Long time, no post = long post

Easter was good this year.  We spent the weekend at Chris's parents' house.  I missed Emmett finding his Easter basket because I was in the bathroom.  Boy did that make me mad.  But I was told he saw his Sponge Bob first and ran over and picked it up and said, "Bob Bob" as he calls him.  That was definitely his favorite Easter present.  We attempted an Easter Egg hunt but Emmet wasn't interested.  He ignored the eggs we put in the grass and picked up rocks out of the flower bed around the pool.  That boy loves rocks.  He spends the majority of his outside time hunting rocks.  He even picks them out of the dirt with fingers.  Maybe we have a future geologist on our hands.

The Tuesday after Easter we headed to my parents' house in VA.  We spent Tuesday night there and then got up Wednesday morning and headed to PA to my grandparent's house (my mom's parents).  The drive was 4 hours and Emmett did really well.  He only slept about 40 minutes of the trip but he was very good and barely fussed at all.  It helped that we rode with my parents so my mom and I were in the back seat with him to help entertain him.  He loved my grandparents' house which is out in the woods.  He wanted to go trapesing out into the woods but he we had to reign him back in, mostly to keep him out of poison ivy.  He loves being outside.  Fortunately the weather was nice that afternoon.  Emmett didn't really sleep all that well that night.  The first time I put him down he slept about 40 minutes and woke up crying.  I had to rock him back to sleep but he stayed down after that until waking up at 5:30 the next morning.  I don't know why he was up so early.  But we were all sleeping in one big open space in the basement and I know at least 3 out of 4 of the adults snore.  So when he woke up and realized he was not alone in the room, he decided to get up and see what was going on.  Then he decided to poop, so we had to change his diaper.  I attempted to rock him back to sleep and I thought I had him out around 7:00 (and by that time, what's the point, right?) but when I tried to lay him down he woke up.  So that was a long day. 

When we got up it was raining so we were cooped up in the house all morning until it was time to head out to my Aunt's house to visit my dad's side of the family, about 3 hours away.  Most of dad's side of the family live in the same town within just a few miles of each other.  We stayed at my Aunt Pat's house because she has the most rooms and beds.  There was a time when we all would have stayed at my grandparents' house.  But Grandpa died the summer of 2000 and after that my Grandma moved into her own double-wide modular home that would have been too small for all of us anyway.  But now Grandma is in an assisted living home because of the health issues she has had as a result of brain cancer.  She had brain tumors removed a few years ago and she was cancer free, however she wasn't able to make it through chemo.  They told her that if she wasn't able to complete chemo that there was a good chance the cancer would come back.  She said she wouldn't go through any more chemo, if the cancer came back it was just her time and she was ready.  Well the tumors are growing back.  So the main purpose of the trip was to take Emmett to meet his Great Grandma while she is still here.  He did really well considering.  He didn't like being cooped up in her little room in the home.  And he wouldn't sit on her lap because he doesn't like to sit on anyone's lap, he wants to be moving all the time.  Unfortunately we weren't able to get any good pictures of them together.  We visited her twice over the few days we were up there and she seemed to enjoy it, even though she isn't always very aware of things anymore.  I had to deal with the fact that it may be the last time I will see her and possibly the only time Emmett will ever see her.  I'm not sure I have really dealt with those feelings yet.

Emmett did get to meet his other cousins, my cousins' kids.  There were so many kids running around my Aunt LuAnn's house, I almost went crazy.  Here's the aproximate age dynamic: Reagan 5 or 6, Landon 4, Saydee 3, Carmondy 2 or 3, and Allyson 11 months.  He loved seeing baby Ally because he finally wasn't the youngest.  He kept pointing to her and saying "beebee".  And its amazing how tiring it is to chase him around other people's houses that aren't baby proof like ours is.  He and I were both ready for bed every night and he slept really well at my Aunt's house.

We headed home on Saturday and decided just to drive the whole 7 hours back to my parents' house rather than stopping again at my grandparents' house due to the bad night he had there.  I wasn't sure how he would handle being in the car that long, but he surprised me again by being really good.  He slept pretty well, I think two different times for maybe an hour or more each time, so that helped.  That was officially our longest car trip with him and we were pleasantly surprised.  Our trip to the beach Memorial Day weekend, only 4.5 hours, should be a peach. 

So, Emmett has learned some new words recently.  I mentioned before that he says baby, which sounds more like "beebee" but he knows what it means.  He says it whenever we are out and he sees a baby.  If I tell him to go get his baby he will find his doll and bring it to me.  If he even hears me or Chris say the word baby he will go get his baby and bring it to us.  He gives the baby kisses too, its so cute.  He still says cheese, but its still missing the s on the end, so its just "chee".  When I ask him to say please, and I have to say it twice, please please, he will say "peepee".  He says Dada on command but usually won't say Mama.  And he knows shoe.  That one he says exactly right.  I think that one is sheer motivation, because getting his shoes on means we're going outside.  He's branching out some with food.  He likes macaroni and cheese.  He loves tater tots.  And he will eat chicken nuggets now, which makes it so much easier to feed him when we're out.  We ate at Chick-fil-A the other night and it just happened to be kids eat free night so he got a 4 piece nuggets and ate almost all of them.  He ate his entire fruit cup that came with it and drank half his little milk jug.  We continue to offer him most of whatever we're eating (within reason, nothing too spicy or fatty or sugary...wish I could hold myself to the same standards) and sometimes he will eat it and sometimes he won't.  He doesn't care for anything with tomato sauce so far, which is the majority of what I eat.  But I have heard a lot of kids are that way at first and they start to like tomato later on, its such a strong flavor.  He's a really good eater though, I'm fortunate not to have to worry about that. 

I could talk about Emmett all day, but I will end this for now because its long enough.  I will try to be better about posting, its just difficult that I can't even touch the computer when E is awake because he just wants to pound the keys.  Love him to pieces though :)