Odie Oliver

Dear Odie Boy, rest in peace.
February 19, 1994 - March 30, 2007
13 years old

8 Months

I went to the doctor Tuesday for a check up. I'm 35 1/2 weeks and 1 1/2 to 2 centimeters dialated. This does not mean the baby is coming early! It just means that when I do go into labor, I don't have as far to go to get to 10 centimeters. To me, this means when I go into labor, I need to head straight to the hospital that is one hour away. If I am not at home, I will not go there to pack first. If it is the middle of the night, we will have to wait a bit for someone to get to the house to stay with Emma. I'm sure that will feel like an eternity. Chucky and I are getting nervous about re-living my labor with Emma, and growing a little dreadful of the late night feedings and sleep deprevation.

I told Emma that I went to the doctor and that he said the baby will be here soon. Her eyes opened big and her mouth dropped open, and she covered it with both her hands and made a sound like she was amazed and excited. She has so much to be excited for, with her birthday on Saturday and the baby coming soon. Life is very exciting, indeed.

Today while grocery shopping I bought a few things with an expiration date on them that is past my due date. I have yogurt that could outlast this pregnancy!

8 months, 28 pounds, having trouble with socks, shoes, shaving legs, and reaching anything on the floor - and my back is killing me and I can't get much sleep. Pushing a full grocery cart around the store, loading the car, unloading the car, and putting them all away is heavy duty exercise for me. I can't reach the radio in my car while driving, and it is very hard to wash dishes with my belly keeping me so far away from the faucet.

Jump-o-line

Emma's 3rd birthday is next weekend, so as an early gift her Nannie brought over a jumpoline. This is what Emma calls a trampoline. It's not really a trampoline, either. It has an air pump that blows continuously, like something you would see at a carnival, only smaller. Nannie brought it over Thursday and we told her we would set it up Saturday.

Friday she asked if we were going to set up it today, then when we told her the word "tomorrow" she understood that there was just one more day to wait. She remembered we had something else to do Saturday night (go to our friends house for dinner) and was confused about how we were going to fit it all in. I told her we could jump in the morning, and go to Sha-sha's house after naptime. She told me that I was right, we "have to do one thing at a time."
She is starting to put together time better, and uses the words tomorrow and the other day correctly now. She throws in a Wednesday and a Sunday sometimes when she doesn't know what word to use for the time period she is thinking of. It is incredible to witness her learning every little thing. Today, (ask me again on a bad day) being a mom is terrific and I could just eat her cute little face up. She is taking a nap right now which equals me having a good day. I think all the jumping and playing ball and races outside pooped her out. Plus she woke up crying from a bad dream last night and it took her a while to back to sleep, so the nap is definitley needed. I think I'll take a nap, too.

Emma and her cousin Maggie test the jumpoline.

American Idol

Ok. I've had enough. Who is voting for Sanjaya? I tune in just to see how creepy he is and hope he gets voted off. But he's not even in the bottom two tonight? I want to throw things at the TV. This is the only reality television I watch and maybe this is why. People are weird.

Chatter-in

Emma has learned about patterns and instead of "pattern", she pronounces it "patter-in." Chucky had not heard this new word yet, so while playing outside with him one day, she made a pattern out of some trash pieces of wood. Only she forgot the word. She called it "chatter-in" instead of "patter-in." Chucky had no idea what she was talking about, so at dinner he asked me what "chatter-in" meant. After he told me what she was doing when she said it, I figured out she meant "patter-in." She's been out there several times making her "chatter-in" and calling it that, so now the name has stuck. Here is a picture of her latest "chatter-in".

Cabinets2

Impressive, no? Chucky is frusterated because nothing is made very straight. The wood is warped, the floor is slanted. I just nod and listen, I don't think I could have done what he has done so far and it hurts my brain to think about all that math, so I just smile and am thankful he still has ten fingers and that Emma has not glued herself to some of the wooden pieces he has given her to play with.

