and this fish on a rake!

Mmm... I like fall time. I've always enjoyed the changing colors of the leaves and that crispy feeling in the air that makes you want to pull out a sweater or a fleecy blanket. It always reminds of walking to school as a little girl, holding Mom's hand, breathing in that chilly air, small feet just crunching along. This is the first year that Paul and I have had a yard to rake. Having a yard dramatically increases your sense of the seasons. The yard REALLY needed to be mowed this weekend and it would be hard to mow with all of those leaves lying around, so on Friday night Paul & I took the boys to Target to buy a rake. It our version of a wild night out! We had three options to choose from, but we finally selected one with a red pole a massive plastic head (scoops more leaves and doesn't rust). When we got to the aisle with the rakes Liam got really exited and pointed and said "rake!" He knew about rakes because of The Cat in the Hat. Liam pretty much has that book memorized! Let me tell you, that single book has done more for Liam's vocabulary than any other thing I could name. :D Then we spent most of the day on Saturday in our backyard raking and mowing -- oh, and playing in the leaves and taking photos. We had a blast! Here are a few photo highlights from the day.

T is for 2

So, Liam is 2 years old and Davy is 2 months old. So, I have 2 kids aged 2! Boy, Liam is REALLY acting 2 today. All he says is "no this" and "no that." There were a couple of power struggles that got a bit trying, but Mommy held her ground. Sorry, Liam, but crying is not going to convince me that its a good idea to let you eat yogurt in the living room. A few cool things about Liam being two: he knows his abc's, can count to 15 (though we're having trouble breaking him of saying "five-teen, and eleven-teen"), and can pretty much understand anything you say to him now. I had him put away his own laundry today. He knows were everything goes!

Little David is growing like crazy. We moved him up to size 2 diapers this week. I still have half a box of size 1s, but he is just too big for them! I guess the church nursery is about to get a donation. He barely fit into his giraffe suit for the fall extravaganza at my parents church on Saturday. He was adorable though. I wish I'd remembered the camera! Of course, he had to pooey on it and have his clothes changed before the costume contest. Liam refused to even dress up in his Elmo costume, even though he's worn it 15 times already around the house! Just being 2 I guess. He did have a blast doing the crafts and painting a pumpkin with his grandma. Here are a couple of photos for those of you who skip my ranting and just want to see the kids...


Davy and his bear

Just Being Cute

Smiling Happy Liam (picture taken before 2nd birthday - this is how I like to think of him when he's being unreasonable)


Liam Playing with His Kitchen
This boy loves to cook! :D

Flying High

They say time flies when you are having fun. I suppose that I must be having too much fun lately then. It's hard to find a minute to write on the blog between nursing the baby, chasing the now two-year old, doing bible lessons for small group, and making sure everyone is dry, fed, and happy. Let's just say, it's hard to think. As I type this little Davy is napping in the bassinet and Liam is watching sesamestreet.com videos in a another window on my computer. Liam loves Elmo and Big Bird! His language skills have really taken off this month, so he actually understands what they are saying. :D So, anyway, here are a couple of pictures of the boys.

Yikes! I should have taken the red eye out of that one, huh? Davy looks a little scary! LOL. He likes to spend most of the day chilling in his bouncer or the swing. He's already grown out of the 0-3 months pajamas I bought him 3 weeks ago.

Here's Liam on the phone with his Grandma. We got him a helmet for his tricycle after reading an article in Parents magazine about head injuries in small children. Now he likes to wear it around the house, just for fun!

Well, Liam is getting stir crazy, so, I think it's time to sign off for now. Love to you and yours.

Welcome Home Baby David!

David Thomas Emra was born on Labor Day 2009. (I can't believe after joking about it for months, I actually went into labor and gave birth on Labor Day.) He was named after his Papaw Turner because he was born on Papaw's 55th birthday. It's pretty cool that my grandma and I were doing the same thing on the same day, 55 years apart. Her David was her second son as well. Our little Davy weighed in at 10lbs 12 oz. As you can see from the photo, taken at age 8 days, he looked about a month old when he was born!

