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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Whoa, what was that?

Last night my "cold" turned into a full blown nastiness, complete with a mild fever, major sinus pain, all over weakness and more mucous. It was gross. I could barely lay on the cough & watch "Celebrity Poker Showdown" with Jeff without wincing in pain everytime someone spoke loudly near my head. It felt as if someone was banging a gong right near my ear, it resonated in my head like an echo.
Jeff finally told me to just go to bed around 8:30pm. As I was trying to go to sleep, I heard Emma upstairs coughing. I then decided that she would be staying home from school tomorrow. I didn't want her to get all the other kids sick. Plus, that way I didn't have to get up and drive Jeff to work, and we could all sleep in. I had thought Jeff was going to call in sick today, but I guess he decided not to. Poor guy, he's got so much going on right now. I feel really bad for him. I've been trying to help as much as I can, but I was pretty much useless yesterday. I do feel better this morning, though. Fever's gone, as is the weakness. Still have a little bit of the sinus pain and of course, the mucous, always the mucous. It's never ending. My friend also has an online blog & apparently she was really sick last week. I think something she said can sum up how I feel. "Why is it that my nose is so stuffed up and congested that I am certain I am going to suffocate and die, no air whatsoever can pass through my nostrils because they are swollen completly shut, and yet, copious amounts of liquid are able to pour out of my nose with abandon. No problem for the liquid to get out, only the air to get in." Yes, that's exactly how it is. I don't understand the logic of it. Whenever I have a cold and can't breathe through my nose, I also have this nightmare of being taken hostage and being bound and gagged, where someone puts tape or something over my mouth, which would force me to breathe through my nose, which of course, being sick, I can't do, and I die. How sad is that? I must have something seriously wrong with me that my brain thinks up this crazy stuff.
Anyways, Emma just came in & wants me to play "Go Fish" with her Disney Princess cards so I must be off. She's had two Krispy Kreme donuts this morning & she has glaze flakes in her hair & on her eyelash. Too funny.

Why is it always me?

I woke up yesterday morning with a monstrously nasty cold. It came on like a thief in the night, out of nowhere. I'd had a little sniffles the past few days, but nothing that would prepare me for the onslaught of mucous that I would wake up to. It seems to be worse in the morning, but since a lot of things happen in the morning, that doesn't help. I could barely get out of bed this morning to take Jeff to work/school.
We all went to see "SharkTale" last night. We took Sarah with us and since it was a late evening show, we figured there wouldn't be many people there to bother in case she decided to be difficult. There were only 2 other people in the theater with us. The movie was pretty good. There were a few moments when I just burst out laughing and one in particular where it took me about 2 minutes to stop. This girl fish, named Angie, voiced by Renee Zellweger, is really mad at this guy fish, Oscar, voiced by Will Smith. She says to him,"Sometimes, I just want to take your stupid head and...." and she does this motion where she's punching her fist into the palm of her other hand really fast. I suppose you kinda had to be there, but it was funny. Mostly because I've been there with Jeff. I love him but sometimes I want to strangle him. I think everyone's been there at least once in their life.

P.S.

I think I broke my toe.

First sniffles

Well, it's official. Sarah has her first cold. She's been congested since yesterday, and her breathing's been a little weird. Nothing to worry about. All she's pretty much wanted to do it eat & sleep today. Which is fine with me. I know she needs her rest. She's got a little bit of the watery eyes and boogers. It's actually kinda cute at how docile she is. Even more than usual. It's allowed me to work on "helping" Jeff with his English paper. "Helping" is a technical term for "Honey, can you DO this for me?" In his defense, he did start it. He gave me about a page a half, most of which was his name and all his class information, and said,"Here, make this 5 pages." Thank goodness I'd actually read the story he/we're doing this paper on. In fact, I read it first. I read about 4 short stories, helping him decide which ones to do. I suppose it could be worse, he could be asking me to "help" with his math. Yuck.
Emma is having her class pictures done today at preschool. She looked so cute when I dropped her off. She's wearing her black dress (which is about a size too big for her, but she wears it all the time at home), tights & her black Mary Jane's. Her hair is up a little & I curled her bangs and the ends of her hair. These class pictures are getting expensive. It was $36 for one of the smallest packages. But hopefully they'll turn out ok & we'll be able to send them in about a month.
I think we've decided that Emma's going to be getting her Speech Therapy at the preschool, like the other kids there. I didn't like that idea at first, because I didn't want her to be taken out of class to do it. But it's just not working out well with the group setting. And it's becoming unfair to the other kids, who aren't able to get their individual time with the teacher. And when it comes right down to it, the individual time she'll get at school equals the amount of individual time she got in the group. They try not to make a big deal of it when they take the kids out of school. In fact, they usually just do the speech right there in the classroom, away from the other kids. So, hopefully she won't notice too big of a change.
Jeff's going politiking tonight. He was asked by the local MoveOn.org people to go around and see who random people are voting for. It's basically a Pro-Kerry organization, but without being blatant about it. You don't even say anything about Kerry unless they say they are most likely going to vote for him, or something like that. My biggest concern was getting yelled at by people and having a shotgun shoved in my face and being told to "get off my property". So, I'll be staying in the car with the kids and Jeff and a friend will be knocking on the doors. On second thought, maybe Jeff should take a kid with him. Makes the chances of being threatened a little lower.

Another trip...

We just can't seem to stay home on the weekends. This last Saturday we drove down to Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky, OH to meet some friends from the Navy. Chris & Katie just got married last month & are on their honeymoon. Another friend, Eric, lives in Wisconsin and drove down with his girlfriend. It was fun. Freezing cold, since we were directly on Lake Erie, but fun. It was a little rainy, and windy, but we still went on a bunch of rides. Emma had a blast in the kiddie area. Cedar Point is pretty much known as the roller coaster capital of the US. They have 16 roller coasters, including the tallest one in the world right now, the Top Thrill Dragster (which unfortunately was closed that day, along with a few others). But the next biggest one is Millennium Force, which goes up 310 ft. and them plummets down at an 80 degree angle. It was awesome. It goes about 90 MPH, and with the intense winds that we had that day, felt a lot faster.
It was a fun trip, albeit short. We came home on Sunday afternoon. Just enough time for Jeff to finish his homework (with me helping) and go to bed. Maybe this weekend we'll be able to stay home.

We went to see a play at the college last week. It was "I Hate Hamlet". It was really good. Andrew Rally is a TV actor who's popular show has just been cancelled, and he's gone to New York to be in some plays to beef up his resume while waiting for his next big break. He's asked to play Hamlet in Shakespeare in the Park. But he despises Hamlet and doesn't want to do it. All the while, he's renting John Barrymore's old apartment and his ghost comes back to help Nadrew prepare for the role. It's pretty funny.
The girls stayed at home with a couple friends of ours from the college, Andrea & Gary. Andrea watched Emma last February when Jeff & I went to a concert. They got married in May. I was able to get Sarah to eat out of a bottle for a little while so they could feed her while we were gone, just in case. She did pretty well & Emma loved having someone new to play with. Maybe now we'll be able to go out every once in a while.

We're back...

from Orlando. It was a quick trip for the girls & I. We left Thursday morning & were back home by very early Sunday morning. It was a whirlwind but it was fun.
We were able to see Jon & Jenn Parker on Thursday evening. Jeff hadn't seen them since their wedding almost 7 years ago. Emma & their daughter Jordan had a blast together. They saw each other last year, but I don't know if either of them remembered it. We had dinner at the hotel, the Disney Swan where Jeff was staying. It included a couple appearances by Disney characters Goofy & Pluto. The restaurant wasn't all that busy, so they were able to stay with each table for quite awhile. Pluto came back twice, as did Goofy. The girls posed for a picture with Pluto (on the website), one on each side of him, with his arms around them. After I took the picture, he stood up, picking up the girls under his arms and started to walk off with them. It was cute. Even though Jon & Jenn were only able to stay for a few hours, it was nice to see them again.
The next day we went to Disneyworld. Emma decided she wanted to wear her Snow White outfit the whole day. I mistakenly thought she might be one of only a few kids to be wearing costumes before the Halloween thing that night. I was wrong. I saw no less than 50-100 kids wearing a myriad of costumes, mostly Disney Princess ones. There were even a few adults dressed up.
We had fun. Emma was adamant about going on the Dumbo ride and the carousel. We didn't get on Dumbo until late in the evening, as it was one of the most popular rides in the park with the longest line. Emma ended up not liking half of the "kiddie rides", i.e. Peter Pan's Flight & Snow White's Adeventure. She did like the Winnie the Pooh one, though. I'm not sure why she wasn't thrilled about the other ones. They have a new one for Buzz Lightyear. It's pretty cool. You're on a car, like the other ones, but you have a stick shift & are able to turn the car around on a 360 degree access and shoot at targets with 2 onboard laser guns. It keeps a tally of how many you hit & gives you a score at the end of the ride. It's pretty neat.
They also have a new 3-D show called "Disney's Philharmonic". It was Jeff's favorite. We went twice. I think even Sarah liked it, although I felt bad that she had to see it blurry, as she didn't have any 3-D glasses.
Emma was a little upset when we stood in line for 45 minutes to get a picture with Cinderella (her favorite) only to have Cinderella leave when there were only 3 people in front of us. I think she had a show to do, and Disney has a policy that 2 people playing the same character aren't allowed out in public at the same time. We went and saw her show and before it started, some of the villains came out to give autographs & pose for pictures. The Evil Queen from Snow White was there & as she was passing Emma (we were in the front row), she just stared at her & gave her the evil eye. I'm assuming it was because she was dressed as Snow White. It was pretty funny. Emma didn't think so, though and got scared. It was kinda cool, there were adults dressed up as Maleficent (from Sleeping Beauty), Cruella DeVil, and the Evil Queen. They each went to their respective villain & posed for a picture. I thought that was kinda neat.
We had a blast and can't wait to go back. It's definitely different than Disneyland.

