New blog!!

Since Payton' birthday there has been lots of craziness in the Hilman world...so there is lots to blog about! That post will be coming later though....this one is just to announce the new blog www.hilmanfamilyadventures.blogspot.com. I decided after P was born that it would make more sense to combine Emily and Payton's blog into one, since most of our adventures would be done together, and sadly it has only taken me 7weeks to figure out how to make that happen! Well here it is...and the next post..hopefully soon...will have everything that has kept me from figuring that out :) via pictures...lots and lots of pictures!

Emily's new role!

Emily took on a new role this week....the role of big sister...and after watching her, I am pretty sure she was made for it! Her little sister, Payton Charlotte, was born on Wednesday, May 25 (more details over here-www.asiblingforem.blogspot.com). Emily came to visit Weds. night and during the day Thursday. She loves to hold her little sister, and cover her with blankets, but her most favorite thing is to try and give her the binkie. Anytime Payton moves, or makes a noise, Emily is immediately hunting for the binkie to make it all better for her.
While they were here yesterday the hosptial photographer came to take pictures. They put baby in a basket naked and just cover them with a white sheet. Well, Emily was just insistant that Payton was going to be cold and tried repeatedly to cover her again and again. It was cute, but I am sure slightly frustrating for the poor photgrapher.
Emily also helped gma change a diaper yesterday. She was quite the helper, getting out the diaper and wipes, and of course, trying to give Payton her binkie when she cried.
She very much does not like Payton crying, and wants to make it all better for her. It will be interesting to see how this plays out when we get home. Hopefully things will continue to go as well as they did at the hospital and Emily and Payton can grow into bestest of friends.

Here is a pic from the prof. photographer. Chuck added the words with all of his photo editing savyness.

Zoo!!

Last weekend it was finally warm enough to take Em to the zoo! All winter long, whenever we have driven by the zoo she asks if it is warm enough to go see the animals. When I tell her no she will tell me, "animals sleeping inside to keep warm". So she was very excited that it was warm enough and the animals would be out. As soon as we got there we had to ride the train, I am pretty sure it is her favorite part of the day. We got there close to closing time, so after the train we hit the highlights (elephants, giraffes, and big cats) and picked up some other animals along the way. She was especially fascinated by the goats this trip and spent about 5 minutes looking at them and talking to them. Here are some pics from our day! And a bonus I found when getting the zoo pictures--Emily doing the chicken dance--you just have to smile :)

Our own personal highway clean-up crew

Emily decided that she and Grandma needed to go for a walk this morning. They got out the door and headed up the hill of 1200E for a change of scenery. Shortly after going around the corner Emily sees a bottle in the grass. She picks it up and tell gma, "garbage, you carry it". So gma takes the bottle and they continue on their way. A few more steps and another bottle. Em picks it up and repeats "garbage, you carry it". Gma realizes where this is going so she tells Emily that they don't have a garbage bag, but if they leave the garbage by the side of the road they can pick it up on another walk. So Emily very carefully continues down the ditch, picking up all of the garbage and placing it on the side of the road. Once they get to the top of the hill gma decides to see if she can find a garbage bag. She finds a house with someone home, rings the doorbell, and explains to the lady that her granddaughter would like to pick up garbage, but doesn't have a garbage bag to put it in. The very nice lady gives them a bag, and back down the road they go. By the time they get to the house the garbage bag is overflowing!! Em and gma put it in the trash can, just in time to see the garbage truck come to empty it!
She was quite the proud little girl :) I'm guessing this story can be attributed to wonderful training by gpa....he is known for picking up trash when he sees it. Now he has a helper :)

Big Sister!

Last night we took Em to the big sibling class our hospital offers. Of the 5 kids there, Emily was the youngest by several years, so I was a little concerned with how she would do, but she did great! They had a baby doll that the kids go to practice holding and changing the diaper on, we got to tour the floor and they learned about how the baby grows in mommy's belly. I'm not sure how much Em learned about baby growing, but she sat front and center and listened to the whole thing...so maybe she absorbed something in there? She loved the baby doll part....she was pretty much a pro at holding and changing diapers :) And made herself quite at home on the tour of the rooms. When we left we talked about how her new baby sister would come from the hospital and she seemed pretty good with it...we will see come May how that actually plays out :)

She also told Martha and I that she will feed the baby cheeseburgers when she comes :)

Here are some pictures from our class....

Emily's 3rd ER visit in 3 years...

We seem to be averaging out to 1/year, although trips 1 and 2 occurred in the same night, just different hospitals. Oddly enough, all 3 have been to ER's that are far away from our house (like hours and hours).

