Mutiny of the Toys

They're all out to get me! Nearly every single toy that takes batteries in this house is possessed!

I don't know how they did it or what kind of meetings have been going on in this house when I'm asleep but all of Em's toys are making sour music and talking to me without being moved or touched. It's really weird that they would all die at the same time.

I bought the huemungo pack of AA batteries at the store yesterday and when I changed the batteries in Em's toy sax (from Amy K!), Ernie started yelling, "Hooray, Terrific, Way To Go". Now, tell me that's not creepy!

Along with battling possessed toys all week we've been battling boogies. Emily has a cold and is sounding really congested right now. She doesn't like to have us come near her nose and is coughing off and on but other than that she's doing great. With all the media attention on children's cold medicines being pulled off the shelves, I called her pediatrician to find out what I should be giving. I also spoke with the pharmacist about what was going on. We were recommended to use just regular baby Tylenol if she just has a fever but we can use baby Benadryl and a humifier if she's having other problems. The pharmacist said we would be okay using the Tylenol we had left over from her previous cold as long as we had a dosage from her pediatrician. She said that the meds were basically being pulled from the shelves because parents were guessing at dosages without consulting a doctor. So... that's what we're doing. We have a regular 18 mos. check up with Em's pediatrician (with shots) on Friday so he can make sure she's doing okay.

Tomorrow is Halloween and Em is going to "help" us pass out candy at our house this year. She's not eating candy yet and I refuse to be one of those parents that push their itty-bitty kid up to someone's house in a stroller and make the kid beg for the munchies. You know darn well that kid isn't going to reap an ounce of the benefits when they get home! She'll be wearing a festive jack-o-lantern shirt over her warm duds or if it gets really cold I might just dress her up in her snowsuit from Kaz and she can go as a blue Kazakh Snow Bunny. I can already tell she'll just be thrilled. Uh-huh. ;-)

Look who's walking!

Just a quick post today, but we wanted to share in the fun. Yesterday was a beautiful fall day and we spent a little time after work out on the deck. Em's been working on walking for over a month but she's just now starting to venture out on her own without prompting.

Yeah, yeah. Someday I'll actually remember that I can't record videos with the camera tipped sideways. Sorry. It's even more fun watching that if you turn your monitor on it's side!

Here's another video of Emily's side hobby -- turbo crawling. Note the head tucked down for better aerodynamics and higher speed!

Did I mention she loves playing in the leaves?

Scorched Nips! Oh, My!

So, did the title of today's entry catch your attention?

It's lunch time again and I'm filtering through some old pictures on my laptop and just had to share this one with you! I don't think many have seen this picture yet.

I took this while we were in Almaty, Kazakhstan, just about a week or so after we had custody of Emily. We were staying in a really cool apartment in a quiet part of town and were really enjoying the scenery outside out apartment windows. We didn't get many TV stations in English from this apartment so I spent a lot of my time looking out the windows, watching groups of young people walk up and down the street. The temperatures were pretty mild... similar to our early springtime here in Ohio. And, because of that we had our windows open and I was drawn to the sights and sounds outside even more.

Anyway! (...shaking my head to jog my thoughts back to reality -- the real reason I'm jotting all this down...) While I'm daydreaming out that living room window and wondering what it would be like to live in this unique town in Kazakhstan, my sweet, lovable hubby looks up from the TV and asks what I'm cooking in the kitchen. Oh, shoot! Now I'm back to reality! I just remembered I had put some of Emily's bottle rings and nipples in a pan of water on the gas stove to be sterilized.... I made a mad dash to the kitchen to discover that I had REAAALLY sterilized those puppies.... beyond recognition even!



That brownish, formerly rubbery thing at the top used to be part of Emily's bottle - the nipple, and the white rock solid puddle at the bottom is the bottle ring and what I like to call permanently stuck to the bottom of the pan!

There wasn't a single drop of water left in that pan by the time I got to it and there was no way I was gonna be able to get that stuff out of the pan... let alone attempt to cook in it again. Unfortunately, this pan didn't live to see the next day and we were a nipple and ring short for the remainder of the trip because these were brought from home.

Fine Print: no animals, children or nuclear plants were harmed in the making of this photo...

Camping and Spiky Hair!

Shoes... they provide hours and hours of entertainment!



Emily went camping for the first time this weekend. It was a little chilly in the evenings but we were prepared. We took lots of walks and even spent some time on the beloved swings!

