And the begging begins....

Can you just hear her saying, "Pleeeeaaaaasssseee?"

On another note...

I went grocery shopping last night after Keith got home from work, and boy, that was an experience. I had plenty of complaints from people blocking entire aisles with their buggies and then abandoning them to walk down the aisle, and the aisle blocker chit-chatters. However, the man I encountered at the check-out made the other complaints seem like minor irritations.

He was behind me in the checkout - and as I found out, behind him was his mom. I was bagging my groceries. I could not help but notice the adorable child in the cart. I asked him how old she was, and after a long pause (like he was thinking about it) he said "two."
I replied that I had a daughter that age, and continued to bag my groceries.

As I was bagging, I noticed the child kept standing in the cart (they don't have belts), I waited for the Dad to notice and stop it, but when the child made a motion that she was going to climb out, I said,, "Hey kiddo, stay in the cart, sweetie," which made the Dad pay attention to what was going on (exactly what my intent was). Problem solved, I figured.

Wrong.

Child stands up again, Dad is not paying attention, and again makes it seem like she is going to climb out of the cart. This time the cashier, who was only maybe 17, brought it to his attention. (Hello, what has Dad's attention anyhow? His groceries are being rung through, his daughter is right in front of him , but it takes two strangers to bring it to his attention?)

The father replies....wait for it, this is good.... "Well she would only do it once" (meaning climb out of the cart and fall as it would hurt and she would "learn her lesson") I just stared at him in disbelief. My mouth, quite possibly, was gaping open. The cashier brought to his attention that it was a concrete floor and she could get hurt, and the father just looked at him with a look that said to me, "So?"

Unable to hold my thoughts in any longer, I muttered, "Unbelievable" which was loud enough for him to hear given our close proximity. The father picked up the kid, and handed her to Grandma, who was right behind him in line, and would have been able to see everything that occurred and did not nor bring it to the father's attention. I finished bagging my groceries and thankfully got out of the store.

Now, I KNOW how hard it is to keep 2 year olds in the carts. I have been by myself, in that exact store, and Em has pulled the same stunt. The difference being is I am always watching her and the second she goes to stand up I grab something to amuse her or I take her out of the cart and let her stand where I bag groceries (where you would hang your bags) Watch my groceries be rung through, or watch my kid - tough decision (I can't say for sure that's what the father was doing - he was just staring off) Now. maybe this guy had a lot on his mind, but come on...we are talking your daughter's safety here.

Maybe I am overprotective, but I would have hated myself if that child fell needlessly.

Shameless Picture time

It was a beautiful day outside today, so we took advantage of what is sure to be a dwindling amout of them. We do live in Northern BC after all...winter will be showing up shortly. (If we make it to Halloween with no snow - we'll be counting our blessings) Here are pics from today...Can I just say how adorable my kid is? I put her hair in pigtails for the first time and now I may do it everyday due to the cuteness!



"A leaf, a leaf, Mom!" she then tried to throw it back up to the tree.


Pretending to be asleep on the slide, complete with fake snoring.

This pic below is Emmy after dressing herself. She picked the shirt, pants and hat, and put them on by herself. Not too bad of a job, if I do say so, although I have to question the hat. LOL

Out of the mouths of babes...

Me:I love you Emmy.
Emmy: I love ME too, Mommy.

Ohhh, the imagination!

Emmy, when playing, will use the gate blocking the way down to the foyer as a 'cooking/serving area' to make pretend food and beverages. She will go over there, make like she is cooking and then give her nummy pretend food/drink to either Keith or I, and telling us what we are eating.
It's very cute, and she will watch you to make sure you eat it.

Anyhow, Keith must have pissed her off the other day as she went and made him some food and brought it to him. Once he started 'eating' the pretend food, Emmy says, "Ewwwwww, yucky garbage. PeeeeeYouuuuuuuuuuuuu" and then runs away, giggling.

Yup, that's my kid. She hasn't tried to feed me pretend garbage yet. LOL

Emmy-isms

I keep meaning to record these phrases and things Emmy does, but I always seem to forget.

Recent Emmy-ism's:

• Whenever she is eating/drinking the same thing as you, she always wants to say "Cheers" and clink the food together as if it were glasses. She does it all the time, and is so funny. Keith takes credit for teaching this to her.
  
• Her 'little people' are called "Puppet Show" Doesn't matter which one she is holding, they all have the same name.
• She sings the Diego theme song, and will shout "Diego, Go Go!" when she sees it or a commercial for it on. She is more excited to watch Diego than Dora these days, although she loves Boots and telling Swiper to stop swiping even when the show is not on.
• Everything and everyone gets a 'time out' from her toys, 'puppet show' to her Daddy and I. N0 one is safe from the time out.
  
• She pretends to be various animals, from cats and dogs to lions and elephants.
• Everything is, "What's that, Mom? What's that?"
  

"What's That?"

We have officially entered the 'questions' portion of toddlerhood. This past week, Emmy has asked "What's that?" to things she knows, things she doesn't and things she shouldn't! She asked what the stain on the floor was, what the blanket on the couch was, and so much more. If it's an object in her view, she asked about it.

Although a little tiresome at times - it again shows how my baby is growing up.

Are we still worried about percentiles?

Emmy at 30 months is 29 lbs and 34 1/2" tall. This puts her in the 53 percentile for weight and the 17 th for height. My lil girl is a shorty so far! Part of me hopes she gets my height. but not at Grade 4 like I did! LOL I remember feeling SO out of place, and my hope is Emmy doesn't have the obvious reasons for kids to pick on her as I did being tall and fat.

Parrot Emmy

Keith and I do not say curse words often, and I can count on one hand how many times one has slipped out within Emmy's earshot.

Tonight, Keith and I were chatting about some drivel from my day at work.

Keith says, "Holy shit"

Up pipes Emmy from the corner, in this sweet lil voice, "Hoooooollly Shhhhhiiiittttt, Mom. Holy Shit," in this sweet, sing-songy voice of hers.

I was laughing so hard I almost snorted blueberry muffin out my nose.

And tonight marks the "Swear Jar" so Keith and I are fined if we swear in front of Em again. LOL

Family

This weekend, my brother, sister-in-law niece and nephews came for a short visit. Last time they visited was 2 years ago - so it was great to 'reintroduce' Emmy to my side of the family.
Emmy and her cousins, Malcolm, Melissa and Micah.

30 months

I am totally going to be one of 'those mom's' that refers to her 17 year old as being 204 MONTHS old...I know I am.

Emmy is officially 30 months old today. For all you non-month counters - she is 2 1/2...in6 months - she will be 3, 3!!

This is definitely a challenging as well as fun time with her. She is becoming her own little person, and I am so thankful that I am her Mom and get to experience this with her.

For fun I thought I would share a list I made when she was 18 months old (one year ago) to see how much she has changed..

18 Months old
Favorite food: Spaghetti
Favorite TV show: Farzzle
Favorite Parent: Mommy's girl
Favorite Toy: No specific toy
Favorite Book: Love you Forever, Goodnight Moon
Word useage: Emmy talks a lot, but we only 'get' about 30% of what she says.
Plays shy with strangers.

30 Months old
Favorite food: Whatever Mommy doesn't want her having! Freezies I would say are her favorite
Favorite TV show: Diego, Dora, Sesame Street and Yo Gabba Gabba
Favorite Parent: Daddy's girl
Favorite Toy: Her babies (dolls)
Favorite Book: Any books with Dora/Diego
Word useage: Emmy counts to 5 on her own, 10 if helped. She has a vocab of 300+ words & phrases. I definitely am not worried about her language skills. She also is a 'Parrot' these days. She still plays shy when in a group or with people she doesn't know. (Just like Mommy)

Sesame Street LIVE!

