Gardening and poop oh my!

The potty training is not getting any better. Still doing great with number 1. Getting no where with number 2. She still poops in her underwear and even pooped in the bathtub the other day. I guess she would go anywhere besides the toilet! Believe me I tried everything I can think of. She is at least doing much better with the constipation. Going every other day so hopefully this means no more horrifically painful episodes. This should help with the training. She did go #2 in the toilet once and I made this BIG deal out of it. We cheered, clapped, sang, called Daddy, got stickers but unfortunately this did not help her continue to do this. I was sure that once she went at least once this would break her but no. I am still being hopeful it will happen soon.

Yesterday we did some much needed yard work. I have had no time to tend to the garden or weed the flower beds so we had a whole bunch of crab grass, weeds and spent flowers to clear out in addition to trying to get the vegetable garden in a semi-decent state. We removed the old salad mix, the dill, and weeds but the garden still doesn't look that well. We have had so much rain and cool weather followed over this past week and a half with very hot humid weather that our tomato plants are huge and so heavy that they bend the heavy duty tomato cages and bend the bamboo sticks we tie them to. The cucumbers all now balling up due to the hot weather and we also got rid of the yellow ones we didn't have time to pick when they were still good. A lot of our large tomatoes got in-rot do to the wet summer- I hear everyone in CT and surrounding areas is having similar issues. Emma really enjoyed eating the cherry, grape, and pear tomatoes and she had no red blotches from them at all. They are much less acidic than the big tomatoes so that may have been why. She loves eating things from the garden. She even tried to bite into an eggplant! Cucumbers and snow peas are still her favorite though. I think next year we will reduce the amount of vegetables I plant because I don't have time to tend to them and pick them when they are ready and a lot of it ends up not being eaten.

Weekend Update

Adam's cousin Monika came with her husband to visit us this past weekend. It was good to see her since months have past since we last saw each other. She liked the new colors of our kitchen, e. On Saturday, we also made a quick hour stop at our friend's the Finns. It was baby Mia's baptism that day. The party was fun but we only stayed a short while because we had to go put Emma to bed. Emma took a mini-nap before we got home since she refused to take her nap that day despite of being in her crib for over an hour. But she went to bed without any problems. living and play room. On Saturday we just talked, had dinner, and caught up on things. During this time my uncle, my mother's brother, came to visit us unannounced from Rhode Island. I have only seen him twice in my life; my wedding and Emma's baptism. We keep in touch by holiday cards and the like so it was really good to see him and his wife. He showed us pictures from his visit to Poland. I hardly know anyone from my mother's side of the family so it was nice to see who there were even if it was just on pictures. We must go visit my uncle in RI sometime.

This weekend was really hot and humid so on Sunday, we went out to breakfast and then to my friend's Ula's house to have some fun in the pool. It took a bit of coaxing but Emma finally went in and once she did she did not want to come out. We were there from 11 AM to 6 PM and Emma spent most of that time in the pool! She again missed her nap and gave us a really hard time at night. I guess there is a such a thing as being overtired; too tired to sleep. In fact I think I may have slept a good 3 hours. Finally at around 2:30 AM we took her to bed with us but she was still scared. She held my hand, would drift off to sleep, and wake up screaming for mama. I would shush and reassure her I was there and she would drift off again. She did this on and off until 4:30 AM when she finally fell asleep for good as did I. Adam transferred her back to her crib before 6 AM and she slept until 8:15 AM that morning. The next night she woke up twice, once for a half hour and the second time she went right back to sleep. Last night she slept all night long without waking up so I hope she is getting back to normal because we all need our sleep.

The dangers of balloon play!

You know how every young child loves balloons and loves playing with them and you think to yourself "what's the harm, the worse that can happen is that it will pop and scare the child". Yeah I thought the same thing until this weekend when we went to Emilka's baptism. Emma was playing with a regular balloon that was not blown up with helium but by human lungs. The first one she played with popped and it scared her a little but not enough to curb her desire to have another one to play with. After bouncing the balloon back and forth a few time, the balloon fell on the ground and Emma lounged for it and that is when it popped. This time it did more damage than just scare her. She laterally got branded by the balloon. She has a perfectly formed J imprinted in the crook of her arm. It swelled up red and puffy and it must have hurt something awful because after calming down from crying after an ice application, she wanted to go home when the party was still in full swing.



