Chocolate!

Jen and I were hungry for some brownies and decided to make some. I had just finished mixing the batter when Emily was whining for some chocolate. Now, for any of you that know me, you know what I HATE it when she gets dirty. Last night I decided, what the heck, she needs a bath really soon any ways, why not make it good! So, I gave her to whisk to lick. Oh my goodness...you would think she had stuck her head inside of the bowl and licked it clean by the time she was doen licking the whisk! Jen had to take pictures for me since I was in the kitchen finishing up dishes and things. So here is proof that I actually let her get dirty!
After he much needed bath! Jen took a picture of her hair to show how long it is getting. Not that you couldn't tell by the picture of her and her braids, but this is her hair full length. She is eating a granola bar that grandma Sue brought over for her.
And after I had brushed her hair, she didn't want to put on pajamas because she was busy eating her granola bar and she was kind of warm. So, she ran around the house for over a hour in just her diaper. She likes to stick out her belly, why, I don't know, but she does! So, this is her sticking out her belly!

Dress Up

Again, all of the cute things seem to happen when I am gone! Jen and I had gone to town to get dinner, when Emily and Tina decided to play dress up! Rob said that it took a whole bunch of photos to get some good ones of Emily because she was not in the picture taking mood. But the few pictures that he did get were just priceless!

Big girl bed!

My baby is all grown up! She has her very own toddler bed now! I almost cried while making her bed! Her bedtime is in a hour...then the fun will begin! I left the pack n play up next to her big girl bed just in case tonight gets to be too much. She was so excited while I was making the bed, I put the mattress pad on, she had to get on the bed. Then, she got off when I had to put the sheet on, and then got back on it. She pointed at all of her babies and stuffed animals that she wanted and put them on the bed. Then she layed down with her blanket and kept saying it was her bed! VERY depressing for me, but she is so excited about it!

She didn't take a nap today, so bedtime is around 7-7:30 when she doesn't take a nap. I figured tonight since I had to get her accustomed to her new bed, I wo uld go for 7. She walked downstairs, was so excited to see her bed. She got right into bed, got all of her stuffed animals and put them where she wanted them. I covered her up with the quilt and then her blanket. And then, it hit...the reality of her not sleeping in her old bed. She saw it sitting there at the foot of her new bed and wanted in. She pointed to it and said, "Mommy, my bed." I had to try to explain to her that she was in her new big girl bed and showed her where all of her stuff was. She wanted NOTHING to do with the new bed. She cried and cried. I had to sit with her for 15 minutes until she was calm. She fell asleep for about 20 minutes and then woke up. I went back down there and she was sitting up in bed crying. Her bear had fallen onto the floor and she couldn't reach it. So, I tucked her back into bed and now hopefully she is out for the night. I am not quite sure who is having more of a difficult time with this...her or me!!!

Painted Fingernails!

Little Miss. Emily and I together. Getting her to stay still for a quick picture was a miracle in itself!

So, Tina got her nails painted tonight, and then Emily had to also! She actually sat there and watched the entire time. But getting her to sit still long enough to take a picture, that is another story! This is the first time that I painted her fingernails, so I had to take a picture.
And this is bedtime! Aunt Jen wanted to give her a hug goodnight, and this is Emmy realizing that she had to go to bed!! These are the moments that my parents don't recognize when they call her their angel girl!!!

