Holding our baby tight

A couple of days ago I noticed a friend of mine on Facebook had posted a link to a blog and commented that she was praying for the family of Layla Grace, "an angel being called home too soon". For those of you not familiar with Facebook, people regularly write "status updates" that may say anything from something about their family to what they ate for dinner. If you are friends with that person, their update will appear in a list that you see when you log into your account.

Anyways, for some reason I remembered seeing that link and yesterday while Emmy and Charles took a nap I went back to my friend's page and clicked on it. Then I sat there and read Layla Grace's story and cried my eyes out. She is two years old and has sage four neuroblastoma, an aggressive "monster" of a cancer, her family calls it. In late January her parents found out that the tumors were not better following months of massive chemo and a bone marrow transplant, but in fact there were more tumors. The doctors gave Layla Grace two months, but months turned into weeks.

I know people who have lost babies and children. I know people who have suffered other terrible tragedies. Just a few days ago two of our friends mourned with friends of theirs the sudden and tragic loss of their eight year old daughter (named Emmie) in a car accident. I read with pain about Haiti and the recent quake in Chile, not to mention the terrible suffering people here in our own country endure on a daily basis. All this to say, I hear about those things and I pray and cry and I wonder why. But for some reason, this story of Layla Grace has stayed with me long after I've closed the computer.

I cannot stop thinking about her parents, who are as I write this are sitting beside her bed at home in Texas watching her die. She is hours, if not minutes, away from leaving them. I cannot even imagine, especially after watching her suffer through painful treatments for nine months. Yet their strength and their faith they write about utterly amazes me.

I don't know, maybe it's because there's something about the shape of Layla Grace's face I saw in photos on the blog that reminds me of Emmy. There are a couple of faces I see her making that I thought "So cute, Emmy makes a face like that!" Maybe it's the way her parents have shared her story and the honesty with which they write about their precious daughter's struggle, I don't know, but I cannot stop thinking about this family.

Social media continues to amaze me. I don't know this family, I seriously doubt I would ever meet them in the future, but I have been thinking of them and saying a prayer for them since yesterday, not to mention following their story on Twitter. I don't "tweet" but it's possible to read people's Twitter comments (sort of like perpetual Facebook status updates!) and so I know what they have most recently said is happening. They mentioned on their blog that they first started the blog and the twitter page as a way to keep their friends and family regularly updated. They said returning all the calls and text messages they were receiving was draining, and I can imagine! But the one person shares the site with another person and soon they have over 25,000 people following their story on Twitter. That's a lot of prayers and caring people, for sure!

So, in this age of "newfangled" technology, I am moved in ways I couldn't imagine, hurting for these people I've never met. And I'm watching my healthy nine month old baby girl happily playing on the floor and I'm hugging her a little tighter.

Books

I love to read. I don't do it nearly as often as I should, mainly because when I get into a book I will often do nothing but read, staying up until all hours of the night and ignoring all housework. But, I do enjoy reading so much!

We have been reading to Emmy since before she was born. I used to read out loud to my belly on occasion and we read her all the books that we were given before she arrived. We read to her every day and she is acquiring quite the library! Currently we read a lot of board books because she likes to rip at the pages or chew on them, so the board books are less destructible. I think I read I Love you Through and Through (a gift from Jasper) about a dozen times on our trip to Birmingham. She loves that book! Emmy even reads in the bathtub...Barnyard Bath is water safe and so cute! Here she is reading Yummy, Yucky, which Lilly gave to her last weekend.

Emmy has been in Kindermusik for a couple of weeks now, and she even pays attention during story time each week, so I'm thinking it's time to checkout story time at the library, too. We both hope she grows up to love to books and reading.

So, I was excited to see on another blog that I like to read (Becoming Sarah) that the author is starting a literacy campaign, which will include weekly giveaways of children's books, hopefully for a full YEAR!
Anyways, I think it's a fabulous idea to promote literacy, and who doesn't like free books? So, I'm posting this to link to her blog so if you're interested you can check out her information and leave a comment to be entered to win a children's book! This week's book looks adorable.

More snow photos and Birmingham

There are a few more photos of the snow and our trip to Birmingham up in Picasa's February album. Sadly, I realized I didn't take any pictures of Emmy with Beth or Griffin when they were looking at the camera, just some cute ones of her playing with them. Sigh.

We had a lovely time visiting with Beth, Griffin, and his family. We stayed in and played, watched the Olympics, ate BBQ, went to Costco, the guys installed a new laundry sink, went to church, and ate delicious Italian food before we headed home. It was a good weekend! Fortunately the drive home didn't involve any snow. :)

Another snow baby shot

Saturday morning - I just like this picture

Rags LOVES snow

Lilly and Emmy

Emmy getting lessons on how to use a Smart Phone from Uncle Griff

She's a good student

Hilarious!

