19 months

It's been a while since I've updated what Emelyn is doing these days - so that I don't forget, here's what she's doing at 19 months:

• Talking more and more each day and getting easier to understand (at least to us)
• Has two more teeth - up to 14 now
• Started the "summer" in size 4 shoes back in March, has since flown through size 5 and is now wearing size 6 nicely - I'm wondering if I should buy 7 sandals instead since it's only May?!?
• She likes to tickle - maybe even LOVES to tickle. She found out I'm ticklish on my knees and chases me around the house picking at my knees saying "guchi-guchi-goo!"
• Looks forward to "rough housing" with dad each night. Daddy tickles and she says "stop, daddy, stop!" but then goes right back to him with a big grin and just waits for the torture to begin again. So cute.
• Likes to be outside. If I go into the garage to grab something from the freezer, she usually runs past me and sits in her wagon or bike trailer and asks "outside? outside? outside?" over and over.
• When we ask her to smile for the camera, she holds her head to the side and smiles (as you'll see in the pictures below!)

Emelyn likes to eat grown up cereal and has mastered eating with a fork and spoon. Here she is eating her morning bowl of wheaties!

Arkansas is quite muggy this time of year, and we can usually tell what the humidity will be for the day by looking at her hair in the morning - this was on a rainy day... notice the curls?

Here hair is actually quite long without the curls

Loving every minute of the library - not sure if it's the little tables, puzzles, number of books or places to run!

Eating her first ear of corn - many more to come I'm sure since here she is finishing ear #2!

On a side note, Emelyn eats just about anything and everything. One funny - she thinks corn and peas are both treats. If she sees a bag of them in the freezer she'll beg and beg for them. I wonder how long she'll think they're candy and not veggies?!?

Spoke too soon!

I should've known not to brag about how good Jake was feeling yesterday.... Today he went in for his Remicade treatment, and shortly after starting it, he started to black out. Then after an hour wait, they slowly restarted the treatment at which point he developed a back pain and they ended up giving him morphine to ease it and kept going. Not long after that I stopped by to say hi and noticed a rash on his palms and watched it slowly move up his arms... they stopped the treatment and called his Doctor. Looks like no more medicine for Jake (except LOTS of Benadryl) and I may be driving tonight for our date - and may be struggling to keep my date awake. :)
On a side note, I found out my blood is O+.

Thank you blood donors!

To anyone out there that takes the time to donate blood, THANK YOU!

Finding blood for Jake has become more and more difficult with each transfusion... every time he gets new blood with antigens it is that much harder for the lab to find a match the next time. From our (very simplistic) understanding, once you've been exposed to an antigen, your body will reject blood with that antigen from then on. After all of the transfusions over the last 18 months, the list of antigens that Jake can't have is quite extensive now. Two weeks ago when Jake received his last blood, the nearest, closest match was in Springfield MO, and that blood was A- (not A+ that he needs) so the lab had to "tweak" it before giving it to him and we're wondering now if that isn't why he's felt so sick the last few weeks. Yesterday, a local donor had perfect O+ blood to donate - it had no antigens - just good ole, pure, perfect blood. The nurses said that this donor likely gets called monthly to be asked to donate. It made me wish I could call the donor myself and say thank you. Jake slept all night last night for the first time in months and felt better yesterday and today than he has in a long time. I can't begin to tell you how thankful and grateful we are - so thankful that despite my intense fear of needles, I'm going to find out what type of blood I am tomorrow along with what antigens, if any, that I have, to see if there's a need for my type. We'll find out a week from today if yesterday's transfusion is working/staying in Jake.

In other random news... Emelyn and I went to the farmer's market this morning. There were so many fresh strawberries - Emelyn was in heaven - especially when the farmers offered her a taste. :) I think she's eaten a good chunk out of the crate I bought already. We also found some perfect looking beets that we're excited to use.

Also - to the wheat farmers reading this (ie, dads) I was on a mission to buy wheat grass today as well - imagine my shock when I found it at the price of $1 for 10 stems. Don't get me wrong - $1 is nothing - but compared to what a farmer is paid for fully ripe wheat after using expensive machinery to remove the straw and hull months after the wheat is planted - makes me think some of you should fore go harvesting ripe wheat and sell the green grass! Or maybe I should grow some in my back yard. :)

That's about it... it's been raining for days here, but I hear my neighbor mowing so maybe the sun has dried the ground enough to mow the forest that has grown in everyone's yard. :)

Melting my heart

Today was one of those days for the books.. the kind of day you want to always remember. Emelyn was super sweet and loving. I can't remember how many times she came right up to me and yelled "MOMMA!" and when I'd say "yes?" she'd get a huge smile and say "I love you." And then I'd say, " Well I love you too" and she's reply with, "Momma, I love YOU!" So, so sweet. Then tonight at Jake's softball game, she continuously pointed at Jake and said "That is my daddy!" to anyone and everyone. Even when random people would walk by and say hello, she'd point at Jake and say "THAT is my DADDY!"

Before I get to pics from tonight, here are a few I don't want to forget:

We've been teaching Emelyn to blow her nose. Well this is what happens when we leave the box on the table and turn our backs. She "blows" her nose over... and over... and over...

..and over... and over... until each kleenex has touched her nose and then been waded up in the "trash" pile.