I can officially say that Em and I are hereby fans of the Sesame Street LIVE show. We all went (even Keith!) and had a great time! We had awesome seats in the front row and Emmy high-fived Bert, hugged Big Bird, got to shake Ernie's hand, and so much more. It was so worth the money as my girl danced, sang, and followed along to the entire program. She even scored the Elmo balloon ($10!!!!!)
After the show, when it was time to go, Em cried, "See Grover, want to stay with Grover!" It was so cute (in the my-kid-is-screaming-kind-of-way)

Please find a ton of pics and videos will follow in seperate posts.

Visit to the PGX! Prince George Exhibition)

As a child, growing up in Surrey, we looked forward to the opening of the PNE each year. Then, I moved up north. Don't get me wrong, Prince George has been good to me but the PGX is no PNE. It is an agricultural fair with a travelling midway for rides. Nevertheless, it's worth the admission price to walk around and see the animals. This year was Em's first visit which was sadly marred by low temps and some annoying rain. So due to the weather, we cut it short, but Em did have her first taste of cotton candy.

Here are some pics...
Looking at weaner pigs


Looking at an active beehive

Looking at roosters

Meeting the 'love bug'

BC Day in the park

It was BC Day today, so we took Em to the park celebrations. It was possibly the hottest day of the year, and it didn't start till 12 (Em normally naps at 1) so we squished a lot of activity into a short period.

They were giving away free books as part of a literacy initiative, so Em is the proud owner of two new books.

Em also got her very first taste of a sno-cone, which I would say, she enjoyed immensely.

I wanted her to have her face painted, but it was a long line, and again, we were on a time limit. As the pictures show, she played in the playground for awhile, much to her delight. Not shown is her dancing to the bandstand music, or fighting her Dad for popcorn.

All in all, it was a good day, and we even got Em home by 1:30.

My little helper bee

Tonight, I was cleaning the living room. As I was cleaning, I was throwing Em's dirty laundry into a laundry basket on the other side of the gate that leads to the kitchen. Em helped by throwing a pair of her pants into the basket.

About an hour later, I was in the kitchen, burning dinner as usual, and Em (who had been playing in the area below the kitchen - soon to be a dining room) came into the kitchen and said, "Wash" and then left the kitchen again. I had no clue what she was talking about, so went back to my task of scorching perogies beyond recognition.

About 1/2 an hour later, dinner was ready, so I called Em and Keith to the kitchen to give them their plates. Em came in from the laundry room. Curious, I go in there to see what she was doing.

She had dragged that full laundry basket from the entryway to the kitchen, down 3 stairs, across the carpeted dining room floor, and into the laundry room without dropping a single piece of clothing on the floor. She had then 'loaded' the washer (which is the dryer, she can't reach the washer) and somewhat closed the door. My 29 month old was trying to do laundry!!

How freaking cute is that???

Ring Around the Rosy

Ring around the rosy

Another video :-)

And yes, I am aware I can't sing well. Good news? Em couldn't care less as long as there is singing.
I love being a Mom.

R.I.P. Sweet Henry...

One of the ladies from my baby board tragically lost her son on Tuesday, July 22, 2008 at the age of 2 1/2. She and her family are in my thoughts and prayers. Nothing can prepare you for the loss of a child. Nothing. My heart aches for them.


Here are some links to stories in the news:

here
here


Please keep them in your prayers.

The EEG

Emmy had her EEG done this past Wednesday. It actually went pretty smoothly overall (compared to last time when it couldn't be done at all LOL). I was told to keep her up longer than normal so she would be tired by her appointment time at 1:30 pm. Since that is Emmy's nap time anyhow, it worked well, and she was asleep about 5 minutes after the sedation was given.

The results should be in this week, so please keep your fingers crossed.

The difference of one week...

