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Potty time!!!

I am proud to say...its official Emery is potty trained!! On the last few occasions, she will actually go in the house on her own (while we are all outside) and use the potty! Most times she will go in, close the door and do her business. I won't know until she comes out and tells me! I'll put my ear to the door just to see how things are going in there and I hear her singing hahaha! I have peeked in a couple times and have seen her sitting there reading a book! Father like daughter! She'll tell Grandma, "mommy's going to be sooo proud of me"! And I most definately am! She's pretty much done it all herself. We tried that 3 day method and it bombed. She's the type of kid that wants things to be her idea--when she's ready to do it. I think this is probably a trend we will need to take note of for the rest of her growing up years!

My baby's going to school....

Went to Emery's open house at her preschool last week. She's going to be going two days a week to preschool at Sugar Hill United Methodist. I am excited for her but nervous at the same time. I know she will do great! But its still hard to think she's old enough for school :( Her backpack and lunch bag came in the mail...it's super cute--a zebra! Can't wait to see her in it that first day! School officially starts September 6th and will go from 9am-1pm. Her friend Nick is in her class so at least she will have a friend. Her and I were talking about it the other day and she told me "grown-ups don't go to school, mommy can't go to school, daddy can't go to school..." Hahaha guess the message got through to her that she will be going alone. So far she's cool with it. Her sandbox also came this week...kinda regretting it nowt that sand is tracked all through my house! She's loving it though and wants to play in there all evening, instead of our usual nightly pool visit. Wish the dang mosquitos didn't eat us alive out there though. Her favorite game these days is playing catch. She'll say "mommy catch me" and I have to run all over the yard chasing her. The minute grandma connie comes over it's "grandma connie catch me!" and grandma C has to chase her around the house. She's also a big fan of hide and seek and will cover her eyes and count to five ::cutest thing ever!:: Ballet is a hit too! She started about two weeks ago and it's just a half hour a week. Last week a little girl cried the whole time and Emery felt bad for her and kept telling her "it's ok your mommy's going to be right back" Hahaha! Love that sensitive child. She doesn't like to see other kids upset and tries to comfort them. This kid is smart as a whip too if I do say so myself. She says the darndest things! Grandma is constantly emailing me things she says during the day and it definately brightens my day. She'll tell stories all the time....sometimes making up her own stories "once upon a time there was a purple monster...." or she will recount movies/shows she's seen. Right now, she's in love with Toy Story so that's a popular one she likes to talk about. Every night before bed, we will talk and tell stories. Sometimes she will give the me the setup "tell me a story about Emery going potty". It's the highlight of my day to sit and talk with her girl to girl. I just love spending that time with her every night!

Time for an update....four months later!

The spring and summer has been especially fun for us! Let me just do an update by month:
April was a great month. Got to celebrate Jesus and all the festivities associated with that. We registered for the Governor's Mansion Easter Egg Hunt which was really neat to go to. It was a space limited event and you could actually hang out on the grounds and picnic, etc. They had some fun things going on too: cupcakes, story-telling, and of course the Easter Egg hunt. We got a picture with the Governor as well. So fun! We also did our neighborhood Easter Egg hunt and an Easter Egg hunt at Callanwolde (our new family tradition), complete with creepy pics with the Easter bunny. hahaha! We celebrated the day of Easter with Church with Granma and Pop Orza at First Redeemer (Em cried and cried in Sunday school and I had to go and get her!). And then lunch at Grandma Connie's house.

