wahn, wah, wahn

Yesterday, over dinner, Tuan repeated to me a conversation that he had with Emma that morning. Some neccessary background: Emma is nearly night-dry but still wears a pull-up, just in case. Back to the story! Emma will usually get up with Tuan in the morning and then come back to bed with Daniel and I for about an hour or so. So Tuan is usually the one to take her to the bathroom first thing after she wakes up. And of course, if you're Emma, you must remove your "jammy-pants", your "pull" and your "jammy-shirt". Then, you may go potty! When Tuan asked if she wanted to put her pull back on as it was dry, my little nearly-two-year-old replied: "No. Pull for pee night." What a cutie!

bumpehy, bumpehy , bump!

This is Emma reading to Daniel. She may be singing to him as well - this is the cloth book that I made for her. The words are actually a song in our children's songbook - My Heavenly Father Loves Me. I really love this picture of them together.

beep, beep, beep!

Does anyone have a caption for this picture? Am I just the meanest mom for taking it? Hee, hee.

I like to call it: "Just one more piece of candy, mommy, and I promise I'll go right to sleep!"

mood eh bat!

Tell me if you can that this is not the most adorable picture ever! I just love babies little dimpled bums.

wish, wish, wish

Guess what? My brother got married yesterday! Guess what else - no one knew until the day before!! Luckely, Tuan had the day off and so we drove down and saw him and Glen and two of my sisters and their family. Oh, and a wedding. Hee, hee.

I love this picture of Emma with my sister. Yes, she shaved her head. Yes, she looks HOT! She jokes that it looks like a Tibetan monk is playing w/ my daughter.

wound eh wound

Dear avid blog readers: (I know there are some of you out there!)
I am starting a new title series. Emma really is a neverending wealth of inspiration. ;o) However, I'm not going to be revealing the title or subject of this new series until the end. A little game shall we!

I just poot!

Book Review: The Captain of Her Heart by Anita Stansfield

I am, what is the right word. Irritated? Frustrated? Livid? Disgusted? I am all of these in response to what I read in a novel tonight. A bit of light reading. I got it as part of a book exchange book group. It is a light romance novel set in the 1770's. It is really not very well written - many phrases or words blared 1990's. What made me feel all of the above was the scene of a home birth near the end. This author is the mother of 5 children, none of whom I respectfully surmise were born at home. There are no less than 4 accounts of characters being ever so glad for a doctor, even when a neighbor woman is there already helping out. Had male doctors really already taken over the women's place in childbirth in 1770? But I will share with you the gem of this paragraph. My apologies ahead to anyone whose birth experience may have been like the one she portrayed. Perhaps this does happen, but I will never believe it is the norm.

While he'd (the father) believed that this couldn't possibly get any worse, suddenly it was. Rather than coming and going, the pain became constant. She groaned and pushed, digging her fingers into his arms while she nearly went mad from the pain. She raged and protested, swearing that she couldn't possibly do this, and she cursed him for causing her so much trouble and grief.

WTH!! After b$%^g to Tuan about this for a bit I came to the conclusion that what really bothers me the most about this is that a romance novel aimed at a young female audience would have this bullspit in it. Who wouldn't read that as a teen and vow - "I'm never having babies! I'll just adopt! Sign me up for the epidural right now!" I will clarify - none of those things by themselves are bad. But I feel that girls/women who decide to do them because this kind of info about childbirth was constantly fed to them through these kind of books are in a way robbed of their rights of birthing. There is so much more that I want to say and rehash, but that's probably enough to get my feelings across.

One final thought. I felt very dis-empowered as a woman after reading this book. I will not be reading any sequels or recommending it to anyone I feel very strongly about this. Had I not stumbled upon the correct information, (thank God for you, Sarah!) I would have been a victim to this kind of propaganda.

On a lighter note! Tonight while Tuan and I were discussing a chapter in Alma with Emma, she wandered into the bathroom and played for a minute or so with the door mostly closed. I know that she gets some of what I say even if it seems she isn't listening, but I was especially tickled when she opened the door and in the middle of my thought said "uh-huh! uh-huh" While vigorously nodding her head. It was adorable and I told her that she was about the most adorable thing I had ever seen. No sooner had I finished saying this than she pushed out quite a loud poot! I started cracking up but soon completely fell down laughing when she ran over to us declaring "I just poot!" Now, I may enjoy an occasional cathartic release myself, but I don't suppose I am quite as proud of them as Emma is!

Here comes!

