THANK YOU Aunt Patsy & Uncle Dennis!

A few days ago I found a nice big box on our front door step. I had no idea what it was but it was addressed to Miss Emma. Inside were 3 presents and a cute ladybug birthday card! It was from our sweet Aunt Patsy & Uncle Dennis who live in New Mexico. So when Emma got home from school that night she was so excited to open her presents! She was so cute opening them b/c at first all she wanted to do was unwrap the ribbon and play with it. I had to make her open the actual present! So here are a few pictures of her opening the gifts. Thank you so much for everything!!! Emma LOVES her new coloring book/crayons, Thomas book, and Carebear blanket/book. :)

Untying the ribbon...


It's a Thomas train book!! She loves trains!



And a Carebear blankie! As soon as we opened it she layed down for a few minutes while I rubbed her back. She really likes it!


We miss you guys and really appreciate everything. We aren't sure what to buy with the money yet but we will take pics as soon as we do! :)

Our Playdate With Lindsey and Mandy!

Yesterday our friends Mandy and her 2 year old daughter Lindsey drove down from Chattanooga to play with us. We haven't seen them since last summer when we visited them so the girls have changed alot! Lindsey is about 6 weeks older than Emma and was born on December 30th. The funny thing is my birthday is Dec. 31st and Emma and Mandy share the same birthday of February 10th. Kind of cool!

Anyways, the girls had fun playing together and noone got a black eye or lost any teeth. Emma isn't used to sharing her toys so you never know what's going to happen. :) It was so good to visit with Mandy and I think the 2 of us could talk for days. They are both so incredibly sweet and we look forward to another visit. I'm hoping this summer to make a weekend trip to the aquarium and play at the fountains in downtown Chattanooga so we shall see them soon!

Before they left we had the girls hugging/kissing. This was right after the kiss. I was too slow with the camera.


A little hug action. Aren't they sweet?



Both girls took turns getting in the doll crib and it cracked me up. By the way, notice Emma's pants? Well I didn't realize it until later that she had a nasty disgusting diaper. Seriously, took these pics and never saw it until a few minutes later! Gross I know!




I love the way Lindsey is looking at me with those innocent eyes.



Playing in the kitchen. It's funny that when they pretend to eat the food, they actually put it in their mouth. Silly girls!

Remember the dress up clothes Aunt Beth got Emma for Christmas? Well sometimes Emma will put them on but most of the time she says "no!" I figure give her a few more months and she will love to dress up. Well Lindsey enjoyed putting on the princess dresses and shoes. The dresses actually fit her too! Lindsey is alot bigger than Emma at 31 lbs and several inches taller. That's a whole 10 lbs more!

And striking a pose in the purple dress. What a beautiful princess!

Thank you so much Mandy for driving down to play with us. We look forward to seeing you girls again soon!

Emma's Week So Far...

Hasn't been too bad. On Monday she whined/cried for us at naptime and then only slept for 30 minutes. But I kind of expected that since she's in a new place. Then yesterday I picked her up at 1pm and as I was pulling in the parking lot the director called me. She said she had Emma up front with her b/c she was tired and crying for mommy. All of the other kids were sound asleep when we went to get her bag but Emma was sad. So then last night we go to the Little Gym which we've been doing for several months now, but we've missed the past 2 wks due to her surgery. Emma clung to me last night like it was her first time there. It was pitiful. She is terrified that mommy is going to leave her. So I'm just having a hard time dealing with this. But I know it will get better. :)

Now on to last night. Emma has had a cough ever since her tonsils came out. So last night around 10:30 I was in bed watching tv when her coughing sounded strange. Then it sounded like she was gagging so I screamed for George and we took off to her room. He picks her up and she's still coughing. All of a sudden she starts throwing up! Emma's first throw up! So we run to her bathroom and let her continue her business and it was pitiful. To see your tiny little 2 year in pain & not know what to do is just heartbreaking. :( After she was finished I changed her pj shirt b/c it got dirty in the action and then she wouldn't let me put a new shirt on her. So instead we got her blankie and I took her to bed with me while George slept on the couch. Emma slept good and woke up around 7:30 just as happy as could be! So we went back to school today.

