Future Call Center Employee?

We went to Ivan's work today for a few hours today and Emery showed us that she is a call center employee in the making.
Here she is zoning out to Elmo on U Tube
Sporting her Utah gear!

My Day

I was off today and had planned to spend a few hours at the outlet stores in Park City. Below is an overview of our day.

930a - Emery gets up, feed her her daily eggs for breakfast, we both get ready
1130a - leave for Park City
1135a - daily stop at Sonic for a coke for me. I've started to get Emery a kids cup of crushed ice everyday when I stop there because she loves ice so much. She now can spot out a Sonic while we are driving down the road :)
12-215p - shopping in PC - got a ton of cute winter outfits for Emery. I did remember myself and Ivan for one shirt each
245-330p - Nap time
345-6p - reading, playing, Elmo time
615p - driving home from Del Taco, Emery projectile vomits in the car. I have no idea where it came from, she just started coughing and then vomited. We were almost home so I gave her a napkin to clean her hands and face. I dry heaved the whole way home thinking about cleaning it up.
640p - after I ate, I pulled Emery's carseat out of the car to wash it. We were outside and Emery was still eating a soft taco. All of a sudden, Emery starts crying and I see her taco on the floor - I yelled at Carter to make him go to his bed and picked Emery up to comfort her. She was crying more than usual over lost food so I looked at her hand. Sure enough, Carter nipped her hand. No blood, but there were teeth marks. I'm assuming he was just trying to get her food, but unacceptable. The crate will be returning and Carter will be put there while Emery eats!
710p - bath time - Emery was washed and just playing in the tub. All of a sudden she coughs and vomits again. I quickly grab her out of the bath so I don't have to re-bathe her. Once she stands up, she pees everywhere.
730p - call Mandy for vomiting advice
745-830p - reading and Elmo time
845p - bedtime and my internet time. I do have the monitor turned up really loud and I'm sure if I hear one little cough from Emery, I'll rush into her room.

I can't believe we made it almost two years before Emery vomited for the first time. I'm hoping it was just a one time thing today and that Emery isn't really sick with the flu or something. She's acting totally normal, other than the occassional cough/vomiting episode. The first half of my day was wonderful but I have to admit, the second half I was counting down the time until bedtime.

It's also the first Utah football game of the day. Ivan has been gone all day and this will be our reality for every Saturday until the end of November. (Except October 3rd, their off week.)
Go Utes!!!

Poop, Poop & Elmo

Emery has been waking up the last few nights around midnight basically just wanting to hang out in our bed, and eat trail mix. Last night, I had put her to bed twice already and she was up crying for a while. I was trying to get her to go back to sleep and finally my mommy-guilt kicked in, so I went in to get her. As soon as I opened the door, I could smell poop and I felt bad that I had left her crying for a little bit. Then, I noticed that she had gotten her diaper off and pooped in her crib. Still in denial, I lifted her up and went to wipe her bum and put a diaper on her, figuring I would just have to change her sheets.

Little did I know, that she had stepped in the poop, had it on her hands and between her toes. Off to the bathtub we went, at midnight. Lucky for me, Ivan had just gotten home from his friends, so he had the duty of cleaning up her room. Not until he snapped a picture of course (sorry if it's nasty, I had to document it).
We've been losely working on potty training for a few weeks now. Each day this weekend, Emery has pee'd in the potty 3-4 times per day and pooped in the potty today. She's well on her way to being diaper free.
When Ivan got Emery up from her afternoon nap today, she had taken off her diaper and pants AGAIN! Her diaper was thrown across the room and she was quickly trying to wipe up the pee in her crib with her pants. So tonight, we've resorted to .....
Good 'ol duct tape! Ivan's Mom is going to kill us when she finds out, but I've already changed Emery's crib sheets twice in two days and we all know, that's a chore in itself. We'll see how it all goes tonight.
And, it's all worth it because Emery is such a sweetheart. Here is a picture from her this morning. She loves Elmo and her Elmo Potty Time DVD (I think the potty training has been sped up by the DVD by the way). I had Emery's carseat in the house from washing the cover and she sat in it, with Elmo and her blanky for about 15 minutes this morning watching the Elmo DVD. Just another cute picture showing how much fun Emery is

Flashback Friday

This picture is from December 20, 2007 - Emery was 7 weeks old. We were getting ready to watch a Utah Basketball Game on TV and she was dressed and ready to cheer on Utah!

Potty Training - Part 2

OK, I think Emery is really ready for potty training now. She pee'd in the potty and poo'd in the potty last night. She loves the reward of M&M's and I bought her some Elmo books that are to be "potty toys" only. She's definitely on an Elmo kick these days and loves to read the books while she sits on the potty. (Pictures to come of course)

I'm so nervous about potty training. I have no idea how to go about it. Any tips or advice? I'm off tomorrow so after our pool outing, I'm trying to work up the nerve to put big girl panties on her. I guess I just put her on the potty every 20-30 mins and then change her panties with every accident.

