Workin' Hard for the Money

Well, no, not really.  Last week was my last week of work for a while and to say that I'm excited is an understatement. Yes, we miss the money, especially with so much going on with our house, but for a few blissful weeks I'm enjoying being a full time stay-at-home mom. Gainfully unemployed, if you will.  I shouldn't complain...I am darn lucky I even had a job to leave. And, I'm even luckier because I have a new part time that that I will likely start in another month or so.  

Before I packed up my computer and sent it back to my company, I took these photos of Emmy sitting at my desk. (I usually work in the guest room since the office doesn't have a door and well, when Emmy's home, it is imperative for there to be a door, lest you get nothing accomplished.) Emmy loves to get on the computer and "work". One conversation with Charles went like this:

(Imagine Emmy sitting on the sofa, my work computer in her lap "typing"  while Charles is sitting at the other end of the sofa with our computer in his lap)

E: Emmy working, Daddy.
C: You're working? That's great, what are you doing?
E: Typing
C: Typing? What are you typing, emails?
E: Yes
C: Who are you writing emails to?
E: SuSu
C: And what are you telling SuSu?
E: Secrets.

So while I enjoy a few weeks of unemployment, I get to spent lots of time with my amazing Emmy,  plan baby showers for friends, cook, organize, clean out closets, work in the yard, go out to lunch, run errands with Charles (which we love to do together), pick Emmy up from school, and so many things I've been wishing for more time to do.  I am a lucky girl indeed.

Beach Trip 2011

We are home from our summer vacation at the beach! We convened at Topsail Beach with SuSu, Big Daddy, Aunt Mer, and Aunt Mer's roommate, "Uncle" Josh.  A good time was had by all. Emmy loved the ocean and building sand castles. And of course she loved getting extra attention.

The best part: she slept great. Because I know you're all dying to know, we're finally back into a good sleeping rhythm.  It finally took going back to crying it out (and more vomit). It stunk, but we knew in our hearts it's what she needed, and within 24 hours she was crying less than 10 minutes, and by the next day less than 3 min or not at all. By the fourth night, no tears, and she went to bed perfectly for the baby-sitter (we'd gone out to see Harry Potter and celebrate Mary Ann's birthday).  This continued at the beach.  We have a slightly extended nighttime routine that involves us setting a timer for 5 minutes of rocking/snuggling and then 3-5 minutes of her alone in her bed settling down while we sit in the chair.  (Thank you Healthy Sleep Habits, Healthy Child for the suggestion).  She also has music playing softly and a fancy new nightlight that projects fish onto the ceiling.  No tears, she sleeps through the night, and we're all better rested. Our happy, rested girl has returned.  And, she loves her big girl bed. I think that if we'd just moved to a big girl bed, that would have been fairly smooth, it was the whole anxiety/falling asleep alone thing we had to work through again. Woohoo!

So, back to the beach where we all slept well, it was a lovely week! Hot, humid, relaxing. We walked,  picked up sharks teeth, shells, and rocks, built sand castles, read, slept, and ate. A lot. That's about it. Oh, we did visit the Sea Turtle Hospital which was very cool.

Here are a few pictures. Many more posted in Picasa.

Sleeping issues...resolved?

Here's how you get a child to sleep who won't go to sleep suddenly after months (well over a year) of going to sleep just fine each night after a story, prayers, and a couple minutes of rocking:

1. Spend several days and nights trying everything you can think of: bargaining, arguing, listening to her cry, cleaning up puke, and more until you know she is finally exhausted.

2. Decide maybe it's time to switch to a big girl bed! Spend the afternoon talking about it as if it is the most amazing event EVER! Offer to buy a special new toy for getting a big girl bed! Let her pick out new sheets and help you buy rails for the bed!

3. Clean up more puke as soon as you turn the light out. (Turns out that isn't from crying/gagging...it's either on purpose or some serious anxiety)

4. Finally tell her that you'll be right back, leave the door open, and let her dog sleep with her. When you return, she'll be asleep. 

