Emmett's gargantuan tonsils

Emmett's pediatrician would often make comments like, "Woah!" or "Check out those babies!" whenever we went in for a check-up and the doc looked in Emmett's mouth. He was referring to Emmett's tonsils. He said we would need to keep an eye on them and they would likely have to be removed sooner rather than later. Well last month Emmett became ill and his already extra large throat-lumps swelled up even larger. Emmett was gagging on his food and spitting up at meal time because he could not swallow well. I took him in to the doctor and my poor baby tested positive for Strep throat. Even after the antibiotics had run their course, one of his tonsils was still pressing up next to the uvula, and the doctor referred us to a specialist. Our first visit to the E.N.T. was all it took. As soon as he walked in, the doctor asked, "Is that how Emmett always sounds when he breaths?" He was referring to the snore-like sounds coming from my little mouth breather.
"Not always," I said, "But quite frequently."
We also discussed his nightime snoring, constant stuffy/runny nose, frequent fluid behind his ears, etc. The next thing I knew, we had an appointment for surgery for the next available day the doctor had - about two weeks out. Being pregnant, I had overly emotional responses over the next couple weeks to the upcoming procedure of my little guy. I was all but convinced that something would go terribly wrong and Emmett would have some adverse reaction to the anesthesia or some such thing. I knew I was not being rational, but that didn't change the stress I was experiencing. I prayed like crazy to know if I was making the right decision and to be comforted to know all would be well. I was grateful that David and a family friend were able to give Emmett a priesthood blessing before his surgery that gave my emotional pregnant brain the calm I needed.
At the day surgery clinic Emmett happily allowed a nurse to scoop him up and take him back to the operating room. He was having so much fun pushing the buttons that automatically open the doors that he didn't care that we were not coming along with him. At the conclusion of the surgery, we got to go into the recovery room and sit with him. Daddy held Emmett on his lap while Emmett got to watch part of Finding Nemo and eat popsicles. The nurses kept commenting on how good he was. They said most two year olds have a fit when they separate from the parents to go back for surgery and then put up a fight when the nurses try to get them to do anything-like put on the gas mask or take a dose of pain meds from a syringe- but Emmett was completely cooperative and didn't even fuss or cry when he woke up from the anesthesia. What a tough little guy. (*Reminds me of when he astonished the nurses at his regular doctor's office by holding completely still while they drew some blood for an allergy test. They said they did not have teenage patients that acted that calmly or held that still for a blood draw.)
Emmett has recovered well. He was up and jumping around the afternoon after his surgery. As long as he let me give him his pain medicines, he was his cheerful rowdy self. After several days, though, he decided he didn't like his medicine anymore and I either had to force feed it to him (which made him kick and scream) or let him go without (which made him irritable and overly sensitive and dramatic). Luckily that only lasted a few days and then he was past the pain and we no longer had to worry about the meds.
After the surgery, David and I noticed that Emmett was breathing through his nose rather than his mouth. The Dr said our boy's adenoids were also large and had probably been part of the congestion problem. Emmett sleeps so quietly now that I have to go clear into his room and stand by the crib to check on him. I used to be able to hear him snoring from outside his door, so I knew he was asleep! During his surgery the Dr also drained the fluid out of Emmett's ears and said they should stay clear now that the tonsils and adenoids are gone. Emmett can probably hear better now as a result, so his pronunciation will likely improve quite quickly. Others are already saying they can understand him more easily now!
I am glad Emmett is better off because of his tonsillectomy. I just hope none of my other kids will need to undergo surgery of any kind anytime soon...or ever, for that matter!

Liliana in real life

Last night David made dinner for the family. During our meal Liliana announces, "Daddy, the food you make is much more gooder than what Mommy cooks for dinner." What had he made? Homemade mac and cheese.
Then a little while later we were stretched across the bed reading scriptures with the kids and Liliana noticed that David was stroking Emmett's hair. "Here, Dad," she said as she shoved her way between the two of them. "You can rub my hair. It is much longer and prettier." Luckily Emmett is a pretty easy going kid and he just rolled over closer to me without a big struggle ensuing. However, I am certain that he is keeping mental tallies for each time she does something to him that he doesn't like and when he gets bigger than her, he is going to retaliate big time.

Adventures In Lililand

Now it's time to catch up on some of the silly things Liliana has been up to in recent months.

While swimming in an outdoor hotel pool awhile back, Liliana suddenly jumped out of the pool and started stripping off her swim bottoms. "What are you doing?" I asked. Before she could answer, I realized she was peeing all over the cement! My sisters and I started laughing and splashing loads of water out of the pool to wash away Liliana's puddle. Luckily we were the only ones there at the time!

