading a few photos from my camera (unedited) so I can share with you some adventures and photos from the last few months.  And I thought I'd start with Emmy's 4th birthday party.

Emmy turned 4 on May 8th. Holy cow, how did that happen? She's such a sassy, smart, fun girl. I have a post I started ages ago about funny Emmy stories, and I promise to finish that up soon. I've been collecting notes since, like, last summer.

But here are some pictures from her party on Saturday May 4th.  She had a great time!

We had brunch, complete with Mickey shaped pancakes and Hot Diggity Dogs (if you have every watched Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, you are familiar with this song).

Fabulous invitations again this year by Aunt Sarah

Emmy was too nervous to blow out the candles with everyone looking at her so Miller helped. :)

E and the beloved Ms Elly (her sitter)

Mickey toilet paper "bowling"

 

I love this picture of Quinn helping Emmy open presents.

The birthday present hit - construction tools so she can help daddy!

Best picture I could get of the birthday girl so you could see her cute dress. She just moves so fast! :)

Emmy was using my phone to take her own pictures, which was hilarious.

June 12th

Today is July 12th. One month ago today I gave birth to our beautiful baby daughter, Sara Hawley.  I was 32 weeks pregnant and we learned on Monday, June 10th that her heart had stopped beating.  Charles and I spent the next two days at the hospital waiting on her to arrive

Sara Hawley was born at 3:35 pm Eastern time. She weighed 3 lbs 6 oz and she had a perfect little Hawley nose and a perfect little Dixon mouth, just like her big sister. I look at the few pictures we took after she was delivered and it brings tears to my eyes to see how much she looks like Charles.

After a month of crying, screaming, agonizing, laughing (often through tears), explaining, and questioning what happened, we're no closer to knowing why this happened, and I know we never will.  Somehow we will come to terms with that.  Things were looking so good, and then suddenly, as you know from the last post, they weren't looking as good, but we never expected this. I question if we made the right decisions, and still trying to travel. Would it have happened if we'd stayed in CO? No one knows, but that maternal guilt still sits heavy in my heart and I'm trying to work through that.

We are grateful to all our friends and family for the support. It was a blessing to be "home" in the South when this happened, to be surrounded by people who love us and could care for Emmy while we were at the hospital waiting on Sara Hawley to be delivered.  Despite the difficult circumstances, we were lucky to be at Memorial and had wonderful care, especially from the nurses and doctors assigned to me during the day shifts on Tuesday and Wednesday, and who are the ones that attended her birth. I can't say enough how grateful I am for them during those brief few minutes I breathed her into this world.

That was my one little victory in the whole miserable process: her actual delivery.  I did have an epidural, but for some reason it allowed me to not feel contractions as strongly, yet I could feel everything else and I could move around in bed and move my legs. After my water broke on it's own, suddenly my Hypnobirthing training took over and I started birth breathing (breathing the baby down) because I was feeling stronger contractions and I knew she'd been positioned pretty high up. It must have worked because with in 30 minutes, I called for the nurse and sure enough there was her head. The doctors and another nurse rushed in and bless them all, they just let me keep doing what I was doing and I brought her peacefully into this world, just like I planned. No pushing, no screaming, no counting, they just stood there in mostly in silence, sometimes encouraging me, one doctor stroking one arm, Charles stroking the other, and within 10 or 15 minutes, she was here. 

We were able to hold her but sadly she had been gone for awhile so her skin was starting to break down some and her body was not in great condition, so we did not keep her with us long. We hugged her and kissed her and told her we loved her. We called her by name, (we were going to call her by both names, Sara Hawley) and we told her how much she was wanted and loved by everyone. We marveled over how much some of her features looked like Emmy. And we cried, oh Lord we cried.  Then we let the nurse come and take her to weigh her and take care of her.

Thankfully, they let me go home a couple of hours later, and so for the second time I left the hospital without my baby, but this time she wasn't ever going to get to come home with me.

We are still heartbroken and I know we will heal, but a part of us will always be missing. We were given a book by the funeral home that friends also sent to us called Naming the Child.  In one chapter the author references C.S. Lewis' A Grief Observed, in which Lewis compares himself (upon losing his wife) to an amputee, explaining:
     Although the stump of the amputated limb heals over time and the ache begins to lessen, the amputee will never again be able to live as he once did. He will have to find his way toward a new kind of normal. "He will never 'get over it,'" writes Lewis.  
She goes on to say: 
     Bereaved parents are not unlike the amputee. They will always remember that they once had a child, that their baby was an extricable, necessary part of their lives. The death of their child requires a new way of living. They must learn to live again despite this loss in their lives. Like the amputee, they will limp and ache and struggle even as their wound begins to heal.