David's Birth Story
So, around 11 pm on the 6th of September, I got up to go to the bathroom again, and decided I was too antsy to go back to bed, so I got up and came out to the computer. I played minesweeper for about an hour, when I realized I was having contractions that maybe I should time. I timed them for half an hour and saw that they were four minutes apart. Panic ensued and the contractions were starting to hurt. I became afraid we wouldn't make it to the hospital. (Our new house is 45 minutes from the hospital.) I woke up Paul, and called my mom who said we had better get to the hospital. Paul grabbed my bag and Liam and we headed to the car. The time between telling Paul "let's go" and actually getting in the car lasted an eternity. In the car I casually let Paul know that I was going for the pain meds this time. These contractions hurt! When we FINALLY got to the hospital, the nurse checked me and I was already at 8 cm! All right. Within minutes I had my epidural and the pain part was over. I really wonder what possessed me to be so hard core about "natural" childbirth last time-- epidurals are awesome! I was able to doze in and out for a few hours when suddenly I was feeling a lot of pressure. I told the nurse, and she checked and said it was time to push! I was SO excited and happy that I had made it this far. I pushed for a VERY long time. Unfortunately, after over three hours of pushing, the baby just wouldn't come out. The nurse said it looked like he needed to turn his head, b/c the bony parts of him were banging on to the bony parts of me. I pushed and pushed, until finally the doctor and nurse agreed that it was time for C-section #2. I was pretty disappointed, and did cry a little bit, but it wasn't as bad as the last time b/c I knew all along that this was likely to happen given the way Liam was born. So they wheeled me across the hall to the operating room and pulled David out through my abdomen. The anesthesiologist standing beside me had a funny reaction-- he burst out with, "My gosh! That's an 11 pound baby!" And he was almost right. 6 more ounces and he would have been. It was 9:33 am on September 7th. So, that's how Baby Davy got here, on Labor Day '09. I was very grateful to have been given a second chance to labor and I thought it was cool that it happened on Labor Day--and now I know without a doubt that I just make babies that are too big to come out of me the through the "traditional" route.

Brothers!!

Here are a couple of pictures of my two boys. I can't believe Liam will be two in less than a month! My how time flies. I was in the hospital for 4 days, and in that time Liam seems to have tripled his vocabulary. Something just "clicked" and he's talking his head off! Whole sentences! It's craziness. The hardest part about the c-section is that I am not allowed to pick up Liam. I have a weight limit of ten lbs (which, technically means I can't pick up David either, but just try and stop me. LOL). Fortunately Paul's parents are here to help me while I recover, but it's been SO hard not to pick up Liam. For the picture below, someone had to put him in my lap!

NEW HOME!!

So, it's been another month. This month we've moved into our new house, had the Emra grandparents come to stay, and generally just sat around waiting for baby #2 to make his appearance. I can't believe tomorrow is my due date. I guess he won't be early! Oh well, Liam wasn't either, right? So, I've been trying to take some pictures of the new place, but really none of them are doing it justice. So, here are a couple of my amazing big kitchen, and you'll just have to hold out for more soon.

The house is really very cool. We have 3 bedrooms and two bathrooms and a HUGE backyard. Unfortunatly the yard is plauged with mesquitos. Oh well, I gotta go. Liam and Grandma are back from storytime at the library and I need to see his craft!! Love to all

A Daddy's Boy

Wow. Two months. I can't believe I've gone so long without blogging. Plenty has been going on of course. In mid June we drove to Flordia with my parents and grandmother in their Ford Explorer. That was pretty crazy! Liam actually had a great time thanks to Baby Einstein and a portable DVD player.

Liam is talking up a storm and has just begun to put more than one word together. His current favorite combos are "shoe on" and "shoe off."

