Friday

Emma parked herself in front of the T.V. and pretended to be listening to headphones. Notice how she is crossing her legs. She has been doing that a lot lately and it cracks me up.

Fake smile.

Snow boots were the rage when it was 70 degrees outside. She is nothing if not stylish.

Another busy week! I couldn't even begin to play catch up.

I had to make a list for speech this week of Emma's words. I was pleasantly surprised when I wrote the words down. We had 50 on our list and I have since thought of a few more. Granted, the average person wouldn't understand them but we do.

• Ashti (Ashton)
• baba (momma)
• hat
• arm
• Ophie (Sophie - the dog)
• chicken
• I don't know (she says it every time we pull into the driveway...I have no idea
• I love you
• Bubba (both boys)
• shower
• shoes
• socks
• eat
• eggs
• giggee (Bo's mom)
• Rory (It sounds so cute how she says it)
• cow
• dog
• applesauce
• banana
• noodles
• nanoo (potty or anything she thinks is dirty)
• teeth
• Eldo (Elmo)
• Wiggles (only we can understand this one)
• cheese
• outside
• night night
• please
• thank you (it's more of an under her breath sound that she makes)
• DOE (this is the one used most frequently)
• bath
• jump
• eyes
• mouth
• ears
• nose
• Bop (pop - Bo's dad)
• Jack (mother's dog)
• Good Job
  

There were more words on the list, but silly me didn't make a copy of the list.

She is scheduled for her eye appointment on Monday and a hearing test on Tuesday. All of this leads up to a preschool evaluation on Wednesday. I am not looking forward to it, but I know that if she qualifies (and no doubt she will), that she will be getting more speech therapy and she will be around other kids. She really needs that, but I'm having a hard time with it.

I decided this week that I am an old mother. I let Emma eat bologna for breakfast and lunch more than once this week. She loves it and you have to pick your battles. I don't care if she eats it even though it has no nutritional value and I'm not a huge fan of it. It's like the snow boots, who really cares? If she is happy and it's no big deal, then who is to say that it's not okay. Now I would have never let the boys eat bologna for breakfast. That really wasn't an issue because they hate it! So yes, I'm and old and tired mother. But I had a really happy girl when she was able to eat her favorite food of the moment. Well, her favorite is probably M&M's, but I'm not that old and tired. Those are saved for special occasions, like dinner......

Have a great weekend.

Easter Egg Hunt and Emma's 3 year check up

We had a nice weekend that started off with an Easter Egg Hunt at the hospital where I work. Our Easter Bunny was named Darryl according to my friend Angel. She obviously has some connections somewhere. Emma did great with the bunny and I was completely shocked.

Emma loving on Mason. These are the cutest pictures.

Look how Mason is looking up at Emma. I'm sure he's thinking "I wish this girl would leave me alone."

Just simply 2 of the cutest kids ever.

She wasn't so sure about the whole egg thing. She was really happy when she discovered a sucker laying on the ground just waiting on her.

Little Buddha. Look at how serious he was.

Mason refused to look up during any of the Easter bunny pictures.

She is keeping a close eye on this character.

Who knew the Easter bunny was Irish?

Emma had her 3 year physical today and Dr. H was very pleased with her growth. She has blossomed since coming home. She is 39.75" tall, putting her in the 94th percentile. She weighs 33.4 lbs, putting her in the 71 percentile. She has gained 12 pounds since coming home and grown a little over 6 inches. My girl is getting BIG.

He thinks she may have some vision issues and has scheduled us an appointment with the Vision folks at Vandy. Oh great, another trip to my child's happy place.

I discussed several of my concerns with him and he said none of it was worth stressing over. That always makes a mom feel better. I shared with him the fact that I cannot get a first morning urine on this child because she refuses to pee in a plastic collector (hat) and will hold it until she's about to blow. He has decided that we can just hold off on that for a while until she is a little more tolerable. I'm guessing when she is about 10 or 11. He was thrilled with her tenacity. I think that is a nice word for stubbornness. He just gets paid to put it more nicely:) His sweet nurse Pam discovered Emma's tenacity when she attempted to take a blood pressure. It was determined that both mine and Emma's was high. Emma would not let her do it and sweet Pam just called it quits.

Tonight I have to attend Ashton's high school orientation. I don't like this and can't even believe that my baby boy will go to high school next year. Bo is getting old.

Cute Pics

These pictures are from Ashton's ballgames. This is Emma's friend Noah and they were adorable together. He was so sweet with her and the cutest thing of all was that he never noticed her hands. His mom and I talked about it and she said the one time she thought he was about to say something about them to her he said instead "What happened to Emma's eyes?" He noticed that her eyes were different but didn't notice her hands. Too cute!

Okay, I just thought this was the cutest thing in the world. I know it makes every mother cringe!

Where Have 2 Weeks Gone

The battery is going dead and she can't figure out what the problem is.

Loving up on her Aunt Sissy. This was before she broke the lamp.

Where have 2 weeks gone?

I'll tell you where......it's been spent at work, at training, helping my girl on and off the potty approximately 1,000,000 times a day, feeding teenagers and all of their friends, driving teenagers to various places, driving toddlers to various places, attempting to keep my house in some type of order (I give up), pricing 200 items for a consignment sale, and there you have it. I wouldn't even know where to begin, but it has been nonstop lately and unfortunately the blog has been sitting there calling my name and by the time I have any time left to do it, I'm exhausted.

It's Spring Break this week and the boys have been in constant motion. From the moment they get up in the morning it starts with "Can someone come over (insert name here....) or can I go here or there. I really don't mind because I like most of their friends and don't mind them being here at all. Well, at some point it's time for them to go home. I can only feed so many teenagers without getting a second or third job.

