Baby Fish Mouth

If you ask Mike and me to pick one movie as our favorite (together), it would be "When Harry Met Sally". Not sure why, but we both love this movie and love to watch it together whenever it is on.

There is a scene in this movie where the Sally character (Meg Ryan) is drawing pictures for a "pictionary" game. It is supposed to be a "phrase" and she is drawing what is "supposed" to be "Baby Talk". Well, in the series of guesses, someone says "Baby Fish Mouth" - and everyone looks at him. What is Baby Fish Mouth, they ask? Well, now I can show you.

This is Baby Fish Mouth!!

Is she asleep?

Of course not!!!!

At this point, I give up - if she goes to sleep now, its a waste because I have to get her up in 30 minutes to get Michael from school. And, from the squeeking I'm hearing from her room, I doubt she's even close!!

Willful at One!!

We have driven Mike to work the past 3 mornings due to car trouble (I'll elaborate later in another post). Emma has always been quiet (and a little tired) on the drive back home because we typically hear her talking in her bed about 6am each morning. Well, this morning she actually fell asleep in the car on the way home. Of course, when I drive into the garage and open the car door, she wakes up. I took her immediately to her bed and laid her down to go to sleep (this was an entire hour ago). Of course, has she gone back to sleep - NO. I just went into her room and she was laying in the bed playing with stuffed animals. I looked at her, gave her her blanket, and told her to go to sleep.

She laughed at me and shook her head NO! (a new trick of hers)

Boy do I have my work cut out for me in the future!

Oh, what a beautiful morning!!

It's snowing here. They were saying "a little precipitation may blow through" but there is a good 1 1/2" on the grass. It isn't sticking on the road, and its coming down nice and slowly so its a very beautiful scene this morning.

Happy 1st Birthday Emma!

Emma celebrated her first birthday on Thursday. Thursday was a low-key day because we had been sick in the house most of the week, and its not like Emma knew it was her birthday, but we did. I completed the "Year with the Bear" photos to show her growth - I'll put up a photo of the 12 monthly shots a little bit later, but this is Emma with her Birthday Bear!

This weekend, Emma got to celebrate her birthday with BOTH sets of Grandparents. Granny and Granddaddy Gwaltney came up from Roanoke and Oma and Opa came down from Williamsport with an extra special gift - Great Gram. What a nice way to spend your birthday. Emma had birthday cake - and she started out eating it very carefully, with her finger, but then decided that fist fulls would be a bit better. She definitely enjoyed it though, which is all that mattered.


Granny and Granddaddy gave her a little baby doll - she reached into the little bag and pulled out that baby and talked to that baby for a LONG time - she really liked it. Then, Oma and Opa gave her an elephant shaped pillow, which she liked well enough, but then she saw that they gave her some BOOKS!! Yay Books!! She has been "reading" the two books they gave her over and over ever since!!

Mommy and Daddy gave Emma some Spring clothes that we can hardly wait for her to enjoy in warmer weather - although she paid more attention to the tags on the clothes than the clothes themselves.

Where has the time gone?

This has multiple meanings for me at this moment.

Why haven't I posted recently. I don't know - I'm trying to figure out where ALL of the time between Samantha's birthday and Emma's birthday WENT - all of a sudden, its February 18th. That period of time last year I a) went on bedrest and started 2 pregnancy appointments a week; b) went into the hospital for 4 days - got out of the hospital; and then c) went to the hospital EVERY DAY for testing until we all decided that d) Emma was ready to be born on February 16th.

Which is my second "Where has the time gone?" My baby is one year old. She turned one year old on February 16th. I'll post a picture and a post tomorrow, but I'm trying to figure out where this year went. Do you think it went faster because we know she is our last one? Do you cherish things more when you know its the last time you'll see a first smile? first laugh? first hug? First crawl? Emma's first year has flown by - I just don't know where the days, hours, and minutes have gone. My 6 lb, 12 ounce bundle of cuddle is now a 24 pound strong baby with equally strong lungs and a dozen different looks for you at any one time!

