Friday, January 29, 2010

contest again

Some people couldn't get the contest picture to come up with what parenting.com gave me. So here is the link. You should just be able to click on it.

http://modelsearch.parenting.com/contests/showentry/156904.?showH2HDetails=true

Contest



You don't actually have to vote. The votes are only used to determine the People's Choice award, which has no bearing on the contest. But I thought you might like to see her picture on Parenting.com and enter your kids if you have little ones.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Pictures

My happy-go-lucky child has looked like this for the last three days:
The poor thing has been so sick. Both Steve and I got the same thing, but we were over it in two days. But Emi has had a runny nose and a fever and now a cough that just won't quit. She is so miserable. And I worry because she won't eat anything, and she was so pale the other day, and her cough is getting worse. So, tomorrow if she's not better, I'm going to take her to the doctor. It's true Emilia fashion, though, to look so darn cute even when she's totally miserable.

Up next, Emi and her Daddy reading a book. She LOVES reading. Before she got sick, we would read for at least an hour every day. Lately, Steve is feeling a little left-out, though, because Emi is going through her "I only want mommy" stage. It's been worse since she's been sick. I keep telling him that it's just a phase and Emi doesn't love me any more than she loves him, but I don't think he believes me. Maybe some of you can set him straight. ;)

One of her favorites right now is one that I checked out from Logan's Family Resource Center. It's Skippyjon Jones. If you haven't read it, you should. Especially you, Emily T. I am interested to see what you think. Other great kids books I've found: Llama Llama books, I Love You Stinky Face (which I think older boys would get just as much of a kick out of as younger boys, Heather), and Bear Snores On. All of these Emilia loves, and they are fun for me to read, too. Well maybe not the 163rd time, but anything before that. :)

This is Emilia's new face. Every time she hears something out of the ordinary or loud, she does this. She's so funny.

I have no idea why she wanted to drink out of both sippy cups at the same time, but who really understands 18 month-olds anyway.

Emi turned 18 months on the 17th. She's getting so big! She had her 18 month doctor appointment a few days later and she is still in the 95+ percentile for height. She is SO-O-O tall. She is already wearing 3T clothes!

She's also growing up. A few weeks ago at Grandma and Grandpa Watts', she walked down their front two steps without holding on to anything and without falling! She hasn't tried it at home yet, thank goodness. She has also figured out how to open inside doors, which wouldn't be a problem except for this:

That's right, we moved her over to a big-girl bed. She thinks it's pretty cool that she gets her own bed. (Indicated by the smug look she got on her face when I put it up and told her it was her bed. There was also bouncing and giggling involved.) She's done really well. She's only fallen out twice--and given how much she moves around at night, that's amazing. And she is much more willing to go down for naps and bedtime. Hooray!

Since she hit a milestone, I wanted to do a photo shoot in some of her cute new clothes, but she is very uncooperative in that department lately. She doesn't want to stay in one spot for more than 2 1/2 seconds. So, when I was at the Watts' a few weeks ago, she was running around naked because she loves it so much and it was actually WARM in their house (that never happens here) and I didn't need to get her dressed immediately. So, I threw a blanket down on the floor and cajoled her into playing on the blanket and these are what I got. She has SO MUCH personality!








In other news, Steve has applied for a contract-based curriculum writing and editing position at BYU Independent Study (thanks to his mother!) which we are hoping will work out so he doesn't have to get a crappy part-time job at a call center working the shifts no one else wants. We've been trying to figure out what to do since he got laid off right before Christmas and this is the first promising thing we've encountered. If you all want to pray for good things to happen in that department, it would be appreciated. I have also applied to be a substitute teacher. We're just not sure how consistent that work will be. It would be good if I can do it, even though the pay isn't amazing, because it will help me to keep my certification current, and it gives me job experience. So here's hoping!

Also, to all those of you who aren't Wattses, check out my sister-in-law's new site: http://handmadehats.blogspot.com. They're really cute.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

just my thoughts

I gave a Sunday School lesson today on the Fall of Adam. I spent probably 6 or 7 hours preparing it--reading through all the scriptures, figuring out what my class members might need to understand better, coming up with an object lesson, etc.--and I'm pretty sure it was one of the two worst lessons I've ever given. I hate it when I feel like a failure when I work so hard at doing a good job. Maybe that was my lesson that I needed to learn today. Sometimes no matter how hard we work, we're going to fail. And that's why we need the Savior.

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Hair and there

So Missy Lou, as we are wont to call her, is fast becoming a two-year-old. An addicted to TV, computer, and crackers two-year-old. She can put on some really great tantrums already, especially when it's naptime or bedtime. She's still a happy kid most of the time, but if this whole tantrum thing gets worse when she actually turns two, I'm not sure my insurance is going to cover the mental health issues I'm going to have. :)

My only picture to share today is of my daughter's curly hair. When I give her a bath and just let her hair dry, it dries pretty flat against her head. But the other day she was playing in the water in the sink and NEEDED me to stand right next to her (read: threw a tantrum when I walked away), so I started playing with her hair and my hands were wet. This was the result: