Archives for 2004

Busy, busy working.

I just needed to get in here that Emma calls me Mamy. Well, sometimes it comes out Momma or Mommy, but I get Mamy alot. I think she gets confused when people sometimes call me Mommy in front of her and sometimes Amy. I need to get it on film cause it’s just one of those things we’ll always talk about…

The weekend went pretty good. Emma did not go to sleep until late Friday and then was up at 5:15 on Saturday. Without her paci, she couldn’t calm herself down but finally I got her back to sleep by walking her up and down the hall. I tihnk we managed to get another hour or so of sleep. But I was like a walking zombie. We went Mom’s shop and I half slept in her comfy chair for about an hour. I did feel a little rested after we left. Saturday afternoon I somehow managed to empty 5 more boxes and organizing my new shelf in my closet. We now only have 2 boxes left and we almost of a clean 3rd bedroom. I keep putting off planning the nursery until it is clean in there. Saturday evening I cooked dinner and had Scott’s family over to eat for my birthday dinner. I didn’t plan it as such but that’s what it turned out to be. Sunday I went to church and then stayed over at Mom’s all day since Scott was working. She cooked me steak dinner for my birthday and then let me take a really long nap!! It was heavenly. Oh and she baked me my favorite chocolate cake she makes. The bad part of yesterday is that Emma didn’t nap while we were at Mom’s so at 6 when I went home, she fell asleep and didn’t wake up until 8. So that meant she did NOT want to go to sleep last night. I think she finally fell asleep a little after 11. She did sleep in until after 7 this morning. She did ask for her paci though. Poor thing.

I am trying to think of the new things Emma has been doing. She will say mess when she drops food or something. Well, a lot of times it is uh-oh. She’s gotten really good at giving kisses. Some of her smacking is very loud! She knows up, down, out, off. She understands I think all of what I say. This morning I was opening mail and told her to go put the magnet on the refrigerator and she did it. She knows where her dirty clothes, diapers, general trash all go. We are working on counting, but everything is two. MIL says 1-2-3-Jump! Emma says 2-2-Jump!
We are having difficulty at our house with her high chair. We have it pulled up to the table without the tray. She will sit in it when there are other people here or any other high chair at someone else’s house pretty as you please and the minute Scott and I have her by ourselves she cries big crocodile tears when we try to put her in there. She acts like it is a punishment. I don’t know what we are going to do. Sometimes we have even put her at a regular chair and she won’t sit there, we have to put her in our lap. I don’t know what the deal is.

The baby has been moving LOTS lately. I feel her at small intervals throughout the day. I definitely don’t remember Emma moving around this much. I am definitely full time in maternity clothes but I have gained only about 5 lbs. It seems like more.

Last evening at my friend MD’s house went really well. I didn’t stay as long as they were hoping I don’t think, but I don’t feel too tired today and that’s what counts. We ate pizza and started watching American Wedding. We watched the unrated version and maybe I’m getting old or just…I don’t know…but I could hardly stand it. If they could have cut Stiffler out of it, it might have been bearable but he was just plain vulgar. Anyway, I also took over my maternity bridesmaid dress I had bought off of ebay. I had a big to-do about that because I had gotten the girl to come down on her Buy It Now price and she only charged me 3.85 for shipping, so I was psyched about that but then it took over a month for it to come in the mail. Turns out it was in our apartment office’s back room sitting there. They never gave me a notice that I had gotten it. THEN, I open it and I was very disappointed. The real bridesmaid’s dresses are a strapless satin black with a very very small train–oh, it also has a white strip of satin at the top and then splits open at the back to reveal more white satin. This dress was basically a strapless spandex dress that barely came down to my ankles. I thought the black looked faded to me and in my head I thought I had to start all over again. But I tried it on yesterday and it didn’t look half bad. Then last night MD tried on her sister’s bridesmaid’s dress and I tried on that one and then I tied one of MD’s white satin ribbons right below my chest and it looked so cute together! The blacks didn’t look bad beside one another and the ribbon made it look similar, but not the same. Like, you could tell I was wearing a maternity dress but it looked nice. I was really excited because I had only spent a third on that dress as I would have on a regular maternity dress with alterations. And this one is strapless like theirs and I can definitely wear this dress on other occassions while I’m pregnant. Cool.

