A nice place to take a nap.

This is where I found Emma yesterday during her nap. As Michael said, how tired do you have to be to be looking under your bed and fall asleep? Who knows with her. She'd been in her room for over 2 hours, not sleeping, and I was resigned to the fact she was not taking a nap when I realized it was quiet up there. About an hour later I checked on her and found her like this:



I was afraid she'd wake up and smack her head so I tried to pull her out without waking her but that didn't work. It's amazing. There's practically nothing in her room except furniture, yet she is completely fine hanging out in there in the dark. She just walks around, talks to herself, listens to her music. And eventually she falls asleep. Under her bed.

Remember her purple hand? I mentioned she'd gotten all her hair accessories out. Here's the big mess she made:



For the record, there are all now safely out of her reach!

First a purple hand, now a pink eye.

Yep. Took Emma to the doctor yesterday. Thank goodness for Saturday hours. She's got pink eye. I've got my fingers crossed Mackenzie doesn't get it.

Ever see a purple hand?

I have. Yesterday. Emma's left hand, to be exact. And it was swollen. Why? Because she put 3 of those teeny tiny hair rubberbands around her wrist.

She's got a cold. And she didn't nap much, if any, yesterday. When I
went upstairs at four she was still awake but I decided to jump in the shower
real quick before getting her out of her room. When I got out, she was
asleep on the floor by the door. So I left her, I didn't want to wake her just as she'd finally fallen asleep. A little later I hear her crying - she woke up and I think was scared because she didn't know where she was. I go up and get her and put her in the bath because she's got dried snot everywhere. She's in there for a bit before I realize her left hand is purple! yes, purple!!!!!!!!

Since there are no toys in her room, she managed to get in the dresser drawer and pull out all her hair accessories. Then proceeded to put 3 of those teeny tiny rubber bands around her wrist. Her hand was swollen and purple. (Michael called it the Hamburger Helper hand.) I freaked. I've never seen a purple appendage before. I ripped off the rubberbands which of course caused her to start crying because all the blood rushed back in. I have no idea how long they were on there. At least a half
hour, but I'm sure it was more, up to an hour at least. I started doing tests, having her make a fist then open it. It didn't seem to hurt her and she was using it fine. Although she was cradling it some. I called the doctor and they said it'd be fine, that there might be bruising and it'd be swollen for a couple days. Thankfully, I didn't see any bruising today and the swelling is almost gone. My freakin kid is nuts!

Oh, I almost forgot. When I called the doctor the office was closed already. I asked the answering service if I could have a doctor call me back. She said, "No. They're closed. They can't." So I asked, "What about when I call at midnight because my daughter is sick? They call back then." She replied, "Oh, well that's when it's an emergency. Is this an emergency?" I said, "Well, that's what I'm trying to find out!!" I was so annoyed. But she was nice after I explained what happened and I apologized for being a tad testy.

She's getting so big

So I took this picture of Mackenzie on Friday. And these next two pictures are from 11/4, the day we brought her home. She was swimming in this sleeper that day, it was huge. But now she's filling it out quite nicely.
 
 
 

She's such a happy baby. Lots of smiling and laughing going on now. And we're finally over the sleeping issues. The first month really sucked. The second month sucked, just not as bad. And now it's getting good. She went to sleep at 9:30 last night and slept until 5:30, then back to sleep after nursing until 8:30. It was awesome.

Emma on the other hand, is having some issues. Mainly staying in her bed. We ended up putting her back in her crib which was working. Until she almost got out. Michael found her balanced on the railing, one leg out, one leg in. The crib came down yesterday. And she has no toys in her room, we took them all out. And it's working. She wanders around her room for a bit until she realizes there's nothing to do and she gets in bed and goes to sleep. And by "for a bit" I mean anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour and a half. Thank goodness it's only a phase!

PS, I still haven't found my keys. I did get a replacement key for $23. No remote though, that'd cost $120! Seriously, $120! $40 of that for labor. Seriously. Ridiculous.

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About that goal...

So...I lost my keys. Last time I used them was either Monday or Tuesday, I'm not certain. And this isn't the first time. I lost my set of keys a year or two ago and while I was convinced one day they'd show up, they never did. And now it's happened again. How can I lose them when I had to use them to drive home? They've got to be in the house, right? Obviously, I did not follow the "A place for everything and everything in its place" rule that day.

Which leads me to what happened today. I went to meet Felicia at Cord to scrapbook and when I got in the car, I stuck the key in the open cigarette lighter. And when the sparks flew, instead of thinking, "Oops, that's not the ignition" I thought "Hmm..do I have the wrong key?" THEN I realized it was the lighter and not the ignition. No idea what led me to do this. I must have blown a fuse, because then the cell phone charger wouldn't work. Which means Michael can't charge his cell phone. At all. Because see, we no longer have cell phone chargers for the house. Because I lost them. Both of them. Seriously. Along with two sets of keys I also permanently lost both chargers. One last March when Emma was in the hospital, I left it there. When I called the next day they didn't have it. The other I accidently put in a grocery bag with our old cell phones and chargers when I cleaned out the desk and to this day I haven't found that bag.

