awaiting Miss Emily-----LIFE WITH EMILY

SEPTEMBER UPDATE # 2

2011-10-24T10:42:00.002-05:00

Fall Fun. These photos were taken at Heritage Days at the Rural Life Museum. Lots of Fun

SEPTEMBER UPDATE

2011-10-24T10:37:00.003-05:00

Cousin Fun

AUGUST UPDATE

2011-10-24T10:33:00.001-05:00

Look 2 wheels!!

JULY UPDATE # 2

2011-10-24T10:28:00.002-05:00

More pics!! As you can see, Emily enjoys her pool

JULY UPDATE

2011-10-24T10:19:00.003-05:00

OK, I AM GOING TO ATTEMPT TO CATCH UP!!!

We went to the zoo with a group from the church the first of July. Pictured in first photo is Emily and her best friend Marrissa, Wiley (Marrissa's brother) and Azia. Yes, it was hot, but the kids begged me to pour water over their heads!!

MY ALL AMERICAN GIRL

2011-06-20T11:42:00.002-05:00

She is growing up way too fast. Scroll down and compare this pic. to the ones I posted in May. There is only about a month between these pics. She looks so grown!! I will post a few more pics. Granny took both grandkids for pics. I just love this one of Emily.

What we have been doing:

Not much of anything, it is too hot. Emily of course has been swimming tons. She so loves her pool.

We have been to the splash park. That is always a hit with Emily.

We have been to jumpy place. She loves the inflatable jumpies.

Emily loves to go to the mall and play in the play area. We try to do that about once a month.

I have enrolled her in a music class. It is called Little Mozarts. She loves it. It teaches 4 and 5 year olds tons of stuff about music. She has a natural love for music. Donnie and I know nothing about music, so decided it was time to get her some formal instruction. She is learning about high notes, low notes, soft sounds, loud sounds and learning how to read music. She is so funny, we started the class 2 weeks late, so she was a little behind. for 3 weeks she has acted totally uninterested. She is so competative that she can't stand that the other kids know more than she does!! I did have to bribe her for the last class that if she would participate, she could have an Icee. It worked, she answered every question, and did most everything that she was asked to do. The studio where she is taking lessons also teaches violin lessons, which is why we are taking music lessons. She was given a real violin when she was 2 and I wanted to wait till she was a little older before we took lesson. The Little Mozart class is a great introduction to music. It is a 13 week study, so should end about August. Then we will decided if we want to do session 2 with LM or move on to something else. I just hate it that she doesn't want to do tumble anymore. She says she wants to do Karate. We will see.

Last Sat Donnie and I took her to a Chinese music concert. It was a group from Houston that played traditional Chinese instruments and sang opera....in Chinese. She really enjoyed it. Donnie and I enjoyed watching her. It triggered a memory of the orphanage for her. When we got her she had this hand sign that she did when you played music or when she was happy. They told us that it was a celabration type thing. When they began playing music, she did it. We were so amazed. She did get a little freaked out at first when they sang; it was loud and the fact that it was in Chinese. She bounced back and forth between my lap and Donnies all evening, and was very affectionate to us. We got more hugs and kisses that we have gotten in a very long time. So sweet!!

PICTURES!!

2011-05-13T13:30:00.002-05:00

Here are some pics of Emily playing on her park. She just loves it. Notice the new short haircut?

APRIL UPDATE

2011-05-02T23:29:00.003-05:00

I absolutely love this age. Emily is becoming very independent and growing up right before my very eyes. It is kinda sad that my baby is mostly gone, but I do love my big girl. We never have a dull moment around here!!

Daddy finished her park last weekend, and none too soon. The last 30 minutes of assembly were pure torchure for her!! She could not wait for him to finish. She was also Daddy's little helper. From day one, she whined and whined that it was going to take Daddy one hundred and one years to finish. It took Daddy about 3 weekends to put it up, he wouldn't ask anyone for help, and definately wouldn't let me hire someone to help him....all man!! The wind did knock the tower part down and broke about a dozen boards, but the manufacturer warrantied them, so we will be good as new!! Emily had a picnic lunch on her park today, she loved it!!

We got her hair cut short. She looks so cute. She looks sooo Chinese with her new haircut!!

AND HERE ARE SOME CUTE THINGS THAT SHE HAS SAID RECENTLY

Daddy is out of town for work this week, and she just doesn't quite understand. Daddy told her to take care of Momma while he was gone, and her reply was "Daddy, who is going to take your place?" As her and I were leaving the airport, she said,"I guess we aren't a family anymore." I asked her what she meant. She said, "I don't have a Daddy anymore." I then explained that he would be back next week. But she still didn't understand. About an hour after we got back from the airport she asked if Daddy was home yet!! We were playing in the backyard and she heard an airplane. She asked if that was Daddy's plane. I said, what do you think? She said it was. I had her wave and blow kisses to Daddy. When Donnie called that evening, the first thing she asked him was if that was his plane and did he get his kisses. He assured her that he got all 3 kisses and put them in his pocket. She then wanted to know what he did with the extra ones. And she can't understand why her and I didn't go with Daddy. She is such a thinker.

Emily and MawMaw play like they are talking Chinese. It is so funny. You would think they really were carrying on a conversation. And she is just a moving her hands....so funny. And they go on and on for 20 to 30 minutes at a time!! I have explained to her that it is a funny game, but it would be very rude if she were to do that in front of someone Chinese.

I asked her today where babies come from. Her answer, "China."

We have always told Emily the truth about S#nta and the Easter B#nny. The drawback is that she thinks G#d isn't real either. I tell her He is and I know because he lives in my heart. So then she she said there must be lots of gods to live in everyone's heart. I told her he is one BIG G#d. You could tell she was really thinking about that one.

PRESCHOOL

Emily is reading and recognizing more and more words. I know she can recognize way more than what she wants me to know. She has figured out what numbers to push into the remote to watch her favorite channels. She recognizes about 20 TV shows, some that we don't even watch!!

Emily can count to 100 now. She won't do it on her own, but she will do it if I say a number, she will say the next. She starts getting a little confused after 30, but I help her work through it. She can also recognize double digit numbers. I had a $20 in my hand yesterday and I asked her what number, and she first said 22, then 20 -0, then she said 20. We were out paying a bill today, and she wanted a quarter for a candy machine, and I kept telling her no. (she was asking for coins) I finally told her if she could tell me how much she needed, I would give it to her. She said 2 5. I said what number is that and she answered twenty five.

WHAT WE HAVE BEEN DOING

We really haven't been doing much of anything, just hanging out at the house.

We have 2 more weeks of tumble left, and I think we are going to give it up. She just doesn't seem to be interested, and won't listen, and she just isn't progressing. She keeps saying she wants to do Karate, We will have to see about that one.

EASTER

We had a good Easter. She dyed eggs at Granny's the Thursday before Easter. We went to Aunt Donna's for Good Friday and had an Easter Egg hunt with her grandsons. She had a good day. Then we picked Daddy up from work and went to Bu#ld A Be$r for a bear. I let her get an accessory for it (she got the green Panda Earth Day Bear) and she got the styling accessory with it (hairdryer, brush and mirror) What is the first thing she does when she gets him home.....Cuts his HAIR!! I asked her why she did it...."To make him look piddy." Then I got it....the styling kit!! She didn't ruin him, thank God!!

OK, I think this post is long enough. I know I don't really have an ending, but.....

I will try to post some pics in the next couple of days

MARCH UPDATE

2011-03-19T08:33:00.004-05:00

Ok, I guess I need to just start doing a monthly update. Sigh. I really would like to blog more, but it just isn't happening...Oh, Well.

PRE-SCHOOL AND PRE-K

We registered for Pre-K at the public school accross the street from us on the 18th. I hope that she gets in. They take 20 students and I was number 23 when registration was 1/2 over. They take all the applicants and test them (testing will be in May) and also go by income and who knows what else, then choose the 20. I have also thought about sending her to a Montissori school for Pre-k, but it is about 20 miles from the house, and that's a little too far.

Emily is almost reading. The other day she was looking a the grocery store flyer that came in the mail and she was "reading" it out loud. She was saying "buy one get one free" and the ad did say free. I asked her to point out the word free, and she did!! I asked her to point out the word sale, and she did!! We have now started going through some of her books, and I choose a word and have her find it on every page and have her spell it when she finds it. She loves I-spy so this is a fun game for her. So far she can recognize Dad, Daddy, Mother, Nemo, Mom. I do know that at this point she is just memorizing the words, but that is part of reading...it won't be long now and she will be reading. I am as excited as she is.

Emily has also started writing her letters. She has been asking for new preschool books, but I told her I wasn't going to buy any more until she started writing her letters. Lo and behold she started writing her letters!! I have seen her write most of the alphabet, both lower and upper case letters. I knew she could do!! She loves to do the word puzzles where specific symbols stand for certain letters and it spells words. I need to get her books that have these.

WHAT WE HAVE BEEN DOING

We really haven't been doing too much. We did go to the Swamp last weekend. They were having a big geology thing going on. They had a treasure hunt in the trails, they were cutting open geodes for the kids, a rockwall (Emily did "climb" she was a little scared, but she loved it!!), the kids got to hunt for [fool's] gold, and many other educational type stuff. It was really fun. I just love the Swamp.

