Too Much Fun Partying, Not Enough Time to Blog!

Last we left you, Emer had a loose, wiggley tooth.  That is no more!  On the 20th of October the wiggley tooth became the first tooth lost!  It was crazy!  She was in the tub messing with it, as usual.  But when she got out I could see it was bleeding.  So I said, "Oh My Gosh, Emer!!!  I think you're tooth is coming out tonight!!!"  She looked in the mirror and turned back to me, shocked that it was bleeding.  I told her that of course it was bleeding, b/c that is what happens when the tooth is ready to come out.  She was actually fine with that until I tried to pull it.  Apparently I am not a master tooth-puller b/c she cried harder and said it really hurt.  Her dad, on the other hand, is great at pulling teeth!  He came upstairs all annoyed that she was crying and I was yelling for him to come b/c there was something exciting going on.  But then he was able to pull the tooth out on the second try :)

 As expected, the Tooth Fairy stopped by and left $5 for Tiny!!!  Apparently the Tooth Fairy hasn't been hit by the poor economy...

Being toothless didn't stop her from being Super Girl at the Colts Kids' Club Halloween Party!!  Here she is with Hayden (one of the guests she chose to bring) posing for pix at the party:

Hayden had such a great time (and Emer really enjoyed him being there) that we have decided he needs to be a Kids Club member as well  :)

Before being Super Girl, however, we broke out the duck costume.  This is probably the last year she'll be able to be a duck and she wore it with pride at Zoo Boo: 

 We also hit up the Children's Museum Haunted House where she decided she had to have vampire teeth.  Goodness we look like vampires, don't you think?! LOL!  ---->

And just days before Halloween we carved our pumpkins.  We used stencils this year and I am quite proud of our creations!  The Halloween season is so much fun I hope it is years and years before Tiny outgrows the fun.  With any luck, she will never outgrow it! As much fun as I have making her costumes, it is clear I will never outgrow the holiday  :)  Is this not the cutest spider you have ever seen?!?!

And now we are moving into Thanksgiving.  Bats, witches, ghosts, and monsters are gone...turkeys, gourds, and leaves have replaced them.  We will be hosting Thanksgiving this year at our house and it should be crazy fun!  Then, next month, we're headed back to NYC before Christmas so we can pay a visit to Santa at Macy's again.  Hoping to take Tiny to see the Rockettes this year, which I'm sure she will enjoy every bit as much as she did Annie last year.  Oh how much do we LOVE that city!!

Until the next update, happy holiday season and thanks for checking in  :)

Teeth and stuff...

OCTOBER!!!
We started October a little bit early at Lake Rudolph this year (end of Sept). Steve went with us this year and we had a great time! It turns out, if you add a continuous campfire to a camping trip you have a happy Steve, haha! So the first trick or treating of the season brought us a Tiny witch:

Next up we are hosting our Annual Halloween Party! It's slow going inviting people bc there is no easy way to get the contact info for Emer's new friends in school. I have invited only about half of Emer's guest list and gotten RSVPs from about half of those. I'm waiting for contact info from the rest, hopefully this week, from her teacher. It'll be a fun party, no matter what, though!

Then of course we are going to the Colts Kids Club Halloween Party! Emer has invited Hayden and Gigee to go with us and she wanted to be a Super Hero - Super Girl! Just wait until you see the costume!

Finally, we'll be trick-or-treating in the neighborhood, hopefully with one of her friends from school. She keeps going between being a witch and a ghost for this event. We shall see!

Now about those teeth...Emer has her first loose tooth! Shortly after school started we invited her friend Karis and her family over for dinner. Karis had a loose tooth and Emer was fascinated. We then went to the dentist a few weeks ago and were told that Emer has her own loose tooth! We had no idea! So she has since been obsessed with wiggling this loose tooth. At her sleepover at Gigee and Poppy's they were all excited that they would see her lose her first tooth - yes, it's that loose! So the Tooth Fairy will be paying a visit to the O-C house very soon, I predict.  How much does the Tooth Fairy pay for a tooth these days??

