18 Months Old!

It’s that time again! Emily turned 18 months old on the 21st and is getting bigger and brighter every day. I know I said I wasn’t going to attempt to write all her words anymore, but I can’t resist....this is really the last month though- I can’t keep up! Here’s what I can remember so far (new words in bold print):

1. apple

2. uh-oh (in response to falling down or dropping something)

3. doggie (FINALLY!)

4. Mama

5. Dada/Daddy/Dadadadadadad

6. more

7. more please (this one makes me *extra* proud!)

8. uh huh (yes)

9. uh-uh (no)

10. no (getting quite good at this one....ugh!)

11. Booker (sounds like “ocker”)

12. bite

13. ouchie

14. bye bye

15. baby (sounds like bee bee)

16. hi

17. hello (heyo)

18. poo poo

19. DeeDee (Jamey’s son’s name)

20. cookie

21. eat

22. cheese

23. GO!

24. help

25. up

26. grapes (gape)

27. happy (from “If You’re Happy and You Know It”)

28. outside

29. stack (for her stacking blocks)

30. RAAH (like a scary roar…we do this back and forth sometimes)

31. LOVE YOU

32. brush (like toothbrush)

33. cracker

34. cookie (sounds like “cocky”)

35. teeth (as in “brush teeth”…sounds like “teesh”)

36. shirt

37. socks

38. shoes

39. cup (sounds like “bop”)

40. Emmy (as in, her own name! I have an adorable video I will have Paul post…so cute!)

41. juice

42. pizza

43. Hey Dad!

44. Hey baby/ yay baby!! (see funny story below)

45. potty (poppy)

46. push buttons (sounds like “pusha buttahs”. She says this in the garage so she can push the door button, or with my computer mouse, or my phone…basically all over!)

47. I-E-I-E ( this is how she asks to sing Old MacDonald Had A Farm- she says I-E-I-E instead of EIEIO. So cute! She also attempted to say “Old MacDonald” but it sounded more like “Doda Dahduh” and she only did it once so I’m not counting it.)

48. Hot dog! (from the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse closing song…she loves Mickey!)

49. Elmo (pronounced “elbow”)

50.bathtub (bottub)

51. bath time

52.brush teeth

53.shirt off

54.numbers 1-7 (see story below)

55.what’s this?

56.yogurt

57.good girl

58.sorry

59.cool girl

60.fall down

61.clean up

62.go play

63.flush it (this comes out as 2 swear words put together, so we’re sort of avoiding it for now, haha!)

64.ready, set, go!

65.telephone

66.show (as in TV show)

67.sheep

68. cow

69.duck

70.car

71.hungry...eat!

72.snack

73.Bless you (when someone sneezes)

74.thank you!

75. Booker

Pretty impressive vocabulary, right? I am SO proud of her. I know none of my former teachers would be shocked to hear that I am the mother of such a talker!

And now, for the part you really love, the stories and anecdotes:

-- She has learned to climb onto the couch (yikes!) and has a wonderful way to get back off it. It is totally safe and definitely the most efficient and surefire way to get back down: she sends herself headfirst onto her little pink chair, then continues the slide all the way down to the floor. Nope, nothing unsafe about that!

-- She has started saying some hilarious things- in the middle of the night the other night I finally gave in and gave her a cup of milk hoping she might go down and sleep for awhile. She finished the drink, sat it on the nightstand, and said, “Brush.....teesh..........brush.........teesh!” I told her no (I had ZERO idea where she was going with this but was not about to let those little feet touch the floor at 3am!!) and she yelled, “PLEASE?” like it was killing her not to brush her teeth!

--Emily is counting! OK, so counting might be a stretch, but she IS saying the numbers. She can say up to about 7 right now. We are mostly counting her breaths while she is using her inhaler in the morning and evening taking her FloVent. Most of the time it makes her so angry but the counting helps!

