Caution: More graphic photos in this post but remember, this IS Emma’s baby book log so I’m posting it more for me than for the rest of you   You can opt out of reading and looking at the TMI photos if you want!

I usually use Emma’s alone time for me to get ready in the mornings.  Since Emma’s so good about telling me when she uses the potty, I don’t worry about not knowing when she is going during her alone time…she always yells, “Look!  I made a pass!”  or “Want M&Ms!”  But since I first blow dry my hair after I leave her, I can’t hear what’s going on down the hall or through the baby monitor.  So as soon as I finish my hair, I quickly check her room.

Today I checked her room and she was sitting near the door trying to put her own rain boots on.  Adorable!  She’s always hated boots of any sort but for some reason has taken a little more interest in the rain boots.  I’m really excited about that because they also double as great “poo boots” (as well call them) when we are at my parents’ ranch. 

I went back to my room to finish getting ready and at one point, Emma yelled for me to come check out her rain boots.  She was standing at her door and I ran to get the camera since she was so cute in them.  I took a photo of her from the back since she was walking away from me and I was afraid she’d remove them before I got a photo.

Do you see what I see in the photo?  Probably not since it’s a small photo.

That’s poo on her little cheek peeking out from under  shirt!

I didn’t notice her cheek until I looked at this photo later   But the smell quickly hit me!

I looked in her potty and there was a good amount of #2 in there.  I told Emma great job and helped her clean it up.

But then I turned around and noticed a little dark smudge on the carpet that I assumed was extra #2.

And THEN I turned and saw this…

NOOOO!!!!!  SICK!  I think she left me everything from today AND yesterday since she didn’t ever go yesterday

Not cool, Miss Em!

Not only was it on the floor here but she had also stepped in it with her appropriately named Poo Boots so it was also smudged other places in the carpet, all in the grooves of her shoes, and on her feet.  Yuck!

She has since gone MORE #2 two or three more times as well as #1 all during her one hour alone time.  Dude!

On a little different note, Emma’s gotten to where she only requests M&Ms maybe 80% of the time now after she uses her potty.  Score!

Not cool!  Please pray they die out!

Surprisingly, I still can’t get her to answer the question of, “How old are you?”  You’d think if she can spout off her address, she could say, “I’m 2.”  However, I figure her address will be better to know in the long run.

…but also by the looks of my face.  My cheeks/jaw line are rounding out and while it’s totally worth it, I’m not real excited about that part.

As for my sleeping lately, I’ve been getting quite a bit more and longer sleep.  I’ve resorted to definitely sleeping on the couch every night (because I gave the bed another try and didn’t last 2 seconds before the excruciating pain shot down my legs).  And while I still wake up several times a night to pee and turn over, I’m at least getting some somewhat decent rest finally.  And when I don’t get a nap during the day, I’m definitely hitting the sack by 9pm!  I’m one sleepy mama!

And on a very positive note, Henry is moving A TON!  And I absolutely LOVE it!

I put Emma down a little early for a nap then rushed out the door as soon as she woke.  There was an oil spill of some sort on the way there where the road was completely blocked and the detour caused my 20 minute trip to be an hour and 15 minutes or so.

And just as I pulled into the school, it poured down rain and they had to call the matches off!  Stink!

I believe Rob said they were tied 3 to 3 matches though when they quit.

So Rob, Emma, and I went with his assistant coach and her parents to eat dinner at Chili’s in Kemah for the evening.

Here are some photos during our wait…

And a video of Miss Chatterbox…

In the first part she is saying, “I’m Mom” and “I’m Emma” because she was introducing us to our friend Bryce earlier.  And she’s been introducing herself to EVERYONE lately…not just kids.

The best was yesterday when Emma and I went to the courthouse to renew my license tag (Texas doesn’t have tag agencies like OK does).  There was a line so she was playing and then pointed at the asian man in front of me leaned against the wall and said, “HE’S SAD!”  I told her, yes, we were all sad because we had to wait in line   It was a funny but very good observation by little missy! 

Friday I let Emma wear big girl panties around the house all day after we practiced pulling them up and down several times that morning.  She can’t do either one very well on her own and had a very difficult time remembering to pull them down before going.  She did, however, make it to the potty every time, but she would just pee right through them.  So I had to keep a closer eye on her and remind and help her to do so before she got a chance to actually go.  I was hoping she might get the hang of this so that she wouldn’t have to run around bare bottomed at my friends house over the weekend but that didn’t work out.

While I was away, I left detailed potty training info for Emma’s babysitter (who has 3 girls of her own so I didn’t worry much…and even told her she could just keep diapers on her if she’d rather).  Emma wore diapers about 50% of the time there and went bare bottomed the rest of the time, successfully using the potty every time (from what I understand).

I also left detailed potty training info for Daddy…who was busy at work late the last 2 weeks so he hadn’t been around at all for Emma’s potty training yet.

Rob picked up Emma on Saturday right at nap time and then informed me that that evening, Emma had pooped on the floor in the corner.  He didn’t get on to her but let her know that’s not where she’s supposed to do it and he said she cried because she knew better.

Sunday afternoon I received the following text message from him…

Emma just pooped on the fire place and then took my stringing tools and played with it   It was in her hair and feet.  Just cleaned it up.  She knew she had done wrong.  Sorry, I should’ve been watching closer.

