Back at it....one little bit at a time...

So, it's only been like 3 months and a bit! So here we go. I don't have much time to write at the moment so I'll make it short and sweet. Emma has been potty training for quite some time now but it seemed as if she had plateaued. She would go on the potty when we told her to, but she wouldn't go otherwise. In the last week, she went two days in a row without accidents while wearing panties. This was a great achievement but in the following week she still went pee on the potty but she refused to poo on the potty and decided instead to make a mess of her panties countless times! Today, she went poo on the potty all by herself twice without us saying anything! We're so excited!!!! We rewarded her with ice cream and many high fives! Hopefully this will be the beginning of the end of diapers for Emma!

Zachary has been growing like crazy! He's now just over 6 months old and is sitting up really well all on his own! He's started to scootch backwards a bit and man, can he move! His arms are so strong, he will spend a long amount of time trying to move around! It never ceases to amaze me how great out kids are! They are (usually) so calm, quiet, content and just overall great! We are very blessed!

On another note, I am hoping to put up another post and some photos this weekend.

Emma's Speech

Tonight at dinner, after a long hard day of work in the sun...

Emma: Daddy, don't cry, it's ok

Me: Daddy's not crying, daddy's ok. Daddy's just tired because he worked hard all day.

Emma: Did you work fast dad?

Me: Not as fast as I would've liked.

Emma: Did you do flyers daddy?

Me: No, daddy built the shed

Emma: OHHH!! Good job daddy!

Me: Thanks sweetie!

Me: You played outside with Caitlyn for a long time today. Did you have fun?

Emma: Yeah, I had fun with Caitlyn, I tripped and fell on the ground... I had a bath with Caitlyn!

Me: Oh that's good sweetie!

Emma just finished her taco salad, then asked for some of mine. After sharing some of my taco salad with Emma...

Emma: That's my juice, not daddy's juice!

Me: You're right, that is Emma's juice.

Emma: That's my taco salad, not daddy's!

Me: You're right, that is your taco salad.

Emma: Daddy, don't share it!

Me: (very confused) ....

Emma: Don't share my taco salad! Daddy you share your taco salad!

Me: Ok Emma.

The Things kids say

So the other night, we were having taco salad for dinner and then:

Daddy: Is that yummy Emma?

Emma: Yeah, that's yummy daddy!

Emma: (looks at her hands that are covered in taco salad) I'm yummy too!

Emma's lecture

So this is going to be a very short entry, but I just had to share this moment with you guys.

Me: Kristina has to go to work, but we're gonna go to mama and papa's. Doesn't that sound like more fun than work?

Emma: NO

Me: You would rather go to work with Kristina than go to mama and papa's?

Emma: YES!

Me: Emma, we can't go to Kristina's work, we're gonna go to mama and papa's.

Emma: Don't say no to me daddy.

Our Second Arrival

On Feb 16, we were due to have our second child. So we went in to the doctor around 2:30, who tried to speed things up a bit. We left the doctor's office and decided to get Karla walking a bit, so we made a trip to Home Depot to pick up some tools for me! As we were leaving the store, we had been debating going to Subway on the way home or not, and decided we would get the subs but take them home, since the Subway in the Home Depot was right in the entrance and it was a particularly cold day. As we were driving, Karla said that she didn't feel very good and that we should go home right away. We got home and Karla said that she was pretty sure that she was having contractions. I was really excited! The contractions were really far apart at first and so we decided to wait till they were closer together. We ended up watching the season premiere of Survivor, and Kristina joked that we would have to name the baby Jeff if the baby came during the show. The baby wasn't quite ready to come yet though. We went to bed around ten.

I woke up to my alarm at 6 and was quite tired and unmotivated to go to work. Karla said that she didn't think I should go to work today because the contractions were quite a bit closer together and stronger than they had been the day before. So we decided to go in to the hospital. We got everything into the car and got it all warmed up. We left for the hospital around 7:30. Once we got to the hospital they told us that they were extremely busy. We got into a room and they set up the baby monitors and checked to see how dilated Karla was. They said that she was about 2cm. They also said that the contractions needed to be closer together. They told us that they wanted to send us home and Karla got a bit upset. The doctor told us that they've done studies and it turns out that the people that go home and come back later have easier and quicker deliveries than those who stay at the hospital.

