We love the "pah-hee"

So I think I can almost call it official now. Except for when she sleeps, Emma is POTTY TRAINED at 26 months!!!!!!!!! YEAYEAYEAYEAYEAYAEAYEA!!!! For once, I feel like something in her (and our) life has been a breeze! She really does tell us everytime she needs to go. Today, she wore the same pull-up all day except for a diaper for her nap. Can you say "Let's save some serious $$$$$!!!!!" And she loves her "Oo-ey" (aka "Zoey" from Sesame Street) big girl panties.

So that's the big news for the week. It's been a busy week (as always), but I am looking forward to this weekend, and spending time with my BIG girl!

PS. If you will think of me in your prayers, the middle finger on my left hand is still stiff/sore/wimpy, even almost 2 weeks after the cortizone shot (see the blog about Coffee and Books). I have a follow-up appointment with the Doctor on Columbus Day. It's just frustrating. I feel like I have arthritis at age 29!

Fall football games

I love my daughter.

She makes me smile.

She makes me feel loved!

This morning, she woke up while I was still home, and helped me make breakfast burritos. Daniel came up to us to say goodbye and asked her if she was going to play with Nana (my mom) today. I was holding Emma and she said "No...mama!" and pointed to me! Of course, once Nana arrived, she was waving bye at me without prompting! :)

This evening we went to a Lake Country Christian School Varsity Football game. For all of you LCCS alumni out there, yes I said football game! The guys have played so hard this year, the first year as a varsity team. There are only 16 or so players, but they have been playing so hard, losing their games by not large margins considering their numbers. Tonight, they played Temple Christian and it was a great game! Emma and I left in the middle of the third quarter, but I got an update once I was home that LCCS won 61-0! We got to see several interceptions, long passes, long rushes, long kicks...it was fun!

Emma had a good time too, especially playing with her Aunt KK (my best friend Kristen). Aunt KK had some lip gloss so Emma spent most of the first half applying lip gloss to her own lips, to Aunt KKs lips, to her own lips, to my lips, to her own lips...you get the idea! We all three have very soft lips now!

A little before halftime, she tells me that she needs to go "pah-hee" so we made a trip down the field to the potty, and we were successful!! Yea! I'm so proud of my big girl! By the end of halftime, though, she was ready for her "wii" (pacifier) and blanket and we left soon after. Such a precious sweetheart!

Coffee & Books!

So yesterday, I left school early for an appointment with an orthopedic hand surgeon. My left hand, specifically my middle finger of my left hand, has been cramping up pretty badly. Sometimes to the point where I had to literally flatten my hand against a flat surface in order to straighten my fingers back out. Yep..been hurting for about 6 months and finally got over my stubborness to do something about it. He said the muscle was inflamed, and gave me an oh-so-comfortable shot of cortizone right into my palm. Now, I can handle needles, it really has never given me troubles before, but there's something just a little bit unnerving when the nurse says, right as he is pricking your hand with this needle "Oh you know how much this is going to hurt! He gave me a shot not too long ago and oh, the pain!".

Not something you really want to hear as the doctor is inserting this matter into your finger which then feels like it is going to explode because your skin can only stretch so far to hold so much matter. Anyways....I have a pretty good bruise today, and had shakes and nausea (I think) from the shot until mid-day today...but feeling good now. I can bend and move my fingers! You never realize how much you take your fingers for granted! Take the time to thank your digits today!

ANYWAYS, after the appointment in Arlington (to which Dad came with - thanks dad) I went to go pick Emma up from my parents house. We are in the habit this year of driving Emma out there on Sunday afternoons and momma watches her on Monday (thanks momma). After I picked her up, we had about an hour to spare until we needed to be at Daniel's brother's house for dinner, so we two girls went to have Starbucks and visit Barnes & Noble on University.

As I sipped my delicious Iced Venti Skinny Vanilla Latte, Emma enjoyed her chocolate milk and we both shared Madeline cookies. Yummy! And since the weather has been so nice, we went and sat outside on the patio! Emma was getting a little cold, so she wore my sweater and looked absolutely adorable!

Then, we went inside and found the train set in the children's area, which she thoroughly enjoyed!

As she played, I found a children's book about the periodic table of elements (I'm a chemistry nerd, I know....). What was cool is that Emma came up to investigate what I was doing, because I was not giving my undivided attention to her, like I always should (at least, that's what this 2-year old thinks!). She was looking at the title of the book, and started telling me all of the letters! She could tell me the name of each letter in the words "Periodic Table" except for the "B" which she called an "O". (close!) She impressess me so!

We then went and explored the opposite end of the children's section and found the little stage and seats where they do story time. Emma was all ready to hear a story:

But, since no one was coming to read, she decided to take the stage herself!

And, of course, we HAD to dance to the singing/musical Elmo book that we found, or in Emma's words "Melmo":

Finally, as we were leaving, I saw on the clearance section in the children's section a book that had characters from different Pixar movies. Well, after she received a Mr. Potato Head from her Uncle Em and Aunt Jennifer for her birthday, we had the bright idea of showing her the Toy Story movies. She is now obsessed with Buzz, Woody, and Jesse. I think we have watched both of them 100+ times, and unfortunately, I'm not exaggerating. Anyways, I told her that I was going to look for a Toy Story book and I start walking around looking. She runs up to me saying "Mommy, Mommy" and what does she have in her hand? Yep...a Toy Story book she found on her own around the corner. We are now the proud owners of said Toy Story book (and the periodic table book...sshhh!!).