So, to recap - not only have I lost the keys, again, I have also (hopefully only) temporarily caused my husband to be unable to charge his cell phone the only way he can since I'd previously caused us to be unable to charge both our cells in the house by losing the chargers. Whew. Let's just say he was a tad annoyed with me this weekend and leave it at that. :)

I really need to start practicing that goal!

big girl bed problems

As of late, Emma seems to be having a hard time staying in bed. As in, she's get out 4 or 5 times and plays. If the thump of her getting of her bed doesn't give it away, the neighing and mooing of her Little People Farm animals does. She's also started to lock the door. So my paper piercer has a new home in our bathroom since it's now used for unlocking the door rather than holes for brads. One night, I realized there were 12 books at the foot of her bed. She'd gotten down, put the books up there then climbed back in. Another night, I opened the door to see her sitting at the foot of her bed, legs out in front of her, looking all innocent as she read a book. Yesterday, I was changing her diaper before naptime when she started saying "Stay in bed." over and over, very sternly. All this leads me to today. She'd been upstairs for over an hour. I'd put her back in bed once. I hear footsteps and "Hi Mommy!!!" at the top of the family rooms stairs. Yep. She'd opened the door. When I went to get her, she ran, saying "Night night downstairs!" which of course wasn't going to happen. So she's now in her crib. Sleeping.

I'd really like to get rid of the crib but it doesn't look like it's going to happen anytime soon. The strange thing is, it's seems like if she gets down at naptime, she stays in bed at nighttime and vice versa. Makes no sense. And she did so good for the first month!

I actually got her on tape the other day at naptime. It was hysterical. She'd see me and run to her bed and climb in. Laughing of course. She ended up in her crib. She wasn't laughing then. Lots of crying, actually.

Notice anything off about Emma's dress?

 
Look closely...
 

Yep. It's on backwards, courtesy of her Dad. :) After she was dressed, I thought it looked weird, but we were rushing around getting ready for Church so I didn't think much of it. Afterward, I finally checked it and yep, backwards!

my goal for 2008

Last year I made a bunch of goals. To be honest, not sure I kept any of them...let's check. So I decided for 2008 to make just one, and a very broad one at that. In fact, it's going to be more of a motto for me in 2008 - A place for everything and everything in its place. If my husband is reading this he is probably laughing out loud right now. Anyone who knows me knows I'm a bit of a pack rat and tend to be a tad messy. Specifically, I have a hard time putting things away. Ask Michael. It drives him nuts. I try. Honest, I do. But this year I'm going to try harder. I promise, Michael!

But enough of that. I wanted to post a picture of the four of us from New Years Eve. Not too bad considering how hard it is to get Emma to sit still.
 

Mackenzie is smiling and laughing a lot now. Which is so fun. It's amazing how different she looks with a smile on her face.
 

The other night, she fell asleep sitting next to me and slept like that for quite awhile. When I had to get up I propped her up next to a pillow and she never even woke up.
 

We had a lot of snow last week, although it's all gone now. Emma got to play in the snow. Okay, well look at it. My little fearless almost 2 year old doesn't like to go in it and wouldn't go in her sled. She just wanted to walk up and down the driveway and sidewalk. This is the girl who loved all the rides at the fair, who stands and climbs on things she shouldn't and doesn't know a stranger. Then again, the other night she got freaked out by Humpty Dumpty in a Dora video!
 

O-H-I-O

Go Buckeyes!!!!

 
 

Christmas happenings

So I had planned on this nice long post talking about how fun Christmas was this year. But I haven't yet done it. And since it's now over a week since Christmas, I probably won't get to it. Here are the highlights though:

Christmas Eve at my Mom's. Emma loved her boots that her cousin Shelby picked out for her. As well as her Little People farm. She also got a table and chair set from my mom that is being used daily, and quite often.
 
 

Christmas Morning. Emma was SO excited when she saw her kitchen. In fact, all we hear all day long is "Play kitchen!" As well as Play Train (another gift from us), Play Barn (as in Little People Farm) and the stand-by, Play Dora's House. As you can see, Mackenzie slept through the whole thing. And yes, her stocking says Michael. We didn't get her one because I've decided to make stockings for all of us this year. With my Mom's help, of course. A lot of help. :) Got some good smiles out of Mackenzie Christmas Day. Which is always exciting.
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 

Christmas Day at Michael's parents. Emma is quite strong, as you can see her flexing her muscles while carrying her cousin Ben's gift from us. She now says "Emma strong" but it sounds like "Emma strrronnnngggg."
 
 

Now, on to New Year's!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and God Bless!

 
 

Thank goodness for high school girls

We went to the basketball game Tuesday night. I will be completely honest - my going totally hinged on Maggie being there to chase Emma. Thanks Maggie. And Maggie had help from Trisha, and Erin pitched in too. But Maggie bore the brunt of the work. Chasing Emma all over. Oh, wait, except for the time she let her run on the court at halftime while the cheerleaders were doing their dance. Yep. My face got bright red and hot as I watched my daughter gleefully run all over the court while everyone laughed. :) It was pretty funny, though.


Here's Emma mid-run. She ran back in forth in front of bleachers. Never getting tired.
 

See Trisha down at the end? She and Maggie got smart and each stood at one end to catch her.
 
 
 

At School

Wednesday I took the Emma and Mackenzie to see Michael at school. And while I don't have a picture of them with their Dad, I do have pictures of Mackenzie with some of girls we've gotten to know well.



Maggie
 

Mackenzie
 

Martha
 

Megan and Erin
 

Tree Time

Before I get to the Christmas tree, I have to share this picture of Emma. We think it's just hilarious how she sleeps with her butt up in the air. Something she's been doing for a long time actually. I have no idea how it's comfortable, but i guess she thinks it is.

 

Wednesday night we went and got our tree. Holy cow, it was cold. It was the fastes tree picking ever. I had Mackenzie all bundled up in her red snow suit that Erin, a student of Michael's, got her. She still didn't like being out there though!
 
 
 

 

Friday night we decorated the tree. Emma definitely enjoyed this. She first tried to help Michael with the lights, then she was my assistant, handing me ornaments - faster than I could hang them. Her favortie thing though, is the train. She loves it. Mackenzie just hung out in her bouncy seat watching, perfectly content.