Successful Surgery

Friday, October 24 Emory was able to have tubes put in her ears. We arrived at the surgery center at 7:30 which may sound early, but trying to keep a baby occupied with having anything to eat or drink since dinner the night before is NOT fun. We were taken back very quickly and things went fairly quickly from then on. Emory might not have thought so, hence the tears in the picture below.

She was in surgery for literally 15 minutes before she was right back to us. At first she was very groggy, but quickly became very angry while coming out of the anesthetic. Not much could comfort her for about 30 minutes. She didn't want to be talked to, be fed, sung to, got tired of her juice, and so on and so on. She just flat out wanted to be MAD! Here's a picture of her finally getting calm with a cracker. We were on the road heading home by 9:00.
Since the surgery, Emory has been great. She is sleeping better, 11-12 hours a night. She has only done that a handful of times since she was born. Her appetite has also increase. She has always been a good eater of particular foods, but lately she has been finishing off her meals and still asking for "mo." I pray the tubes will help her stay healthy this year. I know there will still be sick times, but if we stay out of the dr every other week then we'll be doing good!

I love my spaghetti-o's!!!

Sick Baby & Birthday

For my birthday I got just what I wanted, time spent with my family. Fortunately for me my birthday happened to be on the same day my parents had tickets for the Tech vs UT game. Unfortunately for us Red Raider fans, UT won. We still had lots of fun though. We got to the game plenty early (like 3 hours). So we found a nice spot for Emory to run around on the grass and play. She was enjoying her time outside and even got to see the Masked Rider up close.

Emory wasn't too sure about the game. We thought she was very overwhelmed with the 61,000 people that were there, but come to find out she was getting sick. She tried to sleep through the first half of the game, but Tech was doing well and it was quite loud. She was able to sleep pretty soundly through the 2nd half though.
On our way out of the game (in the middle of thousands of people) Emory decided that it was time to be sick. After she got sick all over me, I rushed her to the bathroom where she continued her sickness. We woke up pretty early on Sunday morning with more sickness and made it home before it got too bad. Once at home, Emory continued to sleep but woke up once with 102.6 temp and still throwing up. She wasn't drinking much, but having very wet diapers. I started to get worried so off to the ER we went. We probably could have gone to the dr on-call, but were already at the ER by the time they called us back.

At the ER, we had to get the dr that had never seen kids before. He told me she looked fine (sucking her thumb, laying her head on my shoulder). Um NO!!! I quickly informed him that this was not normal behavior for our happy, on-the-go girl. So he decided she was dehydrated and needed to get some fluids. After more waiting three nurses came in to begin the IV. None of the nurses were excited about having to hurt my sweet baby, but were trying their best to do what would make her feel better. They were able to draw blood (which ended up to not be enough) and tried to get the IV going without any luck. So after 15 minutes of Emory screaming and poking around, they went to get another dr. Emory laid on me for a while and then popped up ready to go. So when the next dr came in she was acting much better. He didn't think she needed any fluids and checked her ears to see her left ear was infected. So he changed her antibiotics and gave her juice to make sure she could keep it down. After about 45 more minutes we were on our way back home.
Monday Emory was pretty good. She didn't run fever, but I was giving her Tylenol and Motrin all day. I sent her on to day care today, but found out she started running a fever at the very end of the day. So it looks like it's Nana day-care tomorrow. I hope that we can get over this SOON so we can go through with the tubes on Friday. My prayers are that the tubes will eliminate all this sickness in the future. I know it won't cure it all, but hopefully will at least cut down on the ear infections. This momma is tired and Emory I know is tired of feeling bad.

Hope for a more positive post next time. :)

Day Care

Emory started back to day care last week. She had quite a rough week last week. The rest of the kiddos did not make the promotion until this week, but we didn't really want to start her back in her old class just to move her again in a week. So last week she was in with some of the "big kids." She would only take 20 minute naps and would not be on the floor to play. She was very clingy to the teachers and would have to take her naps in another room where there was a crib.

This week, however, is a completely different story. She has still gotten a little sad during drop off, but the notes have said "Emory was GREAT today!" She has even taken 1 1/2 hour naps on her nap mat! What a big accomplishment for my little one-year-old.

