AND NOW ALMOST 6 WEEKS LATER......

YOU guessed it, I am now almost 6 weeks behind. So much for catching up. Oh, the story of my life!!!!

November was pretty boring. Thanksgiving of course was the big highlight. I did take some good pics of Emily with her Pappa. She also got to ride on Pappa's 4 wheeler. Her uncle let her steer and press the gas. Might I remind you what a thrill seeker she is. I was about to have a heart attack.

December has proved to be pretty busy. I feel like a slacker, we have not done near as much activities this year as last. We have done a few crafts, but I didn't take pics. Oh well, I will try to highlight them here.

• We made a foam gingerbread house
• we have made a few Christmas ornaments.
• Emily was a little sheep in the church choir program...she was the talk of the night!! She echoed the song when she was supposed to sing, wouldn't wear her hat. At one point she looked back and saw the angel had a play candle and asked her, "Where did you get that?"
• The preschool choir went on the road with the handbellls to a nursing home to preform. Emily called it a "nursery home." The old people made her a little nervous, but the elderly talked about how the children made their Christmas, so that makes it all worth it.
• We went to the zoo at night to see the lights. It was really neat. They did have unique lights, but it was also cool to shine a flashlight into the animal exhibits and see them sleeping.

NEXT UP

We still haven't been to the park here in town that has lights. Will probably do that next week or maybe after Christmas.

Emily has also expressed interest in riding around to see Christmas lights. I have tried to do that for the last two years, but she has shown no interest. Guess we will do that this year.

Emily's birthday is next week. Hard to believe my baby will be 4. Where does time go!! We are having her Birthday party at a Jumpy place. She wants it at Ch*ckie Cheese. We are going to take her there as a family the night of her birthday.

Granny has yet to make cookies with her. That will probably be the week of Christmas. Daddy is taking 2 vacation days before Christmas, so he will be off for 5 days. YAY!!

Christmas Eve we are going to Granny and Pappa's, then to church. We are staying home all day Christmas day.

CHRISTMAS BLOOPERS

and of course, what would a Christmas post be without adding some of the things that she has been saying. The only funny things she has said this year is "Rudolf the Red Hot Reindeer."

I need a new cardreader to upload pics. Think that's what I will get me for Christmas. So for now, you will have to endure without pics!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS. JESUS IS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON.

ALL CAUGHT UP ON POSTS

OK, I am now caught up on posts with pics. The quality of the download isn't the best, I may try to fix it later, but I atleast have it all documented!!

It is 4 or five posts, just scroll down. I think the first one is pics of her and I and grandma and Emily.

GOTCHA DAY

Happy Gotcha day anniversary number 3. Can you beleive!! I like to do a picture to show how much she has grown. and what was our Gotcha day activity? I am glad you asked. We told Emily we would do whatever she wanted to do. We had in mind to take her to Ch#ckie Ch##se, but she wanted to play M$noply with her family!!

FALL FESTIVAL

PUMPKIN CARVING

SWAMP TOT

These are from the Bluebonnet Swamp tot program that we did every Wed. in Oct. It is very unusual for us to have this much color in changing leaves. Usually don't get this until late Nov. or later, and it is very little. Because of Hallow**n, they stapled glow in the dark eyes on the trees for a night hike. We will definately do that next year. See the chocolate bunny? That is a cypress knot (root).

PUMPKIN PATCH

My favorite picture is where she is standing beside the scarecrow stick!! I loved her outfit too. It says "cutest pumpkin in the patch."

Corn Maize

Okay, finally able to post pics. I think the problem is my photo card is a higher quality than my computer, and I need to get a faster card reader. What ever.

I went to walm$rt and put them on a disc. not very good quality, but you get the idea.

These pics were taken at the Rural Life Museum's corn maize. It was really cute, and Emily enjoyed.

WHAT A BUSY OCTOBER!!

ok, evidently my car-reader for the photos is not working. Sorry no pics, I will see what I can do to fix it and get pics up.