So here we are, limping, aching, and struggling along. She never took a breath outside of me, but she was with us for many weeks, this baby we had hoped and prayed for for many years. We all three, Charles, Emmy and I, had felt her move and see her grow in my belly, and we are sad we are not all together now as a family of four.

Thank you again for your prayers for us and for our sweet baby girl, Sara Hawley.

Pickled Okra Update 27 weeks

Hey y'all,

Well, not as great a report this week.  Pickled Okra decided to be difficult like her sister and slowed down her growth a good bit in the last 4 weeks.  She dropped from the 60th percentile four weeks ago (at 23 weeks and 4 days, based off my "guess" date of Aug. 8th), weighing an estimated 1 lb 7 oz, to the 13th percentile this week, (at 27 weeks and 4 days) weighing an estimated 2 lbs 2 oz.

Let me be clear, she is still above 10th percentile and not technically growth restricted, so they have not started looking at the blood flow through the umbilical cord (the big problem with Emmy) because they only will do that if she drops below 10th percentile for total average weight, or below 5th percentile for her belly measurement, which was 7% this week.

Basically, we need to fatten her up!  She is measuring 27 weeks and 5 days, so she still is growing well, just skinny. How do Charles and I have skinny babies?? :)

I saw a different Maternal Fetal Med specialist today, and she said with that drop in growth she would like to have another scan in 3 weeks. Well, that's when we are supposed to be on vacation.  So I asked if I could still go, and she said yes, some time at sea level would probably do me good since high altitude babies are usually small anyways, but we need to get an ultrasound done. So we're in the process of trying to get a referral for that taken care of so we can still go to the beach! I think I need this for my own mental health as much as anything, and the doctor said some time on vacation would probably do me good too. So I take it as doctor's orders, right??

Please keep us both in your prayers, we want a big healthy full term baby in late July or early August, and no sooner!

I started an Emmy update for her birthday last week of all the stories we've been collecting on her the last few weeks, so be on the lookout for that to show up below later on this week.  The computer is on the fritz, making it hard to upload photos, but I will see what I can do while it is being repaired!

Pickled Okra update - 24 weeks

A quick update that we had another growth scan on Monday (24 weeks) and baby was measuring right on track! They estimate she weighed 1 lb 7 oz. That's over half of what Emmy weighed at birth! No wonder she feels so big to me already!  They were unable to see all the views of the heart that they needed to at our 20 week scan, so today after measuring her, they spent a lot of time looking at the heart.  They were able to get all but one of the views, which they will check in May if she's in a better position, but the MFM assured me that if there was a problem with that final view between the chambers they would almost certainly have seen other problems because that wouldn't like appear as a defect alone. So while they want to confirm, they are not concerned at all. He said whatever I'm doing to keep it up because she is definitely growing. Woohoo!

We are increasingly confident that we will make it to full term with this one! Charles and I even started our hypnobirthing class on Monday night so we are getting more excited.  Ironically, Monday was also 4 years to the day that I was admitted to the hospital with Emmy at 30 weeks. A much different day this year!  And, we are optimistic that we'll be able to travel home in a few weeks for a visit to attend couple of weddings and take a beach trip. Woohoo!  Emmy is going to be super disappointed if there's no beach this summer, so we are keeping our fingers crossed for her sake as well! It will be nice to see everyone one more time before baby arrives.

This is a VERY active baby. She moves around a lot, much more than I remember with Emmy. My frame of reference is so skewed with Emmy having been so small, I can't even begin to imagine what she will feel like in a few weeks! But it's very comforting as well.

Thanks for all your continued prayers!

Easter Weekend 2013

SuSu and Big Daddy came to visit!  Mom had Spring Break so they arrived late evening on Good Friday.  Saturday was a lovely day so we went to breakfast and then to the Garden of the Gods.

At the Garden of the Gods

View from the Garden Visitor's center

Then after nap time, we dyed Easter Eggs! 

Easter Egg dying with Aunt Mer via Skype!

 Easter morning, she had to hunt for her basket.

There's my Easter Basket!

A chocolate bunny. All she really wanted!

 Getting ready to head for church! She was not the most cooperative photographic subject by this point.

Happy Easter!

 Then we came home for lunch as a family and our friend Erin joined us for ham, as asparagus, and scalloped potatoes a 'la Grandma. I think I finally got them right this time! And of course, coconut cake, decorated by my assistant chef.

Emmy decorated the cake.

Hope everyone had a great Easter!

