Baby Shower

Earlier in June, my dear friend Candice threw baby girl and I a baby shower. Everything was perfect, as to be expected. :)

The guests:


The food and cute favors. Candice made the flower arrangement, which was actually a bunch of fabric hairbows clipped onto bamboo skewers. Isn't she clever?
Everyone was so generous and I loved opening all the cute baby girl things. It makes everything seem so real! (Not that my watermelon-sized stomach doesn't help things a bit, too.) Thanks again, Candice!

Aunt Nannie's Visit

We were so lucky to have Aunt Natalie come visit. It was especially nice since we weren't really able to travel to see family with the impending arrival of our baby girl. She was able to stay for a week, and boy did we pack in the fun with Ben on a break from school too!

We loved Buck Creek so much that we decided to try it again, and it was perfect weather! We were able to bring our inflatable sea creature from Great-Grandma Mac to try out. And yes, everyone on the beach was jealous.


"Nannie" did a lot of this with Emerson. Snickering while playing with him, that is. He's definitely got his own little ways of doing things. I can't count how many times he said "Come on, Nannie, come on!" and grabbed her finger and led her away to "pay trains."
About this loaf of bread...poor E had to wait a while to eat breakfast because we were going to go out somewhere and we all took a long time to get ready. This was sitting on the table waiting to be delivered to some people in the neighborhood, and E just couldn't stand it anymore. He ripped right through the plastic and devoured it. I couldn't even get mad.


We went to Lowe's for one of their free clinics and all three of us helped Emerson build a monster truck. I don't know why, but I got all cuted out seeing him wield that teeny hammer while wearing his manly apron. He was proud to be a "Handy Manny" like on TV.

We walked on the train tracks again, me while hiding a watermelon under my shirt.
E got a stick of candy from Spaghetti Warehouse and while I was picking up Panera bread, he managed to wedge the whole stick in his mouth sideways while Daddy watched him. :)
This picture looks pretty similar to the one before it, but this is E's fishy face. He thinks he's puckering his lips like Natalie's.
While Ben was at Scout Camp overnight, Nat and I took E to COSI and watched his mad hula-hooping skillz and went to the Titanic Exhibit. We both loved it.


E was very proud of his levitating ball at COSI.
Nannie also blew bubbles with E, or rather held the tube while he flung the bubble solution around. She's good for things like that.
Natalie is also good at playing at the park with E.

Among things not photographed: Hours and hours of crafting, hitting the Old Navy sale, eating out at lots of yummy places, watching Mannequin...weird show..., having our Indiana Jones marathon, going to see Eclipse, making Cafe Rio, and lots of tears from everyone but Ben when Nannie had to leave. E cried for probably 10 minutes when we dropped Nat off at the airport. He loves his Nannie.

Thanks for the visit, Nannie! And thanks Mom and Dad for sending her out for BIG fun!

Happy Birthday to me.

Happy Birthday to me. I'm 24 now. And finally the fireworks and parade are on MY birthday again. My little brother Brad was born on the 4th of July, so I only got 6 short years before that when it was supposedly all for me. Luckily he's been very kind about sharing the festivities. :) I'm happy to share a celebratory weekend with you any day, big buddy. Thanks for letting me have a turn with the parade and fireworks.

Baby Sister

No, she hasn't arrived yet, thankfully, but there has certainly been a lot of talk around here about her. One of E's little friends got to meet his brand-new baby brother this week, so I guess E thought he'd be meeting his little sister too when we told him we were going bye-bye to go to dinner. He said excitedly "See Bebe Sister!" then I explained "No, she's still in Mommy's tummy, see? But she'll be here soon." This apparently did not appease him because when we pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant, he said "Bebe Sister, comin'! See bebe sister!" He was a little disappointed I think, but the fact that he got pizza for dinner seemed to distract him. :)

Here I am at 36 weeks:
We sure are excited to meet this little girl. Not sure when it's going to happen seeing as I'm already dilated to a 2 and 85% effaced. (I'm sure you all wanted to know the status of my cervix.)

Stay tuned for a post about our fun visitor, Aunt Nannie!

Buck Creek

Since Daddy finished Boards, we've been doing some fun things and have been very busy. Besides certain house things like changing out blinds, hanging a shelf, making windowsills, and finishing Ben's cornhole game, we've just enjoyed hanging out. We decided to go to Buck Creek metro park and check out their beach. Of course we thought it would be the perfect day to go and even checked the weather the night before and...it rained on us. But it was very pleasant up to that point.