This weekend was YAR, which is a big youth retreat we take our kids to every year. Chuck and I are part of the leadership team and this year I decided to take a personal day so we could go down and help get ready on Friday. Friday afternoon Em and I were getting ready to go from one building to another so I went into a side room to grab our coats. Em came running towards me as I was holding open the door, and as she typically does, got to running to fast and fell forward. Unfortunately this time, she broke her fall with the edge of the door and her head. I quick scooped her up and went to find Chuck. At this point I was thinking it was a "simple" goose egg to the forward and a very scared little girl. Once I found Chuck we pulled her off my shoulder to exam her face and were shocked to see it covered in blood! We had no idea where the blood was coming from so we started to wipe it off and discovered a decent size gash on her forehead. By this point Gma Peggy had come in and immediately took charge (cause she is amazing like that!) She took Em to the sink and ran her hands under cold water (apparently this calms children down...who knew?), so we could better exam her forehead. Upon further examination Peggy says "if it were my child, I would take her to the ER". Umm...you don't have to qualify that Peggy..if you say take her, we will take her, no questions asked. I see in Chuck's brain he is trying to figure out how he is going to get everything done that he needs to have ready for the night session, fortunately our friend Susie also notices this and offers to go with me. It's a good thing she did...I'm not sure I could have done the ER trip on my own.

We get to the ER and upon seeing Em's bleeding forehead they quickly get us checked in and into a room. It isn't too much longer the dr. comes in to exam her. He seemed to be a good dr. but definitely not a pediatric specialist! He says definitely stitches, as well as x-rays to rule out whiplash. We wait about 30-45 min. for the xray tech during which Em falls asleep, since all this drama occurred very close to nap time. We wheel her to the xray room and Susie graciously agrees to stay with her, since I couldn't. Susie and the 2 techs do a fabulous job of getting Em calm and cooperative in a very scary place for a 3 year old.
We head back to the room and are told it will probably be 15-20 min. because the x-rays have to be sent to Springfield to be read. Finally the dr. comes back in and is ready to do the stitches. It takes a nurse, Susie and I to hold her, and there is lots of screaming from one unhappy little girl. After 4 stitches the dr. says we are good to go, and tells the nurse to stick some neosporin and a band-aid on it before sending us on our way. I am pretty sure they had to go to the store to buy the band-aids, because this seemed to take way longer than it should have. But finally the nurse comes back. She also brings steri-strip with her, and asks "are you planning on taking the stitches out yourself?" Ummm....no!?! Apparently the dr. somehow got the impression we would be....nope..definitely taking her back to a dr. for that procedure!
Once Em gets her band-aid it is off to Dairy Queen for some ice cream to make everything all better! By the next morning you wouldn't have any idea Em had stitches in her forehead the way she is bouncing around! We go to Dr. Petre on Weds. for a follow-up and hopefully to remove the stitches.

Here are some pictures of our excitement--


Waiting in the ER...not a happy girl!


Several hours later back at camp sporting a pink bandaid!


The next day sans band-aid...our happy girl is back!

Emily is 3!

Emily's 3rd birthday was a couple of weeks ago...I can't believe my big girl is growing up! We celebrated with a family birthday party and had a great time with Hilman's and Leader's! Some of the presents she got were legos ( a new fav. in our house!), clothes, books, car seats (not fun..but very practical and needed!) a zany zoo toy, and some glow in the dark bracelets. Some highlights of where Em is at now at 3 (more for my benefit 3 years from now when Ninja is this age and I want to compare..sorry if they are boring)

**potty training--Em will sit on the potty willingly. She will go potty quite regularly and loves "going" with someone. She will sit on her potty while mommy or gma sits on the big potty. She is still unphased by a dirty diaper though, and has never once asked to go potty on her own. Dr. thinks we are well on our way though, and thinks she will be there within 6 months.

**talking--Em is talking up a storm! I can't believe just a year ago she wasn't talking at all. She asks for what she wants, tells us stories, and even talks on the phone.

**favorites--Some of Em's current favorites--books, going to the fitness center to play (and guilting mommy into working out), helping cook and take care of the animals, doing things herself (her fav. phrase-"me, do it!"), and tickles on the big bed with daddy (which are really more like tumbling!).

**eating-Em pretty much will eat anything. Meat is probably her least favorite, but will devour veggies, fruits, pasta and cereal. Milk is still her beverage of choice, although she enjoys juice as well. Again with eating we hear "me do it" alot!

**binky--agg...the dreaded binky! Before her 3rd birthday we spent a lot of time talking about getting rid of the binky and how big girls didn't need binkies. We had been to the dentist and he had told her she needed to get rid of it, and she said regularly "Dr. Tom says no binky!". So the night before her birthday we made a build a bear binky bear, gave a binky to the binky fairy and thought we had it made. She went down for bed willingly, and then fell apart! Every night for the rest of the week she was up after midnight, still getting up at regular times, and not napping. She had only been using the binky to sleep so this was the only time she was bothered. The following Fri. we had her 3 year appt with Dr. Jim, so I asked him about it. He said if it was causing her that much stress and anxiety to let her have it, as long as it was only for sleeping. I almost hugged him! So we are still using the binky for now...maybe we'll tackle it again later....maybe she'll take it to college!

So that's where she is at...and as a reward for making it this far..some pictures from her birthday party!