A day of Milestones

What a day! And I missed it all! :(

I talked to Phil earlier today (while I was at work) and he said, "One of our daughters has a tooth!!". It took him a minute, but he finally told me which one. :) Emma has her first tooth...you can't see it, but you can feel it.

Callie may be toothless, but she's "talking". She's been saying "dada" all day. Of course, Phil is thrilled...nevermind that she's just making a sound and not really saying "daddy", but we'll let him believe what he wants. :)

Well, the girls are calling - time to eat! :) I guess this will be a short and sweet entry today - I did want to make sure I had it on record so I can update their baby books. :)

Look, Mama, the moon is smiling!

That's what Josh said to me when we were leaving for school this morning. :) There was just a sliver of moon showing and it did look like a smile.

Of course, he then goes on to ask why it's still dark and the moon is out and not the sun. I really need to go back and learn all about the sun and moon! He asks me these questions all the time and it's not going to be long before he wants more answers than I can give. :)

Josh wants to know EVERYTHING! So many times, he'll say something and I'll ask him who taught him that piece of information and he always says, "Nobody, I just learned it myself". :)

I'm taking Josh out this afternoon to find a Spiderman costume. I just hope and pray that Walmart still has one! Hopefully, he will settle for something else if there's no Spiderman costume. He wants to be Spiderman this year because one of his friends was Spidey last year. Oh, the peer pressure!! HA!

Callie & Emma Updates

The girls had an appointment this morning to be evaluted by a doctor to see if they needed any therapy.

Both girls will receive some occupational therapy and Emma will receive a little bit of physical therapy.

Neither were in really bad shape, but a few things can be done to make things easier on them later. Callie's skills are right where they need to be (sitting, picking things up, transferring them from hand to hand, etc.). But, she gets rather stiff when she's being picked up - it's like she's not comfortable with being picked up. They can do some things to help that...nothing major.

Emma needs a little bit of help with some of her milestones...she's not as interested in picking things up and transferring them from hand to hand - unless she's REALLY interested in it. :) She also is still having trouble sitting up (again, not behind in her milestones - just behind Callie). The dr said her hamstrings were tight and that was prohibiting her from sitting as well as she could.

We're probably only looking at 3-4 months of therapy. We go for our first session on October 14. We'll find out more than what all will be involved. We meet with this doctor again in January...hopefully, after that, we won't need too much more. We know Emma will need some speech therapy later on and that will be re-evaluated then. She said that since Emma's making sounds now, there's no need for speech at this point.

Our doctor also has a set of twins, so she's very familiar with the way they can be...very different and/or very alike. Our girls are very different. :)

If we can do things now to prevent future problems, then we'll do all we can. The girls are in good shape, but just need a little guidance. :)

Fun Weekend!

Wow, what a weekend!!

Friday night, we went to the Balloon Festival at Pellissippi State. It was kind of an impromptu time - we hadn't planned on going, but decided to do it at the last minute. Josh had a blast. They had all kinds of things for the kids to do.

Saturday morning, Josh had a soccer game. :)

It's a good thing they don't keep score, because I don't think we would have won. :) Josh looked cute out on the field, though!


After the game, we went to the zoo. My company had a picnic there on Saturday. Josh had a blast! He played in Kid's Cove for a good long time and then loved looking at all of the animals. :)

He did NOT want to leave!

We've decided to become zoo members - which will give us unlimited access to the zoo. This will make a good, cheap outing when we need something to do. It's $75 per year for all 5 of us...not a bad deal...that includes zoo admission, parking, discounts at other zoos, discounts at the gift shop, etc.

We were all very tired after our outings! We came home and crashed Saturday night and then took a long afternoon nap on Sunday.

It was nice to have some good family time.

Emma's Doctor Appointment

Emma had an appointment with the plastic surgeon yesterday. It was horrible!

The dr had to expand her mouth piece and that was a nightmare. Phil and I had to hold Emma down while the doctor did his thing. He had his whole hand in her mouth (well, not really, but it looked like it). He had a hard time getting the screw turned...it sounded horrible. Emma screamed the whole time.

It took about 10 minutes to get her settled down. Poor thing! :( I have never heard a more pitiful cry in my life. After we left, I took the girls downstairs to feed them (actually, Callie had eaten, but Emma hadn't). Phil ran to pick Josh up from school while I was taking care of the girls. A few minutes after Emma ate, she was sound asleep. The whole ordeal just wore her out (and me, too).

We have to go back next month and do the same thing. :(

On the plus side, once we got home, she seemed to be okay. I expect her to be a little sore today. This is kind of like getting braces tightened.

Soccer Practice and other stuff

Josh had his first soccer practice since before Labor Day this past week (no practice on Labor Day and then we were on vacation).

I was so impressed! He actually listened and semi paid attention! He really did a great job at practice...he still doesn't quite get the game concept, though. He waits for his turn before kicking the ball, even though there is no turn to take. :) He'll play in his first game on Saturday. The team has had 2 games, but we've missed them both since we were on vacation.

After the game, we're going to the zoo. My company is having a picnic there...what a cool idea. It's about time they did something the whole family could enjoy. :) We'll go and eat lunch with the company and then we're on our own. Josh loves the zoo. Of course, I'm not sure if we'll get out of Kid's Cove or not.