Air Zoo

Yesterday we went to the Air Zoo in Kalamazoo. Rob, Jen and the kids had gone earlier in the week and wanted to take Emmy there so she could try out all of the stuff. This is here running through the airplane that they had on display there. There was a picture of soldiers actually sitting in it from WW1...I do believe!!!
Of course they had a few rides there for the kids to go on. This is one of them. They were hot air balloons that went up in the air and around in circles. I of course was very hesitant on letting Emmy go since she is still so small, but uncle Rob took her and rode next to her. She had so much fun...mainly looking for Kristina who was a few seats back!
This is Emmy and Tina in front of one of the many planes that they had there. Can you tell that Emmy was a little tired and bored at this point! This area had NO AC!!! It was horrible!
This was the very end of the trip. We are standing outside of the Air Zoo watching planes take off. Emmy was wanting to see the plane take off and I was showing her where it went. Yup, she is VERY tired and VERY VERY crabby at this point in the day!
All in all, she did very well. We only had to go to the bathroom once to let her finish her "temper tantrum" instead of screaming inside of the very quiet, very open, very populated building making everyone think that I was abusing her! She screamed for 5 minutes in the bathroom, I had to bend down to her level, hold her hands and ask her if she was about finished throwing a fit. She put her hands over her eyes, looked at me and sadly said, "Yes mommy." So, we walked back to meet up with her aunt and uncle and she was a very happy girl from then on. Amazing how they like to test the waters and see how bad they can behave in public. We had our understanding that it is not acceptable and she was good to go!
It is so much fun to see her face when she sees something new and interesting. Kind of a new perspective on things. Just to take the time and see something through a 2 year old's eyes is something so interesting.

Shots

So today was our last day alone together. Not so much of a fun one though. Emily had an appointment this morning for her last set of shots. I had missed her 1 year shots because of trying to get insurance. Then I got it and then had the worst time getting her doctor changed to someone local in Niles. Who would've thought that it would take so long! So any ways, she got her last 3 shots this morning. As soon as I sat her on the examining table, poor thing knew what was going on. She looked at me with her sad little eyes wanting me to pick her up. I had to hold her hands so she wouldn't mess with the shots. The nurse luckily had EVERYTHING ready. She pulled down Emmy's shorts, and had all 3 shots in her thighs in less than 10 seconds! Emmy started to cry, but really didn't have enough time to really get going! The nurse put bandaids on really quickly and sat her up. As soon as she was sat up, she looked at her legs and said, "Whoa baby, I got ouies!" It was so funny. I asked her if they hurt as the nurse was standing her up and she replied with, "Ouch mommy, those hurt." It was too cute. The nurse said she go to the treasure chest and get a toy since she was so good. she got her sots 4 hours ago and is still doing great. I had to take these pictures to show how happy she is.

Stair Time

It used to be an every night tradition, now it is about every 3 nights or so, but Emmy has to have her uncle "Wob" stair time before he heads upstairs for the night. These pictures were taken Thursday night after a long day of heat and just getting over the flu. Stair time is very important to her. She is so attached to her uncle and follows him everywhere when he is home. He is the only male figure in her life and she looks up to him so much. She is also a grandpa's girl when we go back to Oregon to visit. My poor mother, she wanted Emmy to be a grandma's girl, but since day one, Emmy has attached herself to my dad! Now that we live in Michigan, she has become such and uncle Rob's girl. It is really cute.

Emmy and I get some time to ourselves for the next couple of days. It is kind of nice to just be able to enjoy some alone time with her. Last night she just wanted to sit on the couch with me and cuddle. It was so much fun. She also gave up giving me kisses and hugs for a while. It broke my heart. Lately, she is back to giving them. I love it so much.

This afternoon we had 4 tornados pass over us. A lot of lightening and a lot of thunder and a TON of rain. The tornados didn't touch down, like usual, but Emmy was just standing in the window and was just amazed. It was fun to watch her. She is going to be like me with storms...just love them! Listening to the rain is such a comfort to me. Reminds me of home. Growing up on the Oregon Coast, you get adapted to the rain!

Lipstick

Last day of waiting at the bus stop for the kids and my little princess decided to play with lipstick. Not only did she put it on, but she had to make mommy look pretty too! She was so proud of herself! This is her new thing, but most of the time I give her chapstick to put on. She saw the lipstick in the truck and had to put some on. Think she is going to be a little girly girl!!

