Fun Things...

Eli rocked his All County Orchestra Concert.  He was selected out of all of the orchestra students at his school to be a part of the orchestra.  Congrats, Eli!

Emmy loves parks!  She points every park out as we drive by and wants to stop and play.

And art…Emmy likes to paint and cut and draw and glue and color...

Homework time…even Emmy gets into it.

Grace's cool ski championship hat!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Grace got to spend several days in Vail singing national anthems for the winners of the International Ski Championships with her choir.  What an awesome experience!

Hot chocolate after Emmy's inaugural snow playing time.  She liked being pulled on the sled but did not like trying to trudge through the snow.

Smooch!

Emmy and Abby trying out the hot tub.

And playing the piano.

And having a tea party.

Love!

The first stuffed animal Emmy has liked…Hippy the Hippo!

Emmy singing "Baby Mine" (her own version with additional lyrics!). 

More photos...

First Pediatrician Appointment and Other Adventures...

Today the boys headed to Texas for a gymnastics meet and Emmy and I had the day to ourselves.  This morning she had her first pediatrician appointment at which she impressed the doctor and all of the nurses too with her fun disposition and being so cute and smart! :)  She is pretty developmentally on target and we just have a couple of specialist appointments to make to follow up.

After the appointment, I decided to forego the follow-up blood work and leave it until after nap and we went to meet our friends Linds, Caden, Asher, Sarah and Col at McDonald's for a little lunch and playtime.  What fun!  Emmy figured out how to get around by herself in the play place after her sweet friend Caden helped her a few times and even tried to help little Col get up (but discovered she couldn't quite lift him).  Then it was nap time (Emmy's started to cheer for herself when she wakes up from her nap…"YAY, Emmy Lu Xin!  Night night!") and back to the doctor for the blood work.  I was not looking forward to that.

The phlebotomist (right, isn't that it?) was amazing with Emmy.  She blew bubbles for her while she was preparing the materials and warmed her little arm to prepare but, unfortunately, Emmy's veins do not like to be messed with so the process was a tricky one again.  Emmy was snuggling against me and crying and I asked her, "Do you want to sing?" at which point Emmy stopped crying and sang, "Are you sleeping, Brother John?" and then began crying again.  She followed up "Brother John" with "Baby Mine" and about that time it was finished.  Phew.  She's a very tough and brave little girl.

This evening Emmy went with me to Grace's dance class.  Emmy has now watched the kids do several activities and nothing has drawn her attention like dance class did.  She sat and watched, she tried to dance and then she asked over and over to join the class.  When she couldn't, she decided to read "Goodnight, Gorilla" to Grace through the glass separating the dance studio from the waiting area…loudly and while yelling, "GRACIE!" every couple of words.  It may have been a little distracting for the dancers.

After dance class it was home for some roasted cauliflower (her favorite!) and french dip sandwiches ala Steve.

I'll post a video of "Brother John" tomorrow (not the blood work version).

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Wacky Wednesday!

Today was kind-a…wacky!  After having a bit of a crazy morning at home, Grace, Eli, Emmy and I headed out to drive Grace to school.  It snowed last night and was still snowing this morning and the roads were slick but not horrible.  We were praying as we typically do on our way to school when my car suddenly started fish tailing all over the road.  When this has happened to me in the past I have been quickly able to recover but this time my car just couldn't recover.  On the opposite side of the road coming our way was a semi truck followed by several cars.  On the side of the road was a shallow ditch lined with barbed-wire and a field behind it.  The car was swishing from one side of the road to the other as the semi drew closer and attempted to get as far over to the side of the road as possible.  Right before we neared the semi my car swerved right and went into the ditch and barbed wire fence.  Phew.  Then this really awesome good samaritan named Jeff came up and helped us get out of the ditch and on our way and Grace was almost on time for her first period pre-algebra test.  Emmy was a little afraid during the accident but recovered quickly and the rest of us were just grateful to be in the ditch instead of the alternative.  Grateful!
Then we came home to homeschool and spent the day cleaning up after a sick dog (I'll spare you the details!).
BUT homeschooling is going SOOOOO much better (the 7th-grade-note-passing-in-class "SOOOOO" felt necessary here).  The boys are able to focus with Emmy being Emmy and Emmy's energy has mostly changed from anxious energy to busy, fun energy and she is better able to attend to a task for a little while…particularly if it's a little dangerous.  :)  Emmy and Noah have become best buddies and she thinks he is wonderful.  He even has her doing p-bar routines using my legs as p-bars.  And Noah and Tay-Tay (as Emmy calls him) are great playmates for her during lunch time when they all race the plasma car around the main floor.  She prays for Tay-Tay at night and wonders why he doesn't sleep here at night.  She asks to "call Nai Nai" and "call YeYe" and "call Gigi" every day and loves to talk with them.  She'll say, "Hi.  How are you?  (I'm fine.  How are you?)  How are you?  You coming?  Love you.  Bye-bye."  And continues to have an uncanny ability to know her whereabouts.  On Sunday afternoon we went to visit Grandma June and Grandpa Lou for the first time.  We drove by the back of their building tonight and Emmy said, "Mama, Grandma June and Papa Lou!"  In other fun news, Emmy said her first unprompted English sentence yesterday.  Gigi was showing her a picture that Steve drew of Emmy and asking her about it and Emmy very clearly said, "Baba draw that."  You go, girl!
Thanks for your continued prayers for our family.  Emmy's sleep is much more peaceful and she is much less fearful at bedtime and while sleeping.  Please continue to pray for everyone's adjustment to their new roles.
Hope your Wednesday was Wacky but only in the best ways!
Love,
Mandy