Saturday Fun at the Ranch!

Yesterday we took Emily to a super cool ranch near here. The beginning part of the property is a petting zoo and then there's a safari-type road you can drive through where you can feed the animals right from your car! At one point a baby zebra and it's mother came up to my window and I fed them...I was too scared to touch them (I was afraid the mama might get protective and hurt my car!) but it was incredible to see them so close. We also saw a baby giraffe, which, if you know me, you know that made my day! I love giraffes so a baby giraffe was just icing on the cake. We had a great day!

It was SO much fun and she loved every second of it. Especially the part where she got to walk in public, and not have to ride in her stroller! She is so so big. Enjoy the pictures!

Summery Fun!

Emily has started to enjoy summer type things already, even though it's just now Memorial Day weekend! Popsicles, swimming in her little pool (thanks Granny and Grandaddy!) and riding her tricycle all around the cul-de-sac in front of our house, plus going to see the horses at the farm behind our neighborhood are all daily pastimes.

Also, yesterday she begged for me to paint her fingernails as well as her toenails...now, we've done toenails lots of times but she's never had me paint her
fingernails before and she was SOOOO proud when they were done. She looks so precious!

I am so excited for school to end so she and I can have relaxing mornings and go to school (daycare) at a leisurely pace! I am teaching summer school so we will have 3 weeks of structured mornings but it's ok- I only work half days so I can go get her as soon as nap is over (around 2pm). I am so excited for our trip to the beach too- just 20 more days! Emily asks every morning when we are going to HER ocean...I can't wait to answer her with "today!"

2 Years and 7 Months Old!

Our sweet girl is 31 months old this month....amazing! She is doing so well and we continue to be amazed and surprised by her every day. Here's the latest scoop:

- She has done so well in the BGB (Big Girl Bed, or Good Girl Bed as she sometimes calls it). The first few nights were brutal- up 3-4 times, and the 3rd night was hands-down, the worst night I have ever had with her. She woke up at 1 wanting more milk. I lied and said we didn't have any more milk, and I would get it in the morning from the store (aside here- if I had given her the milk at 1am, she would have woken up every.single.day. afterwards, at 1am, wanting milk. She is SUCH a creature of habit and this same scenario has bitten us time and time again...till finally, WE LEARNED!) Well, she wasn't pleased with that news and decided to play in her bed until 2am. I had gone back to our bed but couldn't fall asleep because I would hear her messing around. Finally at 2 I went back to her and she proceeded to tell me to rub her back, her hair, pat her back, hold her hands, etc etc etc until finally around 4:30 she fell asleep again. It was horrible! When Paul came to get me out of her bed (I fell asleep, too) when my alarm went off at 5:30 I thought I would die. Let's just say Thursday at school was a day I'd like to forget!! But since then, she has actually done well and is doing a marvelous job of staying IN the bed (which I doubted, highly, that she would) and she hasn't woken up at all the last 2 nights. PROGRESS!!!

- She also learned to pedal her tricycle this week. This is JUST about all I can stand....seriously, why does she have to grow so big, so fast?

- She is getting to be pretty funny about baby Audrey. The other day I pretended to cry over something and she told me matter-of-factly, "Mommy, STOP crying." So Paul was wondering aloud what kinds of things she's going to say to Audrey when she cries and Emily slammed her breakfast spoon on her highchair and said, "DADDY, we don't say Audrey is crying. That's NOT NICE. We haffa say nice things about Audrey. Audrey is a baby an we haffa be NICE about her!" It was hilarious and cute all at the same time! She is already a little protective!

- Another Audrey story- Emmy and I were talking about Audrey and I asked if she was going to be nice to Audrey when baby Audrey came out of Mommy's tummy. She looked me dead in the eye and said, "I will hit her." I was shocked and asked her if that would be nice...and reminded her that we always have to be nice to a baby. She looked at me again and repeated, with a more final tone this time, "I will hit her." GREAT. At least when they are big girls and are fighting I can tell Audrey, "look sweetheart, she told me she was going to hit you when she was only 2 years old!" LOL! What a kid.

