Emma at 20 Months

Emma's tummy is starting to feel better!  In the below picture, the girls are looking out from the seventh floor window of the hospital while we played "I Spy" and tried to guess which window belonged to the room Luke was born in.  Shortly after this picture was taken the doctor came in and all hell broke lose as both girls jockeyed for position at the window while I talked to the doctor.  Needless to say I left there with my sweaty head hanging low, and the girls left there with no stickers.

For most of this month Emma preferred to sleep upright in the rocking chair while Will or I took shifts holding her.  I'm sure frequent fliers can attest to the fact that the human body can become used to sleeping upright.  Now, when I go to rock Emma before bed, I usually fall into a deep sleep too and I'm guessing my mouth looks very similar to Emma's in the below picture.

 

Emma's sleep and appetite are improving and so is her mood and vocabulary.  When she is done having a crying fit she will look up at us and say, "Emma happy now."  When Lucy is sad or throwing a fit Emma will ask, "Lucy happy?"  And I have to admit, when I am done giving them a piece of my mind, Emma will ask, "Mama happy?"

I love kissing Emma's chubby cheeks and her little nose.  Sometimes Emma enjoys being smothered in kisses, and other times she will tell me, "NO!  Don't!"

Emma is really good at pretending to be asleep and she also loves playing peek a boo.  Here she is below, sneaking up on Will and yelling, "I SEE YOU!" when she popped her head out.

And here she is hiding behind a mask that her and Auntie Jane made.  She kept yelling, "GRRRRR!"

She is really good at Hide and Go Seek too.  A number of times this past month I couldn't find her and I started panicking.  She doesn't make a sound and comes up with really good spots.  One time she was wearing the same color as our bed's duvet cover and hid her face under the quilt that was hanging over the side of the bed.  She stood perfectly still and didn't make a sound.  The gate to the upstairs was closed, so I knew she had to be upstairs, but I couldn't for the life of me find her.  She never gave herself away, and to my relief I finally found her.  I just have to wonder what is going through her head when she is waiting so quietly and patiently in her hiding spot.  Lucy can hardly contain herself when she hides and giggles or calls your name before you are even finished counting.  

Emma loves to yell, "I'm coming!" when running around, like in the below picture.

Emma loves to ask, "Why?" and asks it after every single thing you tell her.  "Emma, get off the counter."  "Why?"  "Because you will fall and get hurt." "Why?"  "Because it hurts to go boom."  "Why?"  And on and on and on...

Either Lucy has influenced Emma's sense of humor or I am just doomed with children who have a genetic disposition to potty talk.  Emma thinks tooting is hilarious, gets a kick out of boogers and also loves to find toe jam between her toes.  Will of course eggs her on with questions like, "Who toots more, Mama or Daddy?"  Here she is below on the hunt for toe jam at the dinner table.

Emma is fascinated by babies.  Here she is below bonding with my friend Jill's little boy.  We soaked up their sweetness while simultaneously blocking out our respective three year olds' whining and fighting in the background.

Emma is finally smiling for the camera!  Up until now, she would turn her head away every time I tried to take a picture.  Here she is below trying out her new look.

Emma loves to help - flip the light switch on or off when we enter or leave a room, cut her own food, wash her own face, etc.  Here she is below helping me make vegetable soup.  It was a great recipe to make with her because it involved opening and pouring various bags of frozen veggies and containers of soup broth.  She even shook in the seasonings.

We finally switched Emma's carseat from rear facing to forward facing.  The first car ride with her facing the new direction was absolutely hilarious.  She kept enthusiastically yelling out all the things she saw for the first time - "Dada's keys!" when she saw where the keys go into the ignition.  "Feet!" when she saw Lucy's feet for the first time in the car.  And best of all, "Purple Lights!!!  Rainbow Lights!!!  Blue Lights!!!" as she can now see the Christmas lights.  That was the deciding factor to turn her carseat around.  We were commenting on all of the Christmas lights and Emma kept crying, "I don't see!  No, I don't!"  Now she can, and the excitement has not worn off yet.  It has made seeing the lights of the season even more special.

How did my baby get this old already?  When I ask if she is my baby, she says, "No, big girl!"  You are growing by leaps and bounds Emma, and while I am savoring what's left of your sweet baby cheeks, chubby thighs, excitement and cuddles, I also look forward to seeing the young girl you are quickly becoming.