*Warning-bragging moment*

Today I went to pick her up and all the babies were sitting in the table watching the teacher with flash cards. Emory's back was to me so I was able to watch her for a second. The teacher showed them a picture of food and I watched Emory sign "eat" then said "mo" (which is her more), and sign "please." The teacher didn't understand her "mo" and thought she was saying "meow." Luckily her mama knows how smart she is. I was so proud!!!

Unfortunately there are no pictures to add to this post, but I have yet to take my camera with me to day care.

My Baby turns ONE!!

We have had a wonderful past few weeks. Emory took her first steps back in June, but the week of her birthday was when she really started to get somewhere. She also got her first 2 teeth that same week. It has been so much fun watching her turn into a sweet little girl.

We also had a great time at her birthday party. It was a somewhat rushed event. I had been teaching Threshold (the gifted camp at HSU) for two weeks so Emory had been in Ackerly for a few days the first week, home with Gramsy for a couple more days, and then spent the days (and a night) at Nana's with help from her cousin Sarah. So I got home at 5 and had most of Emory's friends from church come around 6. We all had a great time.

Emory didn't dive into her cake like I expected, but we were able to get some good shots of her cake eating with Aunt Martha the weekend before. Even then she wasn't a complete mess.

Some things Emory's up to at the age of 1:

- pulling up on any and everything

- walking across a room without falling

- has 2 teeth

- LOVES to eat all fruits, mac & cheese, grilled cheese sandwiches, most breakfast foods (Nutri-Grain bars, waffles, yogurt)

- does NOT like the texture of veggies, meats, eggs (I was told by the dr today that she will eventually come around...I sure hope so)

- weighs 18.2 lbs and is 27 3/4 in long -10th percentile

- can sign "all done", "more", "please", "bath", and sometimes "dog" although she is just imitating Pali when she does it

- wearing 9-12 month clothes

We are definitely blessed by our precious little girl. Our life has changed drastically in the past year, but we certainly wouldn't trade it for anything. We love you sweet Emory!!

Fireworks, family, & fun

We just returned from a trip to Nacogdoches visiting my brother and aunt and uncle. We had so much fun. We got there on Friday (early afternoon). We had a low key evening with ordering pizza and letting Emory loose after being in the car for 6+ hours. She is the BEST traveler. She doesn't sleep the whole time, but stays mostly happy and content. What a blessing!!

Saturday we were able to go to the next town (Lufkin) and ride a train and go to their zoo. It was lots of fun and Emory loved the train ride. She would have enjoyed the zoo more if she wasn't quite so tired. It was definitely lots of fun. Here she is on the train ride.

Sunday was the day of Freedom Fest. My brother's band plays there every year and once again did a great job. Emory enjoyed being able to crawl around on the blanket and enjoy the music. Emory with her Uncle Justin after he played his set.

Since I haven't updated in a while, here's a little bit of what E is up to these days.

-Uses sign language for more (always) and all done (sometimes). Here's a pic of her saying more. She doesn't do it correctly with all fingers together. She taps one finger on her other palm, but she definitely gets her point across. It's so cute...she does it any time she is eating and when she wants to eat. It definitely helps to know what she wants.

-Eating all the time. She loves goldfish, Gerber's puffs, fruit of any kind, waffles, yogurt. She's not too into her veggies so we're still doing baby food there just to get some vegetables in her.

-She's getting very clingy lately since we're spending so much time together during the summer. I'm hoping this is just a short phase and that going back to "school" won't be too traumatic.

-She has actually taken a few steps!!!! She took her first (unassisted) steps at my parents the weekend they kept her. She's taken quite a few more since then and I know it will be no time before she's cruising right along. I don't think she actually walked without assistance this time, but she was trying.

-She still has NO teeth. I'm hoping that her fussy attitude is due to that, but I have thought that many times before so we'll see.

-She's wearing 6-9 month clothes.

And most importantly she is absolutely PERFECT!!! We are having so much fun. We are planning her one year party for the end of the month. It is definitely hard to believe that this time last year I was absolutely miserable and now I know how worth it all that uncomfortableness was.

Memorial Day weekend

We had a great Memorial Day weekend. E and I went to Ackerly for most of the weekend where we got to spend time with Gramsy and Papa Reg. The Addison's and the Brown's also came out on Saturday to play and visit. Emory was surprised by a pool just her size to take her first swim. She loved it (even after taking a nose dive into it while playing).