Fast forward to this morning. It was definitely harder today. I took her by myself and she didn't want to go through the doors. It was tough. But we did get to see a NICU nurse, Shayna, that took care of her on nightshift. I love seeing our old nurses!! After a few minutes Emma finally grabbed my hand and we walked to her classroom. Once we got inside she started her "momma, momma, momma" phase and didn't want to let go. Finally Ms. Monica picked her up and Emma started crying until she took her to look outside at the playground. I just called to check on and the director said she had been crying off and on today. While they are doing an activity she is fine but once they stop she looks for mommy. So I'm dreading naptime. I told them to call me if they just can't get her down but I really need to her stay. They said they would rock her and stuff so hopefully that will work. Also, this morning the teacher said there was a virus going around the room and most of the kids had had it. It was vomitting/diarrhea so that could've been what Emma had. She did have the nastiest diaper I've ever seen/smelled yesterday afternoon so I'm sure she had a touch of it. Oh the joys of daycare!

Emma's 1st Day of Daycare

Well today was a BIG day in the Titsworth household. My sweet Emma is the newest member of Primrose daycare. I've really been dreading this day and shed many tears last week but now that I'm home I'm doing okay.

Over the past week we've been telling Emma that she is going to "big girl school just like Barbra" and so Emma has been running around the house saying "go to big girl school." I think that helped her knowing that she was being just like Barbra (my friend Tracy's daughter). So this morning George and I got up around 6am and let Emma sleep in until 6:45. She was sound asleep in our bed and I wish I would have gotten a picture of her b/c she was konked out! She woke up happy which is always a good thing. While getting her dressed and fixing her pigtails I kept talking about going to school and she would repeat it. We ended up and didn't have time for breakfast so she got to eat at school.

Once we got in the car Emma was so happy. She had her shades on, goldfish in one hand and milk in the other. At one point I looked back at her and she said "I love you!" and I just smiled. My heart just fills with joy everytime she says those words. I also had to fight back the tears the whole way to school. My throat would start to get tight and my head would start to hurt from holding the tears back. I knew once I started I may not stop. But we made it just fine.

When we got to school the lady in charge met us at the front door and Emma held mine and George's hands while we walked to her classroom. She is in the 2 year old class and her teacher this morning was Ms. Monica. She was very nice and so was her helper. There were 10 kids including Emma when we got there and a few more went in before we left. There was one little boy with red hair that came up to Emma as soon as we walked in the room and he started hugging her. He was so sweet! He gave her several hugs. Then all of the kids sat down at the table for breakfast (cheesy eggs & milk) and the little red haired boy was sitting across from Emma. Next thing I know he is asking the teacher if he can sit beside Emma. So the teacher let him sit in the empty seat beside her. He was completely smitten with my baby.
Then it was breakfast time and the teacher sang a little prayer song with movements before they got their food. It was the sweetest thing I've ever seen. I can't wait for Emma to come home and try to teach it to us. :) A few minutes after that we snuck out of the room and Emma never noticed. Once again my head started hurting from holding the tears back but I managed to hold them in. Before we left the building we walked back by her room and she was still in her seat and not crying. She was such a big girl sitting their in her pigtails eating her cheesy eggs. :)
I plan to go pick her up today around 3:30pm. They have lunch around 11:45 (spaghetti with meatballs) and nap from 1-3pm. I really want her to nap with them so she can get used to the cots and I'll pick her up around 3:30 today. They also said I could call them today to check on her so I think I will call in about another hour. I really want to call now but I will wait. So overall it wasn't too bad. The house is so incredibly quiet but it isn't too bad. I thinking about relaxing today, reading a book, and doing nothing. I'll save cleaning for tomorrow. After all this is my LAST week of freedom before entering the working world! On to the pictures...

After Emma woke up. I don't think she liked the flash!



Mommy & Emma!



She was ready to go to "big girl school!"




I'm so in love with her! My sweet baby...



In her cool new shades that mommy bought her yesterday!

Popping a goldfish in her mouth in the car.

Emma's first day of school! The sun was so bright in our eyes so she wouldn't look at the camera.

In her 2 year old classroom. Once again, not looking at the camera. :)

And an extra pic from last week. My friend Jamie made this hat for her and I LOVE it!

That's it for now. I'm off to enjoy my quiet day. I'll update later about her day.

2009 March of Dimes Walk

This year our family is taking part in the annual March of Dimes walk on April 18th. This is our first time attending and I'm so excited to support such a wonderful cause. If you are interested in donating money or joining us for the walk please click on the purple March of Dimes bar to the right. Or you can visit our family homepage here http://www.marchforbabies.org/personal_page.asp?si=E9C4022C-2DE9-4198-B4A4-924F4ADB0E41

Thank you for your support!

A-M-A-Z-I-N-G Pictures from Heather Bookout!!!