Liliana has had a few sleepovers with her cousins. One of the sleepovers involved her cousin Kaden sleeping in the extra bed in her room. In the morning Kaden said, "Auntie Neen, I couldn't sleep very well because Liliana kept standing by my bed and looking and me." I started laughing while I tried to apologize to him. Leave it to my daughter to be a creepy stalker-like sleepover buddy!

While cooking dinner one evening, Liliana asked me what I was making. When I told her what it was, she said, "That's ewww. Only grown-ups like yucky stuff." Nice to knnow how much she appreciates the time I spend on home made meals.

One afternoon Liliana and I were sitting on the bar stools in the kitchen and she pointed out that her butt didn't cover as much of the stool as mine did. She told me, "When I am a grown up my butt will be more huge like yours." Thanks, kid. I love you too.

During a car ride, Liliana started interrupting a conversation that David and I were having, asking me if I like Spongebob. We have been working on interrupting, so I decided I would not respond until she used the appropriate, "Excuse me" intro to what she was saying. Liliana asked me the same question a few more times, and when she failed to get a response, she said, "Since you're not talking to me, that means you do like Spongebob." I laughed, explained why I hadn't responded to her, and let her know that I had no love for the idiotic yellow kitchen sponge that wears pants.

In December we discovered that we were expecting baby number three. When we told Liliana and Emmett about it, Liliana started laughing hysterically and kept laughing until she was bright red in the face and had tears streaming down her cheeks. We have asked the kids what the baby's name should be and Liliana came up with Sweet Baby, while Emmett has been sticking with Choo Choo. Good thing they don't get final say on the matter.

The other night David was putting Liliana to bed and she wanted to stay up and play instead. In an attempt to get him distracted, she said, "Daddy, you go downstairs and play video games, OK?" Hahaha! Nice try!

Yesterday we went out to eat at a restaurant called The Rock. Before leaving, I took Liliana into the restroom for a potty break. The toilets were black and had purple flames painted on the top of the tank with a pair of creepy eyes peeking out of the flames and the bathroom was not very well lit. I tried to convince Liliana to use one, and even offered to hold her over it so she wouldn't have to touch it, but she was NOT having it! Needless to say, the potty break was postponed until our next stop.

Today David handed Liliana and Emmett some of the peanuts he was snacking on. Liliana thanked him and then asked, "Daddy, now do I have a baby in my belly after eating peanuts?" Don't ask my how or why she made this connection. After a good chuckle, David cleared up the confusion...in a four-year-old-friendly way.

Oh, Liliana, you make life so fun. :)

Emmett

Catching up on the goings-on in Emmett's past few months...

Emmett's Auntie Ne and her boys were in town and stayed in a hotel nearby with a swimming pool. After going for a swim, we went back to her hotel room to bathe the kids and get them dressed. I pulled Emmett out of the tub and dried him off and then went to pull his clean clothes and diaper out of our bag. As I headed back to him, I watched him begin peeing right on the floor with a big grin on his face. "Stop! No!" I screamed. Emmett's face straightened, his body went rigid, and he stopped mid-stream. We all started laughing as I wrapped the diaper around his naked bum. Silly boy! Thanks for giving mommy more clean-up work, as usual.

One day in early summer, Emmett followed Liliana into the bathroom and once she had finished her business, he said, "I want potty." Surprised, but more than willing to acquiesce to his request, I stuck him on the toilet and he actually peed. He went a few more times over the next couple of days - asking to go when he saw big sister doing her thing. Then one of those times he was overshooting the pot, so I quickly reached in and aimed him down. He halted mid-stream, turned bright red in the face, and screamed bloody murder until I took him off the toilet. After that, Emmett wouldn't go near the toilet for a couple of months. Then out of the blue, he started telling David, "I want potty" again. We are still working on it, but since he has self-started the potty training interest, we are going with it!

For Thanksgiving, we took a trip to southern California to visit Great Grandpa and Grandma Jovet. On the way down, our plane hit some very bumpy turbulence. Emmett thought it was hysterical and laughed out loud every time the plane bounced, bumped, and shook. His laughter was so loud and contagious, that he got everyone around us cracking up too!

