Silly & Independent Girl...with a Jealous Streak!

Every day Emma entertains me with something new. Yesterday, as she barely woke up to get ready for the day, she's rubbing her eyes (as many of us do to adjust to the light), then she proceeds to cover her eyes with both of her hands. I'm thinking she is trying to block out the light because sleeping beauty isn't ready to wake up yet! Well, not so much... she was playing peek-a-boo! She wasn't saying anything, just covering her eyes and uncovering them with the biggest smile on her face! What a way to start my day... Well, last night, after bath time, I had Emma sit on the couch as I brushed her hair (our nightly routine), and when I was done, she covered her eyes and said "Ba-boo!" hahaha! I am laughing now even typing this. It was the CUTEST thing! So we sat and played "Ba-boo!" for a few minutes, her switching from covering her eyes, to then covering mine and vice versa.

Her vocabulary is definitely expanding, but not in the usual, or expected way I'd say. I sum this up to being Matt's daughter ;) Matt and his quirky sense of humor and silly mannerisms is rubbing off on Emma. Recently she says "BOOM!". While I am trying persistently to get her to say "Please", "Thank you", and other more common phrases, Matt has effortlessly taught her "BOOM!". She has even recently started to learn "I Love You" but says it more like "Ya Ooh" (I'll take it though!). In no time she will be saying it more clearly.

In addition, her independence is growing! The other night, as I was cooking dinner, I gave Emma some crackers to snack on. There were about 4 in an unwrapped package so I set them on the table for her to snack as she played. A few minutes later, I see her walk to the trash, throw the wrapper away and then walk back to her toys. I enthusiastically say "Thank you baby girl! You threw your trash away like a big girl!". I got no response. She didn't even look my direction! She absolutely wasn't looking for, and needed no praise for this. She simply put her trash where it belonged. I've noticed, too that when she is playing with her toys, she has been putting them back in her toy bins when she is done with them - not EVERY time, but sometimes is better than nothing! It helps that Auntie Pokie Jo (Yvette) has her help to clean up her toys at the end of every day, and as I am cleaning up the living room I have Emma help me too. It seems she is becoming a self sufficient little girl!

A midst all of this fun and growing, Auntie Pokie Jo gave me some insight to yesterday's activities which included another little girl, 8 months old, that she was watching for the day. While her and Emma had their moments of nice play time together, there were bouts of jealousy on Emma's part. Yes, this is normal behavior, especially from single children, but I thought by now Emma would be over the jealousy issue having spent much of her time at Yvette's with TANK (another little boy that she watches who is about 1 year older than Emma). Hearing the stories of jealousy yesterday led me to concern over the new baby coming in to the house. I sure do hope that any jealousy is short lived and Emma just steps in to the role of Big Sister with enthusiasm! Any time I ask Emma where her little sister is, she points to my belly, sometimes even lifts my shirt and kisses her so I try to give Emma the "Big Sister" motivation speech. Time to kick it in to high gear to prepare Emma for her new role :)

Emma and Olivia playing nice ;)

Little sister has started to make her own presence known recently too. She's moving around a lot. Not kicking quite as much as Emma did when she was in my belly, but doing more of what feels like gymnastics! It literally feels like she is doing complete flips sometimes. The only time I feel like she is kicking is when I have a full bladder and every two seconds I feel a "kick" on said full bladder and it is not comfy to say the least!! She becomes active in the morning when I am sitting at my desk and again as I lay down to go to bed at night. So far, that movement stops in time for me to get a relatively good night's rest aside from the aches and pains associated with my growing belly.

I've already began to "nest" and am trying to tackle house projects one at a time. The nursery is definitely ready to start setting up and is on the top of my list now. I couldn't be more excited! I also want to add to/change Emma's room a bit so she doesn't feel left out and to change it to a more "toddler-like" room. I can't believe she is already going to be 18 months :( But she is a constant joy! :)

Here are a couple recent pictures...

Emma wearing Daddy's hat (very short lived!) 

Emma and her silly love for the camera recently :) 

Grateful...

I have recently been following a blog of a little girl named Avery, which, if any of you watch the news, you have probably heard of and are following the same blog. This little girl was diagnosed with SMA (spinal muscular atrophy) and was not expected to live past 18 months old. When I came across this blog, I realized how many of us take for granted our healthy babies and don't take the time to realize how TRULY blessed we are to not have to visit a doctor every other day, to not have to keep a list of specialists in our address book, to not always have one eye open for this moment truly could be their last breath, but instead to watch our babies accomplish their developmental milestones with flying colors and to experience ALL of the joys a baby can bring to our lives without those added stresses. It amazed me how these parents reacted to the news and the positive way they carried out their baby's life.

Not knowing when her time will come exactly, they created a bucket list of things for her to do before she passes. They embraced their circumstance and made the best of it, not only for themselves, but for their sweet Avery. In all of the pictures and videos posted, Avery is as happy a baby as you will ever see and the love that streams through these parents and their family and friends is undeniably visible in every word, every picture, and every smile Avery gives. There is much to be learned from this family and this beautiful little angel. The strength to overcome such devastating news and accomplish what these parents accomplished in just a short month is amazing. You can view the blog at averycan.blogspot.com

This hits me hard this morning as I see a headline that baby Avery died at 5 1/2 months old of cardiac arrest due to complications of SMA. I woke up this morning excited and eager about the new nursery theme that I have created in my head for our soon to arrive baby girl. Thinking of the "perfect" nursery and all that I am going to put in to it and looking so forward to our second baby girl to arrive, I had this overwhelming feeling when I kissed Emma goodbye as I left for work, and she was sleeping, that I wanted to fast forward to August and have her little sister here too. Naturally, we are excited for her to come, but this headline made me realize that the "perfect nursery" isn't what matters, and that this moment, today, right now, needs to be appreciated in all of its blessing. All the clothes, the toys, the gadgets and extras that we get wrapped up in when expecting shouldn't be the focus... I should be anxiously anticipating a HEALTHY baby girl and all that needs to be done after that is to shower her with LOVE and HAPPINESS and JOY. Not to say I don't do that now with Emma, and that it wasn't in the cards for our soon to be arrival, but sometimes it takes a reality check to refocus you and to tell yourself "don't put so much pressure on the material things". If the nursery is decorated or not, as long as she is healthy and has the essentials and we love her beyond the moon and back, that is all that truly matters.

While this doesn't prevent me from striving for a nursery decor session or two, and it won't keep me from buying some of the extras, it was a reality check that to stress over getting those things isn't worth the energy. It will happen or it won't, and either way, we just need to keep our focus on the love of our beautiful little girls and keeping them happy and joyful.

As much as I have learned from Avery, her parents and her story, and I wanted to share that with you, I also wanted to help raise awareness of SMA, which is why I opted to post this on our blog, as well as attach the link at the bottom of the blog. Avery's parents have done a really good job of posting the information on their blog, the statistics and really anything you want to know about SMA.

RIP sweet Avery. Your accomplishments do not end here, and your goals will be carried out by your family, friends, and supporters. In your short 5 months, your purpose was to raise awareness of SMA, and you have gone far beyond that and my hope is that the growth of supporters continues and a cure will be found so that no other babies, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends, etc have to go through the pain of losing a beautiful angel such as yourself.