Hoy fue el dia ultimo de las clases espanol para Emmylou. Comprende?

Probably not, since I'm drawing on my pathetic broken Spanish skills from my undergraduate days at UT and I don't know how to type using accent marks (can anyone enlighten me there?).

Anyway, in English, today was Emmylou's last day of Spanish class and Tripp's mom sent me a couple of photos. Here she is with Ava, Owen, Tripp, Ellie and Dylan and her teacher Jorge. I'm not sure how much Spanish she learned over the last couple of months (I asked her how to say "thank you" and she said "adios"), but I know she had a really good time. Today Jorge made some ice cream as a special treat for the kids.

Emmylou has been practicing her gymnastics routine for the 2024 Olympics:

BABY UPDATE

This afternoon I had another ultrasound where they measured the baby and he came out at a whopping 9 pounds, 6 ounces! Now I'm really wishing my OB had given me the go-ahead to have him today!

Although I keep having flashbacks to a TV show I once saw on TLC called "Archie, The 84 Pound Baby" (among my other favorites: "I am My Own Twin" and "The Man Whose Arms Exploded"), the good news is that once this baby comes out, that's already 10 of the 50 pounds I'll need to lose!

Fierce! Look at what Alex just told me about:



Christian from Project Runway is launching a maternity line!

And I love his reasoning for it:

A Moody Mamas rep told us he signed on because he thought it would be great for a gay man to team up with two women who've never had a baby to do maternity clothes.

Too bad it's too late for me now, but I'm sure pregnant women of the future will be thrilled to be covered in feathers and layer upon layer of ruffled silk chiffon!

Another week to wait...

I just got back from my OB appointment and my blood pressure was fine so she sent me back home for another week. Too bad because this time I was all ready to go straight to the hospital-- my bag was packed and everything was in place! But I guess it's better for the baby to cook for as long as possible so for his sake I'll try not to complain...

A few people have asked for a photo of me and my belly these days, so I hastily took a couple after my appointment on Friday when I thought the end was near. I hadn't realized that I hardly had any photos of me during this pregnancy! It wasn't intentional but as you can see, it should've been-- I'm cringing at how huge I am!

We almost had a baby today!

This morning I had my OB check-up and when I got there my blood pressure was really high. So my doctor sent me to Labor and Delivery and told me that it was very likely that she'd deliver me this afternoon or evening if it didn't go down! After Gary and I picked our jaws up off the floor (he and Emmylou had come with me this morning so he could finally meet my doctor), I spent a couple of hours in the hospital and it went back down to the normal range. I was sent home and put on bedrest until I see my OB again on Tuesday. She said the only reason she didn't go ahead and deliver me is that the baby would still be considered premature by three days. Had he already been 37 weeks (which he will be on Monday), we would've gotten to meet him today!

So it'll be a quiet weekend for me (yay, lots of Olympics watching!) but if anything exciting happens, I'll try to keep everyone posted here.

By the way, Emmylou was SO excited that her brother was going to come out today that I almost felt bad when everything turned out fine and we had to leave! I guess she'll have at least a few more days to get ready for him now...

Oh yeah, Emmylou kept asking us to take her picture:

Gloves are so fun:



Laying in bed with Mommy:




"Mommy, you're in a cage!"

Dear Emmylou,

Today you turn 29 months old and I certainly wasn't going to miss writing to you since this is your last letter from me before your brother gets here! While I'm so excited for him to come and I can't wait to watch your reaction when you meet him for the very first time, I can't say that I'm not also a little sad that our relationship is bound to change in some way. Will you be angry at me or jealous of him? Happy and helpful? Probably a little (or a lot) of each. All I can tell you is that I couldn't love you more than I do right now and I'll never love you any less, so we'll just have to see how it goes and take it one day at a time. A new adventure for all of us!

I think in the last letter I wrote to you I talked about how my major role in life was to act as your translator. Well, that's much less necessary these days. Yes, you have a few speech issues (you still don't say any 'k"'s or "g"'s) but the sentences you put together are so well-worded and complex that most people can understand you in context. I am constantly amazed at the difference in your language over the past few months! You are into telling stories and making up songs and your imagination is starting to run wild. This morning you were pretending that a dinosaur was coming to get you so we snuggled and hid under the blanket until it went away.