--She is starting to ask questions and use 2 words together to make a response. The other morning Paul was making breakfast with me and he handed her some bacon. She looked at it and said, clear as day, “What’s this?” That part was shocking but moreso than that was when he reponded that it was bacon and she smiled and started eating it!

--She is doing so well on the new drugs. We also got permission from her pediatrician to start giving her Zyrtec for her allergies and it is not always easy, let me tell you! She seems to be getting better everyday though, thank Heaven.

-- She is dabbling a little bit in “terrible twos” behavior...and we don’t like it! It is hard- she had to take orapred (oral steroid) this week and it makes her aggressive and moody....on one hand I am tempted to discipline her but on the other hand I feel like it’s not “really her” so I shouldn’t....thankfully she is coming out of it now but it is very difficult. There are some things that I feel are unacceptable, whether she is medicated or not (hitting, for instance). Thankfully, Time Out seems to work for her and I really do think she “gets it”. Tonight, she hit me in the face when I told her to stop throwing her food all around. I picked her up and put her on the floor for TO. When I let her up, she came over, hugged me, and touched my face very gently. Now, tell me she didn’t know she was in TO for hitting!

-- If you read the blog post about Em being hospitalized then you have already heard this story, but she would talk to all the docs, nurses, and therapists who came to her room, welcoming them with a big Hello! After they tried to check on her though, she would starts yelling “Goodbye!” at them like they had overstayed their welcomes and it was time for them to go. It was pretty hysterical!

-- She has learned the words to a few more books now, and if we leave the words out she will say them for us. This is a little bit amazing to me, since this is a skill I am teaching to my first-graders! Granted Emily is not reading, only repeating, but she is very good at it!

--She is getting so funny and her vocabulary is amazing. The other day she brought me a bag with 100 shapes in it. I told her her we needed to clean up before we got those shapes out, and she stood up and proceeded to yell “Clean Up! Clean Up!”

-- She keeps us on our toes all the time. Tonight we filled her kiddie pool with water and put her in it wearing her bathing suit but not diaper underneath. She proceeded to have a BM in the pool, and then when I brought her inside the house to clean up she peed on the floor! You can’t turn your back for a second!

Well, I am worn out (see previous paragraphs!) and it’s time to go to bed. Thanks for checking on our sweet girl. Have a great weekend!

Hospital Trip....Again.

Just wanted to update you all on Miss Emily. We have had an eventful weekend! Friday, she spent the entire beautiful day playing outside. Saturday, she woke up with a very runny, nasty nose and had a nagging cough, but nothing serious. We attributed her fussiness to playing outside and getting exposed to all kinds of pollen (we found out Saturday that the pollen count that day was the highest it has been ALL YEAR!) We basically hung around the house and did our best to soothe/console her. She is also getting her incisor teeth right now so we were not sure if her teeth were hurting, she had a cold, or was battling allergies.

Sunday morning, she woke up extremely sick. She kind of laid around the house, not really playing (totally out of character for her) and around 10am I put her in the shower with me, thinking the steam might help break up the mucous all in her chest and nose. When we got her out of the shower she took a fast turn for the worst-- she was breathing very fast, working hard to breathe, and her heart rate was very high. We tried treating her with her albuterol inhaler but it didn't seem to do the trick, so we packed her up and took her to the ER.

When we got her to the ER she was listless and looked bad, but not horrible. They hooked her up to the pulse oximeter and we discovered her pulse/ox was 77...normal is upper 90s to 100, so 77 is pretty bad, especially for a baby. The triage nurse even said the words, "Has she ever been intubated before?" My heart fell out of my chest and I got super upset but tried to hold it together so she wouldn't get scared. Her heart rate was in the 190s and she was breathing upwards of 60 times per minute- practically panting. We got into a treatment room and they started working on her FAST. She got a dose of steroids, a chest Xray, got another strong treatment of albuterol, and was put on 2L of oxygen. Slowly her stats began to improve. (She did not get intubated this trip, thank you Lord!)

