Memorial Weekend

We went to Hoffman for Memorial Weekend. The guys went bass fishing while the women went to garage sales in and around Alexandria. I got a radial saw (like brand new) for $25 & a tractor lawn sprinkler for $10. Brad was excited. Both items work great!

We spent most of our time at VanOver's place because that was where all the food, beer & tables were all set up. We had lots of food, fun & good laughs...as always!!

On Saturday afternoon I went bass fishing with Brad and Jerry. This was my first experience and I had a ton of fun! I only got my line stuck in the trees a couple of times, got snagged in the weeds a few times and I swear I snagged a black bird, but after a while got the hang of it. I caught a nice sized bass and a little itty bitty bass that was no bigger than my lure. When I caught it, I thought that I lost it so I was reeling in and all of a sudden I said, "Well I bet I just caught the smallest fish on this damn lake." It was no bigger than 3-4 inches. He must have been a brave little guy. Brad said that he's never seen that happen before.

I didn't have my camera along in the boat. I wanted to keep the fish to get a picture at home but Brad and Jerry said no.

Emmy stayed behind with Grandma Debbie and cried very hard the whole 4-5 hours that we were gone fishing. Cousin Seth was the only person that Emmy would go to. She hung onto him pretty tight. She's going through some major separation anxiety right now. Poor thing.

We went golfing on Sunday afternoon. I haven't been golfing this year and I think I only went out once or twice last year. My score would have been great if I was bowling! I quit after the 13th hole.

Emmy's cousin Caleb. Believe it or not...these two are only two weeks apart. Caleb weighs around 31 lbs and Emmy is a wee 20 lbs.

Grandpa Bernie taking a break outside.

Julie & Grandma Debbie taking Caleb & Emmy for a stroll.

She loves Peach Iced Tea.

Marilynn's 2nd B-day

We went to Marilynn's birthday party at Broadway Pizza a couple of weeks ago. Emmy loves playing with Marilynn. She's such a doll!

The kids wanted to get down and play. Good thing we had a table where there wasn't anyone else near us. The kids were all over the place!

...And We All Fall Down

Emmy has been a little circus performer lately. She has discovered how to climb up onto things and stand on her tippy toes. This morning we woke up to a loud thud. Emmy fell out of her crib. We lowered the crib a couple of months ago but she still went over the edge. I've been meaning to remove the bumper pads. I could kick myself for not removing them sooner. I think I'm going to get one of those crib tent covers that go over the crib.

Other things she's been doing:

• Sleeping about 10 hours a night!! Yeah!!!!!
• She loves to pull drawers & cupboards open. Daddy finally got all of the baby proofing finished.
• She pulls off her bib when she eats. She hates bibs.
• She's been eating lots more solid foods. We'll be off of baby food pretty soon!!!!
• Standing without holding onto anything.
• Almost says "mama" and "baba." She's REALLY close!
• Covers her eyes with her hands when we say "Peek-A-Boo."
• Loves to watch Wheel of Fortune. She claps when the audience claps their hands.

Weeeeeee

We bought Emmy this new swing...She giggles so much every time we give her a push. She likes to go high!!

Going For a Ride

She likes to go for rides!

9 Month Pictures

We had Emmy's pictures taken at Richard's studio a couple of weeks ago. They turned out great! She just loves the camera!

You've Got Mail

Brusha Brusha

She loves when we brush her teeth.

New Meds

I brought Emmy back into the clinic yesterday because her cough has not gotten any better and her medication is making her throw up more and more. The doctor put her back on Omnicef once a day for 9-10 days and also gave her a Nebulizer treatment because there was a very faint wheezing sound in her lungs. Emmy did very well during the 7 minute treatment with the nurse. I was really thinking that it would be the longest 7 minutes of my life, but she did very well and the nurse kept her occupied by giving her two tongue depressors to play with.

A nebulizer is used to administer respiratory medications. The purpose is to turn the medicine into a breathable mist which is inhaled for up to 20 minutes.

The doctor came back in the room a few minutes after the treatment was done. She listened to her breathing again and said that she sounded better. However, she suggested that we give her more treatments at home. So I had to purchase a Nebulizer kit.

