Holiday Fun Part 2

A few book club mamas and babes headed on the train to the 8th Floor Display at Macy's. Although it's been the same for 3 years in a row, it's the first time I've made it. It was fun to share with Em and she even got to see Santa afterwards!

Holiday Fun Part 1

We've been having fun decorating, baking a bit, wrapping packages, getting things in the mail (**ON TIME!**), and enjoying the joy of the season with Emma!

Children's Museum

We will be getting a membership soon - it's been so much fun the couple of times we've gone! We just need to find a time for daddy to come too, we know he'd looove watching Em explore!!

Still Thankful

I'm a bit behind. You're probably not surprised. Here are a few pics from our great Thanksgiving visit up nort' to see the Duluth Murrays. There was football, food, sledding, cousins. . . Man was it fun!

Minnesota fun with snow

You may have heard we were hit by a blizzard yesterday. We've heard reports of up to 20'' of snow or so, Steve may claim more as he's been out shovelind and snowblowing several times for far too long and in the now bitter cold.

SO the fun with snow in the last day has not been in the "typical" form - it's been too deep and too cold for snowmen, snow angels, snow balls, and the like. No, this fun with snow has been in the form of status updates and clever play on words.

I present to you:

Snowmania, snowmagedon, snow my goodness, snow much fun, snOw My Gosh

If you are cooped up inside with a world of snow outside, you make do with what you've got! Don't we all feel clever?

Diddle diddle dumpling

My daughter Em walks around the house with one shoe on. Or one mitten. Or one sock. She likes to find things - from her room, the laundry basket, by the door - and make her "request grunt" (I'll try to capture it on video, it's pretty funny and covers all nature of communication). At the moment she's got two shoes on, that she brought me independently and actually are for the correct feet. They are, however, two different shoes of two different sizes. She's content so who am I to judge.

Toddlers are funny.

*I'll try to get more pics up soon, just reading about Em may be a bit boring.*

On raising a toddler

I decided yesterday after Emma truly pitched a fit that raising a toddler is much like the world is to a toddler - mostly fun, sometimes overwhelming and scary. Good thing the mostly fun comes back quickly after a period of overwhelming. And a nap.

The family that shares together -

Is sick together. :oP So Em's Thursday morning bug turned into Steve's Friday bug and my late Saturday bug. (Or late Friday, early Saturday.) Em and I tucked Steve in when he came home from work and had girls night cuddled on the couch. I was feeling great until about 12:30 am. Ugh. So Emma's had two sick, lazy parents today. The poor girl.

It's especially a bummer because it's the first big snow and it was exciting to think about getting her out in it to make a snowman and play in the white stuff. Luckily, it's MN, so there will be more.

Until then, we'll master the art of hybernating.

Scare

Tuesday when Em and I came home, she walked from the garage to the house, crawled up the stairs, and was ready to crawl in to the house when a very excited, non-listening Hank barreled through and knocked her down the stairs. In spite of my attempt to catch her with my leg, it happened too quickly, my hands were too full, and she toppled. It was terrifying. Other than a bump by her eye (and an anxious mother), she seemed to be her normal self. Praise God.

Wednesday after daddy came home, an excited dog who was walking through the kitchen minding his own business sent Emma falling straight back to thud her head on the kitchen floor. Big cry, anxious mom, sad dad, generally ok baby.

Thursday morning Em woke up a little before 6. Wow. In throw-up. Ugh. Daddy brought her downstairs, was stripping the bed while Em was cuddling with me and nursing. In switching sides, she puked all.over.me. Ugh. Another bed to strip, anxiety about whether the vomit was related to the head traumas of the last two days.

We were thinking we'd wait until our normal clinic opened to call and talk with our nurse. Until she took a small sip of water and immediately puked all over the floor in her room. Ugh. Threw on clothes, changed her clothes, and headed out to urgent care. Which is not open at 7:15 am. Consulted the RN grammy, called the clinic, got the on-call md, and was took to take her to the ER at Children's.

