Great News!

This weekend we got an offer on our house, accepted it, and are now moving in two weeks!! Thank the good Lord! I am so excited and have so much to do I can hardly believe it. Hope everyone had a Happy Easter and I may be out of commission for the next few weeks.

Procrastinating

I should be cleaning the house because we have a showing tomorrow, but instead I thought I should update. Our house still hasn't sold and has been on the market now for 10 months!! UGH!! Our house that we built has been ready for us since January, but we just put it on the market as well. Very depressing. I am trying to stay optimistic about this whole situation, but am very frustrated. I am tired of trying to keep an immaculate house with two very messy little girls, one very hairy dog, and a husband. Need I say more?! I am also so sick of feeling anxious all the time. Okay, now that I have that off my chest...

Recently I decided to go back to my old hospital pool speech position that I held before Emerson was born. I quit working when Emerson was so incredibly colicky. Well, now it's time to go back. I have committed to work 3 shifts per month, all on the weekend. I know, not much, but when you haven't worked for two years it seems like a lot. I will be working in acute care doing mainly swallowing, speech, language, and cognition. Most of the folks I'll treat are post-stroke, although, there is a big variety. I feel a bit rusty and will spend a bit of time training and reaclimating myself. I'm pretty excited to go back to work doing a job I absolutely love.

The girls are doing well and we are keeping busy. Ella is such a bright kid and is obsessed with learning to read. She just got it in her head that she should be doing this, so we're giving it a whirl. I'm not sure what I'm doing, but I'm trying both phonics and sight words. She is also very funny and feisty lately. I think we are all ready for Spring. Yesterday, she got so frustrated with something and I heard her say, "OH DAN!!" Well, I inferred what she was trying to say and told her to never say, "Oh Dan" again.

Emerson is such a joy and is sooooo lovable. However, she can be needy. She loves to be held and spends most of her day following me around and asking for "up". She is saying more and more words and has new ones every day. Last night after I put her to bed she started crying hysterically. I thought for sure she was hurt and ran up to see what was the matter. As soon as I opened the door, she broke out in a huge grin and said, "Oh, hi mommy!". What a stinker, but she still got a huge kiss and hug before replacing her back in her crib.

Terrible Two's??!!

Emerson is changing so much every day. Most of the time the changes I see in her are so amazing. She is talking more, signing more, and walking more easily. Some changes are also occurring that are so cute, but I realize that they are WS related and will need to be worked on sooner rather than later. A big change that I've seen in her is the extreme social behavior. She is afraid of no one and everyone is her best friend. Examples that I've seen lately; walking up to a shoe sales woman who was kneeling on the floor, touching her arm, crouching so they are face to face and saying, "hi, hi, hi, hi!"; going up to a strange man and holding out her arms and saying, "up!". While this is completely adorable now and she gets all kinds of positive feedback, I've decided that I need to start setting expectation right away. I've tried to think of what is appropriate and what will work long term. I think I'm going to try and let her just say "hi" to people. No touching, no high-fives, no blow kisses, just one single "hi". I think about all of these other ways to greet people, but in a few short years they will be very inappropriate with strangers. I know that she is only two, but this oversocial behavior has come on so strong and literally happened overnight. She has no fear and loves everyone. I've seen her try and kiss strangers. Any advise from the moms with older kids would be very much appreciated.

Another big change in Emerson is the new two year old attitude. She is getting into so much trouble lately. She eats Newman's dog food, dumps his water out, plays in the toilet, drops toys in the toilet, trys to flush them down, opens our entertainment center and empties it, steals towels and walks around with them on her head. Yes, she is a complete goof ball. When I tell her "NOOO!", she now has a tantrum with throwing herself around on the floor, turning red, screaming, and growling at us. She has also put her mouth on me a few times as if to bite me, but thankfully, chose otherwise.