Remember when Emma won the January Valley Baby Contest? Well today we traveled down to Heather Bookout's studio to do Emma's photoshoot. I LOVE LOVE LOVE Heather's work and she did not let me down today. I've just been grinning from ear to ear ever since I saw these 4 preview pictures. Next Thursday I will see the rest of them.

Anyways, Emma got to change her wardrobe 3 different times and she was such a little ham as usual. I think my princess is the most amazing gorgeous little creature and she works so well with Heather. She is just so at ease with her and it makes me so happy. I'm always nervous beforehand but Heather is so calm & relaxed that I'm completely at ease when she starts. So I hope you enjoy these pics. I'm super duper extraordinarily happy with them!!! I'm glad I'm about to start my job so I buy all of them to hang on my walls. :)

Also, PLEASE respect Heather's work and DO NOT copy these pictures as they are professional. THANKS!

Isn't this the most amazing pic of her eyes???



Emma loved this birdcage!



Are we sure she's only 2? She looks like a big girl in this pic!



And the pig tails...adorable! Heather's assistant, Amy, helped me with the piggies and they are so cute! George loved them too! Another great shot of her beautiful blue eyes!

Once again, THANK YOU so much Heather for another amazing photoshoot. George and I are so pleased with your work and can't wait to come back for more. You are truly a great photographer!

Emma's 2 Year Checkup!

Today we saw our favorite pediatrician, Dr. Dudley! Whenever we go to her office the nurses are always so upbeat and friendly. They always act so excited to see Emma and brag about her the whole time we are there. It really makes mommy's day! :)

Dr. Dudley was happy with Emma's progress. Of course she hasn't grown any in the past 6-8 months but she's just going to be petite. Developmentally though Emma is off the charts. She talks so well and is just way ahead of the game. You would never know my little princess was born 3.5 months early and had to fight for her life. She is one strong little cookie!

Stats-Weight: 21 lbs 6 oz (not on the growth curve)
Height: 33 inches (25th percentile on regular growth curve)
Head circumference: 46 centimeters (I think)

Emma didn't get her shots today due to her surgery recovery and being on an antibiotic. Dr. Dudley said we can just get it at her 3 year appt. Other than that, there is nothing new to report. She did great with the nurses/dr examining her and she's just as sweet & cute as can be. I'm a proud mommy!

One Year Ago Tomorrow...

That these two videos were downloaded onto the computer. I was just going through all of our pics and ran across these videos from Feb 18, 2008. As I watched them I just started crying. I can't believe how much my baby has changed in the past year and how I know she is going to change tremedously in the year to come. Remember her pink princess helmet? She wore it for 6 months and it seemed like eternity. Looking back that helmet was so incredibly cute on her. :) I hope you all enjoy the videos.

My Silly Girl!

For Valentine's Day Gabby & Ru-Rus got Emma lots of stickers. Well we all know how much Emma loves stickers and putting them all over herself! So before Gabby left last Thursday Emma had a great time putting stickers on herself and some on Gabby. By the way, Emma does own clothes but she prefers to not wear them so that's why she never has pants on or sometimes a shirt. :)

Gabby thought it was cute to tie Emma's pajama top around her head. Too funny!

Then this past weekend we went back to Dublin Park so Emma could swing. The child LOVES to swing and it has to be the "yellow" swing! Dublin now has a red, black, green, and yellow baby swing but Emma has to sit in the yellow one.

And she also loves to slide down the green slides. Her new fav slide is the twisty one and she goes down super fast! Mommy was scared at first but Emma wanted to be a big girl and do it all by herself. I love taking her to the park!

This afternoon we have her 2 year appointment with Dr. Dudley so I will update her stats later today. The past couple of days she has been a little more grumpy & we think it's b/c her scabs are falling off in her throat. She wasn't sleeping well at all until last night. The ENT nurse said she should be completely healed by the end of the week! Then on Monday she starts Primrose daycare!!! Can you believe it? I've been fighting back the tears all day and I'm really stressed about it but we'll make it. But I'm sure there will be lots of tears. Oh and I will officially start Northrop Grumman on March 2nd so I will have a week to myself next week. I plan on cleaning house and getting the carpets shampooed. I just can't believe 2 years has passed...where does the time go?

It's Present Time & Update!

Miss Emma is still doing great! I really can't believe how well she has handled the recovery and how easy it has been! She has not been snoring anymore and so far she has been sleeping so much better. It has been amazing! No more tossing and turning and kicking mommy in the face. Hopefully it will stay this way! Also, I talked to the nurse at the ENT this morning and she said the sinus culture should be back this afternoon so I should know something later today if there is a bacteria growing. Other than that we've just been hanging around the house. Gabby is about to leave today and we are so sad. :( We've really enjoyed having her here to help out. Now on to the pics!