- She is obsessed with her sleeping "friends" in her bed. Last night it was Minnie, 2 Mickeys, Pooh, Tigger, a silky, a blanket, another blanket (Toy Story), another blanket (Mickey Mouse ears), and her sheet. I have to sneak in after she falls asleep to make sure she isn't burning up under all those layers! If all her friends aren't in her bed JUST SO she can't sleep.

- She LOVES school. Finally! The 19th made a full month there and I was hoping we'd have seen some progress with the dropoff situation- and this week, she did it! I would take her in and she'd leave my side and go play, and 2 days she "pushed me out" (this is something the kids do where they push the mom/dad out the door...gives the kiddo the feeling that he/she is choosing when the parent leaves, instead of the parent just walking out.) I was SO proud! She is also getting tons of hugs and kisses from her little friends before she leaves in the afternoons. Melts my heart!

- The toddler quirks are increasing. Last week for Show and Tell Day, she brought a placemat from our kitchen table. She was so proud of it! She wore her snow boots with shorts on Sunday. She brought a train whistle this week for S&T Day (I was prepared for anything...a spoon? one of my rollers for my hair? a Q-tip?). Today, she wanted to go to the mall with me wearing her clothes and Elmo slippers. Just for the record, we DID go to the mall dressed just like that over the winter...but today I was able to convince her to wear real shoes. Speaking of shoes, she refused to wear certain shoes (all but one pair!) for 12 straight days because all other shoes were "TOO BIG!". Also, several pairs of pants were vetoed for the same TOO BIG status. She is a trip!

That's all I can think up right now. I will leave you with some wisdom from our girl today though- she told me today, after she hit me, that "It's very hard to be good!" HAHA!

Who is BabyFerg?

This morning we dropped Emmy off at daycare and went to the OB office for my favorite visit....the Big Reveal Ultrasound! I am excited to announce that BabyFerg has a gender-specific identity now....



we are having another sweet GIRL! Sweet Audrey Grace will be arriving somewhere around the end of September.



Now...I don't usually get this "real" on the blog....usually it's just sunshine and roses and rainbows around here as I tell you about sweet Emily and how great our life is. But I have a tiny confession- I have been a nervous wreck about this baby for literally months now. Like, scared to death that today was going to come and we would find out he/she had some horrific birth defect, or a huge disability, or SVT like Stellan, etc. etc. etc. It's been so bad that I haven't *really* let myself "bond" with the baby a lot because I was sort of convinced that today would come, we would get some awful diagnosis, and we would have to make a lot of really hard, terrible choices.

So let me say what a HUGE relief it is to know that she is A-OK! The cervix is looking great- over 3.5cm right now which my doc said was "totally sweet" (lol LOVE her!) Audrey was sitting straight up and down in the uterus SOUND ASLEEP on the placenta...it was so funny! It looked like she had been watching TV or something and nodded off the way she was leaned up against it. She said my cord is nice and high and nowhere near the cervix. She did say Audrey is sitting squarely on top of my bladder which made me feel better about these trips I'm having to let out a cough medicine cup full of pee! She weighs 12oz.

The tech was having a super hard time with the sex b/c she was sitting down in there. FINALLY she got to a position where we could sort of see and I saw 3 little lines flash SUPER fast and blurted out- "It's a girl!" Paul looked at the u/s tech and she had a little smile on her face....she was like, "I am trying so hard to get you a clear picture of this..." and then she got it again and said, "Yep, Mommy, you are right- she is all girl!" I was so excited (this was towards the end of the u/s when we had seen all her other organs and everything looked good) I was almost shaking b/c it was too good to be true- she is perfect and healthy and CALM (for now...we'll see if Emily doesn't rub off on her).

I feel 1 million percent better about this pregnancy than I did before. It's like I needed everything to be OK today to "let" me let myself get excited, if that makes sense. Paul and I went to brunch after and I just gushed out, "She's our little Audrey, and I already love her!" He looked at me like he was surprised I was just feeling this way but I have seriously had a little secret wall up against this because I was convinced something was going to go wrong. So far, so good though. I loved Emily right from the very second she was "discovered" but I feel like now I am a lot less naive about pregnancy than I was before. At any rate, I am rambling like a loon now so I'm going to stop. We are so excited to have our precious 2 girls!!

