5 years. A nod to life, love, and loved ones.

This week was the 5-year anniversary of something that I still cannot believe even happened.  Chad and I had our last pre-marriage counseling session with our mentor couple, Shawn and Vicki. We were just wrapping up our session, discussing how excited we were to finally be getting married after a long engagement, when I asked if we could sit back down to pray for my Grandpa Herrmann, who was dying of cancer. I wanted him to pass away peacefully and rejoin my Grandma, who had passed away a year earlier and was his everything. A few seconds in, I had a brain hemorrhage due to a brain aneurysm that landed me close to death and delayed my wedding over a year.  I don't remember much about my time in the hospital, but I am continually thankful for the family and friends that I have.

Family Pics!

We attended Chad's cousin's wedding and I made sure to get a family picture because it seems like I can never choreograph any! Emily's not smiling in it, but it was the best we could do!

Not bad, eh?

Here's a picture that didn't quite make the cut! ;)

Remembering George

We celebrated my cousin George's birthday a few weekends back. He passed away almost a year ago due to a heart condition. We made sure to celebrate with lots of smiles, a little bit of orange (his favorite color), and lots of stories! He was such a fighter and has inspired so many people. It was such a privilege to know him and there are days when I still cannot believe that he is gone.

Emily and Auntie Nae

Emily, Elizabeth and Ava

This is a picture of George made completely out of Legos- one of George's favorite toys! Amazing.

Emily being silly!

Camping!

My parents came to the Eau Claire area a few weekends ago to camp at Lake Wissota state park, and Emily had her first camping experience with them! Turns out she is quite the little camper! She especially loved the picnic table, as evident in both these pictures!

April thru July update!

I know it has been forever, but there has been a lot going on! First off, I lost my phone a week ago and I am in the process of getting back all the pictures that were on my phone. So I have a limited amount of pictures right now. So, lets get back to Mother's Day. We had a very laid-back day. I was itching to start planting, so we went to the local nursery and bought jalapeno plants, strawberry plants, green bell pepper plants, and then some assorted flowers. We spent the rest of the day planting (Emily is so good at smelling the flowers and not touching them!) and relaxing. It was a wonderful day.
     Next, we took a vacation in early June. Chad had found out about this Beer Bourbon Barbeque Festival out in Washington DC, and was dying to go. So, us three drove down to Chicago where his sister lives, and Emily and I stayed in Chicago with her, and Chad and her husband Eric drove out to DC to attend this festival. The boys had a fantastic time! They also toured the Jim Beam distillery along the way, and toured DC. Eric had such a good time that he passed out on the subway home! All in good fun! Us girls went to the Chicago Childrens Museum on the Navy Pier and went to a water park. Again, when I get the pictures back, I will post them. Also, if you have Instagram, I have pics up there too.
     For father's day, Chad wanted to grill, of course! It was much like mother's day...relaxing. I got Chad one of his favorite movies, Law Abiding Citizen. It was a beautiful day, so we spent most of the day outside- which was fine by Emily! She absolutely LOVES it outside! The neighbors are used to hearing her scream as we basically drag her inside- it is quite the production!
     A couple random tidbits: First, Emily has been in a bad habit when she goes down to nap- she strips down naked before lying down. Diaper and all. Which is a bad thing because she wakes up in a pool of...you know. So we've been taping her diaper before naptime, which so far has solved the problem. Also, both of Emily's daycare providers can't take her anymore, for different reasons. She has started at a daycare called The Learning Tree. She fits right in and seems to enjoy it. Lastly, Emily's language has ERUPTED! A month ago, we were getting worried because she was barely speaking at all. We were in the process of setting up meetings with birth to 3, when she suddenly started talking! For the purpose of archiving, here are her words: "shoes," "socks," "outside," "done," "doggy" (one of her first words) "bye bye," "go," "uh-oh," "mama" (FINALLY!), "what's that?" (she pronounces it funny so it kind of sounds like "oh shit!") "Grandpa," "night night," "hi," "dada," (also one of her first words) and "all done." Her most recent addition to her words is a fun one: NO! The thing is, she says it just to say it. Everything is "NO!"
     Finally, for the fourth of July, Chad and Emily headed up to his family's cabin. I had to stay behind because I couldn't get work off. It has been 2 days and I miss the little bugger already. I'll post pictures once I have them.