Your favorite book this past month has been "Goodnight Lulu." You've almost memorized the entire thing! Lulu is a chicken and you think it's hilarious that you guys have the same name. You point to her and say "That's me!" As far as TV shows go, you're still onto Max and Ruby and The Wonder Pets. Awesome, because I can never get enough of those.

This past month you've been really into taking bubble baths, which always seem to lead to a rousing game of "Naked Baby." After your bath (and also usually before), you love to run around the house naked, you and Daddy singing "Naked Baby!" over and over. You both think it's hilarious while I'm a little worried that we might have a future nudist on our hands.

You still love to play hide and seek and your friends are really important to you right now. You always talk about Tripp, Ellie and Sofia and you tell me that you miss them when you haven't seen them in a day or two. We just finished our music classes with Ellie and Tripp yesterday and next week is your last Spanish class with all three of them. Then it'll be time to start at your new school and fortunately, they're all going to be in your class, too!

I am so happy that this month you've finally gotten over your aversion to having your picture taken. I swear, for awhile now you've acted like I am committing child abuse whenever I try to snap a photo of you. Well, it's quite the opposite now. Somehow you've gotten over it and you ask to have your picture taken all the time. You'll even say something like, "I look so cute! Take my picture, please!" Last night Em was over here and saw this change in you for herself. She asked you if you wanted to be on TV or in movies and a huge smile came across your face and you said "Yes, please!" Yikes... No child stars in this family, please.

Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that I've tried really hard this summer to do lots of things with you since it was the last of our time together by ourselves. Yes, you're a little wild and crazy sometimes and it's been hard keeping up, but I've enjoyed every minute and will never forget what fun and love you brought me these past two years.

Please don't hate me when this baby comes.

I love you, Lulu!

Mommy

The *superstar*



In the bubbles and bath...







Naked baby likes to climb into bed and pretend she's asleep (complete with snoring sound effects)...

[honk]



[shhhhh]

Last week Emmylou's friend Tripp came over to play. His mom and I like to call them "Frick" and "Frack"- they are basically the same kid in male and female form. Of course it was too hot to let them play outside (okay, too hot for me to supervise them outside) so we brought the slide in and let them play on that. More fun, though, was jumping on the couch.

Random motherly duty for Wednesday, August 6, 2008:

Today I used a pair of tweezers to pick a doughnut sprinkle out of Emmylou's right nostril. Sorry, no photo available.

So it's been awhile since my last post, mainly because we spent an entire week out at Grammie's lakehouse without my computer, but also because with this heat combined with my rapidly growing, enormous belly, I find it hard to accomplish much more than life's basic necessities. Seriously, for those of you not in Texas, we have had over 45 days of 100+ degree weather in Austin this summer and Monday's forecast calls for a high of 107 degrees! Is there no relief for us pregnant ladies out here?! Sometimes lifting a camera to capture a blog-worthy shot is just too much for me to handle...

But here are a few photos from the lake, where Emmylou enjoyed watching sunsets and movies, relaxing on the porch, riding on the boat and fishing for the very first time (her favorite part: the worms!):

I think Emmylou's ready for the Olympics to start and I think I know which event she's looking most forward to:







Even though she got her ribbon-stick-thing a while ago, she just unearthed it recently and has spent a lot of time cavorting around the house with it. I crack up every time I see her because all I can think about is Will Ferrell's rhythmic gymnastics routine in Old School.

On Tuesday morning Emmylou and I babysat for my friend Meghan's 4 month old son, Cole. I figured it would be good practice for us since we'll have a baby boy of our own in a little more than six weeks. Emmylou was great for most of the time, except that whenever he was fussy and I picked him up she'd point at him and say "No! My mommy!" Also, by the end of the two hours that we had him, she had picked up this playmat and relocated it to her bedroom so he couldn't use it. So jealous!

Playing together nicely...


And a little too big for the playmat (but it is still "mine!")...

There's a new season of Project Runway starting this Wednesday!

Anyone interested in joining our league?

Here's the link to our group:

We Heart Tim and Heidi

The cast hasn't been posted yet on Fafarazzi, so keep checking back so you can be sure to pick your team before the premiere on Wednesday.

I'll also be updating the site for our league which you can also find using the link on the left of this page.

Aside from our little car accident Sunday night (which we've since learned will cost USAA [gasp!] a whopping $7000 in repairs) we had a couple other small misfortunes that evening...

First, let me introduce you all to Daisy #2:



She was acquired today while Emmylou was in Spanish class. So far she suspects nothing although this fish is at least 50% bigger than the last Daisy.


