EMILY IN A BOX

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

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

AT LAST A POST WITH PICS

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

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

WORD OF THE DAY

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SLEEP

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

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

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

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

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

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

WATER BABY

Long Time No Blog

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

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

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

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

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

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

AND NOW IT IS JUNE.....

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

H

A

P

P

Y

S

U

M

M

E

R

THE BIG GIRL BIKE

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

LIFE'S A BEACH

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

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

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

CONVERSATIONS WITH MAW MAW

• 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

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

IT'S ALMOST SPRING!!!

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

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

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

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.