PANIC. Emma has had a cough and runny noses to this point, so to be told to take her to the ER was not quite what I had expected, but we headed straight there. (*Note - 8 am on a Thursday is a pretty great time to go to the ER. We were the only ones there.*)

Daddy came to meet us as both of us were afraid a CT scan was in our future. Thankfully, the great doctor there checked you out, reassured us that you did not have a concussion, and you might have the start of the flu. Time would tell. Daddy decided to take the afternoon off to cuddle you and keep any possible germies away from Aunt Kathy & Uncle Toads and you and I headed home to rest and recover.

Friday morning - puke free for 25 hours and getting back to normal. You're a fall or two away from being "that kid" being forced to wear a helmet all the time.

Trick or Treat!!

The Trick - getting Emma to sit still for fabulous Halloween pictures.

The Treat - 8 Hours of UNINTERRUPTED sleep!

We love the Park!

My kind of Town

I did it. I ran off to Chicago for a weekend with my girlfriends! It was much harder to leave than to be gone as I'd been told. I have to admit that while I definitely missed Emma (and Steve), having a few days to only worry about me was pretty nice. :o)

Pumpkin Carving

We have a family tradition with the Buzza's that we've participated in the past two years. We gather a day or two before Halloween, carve some pumpkins, eat some food, and have some treats for the kiddos. Last year Em was 6 weeks old and wore her cute skeleton onesie, being very content to cuddle in family member's arms. This year she wore her giraffe costume and was less than content to stay still! Things are far too exciting to explore, who would want to stay in one place??

Walka-walka-walka

Mostly. In the span of under a month, Emma went from primarily crawling to primarily walking. She's so cute as she toddles around the house, the zoo, the park, well, the world! Her walking's getting faster and she's increasingly stable. For a baby who always looked pretty big, she looks awfully small to me as she wanders around her world.

Fall Break - for mom

Daddy's on fall break. Well, sort of. He still is having to work a bit, thus goes the life of a strength coach in the school year, but his morning's are later and his day's are far shorter.

I decided that over his fall break, we'd try night weaning. Sorry babes. I've been allowing you to nurse on demand/request for 13 1/2 months. That's a pretty long time in the nursing world. And I'm tired. So, like the great man he is, daddy got on board and has been the one to get up to help settle you back to sleep the 2-3 times you wake up at night. It's amazing the difference a little more sleep can make.

You seem to be adjusting well, which makes me think it has been more habit than need. There's hope of full nights of sleep for all 3 of us in the future!!!

My what big ears you have

Yes, the Murrays are going to be the characters from Little Red Riding Hood for Halloween. Last year we dressed up together - Emma was our little football, I was the football player, and Steve was the sexy cheerleader. It was pretty fun, so we decided to pick a family costume again this year. Steve came up with the brilliant idea and now I'm busy channeling my inner Martha to make this a reality. The big, bad wolf is almost done, now to get the little red hood/cape together. We actually have to occassions to show off our ensembles as well - at the annual Buzza pumpkin carving event the night before (although that may just be Emma) and the next day at a friend's Halloween party for the kiddos.

Happy Haunting!

Say cheese!

To celebrate the 1 year anniversary of our family, we had some great pictures taken by the wife of a guy I knew in college. Gotta love facebook. ;o) Here's a preview of a few and a link to the facebook album if you want to see the rest!









Life has been busy, but of course life has been busy. Emma's officially transitioned from a cruiser to a walker and it's pretty cute to see her toddling around, often with some prize in her hands. She is more and more of a joy each day, which is consistently surprising! They start out so wonderful, it's hard to believe they can get better!!

Our family shrunk a little bit, or maybe just was redistributed as Grandpa took Emmitt on a roadtrip to live in NM. It was sad (for me) to see him go, but the right choice for our family and I think the Wilsons are enjoying having a social cat around. It's nice to know we'll be able to visit him and catch up on Skype one of these days.

It's feeling like fall again today after a very nice, warm October so far. Hopefully we're not in for it this winter!