Michigan Vacation

We recently returned from an extended vacation home in Michigan. Emma and I went a week earlier than Jay since this will be the last time for a while that I will fly alone with the kids. I also wanted to go a bit earlier in order to enjoy camping at Mullet Lake and spend some time on the boat. We arrived in Michigan on a late Wednesday night and drove up north to the campground on Thursday afternoon. We stayed until Monday and had a great time on the boat everyday, swimming, eating ice cream, playing with Jasmine (the family dog that Emma LOVES), and just plain relaxing. Emma also got to see Great Grandma Charney a few times and show off her ever expanding vocabulary.

We returned to Auburn on Monday and Emma spent the rest of the week playing with Nana, Papa, Uncle Ryan, Aunt Becky, and cousins Darian and Kennedy. She was able to spend quite a bit of time in the pool over the 2 weeks and has really begun to feel comfortable in the water (at times a bit too comfortable). She loves to jump in from the side of the pool (or the back of the boat) and doesn't really care if you are there to catch her or not! We also traveled to East Lansing one day to visit with Great Grandpa Bill. I took advantage of the babysitters we had in all the doting grandparents and even got to go out for dinner with one of my best friends Aimee, who was in town from Milwaukee. It was SO nice to have an adult only, kid free dinner! We don't get to see each other enough!

Jay joined us on Saturday and we went to his mom's retirement dinner Saturday night and spent Sunday and Monday with his extended family including Uncle Seth, Aunt Jenny and Emma's cousins Kole and Sydney. This was our first time to meet our new niece Sydney who was 8 weeks old and she is absolutely adorable!! She is so good too - already sleeping through the night. She pretty much sleeps all day and very rarely cries. She is precious and Emma really was interested in her. I am hoping she carries this interest over into her new baby sister when she arrives! Emma and Kole got some good bonding time too, and seem to play together well. I think Emma was a bit mesmerized (as was her daddy) at how much energy Kole has! He is a typical toddler boy who runs at full speed all day long! Emma also got to spend time with Great Grandpa Jay and her Great Nana.

Thursday Jay and I had to leave to drive to Plymouth for the rehearsal of one of Jay's best friends Tony's wedding. Emma stayed with all of the grandparents. Friday Jay hung out with the guys all day while I got to spend time with my cousin Betsy. We went out for lunch and went shopping in Ann Arbor. It was nice to spend time together, which we don't get to do very often! We went to the wedding Friday night and woke up to drive to the airport Saturday, where Emma and the grandparents met up with us. WHEW!

Overall, we had a great time! The two weeks went by super fast as we were extremely busy with lots of traveling. We enjoyed the cooler weather and Emma showed off to all of her relatives. Everyone was amazed at her expanding vocabulary (she will copy anything you say now) and mom and dad were amazed that she learned everyone's names! After returning home she has asked for everyone by name including grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, great grandparents, and of course the dog too!

I am feeling pretty good and counting down until baby #2 comes. I actually was extremely sick the day of our flight home and was very nervous that I would have nausea for the rest of my pregnancy. It lasted a couple days and has since gone away - thank goodness! It must have been a stomach bug or something. I had an ultrasound this week and they confirmed that baby is in fact a girl. She kept sticking her tongue out at us! We could also see her hair so she will be like her big sister born with lots of hair. They estimated her to be over 5lb, which is over a week ahead of schedule! The time is coming!!

We also started potty training this past week, but that is a whole other blog post. Stay tuned....

Emma sporting her Dora boat coat with Grandma

A little scary Grandpa to leave Emma at the helm

Swimming with mommy

Emma sleeping in the motorhome with baby, Eddie, and of course Jasmine

She loved feeding the baby ducks!

Emma carrying on a Charney family tradition of taking her bath in Mullett Lake!!

Happy Fourth!

Posing with her cousin Kennedy

Do we have a Vegas Showgirl in our future? Lets hope not!

Her first Merry Go Round - of course it had to be at the Auburn Cornfestival!! Thanks Darian and Kennedy for taking her!