On our own

Well, Jeff's in Florida for 6 days. So the girls & I are alone for a few days, until we fly out there to meet him on Thursday. So far, his conference has been "fun". They have the schedule pretty booked with technical and propaganda meetings. He's gotten a few free t-shirts out of the deal, so I guess it's not a total loss. He's mostly looking forward to the final night party at Universal Studios tomorrow evening.
We're going to meet up with Jon & Jenn Parker on Thursday night. They're driving down from Jacksonville to have dinner with us. It'll be nice to see them. Jeff hasn't seen them since their wedding, I believe. That was almost 7 years ago. Emma & I saw them last year in Sacramento. Jordan & Emma got along pretty well. We got a picture of them hugging & it looks like Jordan's strangling Emma, but it was cute.
So far, we really haven't done much with Jeff not being here. It was nice to sleep in (well, 7:30am when Emma woke Sarah & I up), and not have to take Jeff to work. I stayed up until 1:30am playing my video game. Haven't done that in awhile. Jeff did the same thing while the girls & I were CA. But he did that for a month. I have 3 days. I have to make the most of it. Hehe
Emma & I are going to make cookies sometime today. I'm going to bribe my next door neighbor into getting my mail & bringing in my trash bins while I'm gone.
I think Fall has officially "fell" here. Last Friday, the temp was about 70 degrees. On Saturday, it dropped to about 55. I was totally unprepared for it. We went to the Buddy Walk on Saturday in Lansing & we freezed our butts off. Emma, Sarah & I were lucky. I had brought blankets & (light) jackets for us. But Jeff hadn't brought anything, nor did I think to bring anything for him. Needless to say, we didn't stay long after the walk. But we had a fun time, even though it was cold. There are pics on the website.
So, it'll be nice to go to Florida for a few days & be sweaty rather than chilly. Jeff says it's really humid. Oh fun. I told him before he left that I wouldn't mind living in Florida. He said he didn't like the idea of huge bugs. Or the hurricanes. I said I'd take the bugs over the snow. Hurricanes you can evacuate from & there's always bug spray for the humungous insects. Snow is just there, all the time.
Our wonderful neighbor next door (the one we share a wall with) was kind enough to mow our lawn the other day. He was using a riding lawn mower & was doing a great job. Only one problem-he ran over a huge rock, and the mower hurled it at our lower floor window, putting a huge hole in one of the panes. That was fun & interesting. Scared me to death when I heard it. Thank goodness it didn't go through both panes & right into our living room, where the kids were playing. Sarah's swing was in front of the window & it would have hit that. So we called our landlord & he came right over. He said they'd try to get it fixed before we leave. Never a dull moment around here.

Paging Martha Stewart...

I am slowly transforming into one of those moms who does everything from scratch. Well, kinda. Yesterday I went & bought all the stuff needed to make Emma's halloween costume. She had decided a couple weeks ago that she wanted to be Strawberry Shortcake. Seeing as how the only exposure she's ever had to Strawberry Shortcake is a little plush doll that my grandmother gave her last Christmas, I was surprised she picked that. I was thinking she'd do something more along the lines of a Disney princess (i.e. Cinderella, since that is her favorite). But I was not opposed to the Shortcake chick. I loved her as a young child and since all things old are new again lately (Carebears, Rainbow Brite, even Transformers & Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), I figured, what the heck? I was preparing myself for weeks of making a dress with pantaloons and a pinafore, along with some funky look hat. But, I was pleasantly surprised upon finding the pattern at the fabric store that the modern Strawberry Shortcake has scaled down her wardrobe and is now in a pink, red, green & white striped shirt, with blue pants and her trademark hat. I'm thinking, I can do this. So, I bought some of the stuff yesterday & proceeded to curse at my dull scissors & realize that I really don't know how to sew very well. Case in point, in looking at the pattern for all the little brickabrack I needed for this costume it said "single fold bias tape, hook and eye". I asked the lady what that meant. I had found the bias tape, but I had no idea what kind of bias tape "hook and eye" was. She informed me that it was two separate things, bias tape AND a hook and eye closure. I felt like a dope. Reason #50 why I don't sew, I don't know the lingo.
But things went pretty well considering. I finished the pants this morning, after wrestling with a French cuff (the instructions just did NOT make sense). And Emma's now wearing the pants I just made. I haven't found any material for the shirt, and I still need to get some polyester fiberfill & batting for the hat. But I'm on my way, sort of.
Then this morning, I decided to make pancakes. From scratch. I've done this before but in combination with the costume thing, it looks a little suspicious.
Emma's preschool class is going on a field trip today. They're walking over to the big gym on campus & going on the climbing wall. I'm not exactly sure how this is going to go with 4 year olds, but it should be interesting to watch. I'll take my camera.

More hospital fun

Sarah had her EKG this morning. I'd never seen one done before, so I didn't know what to expect. But they put a few little nodes on her chest & belly and then used an ultrasound machine to look at her heart and take some pictures. Sarah did remarkably well, although she didn't like the cold jelly on her chest & being naked. And of course, Emma couldn't stand to not have all the attention on her, so she wanted to be right in the middle of the action. Thankfully it didn't take too long. But we have to wait until the end of this week or the beginning of next week before we get any results back. Apparently they have to send the info to Children's Hospital in Lansing & have their pediatric cardiologist look at it. I personally don't think she has anything wrong with her heart, but we wanted to completely rule it out and not just assume. Especially since while we were in the waiting area, I started reading thos article about a little girl who went into congestive heart failure at about 5 months old. Her mom said the only symptoms she had were being congested a lot & being clammy and sweaty after eating, both of which I've noticed about Sarah. But, with the DS, she's got a small nose, which could account for the constant boogers, and my MIL said she noticed that babies get really sweaty when they're about to fall asleep, which Sarah tends to do while she's eating, so I don't know.
Hopefully this will be the last trip to any hospital for us in a long time. I think the next we have to go is in early November for Emma's yearly physical. I'm thinking she needs shots then, yay.

Well so much for that plan...

I had been planning on all of us going to the Grand Rapids Buddy Walk this morning. But, it's 10:30 am and we're still at home. It's all my fault. I had the biggest headache last night & didn't get very much sleep. I would have been pretty much a wash this morning trying to get everyone out the door. So, I feel horrible that I asked everyone to donate money to the Buddy Walk when I'm not going to the one I asked for donations for! Thank goodness there's another one next week in Lansing, which is closer. I still feel like I let everyone down, especially Sarah, even though she had no clue what we were going to do today. But I have ALL intentions of going next week & hopefully my health will allow me to.

Can I just relax for a minute?

Ok, today has been pretty busy & it's not even 2 pm yet. For starters, Jeff woke up 40 minutes late this morning & we were rushing to get out of the house to get him to work. I know both Emma & Sarah had someplace to be at 9am, so I was in a hurry to get everyone clean, dressed & out the door by 8:45am. Emma had speech therapy from 9-11:30am, while Sarah had a team meeting for Early On. They decided that Sarah is doing so well developmentally that she doesn't need any therapies right now, although they did give me some suggestions to help her alone before our next meeting in November. Then they had the Early On playgroup at 10:30. It was in the school's gym, and they had all these toys & balls for the kids to play with. There was a little boy, about 11 months old, who has Down syndrome, as well. I'd heard about him from the Early On coordinator & had been trying to get in contact with him mom, but she works full-time and is getting her Master's degree, so time is a precious commodity. He was there with his sitter. I gave her my number to give to Joseph's mom to have her call me when she gets the time. No rush. I think Sarah had fun. Since she couldn't run around like the majority of the kids there, she just sat with me & played with little toys. She really liked this rubber square that squeaked. It was big, about 4 inches cubed so it was easy for her to hold on to. I'm thinking this will have to be a toy that we buy for her.
Meanwhile, Emma was still in speech, so she missed out on the big playgroup, but she had fun where she was. She might end up going to one-on-one therapy at the school, like they had originally wanted, but we'll see how she does next week.
Then we came home, only to have Jeff call & see if we were coming to the college to eat lunch with him. He had promised Emma she could do that. So off we went again. By the time lunch was over, it was time for Emma to go to preschool. I had anticipated that, and she didn't seem to might the fact that we'd been home less that an hour since 8am this morning. Sarah & I came home and you'd think we would be able to rest, but no. Now I have to sit around & wait for the satellite guy to come & install our DirecTv. All so Jeff can get his Sunday Ticket & watch every football game every week. Not that I might, I've been itching to see a 49ers game since last September. Even though they're not that great, hey, they're our team.
So, Sarah is asleep & I get to relax just a minute, until the satellite guy knocks on my door.

