Thursday, January 31, 2008

Big Girl Bed!!!



From time to time we have asked Emma when she was going to move from her toddler bed to her "big girl bed" and the standard answer has been "When I'm 4". She really surprised me last night when after her bath and rocking time she leaned over and laid her head on it and told me that she wanted to sleep in her big girl bed! I didn't waste any time pulling back those covers for her!!! Of course this was a picture taking moment :-)

She looks SO sweet when she's sleeping.

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Ryan's Birthday Day Out



I got sidetracked yesterday before I finished the post ... but anyway, as I was saying - every year I celebrate Ryan's birthday with a special day out & let him decide the agenda for the day. Within reason of course.

This year we started out our day with a snack at Panera Bread (he is SO my child), off to a sports store to buy a Carson Palmer jersey, an hour or so at Border's (I've never met a child that loves a book store as much as he does), lunch at Penn Station, a trip to Bed, Bath & Beyond to buy a cap organizer for his room and then off to see the new Veggie Tales movie. I was worn out at the end of the day!

The only downside to the day was that Emma was scared during the movie and asked every other minute when it was going to be over. There is definitely a down side to not parking your child in front of a tv! We had tried to watch "Finding Nemo" not too long ago and it scared her so much that she was crying the most pitiful of cries. Bless her little bones.

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

More Birthday Stuff

Since Ryan's birthday always falls close to the MLK holiday, I always take him out for the day & let him pick and choose where we go and what we do. It's been funny over the past years to see what his choices would be and to find out the things that are important to him. One year I remember him asking to go out and eat "chicken fried steak", not that I ever remember him having it prior to that and especially considering he used to not like mashed potatoes - but nonetheless, that's what he wanted and that's what we had! Another year he wanted to go to the dollar store.

One year we went to the science museum and for a ride on the trolley. There's a funny story there. I think he had just turned 4 and riding the trolley was the main thing for the day. We caught one downtown and had only gone a few blocks when I could tell he was getting restless. It was my first time to ride it too, but at least I knew that trolleys start and stop, they let people on - they let people off. Well, it was a blistry cold, cold day and we were in a diverse group of people with some of them looking like they may be homeless. Anyway, we're riding along and as I said - Ryan is getting restless. About the 4th stop or so, he says in his really loud voice "THESE PEOPLE ARE WASTING MY TIME". Needless to say, we got off at the next stop and walked back to the museum.

Friday, January 25, 2008

Soccer

Emma has been telling us that she wants to play soccer this year. The other night she asked us "where's my soccer glove?"! I'm thinking we may need to hold off on signing her up and just go with t-ball since we have bought her a really cute pink t-ball glove.

Kids are so darn funny ...

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Double Digits - Ryan turned 10!




(We had Ryan's party at an indoor water park - in case you're wondering why the swimsuits in the middle of January).

My sweet, snuggly, big ol' boy turned 10 yesterday! I can't help but think about how quickly these past ten years have gone and can only imagine that he will be 16 in the blink of an eye. Bless his little bones, starting on Sunday he had to hear the stories and timeline of the events leading up to his birth 10 years ago. Some of the details he seemed interested in and some he didn't!

Around noon on the 20th - my water broke at work, in the break room nonetheless. I had an appointment with my doctor anyway so I was going to drive myself. Someone had already called Brian and had told me that no, I wasn't driving anywhere. I can remember thinking 'hey, wait a minute - I'm in control here'! Somewhere I had read that typically your water has to be broken for you so I had assumed that I would fall in line with the statistics and hadn't thought to prepare for that part of all this.

A co-worker drove me to my appointment where Brian was waiting for me. The doctor told me to go on to the hospital but it was a week or so before I was due so a bag was not packed. We drove to the house to pack a bag and I was taking my sweet time. I can remember Brian fussing at me to hurry up, that all of my stalling wasn't going to slow the process down. My main problem though was that I wanted to change clothes but apparently I was behind on laundry and I didn't have an "outfit" that matched. For some reason, he had absolutely no sympathy for that problem. "But I can't go to the hospital not matching" fell on deaf ears. My reasoning was that we had plenty of time, statistically speaking labor lasts 12 hours - we had plenty of time. Brian wasn't buying it so off to the hospital we went. Sure enough though, he wasn't born until after midnight so I technically did have time to do that load of laundry.

