A lot of Work

This is what I get to see when I get home from work at night. Her fish lamp is on so I get a perfect view of my beautiful daughter. She is so peaceful. Lately it just seems like all I am doing is working and it sucks! I get my time with Emily in the morning, but I miss being able to put her to bed. I know, simple things, but I miss them so much. And when I am home, she is so attached to my hip. If I get up to go get something, she runs towards me and asks me what I am doing. It is so sad. If I am sitting in the chair in the living room, she is in the chair with me. It is nice to finally feel important, but killing me because I know she is afraid that I am going to leave her whenever I am home. Luckily, this week, Rob has been home because he is done with school, so I have been able to lay her down for a nap and leave while she is napping! YAY for Rob being home! She is LOVING her uncle "wob" time though...she has to sit by him on the couch, eat whatever it is he is eating, no matter what I have made her for dinner, and recently...she has become his bodyguard! I am not kidding you....we were at the store last week, and Rob was standing up against a open refrigerator, so Emily had to copy him. Well, she had come over to me to see what I was doing, when 2 women went up to the open refrigerator. You have thought they were trying to take him from her or something, because she literally ran over and stood in between Rob and the 2 women and stared at the women the whole time they were there! How dare they stand next to HER "Wob!"
Hmm...trying to think of some other funny things she has done lately....OH...Rob also decided to get her this baby doll that coos. Kind of cute, gets annoying after a while...well...Emily must have thought so too! She was laying down in the chair in the living room with her baby next to her. Emily was trying to "read" a book when the baby started cooing....being bothered by the baby, Emily told the baby to shutup and then hit it upside the head with her arm! Trying not to laugh, I told her that it wasn't nice and to not hit baby. So, she gave baby kisses and then gave the baby to me to take care of! Where do kids come up with these things I ask you?!
And, she now has a new routine in the mornings. Since Tina is up for school at 7, Emily feels the need to get up to. Dieing of lack of sleep, I would LOVE for her to sleep in, but she won't! So, she gets up, eats breakfast with Tina and then watches some cartoons. When it is time for Tina to get her shoes on, Emily gets hers on too. When Tina gets her backpack on, Emily gets her backpack that my mom got her and puts it on. And then off to the bus stop we go...Emily in her pajamas marching out to the car with her bear backpack going to "cool!" As we pull out of the driveway, she waves goodbye to the dog and says, "Bye Sandy!" It is too cute.
And as for my job...it is going well. Keeping me busy. There are only going to be 2 of us to take care of 40 people this weekend, so that will be crazy. We have this woman who swears that her husband is coming to pick her up with her sons, when in fact her husband is dead and her sons live in Florida. And I am going to have to deal with my first death of a resident probably this weekend. She is the sweetest lady ever. She went to the hospital last and sent her back after they got her re hydrated and ran some tests. Yesterday the doctor called and said that she has liver failure and doesn't have much longer. Tonight she was so unresponsive and wouldn't eat or drink. I am dreading having to deal with that this weekend, but I am guessing it will be this weekend. You get so attached to these amazing people who have led incredible lives and have so much to tell you and share with you, and then in almost an instant, they are taken. Why do they have to end their lives in a nursing home? No one should have to die there. They should be at home with their families.

Random Cute Things

Emily has this obsession with any phone in the house...even her play phones. Cell phones, cordless phones, toy phones...she is all over them! So, Monday night I told her that it was time to go to bed. I'd seen her walk over to the side table and put her toy phone down, but didn't pay a whole lot of attention. When I came back upstairs from putting her to bed, I found this! How freaking cute is this?! I had to take a picture of it so I could show her when she is older that she hung her phone up before she went to bed!

Wednesday Rob got home from trucking school before I had to leave for work so I left Emily home with him rather than drop her off at Jen's work with Kenneth. She was so excited to see her uncle Rob and had no problem with telling me goodbye and go play with her uncle Rob! When Jen got home from work about an h our and a half later, this is how she found Emily...all passed out on the couch next to her uncle Rob! This is my child that NEVER takes naps!

And the last of the random pictures...she has recently become obsessed with wearing my sunglasses. I had purchased them last December when I was back in OR for Christmas and absolutely LOVE them. I have never found a more comfortable pair of sunglasses. I am always panicking when she puts them on because I am so afraid that she will break them. But, last night she was having so much fun wearing them, that I just let her use them. These are a few pictures that we were able to get...what a little ham!

Calling Nana

This video is from the other day, but couldn't upload it because the internet was super slow. I was trying to get Emily to say ABC on camera, but she was more interested in calling her nana!