Emory and I came home on Sunday so we could spend the day with Aaron on Monday. We went to have an early breakfast and then went to the zoo early before it got too hot. Emory was tired and fell asleep on the way to the zoo so she was a little zoned out while we were there. We will have to keep trying until she's there at a time where she's wide awake and can enjoy the zoo to it's fullest. :)

Although I did have to go back to work for a few days after Memorial Day, I did make it through and we are now enjoying summertime!

Random Pics / 10 months

Here are just a few pics from here and there.

Here's Aaron and Emory swinging at the park. Our church class met at the park one night for a devo and play time for the kids. Emory enjoyed crawling around on the ground, picking up wood chips and leaves and then of course swing time with Daddy. So sweet!

Emory has started more and more table food. In fact she's at the point where she doesn't really like baby food anymore, but without teeth it's hard to find things I'm not afraid to feed her. In fact as long as she can feed herself, she's a happy girl. She has gotten very good at "chewing" all of her food and getting used to the texture of different things. She LOVES mac and cheese. In fact that is all she would eat I think if I would let her. She also likes rice and beans, watermelon, bananas, and yogurt. I can't believe how much she's changing. She still has 3-4 bottles of formula a day, but I think it will be an easy transition to whole milk when the time comes. She weighs (approximately) 17 lbs and a little over 25" tall. We haven't been to the dr in a while (thank goodness) so I don't know the exact stats.

The weather has been so nice lately. We have enjoyed many evenings hanging out outside. Emory loves being outside so we try to get out there as often as we can and during times of the day when it's not too hot. As you can see Aaron has been working hard to get our house looking nice. He's done such a great job...now we'll see how long we stay in this house. It won't be long before Aaron insists on moving to the country again.

Mother's Day/Graduation

Yes I know I'm way behind, but I have been too tired (until now) to get this updated. We had a big weekend in May. My first Mother's Day came on the same weekend I graduated with my Master's degree. So needless to say, it was one GREAT weekend. Here's Emory and I after graduation. She did great all the way through graduation. It was very nice to have my parents, Aaron's parents, and Justin (and of course Aaron) there to help me celebrate. It has definitely been a long and sometimes difficult journey, but it has definitely been worth it. I learned so much and had a great group of professors and peers to work with.

The other part of the weekend was Mother's Day. We had a very nice day. We ate lunch at Perini Ranch with the family (YUM-MY) and then spent the rest of the day relaxing. Emory has been the best thing that has ever happened to us. I am so lucky and blessed with her and thank God everyday for blessing us with her. Here's a picture of my sweet family on Mother's Day.

Just wanted to include a sweet bath picture. Emory LOVES her bath time. Anytime she has travel out of the same room with me, she is almost always in the bathroom standing next to the bathtub. She is always ready to take a bath. :)

We also had our Baby Blessing at church, but my camera batteries died the morning of so I have no picture to show for it. Hopefully some of my friends got some pictures and they will be kind enough to share. We are so blessed to be part of a church family that has so many babies and kids. We love them all.

Bluebonnet pics

We finally got some bluebonnet pictures. Every good Texas kid needs their picture taken in a field of bluebonnets. This might not be the last ones of the year, but here's just a few from our "shoot" today.

In our Easter best!

This is her new trick. Isn't she cute???

Sweet girl!!!

Our beautiful Texas girl. What a beautiful scenery and an even beautiful girl.

Easter

I just realized I hadn't posted anything about Easter yet. Our family went to Ackerly for the weekend. It was a very nice visit and we spent Easter Sunday at my uncle Mike's house. It was so nice of him and Judy to have us all over. Emory got spoiled by Gramsy and Papa Reg and then got even more spoiled by Judy with an Easter basket, eggs of her own, and presents.

Nana made Emory's Easter dress. It was absolutely beautiful. Everyone was very impressed by Nana's handi-work. She was completely adorable. Here are a few pics from the weekend.

The family before church.

Emory in her Easter dress...thanks Nana.

Look what the Easter bunny brought.

Into everything!

Happy Easter!!!

9 months

I have put this off partly because of lack of time (and energy) and partly because I'm not ready to accept the fact I have a 9 month old. We did not go to the dr for a 9 month appt because we were there a week earlier to check Emory's ears. Dr Wiley said her ears looked much better and is hoping that with preventative meds she will make it to summer without another infection. Once summer hits she will be at home with me and hopefully stay well. I was quite nervous about this appt because I just knew we would have to have tubes. So I can't remember her exact measurements. She weighed 15 lbs and 6 oz and they didn't tell me the height. She is still little, but that doesn't stop her from accomplishing all of her milestones.

