10 years!

Last week Dan and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary and it was awesome!  We alternate the event planning, so I plan the odd years' celebrations and he does even years.  It works well for us, and then we never really have to go through the "what-do-you-want-to-do", "i-don't-know-what-do-you-want-to-do" conversation which inevitably leads down a path of total self-destruction. 

He told me to be home by 5:30, so I left work a little early to pick Emma up and while I was on the way to get her he called and said that he was picking her up instead so I could just go home and start getting ready (1 point for Dan).  We both got home and he took Emma next door because he had already made plans for my parents to watch her while we were out (2 points).

We headed out to dinner and he pulled into the parking lot of this cheap place we go all the time (huh?).  So, he parked knowing that I was looking a little confused but going along with it, then, only after we were both out of the car did he tell me he was kidding.  We got back in the car and carried on.  After parking at the beach we walked around to a little Italian place we went on either our first or second anniversary, Il Farro.  We walked in and on the table was a H.U.G.E. arrangement of the most beautiful flowers.

Dan actually has a co-worker who loves doing flower arrangements on the side, so she put this whole thing together for me along with a smaller bouquet in front of my seat, and had it delivered along with candles.  He sent her pictures of our wedding so she could pick out the flowers that we used, and she used the same ones in this massive arrangement.

We had a lovely dinner of yummy bruschetta and spinach gnocchi that was sooooo good, and finished it off with canoli that reminded me of our trip to Italy a few years back.  As we were walking out we actually got a round of applause from another table.  They were obviously as impressed with Dan's planning skills as I was.  Since we were at the beach, we walked around for a little longer before stopping at the store for milk on our way home.

The floral foam that the arrangement was in broke when we got home, but we pulled out all the flowers and it made seven different arrangements that we set around our house for decoration.  There were more flowers in that arrangement than I currently have in my garden. 

It was an awesome way to celebrate 10 years with the best man for me and the best dad for Emma.  Realistically, 10 years is just a drop in the bucket, but still worth celebrating.  We have a lot of great years left together and now it's time to up my game.  Next year it's my turn.

Some pics to make up for my pic-less-ness mess

Since my most recent post was full of ramblings with no cute pictures of my sweetness.  Here are some fun things we've done recently.  There are 21 pictures here (I'm a woman of extremes...what can I say).

Here she is in some super-fly jeggings and just overall cutie pie.

Riding in cars with boys already.

We don't get too many family pictures, but here's one of us at the park.

Moving, moving, and more moving.

Easter Eggstravaganza at church.

Emma and I at a baby shower in Arizona last month.

Our Arizona friends with Emma.

Emma L.O.V.E.D. the aquarium we visited after we got back from Arizona.

The aquarium was at the end of the pier at Manhattan Beach.  SoCal is SoAwesome!

FAMILY CAMP with our church.  Yes, we tent camped with our 18 month old and there were other families with even younger ones.  It rained the first night and the second morning, but we had a blast.

Emma couldn't get enough of the beach.  She loved the water, sand, and sun.

Another family pic on the porch of our new abode.

We had some visitors for a couple weeks...Emma's cousins and their parents stayed with us on their visit from North Carolina.  Don't you love the matching dresses that Emma and her cousin got? I'm a fan of Emma's piggies.

Just a little something I made for a friend's kid's birthday.  I named him Clyve.

Go Angels!!

My own little angel.

Planting sticks trees with her Papa Mike and great-grandma Vi.  I guess those trees will grow into something.

Emma with daddy and Papa.

Lest you think she always has a smile on her face.

Happy Father's Day to the two best dads in the world!

Where to begin!

So, it's obviously been a while since I've provided an update, but my-oh-my how time flies.  Now that Emma is almost 19 months old (WHAT??!!) she's talking, running, climbing, singing, imagining, loving, kissing, hugging, tantruming expressing, "please"ing and "thank you"ing.  I'm in constant awe of how quickly she learns and how much she understands.  Yesterday was Father's Day and I can't begin to describe how grateful I am for Dan as a partner in parenting and life.  He loves her in amazing ways and knows that she loves him even though she's in a no-kissing-daddy phase.  To hear her laughter from the other room because the tickle monster momentarily inhabited daddy's body, or shrieks and giggles as he chases her down the hall is the most wonderful sound in the world. 

