We Have Electricity!

Well, I think we can safely say we have survived the Ice Storm of '09 (appropriate name huh :). We lost electricity on Tuesday morning about 9:30 and it came back on Wednesday night about 6:30. Let me tell you, almost 36 hours with no electricity and a 2 year old can make for some interesting times :) However, from reports we have heard, we were afraid it would not be back on until Saturday!

FORTUNATELY we have a gas stove, gas fireplace, gas water heater and gas grill so we were doing a lot better than some people. The coldest the thermostat said was 59. However, it is right next to the living room where the fireplace is and I KNOW it was colder than that in our bedroom and bathroom!

Also, fortunately we don't have any big trees in our neighborhood. We complain a lot because of the lack of "mature" trees. However, this is definitely one time when it is a plus that we live in a new neighborhood. There are trees in a ravine in between the 2 phases of our neighborhood. They do have powerlines near them, but I don't think any houses are close enough to be damaged by falling branches! It was kind of scary, you could just hear the branches breaking and falling off...shew!!

We made a pallet in the floor in front of the fireplace and pretty much camped out there! We also moved Emily's table and chairs in there so she could color and everything where it was warm! She actually ended up sleeping in her crib last night. We left her door open and put 2 extra blankets on the bed and when she woke up she was nice and toasty warm! Charles slept in the living room and manned the fire all night and I slept in our bedroom and woke up every hour as usual....one of the joys of pregnancy!

Emily loved the "snow". I don't think she ever understood that it was ice, except for the fact that Charles would take her Ice Skating ;) They would go out on the front porch and he would hold her hands and she would just slip and slide around....she just giggled and laughed!

We had grilled Pop Tarts for breakfast this morning. That worked pretty good! We used the backporch as our refrigerator/freezer! It worked REALLY well. We had nice cold milk this morning....not frozen! Charles made a Wal-Mart run this afternoon for "necessities" (including M&M's, Red Hots, Diet Cokes and the ingredients for No Bake Cookies). He waited in line at least an hour just to check out! He said it was CRAZY! I told him, now that he did that we would get power....sure enough 5 hours later it was on!

Ice skating...whee!!!! (Yes, she is wearing Elmo houseshoes, her Sleeping Beauty dress-up dress and her Sunday coat and hat :)

Our "refrigerator"

Grilled Pop Tarts...yum!
Icicles
Our bushes out front

The "whirly birds" as Charles calls them.

Ice on the fence

On the trees

On Emily's swingset

More on Emily's swingset

The trees in between Phase I and Phase II of our neighborhood

My tree in the front yard on Tuesday :(

Emily posing by my poor little tree Wednesday :(

Isn't she cute :)

Deep Thoughts....

I cannot begin to write down all of the amazing things that Emily says, does, remembers, everything! Each day it is something new and exciting for her! I thought I would just write about a few things that came to mind!


~ Emily has really started to think and ask about different things. Her favorite word is "Why?" and she says it ALL THE TIME! Anything we say, it's "Why?". Or, if we tell her not to do something...it's "Why not?"! Anyway, we drove by some houses under construction and Emily said "Why are those houses all torn up?". So, I explained to her that they weren't actually torn up but that they were just now being built, they were under contruction. Then, my brilliant 2 year old comes up with "Why do people build houses?"!! I promise these were the exact words out of her mouth :) I was so impressed first that that was such a big sentence and second that she could actually think that! So, then, I told her how all houses were built at some point and that Emily's house and Aunt Vicky's was under construction at one point too. So now, when we drive by those houses, Emily says "Those houses are building!".


~ Emily was sitting in my lap and started looking at my mouth. Charles has had a fever blister on his lip, so she's really into lips right now. Anyway, as she was looking in my mouth, she said "What's this?". I thought she was pointing to my teeth so I told her they were my teeth. She said, "No, not teeth. The pink stuff." Then Irealized she was talking about my gums :) So
I told her they were gums and that everyone had them. So, she had to feel her gums, then she had to feel Daddy's gums! Then she said "Why do we have gums?". Then we had to see Emily's in the bathroom mirror!


~ Her favorite hymn now is Holy, Holy, Holy. She can even find it in the hymnal...pretty easy being #1. So, tonight while I was rocking her she kept saying "Hold me, hold me". I said I am holding you baby girl. Then she said it again and I said I am holding you! Then she said "No Mommy, Holy, Holy, Holy in the book!"


~ She loves to say that she is going to get a Baby Sister in June :) We aren't really sure what to tell her about how she will get a Baby Sister. So, we just left it as she will get one in June!


