The Nose Knows

Today my super human sense of smell kicked in. I can now smell things from a mile away, so there's no sneaking anything by me. At least the smell of everything isn't making my sick... yet.

Surprise...

I'm pregnant! I don't know if you are surprised with that, but I know Andrew and I were. Based on my calculations, I'm at 4 weeks now and we're going to be having a baby in July. Can you believe that? I'm sure by the time this is posted, I will have more information. It still hasn't hit me. It's like my body (and I guess on some level) my mind comprehends that I am pregnant, but I have to keep reminding myself. I'm looking forward to experiencing pregnancy again (well most parts of it anyway). I'm curious what's going to be the same and what's going to be different. Is it going to be a boy or a girl? Will I feel sick this time? Will I show more? Only time will tell. The only thing I know for sure is that despite our shock, we are both excited about adding a new member to our family. More details to come.

Poopoo Patrol

Yes...we are going to talk about poopoo (and I'm assuming that everyone knows what I'm talking about)...so for all for you out there who have issues with poopoo, it's best you disregard this blog. Now on with the show...

Emily has become somewhat infatuated with all things involving poopoo. With the recent addition of our new puppy Zoe, and Emily's repeated visualization of her own poopoo in her diapers, poopoo has become a big part of Emily's life.

Since we potty-trained Zoe inside the house (she uses a "potty-pad" and does her #1/#2 on the pad in the house)...Emily has been on poopoo patrol. Any time Zoe poopoos on the pad (or occasionally not on the pad), Emily is there to notify us by constantly repeating "poopoo...poopoo...poopoo". And whenever we pick up the poopoo and place it in the toilet, Emily is there to say "byebye poopoo", as it begins it's journey into the beyond.

Emily has also begun to notice her own poopoo and bowel movements. She not only feels necessary to notify us whenever she has had any kind of bowel movement or gaseous release, but also has taken to removing her diaper whenever she feels like it so that she can get a better look at what's going on down there. We have learned pretty quickly that we need to have some kind of pants on her whenever we're at home, or she'll quickly grab the velcro straps of her diaper and away she goes! On one occasion, I was showering and the kids (Emily and Zoe) were playing in the bathroom together. While I was in the shower, Emily notified me of "poopoo" and I quickly realized I hadn't put any pants on her...but the damage was done. I glanced outside, the diaper was on the floor, but the poopoo was nowhere to be found. All I can say is that there is good and bad in having a dog that will eat just about anything.

Emily's Stats

Emily went to the doctor's office last week for her 18 month check up. I can't believe how quickly she's growing up. For the last three trips to the doctor's office, she has gotten to stand on the big girl scale all by herself. Then she has to lay down on the paper covered exam table, which she protests quite vocally, so they can measure her length. And then the nurse tortures her with measuring her head circumference. This is all before the doctor comes in and wants to look in her mouth and ears and give her a shot. Emily is a pretty good sport about it all, but it definitely isn't her favorite thing to do in the afternoon. Here's where Emily landed on the charts at her last appointment.

Length - 30 3/4" (22nd percentile)

Weight - 19 lbs 8 oz (neg. 3rd percentile)

Head - 48 cm (85th percentile)

So basically, she's a tiny thing with a big head. I don't know how you can be in the negative third percentile (I thought it was typically 0-100)... but Emily has managed it. She's still gaining weight, so the doctor isn't concerned with her weight, but I still don't understand how it's possible. It's like they thought they had found the smallest 18 month old in the world, but then they found Emily, and instead of reworking all their charts, they just moved her to the bottom of the list.

Emily's Words

It is amazing to me how quickly Emily is picking up new words and signs. In addition to talking to her almost every day since she was born (at least one word a day... I know, impressive), we have been trying to get her to use sign language to communicate. Now that she is able to repeat after us, and use a lot of her own words, she had finally started to sign as well. She normally says the word she is signing, so it isn't as helpful as we would have hoped, but still very cool. I decided to compile a list of the words she is using now, so we can see how far she has come when she's 5 and we can't get her to be quiet. In no particular order, here's the list: bye bye, night night, milk, bird, bear, puppy, Zoe, good girl, thank you, mama, daddy, Barbara, who is it?, more, bunny, hello, cookie, banana, water, wee, Josh, no no, poo poo (in reference to Zoe going potty), cheese, baby, belly, nose, toes, booby, shoes, bubba, cracker, five (as in "high five"), two, three, here you go...