Fun at the Children's Museum!!

Emily always enjoys the Children's Museum here in Eau Claire! She always burns off a ton of energy and sleeps great! Plus, it is very inexpensive and they have great membership options! Such a fun place.

Pressing all the buttons!

They had phones throughout the place where you could call each other! I found 2 that were very close to one another and we kept calling each other on them. She had so much fun!

Preparing for a great ride!

Loving the slides, of course!

Burning off some energy!

Mother of the year? ;)

This weekend, Chad was out of town for work so it was just Emy and me. It was beautiful outside so I had the door to the deck wide open! Emy was having the time of her life running outside, then back in, then back out. I was in the kitchen, when Emy came inside and looked at me with a disgusted face and her tongue sticking out. She had found a piece of TORQUE'S POOP and put it in her mouth!!! She started gagging (who can blame her?!) and I put my finger in her mouth and swept it out the best I could. I then brushed her teeth several hundred times and she downed about 16 ounces of liquids. Poor girl. I think she is still traumatized. I have no idea how she found poop on the deck!! This story is definitely one for the history books!

18 Month Update

Here is Emily's 18-month update (She hasn't had her 18 month appt yet, so I'll update the weight/height at a later date!)
Eating Habits: Her new favorite is craisins! She continues to love pasta, bananas, ham, Cheerios, oatmeal, and goldfish. She is beginning to want to take over the fork/spoon- I will put the food down on her highchair, and she will pierce the food with the fork and put it in her mouth.
Language: She is a babbler. She hasn't really said many words, although she points at things and says "itsat?" so I think she is getting curious. She knows some sign language so we usually know what she wants.
Naps: Her napping schedule is a bit erratic right now. She used to go down at 9-10a and then again at 5:30 or 6, but we think she is ready for just 1 nap a day. The problem is that I leave for work at 1:15 every day- so we're not sure what would be the best time for a nap. This is something we're working on!
Teeth: 6 on the top, 6 on the bottom.
Clothes: She is starting to outgrow her 18-month clothes. Some of her 24 month clothes fit- and even some 2T, but all of the pants are a little big around the waist. So I guess you could say we're in an awkward in-between stage!
Favorites: Her new thing is she loves for us to open the pantry for her and she "rearranges" all the food. She also continues to love to go outside. She finds her jacket and boots and wants me to help her put them on. It breaks my heart to have to say no sometimes because (even though it's March) it's still too cold most days! She also continues to love her baths/water. Her new favorite movie is Frozen, and thank god because I'm starting to get a little sick of Lion King and Bolt! She is getting very good at petting Torque nicely, and continues to love anything dogs! Her favorite toys right now are: "Fisher" the dog, (the one here), her Lovey, anything she can push/pull, the box from her new carseat, and she continues to try to get our remotes/cell phones.
Personality: She is just the sweetest little girl. She is packed full of energy. She is very curious, and so smart. Overall, she is like a dream child.

Also, today will be my 1st day back to work after my whooping cough "incident"! I am SOOO excited to get back to work!

Emily tries chocolate...and loves it!!

Dad bought her a chocolate bar while at Menards today. The results were epic. She could've eaten the entire thing if we had let her!