One week ago - Emmy was laying in a hospital bed, not talking, or showing any recognition for Keith or I, let alone any reaction to the activity surrounding her in the ER. Not a peep. Not a cry. Not a complaint/grunt/groan when the nurses stuck her with needles. The only reaction she had was her facial expression.

One week ago....I was so scared I was going to lose my baby girl as we drove to the hospital with her seizing on my lap.

I took this video tonight of Keith and Em playing.

I'd say she's feeling better, wouldn't you?


Publish Post

Em's hospital stay - part 3

Emmy had a barrage of tests in the 3 days she was in the hospital. Makes me pretty thankful for our health-care system as when we were discharged, the only paper I got was Emmy's discharge instructions. I think we take our Universal Health Care system for granted at times as many are not as fortunate. I constantly felt every nurse and doctor treated Emmy as if she was their own. She had blood & urine tests x2, tox screens to check for any ingested causes of the seizure, chest xray,the afore-mentioned spinal tap, an ekg, an attempted eeg (wasn't able to be completed as Emmy refused to sleep- but will be attempted again). All tests came back normal. The eeg will tell us if this seizure was, in fact, caused by the fever rather than epilepsy or a brain lesion. Obviously, I am hoping for the cause to be the fever, and that does seem the most likely at this point.

We were originally going to be discharged on Monday, but that was delayed as Emmy would not stand on her own without complaining of pain. She would stand, hunched over, like a 90 year old. As she had the spinal tap, this caused some more concern with the Pediatrician. She showed no further signs of seizure activity, which was great, but now there was the concern about her back. Overall, Emmy's mood was good, a little whinier than normal, and she was far more lethargic than normal.

Tuesday morning, it was like someone flipped a switch with Emmy. She was 110% her old self. She ran from activity to activity in the playroom, ran down the hall to her 'fishies' (a fish tank on the Ped unit) and would comment if she heard a baby cry down the hall, 'baby cry' she would say matter-of-factly) They found that she grew Strep G on her throat swab, which can grow normally in infants, but the Pediatrician felt that was the cause of her fever. Again, it sounds to me like this was a febrile seizure rather than a more serious cause, but we won't be able to officially say that until after the eeg.

We came home Tuesday, and boy it has been nice to be home with Emmy. I was off this week anyhow, so I have had the chance to be over-protective and ensure my daughter was fine. I bought two (yes two) thermometers, and I have taken Em's temp probably 20 times in the past 3 days. Am I a freak? Probably, but I guarantee you would do the same (or at least have the urge to). Emmy has been herself, and is fully taking advantage of my happiness of having her home by asking for 'nummy treats' often.

A little side note. Emmy would say prior to this episode, 'tummy hurts' and would ask for a nummy treat. She would say her tummy hurt in the hospital, but I could not say for sure if her tummy actually hurt or whether she was looking for a treat. lol

Emmy's Hospital Stay -spinal tap

Emmy was given a spinal tap somewhere between 1-2 am on Sunday. I was planning to be in the room as they did the procedure, but Keith was having a breakdown of his own at that point, so I went to support him. Emmy was not conscious for the procedure and it went well by all accounts. It was probably better I wasn't in the room - I know how nervous I get when people watch me, and these people were sticking a needle into my baby's back. Best not to distract them.

Once done, the Pediatrician indicated that she was happy with the spinal fluid - as it was clear. I watched as 4 vials were sent down to the lab. Emmy was still sedated. A nurse came in to ask us 4 pages of questions about Emmy, and our family medical history. The most insane question? Are you staying the night? Where the hell else would I be? My 28 month old child has just had a seizure and is unconscious after a spinal tap...I am not only spending the night, you will be positively sick of me! Of course I just meekly said yes. I sat in the chair beside the crib, and just watched Emmy sleep. Keith crawled into bed (there was a queen sized bed in the room) and tried to get some sleep.

