August 2010

I am finally feeling better after starting to eat food last Sunday, this being Wed.  Because of the ulcer on my esophagus I couldn't really eat anything besides chicken soup, jello and kisiel.  On the upside I lost 5 lbs but fear before I go back to Poland I will gain it back since I am constantly hungry now after starving for a week and a half.

Emma is turning into a little comedian maybe without even knowing it.  She found a dead caterpillar on the sidewalk at daycare and said "Oh..it's a caterpillar- well he is not going anywhere!"  I think that's quite funny for a 3 years old.

We have been picking tomatoes every day and there seems to be an endless supply of it.  I am running out of things to do with tomotoes and it doesn't help Emma can't really eat them since she gets red blotches on her face when she does.  Last weekend I actually weekend all the flower beds and did most of the garden before I ran out of steam.  I am still a bit weak I guess.  Emma is enjoying helping to water the planters and she loves coloring with chalk on our new patio so it was a smart decision to convert that rocky area into a patio.

Adam went to a Heavy Metal concert on Monday night, the 16th of August.  I  had Emma and while I was cleaning up after dinner, she went to the bathroom.  She is getting to the point where she wants her privacy and frequently closes the door after she enters the bathroom.  She was in there for a while and I didn't think nothing of it when I heard she turned on the faucet a few times.  Then she comes out smelling like and outhouse and I notice she has poop on her shorts - her white shorts.  So at first I think she had an accident and somehow spread it on her shorts.  Boy was I wrong.  As I enter the bathroom to wash her hands and quickly get her out of the shorts, the bathroom smell hits me.  Apparently she played with her poop in the toilet and splashed it on the walls, floor, and the carpet.  In addition she smeared it all over the toilet seat, the sink and faucet.  I can only pray it was because she was trying to get the poop off!  I hope she wasn't doing it on purpose.  Needles to say, I did quite a bit of yelling (my bad but that was the last straw that day) and I had  a half hour of scrubbing everything in the bathroom and gave her a 45 minute bath before I felt sanitary again.  I still can't understand why she did this!  She is such a clean freak - this is the same kid who insists on changing her underwear if there is speck of dirt on it, who won't sit in a wet t-shirt is she spill something on it.  I can't image ....she better not do this again!

Mid to End of July, 2010

Just want to summarize a few things that happened mid to end of July.

Emma is definitely testing her ground.  She is more defiant and keeps testing us all the time.  I guess it's about time she gives us a hard time but it can be trying at times.   I definitely yell more for bad behavior and I hate that. She had a real hard time being dropped off at daycare recently.  She had been going to the daycare for 2 and half years and just now gives me a hard time leaving her.  She didn't even have a hard time transitioning to preschool and now a few months later she does.  On July 26th she pretty much screamed from the moment I woke her up to the moment I left her at daycare.  I figured I have to figure out why this is happening and quite by accident found out that is she eats breakfast at home without being rushed she has no problem when I leave her at daycare.  So now, I make sure she has a good breakfast at home and so far for the last two weeks no crying when I leave.  I guess she just needs some mommy time and a nice breakfast in the morning...no eating cereal in the car or eating breakfast at daycare for this little lady!





We finally figured out how to get Emma to go to sleep on her own without us having to stay by her until she fell asleep.  We have been doing that since she had really bad nightmares and kept seeing ghosts and monsters in her room.  It turned out all we needed was a nightgown!  Who knew a princess nightgown would be the key to Emma going to bed on her own? She begged me for one at the store (previously wore 2 piece PJs) but I told her only big girls who go to sleep on their own wear them and she said she is a big girl and will sleep on her own and she ACTUALLY did! It is still working.  All she wants is her twilight turtle that shines stars on the ceiling and her polish lullaby and she is good.  Of course that means she sometimes sneaks out of her room looking for excuses not to go to bed such as "I am hungry - we fell for it a few times but not more) and we have to go tell her to go back to bed a few times but it is working well.

July 12, 2010

July 12, 2010

Since I had a rough morning with my stomach I took the day off from work and didn't take Emma to daycare.  Instead I let Emma sleep in, we had a nice leisure breakfast and then around 11 AM headed over to my sister's house to use her pool.   We had a nice time relaxing in the water.  We swam, splashed, floated and sprayed each other with the noodle.  Emma is quite good at pretending she is swimming and is not afraid to float in her frog float without me next to her.  She is definitely getting more comfortable in the water.  During winter I plan on signing her up for swimming lessons.We also played some card games with Alex while Emma relaxed in the hammock.

We went back to Agnes' pool on Saturday the 17th and had a good time and dad even joined us after he came back from work.  Again we had fun but I ended up with a bacterial infection on my legs that required two sets of antibiotics and a scary incident where I had painful breathing, hospital visit, and an endoscopy finally revealing that I got a pill induced ulcer on my esophagus.  So while the day was fun, not sure if it was worth it...