May brought some warmer weather and lots of outdoor actitives. We biked around the neighborhood almost every night! Em likes to ride bikes and look for the deer out on the meadow or check the lake for the geese and ducklings. We attended Gabriella's christening, which I was blessed to be named the GodMother for. And also left for our trip to Disney! We spent the middle week of April at Disney World. We took Grandma Connie, Great-Papa, and Grandma and Pop Orza. It was wonderful! We rented a large house in Reunion, just outside Disney World, with pool included. It was there that Emery started to become super comfortable in the water swimming. She had a pool noodle and would just float all around on it, going from one side of the pool (spa area) to the other. We did Disney World the first day--starting off with breakfast with the characters Pooh, Eeyore and gang. Emery was definately a fan and tried to feed each one that came to the table. Then we hit the rides, along with Great-pop, Grandma Connie and Grandma (Orza)! We were impressed--Great Pop rode most of the rides-including Space Mountain!! We also rode Pirates of the Caribbean and Emery pretty much covered her eyes the entire.time. I guess the dark and the shady looking pirate characters were a bit too much for her. She didn't cry though! She was a huge fan of the It's a Small World Ride and Winnie the Pooh. We rode a few more smaller rides and went to Tom Sawyer's Island. All and all it was a blast! I think most of the day she was in awe! Of course she got her picture with Minnie and Mickey too and that was definately a highlight. The next day we hung out at our resort--they had an amazing waterpark, complete with playground and lazy river. Then the following day we went to Animal Kingdom. We started off with a character breakfast inside the park with Mickey and the gang. Really awesome breakfast and Emery got some up close time with all the characters. She loves to give them hugs! We really enjoyed touring the park and riding some fun rides. Mommy and Daddy especially loved being able to leave a napping Emery with the grandma's while we rode a rollercoaster or two! :) The highlight of her day was hitting the water fountain area so she could splash around a bit before leaving. Go figure, she's a water baby! The next day was another day spent lounging at the pool and the evening was topped off by a trip to the town of Celebration. A little community that's next to Disney World. Very nice for ice cream and some shopping. Our last "Disney" day was spent at Epcot. It was a little bit hot so we really took it easy. Granma and Pop Orza came with us this time. We hit up the aquarium area first with it's Nemo ride (that's currently one of her fave movies!) and Emery decided to have an all out tantrum in the place! Everyone was starring at us like we had three heads as I dragged her out! It had been a long week of lots of activities and naptime was approaching fast. After a long nap in the stroller, she was refreshed and ready to hit the sights again. It was fun touring all the "countries" and getting stamps on her bear. You could take a paper bear to little tables in all the countries and they would spell her name in other languages and give her a little stamp. Very fun! Her favorite ride here was the ride in Mexico--Donald was a main character. Since there was no line we decided to ride it a couple of times. All and all we had a wonderful week and made some great memories with family...isn't that what life's all about??! I can't wait to return and I am hoping we can make Disney a regular family vacation. Months later, Emery is still recounting her experience, often saying "she wants to go on Small World" and telling me about waiting in line to ride it, and telling Great-pop "don't be scared" lol! I am glad she got to spend some time with her Great-grandpa as she doesn't get to see him too much.

Memorial Day weekend the following week was spent on yet another vacay--a mini one. We took a last minute drive down to the beach and Panama City and spent a couple nights there. It was fun...got to play in the sand, practice her swimming some more in the pool and of course hit the boardwalk for dinners out, ice cream and carnival rides. We even got to ride the Ferris Wheel this time! Pretty boring in my opinion and we were all over it after the first few minutes! That pretty much summed up our fabulous vacation month of May.

June brought some hot weather and the pool opening in our neighborhood. We spent pretty much every weekday night and weekend at the pool. There's a zero entry area where Emery could play and I think that helped her confidence. She started "swimming" underwater and would get more and more comfortable with her noodle. We never even really got the water wings out much. In fact, she was so comfortable with the water, when I took her to Alexanders' pool birthday party, she jumped in twice without me there to catch her! Scared me to death! Her, Gabby and Arianna had so much fun jumping in holding hands....it was the cutest thing ever to watch! Wish I had my videocamera out!

