This was a great Christmas for our family.  I can’t believe it is already over.  On Christmas Eve, Emma and I were kicked out of the house, so Santa could visit.  When we arrived back from church, there was a whole slew of presents.  Emma enjoyed a rocking horse, elmo towel, Baby Emma, Clothes, book, Ipod (an elmo one), a kitchen, savings bond, houseshoes, robe and more from the Barrs side of the family.  It was a lot of fun watching Emma play with the toys.  She seemed to only care about one, so I had to open the rest.  Today she is playing with most of them.

On Christmas day, we headed over to the Yeager house for a chaotic Christmas day.  It started with Emma, Morgan and Logan opening all of their presents.  WOW that took forever.  She got a ton of stuff; elmo, a doll house, a barn, a stroller, babies, shopping cart, groceries, clothes, a table and chairs and more.   Morgan and Emma enjoyed playing together all day.  When we were leaving Christmas night, Emma gave everyone hugs.  Inbetween giving the adults hugs, she would give Morgan yet another LONG hug.  It was so cute to see them actually playing together and not side by side.  It was a fun day.  The adults even had fun playing Lindsey and Matt’s Wii.  I love Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!
**Check out more pictures of Emma’s Christmas at Emma’s Photos, Christmas 2007.

  

I know I am 11 days late for her 20 month old update, but as you have read, Emma has been very busy and sick.  I have created a list of things Emma can do/knows.

1.  Can match and name several animals/items: horse, goat, bee, kitten, puppy, duck, bird, sheep, barn, chicken, cow, pig, fish, starfish, penguin, turtle, shoes, socks, butterfly, ball, blocks, puzzle, etc.
2.  Can undress herself – Shirt is still iffy, but the pants and diaper are easily removed
3.  Loves her hair blown dried and styled
4.  Has a morning routine: Lotion, deoderant, perfume, make-up, brush teeth, fix hair.  Everything mommy and Nana do.
5.  Can feed herself anything
6.  Can climb into our kitchen chairs (NOTE: we have the tall chairs, not regular short ones!)
7.  Can stack 10 blocks
8.  Can place stars, squares, triangles, and circles in the correct hole
9.  Likes to read books while she sits on the potty
10.  Emma loves to have her toenails painted and say they are pretty
11.  Eats with a fork or spoon with her left hand, but writes and eats with her fingers on the right hand
12.  Always has to have a bow in her hair
13.  Likes to watch the Laurie Berkner Show
14.  Loves to sing, dance, and clap
15.  Refuses to go to the nursery during church
16.  Every morning Emma loves to clean the leaves out of the pool and take out the trash with Poppy
17.  Likes to help cook
18.  Empties the silverware out of the dishwasher into the drawer
19.  Knows that Nana and Poppy go together, that Grandmother, Papa and Cheney go together, that Aunt Lindsey and Matt go together, that mommy, daddy, emma and darby go together
20.  Lives every moment to the max and loves life!

Tonight I was relaxing and reading my Parents magazine.  I came to a page titled “Hey baby what’s your sign?”  It is an article about horoscopes for baby’s talents and personalities.  I found it very funny and was laughing out loud.  If you know Emma Claire, then you know this is 100% correct:

ARIES * The Ram
Your child is a nonstop mover.  She’s a fan of energy-expanding activities, so let her play in a baby gym or bouncy jumper, take frequent trips tot he park, and navigate homemade obstacle courses.  Use bright colors when decorating her nursery.  Your fiercly independent child has to do things without mom’s help, whether it is holding the bottle, feeding herself, or cruising around the coffee table.  Encourage these behaviors since they’ll help foster your child’s growth.

Points that were funny:
1. Nonstop mover…..Yep
2.  Fiercly Independent….Yep
WOW, this hit the nail on the head.