She is now crawling on all fours and can get where she wants to go pretty quickly. This causes a few problems of getting things out of her reach and no matter how clean the floors are, she can find the littlest fuzz, dirt, etc and get it in her mouth before we're able to stop her. Oh well, so is life! She started a new class at daycare. She is now a Wallaby. This was a very hard transition. She bonded so much with her previous teacher that drop-off was never a problem. Now I think it's a combination of beginning separation anxiety and not used to her new teachers yet. I am still very pleased with her daycare. They take great care of her and even gave her homework this week. They are beginning to teach sign language so our homework was easy since we have already started that at home.

She has become very independent. She doesn't like being fed her baby food. She would rather eat something that she can do all by herself. This poses quite a challenge because she has a VERY sensitive gag reflex so meal time is quite eventful. Makes it lots of fun eating out too...I usually spend my time cleaning up a "mess" before I can finish my meal.

Emory has thankfully started sleeping through the night. She goes to bed between 8 and 8:30. She will sleep until almost 6:00. This is a huge improvement and I will take every little bit of sleep I can. She has begun to suck her thumb (not my choice). I try to give her the pacifier, but she takes it out and throws it on the floor and goes straight for her thumb. Luckily it's only in her mouth until she falls asleep and then it falls out. Hopefully that won't be a habit we have to break.

She has started liking Bible class again and is tagged the "talkative" one. Emory is quite the talker. She can be very loud (which scares some of her friends) and talks almost non-stop when she in that kind of mood. Where did this come from???? Certainly not her mama or daddy. She can say mama, dada, baba, papa, but is not saying it to the appropriate person quite yet. She has also started this waving thing which I can't figure out if it is trying to get something she wants or if it is mimicking what she's seen for so long.

What a fun adventure we have been on for the last 9 months!! There are times that I am frustrated and tired (especially through this teething time), but the joys and love overcomes those few frustrating times. Emory is our precious little princess. We love you E!!!

*I could only get one video to post. So sorry!!

Spring Break

Aaron, Emory and I went to Missouri for the beginning of Spring Break. We met Aaron's parents at his grandparents house. We all had such a good time and it was so good for Grandpa and Grandma to finally meet Emory. It was a little cold so we didn't get out and do too much, but Emory had a good time showing off for everyone inside where it was nice and warm. Emory also got to meet the sweet lady who lived down the road from where Aaron used to live. She had just celebrated her 90th birthday and still lives on her own. All the little old ladies and little old men at Grandpa and Grandma's church loved having a little one to keep them entertained. We had a great time, as always.

Grandpa had a bad accident on Wednesday (after we left on Tuesday). He was trying to pull a calf from a mama who was having trouble. The mama cow broke loose and knocked him over and then step on his chest. He has three broken ribs and a bruised lung. He spent several days in the hospital, but is now back home. We hope that he is doing ok, but he isn't the type to slow down so we hope he doesn't over do it.

To finish off the week, my mom came and stayed for a couple of days so that I could study for my orals exam (which I PASSED...YEA). While she was here we went to the zoo with Sarah, Grace, and Morgan (and Nana and Aunt Kim too). Emory didn't care too much for the animals that blended in, but she loved the giraffes, the water for the turtles, monkeys, and zebras. We look forward to many more trips to the zoo.

On friday Emory went home with my mom for a night. Emory was great and I was able to get A LOT done. I'm sure there will be many more meetings half-way. We had a great week and now we're ready for summer!

7-month

I figured I better hurry up and post Emory's 7-month happenings before she turns 8 months. She has been so much fun. Just when I think it can't get any better, she goes and starts doing something else and makes it even more fun.

She is rolling EVERYWHERE. She can get any where she needs to go and rolls to get there. She really wants to be crawling but it's just not happening yet. I'm enjoying the limited days of the some-what mobile days. She can say "da-da" which she says constantly. Her daycare teachers told me yesterday she has a best friend in her class and the two girls chat away. They said the girls will talk and talk and then start laughing at each other. They also said the girls will not go to sleep if they can see each other (their cribs are next to each other). I love that she's so social and will go to anyone about 90% of the time. Her chatty nature sometimes causes problems in church, but there's enough other babies to kind of drowned her out.