After the 4 am vitals check, I went to try to get some sleep. I couldn't shut off my mind, so no sleep was had by me at that time. I went back to the chair beside the crib and just listened to Keith snore and Emmy breathe.

At 6 am, the nurses returned for a vitals check. Emmy woke up this time and immediately called out for both Keith and I. That was the sweetest thing I have every heard as she had not said a word since the seizure and had not shown recognition for either of us. I quickly sat up so she could see me, and she smiled. Then, she went to work on trying to get out of her crib and pulling the cords off her body. She especially did not enjoy her IV, hence why her hand is so taped up in the picture on the previous post. Anything to keep it in.

Emmy put up such a fuss about the crib, they ended up bringing in a hospital bed for her to sleep in. That appeased her. Satisfied my baby was stable, Keith stayed with her as I got 2 hours sleep. Although she was still running a fever, it was under control, Emmy was talking, and acting somewhat normal. This was the first in a serious of good steps to her recovery.

The one where Emmy went to the hospital

It's not likely I will forget the incidents of July 5th, 2008 anytime soon.

It started as a normal, but busy Saturday morning. I had a dentist appointment at 7 am, and I returned with some breakfast for Keith and Emmy. Emmy ate normally, and all seemed well. Keith went off to work.

Em and I hung out. I was really tired from my early morning appointment and Emmy seemed drained as well. She napped twice, both longer than usual, and was whiny when awake. Very unlike her. I put it down to her coming down with something as she felt warm. I tried dosing her with some Motrin and she refused. I didn't push it as she was drinking well.

Keith came home around 5:30 and I shared my concerns with him. She was still warm, so I asked him to try to give her the Motrin. Again, she refused. I tried again, and she just spit it out. All very unlike her. Emmy laid on the couch, eating freezies and watching Dora. I was telling Keith my concerns and thought we should take her to the walk-in clinic at least as my 'Mommy radar' was telling me something wasn't right. He didn't think it was necessary, which caused a bit of bickering between us. I went to the kitchen to cook some pasta, and Keith sat on the floor beside Em, and interacted with her.

A few moments later, Keith said, "Jan, we need to go, NOW." I came out from the kitchen and Emmy was standing by the sofa with glassy eyes and was not 'there'. She was unresponsive and you could tell something was seriously wrong. I grabbed her, and we went quickly to the car to go to the ER.

Once on the way, Emmy started having a seizure. She was foaming at the mouth, and gasping/choking. It was horrible to watch and I was as scared as I have ever been. I attempted to make sure she didn't choke on her tongue, but other than that, there was nothing at I could do but watch. (We have now learned proper seizure first aid - so if you are yelling at the monitor, we won't be repeating those mistakes again - we were motivated by fear) I was absolutely fearful that I was going to lose my child. We shaved a good 5 minutes off a 10 minute trip, but it still felt like far too long as my child fought to breathe. We got to the hospital, Keith grabbed Emmy, who now was limply laying in my arms, and took her in to the ER. I parked the car, although I still don't know how I managed to plug the meter as my hands were shaking.

I ran into the ER and the nurse asked if I was the mother. I indicated yes, and gave her Em's care card. (They had asked Keith for it and he indicated I was following with it) She asked me to describe the events of the evening, and I just looked at her as all I could think about was my daughter and what was going on. I gave her a brief run down, and they lead me into the room where a team of doctors/nurses were working on my child.

My first thought when I walking into the room was how small was on that big bed. Keith and I stood off to the back, but the nurse told me I could come up and hold her hand if I wanted. Like she needed to ask that. I stood beside Emmy, who had her eyes closed, but she gripped my hand like no tomorrow. The pediatrician on-call was paged, and everyone was asking questions about our day. Did she vomit? What did she eat today? Did she eat/get into anything she should not have? Are there any drugs in the house? Any alcohol? Do either of you smoke? When did you notice something was wrong? When did she start seizing? How long did it take you to drive here?

