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!

Homegroup & Birthdays

As many of you know, our church family means a lot to us. Our church has a thing called home groups which is a smaller, more close-knit version of our church. Our group meets once a week at my cousin's house and the people in this group have become very close friends of ours. Here is the hospitality committee... Abby. Abby also happens to be Emily's cousin. The two girls are only a month apart in age and love playing together while the rest of us are chatting. Abby was kind enough to take a few minutes out of her busy schedule for a photo-op.


Last weekend, we went to visit with Tom's parents. His dad was having a birthday party and most of the family was able to get together for a fun celebration. This is my niece, Rachel, playing with Emily. Rachel is the president of Emily's fan club. She goes into withdraw if she hasn't seen "Baby Emmy" and "Baby Emmy's mommy" in a while. It is so fun watching them play together. After Emily's nap the two girls followed each other from one room to another.


Eventually, Emily discovered the mirror on Mamaw's door... and Rachel was right there to help her enjoy it!

End of September

Ahhhh... it's my favorite time of year. The temperature is starting to drop with just a slight chill to the air. It's getting to be time to start pulling out the jackets in the evening and will soon be time to start raking the leaves out of our yard. I LOVE this time of year. And, to make it even better, Tom and I will be celebrating our 7th anniversary tomorrow. It's amazing to think we've been married that long and to reflect on all the things we've done together with our family in that time.

Two of the best things to come from our marriage are our kids... Ryan and Emily. Believe it or not, Ryan is beginning his sophomore year in high school! He was just 7 years old when I first met him and he's still a very sweet, thoughtful and caring young man. We've had so much fun over the past 8 years and I can't wait to see where the future takes us all.

And then, there's Emily. I drove into my parents' driveway a week or so ago to pick her up after work and found all 3 of them outside "playing". My dad was working on hooking up their camper for a weekend trip they were taking and my mom... well, here's what I saw when I drove in.


We love our hand-me-downs! This awesome car came from my cousin. Emily loves it. As she gets older we can take a panel out of the floor and she can push it along herself. Until then, she loves bumping along on the driveway as Grandma or I slave away pushing or pulling her. Here she is again... and yes, she put the teether necklace thing-a-ma-bob on her head all by herself and still loves to wear it. Maybe by kindergarten she'll find something else to wear on her head.

Here's Emily playing in her mountain of toys. Spencer (the cat) was previously laying in the box in the background between the two of them. He's so good with Emily and allows her to pet him and occasionally hug him. His eyes look a little creepy in this picture... but he reminds us of a regal lion on the prowl. He's walking with that cocky air that cats have and either looks really ticked off or like he's on a bigtime mission! I believe he was on a mission... maybe to get away from Emily as quickly as possible?


The kid loves the camera. She will stop whatever she's doing to look at me while I'm snapping a picture. Sometimes it's hard to get a picture snapped fast enough though because she's a super speedy crawler now and a lot of times starts heading straight for the camera as soon as she sees it.


And, this one... well, I don't know. You can try to figure out what's going on here... we'll enjoy reading your comments! Heheh


Our language skills are getting a little better. She will still answer "Baa" to the question "What does a XXX say?" but now she can tell you what a mower does. (Movie clip to follow soon.) She is starting to try mimicking different sounds that we make. Grandma and I have confirmed that we "think" we've heard her say the following so far... hi, Dadad, RahRah (for RyRy), Yesh (for yes), oh sheesh, and baa.

She's a genius!

If you ask Emily what a lambie says, she will promptly respond with "Baa".

However, if you ask her what a cow, dog, pig, kitty, Daddy or the couch says... she will promptly respond with "Baa".

This, too, shall pass. But until then, it cracks me up.

Emily shares her wealth of knowledge...

Grandma and Grandpa interviewed Emily at the supper table last night.

This, too, shall pass...

Supposedly, there is a story relating to King Solomon which stated the famous phrase "This, too, shall pass". According to a little internet research I did, my good friend Abe Lincoln also made this statement as well as Darwin and probably everyone else at some point in their life. But, for some reason the Wikipedia sites don't mention all of our names.

Anyway, I got to thinking about this today when I heard Emily say "Hiiii". For her, it's a 2-syllable word. She starts it off with a fairly high pitch and then it drops lower as she gets to the end. You can't say "Hiiii" without having a smile on your face and I can't hear it without smiling either. So, what does this have to do with the previous paragraph? I got all reminiscent this afternoon when she said it and immediately thought, "Wow.. I've missed that. I haven't heard that in a while!" At the moment I kind of wished I had my camera or video camera so I could have caught it on video. She's changing so fast you never know when she's going to stop doing one of her tricks. Today might have been the last time I get to hear that before it's tucked away in her vault for good.

Emily loves to music. She knows where all the buttons are on her toys that play music and she will push a button, dance to the music and push the button again when the music stops. Savor the moment. This, too, shall pass.