In all seriousness, the last week has been rough.  She's always gone to bed so well. There were many weeks last summer when she would tell us she was ready for bed at 6:30 and not even let us read a story, just to straight to sleep! I don't say that to brag, just to say that this huge shift has left us dumbfounded.  We can only assume it is some sort of fear/anxiety that came up in her travels last week and it something that will pass. Tomorrow night bedtime will be bumped up significantly. I think part of the problem may be that as the days have grown longer we've let bedtime shift more towards 8 or 8:30 and away from 7:30, 8 at the latest and we need to get back to our roots, if you will.  I think the open door may be the key so we will see what happens tomorrow night. I'd really prefer there to be no puke. She had nice new yellow sheets she picked out (as you can see from the pillowcase she is sleeping on) but those are in the wash, along with her beloved rainbow blanket that she has not slept with in probably 4 days because every time she gets it back, it winds up with barf on it.  Poor rainbow blanket.  Fortunately, we have 2 bunnies so we can swap out, although she's definitely catching on since on bunny looks significantly more loved than the other. She'll say "other bunny" whenever she notices the switch, but it never seems to bother her. 

Her new toy, Larry the Cucumber (of famed Veggie Tales videos) escaped from being vomited on his first day in the house.  He was also removed from her possesion for the rest of the night because he was for being a big girl and going to sleep on her own in her new bed.  If she stays in bed all night, she gets to have him back in the morning.  It is a little sad - I was hoping getting to sleep in her big girl bed for the first time would be so exciting and not part of a rather dramatic/traumatizing week.  But it is a significant milestone all the same. I don't think transitioning in the middle of all of this was good or bad, it just was so at least when she gets back on track, it will be in the new bed.

And yes, as you can see from the photo, she still sleeps with a pacifier.  She is only allowed to have it at night and occasionally on long car trips when it should be nap time.  We don't think she'll go to college with it so we're not overly worried since our pediatrician isn't overly worried. Yes, it's causing a bit of an overbite;I sucked my thumb til I was 10 so I'm very familiar with those.  I'm more concerned with the sleeping issues at this point and potty training, so the paci can stay...for now. But I hear the Paci Fairy is planning a visit later on this year. Who knows what fun toy he/she will bring if Emmy can give up those pacis! :)

Update - finally!

I'm finally biting the bullet and updating the blog. I'm so sorry we've been absent and I've heard lots of complaints. Okay, not true, I've heard probably 8 or 9 complaints, so at least there are 8 or 9 of you reading. Ha!  There's just so much to update that it's overwhelming to know where to start and so I just haven't sat down to get started.  Also, our computer was out of commission for a few weeks and Charles has been taking it with him to class many nights so in fairness, I have been unable to do much on the computer at all!  But here we are, back again!

So, since Easter/the end of April Charles and I sang with Mack Wilberg (director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir), Emmy turned two, Joanna got married, Will turned two, Emmy and Stella got to hang out in Spartanburg where we also saw Caitlin graduate from Wofford, Lucas, Lisa and Will came for Memorial Day, Aunt Sarah and her sister Bethany stopped by for supper, I taught crafts for Bible School, we went to Blackshear to the farm (where Charles' dad grew up), we've gone to the lake a few times (including for the 4th of July), Charles finished up his spring semester and started the summer semester with class 4 nights a week (yuck!), Emmy finished her first year of "school" and has had several weeks of CMO Camp, Charles has gutted the master bathroom to the studs and subfloor, Cathy and Rafal came to help start putting the bathroom back together, and oh, yeah, we've had two trees fall from the neighbors property onto ours (okay the 2nd one wasn't the whole tree, just a part of a tree, but it did damage to our house). Also, and I quit my job, effective Aug. 31st.  It's been a fun start to the summer, but busy!  The stuff with trees and house and neighbors has been very stressful and it still not resolved. I'm ready for the carnage to be removed, the holes to be fixed, the foundation to be repaired, etc. but for now, we wait.  Needless to say, we're not a fan of storms around here and since a 3rd tree is still leaning over our house, I get nervous each time one blows in.