We got admitted because she was oxygen dependent and her stats were not good enough to try to wean her off. It was a very long night. The poor thing was so tired (she had no nap on Saturday OR Sunday!) but she was so sweet and good natured through the whole thing, even when she was scared. One thing that was sort of funny was that she would talk to the doctors, nurses, and respiratory therapists and greet them when they came in the room with a big, "Hello!" but then as soon as they would start working on her she would yell, "Bye bye!" like she was telling them they had overstayed their welcome and should leave. It was hysterical!

I stayed overnight with her and Paul went home and tried to sleep. He ended up coming back to the hospital about 3am because he couldn't sleep with us there. Together we slept on about a 2.5 foot bench/sofa thing in her room...I have slept in many places that were more comfortable! She didn't need any additional albuterol treatments overnight and her stats were looking much better by this morning.

The overall diagnosis is that she has asthma (even though she is still too young for the 'official' diagnosis). Her case was reviewed by a world-renowned pediatric pulmonologist today (he writes textbooks on peds pulmonology) and he said even though they are supposed to be 2 years old (she is 18 months tomorrow!) that this "looks like asthma, reacts like asthma, is exacerbated by allergies like asthma"....so he is calling it asthma. Hopefully the addition of FloVent to her daily routine will help us from having to go to the hospital with this anymore. It is terribly hard to have her in there, caged up like a little animal. Not to mention that she is a very busy girl and does not love the hospital crib one bit! We see her pediatrician on May 10 for her 18 month appt and hopefully we'll be able to discuss the effects of the FloVent on her from now until then.

Anyway, just wanted to clear the air and let everyone know the "rest of the story". She is doing much better now- when we left today her oxygen sat was in the high 90-100 range on room air (she's been off oxygen since about 9am). Thanks for keeping her in your thoughts and being concerned. We are very happy and relieved to have her home with us tonight and feeling so much better.

Home from Vacation!

We are HOOOOME!! Paul and I had a fantastic trip to Vegas and really enjoyed our time. Emily was well cared for by “Team Grandparents” and was tons of fun for them while we were away...hahaha! She was actually very good, if you don’t count the hyperactivity, poo-ing in the bathtub, and occasional tantrum. :) We are so thankful to have been able to have some fun “grown up style”...wonder when it’ll happen again?

VEGAS Bound!

That’s right- Paul and I are Vegas bound tomorrow! We’re flying out at 7:50AM so if you have any prayers to send our way, we’d appreciate it (my nerves will, especially). I am so excited to go, especially since the LAST vacation we took together I looked like this:


I think we’ve definitely waited long enough!! :) We will be back Saturday and Granny, Grandaddy, and Grandma are all here to take care of the Princess. Maybe we’ll hit it *BIG* and not have to work anymore when we come back home!

17 Months Old!

Well, Emily Fans, it’s that time again! The 17 month update! I can’t believe how big our baby has gotten this month!

First, I will attempt to list all of her new words….but seriously friends, I think this is the last time. Her vocabulary is HUGE! Basically, if you or I can say it, so can she. I am not even kidding. She is absorbing so many things right now and is even starting little phrases…I love it! Here’s my attempt at Emily’s Word List, Age 17 Months (new words in bold print):

1. apple

2. uh-oh (in response to falling down or dropping something)

3. doggie (FINALLY!)

4. Mama

5. Dada/Daddy/Dadadadadadad

6. more

7. more please (this one makes me *extra* proud!)

8. uh huh (yes)

9. uh-uh (no)

10. no (getting quite good at this one....ugh!)

