Not the Boudreaux's Again!!

Well, not too long ago (during the summer, I think) the boys were supposed to be napping while I was gone to get my hair done and Hunter was downstairs napping. Unfortunately, that's not what they were doing. See above pictures!

They had gotten a hold of the "Vat" of Buttpaste that we keep in their room for diaper changes and managed to put it on every inch of each other's bodies. This mishap ultimately resulted in their first haircut!

Well, today was a new day. Hunter called me late in the day when I had to stay late at work to let me know that I was going to have a little work to do when I got home. He had to referee his first soccer game of the Spring season tonight, and the boys had a second mishap with the diaper rash medicine (we had Desitin this time instead of Boudreaux's because, according to Hunter, it was way cheaper). It was much more of a disaster this time.

There was Desitin in the carpet, on their beds on every piece of stuffed animal, blanket, sheet, etc in their beds. It was great! Lesson learned for the second time...Put the Boudreaux's out of reach!

EMA IS DOING GREAT!!!!!!!!!

OK, so we went to Vanderbilt on Monday, February 22. It was her first 3 month follow up appointment since her surgery in October.

Just to update those of you who didn't know...Ema started crawling at 6 months old. Yes, for those of you who don't have kids, that's early! She started pulling up at 7 months old and cruising shortly thereafter. Again, for those of you who don't know, that's early! She isn't walking yet, but that's next. She has started letting go and holding onto things with one hand. She is daredevil Ema!

So, back to all of her doctor's appointments. She went to see Dr. Tulipan, the neurosurgeon at Vanderbilt. It's hard to describe how nervous you get going to one of these appointments. I was "acting out" prior to her appointment (yes, that is my term, b/c I think it describes things quite well). In other words, I was just in a bad mood. It was because I was stressed out. I don't mean to get that way, but I did. It's so hard not to get nervous about going. No matter how well we think she's doing, there is always the possibility that there is something going on that we don't realize. So, anyways, Dr. Tulipan initially asked what she was doing, what milestones she had reached, etc. One of his questions was, well, I guess she's too young to be doing... Our answer was of course, well maybe she's too young but she's doing...It felt very good to say all of these things. I can't tell you how proud it made us and how relieved it made us. He seemed quite impressed with all of the things she is doing. That being said, there is still always the possibiity of the shunt malfunctioning, so we have to continue to see him. He wants to see us back in three months when she is a year old (THAT is a whole other blog...how can my little baby girl be turning 1!!!!). After her 1 year appointment, he will see her once a year. That is such a relief to us. We are totally out of the woods with infection of her shunt. Now we just watch for malfunctioning or for her to outgrow it. I can't help but to continue to worry, but Hunter and I did get some relief out of her good visit. While we were in the car in Nashville longer than we were in his office, it was nice to get good news.

Next stop...Ema's 9 month check-up with Dr. Stephanie...the regular pediatrician. A mere 4 days later.

OOPS...I meant to blog about this past weekend.

Well, this past weekend we had a good weekend. We had a Friday night with my parents which was fun.

So....get this...Hunter went with my dad and his friend Justin to do some "fun, manual labor," and my mom and I decided to take the kiddos with us all day. We went to McKay's and dug through the children's DVDs for whatever it was that the boys wanted us to get for them. We then decided it would be a good idea to take them to the mall to finish running our errands...that was fun. (With that period at the end of that the sentence I need you all to read some sarcasm). We finally drug them out of The Children's Place and my mom proceeded to sit in the car with them and watch a DVD (that we just bought) while I finished running my errands.

Sunday, after we had an awesomely disasterous lunch with the kiddos at P.F. Changs...no, chopsticks are not the same as drumsticks....we headed to a birthday party at The Little Gym. It was a blast. The kids had a ball and we all had fun. Coming soon..update on Ema and her doctor's appointment at Vanderbilt.

