Thursday, February 28, 2008

Happy 3rd Birthday Emily

Yesterday, my baby girl turned 3. It seems like just yesterday I was sitting on my sofa watching Forest Gump when all of a sudden, my water broke, and I knew I would be meeting my daughter soon. As it turns out, it wasn't all that soon. 21 hours later, she finally came to say Hello, and nothing has been the same since then.

Yesterday, after she woke up, she got to open a few presents. Then, she spent the day playing with Grammy--they had lots of fun! She wore her Birthday Girl shirt to church, and after we got home, we had pink cupcakes and opened more presents. Her party will be tomorrow night!

In honor of her third birthday, I thought about writing my 3 favorite things about Emily. But you know me, and I couldn't limit myself to only 3. So to help everyone get to know her better, here are 33 things about Emily:

By the way, if you don't feel like reading all 33, skip to the pictures at the end ;-)

1. Her favorite color is pink

2. Her favorite song is Once Upon a Dream from Sleeping Beauty

3. When she has cake, she eats the icing and throws the cake away

4. She loves to take “sips” of her Daddy’s diet coke

5. On 3 occasions, she has poked a straw through a Styrofoam cup full of drink

6. She likes to eat at McAlister’s and Chick-fil-a

7. She recognizes Macy’s because of the red star

8. She thinks that Macy’s is her cousin Macey’s store

9. She likes to help me fold clothes

10. She even likes to help me put clothes on hangers

11. She nurses, bottle feeds, diapers, feeds “pretend baby food” to, and puts ALL of her babies to sleep with a blanket when she plays babies

12. Her favorite song at church is Come Now is the Time to Worship (and she calls it the “fishie song”)

13. She has been planning her princess birthday party since last summer

14. She loves to have birthday parties with her tea set

15. She would eat all 6 containers of Dora or Trix yogurt at one time if I would let her

16. The first thing she does when she gets to school every day is head to the play sink and start “washing dishes”

17. She loves to read—some books are memorized, and she will make up stories as she reads others

18. She always takes directions better if you sing them to her

19. Her favorite number is 11—if she is counting and forgets what comes next, it’s always “eleben”

20. She is all about the bling—jewelry, hairbows that sparkle, shirts with rhinestones, and glittery shoes

21. If I would let her, she would wear her Princess Aurora dress-up dress every day

22. She sometimes refuses to be called Emily and insists that she is Aurora

23. She likes to assign parts—on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, she is Minnie, Ty is Mickey, Mommy is Daisy, and Daddy is appropriately named Donald Duck

24. On Sleeping Beauty, she is Aurora, Prince Philip is assigned to Daddy or Ty, and Merriweather is assigned to Mommy or sometimes unfortunately Daddy

25. Her new phrase is “or not” as in “Do you want some candy or not?” or “Do you need to potty or not?” or “Can we go in Daddy’s truck or not?”

26. When she dresses herself, she comes to me and asks if she got it “ba-works”…“or not”

27. When we use a public toilet, she asks VERY loudly “Do you need to Tee-Tee or Poo-Poo?”

28. She loves her brother and when I yelled NO at him as he tried to pull my computer off of the counter, she told me to stop being mean to her brother. She also strokes his head or holds his hand and says “it’s okay” if he’s crying

29. She loves to come get in bed with Mommy and Daddy in the middle of the night

30. She knows that if she gets in on Daddy’s side, she will have a greater chance of getting to stay in bed with us

31. She had a rash a while back, and we prayed for it to get better. Now every night, she insists that we pray for her rash even though it’s been gone for a week!

32. She loves to come up various injuries that she believes require a band-aid, and she thoroughly enjoys the attention that she gets when people ask her about her non-existent injuries.

33. Because of her, I now have a teeny, tiny glimpse of the way God feels about his children.

Here she is in her first 24 hours of life:



And here is her one-year old portrait:



Two-Year Old Portrait:



I don't have her 3 y/o portrait yet, so here are two recent shots:




I love you, Birthday Girl!

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Still Sick

Ty is still feeling yucky. After lunch (he ate a container of yogurt and a whole piece of pizza), I picked him up, and he was fire-hot. He had 101.7. I don't think either kid has ever had a temp that high. We had to give him a breathing treatment last night, but so far no wheezing today. I talked to a nurse at the hospital, and she said to keep him hydrated and comfortable--his body is trying to fight off a bug. She also told me the symptoms that would require us to bring him to the ER, so now I know what to watch out for. Like I said, neither of my kids has had such a high temp, and neither has had a fever last this long. Even though I've been a Mom for almost 3 years, this is new to me. So Dee is at a tournament today, and I am taking care of little man.

Here's a picture I took of him yesterday. You would never know that he is sick!