11. Booker (sounds like “ocker”)

12. bite

13. ouchie

14. bye bye

15. baby (sounds like bee bee)

16. hi

17. hello (heyo)

18. poo poo

19. DeeDee (Jamey’s son’s name)

20. cookie

21. eat

22. cheese

23. GO!

24. help

25. up

26. grapes (gape)

27. happy (from “If You’re Happy and You Know It”)

28. outside

29. stack (for her stacking blocks)

30. RAAH (like a scary roar…we do this back and forth sometimes)

31. LOVE YOU

32. brush (like toothbrush)

33. cracker

34. cookie (sounds like “cocky”)

35. teeth (as in “brush teeth”…sounds like “teesh”)

36. shirt

37. socks

38. shoes

39. cup (sounds like “bop”)

40. Emmy (as in, her own name! I have an adorable video I will have Paul post…so cute!)

41. juice

42. pizza

43. Hey Dad!

44. Hey baby/ yay baby!! (see funny story below)

45. potty (poppy)

46. push buttons (sounds like “pusha buttahs”. She says this in the garage so she can push the door button, or with my computer mouse, or my phone…basically all over!)

47. I-E-I-E ( this is how she asks to sing Old MacDonald Had A Farm- she says I-E-I-E instead of EIEIO. So cute! She also attempted to say “Old MacDonald” but it sounded more like “Doda Dahduh” and she only did it once so I’m not counting it.)

48. Hot dog! (from the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse closing song…she loves Mickey!)

49. Elmo (pronounced “elbow”)

50. bathtub (bottub)


OK so I’m calling it quits with 50 words…that’s PLENTY, in my book! And now, for the funny stories and new things she’s doing:


-A few days ago I was using the bathroom and Emmy came wandering in. She is getting very interested in the potty so I was making a HUGE deal about going pee pee in the potty—walking her through all the steps, etc. When I was finished she looked at me and said, “Yay Baby!” in the happiest voice!

-Also related to using the potty, if you come to our house right now I am sure you’ll be happy to know that you won’t need to flush the toilet after you’ve used the bathroom- Emily is now the official Flusher. Isn’t it nice to know that little job is all taken care of at our house? It’s like we have a maid, really.

-She played with PlayDoh for the first time the other day and liked it pretty well. Well, until she sampled a little bit…then she really didn’t have a lot of interest in it!

-She LOVES playing outside and playing in the dirt. Sometimes I wonder if God is challenging me by giving me a daughter who likes dirt so very much…I was hoping for more of a tea party/ dress up/ ballet class kind of girl, but it’s ok. I will love her even if she comes in dirty every night!

-She has learned to take off her diaper. No huge problems with this so far but we are really limiting the time she has to mess with it, and we’re definitely using the zipper jammies as long as possible until she grows out of this. I would hate to think of what this could lead to, haha!

-She picks out her own snacks. And by picks out, I mean she stands in front of the pantry until I finally open the door, then waits to be picked up so *she* can get it off the shelf. And don’t EVEN try to help her put her food on a fork or a spoon…oh no. She. Can. Do. It. Her. Self!

-Also in the realm of new independence, I bought her a “big girl” toothbrush and she LOVES brushing her teeth at night. She actually does not like me to help with this at all but I don’t love the idea of toddler dentures so I win. The other night after she drank her milk I put her on the floor to see if she would walk to her crib for bed or walk to the bathroom to brush teeth…she walked to the bathroom saying “Teesh, teesh”. I was SO proud!

-She said her own name to me when I asked her—“Emmmy!”

-She is singing like nobody’s business right now. I mean any song, especially little kids’ ones with hand motions, etc…she loves all music. Some current favorites are “Peter, James and John in a Sailboat”, “Old MacDonald Had a Farm”, “Itsy Bitsy Spider”, “If You’re Happy and You Know It”, the ABCs, Days of the Week, Months of the Year (haha- can you say Teacher’s Kid?). She wants to sing all the time!

-She is also dancing a lot- and it is hilarious! She starts out slowly, just moving her head back and forth…then comes the whole body rocking, and most recently she has added spinning in circles til she gets dizzy and falls over. It is hysterical to watch!