Playing with Aunt Beth

Poop

No, I'm not necessarily referring to baby poop, although while on that topic let me mention two things...1) solid foods changed EVERYTHING and had me seriously doubting my devotion to cloth diapers for a couple of days. But, then I discovered biodegradable flushable liners for the diapers, plus we've gained some experience, and so we're back to a content cloth diapering family. 2) Emmy had never had a "blowout" with her cloth diapers. She may have come close, but we'd never had to change her clothes because the diaper couldn't contain it all, only when her wiggling on the changing table complicated matters. However, she finally had her first "blowout" on Friday. That's right folks, a blowout in the parking lot of Wendy's while on the road to Birmingham, just as the snow flurries began to fly. It was freezing cold, I was trying to get her changed without making a huge mess, and she was screaming because it turns out I had her head pressed into the buckle of her car seat, which was clearly uncomfortable. Oops, bad mom moment. (I thought she was just cold, but then since she's like a tiny propane heater, she was probably still comfy). Needless to say, it was not a pleasant 5 minutes while I panicked, Charles searched for clean clothes, and I went through every cloth wipe and half a bag of disposable wipes in the diaper bag. Sigh. Not a moment I wish to repeat anytime soon.

But back to the matter at hand. Let's back up to oh, maybe a week or two ago when we started to notice that we were getting air bubbles escaping through the pipes, particularly when the toilet in the master bath was flushed. We've had this happen in the past, but it had been quite a while. Then we noticed that sometimes it took the toilets a time or two to flush completely. Charles did an internet search and best he could tell it meant there was a blockage and it wouldn't correct itself, so we knew we needed to call a plumber, which we did once we were back in town Monday. We wanted to go ahead and get an appointment scheduled before it became a big problem.

The plumber was scheduled to come Tuesday morning. However, when Tuesday morning rolled around, I awoke at 6 am feeling not so hot and about five minutes later the stomach virus of DOOM set in. Ugh. Needless to say, I wasn't so disappointed when the plumber called and asked to reschedule for Wednesday, although the toilet flushing issue, well, let's just say it was an annoyingly ill-timed complication. Fortunately Charles stayed home to take care of Emmy while I spent the day in bed. Not an enjoyable start to the week at all.

Wednesday morning I was pleased to wake up feeling much better and relieved to be awaiting a call from the plumber informing me of when he would be here. Much to my surprise, he showed up unannounced around 8:50 am, just as I'd finished putting Emmy down for a nap and was seconds away from getting dressed the doorbell rang. Yes, it was the plumber. I was completely thrown off, and he was apologetic because clearly I was not expecting his arrival and I was supposed to be given a 30-45 minute warning call from their office. And, in all the chaos Rags' barking woke up Emmy, so it was NOT a good start to the morning!

I figured it was not a good sign when 15 minutes later the plumber reappeared to say he needed to go get some help. Yes, indeed, the sewer line was quite full and backed up, most probably by roots, which we had suspected. There was no way to clear the blockage from under the house without making a mess, which meant he needed to dig out in the yard. So off he went to find help. An hour or so later he returned, help-less, but began digging alone, only to quickly find sewage in the ground. That's right. POOP IN THE FRONT YARD. The line has, in fact, ruptured. He said it was good we called when we did, but I can't help but wonder, what if we'd called a week ago?

So, here I sit awaiting Ken-the-plumber's return with additional help and a tractor to dig a big hole by the house, mess up the yard, and then leave me with a big whopping bill. Thank goodness it's tax return time. That at least makes all this poop slightly less unpleasant to deal with.

Snow!

It snowed in Augusta and we missed it! We headed to Birmingham on Friday and drove right into the snowstorm that moved through the Southeast. We knew it was coming, and yes, it was probably smarter to stay home, but we decided to chance it and see how the roads were and we stayed in touch with Griffin all day to see how things were at our destination. It really wasn't a bad drive, and except for a couple of times in the Atlanta area when there was a little slush, the roads were completely fine and we're so glad we went!

I'll post more photos of the weekend later, but for now to satisfy Emmy's grandparents, here are a few pictures of the snowbaby. We got to Birmingham just in time to take a few pictures of her in the snow.





Oh yes, and of course Happy Valentine's Day!

9 months old!

Emmy is 9 months old today. What a big girl! It's getting harder to do these photo shoots by myself...it's much easier when there's a second person to get her to smile while the other snaps the pictures. You can see the evidence here in the February album.

She was also talking to Aunt Mer on the phone for part of the time. I put the phone on speaker phone and she pushes buttons and listens.

Birthday and Promotion!

Today was Charles' 30th Birthday AND his promotion to Major! What a great birthday present!

We celebrated his birthday on Saturday with friends at the house. We cooked out brats and burgers and enjoyed the afternoon immensely. We were sad, however, that several of our friends were stranded at home in the Upstate due to the snow.

My parents arrived Sunday afternoon with 25 lbs of BBQ for Monday's promotion ceremony. Tradition dictates that the newly promoted officer provides food for all those who attend. (Which in this case was at least 80 people!) I made the baked beans and Mom helped me make cole slaw when she arrived. Monday morning we picked up the cake and bread. Throw in some chips, drinks, paper products, and potato salad (thanks Virginia!) we had a spread with plenty for everyone. This is a photo of Charles with Colonel M., his supervisor, who promoted him.

It was a great day, but after spending a week getting the house ready for a party, plus cooking for two big events, we were tired. He didn't want to do anything extra on Monday night, so we just enjoyed watching our shows and eating left overs.

I'm so proud of him! Congrats honey!