She also just started singing recognizable songs the other day, so now she can sing the first part of the alphabet song (she gets through C really easily but it's a little rough through G at which point she starts over).  My bedtime song for her is "Jesus Loves Me" and when we were deep sea fishing on Saturday I heard her singing to herself as she was starting to take a nap.  I listened more closely to hear her singing the first part of that song, "Jesus loves me, this I know."  That was as far as she got, over, and over, and over, and it was the most beautiful song I've ever heard in my life.  It sounds more like, "eezus ubs e isss i noo" but it's very recognizable.  She makes me realize more and more everyday that it's not doing the big things one time that make as big of a difference as doing the small things all the time.  I'm sure that won't be the last thing she helps me learn.

Between January and today we moved in right next door to Emma's grandma and papa (next to the house I grew up in) and it's fabulous.  We have a huge yard for our dogs, a swing set for Emma, and a  playhouse for all of us (a 10'x10' separate house in the backyard with electricity, carpet, windows...perfect for all of our toys - my craft stuff, Dan's music stuff, and Emma's play stuff).

She is loving it, and everything worked out so smoothly in our move.  We're still unpacking here and there and don't have much up on the walls yet, but I guess we're having too much fun blowing bubbles in the backyard to care.

I could fill in the blanks with the sweet intricacies of our days and all the stats of her growing up, but instead I'll focus on her loose elbow that has prompted a couple urgent care visits and one ER visit.  It started a few months ago when we were walking down some stairs and she missed a stair while I was holding her hand.  There she was hanging by her hand, swinging a little while I put her down on the next stair.  I would have thought "no harm done...glad I was holding her hand" except that she started crying right away and was not using her arm anymore.  I held her for a bit and thought I broke her that maybe we would get some lunch and she could calm down.  She stopped crying but was still not using her arm, and since it was Saturday we had to go to urgent care as her ped's office closes at noon on Saturday. 

We headed over and the doctor knew right what it was...nursemaid's elbow.  It's when a little tendon in the elbow pops out and has to be popped back in - easier said than done.  He tried the first time and it didn't pop but he said to give it a few minutes and see if she starts using her arm again.  Not only was she not using her arm, she was continuing to cry and wince with pain putting a dagger through my heart.  He came back in and tried one more time and suddenly it was like she had never had pain at all.  She started using it right away, the crying stopped, and she was happy as could be.  The doctor said that some kids have chronic nursemaid's elbow and he had one patient that got it so frequently that he showed the parents how to fix it.  "Surely that wouldn't be us," I thought a bit smugly (insert canned laughter).

Two weeks later, Dan and I were walking out of dinner towards the car and each one of us was holding one of her hands.  She leaned forward and back as kids sometimes do just having fun and there it was again...a look of "mommy/daddy, why did you just cause me excruciating pain" (dagger).  She stopped using her arm and I knew exactly what it was.  This time, though, the urgent care was closed (it was a late dinner) and the only place we could go was the ER.  4 hours, 1 x-ray, and $457 later (compared to the $20 copay we pay at urgent care...oh ER such a rip off) her elbow wasn't even fixed but we took her home and went to her ped's office the next day where they popped it back in successfully.  Shouldn't I get my money back when the ER doc can't fix her?  I would have been better off just staying at home - I digress. 

And then, another two or three weeks later I picked her up from daycare and she was happy as a clam.  I put her in her car seat and she was fine.  When I went to take her out of her car seat at dinner, she started crying and her arm was no longer moving.  I think it actually just fell out on it's own and I've considered more than once getting some duct tape to keep her in tact.  Off to urgent care we went, and when we got to the one that was close to where we were the doctor ASKED ME what the treatment was for it.  Um, well, since I have my M.D. (Mother's Doctorate) I told her that it needs to be popped back into place.  She gave me a blank stare like I just spoke another language, and she said that they didn't do that there.  Off to urgent care #2 (after confirming that they do it there) and the doctor fixed it and asked if I wanted to learn how.  I was now in the league of parents who has a child with chronic nursemaid's elbow.  He said that it happened to his son 6 times!  She got all fixed up and it hasn't happened since (everybody reading this please knock on some nearby wood for me), but now if it does I'm appropriately armed with enough knowledge to either fix it or make it worse...yeah for me.

That's really the most exciting thing that's happened in the past few months (aside from the move, having four house guests for 13 days, getting my wallet stolen, and probably a whole slew of things that I had intended to memorialize here).  And yet, life carries on. 

Hopefully I'll be able to get something up (including some pictures...hullo, Lame Mom Awards given nightly) within the next 6 months, but if not: Happy 4th of July, yippee for Labor Day, Happy Thanksgiving, and Merry Christmas.  I'm covered until New Years now.  See you on the flip side.