-She is rolling and throwing her balls and has attempted kicking as well, but doesn’t quite have the coordination for that yet.

-I was juggling (ok, ok, attempting to juggle) for her the other day and she took 2 balls and pretended to juggle them with me. She is very good at imitating.

-Speaking of pretending, in the grocery store now she has to hold an item (for whatever reason, the frozen items seem to be her favorite…I will never understand….) and while she holds it she “eats” it, by putting her hand on it, then pretending to put something in her mouth and chew it up. So funny!

-She currently weighs about 25lbs (clothed and with shoes). I peeked when she was standing on the bathroom scale. If I were betting I would say she is 30 inches tall and 24lbs. We go to the pediatrician next month so I will know for sure soon!


Speaking of my sweet girl she is just waking up from her nap so I have to run. Thanks for checking on our princess!

A Day in the Life....

Hello friends! I am so sorry about the lack of updates this month- it has been completely crazy! We have had WILD weather (snow for 3 days followed by 7 days of summery 80 degrees followed by what seems to be the second Great Flood), it’s the end of the quarter which means tons of work for yours truly....daddy is back on service which means more work for him....and, Emily is the busiest she has EVER been and is literally all over the place at all times! This place is a nuthouse!

Anyway, I won’t write too much because the big Month 17 update is mere days away (can you stand it?!) but I thought I might give some insight into Emmy’s personality right now. To say she is....unstable would be an enormous understatement. We are QUICKLY getting a taste for the terrible 2s...maybe she is starting early? Tonight I snapped pictures for about 5 minutes and this is what I got:

6:02pm Pure, unadulterated JOY at getting to carry around an old school calculator I have. Yes, she has a TI32. So cool!




6:03pm Reaching up and saying “Please, please, please” at me to get down her snow globe. The snow globe has a lot of rules that go with it....I’m just sayin’.


6:04pm- Getting a little rough with the snow globe. Warnings ensue.

6:05pm-- Far too rough with the snow globe and the warnings are getting us NOwhere. So, away it goes.

6:06pm- THIS happens:



I mean seriously....is the voting for the Oscars closed already? We have some major talent here folks!



6:07pm- Tantrum subsides, and our lovely daughter returns. Karen Katz book, anyone?



Who couldn’t love this girl?

16 Months Old!

It’s that time again- the monthly update! Sit back and relax because there is a LOT to say about the past month!

I suppose the biggest changes this month occurred in the areas of vocabulary development and gross motor skills. First- vocab. Emily’s word list EXPLODED this month…I will attempt to write them all here but bear with me- I know I am forgetting some. This is probably the last list of words I’ll be able to come up with because she has learned so many and is coming up with new ones faster than I can keep track!

*apple

*uh-oh (in response to falling down or dropping something)

*doggie (FINALLY!)

*Mama

*Dada/Daddy/Dadadadadadad

*more

*more please (this one makes me *extra* proud!)

*uh huh (yes)

*uh-uh (no)

*no (getting quite good at this one....ugh!)

*Booker (sounds like “ocker”)

*bite

*ouchie

*bye bye

*baby (sounds like bee bee)

*hi

*hello (heyo)

*poo poo

*DeeDee (Jamey’s son’s name)


*cookie

*eat

*cheese

*GO!

*help

*up

*grapes (gape)

*happy (from “If You’re Happy and You Know It”…see story below)

*outside

*stack (for her stacking blocks)

*RAAH (like a scary roar…we do this back and forth sometimes)

*LOVE YOU (oooh yeah, she says it! See funny story below).

*Oh Jesus (this is Mommy’s fault…sometimes I say this if I drop something or am frustrated. Emily made me eat my words this month for sure when she burst out with this one. I am not proud).

* brush (like toothbrush. This is funny because she loves to brush her teeth but does not understand why ‘brush’ is part of hairbrush. So when I hand her a hairbrush, she first tries to brush her teeth with it.)

