I'm somehow short on whit tonight. So this post is going to be bland like white toast with no butta.
Some of my favorite Emma things:
-She puts her stuffed animals to sleep by covering them up with a blanket, whispering "night night" and giving them little kisses
- She soaps her little potbelly in the bathtub by squishing soap out of her loofah and rubbing her hands all over her belly
- When she wakes up in the morning, she rolls around in bed singing to herself, and says "good morning!" when I come in to get her
- She says "happy birthday Emma" when she's really happy about something
- Her new favorite TV watching spot is on her bean bag chair, fully reclined and lounging like a pro
- She does jazz hands and fist bumps
- When she's pretending to use a phone, she says "hellllo. hey! ...... yes...."
Emma updates!
Language: There's no stopping this kid, now. She's on to full sentences... and by "full" I mean... well, full. And often grammatically correct. Like "Mommy's hair is wet" or "take this one off" or "Put it on the tray." She uses prepositions and articles, y'all. She's a genius in my eyes. But seriously... it's pretty stinkin' cute to hear all these words flying out of her little mouth all day. Sometimes I just want one minute without hearing her jammering on about anything and everything, but that's when I turn on "Bubble Guppies" and we both zone out and start drooling for a bit. I also find it highly entertaining when her brain operates quicker than her mouth can move, and she tries so hard to spit out the words she's thinking in her head. Gah! I love her little flapping mouth. Oh! And she's asking questions, too. Like "what was that?" and "did you see that?" She had been asking "where's Elmo" for a little while, but these new questions didn't start until about two weeks ago. We can now have real conversations with her, in which we ask questions and she answers appropriately. And not just us asking her what color something is, but asking what she did during the day, or having a conversation about what we're going to do later. She has an amazing memory, too. She can remember things that happened days ago, and even recalled the color of a boat ride she went on at the mall with Grammy.
She completely blew me away today... it was the first time in a while that my jaw dropped and I thought no. Way. There's no way that just happened. So, for her birthday, we bought her a wooden alphabet puzzle. It's a wood tray with cutouts for each letter. We haven't played with it in weeks, so I brought it out for her to play with. I started picking up letters and asking if she knew what each one was, fully expecting her answers to always be "p!" or "cup!" or something like that (for some reason, any time I'd ask her what letter something was, she'd always answer with "p"). I held up a "B" and she said "p" so I thought that was a sign of what was to come. But no. I held up the letter "A" and she said "ah" It turned out not to be a coincidence. Now, understand that I don't sit there quizzing my kid on letters at all, and we don't make it a routine to go through the alphabet. She can sing the alphabet song, but that's WAY different than recognizing the letters. She got most of the letters wrong, but some of them she got right. Like R, J, Q, D, M, P, T, and Y. I was shocked and amazed... and she was so proud of herself. When I held up the J, she said "J! Jellyfish!" and then I figured it out. Hubby bought her a LeapFrog laptop recently and it teaches letters by showing the letter, making the sound, and saying/showing an animal that starts with that letter. J was jellyfish. OMG. That basically means that she applied what she had learned from the laptop to her alphabet puzzle. Incredible.
Health: She doesn't seem to be having any more staring episodes *knock on wood* so I hope that's just a thing of the past. I did have to take her to the doctor two weeks ago when she woke up and complained about her arm hurting, and spent an entire hour crying and clinging to me. Which is so highly unlike her, that it had be incredibly worried. I thought maybe her arm was asleep, but when 45 minutes passed and she screamed when I tried moving her arm, I figured something else was up. By the time I got her to the doctor, she wasn't screaming any longer but was not using it at all- it was her right arm, and she's very clearly right-handed. She was SO GOOD at the appointment and let the doctor squeeze and manipulate her arm without protesting a single bit. She finally realized she could move it, and starting acting normal again. The doctor thought she may have slipped her elbow out of place, or compressed a nerve while sleeping. She's been fine ever since. Whew! Otherwise, she's healthy!
Food: Ah, yes. Food. I've been very open about the fact that figuring out what to put in this kid's mouth has been the most challenging part of parenting for me. I think I figured out the sleep thing relatively easily, and even potty training has been somewhat easy-peasy. But feeding her has been reminiscent of a calculus problem. i.e. a whole lot of convoluted steps, having to start over again and again, and still never getting it right. Ever. She's been improving, but still goes through phases of not wanting to eat much of anything. I've finally gotten her to a decent toddler diet of chicken nuggets, macaroni and cheese, any and all fresh fruit, PB&J, yogurt, crackers, corn, fruit and veggie pouches, bread in any form, graham crackers, fruit peel, applesauce, cereal, cheese, etc. Those are the staples. She'll sometimes eat a hot dog in a bun, and for some reason really enjoys spicy food. I made some somewhat-spicy Korean beef for dinner last week and she happily ate some of the onions and kept asking for more. She even ate a little bit of the beef, but still has difficulty chewing meat. She really likes buffalo chicken. I think most of her issues are textural- I do think she likes the taste of broccoli, but she just can't get past the texture. She'll put some in her mouth, chew it a bit, spit it out, then put it back in her mouth again until she finally gives up and spits it out for good. She'll get there, and I'm much less worried than I had been before. She did choke on a small meatball one day when hubby was giving her lunch and I almost died of a heart attack. Hubby kept his cool and got her to dislodge it, but the poor thing was so terrified that we both needed a good long snuggle until she calmed down. Good thing hubby has his EMT background. I'm having to restrict her fruit peel eating now because she has decided not to chew it, and almost choked on that today. She doesn't like chewing her mac n cheese, either. Ugh. Oh, and I'm pretty proud of the fact that we haven't raised a juice-head. She drinks water and milk, and nothing else and doesn't seem to care about what she's missing. Woop!