So we went home. Karla was really disappointed but she was able to nap a little bit and did some scrap-booking to get her mind off of it. Around 3:30 the contractions were close enough together that we went back to the Hospital. They told us that she was only 3-4cm. Karla was again really disappointed, they broke her water to speed things up and told us that we might have to wait for a room since they were so full. Thankfully a room cleared out shortly and we were able to get into a delivery room. They offered Karla laughing gas but it didn't really work for Karla. We asked for Morphine but the doctor said that they couldn't give Morphine when it looked to be a quick delivery. So Karla just kept on going without the drugs. Around 5:30 they told us that Karla was 9cm, but that she had to wait till she was fully dilated to push. During this time the contractions were only about a minute apart and on every one, Karla looked into my eyes and pleaded with me to make it stop and to let her push. She didn't say anything with her mouth, just her eyes. It was so hard to ask her to wait just one more contraction before she pushed. Over and Over again! 45 minutes later Karla said that she couldn't keep from pushing anymore and so they decided to let her push. Five minutes later, we heard some crying, and I got to cut the umbilical cord on our brand new baby boy! Zachary Riley! They poked and prodded him and measured him and told us that he was 8lbs, 10oz and 19.5" long. This means that Zachary was 1lb 5oz heavier than Emma was and 1.5" shorter than Emma!

Karla had to spend the first night there and so we got my parents to come and to bring Emma so they could all meet him. Emma had just been woken up before they brought her to the hospital, and she seemed very unimpressed about the whole thing! So I left Karla and Zach in the hospital and went home to get some much needed sleep. On my way home though, I had a burst of energy and fixed the paint touch-ups in the kids' rooms, and cleaned the house like crazy until about 1 in the morning. Then I went to bed and went back to the hospital in the morning.

When I got there, we decided that it would be best if Karla spent one more night in the hospital. So then Karla's parents came that day and met Zachary! Later, I went back home for one more night. The next morning, I went to pick up Emma on the way to the hospital and checked-out Karla and Zach shortly there after! We brought our family of four home for the very first time! On the way home Zach was crying and Emma was getting pretty frustrated and said "No more crying! Never!" It was very cute! Now when Zach cries, Emma will sing to him, give him his soother and rock his chair! She's really great with him! It's so interesting to see how her attitudes have changed already, just from becoming a big sister! It's great to see!

It's been a good week!

So I've got a few things on my mind that I'd like to type about today. First of all, my quality of life at work has vastly improved over this past week. Why you ask? I am no longer being forced to work with the boss's nephew!!! Hooray!!! I finished my shift on undergrounds and the boss's decided to keep my apprentice on undergrounds with the next guy! So now I get to work with a fourth year apprentice who does really great work and is really fun to work with. She's really easygoing and we get along well! This has really cut my stress level a lot even in just the first 3 days that I have worked with her. YAY!!!!

Secondly Emma had her last swimming lesson last Saturday and she did really well! She did her back-float, front-float, touching her ears to the water, bubble-blowing and jumping! Karla even got some great pictures which are up on the photos tab! They also gave us a certificate for finishing the course! It's great! We're going to try to do swimming lessons again sometime soon, and Karla wants to do dance lessons with her in the summer!

I finally finished painting the baby room! It looks pretty good, even if I do say so myself! Now we just need to get some bright white shelves and a rocking chair for in there, but that can wait for now. Karla got the crib all set up and moved the change-table back in to the baby room. Karla also found Emma a nice new wooden Ikea toddler bed for Emma which is really nice, and thanks to Kijiji, it was really cheap too!

I can't wait for Chris and Rachel to get here! They're coming this Sunday and staying for about a week! At first I wasn't sure if they would get a chance to meet our newest child, but now it's looking quite likely that they will get that chance! I'm so glad, I was really worried that this new baby wasn't going to set out into the new world until they were gone, since Emma was 10 days late! I'm gonna go give my wife a foot massage!