This was right when we got home from the hospital. I had mentioned earlier that we bought Emma ALL of the Sesame Street characters...well here she is carrying some of them around.

Emma got her 1st tricycle!!! Gabby and Ru-Rus got this for her 2nd birthday and she loves it! She will have a blast this summer riding it.

Love this pic!

Mommy finally took all of the plastic off.

Emma in her "little hat" as she calls it. Gigi and Pa got this for her several months ago and Emma loves putting it on. She'll just randomly get it and put it on her head and play around the house in it even with no clothes on!

That night Emma opened some of her other presents from Gabby & Ru-Rus, Aunt Kathy, and Graham & Isaac. She was more fascinated with the wrapping paper!

Finally opening a gift!

Wow, look what Aunt Kathy got her! Aunt Kathy is a doctor so of course Emma needed a doctor bag! She loves playing with the stethoscope.

Another gift from Gabby & Ru-Rus...it's a princess crown, mirror and wand to play in the bathtub!

And finally from the boys...a cute little ballerina that has interchangeable outfits. Emma LOVES this ballerina & the clothes are magnetic so it is easy to do. Thanks!

Home Sweet Home!

We got home today around 2:15pm and so far Emma is doing great! Gabby (Judy) is staying with us for a few days so mommy will have some great help. Now for a little bit about her surgery and hospital stay...

We had to arrive at 7:30am on Monday. We had to wait for a few minutes before they took us back to a waiting room. Emma did well except she didn't want to wear her pretty yellow gown. Mommy finally got it on her. The nurses and doctors were all so nice to us which helped alot. I've never been on the peds floor or the preop area but it is really kid friendly with playrooms/wagons/jeeps. So after we met with the anesthesiologist and Dr. Castillo the nurse came and we put Emma in a purple princess jeep and George and I kissed her, said "we love you" and she drove off. I had to fight the tears away b/c I knew I would start the "ugly cry" if I didn't fight it. So about 45 minutes later Dr. Castillo came out and said she did fine. He said on a scale of 0-4 with 0 being the smallest and 4 being the largest, Emma's tonsils were a 4 with her adenoids being a 3. He said she should definitely start breathing better! They also drained her sinuses and he said she had lots of snot in her sinuses. They are sending it off for testing to see if any bacteria is growing.
After he talked to us I went back to recovery to cuddle with Emma while George took our items up to our room-Rm 412. Once again I almost lost it when I saw my princess b/c she looked so pitiful. She was kind of crying and saying "mommy" & I started tearing up. They let me pick her up and she just snuggled with me and fell asleep. Her breathing and blood pressure were fine & they gave her some morphine. She stayed in recovery for about 45 minutes before we went to the room. Then things went downhill. Emma went almost 5 hours without any pain medicine at all and was really struggling. She wasn't drinking or eating anymore so we asked for pain medicine. George and I got kind of frustrated with our nurse b/c it didn't seem like she was trying to help us at all. So we tried to give Emma some of her hydrocotine and she spit most of it out. She took a little nap and then woke up screaming for what seemed like hours. It was so so so hard to see her in so much pain. She kept crying and saying "mommy" in her pain voice. She also didn't want anyone else to touch her but mommy so it was hard. Finally around 4ish we called the nurse and asked if we could give her some kind of pain meds b/c she hadn't drank in over 4 hours and it was horrible. The nurse gave her some morphine around 4:30pm (who knows why we weren't offered it before) but anyways, it helped trememdously. She immediately started drinking/eating and wanting to walk around the hallways. Completely different child! The rest of the night was great. Emma continued to eat popsicles, vanilla pudding, applesauce, french fries, baked potato and whatever else she could get her hands on! Around 9pm Emma and I fell asleep in the hospital bed and she slept fairly well. I woke up several times but she was tired. Oh and around 11:15 the respiratory therapist came in and gave her her nebulizer! I was not happy it was so late but Emma slept through the whole thing.

Fast forward to this morning-Emma's 2nd Birthday! Emma woke up around 7:45am and was in her usual chirpy mood. I guess that pain medicine every 4 hours was working. The dr came in a few minutes after we woke up. I ordered some scrambled eggs, applesauce, vanilla yogurt, and chocolate milk for Emma. She was eager to eat! From there we played in the bed and strolled her around the hallways. She liked seeing all of the people instead of being crammed in the hospital bed. We both dozed off around 11:45 and then the nurse came in at 12:30 to say we could go home!!! Emma was still sound asleep so she wasn't very happy when the nurse started taking the tape off her arm to remove the IV. That started a meltdown. Plus her pain meds were overdue so I'm sure that didn't help. Finally we got her clothes on her and everything packed up. She wanted to walk herself so we let her and she carried her blanket. Right before we left we ventured into the gift shop to buy some more Sesame Street characters. I think we got Cookie Monster, Bert, Ernie, Snuffy, Big Bird, and Grover. Emma was ecstatic!

