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Monday, November 29, 2004

Let's talk turkey

Our friends, Robert & Tiana, along with their 3 kids, Ryan, Austin, & Justin, came up to visit us from Tennessee for Thanksgiving. It's been almost a year since we've seen them, so it was nice to be able to relax & have fun. They're pretty much our best friends, and we each have 2 kids who are practically the same age as each other. Ryan & Emma are two days apart in age, and Sarah & Justin are about 4 months apart. We all had our fill of turkey, ham & pie, along with about 10 games of Spades. Although the kids enjoyed playing together (and constantly fighting), the boys missed their puppies back at home & they left this morning. We got a few good pictures of the babies together & of all the kids.
We got our first snow of the year the day after they got here. It was a good 6 inches at least. It lasted for about 2 days & then it started raining and it all melted. That's pretty much how it goes around here. We get snow, it melts, more snow, it melts, until the first week of January & then it snows A LOT, and doesn't go away until March.
The kids had a great time playing in the snow with the guys. It was Ryan & Austin's first time in real snow. I tried to get pictures, but the guys thought it would be hilarious to throw snowballs at us while we were at the sliding glass door. I guess we ducked when we weren't supposed to & there ended up being a few in the house, including a clump of snow in Sarah's hair.
Sarah & Justin were just enfatuated with each other. It was so cute. She's into grabbing everything right now, so when we sat them facing each other, she would grab his clothes & pull him to her so she could suck on his cheek. He didn't seem to like that very much, although he kept smiling at her. We sat them next to each other for a picture & she put her arm around his shoulder. It was really sweet.
Tiana & I did our annual (although this is only the 2nd year of doing it) "Get-up-way-too-early-on-the-day-after-Thanksgiving-to-go-stand-in-the-cold-with-the-other-crazy-people" shopping. We were only there for a few toys, and they were out of most of the ones we wanted, probably because we didn't get up EARLY ENOUGH. Oh well, that's what rainchecks are for. They had already bought most of what they wanted to for the boys & we can't really buy a whole bunch, since we're flying to CA for Christmas. Don't want to lug all that junk back & forth. The guys stayed home with the children (no fireplaces). They occupied themselves by playing Warcraft the whole week.
Jeff & Tiana fight like they're brother & sister, it's too funny. Robert & I just sit back & watch them rag on each other & beat each other up. I don't know how they started acting like that, but it's evolved over the last 3 years of our friendship. We have such a good time when we're all together.
By the time Robert & Tiana left this morning, everyone was sick. Even the baby. Poor Sarah has nastiness just pouring from her nose. She could barely breathe yesterday. I'm definitely getting a lot of use out of the two bulb syringes (AKA snot-suckers) I have. I'm thinking about getting some baby Benadryl & drugging the poor child so she can sleep AND breathe during the night.
My goal to get Sarah into her crib by the time Robert & Tiana were here was not realized. We decided that it would be best to have them sleep in her room so they'd have some privacy and that it would most likely just mess with Sarah's head to have her be sleeping in her crib one night & then back in the bassinette the next. So the goal is to have her in it by the end of this week. We'll see how we do.

Thursday, November 18, 2004

Growing girls

Both Emma & Sarah are growing like weeds. I took Sarah into the doctor's a couple days ago, thinking she might have an ear infection. She hasn't been sleeping all that well, and had been a little crankier than usual. She didn't have one, but she was weighed & she's gained half a pound in a week. She's finally over 15 lbs. now. And when the U of M people came last week to check up on her for their study, she was over 25 inches long! That's pretty good. At least she's now on the typical growth chart. Before, she was barely in the 5th percentile, now she's solidly between 10-25th percentile. On the Ds growth chart, she's between the 50-75th percentile for weight & length. And of course, she still has her little "Winston Churchill" cheeks and chin.
Emma's feet have grown a whole size in less than a year. She now wears an 11 1/2. In clothes she's about an size 5/6, depending on what it is. She's got a long torso so shirts sometimes hover around her belly button if she raises her arms. And apparently I need to get used to her wearing belts, because all of her pants somehow sink down if she's not wearing one. She's only 5 and already needs to worry about "plumber's crack". Poor little girl has no butt.
It's hard to believe that Emma is going to be 5 in a few weeks. It's so unreal. I was looking at pictures of her from early last year, and she looks just like a baby! She no longer has the chubby toddler cheeks, her face has gotten longer, and with the shorter haircut (due to me chopping it a year ago), she no longer has the baby curls. She'll be in Kindergarten next year, which completely boggles the mind.
She came home today saying that someone at school had called her a jerk. Instantly, my "protective mom" gear switched on, and I was bombarding her with questions, like, who said it, did you tell the teacher, what did they do about it, type of thing. Then I thought, maybe she had said something to provoke them, but she says she didn't. I wasn't prepared for this kind of teasing to start so early. They're in preschool! I guess I was most disturbed at the fact that the kid who called her that KNOWS this word. I guess I shouldn't be TOO surprised in this day & age, but it still rattled me. I think I will be taking more advantage of the "one way mirror" they have the classroom to check things out more often.

Friday, November 12, 2004

Who says ballets are boring?