October has turned into quite a busy month. We have had tons of fun!! I had a bunch of things planned. We did about half of them, plus other things.

Here's a quick bullet list and I will try to get pics up soon.

• Pumpkin Patch. I had her dressed in a cute little pumpkin outfit. It was long sleeved and the shirt said "cutest pumpkin in the patch." Keep in mind it was long sleeved and it was almost 90 degrees....and my girl hates to sweat. But mommy got great pictures!!

• We did a mini corn maize. A local rural life musem in Baton Rouge had heritage days with a pumpkin patch and corn maize. Emily and I went with Maw Maw, and we all had a good time. Emily was too little to be interested in the demonstrations of what life was like 100 years ago, so we just did the corn maize and pumpkin patch. Again great pictures.

• Daddy and Emily carved pumpkins. She of course wanted something scary. We used a pattern book and Daddy let her pick it out. On a difficulty level of 1 to 5, this one was a 4. It is a real scary looking owl. She begged and begged to help. Well, we adults know that it is the kids' job to clean out the pumpkin. I knew she would hate the slimy stuff, and she did!! It was funny to hear her beg to help, then discover she didn't like how it felt!!

• We took her to a fall festival at the first little church that Donnie and I attended after we got saved. It was great to see so many people that we had't seen in years.

• Emily and I did an educational program at the Bluebonnet Swamp. It was every Wed. morning from 9:30 to 11:30. It was called "swamp tots." I thought it was only for Oct, but it is a year around program. They have a weekly theme and do crafts, a nature walk, story time, snack time, pet an animal, and a movie. We really enjoyed it. The themes were turtles, the wind (they made pinwheels), skunks (she called them kunks, and the animal that they got to pet that day was a bearded dragon that she called a baby dinosaur!!), and bats. We will definately do this program again, probably in the spring.

• All of this, and we still have the fall festival at church. What a fun time October has been!!

THE FAIR

Yes, I am way behind on blogging....again. These are a few pics I took at the fair at the beginning of the month, Oct. 6th . This was the first time we took her to a fair. She is a thrill seeker, and has been talking about riding, "scary big kid rides," for a long time now!! She had tons of fun. She rode her first roller coaster, another thing she has been so anxiously waiting to ride. And how fitting, the roller coaster was a Chinese New Year Dragon. Emily and I rode the bumper cars, a Bee ride, and her and Daddy went into a fun house type thing. She rode the car and motorcycle kiddie rides by herself. Don't tell anyone, but she was a little afaid on the motorcycle ride. It would pop little wheelies as it went around the track, and I think it took her by surprise. I wanted to ride the ferris wheel with her, but I chickened out. It was one of the great big ones, and Daddy hates ferris wheels, and I was very leary about taking her by myself. She also was very excited about getting cotton candy...the highlight of the night!!!

EMILYISMS

Oh, the things this girl comes up with. She just cracks us up!!

• "Grips" on socks are "groups" according to Emily. She loves them, they help her climb!!
• She calls the handbells at church "dingbells." Emily says that is the sound they make.
• Donnie and I love to play sudukio...she calls it "toy oak e o."
• The other day I washed her favorite blanket. It upset her terribly. She cried and cried (yes, most of the tears were D.R.A.M.A). I asked her what was wrong. "I miss Pink Baby." Emily she was stinking and dirty. Her reply, "That's my business. I am your business and you take care of me, Pink Baby is my business and I will take care of her!!"
• Wednesday when we went to church for Children's Choir, she didn't want to wear long pants. She hates to sweat, and she was afraid she would get too hot. I told her she would be fine, I wanted her to wear the long pants. She said all her friends would tease her and call her "Long Pants Emily."
• The other day we were going to go kidnap Daddy and take him to lunch. I of course had to explain to her what Kidnap meant. While I was at it, I explained ransom as well. So we went into Daddy's work, and she told Daddy, "you have to come with me and Mommy." Then she went over to Daddy's boss and told him, "You can have daddy back if you give us 300 bucks." It was too cute!!
• The other day I was brushing her hair out and it was in knots. I asked her where she got all the knots. Her answer, "mouse." She meant rats!!
• She is extremely (and always has been) observant. She notices the slightest thing. and she always says: "something is different." Like the other day she said "Mommy shaves in the bath, and Daddy shaves out of the bath." Our neighbor got a new car 3 days ago. Today she said look Ms. Anne's car is a different color. She had a white Corolla, she now has a silver Corolloa. Daddy likes to drink from a 32 oz. plastic cup, and I like to drink from a 16 oz. cup. For no reason the other day I had the bigger cup and Daddy the smaller...she noticed and commented on it!!