Do you believe in resurrection? Don't get all philosophical on me - yes or no? I believe in resurrection. (note - please don't take this too seriously!) The resurrection of the most annoying toy ever!! While we were staying with my sister, her daughter came into the position of one toy phone. Voila - Emma loved the phone and soon having only one phone and two toddlers became a problem. So, not having tons of money to blow, I found Emma a toy phone at a dollar store. It had, excuse me, has the most annoying sound bytes I have ever heard. With the push of a button you are subjected to a clip of barbie techno-disco-whatever-it's-called that plays for a good 15 seconds. If your child loves this "music", 15 sec is then repeated over and over again. But hey, problem solved - no more fights over a toy phone. So we move into our new apartment and the phone craze kind of dies out with the cheap batteries. The phone is, ahem, "lost" and all is well. Then I find myself laboring in our birth pool 3 short hours from giving birth to Daniel. What do I hear? Na, na, nah, na, na, na, na, nah! During labor! Where did it get the extra juice? I had Tuan put the kibosh on that one pretty fast, let me tell you! Daniel is born and the phone is "lost again". Well, today the phone somehow re-appeared. Ugh. Emma loves music and after nearly every song on a cd will ask "wherza da next dong?" I tell her that it is coming, just wait. And when it starts I say "Here it comes". Now Emma is playing with the phone and I hear the tunes get lower and lower and slower and slower. Yea! The battery is finally giving up the ghost. She asks me "whereza da next dong?". "I'm sorry Emma, the batteries must be dead". 2 min later I hear "here comes, here comes"! What do you know, the phone is resurrected and producing it's lovely sound bytes once again . . . and again . . . and again! This thing just won't die. It's like my own personal cockroach!

I'm eating my feelings!

At the height of my cold, I made some cupcakes. What kind of cupcakes? Well, I like to call them "I'm eating my feelings" cupcakes! I also made "I'm eating my feelings" no-bake cookies and "I'm eating my feelings" marshmallow croissants. Don't worry, this was all over the coarse of three days. Ugh, so much for losing weight! And speaking of losing weight - tell me if this is a connundrum. I am despising this spare tire around my waist and trying desperatly to get rid of it. This hated 'spare tire' is what would save my baby's life if I was to suddenly be without food. It is my biological protection for my child, yet I hate it and want to rid myself of it. Ok, I have made myself dizzy. I guess I will just say that I am grateful for it, but want to get rid of it at the same time and leave it at that!

Final Chapter: Popper Teese

Fear not, my avid blog readers! You know that I would not leave you hanging on the final chapter of my series. Well, not forever anyway! My appologies for making you wait this long. Any guesses as to which kind of cheese this is? Here is Emma enjoying some:

Not the best picture, I know but our camera is curently on the fritz and I used our phone to take this one. Ok, give up? Emma's favorite (at least for now) cheese is parmesan cheese. This girl seems to be constantly eating it! I love the way she asks for "more popper teese"! Actually, because I have waited so long to post this, she is now also calling it pommer teese.

Series: Teese Tedar

The second post in the new cheese series is yet another type of cheese Emma loves. Any guesses? Cheddar Cheese. Sometimes she prefers grated, and other times likes sliced better. I'm a fan of both, but Tuan doesn't much enjoy eating just cheese. Woot! She may look more like him, but she likes cheese like me! She's probably glad that she looks more like him and hopefully won't mind liking cheese like me. :o)

Last week - wow it doesn't feel like that long ago - we got the opportunity to meet up with one of our best friends. We both moved away (to different places) around the same time and haven't seen each other since. He is doing grad work with his university's music program. Since their football team was envited to play a bowl game only 2ish hrs from us and he traveled up with the band, we couldn't resist the chance to see him again. He, another music friend of ours and I used to get together as often as we could afford (usually whenever the cravings hit) at a local Chinese/Tai buffet and restaurant to chat for hrs. He's tons of fun. We only had about 2 hrs to catch up, but it was really worth it. Emma barely remembers him and it was the first chance he had to meet Daniel. Golly I miss hanging out with him. It was so much fun to see him again, and hopefully there will be other opportunities later. Unfortunately we didn't get to attend the bowl game - his team lost anyhoo. *sniff* Speaking of sniffing, I'm off to nurse my hubby and infant through the tail ends of their colds. Emma and I are finally showing improvement!

Series: Cottage Tease

Emma LOVES cheese! Reading this should make at least one of my siblings very happy to hear (yes, I'm talking to you Glen!) At least once a day she will ask for and devour a small bowlful of "cottage tease".

Not much more to say - everyone has been sick here at our house. But we are slowly getting better. I'm trying to pump lots of my milk 'cause it's got extra special good things in it right now to help Daniel and Emma get better. I figure all those goodies can only help out later if I need to use it.