Emmy spent last week with SuSu and Big Daddy and we missed her a lot! I think she grew while she was gone and she's talking even better it seems to us.  She got to see lots of friends and family during her week at "Camp SuSu-Big Daddy."  Charles had lots of class and we were getting ready for Cathy and Rafal's visit so we didn't do anything exciting while she was gone, but it was a quiet week at home.

Here are a few funny Emmyisms from the last few weeks. More to come soon!

- Watermelon sounds sort of like "money-money"
- Banana peels for a while were called banana covers
-Orange juice is called apple juice. Not sure why, but she asks for apple juice when she sees the orange juice in the fridge, and it must be drunk from one of our little juice cups, not a sippy. She's doing well drinking from a regular cup, we just can't let her tote it around the house.
- She has started singing a lot, which we love, love. Her repertoire includes: Rock-a-bye Baby, Row, Row, Row Your Boat (probably her favorite), ABCs, The Hokey Pokey, the Caterpillar Song (taught to her by SuSu's friend Mrs. Payne), and several Kindermusik songs.  She's really into her Kindermusik CD from the summer session she attended and she will do some of the motions.   She has an electric keyboard she received from our neighbors, Ms. Betty and Mr. Frank, for her birthday.  It plays several songs with words, and several songs without words. The other day she started singing/saying something and we finally realized she'd stopped on the tune of "The Hokey Pokey" and she was singing "you put your right foot in" while wagging her right foot around.  I didn't know she'd recognize just the tune!  It was hilarious.
- She loves her baby and the poor baby must have some sort of gastrointestinal disease because we change a LOT of diapers. Aunt Mary Ann and Uncle Joel kept her a couple of weeks ago while Mama was in Atlanta for work and Daddy had class. Aunt Mary Ann said she changed about 7,000 stinky diapers and suggested we get that baby checked out! Haha.  She will put on a "clean" diaper, then immediately say "ohh, shoo-whee, stinky diapey" and proceed to change her again. She prefers her babies naked and will hug, kiss, and rock them very sweetly.
- A hug/kiss to a baby, Rags, etc. is usually followed by her uttering "Aww, so sweet" so we must say that a lot when she gives hugs.
- Everyone must have a hug and a kiss, and often a pat on both shoulders.  When we left her in the church nursery last week, she cried until she could give us both a hug, kiss, pat, "other shoulder".  Then she was fine!
- Unfortuantely she is in a bit more clingy stage and hasn't been overly fond of baby-sitters or being left with anyone, even people she knows and even if we just walk to another room. I know that it is a phase that will pass, but ugh. Upset crying for Emmy often leads to puking, and I'm really tired of puke.
-We think that she's close to ready to transition to a big girl bed, but sleeping is way messed up from a week away last week. She refused to sleep in her pea pod so SuSu put her in the big bed and would stay with her to go to sleep since there were no side rails and she thought that was great, so she now does not want to go to bed easily like she has for months and months. We are not sure what to do...try to get back into the regular routine with her crib and then transition to the big bed at home, or go ahead and go to the big bed here. So frustrating!
-She's doing some better eating veggies. She likes roasted red peppers and sometimes she'll eat cooked onions, celery, or other things out of soups/casseroles. She loves mushrooms (I mean LOVES mushrooms) and her love of pickles, olives, yogurt, and most any fruit continues. She's really into humus these days so that's a good snack or protein at mealtime. She loves boiled peanuts and at Joanna and Justin's rehearsal dinner proceeded to hand anyone near her a peanut to open for her. If she liked the way you opened it, she'd hand you another one. She ate a lot of peanuts that night!  Overall for her age, we're pleased with her eating habits and we hope the more we expose her to things the more varied her palate will be!
 -She likes to spin around and hang upside down.  Daddy is a really fun playmate.
-She loves to swim and will ask to go to the lake or go swimming in Ms. Betty and Mr. Frank's pool. Fortunately Ms. Betty and Mr. Frank love Emmy and love us to come swimming, so that's win win for all of us!  Their grandkids live in NC and Emmy's grandparents of course are not in town, so it's nice for everyone that we have each other next door.
-We're spending the summer  wearing tons of bug spray so we can play outside, swing, slide (April/May activities also included a good pressure washing and sprucing up of the playset that's been here since long before we bought the house), pick tomatoes in the garden, water flowers, and pick flowers at least for a little while each day.  It has been so hot! 