Upon returning from our Thanksgiving trip to California, Emmett demonstrated a new-found skill...He can climb out of his crib. Great (to be read with dripping sarcasm). Because of this new ability, we have begun putting Emmett to bed in the second twin bed in Liliana's room. Since we knew we wanted to eventually move Emmett into the room with Liliana, we set the bunk beds up as two singles in our new home. We have had a few successful nights where we put Emmett down, he falls asleep, and then Liliana falls asleep in the other bed without bothering her brother. Some of our attempts have ended up with Emmett waking up in the middle of the night, waking up his sister, and then both of them traipsing into my room at horrible hours. Several nights were completely unsuccessful to start with, because Emmett was excitedly playing around in the bedroom rather than falling asleep - requiring us to put him back in his crib so Liliana could get to bed on time. At any rate, things are coming along and we will keep trying. Liliana loves having Emmett in her room and is disappointed whenever he has to go back to his old room.

Our family attended a nice Christmas party earlier this month at our realtor's office. The place was jam-packed with people, food, and fun. When our number was called for a picture with Santa, I headed over with Liliana to stand in line while Emmett and David made their way after us. David came around the corner and I asked where Emmett was. "He's following right behind me," he responded, so I stepped inside the ladies room with Liliana to fix up her hair while David walked back around the corner. When we came out of the bathroom a moment later, my realtor was there and asked, "Did he find him?"
"Did who find whom?" I asked back.
"Emmett. David was looking for him," he responded.
In a bit of a panic, i started working my way through the crowd back the way we had come, asking people if they had seen a little boy in a black suit. Everyone was shaking their heads. Then I heard the elevator beep behind me and saw David step off with a teary-eyed Emmett in his arms. David said when he walked back around the corner to get Emmett, he was nowhere to be seen. David knew he loved buttons and guessed he had gone for a ride on the elevator, so he went up to the second floor (which is the top floor). Emmett was not there, so David went down to the parking level. There was Emmett right outside the elevator, crying in the parking garage. You can only imagine how freaked out I was at all the "what-ifs" that could have happened down in that open-to-the-outside parking garage. Apparently I pulled shenanigans almost identical to this when I was young, so if you ask my mother, I am getting my just desserts. I have said many prayers since that incident, thanking God that Emmett stayed put and was safe until David could get to him. Having children can be such a stressful thing at times! If only they weren't constantly finding ways to endanger themselves.

Love my little guy!

Liliana at Church...and Emmett, too

Sundays are always full of fun when you have Liliana at church with you. Chances are good that she will say or do something that will either make you laugh, grit your teeth, or want to cry. A couple of recent examples follow:

Liliana was asked to give the closing prayer in primary several months back when we were in our old ward and she was attending sunbeams. Everyone bowed their heads and waited patiently for her to begin. I began to wonder what was taking her so long, so I peaked at her from the back of the primary room (as the secretary, I was normally sitting back there working on paperwork of some sort). I saw one of the primary leaders step up to Liliana and whisper an offer to help her know what to say. "No," Liliana responded loud enough for everyone to hear. "I only do that at bed time." After a couple more attempts to convince her to pray, the leader gave up and said the prayer herself. I tried to remind Liliana after church that we also pray for our meals and any other time we feel the need, but she still said she didn't want to pray in primary. The other leaders teased me about that one for a bit.

When the congregation is singing during sacrament meeting at church, Liliana likes to hold a hymn book on her lap and sing as well. The only problem is, she doesn't know the words to most of the songs yet, so she makes up her own words. A few weeks ago she sang out at the top of her lungs, "Oh, Tinkerbell and Rapunzel..." and continued to sing loudly about them, even during the pauses in between verses! I didn't know whether to hush her or encourage her to keep singing. I guess we will have to pull out our hymn cds and play them more often to try and teach Liliana more of the songs.

Today our opening hymn was Far Far Away on Judea's Plains. When the song's title was announced, Liliana loudly said, "They said planes. Where are they? I want to get on the planes!" I tried to explain that plains and planes were not the same thing, but she was set on the idea of going for a flight and didn't want to hear about flat-lying lands or any other non-airplane related topic.


Back in the ward we attended when we lived in Renton, I was working in the primary. Emmett was not old enough to attend nursery yet, so he usually went with David to Sunday School. One Sunday, about halfway through Sunday School hour, a sister brought Emmett to me in the primary room and told me she had found him by himself in the women's bathroom...playing with the toilet! Grossed out - and a bit annoyed, I left the primary room in search of David. I found him down some hallway chatting with someone. "Oh, there's Emmett," he said with a guilty look on his face. After I told him where he had been discovered, David's response was, "Again?" Needless to say, David was not on my good list that day!

Oh no - please tell me she didn't!