So now we've been home all afternoon and Emma is still doing wonderful! If you didn't know about the surgery, you would think nothing ever happened. I'm hoping everything stays this smoothe. Emma is such a trooper and has just amazed me. Tonight she has a few birthday presents to open so that should be fun. Now on to the pics...

In the pre-op room not wanting to wear her yellow gown! Of course we had Elmo & Zoe!


Mommy trying to explain that she has to wear her gown. We even put it on Elmo!



Yay, we have gown success! What a sad face & the surgery hasn't even started!


In her room after the surgery. She just wanted Mommy to hold her and that was fine with me. Mommy loves snuggling with the princess!

Emma HATED the IV! Seriously, she was not happy about it. I felt so bad for her.

Enjoying a popsicle on daddy's lap.

She was feeling better and watching her Elmo dvd on Gabby's laptop. Elmo & Zoe always make it better!

Sending out emails to remind everyone it was her birthday today!

Happy Birthday breakfast! She loved those scrambled eggs chocolate milk!

Riding in the wagon with all of her "babies!" She's so cute!

We bought her a Birthday Girl shirt from Gymboree over the weekend so she could wear it home today. After a huge meltdown and struggle, we finally got the shirt on!!! Here she is chowing down on a chocolate chip cookie before we went home. That's my girl!

That's it for now. I'll post more pics tomorrow hopefully. Thanks for reading my novel. I wanted to document Emma's first hospital experience (besides her 3 month NICU stay) so she can look back and read about it someday. Happy Birthday Emma!

Happy Birthday Emma & Update!

Yay, our little girl is 2 today!!! She doesn't understand it is her birthday but it's fun telling her and singing her the birthday song. Hopefully we should be going home later today and I'll update more on the surgery then.

The surgery went well. Emma had a really really rough day up until about 4:30pm when they gave her morphine. It broke mommy's heart to hear her in so much pain but after the morphine she went back to her normal happy self. We actually got decent sleep too and Emma woke up in great spirits. So the doctor will be back later & when we get home I'll update again and post pics. Thanks for thinking of us!!

My Almost 2 Year Old!!!

Today George and I celebrated Emma's 2nd birthday at home since she will be having her surgery in the morning. I had an Elmo cake made at Maggie Moo's and we stopped by Party City so I could get some balloons. Then on the way home we got McDonald's for lunch and came home to celebrate. I just can't believe that my 1 pound baby is almost 2! We have been so blessed and we are very lucky to have sweet Emma.

Some of her birthday balloons...she has a singing Elmo balloon and this huge Abby Cadabby balloon! We are taking them to the hospital with us.


Granny Scott and Pa got Emma some McD bucks so we used those for lunch today! Thanks!


Someone really loves her chicken nuggets and french fries!


Now on to the cake! George and I sang "Happy Birthday" to her and video taped it. She loves her cake!




At first she didn't know how to blow out her candles so mommy did it the first time. She also kept sticking her fingers in the red icing.


Trying to blow out the candles. I think we relit the candles 3 more times so she could blow them out herself. She kept saying "Emma try again?" and she wanted us to light them and let her blow them out. It was so sweet!






Finally had to take off her white shirt b/c it had red icing all over it! She also has red war paint on her head. My messy little eater!


I thought this was really cute!


Honestly I think she was more intrigued by the candles rather than the cake! Her ice cream cake kept melting and she just wanted to lick the candles. What kid doesn't want ice cream and cake? Not my child!


And the last time blowing out the candles.


I couldn't resist showing off her blue eyes!

We had a wonderful day. After we cleaned up the cake we all took a nap together and then played outside with the neighbors. Unfortunately Emma has also had a small cold so there is a possibility we will have to cancel the surgery. I did talk to the ENT doctor on call and he thinks she will be fine but if she gets worse tonight then we can cancel in the morning. Otherwise we will let the anesthesiologist listen to her tomorrow and go from there. I really hope we continue with the surgery b/c I just want it over with. So if the surgery does go on tomorrow I will update from my mother-in-law's laptop in the hospital room. Keep my birthday girl in your prayers!