November in a Nutshell

November was much like October in the fact that Will seemed to wear a hospital gown more than his own clothes, and Emma preferred to sleep upright in a rocking chair rather than in her own bed.  

 Will also spent a lot of time looking like this.

He just couldn't seem to stay warm.  Something about having a foot long tube with a corkscrew on each end to hold it in place stuck between his kidney and bladder gave him the shakes.  Actually, just describing it is giving me the shakes.  Let's move on!   The day before Thanksgiving he had his last surgery that successfully removed the stone and the awful tube.  We had a lot to be thankful for on Thanksgiving morning and started out in great moods.

 Somewhere between the start of the Thanksgiving Day parade and seeing Santa on TV, Will started having those same old pains again.  We were completely disheartened, as we were told just yesterday that finally the stone was gone.  I called my Dad to come over and watch the girls while I took a quick shower (think 60 seconds) and tried to mentally prepare myself for Thanksgiving away from the girls and hospital grade turkey and gravy.  Several minutes after my dad got to our house, the pain miraculously subsided.  A couple of minutes after that, Will peed out a giant stone.  The doctor on call that day said that there are usually fragments left from the surgery.  Good to know, and I'd hate to see what the actual stone looked like because that fragment was pure evil!  Needless to say, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving after that, and our entire perspective for the day went to a new level of happiness and relief.  Here are the girls below on Thanksgiving with their Great Grandparents, in town from Oklahoma.

Aunt Jane was also in town for the weekend from Ohio, so it was wonderful seeing her as well.

Aunt Jane even devoted the day after Thanksgiving to babysitting the girls so that Will and I could do some Christmas shopping.  The girls loved it and I am assuming that Aunt Jane swore off ever having children and slept like a rock when she went home.

Since that weekend, every time we sing "The Wheels on the Bus" song we have had to add a new verse: "Aunt Jane on the bus plays pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, Aunt Jane on the bus plays pat-a-cake, all through the town!"  The added bonus of this song verse is that Emma thinks pat-a-cake is referring to her Uncle Pat and Auntie Cate.

If laughter is the best medicine, Lucy doled her share of it.  Some of my favorite overheard conversations included:

-Lucy: "Dad, I want an American Girl doll for Christmas." 

Will: "What are American Girl dolls?"

Lucy: "Look it up on the iPad Dad."

-Lucy: "Dad, it feels like there is a bird in my bumbee."

Will: "Let it out then."

Lucy: {tooooot}

I also overheard Lucy whispering to Will, "Don't tell mom" and then giggle uncontrollably.  Later when I asked Will what I wasn't supposed to know he told me that Lucy loves telling "poop" jokes to him when he tucks her in for the night.  I told him to give me an example joke, and he shook his head.  I told him he is on my team, not hers and to tell me the joke.  Now I wish he didn't, because I am both highly disturbed and in awe of her creativity.  Maybe this is an example of how children gain different things from each parent, or maybe I should put a stop to it immediately.  I am also wondering if this is something that I need to let her get out of her system (quite literally) so that she can move on from this stage.  Ah, parenthood.

On a lighter note, we were finishing up lunch one afternoon when Lucy became inspired with this idea: "Dad, if you let me have ice cream your kidney stone will come out faster."  I thought this was hilarious so I immediately posted her comment on Facebook.  Big mistake.  Ever since that day, every time we laugh at something funny that Lucy said she tells us to "Post it on Facebook!"

One particularly sunny and unusually warm Sunday this past month I was feeling down and in the dumps.  When was our life going to get easy I kept wondering.  It felt like the house was closing in on me and I got extremely irritated when I looked out of the dining room window and could hardly see the sunshine through the dirt.  I decided then and there it was time to wash the windows.  Our neighbors probably saw me out there on the ladder and thought to themselves, "Wow, her life must be so together.  Who has time to wash windows?"  Ironic, isn't it?  It ended up being a great activity though because it got me out in the beautiful weather and thinking about something other than our rotten luck these days.   Will had a hard time sitting on the sidelines as you can see in the below picture.  I came around the corner after putting the screens back on the front windows and caught him.  He told me he was still following doctor's orders - Lucy was the one washing the windows, not him.  I can see right through you Will Timmerman - like a clean window on a sunny day!

