Lefty??

Emma has been using both hands for different tasks but today I noticed her using her left hand for almost everything from coloring to eating. Will and I always joke that she is so much like my brother Chris and guess what, he's a lefty! Also, Page decided to dress herself completely this morning. Red sandals, white socks, lime green pants with flowers on them, pink shirt and a very obnoxious hair accessory. It was chilly out this morning so I made her put a long-sleeve shirt on as well before we went out to play. It was such a sight that I couldn't help but laugh out loud during the process. She also wanted to dress herself. Going to Mother's Day Out has sure made her independent. She can do things I didn't even know she could because she was fine with me doing them for her and now has decided to do it alone. It is so much fun to see her growing into such a big girl!

School Bags

We decided to put Page into Mother's Day Out just 2 weeks before the semester started. Needless to say that everything was on backorder. Her school bag finally came in this week. I have to say that I have liked things ordered from Lillian Vernon before, but this was not so great. Instead of monogramming the school bags they used felt stickers and just put them on. The bags are still cute, but not what I was expecting. Anyway, Emma absolutely loves hers. The night it came in she wouldn't take it off for almost 2 hours. We are still waiting for her nap mat, hopefully it will be here in the next two weeks.

First Parade

Our neighborhood home owner's association put on a fall fling that included a small parade! Page had so much fun. She kept asking why the people were throwing her candy. After the parade there was a huge cook out and tons of things for the kids. There were 2 bounce houses, a huge slide and it was centered around the playground. I really find more and more fun things to do around here for the kids every weekend. I love this city! I wish I knew more people around here, but it is really a great place for the kids. Page is covering her ears in the last picture because the sirens were very loud when the fire engine passed.

Cutie Pies

Just some cute pictures from the last week.

A Surprise Visit

I haven't posted in a while because Maw Maw and Paw Paw surprised us with a visit. Page and my mom make cookies every time she comes over and this time was no exception. They did shortbread cookies this time instead of sugar cookies. It was a short visit, but well worth it. I got lots of free time and the girls got a lot of hugs and kisses. The weather was so nice this week, and we spent lots of time outside playing. They left last night and Page did cry a bit about wanting them to stay when they left and some this morning too. Her teacher said that she did fine at school today. Thanks for making the drive, we had a great time seeing you!

Richardson Fountain Festival

The city of Richardson holds an annual Fountain Festival that is completely free to all residents of the city. There was SOOOOOO much stuff to do and see that we didn't even see half of it. Here are some pictures of the girls at the petting zoo, the giant sand pile and the bubble mania booth. There was also an antique fire engine that we took pictures on. It was so great, next year we will plan on spending the day out there!

I Cannot Sleep

Tonight during dinner Page asked me to show her pictures of herself when she was born. She does this all of the time; she just loves to see herself as a baby. I told her not during dinner, but that I would show them to her later on tonight. Well I forgot I had said it and that she had even asked. Page went to bed at 7:30 and at 8:30 she called me into her room to tell me she was having trouble falling asleep. I climbed in bed with her to pray and sing again when she told me that she needed to see the pictures of herself getting checked. (The pictures of her right after she was born being checked by the nurse.) I asked her if she kept thinking about those pictures and if that was why she was having trouble falling asleep. She said "yes, you told me I could see them." I had to let her get up to see the pictures. How could I promise something and not follow through, that would just be wrong.

Page's New Haircut

I gave Page a haircut tonight and decided to do bangs. We have been thinking about it and talking about it and finally decided to just do it! When we first showed her the haircut she looked at herself and threw the mirror. She is fine with it now, but it was not love at first site.

Doctor, Doctor

Where do I begin? Sunday night we decided to bring Emma to the E.R. After all of those falls we were a little worried that she had been falling all day and started walking into walls. She also was leaning to the left a lot and it looked a little weird. I got there around 8:00 and waited for an hour in the waiting room. We ended up seeing the same doctor that saw Page when we went to the E.R. for her tummy ache. He checked her ears for an infection and decided on a CAT scan. They found something on the scan but could not determine if it was a groove for a vein or a skull fracture. Since she had not been vomiting and was drinking fine they decided to let us go around 11:00. Emma was such a trooper the whole night. I watched her closely today and really think she is getting better. She still isn't back to normal, but she is definitely better.
Today we were off to the allergist for skin tests. They all came back negative and she was officially diagnosed with food intolerance. She is not allergic to anything, she just can't tolerate them. It doesn't make my life any easier but the good news is that she will definitely grow out of it by the age of 5. We were instructed to introduce soy milk and see how she does. If she doesn't tolerate it well we can go to rice milk and try again in 3 months. If we do go with rice milk we will see a nutritionist to make sure she is getting what she needs. Page got to play at Abby's house while Emma and I went to the allergist. It makes such a difference not having 2 kids to entertain for those long doctor's visits in the small rooms. Abby's mom, Alyson, even fixed dinner for us so that I wouldn't have to cook when I got home. She is so sweet and I am so thankful to have made a friend like that here. Page had a great time and Emma was again, such a trooper! We now have to make an appointment for Emma's 1 year check up because her pediatrician wanted to wait until we found out about the allergies to do the shots. I am going to try one of the new pediatricians I am looking at because I don't plan on going back to her current pediatrician.