So we finally left and headed for Uncle Jeffrey and Aunt Valerie's house, where she thoroughly enjoyed their swingset outside in the nice weather. She loves to climb anything on any swing set, and she also loves to hold onto the bars and swing herself. She can usually hold on for 10 seconds or so and swing her feet back and forth! Maybe a future gymnast? Whatever she might chose to pursue, you would never know that this swinging monkey has had 4 heart procedures in her past!

So that was our fun Monday afternoon! (And then she crashed and burned and was ready for bed!)

Sick Baby Girl...

As happens occasionally, I was awoken by Emma around 5:30 this morning at my side of the bed. Usually, she has lost her "wii", (aka her pacifier) and can't find it. This morning, though, she was crying and had her wii, so I thought I would just try and lay her down in bed with us...thinking she had a bad dream or something. Well, she did not want to lay down...and a few seconds later as I was covered in throw-up I understood why.

I don't think until you become a parent (especially to one who has been so sick), you realize how much you love another person because you don't really care about the mess that is on you at that point, but all of your thoughts are towards your baby who isn't feeling well. By the time I got her into the bathroom, she was asleep...out...exhausted....and burning up with fever. So, I called in for a sub, ran up to the school at 6:00am (thankfully I know the alarm code!), and set my sub plans in motion. As any teacher will tell you, it's almost more work setting up for a sub than preparing for a real class yourself.

Anyways, all day she was burning up with fever and about 10:30 it was over 103 so I called the pediatrician to make an appointment for the afternoon. She never did throw up again, but she did not want to move at all , was listless (which is exactly opposite of her normal behavior), and didn't want to leave my arms. I also felt like she was breathing really fast and her heart was racing. Now, most parents probably wouldn't think twice of those symptoms (but maybe they do, my whole outlook on a sick child is skewed, I think)...and I might have been imagining them, but again, I wanted to be safe and know for sure it was just a little virus or something.

Which it was. A starting of an ear infection in the one ear where her tubes have closed up. Dr. Yee spent a long time listening to her breathing and heart for me, and said it sounded fine. Probably the racing and hurried breathing was just working harder due to the fever. Actually, as we waited in the office, she didn't move from my arms for 45 minutes, and then once we got into the exam room, I laid her down on the exam table and she almost immediately fell asleep! Once we got home (after the traditional sucker from the doctor!) she has felt much better, and her fever finally is below 100. In fact, she just came into the room with her Thumper bunny in her baby stroller, taking him for a walk around the house. Of course, once she saw me at the computer, she climbed up into my lap, wanting to go to the "Wiggles" website to play games.

One of these days, and maybe with another child, I will be not as over-anxious about my child getting sick. Probably, though, at least with Emma, I will be over-cautious!

Random Thoughts and Updates....

So I finally joined the crowd of this world called "blogging". After using Emma's Care Page for the past two years to update all of our friends, families, and even strangers about Emma's health, I decided to create this page just to give all of the "normal" updates! I haven't been very good (except on the Care Page) about writing down all of Emma's accomplishments and quirks, so here we go!

To start off, just some simple bullet points of thoughts:

1. If you were unaware of Emma's history, check out her Care Page: http://www.carepages.com/, and then her page name is EmmaRoseMontgomery (no spaces). God has been so faithful to us!

2. Emma starts mother's day out tomorrow. I just thought it was a glorified playgroup. nope. It's a preschool. They have curriculum for the month (this month's topic is sharing....that will be interesting for a group of 2-year olds!), posters on the wall stating when everyone's birthday is in the class, announcements of line leaders...wow. Emma picked out her first lunch box at Wal-Mart. It's a frog. I didn't really let her look too long at the Disney Princess or Dora boxes. I liked the frog, personally. And I steered her in that direction (she really did like it, I promise). She helped me pack her first lunch tonight. Fish sticks, grapes, cheese, cheerios, and a juice box. Yummy.

3. Emma is starting to potty train on her own!!! On Saturday, I finally got her little potty out of the box while she and Daniel were out. I didn't tell her about it, just put it in her bathroom. Well, that afternoon, Daniel comes and gets me to tell me I have to see this. About this time, Emma comes running into the room with only her shirt on- no pants, diaper. She runs into the bathroom to show me that she had pooped in her own potty! But here's the kicker- she told Daniel after she had done it! She had gone in there, took off her clothes, pooped all by herself!! I'm so proud. Now, she still isn't neccessarily telling us each time before she needs to go, but she has been using it more and more when we ask her!

4. Emma is finally starting to talk more. I've been a little worried because even though she can understand everything you say for over a year....she hasn't felt the need to communicate more than a few hand signals she came up with herself. (I've heard that this it is not uncommon for kids with heart defects to be a little slower on the verbal side, since so much of their energy is focused on the body!) Finally the words are coming...sentences too! It's so much fun actually having a little conversation with her, and finding out exactly what she wants, instead of playing a guessing game with her. Also, she's been able to point out all of the letters in the alphabet for a while now. You call out the letter, she points it out. Tonight, in the bath, I realized that she was picking up a foam letter, calling out its name, and then putting it into her bucket in the bath! I tested her, picking up letters, and asking her what they were...she did a really good job!

5. Continuing with the thought that Emma is a genius in the making....we played the game Memory on the computer the other day. Sixteen cards to match. She made one mistake. Wow. Second time through she wasn't as successful, but she also really wanted to do something else (she doesn't have the longest of attention spans!).

OK....I guess that's all for now. I'll end with some photos from the summer! Enjoy!