Silly girl

Papa Richie got Emmy a Sight and Singing Stage for Christmas and it is now part of her nightly comedy routine. She loves to sit down behind it and wait while we all cry, "Where is Emmy???" and then she jumps up and just laughs and laughs! It is quite hysterical. The best part though is when she turns around with her back to us and slowly slides down to sit behind the mirror. She definitely thinks she is a diva.

This weekend, we worked on the flower bed expansion outside until the rain finally forced us inside. Then on Sunday, we went to Wynne and spent some quality time with Solomon and his folks. The monsters had fun with each other, I am sure. Emmy loves to run up and down the hallway. I am sure that Neall and I did too.

Easter Smiles

Easter is always such a special holiday for me. Of course, there are the religious reasons that it is so important but it is also one of the holidays that I most remember as a child. Mainly, I remember having to stand outside of our house on Crabb Lane in front of this little tree and get our family picture made each year. I hated it! Every time I take pictures of Neall and Daddy, I think of me being so difficult to photograph and I say a little 'sorry' to Momma. Then, today at church, one of the hymns was "Up from the Grave He Arose" and I can literally see Momma dancing in the aisle. She loved that song. I love it because it makes me think of her. I whispered in Emmy's ear while we were singing that her Yia Yia loved that song.

Then, we went to lunch at Neall and Becca's. Of course, everything was wonderful but I just see Solomon and Emmy and I wonder what Momma would have thought of them. I see them and I can see her in them. In Sol's fat little thighs and Emmy's quirky little facial expressions, I see Momma standing back and laughing at them and not being able to keep her hands off of them.

The sermon this morning was titled "Suddenly" and the preacher gave examples of how suddenly things happen: the cancer diagnosis, a spouse dies. I felt like every eye in the church was on Daddy and I, although I know of course they weren't. After the service and during the song, Becca went to get Sol and she brought Emmy back to the sanctuary with them. When the door opened, I suddenly saw my sweet Emmy Ruth walking through the door. And everything is wonderful and I am so very, very thankful for my life.

Guy talk. I wonder what in the world they are discussing? I am sure it is the engineering aspects of the JumpARoo.

Ah, the insanity

Now that Emmy is in her new car seat, she doesn't sleep as much when we are driving. Really it is not that big of a deal but we really enjoyed that little 30 minute nap she would have in the afternoon as it put her in better spirits for the evening. But, when she does go to sleep, we inevitably wake her when try to move her in the house. The infant car seat was nice that we could just pick up the carrier and she could sleep on through the transition. So, last night, she feel asleep in the car and I didn't want to wake her, so I tried to find things to entertain me in the front yard. This really isn't hard since I just had my new flower bed tilled and I had seeds and plants on the porch to plant. But, I was in my work clothes! I couldn't leave her in the car alone to go in and change so I ended up digging in the flower bed in good clothes. I am sure my neighbors thought I was nuts. Later, my friend Natalie's husband Dan drove by and stopped to say hi so I asked him to sit with her while I ran in to change clothes and of course, Little Pumperdinkle woke up immediately.

Emmy is still in our bed but she has started not only sleeping with her head on my pillow but her entire body on my pillow. I am not sure how this happened exactly, but... somehow she managed last night to scoot off the pillow and off the bed in the middle of the night. John yelled when she fell and the girl went head first into the trash can on my side of the bed. Lucky for her, there was still trash in it so she did have a soft landing. Thankfully, she was not hurt in the least, just really annoyed that she was awake!

All kinds of stuff!

I forgot to post this picture of Emmy with the snow. We got a few with her outside but she was much happier in the house, I can't say that I blame her for that. She really enjoyed running around the house with a snow ball I made for her. We bundled her up under her raincoat so that she wouldn't get too wet, and she just loved the raincoat and boots that Uncle Neallio, Auntie B and Sol got her.

This picture wasn't made the same day as the one above, but now that the weather is warming up, we usually just throw this cuddly outfit on her when it is cold. I walked into the living room to find that Emmy had taken some of her toys out of the baskets where they belong and just went ahead and got in there in their place.

As I have mentioned, photo shoots are getting increasingly more difficult with The Girl. Here she is when we tried to take photos with her bunny ears on her head.I read in a Parents Magazine about a tradition someone had that they took a picture of their daughter every year on her birthday in a dress that her mother had worn, just to show how she had grown over the years. I didn't have a picture of Momma in a dress to do this with but I did have this fun dress that I bought years ago and have never worn. I actually bought it with the intention of wearing it when John and I got married, but we ended up eloping and getting married at the Mall of Memphis. Emmy wasn't too excited with this picture but hopefully she will like it better next year!!!

