What a crazy spring and summer!

Since I have been so bad at blogging this year (only one back in February and a few in August), I'm using this post to show off some of the great photos that we have from this past spring and summer and to write some of the memories down before I forget them.

Emma is currently in love with farm animals- cows, horses, pigs, sheep, chickens. We are not exactly sure where this came from as it just came out of the blue one day. For the last month or so all we hear about is cows, horses, and pigs. Her favorite song is Old MacDonald. I'm not sure that you could say it is John and I's favorite song, but it ranks up in the top due to the sheer amount of times we have listened to it in the past month or so. She is still really into vehicles too, so we also hear a lot about trains, planes, trucks and cars.

We took a trip on the light rail this summer to downtown Minneapolis. Emma talked about riding the "blue" train for the next week or so. It was definitely a highlight for her.

She is still attending swimming and gymnastics every week. Her swimming is improving dramatically every class. She can swim around with just her sponge on- no noodle or barbell- for a long time. Dipping in the water, which is the equivelant to going under water and swimming is her favorite thing to do. She has improved so much that she is moving up to the next level without mom and dad in the water!  When we sing the wheels on the bus, the movements are what we do in the pool not what people normally do. We took her to the aquatic center a few times this summer and she loved it! By next summer, she should be swimming like a pro for sure.

We took a trip to Arizona in April, which was Emma's first time on a plane.  She did wonderful!  Even a couple fellow passengers commented on how well she did. Here she is rocking out with her new headphones in the hotel. We were only gone for a long weekend, but with a two hour time difference it was long enough.  It is amazing how many things are not open at 6:00 in the morning, but for us it was 8:00 so we were up and going regardless.  We managed to find a great park for these early mornings!

May was also graduation for Mom ... masters degree check! This might be part of the reason that I had no life this spring. With attempting to finish up my last two grad classes, entertain a toddler, work full time, and deal with the first trimester of being pregnant,  I had very little time or energy for anything other than those things. But I graduated and I'm very excited to be done. Emma is very excited too as you can tell by this photo!


At the beginning of June, John and I celebrated our 10 year college reunion.  Holy, I can't not believe that we have been out of school for that long. Once I stopped to think about it, I really started to feel old!  Here Emma and I are enjoying the lawn at St. Olaf. 

At Special Olympics, one of my main responsibilities was running the Summer Camp. A few years ago, we added a Young Athletes day camp to our regular Summer Camp. Young Athletes is a program for children ages 2-7 with and without disabilities to teach them the basics of sports-- kicking, throwing, hitting, etc. Since Emma turned two this summer and I'm no longer working the Summer Camp, I took her to the day camp part of it.  It was a beautiful day and always fun to see Emma trying new things.


Here are few other photos worth sharing from the spring/summer:

Emma and Dad hanging out in the hammock (with Stella the baby doll) at the lake this summer. 

Emma and the Easter Bunny. 

We got to spend the weekend at Montevideo in June celebrating my cousin Melea's wedding. It was a great weekend and we are super excited for them (and their newest addition as of October).  Here is Emma dancing away at the reception. We had to drag her away from the party she was having so much fun!!

Things have been so crazy around our house these past nine months. As I look back on these photos, I can't believe how fast the year has gone. We have had even more adventures this fall, but I will leave that for another post.

 

Ramblings of an 8 1/2 Month Prego

I started this post three days before Linnea was born, but didn't get a chance to post it. I thought I would still post it to give you an idea of how this pregnancy went ....

Written on November 12:

I'm officially at 37 weeks-- three more to go. I've been planning for an early delivery so that I wasn't caught off guard like with Emma (who arrived at 37 1/2 weeks). But I've started to think now that this kid is going to torture me as long as possible and we will have a December kid yet!

This pregnancy has been horrible for many reasons and if you were to ask me about pregnancy I would definitely give you an earful.

- I don't glow, but instead look ragged and exhausted all the time.

- Wait, I am actually ragged and exhausted all the time. 

- I haven't slept for months. I wake up every two hours (some nights more often than that) because my hips hurt so bad. I end up sleeping sitting up for at least half the night because my hips are hurting so much.

- I was diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes and have been on a strict carb diet and am checking blood sugars four times a day. Can I tell you how much I want a cup of orange juice?

- I had morning sickness for about 8 of the 9 months and have still periodically felt sick during this last month.

- Walking for more about five minutes is more than my back and body can handle. So basically I can't move.

- Did I mention the heartburn?

- I have been at the doctors office more in the past month than I have in the last five years.

But in spite of how awful it has been, it could have been so much worse. So far the baby is fine and healthy (at least that is what we can tell so far from all of our doctor's visits), which is the most important thing. I am so thankful and relieved that the baby is doing great! So even though pregnancy is not my cup of tea, I'm so very excited to meet little jelly bean whenever she decides to make an appearance (I just hope it's sooner than later)! 

Emma's Biggest Adventure Yet Is Coming Soon

Emma's next big adventure will be happening at some point in December. A sibling!

As many of you already know, but we are expecting kid two in December. For those who are curious, this will be kid two and the final kid. We are stopping at two!  It was actually a pretty big decision for us to have kid two since we were not sure that we wanted to disrupt the new family dynamics that have evolved over the past two years. Also, this whole parenting thing is a lot of work-- more so than I ever expected. But in the end, we decided that Emma needed a sibling and heck two can't be that much more work than one, right? 