Keep checking the blog for teeth updates :)

Five Year Stats

Today was Emer's annual Well-Visit check up with Dr. O'Nan.  We were a little late this year b/c I waited too late to call and schedule it.  Ooops!  She's just so healthy and awesome and I didn't know they scheduled 2-3 months in advance...
We'll start with the stats:
Height = 43 inches tall
Weight = 40 lbs (45th percentile)
Eyesight = just fine!  (First time checking her eyes with the chart, she was a little nervous, haha!)
Diagnosis = "perfect!"

I asked about her car seat - turns out she can stay in it until she's 100 lbs.  Well that could be until she's 18 or so, lol!  So basically, we can get a booster seat for her which she can move into as long as it makes the seat belt hit at the appropriate spot.  I'm thinking, b/c she seems tall, she can probably move into that pretty soon.

She did have to get vaccine boosters today, which we were NOT expecting.  You will all be so proud of both of us!  This was the first time I actually stayed in the room with her (no choice b/c I was the only one there). I didn't look at either of the needles but instead held Emer's hands and helped her stay calm by talking to her.  The nurse had her lay down and wanted me to hold her hands by holding her down.  I felt terrible doing it but I didn't know what else to do.  Emer kept leaning her head on my arm so she could watch.  She cried when the second shot went in and was very sad for a short time.  That was also incredibly heartbreaking to me.  I know that vaccines are important and keep her healthy, but there has to be a better way to get them!

After the appointment we went for ice cream.  Because nothing makes a sad girl feel better than ice cream with her mom!  Love this girl  :)

Picture time!

We have made it through the first week of school! So I figured I should post a quick blog update on how things have been going. And I'm going to do it picture style!

 Here is just a cute little picture of Emer showing off her crazy curls with a goofy smile in her face. :)

 Waiting to start gymnastics! Since school started we have changed classes, again, to a Saturday class. Steve has to take her because it is the same time as my class at the Y so that's kind of a bummer. But she did really well last week so hopefully it's a good fit for her.

 As usual Emer and Kelli went with me to the PartyLite conference this year. One of the days I was in conference they went back to the Mall of America. Emer was soooooo excited to get to meet Uniqua from the Backyardigans! (Can you see the tiny Uniqua that big Uniqua is holding? Yep, that's Ems'!) My crazy girl loves everything pink...

 We made the annual trip to Colts practice again this year!  But, instead of driving and enjoying the drive-in root beer place, we took Owens'Air!  And yes, we got to see Pat McAfee kicking the ball and standing around chatting  :)  Go Colts!

 And just look at the sign Emer is holding.  Yes, it says, "Emer's First Day of Kindergarten!" Boo hoo hoo!  It's been a week of ups (jumping off the bus, smiling and laughing, telling us all kinds of wonderful things she did in school and all her new friends!) and downs (day 5 was the first day we didn't have tears when I left...) but she's made it to school and had a great time for 7 days now.  I say, "Stop growing up!".  She laughs and says, "I can't, Mommy. I'm going to keep growing until I'm a big girl like you!"  Ahhhh, love her!

To conclude the picture blog, we'll end with a video that Gigee sent me when Steve and I were in Jamaica: 

<3 beautiful="" children="" dance="" p="">

Five Glorious, Wonderful Years!