And then the best news of the day. I swear, the little birdies were chirping louder and the sun seemed to beam just a little brighter this afternoon when I get off of work. Mayor Herenton is resigning! I am just giddy with excitement. Of course, there is something behind it and we probably will never know the entire story but for today, I am just going to bask in the glory of this fabulous news!

And, just wait for Easter Day pictures! Not only will we have adorable pictures of kids in pastels for church but we expect a special visit at Nana Alice's by the Easter Bunny!!!

Momma said there would be days like this....

I remember Momma telling me that she knew that God made Neall and I perfect since she couldn't have handled anything else. I know what she meant. Yesterday morning, we showed up at 530 to get our girl tubes in her ears and to get her adenoids removed. It almost did me in. To see her in a hospital gown almost was more than I could take. There is no good reason that they should have to make hospital gowns that small. I sat there and thought of our friends that have been through so much more: Ginger that saw her son go through so many tests at St. Jude and Michelle that is at St. Jude's now going through treatment with Garrett. I cannot imagine how they are doing and have done it. I see my girl, going through a simple procedure and it almost was too much for me.



We brought our sweet girl home and she was swollen and doped up and we thanked God that we had her in our arms. Her Aunt Becca and Uncle Neallio and Sol came to visit her to tell her to get well soon and it was so very, very sweet. I thought they were in Memphis anyway but when I realized they came only to see her, it brought tears to my eyes. She is such a lucky girl to have so many people that love her. Her AunTee came to visit too and then on Saturday, Papa Richie came to visit. She is back to her normal self and playing today and we just kiss and love her even more than normal.

13 Months

Wow. How did this happen? How did she get to thirteen months old so quickly? We just celebrated her birthday and now it has already been a month. Last year Tara and I were at the mall with the kids so that Lucas could get his photo made with the Easter Bunny and we got this great picture of them on a bench there. So, last night we were at the mall again (seeing a theme here?) and I wanted a picture of them on the same bench, one year later.
Now that they are mobile, picture taking is getting more and more difficult. Sweet Emmy is doing so many new and interesting things. We still have not figured out to get her to take a bath without screaming for dear life. I am hoping that once summer gets here and we get to swim lots, she will feel better about it. Fingers crossed. She is eating all she can get in her little fingers. We have yet to find anything she doesn't like to eat and we are letting her try to self feed with a fork and spoon. She doesn't do a great job, but it's not a horrible job either. And she laughs with glee whenever she puts her spoon or fork into food. Apparently, that is really funny stuff.

Oh and the A-T-T-I-T-U-D-E! This morning, I was going to let her walk in to the babysitter's house but she refused to hold my hand. I told Mimi that was obviously something she got from her, certainly not me or John.

She has gotten really clingy to us lately and will hold on for dear life when she is up in our arms. I am not sure if that is because she just loves us so or that her teeth are hurting where these vicious molars are trying to completely arrive. Lucas got a chair this weekend when we were shopping so of course, Emmy had to have one too. She loves to do whatever he is doing and just lights up when she seems him. This morning, she wore her "Mommy's girl" shirt but I think she was a little fussy because everyone knows that she is really her Daddy's girl.

Tomorrow morning we go for her surgery on her ears. My sweet baby at 13 months is having surgery--neither John nor I have even had surgery yet and here she is having to go through it. We are confident that she will be just fine and we should be home before 9am.

Mornings!!

This morning as we did the frantic dance to get out the door, I asked John to put a coat on Emmy. “Which one?” he asked. Seriously, any of the ten on the mudroom bunch will do—just get her coat on her and out the door, I forgot to give the dog her Xanax! This is what he put on her! Her Sunday coat for church. At that point, I really couldn’t change her without risking hurting his feelings. In her little grubby hands, she has her toothbrush. We brush her teeth in the mornings and she gets really upset when you take the brush away from her so that she can’t continue doing it herself (I am not sure what Uncle Neallio has told her about this brushing stuff) so I just bought another one to keep in the car so that she can brush the whole way to the babysitter’s house. Each morning, we leave and take Dadoo to work and then head to West Memphis to take Emmy to her sitter. I don’t like to get her there before 7:30 and John has to be at work at 7:00 so we have a little free time. Emmy and I like to get as many of our chores done as we can during this time, like going to Wal-Mart or Walgreen’s, but that can get expensive so we are looking for other ideas. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know! Here are some of the things we have done:

• Go to the park (when it is warmer)
• When she was smaller, I would strap her on my chest and we would go for walks
• Take my laptop and sit in the Krystal’s parking lot and surf the internet because they have free WiFi (so does McDonald's)
• Get breakfast at Sonic and sit in the backseat with her and share our breakfast burrito over a good book (my personal favorite)
• Run the car through the carwash