My neighbors may be fooled, but trust me, we did little to no cleaning this past month.  Mostly we spent it caring for each other, trying to sleep, and dealing with the loss of Will's grandpa.  Here Lucy is below arranging and rearranging a flower arrangement from Great Grandpa J's funeral.  She spent over an hour in deep concentration with those flowers.

Lucy also has a long attention span with play doh.  On Thanksgiving morning when Will was curled up in the fetal position, Lucy spent over two hours at the table with play doh.  Here she is below, proudly displaying her artwork.  A psychologist might try to tell me that the red tube with purple circles represents Lucy's subconscious mind trying to work out Will's issues with kidney stones - the red representing an inflamed ureter and the purple circles the stones.  Let me be the first to tell you that what you see is simply a cake with sprinkles.

 

It has been quite a month and I'm not sorry to see it go.  Here's to a better December and good health all around!

October and Apples that Don't Fall Far from the Tree

It has been a challenging couple of months to say the least.  I feel like we are slowly but surely finding our way back to "normal".  Will is currently pain free and Emma's tummy troubles seem to be getting better as well.  I am now catching up on regular life and finally had a chance to go through the last two months of pictures.  Here's October...

The girls and I had a lot of time together this month as Will dealt with a stuck kidney stone.  We enjoyed many picnics together in the great outdoors.  I will miss these picnics now that the weather is colder, and I will miss the relatively mess-free clean up of meals eaten al fresco too.

 

Before Will's kidney troubles started, we purchased two apple trees, a pear tree and a pair of blueberry bushes on clearance at our local nursery.  We plan to train the two apple trees pictured below into an espalier form against the west wall of our garage to save on space.  I am itching to get at least two more varieties of apple trees for the east side of our garage, however I think we may have already bitten off more than we can chew - or store.  We now have six blueberry bushes, 15 feet of raspberry bushes, 16 square feet of strawberries, a peach tree, a pear tree, and two apple trees plus our seasonal assortment of veggies and herbs.  If I had done it right, I would have researched the trees first and figured out that it would be a good idea to make sure each variety of fruit we have ripens at different times so that we can have a steady flow of fruit instead of an overabundance at one time.  Nothing like trial by fire though, and I am steadily researching fruit tree care now.  I have found some very interesting facts including the seeds that Johnny Appleseed famously planted across the United States were actually mostly used for cider because no two apple seeds are the same.  His random planting of thousands of seeds created thousands of apples with just a small percentage of them edible to eat raw.  The apple trees we bought and that most fruit comes from are cuttings grafted onto roots that don't even belong in the fruit family.  That is the only way to ensure that a Red Delicious, or Gala, etc. contain the same qualities in each new generation of plants.

So apples and children grow much the same way and the saying that the "Apple doesn't fall far from the tree" is actually more about nurture than nature! 

 The girls loved playing in the leaves this year, and had a blast jumping in the leaves and taking "tarp rides" as Will took the leaves to the compost pile on a giant tarp.  We believe Will's kidney stone started moving when he was raking up the fall leaves.  Because of the kidney stone, I had to finish the fall clean up myself which was a serious workout.  Thankfully my dad and brother came by and helped me out.  My hat is off to Will for tackling the leaves each year by himself!

In fact, my hat is off to a lot of people this past month.  First, to Lucy and Emma for being so flexible with any given moment us having to drop what we were doing and rush Will to the ER for morphine when his stone decided it was time to try and move again.  My hat is off to my family and friends for being there for us for last minute childcare and meals.  If it wasn't for you, my kids surely would have lived off of hot dogs and mac and cheese and a steady diet of iPad videos in waiting rooms.  Here they are below, seeming happy and adjusted despite the chaos in our lives.

 In the below picture they are playing airplane.  They've never been on an airplane before, but I thought they captured the experience fairly well - doesn't the light from the window look like it is coming from a high altitude?

Will also did an amazing job maintaining his optimism.  I have always known that he was the optimistic one in the relationship, and not even a stuck kidney stone resulting in a three day hospital stay and three separate surgeries in one month could bring him down.  The other day I asked him if the chicken coop was wet.  The correct answer would have been, "Yes, it's wet."  His response is a classic example of the way his mind works, as he told me "It's mostly dry."