EMILY NOW HAS HER OWN PARK

Daddy and I finally got Emily her own "park" as she calls a swingset. We had been eyeing this particular wooden set for a long time. It has a clubhouse, rockwall, monkey bars and swings and slide. She is so active and loves to climb we felt if we were going to buy her one, it had to have all of the above. Last Friday night Donnie and I had a datenight and went to the toy store and bought her park!! Just before we went out, I checked my e-mail and I had a sale notice from THE toy store that had this set on sale for over 45% off. I am so excited on the deal that we got!!

We also got Emily a pool. Our church youth pastor just accepted a full time pastor job at another church. They are moving and offered their pool to us for dirt cheap. it is a little one - 2 1/2 feet deep and 10 foot round, but it will be perfect for her for the next 2 summers.

Between the park and the pool, we are set for the summer. Summer, we are ready for you!! Emily also has the basketball goal that Granny got her for Christmas. Emily still loves her sand table too. Mom just needs to get her a big sun umbrella, I am sure we will spend the summer outside!! Emily hates to sweat, so this will be interesting.

OTHER SUMMER ACTIVIES

Here it is, Spring starts tomorrow, and I am already talking about summer. We really don't have much spring-like weather in the south, so looking forward to summer is pretty easy to do.

We of course will be spending a lot of our time at home with our park. There are several children in the neighborhood that we plan on spending time with this summer. Some of them we already know and she plays with, but there are some that we haven't met and we plan on meeting them and playing with them.

I want to do another Swamp Tot program at the Swamp.

The zoo. zippity Zoo days is next weekend.

The next town over has a new waterpark. It is a step above a splash park and has a big waterslide. The fee to go is very reasonable, so I hope to take Em atleast 2 or 3 imes this summer.

The beach is only about 3 hours from here. I would love to go to the beach atleast for a weekend this summer. We are'nt planning a big vacation this year. we have paid off 4 of 5 credit cards in the last 18 months, and should have the last one paid out in the next 18 months. We are making a big push to get out of debt, and stay that way, so we are going to saccrifice the vacation to do it.

Emily and MawMaw

2011-02-20T14:40:00.003-06:00

Okay, I am very technologically challanged right now. Our computer and internet are so behind that I am not able to post pics. We are working on getting out of the techno hole that we are in, but it won't be anytime soon!!!

What we have been up to:

The weather is finally getting nice enough to go outside. Granny got her a basketball goal for Christmas, so we have been playing on that and have been to the park.

Emily "failed" her hearing screening at her 4 yo well baby check up, so I took her for a hearing test. She passed will flying colors. I was concerned because she has always had a hard time saying words that had two constenant sounds together, and I thought maybe she couldn't hear them. Well, her speech has bloomed in the last couple of weeks, she can say almost all sounds clearly now!!

She has also become very verbal. It is amazing some of the things that she comes up with!! And she doesn't forget anything.

For Valentine's day, we took her to Bu*ld*Bear. She picked out the Valentines Ladybug that they had out for VD. She wanted a recordable sound in it, so I had her say "Happy Valentines Day, I love You." It so melts my hear!! We put together little goody bags for her Sunday School class, and what was left over she wanted to hand out in the sanctuary at church. So sweet.

We didn't celebrate Ch*nese N*w Year this year. We had planned to go to see the Dr*gon Dance, but I kept checking the paper, and none of the resteraunts had it advertised. Oh well, there is always next year!!

We don't spend much time doing preschool. I had tons of preschool books, and she has mastered almost everything in them. She still won't write her numbers and letters. I decided to back off and stop pushing her. It has just become a battle of wills, and I don't want to frustrate her to the point that it isn't any fun. She wants to read so bad. Sometimes she just cries and cries because she wants to read and can't. I do have several books and we get books from the library to help her learn to read. She likes to do math and will get frustrated when she can't do certain math problems. We tell her she will learn those things when she is big enough.

She loves to play her Le*pster and V-M*otion video games. We only have educational games for these, and she loves them. It is amazing to watch her master new skills. She loves I-Spy things, and is very good. I got her an ISpy for her Le*apster, and it is a 5-9 year old level, but she does very well.

We started in gymnastics again in Jan. She likes it. We are at a different place, and she is older, so it is harder. We still have some lazies to work out from the last place, but the last couple of weeks, I have really seen some improvements. This too is an area where I have to learn not to push too hard.

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

2010-12-11T17:20:00.003-06:00

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

2010-11-08T23:34:00.002-06:00

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

2010-11-08T23:29:00.003-06:00

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

2010-11-08T23:26:00.002-06:00

PUMPKIN CARVING

2010-11-08T23:21:00.002-06:00

SWAMP TOT

2010-11-08T23:13:00.002-06:00

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

2010-11-08T23:09:00.002-06:00

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

2010-11-08T23:01:00.005-06:00

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.

2010-11-08T17:30:00.001-06:00

WHAT A BUSY OCTOBER!!

2010-10-29T22:32:00.003-05:00

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

2010-10-25T23:53:00.003-05:00

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

2010-10-22T00:19:00.006-05:00

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

2010-10-02T23:09:00.002-05:00

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

2010-09-16T00:01:00.005-05:00

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.....

2010-09-09T23:39:00.003-05:00

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

2010-08-14T10:05:00.004-05:00

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

2010-08-10T09:30:00.002-05:00

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

2010-08-08T23:44:00.002-05:00

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

2010-07-21T22:43:00.002-05:00

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

2010-07-14T23:57:00.002-05:00

Long Time No Blog

2010-07-12T23:11:00.003-05:00

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.....

2010-06-03T23:04:00.002-05:00

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.

THE BIG GIRL BIKE

2010-05-26T23:12:00.003-05:00

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!

LIFE'S A BEACH

2010-05-18T14:05:00.002-05:00

Mommy, Daddy, and Granny (Daddy's Momma) took Emily to the beach. We went to Orange Beach in AL and met Great Aunt Mary, Aunt Tracy, Uncle Jerry, and cousins Levi and Carly. We had tons of fun. Emily LOVES the beach. She loves the ocean, the sand, the pool and the condo!! This was the first vacation that we have taken her on. The whole way there (Ok, it was only 3 1/2 hours), she kept saying this is my first vacation ever!! We took the ferry acrossed the Gulf in Dauphin Island. She wasn't so sure about that!! Age wise, she is right between Levi and Carly. Levi is 4, Emily is 3, and Carly is 2. You can ask her what was her favorite part of the vacation, and she says this was her best vacation ever!! By the way, we did beat the oil slick. The weather was probably about 10 to 15 degrees cooler than I like at the beach, but it really was nice.

Next up on the agenda: a big girl bike with training wheels!! We kept telling her that when we got home from the beach we were going to get her a bike. As we pulled out of the condo on the way home, she wanted to know when she was going to get her bike!! Stay tuned ....the next post will be about her bike!! I tried a different layout with the pics...sorry it looks so yucky...just enjoy the pics, that's what you come for anyway!!!

WE ARE READY FOR SUMMER!! Stay tuned. Here are somethings that we hope to accomplish this summer:

A) this weekend our church is hosting an end of school party for preschool - 5th grade at an indoor jumpy place. We won't stay all night, but we will stay late...promises to be lots of fun!!

B) Going to a water park with Aunt Trudy....Emily just loves the water.

C) Daddy has plenty of festivals with carnival rides planned for the summer. Emily is definately a thrill seeker!!

D) We will try to sneak back to the beach again. Hopefully the oil won't ruin the beaches!! I have a cousin that lives in Pensacola, and that is only about a 4 1.2 hour drive...will make a nice weekend get away!!

E) The splash park and Granny's pool. I have scheduled swim lessons for the end of June. I can't wait to see how she does...she is so not afraid of the water!!

Miss Drama Queen

2010-04-19T23:51:00.003-05:00

Oh, she is growing up so fast. She just kills me with the things that she says!!

the other night at bedtime, I asked her what she was thankful for, and she said "nothing." then before I could stop her she prayed, "Dear Jesus, thanks for nothing." I had to keep from laughing. She really was being genuine.
We were going to a craft show to visit with daddy a couple of weeks ago, and when we pulled into the parking lot, she saw the big inflatable jumpy things and she said, "my little eyes are all lit up, I am so excited." and her eyes were almost squinted closed, way too cute!!
She loves to get mail. I took her with me to check the mail and she said, " I have a big grin on my face, I hope I have mail."
I know these are all things that she has heard me say, but it is so cute when your words come out of their mouths!! The other day she was doing something, and would not stop after I told her several times to stop. I told her I was going to spank her (yes, we do spank here!!) and she told me she was going to spank me and I wouldn't be able to sit down for a day!! Now that was daddy's words!!!
I also think is cute and funny how literal children are. The neighbor was talking to her and told her she was going to be "brown as a biscuit" this summer. Emily just died laughing...I can only imagine what she was thinking!!
Oh and she is such a drama queen. The other night she was being very hyper and I was having a hard time getting her to settle down and eat her dinner. I wouldn't let her get up until she ate. She begged and begged to get up, the answer was no (we TRY VERY HARD to be firm with her). She started saying "nobody loves me." Oh, it was so heart breaking, and yes, a little funny too. We reassured her that we did love her. She then said, "if you loved me you would give in to me." I just turned the tables on her and told her if she loved ME she would give in to me and eat!! You guessed it, she had an answer for that. "But momma, I am only a child!!!"

INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL

2010-04-11T23:26:00.002-05:00

FACING OFF.....EMILY IS ROARING AT THE DRAGON!!

Here are just a few pics from our weekend. Sunday we went to downtown Baton Rouge to the International Festival. It is a celebration of all the many cultures of BR from around the world. There were over 40 nations represented. This is something I definately want to take Emily to as she gets older. She didn't have a nap and was a little grumpy (she says gumpy), but I know it will be something that she will enjoy as she gets older. They have craft and food booths, displays which include posterboard about the particular countries, stages where they preform music dances native to specific countries, and they have a parad of nations. The weather was perfect to be outside.

EASTER 2010

2010-04-08T01:21:00.002-05:00

CONVERSATIONS WITH MAW MAW

2010-04-05T14:37:00.003-05:00

Maw Maw calls her bobo legs because she always has bobo's on her legs. The other day Maw Maw called her bobo legs and she called Maw Maw bobo legs. Maw Maw said I don't have bobos, Emily pointed to her legs and said there is a bobo. Maw Maw said that is an old bobo. Emily said "those are old legs."

Maw Maw told her she loved her and Emily kept ignoring her. after about the 3rd time, Emily looked and Maw Maw and said, "Maw Maw, I DO love you, I get tired of saying it."

Emily and Maw Maw play the "quiet game." Emily does pretty good and she grins from ear to ear the whole time she is quiet. For now she thinks it is a fun game.

Emily loves to watch movies in Maw Maw's room. She loves to watch scary movies, storm movies (The Big Storm, Twister, ETC.), horse movies and shark movies. Her favorite parts on the shark movies is when the people get eaten!! Mean Momma has banned all scary and gory movies. Maw Maw has since bought Emily some cartoon DVD's for her room!!

I will post some pics later of Maw Maw and Emily. They have lots of fun together.

EASTER AT THE LIBRARY

2010-03-30T09:04:00.002-05:00

We kicked off Easter Week at the library. We went to story time and sang and danced to silly songs, listened to 2 books and did an Easter craft. We made Easter baskets out of cereal boxes. Loads of fun. Then we had an Easter Egg Hunt IN the library!! Fun, Fun, Fun.

Last year, we did and Easter craft every day in preperation for Easter, and we will do that again this year. Stay tuned for PICTURES!!

BREAKFAST WITH THE BUNNY

2010-03-17T00:40:00.002-05:00

IT'S ALMOST SPRING!!!

2010-03-09T23:04:00.005-06:00

I told Emily that it was almost spring, then I explained to her what spring was. I told her that it would get warmer and she would be able to play outside more and there would be flowers. Everyday now she looks out the window to see if the flowers are here yet, ans she says it is almost "ping".

We haven't been up to much, it has been too wet and cold. We are finally starting to see a few nice days here and there. Last weekend Daddy did a craft show that had a carnival. Emily just loves to ride rides!!!! She rode with Azia. If you look back at last March blog posts, you will see pics of Emily and Azia at the same carnival.

I think we are in our last term of tumble for a while. The last 6 months at tumble have not been what I have expected them to be, so we have 2 more weeks left and then we will take an extended break. She is almost big enough to start doing sports. I know Daddy will enjoy that.

Some things that we would like to do in the near future:

The zoo.

Nature hike. I thought it would be fun to do a "leprauchan" hunt for St. Patricks day. We will have to see. There are several places here pretty local to go for nature walks, and I know she will enjoy that.

We are going to AL to the beach the 2nd week in May. We are excited. This will be her first trip to the beach.

We will have our first Easter Egg hunt of the season next Sat. A church that we used to go to is having a "breakfast with the Bunny" as a fundraiser for the youth. I am not excited about the bunny, but it will be fun to have breakfast then an Easter Egg hunt.

KISSY KISSY

2010-02-14T15:07:00.002-06:00

Emily and Pappa. Christmas 2008.

Emily and Maw Maw. Nov. 2007. This is just days after coming home!!

Emily and Nannie. Christmas 2008.

Emily and Kuncle. Sorry Kuncle, no kiss for you!!

In honor of Valentines Day, here are some kissing pics of Emily and some of her favorite family members.

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!

SNOW DAY

2010-02-12T11:21:00.005-06:00

This was the 3rd snow in Louisiana in 14 months!! Almost unheard of....WOW. Emily is gonna think this is a normal occurance! She really doesn't care much for the snow. I helped her build the snowman. She rolled the snowballs just a little, she didn't like the cold feel of the snow. Beings we live in the south, she didn't have gloves (puppets as she calls them), we put socks on her hands!! It really was too wet to play in. We have had tons of rain and our ground is saturated, so I didn't take her out till it was almost over. The temp. never got below freezing either. It started snowing about 7:00 this morning and snowed until 10:30 and we only had about 1/2 in of accumulation. In fact most of the snow had melted by 11:00!! As soon as I finished taking pictures of our pathetic snowman he fell over!! Oh well. We had fun. Enjoy the pics.

UNTITLED

2010-02-10T23:55:00.003-06:00

This is a referral picture. She was about 6 months old in this one. Too cute!!

This is me and daddy in China. One of my fav's and probably one of the last of just him and I.

Christmas 2009. Helping to decorate the tree.

Haven't been in the blogging mood. I have been suffering with a sinus infection for a week now and just don't feel like doing anything. I know it hasn't been THAT cold, but between the wet and cold, it has felt miserable, and my mood has matched the weather. Yuck!! Spring come quickly, I can't take much more!!!!!

These are just some random pics that I don't think I have posted, or it has been a while. For your veiwing pleasure!! ENJOY.

January - February What we did and what we have planned

2010-01-27T14:21:00.005-06:00

Just a quick update. No photos....

It has been cold, and wet. I haven't felt like doing anything. I am so ready for spring!!!

Some things that Emily says:

"Momma, why do you eyes look like that." She says this when I am really mad and fussing at her!
So many times when I discipline her she laughs at me!! She will say, "Momma, why are you mad, I was only having fun." She is definately a discipline problem!!
She loves to wear Maw Maw's lipstick. The other day I was explaining to her that she had to be a grown up before she could wear lipstick. and she answered, "but my lips hurt if I don't wear lipstick!"
Poor thing, she doesn't understand that her uncle is gone forever. She keeps asking when he is going to come home from heaven.

Here are some accomplishments for January:

We are now potty trained!!! and to think it only took 18 months!!
We are now in the big kid tumble class. we have had 2 classes and poor little thing looks so lost. You can definately tell that she is an only child and I stay home with her. She really struggles socially with children her age.
We have had several playdates at Chic*Fila. She loves to go there and play.
Emily and mommy are doing preschool at home. She really looks forward to this everyday. I have been getting worksheets off the internet and I have several dry erase workbooks. The basic things that we have been working on is cutting, shapes and colors, sorting, which is bigger, letter sounds. I have been working a little with putting the letters in alphabet order, but I think I am too early for that skill. We both are getting less frustrated with one another than when we started. Neither one of us has "quit," so I guess that is a good sign!!

What we would like to do February:

More playdates.
Find a Mother's day out program. I really am rethinking this one. I would like to do it only 1 or 2 days a month, but I don't think that is enough for the socialization that I am looking for. I think I just need to be patient, the socializing will come as she gets older.
Go to the zoo.
Chinese New Year and Valentines Day. Both are the same day this year. I had hoped daddy and I would go out for VD, but a family night out for CNY sounds more fun!!
better weather and trips to the park!!
Both Emily and Daddy are in a wedding in Feb as well. Stay tuned for photos.

SPRING, SPRING PLEASE COME QUICKLY!! I CAN'T TAKE MUCH MORE OF OLD MAN WINTER!!

PINK BABY

2010-01-24T22:41:00.004-06:00

Emily has a pink blanket that is silky on one side and extra soft on the other. She calls it

Pink Baby. She calls all of her baby blankets baby, but Pink Baby is special. Pink Baby happens to be the first thing that I bought for her once her paper work went to China and the buying frenzy began. It was my prayer that this blanket would be special to her, and it definately has been. As far as calling it Pink Baby, that was Emily's doing. The dog loves his blankets and we call them his bankies, so we knew we couldn't call them bankies. But in true child fashion she decided what she would call them.

Now that she is 3 she doesn't "need" Pink Baby as much. But when she was younger, She could not go to sleep until she had Pink Baby. Her other blankets she named Flower Baby (pink with flowers), Polka Baby (pink with polka dots), Mommy Baby (another pink blanket), and White Baby (you guessed it, white blanket). In the height of our baby dependence, she would make sure that she had all of her babies. It was so cute, frustrating, but cute!! She still sometimes wants to be sure her babies are in bed with her. She puts them at the foot of the bed, "In case I need them," she says. She also used to drag poor Pink Baby around all day!! Still when I wash it, she panics a little, but I just tell her that Pink Baby is getting a bath and fluffed and dried!!