Go hug your kids!

One Little Monkey Jumping on the Bed

I have been calling Emma "little monkey" recently because when she stands up and holds onto the railing, she actually bounces up and down on the crib mattress. I guess she thinks that if she pulls hard enough on the railing she'll get out of the bed. But, last week, Emma was standing up in her bed with her hands on the railing - shaking it thinking she can get out of the bed. I went in to get her out, and when I put the rail down, she did a full-gainer front flip over the railing and landed smack on her back on the floor. She wasn't hurt - and was only scared for a second. She was more excited to be out of the bed. She LOVES to get out of the bed and always has the biggest smile on her face as I carry her downstairs.

So, for the past week or so, she has started "Cruising" the crib. Either she's looking for a part of the railing that may be "weak" and she can escape, or she's trying to get away from that "mean railing" that made her flip out of the bed.

Either way, the minute I put the railing down, she grabs my shirt and arm like there is NO TOMORROW - there is no way she's flipping out of the bed again.

But, until I put down the railing - its "One Little Monkey Jumping on the Bed" and hopefully NOT "One fell off and cracked her head!"

This is what happens when your husband carries a camera around!

I asked Mike for the camera because I knew he had taken some photos at Samantha's ice skating party. Well, I downloaded the camera this afternoon and not only are there birthday photos, there are photos from Christmas. While I have printed my Christmas photos, I haven't done the pages in my album yet, so I'm lucky. But, I thought I'd share two GREAT photos that I didn't know I had!!

Happy Birthday Samantha!

My little girl is 9 years old today. 9 years ago I had stayed home from work because I had the flu. I had been working lots of hours, but Samantha wasn't due for another 2 1/2 weeks, so I had a few little things to wrap up. But, the flu got the better of me so I stayed home for the 2nd full day to rest. We had had our office "Holiday Party in January" over the weekend and I felt like a big green pea in my green velvet maternity dress. By the end of the party, I was so uncomfortable, but when you are basically 9 months pregnant, you are uncomfortable all of the time.

So, its Wednesday January 22nd and I spend the day at home trying to get over the flu. I had gotten permission to take Sudafed for 24 hours to clear my sinuses. My 24 hours was long since past around 10pm that night, but my sinuses were still completely clogged. So, I spent some time hanging UPSIDE DOWN with my head hanging over the side of the bed, trying to clear my sinuses. All of a sudden, I felt Samantha kick (we didn't know it was Samantha yet, we didn't know if it was a boy or a girl) and then a pop. What was that, I thought? Well, it turns out it was my water breaking - I think more precisely, Samantha kicking and breaking my water. Well, that certainly jumpstarted my labor. I think I scared Mike half to death when I went down into the basement of the townhouse where he was doing laundry to tell him that I think my water broke. But, off to the hospital we were, after a quick stop at the office (of course)for the radio that we believed we would want in the delivery room - I of course expecting a long labor.

Once we get to the hospital, they check me into a room and want to check the progress of my labor. Lo and Behold the nurse said that the baby was breech. I actually argued with her because the baby hadn't been breech at my Drs appointment the previous week. They brought in a sonogram to show that indeed Samantha was feet down - no wonder I lost so much water when my water broke!! And, the reason I was so uncomfortable at the office Holiday Party is that Samantha chose that time to turn over and be breech - my mother says she was born a "princess"!! So, all of a sudden we were preparing for a C-section. Well, they were preparing - I was in awe because I WASN'T prepared for a C-section. But, they got me ready and wheeled me into the operating room and a short time later, at 1:48am on Thursday, January 23rd, Samantha Collier Stopper was born. She was the 8th baby born on January 23rd (yes, only 1 hour and 48 minutes into the day) and the 800th or so baby born since the beginning of the year.

But, she was all ours and still is.

But now she's 9 years old - we are still trying to find those 9 years.

She had her birthday party at the Ashburn Ice House yesterday with friends from school and the neighborhood. We had a great time!!