July was the month of birthdays! We attended Violet's 2nd birthday, Kota's 2nd birthday adn Jaiden's 2nd birthday. And of course celebrated the fourth of July holiday. Found out quickly that though she is a fan of sparklers she is not into Fireworks! We had to leave the fireworks show at our church because she was scared of it. Maybe the loud noise? We have no idea. But she did have fun with her friends this month. Kota had a pirate party so she enjoyed the pirate magic show and balloons. I think she has warmed up the pirates now! :) I can also pretty much say she is swimming now. She can swim underwater short distance to her dad and I. We are super impressed with how well she has picked it up. Needless to say, I don't think we will be doing swimming lessons this year! I think just being able to control it on her own and us not "forcing" her to swim helped her learn on her own. She is definately an independent child! She wants to do everything herself. We have been struggling with the potty training and am finding her to be very stubborn (wonder where she got that from?!). The three day method was pretty much a bust. Most times she would not go to the potty when asked, so we decided to give her some more time and just back off. We are hoping things change and she decides its time! We have had some small successes here and there--going potty in public and going peepee on the potty when taken to the potty. I think that she is just the type of kid that wants to do things on her own terms. Everything is "Let me do it!" and occasionally she will get very upset if you attempt to help her do something. This gets challenging when you are trying to leave the house on time! However, I respect her personality and realize that this is her way of controlling her life and most times let her be. Her favorite movies at the moment are Tom and Jerry, Tangled (Rapunzel), and Mickey (old school shorts). She still talks about Disney and riding Small World and loves to recount experiences she's had. At night now, after reading books, she wants me to rock her in her chair and tell her stories. Most times, she will give me a subject and I have to build a story with the character she mentions--works mommy's creativeness! I have told stories about a tiny purple monsters, that live in her shoe to Lions that live in the jungle. Sometimes she will request Little Red Riding Hood or The Three Little Bears and sometimes I will just sum up a movie she's seen. Another first for this month--she went to her first movie and saw Winnie the Pooh. Couldn't believe it but she actually sat throuh the whole thing (it was only about 50 minutes). She liked it so much, Grandma had to take her back the following week to see it again! She loves to recount the story and can remember most of the storyline details. It'surprising how detail-oriented she can be with it. Her favorite toys right now are her puzzles--she loves to try and put them together. She also loves her kitchen stuff and we will play pretend with her dishes and food. Every morning she likes to fix grandma a coffee. :) Grandma keeps me updated during the day with her antics. She says the funniest stuff! I was talking to Kevin and she says, "I'm trying to tell you something!" So funny! Or she will climb on the furniture and tell grandma "you can't do this, you're a grown up and grown up's can't do this." She also sits her dolls and teddy bears down and say "ok see you tonight I'm going to work" So cute! Really wish I was there during the day with her more though I know she's in excellent hands with her grandma. Time just passes so quickly and I can't help feel I'm missing out sometimes. We spend our Fridays just the two of us so that's nice.

August is halfway over already and summer is almost ending :( I will be sorry to see it go this year since we have had sooooo much fun! However, I know we have some fun stuff planned for the Fall--a last summer beach vacation to Grayton Beach in September, Kevin and I's 7th wedding anniversary, a trip to Chattanooga with friends in October and of course all the Fall festivals.

After all the parties in July, Emery came down with a slight fever for about a week and had some late nights up with a sore throat, including some swollen glands. A doctor visit resulted in an order for lab work (blood test). They were concerned about the glands being swollen--needed to check for mono, tb and other viruses. That was challenging and of course extremely worrying to us. Kevin went with me and we had to hold her down poor girl to get the blood drawn--so sad. The results finally came back that she had had mono! So crazy since I have no idea where she got it. There's nothing they can do about it...just has to go away on its own. I am actually glad it was that since the doctor says it will be unlikely that she will get it as an adult now. I had in my college days and it was awful! I had to drop out of school and was sick for about 3 weeks. I guess the younger you get it the less intense it is. We will go back in a few weeks to make sure its all gone. Whew...glad it was only that!

Now looking forward to Emery starting her dance classes (tiny tutu's) this month and starting preschool two days a week next month. Her dance class is just for a half hour on Friday mornings and school with be Tuesday and Thursday at Sugar Hill United Methodist. Her friend Nick is attending there too and her friend Carson was there last year and is now in the next age group up. As the date gets closer, I am getting more and more nervous! Based on her experience in Sunday School, I really hope she can be without her grandma or me for the day (it's just 9am-1pm those two days). Crossing my fingers that she does well. She is a bit shy around adults too though she will approach any kid (under the age of 18) haha! I did take her to audition for a Graco casting print ad and it didn't go extremely well--though she is adorable of course, once she realized she was sitting in the stroller without me there she was not to happy. Pretty sure they got a picture of her crying face lol! oh well, we may try again later and I am hoping school helps her with her shyness somewhat. Otherwise she may be doomed to be like me as a kid--super shy! I really hope she isn't as shy as I was though I guess it can be a blessing. I tended to stay out of trouble due to it and became "nerdy." Kevin's personality is not shy in the least. Forgot to mention, she has started going in the bathroom by herself "mommy you stay right there" and going potty alone! She has been doing it consistenly the past week with not too many accidents. Grandma caught in the bathroom cleaning her stool--I guess she had a peepee accident and was cleaning it up sweet girl. So, so proud of her!

I will update for the rest of the month and of course our beach trip coming up! :)

My 2 year old...

Em's 2 year appointment went well. She is 92%tile for height and I think %42 for weight (26lbs). Her being tall makes it seem like she is skinnier than she is but she is really right on target. She does have a little head like her mom and dad (16%tile) but other than that she is doing well.