Here are some random OLD pics of Emily and Pink Baby. I know it isn't Tuesday, but you get the Idea. I saw a picture on the computer of Emily and Pink Baby, and I have always ment to Blog abut PB, so here it is.....Enjoy!!

Emilyisms

2010-01-15T23:54:00.003-06:00

She just cracks me up! Here are a few things that she says:

Gomeups = grown ups and yes she says it as if it is one word!!
The dog talks "dog english."
I made the mistake of calling her prissy missy. When she says it it comes out "p*issy missy."
Her and I were talking last week and I asked her what my last name was, and she said "Harry Garza." And then just died laughing. I don't know where she came up with that, but you can ask her what mommy's last name is and that is what she will tell you.

Emily's ability to communicate is just amazing. If we don't understand what she says we just tell her we didn't understand, and she tries until we finally get it.

Her sense of humor is also incredible, and always has been. She is too funny.

WE HAVE JUST BEEN HANGING AROUND

2010-01-13T23:43:00.002-06:00

This is Emily's latest trick. Since she saw the big kids do headstands at tumble, she has been trying to do it. It is almost scary to see her try to do it on the floor - looks like she is going to break her neck!! But it is scarier to see her try to do it off the coffee table. She figured out that she could do it in the chair and use the chair back for support!! I like this method much better!! Next week she starts the "big kid" class at tumble. The 3 year old class is just the child, where under 3 is the mommy and me. She is so ready. The last month or so I have pretty much been just stepping back and letting her do. I think the toughest for her is going to be the listening and accepting help.

Preschool is going really good. It is a learning process for both of us. We both get a little frustrated at times. There are times that she just plain walks away. I wish I could too!! LOL. I try to show her how to do it, and she wants to do it her way. I have to keep reminding myself to not frustrate her, it has to be fun for her and whatever she learns now is laignape (something for nothing French saying used alot here in south). So far we have done worksheets that I have found on the internet. The other day I wrote her name and she traced it. It was amazing!! We have been doing worksheets on squares and circles. She loves to do mazes, but she just doesn't have the concept of how to do them.

Emily also loves to play games. She got several board games for her birthday and Christmas. Her and Daddy played M#nopoly last weekend. She was determined that she was big enough to play!!

I am also tting to get her in a Mother's Day Out program. I am looking for a place that I can just drop her off 1 or 2 days a month instead of the 2 days a week. My main objective with the Mother's Day Out is to give her playmates and an opportunity to play with kids her age. I have looked into 1 place so far, I need to get out the phonebook and see what I can find. It has just been so cold that I haven't felt like doing anything at all.

WE ARE READY FOR SPRING!! WE WANT TO GO TO THE PARK AND ZOO!!!!!

I'M A BIG KID NOW

2010-01-08T17:45:00.003-06:00

Emily is truly growing up so fast. She was so excited to turn 3. She now considers herself a big kid. We did have a little bit of a tough time with the transision. She would have days where she acted like a baby all day long. I recognized it as a transisioning period, and just let her. The last "baby" hurdle to jump over was potty training. Oh the will of a two/three year old!! But, I am proud to say, that we have been in pretty panties for 3 days now!!! This is the longest we have been. In her defense, I started way too early. I started when she was 20 months old. My goal was to have her potty trained by the time she was two. Oh the will of a 2 year old!!

it has been cold here, so we haven't done much of anything. I am also battling the winter blues...yuck!! We have started on some preschool things. She is so excited. She recognizes all of her letters of the alphabet, so now we are focusing on their sound and putting the alphabet in order. We have also learned our phone number!! It took her all of 3 or 4 days!! I set the goal of her knowing it within 6 months.

I know I have promised pics from birthday and Christmas. I will try to get up soon. Just haven't felt like doing it.

FELL OFF THE POST A DAY WAGON

2009-12-30T22:02:00.002-06:00

WEll, I did almost half of the month!! I had good intentions. I thought I could fight the holiday blues by blogging, but they caught me anyway!! I am OK, just a little depressed. I knew I had to make the holiday season fun for Emily, and I knew she would be lots of fun this year and I really wanted to enjoy it.

We really did have a good Christmas. Emily was loads of fun. The comments that she made as she opened her presents were priceless. Her favorite gift from us was a soccer set. She also loved the scooter and the VT*C V M*tion that Uncle Jeff and Aunt Angie got her. Granny got her a dollhouse and that was a big hit as well. One of her favorite things from Grandma was a tent. Her wish list for Christmas was a blue camera, a flashlight and games and that's all. That is what she would say when you asked her what she wanted for Christmas. I will try to post pics from Christmas and her birthday before the New Year.

HAPPY NEW YEAR. MAY YOU BE BLESSED IN 2010

THE GINGERBREAD HOUSE

2009-12-17T08:46:00.002-06:00

2nd ANNUAL COOKIES WITH GRANNY

2009-12-14T22:07:00.003-06:00

Granny loves to make Christmas cookies and candies. She is thrilled to have a granddaughter to share that tradition with. Last year Emily was all about the flour. This year it was taste testing!! I forget what little ones will do and how unsanitary it can be to cook and bake with a toddler. But as Granny says what you don't know won't hurt you.

Tomorrow Granny is coming over and they are going to decorate a gingerbread house. This ought to be very intresting. STAY TUNED......

Funny girl

2009-12-13T23:30:00.002-06:00

Ok, I am still struggling with birthday, getting ready for Christmas, and life in general. It is tougher than one might think to post everyday. Sometimes it is a time issue, other times it is material issue. Tonight is definately time. Right now it is 11:35 PM, so I have about 25 min!!

This will be a quick post on some of the funny things that she says. No pics - I have dial up and it would take over 300 min. to get them uploaded!!

She loves footed pajamas. She says they are snuggly. She calles them "foot ones."

Emily told me tonight that I felt feverish!! And she told daddy that he was smart!!

She wants her friends to come over, but says they can't because they don't drive!!

Daddy fixed her some chocolate milk this morning, and she didn't want it because it had chocolate in it. She calls milk chocolate milk.

She is always saying my friends are so silly.

Within the last week or so, she has been pretending alot that she is a baby. She will say Momma, hold your baby. Or Momma, you need to change your baby's diaper.

And my all-time favorite quote from Emily. If you ask her why, she says, "because I am Emmie."

One Tired Momma

2009-12-12T21:06:00.002-06:00

Today was the big 3 birthday party. Emily had a blast and party was a big success!! Emily had several friends from church here and lots of family. There was of course lots of pizza, cake, icecream and tons of presents!!!

Now I am one tired momma. I will blog more about the party tomorrow and will include pictures.

Night, night, I am off to bed.

HOW TO HAVE A WHITE CHRISTMAS IN THE SOUTH

2009-12-11T16:59:00.003-06:00

I saw this in a magazine hanging from the ceiling above the mantle. I thought it was so cute. I decided to put it on the wall behind the tree. Emily was so excited when she got up from her nap and saw it. She said, "Momma, who did that?" the other pics are of the snow that we had last Friday night. The chance of having a white Christmas in South Louisian is next to none, but we can WISH....

GETTING READY FOR BIRTHDAY

2009-12-10T22:40:00.002-06:00

It is almost time for birthday. Emily is getting so excited for her birthday party which is this Sat. Last year we prepped her for several days and told her who was coming, but she was very overwhelmed that they were all there at the same time!! This year I think she really gets it. She talks to herself alot when she plays and I have heard her say that is is 2 now, but when birthday comes she will be 3.

Today I ordered her cake and ordered the pizza. The house is almost ready. It is so hard to keep things straighted and cleaned with a child!! She has tumble Sat. morning at 9. Daddy will take her and I'll get the last minute things done while they are gone.

She talks about her birthday all the time. Birthday is a person to her. She calls birthday everyday and tells him to bring her presents. She is also excited that her friends are going to be here. I invited a few children her age from church. Sat. is also the same day as our Christmas program at church and this close to Christmas I am not sure how many will come. But I know she will enjoy her special day.

HURRY UP BIRTHDAY....EMILY IS READY FOR HER PARTY!!

REINDEER GAMES

2009-12-09T21:39:00.004-06:00

Here are the promised pics from the gymnastics recital. The pictures arent' the greatest, but she had lots of fun.

PRESCHOOL

2009-12-07T23:04:00.003-06:00

Emily is getting ready for preschool. As I have mentioned, I am going to start homeschooling her in preschool beginning in Jan. I am not sure who is more excited, her or I. We have been working on a few things, and she loves it. Granny got her a subscription to H*lites magazine about a year ago, and she looks forward to getting her magazine every month. She sees me doing s*duko or crossword puzzles in the newspaper and she wants to to them too. I have made a game of letting her circle certain numbers or letters in the puzzles. She does very well with that, and begs to do it all the time. For the most part she recognizes almost all of her letters and numbers. We have also been working a little bit on sorting and counting things. I bought her several sets of flashcards for preschool a few months ago and she is enjoying them now, so much that she has them almost worn out!! I have also got out a deck of cards and let her seperate them by numbers and suits, and she likes that. She has some coloring books with activities in them and she has shown an intrest in them. She isn't quite ready to try to write her letters or numbers. I have tried to get her to let me hold her hand or I write it out and she trace it, but she gets agitated.