Anyway, it was kind of fun running through all those stories with him and Emma seemed to enjoy them as well. She really likes to hear me talking about Ryan kicking me back when he was still in the womb and I was at work, deep in thought working on a problem and it scaring the bejabbers out of me. Not sure why, but both of them think that is pretty funny. I suppose the way I sat when I was pregnant with him, with my belly right up to the desk bothered him or something but he would kick at the pressure.

So now 10 years later, here we are - he's up to my chin and still tries to sit in my lap even though he outgrew it several years ago. I don't discourage it though as I'm sure that all too soon he will realize he's too old for that. He's my little lovebug no matter how old he gets!

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Hope

We also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who he has given us.

Romans 5:3-5

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Smarter Than A 3 Year Old?

You know the little note pad/grocery list type things that have a magnet so you can hang on your fridge? Well, last night as I was washing dishes Emma was playing with one and had torn a sheet off. She asked me how many I wanted and I told her none since I was washing dishes. She said that if I didnt want one then she didn't want one either and asked me how to put it back on. I tried explaining that once it was torn off, you couldn't put it back on. For a good full minute, Emma was extremely quiet - and when she's quiet you better check and see what's going on because it's probably not good. However, I could somewhat see her out of the corner of my eye so this time I wasn't too worried. A few minutes later she tells me "I did it!". What I found was that she had taken the torn off sheet and placed it under the last sheet so that the magnet was still holding it on, it just wasn't attached!

The next thing I know, my baby girl is going to be teaching 'Thinking Outside the Box' seminars in Corporate America. Was I shown up or what!?

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Jump Rope for Heart!

(FROM RYAN)

Dear Hunter Happenings Readers -

Hi! I’m joining in the American Heart Association’s Jump Rope For Heart event at my school. I will be jumping rope to help the American Heart Association raise money to fight heart disease and stroke. Can you help me by making a donation? Thanks!

For the past two years I have been fortunate enough to have the most donations for our school. Here's the link for the post from last year:

http://http://hunterhappenings.blogspot.com/2007/03/jump-rope-for-heart.html

I would appreciate any help I could get in being the top earner again!

The American Heart Association's online fundraising website has a minimum donation amount of $25.00. If you want to donate less, that's ok. You can just send the check right to me and I'll make sure the American Heart Association gets it.

Follow This Link to visit my personal web page and help me in my efforts to support American Heart Association – Great Rivers Affiliate


http://http://www.kintera.org/faf/r.asp?t=4&i=249042&u=249042-201418716&e=1459171646

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Some email systems do not support the use of links and therefore this link may not appear to work. If so, copy and paste the following into your browser:

http://www.kintera.org/faf/r.asp?t=4&i=249042&u=249042-201418716&e=1459171646
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Thanks!!!
Ryan Hunter

Friday, January 11, 2008

Guidance

Whether you turn to the right or the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying "This is the way, walk in it". Isaiah 30:21

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Traveling to China

While Emma and I were rocking the other night, she told me that when we go to get her sister that she doesn't want to go to China. I asked her why but wasn't really getting a good reason out of her. She sat up and looked at me as sweetly as can be and told me that she wanted to stay home with me and that papa could go to China to get her sister. I told her that papa & I both have to go and explained how we both had gone to get her and that Ryan had gone too. I about fell out of the chair laughing though when she asked "Why can't papa do it himself. Wouldn't he be able to pick out the right baby?" LOL- If only it were so easy ...

We had a similar conversation the next night and this time she suggested Ryan & I go and that she stay home with papa. Again I asked why she didn't want to go and this time she told me it was because she is afraid of Panda bears. We then had to discuss how the bears are in the zoo, not just walking around on the streets. It really makes you wonder where they come up with some of the things they do!

Saturday, January 5, 2008

Emma's Christmas Program



The childcare center had a holiday program this year for the little ones with cookies and punch being served at the conclusion of the program. Emma was so tickled to be in the program and to have her Santa hat on. She was really belting the songs out when she was practicing at home but was a little more timid up on the "stage". She still did a good job though. Not only did she sing the songs with her age group, but she also had a line in the pre-k's part too (they didn't have enough children for their song) so she said the "4 calling birds" part for the "12 Days of Christmas" song.

I need to figure out the technicalities of my digital camcorder and download the video!

Thursday, January 3, 2008

Referrals


Referrals are creeping right along ... this last batch only covered through 12/19/05. The one prior to that had covered through 12/14/05. Not much progress.