5

Emma is 5! She's a big girl, but still a little girl. Now that she's five, she has to take care of herself. The big rules are: dress herself, brush her teeth, and wipe herself. It's been a week and so far, so good! All I have to for her is her hair. She has even figured out how to get her socks on. The only setback is that she doesn't always put on the clothes I have laid out for her. She thinks pink and red look good together . . . ugh! Here come the battles.

She is a better big sister now than ever. She and Libby get in to trouble together, though! They shut the bathroom door and Emma played in the sink and Libby played in the potty. A whole roll of toilet paper was shredded, dipped in the water, and scattered around the bathroom. I have no idea what I was doing! When Libby needs help, Emma helps her and talks to her and brings her toys. This morning I needed to pull a splinter out of Libby's thumb and Emma brought her blanky to her. How sweet! Libby is almost two and Emma has finally accepted her. They still fight, but it's not as often. It is more violent, though. Libby can take more and dish more out these days.

I registered her for Kindergarten. I had butterflies in my stomach that day! She was very excited and is ready for kindergarten. She peeked in every door and checked out the cafeteria. We go back in May for orientation, and again in June for her screening tests.

We had a butterfly birthday party at the firehouse to celebrate both girls' birthday. Their birthdays are just three weeks apart, so we just did it all at once and got it overwith. My friend Julie took all the pictures, so I don't have any to share yet. We had 52 people! Emma has met so many wonderful little friends that it's hard to decide where to draw the line. Believe it or not, we did not invite everyone we wanted to.

I can't believe five years ago Chucky and I had a five pound premature jaundiced little girl, no sleep and a prayer. Now we are a family, we feel like a family. It's a great feeling!

More Computer Troubles

My lovely lemon of a laptop broke. Again. The left hinge broke, and the monitor screen split away from the backing. It's tax season, I have work to do, I'm mad. I called HP, and after all the voice messages led me to enter my product number, it tells me there is a special hotline for people with my model . . . a left hinge hotline. I backed up just in case, and shipped it away to be repaired. It came back in four days and I was jubilant! BUT the jerks restored the operating system to the factory settings. I had to re-install every program and printer, and all the data. For a broken hinge! I'm still sorting it all out. HP Jerks.

Wish I Could Sleep This Well

One night last week, I was doing my getting-ready-for-bed routine. One of things I do is put Shelby in her crate for the night. I couldn't find her. I looked in all her usual spots and in some unusual spots. Calling her was pointless because she is deaf. I was pretty sure she was asleep somewhere in the house. We have to touch her to wake her up, so I actually needed to find her, not just call for her. (When we touch her, she wakes up with a startle and it makes me jump every time) I went outside looking with the flashlight, and started to panic. What if she ran off? She can't hear!!!!! I told Chucky to get up off the couch and help me! He went upstairs and checked the kids rooms (I already did that) and found Shelby asleep under Emma's bed. What I thought was Emma's snoring was actually Shelby's snoring. Phew.

Our Lovely Weekend

What did you do this weekend?
Oh, I'm glad you asked! I have most of it in pictures.

Friday night, we had parent night at Emma's dance class. Here she is in the van waiting to go inside. I'm not sure who's more excited, Chucky or Emma!

Libby really wanted to participate but settled for a front row seat.

Saturday was a blur of birthday parties and an open house. Sunday, we washed the vehicles and got this one ready to sell:

Anyone want to buy it? It's a great hunting truck!

We went for a walk, rode bikes, raced cars, swept, read, colored, and just spent the entire day outside, and as you can see from this picture, I pulled weeds. That dug up some earthworms, which the girls found fascinating. I was just trying to hold in my squeals and shudders because they are just grosssss! Ewww. Emma put two in her bug box, but they escaped through the screen. Libby found a baby one just her size. I really tried to teach her to be gentle and nice with it, but after they saw me lift one up with a stick, they did the same. Only it was not so much lifting as it was jabbing!

A Few Inches of Snow

This is Libby's first moment in the snow. It's a little hard on the eyes with all the crazy colors, but hey - her hat and boots match! Just ignore the coat that is too small, with the broken zipper and middle snap. Her new coat arrived in the mail exactly one day after the snowstorm. The gloves were not waterproof, and when they got icy and wet, they kept falling off. I heard from a friend today that they taped their son's gloves to his coat sleeves. I will remember that for next time! Along with getting some waterproof gloves. Also, she has on the best hat ever. Whoever makes clothes with the little white snowman on the navy blue tag sure does know how to make a hat.






Emma



Chas - he made that snowball all by himself and it became the bottom part of a spectacular snowman, with gumballs for eyes!



Libby and Ghee

After-Dinner Entertainment

We watched seven deer come out of the woods behind our house, go into our side yard and eat, and leave out of the front yard. I still am amazed they didn't run away from the sounds coming from Libby each time she looked out the window. "Dee-ah! Dee-ah! I seee, I seee!" Emma and Chucky watched them from the front porch, very still and very cold. Emma told Chucky, "this is great!" He beamed.

Walkin Down The Road

Libby looks like she's telling Emma some juicy gossip . . . or something like "Oh my gosh, did you see that girl back there with the mismatched shoes?"