Girls Reunion

At the end of September my dear friends, Lisa from Chicago and Helen from New Jersey, visited with their kids. When we all lived in Michigan and had our weekly coffee date, none of us were married or had children. How quickly our lives have changed! Ella at 28 months is the oldest and Maddy at 7 months is the youngest. The rest of the kids from left to right are Taylor, Grace, Kyle, and Camryn. We had a great time hanging out and playing.


All the littlest kids swinging with Ella giving pushes.


Camryn and Maddy swinging together. They could pass as twins!


Ella pushing Kyle. What a big helper!


Ella and Taylor on the gator, although they preferred throwing wood chips down the slide.

Green Goes With Everything

When Tyler reads this, he will laugh at me. When did you become so green? This is way too crunchy, too granola for our family. But, I'm a mom now, and that changes my views dramatically. I've always been a careful consumer, reading product labels and buying organic products, but nothing could have prepared me for the reality of the thousands of toxic chemicals that I've allowed into my home and my body. As a mother, I'm most concerned about the health and development of my children. A baby's body systems are still developing and will be for years. That means those systems are more vulnerable to potentially toxic substances than adults. Sloan's new book, which I stumbled upon at the library, is an easy read with her research findings and simple things that we can do to live a healthier life. This book is helping me to make better, smarter, safer choices. I urge you to check it out from your local library and skim the chapters. You'll be glad that you did! Or, you can check out Sloan's web site. www.greengoeswitheverything.com
Here are some changes that our family is going to make over the next few months... and I'm not even done reading the book yet. Yes, even though this seems extreme, even Tyler would agree that these decision are a good way to love our children.

• remove dangerous and toxic chemicals from my home including chlorine bleach and ammonia
• replace cleaners with a natural, nontoxic all-purpose cleaner
  
• replace my laundry detergent with a natural nontoxic one
• replace shampoo, makeup, moisturizers with products that are safer and healthier
• use BPA-free sippy cups and organic milk
• remove plastics from my kitchen and replace with glass containers
  
• choose organic and locally grown food more when possible
• never buy bottled water and buy myself a metal water bottle
• open windows once a day when the outside temperature is comfortable
  

I'm Lovin' It

Yes, I had my doubts, a lot of them. But now I'm absolutely enjoying being a stay-at-home mom. There couldn't be a better job for me than this. Here are some of my favorite moments this month caught on film.


We've been enjoying our new kitchen cooking and baking together. Ella most enjoyed cutting and squeezing limes to make limeade. Just like when she was a baby, Ella loves sucking on sour things.



And such a ham. Here she is showing off her tasty drink.



Maddy is easily entertained with food while we are in the kitchen. Here she chews on a teething biscuit. Her first tooth finally pushed its way out this week. Also at the same time she finally started to crawl. First in the living room with daddy, then at the library the next day, she is finally moving where she wants to go!



We made yummy scented paint with Kool-aid. Rachel, Claire, and Ella created some beautiful pictures out on our new deck.



The red paint was the most fun, and stained our hands blood red.



After three years, we finally took our bikes out of storage. We took the kids for a ride in this bike carriage. Thanks, Karen! Ella enjoys it the most. Maddy is still scared of the fast movement and bumps. We've used it around our neighborhood and at Millennium Park.



Here is Maddy yet again eating. This is her favorite thing to do. She often eats more at mealtimes than her big sister. She has graduated from puffs to cheerios. Puffs seem to be quite the treat at our house and sought after by Ella. Big sister has also realized how good baby sweet potatoes are and likes to have her own bowl to eat at the same time as Maddy.



Our two children are very different. Ella plays hard and is such a daredevil. Push me higher mom, go faster please, watch me climb this all by myself. Maddy is more cautious. Don't push me on the swing. I'm scared of the slide. Just cuddle me close. When the girls get tired, comfort comes in different forms. Give Ella duck and nuk and she's happy as can be. Maddy needs Mommy and food. She sure is a Mommy's girl. Not surprising, her first and only word used often is Mama.

Communication

Last month, my main e-mail account was closed down. This was a very sad event that took me by surprise. Unfortunately I lost many of your e-mail addresses. You can reach me at my new account: christyemrick@yahoo.com. Hope to hear from you soon!

Back to School?

It's that time of year again and kids go back to school tomorrow. I've started school every fall since I was three years old. But, this year I'm not. I realized that I have not fully communicated my career shift to everyone. If you haven't heard, I decided to leave my part time teaching job at Chandler Woods and spend this next year full time with my family. This was a very hard decision to make, but each day my heart grows more content. We've established some healthy routines and this fall should be lots of fun with playdates, art class, storytime at the library, and gym time. Best wishes to those of you who do go back to school this week! I'll be thinking of you as the school bus drives down our street tomorrow morning. :)

Just Like Mom

Ella has been interested in getting ready in the morning, brushing her teeth, fixing her hair, and wearing lip gloss. Here she sneaked my Burt's Bees colored gloss and tried it on herself. What do you think? Is it a good color on her? She looked so ridiculous that I had to take a picture. She was eager to pose and show off her "make up."

