Birthday Picture

Celebrating President's Day

Oh, I do love a long weekend! I think the holidays are quite possibly one of my absolute favorite things about my job. We spent the weekend pretty low key around here. On Saturday, Emmy and I went to visit Papa Richie and had lunch with Solomon, Uncle Neallio and Auntie B. It was fun. She and Sol are so adorable together and had a great time saying hello to everyone at the restaurant. We were going to go to church Sunday but Emmy had a runny nose and I didn't want to be THAT mom that took her snot nosed kid to the nursery so we just played it close to home again.

But, Monday! What a day! AunTee and Lucas came over and we went to Sekisui for lunch. Lucas and Emmy had the pork dumplings and didn't try the sushi quite yet. Then, we all went to the Children's Museum. It was so much fun!! I think we are going to try and go next Sunday with Dadoo and go ahead and buy the family membership. There were so many fun things to do there. They have a little Kroger store where you can pick out items and then use the cash register. Here, Emmy and Lucas discuss the best type of condiments to purchase.

Then, Emmy enjoyed looking at herself in the mirrored disco room. She and Lucas would dance very briefly!

One of the best things is the airplane area. There is a part of a FedEx plane there and cubbies with pilot jackets and caps to put on. Not that you can tell, but this is Lucas getting ready to take off.

There were lots of cars (sans doors) for the kids' entertainment. There was a mini-van in the AutoZone area and a police car and firetruck. Hopefully, this is the one and only time we will see Emmy and Lucas in the back of a squad car.

And this is just rotten. She loves to get into the tightest little spots she can find. It took me forever to unwedge here from this spot. And that sweater! I found it and thought we would try it on to wear yesterday but it was too short. She ended up just wearing it around the house so that I could say that she at least wore it once.

Amazing stuff

Tara kept telling me that I would be amazed at the things Emmy would start doing at a year. She said that things just start clicking then. Well, last night we were trying to get some photos of her and she started playing with her baby doll that she got for her birthday. I never thought she was old enough for a doll yet, but not only does she love on her and enjoy playing with her, she got the baby's pacifier and tried to put it in her mouth! Emmy never even took a pacifier--not once!!--so I was so impressed that she knew exactly what to do with it. I am so proud of our little munchkin!

Bohemian Rhapsody

Today is officially a LynnLynn day. Emmy is wearing the adorable jacket that LynnLynn got her for her birthday. I think she looks just adorable in it!
You can see the tent is still in the dining room with the table pushed to the side. We can’t stand to take it down—I think it would break her heart! We are going to have to clean the basement so that we can leave it up all the time down there.

And she is officially riding forward facing! Her new car seat has a cover that was made especially for Emmy by LynnLynn (you can tell it is just for her because it has her monogram on it!) and she is enjoying it immensely. At first, she cried a little but I think that was her thinking that Mama was driving backwards. Once she realized that we could make faces at each other in the rear view mirror, she was much better and very giggly. The new seat is so big though and she looks so tiny in it. I am sure she feels like she is in a LaZBoy compared to the rear-facing seat. At one point, I looked back there and she was sitting with her legs crossed--"Indian-style"!
Thank you, LynnLynn! Not just for my cool clothes and carseat cover but for everything!

Twelve months

I can’t believe it. Twelve months. Momma used to wake me up every year on my birthday singing “Happy Birthday” to me. And after I moved out, she always called me at 8:32, the exact time I was born. She was a great mom. And I am so lucky to have a great daughter. I ran in this morning singing to her and she slept through it, I got her just about changed and she slept through it! The girl really has a problem with mornings! Just like her dadoo! But, after we sat and snuggled for a while, she was up and ready for the day. I got this picture of her eating her cereal bar at the table that Papa Richie got her for her birthday. I am afraid that we are going to have to get rid of our dining room table. Emmy loves her Fashion Show tent that we got her for her birthday. When we brought it in from the party, we just stuck it in the dining room since the table was already moved out of the way for the party. Now, she runs in there and squeals with delight! She never gets tired of us peeking in from one side or the other and just giggles as if it is brand new every time. I love that giggle. So many things are changing so quickly with Emmy. She had the most adorable laugh and she has already outgrown it into a more grown up laugh. When she was smaller and would laugh, her whole little body would shake with joy. Now, she laughs more like a normal person—a good hearty laugh but her toes don’t get into the action so much as they used to anymore. It is so exciting to see her grow into a little person but so sad to see her grow from a baby to a toddler. She is a toddler now! It feels like tomorrow we will be picking out prom dresses! I think her top molars are trying to come in now too! Bless her heart but she will be ready for a nice steak any day now. For now, she really likes guacamole. We had some the other day and she ended up just dipping her fingers in the bowl to get all of it. Of course, it was all over her by the time she was done. I think I am going to stick with just giving her avacado slices for the time being!