Sick mama :(

When Emily got her ear infection, she and I both started to have a bad cough and cold as well. For Emily, she got her antibiotics and got better, but never really got back to normal. A few days after her Amoxicillin ran out, I noticed right away that she had pink eye. We took her in for that, and she got eye drops to clear that up. Her (and my) cold and cough still hadn't gone away as of Sunday, so I brought her in again on Monday. Turns out, her ear infection hadn't gone away, so they put her on Zithromax. It seemed like she started feeling better instantly after that. My cough, however, was getting worse by the day. I would have coughing "spells" where I literally couldn't stop coughing. Twice it happened at work, right as I was in the process of doing a venipuncture on a person. Not good. Yesterday night, I had a coughing spell so bad that I threw up. I called in to work sick today and went in to the doctor- for ME this time! Turns out, I have pertussis (whooping cough)!!! Even though I got vaccinated, there is still a small chance that a person can get it- I happen to be one of the lucky ones! ;) So I started taking Zithromax for me too. We're a sorry bunch here at the Stroh household.

We've got a toddler on our hands!

The first time I officially thought of Emily as a toddler was on Tuesday, when she climbed up onto the coffee table (normal) and then proceeded to try to jump from the coffee table to the couch (NOT normal!). I believe that Emy now views our living room as a jungle gym. True, Emy has officially been a toddler for a while now, but that doesn't mean that I wasn't thinking of her as a baby until now! She has been eating and sleeping like there is no tomorrow, so I think we also have a growth spurt on our hands too. The other day, I made a batch of dish of plenty (a dish from my mom's side of the family), and put it in the fridge so that Chad can heat it up when he got home. When I got home from work, Chad told me that there was no more left for me, because Emily literally ate half of the dish (my half, of course).  Darn.

Here she is looking all mysterious...

This past weekend, she spent the entire time attached to her dad's hip. It was really fun seeing them bond. I honestly think she misses him during the day, and she is starting to understand weekends.

Next up, a cute story about Emy's fish- affectionately named "ish". Emy won it at the fair this past summer, and I bought it a tank and some gravel. Chad hardly knew this fish existed since I kept it in Emy's room. I brought up the fish for a tank cleaning a few months ago and decided to keep it upstairs. Chad suddenly took notice to "Ish". He became increasingly concerned about the size of it's tank. "Bettas can survive in puddles," I said, "They prefer small tanks," I said. Nope. "Ish is not getting the full fish experience. He needs a bigger tank," said Chad. Fine. I went to the pet store and bought a 2½ gallon tank and a plant. Chad came home very pleased. But Chad's wheels were still turning. He wasn't done yet. "Ish needs a friend. He's lonely." Whoa. Wait a minute. It's a fricken betta. They hate all other fish. I draw the line. I tried explaining to him the aggressive nature of bettas. "Get him a goldfish friend then." Ugh. So there I go to the pet store, again, for a stupid free fish that is costing me more than a fish should. Luckily for me, the pet store clerk agreed that any type of fish that I put in the tank will get eaten. Crisis averted. So it looks like "Ish" is going to enjoy the rest of his life in first class.  

That's "Ish" living a life of luxury.

Here is a cute shot of Emily in the tub. Just like always, she loves her baths!

Winter Wonderland

As if we didn't have enough snow already!!! We were hit with a huge storm last night. The snow started around 3:30 and it just didn't stop! It was an absolutely beautiful storm though- the flakes were enormous and they were falling slowly. At around 5:00, my work officially closed early. After calling all the appts for the rest of the night saying we were closed, I got to go home early! The drive was pretty treacherous, as the plows weren't able to keep up and I was driving on unplowed streets the majority of the way. I wasn't able to watch the finale of the women's figure skating because our signal cut out- that was really a bummer. I went to bed early- and good thing! Emily woke up FOUR times last night! She is still not up to par since her ear infection. Here she is shoveling the deck (what a good helper!) prior to the storm.

The view from our deck this morning. 

I don't know if you'll be able to notice, but these pictures are significantly better quality...Chad and I upgraded our phones last weekend. We got the Galaxy S4...very happy with it so far!

