Of cookies, books, phones and body parts...

Emily continues to be fascinated with her valentines from a couple of weeks ago. She does a pretty good job at "telling" me who gave each of them to her. She even had a couple added when she went to visit Nannie and Papa last week and we dropped in a few that she received in the mail. (She loves to get mail, so thanks gang!)

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Late last week, we were excited to find pre-made Valentine's Day cookies on sale (24 cookies for $1.00) All we had to do was take them off the cardboard sheet, put them on a cookie sheet and bake them. Emily was having a grand ol' time helping make cookies until about the 1:54 mark in the video... which involved putting the cookie sheets in the oven for a few minutes. Enjoy the footage! (Hint - Someone might be getting nominated for an Oscar soon!)

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Last week, Emily and I also got to share a few gorgeous sunrises together. We peaked out the window and Emily shouted, "DOD!". I knew immediately what she was talking about. One of her favorite bedtime books is called "Thank You, God!" by P.K. Hallinan and the illustrations are brightly colored and beautiful. The sunrise on those days looked exactly like the pictures of the sunrise/sunsets (Did you just hum a few bars from Fiddle on the Roof?) in Emily's book. I had to agree... God certainly did a fine job painting the morning sky last week!

(It's a shameless plug, but here's a direct link and you can order it through our store!)

Anyway, back to the story about the story... Did I mention Emily loves this book? We've read the book enough times now that she can finish the sentences for me. I thought she was doing a really great job grasping what the book was about (being thankful and thanking God for the things that we have) until she started pointing to the little boy that's in every picture. "DOD!", she exclaims while pointing at the little boy. So apparently the concept of God and not being able to see him is escaping my 2 1/2 year old daughter at the moment. She IS a mighty fine prayer though!

- - - - - - - - - - - -

While Emily loves her "Thank You, God" book, her absolute favorite at this point in time is a another book that she picked up off the shelf at our store. We occasionally sneak in to the store to surprise Daddy and while we're there Emily likes to kill time by looking at books in the kid's section. Prior to Christmas we were frequently stopping in the store because that was Daddy's busy season and we didn't get to see him at home much. Every single time, Emily pulled the "God and Me" book by Penny Boshoff of the shelf and would gently flip through the pages and look at the pictures. "God and Me" is a children's devotional book with a themed page for every day (yep, 365 of them!), a short 1-paragraph story, a full-color picture and a scripture verse to look up for further reference. It's probably intended for second to about fourth grade but Emily loves to look at all the kids in the pictures and talk about what they're doing, what they're wearing and we throw in the short story and life application for good measure. This has been her favorite book for over 4 months now... which is VERY long in the life of a 2 1/2 year old! And, guess what?!?!? You could also buy this one through our store. (My background is in elementary education and I highly recommend it for toddlers through about grades 3 or 4! Heck, I even like looking through it with her day after day after day!)

Yet another shameless plug and link where you can buy the book through our store!

- - - - - - - - - - - -

This evening Emily broke stride and in the middle of watching a video she walked over to the coats, picked her's up and started to hand me mine. The following dialogue ensued.

Emily: Nannie's.

Me: Oh, are you going to Nannie's?

Emily: Nes.

Me: Am I going with you?

Emily: Nes.

Me: Do we need to go see her right now or can we call Nannie and talk to her on the phone?

Emily: Nes.

(You can see it's a very deep conversation already, can't you?)

We put the coats away and I ringy-dingy'd Nannie and Papa. I put the call on speaker-phone... enjoy.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

And, I know you're just dying to find out about the body parts part of the entry today...

Earlier this week as I was getting Emily dressed for the day she happened to be stripped down to her diaper (no, we're not potty-trained yet... that's a whole 'nother topic for another day!) and she discovered her nipples. {Did I just type the word "nipples" on my blog?!?!} And, NO, there is no picture to accompany this little story!

She was running her fingers over her chest, felt the little nubbins and the look that crossed her face was very similar to the look she gave the first time she tasted a lemon. "Messy", she kept saying over and over. What followed is what I fear to be the first of many talks about human anatomy which will eventually lead us down the path of the big talk about the inhabitants of aviaries and hives. Ahem.

Our daughter, being part elephant, is not one to forget things easily. Every morning since, she has located her nipples and we've had some matter of fact discussions about who and what have nipples... (e.g., mommies, daddies, Emily, grandmas, grandpas, cats, dogs, etc.) The chuckle for the day came when she went through this routine tonight at bedtime. She said each of the previous examples and followed one of them with "biiiiiig" ....Was that exaggerated enough? I'll let your mind wonder as to who she thought had big nipples, but you can rest assured she didn't think it was Mommy! Ahhhhh, reminds me of high school all over again!