It was scary and frantic. The doctor stated that her working diagnosis was that Emmy had a febrile seizure and they were timing her recovery time. With febrile seizures, a child should be drowsy but alert 20 minutes from onset. Emmy was not. Once she did open her eyes, she also would not turn her head to the left. She also showed no recognition for either Keith nor I. She would look through you. It was a horrible, horrible feeling.

The Pediatrician arrived and we were moved to the Pediatric ward as there was a trauma coming into the ER. I signed a release to do a spinal tap as they needed to rule out Meningitis and Encephalitis.

Emmy was given sedative (she just fricken woke up, people!) so they could complete the spinal tap and was put into a crib, with all sorts of wires and monitors on her. The nurses came in with every little blip and did vitals every 2 hours. At this point - all we had to go on was that it it was *possibly* a febrile seizure, but they were doing further testing to rule out other diseases. My baby - although under serious supervision - was stable. Although not a perfect scenario, was better than just a few hours prior.

Next post - more about her hospital stay...

Visit to the park

As today was my EDO from work (meaning Earned Day Off), Em and I went to the park this afternoon. Although I think I will be crossing this park off our frequently visited list due to the lack of small kids activities & the sheer amount of cigarette butts in the sand. Although, one could say that was an activity in itself as Emmy spent at least 30 minutes digging them out, even to my protests and attempts to distract her.

She did have fun on the swings, but she may be traumatized by the slide experience. I had been picking her up and putting her 1/2 way down the slide when Monkey Emmy decided she wanted to go to the top of the slide and slide down. She climbed up fine, sat down to slide, and got scared. She stood up, and attempted to get down, but couldn't figure it out, so she did the next best thing, she started wailing.

I climbed up to attempt to rectify the situation. Two things were quickly apparent, 1. The slide was far higher than I remember them being, and 2. There was no way my fat ass was making it around those turns.

After concluding my only option was to carry Emmy down myself, I did just that, silently praying the whole way down. It went smoothly, with no fumbles or falls.

Here are the pictures and even a video...

"Yucky, Poopie!"

said Emmy this morning when she walked in on Daddy. peeing. She looked at him, pointed at his man-part and stated that. I am still giggling about that and it has provoked a few jokes this morning as well.

Ahhh....kids.

Paaaarrrrty!

Today, Emmy and I attended our very first birthday party for Emmy's friend from daycare. I met her friend's mom and Emmy and I had a fun time. It was a 'Dora, Diego and Dinosaur' Adventure party, and although Emmy was a bit young to truly grasp the concept of the adventure part of it (we went through various 'lands' set up in the back yard) she still had fun. Each child had a handmade backpack just like Dora's, with all the necessary tools to complete the adventure (bubbles, binoculars, whistle, a map, and some other stuff that is now strewn across my living room. Dora, Diego and Swiper also made an appearance which made Emmy pretty darn excited.

We only had tears once, when the older boys were running around roaring like dinosaur's and scared her a bit when they did it close to her. She growls all the time, but I guess it's different. She also was about the only kid who didn't attempt to pillage a gift, or take back the one they brought the Birthday girl, which was my big fear.

Funny thing happened later on in the evening, I had left to run to the store and Keith was home with Emmy. Apparently, she stuck her hand out and said, "Pleased to meet you," to Keith, no doubt copying me from earlier in the day at the party. Isn't it funny what they pick up?

Some photos:

Emmy blowing her 'whistle' which thankfully disappeared somewhere between the party and home. She couldn't quite get it to blow at full sound, but I knew it was just a matter of time.


Emmy being a 'big girl' and successfully drinking out of a lid-less plastic cup with no spills! I cannot believe how quickly they change from being babies to being children.


Emmy playing in the play castle in the backyard


Being extremely cute. (Okay, I am biased)


Emmy, watching Dora, and demanded her backpack from the party. Could my kid get any closer to the screen???

More pictures...