Four year olds & gum...

Not a good combination. Emma has had gum numerous times without incident. But, today we had the token "gum in the hair" moment. Fun fun. Good thing this didn't happen 15 minutes before we were due to leave for school, otherwise I might have screamed & cut her hair off. But, I was calm, relatively, and put peanut butter in her hair to try & get it out. Don't ask me where I got that tidbit of old wive's tale/homemade remedy. I think I vaguely remember hearing something about it helping with gum in the hair. To tell you the truth, I don't know if it really helped. Emma had fun with the idea that I put food in her hair to get food OUT of her hair. So, it took about 30 minutes, but I got 99% of it out. She then took a bath & her hair was fine. Chalk it up to one of those childhood moments. Thank goodness Sarah slept through the whole thing. If she'd been up & cranky, Emma might not have long hair anymore.
Speaking of Sarah, the poor little girl had to get 4 shots today. She had her 4 month check-up (yes, I know she's 5 months old now, we're a month behind) and that included shots. But she also got weighed & measured. She's 24 1/4 inches long & 13 lbs. 14 ounces. She was being such a good girl, not being fussy or anything. She was just looking up at me & smiling & then all of a sudden, BAM! Some evil woman in a white nurses outfit sticks her poor thighs with a needle. It actually took her until after the 2nd shot to realize what was happening to her. And then she just looked up at me, and her little face crumpled. I just had to laugh, it was so cute! But once I picked her up & soothed her, she stopped crying. I had to stay 20 minutes after the shots, to see if she had any immediate adverse reaction to them. I fed her & she fell asleep. Poor little thing.
Needless to say, by the time Emma went to preschool, I was beat.

Working for the weekend

It's been a busy week, and both Jeff & I are glad that the weekend is finally here. We can sleep in, well, ONE of us can, and we don't have to worry about work or school.
Emma started speech therapy again this week. She goes once a week, on Thursdays, from 9-11:30am. It's a group of kids, about 5 of them, that go all at once. That makes it a long day for her, because she's got preschool from 1-3:30pm that same day. But she didn't seem to mind it, and she didn't seem to be overly tired or cranky. The teacher, in fact, called us yesterday to ask if she had had any problems with the busy day. I tol her Emma kinda thrives on being busy. She loves school & pretty much just loves being around other kids, so having a lot of things to do don't really bother her too much.
We're going to a fall festival this afternoon. It's being put on by the preschool, so hopefully we should be able to meet some of the other families & maybe Emma will find a new friend!
I'm also looking into getting Emma in beginning ballet. It's not gymnastics, but maybe she'll enjoy it. My philosophy is, let the kids try out new & different things, and let them decide what they like & don't like. My dad & step-mom did that with my sister & brothers. They were in a LOT of sports & activities when they were Emma's age, and after a few years, they figured out which ones they wanted to focus on. I want to give Emma the same opportunity. She's got so much energy, that I know she'll love sports, especially soccer, but she's not old enough to do it just yet. She missed the cutoff date by 9 days, which is typical when your child has a December birthday. Jeff had to deal with the same thing when he was growing up.
Next Saturday is the Buddy Walk in Grand Rapids. It should be fun. I'm looking forward to meeting other parents who have children with Down syndrome. There's one other family in town, who has a little boy who's 10 1/2 months old. I haven't gotten in touch with them yet, but maybe this weekend.
Well, Sarah has officially discovered her feet. She's constantly grabbing at them & using them to move the toys that are hanging above her on her playgym. She's not to the point of putting she in her mouth yet, but I'm sure that'll be soon.
I'm putting some new pictures on the website today, so check 'em out!

Who needs sleep?

Little Sarah has become a night owl. Or, in the case of last night, a night HOWL. She decided, at midnight, that she was going to be up & about, regardless if Jeff & I wanted to sleep. She did the same thing the previous night, where I got about 3 1/2 hours of sleep. Last night, she woke up about 2:45am, after only being asleep for about an hour, screaming her head off. She wouldn't eat & she wouldn't be consoled for about 30 minutes. Even then it took me about another 30 minutes before she fell asleep again. Jeff thinks she must have had a nightmare. It definitely seems like that's what happened. So, again, I got about 3 1/2 hours of sleep. Coffee is the only reason I'm even still functioning. That and the lady who's coming to my house in about an hour. She's from the University of Michigan & is going to be conducting the study Sarah's involved in. I have to be conscious for her to be here.
Well we bought our tickets to Orlando, FL. Jeff's going there in a couple weeks for a conference and the girls & I are going to join him the last few days so we can go to DisneyWorld. It should be a fun trip. Jeff will fly out there on the 4th of October, with us meeting him there on the 7th, and then we'll all fly home together on the 9th. Short, but fun. Hopefully we'll be able to see our friends Jon & Jennifer while we're there.
Ok, this is written a few hours later:
The girls from the University of Michigan just left. They were here for about an hour, measuring Sarah, taking video of her movements & giving us toys & other paraphernalia to work with. Sarah's wearing an "Actiwatch" on her ankle & tummy that will measure her movements for the next 24 hours. I have to keep a log as to what she's doing during that time so they can accurately determine how much she's moving on her own. The toy is pretty cool. She can either lay on her tummy or back & reach for these stuffed animal looking things that make music. It also has a mirror on it, so Sarah should be getting to know her reflection pretty well. I was right, they had a "baby" treadmill. It was the cutest thing. She didn't really walk on it, but she moved her feet a little bit. They also took her height & weight. She's 23 3/4 in long & 13 lbs. 9 oz.
Emma isn't going to be able to do gymnastics this fall. Poo. I wasn't sent any information about it & by the time I called them to get her in, they were completely full in both the classes. Oh well, we're looking to get her into dance or soccer, so she can do something besides speech therapy & preschool.

Sarah Wilson-test subject

We got something in the mail the other day, inviting us to be a part of a research study with DS kids. It said that someone would com eout to our house & give us either a Kick & Play gym or a Tummy Time gym for Sarah to play with. We are to have her on it for a minimum specified amount of time per week and they would be coming back once a month for 4 months to see how she's. It's pretty cool! They also want to see how these toys affect Sarah's ability to walk (assisted) on a treadmill (I'm assuming they have a baby sized one & aren't using a full size one). So it should be interesting. Maybe we'll even be able to keep the toy!

Homegrown goodness

While Emma was at preschool today, Sarah & I went to the Farmer's Market. It was nice to go around all the displays & see things that were grown within about a 20 mile radius of here. They had huge zucchini & tomatos, and lots of corn. They've had it every Thursday since the beginning of June, but this is the first time we've been able to go. Truth be told, this is the first time I've remembered to go. I had all these plans to go every week, but it never happened. Like going to the breastfeeding support group once a month, hasn't happened yet either. But now that school has started up again, & we're planning on having Emma do gymnastics, I'm sure there will be plenty of other things that I forget to go to.
Emma is starting Speech Therapy again. It's taken a year & a half to get her back into it. It's going to be in a playgroup setting, with a group of kids, and it's 2 1/2 hours long, ince a week. Thursday's look like they're going to be our busy day, because the speech is in the morning & then she has school for 2 1/2 hours in the afternoon. They had said that Emma wouldn't be able to go to the therapy outside her preschool, since they had a therapist go to the school twice a week. But I argued for her, saying I didn't want her to be taken out of school just for therapy. She loves it too much & I didn't think it was fair. So, they agreed with me.

What was the point of that?

I drove all the way to Lansing, forcing Emma to miss school, all so we could be told things I already knew. You'd think that, since we had to make this appointment 4 months in advance, they'd have something new & interesting to tell me. All they did was give me information I already had & told me things that were obvious. I suppose it was nice to have a "expert" tell me that Sarah looks really good & doesn't have very many outward signs of Down syndrome, which I already knew. But they did set up a referral to have an EKG done on her, just to rule out any heart defects completely. They also set up a schedule to have other diagnostic tests done on her over the next year. Thyroid, vision, hearing, ect.
A word to the wise: young children & coffee tables don't mix. Jeff & Emma were rough-housing last night & Emma's nose came into abrupt contact with the side of the coffee table. She hit just below the bridge of her nose. We were freaking out, because I thought she had broken it. It was bleeding a little bit, not enough to get worried, but it started swelling up immediately. She has a little abrasion on it & it's going to be bruised, but I think she'll be ok. I don't see any signs of a black eye, but I'm sure it's coming. Poor kid. She was milking the attention though, got a big bowl of popcorn out of the ordeal.

