Bath Time

I think the expressions on his face say it all. He LOVES bath time.

Baby Brother

We are adjusting to having 2 young ones. Some days are quite a bit harder than others but we're learning. Joshua or as Emily calls him "baby brother" is doing well. He is growing so fast and has started smiling. Nothing is more precious than a baby smiling. Okay, maybe a baby laughing is more precious. But the smiles are pretty cool too. He is still waking up a couple of times a night to be fed most nights. The other nights he is restless and wants his pacifier put back in constantly. This happens about once a week so it's not so bad. But those restless nights are killer. Coffee works wonders on days after those nights. Emily seems to have gotten used to him but doesn't like it when he cries. She shows some concern and sometimes tries to put his pacifier in his mouth to see if it makes him feel better. She doesn't seem to be overly jealous and lives in her own world of curiosity. I think she finds him pretty boring. I'm not going tell her how much he's going to rock her world once he becomes mobile. Anyway, here are some pics from recent days.

Emily's 3rd Birthday in Pictures

We celebrated at my parents' house the day before her birthday and just the four of us the next day on her actual birthday. She had a good time on both days and enjoyed her presents. Though I think her favorite part was when we sang "Happy Birthday" to her and she got to blow out her candles.

Cake from mommy and daddy



Playing with her new easel and finger paints
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Blue's Clues cake made by her uncle Scott






How old are you now?

I just love her

I love how Emily calls her toots "burps." I also love it when she does a little dance for her brother while he is sound asleep or when she wants me to sing "Happy Birthday" to pretty much anything in sight. I also love how she calls "Blue's Clues" "Clue's Clues." I love that she mispronounces simple words like yellow and thunder but can say gargantuan perfectly. When she points at me and cocks her head to the side to get her point across I have to giggle. Her made up songs are giggle worthy too. I also love watching her really get into something so random. Such as buckling and unbuckling something over and over again. I love it when she rubs my arm gently when we cuddle and how concerned she gets for others when they are upset. I love her outgoing and sweet nature. I just love her. I just need to remember this when she's making me want to pull my hair out.

Joshua pics

Our Little Man is Here

Well, he's finally here. The waiting was getting a little annoying and I was paranoid that he would be late. But the little guy decided to come a little early. So happy about that because I was ready to get the labor over with. And boy was it a tough labor. I thought Emily's was tough but this one proved it could get a whole lot worse. Though it was shorter, it was much more difficult. You see, my children like to enter the world in a position that I was told by my OB doctor is referred to as "sunny side up." This means they like to be face up in the birth canal rather than face down. Sounds like no big deal right? Well, apparently when a child presents in this position, a c-section is usually in order. But my kids were able to exit naturally. I guess it wouldn't have been that big of a deal if my epidurals worked the whole time. Oh and did I mention this position also increases the intensity of contractions? What fun. With Emily, the epidural wore off significantly within a few hrs and the medical staff was never able to get it back to its full strength. Though at the time of Emily's exit it worked a little bit and took some of the edge off of it. This time the epidural wore off again but this time it 100% wore off. The pain was almost unbearable. So eventually (after a lot of writhing and screaming) the nurse (who I wasn't too fond of) asked the anesthesiologist to give me another epidural. The second kind of worked a little. It took my pain level from a 15 to an 8. But then they started pumping pitocin into me and the contractions intensified. There was no break in between. I thought I would puke and/or pass out. It was awesome. Luckily it didn't take very long before I was ready to deliver once the pitocin was administered. So, after paying quite a bit for 4 epidurals (including 2 for Emily's birth) I gave birth to both my children naturally. That too is awesome. So, in conclusion, my body doesn't respond to epidurals like a lot of people's do (some people are like that I guess because they didn't work very well on one of my sister's either) and my children like to come out face up. So if I'm going to have a 3rd child I'm going to discuss scheduling a c-section. This might sound crazy to some because c-sections are more dangerous and the recovery time is longer. But going through the kind of labor I did is something I don't think I can even consider doing again. The pain is something I thought I would pass out from and something I never want to experience again. Just ask Josh, I'm not exaggerating. Anyway, enough complaining. Back to the joyful part of it. Joshua Jr. is here and he is healthy. Though he does have a cephalohematoma from knocking his head against me on his way out. What the heck is a cephalohematoma? It is when blood collects between the scalp and one of the skull bones. It causes some swelling and so he has a bump on his head. It could take up to 3 months for it to completely disappear. It's no big deal but I feel bad that he got hurt. Poor little guy. So far, Joshua is a good baby. He usually just cries when he's hungry. I know this could change at any time so I'm enjoying his good nature. We're so in love with him. Well, I can only speak for Josh and I. Emily is starting to show some love for him. My mom kept her entertained for the first week so she wasn't all that interested in him. Now that it's just us, she's starting to "help" me with him. She helps me burp him. But I don't know if this is just an excuse for her to hit him. :) And she also held his bottle for mommy. It's so cute. She also shows some concern when he cries. Right now I'm adjusting to having a toddler and a newborn. So far it's been a little exhausting but I'm hoping it will get a little easier as I adjust to it all. Now it's time for some coffee.