We are still working on teaching Em some basic sign language. I remember a previous entry I wrote where I described how she signed "more" by looking like she was begging for food. This, too, shall pass... and it did. If you ask her to show you "more" now, she claps her hands lightly together. This, too, shall pass... and someday she will understand how to lightly tap her fingertips together to show the sign for "more". Or, she will look at me like I'm a moron and will actually say the word.

A week or so ago, Emily started doing her "Godfather" impersonation. She still does this on occasion, especially early in the morning right after I get her out of her crib. However, this, too, shall pass... and I need to catch it on videotape before it does!

Emily is a wee bit cranky and clingy this week while she's working on her 4th molar. This, too, shall pass and eventually she will be back to her normal cheery self. At least that's what I'm praying for!

Em is not impressed with TV, videos, movies... not even Elmo, Dora, The Wiggles or even The Doodlebops! We've played with an assortment of shows to see if there's anything that triggers her interest. So far, nothing. I'm sure this, too, shall pass. I imagine it won't be too long before we will be limiting how much and what she watches. I'm pretty glad she doesn't like TV. She would rather look at books or play with blocks.

Emily's heros and most favorite people in the whole-wide world right now are Mom, Dad, and RyRy... ahhhhhh, savor the moment, for yes, this, too, shall pass. (How many commas can a person fit in one sentence???)

Hodge Podge

This is Emily.

This is Emily taking delight in Dad's Droopy tattoo.
(She giggles and pats it when you ask her where Droopy is.)

These are the senior members of Emily's Fan Club. From left to right are: Aunt Janet (Great-Grandma's Sister), Aunt Evelyn (Great Grandma's Sister-in-law), Aunt Creta (Great Grandma's Sister-in-law), Great Grandma and Doris Harraman (Great Grandma's Cousin(?)).

Hula Girl!

Today's posting is especially for Laura's mom, Joyce! Emily owes her new fabulous swim attire to her! Thank you, Joyce! Emily loves it!

Hello again!

I've drawn the brilliant conclusion yet again that it's been a while since I've posted some updates and/or pictures so I hope to treat you today.

I'm sitting here at lunch today with a smile on my face as I think back over our progress and all the fun we've had the last couple of weeks. Here are a few more pictures from our playday at Aunt Michelle and Aunt Laura's.....

Here's a picture of Emily snuggling with one of her favorite toys. This ball came from Jack and Amanda Albert as a shower gift. It flashes lights and plays music when you move it. When she first got this toy, she liked it when it was across the room. ;-) Now, she loves to touch it whenever she gets a chance because she loves to dance to the music it plays. She likes to look up at us as soon as it starts playing music to see if we're smiling and dancing with her.

I don't think I got this picture included on the last post... if so, too bad. It's too cute not to include again.

Miss Hollywood and Mom before she tested the waters. Thanks to the staff at Liberty Elementary for her swimsuit. She's made good use of it this summer!

Here's Emily with lifeguards, Papa and Grandma Gaston.

Here we are in Aunt Shell's pool... Emily loves the water and loves making big splashes.

In other news...

Emily and I went for a walk around town last week and who did we run across in the final stretch but our friends Dave and Mary as they were driving through. Mary stopped by and met Emily for the first time shortly after we came home from Kazakhstan but this was Dave's first introduction and he made a big impression on Emily.... they both did. I'm so glad we got to see you guys! (I know you're reading our blog regularly!)

After catching up with Dave and Mary we continued around the block and ran across our neighbor and friend, Amy. Amy watched Emily for several days before I was done with school last "year" and she always clicks with Emily. They had a deep "conversation" for a few minutes and Amy taught her to talk with her hands. The funny part is that now Emily sounds like The Godfather when she's "talking". She still doesn't say many real words but she sure thinks she's talking! She tips her head down and looks at you with a very serious face as she "talks" away. And, to top it off, when she gets real serious she starts throwing in a bit of the Italian hand gestures. She cracks me up!

Speaking of talking, Emily is still working on verbal skills. She has gone through phases of saying some words and then not using them again. Words that she says now (usually with a little prompting)include: hi, RaRa (for RyRy... Ryan), and DaDad. She uses "mmmm" for food or time to eat or anything else along the lines of putting stuff in your mouth. ;-) She also says something that sounds like "oh, sheesh" although I'm not sure if it's intentional or whether she's still playing with putting sounds together. Oh, and for kicks... Tom and I were in the living room last week as Emily was cruising along the furniture and we heard an "oh, sh@$". I looked up with a puzzled look on my face at the same time that Tom looked up and we both wondered if we heard the same thing. We're pretty sure we did, but thankfully we haven't heard it since and we're really not sure where she would have picked that up.