What we did today

2009-12-07T22:51:00.005-06:00

Okay, it is day 7 into this post everyday, and I am already at a loss for words!!!

We got the tree up and decorated today. It was just her and I, so it was quite a chore!! She wanted to help me so bad. I still have some misc. decorating to do, but I should be able to finish that up tomorrow.

Didn't take any pics today....will take some when I get all my decorating done.

Emily enjoyed the Reindeer Games at tumble yesterday. I did take pics, I will post them sometime this month...you know, since I am blogging a day all month!! Her age group was second and she didn't want to stay and watch the rest. The first group was the Acro competition team. They were really good. She was all eyes and she kept saying, "I want to do that." And all day today I have caught her trying to do some of the "stunts."

I am also working on a post on the latest things that she is saying. I started it, then I couldn't think of anything that she is saying!!

Emily and Courtlyn

2009-12-06T13:27:00.003-06:00

As you can see, Emily and Courtlyn love each other so much. They are both Hunan babies, just different parts of the "state." The first time we went to church at our church was Christmas morning in 2005. Our paperwork had been in China for 6 weeks. The sanctuary was packed out. We noticed the little Asian girl on the front row. At the time Courtlyn was 3 (the same age Emily is now!!) We knew at that moment that this was where God was calling us to worship. Tracey and Destry have been such a blessing to us, and of course Courtlyn too.

TODAY'S CHRISTMAS ACTIVITY: PARADE

2009-12-05T22:21:00.002-06:00

Sorry, no pics.

Today was our town's Christmas parade. Emily's favorite part was the candy!! We still for the most part limit the amount of candy (next to none!!), so she was in heaven with all the candy. Her and I fought over several pieces. She would pick it up, and immediately eat it. I finally gave her a sucker. It was s bit of a challenge to make sure she didn't have a pice of candy in her mouth that she could choke on, and keep her out of the road!!

This evening when it got dark, I took her riding to see the lights. She wasn't interested, she wanted to go home. Oh well!! I'll try again before the end of the year.

Tomorrow is the Reindeer games. Kind of funny to say that the Reindeer games were cancelled Friday night because of snow!! She is really excited about it. I think we are going to try to video it. I have yet to take the video camera when she tumbles, but I really need to. Next semester she will tumble without me, and that will make it a little easier.

Tomorrow night is also the children's musical at church. I know Emily will enjoy that. Next year she will be old enough to be in the preschool choir. She loves to sing and loves music, so I know she will really enjoy it.

Tomorrow at church we are going to take pictures of Emily and another China girl. Our minister of music has an 8 year old from China. She and Emily LOVE one another, and it is so sweet to see them together. Last year after Christmas a lady at church gave each one of the girls a matching dress that she had bought for her granddaughters. It was too late for Emily and Courtlyn to wear them, so we are going to dress them in them tomorrow and take pictures by the Christmas tree.

Till tomorrow......Good Night.

Snow year 2!!

2009-12-04T20:43:00.003-06:00

UPDATE:

We finally got more snow...10 minutes after Emily fell asleep!!! I kept her up till almost 10 pm. And she was so excited, she really wanted to see the snow and make a snowman!!! That's all right, there will always be next time!!

WE got snow again, 2nd year in a row. Very rare for South LA. It only snowed for about 10 mins. We are actually just a little south of the snow line. DARN. I do have pictures of Emily in the window looking for the snow. I also took pics of the several crafts that we did today. She loved it. I am going to post pics after I put her to bed. I also got the tree up today. It is put together we will decorate it tomorrow. I can tell already that we are going to have problems keeping miss E out of the tree!!! Reindeer Games at tumble were postponed until Sun. afternoon. Looks like we have a busy weekend already. Tomorrow is our town's Christmas parade. Cold shouldn't be a problem, it is supposed to get up in the 50's tomorrow, just concerned about wet.

PORTRAITS

2009-12-03T22:52:00.002-06:00

This is just a small sampling of the photos that we took. Great pics and we had lots of fun. We did birthday (top photo), Gotcha (middle) and Christmas.

A young couple at our church have their own studio, and they really do wonderful. Even though this is their full time job, it is a ministry for them. And these photos if you can beleive it, are not the best ones from this shoot!! Okay, just a teaser, I may post more later.

Emily and Granny made cookies today. Granny keeps Emily every Thursday so that I can do what I need to do. I hung out with them while they made cookies and took pics. I forgot just what goes into cookies made by a child!! What you don't know won't hurt you right??

I am kind of enjoying this posting everyday. Next up will be the Reindeer Games. My little brother is coming in to watch her tumble recital, so I want to take pics of him with her. With my "free" time today, I went to the craft shop and got several Christmas crafts for Emily and I to do together....you guessed it more photos!!!

Check us out tomorrow!!

SANTA 2009

2009-12-02T14:00:00.002-06:00

OUR FIRST CHRISTMAS CRAFT

2009-12-01T23:44:00.004-06:00

It is December first, and we did our first Christmas craft. I bought a cheap paper ornament kit from WallyWorld, and that's what we did. She had fun. She loved doing the glue. The kit had glitter in it, and I did the glittering. Momma wasn't quite ready to turn that one over to her yet. I do have to admit that her and I did get into an arguement while doing the craft time. The kit had a set of sticker letters and I wanted her to write out her name. She does know how to spell her name. I was telling her what letters to get, and in the middle of her name, she decided it needed an O (O is her favorite letter...go figure). I kept trying to tell her her name didn't have an O and she kept trying to tell me it did. And yes, I felt foolish for arguing with her about it!!

Tomorrow (Dec. 2) we are going to go to the mall. Our mall usually decorates big for Christmas, and I know she will enjoy seeing that. It has been a while since we have gone to the mall. This summer a frozen yogurt shop opened up just outside of the mall. It has a mascot of a man dressed up in a giant icecream cone suit. She is terrified of it, which is funny because she isn't afraid of ANYTHING. Any mention of the mall, and she immediately says she is afraid of the "ipecream cone man." She asked me today if the icecream cone man was going to be dressed as santa.

I may try to blog everyday this month...just don't hold your breath!! We may or may not do a craft everyday, but I would like to do something Christmas-y with her....we shall see.......

END OF THE MONTH UPDATE

2009-11-30T21:47:00.003-06:00

Is it really almost December?? Where has time gone. It seems like only yesterday that I received the call that my brother died, and man, it has been 2 MONTHS!!!!

Sorry, no pics with this post, I am going to do just a general update.

Emily is almost 3....she will be three on Dec. 17. And she can't wait. She has been awaiting her next birthday since Dec. 18th of last year!!! I have never seen a child that young be so excited about their birthday.

Emily is all about her family and friends. I thinks she is going to be a people magnet. For Thanksgiving I asked her what she was thankful for....you guessed it, my family and friends. I need to find her a play group with children her age....she really wants to play with kids her age.

She is definately talking like a 3 year old. Here is a sampling of some of the things that she says: It's ok momma, don't worry about it. Just calm yourself down momma. Everything is Why. if you ask her why, her answer is because I am Emmy.

She really misses my older brother. She called him "kuncle." She calls him in heaven everyday, and asks him when he is coming home. It is funny, but sad too. It is amazing what she understands. She also asks if she is going to go to heaven one day.

Emily is also excited about Christmas. We weren't going to do the Santa thing, but she knows EVERYTHING about him!!! We have several books on the birth of Jesus, but I need to go get her a book on the of St. Nicholas. Santa is so commercialized, that you can't avoid him, we want to explain him, and let her know that Christmas is about Jesus, not santa.

UPCOMING IN DECEMBER

This coming Friday is "reindeer games" at gymnastics. This is their version of a dance recital. She is excited about it. She ought to do really well. They don't ask the 2 year olds to do much, but the more people that she has watching her, the better she does!!!! And there is going to be quite a bit of family that is coming to watch her.

I am sure we will try to hit a Christmas parade. She will also really enjoy riding around to see the Christmas lights. We are also going to do a few Christmas crafts. Her and Granny make Christmas cookies. We will also go caroling with the church.

Next post will be the pics that we took for Gotcha day, birthday, and Christmas.

Happy December

COOL TRICK

2009-11-24T23:42:00.002-06:00

One of Emily's favorite shows is Y* G*bba Gabb*. They have a section on it of kids doing "cool tricks." Emily's favorite is a boy blancing a spoon on his nose. I catch miss E all the time getting into my silverware drawer and grabbing a spoon and saying "cool tricks." Tonight Daddy started snapping pics as she danced around the kitchen with the spoon on her nose!!

The other picture is where Emily wrote her name. I was going to write her name, but after I wrote the "E" she took it away from me and did the "mmy." No, we have not started teaching her to write. She brings her doodle boards to us all the time and wants us to write names. We always spell them out loud, which is where she has also learned to spell her name. I guess she has been watching us really close too!! I almost fell out.