My almost 3 year old

Last night I was thinking about some of the funny and neat things that Emily does and how I needed to remember to write them down. Along with what she's been up to and what she's like at this stage in her life. This blog serves more as a journal for me because I find it easier to type than write. So, if there is anyone who actually reads this blog, that is why my posts aren't all that exciting. :) One thing that makes me smile is that she has to smell pretty much everything. She loves lotions and perfumes and so this is what has started her interest in smelling almost anything she comes across. If I pick up deodorant or shampoo at the store, she wants me to pause in the aisle so she can smell them. Often times when her daddy pours a soda into a glass, she wants to smell it. I think she also likes the feeling of the bubbles hitting her nose. Another thing she likes to do is hold small objects in her hands. She doesn't do it all the time but she does it often. I'm wondering if it's comforting to her or just something for her to do. Emily is also very observant. She misses absolutely nothing. Her hearing and eyesight is amazing. I think it's great that she has great hearing and can see well but sometimes I just want to sneak things past her. I also think this observant nature leads her to try to open and take apart everything she can get her little hands on. Even if something can't be opened she wants to make sure first by trying to. If something can be opened (aside from childproof items) she will figure out how to open it. If something can be taken apart she will find a way to do it. It's frustrating to say the least. She's fearless when it comes to exploring her world. As long as it's within reach. She's still not much of a daredevil and is just now starting to enjoy sliding and climbing. So it's funny how fearless and scared she can be at the same time. If you want to see how cautious she can be just watch her try to jump down from a height of only one foot. Sometimes it's even less of a height. I find myself wary of jumping (not from such low heights) and so I wonder if that's something she's gotten from me. She's also very in tune with emotions. If someone is sad she shows a lot of concern and will try to comfort whoever it is. She is still quite outgoing and friendly. She also still loves music and singing. Curious is also a good way to describe her. She asks "what's this?" hundreds of times a day. Often times she'll ask what something is over and over even though she knows exactly what it is. I think she just likes hearing someone else say what it is. I usually have to ask her what it is so she can tell me and stop asking me. Emily can pronounce most things pretty well. Usually if I tell her a word she can repeat it (as long as it's not overly complex). But there are a few words she just can't seem to get right. Which I find quite cute. One word is yellow. She pronounces it "lellow." Yogurt is "logurt." Thunder is "funder." Yes is sometimes "yeth." I know there are more but these are the few sticking out in my mind right now. Other than all of this, she's busy being an almost 3 year old. She wants to do everything herself and she is working hard on potty training. She is trained as far as peeing but pooping is still a struggle. A few of her older cousins went through the same thing. So I'm not too worried but I am looking forward to her pooping in the potty every time she needs to go instead of every once in a while. Ok, guess that's it for now. And yes, I just ended my post on the subject of poop.

New room

Emily moved into her new room in the middle of May and she loves it. We decided that she should get the bigger room since she is the oldest and her toys are bigger. Her first night in her new bed was interesting and here's a picture to prove it. We found her like this a few minutes after we put her in bed. We had no idea she was strong enough to pull it off.

It's Potty Time

I knew potty training wouldn't be easy. Emily has always done things at her own pace. I mean she didn't walk until she was 17 months. So I expected she'd be ready to potty train by the time she was around 5. But I decided to give it a shot around the 2 and a half mark. We started in mid March. She had seen her potty chair. It had been hanging around her bathroom for a couple of months. Just chillin. So, I tried taking her to the potty every 30 minutes or so. I tried bribing her with chocolate too. I showed her clips of girls her age using the potty on the internet. She seemed interested and would sit on her potty. But did she use it? That's a big fat "no." So, after about a week of trying with no results I threw in the towel for a while. In the meantime I continued to show her clips of girls using the potty and got a copy of Elmo's Potty Time. I waited about a month to give it another shot. Nada. I then took another reprieve and decided to punish myself again by trying for a third time at the end of May. This time I used a potty chart with stickers and decided to have her go "commando." At first she would have accidents and we'd just remind her that pee goes in the potty. As far as using the potty went, she would randomly have big pees in the potty but for the most part would just sprinkle. She would pretty much wait until nap time and bedtime to do her business since that's when she got to wear a diaper. The rest of the time she would either dribble down her leg or would pee in her cloth training pants (I would only put these on when she'd go outside). I was beginning to feel like I had another puppy in the house. Anyway, I was encouraged even with all the accidents and the resistance because she was actually showing some interest and would get upset if she had an accident. In March and April, this was totally not the case. She would also actually empty her bladder at times and pooped one time. I was and am prepared for this to be a long process. This week has been the most encouraging. She has rarely had peeing accidents because she is starting to recognize when she needs to pee and will go to her potty and sit until she pees. I think the stickers and her rewards have helped. She either gets a piece of chocolate or a couple of sprays of mommmy's Sweet Pea body splash. The girl loves her some perfume and lotion. I think she'd rather have that than chocolate. Such a foreign concept to me. Now we're just struggling through getting her to poopy on the potty. She is resisting that pretty hard. But we're taking baby steps and hopefully she'll be pooping on the potty before her fifth birthday. :)

This Little Light of Mine