Emma continues to struggle with the pooping in the potty issues. She just won't do it. She waits until bedtime and immediately goes in her diaper. I'm not sure what that's all about, but I don't think that is all that abnormal. She has completely aced the other part (lest I speak too soon:)

Today we visited with my Aunt Sissy and enjoyed lunch with her and a delicious banana pudding for dessert. Emma managed to break a lamp while we were there so we may not be invited again for a while. How can a little kid get in to so much?

In a brief recap of our grocery shopping visit last week, we returned to Kroger. Emma did so well and managed to keep her cart in line and not knock anything over. However, she decided she didn't want to drive it anymore when we were almost finished shopping. Fine, I decided to just move her few little items into my cart and go on my merry way. She was not happy with that decision and couldn't understand why she couldn't stand on the cart and be pushed. After attempting to explain that to her, she ended up in the seat of my cart and screamed like I was kidnapping and beating her. She had the tantrum of all tantrums and if it weren't for my cool head.....I might have taken her to the bathroom and given her a little spanking. However, I remained cool and let her scream it out. She kicked the cart, she screamed until I thought she would vomit, she had heads turning left and right. I suspect they were all thinking to themselves "I'm glad I'm not that sad mother. How is she managing to keep her cool?" I'll tell you how. I chose to ignore it because I really don't care if people are looking and I know that my child is okay and is just angry and can't verbalize what she is feeling so she screams. No big deal. Now next time, I may not remain cool at all and they will see my true colors:) Never a dull moment with this little spit fire of a girl.

Well, I hear more teenagers returning to my house. I must go and attempt to find them food. I feel like a mother bird flying around searching for my little birdies something to eat. I draw the line at dropping it in their little mouths.

Clean Up on Aisle 8

Today has just been one of those days that I wish I could have stayed in bed with the covers over my head and forgotten about. Why? I have no idea. I just have not had a very good day. I think Satan has gotten my number and doesn't want to quit calling.


After screaming at my boys to get up this morning, splashing Brady with water and threatening to beat them both, they finally were out of the house. Emma and I had to grab a shower and get ready for speech. Our shower was cold. We have been having some water heater issues and they seem to come and go. Bo evidently thought they were better, but that could be because he gets the first shower every morning and I follow after 2 teenagers. While on that subject, I had no towels in my linen closet. It's not that we don't have towels, it's that Ashton has suddenly decided that it requires 2 bath towels and a hand towel to dry himself. I have decided that it would only take one to choke him with, so I'm hoping that he and I have come to an understanding. I located a Pooh beach towel and used that this morning. Emma and I took our very quick and cold shower and jumped out. While I was lamenting the fact that I would like to kill my teenagers for using all of the water and towels and feeling just a bit sorry for myself, I asked God to please help me cheer up. That's when I saw it. While drying my hair I heard Emma and looked around the corner of my bedroom to see a naked 3 year old with a hair brush as a microphone singing and dancing her little heart out. It was too cute and I thanked God for that light moment. Unfortunately it didn't last long.


Off to speech and then to the grocery. Emma now understands that all she wants to do when we go to Kroger is push her own cart. I'm okay with that to some degree. Today might not have been the best day considering my mood. We managed to get through the store with only my shins being run over until we reached the shampoo/makeup aisle. She had been warned several times to slow down and pay attention (to which she replied "Doe"), but that didn't keep her from running into a Lip Smackers display and knocking it over. I was almost to the point of no return, but somehow I managed to keep it together.


I have been thrilled with her potty training so far. However, that being said, I am not enjoying being out with her and trying to potty. We went to the restroom twice while at Kroger and she just couldn't do her business. She did manage to hold it until she got home which was rather impressive. I also can't get her to pee in the "hat' that I'm using to collect her urine specimen. The child refuses. Oh my, what to do, what to do.


My firstborn child Brady is the sweetest boy sometimes. He lives in his own little world that I really don't want to enter. He just walks around lost most of the time. While riding with my mother to school one morning this week he said to her "I'm in a daze". No truer words have ever been spoken and I just wanted to document that he finally verbalized what I've been knowing since about the second grade.


How was your day?

My Girl is the Potty Queen

At the risk of overstating our progress, Emma has become the potty queen. She has been dry all weekend except for bedtime and has pooped in the potty twice. She wants to wear her panties and is offended that she has to wear a diaper at bedtime. I put her in a pull up for our trip to Vandy this morning and she stayed dry the entire time. She came home and immediately used the potty. I am so proud of her! This area has gone much more smoothly than I anticipated.


We saw the Endocrinologist this morning and basically came away without a diagnosis. They want to repeat a urine on her and then make a decision if they will do the water deprivation test. They were encouraged by some of the things we discussed and don't really seem to think that she has DI. They indicated that children with DI drink constantly and prefer water to any other beverage. The doctor even asked if I had ever found her drinking from the toilet? HELLO. The answer would be no! Apparently the thirst for these kids is so intense they can't help themselves. They do think something is causing the dilute urine results, but are encouraged that it is probably not DI. So we will see what the next urine test reveals and go from there.


18 months ago today Emma was placed in our arms. It's hard to believe that it's been that long already. She has blessed us so much. She has come so far and continues to amaze me every day. There isn't a day that goes by that this kid just doesn't make me laugh. She oozes personality and I am so proud to be her mother.


My husband survived his Friday night with only 6 boys. The man cave looked a bit worse for wear, but it withstood. I have to admit I'm glad I was at work for that one.


Nothing else too exciting to offer. I'm off the put my girl down for a much needed nap. I may even take one myself:)

Here's Looking At You