I really just want to send her to Ivan's Mom's for a week, and visit her of course, and let Lola take care of this task. Maybe I'm not giving myself enough credit and it will be easier than I think. Or I'm in denial. Not sure which one is true yet, more to come later ...

Just Because ...

A Day at the Zoo

We had a great trip to the zoo today. We got there early, well, for us it was early and the weather was perfect.

Emery and Grandma Lola playing with Emery's favorite thing - water!
Makayla's feet got tired and Emery refused to be in her stroller so Makayla took advantage of it and got a free ride for a while.
Myself, Quinlan and Emery. Emery wasn't quite sure what she thought of me holding another baby. At one point, she moved my hand so I wasn't touching Quinlan - too cute!
Makayla and Lilly

Pool Day

We met up with my family this afternoon at the Cottonwood Heights pool. I had never been there, but I have a feeling we will be going again very soon. Emery loved being outside, being in the pool and watching all of the other kids around. I don't have many pictures since we were off playing the whole time, but here are a few quick one's I was able to catch.

Thanksgiving Point Petting Zoo

I took the kids to the petting zoo on Wednesday and we had a great time. It was nice to get out of the house and run around while petting animals.
Emery "weeding" the grounds


Makayla riding the ponyMakayla and Emery enjoying a Popsicle and water at the end of the tripWe got home and Makayla decided she wanted to model! Here are her best poses

4th of July Fun

My niece Makayla is in town for 10 days so we've been very busy. Below are a few pictures I captured over the weekend.

Makayla and Emery coloring together I bought this pool at Walmart for $30 and I think I will get every penny's worth. It was totally easy to blow up and is the perfect size for Emery - even Makayla loves it!Well, Emery didn't really like it the first time we tried to put her down the slide.
The second day (and diaper free) was much better - she loved it!After bathtime, Emery was entertaining herself and being quiet for too long. When I went to check on her, she was playing Ivan's PS3 all by herself and having a blast!
We went to the Discovery Center at Gateway today. I didn't take many pictures, but here are a couple. Emery loved being in the baby stroller .. her bum almost got stuck in it.Amelinda and Quinlan joined us today. Quinlan isn't walking quite yet, but he still enjoyed the baby area at the museum.
My two little cuties in the car!

Mini Me

Emery walking in my boots. She loves these boots and actually walks really good in them.
She put my flip flops on today and I thought she looked just like me. Jeans, t-shirt and flip flops is what I wear 90% of the time.
Whenever I try to take a picture of Emery, she kneels down like this. Finally today, I realized why. I kneel down just like that every time I try to take a picture of her so I think she thinks anytime the camera is out she should kneel down. Very cute, but it makes for a more difficult time of taking pictures.By the way, I think we are officially binky free as of tonight. I cut a huge hole into one of Emery's binky's on Monday night and have been putting her down with it for naps and bedtime since. Tonight when I put her down with the binky with a hole in it, she handed it right back to me. I left the room and shut the door and she went to bed without a peep. I swear, she is the easiest kid around! She has been waking up earlier than normal because when she had her binky she would use it to soothe herself back to sleep. But, for us, earlier than normal is like 730-830a so it's really not that bad. Good job Emery for being binky free!!!

Advice Needed

I'm not sure if this just comes with the territory of a 20 month old baby or not. Emery is so stinking needy and clingy, but only with ME! Ivan tells me all of the time that she isn't like that when they are home together and that he only sees her act like this when I'm around.

I love the fact that she is a Mommy's girl, but honestly, it becomes draining and I don't want her to be a whiny kid. Last night, we were out doing yard work and Emery was hanging all over me and whining for me to hold her. Ivan took her in the house to feed her dinner and she freaked out. She wasn't mad about going into the house, she was mad because I stayed outside. When she gets up in the morning and I'm home, she just wants to be held and carried around the house and whines and whines when I don't hold her. I've tried just ignoring it and trying to distract her, sometimes it works and other times she just continues to whine.

Any advice from you experienced Mommy's out there??

Misc. Pictures

Emery sweeping the floor, she is the best helper!
Wearing my heels .. when I saw her walk out of my room like that I thought about how quickly she will be walking out of her room in heels ready for a date - ugh!
Emery's newest toy! We actually very rarely buy toys for her (I'm addicted to clothes and shoes though). Anyway, Emery loves to play with kitchen bowls and utensils so I bought her her own little kitchen. She loves it! Now I just need to find some play food for her to cook up.
The real thing .. making brownies with Daddy..
Is this not the worst beggar-dog you've ever seen? We were making pigs in a blanket for lunch today (gourmet, I know but it's better than Del Taco, right) and I look over to see Carter, hovering over and staring right into the oven. I swear, he was mesmerized and couldn't take his eyes off the oven for anything.