Pickled Okra

By now most, if not all, of our 5 readers have heard the news that we are expecting baby number two this summer, dubbed "Pickled Okra" by Charles.  We are obviously very excited to share this with the internet, in case anyone out there hadn't already heard. :)

This baby was a bit of a surprise as we had been going through infertility treatments off and on again for over two years (moving put a bit of a kink in the schedule) and we though the last round of medication before we left Kansas had been unsuccessful.  However, much to our surprise and delight, indeed, I left Kansas for Colorado almost 7 weeks pregnant.  Yes, 7 weeks, right around the magical time when you start to feel awful. Nauseous, tired, and all that fun stuff.  Needless to say Charles really bore the brunt of the work for this move and I was constantly reminded of what a lucky lady I am!  The adjustment to the altitude also proved to be difficult for me, both those first few days we were here in December, and then, unfortunately, again when we returned after our trip down South.  But slowly I have been feeling better and finally this house is taking shape!  (More on that to come...I promise I do have pictures, people).

A little over a week ago we received some not-so-great news. I heard from my doctor that my quad screen results came back with elevated alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) levels again.  This is the same result that came back with Emmy, and resulted in my being sent to the Maternal Fetal Medicine (MFM) Specialist and ultimately being diagnosed with having a severely growth restricted baby (IUGR), put on bed rest, and eventually delivering Emmy at 33 weeks.  AFP is a protein made by the baby and actually the levels are tested for in the quad screen test because high levels can indicate a neural tube defect, like Spina Bifida. AFP is found in high concentrations in spinal fluid, which in the case of a neural tube defect would be leaking into the amniotic fluid and causing higher levels in the mother's blood. In Emmy's case, my doctor said she believed the AFP levels were elevated because her blood was mixing with my blood when the blood flow through her umbilical cord would reverse flow through the cord in between heartbeats.

At least, that's the best I understand it.

Now for the good news: today I was scheduled for genetic counseling and a second level ultrasound today at the Maternal Fetal Medicine Specialist office (off post) and the baby looked great, even measuring a few days ahead of the estimated due date.  (When Emmy was first measured at 22 weeks she was measuring already a week behind).  Right now, there's no cause for concern.  We are HUGELY relieved. We spent the past week worrying the bed rest could be in the near future.  And, while they couldn't be 100% sure, both the doctor and the ultrasound tech were both fairly certain that it is another GIRL!   

There's still a chance a chance we could face growth restriction issues again so they will monitor her growth every few weeks for now, and weekly the closer we get to the due date in early August.

I spent the week making a lot of preparations "just in case" so the good news is our freezer is full of meals, Emmy has a new dresser (so her old one can go into the nursery), we picked out a crib, and we found a couple of baby-sitters.  We are actually ahead of the game! 

Thank you all for your prayers for a healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby!

Aaaannnnd, we're back

Please pardon the long absence.  Y'all know I don't do well with blogging when I'm working. And we've been moving. And it's been a crazy few months.  I kept intending to back date updates and well, life got in the way.

We're now residing in Colorado, as of mid December. We had about 4 days with our household goods before we headed South for the holidays, so it was a crazy week.  As the few of you who read this blog probably know, we flew out on Christmas morning, so Santa came on Christmas Eve. Charles called in the special military clause, and Santa of course accepted and agreed to come a day early.  Emmy got a baby doll car seat (her number one gift), books and a sled from Santa, plus her stocking with some movies for the trip, bubble bath, crayons, and her favorite stocking stuffers, clementines and an apple. Seriously, she loved that Santa gave her clementines.

Needless to say it was a strange holiday season for us.  I didn't cook or bake. No one came over for dinner or brunch or anything. We didn't go to any holiday parties.  We were so busy getting ready to move, packing out, and saying good-bye before we left Kansas.  Then we arrived here and were trying to visit preschools, get ready for the movers and find our way around.  It finally felt like Christmas when we got to my Mom and Dad's!  But Emmy had so, so much fun this year looking at Christmas lights and decorations and "activity" scenes (nativity) scenes).  She was so excited when we finally got to our new house so she could decorate the 4 foot artificial tree.  We had to put it up as soon as we got to our new house and we were up at 6 am the next morning cramming as many ornaments as she could onto the little tree. It all makes me more excited for next year with her when we can go all out for Christmas again.

We spent a few days in the Upstate with my family. My sister was down for Christmas so we had a good time with her. Then Charles and I headed for our annual New Year's weekend with our college friends.  After 3 days of R&R with those crazy fools, we came back to my parents' and headed out early the next morning to Alabama to visit Beth and Griffin and to meet our new baby niece, Caroline, who was born Dec. 23rd.  A little Christmas baby!  DeeDee and Granddaddy met us there for a quick visit and we celebrated Christmas all together. Of course we are all in love with the newest family member, and Emmy loved holding her and loving on her...and playing with all the baby stuff.  Emmy's love of all things baby/baby doll related has not lessened since I last updated, and she spent oodles of time putting her baby dolls in Caroline's car seat, bouncy seat, etc.

