Emma is Three!

Sometime in the middle of our big trip to see family, Emma turned 3 years old. I can't believe the last 3 years went by so fast!

This year she has been obsessed with Toy Story, so for her birthday she had a Toy Story themed "party." I say party in quotes because we were supposed to be at Grandma and Grandpa Lewis's house, but we got stuck in the blizzard in Nebraska and stayed 2 nights in York, Nebraska at a hotel. Luckily we had the party supplies with us,  and the manager of the hotel let us have a mini-party there. 

Daddy went to the Wal-Mart, which was open, and got a Christmas cupcake cake for her birthday since the Toy Story cake was in Chicago. :) She still had fun -- there was a little girl at the hotel who was the granddaughter of the manager, and she and Emma played. She even got a gift for Emma! It was a really fun day, even if we were stuck in the snow.

How my big girl has grown.... our hands at 3 years and 3 days old. From the picture below, at about 3 weeks of age. 

It's going to be a pretty amazing Christmas. I think we're so lucky to have the two kids we have, and I'm so grateful to be celebrating the holiday with them. 

11 Days Old

And we're settling into a nice routine. I don't know how I got so lucky, but Aaron is a fairly "easy" baby when it comes to reading his cues. Either I am experienced now, or his temperament is different, or a combination of the two. But he's really adjusting well to the outside world and Emma is adjusting to him.

Here he is at 8 days old... not very happy about his picture being taken. I plan on taking a picture with him and the bear for a while -- I wanted to do something similar with Emma, but just totally forgot with all the sleep deprivation. I have to say, I'm sleeping better now that he's out than when he was in. I had such bad sciatica that I never slept more than an hour and a half, even with the Ambien that the OB prescribed. With him, there are nights I actually get 3 hours of sleep in a row.

We got our tree this past weekend, and Emma was very excited (although it was "too cold" when we were picking it out and she didn't want to stay). She helped decorate the tree. It's an odd mish-mash of decorations but that's ok. It's like the trees of my youth. 

And here's our first family picture. It's the best of the bunch, which isn't saying much. I look a little bloated, LOL!  I have lost 20 pounds from my highest weight pregnant, and have another 30 to go before I'll feel comfortable. I'd actually like to lose 40 more, that would be 20 below my pre-pregnancy weight and more down to where my body feels ok. But we'll see -- breastfeeding will help. 

We're excited to see family soon! Hopefully we'll have lots of pictures to share from Kansas and Illinois. 

Halloween

Emma had a great time with Halloween this year. On Tuesday the 30th, we went to one of my nursing homes and she dressed as a ladybug. She had been a sock monkey earlier at the zoo, so decided she wanted her "other" costume. On Halloween night, she did the ladybug costume again. She had a great time, and came home with a huge bounty of candy -- despite it being cold, windy and rainy.

We let her eat 3 little packages of smarties, one package of twizzlers and one tootsie roll. Then at 3:30am on 11/1, she started throwing up. Poor thing! We thought she had over-done it on candy, but she proceeded to puke 6 more times and have some diarrhea. I think she caught a stomach bug at the nursing home. She's all recovered at this point. You'd never know she was going to feel bad by the great time she had!

Here's my Halloween "costume" -- I'm a pumpkin (ha ha ha).

Here's my ladybug! Chewing on her Tootsie Roll. Silly girl.... she wouldn't really stay still for my camera, so this is the best picture. 

It's been a really, really long time since I uploaded any videos, so here's my ladybug in action. She's such a ham. I've got lots of videos but just haven't uploaded them since it takes so long to get them up to YouTube.

Coming To The End...

Can't believe that we're in the home stretch now. Today I'm 36w2d, and many people (although not the OB) think I'm going to go early. Possibly because I'm feeling massive. Here's a picture for you to judge for yourself.

Sorry for the dirty mirror. It's really the least of my worries! We have to put together the bassinet and re-arrange our bedroom to make sure it all fits, but other than that, everything seems ready. Noodle's room is ready, the diapers are washed, the toys are out of the crawl space, and Emma is really excited. 

We had time to go to Hallowzeen in Cincinnati last weekend to visit our friend Mary and her daughter and husband, and then this weekend we went to Boo at the Zoo in Columbus, and met another friend and her daughter and triplets there! Emma fell in love with her daughter and they held hands the whole time. It was adorable.