Emma went for a full weekend sleep over from the 6th of August until Sunday afternoon.  Unfortunately I was really sick from the ulcer incident and Adam and I couldn't really enjoy it :(  Emma did though.  She was again sleeping over at grandmas with her cousin Monika and even spent time with cousin Daniel when they all went to a festival at the church. 

First Sleep Over her Grandparent's House July 10, 2010

July 10, 2010

I don't have a photo but we were visiting Adam's parents on Saturday the 10th of July, 2010 and her grandma asked if Emma wants to sleep over and she said yet.  It probably really helped that her cousin Emilka was also sleeping over.  So even though she didn't have a change of clothes we found some suitable clothes for her to wear to sleep and left her overnight at Grandmas.  We had a birthday party on Sunday afternoon for her friend so she didn't stay long on Sunday but she did great!  No crying to get home and she really enjoyed her time there.  She also had a blast at Katherine's Birthday party at Bounce-U.  Katherine was Emma's friend in Toddler 1 so she had fun with her and her friend Alexa.  All in all a very successful weekend and mom and dad were alone for the first time since Emma was born...

Emma's First Ballet/Tap Class July 7, 2010

July 7, 2010

The perfect pose and that's before class started!

Emma loved her first day of ballet class.  She had a blast.  She followed directions really well.  I have to say I was quite impressed.  I see many years of dance lessons ahead of me...I knew she liked dancing as she has been imitating dancing with the starts for a year and half now but wasn't sure how she would do following instructions.  But she surprised me and did great.  I am so proud of her.  the only bad thing is she refuses to take her outfit off so we ended up with a lot of people staring in the store, at the restaurant and the library.   But most people gave her compliments so it's all good.  All her subsequent lessons went well except the last one where a child stepped on her finger during tap and she didn't want to rejoin after that.  She has been asking to go to dance class now but the 6 week course is over and we will be in Poland when the new session begins so I am not sure if she will go in the fall.  I do plan on signing  her up for Saturday afternoon gymnastic classes instead and see if she likes that as she has been doing flips all over the floor watching "So you think you can dance".

Enjoy some pictures of Emma.

My favorite photo of her

Waiting for class to start.  Next to her is a girl named Ella who just loved Emma!

 

Quite a professional looking pose there Emma!

And Now some TAP phoots

 Waiting to start with friend Ella

 Tap, tap, tap

 Looking good Emma!

They are all so cute!

The Tapping Train and yes Emma was the smallest.

Angel's Graduation Party, July 3, 2010

July 3, 2010

We didn't really celebrate our anniversary this year, our 11th, on July 3, 2010.  Instead my nephew had his graduation party that day at the YMCA outdoor area in Meriden.  We enjoyed great home-made food. Emma enjoyed her bubble wand and playscape and made some new friends.  The guys played tug-of-war and dodge-ball while I didn't participate but watched the kids instead but that was alright because I wasn't feeling too hot. All in all we all had a good time and left to go home tired but happy.

We enjoyed the food but the home-made cookies were better...)

 Paula and I watch a game

Tug of War - Adam gives it his best and

they win a few times but not the final!

A game of Dodge-ball

Angel gets a "Cake Beating"

Emma's favorite part. Her Aunt Agnes gives her all the balloons.

Yeah - thanks Agnes!

Angel's High School Graduation June 17, 2010

June 17, 2010

Group Shot 1

 Group Shot 2

Yes it's true Angel did graduate high school on June 17, 2010.  But all kidding aside we are very proud of Angel for graduating and putting another milestone to adulthood behind him.  The weather was beautiful and the ceremony was lovely.  After some photos and group shots we all went home as Angel went to celebrate with some friends...

Our Mini Connecticut College Reunion! June 26, 2010

June 26, 2010

Laura (expecting her first baby!), Me, and Katie

The three of us haven't seen each other for quite some time; I believe over a year at least! So upon learning that Laura is expecting her first baby (I think it's a girl by the way but they are waiting like we did) we decided to meet up and see each other since it has been a while. Since Katie lives in Rhodes Island, she is the one who lives in between us (Laura in MA and me in CT) we decided to meet at her house.  We had lots of food and great conversations.  I love it how when we meet up, and we haven't seen each other for a while, we can pick up and have great discussions like we were never apart.  I wish they lived closer as I do miss them a lot. Emma played with Elena (Katie's daughter who is a few months younger) and then ended up passing out playing in the basement as she was exhausted.  She slept for 3 hrs before I woke her up to leave. We stayed over the weekend at Monika's, our cousin's place, and they had company late into the night and it was too loud for Emma to sleep so she only slept 6 hrs that night - poor thing.  But we had a good time and then drove home on Sunday afternoon leaving us a few  hours to relax at home before the week started on Monday.

Laura and Katie

Katie and Elena