Milestones

Within a matter of a few hours, 2 milestones were reached in our house last week.

Last Thursday night, right after bedtime, Jenna lost her top front tooth. It's not her first tooth lost, it's actually her 4th, but there's something about losing those top teeth. When the permanent teeth come in, they just don't look like babies anymore. So while she would wiggle the tooth every chance she got to make it come out, I told her that she was wasting her time because I was just going to Superglue it back in.

For some reason, she didn't believe me. And she was right, I didn't Superglue it back in because I couldn't find the dog gone glue. I can't find anything in this house these days including, but not limited to: the charger for my camera battery, the battery for my video camera, mailing tape-- well you get the point.

But I digress, as usual. I was very sad to see that little tooth laying in the palm of her hand. I lost my little girl last Thursday night.

And a mere few hours later I lost my baby. Emma turned 2. And given my over all melancholy state at that point, I cried.

Her birthday was Friday but for a whole host of reasons I won't bore you with, we had her party on Sunday. Of course, she never knew the difference.

It's my party and I'll cry if I want to.

Emma was crying because I had recently come home with a bunch of balloons and she wanted one. This girl Loves balloons, and yes with a capital L. So being the loving mother that I am, I cut one off and gave it to her.

This is later in the party but apparently the only photo that captured the balloons. Obviously, Emma's lone balloon wasn't missed.

She was a happy girl dancing and entertaining the masses with her balloon.


While Ryan demonstrated his newly acquired Choke Hold on his cousin Adam. Notice that he really does have an audience.

Emma sitting on Uncle Kevin's lap. Holding her balloon, of course.

Happy girl!

Okay, so the cake didn't say "Happy Birthday Emma" but the girl can't read anyway. It was obvious to everyone there the cake was for her. Yes, I am a slacker mom and bought the cake only a few hours before. With the balloons.

Emma's freaking out a bit because she can't quite figure out why I'm holding her sideways and leaning her toward the cake. Therapy in her future, perhaps?

But then I showed her that she needed to blow out the candle. She didn't quite do it but she ended up having fun and the cake wasn't covered with spit. That's always a plus.

Birthday cake makes everyone happy, especially when it's yours.

Am I supposed to eat that?

Wearing frosting in your hair is the newest trend. Keep up people.

And then there were gifts, but her favorite item by far was that stinkin' balloon. At least now I know what I'm getting her for Christmas.

Confessions of a busy mom

Thursday Emma Linh turned 9 months old. To celebrate she decided it was time to cut some teeth. This girl is my kind of girl now. She is cutting two at once. Why cut one when you can cut two? My fellow over achiever in the making.

I realize that this is a bad picture. You're going to have to click on it and make it bigger to actually see the fuzzy suggestion of two tiny teeth starting to poke through. But Emma is very private about her teeth. The paparazzi had to stake her out all day to get this photo and even then it was taken against her will. (I hear she might press charges.)

I confess, I have never taken a picture of my babies first teeth. But perhaps this will make up for all of the other injustices that I have perpetrated.

Trace was my first baby and my whole world revolved around that little butterball. Trace had not only a baby book (with practically every line filled out) but also a cute little wall calendar with stickers. Every day of at least the first six months of that calendar has something written on it. And let's not forget the professional photos taken every 3 months.

Ross had a baby book but not as filled out as Trace's. There was no calendar. Photos every 6 months.

Julia: baby book, forgotten after 3-4 months. Photos every 6 months.

Jenna: When we received Jenna in China she came with a kind of baby book. It didn't have all the little details you would like but we cherish the few photos that came with it. There was really no point in creating a baby book for a 16 month old once she came home. Photos, once a year until preschool and then twice a year school pictures.

Emma: Bless her heart, she is child #5. I shamefully admit she has no baby book. I also, even more shamefully, admit that she has yet to have a professional photo taken.

Unless I can count this one:

This is a photo of Emma's visa photo that was taken on Halloween day. We went to a professional photo studio in Hanoi and had this taken. Emma had to sit up for the photo but she had NO muscle tone. Emy and I are propping her up in the back and in the front underneath her shirt. Both of her ears had to show in the photo. It took several tries to get this.

Poor baby wasn't feeling well anyway. We left the photo studio and walked to the SOS clinic where she was diagnosed with bronchiolitis, the beginning of our RSV adventure. But there's a story for another day.

So maybe the photo of her teeth was an attempt to make up for my other inadequacies. I like to think that this blog is a sort of baby book. Its way to record the lives of my children and what's going on in our lives and maybe months of years from now we'll actually look back and see what we were doing.