A Merry Chirstmas Indeed!

We started our Christmas festivities on Monday afternoon with a quick cruise in Emmy's car... Then we opened a few presents from Mama and Dadoo... And The Girl tired out pretty quickly... She even slept in until 9:30 Christmas morning! I had to go and wake her and Dadoo because I was so excited to open presents from Santa! Obviously, she got a few things...

Emmy was pretty excited with all of her gifts from the Big Bearded Guy.

I think Dadoo was more excited about her Quad than anything....

Emmy was not so thrilled with this velour ducky hooded blanket...

We went to see Solomon after a big breakfast at home. Young Sol is so sweet and chubby and just about as big as our Emmy.Dadoo was immediately put to work assembling toys...

He was obviously not working fast enough...

Before we left town, we went to visit Julia Jean. She is just adorable and nothing makes me think of Momma smiling more than when I visit Joy with OUR DAUGHTERS. Our Daughters. Ahh....the tears almost come just thinking of those two little words. Our Daughters. That is a pretty fabulous Christmas gift.
Since we had watched A Christmas Story all morning, it only seemed appropriate to put Emmy in a ducky suit since the kid in the story had to wear his bunny suit on Christmas morning. Emmy was equally as thrilled.

Doesn't get much better than this...

We had a big holiday party day yesterday. We went to Little Rock to see John's extended family and then last night went to a Christmas party with Tara's family. The munchkins had a great time and, well, it just can't get much better than this.

Gearing up for Santa!

Even though I am sure Emmy has no clue what is going on with Santa and the elves and all the fun and magical things to come, it is hard to not get excited for our first Christmas with her. I think I am more giddy at the idea of having almost an entire week at home with her than I am about anything else.

Emmy helped me open a very special gift from a very special friend the other night. I guess the pink Santa shirt made her think she should help out!

Christmas Wear 2007

Since we had the mad rush to get all of our Halloween things worn before the holiday, we should have known that Christmas would be just as bad! Here is Emmy Saturday at IHOP (in the outfit Papa got her!) and Sunday. She also had on a different Christmasy dress for church on Sunday but I didn't get a pic. Bad mama.

And everyone needs a good pair of bunny slippers when they are WALKING around this house when it is this cold don't they???

Ten Months Old

Today, The Girl is ten months old. I simply can't believe it. Last night as I was going to sleep, I cried to myself, wondering, "am I getting all of this??" Am I not worrying about the non-critical things so that I can catch all of the precious things Emmy is doing that will never happen again? I hate to admit it, but I am missing so many moments--just slow down! One of these days, Emmy won't sit on our bed and then fall backwards and just crumble into laughter. Or she won't still be sleeping in our bed and curl up under her daddy's armpit (God only knows why in the world she would want to be there) or we won't have to keep dragging her back down because she has srunched up again to the headboard. I am always getting songs stuck in my head and lately, that Stevie Wonder song, "Isn't She Lovely" keeps ringing so true. Or I will sing "Every Little Thing She Does is Magic" to Emmy sometimes and she looks at me as if I am insane!

You might have noticed that I haven't put many pictures in here lately. Apparently, Emmy has learned she wants the camera. So while trying to get pics of her in front or near the tree, we got a lot of this before we finally had success. And then, I guess the tree limb must have tickled her because she is making the goofiest face.

Every day, Emmy looks more and more like her Daddy. She has the sweetest laugh in the world and gets into the habit of saying one word over and over. One day it will be "mamamamamamam" and then "dadadadadadadada" and then "mimimimimimimi" (her babysitter). She has started actually giving hugs now. I love, love, love, love her tiny arms wrapped around me in the sweetest hug that ever was.

Now, if I can only get her to enjoy wearing tights and taking baths...

Emmy, the walker

I can't believe it, but The Girl has taken her first steps. For the past few days, she has taken a step here or there unassisted but Sunday she took off across the living room. Of course, crawling is still her favorite mode or transportation, as she is quite a speedster on all fours. Hope to have pics or videos soon. I just can't believe it.