Lansing, here we come

Today is Sarah's genetics counseling appointment at MSU. I'm not exacly sure what they're going to do at this appointment. Hopefully they'll be able to tell us what kind od Down syndrome Sarah has. We made this appointment back in May, so I don't know what to expect.
Poor Emma has to miss school in order for us to go to the appt. It's in Lansing, which is an hour away, and we need to leave here by 1:30pm. And since school is from 1-3:30pm, she can't go. I feel bad, but I think she'll get over it. Jeff can't go with us, since he has school, so I'm making this trek alone.
I started exercizing again today. Well, doing my Bodyflex tapes again, if that can be called exercize. I figure it's better than nothing & I need to lose some weight. It worked before, so I figure it can work again. I never seem to be able to do anything else. I'm also going to start walking with Sarah in the stroller while Emma's at school. I haven't done it so far, so we'll see.
I think we've changed our plans for going to Orlando, FL with Jeff next month. Because going to CA at Christmas is a little more important, we're going to instead probably visit our friends in Tennessee. They just had a baby, Justin, so it should be fun with 2 little ones. I wish we could see our friends in FL as well but sometimes things happen.

Yay for my techie husband!

We finally got our new hard drive on Monday & Jeff has spent the past two evenings, after a full day's work & school, getting our computer back up & running. We bought a program that automatically backs up the computer once a week if anything new has happened. So hopefully we won't have this problem again. We found out what the problem was, though. A faulty surge protector. Oh fun. Our video card also went kaput, so that's another thing we have to get. We have an older one that we're using now. I realize now why some people don't like computers & don't want to deal with them. They're expensive & are constantly needing to be tweeked, otherwise they throw a hissy fit & die on you, taking all of your digital pictures with it.
But the most important thing is now we have Final Fantasy XI back up & running. Yay! I played last night for the first time in almost a week & got myself killed 4 times in an hour. Two of them were my fault, two of them weren't. I wasn't happy.
Emma started school on Monday. She' s so excited! She loves it. In fact, she cried when her teacher told her it was time to go home the first day. They have playtime outside everyday the last half hour before school ends, and she about peed herself when she saw that they had swings. It was all she could talk about after Sarah & I picked her up that first day. And she keeps getting surprised every time I tell her that she goes to school everyday, rather than every other day. The only bad thing is they don't have a show & tell day for the kids, and Emma's upset about that. Things run a little differently at the school. They don't have a mandatory art time or a routine when it's time to go home, like they did at her other preschool. I especially think the routine they had, when they all lined up & sang the "goodbye" song helped Emma with her "transitional issues", where she has difficulty going from one thing to another without adequate time to adjust.
Jeff found out that he's on the Dean's list for the summer semesters! He got 3 A's and very high B+. I'm so proud of him! School started again for him on Monday & it looks like it's going to be a rough next couple of months. 13 units, including Pre-calc, so it should be fun! Looks like I'll be helping him with homework.

Memories

I've been going through all our 8mm video tapes to figure out what's on them all so we can transfer them to DVD. I realize that I am a spastic video camera user. Of the 9 or so tapes that we have, only about 1-2 of them go from beginning to end in line with real time. Meaning, that the content goes from one month to another, with the calendar. On the other 6 or so, there will be some from December 2000 & then it will jump to March of 2002, and then go back to September of 2001 or something. I've probably taped over some memorable moments in our family history with this haphazard way of taping but hopefully we'll be able to keep this from happening again now that we're able to record everything over to DVD.
I know this probably sounds biased, but Emma was the cutest little toddler. I'm watching all of these tapes & seeing her that young again is making me so nostalgic. It was so funny back when she couldn't talk & she had lots of blonde hair with little curls! And I feel much better about myself because I see now that I DID get a lot of Emma's firsts on tape. Most of the time I think I missed everything & was feeling like a bad mother (like I do now with Sarah, cause I haven't been taping anything of her yet). But that was the whole point of me getting all these tapes out & trying to get all the content off the 8mm & onto DVD. It's going to take awhile though, because I have to go through all the tapes & record everything in order. So maybe by Christmas I'll have everything finished.
On top of the video tapes to record, I also have to start painting Sarah's crib & put that together. She's getting almost too big for her bassinette. Emma slept in it until she was 5 1/2 months old, but we didn't have a crib for her until then. But with Sarah still waking up sometimes 2 times a night (yay) I don't relish the idea of having to go upstairs to feed her at 4am. I'm hoping she's just going through a growth spurt & it will end soon. I'm also going to feed her some rice cereal once a day, mostly before bedtime so maybe that will help.

Technology sucks

Ok, I'm writing this on Jeff's laptop that is hooked up to our big monitor. Our wonderful computer broke this week. Well only the hard drive, but it still means we have no computer. We're waiting on a new hard drive that's supposed to be delivered on Monday. Grrr. This is the second time this has happened this year. We, again, lost all of our digital pictures that we've taken. So the only ones we have left are the ones that we've posted on the website. But there are a lot of them on there, so I'm only minorly upset. It was nobody's fault, for some reason the hard drive just broke. It's a pain in the behind, but it's not the end of the world.
Emma starts preschool on Monday. She's so excited! We went to an open house on Thursday & she didn't want to leave. She was having too much fun playing with all the toys & meeting new friends. She has her own little cubby to put her stuff in & it has her picture on it. This was the first time that Jeff had seen the school & he was quite impressed. They have microphones hanging from the ceiling to record what's going on for the students who are being student teachers. They also have one way mirrors on one side of the room, where other students (and parents are welcome, too) can sit & observe the kids. It seemed kinda "big brotherish" to me at first, but I figure it's easier to observe the kids behaving naturally when they don't know they're being watched. And for a certain class you need to take to get your teaching credential, you have to observe so many hours so this was probably the easiest way to get it all on tape. Plus, parents are allowed to come in & sit back there to view what's going on, as well. I think I'm going to take advantage of that maybe once a month, just to see how Emma's doing. I know with her last preschool, they didn't really let me know if Emma was struggling with anything, either socially or anything. But with this school, they have parent-teacher conferences at the end of each semester, and they also encourage parents to come & observe their children. Because we all know how kids act differently when they're away from their parents. And I want to make sure that Emma knows that I know what's going on, even if she doesn't know HOW I know.

Tasty treats

Sarah had her first taste of solid food last night. Seeing as how she's 4 months old now, I figured it would be a good time to introduce her to rice cereal. Emma hated it when she was Sarah's age. But, in her defence, by the time Emma was 4 months old, she was almost off breast milk & had practically weened herself. And I, being an inexperienced mother, didn't mix the rice cereal with formula. Instead I did it with plain old water & Emma was less than thrilled.
But with Sarah, she's still nursing, so the rice cereal was mixed with breast milk. We gave her a bath to get her calm & then tried out the cereal. Jeff held her while I fed her. The first taste was very tentative. She was feeling it out, licking her lips & then got all excited, wanting more. She was so cute! She was making all these grunty, hungry noises, like she just couldn't get enough. The way you mix it for the first time, it's practically liquid, with the ratio of cereal to milk about 1:4, but Sarah just had a ball. She would open her little mouth when she saw the spoon & followed it with her eyes when she wasn't being fed. She wanted to keep that spoon in her sights to make sure it wasn't leaving.

New tricks

Hello everyone! I'm sorry I haven't posted in awhile, but my in-laws have been in town & I haven't had a chance to write anything. Sarah's been doing some new tricks. She can roll over from back to front now & she started laughing. We were putting her feet up against her cheeks last night & making funny noises & she started laughing out loud. It was too cute! She's definitely starting to smile more often & is happy that she can now switch positions if we put her down in a way she doesn't like.
We're going to Michigan Adventure tomorrow. It's an amusement park that's owned by the same people who own Knott's Berry Farm, so everything has a "Peants" theme to it. Emma's very excited. It also has a water park there that we can get into as well, it's all included in the price of one ticket. So we're taking our bathing suits, well Emma's, so she can have some water fun.
The only bad thing is, we're all starting to get sick. I started having a sore throat last night & today I feel icky. But that's not going to stop me from enjoying myself tomorrow.
I posted some new pictures up on the website from this last week. There are a few more with Sarah smiling & some of Emma sliding through the kitchen on her bean bag chair. It's her new sport.

Why some women don't breastfeed

I know now why some women decide that breastfeeding isn't for them, at least for very long. I think I forgot this since I was nursing Emma, but babies BITE. And it hurts, very bad. Even without teeth, those little gums can clamp down with the force of a vice. And Sarah is so good about doing it so very sneakily. She'll be nice & sweet and then all of a sudden she's Dracula looking for her next blood fix. I keep having to remind the 3 1/2 month old that my boobs are not a teething ring. Kids with Down syndrome don't tend to get teeth this early, but they can show the signs this early. I'm not looking forward to another 9 months of Sarah using her gums like a meat grinder while she's nursing. I think an actual tooth would be preferable. At least then I'll be able to see what's causing me so much pain.

