Well, Easter is this weekend and we have no idea what we are doing. This will be fun, just got to find the right thing to do. Emmy is so cute! She told me I was her everything and that she thinks I am the sweetest Mommy in the whole world. Do you think she will feel that way at age 10, or age 12.... I hope so, but I doubt it. LOL! She asks so many questions. Questions that you would think an older child would ask. She seems to very content with being adopted. That is my biggest fear, so I write about it a lot. I do not want her to have many struggles with that. Kindergarten starts in 4 months, and I am so nervous. She doesn't seem nervous, she seems ready and excited. So I really hope that she is and that there isn't took much confusion about it. We are also looking into Gymnastics. She seems interested. She also said she wants to take Piano Lessons but that isn't suggested to start until age 7. She started soccer in the spring and takes ballet at her pre-school. I really look forward to her recital in May! Well, not much more to say, I just wanted to blog as it seems we are so busy these days, there isn't a lot of chances to stop to do this. I know Emmy will want to read this some day... it started out for me, and is now for her!

Well, It has indeed been a long time with no posts. This is due to a few things. One, we now have a very active 4 year old who is involved in Soccer and is about to be in Kindergarten. With all of that, 2012 into 2013 was rough. Uncle B got a divorce. With that said, it has turned this whole family upside down and sideways to say the least. I am glad I wasn't blogging during that time or this post would have turned into a huge venting tool which would have gotten me off the main focus of this blog and why I started it to begin with. It started off with me having trouble getting pregnant, and now is an EMMY blog! YAY! There are probably many accomplishments and milestones I have left out, but I did want to touch base on her Tummy Mommy. In the last year, year and a half she has left Moe, started dating her boss and got pregnant. She now has a little girl named Kaylee and I think Kaylee is now around 1'ish. In fact Katherine is now engaged. This man seems very nice and he is much older, which I think is a good thing. I have watched her blossom over the past year into a mature young mother. Her two oldest kids seem much much happier. I think she is happier having a new baby as well. Of course this baby did not take Emmy's place at all! But I think it helped Katherine to move forward and stop dwelling so much about negative aspects of her past. She is very content in seeing Emmy grow up on the social media Facebook. Even though she doesn't seem as involved with Emmy, I think there is a moment that she has realized that Emmy needs to be focused in one direction right now at such a young age. I know that dwelling on a child she has given up for adoption does nothing but keep her from progressing and having a happy life, in which she deserves. Even though they do not have a lot, they have way more than she did with Moe. She is happy, and that is all that matters. I struggle with some of the questions Emmy already has about her Tummy Mommy. I just never knew that some of the questions she has had would come up so early. I love that Emmy knows she is adopted and knows she can come to me and ask me any questions she wants to. There is no bad question or right question. As an adopted parent, I want her to know we are her Mommy and Daddy and we are giving her much more in life and more love than she can handle at times. By now I feel like I gave birth to her myself. She has become that type of part of me... without discounting Katherine. Emmy has become a child with a big heart and is very compassionate in general about life. She has great empathy for others and I was told by one of her teachers in pre-school that she is the most loving child she has ever met. With that said, oh lord.... when she gets her heart broken in whatever way someday, that is going to kill me. I am learning that children are mean to each other. Emmy just loves all people. She actually tells me that. I cannot imagine a happier child with such a great childhood. She brightens my world and keeps me alive inside. Many blessings indeed!

41with an almost 3year old....

It's been awhile since I posted anything. As much as I wish I would continue doing it everyday like I used to, these days I am good to get to bed and get a few hours of sleep. It isn't easy being 41 chasing a 3yr old around. But I enjoy it soooo much more than I would have at 25. I cherish everything she does, says and all of the sweet moments we have together as a family. Looking back, life was never as I planned in my mind. Growing up I wanted to marry my asshole boyfriend of 6yrs, and I wanted kids by age 22. Later, I was 27 and telling another boy I would be married before i turned 30 with at least one kiddo. Next thing you know, I was 34, getting married on a beach in Mexico and not even knowing if kids were in the picture for me, but I never thought it would be because I couldn't have kids. Now, I am married, to a "nice guy" and have a beautiful daughter that we adopted that I couldn't even imagine being without. Ya know, I am not much of a country music fan like I was in my 20's... But Garth Brooks, "unanswered prayer" really says it all. Thank god!

Age 2

at 25 months she is already pedaling her tricycle.... steering it and going up and down the sidewalk. She says her ABC's and can count to 20 now... at 27 months. She has been dressing herself since age 1 1/2 and she has been putting on her shoes herself for longer than that. She is catching on to most all things way early. I hope it is a sign that she will do well in school. She has been day time potty trained for 5 months now, and can sleep through a 3 hour nap without going. Over night... longer than 3 hours she doesnt do so well... but not expected to. We have been having a hard time getting her to go to sleep at night, so we put a third nightlight in her room and are now leaving the hall light on. Tonight I set her up with her lantern and some books and she is back there pretending to read outloud to herself. I hope this works as it has been taking two hours for her to fall asleep. So we are stopping the rocking and letting her read and hopefully fall asleep on her own. fingers crossed because I am exhausted! She is sweeter than ever. Hugging and kissing us all the time. Telling us she misses us and loves us : I love u Daddy"! I walked in from work tonight and she hugged me and said " I missed you Mommy"! Priceless! Okay... going to stop typing. But trying to log her achievements more!

Emmy Lu!

