The Zoo!

Sunday, May 23rd we went to the Norfolk zoo. We needed to get out of the house! It was a pretty morning so we left around 9:45. We got there and Emma immediately started making animal noises! It was like she knew exactly what was going on.

We saw the giraffes, elephants and lions. Emma calls giraffes "raffs" and made her elephant noise when seeing the elephants. Then, we stopped and had a lunch in the cafe. After lunch we went to the other side of the zoo and saw the farm animals, reptile house and monkeys. There were turkeys, sheep, pigs, cows and chickens that Emma thought were hilarious. Hannah fell asleep at the very last stop - the monkeys. The monkeys loved Emma. There were three of them that kept coming right up to her and entertaining her. It started to cloud up and sprinkle so we headed out around 12:30. It was a perfect amount of time. The kids slept on the way home. We took them both upstairs when we got home and they slept for another hour and a half. They were both really cute and Emma LOVED the animals!

My Cohort

Saturday, May 22nd my cohort celebrated the end of our program with a night out to dinner. We have become very close in two years! These people have been the people I have been around more than anyone (aside from my fam) in the past two years! We have had countless nights of classes, group projects, study sessions and group meetings. We have helped each other get through this program. We all agreed that we could not had done this program without the collaboration that we had from each other. We have experienced births, deaths, family issues, education drama, and we are all very excited to take the next step in our careers. Some of the group is done because of having previous graduate credits that counted toward their graduation. Some completed their student teaching last summer. A few of us still have some things to finalize, like myself, since we got a little behind (me due to having two children during this program!) We are going to continue to get together and possibly start our own book club. We agreed that we will not stop "meeting" because the program has ended! Honestly, this is one fantastic group of people and I am so grateful that I was able to work with them.

Sisters

Just another cute sister picture in some matching outfits! Emma still will not hold Hannah for a picture! They will be far apart in pictures forever! You can see Abby Cadabby is also in the picture. She is Emma's new favorite aside from Minnie. Abby goes everywhere Emma goes! Little Hannah loves her too and I need to get her an Abby doll, but I don't want Hannah to get Abby's yarn hair all in her mouth!

Connor's Birthday Party

Our little cousin, Conner had his birthday party on May 16th. He had it at Kangaroo Jacks. Emma was not a huge fan of all of the jumping, but I was so surprised that she participated in the party like such a big girl. I thought she would be attached to me, Bo or my mom, but she sat at the table, ate her pizza and cake and watched all of the present opening. She had a good time. It was really cute. Hannah slept through over half of the party!

Notice the "boo boo" she has on her forehead. She had a fall the Friday before. Her and Bo were playing "knock knock" on the door in our bedroom and she was having so much fun that she tripped, fell and hit the footboard of our bed. It scared me to death. We were right there with her, but it was just a situation where there was nothing you could do to control it. She was okay, it swelled like crazy immediately, but the swelling went down the next day and then she just had this scratch. Poor baby.

Sippy Cup

Hannah has started practicing with her sippy cup! She thinks it is more of a chew toy instead of something you can drink from, but she is getting there! I have started giving her some juice with her meals. She is really getting so big and I cannot believe she is almost eight months old!

My 2nd Mother's Day

I had such a nice Mother's Day this year - double the love. Emma and Hannah gave me the sweetest cards in the morning and a gift card to the spa that I love. I got it last year as well and it was just a great gift because I could use it at different times and have many "mommy" days. I never thought I would see the day to be a mom. Many know my story by now and I remember crying in the Hallmark store while shopping and seeing the "mommy to be cards" and thinking, "Why not me?" I am truly a mom who is grateful for my children. I love them so much and even though they are so little, they have their little ways of making me feel tremendously loved.

This year we went to church at my grandmother's church with her, my mom and my sister. After church we met up with my mom's family and enjoyed a very nice catered lunch. The mom's did not want to cook on Mother's Day! We had a very nice time together and went outside to get some pictures on the water.

Later that evening, we got together with my dad's mom with my family and cousin and his wife(who are pregnant!) and went out for dinner. It was nice to relax and spend time with the most wonderful people I know.

We will visit Raleigh in the next few weeks to celebrate Mother's Day with Bo's mom. She had to be out of town for the weekend.

I think it is so important to show our mothers how much we love them. I appreciate my mom so much and have learned so many things from her. She will still tell me when I am wrong or what I need to do to make something better. She has always had high expectations for me. I try so hard to make her proud and I never want to disappoint her. I know that I am a lot like her! I am proud to be her daughter! I love you mom!

Potty Training Success

Big day yesterday! Hannah turned 7 months old and Emma used the potty! I bought a potty chair for Emma over spring break. It had a part that you took off and then put on the "big potty." I used that one night with her and she liked it much better. Then, we got an Elmo potty seat for the "big potty." That was perfect and she wanted to sit on that one. We started the training slowly - just at night before bathtime. I was not going to stress over it and just started using the vocabulary of using the potty. Soon she started making cues that she was "wet." Emma would start to tell me when she needed her diaper changed and I just kept repeating the vocabulary. I also bought the pull ups and started using those during the daytime.