Busy Day Off

OK, so I have decided that my daughter grows WAY to fast. Since may, she has gone from wearing a size 6 shoe to a 8.5 now! Not only has her feet grown quickly, but so has she! She was barely wearing a size 3T pant last winter...thank goodness for adjustable waist pants other wise her pants would be hanging off her. Now, she fits in the waist of a 3T, but needs the length of a 4T...UGH! I ended up having to put EIGHT pairs of jeans in the "to save" pile. I am keeping some of her good clothes just in case I ever get married and have another baby some day...yes, I would like to eventually get married...but it is looking REALLY sad! Since I got my first paycheck Friday, I used some of it to go get Emily new shoes and new pants. The weather is starting to get cold here, so she was needing them now. Cold...as in upper 60s now...compared to a week ago when it was in the 90s! I just want to put a brick on her head so she will quit growing!
And Today I also decided was going to be a day dedicated to potty training and learning ABCs. HA! She got up this morning and instead of putting on a clean diaper, I put her in underwear. She would pee in her underwear and then go to the bathroom, bring me the dirty underwear and get a clean pair. Luckily I had thought ahead and brought ALL of the underwear upstairs! We went through ALL of the underwear today. My patience is not so good...after we went through all of the underwear by 3 this afternoon, I admited to defeat and put her back in a diaper. I told her that she had to go back in a diaper because she wouldn't use the potty. She was VERY upset to go back into a diaper and I told her we would try it again tomorrow before I had to go to work. All of the 12 pairs on underwear are in the washer right now. This potty training thing is do difficult. I envy those parents who say they can do it in one day. HELP ME!!!

Play Time with Jen

Since I have started work, Emily gets to spend her evenings with aunt Jen and with uncle Rob when he is home. I feel so horrible leaving her, but it has been so nice to be back to work and making some money again. Any ways, I was worried about how Emmy would do after I went to work and how she would behave. When I got home from work last Friday night, Jen had left me a note saying how well Emmy was behaved and how much dinner she ate, etc. The next morning Jen said that when she went to put her to bed, Emily was very confused as to what was going on! Jen has only put Emmy to bed a few times for this and that was about 9 months ago. So this was out of the norm. Now that I have worked 3 nights since then, Emily is now in the new routine of things! Jen said that last night she actually let her give her a cheek to cheek hug...part of the OCD bedtime routine! I love being able to be home during the mornings and part of the afternoon with her. Working 2nd shift, I don't feel like I just get home to put her to bed...I get a lot of quality time with her still....especially since she doesn't really take naps anymore. Some parents have said that there children are just horrible once they quit taking naps, but it just came naturally for Emily. She isn't usually crabby at all, but by 8:00 pm...she is ready for bed and falls asleep rather quickly. During the summer, she would sleep in until 8:00-9:00 am...now that the kids are back in school, she hears Tina in the morning and gets up to see Tina.
Working is going MUCH better now that I am not so lost! Last Friday was so crazy and I was wondering what I had gotten myself into! Was so glad that I had the weekend off! Went back to work Monday and it was so much better. However...me having a weak stomach...I can only eat at lunch time so I won't have any food on my stomach when I have to go to work so I don't throw anything up! I thought changing Emily's diapers were bad...until I had to change my first depend last Friday! Let me tell ya, I will NEVER complain about one of Emily's diapers again...however I am still looking forward to her being potty trained!!!

New Pretty Dress

Today we took the kids school clothes shopping since school is starting on Tuesday! After we got all of the clothes for Kenneth and Kristina, Aunt Jen decided that Emily just had to have this dress! Uncle Rob agreed and here it is just an hour later! She LOVES it. Had to pry it off of her to get her pajamas on!
Showing off the pretty sparkles on the skirt part.
And her giving Tina a BIG huge.

Almost There!!

I started working on potty training earlier in the year, with a ok start and then it came to an abrupt hault. Knowing that my daughter is just as stubborn as I am and just as independant as I am, I knew that I had to let her do it on her own time frame and not when I wanted her to be potty trained!
In the past 3-4 weeks, every time I change her diaper, she wants to go sit on the potty. Luckily I had gotten her a step stool for the bathroom and the seat that goes on the toilet for her. She is tall enough to reach the light switch and takes care of everything all by herself without my help. She normally goes in there, sits on the potty, gets some toilet paper, wipes and then flushes and she is done. NEVER actually goes potty.
So yesterday, she was upstairs playing, I was in the kitchen unloading the dishwasher and she came downstairs and said she needed to go potty. So we went into the bathroom, she took off her diaper and was in quite a hurry to get seated on the potty. She quickly handed me her diaper and said eww and sat down on the toilet. She had started to go poopie in her diaper and wanted to go in the potty! YAY!!! Since it had been FOREVER since she had gone in the potty, she didn't just get a m&m, she got an Oreo!!!
And then, the topper...this morning when I went to change her diaper when she woke up, she wanted to go use the potty. Not out of the norm, so I sat in the living room and waited for her to get back. I sat there for about 30 seconds when I heard her go potty!! I jumped up and went into the bathroom. I was so excited that again she got an Oreo! I am sure she will still go potty in her diaper, but we are so much closer to being potty trained! I am so happy!
Potty training should be left to the pros!