Shs is really smart too if I must say so myself. We read a lot of books each day with her favorites being her Biscuit series. Figures...it's about a dog! She just loves animals and going to the zoo is her favorite thing to do. She also loves going to the park and Grandma takes at leaast several times during the week. We can't wait till the weather warms up more so we can do more biking too. Em has a little seat on Kev's bike that lets her sit right up front and ride. Her favorite toys right now are her dollhouses and little people--she loves to pretend with them. I will sit down and play with her and she will copy me. She also loves to paint with paintbrushes and color with her markers. I leave her coloring books/bin of markers at the counter for her and she can climb up on her learning tower and color whenever the feeling strikes. I would love for her to be artsy. Her grandma Connie got her some princess play shoes and she loves those. I caught her in her closet trying them on saying "Loooove that" hahaha! She will also put them up to her foot and say "check sizes" lol! Cracks me up! We keep her dress up stuff on the lower level in her closet, so she often likes to get her tutu's on too and then of course will run to her mirror to see how they look. This girl is definately girly! I have a little drawer in my bathroom that I keep my costume jewelry in--she loves to get in there and put them all on. She'll then say "oohhhhh pretty." Gotta love this kid! Grandma said that she was retelling the story of when she went to the dr. saying " Emmie cried saying Mommy's house" That's what she calls our different houses--grandma's house and mommy's house lol! She can also count to twelve and knows all her ABC's (though she can't exactly point out which letter is what yet). We really don't push it...just like to sing songs and will show her different letters when we run across them. I know she can point out A,B,C and of course E. Numbers are the same--I'm not sure she knows what she is counting as she will often jump over the items and just keep on going. However, I am just sooooo proud of my little girl...she is turning into such a sweet caring child. She is very social with other kids and loves babies. She talks about Nick's little brother Adam calling him baby Adam. In fact, one of her little people is a boy baby and she calls that one baby Adam. At the playground, she is a rough and tumble though. Not one to fall down and cry like some kids do at minor stuff. She is a little wary of the big slides and sometimes won't attempt them until she sees another kid doing it. She loves to hang though and can hang by herself for a few seconds. We are practicing going from bar to bar with me holding her of course. She loves it! She can also swing in the big swing though we are still teaching her the pumping technique of propelling yourself forward without mommy and daddy's help. She's got a ways to go on that one! She's definately a climber like her mama though--let's hope she doesn't get up into a tree one day! I can't wait till the pool opens up...I just know she will really get into it this year.

On another note, she's been taking music classes with grandma and her friends during the week and she really likes it. I love exposing her to music--that's always been my passion too. I will hear her talking about Miss Janice (her teacher) and saying " Miss Janice says wishy washy" She has learned some new songs and likes to sing. Her favorites are Three Little Birds (she will request Bob lol!), It's a Small World, Wish Upon a Star and Get Rhythm (Johnny Cash). We've got cd's for Dan Zanes, Ziggy Marley, and Disney that we play in the car. I sing Jesus Loves You, Jesus Loves the Little Children, and Three Little Birds to her every night while I rock her.

The baby girl is TWO!!!

So my last post was about all the birthday's in February but wanted to give Em's party it's own post. ALOT of planning went into her party...I totally threw myself into the theme and had a lot of fun with it. I decided to do a Minnie Mouse theme since that's her favorite character right now (well with the exception of Simba from The Lion King--her fave movie at the moment). I did it with a twist though and used zebra and pink polka dot accents. I made tissue paper balls to hang over the dessert tables, covered the tables in zebra and polka dot fabrics and had pictures of the birthday girl everywhere. I put out a little bowl with Mickey and Minnie ears for guests to wear. I had Miss Gail come to sing songs with the kids and do a little dancing. Took them a minute to really warm up to her but in the end they all got into it! She had little instruments for them to play along with. It was a gorgeous day so we opened the patio doors up to the pool area and meadow--at the Clubhouse. I also set up a bounce house downstairs so after lunch the kiddos could go bounce off some energy. Sky arrived just in time with the beautiful Minnie cake she had made--it was almost 2 feet tall! It was delish--strawberry on one side and chocolate on the other. As luck would have it though, my camera battery started to die out halfway through the party! Could NOT belive it! But we did end up getting some good pics of the parrty and Megan helped take some for me. The Minnie cake help in its hands a smaller cake so Em got that one by herself to eat. Everyone sang Happy Birthday and she blew out her candle like a champ! Wondering what she wished for....