She started saying "poo poo" but never made it to the potty in time.

Last night was a huge success! She started saying "poo poo" while I was getting Hannah ready for her bath. So, while I had Hannah in the tub Emma was on the potty. She did not do anything. Hannah got out of the bath, Emma went in the bath. She immediately stood up and starting saying it again. So, I asked her if she needed to get back on the potty and she said, "uh huh." So, on the potty she went and - she went! She whined a little through it because she was so confused, but then we praised her all night long. She also went "pee pee" too. We still have a long way to go, but it was a great start! No picture of the process - I would not do that to my child -but here is one later that night! We are so proud of you Emma!

7 Months Old!

Hannah was 7 months old on May 3rd! I cannot believe what a big girl she is getting to be. Some major milestones this month included:

• reaching for everything
• getting a little temper when having to take something away
• putting herself to sleep at night (yes!)
• sitting up and playing for about 30 mins on her own
• recognizing songs
• outgrew the swing (up in the attic again until another baby comes)
• loves cold teething toys
• rolling over
• turning her head when she hears her name
• getting into a crawling position and moving her legs
• crying if you walk away from her

I cannot believe that she has been here for 7 months. The time is going by so fast. Hannah used to want to be rocked to sleep at night and now she stretches and moves for me to go lay her down. She will watch her aquarium toy in her crib until she falls asleep. She is losing some of the "baby" in her. She loves Emma so much it is not funny even though Emma not the best at sharing yet. We love you Hannah boo!

Sisters

Emma wanted to play on our bed while since Hannah was up there while I was getting ready. So, I snapped a few pictures of them while they were both happy!

Look at her hair sticking up! so cute!

cute outfits/more birthday

Here are some pics of more birthday for Bo. We had a little party for just us and then we had another big family party for my side of the family. Emma was dressed and ready to go shopping with her purse and necklace too.

Car Craziness

On Friday, April 16th we thought it would be a great idea to go watch my cousin play in his baseball game in Wakefield. This is the order of events from the evening - craziness with two kids and what happened to our car.

• I leave work and go to mom's house to get kids - we decide to go to ballgame


• Bo wants to go, so he drives to moms house and meets us


• We all depart (Bo, me, mom, emma &hannah) in the Hamrick van


• I drove, parked the van at the ballfield (about 45 mins away from home) and got everyone out


• Foul Ball was hit - ball lands on our windshield


• Glass goes everywhere, hole in the windshield, glass in the car


• We call insurance agent, decide we can't drive the car home due to the extensive windshield damage


• Had to switch the car seats from the van to my aunt's suburban


• It is dinner time, kids are cranky, I am stressed, trying to figure out what to do with the van


• My uncle and Bo contact a tow truck


• My dad has to come to Wakefield to bring my mom's vehicle so we can get home


• Car seats are in aunt's suburban, mom, me, kids, grandmother and two little cousins leave to go to a restaurant


• Bo and my uncle wait for the tow truck and my dad meets them at the ballfield


• diaper changes, we all eat dinner, then load into my mom's vehicle (and all of our stuff has now been switched twice), to get back home


• CRANKY kids in the car!!!!


• Arrive at mom and dad's again, switch all "stuff" to Bo's vehicle


• Drive back home


• Kids are driving me nuts


• It is now about 9:30 pm


• Get home, baths, bed


• no van until Monday


• I had to go to ODU on Saturday morning to just present all of my work from the hole semester - my nerves were already bad enough!


• Had to drive Bo's car to campus, left the lights on (I am not used to turning them off), battery went dead, strange location, had to go to fire station across the street to get the car jumped


• Sunday - couldn't go anywhere


• Monday - had to drive my mom's car to work
• Windshield gets replaced


• Monday afternoon - drive back to Wakefield with mom and kids to get the van, had to vacume the van at my aunt and uncle's house to get all of the glass out


• had to put car seats back in the van


• FINALLY things are back to normal

No other word can describe that evening and weekend other than CRAZINESS. I am not a very easy going person anyway. I like things to be organized and I don't deal well with chaos. I am trying to be better at this and I think I would have been somewhat better if I did not have such a big deal with graduate work the very next day. Anyway, all is done! Now I can laugh, but it was a very interesting weekend of events. Here is a picture of the van, which really does not do it justice. The whole was here, but cracks spread throughout the whole windshield.

There are always worse things that could happen! I know this! I just thought I would write about how many more things have to be thought through when you have children. I had to make many decisions (which I am not good at) about car seats, dinner, diapers, safety, and keeping the babies happy and safe. Situations like this can get complicated. My family was wonderful and helped me so much. My aunt and uncle even had the van kept at their house for us. Thanks for dealing with me! Love you all!