saying goodbye to a friend

I believe Boyz II Men said it best when they sang "It's so haaaaaard to say goooodbyyyyyee to yessssterrrdayyyyeeeeeeeeee." This love seat has been with me through so much of my life, it has seen my high school years back in my parents house in Brandon, it has been with me through living on my own in Birmingham, in both places, and it has been back in my parent's house in High Springs, FL, and was the first love seat of mine and Ricky's marriage. It has been through countless moves, has kept many a booty comfortable, has been the sleeping place of numerous friends, and has the scars to prove it. It has had many pets sleep on it, it has been my protection, blocking my door from the crazies, in Birmingham, so I would feel comfortable sleeping alone in my old, but FABULOUS apartment. I have smoked many a cigarette and drank many a drink on this love seat and it has never failed me. This love seat has also held my first child. I will miss you, old friend. You are going to a better place, couch heaven, as I like to think of it. I couldn't just sit on the curb without one final picture. This is the next to last piece of furniture that I have of my single days. That last entertainment center is going to hard to let go of. I know it's only a love seat, but I feel that a little piece of me is sitting on that curb, waiting to be picked up by Waste Management. So long old friend, you were great! I will miss you!

the year of the stroller

Can you believe the strollers? We were blessed with babies this Christmas, and Emilia loves each one of them. They are all different. There will be no shortage on baby doll rides in this house. We actually have more strollers than baby dolls. This was a good Christmas. Emilia got to open presents at each grandparent's house and at home. The first stop was Mimi's house, on Christmas Eve, where she wasn't too interested past the first present, which was the baby. However, she was all about helping Chason open his and playing with his toys. The next morning, Santa came and we had our family Christmas. She was most excited about the ball that Santa left. Santa also had the bright idea of giving her a shopping buggy and some food.......BAD SANTA! Don't think that I am not kicking myself in the azz for that one. It's unloading the food in mama and daddy's lap, then reloading the food in the buggy, then unloading the food, then reloading the food....all while keeping it off the floor so the dogs won't chew it up. A chili pepper, a few hot dogs and french fries have been lost since Christmas day....thanks to Murphy and Lucy. The shopping buggy is curently in the laundry room, where it is going to stay until I go back to work on Monday. She later realized that she could get in the tent, but her daddy had to show her, first. (please excuse the mess in that picture...I had crap everywhere).

Later that day, we went to Grammy and Grampy's house for Christmas lunch. She got some cool stuff to keep out at their house and a table and chairs to bring home. She loves the table and chairs, she likes to just sit there like a big girl....and do nothing.

Oh, and I almost forgot, she now has her very own play yard. Thanks to Santa and Uncle Craig for making it happen. Santa brought the climber and Uncle Craig got her the picnic table and umberella, so lots of picnics will be eaten out there this spring and summer.

Later, peeps!

fun at the park

Only in Florida can you take your kids to the beach in December and have a fantastic time in the warm sun. The question was actually asked, "can you get a sunburn in December?" The answer is yes, you can. None of us did, but Emilia and I did walk away with all little extra pink on our cheeks.

We went to the park at Keystone Beach this past Sunday to hang out with some friends. It was such a great time, and what a GREAT park! We will be going there more often! It was well worth the drive, about 30 minutes. From left to right is Emilia, David, Abby and Sadie. David belongs to my friend Brandy, Abby belongs to my friend Vickie (Brandy and Vickie are sisters) and Sadie belongs to one of Brandy's friends who had to work that day. We met for a picnic lunch...mmmmm, fried chicken, cole slaw, potato salad, baked beans, sodas, juice boxes, chips and dip, and cookies....the perfect southern picnic! Oh, and I better not forget that Grammy Darlene was there (Brandy and Vickie's mom), in from California. It was so great to see her! and what a fabulous baby wrangler she was! Emilia and Sadie were only a month apart, so they became fast friends. This was too cute, not to snap several shots of... I think that we are going to have to do this much more often.

18 months

We had our 18 month check up today and all is well! Emilia weighs 22.7 lbs., is 31 inches tall, and still has a small head. The Dr. assured me that she is fine not eating her fruits and veggies, which I was concerned about. As long as she still eats meat, she is great. Her hemoglobin was perfect, so no need for vitamins or supplements. She was one day shy of getter her Hep A booster, so she will get that at 2 yrs. The Dr. also assured me that her toenail will grow back. Yea! For those that don't know, she lost her big toe nail, on her left foot, in a tragic pizza stone incident, but she doesn't even miss it. She does remind us daily that she has a booboo on her toe though. LOL! I guess I won't be painting her toenails any time soon. She is still between the 25-50th percentile for height and weight and in the the 5-10th percentile for her head, but her growth is steady, so the Dr. is fine with it...she comes from a family of small heads, I guess.

i'm baaaaaaaaack

Hey! Long time, no write! I have been a little busy. Of course as I sit here and finally get caught up on all this, I can't think of a dang thing that went on this month. I think that my brain has just blocked most of it out. Let's see here....let me start of by saying Merry belated Christmas, everyone out there in blog land, and I hope that you have a fantastic new year!!!!!!