More to come soon!

Easter 2011

 I know what you're thinking...finally, photos!   I'm sorry I've continued my neglect of the blog.  Now we are also plagued by computer problems, which is complicating my attempts to blog.

We had a busy Easter weekend. SuSu and Big Daddy came down to spend the weekend.  After the church Easter Egg hunt, Charles and I headed to Charleston for Rion and Charlotte's wedding. Then we got up super early on Sunday to drive home and be with everyone for church and lunch afterward at Pam and Steph's. Then we all took naps!

Here are a few photos.  More to come...one of these days. 

Dying Easter Eggs

She discovered there were things inside the eggs!

She was not too fond of the Easter Bunny this year.

Reading an Easter book in her pretty new dress!

Checking out her Easter basket...after her nap.  The bunny came during naptime this year so Mama and Daddy could be there. How nice of him!

Happy Birthday to DeeDee and Aunt Sarah, and happy Royal Wedding Eve. Who's excited?

I haven't abandoned this blog...

I promise, I really haven't.  Work keeps me busy and then I've been so far behind, I've just not had it in me to even try to catch up!  Plus, our camera went missing for a couple of weeks (one Miss Emerson had put it in the pocket of a bag in her closet) so I couldn't upload photos...

And then here we are in the middle of March. I'm sorry, I really am!

We have all been keeping busy. Work is insane and I daily question my decision to go back to work.  I'm hopeful that extra support that came on board this week will finally give me some relief.  I love the folks I work with, and this keeps me hanging on. Plus, we've paid off a lot of debt, so that's good incentive to keep on trucking for a while at least.  Charles seems to be having a busier semester this Spring, too.  The work load is a bit more intense so he's spending a lot more nights burning the midnight oil getting papers, etc. done. Needless to say, we're both looking forward to Masters Week/Spring Break!

Emmy is in a word, delightful.  She makes us laugh all the time.  She uses her little high pitched voice to keep us entertained talking all the time (surprised?).  She's repeating everything we say, it seems, and she's big into naming everything she sees and assigning ownership ("Mommy's car. Daddy's car. Mommy's seat. Aunt Mer's seat). She's a toddler, so as you can imagine there are meltdowns and tears when she doesn't get her way. She does not like to be told no, especially in a firm/angry voice and this often results in pitiful tears.  She, however, has no trouble telling us "no!".  She likes doing things herself and will gleefully announce "I did it!" when she accomplishes something. Tonight she was very proud to get her pajama bottoms on by herself.  She couldn't pull them up all the way, but she go both legs in perfectly...quite an accomplishment when you've been able to only get both feet into one leg until now.   She's starting to learn her colors better now and yesterday she pointed out the X and B on my laptop keyboard unprompted...things like this are hit or miss and we know it means nothing, but it is funny to see her absorbing.  She has magnetic letters on her easel and she loves to play with them. (She's very advanced you know...haha.)

She loves her babies and prefers them naked.  She will ask you to help put back on their clothes and take them off and/or swaddle them.   "Help, help" is a frequently used word in her vocabulary.  She makes a fantastic cup of "tea" in her kitchen, and get you a cup of "water" from the dispenser on her kitchen door. Hilarious! She likes to color and play with her crayons.  She now has a table and chairs in the den where her toys are and she wants you to sit with her while she colors. "Sit, sit!" she'll say as she pats the other chair. She's very demanding, but then of course, we almost always oblige. 

She now knows that on trips she gets to watch a movie and she loves Finding Nemo. She has a stuffed clown fish that someone gave her who looks like Nemo, so she's decided it is Nemo and enjoys toting him around.  She was feeding Nemo her cashews and turkey the other day, which was also hilarious.  We've started letting her watch a little TV and we all like Sid the Science Kid and Dinosaur Train (both PBS shows...support National Public Radio and Television!). 

