Overcoming Fear

Today was a gorgeous day so we met our friends at the park for lunch and play.  This park has a smaller kids section and an older kids section.  Emily has always been too scared to do any of the things in the big kids section and usually gets stuck and I have to go get her down.  But today she braved it all!  She climbed the climbing wall with no help:

She walked across the walkway.  The first few times she went really slow . . . but after walking across it several times she started running across like it was no big deal.  This is a big accomplishment for her!  She is scared of heights and has never gone across any of these walkways without getting stuck and having me climb up there to get her:

 

And she want down the "twirly slide" that she has been too scared to try:

So proud!!!  Don't know what was different about today but it was a very good day for Emily.  She has REALLY been struggling the last few months with whining and crying about EVERYTHING . . . I've really struggled keeping my cool with her too . . . but today was a good day people . . . so I want to remember it : )

 

A rare moment of all 4 girls in the same place at the same time:

 

After playing on the playground the girls had fun running around the grassy area:

 

Abigail enjoyed sitting in the grass and even ate some dirt : )

 Here is a video of Emily climbing the rock wall.  Go Emily!!!!

Helping Dad

This weekend we took it easy hanging out as a family.  On Saturday we finished using some coupons we had at a local restaurant and then bought some wood to close up the sand box in our back yard.  The neighbor's cat has enjoyed using the open sand box as his kitty litter box . . . so we hopefully put an end to that:

 

Abigail gave moral support while she kept saying "sli . . .sli . . . sli" for me to take her down the slide 100 times"  At least I'm getting a good upper body workout helping her with this:

 Now we just need to buy a sand box we can keep closed : )

The girls have also enjoyed playing with the computers that Emily has.  I'm glad Emily has two because Abigail insists on playing as well:

 Here are some shirts I embroidered for the girls this week:

 

Abigail loved the turtle shirt and kept pointing to it and saying "tu-tle":

 

And in VERY BIG girl news, Emily has stopped wearing a Pull Up at night to sleep and has stayed dry for several days now!!!!  She has been dry for a couple of weeks and we've worked on going straight to the bathroom when she wakes up in the morning.  So because the Pull Up supply was getting low I decided to take the plunge and have her try sleeping without one . . . she has done great!!!!

Festival

Yesterday our church had a festival to raise money for the preschool.  It was a Dr. Seuss theme and the girls had a great time:

 

 

 

Abigail's favorite part was the balloons so she walked around holding these all afternoon:

 

 

 

Emily got her hair done and her face painted:

 

 

She also got to eat cotton candy for the first time:

 

 

 This baby stayed happy until we took her balloon away to get in the car!!!!

Visit

On Friday the girls and I drove to Macon to meet my parents for the cherry blossum festival.

My parents had their RV so we met them at their park and then went to a friend's house for dinner.  This was our first time spending the night with them and it was fun!  We put Abigail on a pallet in the back bedroom between the wall and the bed.  We put her to bed so late so she didn't move when I put her in her "bed."  We gave her a little bit of time to go to sleep and then Emily and I climbed in the bed.  My parents slept up towards the front of the RV in the pull out couch.  Aside from Emily kicking me and grinding her teeth during the night we rested fine : )

On Saturday we walked around the park a little and then headed to downtown for their festival.  Emily saw some kids climbing a couple of trees and wanted to try it out herself:

There were a lot of people so it was hard to maneuver thru the crowds:

 Emily got her face painted and then complained that the paint was too crunchy on her face : )

 

We got the girls some ice cream and then got back on the road to head home:

It was a short trip but good to see mom and dad.  The traffic going and coming home was horrible on about a 20 mile stretch of I-75 south of the city.  It added an extra hour each way . . . if I had to live on that part of the interstate I would cry!

On a different note these are the ballet shoes I've been making for the doll maker:

My sister gave me all this free fabric from someone who doesn't need it anymore.  Yea!!!!!  I have lots to sew with now:

 
 And Emily has been big into drawing pictures lately.  She used to just scribble on her magna doodle but now she draws actual pictures . . . pretty cool!

