Mother's Day Take Three (my 3rd Mother's Day as a Mom)

Does anyone watch the TV show "The Middle"? I love this show! From the first episode I thought the mom on the show WAS my mom. I mean, she's busy all the time, takes care of everyone but herself, wears herself thin without anyone noticing until it's too late, etc., etc. And then they had the Mother's Day episode. Did you see it? Were you nodding in agreement? Did you sit back and think, "they are right! Father's Day is great because of Mom!". I made my husband watch and the message he got from it was, "well now you see that it's not me, it's men!" UGH! That wasn't the reason I wanted him to watch! Then I told my mom she had to watch (she DVR's it) and she called as soon as she was done watching. Mom agreed with me that it was the perfect depiction of being a mom on Mother's Day.
Ah, being a Mom. It's kind of the coolest thing in the world. Changes have occurred with me that I could have never imagined. I am actually proud to be becoming my mom. We all know this is an inevitable part of becoming an adult, but it's not until you are a parent that you realize how much you have become like your mother (or father, I suppose, for those dads out there!). I think Mom does a fantastic job of raising us (yes, my brother and I both still call on her for things, so she is still raising us!) and to think that I'm a lot like her is something to be proud of.
Another big change is in my emotions. This is kind of embarassing, but since I hope to share this blog with Emer someday I will write it out as a lesson from which she can learn. I used to be this super emotionally strong person. Nothing could make me cry. Now, I cry watching TV! I cry when there's a story line about someone who loses a child or when someone is reunited with a child they haven't seen in a while. I'm fully aware that most shows are not real but I empathize with the story line. Everything from Army Wives to Survivor (you know, the family episodes where they get calls from their family members) makes me tear up and it's kind of pathetic. I used to blame the post-partum hormones but I'm WAY past that now. Now I have to look at it like this: as a parent I can now imagine what it must be like to lose Emer. I don't know that I would want to go on if anything happened to her.
Being a parent is the most miraculous thing in the world. Everyone says that, and it is corny. But it's also true. The feeling I get when I look back at 'old' pictures of her is a feeling of pride, love, and joy. I can't believe how much she's changed in less than 2 years. I can't believe that I created her. I can't believe that I'm responsible for this beautiful, super-cute, attitude-filled toddler. It's not something I can describe any better than I've tried to do here.

* You know those t-shirts with random sayings on them? Is there one that says, "My kid rocks"? Because if there is, I want it! *

Paparazzi!

You know those articles online that show the stars' kids doing regular things like shopping, eating, etc? Well over the last couple of months we haven't had any big milestones or exciting findings to report, but it seems that the paparazzi has been watching little Emer! Here's a slideshow of the things she's been caught on camera doing:

(As an aside, we went to New York City last weekend and I'll be posting a blog about this, including video, in the next day or two.)

Nothing new...

I was talking to the hubby today and we were lamenting the sunshine we had yesterday. It occurred to me that I hadn't written an updated blog lately and I probably should do that. But then I realized that not much had changed to write about!
* It's still freezing, rainy, yucky outside (Emer has learned to say "yucky")
* The weather has us in more bad moods than happy lately (sunshine, please?!)
* The school year is plugging away...
* And we're planning another trip to NYC! (I figured I'd better get one more trip in before Emer turns 2 and we have to pay for her flight as well as mine!)

* One new thing - here's some new words Emer has learned lately: "Thank you", "Daddy" (not really new but spoken very clearly), "Poppy" (also not so new but very clear), and Scotty. Yes, Uncle Scotty, she can say your name better than she says "Mommy". Arg!

And that's the update :)

Translator, please?!

Everyone keeps asking me, "How is Emer? Is she talking up a storm yet?"
And I say, "She's doing great! She is quite a talker, but not so much in English..."




Can someone translate this for me please?!?!

