Play Ball...

Emily and I went to take pictures for the Vestavia High soccer team yesterday. Emily enjoyed playing with the soccer ball, and getting all of the attention.

Morning Nap

**Update: So what I am finding is that she only wants to take one nap. And, she only wants that nap to be 1 hour, a few times it has been 1.5 hours. She has not slept more than 1.5 hours for a nap for over 2 weeks now. Is it possible that she is getting enough sleep in that short amount of time? ****

So Emily did not take a morning nap today, surprise. She gets tired around 9am, but once I lay her down, she is like the energizer bunny. She acts as though she could go for hours. I finally went in after 1 hour of her playing, and this is what I saw.






She will typically throw out her pacy and bear. But today she managed to throw everything out, including her boppy.


I fed her lunch (early), and her eyes were so heavy, so I just put her down again. I can hear things hitting the floor as I am typing this. Brother!

Zoo

We bought a zoo membership in December (thanks Glen!) and we were finally able to go yesterday. We have been trying to go for a few weeks, but Troys job (which I am not complaining about!), or the weather have prevented it.

Today: Sunny & High of 72 = Beautiful Weather for Zoo Day!

It was so fun to see Emily say the names of a few of them. She especially liked the "goose", "keys" (Monkey), "kitty cat" (Bobcat, this was her favorite), "goat" and the "roo" (kangaroo).

Can I just say that I get creeped out in the reptile room... Ewe!I thought this seal had a great personalityNot sure what this is, but he is beautiful!Roo!Anyone that knows me, knows that monkeys are my favorite. We could have stayed in the Monkey area for hours! This little guys just cracks me up!This guy makes me want to cry. Why, oh why is he all alone?!?! Apes are "social" animals, this fella needs a friend!Pippy Long Stocking anyone?She walked, most of the time. The energy this child has is amazing!Emily, amazedShe liked the flamingosGoose. We went back several times because she kept saying "goose". We called this goose "Gossie", there was also a "Gertie", but he was camera shy.

Beautiful creaturesWow! She loved, loved this "kitty cat". He paced back and forth and she chased him, it was funny.Clearly, she likes this guy...These animals are ready for some head rubs!Petting the Sheep

Eating her sandwich afterwards.This is the only time she was in the stroller. Take a close look at those knees. She fell once when she tried to run towards something.

15 Month Checkup

We finally had Emily's 15 Month checkup this week. I completely forgot to take the camera, so there are not any shots of the event, but I did manage to get all of the stats this time:

Height: 31 1/2 inches (75th %)
Weight: 21lbs 14ozs. (30%)
Head Circum. 18.75 (90%)

She has only gained a pound since October, which I thought was weird, but he was very pleased with all of her growth. He is such a neat Dr.; he comes in and asked me to brag on her. Well, of course I am itching to tell him all of the things she can do, but I am prepared to be modest. When he gave me permission, well, I just went for it. Yeah! Love Dr. Stone! He said that she is way ahead where he expects her to be at this age, and to keep up what we are doing.

Couple of things that I will brag about (mainly for documentation so I can put it in her album when I get to this page):

*She can say a little more than 30 words
*I cannot count the number of items she can identify.
*She signs, with regularity, 15+ signs.
*When I count, she interjects 3, 5, 6, 7, and 10 in the correct order

One funny thing happened. When he started to leave he said "I love you", and she blew him a kiss and gave him a kissing sound that I don't know how to type. It was so cute, and she did it so fast, without really thinking about it!

We are still have nap issues. Sunday she took a 1.5 hour nap, Mon: 45 min., Tues: 1 hr. So, I am not thinking pushing the naps to one is working very well. I have tried, each of those days (with the exception of Sunday, which is a crazy day) to put her down later in the morning (11:30, 12:30), but the problem is she only sleeps a short amount of time, then wakes up and cries so hard that I think she might gag. I let her cry yesterday after she woke up for over 30 mins. I finally went in and held her for 15 mins or so and just let her catch her breath.

I think today I will try putting her down for an early nap again, and see if she can get at least 45 min, then try for an afternoon nap later. I did talk to the Dr. about it when we went. He said that it is a behavior issue, and to let her cry (BTW, he is not FOR babywise). He just said that she has to realize that she must nap, and it is a battle of the wills. How does a baby break your will so fast!!! :)

Help - Please only respond if you are FOR Babywise

Okay, so Emily has slept through the night since 8 weeks, with minor glitches here and there when we are away from home, or she gets sick.