2 and a Half Years Old!

Hello friends! It’s time again for the monthly update about our sweet girl. Emily is enjoying her life right now and we are enjoying her!

New developments:

-While Paul and I travelled a bit last month, my in-laws bought a tricycle for Emily. It is adorable- a pink and purple Radio Flyer. She LOVES it and has *almost* gotten the hang of the pedaling. The steering is proving to be more difficult to master but it’s not for lack of trying...she is committed! She is constantly asking to go outside and play with her “cars and bicycles”.

-Potty training is continuing to go well. She has discovered that it can become a great distraction when we are doing something she doesn’t like (for instance, shopping or eating in public). We are trying to encourage her to tell us the truth about whether she really has to go, but that’s risky business, you know? We just can never tell when she actually needs to go, so basically, if she says she needs to, we have to take her. It makes for some tense moments though, when I have to grab her, her potty seat (which I am toting everywhere now in a tote bag...never thought I’d be living the BYOTS [Bring Your Own Toilet Seat] lifestyle!), my purse, and anything else of value to take into the bathroom with us, just on the off chance that someone decides to steal our things while we’re in the bathroom. Still though, she hardly ever has an accident so we are super duper proud of how well potty training has gone. If only things can be that easy with Number 2, right?

-We visited the pediatrician for her 2.5 year checkup on April 24 and all looks great with her. She is 36 inches tall (75th percentile), 28lbs (50th percentile) and has a head circumference of 18 inches (90th percentile). She’s always had a big head so that came as no surprise...I wasn’t surprised by how tall she is, either, since she can open all of our doors and let herself go outside!

-She has gotten extremely funny. I know I say this every month, but seriously...she is killing us. For instance....here are a couple snippets just from TONIGHT:

- After the shower, I am putting my moisturizer on my face: "MOMMY! Don't rub your ASS!" (her NC accent is getting thicker and thicker...eyes = ass)

- After drying her off I helped her go potty. She spreads her legs way too wide and will pee straight out the front if you don't push down on her a little bit..." MOMMY....DON'T TOUCH MY BOTTOM!"

- Her daycare sheet said they ate meatballs for lunch and she ate none. I asked her why she didn't eat her meatballs: "Mommy, I don't eat balls anymore."

- Now she is in bed wearing her Polliwalks, because she needed them to sleep in. Man oh man!

-Daycare has been a transition but it seems to be getting better. She has had some extremely rough days. I think the hardest part has been getting used to other kids coming and going at different times- at Jamey’s house they all left around the same time, or I was actually first to get her. At daycare, the parents start showing back up around 3:30....I can’t even leave my school before 3:35 any day so there’s no way she’s going to be the first one picked up. It’s been hard for her to understand that I will come back. We’ve read The Kissing Hand and that has helped some- we kiss hands before I leave in the morning so she has a kiss with her all day. She is starting to let me go in the mornings a little earlier (for the first 10 days I was late to work almost every morning because it was taking 15-20 minutes to say goodbye pry her off of me so I could get out of the room. She’s slowly making more friends (or maybe she’s already made them and she’s slowly beginning to tell us about them...not sure exactly). But she is happy there-- it is very close to our house and we pass it almost every day (weekends too) and she’s always yelling, “Look right there- IT’S EMMY’S SCHOOL!!!!” She loves her teachers, Christina (Miss Christy Tina) and Miranda (Miss Aranda). In fact, she told me tonight that this weekend we need to have a birthday party for Miss Christy Tina at our house. I’ll be sure to invite the guest of honor, haha!

And so that’s our news for now. Our appointment to find out the gender of BabyFerg is next Wednesday, the 12th, at 7:15am (eek!) So far we know a girl’s first name, but not middle, and a boy’s middle name, but not first. Hopefully it will come to us soon!! :)

2 Years and 5 Months Old!

Hi everyone! It’s time for the monthly update. I am going to have to say that this is honestly the update that has been the most fun for me to write- Emily is so much fun right now! Every day is something new and she is hilarious. Every day she is cracking us up!