We had the best weekend. The snow didn't really hamper us since it was actually all snow and no ice! Emmy wasn't too thrilled with it at all--she is her Mama's girl. She was out there for about 2 minutes and decided that was too cold and wanted to go back inside. On Saturday, we got up and headed to Sonic to pick up breakfast and I convinved John I needed to just run by the Salinas's while we were out. Two hours later, we finally let them get back to their day after the kids had a big time playing together. We brought Lucas and Emmy an order of CiniBites from Sonic so they both have icky goodness on their little faces in this picture. On Sunday, Emmy and I met the Salinases again for church and then spent the afternoon buying Emmy's swingset that her Aunt Cathy and Uncle Ted got her for her birthday. We ate lunch and Emmy insisted on actually feeding Lucas herself. Those kids... :)

Newest tricks...

... Emmy insists on putting her own straw in the HiC juice box and can do it! It might take her a minute but those tiny little fingers of hers can make that little straw fit in that little hole.

...Emmy gives kisses on demand! Not all the time but if you tell her you want a kiss and pucker up, she might just plant one on you.

...If she sees a hairbow, she knows that it goes on her head. She might not let you put it on for her, but she will hold it up to her hair and smile. Of course, you know this just delights me!!!

And on just a weird note... our dog Bill has some real seperation anxiety issues. It really has nothing to do with me, but she does love John and is distraught when he leaves. I asked the vet about it and she gave me some articles on seperation anxiety. And Bill got some Xanax. I told the vet that I need the Xanax dealing with this nutso dog but she gave it to Bill anyway. Yesterday, I gave it to her right before I took her outside at 6am and we leave at 640am and there was not difference, she was still a basketcase. When I say "basketcase", I don't mean she is a little upset or whiny. I mean, the back of my front door is going to have to be sanded because of her trying to get out. I mean that she bites John's feet on the way out and that you have to run out and slam the door to get away from her barking and begging you to stay. This morning, I gave it to her at 530am and my heavens! Bill stood in the dining room when we left and seemed to say, "hey, check you guys later, I am going back to get in our bed. Have fun at work!" My day is already better for it.

The dreaded stomach bug...

John was sick over the weekend and being the loving wife that I am, I pretty much told him to suck it up and he was fine. But, then on Monday, I got sick and I knew that death was pretty much imminent. In the middle of the night Sunday, she puked all over us. Because she seemed okay that morning, I went ahead and took her to the sitter on Monday and I went to work. I somehow trudged through the day, but got little to nothing done as my computer does not stretch into the office bathroom. Then, Tuesday morning, she puked on us again. All three of us stayed home and cried of our misfortune. Then, Wednesday morning, she puked on again in bed. We are running out of sheets at this point as neither John nor I can quite get the physical strength up to go downstairs and wash any sheets. John went to work Wednesday and I was better but the girl was much worse. She threw up all day and showed off how she knows to shake her head no every time I offered her juice, Pedialyte or water. But, around 4pm, she started to turn for the better and now she is doing much better, although she still is scared to eat or drink anything but HiC punch or potato chips.

This was Sunday before the Stomach Plague of 2008 invaded Walker Street.

It's that time of year again...

Girl Scout cookies!!! Emmy likes the Thin Mints.

Hold my back, will ya?

When I was little and spent the night with Grandma Ruth, I would always ask her to hold my back. That was my way of asking her to lay behind me with her arms wrapped around me. It was wonderful. I never felt so protected. Before Grandma Ruth went in the nursing home, I spent the night with her every night. I would go home and get ready for bed, then walk across the street to her apartment, then in the morning walk home in my PJs, get ready for school, and then Momma, Neall and I would go back to Grandma's. We got her breakfast and got her ready for the day. Then Momma would come home at lunch and then after school we did the same. My sweet Momma. When I think of all she did for her mother, I just want to cry. I would go out on dates or to do stuff with my friends and come home at 9 at night to help Momma put Grandma to bed, then go back out and then come back to her apartment at curfew. I loved her so much. I just loved her. Everything about her. She was so sweet and so giving and so thoughtful. I loved my Grandma Ruth like I don't think that many love their grandparents. But, that is because of the love in my mother's eyes. I learned from her. I can remember so many details of my grandmother--so many little lovely things.