Emma's swimming lessons, among other things

So Emma and I have been going to parent-toddler swimming lessons for the past two Saturdays now, and I must say that the vast changes from her first week to her second are incredible! We start off with a shower which Emma used to freak out over (by this I mean, she would whimper and cling to me with an amazingly strong death-grip), but now she just giggled the whole time! After our shower we have to wait until the other classes are done and then we get to go in the main pool! Emma walks in the water or sometimes I'll put her on her belly and "moter boat" her in the water to where our class meets. Our class supposedly consists of about 15-20 parent-tot groups but this week there were significantly less groups that showed up than last time. Once we're all in the water we do some action songs, like the Hokey-Pokey, and Along Came Herman the Worm and some more that I can't remember right now. Some of the actions that the kids do in these songs include floating on their bellies, floating on their backs and jumping in and out of the water, putting their ears and eyes in the water and blowing bubbles! Emma used to absolutely panic whenever water touched her ears but now she just giggles! It's so great! Last week Emma pretty much just clung to me the entire time, save for a few minutes with the slide. This week, she was fighting me to get out of my arms, even where the water was deeper than she was tall! One of the funniest parts of the lesson last week was when the instructor put a bunch of rings on the floor of the pool in a spot that was about as deep as Emma's mid-thigh. Emma got all excited and went to reach for it and before I could even warn her, she plunged her face into the water, quickly pulled herself out with a look of total shock and dismay on her face and then promptly began to cough and cry. This week I've been working on getting her to keep her mouth closed before she reaches for the rings, but this lesson will take a little while yet as she will close her mouth and then just when she's about to get the ring and put her face in the water, she goes "HA HAAAA!"Another part of the lesson gives us some time to go to the edges of pool and get our kids to jump from the wall of the pool into the water. Last week, I would grab Emma in the arm pits and jump her into the water. This week I only held her hands for the first two jumps and then I didn't hold her at all and asked her to jump to me and she did, with very little hesitation I might add! Then she did it again, and again, and her jumps got bigger and bigger each time! It's so exciting to see how quickly she has become more confident and comfortable in the water!

I was talking with another dad that was there with his 16-month old daughter and he was saying that this was his daughter's second time in the lessons and that his wife had taken her last season. So I've been talking to Karla and we're seriously considering doing another set of classes after this one. Emma really enjoys them and it's a great chance for some Daddy-Emma time, and it's really cheap at only 53$ for both of us for six weeks! Karla also suggested that we should look and see if Emma and Caitlyn could be in the same class and then Steffan, Caitlyn, Emma and I could all go together! That'd be a lot of fun for everyone, I think!

Next Saturday, Karla is hopefully going to come to the lessons to take some pictures and then I'll be posting them as soon as possible for all of you!

My one complaint about the swimming lessons, is about the family bathrooms. Their purpose is to provide a space that is suitable for families with small children. This way parents can go in with their babies and small kids and change in the stalls provided. The first problem is that the space is way too small. The boys change-room in comparison to the family change-room is a bit more than twice as big. Also in the family change-room there are only 3 stalls for families to change in. To give you some perspective, when I used the family change-room the first week, there were probably a dozen or so families trying to get all of their members dressed and ready. Also there is only one change-table! What's with that? A family change-room that had at least a dozen babies in it after one set of lessons, and there's only space provided to change one baby's diaper at a time? You have got to be kidding me! So after that week, I vowed to try the guys change-room thinking that it definitely couldn't be worse. This week, there were maybe 3-5 other men in the room with their little kids. There was so much more space and even more showers! It was a much more pleasant experience! All of this begs the question, why? Why should the family change-room be so poorly equipped and sized when it is safe to assume that families take longer to get ready, need more space and have more people? All of the other parents that I talked to who used that family change-room had the same complaints as me and a lot of them have decided to use either the men's or the women's change-room. Eventually wouldn't this family change-room become obsolete? So what's the point of having a "family" change-room if it only discourages families from using it? The only problem with using the guys change-room is that there is no change-table at all! But I guess when you consider that I would have to wait in a long line for the one table that they do have, it's not really worth complaining about, so I'll just bring a change-pad for Emma and change her on the bench. So from now on I will be frequenting the guys change-room and will continue to have a peaceful time getting ready for lessons and getting changed afterwards.

All in all though, I'm really excited to be doing these lessons with Emma and she loves them a lot too! I always find myself looking forward to Saturday mornings, despite how cold they've been as of late! I'll keep you up to date with more of Emma's progress throughout the next 4 weeks, and hopefully with pictures in the next week or so!