Emma’s New View

 

  It certainly has been a momentous week around here, and today was no exception. 

A couple of weeks ago Emma told me that she thought she needed glasses.  Why? Because her friend Bailey has glasses. (This is really the reason she gave me. I can not make this stuff up.)  Even though I thought this was a silly reason, our new vision insurance is only $10 for an exam so I made the appointment.  Not to mention that she has had eye surgery twice – when she was 13 months, and again when she was four.  And the fact that nearly everyone on both sides of her family tree wear glasses.  My eyes were so bad – even with contacts – that I had Lasik done a couple of years ago.

  Once again, it has been proven that my six-year-old is smarter than I am…she needed glasses.  Her prescription is very slight, but on top of her near-sightedness, she has an astigmatism.

  She was so happy!  Watching her try on frame after frame was hard for me.  When I got glasses I was teased unmercifully.  I don’t want anybody to hurt my baby girl!  Of course, I was 13, and that is an evil age.  Hopefully six-year olds are more accommodating, and Emma has a stronger sense of self than I did. Anyway, she finally settled on a pair, and we went home where I was questioned everyday if her glasses had come in.

  Today was the day.  She is so proud of her new look, and she reports that she can see better.  She seems to be adjusting to them very well, except taking them off to polish them every hour.    I think it will take me a little longer to get used to seeing her in glasses, but she just looks even cuter than she did before, and if it is possible, those big brown eyes are even bigger!

  We had some celebratory pizza for lunch, then she showed her new look to all her stuffed animals and doll friends.  What a big day for my precious little girl!

Coppergate’s Open (& Crowded) House

 

  What a night for the Howles! 

After spending last night in Labor & Delivery (just really bad pain &  pressure, no pre-term labor yet, thank heavens) the last thing I really felt up to doing was going to Open House at Coppergate.  I know, Bad Mommy.  But there was no way I was going to disappoint my little girl, so we pawned Grady off on my mom and headed to school.

  As usual, we had a wonderful time.  I have been in Emma’s classroom a few times, but this was Jake’s first visit and she wanted to show him everything. It was so cute to watch her with him – she is the best big sister!

     She is having a super year in school, I think it has a lot do with how much she loves her teacher Mrs. Taylor and her friends.

    After we visited her classroom we had to fight the throngs of people to get to the cafeteria where were treated to a little patriotic concert.  I am glad so many parents attended, but I almost passed out in the hallway.  No problems, though – Emma made it well worth the crushing as once again our girl overcame her stage fright.  We can’t be more proud of her!

  Jake was also a source of pride tonight.  This was the first time we have taken Jakers to an “unfamiliar” place without a stroller.  He was such a big boy and behaved so well!  He loved watching his big sister perform as much as we did:

 

      I am so proud of both my “big” babies – I can’t believe how much they have accomplished in just the last couple of months.

She started it!

Okay, Kim. This one is your fault. ;)

First our friends the Jarvis family posted their Monster Mash. Then the Shaws. Jake laughed so hard I had to make one for us. I am not as adept at pasting the faces as my friends, but it made Jake howl. (no pun intended) I think he watched it about four times in a row, and three more times before bed. Emma however, is not amused.

So my challenge to all of you is to go make one of your family. Even if you don’t have five people you can use your pets, or Jib Jab has a ton of celebrity faces. So let’s see those monsters!

I couldn’t manage to imbed the video in my post, so this is only part one - so please scroll down to see my monsters!

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Primary Program

   Even though Emma is six years old, and has been in Primary for three years, today was her first Primary Program.

People don’t believe me when I tell them how shy she is.  Emma shy?!  As outgoing as she is, Emma has a terrible case of stage fright.  She generally won’t get up in front of anybody to do anything unless they are family. 

Emma’s first program she got up on the stand with her class and sat.  She didn’t sing, she didn’t her part, I don’t think she even made it through the whole time.  Her second program she didn’t even get up on the stand.  Today she shined.

  The program started with the children walking from the back of the church up to the stand while singing “I am a Builder”.   The primary theme this year is My Eternal Family, and each child had a small part to recite about  the roles they fulfill in building their eternal families.  After they said their part, they went over to a very large house (that I think our bishop built) and added their family’s brick to the house.

  Emma sang all the songs, and she had her part memorized:

 “Each member of a family has important jobs.  I like to help take care of my little brothers.”

  After all the songs had been sung, and all the children had put their family bricks in the house, our sweet primary president called the names of each child or set of siblings, and when she did the family of those children in the congregation stood up.  It was one of the simplest, most moving things I have ever seen. And as if that weren’t enough to get me teary, then our Bishop shared a few thoughts, and at one point he turned to the children and spoke to them. The program closed with first the children then the rest of the ward singing “Families are Forever”

   In all our years of going to church, I can honestly say this was the most wonderful Primary program I have ever seen. Thanks so much to our wonderful presidency for working so hard to put it together, and to Emma’s teachers for encouraging her.   But mostly, thanks so much to Emma, who practiced so hard and made Mommy so proud today.

Grady’s Grand Adventure

 

    The hardest thing about having three babies  so close together is finding time and special things to do with them one on one.  That is one of the main reasons I am a Girl Scout leader, so Emma and I have that time. 

   So far, Grady’s big adventures with mommy have been trips to Wal-Mart, and if he is really lucky, we might make it to Target.  But today was Grady’s big day.  We went to the Zoo!

  We met up with our playgroup outside the main gate, and then it was time to have some fun!

