Whoa is me

Rachel here. So apparently I really have been overdoing it. :( Yesterday I was washing the windows and putting some screens in our bedroom and began to experience some of the worst pain of my life. I couldn't even walk without wincing. I emailed Bryan, went to pick Reese up from preschool... crying the entire way. Once I got home, Bryan was here, and I was able to call my doctor's office. Before leaving, I looked up all of the symptoms of preterm labor and definitely had a few of them, which caused me even more anguish. After talking to the triage nurse at the office, I was told to lay down on my left side and drink my ass in water pretty much. She said that the doctor on call at the hospital would give me a call. After speaking with her last night and this morning, we've decided that the baby must be laying funny and bearing down on some nerves. I'm still in a lot of pain when I'm on my feet for more than 5ish minutes (allowing me to you know... do nothing), and there was quite a bit of swelling in my perineum area, so I've been told to "take it easy", keep hydrated, and lay down... as much as possible... because Reese and Emma Grace are really into sitting in one spot and staring at me. The baby is SUPER active, I have no lower back pain, no other swelling, and no signs of blood, and no loss of fluid, so in general... there is extreme relief. I hope this works it's way out soon because 7 weeks of this just doesn't sound like a whole lot of fun to me.

Not to mention... there is schtuff to get done! Oy.

17 months old

Rachel here. How can a child be an absolute angel 98.9% of the time, and a devil child the rest? ;) We love love love our little Emma Grace... so much we could burst.

Today I've decided to definitely put away all of her 12-18 month clothes. It's really just turned into a guessing game about what she'll fit in to and what she won't. That puts her into 18-24 month clothing full time. She wears a size 5 shoe, which I love because I got to dig out all of Reese's old shoes, and there were these adorable little sea foamy green chucks she had... le sigh. She's still in a size 3 diaper during the day and a 4 at bedtime. Em has her 8 front teeth and all 4 of her molars. The last of her molars just popped through in the last few days.

Emma Grace is a super finicky eater these days... really just when it comes down to meat and veggies. She loves loves loves fruits, Reese loves loves loves veggies. Put them together and they're perfect. :) She's a super great sleeper... well except for last night. Oy. Em is also learning to walk up and down the stairs holding on to the railing much to Bryan's dismay. She loves playing with her baby dolls, and anything Reese is currently occupied with. She has definitely turned into Reese's shadow. She is also currently having an intense love affair with everything book. :) SHE LOVES BOOKS.

Language. Her vocabulary has EXPLODED this last month. It's amazing! We can add: gog (dog), she neighs like a horse, no (nose), Hock-b (Hokiebird), car, all gone, duck, hair, eeez (ears), socks, baba (popcorn), nilk (milk), door, ikeem (ice cream), pig, buhby (butterfly), nemon (lemon), pungkin (pumpkin), bug, hungeee (hungry), nahnah (napkin), kiki (cookie), sticky (sticker), boon (spoon), enty (empty), at at (Cat in the Hat), wunch (lunch), yeah, potty, bed (bread), canny (candy), yuck, and ughck (truck... it's hysterical... she says it like she's extremely disgusted) to the list.

She also had a big milestone this month. Not a good milestone by any stretch of the imagination. Last Monday evening we nearly had to call 911. Bryan and I had pizza for dinner, the girls had already eaten. He also got out the chips and salsa to munch on after dinner. We were all hanging out watching tv before the girls were to go to bed. Emma Grace got on her tippy toes and reached for the chips... nothing out of the ordinary... she's sneaky like that. :) Next thing you know she starts to cough... then starts crying... she was trying to get a little chip unstuck from her throat. Bryan and I quickly realized she wasn't going to able to do this on her own. While Bryan was getting her some water, I tried to get it out of her mouth, but her lips turned blue and her face was a horrific shade of purple in no time. I flipped her over on my knees and started to hit her back. Bryan came in grabbed her, and voila... out came the chip, two huge sighs of relief, and a whole lot of tears. It was awful! We felt awful. I quickly gave her a juice box. A real juice box. She recuperated in .5 seconds, and all was right with the world. She'll never remember it, but Bryan and I will remember it until the day we die. Now Reese is afraid everything will make her choke. "Mommy, you have to take the sticker off the banana because actually I will choke." :) Hopefully this month will hold many more milestones/words and fewer accidents. Oy.