I think this next picture can be entitled, "Mini Me".  It turns out this apple doesn't fall far from the tree.  I hardly had to remind Will at all to take his medicine, drink water, not climb the stairs alone after surgery, etc.  Lucy would say things like, "Dad, what are you doing?!?  You can't pick me up and when's the last time you had a glass of water?  Sit down.  I'll get you a water."

Lucy seems to be a little adult this past month and now draws stick figures instead of just scribbles, can write her name and can recognize most of the letters of the alphabet and words like love, Mom, Dad, Luke and Emma.  She is also becoming quite analytical, as displayed in the following conversation after we watched Will's high school homecoming parade.  "Dad, why did your students throw all that candy at me?"  Will: "They must like you."  After a pause, Lucy then said, "But dad, you like me and you don't throw candy at me."

Stay tuned, I promise to post November in a nutshell soon!

Emma at 19 Months

Emma's favorite thing to say this month is definitely, "I on help!"  Meaning, I wanna help! She wants to help with zippers, picking out her own clothes, pouring water, drinking her juice, cutting her food, etc.  If we try to do something for her, she will say, "Nonononononono".  I have put her desire to help to good use, as Emma has discovered the thrill of illustrating vertical canvases.  Here she is below washing the wall that I caught her scribbling on with pencil.

And here both Lucy and Emma are "helping" to wash off the chairs they colored in with chalk while I was getting adjusted at our chiropractor's office.

Next on the popular phrase list this month would have to be "I on see!"  Translated, "I want to see!"  Anything Lucy has, Emma wants to see.  Up until this point, Emma was the laid back sister.  Now, Lucy has her work cut out for her.  Emma has become quite competitive and has even resorted to biting to get her way.  Right now Lucy is sporting a bruise on her back that showcases all twenty of Emma's teeth.  Will confided in me that if he was Lucy, he would be very afraid.  It hasn't slowed Lucy down though, and I come running when I hear Lucy shout, "Emma, no biting!"  Emma also likes to say "I on see" when I change her diaper, when Lucy is sitting on the potty, and when I wipe her nose.  Along those same lines, she has become fascinated with toe jam.  I have capitalized on her new interest in the fuzz between her toes when I change her diaper, as it is the only thing that gets her to hold still.

The sibling rivalry has been pretty rough this past month and drains my energy like nothing else.  Now I understand what my mom meant when she insisted all she really wanted for Christmas was for her kids to get along.  Truly, that's all I want for Christmas, and I want it to last for longer than five minute stretches!  Don't be fooled by the below pictures of them getting along.

Despite Emma's new competitive streak, she is still a sweetie.  She has gotten really good at saying "I yuv you" this month.  She says it in a soft, high pitched voice that melts my heart every time.  Especially when she says, "Hi, mama.  I yuv you."  Here she is below looking oh so sweet for her 18 month portraits that we had taken a month late.

If you ask Emma what her favorite song is, she will most likely say "Doodle Dandy".  If you ask her what her favorite color is, she will probably say, "Purple!"  A couple of Sundays ago we arrived at church late and had to sit in the front row where the only remaining open seats were left.  There were flowers on the alter in front of us that were purple and Emma spent the entire service pointing and yelling "PURPLE!"  No amount of shushing would deter her excitement of seeing her favorite color on display for all to see.  Here she is below wearing one of her favorite shirts because it is purple.

Emma has been suffering from acid reflux again this month.  Sleep has become harder and harder to come by for the entire family and she is getting more miserable as the days go by.  We have an appointment scheduled with the pediatric gastrologist this coming month which can't come soon enough.  Ironically, just days before the reflux symptoms started showing up she had her 18 month well visit at the pediatrician's which she passed with flying colors.  Here she is below looking cute in the tiny gown, waiting to see the doctor.

The below picture was taken before she started having tummy issues.  I wouldn't dare risk waking her up with a picture now!

We are blaming her recent picky eating on her tummy troubles too.  Fortunately this time around she has a bit more chunk on her to see her through, but it is still difficult to not make her special meals when all she will eat lately are hot dogs, apples and cheerios.  The other day we were driving home from running errands when we started talking about getting hot dogs at Coney Island for dinner.  Will was eating something in the front seat and reached back to give Lucy a taste.  Emma of course wanted a taste too, so Will reached back with a couple of crumbs on his finger for Emma to taste.  It was then I heard a yell so loud I almost ran the car off the road.  Emma had bit down on Will's finger so hard it drew blood.  As Will nursed his wound in the front seat, Emma started crying and saying "hot dog" in the back seat.  The moral of the story - never talk about hot dogs while offering your finger to Emma.  She must have thought Will's finger was a hot dog!