First comedy routine

Yesterday, Emmy and I went to Wynne to met the before mentioned Julia Jean. She is just adorable! And all that hair! Just precious. Neall and Solomon met us at Papa's house and so did Pat and Jean and her family. It was very bittersweet being with everyone. At one point, I was sitting in the recliner trying to feed a diaper clad Emmy her turkey and rice and Neall was in the back changing young Sol's messy diaper. Jasmine was running around madly, Daddy was somewhere in the kitchen and Pat just came on in the house. It struck me like a slap across the face how normal it would have seemed for Momma to just come dancing down the hall at any moment.

We got home and visited with Grandad at our house for a bit before he headed back to Jonesboro and then we enjoyed a nice, quiet night at home. When we got into bed, Emmy performed her very first comedy routine. It was hysterical! She was sitting up and she would kind of look over her shoulder and then just fall backwards on the bed and then grin. Of course, I would laugh and the more I laughed the more she did it! Like every good comedian, it seems, she did go on a little too long with this and by the end of her 30 minute routine, I don't think I could have faked another chuckle. This kid is a mess! It was quite funny and I love to see her little toothy grin!

Julia Jean

Decking the halls

Well, Emmy wasn't so helpful in putting up the Christmas tree but she is a pretty little decoration. When I finally got the tree up, Emmy crawled under it and curled up in a little sleepy ball. Of course, I ran like mad through the house to find my camera and had no luck. John, in an effort to keep me from crying every time I talk about the missed photo, keeps hiding her toys under the tree to try and lure her back into position. He's so good to me, but it hasn't worked yet.

Elfed

So, I am sure that everyone will have seen one of these a million times before the holiday is over, but here is ours. So funny. John is going to strangle me.

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1175671567

December 5th

This morning Emmy Ruth was a nightmare to get going. Of course, she is back in our bed, so after I got ready and did some light chores around the house, I went to wake her and her Dadoo for the day. Seriously. The girl not only looks just like him, she is just as bad to wake for the day. Thankfully, with her, I can just pick her up finally and get her going--not so easy with John. This morning as she whined and flipped and flopped and finally rolled over with her bum straight up in the air, I said a little prayer, knowing that Momma is watching all of this and hoping that I can be as good of a mom to Emmy as Momma was to me.

Then I grabbed her up, got lots of good snuggle time and did the hurried morning dance of getting everyone dressed and out the door. Thank goodness the girl wears pink all the time because there are traces of Amoxicillan on all of her clothes! Hopefully this round of it will take care of her ear infection. I also ordered a book on homeopathic ear infections treatments. I never would have imagined me with homeopathic treatments and being the "greenest" person I know. Shesh...

Manic Monday

Oh it's Monday again! I really don't know how it got here so quickly. This morning as Emmy and I were driving in West Memphis, "Manic Monday" by The Bangles came on so I turned it up loud so that Emmy and I could sing as we started our day. I am sure that she enjoys it! She got her sense of rhythm from me, I am afraid. When she dances in the living room, I can only think of mom telling me how that she always felt so sorry for me when she chaperoned those JPC dances--everyone else could dance and poor Tara just couldn't catch the beat.

A week or so on Oprah, there was a woman that horded. Mortified by it, I decided to clean out my closet and while I didn't get rid of everything I should have, I did get a good four trash bags out. So sad. Most of that was momma's. I told myself I was keeping it in case I ever lost the weight and could fit in to it but I know that I was doing it because I couldn't stand the thought of letting it go. So, I sat on the floor in my closet and cried while I put shirt after shirt and pant after pant into trash bags. It has really been almost two years and my heart literally aches. Wednesday will be the two year anniversary of when we found out that Momma had a brain tumor. I wish Emmy could have known me before everything changed that day.