I loved seeing E experience sand for the first time. He liked stepping on it but got nervous when it squished between his toes.

He couldn't get enough of the shore because the wet sand was good for shoveling into his bucket and dipping his toes in the water.
Then lucky duck got a pizza lunchable for lunch and thought it was the best thing in the world.
He was even brave enough to go out in the water with Daddy. (The water only comes up mid-thigh, but Ben was crouching down in this picture.)

E couldn't stop talking about "swimmumum" and had the time of his life! He loved watching the boats and playing in the "nganger". I thought there would be lots of tears when it was time to go, but he was pretty much freezing by then so he was happy to be wrapped up as a "co-baby" (cozy baby) and get his clothes changed and back in the car.

Sundays

Sundays are hard with 1-4 pm church. I think the nursery leaders that serve during 1-4 church earn themselves a special place in Heaven.

Here is how many Sundays go:

E goes down at 11:30 for nappy-nap
We wake E up at 12:25 from nappy-nap

(Yes that is a pink blanket he's sleeping with. It's actually MY blanket but he likes it. I'm not worried though because pink blanket is always accompanied by trains and cars and manly things.)

He's usually not ready by then since he's been napping for about 3 hours every afternoon...

Then we scurry around, get his church clothes on, convince him that his tie is handsome like daddy's (sometimes we have to do that by making Beah wear a tie too), shovel lunch down his throat (or let him eat it in the car with his bib on) and try to be out the door by 12:45. Then we do the whole meeting thang, and pick up E from nursery where he has inevitably burst into tears the last 5 minutes because he was worried we weren't coming to get him. You know, we're always just leaving him places.

Then, we come home, have a little feeding frenzy, and break out the Wii before dinner.

I love me a good day of rest.

Prayers

Emerson has really gotten into saying prayers recently. He doesn't really care about bedtime prayers, just mealtime ones. He's been getting upset with us if we try to say it without his help, then he'll start crying and we'll try to figure out what's wrong and he'll sob, "blessing food!" so we'll have to give him a turn. And he's just like every other kid when all he says in the last line is AMEN! with all the gusto he can muster. Then sometimes he'll add a "Good boy!" to compliment himself afterward.

This morning he wanted to help with the prayer over breakfast, so we began our simple, vainly repetitious prayer and he threw in "happy dreams" all by himself because that's what we say at bedtime and we finished the prayer. Then this is the conversation that ensued:

"Mommy, blessings."

"That's right, we say thank you for our blessings."

"Uh uh uh blessings."

"Right, we say thank you when we talk to Heavenly Father, don't we?"

"No, uh-Mike!"

"We talk to Heavenly Father when we're saying our prayers, huh?"

"NO, MIKE!"

Apparently Emerson thinks we've been praying to Mike (Richards). He's a great guy and is the father of E's two favorite people, but I'm not sure where the praying-to-him thing came from. There's just no reasoning with a 2-year-old. But I guess Mike should feel good that Emerson looks up to him that much. Maybe we'll start emphasizing the "Dear Heavenly Father" part even more now.

Awkward Duck

So we have this group of 4 mallards that like to come chill by our garage. I have no idea why. We don't feed them, and there aren't any female ducks hanging out. It could be that both of our neighbors have bird feeders by their garages, but we don't. Dumb ducks. They kind of move in a coordinated pattern, swinging their heads the same way at the same time and it got me thinking about the movie, The Birds. For some reason I don't think it would've been as menacing had ducks been cast instead of those creepy crows/blackbirds.

The other day we looked out our back window and saw one of these said mallards on top of our garage. It didn't look like the cool cardinals and other small birds that usually grace the garage, so I just thought it looked awkward. And it looked like it felt awkward, too. Kind of like it had landed there by accident but wasn't going to tell anybody that.
I hope some girl-duck will see past your awkwardness and be your mate someday, big fella.

Park of Roses

We made a little trip out to the Park of Roses again, but our timing wasn't perfect for the full blossom effect. I think we're going to try to go back in a couple weeks. That didn't stop E from having a good time though. I don't think we passed one color of rose that he didn't stop and smell (without any prompting from us, might I add.)

Goop

One rainy day last week I was trying to think of something for Emerson to do so we both didn't go crazy. I decided to whip up some goop for him to play with. The best part is that there are only 2 ingredients: cornstarch and water. You can add a drop of food coloring if you want, and I did because E's favorite color right now is pink. :) I'm glad he's comfortable with his masculinity.