{Wow... there, I did it again and revealed a little TMI! And with that ...this appears to be a good place to end today's blog entry before I start blushing!}

Catching Up - Part 6 of 6

Emily had a Valentine's Day party with her friends at the babysitter's last Friday. She LOVED it. She wanted to look in her Valentine's box on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights before bed and carried it with her to Nannie and Papa's house for several days this week. Nearly a week later, she looked in it again this evening!

Showing off her first Valentine's box
that she decorated at her babysitter's party.

Enjoying her foam heart from Gracie.
(Don't look too closely, those are HER teeth marks in it!)

Treasuring her valentine from Debbie.

Her beau, Jared, gave her one
with a kitty on it.

*Disclaimer and fine print... no hair products were depleted in the making of this post. This was one of those days that Emily declared a "No Babbies" day... which on this particular day meant no scrunchies, barrettes, clips, or hair bands. Hence, the crazy sasquatch hair photoshoot.

Catching Up - Part 5 of 6

Our church held a Valentine's Dinner/Fundraiser for our youth group. The youth group served a spaghetti dinner and then our friends, Keith and Jessica, did some praise and worship music for us afterwards.

Jessica with a very happy and handsome baby Jonas.

I "think" this is the result of telling Emily to
turn around and say, "Cheese" to Daddy.

Emily's friend, the beautiful Miss Kael.

Keith and Jess

Post-party clean up and then run around like a crazy woman
all sugared up with candy and all the leftover balloons!

Catching Up - Part 4 of 6

Emily LOVES to read books. She goes to the library about once a week with Nannie and Papa and we read books together nearly every night. There have been quite a few evenings or weekends when Emily disappears for a little while into her room and when I peek in, this is what I see...

Catching Up - Part 3 of 6

Here are a few pictures from home while we were on Christmas break...

Love this picture...

We spent a lot of time flopping off of the couch and
reading our favorite new book, "Dod -- Me!"
(Otherwise known as "God and Me")

We also spent a lot of time playing with our
new Elmo sticker book from Aunt Shell. Even though the sticker book has sheets of stickers and pages to put them on, the majority of her new stickers ended up on Em as "Ows".
(pretend bandaids)

Catching Up - Part 2 of 6

Christmas morning was fun as usual this year. This was the first year that Emily really got into opening presents and was excited to see what she had received.

A fun pose in front of the tree.

Taking a quick break from opening presents to play with Daddy
(who's pretending to sleep in the background).

Once again, pretending to sleep until Emily got in his face,
then he'd jump at her and scare the begeebies out of her
and make her giggle.

Digging in for those good presents in the back!

Ooooooh!

At the end of the afternoon, Em wanted to eat an apple...
and I mean a WHOLE apple. This is all that was left when she
handed it to me and proclaimed that she was done.
No, she didn't eat the penny, it's just there for size comparison!

Catching Up - Part 1 of 6

'Twas the day before Christmas and what's there to do,
but play with Mommy's ribbons and make things askew!

The way I figure it, these ribbons had been on the spool in the closet for about 6 years and were feeling a bit left out of the holiday spirit. It was worth all the fun and mess of watching Em untwist it all and play with it for the rest of the day!

Botox: Numero Deux

Botox was similar to last time, but they didn't have as many people in the room to help hold her... Emily's a strong, squirrely little thing when people are trying to hold her down! She had to lay on her belly so they could do the shots in her calves again. One nurse held her legs still and I pretty much had to lay my body on top of her torso to keep her from squirming... but she still managed to kick the needle out in the middle of one of the injections so they had to poke her again.

After everyone cleared out of the room and Em was settled down (30 seconds later), the nurse asked me how I felt her pain level would rank on a scale of 1 to 10. When I said "2", she actually laughed and said, "seriously?". Now, if they asked me how ticked she was while I was trying to hold her down... the sobbing, wailing, snot-faced girl would have easily earned a 15. Thankfully, she's quick to forgive and she was mommy's girl again as soon as we were done!


Oh... and Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Another Botox Day

Please say a few prayers for us this afternoon. I take Emily back down to Children's Hospital this afternoon for her 2nd Botox Injection (her last one was November 12). If you recall, she wasn't thrilled the last time because about 3 adults held her down while they gave the shots. I'm not sure if she'll get much if any nap today and she's been testing her boundaries the past couple of weeks to see how many timeouts she can score. (She had to have hit a record last night!)