So, on the pacifier front, Emma hasn’t asked for it again. Scott said last night she rocked with him without it. He did have to put her down in her crib a few times before she would stay and not wake up but she spent the rest of the night in there and when I went and got her at 6:30, she only cried until I got her out. She briefly looked on the floor where her paci usually is, but she didn’t say anything about it and quit crying. We laid in my bed for a few minutes and she babbled a little but didn’t go back to sleep. It was actually very sweet listening to her babble and such. She was in a really good mood all morning until I left actually. Then I took her to Scott’s grandmother’s (I came into the office today) and she didn’t ask for it then either. I’m hoping nap time goes ok with MawMaw today. I will either feel really bad if she cries a lot for it or really mad/disappointed if she breaks down and gives her a paci (if she finds them in the bottom of her bag) or just happy if it goes smoothly. Emma is a smart little girl. I think she realizes when we told her they were all gone that they really were and that’s probably why she cried like she did yesterday. Man, that broke my heart, I couldn’t take that again.

Time is flying by. I can’t even remember what happened in the past week. I left off at July 4th. We went with D&D to see the fireworks. The girls had a blast and loved the fireworks. They didn’t even mind the sound even though we were very close to where they were shooting them off at. Tuesday D had her baby. 7lb10oz, 19 in. She will be E. Now there is D&D, C, L, and E. She is a beautiful baby. She looks like the daddy’s side of the family, same as C&L. I took Emma over there Tuesday and she was fine when I held the baby. My niece who is 9 months old screams when my sister in law holds her friend’s new baby.

Let’s see…Scott’s birthday was yesterday. Scott and I went out to eat and then we had the family over for desserts. Scott is not a big cake eater, so we had brownies, pie and ice cream. His dad is going to make him dinner tonight.

Today we had our second big ultrasound since last time she didn’t see everything she needed to. The baby did not want to participate again and she got only one small shot of what she thought looked like a girl. She did show us 3D and 4D and that was really cool. I have half an album of just ultrasound pictures since she has given us so many. This was our 5th ultrasound! The baby looks like she might have the same nose as Emma. I know it’s hard to tell now, but it does look the same! She is folded in half with her butt at my bladder. She opened and closed her mouth and was leaning her head on her shin. I am getting really excited! I just have no idea what to do in that nursery!

I started wearing maternity clothes in the past week or so. All of the sudden, I have ballooned. It is amazing how fast it has happened. Sometimes after I eat I feel like my skin is literally stretching. I’m surprised no stretch marks have shown up yet.

Also “in the news” today, we took away Emma’s pacifier. I said 18 months would be the absolute cut off but now she is almost 20 and still gets it. I mentioned it to Scott that we needed to start on that soon and today he put them up and said no more. When she finally got too tired at 3:30, she went looking for her paci in her bag and I told her it was all gone and she started crying. It about broke my heart. And now she woke up only 45 minutes into her nap. I can see some cranky days ahead of us. Today was really not a good day to do this as I am going to my friend’s house tonight for pizza and movies and Emma prefers when I’m around at bed time. Oh well, I guess he just sticks a paci in there if it gets too bad.

The thing tonight is for my friend MF who is getting married. Her bachelorette party is at the beach this weekend and I’m not going so MD (my other friend getting married) is having some people over at her house tonight for everyone in town since we all are not going to the beach. I was happy to be able to participate in something this weekend.

Happy 4th of July! We spent all morning and early afternoon at the church. They had a picnic and games and stuff right after church. Emma came home and immediately went down for a nap. If she naps well (and probably even if she doesn’t) we are going with D&D and the twins to see the fireworks later tonight. It will be a late night for the kids but I was thinking this is the last night for a while that we will all be able to go out. D has her c-section on Tuesday, so we will have 4 under 2 to handle and then 5 when ours gets here! Woah! That is unbelievable!

I’m relaxing while Emma is sleeping. I cleaned up yesterday so today I am enjoying ebaying and reading a romance novel while she sleeps. I’m so happy I don’t have to work tomorrow and Scott is off too! We will probably do some things around the house. I would like to get the third bedroom a little cleaned out and organized. If I could decide on a paint color for the bathroom, we could do that too. It is so odd that I can think of nothing for that bathroom. Usually I am trying to narrow down the decision but not this time. I’m clueless. Scott mentioned wanting to paint the living room although I am fine with it for now. I have no idea what to paint it either. I guess we have plenty of time.

We have had a busy but pretty good week. It is no surprise we have spent a lot of time with family. The good news is they have all come over here. We haven’t been to one of our parents house all week. We’ve cooked every night and had one of the families over a couple times. I’m cooking a roast today and having my family over. It’s really nice to be able to have them over and have them enjoy being at the house. Our last house here was just so small, everyone just acted kind of awkward when they were there. Now, they’ll take Emma back to her room and play or just sit here at the computer and mess around or watch tv. It’s been great.

