Abby's Baptism

Abby was baptized this past Sunday at Trinity. It was a great service. Emma sang Jesus Loves Me with the other 3 year olds and then joined us for the rest. It was a little hard keeping Abby quiet the whole time, but we managed. Auntie Janice is Abby's godparent- just like she is mine! Abby did great being baptized- when the congregation clapped for her, she giggeled and clapped for herself also. She also reached down and dipped her hand in the font after watching the Pastor do it while baptizing her. Very cute. Abby was able to wear the same gown Emma wore that was given to us from Grandma Nona. It obviously fit Abby quite differently, but she looked beautiful. Afterwards we had brunch at Nana and Papa's house with Janice and Tom. It was a great afternoon. We decided not to do a big thing for the baptism because we are having Abby's first bday party this Sunday.

Other than that, it was a fun weekend. The girls had a sleepover at Nana and Papas on Friday night. Janice, Tom, Wyane, Kriss, Mike and I had dinner at the Sunshine Factory than went to see the comedy show, Defending the Caveman. It is a one man show about gender differences- it was hilarious. Emma ended up sleeping in bed with nana and papa! Wow- she is spoiled! We have to get her sleeping habits back on track from Disney- she seems to be sneaking into our bed quite often too. Sometimes I don't even know she does it until I feel her hot little body pressed up against mine in the morning.

Saturday night Nichi invited us to this magical Halloween walk in the woods. It was so cool. The trails were all lit by jack o lanterns and you walked around and saw all these little skits about mother earth, fairy tails, stories, etc. It was so nicely done! Emma and Sunny had fun- Abby not so much! She was tired (past her 6:30 bedtime!) and was really loud. It made it a little difficult, but it was fun.

Where did my babies go?

Emma in the Nicu- Dec 17, 2004

I attended curriculum night at Emma's preschool this week. This is the first time I have had no idea what is going on in her classroom. Up until this year, I have been with her one day a week and always knew what the weekly theme was, what was in the sensory table that day, etc, etc. I have really missed that this year. Especially because Emma does NOT like to tell me about her day. The only details I get are what was served for snack. I know this is a normal process of growing up- but I felt so out of the loop. So the curriculum night was really amazing. Emma is really being treated like a student-being expected to raise her hand, take turns, and call her teachers by the appropriate title Mrs.-----. She has an assigned seat for group time (a frog tag with her name on it) and she says "here" when attendance is taken. Sniff, sniff- where did my baby go??? Emma is in an integrated classroom, which means there are some children with special needs in her class. There is a very low ratio and there are a lot of specialists in the class- like OT, speech, physical therapy, etc. It has been a great experience for her. I am volunteering in the classroom next week and am very excited to see what really goes on. I am told Emma is the "diplomat" of the class and tells Mrs. Herring everytime kids are fighting or not taking turns. I think we used to call this a tattle-tale, but whatever. At least she is not the one instigating it- although I am sure she does this her fair share of the time, also (when she isn't bossing someone around.)

Emma 3 years old

Abby- 3 hours old-

Nov 2, 007

Abby is crawling, standing and cruising all over the place. She will be 1 in just a couple more weeks! I cannot believe it. This has been the fastest year of my life (with the expection of the first few crazy postpartum months which dragged on forever for me). She says some words now- Dada, Up, Doggie, Uh-oh, and occasionally mama if I am lucky. But mostly everything and everyone is dada for now. She ate meatloaf last night for dinner. Meatloaf! Where did my baby go??? I had a playdate with a girlfriend with a 5 week old this week and he is the first newborn I have held since Abby. Don't get me wrong, I am DONE with kids (Mike took one for the team to ensure that) But the strangest feeling washed over me holding that little tiny baby. It was a mix of nostalgia, saddness to be done with all that, and relief to be done with all that. So soon you forget how tiny and sweet and needy they are. I feel like I have spent the last 4 years listening to adults tell me, "enjoy this now- it goes so fast..." and just nodded along, not really understanding. I understand now. Now that the infant days are officially done, and Abby is fast approaching toddlerhood, I understand how much emotion is behind those words when people say how fast it goes!

Disney Survivors!

Okay, we did it. We survived Disney with a 3 year old and 11 month old. I know it does not sound like a big deal, but let me tell you, the statement about needing a vacation from your vacation is so true. Actually, the girls really exceeded my expectations and we all had a blast! We saw all the parks except Epcot. I carried Abby in the ergo most of the day and she was able to sneak in some naps, allowing us to do the parks from 9 am until 2 or 3, which was plenty for all of us. It was very warm and sunny and Abby and I sweated together with her strapped onto my front for hours in and out of lines, rides, safaris, monrails, and all other park attractions. The experience for Emma was amazing. To see her face when she met Ariel (who called Emma her little starfish and that is now what she insists I call her) and Cindarella was so priceless. She loved all the rides until we took her on Snowwhite's scary adventure and from then on she was a little more selective. Some of her favorites were the flying Dumbo with Papa, and of course, Cindarella's Golden Carousel. I think she totaled 6 times on that one.