Emmy loves to play outside and she will spend a lot of time going up and down the front steps (or any steps for that matter.) She likes to pick flowers and wave at cars. She's very good at telling us when she hears an airplane or birds singing.  She'll point out the clouds, moon (sometimes she even notices when we can see the moon during the daytime) and the stars. She likes to run on the driveway and to go next door and visit with Mrs. Betty and Mr. Frank and look at the pool. We can't wait for the weather to be warm enough to swim. She saw the beach towels in the linen closet the other day and said "towels, pool, swimming!" How does she remember this stuff?

Emmy loves school. Her BFF is Emma and she loves her teachers.  We're so happy that she has a great place to spend time with other kids with teachers who love her.  She also loves going to church and playing in the nursery with her friends there.  She knows she sees "Aunt" Steph (Peff) and "Aunt" Pam at church, as well as "Aunt" Mary Ann and "Uncle" Joel.  She loves Uncle Joel, but absolutely will not go to him.   It's become a running joke...he doesn't believe she really asks for him all the time!

We've had lots of visitors the last few months. Lucas and Lisa and Will have been up for a visit, SuSu and Big Daddy came, DeeDee and Granddaddy were here earlier this month, and just this past weekend "Uncle" Chase came for the whole weekend, as did his sister, Nicole, her husband, Ben, and little Amelia. Amelia is 7 months younger than Emmy...and bigger than her. It was so fun to see them together! They played so well and Emmy loved having all the extra people in the house. She's so social!  And I loved hearing her call for Chase in her very Southern drawl..."Chaaaayyyyseeeeeee!" 

We've also seen Emmy's love of music deepen even more the last few weeks. We took her to choral concert that a group Joel sings with performed.  She really was doing great and listening, but she has no volume control and when she gasped in delight when handed something, we decided to take her outside since it was in very good acoustic space and we were afraid her talking might disturb others.  Then at the Shrove Tuesday pancake supper she sat in near silence and watched the blue grass band entertainment play for about 45 minutes.  She still talks about the banjo.  She watched the handbells at church a couple of weeks ago with great interest.  She loves to have the radio on, or to hold the iPod and listen to music. 

So there's a quick update. I'm sure there's tons I've missed and surely lots more to tell. I promise I'll get some pictures uploaded...one of these days.  Hope everyone is doing well!

Christmas 2010

Finally my friends, Christmas photos. There are 188 photos in the December 2010 album. Now, not all of those are of Christmas, but a lot are. Between my camera (which had like 3 from Christmas morning) and my Mom's and Richard's, there were an insane number of photos to sift through. I just don't have the energy to edit them down any more, so feel free to peruse or not. I know it's a lot!

Christmas was great, of course, just very busy! I had taken a few days off, it just wasn't enough! We love, love love singing for our Christmas Eve service, it is truly the most beautiful service I could imagine. Everyone should experience it at least once. But, that much music (we do lessons and carols plus a short concert the half hour before the service starts) results in a lot of long rehearsals, including two the week of Christmas. It's exhausting!

Meredith came into town on the 22nd so she could keep Emmy for our 2nd Christmas Eve rehearsal, so we had some sister time on Thursday. Charles' mom and dad got in late Thursday night so we actually didn't see them until Friday morning, and my parents arrived by lunchtime. The gang was all there!

The rest of the day was time for Emmy's grandparents to catch up with her and last minute errands to be run (Honey Baked Ham! The Butcher! The Grocery Store...on CHRISTMAS EVE!). We cooked supper and ate together, and then after Emmy went to bed and dishes were washed and the table reset for brunch the next morning, it was time to get dressed for church. Big Daddy stayed home while Emmy slept. He'd been sick the week before so a good night's sleep was good for him, and it was better not to wake her up and take her to church. She'd had a VERY short nap during the day, plus I'd found out that the nursery would have been short a sitter (which was the one sitter she knew) and a cranky, tired, slightly congested Emmy was only going to want to be with someone she knew and who would snuggle with her, so letting her sleep was the best option for everyone. We needed a well rested Christmas Pickle!

