Happy Easter

Easter at my in-laws. It's almost impossible to get a good picture of my boys. They are so goofy.

Emma was loving the egg hunt with Giggee.

Camden, Emma, and Rory at the egg hunt after church. Are they just the cutest kids or what!

A rare photo of Bo and me together.

Emma needed very little help with the egg hunting. She would walk up to the egg and hold out her basket for me to put the egg in. She held on to her basket for dear life and didn't want anyone to get anything out of it.

The Easter Bunny left Brady a basket too. Ashton took his and ran, so there is no photo of him getting a basket.

Emma loved her wheel barrow.

Candy! Okay, so she had a few M&M's for breakfast. It was her first Easter, what can I say!

Jackpot!

She literally sleeps with this head band!

We has a good Easter and enjoyed Church, an egg hunt, and time with Bo's family.

I am slowly feeling better. I am still coughing way too much and hope that will end soon. So far the kids and Bo are okay. Ashton has a cough, but otherwise is okay.

So as I admitted in the last post, I caved. My girl got her bottle back and I really don't care at this point. She was thirsty, her urine output as decreased, and I think we may have been facing a bladder infection. After much deliberation and driving my friends crazy talking about it while I was at work Friday night, I decided to let her have it back. It really came down to a co-worker (Francis) saying something that made me feel better. She said that whatever I decided would be the right thing because I am her mother and I know her best. She was right. I feel better and Emma is drinking again. She will not take the bottle forever and it's not like she sucks one all day. She takes one in the morning and at night and I am constantly offering the cup to her. I plan on slowly increasing the size of the nipple and see if that makes a difference for her. If she can't suck it then maybe she won't want it. I don't know and at this point, I don't really care. I can't tell you how much I have fretted over the whole thing and I am sick of worrying about it!

Okay, so if you have not seen the movie Marley and Me, you should. If you are dog lover then it's a must see. Be prepared to have a box of tissues nearby. It's so much more than a dog movie though and it really makes you think about your own mortality.

Well, enough for today. I am hoping that this week is much more productive than last week. Emma has a follow up appointment on her ears and I have a dental appointment. I hate to go to the dentist. It's a fear that goes really deep! I still have to make up my missed ACLS class and attempt to get this house in some type of order. So another busy week ahead.

Have a great week!

Short and Sweet

I caved. What can I say, the kid's a camel.

Living in a Haze

So the last 48 hours have been a haze for me. Drug induced haze. Cold medicine of all types have been in my system. I began feeling bad over the weekend, but then it got a little better and then Tuesday it started getting worse. By Tuesday night I was out of it. I cannot say for a fact that I have had the flu, but it certainly has felt like it. I am beginning to feel slightly better, but still have some fever and a horrible cough. Needless to say, I missed the ACLS class and will have to make that up.


Emma still refuses to drink from a cup and I have almost given in. It would be so much easier, but it's been a week now and I don't want to confuse her and let her have it back. I would never have guessed that she would hold out this long. This girl is something else!

Negotiations Continue

Want to know how long a toddler can go without drinking anything? Well, stay tuned to find out. It has been 5 days now and she has probably had approximately 6 ounces to drink and that is with us dripping it into her mouth from a straw. She has taken a few sips from her cup, but not many. She is the most stubborn child I have ever seen. Before I get any comments about giving her the bottle back, I have talked with the Doctor and he says to hold out. She will drink. She continues to pee, although not as much. I am certain this child is trying to kill me. She knows that I am worried about her and she wants to see how long I can hold out. I will not be beaten. She will not win this battle and the bottle will remain a thing of the past. Don't get me wrong, I have certainly considered giving it back to her!

She is starting to walk independently, especially on the carpet. She is still a bit wobbly and reminds me of Otis from The Andy Griffith Show, but she is doing so well. She just lights up when she takes off and then she likes to stop in the middle and do some type of dance and hold her arms back like a plane. It's hilarious to watch. This girl is so determined. (Determined to put me in an early grave, did I mention that:)


Taking some steps.
She dug out this microphone from all of her toys Sunday night and started singing while the ACM awards were on.

These glasses are so smudged and dirty! Isn't that face adorable. She is so COOL.

Giving cousin Mike a big kiss.

Aunt Sissy spent the weekend with us and Emma was loving it. She kept walking back and forth from me to Aunt Sissy and anytime she wanted something she would go to Aunt Sissy and give her "the look".

Two of my favorite ladies in the world!

Okay, so this purse is adorable. One of the sweet ladies at AC First Baptist sent her a dress, purse, and hair band with a pink bow on it. I will have to get some pictures of her with the dress on and post them soon. It was so sweet of her to think of Emma. Emma is loving this purse.

She refuses to pull the hat up off of her eyes where you can see her. And if she gets mad, she pulls the hat down even further so she doesn't have to look at me.

So we had a very busy, but nice weekend. As I mentioned, my Aunt Sissy spent the weekend with us and that was very nice. We had Homecoming at church and enjoyed it so much. It was nice to see people that we had not seen in such a long time and that meant so much to our family.

I am attempting to study for ACLS and will be SO glad when it's over. I am also fighting a cold and horrible sore throat, so my week isn't going as well as I had hoped. I just hope the kids and Bo don't get it.

Well, enough for today. I just put her highness down for her nap and I need to try to study some more while I can. Have a good day!