I'm sure I'm missing a few, I may have to update this list as I remember, but it's a start.

Introducing...

After much collaboration, and deliberation, we are proud to announce the name of our new puppy, Fluffy Princess Zoe... we're calling her Zoe for short. You may ask where we came up with such a big name for such a little puppy. Well, I liked the name Zoe, Caleb came up with Princess, and Josh came up with Fluffy, so we decided to put them all together and there we have it.

Emily's New Best Friend

As many of you know, I have never been a great lover of animals... so I have been resisting the day that we would welcome a new pet into our home. Andrew has always insisted that we need a pet... that Emily needs a pet (I'm pretty sure he thinks she'll end up like me if we don't get her started early enough. In the past week or so, Emily has started to talk about the puppy next door. Every time she hears her bark, she starts looking to the back door and saying "puppy, puppy" waiting for her to come in the back door. Andrew and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary yesterday, so I finally decided to give in and give them both what they want, we got a new puppy.

My requirements for a new puppy were that it had to be small (really small) and it couldn't shed. After doing quite a bit of research, I finally decided on a Maltese. We found one and picked it up yesterday. Don't tell Andrew, but I think I'm going to become attached to this little puppy... she's pretty darn cute.

We're still trying on names... we'll announce the winning name soon.

Emily and her new puppy.

Emily is very excited about the new puppy. She has spent the whole day wanting to play with her. Every time she sees her she gets really excited and points at her and says "puppy, puppy". They're going to be great friends.

The Results are In!

So, for anyone who didn't know, I took a grueling 8 hour exam at the end of April in order to get my professional engineering license.  You are eligible to take the exam after you earn your degree and have 4 years of experience working with licensed engineers in your field.  I was very unsure about how well I would do (there's only about a 30% pass rate), and I even considered backing out of taking it at the last minute because I was afraid of how I would do.  Andrew has taken the test, and he passed it the first time, so I felt like the pressure was on for me to do well.  After hours and hours of studying, I took the test, and I just got the results today.  It appears that I passed .  Now all I have to do is pass the open book ethics portion of the exam... 

Respectfully,

Barbara Stuart, PE

The Bearded Lady

So Andrew has been working non-stop on a project for work trying to get it done before the deadline.  We actually both pulled an all-nighter on Sunday night trying to get everything finished... and I thought my days of all nighters  were over with college.  On Tuesday morning, all that was left to do was stamp all of the reports with Andrew's engineering stamp and sign the letters, and he was done.  As he was reaching for the self inking stamp, he realized it wasn't there... but where was it?  I'll give you one guess.

Bird Watching

Emily has taken up a new hobby lately.  She has become an avid bird watcher.  Her love of birds started while we were in Aruba, but has since grown.  She is currently partial to local Oklahoma birds, but I have a feeling she would be equally interested in birds from anywhere.  She will stand at the front door and look outside for birds, and when she spots one,  she will point to it and say "badie" (birdie) or "brd" (bird).  If we are outside, she will start chasing after the birds.  She hasn't had it as easy as when she was in Aruba, because there, the birds wouldn't fly away when she chased after them, but I think she enjoys the challenge.  I think we need to get her some baby binoculars so she can increase her bird spotting skills.

Bye Bye

This morning, as I was heading out for work, Emily came to the back door and started waving to me and saying bye bye.  It's always hard for me to leave her and come up to work, but I really didn't want to leave her today.  She was too cute.  

More Teeth

While we were in Aruba, we noticed that Emily has been busy cutting teeth while I haven't been looking. Up until now, Emily has had the four teeth that came in at the beginning of the year, but while we were in Aruba, I noticed she had four more teeth come in! Luckily she doesn't get too fussy while she's getting her teeth. Now if she would just choose to use them more for eating solid food...