Happy Birthday Samantha.

Emma's photo below

I promised to post my monthly photo of Emma. Because I have been quite verbose recently, the post I updated has probably scrolled down the page. Look down - its there!

Learning

Its amazing to watch kids learn. I realized a little while ago that Emma had learned how to hear certain songs on her walker by spinning a wheel with colored shapes. I have definitely determined that Emma is learning.

We have a host of toys in her new playyard and most of them make noise (ugh!) We have a toy that we have had since Samantha was a baby. We call it the "radio". It has a big blue button that plays music. It has NO off button and NO volume button. Emma has learned that pushing the blue button will play a song. She has learned if she pressed it again that a different song will start. She has also learned that she can push the button and then go over to another noisy toy and she can have TWO toys making noise at the same time.


And, it is absolutely deliberate. She has LEARNED how to do this.

Babies are very smart.

Reflections Contest Winner

Samantha came running to the car today when I picked her up from school. She had received a letter notifying her that she won First Place in the Photography category for 3rd to 5th graders in her school (she's in 3rd grade). Her photograph is now being submitted to the District level for competition.

The theme this year was "I wonder why". We talked about it and she wanted to take a picture about "I wonder why water is wet?" We finally decided to take photos at the pond down the street from our house. Samantha took several photos and decided she wanted to submit this photo because she liked how the sun sparkled on the water.

The judges indicated they were impressed with the quality and composition of her work.

Note: The Reflections Contest is an artistic contest sponsored by the National PTA. It has categories for photography, creative writing, music composition, and art.

Strange Signs

An online friend posted about an unusual sign she recently saw. She encouraged us to do the same.

Life is an Adventure: Strange Signs

The strangest sign I can remember is one that I always saw growing up. I don't have a photo.

We would drive down the highway and I would always see this sign:

"Picture Your Office Here"

and it had a nice drawing of a pleasant office building.

Well, that sign sat for years in front of a swampy pond. I always thought it was funny, but never wondered why an office was never built there.

There is one there now. If my mother is reading, she will probably remember this near Oak Grove where the Chinese restaurant is now!

One month to go...and counting

Happy Birthday Emma!! Emma is 11 months old today. Where has the time gone? In one month we will celebrate her first birthday - a major milestone.

Emma weighs 23 pounds at 11 months - whew!!

Background Noise

I always need background noise on. People think we watch a lot of TV in our house - but in reality, we *listen* to a lot of TV in this house. I rarely do just ONE thing at a time. Listening to TV is one of the things I typically do - when I scrapbook, when I do emails, when I read blogs, when I'm doing LOTS of things.

I learned tonight - it really doesn't help to put on a movie with subtitles when you just want "background noise". I turned on "Dances With Wolves" to a section where the Sioux Indians were talking and then tried to proceed with my internet reading. Well, it was quite distracting because I didn't actually understand what they were saying because, of course, they were speaking Sioux and not English.

So, little tip - if you are turning on the TV for background noise, choose a movie in English.

New Years Resolution: Clean House

I much prefer to have a clean house - no, a better description is a DECLUTTERED HOUSE. I know that I would have NO problem having a clean house, if I could just find what I need to clean through the clutter.

Well, in the spirit of the New Year, I have started to clean / declutter this house. It helped that our Christmas decorations were being taken down - its much easier to declutter when you have to pick up things to put them away because they had been moved for Christmas.

I am quite happy of what I accomplished yesterday - I cleaned up/out the office. Since its right inside the door, I'd like to leave the doors open when people come over, but alas, it has typically been the "Stash and Dash" room. But, it is perfectly cleaned out and organized now and I am quite pleased - and the doors are open.

Now I'm tackling the basement. I have managed to "almost" clean up all of my scrapbooking supplies, which has been nice because not only is it CLEAN, I actually can scrapbook faster because I can FIND stuff. Its quite nice. And, the kids are keeping their area "tolerable". The definition of "tolerable" is, "I can walk through and find at least a few spots of carpet." Not too bad. I'll finish up the basement this week.

