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:)

Great Progess in Potty Training!

The weekend of July 4th we decided to go full steam ahead in potty training Emma. We took her out of diapers and put her in regular underwear. That is right, regular underwear, no diapers, no pull-ups. The first day she peed in her underwear every single time so much so that I had a brief moment of "Oh maybe this isn't such a good idea". The second day started out rough but got much better as the day progessed. The following Monday, the 6th was Emma's first day at daycare wearing only underwear. She made it the whole day without an accident. Pretty impressive for a third day. Over the next week she had an accident here or there but at daycare stayed dry every day except once in the afternoon when she was with a different teacher who didn't realize Emma was in the middle of potty traning. Since they were outside she didn't notice that Emma had an "accident". Over this past weekend she made it through the whole weekend without an "accident" and she got much better at telling me she had to go. This is a big step forward since before she was going when we told her to but she would not indicate a need to go. In fact she stayed dry overnight for the last 5 nights! Even when we visited my sister Agnes and her family, Emma asked to go three times during the time we were there. Once right when we got to the car to go and she held it until we made it back to the house. Good job Emma! So she is pretty much potty trained with #1. Rarely is there a problem. Now it's a different story with #2. No luck with that yet. She indicates after the fact which is better than nothing. One thing I learned is that #2 comes out really well if you rinse it right away in really hot water. Cold water does not work well. So good job Emma with #1, looking forward to success with #2.

It's been a while...ice cream...teething..oh my!

It has been a while since I last updated this blog. Emma is doing great although she has some pain from the molars coming in and isn't eating much. Yogurt seems to be the only thing she eats for breakfast these days but at least it's something right? Over the last month or two we have seen two new baby girls born with whom Emma was really gentle with. Welcome to the world Emilka and Mia. They are both growing so quickly and are both beautiful and sweet.

Emma has eaten her first meal at Friendly's and really enjoyed her ice cream so much that she screamed when we finally left. If I can figure out how to send photos from my phone I have a picture of it. Emma spend some more time with her grandparents who came over to stay on our 10th Anniversary which we celebrated the 3rd of July. We had a nice dinner at Carmen Anthony's that night while the grandparents babysat Emma. We were going to go away for a weekend but that is really too expensive and we couldn't justify spending so much when things are currently tight with money as it is due to Adam's lack of overtime. His company cut all overtime without special approval and it's been a pretty cool summer really. It's the middle of July and it hasn't been over 85F since April. Most days we barely hit 80F. All the pools are too cool to swim in. In fact, last Thursday, when we both took the day off to stain the deck between all the rain, it was so chilly I had on a long sleeve shirt and a fleece vest because the wind was really cold. It's the coolest summer with the most rain I have seen in a long time. There is a benefit to it though. We haven't used the sprinkler system at all and the AC use is way down. We used half the electricity we used last June!

Adam's brother and my sister and both their families went to Florida for vacation both using our timeshare and had a good time. At least someone is using our timeshare since we don't seem to be... Last Saturday I visited an old best friend, Joanna, and had a good time there. We came home almost at 10PM and as a result Emma went to bed pretty late. She got up early Sunday morning and for some reason refused to nap during the afternoon. She spend the later afternoon in her baby pool which I filled with some water and two full cattles of boiling water so that it was warm enough for her to play in. After that she ate some cream puffs that Adam gave her and then she came over to me and at about 6:30 PM she passed out cold from exhaustion. After 8 PM, since she still did not wake up, we finally changed her and put her to bed. She slept to 7:40 AM the next morning and then had a long nap at daycare on Monday. This is the first time she has ever fallen asleep on me in her entire two years and 4 months. Go figure.

Emma is such a good child. Pretty well behaved, listens pretty well at least most days, says thank you and gives awesome kisses. She is quite a mama's girl these days. For some reason it's mama mama mama. She wants me to pick her up, hold her, and has even had a few days where she doesn't want me to leave her at daycare. She even cried once which she has not done since she transferred to toddlers over a year ago. Sometimes it's draining to have someone need you so much all the time so you don't get any peace but I will take it because I know she loves me and feels safe in my arms and that is all that mothers really want for their children...