Shut-up...Oh, and Happy Valentine's Weekend

We have had a good weekend this weekend. Even though I was on call, the hospital was pretty quiet. Unfortunately, Hunter usually gets a break from the kids on the weekends when I'm home, but my call weekends he doesn't get a break unless we get a babysitter. On top of that, it was a long weekend. So....I had to take call Friday through Tuesday. He REALLY didn't get a break.
Anyways, we went to dinner with my parents on Friday which was fun as normal. Saturday was pretty busy. We had a babysitter and my sweet hubby had Valentine's plans for us. Even though it was a day early, Sundays are super hectic at our house, so we took the day we were able to get a sitter...Saturday it was!! Right before the in-laws came over to baby-sit...The boys insisted on dressing up like "Woody.

The rest of our fun Weekend!!

Anyways, we went to dinner with my parents on Friday which was fun as normal. Saturday was pretty busy. We had a babysitter and my sweet hubby had Valentine's plans for us. Even though it was a day early, Sundays are super hectic at our house, so we took the day we were able to get a sitter...Saturday it was!! Right before the in-laws came over to baby-sit...The boys insisted on dressing up like "Woody.Since Valentine's day is one of our little first date anniversaries, we make it pretty special each year. We alternate the responsibility of plans every other year. This year was Hunter's year to plan. He ordered tickets online for the movie Valentine's day and we went to dinner at Big River before. The new theater downtown is so nice!!! The movie was great and we had a nice date!
Sunday was typical craziness! We went to church and I went to the hospital afterwards. I actually had plans with a girlfriend for her birthday on Sunday night. It was nice to get together with friends. I don't do it much, but I really had a good time.
Monday I did rounds and hung out at the house for the rest of the day. For those of you that are keeping track...My mom came over and babysat like normal and I did let Hunter go run errands, go to the gym, etc! He got a little break. I cooked dinner and we had a nice quiet evening at home.
I love my little family!! By the way....The title might be a little confusing. When I started blogging, our darling little angel Cooper was in the middle of getting in trouble with his Nana for telling her to shut-up! AWESOME!! What's great is, when I got home and told him we needed to talk about the bad word that he said to Nana. He proceeded to tell me when asked, Did you say a bad word to Nana, and I quote..."But Mommy, I didn't say a bad word. I didn't tell Nana to Shut-up!" Oh, little ones. It's great!
Just to let you know, Emalinn will be going to Vanderbilt on Monday! More updates to come! Another birthday party this weekend, too. We went to Pump It Up two weekends ago, and the boys had a blast. This weekend it's The Little Gym!! I can't wait to take them b/c they have so much fun.

How long HAS it been??

Well, I feel terrible that I haven't blogged in so long! I had a few saved blogs about the holidays, etc, but it kinda feels unimportant to post them at this point.
I think I'm going to catch you all up by saying we had an absolutely amazingly blessed Christmas. The kiddos made it the most fun Christmas I have ever had! We got to see ALL of the family and it was great.
We're back to the grindstone like everyone else is at this point.
I started thinking about how I wanted to use the blog to help everyone keep up with Ema's goings ons...soooooo, we are going back to Vanderbilt on the 22nd of this month. She has her NINE MONTH check up the following Friday. I cannot believe she is going to be a year old in just 3 months!
For those of you that don't know already, she started crawling in November!! For those of you that don't realize the importance of that...SHE WAS ONLY 6 MONTHS OLD! We cannot believe how advanced she seems to be with all of her motor skills. Ironic? I do believe so! She plays in the corral that we were given for the boys when they started becoming mobile (P.S. They didn't crawl until almost 8 months!). She has now decided that she cannot possibly keep up with the boys by merely crawling. She walks the entire length of the corral holding on. We are in for it! We're going to have a 9 month old starting to walk!! Now if we could just get our almost 3 year olds to use the potty! Score 1 for Ema in the advanced department. Score -1000 for the boys in the potty department.
Any suggestions to make them WANT to go in the potty??? I'm in desperation here! The boys cannot go back to school at Silverdale if they don't use the potty! No diapers in the 3 year old class!!