Gotcha Day in pictures

2009-11-12T22:39:00.003-06:00

Okay, so I have only posted this year's Gotcha Day pics. We are still really struggling with grief on the death of my brother, so just doing the necessities. Maybe next year I will do a comparison!!

On the lighter side, Emily enjoyed Gotcha Day. When we went to W*lm*rt to get the cake she was screaming Happy Birthday to Gotcha!! She had to have a candle on her cake in honor of Gotcha!! We went and took pictures on the 6th that included Gotcha, Birthday, and Christmas. Emily did really well, and they turned out great!! I will ask for permission to post on blog.

She really is beginning to understand adoption and China and all that goes with it. I started using the terms "in another lady's belly," and she wanted to know what her name was and who she is...maybe I should have waited a little for that one!!

I changed gears and got a little creative and aggressive on the potty training front. Today we bought a dry erase calendar and have titled it "Emily's Potty chart." I explained to her that when she potties she gets to put a mark on the chart and when she gets 4 marks, she gets a prize. That seems to be working...but we shall see, it has only been in commission for a couple of hours!! She was so excited when she "earned" (her words) her first prize!!

Emily is pretty much ready for preschool. I am going to home school her at least through preschool. We are going to start in Jan. I am really excited. I haven't decided on a particular curriculum, but been doing a lot on looking in the stores and online. I have got some good ideas from other bloggers. If you have any good tips, please pass them on.

HAPPY GOTCHA DAY #2

2009-11-04T23:01:00.002-06:00

Wow, has it really, really been two years??!! I look at her and she is growing up so fast! I will publish pics in the next post in a day or two that will include Gotcha day, anniversary 1 and 2.

I was just thinking today about the "phases" that she has gone through, many of which I didn't think she would ever outgrow!!

She used to throw lots of food on the floor. No matter what I said or did, she would throw food on the floor. So glad that "stage" is gone!!
My baby only crawled for a few weeks!! I can hardly remember when she didn't walk.
She sleeps really well. This was our biggest adjustment. It took well over a year for her to sleep through the night. For all of the first year home, I would either have to get in the daybed with her or move her to our bed because she would wake up and "need" her mommy. She had a lot of nightmares and night terrors in the first year too.
She now calls the dog "my little puppy." When she first started calling him dog, she would curl her tongue when she said it. Then he became "gog." Then she would call him by his name "Oscar."
Emily still does some of her sign language.
As she began talking good she had a hard time saying her "f's" they would come out as "s's", but now she is saying her "f's" pretty good most of the time.
Her current phase is to not listen when we tell her to do something. Momma has to keep reminding herself that this too will pass.

Emily you are such a blessing and a joy. Mommy and Daddy would go to China all over again for you!! We love you to China and back!! Happy Gotcha Day.

FALL FESTIVAL

2009-11-03T10:35:00.001-06:00

MEET MR. EMOTICON

2009-10-30T08:08:00.003-05:00

Yes, Daddy, this is what I want my pumpkin to look like!!

EWEEEEE, Yuck, GUTS!!!!
HELLLLOOOOOO

I am all about my Daddy!! I am a big girl, I can help!!

Mr. Emoticon

Pumpkin Patch

2009-10-28T14:30:00.002-05:00

PUMPKIN FUN

2009-10-15T23:18:00.003-05:00

We have officially began our fall season. Emily had so much fun painting her pumpkin. I painted the face on one side, and let her go to town on the other side. I asked her if she wanted slanted eyes like her or round eyes like Mommy and Daddy.....she wanted the slanted!!

Next up:

We are going to Boo at the Zoo. We are going with several of my friends from highschool and their children.

Pumpkin Patch. This was a favorite activity for miss Em. last year. Granny is going to come with us. I want to get atleast 3 more pumpkins. We are going to carve one, I have some "push0-in" faces for one or two more, and then I want to get some face stickers for another. She ought to really enjoy that!!

I think we will skip the corn maze this year. We have been getting tons of rain, I think it will be way too wet, and I am just not up to it.

I am also wanting to do a few more crafts with her as well. Any suggestions??

A SHORT TRIP

2009-10-15T22:43:00.004-05:00

My cousin Mark playing with Emily's babydoll. The first time I grabbed the camera, he casually threw the doll. I guess he decided what the heck!!

This is Emily and Nean. Emily was so excited to be going to "Nean's house"

Our trip to my cousins was interupted by the death of my brother. We landed in IL at 2:15 on Sept. 29, and he passed away at 3:40. So needless to say, my planned week trip lasted less than 18 hours. My cousin Mark got the call that Curt died and he came to be with me when Donnie called. Donnie then made my flight arrangements to come home the next day. How was I to know that I needed to be at the teeny tiny airport atleast 30 minutes before my plane left. I had a 5:55 am flight out, and I got to the airport at 5:32.

Not in the Bloggy Mood

2009-10-11T21:53:00.002-05:00

Just not in the mood to blog lately.

Emily's uncle (she and all the other neices and nephews called him "kuncle"). passed away suddenly almost 2 weeks ago. He was my oldest brother. He had an infection of the lining of the heart. I will blog more about him when I feel up to it. I do have a lot to blog about, just not in the bloggy mood.

Please pray for us in this difficult time. We tried to explain to Emily, but at 2, she has no idea what death is. We told everyone to tell her the same thing (Kunckle died and went to heaven with Jesus), so that she wouldn't get confused. Another part of me thinks she does understand in her own little 2 year old way.

I will try to get several posts together....I am so far behind!! I love to use my blog as a journal and online "scrapbook" so I need to get these updates done while they are still on my mind.

OUT OF THE MOUTH OF BABES

2009-09-23T22:24:00.002-05:00

Oh, can I tell you, this kid just cracks me up. She is talking in very complete sentences, and there is little that she can't or won't say!!

The other day she was looking for a specific toy in her toybox and couldn't find it and wanted me to help her. She said, " I am not the only one that can look!"
The other morning when she got up and came into our room, the dog followed. My mom came to get the dog, and she told her, "Grandma, that is my mommy's dog!" Yes, I got onto her for being "sassy."
"I am all about my daddy!"
The other night she prayed before she went to bed and she said, "Thank you God for nite nite, amen!"
If we are in the car, and I am trying to talk to her and she she doesn't want me to, she tells me, "Momma, just go!!"

HAPPY FALL YA'LL

2009-09-22T14:05:00.001-05:00

when I saw this outfit, I could not resist!!

RANDOM PICS

2009-09-06T17:08:00.004-05:00

Climbing up up up!!

Sliding

Down down down

Me and Daddy being "COOL"!

I am reading to Momma

Okay, here are the LONG promised pictures. Yes, I have been a bad Momma. I didn't take any pics in Aug, and limited number in July!! We have just been having a lazy hazy laid back summer!!

These pics were taken at a state park not far from here. it has a splash park (which explains why she is in bathing suit..may post pics from splash park later), a playground and a nature trail. She had lots of fun.

Happy Labor Day.....

Good bye summer(miss you already!!)....

Hello fall.

FAMILY TIME

2009-08-19T23:45:00.002-05:00

Sorry no pictures. I just hate to post without putting up some pictures. But, 1) I hate my camera, 2) we really haven't been doing too much lately, 3) I haven't been taking too many pictures and 4) I just don't feel like posting pictures to night. So there you have it - the long on why there is no pictures.

Now back to the reason that I am journaling: FAMILY TIME. Emily just loves family time. She calls it family (or as she says sammee) time when she gets to fall asleep between Mommy and Daddy in our bed. We try to do this 2 or 3 times a week. She has also started saying just whenever that she loves her family. Sometimes she even says she loves her "new" family. Not sure where she got that one. She also likes to have family kisses and hugs. She will pull us towards her and we will all three hug and kiss at the same time, and she loves it. Too sweet.

I am so behind on blogging!!!! uggghhh

2009-08-03T22:33:00.002-05:00

I know I know, I am so behind. And won't be catching up tonight. Sorry, no pics.

We haven't been up to much lately. We have been swimming some at Granny's. We went to a splash park with Aunt Trudy and family....and that is about it. I will post some pics of the splash park on my next post.

Yesterday was also the 2nd anniversary of our referral day. My how our lives have changed in 2 years. We now have had Emily almost longer than we waited, and believe me we felt like we waited forever. But I am also sensitive to others who have been waiting much longer than we did. Your time will come and you too will be looking back and saying how time flies.

As far as what we have coming up:

We start tumble again on the 24th of this month. Emily can't wait. We took the summer off and she asked atleast once a week when we were going back to tumble.

Emily and I are going to IL to my cousins at the end of Sept. We are really looking forward to that.

Sept. also holds birthdays for both Mommy and Daddy. She just loves birthdays. She is always asking whose birthday is next.

Oct will be a pretty fun month as well. She really enjoyed the pumpkin patch last year and asks atleast once a month when we are going back. We also plan on doing the corn maze.

Nov. is National Adoption month and we plan on celebrating all month long. We have begun using the adoption word around the house. She is too little to understand, but we want here to never remember a time when we didn't talk about adoption. We ask her if she is adopted, and she says no. We then ask her if she adopted Mommy and Daddy, and she says yes. Too cute.

And here are some things that she is able to do now:

She can put on her own socks and shoes. And most of the time shoes are on right feet. She can color very well. She loves to play matching games and find the hidden obects in a picture.