Thanks in advance for the prayers!
-j

Our Chosen Child (& My Homework)

I'm really sorry I haven't been updating our blog much this past month. However, I hope today's entry should help make up for some of my delays. I've been enrolled in an online course on Web 2.0 tools for the past 4 weeks and it's been taking up most of my evenings after Emily has been put to bed. After next week I should start to get a few of my evenings back and will be able to continue updating our blog.

Posted below is my homework from this week. This is my first time using a new (to me) web application called VoiceThread. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this application and hope to be able to use it for future professional development opportunities with our staff at school. You may need to click on play to get it started, but once it does I'll narrate you through 50 slides that chronicled our trip to Kazakhstan to adopt our daughter Emily and some of the highlights at home from the past 2 years. I have narrated each of the slides and Emily makes a surprise appearance in quite a few of them to help with the narration. (What can I say, she woke up early and I think it ended up adding a cute twist to the story!)

HEADS-UP... I just played it back while writing this entry and realized the VoiceThread is nearly an hour long... feel free to fast forward through it and linger on the ones that look interesting. And, if you want to see the higher quality version, you can go to VoiceThread Site and search for "Our Chosen Child".

For YOUR homework (and to earn me some brownie points) please leave some comments on a couple of the slides. If you have a webcam you can post a video comment, or if you have a mic you can post an audio comment. You can also type a comment in and write on the screen like I did on a few slides! (NOTE: Partway through the slideshow is a generic black VoiceThread "commercial" slide that lasts only 4 seconds, you can click past it to keep the slideshow moving!)

Eavesdropping...

This is what I heard coming from Emily's room this morning while I was checking my email.

Shoes.... shoes....shooooes.... yay! (By the way, this was a new word for her yesterday!)

Nana... BAnana.... yay!

Mommy... shoes.

Pay-doh!.... yay!

Rice Bowls... Mommies, Daddies, Babies!

Tom sent this note out recently and thought it would be fitting to share a sweet Emily story with you today:


FROM TOM: "Emily and I had a talk about the Rice Bowls last weekend. I told her every time we put money into the Rice Bowl, we are helping babies who do not have mommies and daddies. Last night, as Jenni gave her some change, Emily said "Up, up, up" which means she was going to go upstairs to our room and put change in the piggy bank (which we have pretty much always done). However, once I said, "Let's put it in the Rice Bowl for the babies", she got very excited, ran over to the bowl on a living room table, got it down, took great care putting the change in, and then placed it right back where it went. Then, she clapped and ran to Jenni in the kitchen saying, "Babies! Mommies ..... daddies......babies!" I don't know how much she gets but I'm convinced she knows she is helping babies with every coin or dollar dropped.

I pray as we come into our last week of collection before gathering day on the 1st of Feb. that we all adopted this heart of excitement of helping the babies without mommies and daddies. Emily was in that boat for 8 months so she is the face of the heart we desire to have on this campaign! One more week for Rice Bowls - Jump In!"

(FROM JENNI: You can click on either of today's pictures to follow the link to this great organization. They not only believe in feeding children and meeting their basic needs, but they also serve in countries that allow them to spread the Gospel message to these children and ultimately to their families. Our church is very excited about participating in this outreach this month!)

What a Difference a Year Makes

Remember yesterday's Christmas picture with Santa? Check out last years!


Hehehehe. They're good buddies now... someday I'll share my video of them dancing together this year!

Christmas Pict and Friendly Advice...

Yeah, yeah... I forgot to post this Christmas picture for you guys when I was actually sending out Christmas cards! Happy New Year Everyone!

- - - - - - - -

Another fun email I had to share... To those of us who have children in our lives, whether they are our own, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, or students... here is something to make you chuckle.

Whenever your children are out of control, you can take comfort from the thought that even God's omnipotence did not extend to His own children.

After creating heaven and earth, God created Adam and Eve.

And the first thing he said was, "DON'T!"

"Don't what?", Adam replied.

"Don't eat the forbidden fruit.", God said.

"Forbidden fruit? We have forbidden fruit? Hey Eve..we have forbidden fruit!"

"No Way!"

"Yes way!"

"Do NOT eat the fruit!", said God.

"Why?"

"Because I am your Father and I said so!", God replied - wondering why He hadn't stopped creation after making the elephants.

A few minutes later, God saw His children having an apple break and He was ticked!

"Didn't I tell you not to eat the fruit?", God asked.