The Girl is really getting so smart! She is learning how to put things inside other things, how to stack things and certainly how to throw things around. I have her little potty in the bathroom just so that she can get accustomed to it. For now, she likes to put her toys inside it!

My sweet, sweet Emmy. I can’t believe it has already been a year but then I can’t remember a time when you were not here.

Catch-all

Emmy is getting in her tenth tooth. Ten! She already has a molar in so this is the one on the other side and it is giving her a very hard time. I can imagine that they are painful--at least the others are more slender, those molars are just big fat things to break through the gums. So, she was up almost all night. Finally at 4am, I gave her some more Tylenol and she went to sleep at about 4:30. My alarm went off at 4:45am. So, I am a walking zombie! She on the other hand, slept so well at that point that she dozed back off while I was dressing her and getting her in the car seat. Poor thing.

There was an agreement signed with the Screen Writers Guild prior to Emmy's party that they would not picket her red carpet, just FYI.

I got my hair cut so I no longer have a mullet. That was the one thing Emmy wanted for her birthday: her mama to lose the mullet.

Today would have been Grandma Jackson's 90th birthday.

More party pics continued

Friday night, Emmy spent the night with Nana Alice, Lucas's grandma. They had great fun and it gave us time to get things together for the party. Here is Uncle Vic and Dadoo trying to get the red carpet tent (her present from us!) together for the party. After it was up, I wish I had my video camera out to record them dancing down the carpet. It was quite hysterical.

More party pics

Oh the fun!

We had our sweet Emmy Ruth's birthday party on Saturday and it was an absolutely wonderful time. She did not melt down a single time, and as her AunTee says, she really enjoys being in the spot light. It was so good to see so many of our friends and family--and we wished we could have had even more of you here!--and all of the kids were so good and so very precious. When we knew Emmy was on her way, we decided then that her first party would be a red carpet, Emmy Awards theme. I even bought the skirt was is wearing while I was pregnant! Everyone got to enjoy all the movie foods like popcorn, hot dogs, pickles and nachos. Her first cake was just like her star on the Walk of Fame would be. A gold star with her name signed across it. Always the lady, Emmy didn't so much dive into her smash cake like I expected but rather worked on it with her fork!

What an amazing year it has been! John and I are so thankful that we have been given the opportunity to be Emmy's parents. And we are especially thankful for all of our friends that have become family to us and are a part of it all.

It was a FAT SCARY Tuesday!!

We always hear about the tornado watches and warnings and they have gotten so commonplace that we often ignore them. Yesterday, they let the schools out early becuase of the impending storm and we all grumbled about "when I was in school...." and wondered what in the world they thought parents were supposed to do. Well, now, I can say that parents can be thankful that their kids weren't on schoolbusses when that crazy storm went down yesterday. I left my office right in the thick of it and headed over the bridge to get Emmy. We were on our way home and constantly on the phone with friends and John regarding the weather. As I was just about to get on the bridge, I got three calls telling me to turn around and they were all terrified. So, Emmy and I went to stay at my boss Peggy's house there in West Memphis. Luckily, there was no damage to our house, but Memphis got hit pretty hard. After John felt like it was okay to try it, we headed back home. Our friend Victor came over with his dog and we all were ready to run to the basement just in case. Thankfully, we are all okay.


Emmy did want to wear her Mardi Gras beads this morning since yesterday was Fat Tuesday after all. She wore her flashing beads with the ducks to MiMi's this morning--I am sure she was thrilled!
And I am not sure what this face is about, but it is silly none the less...

The girl has curls!

Finally, Emmy is starting to get some more hair! I am giddy with excitement at the bows that we will soon have!
It is quite hard to take her seriously when she makes this mad, upset face! Between the lip being jutted out, the little tiny nose and the big blue eyes, I end up just giving her kisses and she starts laughing anyway.
I swear to you that when she screams like this, she looks more like her daddy than she does any other time. Even when they are sleeping. They have the same furrowed little brow. Again, hard to take her seriously...

