Big Girl

My little Emmy is getting to be such a big girl. We pulled out the toddler bed this week, and she absolutely LOVES her new "Minnie Mouse" bed. It was her Auntie Allison's bed from when she was a toddler. Her first night after Grandma and Grandpa brought it over, she was so excited to sleep in it, she laid right down on it and told us to turn out the light. We were afraid she'd get scared in the night or fall out, but she did great!

Here she is in the morning after her first night in her new bed.

Her first nap in the new bed was a different story, however. I kept hearing A LOT of rustling around in there for A LONG time. I decided just to leave her in there and see how it went. She finally went to sleep and when I went in to check on her this is what I found...

She had gotten out all her toys, books, diapers, socks, wipes, etc. She even took the changing pad off the table. And see that big, white wad by her pillow? Yeah, that's about 1/2 a box worth of wipes she took out.

The second day, she did much better. I moved the changing table out of her room so she would not waste all those wipes again, and I told her she needed to stay in her bed. And she did great! And she's been doing great for both nighttime and naps ever since. When we tell her it's time for bed or a nap, she'll run and go get in her "Minnie Mouse" bed and lay right down. We moved her crib out yesterday, and I have to admit I was a little sad about it.

I have been kind of surprised at how well she has been adjusting to me moving things out of her room and getting ready for baby brother. And I am so grateful for that. Let's hope it sticks after he gets here. She is so cute helping me put his things away, etc. And she's always talking about baby brother's blankets, or baby brother's toys, or his seat or his bathtub or his diapers or whatever. It's really quite cute.

Every time she sees the camera out she asks me to take a picture. And she makes a "silly face".

She has also gotten pretty good at playing by herself, which has been such a lifesaver when I just really need a small break. She loves her dollhouse, and is always saying things like, "The sister is getting cookies out of the fridge." or "The Daddy needs to go upstairs and take a bath." or "Should the mommy cook some dinner?" It's really quite cute.

But she LOVES to play dollhouse with her Daddy. She always will bring one of the dolls up to him and say, "What should the sister do?" or whatever. She sure does love her daddy.

And we sure do love our Emmy.

Why I am a wuss

I have realized in the past few weeks that I really am a wuss. I have been pretty miserable throughout this whole pregnancy, and have probably not been a very nice person to be around.

Sure I have been dealing with lots of nausea, pain, loss of strength in my hands, numbness, swelling, sleepless nights, heartburn, shoes not fitting, etc. but at least it's only temporary. And then I thought of the people who have to deal with this kind of stuff on a regular, permanent basis. Like Matt's grandma who always has to wear compression sleeves on her arms and legs to keep swelling down. Or my mom who has been losing strength in her hands and other muscles for years. Or Matt, whose feet have a bone that's too long in them and so they hurt all the time, and he can never find shoes that fit. And I hardly ever hear a complaint out of them.

So I need to have a better attitude and be more like them and try to just suck it up and deal with it. And so I'm going to get over my vanity and paranoia about being so blown up like a hot air balloon and take a preggo picture. I figure Baby Boy deserves at least one. Here's to almost 38 weeks....

Predictions

If anyone still reads this, I'm taking guesses on when "baby brother" will enter the world. Here are some things you may/may not want to know to assist in your prediction....

1. My "official" due date is Oct. 21.
2. Last week at my doctor's appt, I was dilated to a 1 and 60% effaced.
3. Emily was born a week early.
4. I have been having mild contractions off and on for the past week.
5. My mom is going to be out of town Oct. 13-17.
6. My Great-Granny Alta passed away today and her funeral will be on Thurs. (Oct. 4) in Fairview (which is a very small town about 2 hours away from me) and I really need to go to it and not have a baby in Fairview.

Let the guessing games begin.

"Camping"

This weekend my friend Anne was in town from Arizona. It was her birthday and she wanted to experience fall and mountains instead of being in the desert for her birthday so we headed up the canyon. Everyone else hiked Grandeur Peak, but that was not happening for me, so we met them after for a lovely cookout.

Emmy loved "camping". (That's what we told her we were doing when she asked where we were going.) Here she is helping Caron and Anne make some dutch oven peach cobbler.

She had a ball looking at the waterfall and finding orange leaves.

And "hiking" with her daddy.

This is when she found the camera and wanted me to take a picture of her. What a silly!

She wasn't a fan of the tinfoil dinners but she loved the chips and cake and smores. :) It was really nice to go up to the mountains and hang out with our friends.

A couple of weeks ago, we picked the last watermelon from our garden. It weighed 20 lbs! I told Matt he should carry it around like this for sympathy.

He lasted about 3 minutes before we cut it up and ate it. It was delicious!

The other day when I went in to get Emmy from her nap, she had all her stuffed animals lined up like this and told me they all needed their bums changed! Ha!

She has been doing funny things lately like singing the monkeys on the bed song in the car or wanting to sleep in her princess tent and asking to go to a birthday party so she could have some ice cream. I sure do love that little girl.

Football game

Last weekend we took Emmy to the BYU football game. (Matt chose to come to the game with me instead of staying home with Emmy by himself all day.) She mostly liked it.

She even clapped along to the fight song, which broke her daddy's heart. But I thought it was really cute.

This is the weekend where it will get interesting at our house. And the one where Emmy is not allowed to wear either blue or red.

Counting down

Remember when I ran a marathon?

And rode my bike 100 miles?

And finally completed the St. George triathlon? (And 5 other ones too?)

And ran a 1/2 Marathon at the last minute without even training because my friend wanted me to run with her?

And hiked to the top of a nearly 12,000 foot mountain in the dark?

Yeah, I am really missing those days of being in shape when right now it hurts so badly just to walk a mile or even mop the floor. It even hurts to sleep. I wish that I would have been able to exercise like I used to during this pregnancy, but this boy has not let me do much. And so I feel like a pathetic, useless blob.

I really hope I make it to this boy's birthday in one piece...I am counting down the days til I can be done with this pregnancy. One more month til he gets here and then another month or so after that til I can start exercising again and getting back in shape! I can't wait so I am posting these pics as a reminder to myself that I can get there again and I don't have to be a useless blob for much longer!

St. George

Over Labor Day weekend we went to St. George. My cousin sort of eloped a few weeks ago and she was having a little wedding celebration over Labor Day. So we went. I forgot the camera and thus didn't take any pictures, but here is a small summary of the weekend.

-It was REALLY hot.
-Emmy whined half the drive there with things like, "Emmy needs a chip." or "Emmy wants something out of that box (the cooler)."
-We stopped at the cheese factory in Beaver and Em spit crackers all over the floor.
-We went swimming both Friday and Saturday and Em loved it.
-The wedding was lovely (and HOT) and my cousin looked beautiful.
-The roast beef at the wedding dinner was amazing.
-Emily loved the reception venue and kept asking to go back to "the big house with the park by the trampolines".
-It was fun to see all my family and attend the wedding and my cousin's new baby's blessing as well.
-My cousin, Emma, stole Matt for the girl's choice dance.
-I participated in a total of one dance. (The rest of the time I was drinking cold water by the gallon.)
-While trying to follow my dad and Nathan, they made U-Turns in very weird places.
-Emily could be bribed to do anything by telling her that she could play with her cousin Rivers.
-Emmy chattered the WHOLE way home. Seriously. I was wondering if her mouth would ever get tired. But it was way better than whining.
-Did I mention it was HOT?

Anyway, it was an exhausting and HOT weekend, but it was so fun to get away.