He has also become a real Daddy's boy. He only wants Daddy to put him to bed, etc.

Liam also got his first real "big boy" haircut on Saturday. Paul buzzed him!! I was against it, but played my part by holding his hands down. Here we are on the left. Liam is modeling his new do and the kitchen oven mit. He sure can play with anything... as long as it isn't a toy of course.

Here is a pic of his hair before. Love those curls!!

Well, it's getting to crunch time with this pregnancy folks. We're about a month out from my due date! It's gone pretty quickly this time I think. Though Liam and Daddy might disagree! Also, good news: we are going to be renting a house from some friends at church. We are so excited to have a back yard! We get to move in in a couple of weeks. I sure hope we get moved before the baby is born! Well, ta ta for now, Liam just woke up from his nap. Poor boy, only half an hour. Somebody's gonna be cranky...

Pregnancy Book Reviews

I would just like to say that I tend to read too much. How does the mother of a 19 month old read too much? Don't ask me. I feel like I never have time to read anymore, and then I list of what I've read in the last month to a friend and am generally told that is more than he/she has read all year. Oh well, dear reader, I thought you might want to take advantage of my over-zealous reading in case you are pregnant, or want to be pregnant, or your wife/friend/whoever is pregnant, and you do not want to bother reading all of the nonsense that I have read over this pregnancy and last. Anyway, here are some thoughts:

Great to Read Anytime

What to Expect When Your Expecting, Heidi Murkoff

Clear, informative, month by month info. Question & Answer format. Not the best for the hypochondriac, however, to read every portion of this book. Just read the answers to the questions you actually have, and you'll fine. The only thing this book is really missing is the "emotional" side of pregnancy. It's pretty much from a medical & physical point of view. (This is my only re-read from the last pregnancy)

Very Good & Informative, But May Scare You a Bit (for different reasons cited below)

Ina May's Guide to Childbirth - Ina May Gaskin

I loved this book during my first pregnancy and read it obsessively. It is full of very cool and uplifting birth stories from ladies on a regulation hippie farm. I want to move there (j/k). I'm not re-reading it this time b/c natural birth didn't work out for me last time & though I may give it a go again this time (if doc will allow it), I may just go in for another surgery & the birth stories just make me sad that I got so close, then needed a c-section after all. Still, very good book. (Oh, scary part: Does include photos of women giving birth, and some of them are not wearing any clothes!! AHH.)

Childbirth Without Fear - Grantly Dick-Read

This is an old book with the theme that if you go into birth with the right attitude, it doesn't even hurt. Well, he's wrong: this one will set up for a surprise! I don't think it's possible to be more into childbirth than I was last time. I had the midwife, the bouncy ball, and the rice socks ready, but I still thought some of those contractions were going to rip my body into shreds. Especially the ones that came after they said to stop pushing b/c it's time for a c-section. Sorry, Dr. Dick-Read if your baby's head is too big for your body, you better believe it hurts. (The scary part here is what I said about the contractions, truly girls, some of them don't hurt. ;) )

The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth - Henci Goer

All I will say, is that if you want to have your baby in a hospital, don't read this one. It is well researched and filled with great facts & statistics, that will scare you all the way to a homebirth. Also, you can learn most of this stuff in a less frightening way in Ina May's Guide. (Umm... the whole book is scary.)

UGG, Don't Even Bother: Books I Shut After the First Chapter (I never do this)

Misconceptions - Naomi Wolf

Okay, so I read this when I was trying to get pregnant the first time, and it scared me so bad I didn't want to try anymore. It's got the info from The Thinking Woman's Guide turned into a worse-case scenario birth story. Don't bother.

Releasing the Mother Goddess - Gail Feldman

Cool title for a book of wacky paganism. The author actually believes in some sort of cosmic goddess and is seriously seeking converts. Weirdo stuff, don't waste your time.