This picture was taken right before bed after most of the swelling has gone down. You will notice the perfectly shaped J. So the next time your child wants to play a balloon just remember that they are not as harmless as they seem.

More Painting and Playing!

The first weekend of August was really busy with more taping, painting and cleaning up! Adam's dad came again to help us with the painting. He wanted to finish everything so he painted the entire ceiling, the living room and the kitchen in just a day and a half. The livings room is a beige tone and the kitchen area is a steel gray to match my blue and stainless steel kitchen. The bad news is he said he is never painting again. We think it is because he forgot his medication and was not feeling well as a result. Either way thank you grandpa for painting! We really appreciate it. So this leaves us the small guest bathroom and the dining room to do. And since we don't have money to hire anyone, we are going to have to do it ourselves.

Here is a photos of the living room. A far cry from the white walls!

And Emma playing in the freshly painted living room after she already spread all her toys everywhere.

Emma's New Hair Cut- July 28, 2009

Just a quick photo of Emma's new hair cut. We just trimmed her bangs because we are going to grow out her hair in the back. Doesn't she look adorable?

Our Own Connecticut College 10 Year Reunion- July 25, 2009

On Saturday July 25th, some of my fellow Connecticut College friends, decided to have our own mini Conn College 10 year reunion since a few of us did not make it to the official 10 year reunion in May. That is correct I finished college in 1999. How did that happen! Ten years- it can't be! In attendance were Laura M, Laura H, Kim S, and Katie F-I who was joined by her husband and daughter. We had a lot of food, lots of reminiscing- thanks Laura H for bringing the photo albums and memory books, it sure took us back... All in all the weather was warm if not hot, the children behaved themselves for the most part, and we had lots of great food and conversation. It was definitely a success and we should do it more often.

Here are the 5 Conn College Girls of 99'.

Top from left: Laura H, Kim S

Bottom from Left: Katie F-I, Kasia K, Laura H

When I am bored on the potty and Mommy is not looking !

Ah kids... Sometimes they do the most bizarre yet entertaining things. You don't know if you should laugh or get mad. This happened on July 20th, 2009. I had Emma go on the potty while I was doing dishes. She has been doing great asking to go pee and hardly has any accidents at least with number 1. So what I did not realize is that she took her notepad and a blue marker. Instead of using her notepad she decided that it would be more interesting to color her legs blue. That is correct- her entire thighs were blue. On the photo below you can see her right tight still has a lot of marker on it.

These photos were already taken when I took some of the marker off before I realized this was a funny moment and I should capture it on film. You can see the blue wipes to the side. Of course this was right before we were supposed to leave for daycare and it took me a good 20 minutes to clean her legs off. Since I did not have time to put her in a bath, I used baby wipes which worked pretty well but I used up a good portion of the box.

I did have Emma help clean herself off of course how else will they learn. All I can say is thank god I buy washable markers!

Grandparents Visit July 18th, 2009

We had Adam's parents come visit us for the weekend so that Adam's dad can help us paint the piano/Emma's playroom. We painted it a mute peach color of which I took no photos of course but we did get some nice photos of Emma with her grandparents. This picture was taken before church. Yes her favorite new chair has become any type of ball- the bigger the better!

Our 10th Anniversary Photo

I though I would finally put in the photo of our 10th Wedding Anniversary.

We didn't do much to celebrate besides having the grandparents babysit while we went out to dinner at Carmen Anthony's in Waterbury. Excellent meal. I can't believe it has been 10 years since we got married. I don't think I thought about where we will be in our lives after 10 years of marriage. I am pretty happy though. We moved several times, lived in three states, went to Hawaii twice and bought a house and had a baby, our beautiful Emma. We still get along although having a child definitely added to the stress of our marriage as it does to every one's marriage. We used to never fight before we had Emma. Now we fight occasionally but it has never been really bad. Overall I am happy about where I am in my life and marriage even if I am exhausted most of the time:)