Emmy Update

Well as all of you who are parents know, the first year of a child's life is full of accomplishments. The transformation that takes place is amazing, yet also bittersweet. I think we (parents) get so caught up in trying to savor the moments, that we forget to actually do it! I am most definitely guilty. Even as I write, I am sad to think that my newest babe is already almost 6 months old. I can still vividly remember bringing Avery home from the hospital. I blinked and now she is 3 years old and in preschool. Emmy is growing up faster than I could have imagined, but it is a wonderful thing to see your children grow. That being said, Emmy has had many accomplishments since we last left off. She is now eating cereal, sitting up all by herself and interacting more with her big sis. In fact, her new favorite feat, if you will, is to pucker her lips together and blow raspberries. She cracks us up! Enjoy the pictures and videos!

I can't believe I caught this one at the perfect time. Not sure who's she rooting for here....it was taken pre-Super Bowl so maybe the Steelers??

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More craziness...

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Can't forget Big Sis!

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Here, Emmy is experimenting what it's like to blow raspberries and eat cereal at the same time. If you look closely, you can actually see the cereal flying out of her mouth.

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OK, I'm not sure what's funnier in this video....Avery's giggling or Emmy's raspberry blowing.

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Look what I can do!

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Catching up...

Obviously I have a lot of "Hlivko moments" to catch up with on the blog, but it will be a very slow process. We hope everyone is having a splendid new year! I typically don't make any resolutions, however I continually work on eating better, keeping in better contact with friends and family and getting organized. Those seem to be the staples year after year! Our New Year's Eve was a quiet one spent throwing Hershey Kisses in the air (an Avery request) and drinking sparkling juice. Well Avery drank the sparkling juice, Matt and I had the real thing. We celebrated with Anderson Cooper and Kathy Griffin since CNN aired the live feed for the East Coast celebration. Avery wasn't any worse for the wear but I'm assuming one of these years she will figure us out! Darn the luck.

On with the pictures and video:

The first couple of pictures of of Avery and I before leaving for the Allan Hancock College performance of The Nutcracker. We really had a great time and now, as you can imagine, Avery is an aspiring ballerina.


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This is a picture of our cookie making fun. Avery loves to help in the kitchen...especially when cookies are involved. She iced and decorated many of our cookies...it's a good thing most of them were for us! She really enjoyed licking the knife each time she iced a cookie. Trying to explain to a 3 year old that that isn't sanitary doesn't go over so well. Oh well, I can always hope!

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And last but not least, here is the video of Emmy rolling over on Christmas Day. She hasn't done it since so it's a good thing I got it on tape!


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Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. We certainly did and as usual, Santa was very good to us. Both girls were spoiled with many new and exciting toys. Matt and I are just counting our blessings that we were able to be together as a family for Christmas. We had some friends over for dinner and of course Avery couldn't wait to show Grant all the toys Santa left and ones her Grandparents sent. Emmersen also gave us a present of her own...she rolled for the first time on Christmas day! We really had a great day and are now looking forward to a new year. And as usual in the past few years, we are baffled that yet another Christmas has come and gone and a new year is about to begin.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Hello!

Wow, it's been longer than ever since I've blogged! I can't believe I've gone this long. Well, I'm sure you'll all be completely shocked when I say that one of my new year's resolutions will be to dutifully update the blog at least once a week. I am going to work diligently to accomplish this goal. With Emmy getting bigger and needing a little less of my attention, I hope to actually follow through with this resolution.

As you can imagine with a newborn around the house, much has happened since I last left you all. Particularly with Emmersen's health. After several visits to the ER and doctor's office, we've now discovered she is allergic to both milk and soy. She is on a very specialized formula (in fact, the most specialized there is) and seems to be doing well. However, her acid reflux is constantly a battle. With her allergies, we are now seeing a pediatric gastroenterologist so he has been closely monitoring her allergies and reflux. One of these days the poor kid might actually feel good! Thankfully, aside from the aforementioned issues, she is a relatively happy baby. Very smiley, except of course for the camera! Preparations are now underway for Christmas. It's such an exciting time as a parent. Avery is starting to understand the concept even more but definitely showed reservations when meeting the man in red. Her only request was to receive 5 presents. I told her Santa may be able to take care of that, but of course she'd need to be a good girl. So easy to please. It makes me dread the days when 5 presents of any kind will do. I have many pictures to post, of course as usual, but I will first start with Emmy's monthly pictures. I realized I missed posting her three month shot...mostly due to the fact that we were busy trying to figure out a diagnosis for her problems. Without further ado, here they are!

Three months...right about when she started getting sick and losing weight. :(


Four months...a much happier baby!

Proud Mama

These photos were taken while my dad was in town a few weeks ago. I know I am biased, but I think these pictures turned out wonderfully. The dresses are a gift from Sam who had them made for the girls. They are such thoughtful and special gifts, not to mention beautiful!