Aruba

After spending most of the last few months studying for my PE exam, it was definitely time to take a break. Luckily, Jana had planned her wedding for the weekend after my exam. Even luckier for me... she was getting married in Aruba, so I was looking forward to a week of relaxing on the beach. On our trip down there, we encountered a few snags in our flights and ended up having to stay the night in Miami, but once we arrived it was smooth sailing.

Emily in her car seat in the taxi cab. She doesn't look to sure of the driver.

Emily and I at the resort taking a walk around to check out all of the amenities.

Emily at the beach for the first time. We bought her some sea animals that she played with the whole time we were down there.

Kerith and I at the piano bar our first night in town.

Emily and some of the birds at the resort. This is where she started her love affair with birds. There were birds all over the resort, and she would walk around in circles trying to catch them.

Emily and I at the wedding. Jana and Skip got married on the beach. The ceremony and reception were beautiful. We were glad to be a part of their special day.

Jana ordered a flower girl dress for Emily that matched the other flower girls. She looked so adorable in it.

Emily napping on the beach in her string bikini.

I bought this string bikini for Emily because I thought it was hilarious. Everyone agreed... she could only wear it at the beach since the effect just wasn't the same with one of her swim diapers.

Emily hanging out by the pool.

Cody, Kerith, Andrew, and I hanging out on the balcony of Jana and Skip's room the last night of our trip. We had such a great time in Aruba... we need to start vacationing with friends more often.

Big Girl in the Kitchen

For Emily's birthday, Andrew and I bought her a Learning Tower so she would be able to stay in the kitchen with me while I cooked dinner... and eventually be able to help me. For anyone who doesn't know what a Learning Tower is, it's basically a step stool with rails around it that puts the kid high enough to help without having to worry so much about them falling out. Since she's not always steady yet, we still have to keep a very close eye on her, but I'm sure we'll get a lot of use out of it as she grows.

Here she is with her spoon and tongs ready to get dinner started. If we keep this up, she may be making most of the family meals by the time she gets to kindergarden.

PARTY!!!

Emily's first birthday party was today! In lieu of the traditional first birthday cake, we let Emily enjoy her first birthday strawberries with whipped cream. I know, we take all of the fun out, but since Emily won't really eat anything already, we didn't want her to decide that she would only like to eat sugar. Don't worry, there was cake for anyone else who wanted some (I wasn't about to sacrifice cake for myself)... and there was whipped cream on the strawberries to take care of the mess factor that everyone looks for in a first birthday cake experience. We had such a great time celebrating with all of our friends. Here are a few pictures we took to remember the day by.

Emily started off the party showing off her newly perfected walking skills.

Emily and her "cake".

She didn't blow out the candles, however, she did attempt to put it out with her hand... thankfully I was there to catch her in time.

She then proceeded to dump all the strawberries on the tray. Good thing I wasn't planning on serving that to anyone else.

Emily thought it was rude to just sit there and eat while everyone was watching, so she offered to share her strawberries with everyone else.

Emily enjoying her special treat.

More of Emily and the strawberries. She made such a mess, we had to quickly wash her off in the tub before we could start with the presents.

Mom's... I mean Emily's... birthday cake.

Andrew helping Emily open her presents.

It didn't take long for everyone to join in the fun of opening presents.

Emily trying on the birthday hat that Kristen made for her. We couldn't get her to keep it on, and she was getting to be pretty grumpy, so we decided to save it for another day.

I decided someone should get some use out of it, so I tried it on for size. I loved it! I was so excited that Kristen made one for her.

Here is Emily after everyone left. We're still going to have to work on getting a good picture of her with her birthday hat because today it just wasn't happening.

Emily's 1st Birthday!

This Saturday is Emily's first birthday.  I can't believe it's been a whole year since she was born.  We have sent out the invitations for her birthday, and we're just waiting for the party.  I know time is just going to fly from here on out.  In case you can't read it on the invite, I've included the super whitty poem Andrew and I wrote for the invites.  I'm sure it's been a while since you've seen rhyming like this...

Can you believe it's been a whole year,

Emily's first birthday is almost here.

Join us for us for food and fun as we recall

a year full of memories large and small.