When he said stringing tools, he meant the tools he uses to string tennis racquets…they look like pliers, etc. with lots of little grooves that Rob had to clean out!  He said she didn’t have any mess on her hands and since I know she doesn’t like to get dirty, I’m guessing that’s why she used the tools to play!  Oh, poor Rob!  What a good sport.

Later that day he posted this to his facebook…

I never thought that I would be so happy to see poop! Way to go Emma!!!

He was so happy because it was where it was supposed to be…in the potty!

Monday was back to potty training with Mom around and she’s done great ever since…no accidents at all!

She even pooped (and wiped herself!) during her alone time and called me in to let me know she was ready for her M&Ms   She got a little pee on her shirt so that’s why she’s standing there in the nude…hence, the random puzzle piece silhouette.  She was so proud of herself and I definitely was proud of her too!

She’s back to wearing panties all day and is usually remembering to tell me she needs to go so that I can help her before she does.  Awesome!

I’ve tried sitting her on some public potties (I know, gross…but it’s the only way she can learn to potty train away from home unless I drag around her potty everywhere with us!).  She wasn’t enthused about it and barely gave it a try until today at WalMart when she definitely tried hard to go.  Yay, Emma!

Now if I can just get her to tell me when she needs to go while we’re out and about.

Oh yeah, she’s also had a funky rash in her diaper area that showed up a little before we started potty training.  It was starting to look better but I called the doc anyway last week before I sent her to the babysitter and she said as long as it continued to look better rather than worse, to not worry about it but just keep putting hydrocortisone on it like I had been.  I didn’t want to bother the babysitter with doing that but had instructed Rob to do so while I was gone.  He failed to do so and her rash looked quite a bit worse when I got home.

I took Emma to the doctor on Monday morning and she said it looked like a little bit of staph infection along with some irritation.  She asked if I was using a different type of diaper or wipes and I told her we had used pullups a few times.  She suggested we try a different brand of pullups because that may have caused the irritation part.  But she did say that running around bare-bottomed was probably the best thing we could have done for it

So after a day and a half of the extra medicine on the affected area, Emma’s already looking way better.  Thankfully it’s nothing to worry about and doesn’t seem to bother Miss Emma at all.

I trekked across the great state of Texas with my wonderful family to attend a cousin of mine’s wedding in San Angelo.  I’m so glad we went!  And as much as I would have loved to have Rob and Emma there, Rob was busy and I’m glad Emma didn’t go for sanity sake (mine and hers)….just too much sitting between the car and wedding events for a 2 year old!

While I was away, Emma stayed at my friend Christie’s house and had a slumber party with her 3 adorable daughters.  How adorable is this photo!?!  She sent this to me after they had played at the park on Saturday.

Christie said the girls had a great time together and that Emma even kept up her normal potty training and sleeping routines!!  I was a little concerned with the sleep factor since I sent Emma with a little nap mat and hoped for the best that she would actually stay on it and in her room all night.  She slept on it in the room with the 2 oldest girls and apparently did great.  Yay!  This was Emma’s first night away at a non-family members house without us and other than her crying for a minute for me a bedtime, I’m told she pretty much didn’t miss us   Thanks a bazillion, Christie!

Meanwhile, my family and I had a great time attending my cousin’s wedding, reception, and following morning brunch.  Everything was perfect and beautiful.  Glad we got to partake in the exciting festivities!

P.S. I love the photos with my mom   She’s my BFF but yet I have very few pictures of us together.

These next 2 were taken at the following morning brunch,  That’s the bride, my cousin in the middle…the tall one.  Yeah, she obviously didn’t get that from my mom’s side of the family   Congrats, Catherine!

But from what I understand, Rob’s team beat 1 out of 3 of the schools they played over the Friday and Saturday tournament they had this past weekend.  And of the 2 they lost, Rob said those schools were really good.  So he was very proud of his players!

His bus driving also sounded like it went well.  He requested and received the smaller bus which was a little relieving for him

And today is their first match at their own school against another school in their same district: Clear Springs.

Emma and I are going out to watch them after she wakes from her nap.  I’m pumped!

Go Knights!

If you know Rob, you know how excited he is about this!  He is really getting to live out part of his dream!  I was still sleeping when he left the house but he did wake me up and tell me to take a look at him to make sure he looked “coach worthy” in his sweet Clear Falls get-up.  He did!  What a cutie!

If it wasn’t an hour and a half drive, didn’t start so early, and if I wasn’t leaving town this evening, I would have gone to watch.  However, there will be plenty to watch as they have matches and tournaments all year-round (and thankfully much closer ones!).

In fact, Clear Falls competes in a match against Clear Springs (one of the other high schools in their same district) this coming Tuesday, August 31st!  It’s from 3pm until about 7pm at Clear Falls High School and Rob said he would LOVE it if our buddies would come watch and support the team (since tennis doesn’t attract much of an audience, this would hopefully help encourage the players…and of course, Rob too!).  So even if you could drop by for half an hour after work or something, please do!  Call me if you need directions.

So in honor of Rob’s first tournament today, here are some bonus “Flashback Friday” photos for you.  These flash back 5.5 years ago.  The awesome Sara Wheeler took these photos for our 1 year wedding anniversary