Jelly Bean (as we have decided to call it) is due December 3rd, but I'm hoping for a delivery before Thanksgiving. Mostly because I want to stay as far away from Christmas as possible and because I'm ready to be done being pregnant already. We are 26 weeks-- 2 weeks away from the third trimester already. Thank god!

I did not enjoy pregnancy the first time around and this time is just as bad. It is so much harder being pregnant with a two year old running around too. All I want to do is run around with Emma at the park or the pool, but I don't have energy, stamina, and I have too much pain for much of anything. I had morning sickness with Emma but it ended as the second trimester started. This time around it is going on six months. It has finally eased up a little this past week, but I'm sure that is just a fluke and will return in full force soon. My back pain is back, which means that I can't do much walking, lifting, bending, etc. I hate it because it means that I can't play as easily with Emma, so I leave that part to John. I don't think Emma notices, but I still feel bad about it and can't wait until December.

We had our ultrasound in July and everything looked normal and perfect at this point. They didn't give us digital photos at this one (just old school print outs), so the photos below are from our 13 week ultrasound. I'm going to post them because in reality both sets of photos look the same and I haven't had time to scan in the print outs. Also, the kid was not the most cooperative at the ultrasound in July, so the 13 week ones are actually better shots.

Two Years Old

Last month, we celebrated Emma's second birthday. It was a very laid back affair with a trip to the doctor, some swimming and "go go" of course (her word for any type of dessert). Emma is in love with Minnie and Mickey, so we made sure to get a cake with Minnie on it.

I can't believe that Emma is two years old-- it has been a crazy adventure so far. It is amazing how much she has learned and changed over the last two years. From a newborn who couldn't move to a two year old who won't stop talking and would go swimming for hours every day if we let her. I can't wait to see what the next year brings!

Obsession with the dog and cat

After a long gap in writing, I'm posting a few posts about the last few months (and other things that are interesting to me at least). This post's topic is about how obsessed Emma is with the dog and cat.  

Emma LOVES Chloe the dog and Toby the cat to the point where I would call it an obsession. Emma is two years old and this obsession has been going on for about 9 months now. At least now, she is much better at petting than six months ago. Thank goodness Chloe is such a great dog around kids (and Toby just ignores her).

Emma's first word was dog. The first thing Emma does in the morning is look for the dog and cat. Her favorite chore is to "feed" the dog and every time she sees that the bowl is empty she looks at me and does her sign for more or now she says "mo mo". She also tells me that Chloe needs more food even when there is still food in the bowl. Chloe is going to gain a lot of weight.  Emma is very good about making sure Chloe has a bone or her favorite stuffed green dog, regardless of whether Chloe wants it or not. She even likes to play "chase" in the park with Chloe 

Her word for dog is whoa whoa and for cat it is meow. She finally within the last couple weeks started being able to say Chloe and Toby, but still prefers to call them by the sound they make most of the time.

It looks we have an animal lover!

Playing in the dog crate

Toddler Conversations

Emma was slow to talk, but now that she is talking we can't get her to be quiet! It has made life very interesting and funny all at the same time. Each day her sentences get more complex and she is starting to vocalize more complex ideas too.

 Here are some of my favorite conversations and words that Emma used (she has transitioned to the correct word for most of these now though).

Gogo: started out as cupcake, but became any dessert

Whoa whoa: dogs

Meow: cats

Mingo: flamingo

doodle: rooster

Go gone: all gone

Colored Cheerios: Fruit Loops

Tummy Button: belly button 

Emma had some trouble pronouncing "f", so all words that start with f sound like s-- food becomes sood, phone becomes shone, etc. 

Here are a couple conversations that crack me up:

The "you have to work to feed the piggy" conversation:

(We wanted to teach Emma the concept of work and money, and this turned into one of our daily conversation about six months ago).
Emma: "Work"
Mom or Dad: "That's right. We need to go to work. Mom and Dad go to work and Emma goes to Grandma and Grandpa's to work."
Emma: "Money"
Mom or Dad: "Yes, we have to go to work to make money"
Emma: "Piggy"
Mom or Dad: "Yes, you put your money your piggy bank to save it.  What are you saving it for?"
Emma: "College"
Mom or Dad: "Are you saving for St. Olaf?"

This is the point where the conversation is obviously biased by her parents.

Clifford Conversation:

We have a Clifford the Big Red Dog story that Emma loves. The story ends with the main character saying something like this: "You can keep all of your white, brown, spotted dogs. I will keep Clifford. Wouldn't you?". 

Emma always ends this story by saying, "No, I will keep my white dog" and points to Chloe.

I can't get enough of her talking and how she pronounces things. I think it is so adorable! 

Emma's First Birthday

I realize that I have not been an active blogger about Emma's adventures, so I am going to try and catch everyone up on the last few months.

Back in July, Emma celebrated her 1st birthday. Being born on July 5th means that Emma will always have fireworks on her birthday, which will be pretty cool in a few years-- not so cool when you have to get to bed before they even start.  We celebrated on July 4th in Clear Lake with family and it was a fantastic day! The weather was hot which is what you want in the  middle of the summer. We got to swim, eat cake, and just have a fun day. Luckily, we had Amber and Steve (the family photographers) there. Man it comes in handy to have photographers in the family! Here are some of the great photos that they took.