Friday, February 22, 2008

Bragging on Myself This Time...

Here it is...me in SIZE 8!!! (also a medium top, by the way) I never thought I'd see single digits again. I am 2 lbs from being in my "healthy weight range" and 7 lbs away from pre-prego weight (before Emily). I am still doing WW. Actually, during football, I got out of the habit of counting points, but I've been back on track since the beginning of the year. In fact, I've lost 12 lbs since the beginning of January. It took me a while to get a decent picture using the timer on my camera since I had to take this picture of myself (the only person around to take it was an almost 3 year old). My camera battery ran out after 3 attempts, and this was the best of the 3.



I am home today with Ty--he is feeling really bad. I am starting to get really worried about him. His fever was gone yesterday, but it's back now. He's having such a hard time breathing. He'll be okay for a while and play like everything is normal. Then, he'll get really fussy and want some TLC. Let's put it this way--he's already nursed more times than he usually nurses in a whole 24 hour period. He just wants his Mommy to make him feel better I guess. I took Em to daycare, so I could focus on little man. He also has the runs from the antibiotics. Hopefully, tomorrow will be a better day.

Thursday, February 21, 2008

I hate Wednesdays!

Welcome to baseball season and sickness season! I can't get both of my kiddos well at the same time. It's so frustrating and heartbreaking to see them not feeling well. 3 Wednesdays ago, Ty was sent home with suspected pink eye. Well, I don't think it was pink eye because I had to keep him out of school for 24 hours, and his eye was fine. But he started having trouble breathing over the following days, and we took him to the doctor to make sure his lungs sounded okay since in the past, he's had problems with bronchiolitis. His lungs sounded perfect.

2 Wednesdays ago, Emily was sent home with 101 temp. She had to stay home from school on Valentine's Day and miss her party. She had a double ear infection but started feeling much better after just one dose of Azithromycin. She was very excited about going to the doctor and getting bubble gum flavored medicine for 3 days. Dee and I didn't get to take advantage of free babysitting at church on Valentine's night since Emma-bucks was sick. But he did go get TX Roadhouse take-out, and we had dinner after putting E&T to bed early. I would show you a picture of the flowers Emily picked out for me, but they are on my camera, and Dee has the camera cord in his office and keeps forgetting to bring it home.

So we think we're done. Her ear infection comes and goes, and Ty seems very healthy. In fact, he had a well-baby check-up Monday, and he did great. Then I get a call yesterday (Wednesday again) afternoon. Ty now has 101 temp. We figured he caught what Emily had last week. But Dee just got back from the doctor, and Ty is starting to get bronchiolitis again. We have to give him breathing treatments again. And he has a bacterial infection, so he is now on Azithromycin. He is staying with his MeMe today because Dee and I are almost out of sick and personal days. I don't really mind since he acts like his normal self and doesn't have much fever anymore. If he acted like he felt yucky, I would take a day off anyway.

To top things off, I now feel like I have a brick in my head. I feel so sick. But here I am plugging away just trying to make it through to the weekend. Thankfully, Dee will be home today around 6, and he will be bringing dinner from Jason's Deli with him. Yes!

If you have read all of this, you deserve a picture! We love bathtime, and the kids love to take a bath together. Here are some bath pics! Notice Emily is washing her baby's "hair." This is how I keep her from trying to wash Ty's hair :-)


Monday, February 11, 2008

Finally--SOME New Mexico Christmas

Well, since, as my lil' sis reminded me, it's almost Valentine's Day, I will finish the Christmas pics...some of them. I actually just realized the other day that I had an extra memory card w/ some pictures. Those aren't even on my computer yet. So here's some New Mexico Christmas pictures. Ya know, I am WAY behind on blogging, but I'm caught up on grading papers. It always seems to be one or the other!

Dee and Ty were tired from travelling, so they took a Sunday snooze--too cute!


Emily made a "Gingerbread Man House" with Grammy and wondered all week why she couldn't eat it.


This is Pa reading Twas the Night Before Christmas to the grandkids. It was hilarious. Look at Ty and Carter...


They were staring wide-eyed at their Pa.


Oh, poor Carter couldn't take it anymore.


That's better, Carter man, gotta love the binky! But Ty is still staring at Pa. He did this throughout the entire story. The video is hilarious!


Ty was really working hard on crawling, but at times, he found it easier to roll from place to place.


Watch me go!


Ty: "Now Carter, if you will get up on your hands and knees like me, you can learn to crawl, too!"


It was so cute...Ben could get them giggling like crazy!


Sweet Carrigan Family--we don't get to see you enough!


And Grammy was having a ball playing with the babies while the big boys cleaned the kitchen!