Throwing out the trash

Jeff & I have been going through our file "cabinet" and throwing out all the old, outdated stuff that we have no use for. For example, bill stubs from 4 years ago, user manuals to items we no longer own, and bank statements for accounts that were closed long ago. We're keeping only the current things, and of course, all our tax documents & medical stuff. I have to say, we threw out a lot of paperwork. It feels somewhat liberating to be rid of all that stuff. Now, it might have helped to do all this before we moved, so Jeff didn't have to pack it, but that's a moot point at this juncture. Now all of our paperwork, aside from medical stuff, user manuals & tax documents, can fit into one small accordian type file. And with room to spare.
Liz & Dave are coming in 2 days & Emma is very excited. Even though she just saw all of our family less than a month ago, she always gets happy when people come to visit us. Most of the time because they bring presents. She is one spoiled kid.
My sister-in-law Melissa is getting married on the 21st of this month. We're all very excited & happy for her. She is marrying a very nice guy named Mark. We wish we could be there, but with Jeff's work, school, & the expense of flying out there with 2 kids, we just can't. But we wish her & Mark the best and we'll be there in spirit.
Speaking of school, Emma starts her new preschool/Kindergarden readiness in about 3 weeks. We have a home visit scheduled for tomorrow afternoon. I'm not sure what that's going to involve. Hopefully it isn't just an excuse to have someone come into our house to evaluate whether or not we're abusing our child, which the term "home visit" kinda make you envision. Emma's already excited about school so I don't think we'll have any problems convincing her to go. Every morning she has her little Disney Princess backpack ready to go & is crushed every time we tell her it's not quite time to go. I feel bad that she doesn't really have any sense of time, when it comes to future events. She still thinks everything happens in the now, and that future events will happen any second. Terms like "in a few hours" or "next week" really have no meaning to her other than they aren't happening right this very second & she doesn't like that.
I'm thinking Sarah is going through a growth spurt. She is sleeping all the time & eating constantly & very cranky. The crankiness is normally reserved for the car (she's the only baby I know that hates being in the car) but lately it's been popping up everywhere. She HAD been sleeping through the night, from about 9pm to about 8am, but the past few nights she's been waking up 2-3 times a night. I'm hoping this isn't a trend & that it will end quickly, but I suppose you can't rush the growth process. It'll end when this spurt is over. She's already pretty much grown out of her 0-3 month clothes, with the exception of a few things that are larger than normal. And dresses, since they aren't as binding as onesies & sleepers. She's just growing up so quickly! She's smiling all the time now, and she's almost rolling over from back to front. Jeff was holding her last night on the couch & I wanted to take some pictures. So I grabbed the camera & was standing in front of them, taking pictures. I would move from side to side to get a better angle & Sarah was just staring at me the whole time. She would follow me with her eyes as I was moving. She wouldn't even look at Jeff unless I was out of her field of vision. It was so neat! Not for Jeff, cause she wouldn't look at him, but cool for me. She really knows me! But she still loves to smile the most for Jeff. Every evening when he comes home, she always gets really vocal & smiles for him. And she makes the funniest faces at Emma. She loves it when Emma comes up & kisses her or plays with her. Emma really loves her little sister. Her "jealous" stage is coming to a close, I think. She still wants attention most of the time, but is a little more forgiving now that Sarah is a little older. Sarah can interact a little more with her now, which makes it more enjoyable for Emma. Both Jeff & I are trying to make sure Emma gets one-on-one time with us but it is hard when Sarah is still so needy. But Emma is being very understandable.

Privacy at last

We finally got our roller shades from JCPenney yesterday. I ordered them almost 2 weeks ago. None of our windows had shades on them, we've been having to tack blankets up in order to not flash people outside. Talk about ghetto. I got them all put up yesterday even before Jeff came home. I felt pretty proud of myself. It was relatively easy. Emma likes to open them, she likes how they snap up.
Sarah is getting so big! She's almost rolling over from back to front. SHe just has the issue of her arm getting in the way. She ends up tilted sideways with her arm underneath her tummy, trying to move it & gets very frustrated. She's also getting really strong in her front neck muscles. I was looking towards the back of the van this morning & I noticed that she was lifting her head up while she was in her carseat. I think that's the first time she's done that without someone holding onto her hands for support. She's also getting more vocal, & I think she even blew a raspberry at me this morning. For the past 2 nights, she's slept between 10-12 hours straight, with no waking up. It freaked me out yesterday morning because I woke up & realized that she hadn't & rushed over to see if she was still alive! She was fine, but I guess she's sleeping completely through the night now! That's nice, but I'm sure we'll have nights when she doesn't. I think maybe it's coming to the time when she will be sleeping in her own room. I still have to paint the crib. Maybe I can do some of that when Dave & Liz are here next week. Oh, and we have to buy a new crib mattress. I think that first night, when she's upstairs in her crib & not right next to us in her bassinette, I won't sleep very well. I know when Emma slept in her own room for the first time, I didn't sleep very well. Even though I had a monitor on & I could hear everything going on, it was still hard for me. And Emma was older, almost 5 1/2 months. Of course, she was also still sleeping in the bassinette because we didn't have the crib yet. I guess it was a good thing that Emma was kinda small when she was a baby. Otherwise she wouldn't have lasted that long in the bassinette. Sarah's still pretty small, too but I don't want to assume that she'll be small forever.

Can you have a pimped out family car?

I'm thinking you can, because that's what our van is turning into. A couple days after we bought it, we had Sirius satellite radio put in it. One more remote control for the car (the DVD player already has one). And now Jeff has discovered that he can hook up the Playstation to the DVD screen & play video games. Oh my gosh. This is going to be one long drive back to CA in December because Jeff will be in the backseat, watching movies & playing video games. I will be driving the whole way.
All of these upgrades, of course, are making our van the coolest way to be driven around campus. Jeff says the students he works with fight over who gets to sit in the backseat & watch a DVD with the wireless headphones that came with the car. What's kinda sad is the movie that's in there right now is "Finding Nemo". If they found out they could play video games in there, they'd never get out.

Plans change

Especially when they involve my husband. I love him to death, but sometimes he gets on tangents and won't stop until someone's head is on a pike. But, I will give him credit, this time his tirade worked out.
We had put a deposit on the white Honda Odyssey over a week ago. We had been told that it would be delivered by the end of last week. Well that came & went. We actually went down to the dealer on Saturday & they told us that it would be delivered, for sure, the next day, and they would call us on Monday to come pick it up. Well by around noon yesterday no one had called, so we started calling them. The salesman we had dealt with in the beginning didn't answer the pages to come to the phone, nor did he call me back when I left him a message (to his defense, he apparently had gotten his stereo in his car stolen & had been dealing with that all morning). So we ended up calling the finance guy, even though we already had a check to give them and weren't in need of any financing. He told me that the car wasn't delivered the previous day & would get back to me. Jeff had finally had enough & called them to ask them how we could get out of the deal, because he was tired of all the lies & broken promises, and we were going somewhere else. Now, mind you, the people there had told us repeatedly that there were NO Odyssey EX's with the DVD player ON THE LOT at any dealership in the state of Michigan. Nor were any dealership expecting them, because Honda wasn't making the 2004 model anymore. Only "premium" dealerships were going to get the last few & of course, THEY were one of them. And I, being the kind of person I am, believed them. Jeff, being the kind of person he is, didn't. We called 2 other dealerships in MI, one in Grand Rapids, about 90 miles away, and one is Okemos, about 70 miles away. Jeff had told the first dealership that if the other ones didn't have anything, that we would wait for theirs to be delivered. The one in Grand Rapids had one that had just been delivered on Friday, and it was the light blue, called Havasu Blue. We were cool with that, because it was better than the white. Jeff rambled off the numbers that the other dealership had aggreed upon and asked them if they could meet or beat that. They said yes, so we were off to Grand Rapids. Once we got there, and examined the van to make sure it had everything we wanted, we said ok let's do it & Jeff called the first dealership to let them know that the deal was off. They were less than thrilled to say the least. So, we got our van, in Havasu blue. It's pretty cool, and Emma loves the DVD. She had even brought a movie with her to watch on the way home. I am definitely learning that a van handles a lot different than a Civic, though. But we're really happy with it. Now all I have to do is go & get our money back from the first dealership. They had cashed our check, even though the car hadn't come in yet. So now we get to go get a check from them, and mail it to Wells Fargo and wait a week for that to process. Not fun.
On another note, Emma found out that we have a spray nozzle on our kitchen sink. She decided to hand wash my coffee cup this morning (she loves to wash dishes), and I showed her how to use the spray nozzle. Her eyes got really big & she went "Oooooohhhhh". It's very cool to her.
So now we have our new van with the nifty dual sliding doors that can be opened & closed via a remote. It's nice not to have to stoop over to put Sarah into the car. And now that Emma can fasten her own seatbelt, I feel a little more free when it comes time to put the kids in the car.

Dude, where's my car?

