Moved to NC!

I started this post at the beginning of July and I'm just getting around to writing more.

I'm behind on blogging with good reason. We've moved to Durham, NC and are trying to get settled in our new home. Pretty much all of our time is spent with Emma or unpacking our house. And it doesn't help that I lost my computer charger during the move. It took me over a week to find it. I would have waited a lot longer to find it considering how pricey they are to replace!

It's been an exhausting, busy few weeks. I honestly don't think we could have done it without Suds' help. She stayed here for almost two full weeks, unpacking boxes, putting stuff away, decorating, making curtains, and keeping Emma happily entertained. Suds might be Emma's favorite person in the whole wide world. Luckily she's adapting to just having me and Steve again :-)

We've had a couple of big purchases (besides the house) since we've moved here. I got a new car. I was very attached to my old car so was afraid I wasn't going to be as happy with a new car. Turns out, it's pretty sweet! I got a Subaru Outback. I haven't had the time to sit down and learn what all the buttons do. It's more high tech than my 2000 BMW wagon. I'm sure I"ll learn it all with time. It was a bit of a hassle negotiating prices but we ended up getting a pretty good deal since it was the end of the 2014 model year.

Our other big purchase last month was a king sized bed. Up to this point, we have been in a full sized bed. If you ask me, it was not big enough (or soft enough). Steve and I were able to compromise on a bed without getting a sleep number :-) Steve likes hard beds and I like softer beds. But on to the real reason that we got the bed... for Emma! She loves jumping around in the bed. And now we actually have room for the three of us when she comes to our bed in the morning... or in the middle of the night.

Emma is now 18 months old.  Starting around 17 months, we really saw a turning point with her language. She now seems more like a little kid, and less like a baby. She copies most works that we say and even tells us what she wants without prompting, although she cries in frustration a lot more too. There are a number of words that she uses to let us know what she wants. When I turn off the water in the bath tub, she will say "more." So that's a favorite word. She used to say "gook" when she wanted her milk, but now she can actually say milk. Shes does a good job of saying "bye." The way she says it sounds very southern, which makes it even cuter. Around 17 months, she still really wasn't saying "mama" and "dada." Before our move to NC, she was saying Pops and Suds' names. Pops sounds like pop. Suds sounds like suh. I even heard her say Marilyn's name a couple of times. But then when you asked her to say "mama" or "dada," she would just point to us. During the first week that we were here, if you asked her to say "mama," she would say "ma." And for "dada," she would say "da." She still doesn't say our names unless prompted. About a month ago, I asked her if she wanted to wear "these shoes" (while pointing to one pair of shoes) or "these shoes" (while pointing to another pair of her shoes). She looked at me, grabbed the shoes she wanted, and said "these shoes," It was pretty cute! Speaking of shoes, her feet just keep growing! She's already outgrowing her size 6 shoes. I'm starting to think she's going to be tall and have big feet since her growth hasn't slowed down at all. I'm very curious to see what her 18month stats will be, although they won't be very accurate considering the first Duke pediatrician we could get in with is in August, so it's about 3 weeks late. I'm not too happy about that, but there's not much I can do about it.

She has tons of personality and is very opinionated :-) She's also exceptionally sweet. She loves giving hugs and kisses. She likes stickers. She's getting better at coloring, in that she will draw on a piece of paper, and not just eat the crayon. Last month, she's was teething. From what we can tell, she has all her teeth now. They're still fully coming in but I think they've all broken the skin.
Other things Emma's up to. She still likes to climb and even likes to do flips. If we're sitting on the floor, she'll climb onto the couch then flip over us. On the bed, she'll do somersaults. Pretty fun.

She's still completely fearless. We went to a pool party during the first week of Steve's program, hosted by the radiology's program director. Emma and I got in the pool. The whole time she was fighting me because she didn't want me holding her. Apparently she thought she could swim. So eventually we had to take her out of the pool because it was too dangerous. Then she kept trying to run and jump into the pool. So that was a bit stressful.  We went to a another pool party today, just with the first year radiology residents. Emma did MUCH better. So I might try taking her to our neighborhood pool this summer after all. We also bought a little kiddie pool, so she can play in the front yard too.

We had to watch her closely around the house since we didn't put gates up until about a month after being here. It made me with we had a one story homes, although we really love our house overall. It really seems to be coming together well.  I'm sure it will takes several months before it's fully done. One of my favorite things about the house is the neighborhood and how woodsy it is here. It's really beautiful. But along with the beauty comes mosquitoes and snakes. The first week in the house we saw a 4ft black snake. He looked pretty big. He was right outside out front steps. Luckily he didn't come up the steps. We encountered him when the mattress delivery guys were here. I think they were more scared than me... if that's even possible! Luckily the snake was not poisonous, although there are poisonous snakes in the neighborhood, we've been told. Lovely. Even more reason that we need a screen porch.

She still LOVES milk and drinks out of her bottle. We use sippy cups too but she much prefers her bottle still. Not sure when we'll make her give that up. She loves frozen blueberries and corn. Those have been her favorites lately. She also likes Frosted Lemonades, the new dessert drink from Chick-Fil-A. It's a mix of their soft serve vanilla yogurt and lemonade. Delicious!

Emma had a hard time the first couple of days that we were here in Durham. I think it mostly had to do with a change in her routine. She's never been on a strict schedule but not having a routine at all was too much for her.  And I'm sure it was confusing being in a new house. As soon as I thought she was adjusting, we'd have a bad day. It was a roller coaster for sure. I think we're doing a lot better on days that we're with her. Daycare, or as we call it "school,"  is another story all together. She's had a rough first three weeks of daycare. I think she's starting to do a little better, but she she gets hysterical when I drop her off. I know it's likely her age, but she's the only one that does it. We're the first people in the daycare on most days (at 7:15am). So that's hard for me to drop her off so early and then not get back til after 5pm. It's a little frustrating because her main teacher works from 7:45am til 4:45pm, so I usually don't get much in terms of updates since I never see her.

I feel very fortunate that my new job seems like a really good fit. Everybody that works there is excessively nice, including the doctors. It's significantly different from my last job in Atlanta in terms of the day to day activities and the way the doctors practice. I hate being new at a job. I'd make the worst traveling nurse. I like being efficient and knowing the protocols and feeling like I'm doing a good job. It's very hard for me to not be able to contribute more. I feel like I'm just slowing everybody down because I have so many questions- just to navigate their electronic medical records. I already feel like I'm starting to make progress, although it can be frustrating. I'm hoping that it continues to get easier day by day.

I'm way behind on uploading and organizing photos. Hoping to do that next weekend. I'll just upload them to my Picasa page.