We'll trick-or-treat at one of my nursing homes tomorrow night, as long as the weather isn't too nasty (thanks Hurricane Sandy) and might not do much for the actual Halloween. 

Between now and my EDD (11/24/12), I need to finish getting my classes ready for my substitute, catch up with grading, do a million things to wrap up my professional obligations, and pack my hospital bag. I'm grateful to Aunt Ann, who has agreed to come out and watch Emma while we're in the hospital. 

I think we're going to get to meet this little guy. As much as I've enjoyed being pregnant (although the sciatica is killing me -- not sleeping well and in PT to try and get the pain down), I'm ready to be done and just focus on being a Mom. 

Goodbye 2011

Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

2011 was a rough year, to say the least. I'm not sad to see it gone, in a way. The year started out with my Mom dying unexpectedly. I'm fearing January 3rd, just because it will be the one year mark of when she died, and I'm not ready for that milestone. I lost 4 babies this year -- the most I've ever lost in one year (2 chemicals and 2 lost at 9 weeks). Joe stopped going to school without completing his Ph.D. and struggled to find a job with his Master's, so was unemployed for 5 1/2 months. His health has been poor all year, and he had surgery on his neck just 3 months ago. It's still not 100%.

But in all of it, there has been one consistent bright spot, and that is my Emma bean. She is my angel, my hope, my love, my light. She is independent and attached, all at the same time. I'm so blessed to have her in my life.

I hope that for everyone, 2012 brings light and joy. I hope and pray 2012 brings us a healthy pregnancy and sibling for Emma. Most of all, I hope that 2012 brings peace in our little family. God knows we need it.

Pumpkin Fun

So you know we went picking pumpkins...


And last night we carved them and put them on the porch. Emma was SO excited. She loves the pumpkins, and the little gourds we got with them.


Then she decided to get silly. She'll even say "Silly Emma!"


She thought it would be great fun to go over to "Momma Pumpkin" and give it a kiss.



Then she went to the "Daddy Pumpkin" to give that a kiss.




Sometimes the best things in life are free... like a hug and a great smile. And a pumpkin kiss!



I also finished an afghan that I've been working on for years. I purchased this yarn after seeing the free pattern in the store in 2008 -- back when I was pregnant with the first baby and before I knew he/she was gone. I put that yarn away for almost a year, and then started working on it again in September 2009. I've worked on it on and off since then, but just completed it tonight. It's HUGE -- over 7ft long. Weighs a ton, but so warm and awesome. I love it. It's going to a friend in North Dakota (very appropriately!).

Fourth of July

We had a wonderful weekend that I will blog more about soon, but here are some pictures to enjoy in the short term.

Easter Pictures (Finally)

Family Weekend

Happy and Blessed Easter Everyone!

We had a wonderful weekend. Friday was my "work from home" day so I actually got all my work stuff done before noon, and then Joe and I put together our two new composters (yay for compost!). I finished some things for the garden, and got Emma early for the start of our weekend.

Saturday was the first day of Toddler Yoga, which she absolutely loves AND we went to one of my nursing homes for their Easter Egg hunt. She was a huge hit! She wore a lovely Easter dress and bonnet, and waved at all of the residents. I think she grabbed 20 eggs or more. And for the first time, she tasted chocolate. It started as an accident, but I let her have it. So far her bottom doesn't look too horrible, although tonight it was starting to get very raw looking. She did enjoy it very, very much though.



Today we started our day with our own egg hunt, and she kept signing for "more" eggs to find! Then we hopped in the car and went to the zoo. There were only 88 people there, according to the worker we talked to around 10am (they open at 9) and so it was a nice, peaceful morning. Emma had the petting zoo with the goats ALL to herself (and she loved it!). We also got to see Beco, the 2-year-old elephant calf nursing from Momma! Emma saw it and she turned around and started to sign "milk, milk". It was adorable.

She had a huge eating weekend, lots of fruits and veggies, and she decided she loves hard-boiled eggs. I'll do an Easter picture post later, but for the moment, here are a few to enjoy.

Goodbye 2010, Welcome 2011!