I am still having quite a time with her hiding things!! She loves to hide keys, cell phones, library books and movies, anything that she can, she hides!! I know one day when she outgrows this phase, I am going to miss it....maybe!!

Children's Choir and pics with momma

Emily is loving Children's Choir at church. She just loves to sing!!! The choir teachr had them sing for the Wednesday night prayer group. There is only about 10 or 15 people there. The kids did well. on the way to church, Emily started telling me she was nervous. I kept telling her she was going to do fine, it wasn't anythig to be nervous about. She kept saying she was nervous and that I didn't understand. Finally, I asked her to tell me what she was nervous about. "I am in long pants, and I am afraid I am going to sweat before I get to church!!" The girl HATES to sweat!!!

The other 2 pics are pics of her and I together, all dressed fro fall. Notice, Momma has new glasses. I am enjoying being able to see!! Didn't realize just how much I couldn't see. Emily overall likes my glasses. She does say that she doesn't like my glasses because now I can see her getting in trouble!!!

Where does she get these things!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY

Today was Daddy's birthday. Emily looked forward to that day for weeks. She is definately a party girl. I bought daddy's present over a week ago, and I showed it to her before I hid it. She even knew where I hid it. She did not tell. She is a good secret keeper!!! I also told her weeks ago that we were going to surprise daddy and make cupcakes. She managed to keep that secret until this morning. We called daddy at work to wish him a happy birthday and he asked what we were going to do today, and she said, "make cupcakes!" She had lots of fun making the cupcakes. Her job was to put the paper liners in the muffin pan while I mixed everything up. I then divided the batter into 2 bowls and let her scoop, then eat whatever she wanted. I did the same with the icing. It is funny, she called the icing butter. She buttered the cupcakes!! She wanted to play games at Daddy's party. It was just the 3 of us, so we asked her what game she thought we should play. "Hide and Go Seek." So that's what we did!!

I have been having some severe behavoir problems with Emily. Sometimes she is down right rude to me. She will scream and yell at me sometimes for no reason. Or she will demand that I get her something to eat or drink. She also loves to make me mad. There seems to be nothing I can do to break her of this when she gets in this mood. One day this week, she took the scissors to my bed sheets!! When I found it she just laughed. I spanked her and put her in the corner. I asked her why she did it, and her answer was to make Mommy mad. Daddy and I talked about how we were going to break her of this disobedience and rudeness. He talked to her and wasn't making much progress. She would just blame it on me. Finally, he hit a button with her. He told her he was going to take all her "Babies" (her baby blankets, she has them named, ie Pink Baby, Polka Baby...) and take them to his shed and shred them. She put on a great poker face like this didn't bother her a bit. After about 20 minutes the wailing began. "I miss my babies!!" Finally, she cracked. We told her she had to stop being ugly to Mommy, no more rudeness and demanding and plain screaming at Mommy. We are now seeing some turnaround in her behavior. We are going to give her back her babies one at a time over the next couple of weeks. We have also had to pick up a bunch of her toys because it has become such a battle to get her to pick them up. Sunday we asked her for 3 hours to pick up her toys. We spanked and put her in the corner, and she still would not pick them up. Last resort, I put her in the corner, and I picked up her toys and put them up. She of course cried. I told her she had to earn her toys back. She asked me what that meant. I said you have to work to get them back. She wailed even louder and said, "I have to get a job??" It was so hard not to laugh. OH, life with a strong willed child!!!