Ok, so much for a short post. Pictures next time....I promise.

CONVERSATIONS WITH EMILY

2009-07-19T23:06:00.002-05:00

Emily has become quite verbal and is alot of fun to talk with. Because these are some things I want to remember, I am going to start blogging some of them. And besides, I thought you all might need some comedy relief!!

Emily: Mommy, I love you very much. (this is one of my favorites!!)

Emily: I want Oscar to go bye bye with us.
Mommy: He can't Emily.
Emily: Why?
Mommy: Because he is a dog.
Emily: I want Oscar to go bye bye with us.
Mommy: He can't Emily
Emily: Why?
Mommy: Because we don't have a carseat for him.
Emily: Go buy him one.
Mommy: I don't know where to buy a dog carseat.
Emily: (after much thought) The pet store.

Emily: Mommy, you are my sweetheart
Mommy: Awwe. Thank you Emily
Emily: I am going to take care of you Mommy.
Mommy: You are, how?
Emily: I am going to hug you and kiss you.

Emily: Mommy, you have a big butt
Mommy: Thank you Emily

GRANNY IS RETIRED

2009-07-17T22:01:00.002-05:00

Granny is ready to go.

Daddy's side of the family Left to Right: Momma, Daddy, Granny holding Emily, Pappa, Uncle Jeff, And Aunt Angie, with cousin Billy in the front. This is the first "family picture" that we have ever taken.

Granny officially retired on June 26, 2009. Emily sees Granny atleast once a week. She (and Mommy) are looking forward to staying with Granny one day a week to give Mommy a much needed Mom's day out. I am going to make Granny a scrapbook, so I am looking forward to going to a scrapbook store to crop about once a month.

PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN

2009-07-04T00:18:00.005-05:00

I just love to dress Emily up in patriotic clothing....Ok, your right, I just plain love to dress her up!!! We went to a local pond to do this photo shoot. Oh, Momma and Daddy had so much fun!! We were mother hens when it came to feeding the ducks. If they got too close, we let them know they needed to back off or we would be having Peking duck for the 4th! LOL

Daddy and Cinderella

2009-07-01T23:32:00.004-05:00

She swings and she sways to whatever song plays without a care in the world. I am sitting here carrying the weight of the world on my shoulders.

Just home from work, still work to do. Daddy, Daddy I need you.

There is a ball at the castle, I need to practice my dancing. Please, Daddy please.

So I dance with my cinderella, while she is here in my arms. I know something the prince never knew. All too soon the clock with strike midnight, and she'll be gone.

Cinderella, by Steven Curtis Chapman (probably have some words missing, but you get the idea).

These photos were taken at a chinese restaurant where Donnie's cousin got married in June. The bride and her Daddy were dance to Bob Carlisle's "Butterfly Kisses." I was beginning to tear up, so I walked outside, and this is what I saw. The last two were taken inside. Daddy and Emily were dancing. In the last one she is singing. The look on her face was priceless. The camera didn't do it justice. Too Sweet.

SINGING IN THE RAIN

2009-06-29T22:35:00.002-05:00

We got some MUCH needed rain today. Emily Begs to play in the rain everytime it rains. She ran right out before I could stop her. Did Mommy run to get her? No, she ran for the camera...that is what a good momma is supposed to do right??!!! Was it lightening you ask? Probably....just don't tell Grandma and Granny.

Oh I am so behind on blogging. I have several posts to do. We went to a wedding last weekend and I took some really cute pictures of Daddy and Emily dressed up. We have been swimming at Granny's...you guessed it, more cute pics. Granny also retired last Friday.

Upcoming events:

4th of July. I have a cute dress that I am planning on taking pictures in....Can't wait, it will be lots of fun. We will probably do the normal swim and bbq for the 4th.

The weekend after the 4th our town is having a 100th birthday party. Parade, carnival, and fireworks, oh my!!

**I don't edit my photos before I post. Sorry - what you see is what I saw when I snapped the photo!!!***

A PRIZE FOR EMILY

2009-06-22T20:23:00.002-05:00

A prize for me??!! It is wrapped in my favorite color....BLUE

MRS. Duckie is as excited as I am!Oh look, it's a violin, a BLUE violin.

I just love music and can't wait to learn how to play.

TWINKLE TWINKLE LITTLE STAR......

This is a just because present from a friend of grandma. She has children, but no grandchildren and she says it doesn't look like she will have grandchildren, so she has adopted Emily!! We will put her in lessons when she is closer to 4. She loves music, so I can see her really enjoying her violin.
THANK YOU MRS. DUCKIE!!

***Notice that Oscar (aka Dog) is in almost every picture. Poor thing feels so neglected and starved for attention!!****

Emily and Grandma

2009-06-12T23:53:00.002-05:00

One of Emily and Grandma's favorite things to do is march. They each get their tamborines and shake them wildly and march from one end of the house to the other....and beleive me, they are both quite loud!!

Emily and Grandma love to make cupcakes. They have lots of fun together no matter what they do. Emily does have a temper and does occasionaly get mad at Grandma, sometimes for no reason at all. When she is mad she calls her, "Grandmama" and makes it sound like a bad word!!

MOMMY AND DADDY

2009-06-04T22:38:00.003-05:00

Ok this is a rare treat. I am actually going to blog about Donnie and I. I was going to do this post last month in honor of our 16th wedding anniversary, but everything else got in the way.

Because this blog is for and about Emily, I thought she might enjoy some pics of Mommy and Daddy before they were even married. She saw the pics today and she asked where she was!!

I was going to do a post of how we met as well, but that is for another day. These pictures were all taken in 1992. We look so young!!

TEASER POST

2009-05-31T23:17:00.002-05:00

Yes, I am still here. We are still in the "temporary" normal around here. Mom's car is still in the shop, so been doing a lot of running back and forth. Yuck. Things will be back to the old normal soon. May was kind of a challenging month, praying June is better. Emily is sick....again. It is just allergies (running nose, chest congestion, coughing...) and I am taking her to the Dr. tomorrow. May was just a month of breakdowns and poor health. All complaining aside, we are very blessed, things could be so much worse, and really we know this "season" will pass.

I have several things to post about, but just kind of short on time and energy, but I will catch up in June.

Here are some current updates on Emily:

She is talking so well, she just cracks me up with the things she says. It is so funny to hear your words come out of your child's mouth.

Emily and I were at the mall about 3 weeks ago and I shared my C*ke with her. Just in casual conversation I told her not to tell Daddy. We were at the mall last week, and again I told her I would share my drink with her and she said, "I won't tell Daddy!!" I almost fell out, it was so funny.

She LOVES to sing. She can sing probably about a dozen songs word for word...It is so amazing.

Emily "reads" her books all the time. I overheard her reading nursery rhymes. She call humpty dumpty "humpy dumpy."

She is very inquizative. She asks all the time "What you talking about Momma?" "What is that noise?"

Emily and dog are like brother and sister. This evening, I spanked her for being mean to Oscar, and he cried and tried to bite me!! She can't understand why he can go in the kitchen when she can't. I tell her because he is a dog, and she answers "Emmie gog." They vie for my affection all the time. Drives me crazy.

Her favorite new game she calls "toilet paper gog." she can reach the toilet paper in the laundry room and she will tear up a whole roll of toilet paper over the dog, then run and jump in it!!

You can ask her what she is afraid of and her answer is "nothing." She has very few fears, and what she is afraid of, she tries her hardest to hide it...way too funny. You can ask her if she is afraid of something and she will either say she isn't or she will avoid the question.

She can't pronounce her "f's" so flip flops are "sip sops."

If I tell her I have a headache, she rubs my head (she says that makes it feel bebber) and wants to know where the bleed is !!!

OK, I am sure I have lost you by now....way more info than you wanted to know!!

I will have some more "exciting" posts up in a few days....

WATER GIRL

2009-05-20T10:26:00.003-05:00

Emily just loves water. she was by no means intimidated by the big swimming pool with the slide. She didn't mind the water "showering" down on her either. When she would get to the bottom of the slide and go underwater, she just got up and climbed the wall again!!! There was also a "baby" pool. but it wasn't exciting enough for our little adventurer!!

THE LONG OVERDUE POST

2009-05-17T22:47:00.004-05:00

Emily loves her sand and water table. It has a cover on it and is a picnic table as well.

I know, I am way behind!! It has just been crazy here. I normally do my blogging late at night after everyone has gone to bed, but I have been having to get up at 5 am to take Donnie to work on a few mornings a week, and have just been too tired!! I have also discovered F*ceb**k, and that has TEMPORARILY taken the place of blogging!!

Things are still a little crazy around here. We are having a new engine put in Mom's car. It will be like a new car for her (she still has 4 notes on it, and this was much cheaper than getting a new one).

Emily is much better. I didn't want to say anything, but they tested her for the Sw*ne Fl*. I don't beleive she had it, it was just a precaution. The results aren't back, and it is one of those things that if she had it there wasn't much that could be done anyway. They did give her T*maflu just in case. She had horrible side effects from that, I will never give that to her again. So last week we fought the side effects, and just getting back to normal. It is hard to explain to a 2 year old that last week she ate only popsicles and this week she has to eat food!! And temper tantrums aren't acceptable behavior, even if that's all she did last week!!