She loves fruits and will tolerate almost any veggie. She still is not liking any kind of "table" food that has a different texture. She is taking a 6 oz (sometimes less) bottle every 4-5 hours. Our sleeping patterns cannot get on a schedule because of sickness.

Poor baby has had 2 ear infections this month. She was off antibiotics for about a week before we had to go back to the dr. So we're still on antibiotics, but hopefully this will be the last of it.

We are traveling to Missouri this weekend to see Aaron's grandparents...the longest trip Emory's ever taken. We'll see how it goes and I will post about our trip when we return.

I am looking forward to Spring Break, but will spend the majority of it studying since I will be taking Orals the week after. I am finally finishing up my masters and so glad to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I'm ready to have my life back. :)

Pictures will have to come later...computer is not cooperating.

6 Months

We took Emory for her 6 month check-up a week or so ago. She is doing great and now able to start even more things. She weighed 14 lbs and was 24 3/4 in long. Dr. Wiley said he wasn't concerned about her size, she was just petite (with a big head). She is still in the 25th percentile for her height and weight and 50th for the size of her head.

Oh the things she is up to now are endless. It is so much fun watching her now. She loves sitting (yes completely sitting) on the floor playing with all of her toys. Of course she loves play (or "eating) everything. Measuring spoons and cups are some of favorite and anything that makes noise or that she can tear up will keep her attention more than anything else.

She is able to eat stage 2 baby foods now and Dr. Wiley said to start introducing her to different textures. She DOES NOT like this change. If something of a different texture hits her lips she either holds her mouth open until it falls out or she gags...sometimes to the point of throwing up. So we're backing off that for a little while and will try again later.

She LOVES playing with her feet. As soon as the socks come off, the feet are in her mouth. She's even so good that she can get one little toe in her mouth and suck away.

She is sleeping about the same. She will go down around 7:30-8:30 and sleep for a while. She still wakes up once during the night, but now has no set time she wakes up. She will then sleep until 6:30 or 7 (which I think is caused by having to wake up for day care every day). She has gotten much better about putting herself to sleep and waking up some during the night and going back to sleep without me getting up.

Emory is into EVERYTHING. She is very busy and never still unless she is sleeping. She is constantly grabbing things and trying to get anything she can. She loves talking to her Gramsy, Papa Reg, and Uncle Justin on Skype. Although it is quite tiring for me since she is so busy and constant.

All in all, we are having a GREAT time. She is our blessing and we thank God for her everyday. She brings so much fun, love, and entertainment to our lives.

4 Christmases

A quick recap of our insanely busy month of Christmases. We started in December with Aaron's cousin's wedding on the 12th and have been going non-stop until today. The weekend of the 19th we spent the weekend with Aaron's siblings, their families, and Mom and Dad for Christmas #1. We had a great time watching the 4 girls open lots of dolls, clothes, and toys of all kinds. We also had a chance to watch The Blindside which was an incredible movie. Here are the girls, as you can see Emory loves watching her cousins.

We were with my mom, dad, and brother for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day (Christmas #2). Abilene got a boat load of snow on Christmas Eve and it looked as if we were going to be stuck in Abilene, but we finally made it to Ackerly at just the right time. Here Emory with her Papa Reg looking at the snow.
Christmas morning was amazing. I had no idea how much fun it was opening presents with a little one. Watching her "open" and literally try to eat her presents was so much fun. She got LOTS of toys and of course most of them make lots of noise, but she has begun sitting up while playing with them so we'll take it. :) Emory posed for almost every picture after opening her presents just like she was supposed to. Here are just a couple of pics from Christmas morning.

The next day (Saturday) we had Christmas #3 with my mom's side of the family. It was so good to have everyone together, but always a little sad that my grandmother is not well enough to attend anymore. Lots of food, games, and fun had by all. This was the best picture taken with my camera of the cousins.

Finally came Christmas #4 with my dad's side of the family. Every year we meet up in Dallas and enjoy a whole weekend with the ever growing number of family members. We were up to 33 this year with everyone being able to come. This is a picture of just cousins, spouses, and kids. SO MUCH FUN!!!

Needless to say we are truly blessed by the family we have and the closeness we all share. We have thanked God greatly for giving us the loving families He did and remembering those who aren't as fortunate. May God bless your family.
A quick recap of our insanely b