WE ARE STILL HERE.....

Oh, my little girl is getting SO big!!

We haven't been doin much lately...these are the first pics I have taken in 2 months!!

Here is a list of some things that we have planned for the next 2 months. October is going to be one busy month...but we are going to have tons of fun!!

• The first weekend of Oct. we are going camping. This will be Emily's first camping trip. We are going to a local campground that is only about 30 min. from the house. We are going to stay in a cabin, but we are going to do a campfire with smores and all the other fun stuff that goes with camping. This place is very kid oriented, so it should be fun.




• The county (parish if your in Louisiana) fair is the first week of Oct. as well. We haven't taken her yet, so this will also be a first. She is my little thrill seeker...the scarier the better. She can't wait to ride the rides.




• Then the annual pumpkin patch. I usually dress her up in a fall outfit and use this as an excuse to take lots of pictures. I was going through her closet the other day, and she has so many clothes!!! I have been buying fall and winter things for the last 3 or 4 months, and plus what she has from last year, and still gifts from friends and family...she has tons of clothes!! I have bought her a bunch of long sleeve t-shirts. It doesn't get all that cold here so I hope we get to wear them!!!




• The corn maize. I love to go to the corn maize. This will be another first for her. She loves mazes, and there is also alot of kiddie stuff to do there so I know she will like it.




• There is this place in BR, it is called a swamp and it is in the middle of town. It is a nature observatory type place. It has a boardwalk trail through it and they do nature educational type stuff. They are doing a weekly class (2 hours 1 day a week) for the month of Oct. and I am going to take her to that. This is another thing that I couldn't wait for her to get big enough to do.




• The zoo. We still have not been to the zoo yet this year. Last year we went to Boo at the Zoo...big mistake. Way too many people and the big attraction was candy. It doesn't start cooling off here until the end of Oct. and July - Sept. are our hottest and humidest months. I feel so bad that I haven't done that much with her since the middle of July, but it has been so hot.




• Fall Festival. We aren't going to do "tr*ck or tre*at" with her and our church always does a big fall festival, so that will be our alternative.

EMILY IN A BOX

Playing in empty cardboard boxes can be so much fun!!! Granny got a new washer in June (yes, these are pictures from June, I told you I was WAY behind!!). I brought the box to our house to let her play in it. She loved it. She colored on it, and played house in it. It sat on our front porch for about two weeks. She would sneak outside to play in it. I would tell her to "get in the house," and she would get in her cardboard box instead of go inside!!!

I love the picture of her at our front door. She looks so grown. Where or where did my baby go!!

AT LAST A POST WITH PICS

In the middle of July (yes, I am that far behind on bloggin!!), we took Emily to a children's museum. She loved it and had so much fun. It was an old warehouse that had been convereted into a museum. There were all kinds of little rooms with "grown up" things to do. There was a little hospital, dental office, grocery store and resteraunt. In the grocery store there were little buggies and shelves with food and a cash register. The kids shopped for food then took it to the cash register and there was prices on all the food, and they entered it into the cash register and even got a receipt!! She also enjoyed the bubble station. I just love the top picture.

Next up, I will blog some pics of Emily in the water. Oh, how she loves the water!!

WORD OF THE DAY

Another pictureless update. I do have some pics I would like to post, but sorry to say, not in the mood. Instead I will just blog about some of the funny things that Emily says and does. She is growing up so fast!!!

Her vocabulary is growing so much. She says words that you would not expect a 3 year old to say, and she is using them in the correct way!! Last week, it was like a new big word everyday!!

HYDRATE - She was playing in her sandtable and the sand was wet. She said it was hydrated. I said Emily, do you know what that means, and she said wet!!

MOTIVATE - she started saying this out of the blue. She would chase us around the house with a fly swatter to motivate us!!

