It's not even here yet...

...but we've celebrated Halloween on several occasions already.  Emma now knows what to say when you knock on someone's door, and she knows what they give you in return.  She knows how to answer when you ask her what she is for Halloween: "Doroffey."

Here are some sweet shots of Doroffey at a carnival at a friend's house and at a Susan Brewer Photography Halloween session. 

I swear I didn't curl her hair.  This is all natural.

Bowling...where's it gonna go....

It knocked down pins!!!  (I have no idea how many - who cares when you see an ecstatic face like this?)

The stink eye.

 

 

Our goddaughter, Elsie: the cutest racoon on the planet.  Not to mention one of the cutest babies I've ever seen, period.  For reals.

 

 

 

 

Arts and crafts time!

 

More Halloween fun to follow...

Parent-teacher conference

Although I was out of town for the last half of last week for a conference, several things still happened:

(1)  Emma survived.

(2)  Russell survived.

(3)  The house was still in one piece...however, the ability of our house to remain standing is questionable whether I'm in town or not.

(4)  I attended Emma's parent-teacher conference (via speakerphone).

I won't bore you with the details of the conversation, but here are some of the phrases we heard: "We have no concerns about Emma."  "She's so smart!"  "She's so curious!"  "She's so sweet!"

I'm so glad we're not starting out the parent-teacher conferences at the age of 2 hearing, "Well, we have some concerns about Emma's ability to blahblahblah."

On another subject, I've been having that nervous, fluttery, excited feeling in my stomach lately (and it is NOT a baby).  It's because my current week looks like this:

Soooo much to do and almost all of it very, very fun!

I've been buying Christmas presents.  The wheels have been turning as to where I want to shop on Thanksgiving night/Black Friday.  Emma is celebrating Halloween this week first and next week again.  She's been painting pumpkins.  The leaves are falling.  And WE'RE SELLING OUR TOWNHOME!!!  What does that mean?

CASH FOR A RENOVATION!

We are FINALLY going to start adding on to our house - adding on a laundry room, a master bath, a walk-in closet, and a master bedroom.  Ok, so we haven't even called the builder we have in mind yet.  But that's ok, because I have that nervous, fluttery, excited feeling to get me through to the actual renovation event.  I'm sure that after that point, it will be nothing but stress, anxiety, and amazement at how many decisions have to be made.  I will be so happy with the addition for many reasons, one of them being that the sooner we are done with that major undertaking, the sooner that the smaller renovations can take place.

Yet ANOTHER reason to be excited??  I'm holding out hope that XM Radio will begin playing Christmas music on November 1 again, just like they did last year.  Before anyone comments and tells me I can listen to Christmas music year-round on all sorts of internet radio stations, that spoils the anticipatory excitement I get from finally hearing it on XM (I'm essentially paying for that excitement, so I'm not going to ruin it with free Christmas music year-round...then what would happen if I...dare I say it...got tired of Christmas music??!!)  I'm even excited about the first time I hear the Christmas Shoes song and practically break my neck trying to get to the radio to change the station to ANYTHING but that song.

What a blessed life I live.  Yes, we have our struggles and rough days, but we have to try to rise above them and see the blessings that are showered upon us.  I guess sometimes those blessings come in the form of nervous, fluttery, excited feelings.

Let me introduce...

42" tall (from bow to toe) Minnie Mouse.

From a distance, it looked like we had thrown a dead body in our shopping cart. 

 

 

Anyone who has seen Minnie Mouse at our house with their own two eyes can testify:  she is bigger in real life than she looks in these pictures.  And Emma's love for her is bigger than it appears in these pictures.

Another cell phone roundup

It's that time again: time to peruse the cameraphone shots of our precious one:


Ok, so maybe this one isn't so precious...of any of the participants.  Elsie was crying because she wanted her daddy...which made Emma cry for no apparent reason....which made Russell WANT to cry.

This random wreath arrangment is a little class project in Emma's classroom.  All the kids made a little wire decoration that characterized them.  When I say, "all the kids," I mean their moms.  As for me, this means my sister made it.  Emma's is the cutest (obviously).  It's right there in front, with Minnie Mouse at the top.  Her piece of wire is wrapped in pink ribbon and pearls with pink and white strips of sheer ribbon.  There's also a pink hair bow and a tea cup and saucer, plus a cupcake.  Yep.  That's our little girl, in a nut shell.  Or on a wire.

I was trying to catch a good picture of Emma in her Halloween dress when she suddenly burped....no, it was actually a BELCH...and she made this shocked face.  But our mannerly Southern lady followed it up with, "Escoos me!"