Here are a few more things that she says that is funny:

"I knew that was going to happen."

"I have everything I need."

Daddy can fix anything. She loves popsickles, but hates it that they are cold....."Daddy Six it!!"

Here she is making Alphabet soup. I was cooking and she got out a pan and took the letters off of the fridge and took out a spoon. We asked her when her soup would be ready, and she said 30 minutes!!

EMILY IS SICK

2009-05-07T23:15:00.003-05:00

***UPDATE ON SICK EMILY*****

Emily is feeling much better - praise God!!! Her fever broke this morning. She woke up at 3:00 am burning up, I gave her M*trin, and that did the trick. She slept in till almost 7:30 (lately she has been getting up before 6). And she has been a monkey girl all morning - you know - into everything, climbing on everything (caught her climbing onto a door knob!!) and jumping off of evrything, and terrorizing the dog. So glad to have my monkey girl back. I have also got some decent rest, so I feel much better. Check back this afternoon, and you just might see a happy post!!! Thanks for the prayers - please continue......

Just a quick post. Things have been super crazy around here and I have not had the time to post. Cars broke down, fridge that has gone out. Yuck. We had to put mom's car in the shop, got it out and it had to go back, still not fixed. We had to call a repairman for fridge, had to call repairman back out 2 days later. I have had to take D to work (45 miles one way), leaving the house at 5 am, then take my mom to work (25 miles one way), then stay "in town" and go pick up D, then feed and put Emily to bed, take a quick nap and go pick up mom for midnight.

And worst of all, Emily is now sick. When I put her to bed last night she told me she was sick. I gave her some ty*nol. She woke up at 2:30 crying and shaking like a leaf. She was burning up with fever, 104.5 (she is prone to high fevers). We took her straight to the ER. They ran a battery of tests and basically couldn't find anything wrong with her. We got back home at 7:30 am, and I got a little rest but not much. Poor little thing she is still pretty sick. Will you please pray for her.

Sorry for the whining, but I am pretty sleep deprived!!

I do have some pics to post, but will have to do that when I have more time and not as tired.

Here are some quick phrases and things that she is saying lately

Everything is WHY.
If you ask her something and she doesn't want to tell you the answer she says: "Mommy tell Emmie"
She always wants daddy to have candy because he shares with her. She says "buy daddy candy, daddy share with Emmie."

There were some other cute phases that she says that I wanted to post, but I am so tired I can't even think!!

Sorry for such a whiny post, but I'll make it up with "happy posts" once Emily gets better, and I get some much needed sleep and am back into our routine!!

THE LAST OF EASTER

2009-04-15T14:02:00.002-05:00

Thank you Miss Rhonda. I love you!!

Sorry we are side ways - didn't know how to turn it!!!!

These are't the greatest pictures, but you get the idea. And besides Easter is about the Ressurection of Jesus. He's ALIVE for evermore!!

HOPPIN EASTER ACTIVIES

2009-04-10T21:29:00.004-05:00

Notice the slanted eyes!

Granny, cousin Billy, Emily and Pappa supervising

Granny gave her one of the tablets to put in the cup and she put it in her mouth!!!

We kicked off Easter festivities on Wednesday. We had craft day and we made a bunny mask out of paper plates. She was so excited to do a craft. She said "big kids do kat (craft)."

Next was the coloring Easter eggs. This is Granny's area. She and Billy look forward to this every year and they were really excited that Emily was joining them this year. At first I was a little sad that Daddy and I were handing this tradition to Granny. Then when I saw the mess, I was hapy to let Granny have that tradition!!!

Then while Mom and Dad were at the Good Friday service at church Grandma and Emily decorated cupcakes. Momma got home just in time to take a few pictures. Emily's favorite part was eating the jelly beans.

All and all we have really enjoyed Easter so far....we still have the egg hunt at our church tomorrow.

THE HUNT part 1

2009-04-08T08:00:00.002-05:00

These pics are from Easter egg hunt number 1. We are planning on at least one more. Last Sat. we went to our old church for their sping festival/egg hunt. Emily just loves the bounce things. She really gets into picking up eggs. It's funny, the difference between this year and last year. Last year she would take eggs out of her basket and put in other kid's basket, this year she was taking eggs out of their basket and putting into her basket!!

Next hunt is at our church. There is a local sportsman store that is doing a hunt too, so weather and time permitting we may hit it too.

We are going to kick off Easter activities into full gear this afternoon. After nap we are going to do an Easter craft of some kind, then Thursday we will bake cupcakes with Grandma, Friday we will dye eggs with Granny and cousin Billy, then our churches egg hunt on Sat. Fun, Fun, Fun

ANOTHER PICTURELESS UPDATE

2009-04-02T23:12:00.002-05:00

Yes, folks, that's right, no photos. I know, I know that's all you stop by for. Check back next week for photos. Wait, don't leave yet, read what we have been up to and what we are doing in the next couple of weeks. That way you will know what to expect picture wise.

We had our 2 year check up last week. At 27 months old, Emily weighs in at a whopping 22 1/2 pounds and is 33 1/2 inches tall. And as far as intellectually she is off the charts. The Dr. gave me a survey to fill out on where she is at developmentally, and she scored at the 3 - 4 year old range. The Dr. was amazed at the things that she knew and could do.

Emily can count to 10. Most of the time it is 1 2 3 4 8 9 10, but if you say 5 she says 6 7 8 9 10

She can sing her ABC's and we are working on the recognition of letters and numbers.

She knows the days of the week.

If you ask her when her birthday is she says December. She still calls birthday everyday, begging birthday to come back. She also tells birthday that she will be 3 next time birthday comes.

She knows Mom and Dad's first name, and calls us by them when she wants our attention. She thinks it is quite hilarious to say "excuse me Becky!!" She also knows Grandma, Granny and Papa's names.

We are also working on colors. I thinks she knows way more than what she wants me to know that she knows.

She has a memory like an elephant. You can tell her something today, and she will remember it a month from now!!

She still is not potty trained. For the most she will only go for candy. I try not to push her and remind myself that she will not go to kindergarten in diapers - At least I hope not!!

And can I tell you there is nothing worse than being outsmarted by a 2 year old!!! She knows how to push my buttons and make me mad, then she laughs and says Mommy mad or Emmie made Mommy mad. We laugh and say she bribes us instead of us bribing her. If we want her to say or do something she says "candy," which means she will do it if we give her candy!!

What we have on the agenda for the next couple of weeks

This weekend we are going to an Easter Egg hunt and to the Zoo (Hint: Pictures)

We will dye Easter eggs for the first time next Friday with Granny and cousin Billy (Hint: Pictures)

Grandma and Mommy will probably bake a cake, cookies, or cupcakes for Easter with Emily.

I think I will try to do an Easter craft with her next week as well.

Go to the park more often now that it is SPRING.

ARE YOU READY TO TUMBLE

2009-03-20T22:58:00.004-05:00

Here she is, dressed and ready to go. I usually dress her in a onsie and leggings as she is dressed above. "Little Treasure" was an online China Adoption bookstore. She also sometimes wears just a t-shirt and shorts.

Here she is doing "table top." This is the beginnings of a backbend. The teacher has them sit and put their hands behind them and lift their butts up. She has also taught them to wave with one hand and Emily likes to do that.

The balance beam. Emily is doing the "bear walk." Keep your legs straight and put your hands down on the beam and walk. This is another favorite activity of Emily's.

The bars. Emily loves to hang (I wasn't quick enough with the camera to catch her hanging.). Her favorite exercise on the bar is to put both feet up.

Not Pictured: the trampoline. Emily loves to JUMP JUMP JUMP. She has also learned how to do a cart wheel, a front roll (somersault) and back roll (with assistance). I think we have a future gymnist on our hands!!!

KISS ME I'M "CHI-RISH"

2009-03-17T14:30:00.001-05:00

HAPPY ST. PADDY'S DAY

EMILY'S FIRST FAIR RIDES

2009-03-11T13:59:00.002-05:00

Daddy was in a craftshow this weekend and they had a little fair. Emily LOVED the rides. She wanted to ride the ZIPPER!!! I really do love it that she has such a sense of adventure and isn't afraid of anything.

MY FRIENDS MIKE AND DORA

2009-02-28T22:23:00.002-06:00

Friday night we took Emily to see "the big kids tumble." We took her to a gymnastics meet at LSU. She loved it!! It was kids night and D*ra was there. As you can see from the picture, she is a little unsure of D*ra, but she is not afraid (remember, she isn't afraid of anything!!). She loved Mike the Tiger, the mascot. The middle picture is a mural of Mike in the outer concourse of the arena - looks like he is on her shoulders!! It was a really neat mural - it had a measure stick (like on the doors of convience stores) and coaches and players so that you could compare your height to theirs. That was the best picture that we could get of her and we had to bribe her with popcorn. She was really good enjoyed the meet. She had to have a pom-pom and she shook it and yelled "Go tigers." When you ask her what was her favorite part of the night, her answer is "POPCORN!"