There was one other word that she used, but I can't think of it right now.

Emily moved up to a big kid class at church. No more nursery. At first she was very apprehensive about it. She was afraid that they didn't have cool toys in there. She is very excited to be a big kid.

We took Emily to a Night out Against Crime family night at a grocery store parking lot. They had rides for the kids. She and Daddy rode a ride that is a wheel like that has 4 seats inside and 4 men spin it from the outside and it goes upside down. This was her first big kid ride. She loved it. Now she can't wait to ride big kid rides all by herself!!

SLEEP

Disclaimer This is a post just for me as record keeping....too lazy to fill in baby book, and too busy to scrapbook, so blog it is!!

Our only "adoption" attachment or adjustment issue that we have dealt with is the sleep issue. From the first night that we received her, sleep has been an issue. In the orphanages, I am sure that they do not rock the babies to sleep. I am just assuming, but my thought is that they just put them in the beds, and that is it. The first night that we had her if you can imagine, we are total strangers to her. We comfort her, walk with her, stroll her.....to put her to sleep. Still to this day, put her in the car and she goes out. A sign of how active she is, get her still and she goes to sleep!! Once we got her home, our game plan was that we were going to put her in her bed. She totally freaked out!! She screamed and cried for 45 minutes. I couldn't take it, and I went in and laid down in the daybed with her. Once she went to sleep, I would move her to the crib. The first week that we were home, I don't think she slept more than 45 minutes at a time in the crib. And I tried to get her to sleep in the crib....Sometimes I was putting her back in the crib 8 to 10 times a night that was for the first week.....made for a very long week!! I also slept on the daybed (she in the crib beside daybed) for the first 3 weeks that we were home with her to help her transition to her new surroundings. She rarely slept in her crib for more than 3 or 4 hours straight. Some nights she refused to sleep in the crib at all. Every time I moved her over, she would wake up, and refuse to be left in the crib. I would try to let her cry it out, but she proved to be more hard-headed than me!! I moved her out of the crib altogether shortly after her 2nd birthday. She seemed to sleep much better in the daybed, many nights sleeping all night. She would go about a week sleeping well, then we would have about 2 weeks where she was up screaming (night terrors) several times a night. It was never Donnie's and I's desire to have her in our bed, but ....I just kept telling myself it was temporary. I always went to her as soon as I heard her cry (for bonding reasons), and I would lay with her in the daybed until she went back to sleep. Sometimes I would have to do this 2 or three times a night. After the 3rd time, I would sleep with her all night. I reasoned with myself that she must need me and need the security. Then like a dummy, I started putting her in our bed more and more. Some nights I would fall asleep and not move her to her bed, or she would wake up and not let me leave her. Some nights it was so funny, I would lay down and pat her till she went back to sleep, and she would fall asleep in mid-wail!! So funny.

Emily was about 18 months when she started climbing out of her crib. The first time she got out, I asked her how she got out and her answer was "climb." So cute....hard to beleive there was a time when she talked in just one word sentences!! Once she started being able to get out of bed on her own, we had to think quick about how we were going to keep her from roaming the house and getting into things while we slept (I am a VERY deep sleeper!) We put an alarm on the outside of her door. That did the trick, we could always hear her get up. We used that alarm until long after she turned 3. We decided to leave it on for the teenage years!!! HA HA HA

I am now proud to say that as of the last 2 weeks, I am finally able to put her in her bed and leave her room and she is falling asleep on her own!! At first it was hard for her, and she freaked out. But she only freaked out the first night, and only for about 3 minutes. I just told her that I would come back and check on her. Once she realized that I would check on her, she began grinning from ear to ear and hug me and tell me that she loved me. I am really glad that I did not rush this crucial bonding and attachment step. I didn't think we would ever get to this point, but I waited until she understood. When I put her to bed at night she is excitedd to be going to bed by herself, and asks me to check on her.