Emma driving her cousin Darian

Her first bite of an Elephant Ear with Uncle Ryan

She looks a bit tired posing with Uncle Ryan and Aunt Becky

Seriously mom, do I have to fish?

Emma with mom's cousin Betsy

Great Grandpa Bill with all of his granddaughters

Emma with her pal Benjamin

She took a big interest in her new cousin Sydney. Here she is helping Aunt Jenny change her diaper. Hopefully she is this helpful when her baby sister arrives!

Jay's cousins and brother's family

32 weeks - yikes that belly is getting big!!

Cousin Laura with Sydney

Emma with her cousin Kole (and of course Eddie) going for a ride in the burly

Pushing sweet baby Sydney in the swing

Cooling off on a hot summer day

Emma and Kole

Peek-a-boo I see you Kole!

Nana and Papa with their grandbabies

The happy newlyweds

Emma cashed out after being in the car literally 3-4 minutes after the long plane ride home to Texas.

Let's Play Ball!

We have been busy trying to survive the Texas heat! It has been extremely hot and humid here, which makes for nonexistent play time outside during the day, unless, of course we are at the pool! We tend to make it there at least a couple times a week. Emma is getting a cute little sun tan despite mom's due diligence at applying sunscreen. She insists on taking her blow up fish with her every time, although she hates it and refuses to use it in the pool!

We recently had a week visit from Nana. Emma enjoyed seeing her again and being spoiled by her. She took Emma shopping for a new kitchen set for her birthday and Emma absolutely loves it. It has a little high chair for her dolls and Emma spends a lot of time preparing the meals for the baby to eat. She also makes sure to give them milk with their meals! We have found Emma's babies in the "oven" and even her real milk in the "refrigerator". Have to watch out for that one! Emma got lots of good one on one play time while Nana was here and even learned how to do Nana's knee exercises with the Thera-band.

We also recently bought Emma a little tee ball set. She has a love/hate relationship with it. Sometimes she loves to hit the ball, other times she loves to chase the balls that daddy hits, and sometimes has no interest in it whatsoever. She does ask frequently to "pay ball" and daddy is usually happy to oblige as he would love to have a little ball player on his hands. He gets frustrated at her lack of enthusiasm after about 5 minutes of hitting the ball. The other day he was literally mad at her because she wanted to put on her pretend lipstick instead of play ball with him! It was hilarious and he kept asking "when is the kid gonna be able to play ball with me?"

She is 100% all girl. She LOVES getting her toes painted, putting on her pretend lipstick, and also insists on carrying her purse everywhere we go. Yesterday she threw a fit and wanted to take her purse with her on the short walk to the mailbox. Not sure if daddy's dream of a ball player will ever come out of this girly girl!!

We are looking forward to our trip home to Michigan next week. We are excited to see all of the family and to enjoy some cooler weather!

Carrying her fish and bucket to the pool

Ready to go with her purse in hand!
Playing with her new kitchen set

Time to feed baby!

Sleeping at nap time with a tight hold on her baby and her thumb in the mouth - that is going to be a tough habit to break!

Exercising with Nana's Thera-band

Lovin up on Nana

Look at those ringlets!!

A softball star is born!

You can hear her say "Ready, Set, Go" in the beginning of the video. She loves to chase the ball.

Fun at the Pool

We have been enjoying the neighborhood pools in the last couple weeks. It has been fun trying new ones each weekend to see which we like best. We haven't made it to the beach (there is a man made lake and beach in our neighborhood) yet because mom and dad haven't had the energy to deal with all of the sand!

Last weekend we enjoyed a barbecue with our friends on Memorial Day. Jay and I also found a new yogurt spot called Tutti Frutti that we love. It is a yogurt shop where you pick your own flavor and "do it yourself." So after you dish up your favorite flavor there is a big bar with toppings ranging from fresh fruit including raspberries, blueberries, etc to peanut butter cups, chocolate chips, gummy bears, and the list goes on and on. It is yummy and a perfect summer treat.

