Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Au Revoir Les Enfants

Congrats to d-d-d-d-d daddy (Emma likes to sing this to Dora's theme song)! He was offered a fantastic job in South Carolina, so this little family will be packing the bags (more accurately the 11,000 boxes we've accrued) and heading south! Although we're super stoked, this comes as a little bittersweet as we have to move in a couple weeks (before Easter). Shocking I know (shocked us too), but we're ready for the adventure. We'll be back soon enough to have Bela baptised, so don't fret folks! :) Can't stay away from the D forever!

Niki- love the postings on your journal, though gotta say it reads like a soap opera. Please stay safe out there in the Appalacian wilderness!

Eeent Jeemie- congrats on your acceptance into U of M grad school! Whatever, they put me on a wait list :) Jealous? Maybe ;) Always knew you were the smart one. And you're also a cool aunt according to Emma. She calls Maggie on Curious George (the Man in the Yellow Hat's girlfriend) "Eent Jeemie", so you're "in"!

Aunt Gretchen and Uncle Benger- WOOOOOOHOOOOOO!!!! Thanks for giving our girls their first future cousin. You guys rock! And congrats on making it to the second trimester- what a huge accomplishment! Enjoy these next few months together.

I can't promise that I'll keep the blog updated for the next couple of weeks as we are going out of our minds as it is. But you can bet we'll keep it updated once we settle in. Wish us luck on our latest adventure!

Saturday, March 17, 2007

Yewo Boo-noon

A quick trip to Little Caesar's the other day proved a fruitful one for our little Emma. The nice cashier offered her a balloon and cookies- woo hoo!! When asked which color balloon she wanted, Emma emphatically said "Yewo, yewo boonoon!" So we were off, and Emma was shaking she was so excited....that is until the wind popped the balloon right off the string. She looked at me, with panic in her eyes, saying "Hup hup (help)! Mommy boonoon!" Poor Emma.... she wouldn't let go of the string, nor would she stop talking about the balloon (we even heard her telling her stuffed animals in bed last night all about it) for three days. So, daddy took her to the store today and picked out a pack of Cinderella balloons (and yes, there were yellow ones in there!). Needless to say, she was so excited that she went to bed late.

We had our first successful web meeting with Grandma and Grandpa Grupp last Wednesday. Although Emma didn't totally get it, she will soon I'm sure. Doesn't take that kid very long to get anything! Can't wait for our next meeting!

Last night, Yellow Grandma and Yellow Grandpa took the three of us girls (since Braden was gone)out for a nice dinner. Emma wasn't feeling well and hadn't eaten a thing all day (maybe because mom refused to give her cookies for lunch, which by the way resulted in a very upset Emma....never ask the open-ended question 'What do you want for lunch' with that girl...she'll tell ya!). So the kids Mac n Cheese was wolfed down in record time. She even ate the two pieces that fell onto her napkin. Man that girl can eat! And after about an hour at home, she even asked for cereal! WOW! But boy did that macaroni lift her spirits, along with the monkey pajammas from Aunt Gretchen and Uncle Benger. A girl's gotta put those on when she's feeling under the weather...and then jump in her crib to "No Monkeys Jumpin on the Bed"....that always helps.

Emma started her little gymnastics class with me again last week. She looooooves it! And I must brag a bit here, but she's the model student :) Good thing too, because the timeout corner is outside the room, and the teacher's not allowed to leave :) At home now she's flipping all over the place, and because she's indestructable (or so she thinks), it's usually straight into furniture or her sister.

Bela's doing great, for Bela :) Her reflux is still keeping her from sleeping too long (and her big sister's helping that too!), and she still fusses quite a bit. But as long as mommy is in sniffing distance, she's cute and lovable. Yes, she still won't take a bottle, so that's interesting (especially for Grandma when she baby-sits when I go to work). We now own EVERY kind of bottle on the market, so if you'd like to test them before you buy them, please contact me. Seriously. We finally invested in a mini co-sleeper, a bassinet type thing that attaches right to the bed. What a life-saver. Now our little bed partner has her own little bed, still within sniffing distance of mommy :) But at least we don't wake up twenty times a night, fearing we've crushed the little one.

Emma has discovered Bela's startle reflex (when the baby gets startled, they raise their hands- we call it her Italian hands). And boy does she think it's funny to startle her! I guess at least she's learning about cause and effect.....

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Yewo Gwa-Pa






For some reason, Emma has started calling her Grandpa Cobb "Yewo Gwappa". With all of these grandpas around, she has settled on a label that would set him apart that seemed to suiit her....but "yewo"? It took us a little while to figure it out, but once we did, we had to laugh!!! See, yellow is the color of all of her favorite things...."yewo caroni" (mac n cheese) "yewo tweet" (reese's pieces), so naturally grandpa fit this category. And he also fessed up to having given her a yellow M & M. I thought the name was strange, so I tried to give her alternatives, but even "t.v. grandpa" didn't take. But after awhile, the name grew on me. I think it's cute that grandpa is so highly regarded as to be called yellow! He's been given many titles in his life- pharmacist, teacher, father....but I'm willing to bet he's most honored by the one that his favorite little 19 month-old has given him- "yewo".

Emma asked to hold her little sister today. She spent the whole day studying up on how to do it (the text: BIG SISTER, a gift from her grandma). In fact, the book was the choice for naptime rock as well as a permanent fixture in her little hands all day. So, after dinner she got the idea and said "Sister, hold you?" Why not?! And she did great! The whole time she was very gentle and tickled and pet her. She even gave her kisses and said "No, drum" (that's right, we don't drum on Bela). It was funny though because Bela started pooping while on Emma's lap. Emma got the funniest look on her face and said "Pooping, sister pooping". Gotta laugh at that!

Emma is still holding onto the "boonoon" (balloon) that she got from Buffalo Wild Wings on Saturday at Niki's farewell. The thing is so small and flat, but it's such a prize to her. Her new favorite game is "boonoon, gichoo" (that's right, she wants the balloon to chase her). I give it two more days before the boonoon bites it, so we'll see what happens then.....poor Emma.

Bela is doing so much better since her recent trip to the doctor's office. Apparently she was growing so fast that her medicine dosage was incorrect, so that would explain the 11 hour crying fit we had Sunday night. Yikes! Poor baby. But hopefully it's all water under the bridge now that we got that taken care of and also since we've figured out that she is lactose intolerant. Good thing she pooped twice in front of the doctor! He could tell right away that the milk intolerance was half her problem. So no more cheese pizza and milkshakes for mom!