When everyone left, Aunt Lisa and cuz Alyssa stayed and we opened up their presents--a doctors kit and Mickey keyboard book from Aunt Lisa and a Princess dress up outfit from Alyssa. She loved the doctors kit and book and waited till we got home to try on her princess dress--she wanted to try her new dress up princess shoes from grandma Connie on with it. hehehe! We danced around a bit before leaving the Clubhouse. All in all, it was a fabulous party...I got lots of compliments on it. Everytime we drive by the Clubhouse now Em will say "over". Hahaha...I think she's waiting for next years! :)

February...the month of birthday's and sickness!

Ok so my last post left off at right after Christmas time so I wanted to update on her birthday MONTH! That's right...month! It was a whole month of celebrating. First off, we celebrated with the Gwinnett Area Mommies/babies who were born the month of February/Jan. which was Sam (Jan.), Nick, Ike and Em. It was a little playdate party where each kid got their own little cupcake and we would all sing each one Happy Birthday. They all loved it! And Em even blew out her candle! The following weekend was my birthday--33rd! We met my mom and Jus for dinner at the California Pizza Kitchen and of course my brother had brought cake! Yummy! Em helped me blow out my candle. Then Anna and Peter brought over a cake for us to celebrate Valentine's Day....so MORE cake to eat! haha! We've also had birthday parties galore to attend this month with Ike and Nick's on the same day, one after the other! We had planned to take her to the GA Aquarium for her actual birthday--Monday, Feb.14th, but that was cut short. She was a little off that morning, clingy and whiny but I just chalked it up to being a toddler. However, once we got started on our drive she complained that her "belly hurt". I started thinking this wasn't a good idea but we were already almost there. Before we could do anything else, she puked all over! It was awful! We turned around and headed back home. Poor girl puked several more times that day and we just ended up cuddling on the couch and watched movies. We did get to see Toy Story and she loved it. She couldn't keep anything down and I know she felt terrible. I'm thinking the birthday parties on Saturday had something to do with her getting sick Monday. Boo :( So all in all we ended up spending her birthday laying around and cleaning up puke! The following weekend was Gabby's birthday and by then all was well though her appetite was still a little off. She had fun playing with her friends at the gymnastics studio Gabby's party was in. Afterwards, we went to Grandma Connie's for a quick dinner and she loved getting to play outside with Roxie and Maxie.

Hmmm...guess it's time to catch up since I am now TWO months behind! We had a wonderful family Christmas. Spent Christmas Eve as usual at my Aunt Lisa and Uncle Denny's house. It was nice but we were missing some family members so it was definately a more quiet event than it normally is. I am looking forward to next years when the rest of the family can join us! She got a few goodies--a Mister Potato from Aunt Lisa and an adorable pink coat from cuz Alyssa. Em was especially taken by my aunt's new little dog--Minnie. Christmas day was fun. Opened presents Christmas morning and then had lunch next door at Grandma's. She got a new wooden kitchen, pots and pans and some food to go with it. We ended up putting up some of her gifts because she was opening one and playing with it for a hour! We would never have gotten done! Grandma Connie and Papa Donnie came over and they brought her an American Girl doll...she was in love! She used the stroller she got from Grandma Anna to stroll her around.

We decided to take a drive down to Tampa to visit some more family during the Christmas break and left the day or so after Christmas. Our plan was to go and stay for a few days. However, once we got there we realized that their house, etc. was not quite toddler proof and I had to run around catching her from breaking all the ceramics and other trinkets! Also, Em got sick the first night there and puked in her sleep-poor baby. I started to not feel well too so we decided to make it a quick trip and stayed only one day. We did get to visit briefly with the Ballinger cousins, aunts, uncles and my grandparents. I was really hoping to get a little bit more time with them but it just didn't work out that way. We were really bummed and decided to do at least one fun thing while down there and stopped at Busch Gardens before leaving town. Em had a blast--she got to ride her first ride by herself--woot woot! It was the swings ride. And she got to meet Big Bird, Elmo and Abby from Sesame Street. Would love to go back and do Busch Gardens again when we have more time and feel better. She crashed out in her stroller on our way leaving the park, with pretzel in hand (that NEVER happens!). She slept most of the way home though I could tell she wasn't feeling well. We left Tampa on New Years Eve and got home almost right at midnight! I ended up with a fever that wouldn't leave and Em was still feeling ill. Ended up taking her to the dr. the next day and poor girl was diagnosed with double ear infections and a sinus infection. I ended up with a really bad cold that lasted a few weeks. Boo! We will all be happy when Spring arrives and the sicky germs leave our house!