Then I'll need to tackle the "Oh just put it in Mommy's room and I'll deal with it later" Master Bedroom clutter - isn't that always how it is? Put it in your room so that the kids rooms can be clean because having a messy kids room is much more annoying than your own room, right?

Home and Gardens we aren't - but decluttered and clean we WILL BE!

Happy New Year!!

Happy Birthday Larry!!

Today is my brother's birthday. Happy Birthday Larry!! He lives in Charlotte, NC with his wife Heather and (almost) 5 year old son Gavin.

Things are settling back to normal!

I haven't posted much recently because we have just been trying to get back to normal. The kids went back to school on Tuesday and I think everyone is just happy that we are getting back to a routine. Because Emma is crawling around a lot now, I feel like I spend all of my time either:

• chasing after her
• telling her "no"
• blocking the family room opening so she can't crawl in the kitchen
• picking her up and putting her in the pack-n-play so that I can do ANYTHING
• vacuuming the floor to get all the little pieces of "whatever" up that Emma seems to find.

We are also trying to get ready for Samantha's birthday party. It always feels so rushed because I'm NEVER organized enough to try and plan it BEFORE Christmas and then I feel like I don't have enough time to think about it after New Years. Samantha wants to go ice skating with some friends, so we'll see how that goes with two parents who are NOT AT ALL talented on ice skates.

I'm also working tirelessly on my photo albums - with 3 kids, the photos pile up quickly. I am looking into ways to share my album pages with everyone so that you can see a complete chronicle of our lives!!

2005 was an eventful year

I thought I'd end the year with a recap of some of the excitement experienced by the Stopper Family in 2005 - this replaces the "Christmas newsletter" that I failed to complete and send to all of my family and friends.

January - We started off the year slowly. We were preparing for Samantha's 8th birthday party (which I convinced her to have at home, thinking, erroneously, that it would be LESS work for me). I had recently been diagnosed as Gestational Diabetic, so I had started extra appointments with an OB specialist for the last couple of months of my pregnancy. We had Samantha's Lizzie McGuire birthday party and it was fun. The next day, I was placed on bedrest because it was discovered that my amniotic fluid was extremely low. By the end of the month, after numerous trips to the specialist and one trip to the ER with contractions, I was admitted to the hospital to raise my fluid levels.

February - The OB let me go home from the hospital about 4 days after I was admitted. I was thrilled!! As I said to the OB, the hospital was just "bad food, bad TV and bad allergies" (they were doing construction on the maternity floor). I was discharged with the understanding that I would return to the hospital EVERY DAY for fetal monitoring and bio-physical profiles. That continued for a couple of weeks, and Emma finally decided that she had enough, and on Feb 16th, the Doctor decided it was time for Emma to be born. So, at 4:56pm on Wednesday, February 16th, Emma Grace Stopper was born via c-section!

March - My sister Emily brought her kids to visit at the beginning of March for their Spring Break. Since Emma's due date was March 7th, she thought her timing *would* be perfect - but alas, she visited a 2 week old baby!! Emily was amazed at how much Emma ate - she had a growth spurt OVER NIGHT while Emily was here. Emma has finally started putting on the weight and we began settling into a new routine with a newborn in the house.

April - Soccer season has started up again. Both Samantha and Michael are playing soccer - thankfully, Michael's soccer is just games on Saturday with no practices.

May - May is always a busy month for us. It always goes so quickly. Michael's 5th birthday was celebrated with friends this year at the local Fire Station. It was such a great party. I had called the Fire Department to ask if they could bring a fire truck by our backyard party (they will do that if they aren't on a call). Because it was their annual "Open House", all of their trucks were planned for, but they invited us to use their party room for our party, and enjoy their free hot dogs, moon bounce, fire truck rides, and everything else they had planned. What a perfect birthday party. Michael always seems to get "lots" of birthday parties, because we actually gave him gifts from us on his actual birthday, and then we went to Smith Mountain Lake and had another birthday cake (Lemon Cake, of course) with Granny and Granddaddy!! We also took a trip to Norfolk in May to attend Samantha's dance competition. She really enjoys dance and had a great time at the competition.