Wednesday was our big dr’s appt. Unfortunately the baby would not cooperate and was sitting on her hiney on my bladder so the tech couldn’t get all the stuff she wanted to see including the gender. So we go back in two weeks to complete the ultrasound. Everything she saw looked really good which I’m ecstatic about.

We found out that Scott works a different schedule up here. They go in and get off an hour earlier. It stinks when he has to work nights and goes in earlier but it’s nice when he works days and he gets home an hour earlier. Today is his first day in our county and guess what? He had to go back to Columbia to get his car worked on. I just thought that was too funny. Anyway, he got back and was stopping cars around here. Mom said he stopped a car in her business park and came into her shop to use the bathroom afterwards. And he was going to stop by here but he had to go work a wreck. It’s just cool that we’re all in the same town.

Emma is a hoot. She has now started waving to almost every child she sees out. And she can’t wave. She has to keep bugging them to turn back around and save again after they’ve already done so. She gets so excited to be around other kids. I think I really want to get her into D’s church’s mother’s monring out this fall. She also has started crossing her arms and just standing there. It’s the funniest thing to see her. She’s really trying to copy a lot of words.

I guess I should go work on something else a little more constructive while she’s napping…

Back in the office today. We realized this morning that it wasn’t such a good idea for me to come in today since Scott is working and we don’t have anywhere to keep Mattie while we are both gone. It was never a problem at the apartment when we didn’t have a fence because we always traveled home first and then left her with the in-laws for the day. Oh well, guess we learned on that one. Mattie needs a babysitter too! It will be nice when we can afford to put a fence up. I have had to watch her closely when I let her out because she tends to want to wander the neighborhood if I don’t. In our last house, we got a nasty letter on our front door saying we had to keep her in our yard or they were calling the pound. So, we have to be careful because not everyone loves our Mattie like we do :).

We still are not quite settled in the new house. I think we have about 4 boxes in the baby’s room that we need to sort through. And then the whole garage needs emptied of empty boxes and a few other unpacked items. Not bad for only 4 days in the house, but both Scott and I are ready to be settled. Have the whole move behind us and keep going. Yesterday I worked from home and Emma did ok except for nap time. She doesn’t want to nap in her crib for some reason. She’s been doing really well at night, but naps have been a struggle. I finally got her down about 3:30 yesterday and let her sleep in our bed. She took a good 2 hour nap. Mom stopped by for only a few minutes on her way back from a job. I made dinner and Heather came over and ate with us and then we went to Wal-Mart. Scott’s mom, cousin and g-mother called on their way back from the mall and stopped in to see Emma. Heather stayed a little late and Emma wouldn’t go to sleep until she left so we’ll learn for next time to cut the visit a little short :). The visiting wasn’t bad though because like I said, I really don’t mind people coming over, I just don’t like playing taxi service.

Tonight we are headed to D’s to have dinner. Really the whole mission is to see the new baby’s nursery. D says it is gorgeous so I’m sure I’ll be blown away by it. The baby is coming a week for today. I think I feel overwhelmed for her. Twins a newborn all under 2. It’s a good thing Dd’s (her husband) off for the summer so he can help.

We are struggling with this new baby’s name. We have decided on Lexi for the first name but the middle name, we’re not sure about. And poor MIL can’t seem to get it that it’s Lexi not Alexie or even Lexie. Finally after about 3 emails yesterday I think it sort of got through. So she suggested Kaye for a middle name and I like that a lot. Then she said since Emma’s middle name was Grace, that we needed to use Joy or Faith for Lexi’s middle name. I said I like Faith, cause hey, MY mom just suggested that one because it’s my grandmother’s middle name. And of course MIL comes over last night and is like, so it’s Lexi Joy, huh? Argh. No, Joy is not in the running, sorry. I like Faith or Kaye or even Ann, which happens to be MIL’s middle name. But I have this thing with Anns. Annes more specifically. I am almost sure I’ve never told the story of THE Anne I mean in particular but let’s just say she was in love with Scott and she was the one person I was the very meanest to and disliked the most in my whole life. And now I want my daughter to share the same name? Does it help that it’s spelled differently? Does it help that it’s a family name? I don’t know. That’s yet to be seen, but Lexi Ann is pretty cute.