Good Times

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Madelyn Rose - 6 months old today

Our baby girl is growing up so fast! She shares her half birthday today with her daddy who is 28 years old.

At our well baby doctor's appointment, she was 26 1/2 inches tall (75th%), 15 lbs, 9 oz (50th%), and head circumference of 16 1/4 inches (25th%). Because she has a small head, it makes her look younger.

Her thrush is completely gone after going on a second oral medication. Now that she is older, she should not have any reoccurring cases because her immune system is stronger and can handle any yeast that she encounters.

She's healthy and strong and everything looks great. Her immunization shots made her cry, but only for a minute. Not much can take her smile away these days.

Overall, it was a great doctor's visit. Ella watched everything that Dr. Macedo was doing. He told her about the doctor tools he was using on the baby. Then, he was on the floor helping Ella learn a new puzzle that I brought along. Very cool. And when we left Ella actually said for the first time, "Ella like Dr. Macedo." She's always been so scared of doctors, so this is a huge leap for her.

Maddy is learning some new things like...

-rolling around the floor and across the room
-pushing her body completely off the floor
-sitting in a tripod position with support from her hands
-occasionally balancing herself in a sitting position
-chewing on everything, from Gray's nose to Ella's furniture
-loving food like my homemade fruit and vegetable purees
-drinking water from a sippy cup and an open cup

Ok, I take that back about Maddy being a happy baby. She's screaming her head off just now and I can't seem to comfort her. She's overly tired and no doubt feeling miserable from her shots today.

June Pictures

Here are some great pictures from Nanna Trish's camera. She and Pappy visited us in Michigan the end of June, beginning of July. It was great to have them visit. With their help we were able to do some fun outings with the kids. And Tyler's dad helped complete some much needed work on our house.

Pappy and Ella enjoying a day at John Ball Zoo.

Ella rides a camel at the zoo with Nanna.

We enjoyed two days at Millenium Park with Nanna and some of our friends too!Ella loves splashing in the water and Nanna gives her some beginning swimming lessons.

"Birthday" Cake

Ella has helped to celebrate many birthdays this spring starting with her own... Ashlyn, Rachel, Max, Claire, Jared... so she loves to talk about birthdays and birthday cake. While we were at my parents she really wanted to eat some birthday cake, so we decided to make that her special treat if she went poop on the potty for the first time. And it worked! She would say out loud while sitting on the potty, "Out, poo poo, out! Ella wants birthday cake. Yeah! Look mama, Ella made poo poo!" So, we made a special cake with sprinkles to celebrate. Each day she poops she gets another piece of cake. But... oh no, we only have one piece left. Then we'll have to move on to another incentive. Any ideas on how to continue to motivate her?

Wee Wee & Poo Poo

We're officially potty training now and Ella is wearing pretty panties! She was already using the vocabulary and peeing on the toilet, so on July 3 when she asked to wear her big girl panties for the first time, I said, "Sure, why not?" I wasn't ready for this yet, but if she was ready, then I needed to be too.

We put all of her diapers in a large trash bag. At first Ella was a little reluctant. "Mommy, I NEED them," she pleaded. But I told her that if she was ready to wear big girl underwear like Mommy, then she didn't need her diapers anymore.

Then we made a quick run to Meijer for some juice boxes, salty snacks, and more underwear. We sure went through a lot of underwear in the first few days! I just kept giving her treats every time she went wee wee in the potty!

This first day was a huge mess! She had pee running down her legs, in her high chair, on the living room carpet, on her wooden chair, in her bed (yuck!).... but I persevered.

My friend Kendra gave me some tips on how to potty train in three days and I was trying to follow some of this advice. Those of you who know me, know that this black and white, all or nothing training fits my personality well. But would it fit Ella's?

Day two was also bad with lots of accidents. I felt like I was mostly asking her if she had to go to the potty instead of her telling me. But every time she had an accident, I would tell her gross, wee wee goes in the potty. So by the end of day two (also the fourth of July) she was asking to pee instead of me asking her. This is a marked improvement! But I was so tired of washing her underwear and bed sheets.

Day three: I woke up very sick... too sick to potty train? Probably so, so Ella carried on without me. I put her potty chair in the family room and she would pull her panties off and wee when she needed to with me applauding from my reclined position on the couch. Now she really was a big girl doing it all without Mommy's help.

By the end of the day I was feeling better, so we ventured to travel to my parents house in Ft. Wayne. Ella kept dry the whole three-hour trip. The last hour she kept saying she had to pee but she wanted to pee in Grammy's potty. When we finally arrived, she showed off her new big girl skills to Grammy and Grandpa. Their praise was just what she needed to feel so proud of herself!