On Sunday, Grandmother had a gingerbread house waiting for Morgan and Emma to decorate.  We would put the icing on and let them place the candy where they wanted it to go.  It was very funny to watch the two girls and their different strategies:
Morgan-the neat one that has to have everything just right, would look at the house, study it, then place a piece of candy on the house.  Ocasionally, she would say “Grandmudder, where??”  Grandmother then would help her find the “perfect” spot.
Emma-the easy going, whatever type, would place the piece of candy in her mouth, suck on it for a little bit, then place it on the house.  She would stick candy on top of candy, and randomly all over.  She even decided that when it was time to place the gingerbread men next to the house, that one was very tired and would take a nap.  She decided to lay him in the front yard.
Watching the two girls was great.  Pictures are under Emma’s Photos, Gingerbread House.

 

This year we took Emma to snow day again.  She liked it much better than last year.  She went in with me, but had way more fun with Poppy.  Poppy would make her snowballs and she would throw them at Nana, Papa, Mommy, and Daddy.  She also liked climbing over the orange barricade again and again.  See more pics under Emma’s pictures, Snow Day 2007.

 

 

Yesterday Emma started breaking out in a rash.  It started on her tummy and back.  Then quickly spread to her legs, arms and face.  We have called the doctor twice (which he has called back).  He said it is a viral rash and to continue the anti-biotics.  Some mom’s that have had children on the same antibiotics say to stop taking it and do benedryl.  I’m so stressed on what to do.  We took pictures this morning of the lovely rash.  Well, this afternoon, the rash was so much worse.  It was really red and more noticable.  I feel so bad for her.
***Update: The rash was a reaction to the antibiotic augmenten.  She will NEVER have it again.  The doctor and phamacy have both been notified!***

 

We have been talking to Emma for awhile now about going and seeing Santa.  She had planned on asking Santa for “Elmo, Abbey, and Big Bird”.  Today our neighborhood had cookies and Santa at the pool house.  We decided to go before Emma’s nap, since we were out and about getting Cherrios stuck in our nose. 
We get to the pool house and wait in the line of 2-3 people.  No problem.  Watching Santa…no problem.  Then I start walking towards Santa…PROBLEM!  From then on, Emma was NOT impressed with Santa.  We now have the classic crying picture with Santa.  Travis and I weren’t expecting much more, since this was her first meeting.  Maybe next year will be better. 

Today, we went to run some errands to Bed, Bath and Beyond, Best buy and to take pictures with Santa.  We were standing in line at Best Buy and I notice Emma has her index finger up her left nostril.  I told her to take it out and look in her nose.  I find a cherrio shoved way up in her nose.  I then asked, “Emma did you stick a cherrio up your nose?”  She shook her head yes.  A little later she sneezed and he came out.  It was a fun time.

Emma is doing much better.  She hasn’t had fever in the past couple of days and has started improving in attitude, eating and drinking.  I’m glad I do not have to go back for the pneumonia xrays.  We have also decided to keep her out of Mother’s day out for the month of December.  She will go back in January hopefully in better health.

Sunday morning Emma work up at 7:00 as normal in a GREAT mood.  We played and goofed around and really enjoyed ourselves.  Around 10:00, we decided to go to Lowe’s to start our home improvements.  While I was getting Emma dressed, I noticed Emma felt a little warm.  I figured it was because she had been active and running around.
During our trip to Lowe’s Emma continued to fill warm and then started to get cranky.  When we arrived home Travis took her temperature.  It was 101.  We gave her tylenol and then she took a nap. 
When Emma woke from her nap, the fever continued to go up.  All the way to 103.9.  I then placed several calls in to the doctor.  Even when we gave her tylenol or motrin her fever still wouldn’t drop below 101.   The pediatrician called and said if she didn’t get better to bring her in on Monday.
Monday I took her in and she tested positive for strep and her white blood count was way high.  She is on antibiotics and if she doesn’t improve in the next two days, we have to go back for chest x rays to see if it is pneumonia.  WOW what a few days. 

Oh, and needless to say she is a very HYPERactive sick child that doesn’t eat, sleep or sit still.  It is very fun!