Demitri 1997-2009

I said I was going to write a blog with pics from Christmas sometime during the second week of my holidays. However, the holidays came to a crashing halt during that time and I haven't really felt like writing much. I can't begin to describe how lonely I feel now, which to non-pet people sounds ridiculous. But I don't care what those people think, I only care about how much I miss Demitri.

Here's the brief run-down of his last week of life:

Christmas Eve - He wouldn't leave the bathroom mat unless I moved him. He did eat and was still using his litter box.
Christmas - He was better! He didn't move around and chase his toys that he got like he used to, but he was his old self anyway. He got his first shot of insulin.
December 26th - He ate and was acting normal again! We thought the insulin surely had helped him get back to normal. In the evening he tried to jump onto the chair and missed. He fell on his back. He tried to jump onto the counter and missed. Just landed on his feet.
December 27th - He was very slow again. He barely ate a thing. By evening he hadn't even eaten one full meal. We did give him his evening insulin b/c he ended up eating a little chicken and some yogurt. He jumped in the bath with Emer but didn't react, just stood there. I slept downstairs with him because I was afraid he would get hurt if he tried to jump into bed with us. This was the worst night's sleep I've had in a long time b/c at one point he jumped off the couch only to find that he couldn't stand on his back legs.
December 28th - He couldn't stand, he looked like he was swimming when he tried to move. He wouldn't eat a thing. I called my brother early and left a message. I called the emergency clinic where Scotty works. I got ready to take him in but decided not to b/c we already had set up to take him to a vet for blood work that morning. The vet at the emergency clinic was very nice and talked to me for about half an hour. Scotty called as I was getting ready to take D to the vet. He said he would have advised me to wait for the vet anyway.
-> The long and short of it is that I took him in and his blood work showed glucose levels of 700, kidney stones, gall stones, he was very dehydrated, his bowels were completely full, his heart was in arrythmia. He didn't care that he was at the vet's, he didn't even growl at all. They kept him on very aggressive fluids which helped a little. But when they backed off the fluids he got worse again. This was one of the worst days of my life. I had to go back to the vet's and make a decision to lose Demitri. I know we stopped his pain and gave him strength again. But I wish I could hold him on my lap and I'd give anything to clean up a massive pee on the floor again. It crushes me to think I'll never see Emer hug him again. I'll never have to watch out for the food left on the counter. And the other night I turned to where he used to relax on the couch to ask if he was coming to bed with me. I'd forgotten he wasn't there. It's lonely. And it sucks...

Here I Am! and Other News...

Wow, it's been nearly 2 months since I last wrote a blog entry. It hasn't really occurred to me to sit down and write something and I'm not sure why. I haven't been super busy...maybe that's it. We have just been living life without anything too exciting going on so there hasn't been anything spectacular to share. ... Except that I just checked back to see if I posted Emer's Halloween costume and I didn't! So you've missed Halloween, Thanksgiving, my birthday, and nearly Christmas. I suppose I should back up to October, then, to begin this post:
Emer was a duck for Halloween this year! We took her trick or treating to grandma's house then Grammie and Poppy's house. Later that evening she helped me hand out candy to the neighborhood kids. She liked watching the other kids and kept her costume on for most of the evening. Since you haven't seen her walking yet, check this out!

I know she's mine, but I think she's the cutest duck since Ming Ming :)
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Following Halloween was Thanksgiving. I don't have any pictures from this to share but we had a wonderful meal at Grammie and Poppy's house with Uncle Scotty, Auntie Eron, and Hayden. Someday I should just hang out with the babies with my camera poised because Hayden and Emer are so cute together! They see each other and just light up. They love to share toys, laugh at each other, and keep each other from taking their much-needed naps! Our fearless babysitter (Grammie) recently took some video of Hayden chasing Emer around the couch. Emer is pulling a little toy puppy behind her and she's so fast that she actually catches up to Hayd! They just laughed and hugged. The two of them are a wonderful example of babies hard at "work" - just playing. We should all take a lesson from them!