I have been busy this past week trying to check off as many things as possible on my to-do list before I head back to work. I took one day and organized the garage. I hung up a big system of hooks to hold all of our lawn equipment. Yes, I did this without any help from my loving husband. As I said in my last post, he had no interest in doing this over Memorial Day weekend and somehow in my family the "honey do" list always falls in my lap. I also installed the bike seat for Emma (which was a pain and took forever) because again, I knew if I didn't do it than it would most likely never get done. I was exhausted at the end of that day - a whole day working hard in the garage when it is 90 degrees out and no wind, along with a bun in the oven set to the "broil" temperature, makes for about a 2 hour cool down session in the air conditioning. Jay doesn't seem to understand why I am hot all the time now. He asks constantly "Aren't you cold with that fan on?" I really wish that men could go through one week of pregnancy to try and understand what it is really like for us women. I don't think they could handle it and manage to cook, clean, do laundry, and take care of the other children. But I digress......

I also managed to complete all of my continuing education credits to renew my PT license. I have to do 30 hours of continuing education every 2 years and my time is up at the end of August. I wanted to get it done early just in case baby decides to come early. I spent a lot of time couped up in the study completing my online courses this week. Now all I have to do is fork over the big bucks to renew and take the mandatory jurisprudence (state rules) exam that is open book. I will be happy to have that behind me.

I have been feeling pretty good, except for how I am burning up all the time. This summer will be excruciating! My lightheadedness has declined, but I do still have it occasionally. It isn't anything that a protein bar won't take care of. I have started to have a little reflux, of which I know will only get worse the bigger that I get. I had this really bad with Emma at the end. I had to sleep with Tums in the nightstand with her. I am not to that point yet. I did have a doctors appointment this week and everything looks good. The Csection is tentatively scheduled for August 30th! I know I still have a ways to go, but I am starting to get very excited to meet the little munchkin and see what she looks like. I wonder if she will have all that hair that Emma did??

Emma has been doing very good. She has learned to count to 6! We have been working on counting and this week out of nowhere she said "one, two, tree, fo, five, six, Elmo!" I couldn't believe it! So we have been working on seven, eight, nine, and ten. She will pretty much try and repeat any word that you say. She has also learned "strawberry", "bubbles", "fish", "moon", and "pig". The list is growing so fast that I can't keep track. She loves to go to the pool, although when she gets there she wears us down chasing after her. This weekend we went to a pool with a kiddie water slide and she didn't want to do anything but go down the "side". One of us had to guard her going up the steps because she kept slipping and the other had to rescue her at the bottom. It was only 1 ft deep water, but she would get going so fast and lean backwards so that she would go under almost every time. She loved it though. She has also been enjoying her bike seat and Jay has used it multiple times this week. We also went to Toddler Time at the local library this week and Emma loved it. She tried singing along to the songs and loved playing with the big parachute and running underneath it.

Nana is coming this Friday to visit for almost a week and we are looking forward to seeing her. I start back to work tomorrow and am very sad about it! I will be working Mon, Tues, and Thurs each week until baby comes. I just am not excited about starting work at a new place, learning new patients, and new reimbursement rules etc (since it is a different practice setting than I worked in before) including new paperwork for a big 2 and a half months. It would be a different story if it was working where I was before. Such is life. Enjoy the pics and video below.

Emma's first bike trip with Daddy

Emma with her pal Chase in their Barbie motorized car. We call it "Driving Miss Emma" because Chase and his sister Lexie take turns driving Emma up and down the road since she can't drive it yet. She LOVES it!

Getting ready for the pool

At the bottom of the kiddie slide. Thank goodness daddy is there to rescue her!

Emma coming down the froggie slide

Playing in the splash pad

An overview picture of the splash pad

Coming down the slide

Counting - I am so proud of my little girl!!