Like those first few weeks of needles and tubes,

her first smiles, first steps, and her love of boobs.

Her first trip on a plane to visit her cousin,

first music concert... the first of dozens.

A big road trip where she expolored a huge cavern.

And celebrating St. Patty's Day at the local tavern.

We ask that you don't bring any presents,

all we request is the gift of your presence

As we celebrate the joyous event of her birth.

So come one, come all, to Emily's First!

Emly is Walking!?!?!?

Tonight at Music class, Emily was watching another little boy run around the room, and I could see those wheels turning in her head.  She wanted to run around too.  Later on in the class, she was standing in front of me and she took off toward the instrument tub.  I was shocked and excited to see her finally walking around.  I decided it was time to call it... Emily's walking!  But then, Tuesday comes and goes, then Wednesday and no steps.  Does it still count?  I don't know.  What do you think?

Box Hat

While we were stuck inside during the recent winter weather, we had to find ways to entertain ourselves. Below, see a picture of Emily wearing a box as a hat. I thought it was too funny, and apparently Emily did too.

She always makes me smile.

Snow Day

So, I'm not sure, but I think this may have been Emily's first time to see snow. We were quite surprised to see this much white this late in the year, but we welcomed it with warm blankets and hot cocoa (well, for the grown-ups anyway). Most of her snow viewing was through the window... I'm sure she'll make her way outside to play in it next year.

Emily's not quite sure what's going on outside.

BUMBERBABY!!!

Emily is FAMOUS!!

So my sister-in-law Danielle was kind enough to send us this link http://seattlest.com/2009/03/06/ewwsomehow_we_havent_ever_before.php from one of the concert photographers at Bumbershoot last year. Here's the picture that goes with the link...



The link discusses BPA-free baby products...which is not the kind of publicity we were really looking for for Emily...but either way, she's now had her 15 minutes of fame!

Money Pit...

Why does it always seem that once one thing goes wrong, there is a long list of problems that are on the horizon.  I feel like our house is falling apart at the moment.  First, our disposal broke... then our heater... now our dishwasher isn't draining properly.  Blah... I guess it's time to open our pocket books before our problems get any bigger.  I love our house, but at this moment, I wish we were renting.  

Emily, Andrew, and I cuddled up on the couch trying to keep warm.

Afternoon at the Park

This afternoon was our first trip to the park this year.  The weather was nice, and we wanted a chance to get out of the house and meet up with some of our friends.  We got into the car and headed to meet Kristen, Marvin, Olive, Calder, Kari, and Lilly at Chandler Park.  They had a great playground for the little ones.  Emily spent most of her time crawling around on the rubber flooring looking for pieces to put in her mouth, but she also had a chance to take a trip down the slide and a ride on the swings.  We had a lot of fun, and are looking forward to more trips to the park soon.

Emily checking things out around the park.

Emily and Lilly sharing the swing.  

Dinner Guests

This week, we had our neighbors Kristen, Stephen, and Amara over for dinner.  Kristen and Stephen have a baby who was born two days after Emily.  One day right before Emily was born, we were walking to pick up dinner, when I saw Kristen and realized she was pregnant too.  It had been a long time since we had seen them, and we had no idea they were expecting too.  Now we try to get together every few weeks (though that doesn't always happen).  It's always fun to see the babies together... and it always amazes me to see how different two babies who are so close in age can be.  

Emily and Amara negotiating who gets which color of block.

Notice how they are each satisfied with their choices and the fact that they managed to trick the other one into wanting the inferior ring.

Andrew's Birthday

For anyone who doesn't know... Andrew's birthday and mine  have a little something in common.  They both fall the day after a holiday (mine's the day after Christmas, Andrew's is the day after Valentine's Day).  This year, Andrew actually took the initiative to get me a birthday cake... a plus, but he didn't do a very good job at directing them on decorating my cake.  I know, it shouldn't really matter, but after having your birthday the day after a major holiday for so many years must pay it's toll.  I got a very beautiful, Christmasy cake complete with red and green icing, snow, and poinsettias.  After being told that it didn't matter what it looked like because the words "Happy Birthday" were on the cake, I decided we would test that theory for Andrew's birthday. 