Potty training: Drum roll please... She's potty trained! Ish. I don't know what the real definition is, because it seems like it's different to everyone. According to one local daycare, being potty trained means going two weeks without an accident, including during naptime. So in that respect, no, she is not potty trained. She still has an accident every few days and sometimes wakes up with a wet diaper after her nap. Like today, except it's worth mentioning that she slept for over three hours so waking up wet was to be expected. She clearly has the concept down, and is now starting to hold her pee until she can get to a potty. She started having an accident when we got home the other day, but stopped herself and finished peeing in the potty. She had a strong preference for the "little potty" AKA a Baby Bjorn potty chair, but has now started using the potty seat on the big potty pretty consistently. So today, the "little potty" went away to a little baby's house to help another baby learn to use the potty since Emma is a big girl and can use the big potty. Actually, it's lying on its side at the bottom of the hall closet. God only knows that we may need that thing again if she decides she's afraid of the big potty once more. I tried hiding it in the past, and she threw a holy fit about not pooping in the big potty and, surprise! Mommy found the little potty, even though it had already gone to another baby's house! Luckily she's only 2 so she doesn't quite yet know how much of an idiot I am. I'd give it until she's at least 3 until she catches on to that. But anyways, it was really nice not to have to wash and dry that stupid potty chair 10 times today. It was bad enough having to clean pee off the big potty and the floor when she sprayed over the top of the splash guard. Today, I learned that splash guards are not just for boys.
Now if I can just get her to tell me when she has to pee, we'll be all fine and dandy. She'll tell me when she has to poop, but hasn't fully connected with the sensation of a full bladder. In time... of course I'd like to gloat about how I'm such an awesome parent because my kid is almost potty-trained just after her 2nd birthday but... nah. It really has no reflection on my parenting ability at all. I got lucky to have a smart kid who realized she didn't like diapers anymore. And who is a sucker for Bubble Guppies and Elmo panties.
So... she's headed to daycare in a little over a week. OMG! It's time, though... we had always talked about signing her up when she turned 2, but I guess I needed a little extra nudge to actually go through with it. I accepted a position within my agency in another program that's farther from home, and in a direction that would entail LOTS of extra driving if I continued to drop her off with relatives for the day. We are going to be saving about $200 per month on her health insurance now, and I got a pay increase at work. Hubby will be getting a raise soon, and we'll no longer be dumping an extra $150 per month into our old house, so we can finally shell out the money needed to pay for daycare. It all kind of came together juuuuuuuust right. So I found a little home daycare nearby and checked it out, and it seems like just what Emma needs. She'll get to be around other children and some older children, she won't be in the car for up to 2 hours each day, and she'll finally have some consistency. AND. Meals are included, so I can actually get her out of bed in the morning and head out the door without begging and pleading for her to just please eat something for breakfast so mommy can get to work. It's a win-win, although I know she'll miss her grandparents. Obviously it'll be a big transition for all of us, but I know she'll be fine. She always is.
Mommy stuff: A big thanks to everyone who has supported me over the last 6 months of my life. It has been crazy, to say the least. I cannot describe how relieved I feel to finally put my troubles behind me... I am starting to move on, and it feels wonderful. I had a follow-up with my regular OB-Gyn to talk about some hormone therapy because my ovaries were so jacked up to begin with. Ironically, she put me back on birth control... so, yes. I'm on birth control post-hysterectomy. I already feel better, though, so the plan is working. During that appointment, she said she read my final pathology and completely agreed that the hysterectomy was necessary and it was a good thing we went that route. I would have ended up having one anyways, once they found that my glandular cells had been affected. She said that the medical community frowns upon an OB-Gyn doing a hysterectomy on someone so young, but that if the oncologist recommended it, then it was a different story. She also said she read the notes about my subsequent hospitalization and was blown away that I had complications again, and that I was not diagnosed with a bleeding disorder. I told her that I haven't, for a single second, regretted having the hysterectomy. And that's true... I'm so glad it's done and over with. I smirk every time I see an ad or a coupon for tampons. I'm all like, haha! Never have to buy those again! I realized that I've had four surgeries in five years just for my reproductive system... that's bonkers. But, no more! Unless these darned ovaries decide to become problem children... ugh.
So that's that. My little darling is so cute that I can hardly stand it. I just love her to pieces, and then some. So cheers to some hopefully positive changes. Consistency and friends for Emma, and some reduction in stress and increase in appreciation for mommy.