Here I sit, at the lake in Terre Haute, listening to the last of the fireworks from the 4th of July celebrations in 2013.  It has been a relatively quiet evening. We had some fireworks earlier in the evening for us - Steve shot the rockets off the end of the deck. These last ones aren't even from a show, I'm guessing, because they are random and not synchronized to anything. Still, they are fireworks all the same!
Five years ago I was in a hospital with my new baby girl. "Isn't she beautiful?" I said to my mom when she walked in. I just looked through my blog and found the pix from when she was born and yes, she was so beautiful!  She continues to get more and more beautiful every day! Today she has curly, unruly hair that we brush twice a day and it never looks brushed. (Pix will be posted in the next blog, I promise!) She is in gymnastics and loves it! She had the best year ever in preschool and is just so excited for kindergarten!
I cannot believe she is starting kindergarten. My beautiful, tiny baby girl is old enough for full-day school, away from me, learning new and better things.  She'll be making new friends, riding a bus home, and hopefully learning to be more confident.  She is super excited; I am super sad.
While I have not been a traditional SAHM, I have been fortunate enough to spend lots of time with Emer over the years.  And I wouldn't trade those times for the world.  Sometimes we practice school stuff such as writing, cutting & gluing, and reading.  She doesn't particularly like to read, but definitely enjoys when I read to her.  Other times we just play or she helps me clean the house (do you know another kid who will scrub the toilet but not clean the the sinks?). We go on adventures all over the city and the country! She is a delightful, fun, caring, and wonderful little girl.

*** Speaking of adventures, Emer will be in year-round school giving her nearly the entire month of November off! We are already planning what to do - NYC again? New Orleans to visit Uncle Kurt? California again? So many choices and she is just as excited as me to go "fly somewhere" again soon.
But for now, we spend the summer together, here in Indiana, swimming at the Y or our pool, fishing in our pond, traveling around the city, and partying in Terrre Haute for her birthday.
Yes, I love my Tiny, tons, & Tons, & TOns, & TONS!!!! Happy birthday, Emer!

I Love You...

I believe that "I love you" is the sweetest phrase a four year old can utter.

Lately I've been feeling very nostalgic about Emer's baby years. She is no longer a baby, though I constantly tell her she will ALWAYS be my baby. No matter how quickly she outgrows her pants...no matter how old she talks...no matter how much she wants to ride the bus to kindergarten next year...she will always be my Tiny! (Compared to many other kids her age she is Tiny. She seems tall to me but then these three year old kids will come into the Y for swim lessons and they are way bigger than her! I am curious to see where she is on the size scale this summer.)

And boy has she grown! It's so funny because we'll pull pants out of the closet for her to wear and they are almost all high waters. She prefers dresses so I don't have a lot of times to see her in pants. Just this weekend it was finally warm enough for her to wear a dress without leggings. I realized then that the dress was a mini skirt length! I just wish the weather would warm up so she could wear summer clothes and we can worry about pants fitting later!

Alright, back to the point of this blog. Emer is completely her own person and I love it. My best friend is pregnant and I am definitely a little jealous! Emer would be a fantastic big sister, and wants to be. But I understand that this is not an option, and the older I get, the less I can really argue for it. So I spend a lot of time reminding myself to be thankful for the beautiful Tiny I have. I tell her often that I love her. I remind her of her talents and the things she most enjoys. I remind myself that she is a happy, friendly, and well-behaved little girl. I cannot think of anything I would want more from her. I tell myself I do not need another baby. I tell her she can help with Auntie Kelli's baby. And we accept, love, and treasure each other. I can only hope that when the teen years hit she will remember this.

Emer is amazingly good at surprising me. My favorite surprise is when she quietly, completely out of the blue, says "Mommy...I love you". One of these days I'm going to just cry when she says it and she'll think I'm insane! It is the sweetest, most wonderful statement a four year old can make...

Quotes by Emer

History behind this one: Emer has become a Dolphin's fan.  We allow this b/c they aren't a huge Colts rival and she likes the Colts first.  However, the Dolphins are playing the Colts today.  Also, we go to Denny's every time the Colts win.
Me: Oh geez.  Your team just scored....
Emer: Huh?  Oh...
Me: The Dolphins just got a touchdown.  Aren't you excited?
Emer: No. I want to go to Denny's!

Hahaha!  I just found this blog.  Guess I never finished it...but it's too funny to not post!  Enjoy!