It was so wonderful to see MaryAnn, Nancy, Dan, and all the kids. Emma had a blast with her cousins and already misses them a lot. It was also so fun for Emma and Abby to have BOTH sets of grandparents with her all week. Pam and Elizabeth were able to join us at the parks too and get us in for free since they work for Disney. Thanks Pam- that saved us about a grand- no kidding- it is SO EXPENSIVE there! We also loved the resort pool and spent a lot of time playing Ariel and starfish there. We did a princess dinner and met Cindarella, the evil stepsisters and stepmother. Abby did fantastic. She was a little fussy on the plane, but once I popped her in the ergo and walked around, she fell asleep. But it was a lot of work. Traveling with suitcases, pack and play, stroller, 2 car seats, and of course the children- we were quite the traveling circus. And then of course, packing the diaper bags everyday with baby food, powdered formula, diapers, and various other necessities for the girls. Emma's whine fest followed us to Florida and we have really set some new rules now that we are home (no, you can't have ice cream for dinner at home- only in Disney...) One night mom and dad watched Abby and we took Emma for a big girl date night to see Arabian Nights Horse Show. She loved it! She was our little lady all night and decided in addition to being a cooker girl at Papa's Factory, she will also be a horse trainer. Love it!

By the 5th day we hit the Magic Kingdom again and I snapped a little bit. It was so crowded and so hot and humid, the girls were crabby, every ride had at least a 30 mn wait and I could not walk 1 foot in front of me without someone hitting or bumping into me. We were just DONE. Yes, there was SO much we did not see but we left and spent the rest of the week at the pool and had way more fun and were all much more relaxed. I don't think I am really much of a theme park person, but it was so fun to see how much Emma and Abby enjoyed it. I know they say babies don't get much out of Disney, but Abby would get so excited, clap and giggle everytime we went on a ride or saw a show. It was cute to watch. I have so many pics I could post, but will try to limit to my favorites. Glad to be home......

3 Year Old For Sale

Okay, the title says it all- Emma has just been horrendous the past couple weeks. I am so very close to calling the Supernanny. Really. Our parent educator at ECFE says that Emma is in a classic period of "disequilibrium" that kids go through on the half years (1 1/2, 2 1/2, 3 1/2) At this rate she will be very lucky to see 4. For example, yesterday started out just lovely. Beautiful Day and we were going to Plymouth on Parade. This included an awesome candy throwing parade (can I eat just ONE more piece mom???), pony rides, face painting and all other kinds of fall festival fun. Emma did great at first, although I think she ate her weight in candy, I chose to let this one slide because she really rarely eats candy, honest. After a very long parade, she had her face painted and waited very nicely in line to get a corndog. Abby was asleep in the Ergo on my back, the sun was shining, and I thought for a minute how nice this all was. We moved on to the other attractions and the lines were extremely long by this point and we had been there 3 hours already. We usually keep to a 4 hour max rule for these kinds of things as we learned from past experience, anything more and we all end up very tired and crabby. I gave Emma many, many warnings about it being time to leave. Still when it was time to go she morphed into a cartoon character, throwing a tantrum of epic porportions. Foot stamping, screaming, tears, the works. Her tears were causing her face painting to run in her eyes which prompted even more tears as she realized it was rubbing off on her shirt. Mike picked her up and we carried her screaming the whole way back to the car. Fun times.
She has also been awful to Abby which concerns me even more. I feel like I cannot leave the two of them alone right now. Abby will be crying, I will come out of the bathroom (how dare I go the bathroom alone?) and ask Emma why she is crying. "Oh, I was sitting on her." I gotta hand it to the kid, she is brutally honest. So time out. She has also been poking, pinching, pulling and other kinds of bully behaviour. I have an early childhood degree and in my head know this is normal- and classic sibling rivalry, jealous behaviour. But man, after the 100th time, I was so tempted to show her what it felt like when someone bigger than you pushes you around. Instead, I have been trying to do the right thing and really love her up for a long, long time. It is so hard to imagine that she is not getting enough attention, because I feel like she has people doting on her all day long. But I am spending a good hour in the morning treating her like the baby. Holding her, hugging her, singing to her. I am trying to really fill up her tank. She loves it. I don't know if it's helping. It sure didn't seem to yesterday. I'll keep you posted.