Finally, I need to note that Emma has gone vertical in more than just her artwork.  She is climbing on everything.  Life was so much easier before she decided to scale furniture, counter tops and window ledges.  I found her on top of the stove the other day and couldn't stop thanking God that it was off.  I feel like my sole job is to just keep Emma alive, and Lucy from being bitten.  Add that to all of the other challenges we have going on this month makes for one tired mama.  But when I kiss those squishy cheeks of hers, and she wraps her arms around my neck and says, "Hi mama.  I yuv you," it definitely makes it all worth it.  I yuv you too my little bean sprout!

Great Grandpa J

As many of you know, Will's grandpa passed away unexpectedly this past week of a massive heart attack.  We are still trying to wrap our minds around the fact that he is gone.  How can someone who has been there for every single baseball game, birthday, baptism, anniversary, barbecue, holiday and regular, every day visits be gone just like that?  How can someone who has made one of the biggest influences on Will's life just be gone?  The fact that Will had his grandfather in his life for thirty two years is a huge blessing in itself.  But how do you come to terms with the fact that his smiling face will no longer be a part of what makes a family get together familiar, fun and special?

Life can and does change in an instant.  One moment everything is as you have always known, and the next moment comes and life will never be the same again.  Grandpa's passing came at an already challenging time for us.  Will has been dealing with a 'stuck' kidney stone for almost a month now and has been in and out of the hospital for procedures and surgeries with no end in sight still.  He has had to figure out how to go to work, be a father and a husband with a tube in his kidney, pain and anxiety about when the ugly stone will try to move again.  I have been trying to figure out how to keep him comfortable and manage the girls and the household as a single parent.  I was struggling with the injustice of it all, how hard life is and how seemingly unfair our lot seems to be as of late.  And then one phone call put it all into perspective.  Grandpa is gone.  Life as we know it will never be the same.  Kidney stones?  What kidney stones.

I think it is safe to say that someone who has made such an impact on our lives can never just be gone.  Every time Will listens to a Tiger's game on the radio, he will remember summer nights on his grandpa's porch, listening to the ballgame together.  Each time he turns on his table saw or runs the sander on his latest and greatest project, he will remember the man who taught him how to work with his hands.  Even something as simple as paying cash and knowing the exact amount of change due back to him before the cashier counts it out in his hand - he will remember his Grandpa.  I will never forget that from the moment I met Grandpa twelve years ago, he always made me feel like one of his own grandchildren.  His proud and happy smile when he saw me, his interest in my life and his great love for my children.  I will forever be grateful to him for adopting me as his own, and for influencing my husband so greatly.

Here are some of my favorite pictures of Grandpa...

At Lucy's baptism...

 Emma's baptism...

Here he is below with his family this past Father's Day. Four of his five children, seven of his eight grandchildren (counting me of course with the eighth, and oldest grandchild living in Arkansas), two of his three great grandchildren and his wife of over sixty years.  His family was his life.  Now he is up in heaven with one of his five children,  Paul who passed away when he was two, his great grandson Luke and his parents, siblings, aunts and uncles that have gone before him.  I can only imagine how happy he was to be reunited with his son and to meet his first great grandchild.  Speaking for my own son, Luke is so lucky to have him there as he is the kind of grandfather most kids dream about but few are blessed enough to have.

Here he is below with Grandma on their 60th wedding anniversary.  They took great care of each other, and my heart breaks every time I think about Grandma without Grandpa.  As Lucy pointed out to me, "Grandpa is in heaven and grandma is on earth.  It just doesn't make any sense mom.  That just doesn't make sense."

And here Grandpa is with his great granddaughters.  His entire face would light up when he spent time with them.

Finally, here is a Christmas tradition that will be greatly missed.  When Will was younger, his grandpa would dress up as Santa for Will's mom's preschool class.  Will would stop by and sit on Santa's lap.

When Grandpa got older, Will took over the job of Santa, and Grandpa got to sit on his lap!

Thank you for being the best grandpa and great grandpa we could ever ask for.  Words cannot do justice for how irreplaceable you are.  We love you and miss you and look forward to the day when we will all be together again in heaven.