Baby's First Ear Infection

We have a sick baby here! Emily had a runny nose when she woke up on Sunday, so I figured she just had a cold. As the day progressed, she was napping a lot and was inconsolable whenever she woke up. She really doesn't like taking Tylenol, so it is always a struggle! On Monday morning, she woke up with a fever on top of her cold, but seemed to be doing OK other than that, so I went to work and left her with Jacki- with strict instructions to PLEASE call me if she gets worse! Jacki said she just napped a lot and cuddled, so everything was fine. She was basically up all night on Monday night- completely out of the ordinary. We were able to get her to drink a little and take some Tylenol, which helped her sleep for a few hours. That made for a very crabby mommy- I may have been a little mean to Chad in the morning..(sorry Chad!) On Monday, I called in to work and brought in Emily to the doctor. The doctor immediately knew something was wrong when she walked in the room and Emily was clinging to me and not running around the room! Emily had a fever of 100 degrees WITH Tylenol, so it would actually be higher than that. :( She determined that she had an ear infection in her right ear and the beginnings of an ear infection in her left. The nodes in her throat were also swollen, which indicated a sore throat too.  After running to the pharmacy, Emily and I spent the rest of the day cuddling.

I know that I am gonna get a lot of flak for this picture, but it is too cute! Here she is holding her meds. I can see her saying, "Mommy said these will make me feel better!"

Here we are cuddling- Emily just looked miserable!

Emily slept through the night last night, and woke up this morning feeling a little bit better, and her fever was gone. She is a little less clingy today- a very good sign that she is feeling better. Amazing what 2 doses of antibiotics can do! At one point, she was pulling out everything from her diaper bag, and was handing me everything from it. I had my hands full when she tried to hand me my mitten, so instead she gave it to Torque:

Torque slept like this for like a half hour! What a trooper!

Back to Work

I started work at BioLife as a Plasma Technician (Phlebotomist) on Monday! So far, I have just been doing mandatory training such as how to react if there's a fire, and so on. But, so far, I love it! I take some tests today to finish off those parts of the training, and then I start the real training. I am very excited to get started! The people here are super nice and very helpful. Emily is being looked after by 2 wonderful women who switch off days. So far, it is working quite nicely. One of the women has 2 children, whom Emily seems to get along great with. The other woman is a grandma who will give Emily plenty of love and attention! I work evening shifts so Chad picks her up when he gets off work.

Emily's play group has been a bit of a letdown- of the 4 sessions, 2 have been canceled due to the polar vortex and the cold, and one had only 2 people show up due to a foot of snow the night before. Emily and I will definitely sign up again, and hope that the weather can be a bit nicer to us the second time around!!

As you may notice in the following pictures, she's not a big fan of pants. (I mean, really, who is!?) She has been slipping her pants off herself, and sometimes even figures out how to take her diaper off! That little stinker!

She seems to really like her new 4-wheeler that she got for Christmas!

Clearly she's ready for bed!

Her new bath setup! Her mini-tub was just getting too small, and I wasn't ready for her to have free reign of the whole bath. Another mom suggested this, and it works fantastic!!!

My Aunt Julie sent this to me yesterday- it was from the day that George came home from the hospital. I am so happy that Emily was able to meet George and vice versa. I still think of him often, and he will forever be in my heart.