 

 

Mommy!  Mommy!  Minn Mouse pwate!

 

 

 

I have a few more pictures to share, but they deserve a blog post of their own.  I will introduce the newest member of our family!

Pumpkin Painting Party!

So the dreaded play date I was talking about a few posts ago...it wasn't terrible!  Thankfully, Emma didn't quite realize she couldn't play on the 2-story jungle gym, drive the Barbie car, or stand up at the painting table.  Instead, another little girl drove Emma in the Barbie car and the sweet mom who hosted us brought Emma a little chair to sit in and paint.

I would love to post some of the pictures of all the kids painting, but I don't want to do that without their moms' permission.  So I'll just show you what I can.

Mrs. Dalhouse (sounds like DOW-house), whose name Emma can pronounce, thank you very much.  (PS - Today she said that she's had a kid call her Mrs. Barbie House.)

Mrs. Miros (pronounced MY-ros) - Emma calls her Mrs. Myhouse, since her other teacher's name is Mrs. Dalhouse.  Hilarious.

 



Emma's masterpiece:

 

 

Now there are two crazy pumpkins at our house!

 

 

 

 

Emma LOVED this piano:

Wheel, Salwee, and Wose

We have some friends at church named Will, Sally, and Rose.  To Emma, they are "Wheel, Salwee, and Wose."  We attended a church picnic together a couple weeks ago, and I snagged a few good pics of our little ones.

 

 

 

Will's first time on a slide.

 

 

Terrible Tuesday

Perhaps I should title this post "Terrible Friday."  Three years ago today, on Friday, October 9, 2009, we found out two things:

(1) I was pregnant with a baby girl.

(2) That baby girl had spina bifida.

This milestone is not wrecking my day.  I wasn't going to let it wreck my day anyway, but yesterday I received a rather sad reminder that some people have it much worse than Emma does.  Mentally, Emma is fine.  She is not trapped by the confines of her own mind, and she will be able to function independently one day.  Some individuals are not so lucky.  I can't go into the details of my experience, as it is really not my story to tell, but you know who I'm talking about - I hope you don't stare or point or make fun of him or her, but maybe you feel that little stab of sadness for what that family experiences.  I remember when I was little, I went to church with a family who had a son with Down's Syndrome, and he was probably in his forties.  I remember wondering, even at my young age, what would end up happening to that man when his parents were no longer able to take care of him.  And even at my young age, I felt sadness and grief for his family.  I wonder where he is today, 20 years later.

We continue to celebrate Emma's life every day.  Don't think that I am not grateful, because I truly am.  But today I am just...ambiguous.  Yes, Emma is alive...but not entirely well.  Yes, Emma is mentally able...but physically and medically disabled. 

I look forward to this day being over.  I get to spend tomorrow morning with Emma.  Granted, it will be at Shriner's, doing a lot of waiting and probably having to hold her down for a spine x-ray (joy!), but I know there will be lots of hugs and kisses.  And lots and lots of love.

Two-year-old Tiger

Emma has attended a few Tiger tailgates this year, and I have some great footage from the Furman game a few weeks ago.  Yes, I wore a Furman t-shirt and genuinely pulled for the Paladins, as did Magee, who actually graduated from Appalachian State but is attending Furman for grad school.  For an App State grad to actually put on a Furman shirt....well, this is just unheard of.  But Furman just gets to you that way.  What a great place.  I'd go back.  And I will, in a way, when Emma goes there.  Of course, I don't have actually any pictures of me IN my Furman shirt, but I promise I wore one.  I choose to believe that Russell wore a purple Clemson shirt to the Furman game for one of two reasons: (1) He secretly wishes he had gone to Furman or (2) He was being sweet to his wife and was passively supporting my alma mater.  Why else would you wear a PURPLE shirt to the Furman game?  Duh.

This particular tailgate was like Christmas for Emma: a cute new monogrammed bag and shirt, pompoms, and megaphone from one of Granddaddy's co-workers and our items from Kelly's Kids that Mama Jane ordered.  I love that there's a roll of toilet paper in this picture.  You just never know.

Now take a look at all these beautiful ladies:

 

Notice the Dorito in Emma's hand below.  She now says, "I need chips."  Need.  She NEEDS a lot of things these days, and chips were the first things she ever said she needed.  Doesn't matter what kind - tortillas, doritos, whatever.

And what would a tailgate (or any family gathering really) be without Russell hamming it up?

Ah yes, the Young twins.  Now which one looks old enough to be a high school principal?  Neither?  You would be correct.