Imagine my surprise when I walked in to the nursery on Sunday to ask Liliana if she needed to go potty and was flagged over by the nursery leader to be asked, "Are you having a baby sister?"
"No," I responded.
"I didn't think you looked like you could be, but during our lesson on families today, Liliana told us that she was going to have a baby sister," the nursery leader explained.
"Liliana has been stuck on this baby idea for a few weeks," I told her, wondering how many of the other kids and adults in the room thought that Liliana's announcement had some merit. The nursery is huge - with over 20 kids in it - and has about 4 to 5 other adult helpers in it at any given time. Chances are that Liliana's news was heard by most of them and who knows how many people believed it?! I partially blame David for Liliana's baby fixation because he's starting to get a bit of baby fever and has encouraged Liliana's discussion about when she'll get more siblings. In fact, the other day I was setting Liliana up with a reward chart for going to bed without hopping back out of her room for this, that, and the other thing. I told her for each nap or night that she follows her "sleep rules", she can have a sticker on the calendar. After she gets five stickers, she can pick a movie to watch. David, who was standing by during this explanation, added, "And when you get ten stickers, you can have a baby sister!" Well, Liliana didn't forget that and now that she has more than ten stickers, she wants her baby. I made David go talk to her and tell her that these things take time and that mommmy isn't growing a baby in her belly right now, but after the nursery announcement, I don't know how effective that little discussion was.
I guess I can at least be grateful that Liliana is claiming that I'm pregnant, rather than asking other non-pregnant women if they are!

Fun moments

Emmett and Liliana like to wake up early on weekends while David and I would rather not. A normal Saturday usually involves me rousing to one or both kids calling out to us to let them out of their rooms. I stumble out, change a diaper, take Liliana to the bathroom, close the gate so the kids won't go downstairs unattended, and then lie back down - though I know I won't actually get anymore sleep. Liliana and Emmett run back and forth between their bedrooms, the playroom, and our bedroom, dragging toys and making plenty of noise. This past Saturday, Emmett climbed over me and in between David and I in bed with a book. He sat "reading" for a couple minutes and then all on his own he leaned over and planted a big slobbery kiss right on David's mouth. It was too adorable - although a little slimy for David! I guess Emmett liked our awwwws because he kept doing it to David (and then one to me with David's encouragement) after that for a few more rounds. Who can turn away such sweetness...even if it is accompanied by large amounts of drool?

David worked from home the other day and took a break long enough to come out and teach the kids how to fall down when he pretended to shoot them. He called me over and with a triumphant look, pointed his finger at Emmett and Liliana as if it were a gun and shouted, "Bang! Zap!" and laughed with great pleasure as they slumped to the ground with convincing death-giggles. I'm so glad they have such enriching learning moments with Daddy.

We went to drop David off at the bus stop the other day and as we drove away, David stepped onto his bus. Liliana suddenly sounded quite upset as she cried out, "I don't want to be alone with not Daddy. I want to be a family!" It was so sad and cute at the same time. I explained to her that we are still a family even when Daddy goes to work and that his job was to provide for our family so we'd have a home to live in and food to eat. She seemed to calm down a bit, but she has talked a few times about how Daddy should only work at home.

Out of the blue while running errands in the car, Liliana asked me, "Is your body growing another baby now?"
"No," I answered.
"Why not?" she asked.
"I want to wait until Emmett is older," I responded.
"Why do you want to wait until after the birthdays?" she asked precociously.
"Because I am trying to get healthier first."
---Where does she come up with this stuff?

A few days later, we had another conversation about babies after hearing something on the radio about a woman who had 11 kids. That converstation went something like this:
"Mommy, I want 11 kids."
"You want me to have 11 kids, or you want to have your own 11 kids?"
"I want to have my own 11 kids, but I want you to grow them in your belly."
"Do you know how many 11 is? Let's count to 11." After counting I simply said, "Not gonna happen."
"But why?"
"I couldn't handle that many. You can have as many kids as you want when you grow up and get married. I doubt you'll still think 11 is a good number."

Emmett is parroting a lot lately. Liliana thinks it is a fun game to have him repeat whatever she wants him to say. He's getting pretty good at remembering some of the phrases Liliana says and he will use them at the right time, just before Liliana is likely to say them. For example, we were getting loaded into the car and he asked Liliana's usual question (but in simpler words) "Where we going?" I can't believe how un-baby-like he is becoming. His size probably has something to do with that as well. He is eeking out of most 24 month clothes and wears some 2T and a lot of 3T now. According to my bathroom scale he is about 35 pounds - what a whopper! Liliana only weighs a few pounds more than he does and he has outweighed his 3 year old cousins for months already. He is wearing size 7 to 8 in shoes - sizes Liliana was wearing earlier this year. His face even looks bigger than Liliana's to me. This kid is going to be huge, I can just tell. Luckily he seems to be a rather gentle-natured boy, so he'll probably be one of those guys who never realizes he could use his size to his advantage.