Emma has a doctor's appointment tomorrow. I think the the dr will adjust her mouth piece (by turning a screw). I hope it doesn' t hurt her. I have a feeling she may be sore for a day or 2. :( She's been kind of fussy the last day or 2 - she may be working on some teeth - who knows?

Callie's doing great - she was a litte fussy on the way back from the beach, but she's back to her happy self now.

The girls had their first taste of green beans the other day. Surprisingly, they ate them all! I really didn't think they'd like them after eating carrots and sweet potatoes.

Emma is only eating about 1/2 jar a day and Callie eats a whole jar of babyfood. We can probably start upping that and giving them babyfood twice a day.

Home from the beach

Whew, what a week! We left for Myrtle Beach, SC last Saturday at 6:00 in the morning. We met up with my parents and sister at 7:00 in Sevierville. We finally got to MB at 3:00 that afternoon. It took a little longer than planned with the girls. Every time we stopped, it took an hour! Yikes! It's not like we took our time either - we went to the bathroom, changed the girls and fed the girls...it just took that long!

We ate at Lee's Inlet Kitchen Saturday night. We were afraid we were going to be chased out of town by Tropical Storm/Hurricane Ophelia, so we didn't want to miss Lee's Inlet! :) Sunday and Monday were fairly nice. It started getting a little windy on Monday. Mom and I tried to sit out on the beach, but kept getting blown away. Every time mom would move, her chair would mess up.

Mom, Dad and Wendy left on Tuesday morning for fear of what Ophelia was going to do. Phil and I decided to stay. It didn't look like it was going to hit us directly, so we felt safe. We're glad we stayed. We ate lunch out on Tuesday and then stayed in the room Tues afternoon and Wed morning. We were finally able to get out Wed night for supper. It was a little windy and rainy during that time, but we never felt threatened. We didn't lose power. We did lose internet, though.

By Thursday, everything was gorgeous again. The ocean was back to normal and the sun was out hot. We took the girls down to the kiddie pool and let them float around in their little rings. I don't think they were all that impressed. :) Josh, on the other hand, couldn't get enough of the pool. He was okay with the ocean, but he liked the pool much better.

We left Saturday morning around 11:00 and got home around 9:00 or so. Again, the trip took much longer than expected. :)

We stayed at Crescent Shores in North Myrtle Beach and we hope to stay there again for future visits. It was gorgeous! We stayed in a 2 bedroom condo - which was 1450 square feet, so it was very spacious. It had an extra large balcony on it, which was very nice. We stayed on the 5th floor which was just about right, I think. I wouldn't mind staying in that exact same unit the next time!

We have posted pictures from our adventures. We didn't take nearly as many pictures as we usually do - we're falling down on the job!

Places we ate:
Lee's Inlet Kitchen (Murrell's Inlet)
Captain Nance's (Calabash)
Crabby Mike's (buffet - Surfside)
Captain John's (Calabash) - our new place - very good
Berry's Seafood Market (we ate in one night).

We would recommend all the places above...we always have our favorites (Lee's Inlet and Captain Nance's, but we do try to do one new place each time). Captain John's may become a close favorite to Captain Nance's...the menu wasn't as big, but the quality of the food seemed to be a tad better (and Captain Nance's is great!).

Back to Work

Ugh - the weekend just wasn't long enough!!

It's back to work for me...yuck! Oh well, only 4 days until the beach. I can't wait!!

Phil is taking Emma back to the doctor today - just to have her ears checked again. Hopefully, all is clear. She's been in a pretty decent mood the last couple of days. :)

When we were having our pictures made on Saturday, the gal that was taking them was bribing Josh to make him smile. She told him that he would have to ask his daddy if he could have some chocolate ice cream if he smiled. Well, after that, he did give a little smile. We weren't able to get ice cream on Saturday. But, yesterday while we were out, Josh told us that we had to get some chocolate ice cream because that lady that took our pictures said so! This child has a memory like a steel trap!

Josh has been very interested in the hurricane that just hit New Orleans. They've been talking about it in school and now everytime he sees something on tv about it, he wants to watch it! He's asked several questions about it. I think he's more interested in the trucks that the "army men" are taking to help the people. He did find a teddy bear that he wanted to give to someone. They're taking up teddy bears at church, so we'll make sure he puts it in the box tomorrow night.

I'm Skipping to my Lula!

That's what Josh just told me. LOL He said that he and his friends skipped to their lula in Miss Nancy's class at school. Should I bother telling him that it's really Skip to my Lou? Hee hee

We took the kids to have their pictures made yesterday. Josh was very uncooperative when it came to smiling. He said the "Cat had his smiler" (instead of the cat having his tongue). :) He's so funny! So, we had some very somber looking pictures from Josh, but the girls both gave some good smiles. :) I just wish it wasn't going to be 3 weeks before we got them back!!

I love long weekends. We're suppose to be getting ready for our vacation next week. We're going to Myrtle Beach on Saturday the 10th with my parents and my sister. We're so ready to be there now!!

The girls will be beach babes this time next week. :)

Both girls are doing great. Callie is sitting up, grabbing at everything and is generally very happy. Emma is close to sitting up and is very interested in watching everything - even if she doesn't participate yet.

I think I'm off to take a short nap (if the kids will all cooperate). HA!