She also LOVES her nap. Takes them every day. Usually ask for her pacy and bear and says "bed".

This week, she has not wanted to take one or both naps, everyday. Yesterday she cried through both naps. Today she cried through her morning nap, and for 45 mins this afternoon, when I gave in and rocked her to sleep (because I need her to nap today). Nap time is the only time I get much done around here.

So, my question is. Have any of you experienced this is your 15 month old, or similar aged child? What should I do? Is it possible that she wants to drop the AM nap? She gets so sleepy around 8:30am, so it is hard for me to believe that she does. But, if thats it then I can try it.

Thanks!

Back to Being Ems

Well, this has been a "whirlwind" week. Emily was sick for the most part of last week, then we traveled to Montgomery (dog in tow) for me to work, attend a baby shower for Troys sister, and spend some time with our good friends Josh and Jenn.

Sunday, our church preschool dept. was flooded, due to a busted pipe, so we moved the Preschool classes to a different part of the building. A man died and was resuscitated during the church service that same day (awesome!-about the man, not about the pipe). This week I have been working on the Marriage Retreat, and trying to spend extra quality time with Ems, as I feel like she slept most of last week, and was neglected by me most of the weekend (thanks to the hubs for being such a great daddy).

So! Yesterday we had a few flurries (yes, we get excited about flurries in my house), so I took Emily outside to try and catch a few on camera. All I was able to capture was my sweet precious daughters face. I just love how excited she looks in this picture about the flurries! :)

She is back to eating again (she barely ate when she was sick), and I love being able to make her a real sandwich and just let her eat it, rather than tearing everything up into small bites!

Lastly, she loves to sit in her rocker and rock herself or her baby which we have named "Mya" (so that she can learn to say the name). Right now it comes out as "ice" not sure why. She loves this chair, thank you Cheryl for such and awesome gift!Well, thats it for now. Need to go get ready for the busy day!

Day 24

Have not posted in a few days. Ems has a fever virus. She was pitiful yesterday, but today, woke up, fever was down, and she played like normal. This afternoon (after a three hour nap), she woke up feeling like fire. Her temp was 104.5! (I have been giving her Tylenol and Motrin, alternating, every three hours). The nurse said I could give her some Motrin a little early and to give her a luke-warm bath. This seemed to help some.

Needless to say, she has not been in much mood for pictures.

Day 21

Relaxing by the fire...

Oh! And eating a snack, of course!

Day 20

Its just plain fun to slide like this...

Day 19

Yes, my friends, this is powdered sugar.

Emily somehow got it out of the pantry, dumped it on the floor, and began using the water out of Hyde's bowl to wet it, then began eating it with her hands. Yuck!

What Beautiful Weather!

After almost 6 straight days of rain, we have had sunshine the last two. Yeah!

I decided that I needed to run today, and since Troy was flying I had no other choice but to take Ems. (Wow, she is heavy going up and down those hills!).

So, off we went! Across the street to run. When we got back to the van (huffing and puffing, I might add), we went straight for the playground.

It started off well; Emily, played with rocks, Hyde pooped and peed all over every tree and park bench, like a good boy.

All of the sudden, Hyde takes off towards the pond (this is the same pond where we had the incident last year when Hyde chased after some ducks and Troy entered into a word match with some lady screaming at us, telling us to "Get your dog away from those ducks" at the top of her lungs, on a Sunday morning, sounding as if she had already had a few.)

So I grab Emily and run as fast as I can yelling for him to stop. Only he doesn't. He runs after the ducks, and into the muddy pond. Augh!! (Thinking to self: how am I going to get him home muddy, stupid dog!!)

He finally returns and I take him back to the park and tie him to a swing. Telling him how bad he is the entire time. (Obviously I was not done taking photos of Emily, and he needed to dry off, so tied up he was).

I look over and he is chewing on his leash. I say: "Hyde you might as well just sit, because your not going anywhere". Ha, Ha! he says as he chews through his leash in less than 5 minutes!

He..got to ride home in the trunk of the van!

When we got home, he had the pleasure of receiving a nice cold bath.

Day 18

I was gone all day yesterday, and Troy kept little bear, so this picture was actually taken today, at the park across the street.

Day 17

A bow anyone?

Day 16

Decided to do a video today. This is hilarious! Note: Hit pause on the playlist to the right so that you can hear the video.

Day 15

Playing with the Neighborhood Kids