The Necklace

Ghee and Pop-pop have returned from Arizona. When Emma came home Tuesday from spending the day with Ghee she told me her yellow necklace was lost, but that she and Ghee had looked and looked for it. I had no idea what she was talking about, so the next day when I saw Ghee, she gave me three things she had brought home from Arizona for Emma: a book, a tshirt, and a necklace - yellow of course. Emma names everything. The shirt is yellow and is called the sunshine shirt. The necklace has a yellow flower on it and is called the yellow flower necklace. The book doesn't have a name yet, but she is pretty good about remembering book titles, so not all books get a name. Here she is modeling her necklace, which she tells me came from "zona".

Spring is coming

The warm weather this week has us giddy. Spring is coming. New flowers, baby animals, windows open - my favorite time of year. Here's Emma enjoying the playtime as much as I enjoyed sitting in a lawn chair watching her.

Cabinets1

Spring is on the way. The baby is on the way. Chucky has finished all of the get-ready-for-baby projects, so he has moved on to a project of his own - building cabinets for the garage. Big cabinets. $400 worth of wood cabinets. Chucky does not have much building experience, other than a few dog houses each year for his hunting dogs. I hope he is successful, he has a really great helper. The two of them can track sawdust into the house like real pros - here they are getting started on a beautiful Saturday in March:

Day Care Drop-Off

The daycare drop-off has changed over the last two years. First, at almost one year of age, it was cry a little, then it was see ya later mom, then it was cry cry cry, now at almost three years old, we have graduated to hugs and kisses every morning before I go out the door and after setting her up at the breakfast table with the other early morning kids. This morning, after getting my hugs and kisses and saying be good, see you soon, I was almost out the door when she called loudly to me: "Mom, I wuv you!" I said "I love you, too, darlin'" as the teachers grinned at us. And as I walked down the hallway, I enjoyed the moment. I know it won't last long.
I can't believe the baby stage is over for her, I can't believe she is more of a kid than a toddler. I can't believe this. We have so many names for her: baby girl, sweet pea, sweet sugar, punkin, sugar sugar, we wonder what we will have left to call the next little girl on the way . . .

Building Blocks

Emma was so proud of her creation that I took a picture. She calls it a sand castle and the vertical green blocks are people. Mommy, Daddy, Emma, the baby, and someone named Ahdda.
And yes, I know the child needs a haircut.

Pheebs

Phoebe has been staying with us the past week while Ghee and Pop-pop are on a trip. Emma is just as excited now on day 5 as she was on day 1. She wants Phoebe to come in the bathroom with her for a bath, and in her room to read books before her nap. She wants to feed Phoebe and open the door for her to go outside. She loves to play toy-tug because if she can hold on tight enough, Phoebe will shake Emma all around the room. We have two dogs that she loves, but this is especially exciting because this dog is well-behaved and actually does the things we tell her to do. Ha! Imagine. Here they are:

7 Months

7 Months, 24 pounds later and having trouble putting socks on:



"Your baby is 18.9 inches long from head to toe and weighs almost 4 pounds. He or she will gain weight more quickly now and will probably double in weight between now and his or her birth. Just like a newborn, your baby sleeps a lot of the time. He or she even experiences rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, the period of sleep when we dream!" from Pregnancy Weekly

Stair Update

Emma is still coming downstairs by herself, and it's not as bad as it could be. This morning it was 7am - the jackpot compared to the 6:15 it was this weekend. And sometimes she calls down and asks if it's okay to come downstairs (something I've been trying to get her to do, although I have to get up out of bed and come to the bottom of the stairs, so she'll hear my answer). At naptime yesterday she came out of her room after just 15 minutes and told me she was coming down because rest time was over. I said, "Emma, I am going to count to five . . ." and she ran back into her room, shut the door and went to sleep. Nice.

Chucky and I are still worried that she might fall down the stairs one day. We used to have a gate at the top of the stairs, but it is so dangerous trying to step over it, and down at the same time to get onto the top step that I think it's safer (for me and her!) without the gate. So Monday morning we went to the carpet shop and Monday afternoon the carpet shop worker man came over to measure and in a few weeks we should have a carpet runner down the stairs. It will be a gentler fall when/if she or myself fall down the stairs.

In other news, we have another pregnant friend to add to the list: Shannon Dean.