June - School's Out. We were all looking forward to school being out and summer vacation. Samantha's dance recital in June was, as always, quite nice (and getting more efficient every year). However, our summer plans were thrown a wrench when 3 days after school let out, I fell and broke my foot. I knew the minute that I fell that it was broken!! I spent the rest of June (and into July) in a cast and on crutches. Thankfully, I have some great neighbors and friends who helped out with the kids and dinners during the hardest time.

July - After Mike returned from his business trip the last week of June, we all headed to Smith Mountain Lake for July 4th. The entire trip was challenged because I was unable to drive or carry Emma while on crutches. My sister Emily and her kids drove us back to Northern Virginia from the lake a few days later, and Samantha, Michael, and Emma got a few more days to play with their cousins. I also got my fiberglass cast off and a walking cast, which helped me become more mobile and able to DRIVE!!

August - Summers always seem hotter in Northern Virginia, and 2005 was no exception. It was extremely hot this August, and we didn't make many trips to the pool due to my foot, but the kids had their annual swimming lessons. They are both quite strong swimmers and Michael is becoming more comfortable in the water where he can't reach.

September - Schools In!! Michael and Samantha were both pretty excited about the new school year - Michael starting Kindergarten and Samantha in 3rd grade. School started 10 minutes earlier this year, so we all stumble through the morning bleary-eyed to get the kids to school at 7:35am when the doors open. Those extra 15 minutes to get unpacked and settled really help get the school day moving well. Fall sports have also started and Samantha is back into soccer while Michael is giving T-ball a shot. If you have never witnessed the chaos that is 5 year old T-ball, consider yourself lucky. We would by NO means have Michael playing this young if he weren't so athletically talented.

October - Following Samantha and Nancy's trip to New York City over Columbus Day weekend, we embarked on some of our favorite fall traditions, including visiting Cox Farms pumpkin patch, the South Riding Halloween Parade, and Trick-or-Treating for Halloween.

November - November felt especially busy this year. Nancy got to meet many of her internet online friends in REAL LIFE while attending a Scrapbook retreat in Pennsylvania. We decided that we would spend Thanksgiving at home since we would be seeing Nancy's parents the following week. It was nice to have a quiet Thanksgiving at home.

December - What a wonderful way to start off December - with a trip to Walt Disney World!! After 8 days in Orlando, we realized how quickly Christmas was upon us. We spent a nice Christmas Eve and Christmas morning at home, and then headed to Roanoke to visit Nancy's parents and siblings, Emily and Larry, and their kids. We ended the year with a visit by Mike's Dad and step mom and Mike's Grandmother on New Years Eve. What a nice ending to the year.

Now we are ready for 2006!!

There's no place like home!

At least that is how Emma feels. Despite many naps taken in our own pack-n-play, as well as the pack-n-plays of friends in my babysitting co-op, Emma doesn't seem to want to sleep in a crib or pack-n-play while travelling. We had struggles at Disney World, but most nights we were able to get her to sleep and then put her in the pack-n-play, where she would sleep until 4 or so and then we'd put her in the bed with us where she would finish out the night.

But, at Granny's house, she would have NOTHING to do with the crib. I tried to put her to bed awake, which we normally do at home, but no luck. I then tried to put her to sleep after she had fallen asleep with me on the bed, but no luck. I even tried putting her to bed after she had been asleep for an hour on the bed with me, but no luck. I was even unable to put her down on a sleeping bag on the floor after she had fallen asleep. Something about being out of town, I guess.

So, Emma has 2 very tired parents from having to share a bed with a very wiggly 10 month old who likes to kick when she wakes up in the middle of the night!!!

She was so happy to see her own bed - she has slept in there for 2 naps and now tonight with NO PROBLEM!!