*She has a name for her silky blanket but it is not printable. It sounds exactly like a curse word so we’re hoping this month to get some development out of that word and maybe it will not sound so vulgar.


And now, for the funny stories and memorable moments:


•Over Valentine’s day weekend Emily began saying “love you” to us. It is adorable, yes, and I wanted her to say it to me one morning when I was leaving her at Jamey’s. I kept saying “Bye Emmy, love you!” to her, but she was only saying “Bye Bye” and giving me these huge, cheesy smiles. Finally I guess she had had enough of me trying to coerce her into saying ‘love you’ because she looked up at me and yelled “GO!” I thought Jamey and I might die from laughter…it was hilarious!


•She has this Fisher-Price mirror/stage thing that sings “If You’re Happy And You Know It” as the first song. The other day she was standing in front of it saying “happy, happy, happy” and I couldn’t figure it out. Suddenly it hit me that that is the first song that plays, so I turned it on for her (we keep her toys turned off unless she is playing with them because I kicked one in the middle of the night last summer and quickly learned my lesson. Waking her up with a musical medley of fun was NOT what I was intending when I poked in just to check on her!) As soon as I turned it on she got really excited—she knew that song was first!


•She is really into imitation right now- she will mimic any word or action we can do. It’s cute because she wants to brush her hair when I have my hairbrush out, etc. Part of the reason her vocabulary has developed so much probably has to do with her willingness to try new words we say (haha…whether or not we want her to say them, as in the “oh Jesus” case!)


•For her 16 Month Birthday (her “monthday” as we call it), we bought her this tunnel and tent set from Costco. It was a huge hit! She loved the tunnel and immediately went into it. I put a few toys in the tent (it’s shaped like a teepee…so cool!) and she really liked it! It’s fun to buy her ‘big kid’ things.


•She is beginning to show a lot of interest in hand-game type songs. For instance, Jamey sings a song to the kids called “Peter, James and John In a Sailboat”. It has some pretty distinct arm movements and Emmy is now really trying to do all of them. Sometimes she will say ‘please’ and be doing the movement and that is my clue that she wants to sing the song.


•She has fallen in LOVE with grapes. I held off for a long time with them thinking that they were too dangerous, but now I cut them in half and she eats them like they are candy! She loves them so much and would eat them, her veggies (see Month 15 Update) and chicken nuggets for every meal I think.


•We discovered the only way to get her to eat ground beef (or any beef…she hates steak…crazy kid) is to smother it in tomato sauce and cheese. She loves it that way so we’re making Hamburger Helper-esque meals about once a week to get some beef in her system.


•She has begun giving me raspberries on my belly! It is hilarious and tickles so much! Unfortunately, she has also become really, really obsessed with lifting my shirt to do so…anytime, anyplace. Can we say “awkward?!”


•She is getting really good with feeding herself using a spoon. The other morning she ate oatmeal using a spoon. I will readily admit that it was NOT a pretty sight but she did a really great job, actually! I was so excited watching her.


•Her new “hideout” is Katie’s crate. I promise, she is going in there completely on her own. There’s very little we can do to stop her since she knows how to undo the locks on the crate and let herself in. Katie, however, does not mind being let out of the kennel one bit. In fact, I think she likes that Emily likes being in her crate!


•She has an insatiable curious streak…she gets into every cabinet, drawer, nook, and cranny in this whole house. It is sometimes cute and a lot of the time super bothersome. You just can’t babyproof a whole house! She unrolls the toilet paper, pulls all the dishtowels out, slams drawers, steals my makeup, and is this close to being able to wrap her whole hand around the doorknobs. Then we are really, really in trouble. Any tips on what we can do with her, folks?

And that about does it. I told you this would be a massive update! As always, thanks for checking on our girl. Enjoy the pictures in the new album and be sure to check back soon…new things are happening all the time!