Summer Fun

We have been busy enjoying our new neighborhood and all of its amenities, as well as hanging out with our neighborhood pals. Last weekend started with Jay's birthday on Friday. Emma and I headed to the pool during the day with friends. (Our neighborhood has I think 9 pools and we are very excited for all of the summer hours to begin. We will then be able to enjoy bigger pools with splash pads etc during the week.) I cooked dinner per Jay's request for when he got home from work and then we headed out to the driveway to let Emma enjoy the outdoors and her Cozy Coupe. We had an impromptu gathering of neighborhood friends and Emma's friends. They played outside for a while before calling it a night. Saturday we had a 5 year old birthday party to go to just down the road. It was a nice (and hot) outdoor barbeque with lots of water toys set up for the kiddos to enjoy, along with a pinata and lots of sugar in the form of cookies and cake (of which Emma had her fair share.) We had a great time at the birthday party and were all exhausted by the end of the day. Sunday was a relaxing day and we went to our friends to enjoy pizza for dinner so that the kids could play on their new backyard playset. Emma had a great time as usual (despite falling off from the ladder that leads to the slide) and loves her friends. She wakes up every morning asking for Avery "Avy" and "Lexie."

I have been busy tidying up the house and trying to accomplish some last minute things before returning to work June 7th :(. I have organized all of Emma's old clothes into nice, size labeled bins. I have also washed all of the 0-6 month clothes, and yes, even IRONED the pretty dresses in preparation for baby #2. (Very rarely do I pull the iron out. Some of the dresses are so cute though, and look so much more ready for a new baby to arrive when they are freshly ironed.) I have also researched, and researched some more, for new big girl furniture for Emma, since baby #2 will be getting Emma's current furniture. I placed the order today and will be very excited to get both girl rooms set up for new baby's arrival. I have also managed to weasel Emma into my Mother's Day Out program of choice for the fall. She will go 2 days/week and it will be a good opportunity for her to get out of the house (with having a new baby sister around she will need it) and interact with kiddos her own age. I have heard nothing but rave reviews from where she will be going, so hopefully it will provide a good educational opportunity for her too. Lastly, I just made some homemade jam this week. My mom and grandma always make homemade jam and usually Jay and I steal a few jars and bring them home on the plane with us. We ran out a while ago and I decided it was time for me to do it since it tastes so much better than store bought and ends up being much cheaper. I made strawberry and it turned out really good. Jay and I both really like the raspberry so once I find some decent raspberry's I will also make that kind. YUM!

Last weekend we also bought a bike seat to attach to Jay's bike so that he can take Emma for rides around the neighborhood. We don't have it set up yet, but we also bought her a helmet for when she goes for her bike rides. She absolutely loves the helmet and wants to wear it in the house all the time. She constantly asks for "Emma's hat?" You can see in some of the pictures below that Emma's hat and sunglasses have made it through a couple meal times! She has been doing very good in her big girl bed. She falls right to sleep at night and has only fallen out of the bed a couple times. Both times we found her on the floor (after a thud) and she was sleeping - she didn't even cry!! Occasionally she tries to get out at naptime and play in her room. The instant that she sees us she starts crying and runs and jumps into the bed! We don't even have to yell at her - she knows that she is supposed to stay in the big girl bed.

Her vocabulary continues to expand daily. She has recently learned shower "sha sha" and blueberry "bewbewwy", of which she asks for constantly. We ran out of them yesterday and I have had to say a thousand times "Blueberries are all gone. Emma ate all the blueberries." Guess I need to make a run to the store. Hope everyone has a great Memorial Day weekend. We don't have too many plans - relax, maybe organize the garage (although I know that is NOT on Jay's to-do list) and hopefully have a barbeque or two! Also, since my last post I need to welcome two new babies to my family. My brother in law and sister in law had a baby girl named Sydney Anne and my cousin and his wife had a baby boy named Owen William. Both babies and their mommies are happy and healthy and we are extremely excited to meet both of them!! Congrats!

Emma with the remnants of her PBJ

Chillin with daddy
Fun at the pool

At the neighbor's birthday party

Emma way in the background wondering where her pals Lexie and Avery went. They decided they would rather have some yummy watermelon!

The homemade cake!!

Mmmm - frosting!

Emma with Avery eating their cake

Taking her best swing at the pinata - a softball player is born!!

Emma's "hat"

Emma with all of her pals - Chase, Lexie, Emma, Avery, and Cielle

More pool fun

Video of her hiding in the closet