Meredith, and Charles and I went for soup and champagne after the service, as per usual, but everyone else headed to bed and we were not far behind them! Well, okay, we went to bed around 3 by the time we waited for Santa to come, but oh well!

Christmas morning was kind of crazy with presents from sooo many people! Emmy doesn't really "get" it yet, and she was a little sick and not 100% her happy self. She had fun, but after an hour of opening gifts, she was getting cranky and we had brunch to cook! So we hit the pause button for a while. DeeDee and she still opened a few more gifts while we cooked and got ready, and she had a few she unwrapped later after brunch. Charles and I even had her wait and open her presents from us the next day. It was just a little overwhelming! Every one had a good Christmas and we all were spoiled. Santa brought Emmy a beach bag and sprinkler for the summer, a set of musical instruments, a tea set, and in her stocking coloring books, a tumbler, and of course, fruit. She also received a toy piano, puzzles, a new baby doll, clothes, clothes for her baby, a kitchen, a Rody Horse,books, and other toys from Mama and Daddy, DeeDee and Granddaddy, Aunt Mer, Aunt Beth and Uncle Griffin, SuSu and Big Daddy, and Grandma. Lucky girl!

We had brunch as a family and with Mary Ann and Joel and Mary Ann's mom and Dad, Larry "Bear" and Marilyn. It was lots of fun and of course, our traditional Christmas morning breakfast...country ham biscuits, cream cheese braids, ambrosia, and cheese grits. Yum!

After brunch, Charles and I finished opening our presents and then we all took naps and rested. Ahhh, a nap was very, very good.

For dinner we had a delicious pancetta crusted beef tenderloin, twice baked potatoes, Not-yo-Momma's Green Bean casserole (try it, you'll never make green bean casserole with canned green beans and canned soup again!) and it was yummy! I suppose it sounds a bit arrogant since I was in the kitchen, but all weekend I had lots of cooking help, so I definitely do not take all the credit.

It was a good weekend! The next day we awoke to snow flurries. Richard and Mary Louise headed home mid morning so they could drive in the best weather possible...it snowed on Christmas Day in Rome so they were heading home to snow! Mer, Charles and I went to church, but Mom and Dad stayed home with the still slightly sick Emmy and packed so they could hit the road as soon as we got home because of the snow. Unfortunately the flurries didn't amount to much, but it was pretty to watch it fall all day! It stuck to the roofs and some of the grass. (Side note, the photo here is Christmas afternoon as Emmy helped SuSu snap green beans. We were amazed...she was good at it and she stood there and snapped beans for almost 20 minutes! It was hilarious!)

So that was Christmas 2010 in our house! The 27th we were thrilled to have our friends Jason and Jocelyn come stay the night on their way through town and sadly, I have no photos, but it was so great to catch up with them. Jason and Charles served together and Jocelyn and I "met" over email during their deployment. J&J were newly engaged when Jason arrived mid-deployment to take command of one of the companies while I was FRG leader. He gave me his fiancee's email and asked if I would keep her in the loop, and so she and I started talking by email and found we had so much in common. I invited her to come and stay with me when the unit came home (in Jan. 2006) and since they were delayed a couple of days, we ended up spending three days getting to know each other better, anxiously awaiting news, decorating the gym, and nervously grabbing onto each others arms at some un-Godly hour of the night while we waited on them to walk into the gym. As a side note, if you've never been to a departure and arrival ceremony for a deploying Military unit, you should. Everyone should see (and hopefully appreciate) the heartache, the pride, and ultimately the joy, that Military Members and their Families experience.

But I digress. We had a great visit with J&J and we hope that next year we all may wind up together again for a few months while Jason and Charles go to "Major School."

After the Christmas craziness, we packed up the car and headed to SC for more family time and to get ready for New Year's 2011. More on that later. Lots of photos in the Picasa album I linked at the top of the page, so enjoy!