"Uh huh" Adam replied.

"Then why did you?" said the Father.

"I don't know." said Eve.

"She started it!" Adam said.

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"DID NOT!"

Having had it with the two of them, God's punishment was that Adam and Eve should have children of their own.

Thus the pattern was set and it has never changed.

BUT THERE IS REASSURANCE IN THE STORY!

If you have persistently and lovingly tried to give children wisdom and they haven't taken it,
don't be hard on yourself. If God had trouble raising children, what makes you think it would be
a piece of cake for you?

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT:

1. You spend the first two years of their life teaching them to walk and talk. Then you spend
the next sixteen telling them to sit down and shut up.

2. Grandchildren are God's reward for not killing your own children.

3. Mothers of teens now know why some animals eat their young.

4. Children seldom misquote you. In fact, they usually repeat word for word what you SHOULDN'T have said.

5. The main purpose of holding childrens' parties is to remind yourself that there are children
more awful than your own.

6. We childproofed our homes, but they are still getting in.


ADVICE FOR THE DAY:
Be nice to your kids.
They will choose your nursing home one day.


AND FINALLY:

IF YOU HAVE A LOT OF TENSION
AND YOU GET A HEADACHE,
DO WHAT IT SAYS
ON THE ASPIRIN BOTTLE:

"TAKE TWO ASPIRIN"
AND
"KEEP AWAY FROM CHILDREN"!!!!!

Still catching up...

So it's now January 4th and I have been off work for 2 weeks for Christmas Break (now-a-days called "Winter Break" by nearly every public school because they have to be politically correct). I have had a blast spending every day with Emily. We've spent our days fingerpainting, reading lots of books, playing with sticker books from Aunt Shell and playing with out newly acquired Play-doh set (or "doh-doh" according to Em).

Here are a few Em Updates for you:

SIGN LANGUAGE:

I'm still very happy with the fact that we decided early on to start teaching Emily sign language. We've learned right along with her and it's been so helpful. Emily has always understood everything we've been talking about even though her favorite phrase right now seems to be, "Huh?!?" Her verbal skills still aren't quite where others her age are but they ARE increasing every day. We started learning basic signs by watching a Baby Einstein DVD. That seems to be what peaked her interest and she started imitating the signs she was learning there. That DVD had a decent number of signs on it, but many of them were not signs that a toddler would use in every day life to express their needs. I stumbled across a set of 3 Signing Time DVDs and they are now Emily's favorite videos... even topping Elmo! The Signing Time DVDs have a little boy named Alex and a little girl name Leah. Emily knows the signs for each of their names and frequently imitates things they do. Some day, I'll post a list of the signs that Emily knows.

...I was going to post a lot more updates in this entry... but it's already way past due... I do another entry another day for you.

Video 4 of 4 (Lemonhead)

After her haircut, Emily chose "Bow Wow's" as the place where she wanted to celebrate and eat supper. (She calls Max & Erma's "Bow Wow's" because of my sister's dog, Max.) She begged for my lemon after I squeezed it into my water. Fun times!

Video 3 of 4 (The finished product)

After the haircut, Krystel asked me if I'd like her to style Emily's hair. I told her I'd be thrilled if she wanted to because I am certainly out of ideas on things to do with Emily's hair. Not only did she style it, but she gave me lessons! Woohoo!

On top of that, the stuff she sprayed on Emily's hair when she was done smelled like cupcakes! Not only did our daughter look adorable after her haircut but I couldn't stop smelling her hair all night! Yummers!

Video 2 of 4 (The Haircut)

After Daddy got off work yesterday, he joined us as we ventured to Cookie Cutters for Emily's very first haircut. Cookie Cutters was awesome experience! As soon as we walked in the door, Emily spotted the ginormous slide and started playing with her newfound friend, Lily, who had just finished getting her hair cut. Lily was just slightly younger than Emily but helped her crawl through the tunnel and showed her how to go down the big tube slide.

Emily's turn came and she followed her new friend and hair stylist, Krystel, back and got to sit in a car while she got her coiffeur trimmed. We picked Elmo as our in-flight entertainment and it was fabulous flying from there on out... enjoy!

Video 1 of 4 (Mirror, Mirror)

Emily accompanied me in picking up Nannie's birthday present yesterday. She kept herself occupied while I did some shopping... and, NO, I did not leave her here unattended! In fact, she was quite upset when it was time to move on.

Who Knew?

Sorry, I just couldn't resist. Emily is an awesome snowboarder so I had to share it with y'all!

Merry Christmas!