  This is Grady’s view of the zoo most of the time.  Between chasing Emma and Jake, our quiet little man  usually gets left in the stroller, but today I was able to get him out and let him play.

  It was a great day to be at the zoo, too. Not only was the weather beautiful, but the zoo was decked out in all its Halloween splendor.  There were plenty of great spots to take pictures!

   He had a great time hangin’ with his friends….

Going down the slide (with some help from Mandi)…

And feeding the giraffes! (Thanks, Katheryn for taking such great pictures.)

  It was a day FULL of what we call “Grady Grins”

   He was so worn out that after lunch (and a much needed change of clothes) there was only one picture left to take…..

Poor little man fell asleep while I was loading the stroller in the van….Thanks so much to all of our friends that shared this great day with us -  I think the cornfield is next!

Girls Gone Wild

  Okay, Girl Scouts gone wild.  Last Saturday was the Daisy/Brownie Sock Hop for the Black Creek Service Unit.  I really wish all of you could have been there to see for yourself how ADORABLE a bunch of 5-7 year olds dancing in poodle skirts really is.

  If there had been an award for the best dressed troop, our girls would have won hands down.  Not only were they the only matching troop, they were just stinkin’ cute.

  Once they went inside, they made ice cream sundaes and then played some games. 

  Emma, being Emma, wasn’t much into participating.  I had to force her to at least stand with her troop on the dance floor.  When it came time to do the Casper Shuffle, she just stood there, so my fat pregnant butt had to get out on the dance floor with her.  She wasn’t happy about it, but I physically “slid” her to the left, and made her hop, or cha-cha real slow…..

  At some point she realized she wasn’t going to win and started having fun.  It also helped that she found a friend from Kindergarten that had moved to a new school.  Soon they were doing the YMCA and they made up a dance Emma called '”push apart, bridge together.”

I might be pretty biased, but I think my bobby soxer was the cutest pink poodle ever…

Oh, and in case you are wondering…yes, I had to go in costume as well.  However, a pregnant bobby soxers are no where near as cute.  (But little brothers are!)

Power cords, Poodle skirts, and Swine Flu

 

   It seems that I have trouble keeping up with the family blog.  I knew when I started it that I wouldn’t be able to post every day, so I set a goal to post at least three times a week, then it went to once a week.  Its not that my family doesn’t do a hundred crazy things a day to share, or that I don’t have pictures to go with them…its that every time I go to sit down with the computer there is another “crisis”…I’m wondering if once the new one comes I should set my goal for once a month.

  Anyway, I do have a couple of good reasons why it has been so long.  First, the power cord to our computer went bad and when we contacted HP they said it would only take 48-72 hours for a new one to arrive on our doorstep.  It took two weeks, with me calling DAILY to remind them I still haven’t gotten my cord.  Some of the excuses were great.

  Secondly, I had to make 6 poodle skirts.  That’s right, 6.  Emma’s Daisy Scout troop was invited to participate in a Brownie-Daisy Sock Hop that was being sponsored by a Cadette troop in our area.  Our troop leader thought it would be cute if all our girls matched for the event, and she had a simple skirt she thought we could make at one of our meetings.  It was a simple skirt, but not simple enough for mommies that don’t sew to complete in an hour’s time.  So I created a pattern, an my mom and I cut out the skirts and I sewed the waistbands on.  At the meeting, the moms would have to thread the elastic and then my mom would run the finishing seams.  The girls added the poodles and such.  They all looked so cute!

    And lastly, my family has seemed to stay sick for the last few weeks.  First is was the stomach flu.  Emma started it, and then she was kind enough to share it with the rest of us.  The worst part was waking up so sick to my stomach, only to find Jakers next to me in bed getting sick.  Poor Jason had to drive home from Gainesville to take care of us, only to get it himself the next day.  Grady was kind enough to wait until I was fully recovered before getting it himself.

  Then my saga began.  By that following weekend, I was not feeling up to par.  I was really tired, and my allergies were horrid.  I just contributed it to the pregnancy, but by Thursday I was getting really short of breath and even more fatigued.  I woke up Friday barely able to move air.  By early afternoon, I was panting after speaking or just walking from room to room.  I called my OB, who gave me the choice of going to a walk in clinic or ER (since the office is closed Friday afternoon.)  Due to our terrible insurance, we chose Solantic.  They ran a couple of tests (that were negative) and then sent me to the ER because of the baby.

  We spent all Friday night in the ER.  They had me hooked up to machines and ran more tests.  They also didn’t want to do x-rays or MRIs because of the baby.  The doc said she was pretty sure (pretty sure!?)  I didn’t have a pulmonary embolism because of the sound of my cough,  but to come back if my breathing got any worse.  They gave me antibiotics in case of bronchitis or pneumonia, and Tamiflu for swine flu. Then they discharged me from the ER and admitted  me to labor and delivery to monitor the baby for an hour (Even though I had not had any contractions, and the fetal heart tones had been perfect)  I just can’t wait to get that bill.

  Monday I was supposed to check in with my OB. I called and talked to one of the nurses and she said that because I had been on the antibiotics for three days with no improvement, it was Swine Flu.  She said the Tamiflu takes a little longer to work, but I should be feeling better by mid week.  I had to stay quarantined to the house until Thursday (3 days post treatment)  But as long as I didn’t get any more fevers I was good to go.  She was right. I felt much better by Wednesday, and back to my old self by the weekend – just in time for the Sock Hop, Halloween party, and Primary program practice.  (I think I see some future posts there…)