Emily is doing very well with physical therapy but the PT would still like to continue with at least 4 more weeks (or more if we can get it paid for somehow). She has made amazing progress but there's still a good shot that whenever Em has a big growth spurt that we'll have to work on stretching those muscles out again. She's still tight in the pelvic area but nowhere near as tight as she was when we brought her home. We also probably won't know if or how this tightness will effect her until she starts reaching some more physical milestones like jumping, skipping, etc. If other kids her age are easily doing those skills but she has difficulty we may need to hop into PT again. We just don't know for sure.

In the world of walking, Emily is so very close to taking off on her own. She's still crawling at turbo speed and has managed to cruise around the furniture everywhere at pretty rapid speed. I've positioned her between Dad and I several times and she will teeter a few steps back and forth between us in Baby Frankenstein fashion. She thinks it's great fun, but hasn't initiated those steps on her own yet.

Not sure where to fit this one in, but Emily now has a total of 4 molars coming in. She's been avoiding nap times like the plague and has been chewing on everything she can get into her mouth... including my elbow, my knee, my finger when I was looking and every toy and baby gate in the house!

And, the sweetest update of them all - I got my first real baby kiss this morning when I dropped her off at Grandma and Papa's house. I kissed her on the temple and she spun around and kissed me on the cheek. Ahhhh, motherhood. (It makes up for agony of the crying she did when she pulled the screen door closed on her finger this morning!) I love my little snickerdoodle.

Cousins & Pizza!

We had a surprise at church today and got to spend some extra time with everyone hanging out after church. Emily got to spend some time playing with her cousin Abby...


... and weeding the church flower bed.


We went shopping for school clothes for Ryan after church and then topped an already exciting day by having pizza night as a family! Does this picture give a hint of Emily's excitement at her first taste of pizza?



Here, we'll share a little more of the excitement of pizza and if you click on the picture below you just might see a hint of one of those new teeth that poked through a little while ago.


On a side note, I recently bought 2 new outfits for Emily and found myself looking at size 12 mos and thinking "Wow, this girl's getting really big!" Then, I caught myself smiling because after all she is 15 mos. old now. (She was 9 mos. old when we brought her home in February and she was still able to fit into mostly 3-6 mos. clothes because her waist was so tiny.) Emily still isn't chunky or pudgy by any means, but she is starting to fill out. Her arms, legs and tummy used to remind me of a teenage girl's - very long and slender (but not scrawny or sickly looking). Her hair is also starting to grow longer and thicker even though most of our pictures in the recent entries don't really look like it. We get a lot of mixed reviews on what color most people think her hair will be. The majority of people say it will be blond, but she has very long, dark eyelashes. I tend to think her hair will darken as she gets older. Her eyes seem to be changing in color a bit too. When we first met, they were mostly gray with a hint of blue... just like Tom's. They still look very gray, but some days they have a little more green to them.

Emily is still a very cuddly little girl. She just recently started patting my back and rubbing my shoulder when I first pick her up out of her crib or as we're snuggling before I put her to bed for the night. She also still loves to give big hugs and now shares them with Dad and Ryan.

She's also starting to develop an independent streak... which is normal for this stage of her development (so I keep telling myself to be patient, it's a good thing). Every now and then Emily decides she wants to go somewhere she knows she's not allowed to go and when she's caught and detained she throws a fit. She's testing her boundaries and learning that they are fairly consistent between both Mom and Dad. This "fit" usually involves flopping herself onto the floor and laying her head down gently in a dramatic show (and sometimes peeking up to see if we're watching!) When this happens she cries hard and sometimes flails around a bit, kicking and twisting. Her face usually turns red, she pours on the waterworks and her head gets real hot and sweaty. I'm really hoping this is just one of those phases she's going through. These little episodes don't usually last that long and my diversion and distraction techniques usually do the trick. Woohoo for child development and all those college classes!

Party at Aunt Shell's

Aunt Shell and Laura had a pool party this weekend. Aunt Shell took some great pictures... maybe she'll read this and share them with me so I can post some for the rest of Emily's fan club (hint, hint).

Here are some post swimming pictures. (By the way... Emily really enjoyed the pool!)

Emily with her best buddy and favorite brother in the world... okay, so he's her only brother but what's not to like?!?!


I'm not exactly sure who the guilty party was, but someone decided Emily should wear her shorts on her head - and she seemed to agree. She left them on her head for quite a long time. Hmmm, maybe Grandma and Grandpa play this game with her while they're babysitting?

Here's a picture of Max's excitement at Emily taking over his living room floor. Doesn't he look just absolutely thrilled?


Yeah, she doesn't look too bummed out about wearing pants on her head, does she?

A Day With Dad

Emily hangs out with her daddy once a week now that I'm back to work. It's wonderful that they get to spend this time together. She also got to play with Daddy's new hat. She LOVES to put hats on her head.