We were pretty excited about this weekend because we were anticipating going to go pick up our brand new, barely off the truck, has approximately 1 mile on it, van. We got approved through Navy Federal Credit Union for a new car loan, at a really good interest rate, WITHOUT needing a co-signer, which is a first for us. We didn't have to deal with the dealership ruining our credit by going all over town, trying to get a loan for us. Jeff had haggled for a decent price on the van (the dealership's only getting $200 over invoice), and we were getting a pretty good trade-in value for our Civic. We were on top of the world. Then the other shoe dropped - our van wasn't going to be delivered on time. It was scheduled to be there by Friday, it was on the delivery invoice & everything, but something happened that prevented it from getting there. We were so bummed. We even thought that maybe the dealership was just yanking our chain for some reason & our car was actually already there. Maybe they were upset at the fact that they hadn't taken us for a ride on the price of the car & weren't getting much out of us, so they decided to hold our car for ransom until next week. But that seemed silly (but we took a ride down there today, for an unrelated reason, & checked it out anyway). So, here we are, van-less. Emma was upset, not because of the van itself, but because of the DVD player. Everywhere we went, she asked about the "car with the TV in it". Something tells me we're not going to be able to go to the grocery store without watching 5 minutes of a movie on the way there. I know we're just whining about the van not being here when we thought it was going to be. Our Civic isn't on it's last legs, we aren't without reliable transportation. But gosh darnit, we want our nifty van. You know the feeling when you're looking forward to something new, that whatever you have at the present time just starts to seem less than what it is? Our Civic is in good condition, it runs great, it looks good. But when we've got that new van in our minds, and we know how it looks, it just seems better than what we have, and we want it now. We're spoiled people, I will admit. We remind me of this woman on this new Fox show called "Trading Spouses". The concept seemed really bad to me when I first heard of it, but I watched most of it anyway. The two women who traded places for about a week, were one completely spoiled rich housewife, who has 2 kids, and a mother-in-law who lives with them, who does all the cleaning & cooking. She had a gorgeous huge house, with a closet the size of my bedroom and it seemed she didn't really spend all that much time with her children. The other woman was a married working mom of 3 kids, and their family was definitely "working class". They traded places & the first thing that set me off about this rich woman, was that she thought the husband of the other woman, who had come to pick her up, was a member of the crew of the show. I'm wondering if it had to do with the fact that the husband was black, and she was white. He was dressed very casually, and maybe, to her, that was a clue that he couldn't possibly be the person she was supposed to meet. She seemed less than impressed with the family's house, and she seemed to be very put off by the fact that the family drank instant coffee, and wouldn't even drink it. She didn't seem to want to help with dishes or cleaning. And she wanted the husband, and in fact TOLD him, to go pick up something for lunch because she wasn't "in the mood to make lunch". She just seemed very uncooperative. The other woman, on the other hand, was helping out at the rich woman's house, playing with her kids, bonding with her mother-in-law and generally being a good sport about everything. I'm sure it had a little to do with the environment she was in. It was definitely more luxurious than her own house, but I know it had a LOT to do with her character. She was appreciative of everything she had & didn't take it for granted. The other woman just seemed really spoiled & selfish. She even said something to the effect of,"Maybe I should spend this kind of quality time with MY kids." It just made me very upset, but I suppose, when you're used to one type of situation, whether it's financial or otherwise, anything else is very foreign, especially if it's something lower than you're used to. I know my life is a lot better than other people's. I don't need to boil water before I drink it, I know where my next meal is coming from, and I have a roof over my head & a soft bed to sleep in. My children aren't begging on the street or dying from some disease that is preventable. There are people in this world who that is a reality for, but I am not one of them. So, I realize that my whining about not getting our new van is just that, whining.

Hurray for handymen

We finally got our garage door opener & towel/toilet paper bars installed yesterday. I might have to ask to put another towel bar up, though, because the one's our landlord bought are really short in length. About 1 1/2 towels are all that will fit on them. That might work for the girls' bathroom that they share, but not for Jeff & I, since I alone use 2 towels when I take a shower.
It's very nice to be able to drive into the garage without physically having to get out of the car, & opening up the door manually. A lot easier. I feel better now about driving Jeff to work in the morning in my pj's and not having to go outside to get into the car. I know that's lazy, but right now, I cherish sleep over fashion, and it's much easier to just get up & go rather than getting fully dressed just to drive him 3 miles away & come right back.
We had a freaky sudden rain storm yesterday. I hadn't seen it coming & left one of the windows down in the car. When it started pouring, I realized that the inside of the car was going to get soaked, and ran outside really quick to shut the window. I was out in the rain maybe a total of 10 seconds, but by the time I got back into the house, I was drenched. These Midwestern storms are no joke. And the humidity after it ended was bad, like walking into a sauna every time we went outside. But there was a gorgeous rainbow so I guess that made up for it.
I finished Sarah's room yesterday. Well "finished" is a loaded word. I guess the correct thing for me to say should be that you can now walk into her room & not trip over anything. If it were truly finished, her crib would be painted & set up, and she'd be sleeping in there. But alas, that is not the case. She's still sleeping in the basinette in our room. She's still waking up once during the night (it usually ranges from 4-7 am) and I don't feel like walking upstairs to go get her. I'm starting to think the idea of keeping both girls on the same floor (that's different from the one we're on) was not such a good thing, but it's too late to change it now. Plus, I know Jeff loves having his office down here, rather than upstairs. So, we'll deal with whatever has to happen once Sarah gets into her own room.
So now I just need to get the rest of the house straightened up. It's coming along nicely, I think. Everything's pretty much out of boxes & bags, it's just put in piles somewhere else until I can figure out where everything goes. We also need storage, because that's something this house lacks. No linen closets. We have a "closet" that could be used for linens & other things, but we have no shelves to put things on. So that's on our long list of stuff we need. Or should I say "want" cause we could live without some of the things on the list, but life would be a lot easier with them.

Online shopping

I'm up after midnight because I was trying to take advantage of the "Free shipping" in the Fall & Winter JCPenney catalog. We need something to put on our windows so we can change in our bedroom without worrying about people looking in on us. I know that mini blinds are way too expensive & they probably wouldn't transfer well to another house, what with windows not all being the same width. So I decided on cheap roller shades. I didn't even get the kind with the pretty fringe on the ends. Just the plain old white roller shades. But I'm going to be putting pretty valances & curtains over them, so it will make them look better. We're only in this house for 2 years, anyways. I bought a valance for the kitchen window & Sarah's window the other day. Now I'm on the prowl for some white eyelet curtains for Emma's room and something manly for Jeff's office. That leaves our room & the living room, but I think I'm going to wait a little longer to get something for those rooms. I have no idea what I want in them.
This house seems to be coming together. Hopefully we'll have our garage door opener all set up tomorrow, along with the towel bars & toilet paper holders. We got the A/C fixed yesterday, I think. It's been cooler in the house, so I guess that means it's working. And Jeff said if he got an 80% or higher on his test tomorrow (that's worth 1/10th of his entire grade) and I finished at least 2 rooms by this weekend, that maybe we'd go to Cedar Point. It's "Six Flags-ish" type of amusement park. Oh did I mention we bought a minivan? Yeah, we're supposed to be going to pick that up this weekend, too. Before our "yet to be determined if it'll happen" trip to Cedar Point. We bought a 2004 Honda Odyssey.  It's pretty sweet. We got one with the RES (Rear Entertainment System). Basically, it's a DVD player with a screen coming down from the roof for the people in the back to watch. We had a DVD player that was portable that was our lifesave on the long 4 day trip out here last year, but it kicked the bucket right after we got here. It had a good long life, though. We've only made one long trip without it since we moved, and that was enough to make us want another one. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for trying to get the kids interested in watching the great outdoors fly by at 65 MPH and trying to find all the out of state license plates, and playing all the wonderful car games that we all grew up on. But eventually, on a 10 hour drive to Tennessee & back, those types of things lose their nostalgic, kitchy appeal. And you just want peace & quiet, even if it's shared by a Disney character singing something about "Hakuna Matata". Although Sarah won't be able to enjoy the movie experience, seeing as how she has to make all car trips facing the back window (poor kid), I'm sure she'll be equally relieved when Emma isn't asking that dreaded question "Are we there yet?" every 10 seconds.
Our van is going to be white, not our first choice in colors, but it will do. It was actually put together only the day before we bought it. Our Civic was brand new when we bought it 3 years ago, but not, right off the truck, out of the factory new. This is like having another child, only one we have to feed oil instead of breast milk. I know Jeff isn't thrilled with the idea of another "family car". He was really hoping to be able to get a truck soon, but with 2 kids in car seats, it's not that feasible. Maybe by the time we're 40 he can get a car of his own. But by then he'll be wanting his mandatory "mid-life crisis" car. He already knows what that's going to be: a Dodge Viper. He's known that since he was 12. I told him if he had taken over Bill Gates job by then he could get one. I'm thinking that's the only way we'd be able to afford it.