February 12, 1918 - January 28, 2008

That's a pretty long time, no? My grandmother Jackson passed away this afternoon after almost 90 years on this earth. She was only in bad health the last few years of her life and was fortunate to have not really been sick her whole life. She taught me some of the finer things in life: pretty little dresses that she made for me from the time I was born and love for the Hogs. When I think of her, I think of her house out in Woodlawn and her sitting during Razorback basketball games and slapping her hands together when they didn't play well. I remember having to make sure that, after Neall and I spent time with her over the summer, we put the TV back on Channel 7 so that she could watch Ned Perme.

Good stuff. She is in a better place, one that we can we never even fathom. She is with her daughter--it's never fair to bury a child before you. She is with her children in law--who has two children in law die of the same stupid brain tumor? And they are happy and smiling watching all of us. Although we are all sad, it is consolation to know that they are healthy and happy. In a place with no cancer.

Also just like Uncle Neallio

Emmy has started twirling her hair when she is lying in bed. It's pretty cute but so funny to me because Neall is always twirling his hair. He even twirls Becca's hair! And our sweet Solomon has his first teeth! Apparently, our kids really like to get their teeth in early.

Papa came to visit yesterday and he and Emmy had fun passing her toys back and forth. We got home and she managed to conk out for a nap for the rest of his visit--boy, she's quite the hostess.

Good Morning

This morning, Emmy was awake when I went in the bedroom to get her and Dadoo up for the day. Just sitting in the bed, smiling and waiting on me. It was such a welcome sight since usually waking her up is a nightmare! As I came in, I called out, “Hi, Gorgeous” to her and got a “HI!” in return. From John.

Last night, I had a box in the living room that I need to wrap for a bridal shower this weekend and Emmy Ruth kept climbing all over it. I told John that she might be more like Uncle Neallio than we had known. He used to swing from Momma’s drapes, pull the kitchen drawers out to make stairs on to the countertops and play like Spiderman in the doorframes. Every time I would remove Emmy from the box, she was right back on top of it. She has turned into such a fun little monkey, I cannot wait until the weekend to spend more time with her.

Back to our regularly scheduled week...

Emmy had quite a busy weekend! I am trying to make room at our house for some of Momma's treasured items. With Papa and LynnLynn getting married soon, there are lots of pieces that belonged to Grandma Ruth that won't be going with them and I can't stand to part with them forever, so we are trying to make accommodations at our house. One thing was a chest that Grandpa Eddie gave Grandma on their one year anniversary. It has been in our living room for years so I brought it back with me Friday night. To make room for it, I got rid of the entertainment armoire and had to buy a new HDTV that would better fit on the chest. Just HAD to get it. So, Emmy and I left directly from work and the sitter's to go to Wynne. Neall got his old boy scout uniform out of it, as well as some war ration books, and left all the other mementos in it (I will have to go through that later--I just can't right now). We met the Nichols for Mexican food and Emmy had her first sucker! I was terrified that she would bit it into pieces and then choke on it, but she did okay. She almost kicked Uncle Neallios knee with excitement!!! Pictures are on Aunt Pat's blog.

So, Saturday the DirecTV people came to get the HD service set up. After that, we all went to eat at the BBQ shop (the only BBQ we can eat in Memphis--none of it is as good as Arkansas BBQ). NaNa feed Emmy lemons! She loved them and ate almost a half of a lemon by herself!

Monday, we had to return Papa's SUV (there was no way that chest was fitting in the Prius!) so we stopped to visit friends at Woodruff. Emmy was a little nervous at first, but loves the attention she gets. I can remember going to visit Daddy when I was a little girl so it is pretty neat taking her to visit now.

And then, I bumped her noggin. I brought YET another chest home with me yesterday. This was an older small white chest that Momma had in the kitchen for years, it used to belong to Grandma too. I think it will be great to keep all of Emmy's dress up stuff in when she is a little bigger. I was seeing what was inside and found two quilts. I can hear Momma now saying, "As your Grandma would say, I better not see this quilt in the bottom of some play pen one day". I thought the lid only went up so far on the chest and about that time, it went falling over and I just couldn't grab it fast enough and of course, it hit Emmy on the head. I could have absolutely just melted into the floor at that moment. I snatched her up and she wanted nothing to do with me and went straight to Dadoo. After several snares to me, he finally got her calmed down and we found a little bloody spot on her finger that he was able to fix up with a BandAid. Her head has a little red spot, but looks okay now. And, bless her heart, you can see a little tinge of blood on the knee of her PJ's. I am sure that John will keep these so that we will always remember me giving Emmy her first boo-boo.