Now that Emmy is big enough for me to hold her back, I hold her a little tighter because I can almost feel Momma there too. I can almost feel Momma there betwen us and I can almost feel Grandma Ruth behind me holding my back. It is pretty special to have loved someone like I loved Grandma Ruth. I hope that I can somehow explain to Emmy all the love that she and Momma would have had her for her. They would have just been smiten with her sweet smile and the way that she just toddles around now. When she pulls open the cabinet and drags all the Tupperware out, they would have just oh'd and ah'd. When she babbles in the backseat, they would have been there babbling with her. And somehow, I have to put all that in words so that she knows how very loved she is, even if they are not here to tell her.

So I hold her sweet little back and I will tell her about how Grandma Ruth held my back when I was her age and I never, ever felt quite as loved as I did then.

Men say the dardest things...

So, when I told John that they wanted to put tubes in Emmy's ears, he said, "how far will they hang out?"


A friend, to remain nameless, had to take his dog to the vet. His wife told him that he could just take the poop so that they didn't have to do a sample. So, he took a bag of poop. And no dog. He sat in the waiting room with a bag of poop. When the doctor called him back, he asked what he had and he told him he had doodoo and he, of course, had to go back home and get his dog.


What in the world would they do without us????

Always good reading material at the doctor's office

Emmy has had ear infections pretty steadily since October so when we went to her twelve month checkup, the doctor referred us to an ENT. They have decided it is time to give her tubes for her little munchkin ears. Friday, we went to the ENT and the surgery is scheduled for March 14th. We are pretty nervous, but hope that her speech will just blossom after this. We shall see.

I told Emmy when we were in the bathroom at the doctor's office that her Yia Yia would not have let me do this to her. When I was her age, the doctors wanted to take out my tonsils and Momma refused because I was so little. Later as I had so many bouts of tonsillitis and strep throat, I always blamed her. Momma told me once, jokingly of course, that she wanted to wait until I was able to pay for it myself so that I could really appreciate it. Hysterical! I wanted to go ahead and do this so that she doesn't have trouble later and wish we had helped her in this way. But we can't help but be nervous. She's our munchkin. Our tater. Our doodoo. We love her so much.

Good kitchen help is hard to find

Emmy was hanging out with me in the kitchen last night while I did the dishes. While I certainly enjoyed the company, she was not the most helpful as everything that I put up, she took right back out. She is looking at me as if "What? You have a problem with me pulling everything out of the cabinet so that I can sit here?"

"But this is so funny!!!!"
"And I know our dog Bill would love for me to put this colandar in her dog bowl. See?? It fits perfectly."On Saturday, pre Wedding Activity, we ate lunch with Tara, Jorge, Lucas, MeeMee and Grandpa Jim (Tara's parents). The kids always have to sit beside each other in high chairs so that they can share off each others plates and try to feed each other.Lucas does love some pudding.

Wedding Bliss

Last night, our friends Beth and Todd got married. It was a beautiful wedding and the reception was great. Leading up to a wedding can always be so stressful but it was a great time and John and I both were delighted to hear so many people tell us how beauiful and charming our Emmy Ruth is. She and David rode down the aisle in a wagon--both holding on for dear life! It was just precious.
This reminds of Cinderella playing with the bride's shoe.

And not that there was any doubt, but this photo of Emmy and her Dadoo only shows how much they look alike.

Emmy wanted to make sure that Dadoo got enough to eat too.

What a fun, fabulous night we had. We are so lucky to have so many friends to enjoy such fun times together.

The Day Before The Biggest Game EVER

I can appreciate what it would be for this city to win the National Championship and how incredibly cool it is for #1 and #2 to play each other in the same state--it's only happened in three states (N. Carolina, Ohio and now Tennessee). I can appreciate how cool it would be for a team to "run the tables" and be undefeated all the way through the season but does it have to be a John Callipari team? I love the Tiger football team--mainly because I love DeAngelo--but I just cannot stomach the basketball team. I can't stand the message that he sends by not disciplining his teams, year in and year out, they are always in trouble. Over half of this team has a police record. This team alone is keeping the Plush club up and running. It is ridiculous. I know all teams have disruptive players, but come on. As if this city doesn't have enough going on, we don't need this attached stigma.

So today I wore orange. I feel really dirty and cheap in it too. Like a big fat hairy man in fishnet stockings. I am leaving Emmy completely out of the Memphis/UT drama. She got to wear her standard pink today.

This weekend is also Emmy's first wedding! Our friends Beth and Todd are getting married tomorrow night and Emmy and David are going to be in the wedding. The plan was for them to walk down the aisle in front of the flower girl and ring bearer but David isn't quite walking yet, so they are going to ride in the wagon, like they will in LynnLynn and Papa Richie's wedding in May. So, we are getting some good practice in this weekend. I can't wait to see her in her little frufru dress. Hopefully we can get some good pictures of she and I since we don't have any so far.

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!