Second, when we left New Braunfels the night of the accident, we happened to leave the love of Emmylou's life, her Ugly Doll Babo (pronounced BAH-boh), at PawPaw and Nana's house. This shouldn't be a big deal since we have a back-up Babo at home, except that Emmylou can tell the difference between them by glancing at one or the other for approximately .02 seconds. In fact, she calls her back-up Babo "Babo #2."

We broke the news to her in a matter-of-fact way on the drive home: "Emmylou, we left Babo #1 at PawPaw and Nana's house so you'll have to sleep with Babo #2 tonight." She seemed a little distressed but there were no tears, mostly because she was too busy watching The Wonder Pets.

Once we got home I got her into bed somewhat easily with Babo #2 after explaining that we'd get Babo #1 back the next day and then I took off for the hospital. When I got home and asked Gary how she went down, he said that after a few minutes in her bed, she started screaming "Babo One!!!" over and over. Eventually she went to sleep.

Since some of you babysit for us and might encounter having to deal with Babo #1 and Babo #2, I thought I might try to help by illustrating some of the significant differences between them:

Exhibit A: Babo #1

Note Babo #1's large teeth and the worn tag he possesses on his left side. His mouth, which came off ages ago, was originally sewn on, thus leaving a few widely-spaced black stitches in its place. Also, displays significantly matted "fur" and is usually significantly flatter than Babo #2.

Exhibit B: Babo #2

Note Babo #2's slightly larger eyes and smaller, more closely-set teeth. He was purchased at least six months after the first, clearly after the Ugly Doll people switched to using more efficient methods for mass production, including gluing on the mouth (which I ripped off a long time ago the first time we misplaced Babo #1 and tried to get him to pass for him). He also has a slightly pointier body and fuzzier "fur."

And what could be better than one or the other? Why, both, of course!



A big thanks to PawPaw and Nana for meeting us Monday evening in San Marcos for a Babo #1 hand-off. Emmylou was thrilled to see him again and when we got home, her other Ugly Dolls were all eagerly awaiting the reunion as well...

Our Fourth of July weekend was so much fun (except for Sunday evening but I'll get to that in a second)!

We went to Grammie's for a weekend of swimming, fireworks and Wimbledon-watching.

On the Fourth, we had a nice sized group over for a yummy all-American feast:





Gary had bought some "age-appropriate" fireworks for Emmylou and Amelia and could NOT wait to get to them (notice how there are no photos of fireworks being ignited in the dark). Here they are with some poppers that shoot streamers and lighting sparklers...







Emmylou wasn't too sure about the sparklers being so close...



And someone else was a little scared of them and hiding...



The firework grand finale included a few disappointing turtle fireworks that were supposed to shoot fire out of their butts to make them crawl across the street and this oh-so-glorious spectacle of a fountain...



To end the day, Emmylou and Grammie put on their Statue of Liberty hats and watched The Wonder Pets: Save the Pigeon, set on the nose of the Statue of Liberty.



On Sunday morning, Emmylou woke up and the first thing she said in the sleepiest, sweetest voice was, "It was a fun day. Turtle shoot fireworks out his butt."

We watched the marathon Federer-Nadal Wimbledon final the rest of the day so Emmylou started with a bowl of strawberries and cream (natch).





So... the only bummer of the weekend was that on our way out of town Sunday evening we stopped to visit with PawPaw and Nana and while going back to their house after dinner out, we rear-ended them! It wasn't a bad wreck, but bad enough to lose the front half of our bumper and headlight and we had to pull some metal back away from the wheel so we could drive our car home. Their car wasn't damaged as badly. We finally made it home around 9:30 and I decided to call my doctor since you're supposed to report even minor fender benders to them. I thought at the very most they'd make me go to the ER for a quick ultrasound to make sure nothing ruptured or dislodged from the jolt of the accident, but the doctor on call made me go to the hospital's labor and delivery unit for 4 hours of fetal monitoring and blood tests! Everything was completely fine as they expected and I'm glad that I got checked out, but I didn't get home until 3:30 in the morning!

Anyway, all is fine now, our car's in the shop and we have a rental for the month it'll probably take to get fixed. Emmylou keeps talking about "my broken car" and says she likes her "brand new car." We'll have to see how attached she gets to our sweet new Dodge Avenger. Awesome.