Another Stand Off

It has been 34 hours since Emma has drunk anything. No, she isn't ill. No, we are not out of beverages at our house. We are giving up the bottle and she has decided that she can wait it out. Well, so have I and let me just say, it's harder for me than her. I spoke with Dr. H's office yesterday and he encouraged me to throw away the bottles so that I wouldn't be tempted to give them back to her. I didn't throw them away, but I did hide them so others in the house (dh) wouldn't be tempted:) He also encouraged me that she will drink if she is thirsty. I keep offering her the cup with milk and she will let me put it to her mouth and then turn her head away. She has taken a couple of sips over the last 24 hours, but will not attempt to drink from the cup with any real effort. She has eaten a lot of applesauce to help with the hydration issue. So, here we are. I hate it. I can't stand for her not to drink and in all reality I love giving her a bottle, but she is 2 and needs to drink from a cup. Her teeth are already showing signs of too much bottle and it will make life much easier if she can take a cup with her when we are out. But she is STUBBORN. So please say a prayer for her that she will begin to drink soon and that I will have the endurance to get over this little battle of the wills.


Losing our innocence. I've been thinking about that with her giving up her bottle. As she gets older and has to give up those little things that make her a kid. Remember those? I've been thinking about how simple life was when I was a kid. It was a different time and when I look at the things that are going on around us in our own back yard and what my boys have to face everyday, it just blows my mind and makes me so sad. A few weeks ago Brady accidentally took a pocket knife to school in his backpack and one of his friends saw it. Luckily no teacher saw it or Brady would have been kicked out of school. When he told me that afternoon that he had taken it to school he said he just forgot about it being in there and he had been in the woods "scouting" the day before and had taken his supplies in his backpack. Simple enough. We live in a rural area and our kids have a lot of woods to play in and I am thankful for that. But that got me to thinking about growing up in the 80's and going to high school and never thinking about the fact that most of the boys in school had a pocket knife with them. It was just a normal thing and you never worried about someone stabbing someone else. Those same boys had a hunting rifle or a shotgun in the cab of their trucks that they would use later on in the day during hunting season. Again, you never thought about someone shooting someone else at school. I think that innocence was completely lost 10 years ago at Columbine. I think it was probably lost before then, but that is the moment that really sticks out in my mind. What a sad world our world has become. Our kids are forced to grow up too soon in the environment that we live in. Our kids are surrounded by the Internet, t.v., movies, lack of parental involvement, etc. I know those same issues were there when I was a kid (minus Internet), but certainly not to the same extent. I miss the 80's.


I was talking with someone recently about being a stay at home mom and how thankful I was that I could be home with the kids. I have worked full time and know how hard it is for everyone. When the boys were little and they were at a sitter's house for 12-13 hours it killed me. Praise God that I can be home with them now and that was the point of the conversation. I really believe it's better to be home with them now when they are older than it was when they were babies. I am home every afternoon and I get to hear about what is going on at school. I get to pick them up everyday and although that can be a pain, I am glad to have the opportunity to hear them talk about what is going on in school and with the other kids. I am lucky that my boys share with me, especially Brady. I am also lucky to be very sneaky and able to con them into telling me things when they don't realize that I am doing so:)

Well, I didn't realize that my post was going to head in that direction, but it's been on my heart. Above all, it's so good to know that God is with us all the way. He will not leave us, even when we leave him. So when I am worrying about my daughter not drinking or my boys growing up in this crazy world, He is right beside me through it all.

Thursday

Okay, I know it will be hard to draw your attention away from my cabinet, counter, and refrigerator, but I really wanted to get a picture of my boy and his black eye. He wouldn't agree to having a picture taken of his eye so when he fell for getting his picture taken with Emma, I took advantage of it. His left eye is black. FEAR NOT. He wasn't in any scrap at school or home, but was clowning around in his classroom with another boy and somehow was hit in the eye with a book. Of course, the teacher was out of the room at the time. Can you imagine kids misbehaving while the teacher is out of the room:)

Emma was very excited to get to eat after her surgery yesterday. She looks like she hasn't eaten in weeks the way she is cramming those chips in her mouth.

She is loving her new dump truck.

Once again I say, my daughter is going to be a fashion queen. She has added the hat to her ensemble and almost refuses to take it off.

Emma had a good night last night. I was afraid that her ears might bother her but evidently they did not. We are having to use drops 3 times a day for the next couple of days and let me just say, she isn't a fan!

Well, we have no big plans for the day. I am attempted to clean and study. It's amazing how many things I can find to do when I need to be studying. We start the Beth Moore study tonight and I am really looking forward to that.

Post Op Wednesday

Well, the tubes are in and our girl was quite the hit with the nurses at Baptist. She sat at the nurses desk for quite a while with the nurses passing her back and forth. She really liked her nurse Stacy. She charmed them while we waited on her procedure and I was able to share a lot about adoption, which I love. Emma was pretty funny when the Versed began to kick in. She was very happy and had the funniest look on her face. I think she may have been seeing 2 of me.

She didn't wake up very happy after the procedure and cried for most of the ride home. She is happy now that she is home with a bowl of baked chips and The Wiggles. She should take a good nap too.

Thanks for all the prayers. Even when it's just a minor procedure it's great to know that people are praying for you.

I can't say enough good things about the staff at the surgery center. They were fantastic and Emma couldn't have been treated better.