<-- Here's a picture of Emer racing around the island and kitchen table in our house pulling her empty golf bag. Yes, it's fuzzy, but it's only because she wouldn't stand still long enough for me to get a good picture!

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As many, if not all, of you know, my birthday follows Thanksgiving. It was a big one this year. I figured, after years of being 29 it might be time to enter the new decade. So I told my husband that he had to throw me a party. Little did I know, he had already started planning a party! On Sunday, Nov. 29th Emer and I are playing, waiting for the Colts game to start, and my friend Kelli shows up. (I knew she was coming because she was at our house when I told Steve he had to throw me a party). Next, my mother-in-law shows up. And she has a pumpkin cake (yum!) I'm thinking, "Fantastic! He actually listened to me!" Steve then asks if I want to know who else is coming and proceeds to list half the Fantasy football league and their families, my family, and other close friends with their families. Everyone brought my favorite foods (one friend made sushi, my parents brough Famous Dave's Mac N Cheese, to name a couple of things). To top off the party, the Colts won!!

This man here -->

is one good party planner. Thanks, dear husband, for the best birthday surprise party an 'old lady' could ever hope for!!

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BTW, the day before my birthday we all attended Friendsgiving, an annual Thanksgiving tradition with one of my great friends from grad school. This picture was taken at this event, which is why Em's mouth is totally full!

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To conclude this post, I'd like to share a quick update about my first baby, Demitri (he's the black one). He's nearly always been a health challenge for us - possible heart issues when he was younger, he's been on meds for years to help control irritable bowel disease, he's a compulsive over-eater. Well in the last few months or so we've noticed that he's started peeing a LOT more than usual and he's looking ragged and somewhat skinny (for him!). My brother, the super, internal-medicine-resident vet, wanted to draw blood to run some tests and find out what was going on. At first D. was a mystery - his kidneys were good, his glucose levels were high however his fructosamine (sp?) levels were normal, he had a heart worm. Gasp! Yep, I kind of freaked a little at that! We then ran a urine screen a week or so later and the glucose levels were very high. So the verdict - poor health-challenged Demitri has diabetes.

After much discussion, we have decided to start him on insulin this week. My phobia of needles will make this one of the greatest challenges of my life, but luckily I have a husband who has agreed to help. It took a little heart break on my part, and a lot of discussion with other people he knows on his part, but he finally decided there could be worse things than taking care of our oldest 'baby'...especially when he and our tiny wonder get along so well (picture in your mind Emer hugging on D.; you're smiling, aren't you?!)

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Stay tuned because after Christmas I'm going to post more pics of the family and finally get around to the blog I was talking about on facebook when I mentioned that I have too many thoughts to post in one status update. Until then:

Merry Christmas, everyone!!!

New York City 2009!!!

There was some BIG excitement with part of the O-C household this past weekend. I took Emer to my favorite city in the whole world - New York City! I'd been trying to get there since last spring and Auntie Kelli and I decided it would be nice to go in warm weather for a change. (The last time I was there and didn't have to wear a winter coat was 2001!) So we checked our calendars, kept an eye on the airline prices and eventually decided Oct. would work. Ha! October is NOT warm weather! But the weather didn't matter b/c we had the best time ever and Emer seemed to love the city as much as I do :)

A few notes about our trip:

* Em did great on the airplane and we think she's going to be a FA when she grows up :) She got fussy waiting (don't we all when they have to de-ice the wings!) so the FA took her and showed her the galley, let her talk on the phone, etc. What a fun way to start our trip!
* As you can see from the pic above, Em loved looking out the window at the city. She just seemed to enjoy the city!
* We did go to China Town on Monday and shopped for her. She got a cute zip-up hoodie that says New York. Looks great on her!
* While waiting for the flight home Emer made friends with another baby girl who just turned 1 a few days before. She's always the social butterfly :)

And now that we're back home we've finally made it to the Pumpkin Patch and today, yes TODAY - Emer is walking on her own!!! She made a full lap around the coffee table without holding on. Big events in the O-C household! :)