Baby Cousin

Not to long ago I had the pleasure of watching Brooklyn. She is Aarons, Aunts little girl that is actually younger than Emily...did you get all that? It's okay if you didn't. We kind of twisted the family tree a little. She was AMAZING. She has 2 older brothers so she's pretty used to being bossed and tossed around. Emily LOVED being the bossy "big sister" for the day.

I have a funny story to tell: Emily was awesome and Brooklyn was amazing. They are exactly one year apart and played VERY well together. However, I found myself getting after Emily for EVERYTHING. I know, I know, children aren't perfect, especially toddlers! and I didn't expect Emily to be perfect, but in my mind she was the "example" so jerking toys out of Brooklyns hands or telling her "no" or trying to change her diaper are all not okay with me.

Emilys bedroom is our loft. 100% her play area to romp and destroy as she pleases. I can see the entire loft if I stand on my coffee table in the livingroom. So Emily and Brooklyn were up there playing like good little girls and I hear Brooklyn saying "ow, ow, ow". I told Emily "whatever you are doing Brooklyn doesn't like so please stop" They continued playing. I hear "oooooow" again. I say "Emily, if you don't stop, mommy is going to come up there" They started playing again. About the time that the "ow's" would start again I stood up on the table to see Emily playing on one side of the room and Brooklyn let out an "ooooooooooooooooooooow" on the other side of the room. Emily looked at me like " I didn't didn't do anything!" Then Brooklyn saw me. She had a slight look of panic and then giggled like it was a game.

I learned an important lesson that day. No child is perfect, no matter how perfect they are. I also learned that children are much MUCH more intelligent than I give them credit for at 2 years old. I kept a closer eye on them after that and let up on Emily...a little.

We did lots of fun things like...

Take a bubble bath together:

Yes, Brooklyn, I agree. Emily is a cheeseball.

Play at the park:

and of course... Have a little photoshoot! (with matching dresses from Great Grandma/Grandma Grace.)

P.S. Don't forget to check out my "365 Photos"

365 WHAT?!

Alright... I'm being INSPIRED by my friend Jess over at PhotoFreak to do 365 days of photos (located on the tab above, next to "Home"). I'm not sure how this is going to go. And let's be honest, I'm not the most diligent person in the world. HOPEFULLY, I will get a picture up there daily. It might not be of Emily, it might instead be of me or Aaron or Molly and Reggie, who knows, maybe even a stranger!. I've got roughly 150 more days until it will be plastered with pictures of "BabyVPII" So wish me luck!

Revamp!

For the last few days I've been working on my professional blog. It's been needing alot of TLC and I finally sucked it up and ventured into the blogging world. It truly is a whole new world. We will call it the "HTML world". It even has it's own language!! I am not fluent in this language but at least I am able to understand it a little...with the help of a translator I like to call "google.com" So go over, and check it out. There's not alot over there YET but I'm working on it!

(Click here to be redirected there)

In other great news I feel the need to document the fact that I felt the baby move for the first time yesterday!! I can't say that it was the first because I would feel a flutter every now and then but yesterday he/she was doing the tango in there...for sure not a gas bubble on speed. So exciting!

She'll be comin' 'round the mountain when she comes...

Aaron and I decided to make an impromtu trip up to see his Granny in Pine Mountain. This may be hard to believe but I didn't bring a camera OR a computer. I forgot what it's like to live without technology...of course I say this as I type on a computer! oh the irony... Check out my new button ----> I haven't decided if I'm going to start this on my poor neglected photography blog just so that I'm FORCED to interact with the world through it again. We shall see!!

Until I come down from the mountain...

Where's the notary person!?

It's official! Emily is 3 years old and 3 days and I'm about 3 weeks past losing my mind. She still tests every word out of my mouth and does the stupidest things. She does the type of things you would expect from a 1 year old:

*Trying to shove an entire hamburger in her mouth and almost dying as I pull it out piece by piece...check.

*Getting in trouble after crawling up on the counter to get an over sized piece of gum I had said no to about 6 times. Then after getting it and me seeing that she did, popping it down her throat and nearly choking...check.

*Covering my entire bathroom floor in sunscreen because she has decided that the tile is now "cake" and is imagining that the sunscreen is icing...check.

*Peeing on the deck because "daddy does it"...check.

And this is all within the last 24 hours!!! With all that said, I have been saving time in order to listen to Focus On the Family and "How to Effectively Raise Your Child"....or something along those lines. Might I add ALOT of prayer!!!

Here's some pictures of my bugs birthday:

Tomorrow! Tomorrow! I'll love ya tomorrow...