Push me really high!

Ryan's been dying to spike Emily's hair for a long time now. She finally has enough to do something with... especially when it's wet!

Thinkin'

I'm sitting here at lunch today and find myself thinking about Emily's birth mom (biological mom). Actually, I've caught myself thinking about her quite a lot this week and I'm not real sure why. I find myself wondering what she looks like, what her personality is like, what her circumstances are/were, what her family is like, what makes her laugh and what makes her cry. I find myself feeling so grateful to her and at the same time feeling that I wish I could share these moments with her. I wish that she could see the end result of her decision to leave Emily in the care of the maternity hospital.

Without knowing the true circumstances, I imagine I will always romanticize in my mind what led her to leave Emily in the hospital's care. These are the things that Cinderella and princess stories are made of. I imagine we will never know the details of the things I ponder because what we do know is just so vague and so much of the information we had was not accurate. We will probably never know if Emily has biological siblings out there and we will never know who her birth mom really was but we can be eternally grateful for the opportunity that she gave us to pour our love out on such a special little girl.

I feel sad that her birthmom will never understand how much joy Emily brings to us on a daily basis or how special I feel just watching her play with toys and chattering to herself. I imagine that on May 14th of each year, her birthmom might remember a special or scary time when she gave birth to our daughter. I wish I could thank her for all that she's given us even though at the time she had no idea who would ultimately become her daughter's new parents. As far as we know, she didn't get a chance to name her baby and had no idea if her daughter would survive such a premature birth.

There will always be a mystery around this part of Emily's life and we will embrace it with her if and when she is ready to learn more. We will keep this young woman in our prayers as I'm sure I'm not the only woman that finds myself daydreaming about my daughter.

Steps, Hisses & Kisses

This week Emily has been playing with a lot of new skills.

She began trying her hand at climbing the stairs in our house over the last week or two and now she can climb a whole flight of stairs without hardly thinking about it. This is where our lives start getting scary because she can climb them really fast. We've been trying to keep the door to the upstairs closed so they aren't even a temptation for her. We have to keep working on coming down the stairs. She enjoys going up so much that she gets really cranky when it's time to come down. She either wants to go down face first or not at all and that's the safest thing for her to do. We're trying to teach her to get down off the furniture and to go down steps on her tummy.

Emily has also started making a new sound that sounds like a combination of a cat hiss and a big sigh. It's pretty funny. She opens her mouth really wide and then exhales. We'll have to catch this one on tape for you.

When I stopped in to pick Emily up at Grandma and Papa's after work she began kissing goodbye. Usually this involves smacking her lips together without really pickering them or she attempts to throw kisses without moving her hand away from her mouth. Today she tried a new trick and actually leaned in to Grandpa's cheek and pressed her open lips up against it. I tried it with her again tonight to see if it was a coincidence and she turned European on me. She "kissed" one cheek, leaned over to my other cheek and did the same thing and then went back to the first cheek and "kissed" it again. We'll keep working on this one!

Do you see the trend?

This was Emily's first trip outside the babyhouse (orphanage) as far as we know. The day was January 29, 2007 and this was her first hat in a long line of "hats" that we've gotten to witness. (I imagine she wore hats quite frequently in the babyhouse because they were terrified of drafts!)

The Happy 1st Birthday Hat

Mom's Day-Old Sock Makes a Great Hat!

Fisherman/Trip-to-the-Zoo Hat

Daddy's hat fits pretty well too!

Bottom's Up! There's nothing like wearing your pants on your head for the afternoon!

My sunglass make a great hat too!

This is my Missy Muffet hat... just like Aunt Shell's!

Yup, that's a teething ring from the 70's... turns me into a great flower child don't ya think?

Note from Mom: There have been many other things that Emily has tried to wear on her head... shoes, books, blocks, cups, blankies, foam letters and supper just to name a few. Where was my camera?!? Some day I really need to buy this kid a sombrero!

Proof!

Proof that Emily really is growing some hair... granted, it's taken 16 mos. to get this much... but it's growing!


Emily en vogue...

Emily the action figure... getting ready to stand up and grab the camera! Sorry, gotta run!!!

Hound Dog Hugs

All right, here's the video I promised! Papa Hypes shared his dancing dog with Emily while we were visiting on his birthday. Sorry it's a little dark, but you get the idea!