Uh-Oh

The new favorite word around here is "uh-oh". Emmy will mimic me whenever I say it, which unfortunately is a lot, and it is pretty darn cute. But, the other two UH-OHs of the day are:

1. We shut the door to the kitchen to try to keep her out of there, mainly because of the stairs to the basement (yes there is a baby gate at the top of the stairs but just for that little extra sense of security we just try to keep her out of there if we aren't in there). Today, Emmy realized how to open the door and go into the kitchen.



2. I guess I had not had her wear this outfit yet because I was saving it for a special occasion but realized today that it was too small but I had hoped to get one wear out of it. It's quite short (and as you can tell, she has no toys so she has to play with the cat toys).



On the other end of Uh-Oh are my fabulous friends. Yesterday was of course a tough day for me, and two of my best friends sent me flowers. It's pretty special to have such good girl friends. I hope Emmy Ruth is as lucky one day.

Today

Of course Emmy has reached her little arms up for us to pick her up for a while now but recently she has added a new flair to it by clenching and unclenching her little fists when she does it. It's almost like she is saying, "Not only do I want you to pick me up, I really want you to love me oodles. I NEED YOU TO PICK ME UP." I really just love this new little twist she has thrown into it. So, this morning, as we were getting ready for the day and she stood there in her little lime green tights and her multicolored sweater and reached for me, I thought of Momma and wondered if she would have submitted to every one of Emmy's little demands like this. And I am pretty sure she would have. Her Grandma Diann would have too. John often says that if she were here, we might never even see Emmy--she would have taken her!

This marks two years for me to be without my mom and four years for John. Not a day goes by that I don't think of them and strangely, I still sometimes even pick up the phone to call Momma. But today, instead of grieving for the loss of two really fabulous grandmas, I will promise to submit to all of Emmy's little demands--just like they would have.

I won't even make her take a bath tonight.

Eleven Months

Here we are just one short month from our girl being a year old. Wow. At this time last year, I was convinced the doctors were off and I had to have my due date wrong and she would be here before the end of January. And at this time last year, I would leave every OB appointment shocked and amazed that I was not making any progress towards having this baby! But eleven months ago today, our sweet girl finally arrived. And today she is sitting beside me on the couch, eating toilet paper. Pretty much anything she can find, goes directly into her mouth. Especially dog and cat food. John and I just had to flip her upside down to recover a piece of Bill's dog food from her little tiny clenched jaws.

Now that she is walking like a pro, we have to keep an eye on her even more than normal. This morning, I turned around for a second and totally lost her in the house! She was in the bedroom hanging out. Emmy loves to point at everything and is constantly babbling.

One of my favorite things that she has started doing is clapping more than normal. We will be sitting in the living room and she will put something inside something else and when we clap, she claps with us. Emmy has clapped for months but now she "gets it". She and John's friend, we refer to him as Uncle Vic now, like to play peekaboo around the dining room table and she never gets tired of it. She and Dadoo have so much fun together. He is tickled that they have a new game called "Daddy Cave" when he gets on all fours and calls out "Daddy Cave!!!!!!!" and she goes running under him. It's pretty funny to see them, looking so much like each other, laughing and playing.

Yuck!

After ten days on antibiotics for a double ear infection, Emmy went back to the doctor yesterday with a horrible cold--and still had a double ear infection. The doctor put her on some pretty tough antibiotics to try and knock it out. Poor thing. She doesn't sleep well at all, and wakes up usually about 4am coughing and choking. We are pretty worried about her. Dadoo is home with her again today.

New Year's Eve Festivities

We had a big night on New Year's Eve with Emmy, Lucas and David. Oh yeah, and their parents were here too. Lucas showed up in his tuxedo so Emmy ran in to put on a dress with rhinestone buckles so that he wouldn't feel overdressed. Lucas spent lots of time on the quad and they spent lots of time together in the wagon. Here is to a fabulous 2008. We can hardly wait to see what we get into this year!