Not Emma, that's for sure. We all went to see "The Nutcracker" ballet last night at a local college. One of our friends, who has babysat for Emma a couple times, was performing in it and she was able to secure some tickets for us. Her husband, who has driven with us, also sat by us and filled us in on the intricacies of the plot. It was beautiful. Neither Jeff or I seen an actual, semi-professional performance of it done, so it was nice to have an insider's view.
Sarah was perfect, since she slept through almost the whole entire thing, waking up only during the last part. I took Emma down by the orchestra pit before it started, so she could look at all the instruments. She got scared when someone banged the cymbals together. She mostly sat on my or Jeff's lap the entire time, because it was hard for her to see over the lady's hair who was sitting in front of us. She just was enthralled with the performance. She loved all the dancers in their pretty costumes and thought it was pretty cool that they had little kids in the ballet, too.

Some cool news! Sarah sat on her own for about 15 seconds today! She was leaning on her arms which were being braced by her legs, but hey, she didn't fall over right away. I consider that a success. We had her Early On evaluation yesterday & they decided to pick her up for Physical Therapy, so hopefully that will start soon. I was trying to find Emma's baby book to see when she started sitting up. I thought it was earlier than 6 1/2 months, but I don't remember. It's hard not to compare Sarah to Emma, although I know I shouldn't.

Saturday, November 06, 2004

Movie day

We all went to see "The Incredibles" this afternoon. It was a pretty good movie. I had read that they recommended that young children (i.e. Emma's age) shouldn't see it because it was rated PG and had some pretty adult themes in it. After seeing it, I think I agree with the critics. Although it had it's funny moments that Emma understood, most of the time it seemed like she was just watching the movie & not really enjoying it. There were parts where it was obvious that a character died and not very pleasantly. It was still enjoyable, even though I had to take a seriously poopy Sarah to the bathroom and then 10 minutes later have to take Emma. Although Emma wasn't poopy. Too much soda.
There were plenty of funny moments, including one where a secondary superhero is trying to find his supersuit and his wife has hidden it because she doesn't want him leaving when they have dinner plans. Totally reminded me of Jeff & I. Not that I would hide his clothes from him, but the fact that he THINKS I do.

Friday, November 05, 2004

Picture perfect

We got Emma's school pictures back yesterday. They are so cute! Of course, being Emma, she had to have the cheesiest grin I think I've ever seen. So I will try to get those out in the mail soon.
Big news! Sarah has 2 teeth! I noticed the first one on Monday while I was giving her a bath. I also saw that the second one would probably come through within a day or two, since it was right below the surface. Finally all that drooling and fussiness and keeping us up all night and gnawing on everything in sight has paid off. Not like any of that is going to stop now that the teeth have come through. No, it's all part of her charm now.
I'm thinking about getting Sarah these "Signing Time" videos. I really want to start using sign language with her so she can communicate earlier. I wish I had done this with Emma, especially since Emma ended up having a speech delay. Plus, I wish I had kept up with my own signing, so I would know a lot more than I do now.
The weather is definitely starting to turn colder around here. Need to bundle up almost everytime we go outside. I know it's only going to get worse, so I'm not even going to complain about it. One thing that's neat about Emma's preschool is you can put a sign in the dash of your car & they will come get your child when you drop them off and bring them to the car at the end of school. Very nice when you have other children to deal with & it's snowing outside.

Wednesday, November 03, 2004

Rock the vote?

Well, ok...wow. I really don't know what to say. I know I've always been told, if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. Suffice it to say, that I voted for Kerry, and he...didn't...win. So, I'm kinda depressed. Don't really know what to do. I think Jeff & I have decided that most Americans (about 59 million of them) are stupid, and we want to move to a different country.
I apologize for the content of this blog. I'm just not at a very happy place in my life right now. I'm sure it'll all work out somehow, though I cannot conceivably see how at this moment in time. Just let me know when the next 4 years are over.

Monday, November 01, 2004

Happy Halloween!

I hope everyone's Halloween was fun. Ours was great. I was racing to finish Emma's Straberry Shortcake costume before trick-or-treating. Of course, as always, I wait until the absolute last minute to finish everything. I always get in trouble for that. I had finished her pants the day I got the pattern (over a month ago), so why did it take me until 4 pm on Halloween to finish the hat? Cause I'm a procrastinator. It's what I do best. I apparently do my best work when I'm stressed.
Well I finished it & everyone thought it was adorable. Sarah went as a duckie. It was actually Emma's costume from her 1st Halloween. I just updated it a little. There are a few pictures on the website. http://msnusers.com/wilso4jm
We went to the Towers at the college. The Towers are a series of 8 dorms that Jeff works in. There are between 5-8 floors in each tower and most of the floors had at least 3-4 rooms where college kids were handing out candy. I didn't remember it being nearly as crowded last year as it was this year. We didn't actually stay there very long last year. But it was too chilly to do much trick-or-treating outdoors this year, so after Emma filled up practically two buckets full of candy, we went home. Not bad for only an hour and a half. The hardest part was schlepping Sarah's stroller through the elevators & halls of the dorms.
Emma was a pretty good trick-or-treater. She just forgetting to say thank you after getting the candy. It seemed she was on a singular mission & formalities such as politeness were thrown out the window. Sarah, of course, was adorable & just sat in her seat, looking cute.
It seemed we missed the bulk of trick-or-treaters while we were gone and only had 2 sets of people come to our door. So we have this multitude of candy on our hands now. And without a doubt, most of it will end up on my hips. LOL