Now night time potty training is still an issue. We use diapers or pull-ups at night and she is always soaked in the morning. I did forget to put a diaper on her about a week ago, and she stayed dry and was so excited. We decided to try panties at night. We had dry panties for 3 nights straight, then 2 nights of wet, so I put her back in diapers. I felt like we were making too many big girl steps at one time. She also began having "accidents" during the day too. I am trying to teach her that if she has to potty at night to get up and go to the bathroom, or call for me and I will take her. She says she can't her "yawner" is broken, and she can't wake up. I asked her what we needed to do to fix it, she said her yawner needs new batteries!!

She is so funny. When she wakes up, even if it is the middle of the night, she starts singing (at the top of her lunges, I might add) "Daddy, come get me."

WATER BABY

Long Time No Blog

No excuses...just not taking the time. I do love to blog, but lately it has become a chore.

We have really been enjoying our summer. We spend a lot of time outside and Emily is "brown as a biscuit" as our neighbor Ms. Ann says. She looks so cute, she has tan lines. Her favorite outdoor activities are bubbles, her sand table (she loves loves her sand table), and of course playing in the water. We definately have a water bug. Swimming lessons went very well. She loved her teacher, Ms. Glenda, and Mommy does too. Ms. Glenda had them diving to the bottom of the pool (3 foot area) within the first 5 monutes. It was so amazing to see 3 year olds not afraid to swim underwater let alone going to the bottom of the pool!! I took plenty of pics, I will post later.

Emily is of course growing like a weed. She is now big enough for a booster seat. She is 35 1/2 inches tall and weighs right at 30 pounds. Such a big girl. She is so fun to have a conversation with. You never know what she is going to say!! I will do a "the things she says" post soon too...it will knock your socks off. She is so funny...and smart!!

Mommy has been a slacker a little bit on the preschool front too. But I am getting ideas and materials together to start back full force in August. I am going to start her on reading and writing. She really is ready to read. She gets mad at me because I haven't taught her how to read yet!! She recognizes all her letters, and knows the sound they make. We struggle with getting her to write her letters. She will trace them all day long and loves to do that, but she won't write it!! GRRRR, it is hard for me to not get frustrated. I keep telling myself that she is only 3 1/2.

I will try to post pics later. And I will work on blogging more. I am so far behind on her scrapbook, the blog is kind of taking the place of the scrapbook, so I need to start blogging more. My memory isn't quite what it used to be!!

Hope you are enjoying your summer as much as we are.

AND NOW IT IS JUNE.....

I know, I have been a bad blogger lately. Blame it on F$ceB%%k!! I will try to recap the month of May. Of course, at the beginning of May we went to the beach. Had a great time. We came home and had an end of school year party with the preschoolers through 5th grade at church. It was a lock in at a place that has inflatable bouncers. She loves that kind of stuff!! We didn't stay all night, but she had lots of fun. The pic of her with the tee-ball was taken at Aunt Trudy's house. I really wish we would have signed her up for tee-ball, I think she would have really enjoyed it. We have also been riding our new big girl bike, going to the park, swimming at home and at Granny's and playing at Ch$c-F*l*. June promises to be a very bus month too. We have VBS next week, Aunt Trudy is off the next week and we will do some things with her and her children, then we have swim lessons. We have 2 birthday parties this Sat. (June 5th). I am sure we will be hitting the splash park sometime soon too. And we always enjoy our sand table. Our summer is off to a good start, hope yours is too.

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THE BIG GIRL BIKE

Emily was so ready for her big girl bike. There are several boys her age in the neighborhood that have bikes, so of course she has to have one too. One of the boys everytime he rides his bike with his mom and dad by our house, she knocks him off of it so that she can ride it!! Another boy has TWO big kid bikes. One with and one without training wheels. Yes, he learned to ride without training wheels before he was 3 1/2!! Emily now wants 2 bikes!! She rides 90 to nothing, and controls it very well. She has had a few spills, but we just told her that was part of it, get up dust yourself off and get going again!