And uh, yeah, how’s the pregnancy going? This second child syndrome of not getting the same attention is DEFINITELY true. I’ll be 19 weeks on Thursday. The baby moves quite a bit. She likes to kick and stretch. My belly finally poked out a bit this weekend. I’m to the point now I can still wear my regular clothes but they have to be unbuttoned if I want to sit down comfortably and my bigger shorts I bought for that in between stage are so much more comfortable. I’m wearing a sheath dress today so I’m quite comfortable hanging out there without constriction. Someone remarked on Sunday that I had a “cute little belly” so I’m guessing I’m starting to show for sure.

Tomorrow is the big ultrasound. For some reason I agreed to schedule the thing like at 8am so I have to be there at 7:45 am. I didn’t even leave this morning until 7:45am. It will be early, but I kind of like that so I don’t have to wait all day for the appointment. I am anxious to see if everything looks healthy but the last ultrasound didn’t show up anything right away to her even though it wasn’t an extensive one. She did say at that point she had seen problems with others, so I felt pretty good about that. I’m going to have to dig out Emma’s ultrasound videotape and take it with us and put Lexi’s on there too. I like saying Lexi. I hope this child does not turn out to be a boy tomorrow cause then I have to start all over!!

The house is so great. Really. I can’t believe how satisfied I am with it. The only sort of complaint I have is our bathroom is very narrow and much smaller than the apartment bathroom so we’re having to adjust to smaller countertop and storage and a smaller tub/shower. The good news is if we really ended up not being able to live with it, there is room in the back to expand. But the layout in the living area is so great. We had about 10 people over and it was very comfortable. We didn’t feel like we were standing on top of one another. In fact, everyone has been over here this weekend. It’s been great to be near family, but not have to go anywhere to be with them. We even opted not to go out to lunch with either family after church and I stayed home and cooked and Emma napped. I still can’t believe that one. It is truly a miracle that all of this worked out and I totally give God the credit for working out so many details.

We painted our bedroom today. It’s Alexander Julian’s Applebutter. It is wonderful! My mom wants to take a sample home and is considering painting her family room that color. It’s a gold color, but has some brown it. It reminds me of leather. And the paint was so wonderful to paint with. I’m not an total expert on paint but I’ve done my fair share and I could tell it was nice. It gave good coverage without being gloppy and it went on smoothly. Even my dad, who is almost an expert on paint was very impressed with it. Why am I talking about paint??

If you hadn’t ever heard the story, we had a nightmare of a time moving last year with the rental truck. The store gave our truck to someone else and we had to drive 45 minutes out of our way to get one. Then, it broke down in our driveway. Then, it broke down on the interstate half way there and it turned out to be a broken gas gauge and it was out of gas. So last Wednesday we called Budget to make double sure they had our truck. Sure enough Scott calls and says they don’t have the 24′ truck we need, but they do have a 20′ truck he’ll give us for a 20% discount. Fine, we’ll make do. Then he calls and says it wouldn’t start. Well, thank goodness it turns out it was only because he wasn’t putting the truck in neutral to start it. The rest of the time turned out fine, but why is it so hard for rental places to get us trucks?

The moving went mostly fine. Scott fell down the stairs once and Mom dropped a box, but it was just clothes thank goodness. And then the bottom fell from the sky right when we wanted to pull out and we had to wait for the storm to pass, but no biggie. We stayed at Mom’s Friday night and everyone unloaded the truck pretty quickly on Saturday. Our families helped TONS to get the house into order. All of the big stuff is set but it’s all the little stuff we need to find spots for that is left.

Emma was sort of iffy about the whole thing yesterday. She kept trying to get people to take her places. She kept pointing at the cars and shaking her head yes when someone asked her if she wanted to go to their house. Poor thing. She wouldn’t nap in her crib yesterday either. But last night and tonight she went down to sleep without any assistance and last night she slept through the night in her own crib. Our dog Mattie is a different story. She is better today, but she keeps hiding behind furniture when she hears doors open and she won’t walk in the kitchen and she wants to go outside most of the time. Poor doggie.

Oh! and our closing was a whole other story. Long story short, the closing costs were a couple hundred dollars more than we thought and then it was a couple hundred more than that and then every one felt bad for us and knocked some fees down and we ended up still more than we anticipated, but walked out of the closing with $270. All of which I’m sure we’ve spent so far. We had planned on putting a little padding in our savings account with the extra, but we knew we would be wanting all of those new extras when we moved in. We didn’t do too bad with having to buy things. Just some more Rubbermaid storage containers. Actually, we have been giving extra things to people since they don’t really fit in this house quite right.

I am just really happy here. I already feel very “at home”. Even Scott said he likes it a lot better than he thought he would.