Emily Update- 16 Months

Thought I'd do a monthly update from now on since she changes so much from month to month! Emily is as energetic as ever- she is like the Energizer Bunny! It is go go go until, suddenly, she's tired and promptly recharges her battery for a few hours! She is still napping twice a day, sleeps very well, is so smart, and extremely curious.
Age: 16 months
Clothes: 18 months, although she is starting to fit into a few of her 24-month clothes too.
Favorite Foods: She looooves pears and bananas, oatmeal, cheerios, Trix, carrots, strawberry milk (daddy's idea), noodles, grilled cheese sandwiches, goldfish.
Favorite things to do: She continues to love music. Her favorite song right now (unfortunately) is The Fox.  I highly recommend NOT watching it because what you see can never be unseen! She loves anything dogs. We got her Lady and the Tramp for Christmas, and I could just tell she was thinking, "All dogs all the time!!!!!" the whole time she watched it. She loves her new play group- she is very good at sharing- and she loves to cuddle with her stuffed animals. She loves to sit in her wagon that she got for Christmas (it is her home base) and she loves her busy board that Grandpa John made for her!  She loves to point out "Dawd!!" in all the pictures on our wall.  Chad gets a big kick out of it- me, not so much anymore! ;)
Favorite things: Her "lovey" is her favorite thing of all time. It is a little blanket with a bear head in the middle; similar to the one here. She cuddles with it every night. She also likes all the toys she got for Christmas!
Teeth: She has 6 teeth on the top and 6 on the bottom. 2 weeks ago, she only had 2 on the bottom, so she's been making a lot of progress! Chad says shes thisclose to being able to eat steak!

In other news, I am going to start my new job in 10 days! I am going to be a Plasma Technician at Biolife. I am extremely excited to start! We're still working out the specifics with daycare for Emily, but we've narrowed it down to 2 people. My job as a pharmacy technician was a good one, but the hours were limited, the pharmacy was the second busiest in the company (STRESS!!!) and, frankly, I was getting tired of customers yelling at me all day. It was definitely time for a change.

A Very "Merry" Weekend!

This past weekend, Chad's family was able to visit for our Christmas celebration. It was a fantastic weekend! Here are some pictures:

Christmas dinner! Turkey, steamed carrots, mashed potatoes, cookie salad, lefse, and rolls.

Fried turkey- Chad got a new turkey fryer, which he had been talking about for years! Absolutely delicious!

Her new 4-wheeler! She was a little unsure of it at first, but now loves it!

Putting together Emily's new wagon!

Emily waiting patiently for her new wagon to be installed!

Pigtails! The girls had fun doing her hair this weekend!

Sensory Play: Rice

Well, with the cold weather yesterday (and continuing today), I thought I'd finally let Emily experiment with rice.  A few other moms had mentioned how much fun their kids have with it, but to be honest, I was terrified! First, rice is messy. It gets everywhere. Second, their kids are a lot....calmer...than Emily. Yesterday turned out to be perfect; I had less than a cup of rice left, the floor needed sweeping anyways, and Emily was a bit bored. Turns out that she loved it! She sat still for over a half hour just moving the rice around, pouring it out, and feeling it with her fingers! Success! Half of it ended up on the floor, in her clothes, or in her diaper (!) but I was expecting that. Overall, it was very fun, although I'm still finding grains of rice on the floor! Here are some pics from the experience:

Minus 30 Degree Weather

The official temp right now is -23 degrees Fahrenheit. Absolute madness. I know that everyone following my blog is also dealing with this, but it will be fun to look back at this post someday! I had to let the dog out this morning- he didn't even want to go outside! I literally had to push him out the door. It is garbage day today too, so I took out the garbage- only to realize that our garbage service has been suspended till tomorrow due to weather. I don't blame them one bit! The schools are closed today and will most likely be closed tomorrow too. It is literally so cold that ice chunks have formed inside our windows:

So the game plan today is to hunker down, watch some movies, have a little too much hot chocolate, and try to forget the disaster that is outside.

Emily's 15-month appointment

Emily had her 15-month appointment yesterday, so I thought I'd update on the specifics from it!
She weighed in at 21.2 lbs! She gained 3 pounds since her 12 month appointment- she's definitely getting a little tummy! She also is 30 inches tall- 1 inch taller than her 12 month appointment. I told her about the concerns I had with Emily looking as though she walked a little bow-legged- the doc agreed that yes, she does walk a little bow-legged, but it will correct itself by the time she's 3. Everything else looked good. Then came the hard part: she needed FOUR shots! She's a little late in the game for her flu shot, but the doctor and I were in agreement that its better late than never. Poor girl! She, of course, cried and cried, but who can blame her!?