Probably our biggest news this month is that Miss Emily is about 99% potty trained. Yeah, you read that right! She woke up on Wednesday, March 3rd and told me she didn’t wear diapers anymore. I was shocked to hear her say it, but cautiously optimistic. That is generally how she operates- she makes her mind up and there is no changing it. She had several accidents on Wednesday and Thursday of that week, but then beginning Friday the 5th, she seemed to really “get” going to the potty. She has only had 2 accidents since then! She is waking up every morning completely dry and some mornings she drinks her morning milk cup before she goes to the potty! We are so incredibly proud of her.

She is starting to ask about a “good girl bed” (this is what other people might call a “big girl bed”…but she calls it the “good girl bed”. We were in Walmart the other day and she saw one she fell in love with. You can see it here: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Disney-Toy-Story-Toddler-Bed/13325929 It is 100% NOT what I would pick for her room….do you see the fact that it is BLUE and has Woody and Buzz Lightyear on it?! That is so typical Emily though! Last night she woke up at 1:40am and wanted to “go shopping and get a Woody Buzz bed”. Oh. My. Goodness. I don’t know what to do! This is the only bed she’s ever shown any interest in…she always tells me “No good girl bed- Emily sleeps in a crib!” but now she’s fallen in love with a Toy Story bed. Lord help me!

She has also picked up quite a lot of phrases lately…let’s just say, if you don’t want to hear it again, you shouldn’t say it in front of her! Lately she has picked up, “I don’t wanna hear it” (Miss Jamey says this to her son when he starts whining about having to share toys); “You hafta listen to me!”; and “You unnerstand? Yes ma’am? Yes ma’am? Thank you.” The attitude she has when she is talking to us or her toys like this is killing us. She is so sassy right now and it is a combination of funny and upsetting and annoying all at the same time. The other day she lined up all of her Barneys and Baby Bops and was putting them in Time Out for a whole host of things they had “done”. It sounded like this:

“Barney, why you hafta have Time Out? Did you hit Emmy? Why you hit Emmy? We don’t hit. Hands are not for hitting. It makes Emmy sad.” (turns to next victim…er, toy). “Baby Bop, why you hafta have Time Out? You tell no to Emmy? We don’t say no to Emmy. We hafta be nice to her- she’s a nice girl! We don’t say no- it’s not nice. It’s not kind.” (turns to next one). “Barney (a different one this time), why you hafta have Time Out? Did you kick a dog? We don’t kick…it’s not nice. We want to be safe. We hafta be nice to a dog. We don’t want a dog to be sad.”

It is so hard to sit and listen to her “discipline” her toys. When she had all her problems with the Barneys and Baby Bops Paul and I both had tears streaming down our faces we were laughing so hard (quietly though, to hide it from her!) She is SO headstrong and she catches so much of what we say and do…it’s incredible. That said, though, it can be REALLY frustrating to have her telling US what is going on, instead of listening to us!

She is going to be spending a lot of time with Paul’s parents towards the end of this month- Paul and I are traveling to Toronto and to the Biltmore Estate in early/ mid April. We know she will do great with them…but we also know they will be EXHAUSTED by the time we get back!

Additionally, she begins daycare on April 19. While we love Miss Jamey (and always will!), Emily is developmentally ready for more of a school-centered situation. She has been enrolled in a small daycare with a gorgeous facility. Her teachers are both college- educated and her class is small. She will enjoy the outside play equipment, the new songs, and learning letters and sight words (yes, sight words in the 2 year old class- I am thrilled!!) However, the decision to leave Miss Jamey hasn’t been an easy one and I have been torn up about it for weeks. The last few days with her have been so hard as we struggled to say goodbye. Hopefully an opportunity will arise and Miss Jamey will be able to watch BabyFerg for us—that would be perfect, as Paul and I can’t imagine anyone better suited to care for our new little one.

Thanks for checking on our girl—make sure you check her album for pictures!