Sarah's appointment

Sarah had her 2 month well-baby appointment this afternoon. Seeing as how she's going to be 3 months old tomorrow, it seems kinda late, I know. But I was out of town when she turned 2 months, so it could not be helped. But, some good news, she's gained almost 3 pounds since she was 1 month old. She's 11 lbs. 7 3/4 oz., and 22 1/2 inches long. And no, that does NOT include her hair. The doctor says that she's growing great & that she's showing no signs of any problems normally associated with DS. No heart, intestinal, vision or hearing problems, so far. The heart & intestinal or any other major problem should have shown up by now, so it looks like she's in the clear for that. The only bad part was she had to gets shots today. Poor little girl never saw it coming. One minute she's lying on the doctor's table, perfectly happy, staring up at mommy, the next, some maniacal nurse is jabbing her in the thigh with a sharp object. Four times! At least she got some nifty Garfield band-aids out of the deal. But she was too traumatized to care. She was so worn out from protesting the indignity, that she fell right asleep when I nursed her to make her feel better. But after she woke up again, she remember, HEY, I'm hurt over here, and started crying again. So we bought her some infant tylenol to help with the achiness. I had been trying to explain the concept of immunizations to Emma before we went to the hospital. I think she got the idea. She asked if she needed a "pinch" to keep her from getting sick. I told her not until she started Kindergarden. But that won't be until next year, so hopefully she'll forget all about this conversation we had & not be freaked out about it.

Home at last

I'm finally home!!!! It's been a long 4 weeks, and I had a blast but I'm glad to be home. Such as it is. There are boxes & bags of stuff everywhere. I am trying to get everything unpacked & into it's place. It's going well but it's been hampered by little people needing things. Like food & baths. Can't these kids see that I'm trying to get some work done here?! J/K Dave & Liz are coming to visit in 3 1/2 weeks & I'm sure they'd appreciate being able to sit on the couch & not have to step over boxes in the kitchen on the way to the fridge. We have no curtains on the windows & the landlord isn't providing us with blinds, so it's up to us to make sure we aren't flashing the neighbors. I'm looking around for cheap blinds or curtains. I'm thinking roll-up blinds would be the best idea. With a cute valance on the top to make it look not quite so ghetto. I'm not going to worry about privacy on the kitchen window. We're not in the habit of getting dressed in there. The big problem is the sliding glass door in the dining room. I found something really cute in a catalog. It's vertical blinds, but it has a sheer curtain that goes with it. So when you close the blinds, the curtain is attached to them & closes with it. It's very pretty, but expensive. And not exactly practical, since we won't be living here forever. We could probably take that with us, since sliding glass are pretty universal in size, but I don't think Jeff woiuld go for it.
Have to cut this short, hubby just called for a lunch date. Write more later!

End of the line

My trip to California is almost as an end. Tomorrow the girls & I are leaving Sac & traveling south, back to Santa Barbara, and eventually LA where we'll catch our plane back to Michigan. Emma is very excited about this. She misses her daddy & I think this long of a trip is kinda hard on her. Sarah doesn't notice a difference as long as the food supply is with her (me). She's pretty easy going. I'll be glad that we're in our new place. I really think the other place dragged me down. Maybe it was just the weather, I don't know. But there's something nice & refreshing about newly painted walls & floors that don't already have scuffs on them. And carpet that doesn't jab your foot when you step on it. I'll finally be able to decorate Sarah's room the way I want to. Even though I can't paint the walls, I can still do a lot. Hopefully we'll have nice neighbors whose kids can play with Emma. We still have a visit from Nana & Papa to look forward to next month. It'll be nice to be back home.
But while we're still here, we have a lunch date with Aunt Deanna, and a visit from a friend of mine whom I haven't seen in 4 years. She's bringing her 16 month old son with her so Emma should have a little playmate for a couple hours.
It's lunch time, so I better end this. A hungry stomach calls...

4th of July

It was actually yesterday, but I didn't have time to write. We had a fun 4th. We went shopping (always fun), Emma went to see the fireworks with Melissa & Mark at Cal Expo, while Dave & I went on the roof to try & see the show from 15 miles away. Getting on & off the roof was an experience in itself. Getting down was a bit more harrowing. I felt like I was going to slip off & hit the concrete. There were some people who were shooting off illegal fireworks somewhere around here. They looked like professional ones. I wonder where they got them, cause it doesn't seem like those are the kinds of things that are sold to the public.
Jeff had a nice 4th, too, I think. He had some friends over for a BBQ and fireworks.
Emma's feeling better after a few days on her antibiotics. The lump under her chin is slowly going away. I guess that's a good thing, but I wonder if it was just an infected lymphnode and nothing more. Now there's no lump to biopsy so I guess we'll just have to wait & see if it comes back.
I went shopping yesterday and bought some cool clothes. I'm seriously going to have to get a box together & ship some stuff home because I do not have enough room in our suitcases for all the stuff that we've bought & been given.
I'm trying to look for matching outfits for the girls to wear in their first professional pictures together. I'm finding some cute things, but they are super expensive. Maybe I'll just end up putting them in something simple. They'll look cute either way.

Moving Day

Well, for Jeff, anyways. Not me, I'm way out here in California while my poor husband gets to move all of our belongings to a new place. But he's got friends to help him out, so he's not alone. Should I feel bad that he has to do this without me? I actually think it's better for me not to be there. I think I would probably be WAY too controlling, and so would Jeff, so that would be a recipe for disaster. Plus I don't want to see the near misses that I'm sure will happen as they manuever big heavy items through tiny doorjams, narrowly escaping putting a gigantic hole in our brand new walls. This way, Jeff can be the foreman of this job & tick all his friends off by being a tad too Nazi-ish. From what I've heard from his mother, this is something that he has always done. And from being with him for 8 years, I can definitely agree to that.
So instead of worrying about moving the house, I'm sitting here, drinking coffee and looking through the JCPenney catalog. I'm looking for things to put into our brand new duplex to make it look pretty and to help KEEP it look pretty. There's going to be a major change it routine once Emma, Sarah & I get home. No more eating in the living room. We have to keep our brand new carpet looking that way. Plus the living room is on an entirely different floor than the kitchen & dining room, so maybe that will help keep us out of there during mealtimes.
Jeff called about 1pm our time to tell us that the move was finished. He had about 10 people show up to help, so it went pretty fast. We're finding out though, that we're responsible for a lot more than we thought. There are no towel bars in the bathrooms, there are no blinds on the windows. So Jeff is trying to do make-shift curtains so he can change his clothes in semi-privacy. I will definitely have my work cut out for me when I get home.

Being worried pays off

So, I call every ENT in the phone book yesterday morning, trying to get Emma an appointment for her lump thing. Most of the people tell me that they don't have any available openings for at least a month. I finally get one for next Tuesday, but I knew I needed to find something sooner. Emma's chin was starting to get pinkish & warm, and the PA had said that those were both signs of an infection. So, I'm starting to freak out. I get another appointment for Friday morning, but I ended up calling them back & asking them if I thought I should just take her to the ER because I thought she was getting an infection, or could it wait until my appointment. They ended up squeezing her in, and she was able to see the ENT. He didn't confirm that it was the thryoglossal duct cyst that the PA had thought it was, and instead called it a "midline neck mass" which doesn't sound much better. He said it could be any number of things, but that most likely it was the cyst. But he said in order to confirm that, he'd have to do a head CT, and all sorts of tests, along with a biopsy. Major stuff. Plus he said that all the biopsy would show now is infected cells, so we would have to wait until the infection was gone anyways. So, Emma's on antibiotics for 10 days, and we'll have to do the medical stuff when we get back home. I'm kinda hoping it will shrink & go away for right now, but on the other hand, if it does, there won't be anything to take samples of, and we'd have to wait for it to show up again. I'm hoping they'll do the biopsy & CT scan at the same time, because I know they're going to have to put her out for those. They put her out last year when she got a CT scan to try & find out what was causing her Bell's palsy. Not a fun prospect but at least I'll have Jeff around for support this time.

Sickly child

I swear, sometimes I feel like my poor children get the short end of the stick every time. Emma woke up this morning with a huge lump on her throat. It's between her chin & throat, actually. It's swollen & she says it's painful but she may just be acting on that one. But there's no fever, no redness, no other sign of infection. So we made an appointment for this afternoon. After driving halfway to Stockton & realizing that obviously the wonderful, if not always reliable, internet had given me bogus directions, I had to call the doctor's office to push back our appointment by 30 minutes, so I could drive practically back to where I had originally started (the office was 5 minutes from my in-law's house, grrr). The Physician's Assistant we see tells me it's probably a thyroglossal cyst. Huh? Long story short, it's a congenital defect (I hate that word) where something didn't quite finish developing in utero and is now rearing it's ugly head on my daughter's throat. Nice. But, fortunately, it's quite common & can be remedied, either through antibiotics or surgery. The surgery thing scares me, because it's NOT an outpatient thing. Emma would have to be put out with a breathing tube down her throat. She was put under general anesthesia last year for her CT scan when she had Bell's palsy, so I know she probably won't have any adverse reaction to that. It's the breathing tube & the actually cutting of skin that I wouldn't be looking forward to. I definitely could NOT do this while I was here visiting CA. I would need Jeff to be there with me. And I know he would want me to wait until we got home to do it.
So, I get home from the appointment & immediately try to get in contact with an ENT doc to confirm the diagnosis & prescribe treatment. Of course, no ENT doc has ANY appointments for at least a week. Apparently there's always a run on ENT docs, and they never have to beg for patients. So I take the earliest appointment I can, but I'm going to call the places that were closed by the time I called today in the morning & try to get something sooner. The PA said to look for signs of infection, like redness & fever. I thought it was starting to get a little pink this evening, but it could just be that Emma was poking at it.
But, we DID go the zoo this evening. Dave's job was having a special preview of the Touring Termite exhibit & we all got in free. Emma was bummed because they apparently sent their only elephant to the Detroit zoo, and that's the only animal was actually looking forward to seeing. But we still had a blast. She loved the giraffes and the monkeys. The only big cats that were still out in the open were the snow leopards. I think this one might have been hungry because it was sitting about 4 feet from the front of the enclosure and it seemed to be watching Emma like a hawk. Emma would walk back & forth in front of it & it would follow her with it's eyes. Emma walked out of it's field of vision & it actually got up & walked down a few steps to try & find her again. It seemed to be saying, hey that one's little, I could take that one down no problem. But then more people started crowding around & it backed up into it's original spot, like it was saying, oh they're gathering, I think I lost my chance. Too many of them now. It was funny, and kinda scary at the same time. I didn't like the fact that some animal was sizing up my daughter for a meal.