Although it doesn't look like it in the pictures, he really really enjoyed playing with it. He thought it was hilarious to try to pick it up and have it drip through his fingers. (If you've made it right it should look about the same consistency as white glue. It doesn't feel like white glue though...it feels strangely solid and liquid at the same time.)

Another benefit was the easy cleanup. It even comes out of hair easily. I would know. While I was leaning over a small boy let some carefully drip into my hair. I couldn't even get mad. I just let it dry and then brushed it off.

When E finished playing with it 45 minutes later, I just took him and the tray to the sink and washed both of them down. Done.

Pet Store

Before Daddy disappeared for 5 weeks to study for Boards, we had one last day o' fun after he finished his last test as a Med 2. We cooked breakfast, went to Sam's Club for samples (woo hoo! and bought eclairs for Mother's Day) played trains, went to the pet store, and got pizza for dinner, all with little or no talk of studying. Those were the days...or rather THAT was the DAY.

E excitedly spotted Nemo at the pet store and couldn't get enough of him. I was almost tempted to get him a cheap little goldfish, but then I remembered at least two of my friends complaining about having to take care of the stupid thing and how expensive it turns out to be, so I restrained myself. We get to see them on our weekly trip to the grocery store anyway. Every time we're getting yogurt at Meijer, E starts yelling "FISHIES!!!" at the top of his lungs and we have to go over and say hi. It leaves him a very happy boy.
I heart this picture because it shows him cowering away from the puppy. Just like Mommy. :) In fact, Mommy didn't even go in the little cubicle and took pictures from outside. I'm not a dog person. Really not a pet person at all. Got that from my mom too! I'm going to start uttering the phrase "You can get a dog over my dead body" when Ben tries to convince me we need one. Did I mention I'm not a dog person?
Ben had the best time of all of us at the pet store, I think. E petted this little white fluffy puppy because it was so mellow but then quickly became much more interested in the scab on Daddy's forearm and wouldn't stop poking it.
It was fun to see you that day, Daddy! Hope we can do something again soon. You know, after Boards and all that fun stuff. If anyone wants to socialize, E and I are available. :)

Officially A Kid

It's official. Emerson is finally a real boy. He finally discovered how fun it is to put olives on your fingers.





Don't pretend you don't still do it too.

I Made Myself Do It

I was talking to my good friend Natalie Humpherys from Logan awhile back about whether it's normal to dislike the pattern of your carseat from your first child. She assured me that she doesn't like hers either, so then we discussed whether or not you could make/order a new cover. I didn't really want to drop $100 on a whole brand new carseat or custom-made cover, so I made myself figure out how to redo the the carseat pad. Of course I didn't do an official "before" picture, but this one includes cute baby E at 4 months. Was he ever that small!?

Yes, try to see past the cuteness of this boy and notice the carseat pattern.

The challenge was finding a girly pattern that also coordinated with the already-green trim and canopy. I probably did the first frugal thing in my life by buying the fabric on sale at Hobby Lobby for just over $4.00. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. It only took me four days...and what a four days it was. I only bled a little from all the pin pokes.

After

Now I just need to go buy some Scotch Guard fabric spray so baby girl's spit-up will wipe off fairly easy, and I'm good to go! (You can do it, Natalie! You know you want to.)

If you are thinking about doing your own, I used just under 1 1/4 yds of fabric and I sewed it to the original carseat pad and canopy. But if you're having second thoughts about doing it, you're probably right and should turn back now.

Sing-A-Long With Emerson

I shot a little video of E helping me sing songs.

A few observations:

*He likes to say the "shut them" part of the song, but says it "shup dem".
*He claps with the back of his hands?? (Not usually, but during this song for some reason...)
*He says "lay them in your lap" about 5 seconds after I've moved on.
*He does the actions to "Popcorn Popping" with only one hand since that's what I'm doing while holding the camera.
*His favorite part is smelling the treat. Listen for him drawing breath into his nostrils. :)

E-Isms

E's been doing lots of things to make me laugh lately. Some favorites:

* I told him to push his chair in at the library, and he did it with his two pointer fingers. (You must understand though, that to him "push" always means pushing a button or something that only requires one finger. Hence the double pointer finger pushing of the chair.)

* He had his little friend William or "Iam" over to play and when he came in the door E handed him some trains and said "Come on!" so William didn't even have time to miss his mommy.