~ We watched the Inauguration last Tuesday and tried to tell Emily about what was going on. She learned how to say President Obama but other than that, I didn't think she was paying any attention. Today while we were watching the weather channel a picture of the Capital Building came on and Emily pointed and said "President Obama"! I said, "Yes, that is where President Obama works." I guess maybe she was paying attetion ;)

No Dryer :(

Unfortunately our dryer decided to die this week! It died on Wednesday, the guy came on Friday, the part came in today and he's hopefully going to fix it tomorrow! That is a whole week without a dryer while we're potty training! Fortunately, we have TONS of panties and Emily has had very FEW accidents (see previous post)! However, I did have to do a load yesterday because Emily was out of panties and pj's. I thought it was kind of funny to see all of her stuff hanging in the laundry room!

Potty Training Week 1

Well, we officially started potty training last Saturday. It has gone SURPRISINGLY well, compared to stories I have heard! I have told everyone, Emily has been such a good child about everything....sleeping all night at 10 weeks, being such a good eater, talking so well at 2 and now (knock on wood) doing really good at using the good potty.....I just hope we can get this lucky 2 times!

We used anything and everything as incentives during this time! She gets a pee-pee sticker for her potty chart and 1 Hershey Kiss when she pee-pees, she gets a poo-poo sticker for her potty chart and 2 Hershey kisses when she poo-poos. She also gets (when she remembers to ask for it :) to take a shower and play with her crayons when she poo-poos. She has also gotten surprises at night from Daddy when she has not had an accident all day. These include new Valentine Books, Shake's ice cream, stuffed Rocket from Little Einsteins and a huge stuffed Care Bear. I'm telling you, we've decided whatever works :) We just hope that once she gets the hang of it, she doesn't require all of this!

We want to say a big THANK YOU to cousins Debbie, Deleah and Braxton because they gave Emily the bath crayons for Christmas. These were ultimately Emily's motivation to poop in the potty! We had tried everything and then Emily found these in her drawer. I have to admit, I had hid them thinking they would make a big mess and be more trouble than they were worth! However, Emily REALLY wanted to play with them so we told her that when she poo-pooed she could take a bath and play with them. Low and behold SHE DID IT!!!!! And, to my surprise, they are not messy at all! The problem has been that almost every time she poops, she wants to take a bath or shower so she can play with her crayons. Needless to say she is very clean and her skin is very dry right now!

The accident tally for Week 1 is as follows:
Monday - 2 accidents
Tuesday - 0 accidents
Wednesday - 2 accidents
Thursday - 0 accidents
Friday - 0 accidents
Saturday - 2 accidents
Sunday - 0 accidents

A very good report for Week 1 of Potty Training if I do say so myself :)

The best incentive for Potty Training EVER :)

Week 1 Potty Chart

Ultrasound Pics

I am sorry for the quality, they were not very dark to begin with and so when I scanned them they looked REALLY light! Maybe you can see a little bit!

Profile

Front of face
Legs straight out to the right - nothing in between.....it's a girl :)

Spinal cord

Baby's head to the right and body to the left

Baby Martin Is A . . . .

GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are very excited! However, most improtantly, everything on the ultrasound looked good and normal. No signs of any problems, which is VERY GOOD NEWS! We had a Level 2 ultrasound where they check a lot more than they would in a regular one. They saw and measured the heart, brain, spine, stomach, lungs, neck, arms, legs, hands, profile, everything it seemed like! They even saw chambers of the heart. How weird is that they can see that already!

We also told Emily today that she is going to be a Big Sister. We hadn't officially told her anything. She has heard us talk about stuff and some people have even asked her about it, she would usually just smile and not say anything :) But, we got her 2 Big Sister books and tried to explain her about being a Big Sister. While we were talking she looked at me and said "I'm grown up. I'm grown up to be a big sister." It made me cry to hear her say she was grown up! I mean I know she is, but it was so sweet to hear her say that!

She then got to call all the family and tell them that she was going to have a Little Sister and she is going to be the Big Sister! It was very cute! Now we just have to find out what Baby Ezell is :)

Razorback Gymnastics

Friday night we met Tracey & Lily at the Razorback Gymnastics meet. Lily & Tracey have gone to several meets, I just haven't been brave enough to take Emily yet. But I thought since she knew what gymnastics was now, she would probably like it. She was SO excited when I told her where we were going, which was after her nap on Friday :) Her and Lily held hands and practically jumped all the way to the meet. Emily did really well at the beginning. However, it didn't start until 7:00 so about 8:00 she started getting tired. I was very pleased with her behavior even if we didn't get home until 9:30! She was so excited about seeing "The Pig"! But when I asked her if she wanted to go and see him and get her picture taken she said "No, no". I guess she just liked looking at him from a safe distance!