From AL we headed to south GA to celebrate with the rest of Charles' family on the family farm. Emmy was delighted with the attention from Uncle Robert, Aunt Mary Lou, and Jenny and a few other friends and relatives that came to visit, and she loved running around, picking up pecans and pine cones. My mom's extended family is very scattered, and while we did see some of my dad's extended family on occasion growing up, to go back to the place where Charles' dad, aunt and uncle and grandfather grew up is always a little awe inspiring to me, to have that sense of family history.

From Blackshear we headed back up towards Augusta where Emmy and I dropped Charles off for his 2 week course back at Ft. Gordon where he learned, in his words, how not to get fired from his next job.  Ordinarily, we would have headed back to our new home, but there was really no point in Emmy and I flying home without Charles to a new place where we didn't have any roots yet, so we opted to stay around. We spent a couple more days with my parents and Mom took some time off to hang out with Emmy, which helped me get my work done.  She and I did go back to Augusta for a long weekend, stopping to see Aunt Lisa, Uncle Lucas, Will and Henry along the way.  We spent a couple of nights in Daddy's hotel room and a couple of nights with  Aunt Mary Ann, Uncle Joel, and Josh. Her old baby sitter came over one night to watch her and Josh, which she loved, and that meant the grown-ups had a date night with Pam and Steph. Woohoo!  It was a good visit, though never long enough.  I sang for the funeral of a dear man who was a longtime member of our church there, we visited with other friends and we went to church on Sunday. Next time I need to wear a shirt that says "we're just visiting this time, we aren't moving back." Everyone keeps expecting us to come back immediately, which won't really even be a possibility probably for at least 4 years. And while we miss our friends and church, it has been nice to experience Army life on other installations.

Emmy and I went back to G'Vegas for the next week and spent more time with Grandma and Pop, CC, and lots more friends and family in the Upstate.  Even though we had a long visit, it is still never enough time to make it everywhere we want to go and be.  Sigh.  We just keep trying, but man it's exhausting! :)  We had a great time, but needless to say, we were ready to back "home" to CO and to get into a new routine.

We've been back since the 20th, and slowly our house is starting to take shape. I have had a rough time adjusting to the altitude (I was super tired when we first arrived before Christmas and this time coming back from SC, I had a headache for about 5 days) but finally my energy is coming back.  Charles has in processed at Ft. Carson and jumped right in to meetings and a field training exercise with his new unit, where he is the Signal Officer in charge of the Signal functions for the brigade (phones, internet, radios, etc.). His predecessor did not leave large shoes to fill, so everyone seems genuinely glad to have him around and willing to do the job right.  I think he'll do great, but of course I'm biased.

Our cars are now registered in CO, Emmy started preschool, and already we've had our heat repaired and will be waiting on the dryer repairman this week. It's always something! There are tons of little projects around the house we want to do, so we are going to have to prioritize time and money.  So far Charles has been spending the last 2 weekends putting together Emmy's new swingset that was her Christmas gift from us.  He's also replaced once faucet in the main floor bathroom, with new faucets to go on all 3 sinks upstairs, too. Getting them done in the bathrooms Emmy uses the most has been been a must because she is not able to turn on the old pull up style of handles that were in the house, which means she can't go to the bathroom by herself (which she's perfectly capable of otherwise.)  Poor kid!  She loves having a playroom downstairs, and so do I because all the toys are out of sight.   I was a little worried about the steep stairs, but she navigates them better than Charles and I do, and she's fast!  Like I said, there's still a ton to do to get things organized and decorated, but it's slowly starting to feel more like "home".

We had snow this past week, and it was a new experience for things to run on normal schedules, despite 2+ inches on the ground.  Driving Emmy to school was a little bit harrier than we expected getting out of the neighborhood, and we got stuck behind a snow plow, but they definitely get the roads cleared fast.  The sun here at the higher altitude is much more intense, so it helps met things faster, too.

Charles' birthday was Friday so we did the best we could to celebrate. Unfortunately he had to be up early to head to the field, so he left at 5:30 am and we didn't get to see him until he came home. At least he got to leave a little early and was home around 4 pm.  Emmy was super excited to give him her singing card (she is obsessed with cards that play music) and she picked out one with a chimp on it wearing a speedo ("The monkey is wearing panties!" she said)  that played "I'm too sexy".  I died laughing.  Unfortunately Miss E's mood deteriorated quickly Friday evening and the place we picked for dinner was too crowded by the time we arrived, so we ended up back at home eating takeout.  Poor planning again on my part, but we still are figuring out where to eat and what places are closest and best for taking kids. Saturday we continued the "celebration" and went to get the car washed (one of Emmy's favorite activites), visited Charles' new office, and then picked up his birthday present from us: a trailer for his bike for Emmy to ride in.  I'm not sure who was more excited, Emmy or Charles. After nap time yesterday they headed out for their inaugural ride to the park nearby.  I see lots more bike rides in their future.

So there's a quick update on roughly the last month for the Pickle Jar.  There's lots more to tell, but that will have to wait for another day.