TOMORROW!!!!!!!!! is Emilys birthday! What am I going to do with myself?! THREE?! Alright...I will settle down. Emily's birthday tomorrow but she turned 3 about 2 weeks ago. That's when IT started...

I love her SO much, but she feels the need to test me in EVERYTHING I say. From something as simple as "Emily don't open the sliding glass door" to "Emily don't touch the hot stove" She just doesn't get it. She looks at me and says so innocently "okay mommy" and as soon as I've turned around she's got the door flung open and running up the stairs to avoid a spanking or she's screaming bloody murder because she burned her finger. AND SHE THINKS ITS CUTE! Sometimes when I turn my back she says "mommy look!" and shows me what she was doing behind my back! Just last night She was opening and closing the sliding glass door. No biggy but our untamable beast outside likes to drop sticks on Emily's toes whenever the door is open because he wants to fetch. Sometimes I let Emily throw the sticks for him but since my husband works in the HARDwood business, more often than not, the sticks that Reggie finds are...well...HARD. I know from experience that one precariously dropped on a big toe will make an adult wail in pain and want to punch something. I assume that Emily's toes are much more fragile than mine and therefore ask that she keep the door closed to avoid the whole mess.

So lets set up the scene: Aaron is outside washing the car (what a good man!) I am sitting on the couch reading a book, facing in the direction of the sliding glass door. Here, I can see Aaron washing the car and I can see Emily watching him. Emily opens the door once and yells "daddy!" trying to get his attention and leave the door wide open. I look up from my book and ask her to close it. She listens. I go back to my book. I hear the door open, "daddy!", and then close again. I say again, "Emily, please, lets just leave the door shut." I go back to my book. I can feel her looking at me so I look up at her to see that she is watching me while she slides the door ever to quietly open. I get up and lock the door (which she can unlock) and say "don't touch the door. you can sit here and watch daddy, but you will not touch the door. I will give you a spanking the next time you don't listen to me" SEEMING content with that she says "okay mommy, me touch the door no" and sits to watch Aaron. I go back to my book AGAIN. Emily calls my attention to her. I look up from my book to see her giving me the most hateful, disrespectful look I've ever seen cross her face as she took her pointer finger and slowly moved it towards the door and touch it! Needless to say she was disciplined accordingly.

Is this what I have to look forward to for the next 12 months and a day?

P.S. Why did no one warn me about newly potty trained little girls and the hershey squirts?! Just thought I would throw that out there.

Lazy day

I don't have them often...and even though I consider today one, I look back and think "wow..."

For one: I worked hard harboring a 3 1/2 inch "lemon" who has already decided it it's his/her lifes purpose to give me gray hairs. This baby may just be my last. From the day before I found out I was pregnant I've been sick. I went to the ER at 6 weeks for severe stomach pains. Although the baby was fine we did find out that it did have a twin that didn't develop past the chromosome split. The doctor also saw a possible placenta abruption...meaning that my placenta MIGHT have been separating from the uterus. No biggy, just possibly the end of my pregnancy. So I worried for 2 weeks until I had my dating ultrasound, only to have that doctor tell me that everything was fine and that the baby had apparently implanted in a spot where it's growth caused the pinch off of a vein and it wasn't an abruption. Misreading like they said or a healing of God? I'm going to go with the latter because I had all the symptoms of an abruption. I've finally started feeling better now that I'm in my second trimester, but that didn't last long. I have had back pain and stomach pains nonstop. I even considered going into the ER again just to make sure everything was going fine. I decided to call the dr. office first to have the laugh and tell me it's all normal.

Now to today: I went in for routine check up only to have them not be able to find the heart beat for about 30 seconds (which really seemed like 3 hours!) Turn out baby decided to implant behind my main uterine artery so while the nurse practitioner was trying to avoid that spot so that my heart beat wouldn't interfere, she was actually avoiding the baby. "oooooooh, you made us a little nervous" she says to the baby. SPEAK FOR YOURSELF WOMAN! that was the longest 30 seconds of my life!

The heartbeat that she heard was healthy and strong and constant (at least she says so...I couldn't tell the difference between mine and the baby's). More good news: in 6 weeks I get to find out the baby's sex!

Jessie tells me not to find out. I fail to see the special-ness of this. I also HATE surprises. So, for me, I don't see waiting until the doc tosses baby up on your stomach and says "surprise it's a ****" as exciting. I figure God gave us humans the brains to create awesome technology like ultrasounds for a reason. Why not use them? Therefore I will be counting down the days until my 20 week appointment!

Not only was I harvesting my lemon all day, I was also trying to keep my ALMOST 3 year old alive. And believe me, these days, that is no easy task!!

So I guess to say that I had a "lazy day" really it's as lazy as it seems.