* E insists on being a big helper and now knows that is what it's called. So he'll come try to take something from me and look me in the eye and say "helper".

* When Ben or "Daddyfriend" as E calls him comes home at night, E wastes no time grabbing his finger and pulling him over to play trains. This is always accompanied by E saying "Daddy, pay trains".

* This week he has asked for Aaden every single day. (Aaden is a big older boy in the ward that shares his trains with E. 4 years old is a much older boy to Emerson. :) )

* E asked to go potty in the toilet last week, so I stuck him on not thinking anything would happen. I was wrong. I heard a little plop and the deed was done. We bought him a little potty to practice with and now he asks to sit on "froggy potty" before naptime and bedtime and has been successful with going wet in there almost every time. I don't think I'm going to seriously potty train him yet though...he still doesn't have any idea of when he's going to go #2 and I have horrific images of cleaning out undies and that's just so much grosser to me than a diaper.

* E has also asked every day this week to watch "carrace show" also known as Cars. He's completely obsessed and will sit through the entire movie.

* E spotted a Hispanic man at the grocery store today and shouted at the top of his lungs "MANNY!" (from Handy Manny) and then proceeded to yell "Manny, where you!?" as we went up and down the aisles. I hope the man couldn't understand his jabberings.

* E often thinks he spots aunts, uncles, or grandparents around. Recently he's called random people "Papa" and "Nat" and said sadly "See Steffy" when we were driving in the car today. Whenever I'm on the phone he assumes it is with "Mama J" and sometimes yells "Hi Mama J!" but never when it really is her.

*Whenever he sees anything pink or remotely girly he excitedly points it out and tells me matter-of-factly "bebe sister".

*Speaking of pink, it's his favorite color. You wanna know his second favorite? It's purple. He says it "people" though.

Oh E, we love you and your two-year-old self!

Friends

Emerson just loves his little friends. He asks for certain friends every day, whether it's "EvanClaire" (a brother and sister), Tucker, or "TayeeManis" (Taylee and Mathis). Lucky for him, we got to go the zoo with Taylee and Mathis last week and had a great time. They were so stinkin' cute holding hands and saying the animal names. Apparently he's not intimidated by the fact that she's an older woman, because he insisted on sitting by her while eating his lunch.
(And apparently Emerson is blind at 2 years old, or so it appears from his sunglasses and blank expression.)

Thanks for the fun zoo trip, guys! We'll have to do it again soon.

Not So Handy Manny

You know that show Handy Manny on the Disney channel? Is anyone else disturbed by the fact that he only has 8 fingers? I mean, all the characters only have 8 fingers, but would it really be that hard to add 1 more to each hand? I would think that would be pretty easy for the animators of a DISNEY show, for crying out loud.

And why is he always wearing yellow rubber gloves? That has nothing to do with being a handyman. Maybe leather ones would suggest an ability to fix things? Every time I see the yellow gloves I just can't help feeling that all Handy Manny is good at is doing dishes, and I am even starting to doubt that due to his lack of a full set of fingers. I've dropped plenty of plates and I have all 10 of mine.

Also, the levitating eyebrows on the tools make me nervous. Couldn't they have eliminated that altogether and put their efforts toward ANIMATING MORE FINGERS!? I think most people are going to notice missing fingers on a human more than they'll notice missing eyebrows on a screwdriver or pair of pliers. But maybe that's just me.

McQueen

Emerson was a lucky duck and got a Lightning McQueen car from Uncle Brad's trip to Disneyland for choir tour. He got lost in the diaper bag (McQueen did...not Brad) for awhile, but was rediscovered last week! E's love for this car was so strong that it caused him to share equal time between trains and cars! Crazy!

We were picking out a birthday present for his little buddy Tucker (you can see part of him in this picture cut off...sorry Tucker) and E saw Dinoco Lightning McQueen. He started squealing and got so excited that I just couldn't say no and had to buy it for him.
I handed him Dinoco McQueen when we got into the car and he exclaimed "Oh! AMAZING!" and I about died laughing. I don't know where he picks up so many words, but I love it. So he was running around the house with his two McQueens, calling the red one "McQueen" and the blue one the "Amazing blue McQueen".
However, in the last few days he's distinguished between the two of them by calling the red one "Rusteeze" and the blue one "Dinoco" and he must sleep with them every night. So thank you Uncle Brad for helping us mix it up a bit!