I asked the doctor if placing the tubes in her ears was an issue at this point. The doctor mentioned since it's the end of the winter season, the sickness should go away and they also don't like to do tubes in the ears because it is putting a hole in the ear.

We stopped at the pharmacy on our way home to get new meds. She gets a neb treatment every four hours or as necessary.

Emmy stays pretty happy even though she is sick. She doesn't like the mask over her face though.

Are we done yet??

Kitty!

Emmy just loves our cats, but the same does not go for the cats. They are actually afraid of her and keep their distance most of the time. The cats behave okay around her, but they don't like it when she pets them because she usually pulls their hair and screams (a happy scream) so they run. We keep her bedroom door shut at night and the cats don't seem to play bongo's on her door anymore...Thank God!

Brad was with her this morning and she said, "Kiddy." He called me at work right away to tell me the news. I said, "Are you sure? No way...that seems kinda young." He said that she said it twice. We've been trying to get her to say "Mama." Usually she says dada when we ask her to say mama. So I'm bummed...Kitty came before Mama. :(

Not Reacting Well To Meds

She has been throwing up about an hour after we give her the medication at night time. We were at the mall the other night and she got sick all over me and the store. It was quite embarrassing and I felt so bad for Emmy not feeling well. The employees at Bath & Body Works were so nice and told us that they would clean it up. Brad helped the woman and she was so understanding. She said she has kids of her own and is used to it.

We left the mall and called the nurse line right away. She wasn't running a fever but the nurse told us to try feeding her little sips at a time and wait for five minutes to see if she can keep it down. She didn't like me taking the bottle away because I'm sure she was really hungry. She eventually ate about four ounces and then went to bed.

Yesterday morning we gave her half of the dose and waited an hour and then gave her the other half. It seemed to work okay. However, last night the same thing happened again. After dinner I gave her the medication and then waited an hour and then gave her the rest of it. About an hour later she threw up again.

The sheet of directions that the pharmacy sent home says that vomiting can occur in the first few days. I really don't agree that we should continue to give her this medication if it makes her vomit. Getting rid of it is obviously her body's way of trying to tell us something. I was told several years ago by my college medical teacher that if you vomit it's your body's way of getting rid of something that it does not want or has too much of, etc...no brainer. I hate to be the overreacting parent who brings their kid into the doctor for every little thing, but I just don't think this is normal.

Back To The Doctor

We brought Emmy into the clinic last night. She has had a cough for which seems like a couple of weeks now. It's more of a dry cough, but she coughs so hard that she gags or sometimes even gets sick. She's been tugging on her ears again so I had them check those too. Sure enough...she has ANOTHER ear infection. This poor kid!!! I feel bad for her. They put her on Augmentin this time. She gets 3/4 tsp two times a day for ten days. We go back in three weeks for a follow up visit. I keep wondering when they are going to mention putting tubes in her ears.

They weighed Emmy last night and she weighed in at 19 lbs 4 oz. This was with all of her clothes on including her diaper. Usually when they weigh her at her well child visits, they make her get undressed to her birthday suit.

I read a story online about an ear infection superbug discovered to be resistant to all pediatric antibiotics. I'm always looking for answers and I usually overreact...However, I don't think she has this because the medications that they have given her in the past seem to clear the infection up except for the first one. She just continues to get them a couple of weeks later.

Since she has been in day care, I think she's been sick every week. There seems to be some type of bug going around with all of the kids and they pass it to each other. It's like a revolving door and it gets frustrating having a sick kid all the time.

Emmy fell asleep in the car when we left the clinic last night. She was passed out on daddy's shoulder as he brought her into the house from the car. She slept in her clothes with her "I'm a Brave Patient" sticker on her shirt. She cried out a couple of times during the night, but fell right back to sleep. We gave her the first dose this morning. She is doing much better taking her medication now and likes the flavor.