I called the local bakery and asked for a cake to be picked up on v-day.  The woman asked me if I wanted a heart-shaped cake, and I decided I couldn't pass it up.  I told her the story and asked her to write "Happy Birthday Andrew" and to decorate it "over the top Valentine's Day."  I think she wrote the entire story on the order form.  I couldn't wait to see it.  I think it could have been a little more over the top, but it was still pretty good.  What do you think?

In the end, Andrew didn't seem to mind the combined v-day/birthday cake, but I think he was just putting on a good show.  Either way, the cake tasted great... I would offer you a piece, but I just don't know what happened to the rest of it... surely we couldn't have eaten the rest of it already?  I must admit that I'm a little scared to see what happens for my birthday next year.  

Week of Changes

This past week has been full of changes... Emily is growing up so fast.  In the past week, she gave a high five, waved, started pointing at what she wants, and took her first step.  Yes that's right... she took her first (and only) step.  She was standing in front of me when she lifted her right foot ever so slightly and took a tiny step... then she quickly followed by dropping to her knees and crawling to the table (we say it counts).  Here are some photos from the past week.

Josh, Caleb, and Emily hanging out on the couch.  They both love being her big brothers.  They spend all of their time while they're at our house taking turns playing with her... it's so cute.

Last week she started pushing around her walker without us hovering over her to keep her from eating the handle bar.  She's taking over the house.  When we gave it to her for Christmas... it was mostly a hazard for her.  She couldn't balance herself well enough to walk around with it, but now she is a pro.  We've moved the furniture around so she can have more room to move.  

Andrew reading Emily's singing and talking book to her.  I swear that book is possessed.  It is always turning itself on and talking... very scary.

Emily putting her toys inside the cup.  This is another trick she learned this week.  I could watch her play for hours.

I think Emily loves her bathroom toys the most of any of the toys she has.  I wonder what they put in plastic to lure kids in?

My New Plan...

So I know it has been a long time since my last post.  It was Halloween when we left off, and next week is Valentine's Day, so I guess that means 3 months have passed with not so much as a picture from us.  I apologize, but remember, Andrew said this might happen (if you don't believe me, check the first post).  So what do we do now?  For the moment, I have started to at least post photos of the past couple of months.  My plan is to flesh them out with some witty stories and antidotes... hopefully that will happen soon.  I am planning on keeping up with current day happenings while updating the old posts.  If you are curious about what was going on during what we will call the "lost months", keep looking back.  

Schauer Christmas

We celebrated Christmas with my family a little late this year.  We weren't able to find a weekend that worked for everyone until the middle of January... I guess that's to be expected now that everyone is getting older and more spread out.  We now have 3 babies in the family, and it was so much fun to see them all together.  Emily was the only one who was really mobile, and it was quite a chore keeping track of her with so many people around.  I can only imagine what it is going to be like next year.  We got in Friday night and got to spend all of Saturday and Sunday morning hanging out around the house.  

As I was going through my pictures from the weekend, I made the realization that I really need to be better at documenting our life.  I'll add that to the list...

Layla brought her baby and was nice enough to share her with Emily.  Emily was in love with her little blond curls... she just couldn't stop playing with it.  Apparently going with the brunette doll for her was a mistake... 

Emily playing with Layla... or is she just trying to distract her with her fingers long enough to steal her baby doll.  

Aunt Baby playing with Emily. Beverly is always so excited to see Emily... and I think Emily is excited to see her too.

Beverly always pulls out some of the old toys from when Casandra and Amber were little for the babies to play with.  It brings back so many memories.  

We had a great time hanging out with everyone.  We'll have to do it again soon.

More Food

So, even though we started working on solid foods several months ago, Emily really isn't all that interested in eating them. We've started to work on small chunks of food as opposed to the pureed kind we started with, and I think she's liking them more.

Emily munching on an apple slice.

Emily trying out diced up apple pieces.

Emily feeding herself. Apparently things taste better when you can make a mess of yourself while you're eating them.

Although she's trying more things now, I still don't think she's too sure about them yet.