Happy Grandparent's Day

We sure wish we could be there to celebrate with all of you, but the best we can do is send you our love! Have a great day and go ahead and think about the girls all day!

Emma's Bad Night

Emma had such a bad night! This is a picture of the second of three really bad injuries tonight. The first was after bath time I put the girls on my bed to dry them off and get them dressed for bed. They were having so much fun playing on the bed that Will and I got on the bed to play with them. I was laying on the bed and Emma started going towards the end. The time it took me to sit up and reach for her she was already over the side. She just stepped off the edge of the bed and went head first onto the floor. She brush burned the left side of her face, we applied ice and she settled down. We then went into the living room to get Emma's medicine and bottle ready. Will and I both went into the kitchen and Emma and Page were in the living room. In less than the 70 seconds it took to warm up her bottle Emma had climbed on top of her leap frog table and fallen off. I heard her crying and ran into the living room only to find Emma on the ground with blood all over her. Her hands and face were covered in blood and she was screaming. We got her cleaned up and she was still bleeding a lot and crying a lot. (Will told me to get the camera and made me put the picture on the blog.) Anyway, we gave her ice chips to eat to try to help with the swelling and finally got her calmed down. So it was now time to give her a bottle and put her to bed. I sat down on the sofa with her and started feeding her the bottle. Just a few seconds later Page threw herself across the sofa head first into Emma's head. I heard the crack of their heads and Page started screaming. Emma was just staring at her like "I can't believe you just did that to me." Emma seemed okay, relatively speaking, and I gave her to Will to get Page some ice. She fussed some and then finally took her bottle again and then we put her to bed. I pray for the girls every night when I put them down but tonight I prayed that Emma wouldn't get hurt while she slept. It was just insane how much my poor baby got hurt tonight!

Happy Emma

This is Emma after we picked up Page. She was so happy!

Page's First Day of School

I can hardly believe it! Page started Mother's Day Out this morning. I only signed her up for one day a week and I really should have done two. She had a great time and really likes her teacher. Everyone who called tonight she told them her teacher's name is Mrs. Paula. I was a little worried this morning because she cried about not wanting to go and wouldn't eat and fought me about getting dressed. We changed her clothes twice and shoes three times because she kept complaining about them. She refused to let me take a picture and so I had to snap these as I was leaving and she wasn't paying attention. Emma really missed her today. She kept looking over to Page's car seat for the drive home and when we got home she kept going to Page's room looking for her. Emma was so happy when we picked her up. It is so sweet seeing how much they love each other. It was really nice having some alone time with Emma to play what she wanted to play with and read the books she wanted to read. I think she enjoyed our alone time too, she gave me some very sweet kisses when I was putting her down for a nap.

My Super Helper

It was so nice having Will home for a 3 day weekend. These pictures are of Page being a super helper. She wanted to help wash dishes this morning and assisted in washing a pan and then helped Will clean up the garage. We got the bassinet taken apart and put away and all of the other baby stuff that needed to be put away since we don't have babies anymore! My girls are just getting so big I can't hardly believe it.
We also made zucchini bread today out of our giant zucchini and it actually made 8 loaves! It was so good. I made half of the batch for Emma and the other half for the rest of us. Emma loved hers! The only things I had to do differently were to substitute olive oil and not add the pecans. I haven't baked bread since we moved into the house and it made me want to start baking again. I have to do it during their nap otherwise Page wants to help too much!
Page did something she has never done before. We had jambalaya for dinner tonight. I had gotten up to get some more water and came back to Page putting rice up her nose. I thought I had gotten it all out, but I was wrong. During her bath tonight she sneezed and out came some more rice. It was so gross and so funny at the same time. I think she was doing it because Emma discovered her nostrils this week and has been sticking her fingers up her nose constantly and we have been laughing hysterically about it. It is so hard not to laugh at stuff like that even though you want to discipline them you can't help but laugh.

Pimp My Ride

Will named this entry just in case you were wondering. We bought a minivan tonight. I have to say I love it! Emma squealed in delight the entire way home while Page cried. We had to switch the seats over before we left the lot because Page wanted to ride in the "big car" but once we started driving she cried about wanting to be in the other car. It is a 2001 Ford Windstar SE. We were looking for another car and weren't even considering a minivan, but when we saw it we could not pass it up. It was so nice and the price was perfect.

Our Giant Zucchini

I was gardening this morning and found the most gigantic zucchini in the patch. To get an idea of just how big it is, that is Will's foot next to it and he wears an 11.5 and the zucchini is bigger than his foot! We have not gotten any squash big enough to pick yet, but this is our second zucchini. I don't know why we are having such a late growing season, but we are still getting tons of tomatoes and our squash and zucchini and our herbs are growing like crazy. I think we might delay our fall plantings.