Border Patrol

I talked to my brother Bob on the way home from Hoffman last night. He is doing well and has been working long hours with his job. He works along with our uncle Sheldon for PSI, Inc. which is a drilling company based out of Dallas, TX. He just returned from a job in "The Valley." The Valley is the deep south of Texas...(Brownsville/Harlingen/McAllen, etc).
Bob drove the big drilling rig from Dallas to the Texas/Mexico border. He said that it took him 12 hours to drive down there, which is almost the same amount of time it would take to drive from MN to Dallas and yet he never even left the state of Texas.
He started working in the valley for a couple of hours and then the rear transmission went out on the rig. He said that it was a $7,000 problem on the rig. His company flew him back up to Dallas and had him drive their other rig back down south. Their company is building the new wall between the U.S. and Mexico border. Bob spoke with the border patrol and they mentioned that this wall will not stop people from getting through, but it will slow them down a bit.
There have been roughly 60 border tunnels found in the last decade, the existence of which literally undermines the logic of a fence.
He really does have some interesting stories. I keep telling him he should have a camera along with him for all of the things that he sees. He could write a book!

These are photos that I found on the web.

Surveillance Camera

Mother's Day

Emmy and I drove to Montevideo on Friday to spend the day with my mom. We enjoyed spending the afternoon together and went to a few stores in town. Emmy crawled right out of her stroller when we were at a store on main street. I was pushing the stroller and happened to stop and look at something on a shelf. All of a sudden I looked down and she was pushing the stroller from the front!! She was buckled in at one point...I was holding her and then decided to try something on in the dressing room so I put her in the stroller and told my mom to watch her for a few seconds. When I came out of the dressing room, I knew she wasn't buckled in the stroller but I figured she wouldn't be able to get into much so I continued strolling along. Well...I thought wrong! Too funny! We'll now buckle her EVERY time.

On Saturday afternoon we drove up to Alexandria to see Brad's family. Emmy had a rough time in the car. She napped before we left and then sat in the car for the long ride up north. We usually time her naps out so that she can nap in the car, but it didn't work out that way this day. She was not a happy camper. Brad tried to keep her company by hopping in the back seat, but that only lasted for a few minutes. The normal two hour car ride took us four hours. By the time we got to Alexandria I needed a Malibu/Coke REALLY bad!!

On Sunday got up early and went to church in Hoffman. Before church, Brad gave me a couple of cards. One from him and one from Emmy. He gave me a gift card to go shopping at a store of my choice. I can't wait to get some new clothes.

Emmy did pretty well at church. We forgot her toys & puffs at grandma & grandpa's house. So we tried to find something quick in the basket in our car. We could only occupy her with a golf ball and teether. The golf ball was okay until she tried to bang it on the pew.

She really likes to drop things on the floor now. Everything we give her lands on the floor and she wants us to pick them up. We don't give in...much.

After church we went back to the house and had lunch and then took naps. We stayed until dinner and then left for home. Emmy napped on the way home and then she was up for a couple of hours when we got home.

9 Months

Emmy had her 9 month check up a couple of weeks ago. She didn't have to get any shots this time, but did get her finger pricked. She did a good job and didn't even fuss. She kept sucking on the band-aid that they wrapped around her finger. She eventually pulled it off.

She weighs 18 lbs 2 oz and is 27 inches long. Her head remains in the 75% category, while her body is in the 25-50% category. Overall she is doing great and she was just a princess at her appointment. The doctor said she will probably be walking soon since she is walking along furniture and pulling herself up on a lot of things.

If You Think I'm Cute...

You Should See My Uncle!

Vroom Vroom

This is Emmy's favorite toy from Granpa Brad. She plays with it every time we go for a ride in the car.

Post Easter Visit to Monte

We went back to Montevideo the weekend after Easter. My aunt and uncle (Fred & Catherine) were home from Spokane, WA. They sponsor a lecture held at the University of MN at this time each year. It was nice to see them. Every time that I took a picture of them it was with my mom's camera and not mine. So I don't have any photos of them to post.

We got to spend equal time with Grandma Linda & Grandpa Brad. They just can't get enough of Miss Emmy. Uncle Scott even gave Emmy a lesson on the four wheeler and spent some time laying on the trampoline.

Grandpa Brad brought Emmy some toys. She loves anything that makes noise! But especially likes the newspaper.