And Emelyn has also been taking shoes out of our closet (and surprisingly is really good at matching them!) Here she is trying on some heels first thing this morning

And quite proud of herself to have them on AND walking (and giving me a heart attack afraid she'd fall and brake something!)

And now tonight... it was so beautiful out that while Jake was warming up for the games, Emelyn and I took a little stroll. This is why Arkansas is called the natural state... these pictures are at lake Fayetteville - literally a little lake right in the middle of town with a 5-6 mile trail all the way around it.

The ball fields on one side of the trail, the lake on the other

A waterfall along the trail..

A very sweet passerby asked if we'd like our picture, so here we are!

Some ducks along the trail that Emelyn insisted on talking to... yelling "WACK!" very loudly at them over and over... I think they understood her because they just quacked right back without budging!

On a side note, Jake is going to the hospital tomorrow for another blood transfusion. The last one was two weeks ago - he had two units then (the max in one day) and he will be getting another two units tomorrow. He likely was not suppose to be playing tonight... in fact the lab tech who had run his blood this morning was there and "advised" him about how serious his levels really were. Unless a miracle happens in the next week and a half (which we'd still love to have happen!) it appears things aren't looking so good... he's built up quite a few antibodies and it's getting more and more difficult to find blood for the transfusions. All that said, we'd appreciate your continued prayers....

Farm Pictures

Emelyn and Daddy on Grandma C's little mowing tractor. Emelyn enjoyed getting to push and pull buttons and knobs... especially when daddy took her for a ride.

Playing inside Grandpa's semi truck.

Going for a very slow 4-wheeler ride with Grandpa.

Riding Grandpa's big tractor - there was even a seat and seatbelt for Emelyn!

Checking out Grandpa's combine

And then playing in it as well...

Since being home, anytime Emelyn sees a semi she exclaims "truck!" and the same with a tractor (or anything that resembles a tractor!)

Kansas Whirlwind

We just got back from 2 days of driving, and 4 days with family. I'm pretty sure we couldn't have fit any more into our time home, but as always, it was a special time! I only have pictures from our first two days, so once I have some from the last two days, I'll post them. In the meantime, here's a glimpse at what we did during our time in Kansas:

Saturday morning: Mother's Day Tea at the Manor where my grandma lives. I don't know why, but I really liked this picture. My dad was trying to explain to Emelyn that there are 4 generations now - all while the two Emelyns (neither of whom knew what was going on or who the other was) just watched each other instead of turning for the camera.

Then back to grandpa & grandma B's house for lunch - playing in grandma's flowers with cousin Joe while waiting...
then to see a BUNCH of cows - including some newly born baby calves....

Then to grandpa's farm with Joe, mom, Aunt Valerie and grandpa where Emelyn immediately made the connection between the animals in her books and the live ones that were so close she could touch - so cute to see!

Momma pig with her babies...

Sitting on grandpa's tractor in the barn

Loving grandpa's swather

Driving thru the pasture to look for new baby calves... here are two new young calves with their mommas...Then we stopped to see some Elk...

It's safe to say that Joe and Emelyn loved hanging out with Grandpa getting to see all of the animals!

Sunday: Graduation... my youngest brothers, twins, Jonathan & Isaac graduated high school. Jonathan will be going on to KSU to study agronomy and Isaac to FHSU to study math education. Being the competitive brothers they are, they were co-valedictorians each with a 4.0 GPA.. so proud of my "little" brothers!

All 8 siblings before Andrew left for Manhattan to take a final...

Family picture...

Emelyn was begging to be outside most of the day, so after the reception, she found grandma's garden - specifically the yummy strawberry patch!

And a funny picture to end on - my niece, Janessa, who is 2.5 months younger than Emelyn - HILARIOUS little girl. It was so neat to see her personlality while home - she's such a ham - and quite ornery too as if you couldn't tell from this adorable pic of her eating an ice cream cone!

Hopefully soon I'll have some pics of our last two days (**hint, hint.**) On Monday we were able to relax a little and enjoy some downtime with Unlce Lloyd and Cousin Emma. That night we celebrated Emma's 4th birthday. Then Tuesday we went with Grandma C for the 8th grade graduation rehearsal (she played the piano) and afterwards went to Grandpa C's machinery shed where Emelyn got to ride two tractors and a 4-wheeler, as well as climb in a combine and semi truck. After that we went to Rotary for lunch, and then went to Jake's cousin, Kylie's, 8th grade graduation.

Ballgames...

The ball girl hanging out with the guys in the dugout

Giving daddy a little pep talk
So cool wearing mom's shades

Family pic after game 1 (they won!)

All worn out from all that cheering - she slept good afterwards!

On a side note (and really, almost embarrassing) the guys won for the first time in two years. The way our team was cheering you'd have thought someone scored a huge homerun - nope, just a win! :)

Play Dress

Wow - three posts in three days - might be a record! Every now and then I get an itch to sew and today I sat down for a few minutes to do just that. Here's a little play dress for Emelyn:

A very silly Emelyn trying it on for a picture... I couldn't get one normal picture...

Foot on the wall...

Oh well - she told me it was pretty and didn't want to take it off, so as long as she likes it, I suppose that's all that matters! I thought about adding some ribbon to dress it up, but that would defeat the purpose of it being a play dress...

On to my next project... an apron for my niece's upcoming birthday!

Planting Flowers