Sick Girl

So yesterday was my first day with dealing with Emily having the flu. I went to get her up at 9:30, and I knew that something had to be wrong because she was just laying there quietly. Normally when she wakes up she sings, or talks to her stuffed animals, and then ends up calling for me to let me know that she is awake. I didn't turn the light on because I didn't want to blind the poor girl. I reached into her bed to gather up all of the needed animals and babies that have to come upstairs with us every morning, and noticed that there was something on her blankey. I turned on the light and discovered that she had gotten sick that morning. So, I stripped all of her clothes off, gathered all of the blankets out of her bed and started a load of laundry. Sadly, I thought that I would be done for the day! Not only did she throw up 4 more times throughout the day, but she also went through 4 more outfits and I went through 2 loads of laundry! I gave her a pedilite popsicle to try to hold down, but she only managed to hold down half of it. I was happy for the half though. I always go to the bus stop with her aunt Jen to wait for her cousins to get home, so laid Emmy down on the chair with her blankey and her Rusty puppy...two things she can't sleep without and have to go everywhere with her. When we got back 20 minutes later, this is what I found! She was passed out in the chair holding onto her Rusty puppy. I just thought that it was too cute. She later decided that she wanted to try to eat some of her uncle Rob's dinner....ha! I should of know then! She was acting great and acting like she felt much better. Jen and I had to go to town to get some stuff from the store after dinner. When we got back, Emily ran up to me like she always does, excited to see me. Then she went back into the living room to play with her baby. Less than a minute later, back in she came crying and hand over her mouth. I picked her up and was walking into the living room to sit down and cuddle with her when all of the sudden she had to get sick. Oh boy...all down the front of me, all down the front of her! I put her on the floor, caught whatever she had left in a towel and stripped her down again! I had to go get changed ASAP! She went to bed shortly after that and my day of cleaing up puke was over! You can't help but feel bad for them and there is nothing you can do. It is the most helpless feeling in the world watching your child get sick and not being able to do anything to make them better. But, we survived and luckily this afternoon she is holding down pedilite and crackers. We are attempting a nap as I am typing this!

My mom

My mom and Emily

Sitting here reading my friends myspace blog, talking about how her mother drives her completely insane now, but thinks about the past and how much she misses her moments with her mom, gets me to thinking about how things have changed with my mom.

Growing up, I was always such a mommy's girl. I went EVERYWHERE with my mom. Poor woman never had a moment of peace! I couldn't even spend the night at a friends house until I was 8 because I missed my mom!

Then, I turned that dreadful age...13!! How my parents didn't kill me or at least hurt me during those years is beyond comprehension! I got past that age and was back to myself by 15 I could guess. My mom worked at the high school I attended. Most kids would hate to have their parent work there. I LOVED it! How convenient it was to have my mom there to get money when I needed it, borrow her car when I wanted to go to lunch with friends, get a note to get out of class....as long as I had an A and wasn't missing any assignments!

Then, I graduated. Always relying on my mom to do everything for me had came to an abrupt end. I had to make my own doctors appts.! That was so wrong, or so I thought at the time! I was still living at home, my mom couldn't still take care of me?! Being an adult really sucks! Then, there is this period of life that I try to forget about sometimes, but it was my rebellious period. Wanted to gain my Independence, do what I wanted, I decided to date the one person they couldn't stand. Don't get me wrong, I got a beautiful daughter out of it, but the dumbest thing I could have done to try to gain my Independence. I learned so much within those 2 years of my life, and given the chance, I would do it all over again...just probably get out of the relationship right after I found out I was prego!

My 1st Mother's Day

My mom and I are close again. Now that I am a mom, I can understand her more. I call her for any small question, and can't wait to tell her what is new with Emily. I look forward to my phone calls from her. I know I haven't been the greatest daughter and haven't lived the life that she layed out for me. I must be completely frustrating to my parents at times and probably give them a few headaches along the way. But I know they love me with all of their hearts as I know they know that I love them. They are not just my parents, they are 2 of my best friends now. No, we don't always agree and we do get frustrated with each other, but that is life. I am so thankful for the life they gave me and made me the person that I am today. I hope that one day, I can be half the mom that my mom was to me. So Mom and dad, if you are reading this, thank you for everything and I love you both so very much.

4 Generations