As always... I get frustrated I am not blogging more often as she does so many new things all of the time! So I best start remembering some of them and get them documented. She really has grown up since becoming 2 yrs old. She went from not talking well.... enough for me to worry a tad. To now talking really well. I think in no time, she will be holding full conversations with us. It's amazing how much she has learned in the last two months. The past two months she has started saying 3 to 4 word sentences... fully dressing herself. She is now fully potty trained during the day, and as of the past month, she can sing her ABC's, and count to 12! That is amazing at this age. She is like a dry sponge soaking up everything in its path! She is sooo eager to learn and normally learns it once and never forgets! She is doing things 3 and 4 yr olds are just learning! She loves her Mommy n Daddy and is always hugging and kissing us all of the time. She is sweet... and very caring. She rocks her babydoll, sings to her, reads her books and puts her to bed. She will come out of the bedroom and say "shhh!" to us over and over so we do not wake up baby! Daddy taught her to ride her tricycle in the past 2-3 weeks and she picked up pedaling and steering quite fast. She is a smart little girl, and I hope that continues through her life of being in school. Hope she is always eager to learn and be the best that she can be! We have changed our way of parenting with her so that it best fits with her strong-willed personality. Daddy went and got books and we have been reading up on it so that we can learn how to parent her better. And using some of the tools in the past two weeks there is less crying, whining and pure meanness! We have learned spanking, yelling is not how to parent a strong willed child. We have learned respect and lots n lots of patience. Afterall, no parent is perfect either, but we can all research and do what is necessarily best for our children. And I am so glad we both do that for her.

Some of her words that I enjoy hearing:
meow: "me mau"
seven: "seben"
"w": "dubadoo"
Lake: "yayck"
Uncle B: "um B" or sometimes "BB"
Braden: "bayden"
Hunter: "unner"
Charlotte: "sarlet"

Sayings:
"NO Daddy" Pointing her finger
"MY Daddy" My Mommy"
NO NO MOMMY!
"1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,10"
Favorite song is "row row row ur boat".
Favorite book for Halloween is " shake dem bones now hip hop halloween BAAALLLLLL" scoobedooowah....yeah!"
Barney is her favorite TV show.
She sings, row row row ur boat, u r my sunshine, wheels on the bus, twinkle little star, rocka by baby,moon moon moon, humptydumpty.
She has also really gotten into coloring lately and is doing well in school with that. She is very social. She loves playing with other kids and always has. Seems to be happy ALL of the time. Always smiling! Loves posing for the camera.

As I always say... I will try to blog things as they come.. but I know I have really missed out on blogging a lot of things she has done or said. :o( always happens outta the blue. Another thing I want to get on tape is her singing. She LOVES to sing songs. Everynight we read three books, pray and sing songs while rocking. She is growing up too fast!

Tummy Mommy

Well, for prob. the 4th time, Katherine and Moe have broken up. As she told me, due to DWI and other charges she didnt tell me about. Because of this she got evicted from their apartment and again had to move the kiddos back in with her Mom. Along with documenting Emmy, I am also every now in then documenting her Tummy Mommy because I know she will be curious in knowing about her life as well and not just hers. Katherine still just doesnt have her feet on the ground, how could she... she is 22 with a 7 yr old and a 5 yr old. Too young to have to deal with growing up that fast. But she has made due with it and I believe is a good Mom. But of course I am not there to really know for sure. I can only imagine all the things that she doesnt tell me. For that I almost do not want to know. I am just happy she is away from Moe. He will never change. He has proven that time and time again. Abusive, verbally and physically is NOT a good environment for those kids. And I am so glad Emmy isnt around that. We pray she pulls herself together and becomes the outstanding young women that we know she can be. Sometimes when people do not even know better, they just don't know what strive for. All we can do is tell her how smart and how much potential she really has. She told me she is now dating a 43 yr old.! UGH! WAYYYY tooo old for her. But I have no control over that. She is such a sweet person, but that is the side I know. I think there is more personality in her,, and a wild side she never shows us. And that is fine. I have been there done that. Maybe even there is a dark side to her. But I do not want to know that. I like knowing the sweet Katherine that I wish was my daughter as well. I love her unconditionally and only wish the very best for her! We love you Katherine! ALL OF US!

Blogging

I wait entirely too long to post on here! I am so mad about it because I want to make sure that I am posting all of her accomplishments, and funny things she says. Her uncle B is going through a rough time. His wife is leaving him for another man... and it has been rough. But he is stronger now. I was upset. VERY! But I have since calmed down and just want what is best for him. Seeing him now he already seems happier.... just like he didnt know he had been unhappy for so long, he doesnt know he is happy yet. At least not how I can see it from the outside looking in. He wrecked his car. UGH... I cannot wait until we can look back on this and laugh. Emmy loves her Uncle B! SOOOO SWEET!
Anyway, Emmy has been a hoot. The potty training is going so well... and she is starting to talk more and more... and I am afraid she is going to be a chatty cathy... LOL! LOVE IT! She is such a girly girl! LOVES playing pretend with her doll house. SOOOO cute. "Mommy pay" "MMM.. Pay Mommy" This is how she says Wanna play mommy. She will say "whass dat" to everything.. I tell her and she will answer with "OOHHh" She says some funny things!

Also, need to post that Katherine has gotten an apt. with Moe and they seem to be doing good. We met her in Ft Worth. First time in over a year And I let her just hold her and walk around with her. IT was very sweet! I love Katherine... and I hope it always stays that way between us. I know she wishes she could raise Emmy... but I also know it would be too hard for her money wise and because of that whole situation. She is going to counseling which has helped her to be able to see Emmy and to be happy with the whole situation. She seems content! I am glad about that! I want Emmy to have her in her life.... so hopefully we will keep doing these meetings once or twice a year. Emmy seems like the happiest kiddo I know! Always smiling and always playing... FULL OF ENERGY! But she is doing well. Exceling at everything she does. She did gymnastics this past weekend and loved it but was very distracted in the gym! UGH!
She will get there though. She is soo hyper... and full of energy that it almost bursts out of her. WEll... I need to go to bed. I am tired... and need to stop staying up so late.