2010 was a year of firsts. First joys with Emma, first smiles, first laughs, first steps, first hugs. First milestones as a family. First challenges as a married couple. But we made it. The door to 2010 is closing, and I'm glad to put it in the history books. Why? Because despite the joyful year with my daughter, I still spent 2010 feeling like a bitter infertile woman. Feeling secretly jealous of friends who got pregnant (even though I was desperately happy for them). Wondering if I would ever get to feel the amazement of being pregnant again, or whether this was "IT" for me. I pray that God will help me find a way to let go of all that long-held sadness and be content with what I have.

2011 will continue to be a year of first, but also a year of renewed joy as Emma grows and as I throw myself back into my life as a mother, wife, and psychologist. I've made some choices to start spending a few evenings a month away from Emma so that I can become a better teacher, and thinking of possibly starting to apply for jobs at colleges. I want to become more well-rounded as a human being, taking care of my physical, emotional and spiritual health. Emma and I will start toddler/mommy yoga in late January as a way to start my physical health focus, I'm going to spend more time meditating and journaling to take care of my emotional health, and I think it's time to try and go back to church, and see if I can find a home church that will help my spiritual needs. I really want Emma to know church also -- to hear the hymns and learn the stories that I learned as a child.

More than anything, I would like peace. Peace in my heart, peace in the world, and peace for all that suffer. That's not asking too much, is it?

Merry Christmas 2011

Merry Christmas!

Somehow we survived Christmas Eve, thank goodness. On Wednesday, Emma had vomiting and had to stay home from daycare. By Thursday, the vomiting was gone and she had diarrhea all day, poor thing. She was a trooper through the whole thing. But by Friday night/Saturday morning, Mommy and Daddy had the virus she had brought home. Daddy started vomiting at midnight on Friday night/Saturday morning, and I started around 4:30am. He was done vomiting by noon but was completely wiped out from no sleep. He and Emma took me to urgent care by 8:30am (they open at 8am and had already had 4 cases similar to mine) and they gave me an anti-nausea shot and some IV fluids. Despite that, and repeated doses of the med, I kept throwing up what little was in my stomach until about 8pm last night; the diarrhea has slowed down for me now. Even water wouldn't stay down yesterday. Poor Emma -- both parents were lying on the couch in a stupor. We barely had the energy to change her diaper and feed her. But she mostly self-entertained and didn't destroy too much of the house. I'm proud of my baby girl for handling it the way she did. Ugh... it's the sickest I've been in probably 12 years.

This morning we're mostly recovered. We got up and opened gifts, and spread them out through the day. She got a lot of presents -- with her birthday so close to Christmas, there's a LOT in the house, but we plan on taking 80% of the gifts and storing them in her closet, and then bringing out something new every month (and putting something back in). I'll try to list all the presents here (birthday and otherwise) later so I can remember them all for thank-you cards! :) But in the short term, thank you every one for your generosity! She's had a fabulous day.

Thanksgiving Hotel

We had the most fabulous hotel room, thanks to Aunt Ann!! Emma and Daddy had fun with the chair, and Emma really enjoyed having two rooms to explore. Here's some video.

Thanksgiving!

Today I am Thankful For My...

Beautiful daughter
Supportive and loving husband
Wonderful family
Amazing "adopted" family and friends online
Challenging job
Inspiring clients and students
Secure home
Snuggly kitties
Delicious food
Warm clothes
God's Love!

I hope everyone has a wonderful, wonderful Thanksgiving!

Scary Tiger

Pictures

The first pictures is Emma on Easter Day, wearing a wonderful hat given to us by a friend in Cleveland.



This picture is from today -- all of our flowers are blooming and we wanted to show off her new outfit that Mommy got her.

Happy Easter!

Emma & Valentine

One last picture post for today.... Emma with her Bunny Valentine from Cousin Debbie! :)

Happy Valentine's Day

Our Valentine's Day outfit...



How cute are these socks?! These are from Cousin Debbie, thank you!

Pictures

Picture heavy post!

Daddy and Emma (at 1 day old)


Matching bracelets from the hospital, the day after Mommy, Daddy and Emma got back from the hospital (Dec 24, 2009)


Emma after Christmas, about 10 days of age


Bonding with Aunt Ann


First extended family picture!


Picture with Mommy and Daddy (Daddy looks very serious!)


Happy new family!


Fun with Mommy and Daddy!