Park

Wednesday we went to a park that they have recently redone.  We took Emily here when she was 18 months old to feed the ducks.  So Abigail got to experience the ducks at 17 months old!  Joe and I just got finished watching the video of Emily feeding the ducks when she was little and got a little choked up watching it!

 

Here is Emily feeding the ducks 2 and 1/2 years ago at this same playground:

 

And here she is feeding the ducks yesterday:

Abigail wasn't so sure about getting up close to the ducks.  She liked watching at a distance:

And speaking of Abigail, this girl LOVES HER DADDY!  If he's in the room she has to be next to him or have him hold her.  If he walks out of the room she has been known to lay down on the ground and cry and cry and cry . . . yesterday I think she said his name at least 100 times : )

She also said Emily for the first time.  She said it so well that first time but hasn't been able to since.  Her version now is more "Emi". 

Hodge Podge

We have had an eventful last couple of days.  But before we talk about that here's a hodge podge of this weekend. 

On Friday we went to a park.  Emily found some little girls to play with and Abigail decided she wanted to spend the entire time climbing up and down the stairs at the kiddie slide.  I got dizzy going up and down with her making sure she didn't fall.  She's so proud of herself:

Emily also went down the "twirly slide".  There is something about these type slides that freak her out so this was a big deal:

Neither one of them wanted to be still for very long so this was the best picture I could get of them together:

We met Joe for dinner and had an enjoyable evening.  On Saturday I took Emily to our neighbor's birthday party.  They had rented a princess bouncing house and had thrown "jewels" out in the yard for the kids to search for.  Emily had a great time and I got sunburned : )

I also mailed these baby gifts to our friends who just had a baby.  They are Bama fans so I told them my machine had a really hard time sewing these colors : )

 

I also finished this dress for Emily that I cut out last September . . . better late than never:

Then on Sunday afternoon Emily decided to try to put on some earrings and the back of the earring fell into her ear.  Here's where the excitement began : )  Joe tried once to get it out but Emily jumped and it pushed a little further into her ear.  So they went to urgent care . . . but there was a 4 hour wait!  So he had a nurse look at it to make sure it would be o.k. to wait until Monday morning.

So on Monday I took Emily to her already scheduled eye appt.  She got her eyes dilated and had to wear these glasses the rest of the day.  She looks like an old woman in a kid's body:

Because we were near our pediatrician, I called them to see if we could go there after the eye appt to have them get the earring back out.  However, when the pediatrician took a look at it he said he an ENT would be better equipped to do the job. 

By this time I was worn out wrestling a 17 month old in two doctor's waiting rooms, so I was kinda glad to hear that our appt with the ENT wouldn't be until Tuesday.

So . . . . . . this morning I dropped Abigail off at childcare and Emily and I went to doctor appt #3 to get that blessed earring back out of her ear.   The doctor gave me two choices.  We could pin her down and keep her from moving and have him give her a shot in her ear to numb the area so he could get it out . . . or I could schedule time at the hospital for her to be put under general anesthesia for him to get it out.  He said, "if you're up for it, we can just do it here, she is going to scream really loud and you're going to have to be o.k. with us holding her down really tight".  I said, "let's do it."  That little ol' Emily is strong.  She was screaming at us to get off her and let the whole building know that she was mad that we were holding her down and hurting her ear.  Bless her.  Once the numbness set in she calmed down a little until he put a vacuum hose in her ear and the noise of it freaked her out.  She kept screaming at us to cover her other ear so we did.  (She told me later she wanted us to cover her other ear because the noise was so loud).  The good news is he got the earring back out!  He asked if he could add it to his treasure box of all the things he has pulled out of kid's ears.  Emily told him he could keep it.  So hopefully Emily isn't traumatized for life now.  Here's her ear after the fact.  You can see one of the spots where she got a shot in her ear : (

 I'm thankful that I didn't have Abigail with me today.  That was a blessing in disguise . . .

Hopefully tomorrow will be a boring uneventful day!