She's kept mostly dry ever since! Occasionally she starts to let it go, but then catches herself and finishes in the potty. She's just so much more aware now. And she is staying dry during nap time and night time too. Our new rule is no drinks after dinnertime. She does miss her nighttime milky.

She still cannot make poo poo in the potty, although she doesn't want it in her pants and has made a mess on the floor a few times during nap time. So, that's where we are in the whole process. It was horrible in the beginning, but it has gotten so much easier. Plus, Grammy has been a huge help since we've been at her house all week!

Roosters-N-Rickrack Pinafore GIVEAWAY!!!!

Roosters-N-Rickrack Pinafore GIVEAWAY!!!!

Check out this adorable dress! Anyone else want to enter the contest?

Fabulous @ 4 Months

On June 16, Maddy had her 4-month checkup with Dr. Macedo.

Height: 25 in.
Weight: 13lbs, 2.5 oz.
Head circumference: 15.5 in.

She has a mild case of thrush, so I have to give her some cinnamon flavored mouthwash four times a day. I sterilized all the nuks in our house (at least all that I could find). I really should sterilize them more often, maybe once a week?

Maddy is still my easy child, letting Ella rule the house still. She takes a good morning and afternoon nap, and we put her to bed shortly after Ella's bedtime. She likes to listen to stories when I read to Ella and likes the pictures in the books. She enjoys a long morning walk in our new double stroller.

Yeah garage sales! I found this Graco Duoglider just last week and it's been great. It's harder to push and steer, but at least we can all go out every day. I'm getting my exercise. Grayer join us too! I just tie his leash onto the stroller and off we go. He helps to pull us along :) I'm sure it's a funny site!

Rice cereal - Maddy's first taste of food yesterday and today. She liked sucking on the spoon and slurping down the mixture. What she really prefers: Popsicles. A few tastes can't hurt her, right? She likes the cold on her gums.

Baths, what baths? I try to shoot for once a week. Ella gets a bath every day, but Maddy just doesn't get as dirty. When we do give Maddy a bath it is a huge ordeal because big sister HAS to help with her own wash cloth. It's really very cute but also messy and takes more supervision.

Diapers... we moved on to size 2 now. She tends to poop only a few times a day, but they are BIG poops, so we need a BIG diaper to hold them all in. Still, we often have leaks.

So that's mostly a baby, right... eats, poops, sleeps. She really is more exciting than that. She smiles, laughs, talks in her own baby language to Mama, grabs objects, puts her nuk in and out of her mouth, plays with her toes, and turns on the fishy kick-n-play bubbles and music in her bouncy seat. And she loves kisses on the lips.

Yeah, we love her lots!

Dusty Brown Photography

In the beginning of the month, Dusty Brown took some amazing photographs of the girls. Some of the photos are on his blog site. Check it out at http://dustybrown.wordpress.com.

Quote for the Day

"Children are the anchors that hold a mother to life." -Sophocles

Families at Heart

We went to our first Families at Heart event. At the aeromed hanger at the airport, there were some cool rescue vehicles that the kids could get up close and explore including a firetruck, an ambulance, and a helicopter. We got to ride in a vintage fire truck. Ella's also enjoyed sitting in the helicopter seat and fastening the seat belt buckles. For the grand finale, we got to watch one of the helicopters land.

It's a four-point harness! Ella just loves any sort of buckles and likes to fasten them herself.

This is a brand new helicopter that has not yet flown any patients.

Our kitchen remodel - phase two

Tyler's dad, Michael is visiting and the two guys are working on part two of our kitchen remodel. They completely demolished our old kitchen and are turning it into our dining area. Old cabinets-gone! Old plaster walls-gone! Old red and white parkait floor-gone! Old back door-gone! Old kitchen window-gone! What's new? A widened opening from the family room to the dining area, a perfectly leveled sub floor, a new window. What's to come soon? New drywall, new hardwood floor, new light fixtures. Can you believe it? Our last remodeling project and our 105 year old house will be complete!
























Tyler removing layers of old flooring.

























You can actually see down to the basement.




















A view from the outside. Old door-gone!





















The make-shift plastic door to keep out the dust.





















The third pile of junk outside our house.

Can you believe Ella and Maddy are both sleeping right now through all the noise?

My Favorite Smiling Faces

Happy Birthday Marcella

Make a Smilebox free ecard

Madelyn - 2 Months

We visisted the doctor yesterday. Madelyn is doing great and continues to grow at the 50th percentile. She currently measures 22 1/2 inches long and weighs 10 lbs. 7 oz.

Feeding has been a challenge lately as she has been spitting up frequently. Advice taken from the lactation consultant is working wonders. Feedings now just take more time and care.

Babywise is going well. Madelyn always sleeps at least four-hour chunks at night and more often five-hour blocks of time. We have loved the three nights when she slept for 7 hours straight. I hope this is becoming the new norm.