Where do I start????? Well, earlier this month, my bathroom exploded....our one little bathroom decided to explode. Some how "thick paper" got flushed down the toilet...so says the plumber, which I believe. And I believe I know what happened....lets just say that it involves us running out of toilet paper and some people thinking that they can flush "thick paper" down the potty. Well, that along with baby wipes. I am sure some little fingers may have had something to do with this too. Amazing what happens when mama isn't home. The tub was clogged too, that was ALL me....and the fur that I shed when I wash my hair. Oh well.... Oh, and like a true Mississippi girl, I peed in the back yard...yee haw!

After the bathroom incident, sickness ran through the house. Emilia got sick and can I just say that an 18 month old stomach should not hold as much stuff as what landed on me that night. Three times.....three times that child blew chunks ALL over me....down my shirt, in my hair, in my lap. The poor thing. After all that vomiting, she dry heaved for a couple more hours. After that last time of her actually throwing up on me, I got smart and put a towel over my chest when I held her and tried to transmit all my love and sympathy to her when I rocked her for an hour and half after that. I thought it was just something she ate, but I may have been wrong since that was a Tuesday night and that Friday I found myself sleeping on the bathroom floor. Okay, so I didn't sleep on the bathroom floor, but I sure did lay there for a while. I threw up 10 times and shit my pants six. Yes, that's right, six damn times.....I went threw several pairs of underwear and showers that night. I was soooo weak and in dismay that I couldn't quite grasp the concept of every time I threw up, I crapped myself. I finally wised up, obviously after the sixth time, and told Ricky to bring me a trash bag since our garbage can was full, so I could actually sit on the toilet and throw up at the same time. I splattered painted my bathroom wall a fabulous shade of poo. Yuck! Needless to say I lost a quick 5 pounds. And I was so mad too since I was supposed to go to a much needed girls night in on Friday night and a friend's graduation party on Saturday. Luckily, Ricky to did not experience this torture. I would not wish that on my worst enemy.

Also this month, I had my very first neurologist appointment. Not that this should be exciting or anything, but it sounds all kinds of important. I had been having this spinal pain since having Emilia, this unexplained, terrible pain shooting up my spin. It feels just like it did right after I had my spinal block, which led me to believe that it had something to do with that....apparently not, but maybe....who knows....not the neurologist. I did, however, learn that I have a brain malformation. GREAT NEWS, DOC! It's called a Chiara Malformation, and apparently it's nothing big. My brain is just herniated into my spinal column. This, however, is not the cause of my pain, just the cause of my headaches. He asked me if I had been having headaches and I was so nervous about being there in the first place, I told him no. Duh, I do have them, but now I know why I have them. I am just supposed to take advil if it bothers me or until the advil doesn't work anymore and I have to have brain surgery. Okay, I got all that off line, not from him, but he did tell me if I started having headaches, just take over the counter meds to help. This was at SHANDS at UF, and for those of you who don't know what that is, it's the teaching hospital at UF. I felt like I was in an episode of Grey's Anatomy....I have 5 people in the room with me....all in white coats. Talk about making a girl nervous. Sheesh. So after all that, I am fine and there is no explanation for my spinal pain, he said his best guess is that they nicked a nerve root while doing my spinal block or that I have muscle strain pinching a nerve. Either way, neither is anything major. I paid $25 to sit in a room for 2 hours and be told THAT!

I have also had the drama of this being Emilia's last few weeks with Magda, her daycare provider. This ended up being a little more dramatic than I had hoped. I will spare you the story since this blog is already getting kind of long. It was a bitter sweet three days this week. Magda has taken care of Emilia since she was 9 weeks old. She has been like another grandmother to her. We have had our ups and our downs, but this is going to be, by far, the best decision for Emilia. She is ready to go to big girl school. She starts O2B Kids College on January 5. I will blog more about that later. I will finish this Magda paragraph with this story, though....I use Boudreaux's Butt Paste, works great on Emilia, Magda did not like this. She INSISTED on using Triple Creme for diaper rash, so in order to appease her, that is what I sent to daycare...like, a year ago. Around that same time, Emilia had a touch of a yeast infection, so the Dr. prescribed Nystatin cream for her and gave us 2 tubes. I sent one to daycare and kept one at home. Now, backtracking just a bit here, Wednesday was her last day, so Magda bagged up what was left of Emilia's things and gave them to Ricky when he picked her up. I finally got to putting that stuff up yesterday and to my shock I found an empty tube of Nystatin and a BRAND NEW tube of Triple Creme.....WTF????? Our best guess is that she had been using the yeast infection cream for diaper rash. That explains why Emilia would have diaper rash a lot....she wasn't using the right stuff. I could not believe it, just could not believe it. Not that I think it would harm her, but really thinking about it, it could have killed all the good yeast and bacteria and caused a lot of harm. I was just speechless. Oh well....not much to do about it now, but at least I do have a new tube of diaper rash cream to send to the new daycare.

Oh, in other Emilia news, we are starting to potty train. Nothing has happened yet. No peepee in the potty yet. She pats the potty and says "peepee" and she pats her crotch and says "peepee," so she grasps the concept, it is just actually doing it that seems to be the hold up. It will happen though, I am in no rush, however it would be nice if she were potty trained by her birthday. Just sayin....it would be nice.

Alright, I am going for now. I think that I gave you enough to read for one blog. Up next....the Christmas blog. I think that it will be entitled 'The Year of the Stroller.'

Till next time....

Thank God...

....for mid afternoon chocolate! I am having a Twix attack.

bouncy, bouncy, bouncy

Endless fun! Emilia found Chason's trampoline and jumped until her little heart was content. Those curls going all over the place. It was too much fun!