Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Smith family!

We decided to forgo the irritating portrait studios and the stiff collared shirts this year (again)!

So, this is Christmas 2009's family portrait!

There are more pictures to come later, we have an appointment to do Emmie's 2 year portraits at four today. Hopefully she is amenable and we get a bunch of sweet ones. We are also going to decorate the tree, put up some Christmas-y things and get the house in order for our (military) family to be here on Christmas day. I'm so excited about our secret santa gift exchange this year!

Well, I'm out of here for now. I have to get some things in order so we can be ready for the portrait session!

Sesame Fabulous

In addition to all the amazing things we did on our recent trip to Pennsylvania, we decided to pay a visit to Sesame Place.

Knowing that my mom, myself and now my daughter have Sesame Street to file in our memory banks as favorite childhood memories I knew we just had to visit.

The park itself was closed, save for the dining hall, the merry go round and the gift shop. Of course, this wasn't ideal in my mind.

We went for Breakfast With Elmo instead of the full park experience. I joke that it was the best worst food I've ever eaten. In fact, I only vaguely remember eating the "eggs" and half a sausage link because we were working that time with the characters. It turned out that Big Bird, Elmo, Ernie, Bert, Telly and Zoe came to eat breakfast too!

The day after Thanksgiving was the perfect day to go. I assumed there would be a zillion people there, what with kids off school for break. I couldn't have been more wrong! There may have been 12-15 other families there. Not more than 20 kids total. Talk about a dream!

Emersen met Big Bird first. She was terrified! I thought to myself "Grand. We paid all this money, drove all this way and I had so many hopes and she's going to be freaked this whole time." It was about that moment, Elmo came out from the doors behind Big Bird. Emersen practically threw herself at him, talking a mile a minute about his eyes and nose and ears. (She's very interested in body parts right now!) A rush of relief fell over my whole body! This trip was worth it! I cried. I was so relieved!

A mother has certain hopes and dreams for her child. Some may be fulfilled, many will not. One hope I've always had for Emersen, was that she would have the opportunity to have a dream of hers come true. I know she is only going to be two this year, and that she couldn't say "Mommy, I really want to meet Elmo!" However, her face and that day and her experiences and how she still talks about meeting Elmo and friends tells me that she had thought about how cool it would be to talk to them and see them in person.

As her mother, I want to show her that I am her most powerful ally in helping her achieve life goals and dreams. I was the proudest mama there. My baby was polite, she was respectful and AND! she was having the time of her life. Yes, all two years of it. My child's dream came true, and I made it happen. (With so much help from Aunt Traci, Uncle Joe, Nana and Papa. A huge heartfelt thank you to you guys. You rock!)

She beeped each character's nose. She tied Ernie's shoes. She danced with Ernie and Elmo. She got a jumping party started with all the kids and the characters. She clapped along with Ernie while Elmo sang a Christmas carol. She had a very passionate conversation with Zoe.

This is my 2 year old! She's incredible. I thank my lucky stars we live in the "Information Age" and can have things like YouTube to post videos that she still watches with utter glee.

We have probably no less than five hundred pictures from three different cameras on that day alone. I will pick my favorites, and post them to picasa soon. Right now, you just get these teasers!

In Celebration Of Emmie's 2nd Birthday

1. How long had you been married at the time of the birth? 4 years, 1 month and 13 days.

2. What were your reactions when you found out that you were pregnant? Over the moon excited, elated, worried, happy, concerned and just surprised!

3. How old were you? I was 24 when I found out and 25 when she was born.

4. How did you find out that you were pregnant? I took a series of home pregnancy tests, followed by two tests at the Naval Hospital.

5. Who did you tell first? Since I was out running errands when I found out I called everyone I knew except for Paul. I wanted to surprise him! (Funny story, Mattie and I were out and she practically dared me to take a test so we bought one at Dollar Tree and I took it in the Tuesday Morning bathroom. The employees did look a bit concerned when she and I started jumping up and down like idiots and crying!) I ended up bringing him a chinese food takeout box purchased at a craft store. Inside was a teeny tiny t-shirt with the test wrapped in it. I told him I brought him some leftover lunch, and when he looked inside he was shocked!

6. Did you find out the sex? I had to! From the very beginning, I knew in my heart of hearts that this baby would be a girl. So, if the baby ended up being a boy I would need time to adjust. Plus, I had to shop! What else was I going to fill my days with!

7. Due date? January 20th, 2008

8. Did you deliver early or late? Quite early. My body decided it could no longer agree with being pregnant and decided to shut down. Emersen entered this world 3 weeks and 2 days early.

9. Did you have morning sickness? Not so bad, only for about a month but I quickly learned that eating small amounts of food before I got hungry to eat would stave off the sickness.

10. What did you crave? Sandwiches! Any kind of sandwich anytime! I most craved Quiznos but if I would eat it I would feel sick! So, I stuck to homemade sandwiches mostly!

11. Who irritated you most? I didn't spend a lot of time irritated, but one day I did throw a box of ziploc bags at Paul for being sassy!

12. What was your first child's sex? The most girly of all girls.

13. How many pounds did you gain throughout your first pregnancy? Not much at all. The first half of the pregnancy agreed with my body and I actually lost weight and grew a healthy baby at the same time!

14. Did you have any complications during your pregnancy? None during the pregnancy, unless you count the delivery!

15. Where did you give birth? At Madigan Army Medical Center, which was one harrowing fifty minute ride in the snow, in an ambulance with the lights on. Yikes.

16. How many hours were you in labor? I'd been having some major contraction/liver failure pain from the 21st through my hospital admittance. I remember spending Christmas on the floor with pillows everywhere and a heating pad on my belly. In hindsight, I should have seen the clues! The hospital paper work says total labor was 80 hours!

17. Who drove you to the hospital? Paul drove me to the Naval Hospital, and my fabulous ambulance driver Mitch and his sidekick Dave flew my chariot to MAMC.

18. Who watched? Um, pretty much everyone was an active participant. Nicole F. held my hand through the crazy contractions. My mom massaged my poor super swollen feet and hands, and provided chapstick....a vital part of labor! Paul was there for moral support but the poor thing looked like a lost dog!

19. Did you take medicine to ease the pain? Yes I did. Paul and I had planned for a drug and medical intervention free birth, but that plan went out the window when I was diagnosed with Pre-Eclampsia and HELLP syndrome. Having to be strapped down to a bed with countless monitors for me and the baby, it was quite painful. I resisted medication to ease the pain, thinking I could do it myself. However, when the contractions became to painful to breathe through and since breathing was all I could do (could not walk around, take a bath etc) I decided it was time to get an epidural.

20. How much did your baby weigh? She was just a little peanut at 5 pounds, 1 ounce. The doctor's had estimated seven pounds, but that was strictly by my weight gain, and I had gained an extra ten or so pounds in fluid alone those last couple of days.

21. What did you name your first born baby? Emersen Lynn S****. Her middle name is after my mom, as my middle name is after my mom's mom. I'm hoping she'll continue that tradition.

22. How old is your baby today? She is a bouncy 1 year, 11 months and 16 days.