Potty Training!

It has been an amazing week! To say that Paul and I are proud of Emily would be an incredible understatement....she has truly outdone herself (again!)

It all started last weekend. I had heard about a specific potty training technique and was eager to try it. I studied the approach and how to implement it and was eager to put it into place this weekend. I started laying the groundwork on Monday and Tuesday-- reading Emily’s favorite pottying book (The Potty Book for Girls) and discussing with her about how this weekend we would throw away ALL of her diapers and she would be a Big Girl who uses the potty. She didn’t have much to say about any of this- just kind of heard me and went on her way. Or so I thought!

Wednesday morning she woke up and informed me that “Emmy’s bottom is NO MORE DIAPERS!” I begged her to let me put one on-- we had to get to Jamey’s house, she was going to make me late for work, etc.-- but she wasn’t having it. She ended up dressing herself and OH BOY did she ever dress herself: pink shirt, pink pants (different pinks, of course!), pink-on-pink polka-dot sock (both pinks were different than her shirt or pants....so 4 different pinks so far), last year’s pink sandals which were so small that her toes hung over the front edge, one pair of big girl panties on under the pants....and one more pair of big girl panties on OVER the pants. (She also had me “help” her with her jacket, which she insisted on wearing backwards, with the zipper up the back). She was quite a sight! She made it all the way to Jamey’s house with dry panties. I explained to Jamey what Emily had told me, crossed my fingers for them, and went to work.

Jamey called me a little while later to tell me that Emmy had peed in the potty!! Over the course of the day she had 4-5 little accidents (I think she was starting to pee before she realized that was happening, and THEN trying to get to the potty) but peed on the potty many times as well. She was having a problem letting all the pee come out though- she would pee a tablespoon, then run around and cheer for herself....pee another tablespoon, run around, etc. I was WORN OUT that evening and she was only with me for a few hours!

Wednesday night I asked Emily if she wanted to wear a diaper or BGP (big girl panties). She said she wanted panties, so against my better judgment, I put panties on her. She woke up twice in the midnight hour having peed all over her jammies, blankets, etc. What a mess! We changed her bedding and clothes and Paul was able to convince her that it’s OK to wear a diaper only at night...thank goodness!

Thursday things went a little more smoothly. She peed more frequently on the potty, had fewer little pre-pees before she remembered to go to the potty, and was letting all the pee out instead of going a little at a time. We were so proud! Paul had to pick her up from Jamey’s since I had an activity after school and she peed on the potty at home for him several times. The best part was that she stopped asking for Skittles (which are actually M&Ms but she calls them Skittles) or any kind of reward-- she just wanted a hug and a cheer and to go back to playing. Incredible!

But perhaps today has been the biggest surprise of all. I mean, we are FLOORED here. This morning at 6:15 she woke up and was yelling, loudly, very soon after waking up (she doesn’t normally seem so panicked to get out of her bed). I ran down the hall and she said, “Mommy- I NEED TO POTTY!” I quickly grabbed her out of her bed and put her on the floor next to her potty seat, which I brought upstairs last night. She said, “No potty chair- I use big potty!” and ran to the bathroom. I ran behind her, helped her strip out of her jammies, and put her on the potty.... at the same time that I realized her diaper was DRY after sleeping 7pm-6:15am, she unleashed the longest pee ever into the toilet! She was SO proud of herself and I just sat there staring at her, stunned. Paul brought up her milk cup and I handed him the diaper and said, “You’re never going to believe this!” He felt the dry diaper, heard her (still) peeing, and was just as stunned as me!

She climbed down off the potty and proceeded to go to our room and climb in our bed (even though it is super high off the ground, she has somehow learned this week to get on top of our bed). She asked for her milk cup and a Barney show and acted like nothing was unusual at all about her activities. No cheering, no rewards, nothing-- just acted like everything was business as usual!

So far today she has peed full pees into the potty and had ZERO accidents. I am so glad it is the weekend so we can help her get super good at this...not that she needs much help! I am just so stunned at how easy she has made it. I guess the old saying, “They’ll do it when they’re ready” really has value!