From somewhere in Ca...

Actually, I'm in Sacramento now, after visiting Santa Barbara for 2 weeks.
So far, this trip has been great. I was able to spend a lot of time with my dad's family and had a really fun time. My sister Tracey graduated from high school on the 15th. Emma, Sarah & I went to the beach, and Emma had a blast running around in the water & playing with anyone who was around. We went shopping, always fun. It was nice to just relax & be with family. I think I really realize now how much I miss CA. I don't miss the outrageous prices on everything from gas to houses, but I miss being able to just take a short (or long) drive and see anyone in our family. I think this has really solidified our resolve to make it back here as soon as we can.
Emma was so funny with my two brothers. She seemed to have problems remember their names individually so she kinda merged their 2 names together. Their names are Kyle & Evan, so she called them both "Kevin". She also periodiclaly called them "the big boy" & "the little boy". She had a little difficulty with the concept of great-grandparents, so she just called them Grandpa & Grandma. But then when my dad came into the picture, she kept calling him "Daddy's mommy". In our attempt to help her understand, we had told her that he was "mommy's daddy" but she kinda mixed that up.
Sarah started smiling a little while we were there. She's not doing it very often, but it's still a big milestone. They both have done really well on the trip. Our flight to CA was fun, in the least likable meaning of the word. We missed our 1st flight in the morning (to be truly accurate, the people at the aiport were Nazis about security & took WAY too long to check everyone's bag, thus making me miss my plane). So we had to catch the next flight, which didn't leave for 6 hours. I felt like Tom Hanks' character in "The Terminal". We were stuck there. We had checked Emma's carseat, so we couldn't just leave, but we couldn't stand staying in an airport for 6 hours. So I drove to Targe, bought a cheap booster seat, and then picked up Jeff & the girls and we went back to the mall for a couple hours. Our original flight had us going to Minneapolis with a 3 hour layover. This flight we ended up taking took us to Detroit (which is only a 30 minute flight from where we took off), with an hour layover, but we ended up sitting on the tarmack, in the plane, for 1 hour 45 minutes. Apparently there was a storm going over & we couldn't take off. It could have turned out a lot uglier than it did, with two kids in a plane that isn't making any progress. But Sarah nursed most of the time, and surprisingly, Emma kept herself occupied the whole time. Mostly bugging the guy next to us who was trying to sleep. That was a long day. By the time we got to Santa Barbara, after landing in LAX, it was 2:30am, Michigan time. I was exhausted. But the kids were troopers.
We extended our trip 2 weeks so be able to come up here to Sac & visit. In order to get up here, we made a pitstop in Pismo Beach to see Jeff's grandparents. We met up with his mom & step-dad there and they drove us up here. We got here yesterday. So, now it's 2 weeks in Sac to visit anybody I can.

Impatience

Well, no word yet on whether we are in first place with our bid for the house. Our realtor went out of town & we were told that she was going to be checking her voicemail & getting back to us. No such luck. I left a message on Friday evening and haven't heard anything back. Someone was supposed to be taking over for her while she was gone, but he hasn't called us either. I called & left him a message this morning, so hopefully someone will get back to this. I'm beginning to think I should have just gone with the person who helped set us up with the house we're renting, but that's a whole other bag that I don't even want to get into. If we don't end up getting this house, it's going to create a messy situation with me going out of town next week. I'll end up having to look for another house to buy, or possibly rent, because the whole escrow thing takes forever, and we won't have enough time to get through it before we have to be out of this house. We'll have to start the whole process all over again, and that takes a lot of time. Plus, this is the only house I've looked at that I like that doesn't need a ton of work.
I'm leaving for CA next Monday. I can't wait to see my family. It's been over a year since I've seen them. I wish Jeff could go with us, but he has summer school & that's important.
Grrr, just got off the phone with the replacement realtor. He said the other deal is still in the works, so we're still in second place. This is ridiculous. People move at such a slow pace around here. I wish they'd just get on with it and tell me yes or no, if we're going to get this house. I don't have time to sit around & wait. I asked the guy if we could see some more houses, because last week we didn't see ANY new ones. My realtor didn't follow up on any of the other houses I gave her, and then she got really sick and was out for 2 days. That's not her fault. But I still don't think she gets the concept that we're on a short time schedule here. Unless she wants us to be out on the street come the end of July when we have no place to live, I think she better get on the ball. I couldn't imagine if our landlord hadn't been generous and given us 60 days notice. We would have been seriously up a creek.
Anyways, Emma had her IEP appointment this morning. It's for her speech therapy that's going to start up again in the fall. The speech therapist is starting a new program where 5-6 kids are put into a group session together that lasts for about 2 1/2 hours, once a week. It'll basically be preschool, but where the only thing they focus on is speech related things. They'll have a snack & everything. They're not 100% sure that's how it's going to happen, but it's looking like it will. That would be fun for Emma, she'd be able to interact with kids her own age in a setting that's helping her speech. Plus, she'll still have regular Kindergarten readiness preschool 4 times a week.

Summer blues

Last week was Emma's last day of preschool before they break for the summer. It was the last time she'll be going to that school because next year she's going to the CMU Kindergarten Readiness preschool. It's 4 days a week, 2 1/2 hours a day. And best of all, it's free. I know she's sad that she won't see her friends for awhile, but I'm trying to set something up so she can see a few of them during the summer. She's already gotten upset at the fact that we keep driving by the school & not going.
We have our tickets comfirmed for our trip to CA. We're leaving the 14th of June and returning on the 29th. It's going to be fun flying cross country with 2 kids, but Emma's been on planes before & Sarah should be relatively easy to care for, since if she starts crying, I can breastfeed her. The only thing that might be hard is the layover in between flights in Minneapolis. It's 3 hours long. We're definitely going to have to bring some toys & other distractions for Emma, otherwise she's liable to drive the other people in the airport batty. I'm hoping she'll want to take a nap, but I know that's a pipe dream.
Last night was Jeff's last day of his Human Growth & Development class. It was a rough 3 weeks but we got through it & hopefully Jeff will get an A in the class and it'll be all worth it. He did really well & worked really hard. I'm very proud of him. Now all he has is his math class for the next 3 weeks. I'll be gone for the last 2 weeks of it, so hopefully he'll be able to handle everything without me.
We put a bid on the house we want, and it's been accepted. Well they countered for $1,000 more than what we offered, but that's fine.But, we're in 2nd place right now, since they had already accepted another offer before ours. But that one might fall through, so we're the second option. That's fine, but we're also still looking at houses, just in case it doesn't fall through. Plus, I just found out that our real estate agent is going out of town for a week, so that might cause some problems, especially if the deal falls through & we have to look elsewhere for a house.
The kids are doing great. Sarah is continuing to grow & she's rolling over more. She did it three times in a row the other night. I kept putting her onto her tunny after she'd roll & she'd immediately roll back over, like she was saying,"I want to be on my back, mom, not my tummy, quit putting me there!" It was funny. Her vision is starting to seem better. She stares at the mobile above her swing now more intently, and she's starting to take more interest in the rattles we hover in front of her eyes. I thought I got a tiny smile the other day, but it hasn't been a full blown one yet. I'm still waiting. It could take up to 12 weeks, and she's only 6 weeks, so I'm not panicking yet. She smiles in her sleep though, so I know it's coming. Emma is still really great with her. She loves her little sister to death, even though she's having a bit of confusion about Sarah's gender. She keeps saying Sarah's a boy, not a girl, like her. I keep trying to explain it to her, but I don't think she's ready to listen. She's getting better at not throwing huge temper tantrums whenever we tell her something she doesn't like (this is a bahavior that started after Sarah was born) but I think this is the way she's voicing her inner displeasure. Which is better than her taking out her aggressions on the baby, which is what I was expecting.