Update on Emmersen since her last well baby check up: she's actually been to the doctor now twice in the last week. The first appointment was because of her acid reflux problem. It seemed to be getting worse so we packed up and made the trip in to the doctor. She had gained about a pound in a little over 3 weeks, seemed to be doing well aside from the spitting up. We adjusted a few things here and there and then Friday hit. She wasn't eating right and her diapers were becoming quite explosive. I took her to the doctor again today and she had actually lost about 5 oz. Of course, I started freaking out a bit but after I explained what was going on to our pediatrician he mentioned an intolerance to the protein in milk. I guess she is displaying the classic symptoms of this intolerance so we are going to try to switch her to a soy based formula. Hopefully that does the trick. If not, we will need to put her on a hypoallergenic formula which unfortunately is quite a bit more expensive. The doc said the symptoms don't show up until 2-3 months which would explain why we are just now learning about this. Thankfully she should out grow this problem by 6 months so we're keeping our fingers crossed. We are hoping the soy formula will also help with the reflux and help to make her a happier baby. Poor thing! Who knows how long she's really been feeling crummy and we just didn't know it. OK, that's the short version of what's been going on with little Emmy! Now on to the pictures.

My beautiful girls.




My dad and the girls. I have a ton of pictures to post (imagine that!) of all of our visitors but I had to get this one up because it was such a great picture.

Just a few more shots...

Avery and her buddy Grant. By the time I got our camera working, they were off to bigger and better things...like CANDY!


And that's a pumpkin down her shirt...don't ask! Ha Ha



of our Halloween outing!

Happy Halloween???

So I am a few days late in getting these pictures posted. It seems that's the story of my life lately....a few days late on everything! Our slew of visitors is over and now our life consists of getting back to a regular routine. We miss everyone and are so thankful for all of our family members who came to visit and help while we adjusted to having another little one around the house. Matt was also gone last week and I tell you, I can't believe I survived! Ha Ha I know, women (and sometimes men) do it all the time, but I was feeling a little disheveled while he was away. Anyway on the the reason for the post. Here are a few snapshots of the girls on Halloween. Avery is a fairy princess. I know, a shocker to those of you who know her. And Emmersen is, well, a baby! If you can read her shirt in any of the pictures it actually says: "This IS my costume!" I loved it!! We hope you all had a happy, safe Halloween and if your adventures were good, your teeth are probably rotting away as you read! :) Enjoy!!

My girls

These pictures were taken awhile ago now, but better late then never right??

Tiny foot

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Tiny Hand

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Tiny Baby

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My other baby...maybe she'll teach her baby "sitter" (as she calls her), how to suck her thumb. Isn't she beautiful?

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Doesn't she already have that "c'mon Mom!" look on her face? Scary! Ha Ha

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Tagged! I am it!

I got tagged from Sam! Now you see how often I've been reading and posting on blogs lately. Still getting used to having two children! I know I can't use that excuse forever though!

10 years ago I was...

1. Starting my first year of college at Miami University. Wow that's scary to think about!

2. Trying to find all my classes and get to them on time.

3. Discovering all the advantages and disadvantages of being away from home.

4. Making new friends.

5. Pulling all nighters for exams! Thank goodness I don't have to do that again!

5 things on today's to do list..

1. Do a new post to the blog (done!---ditto Tammi!

2. Take a nap. (dealing with a newborn who doesn't like to go right back to sleep after she eats at night)

3. Call the base pharmacy---done!

4. Start thank you cards from Avery's birthday.

5. Spend time with my Dad while he's here visiting.

5 snacks that I enjoy...

1. Ice cream---stole this from you again, Tammi!

2. Chocolate

3. Fruit

4. Peanut Butter sandwich

5. Chips

5 things I would do it I was a millionaire...

1. Pay off debt

2. Invest

3. Travel

4. Move closer to home and buy a house or property to retire in

5. Take care of my family and volunteer more

5 places that I have lived...

1. Hartville, OH

2. Oxford, OH

3. Canton, OH

4. Vandenberg, AFB, CA

5. Cheyenne, WY

5 jobs that I have had...

1. McDonald's worker...yes I'm one of those!

2. Grocery store cashier

3. Waitress

4. Student Supervisor at our University market

5. Admin assistant at the Wyoming Society of CPAs

Now I've done my part! I actually followed through and completed this! Even while holding my second born in a sling and dealing with a screaming toddler who doesn't want to nap! OK, well I will try to post some actual pictures at some point today. Right now, I've got to get Avery.

OH, the five people I'm tagging: Mae, Kim F., Jenna, Beth, and Debbie. Have a great one everybody!

Happy 2 Month Birthday Emmy!

I know I've been a blog slacker yet again. Give me some time! We've had many visitors and are looking forward to my Dad coming to town Wednesday.

Emmy had her two month well baby last Thursday and is a happy, healthy little girl. She's now 12lbs. 1 oz. and is 21.9 inches long. She's growing so fast and believe me when I say the second child grows up even faster than the first! She has now started cooing at us and the smiles have started as well. It melts my heart every time. She's been such a good baby! She definitely has her moments, but over all she is a pretty mellow little girl. She is going to have to be tough to put up with her big sister's antics!

I'll post more details of Emmy's life later, but for now I'm signing off to spend some time with Matt's sister before she leaves!


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